35.
There was a knock on the door and a voice rang out: “Brother Zhuang, are you in the room?”
Zhuang Qin quickly backed away.
The door opened and closed.
LiMu frowned; his arms were empty. Zhuang Qin picked up the script and replied, “I’m here. We’re just rehearsing together.”
Xiao Lian: “Oh! The set manager asked me to tell you that we have to vacate 259 next door for the new crew member. And that we can’t rehearse in the room from tomorrow…”
“Alright.”
The crew was always changing. Except for those who have signed long-term contracts, the rest will occasionally leave the group, or more people will enter the group. Filming a movie usually required more than a dozen or even twenty cameramen, as well as sound and light engineers for support.
Essentially, although they were currently shooting the main actor’s scenes, but in the later stages, with the supporting roles being mobilized domestically, this hotel would not be enough for them to stay in. It would only be barely enough if they converted it all into standard rooms.
They could hear the footsteps going outside. They heard Xiao Lian entering the next room, swiping the card to open the door, closing the door, and then coaxing the cat.
“The soundproofing is too bad.” Li Mu said.
“It’s a little bad, but it’s still okay…” it didn’t matter since the person who lived next door was his own assistant.
He sent Li Mu downstairs. They walked by the swimming pool, and out the hotel door. Li Mu took out a sweet from his trouser pocket: “For your cravings.”
Zhuang Qin: “…Thank you.”
He took it and smiled. Wasn’t this the coconut sweet from the hotel front desk?
Li Mu nodded: “You’re welcome, you can leave me here.”
Zhuang Qin said goodbye and watched him walk to the road and get in the car before turning around. Li Mu sat down in the car and saw him walking away while reversing.
The feeling of hugging him was more comfortable than Li Mu imagined.
He drove to a nearby convenience store. Since he knew a little bit of Thai, he could read the images and recognize things. He picked out a few flavors of candy and ice cream. He also went to the fruit store to buy all kinds of fruits.
The next day on the set.
The shooting schedule was tight because yesterday’s scene was moved into today’s shoot. Zhuang Qin got up at 5:30 in the morning. It seemed that someone moved in next door in the middle of the night last night and it was inevitable that some noise would be made. He’d woken up at 3 am and tossed around but couldn’t get back to sleep.
Zhuang Qin went downstairs for breakfast in a daze. When the crew saw him, they called out, “Good morning, Teacher Zhuang.”
“Good morning…”
Zhuang Qin finished his breakfast but didn’t see the director. Someone in the crew said, “Director Guo got up before 5 o’clock and went to the set.”
Zhuang Qin yawned. He’d just gone down for ten minutes to eat but was already sweating.
He went up and took a quick shower, changed his clothes and stuffed a towel with the script into the bag, and then took a car to the set.
The sun rises very early in Southeast Asia.
Ten minutes later, the car arrived outside the set. The locals weren’t up yet, but the crew had already started work. When Zhuang Qin entered the dressing room, Sister W gave him the simplest makeup. Then Li Mu walked in. He wore a trendy brand that he had never seen before. Li Mu was a good dresser and wasn’t obsessed with wearing formal clothes. He looked like a model in a show as he wore various new items from big brands on his body.
The two said good morning to each other. Li Mu gave him some sliced fruit but Zhuang Qin said that he was kind but shook his head: “We’ll shoot the kissing scene later.”
Li Mu opened the fridge and put the container in: “You can eat it when you’re done shooting.”
The makeup artist looked at him and then looked at the dressing chair next to him. Standing in front of the fatal LED lights of the makeup mirror, Li Mu was still so handsome.
she didn’t know why it felt like she’d just taken something sweet.
The relationship between the two male leads outside the movie was really very good!
Sister W did Li Mu’s makeup while still chatting with Zhuang Qin. Zhuang Qin was more approachable while Li Mu wasn’t. She didn’t dare to talk to him (LM) but dared to talk to the popular star about his new drama.
“I’ve been recently following your drama every day!”
“My acting was terrible in it.” And Zhuang Qin hadn’t even seen it himself.
“Your shots were good. Your appearance was very handsome, and the pop-ups were all praising your good looks.”
Zhuang Qin’s acting wasn’t bad in the youth drama. But they didn’t know who’s navy was pouring into the pop-up screen. They kept hacking his acting skills and directly brainwashed passerbys into thinking that it was really bad.
Li Mu, whose face was being swiped with a brush, said, “What’s a pop-up screen?”
“It’s just the comments that come up on a video screen. Nowadays, video portals are making it so that it can be opened on the lower-left corner of the screen.”
Li Mu nodded and planned to have a look at it in the evening.
Zhuang Qin went to the corner of the dressing room to change. He wiped his upper body with a wet towel before changing clothes. There were ten identical sets of clothes, all of which were from stalls – the film was very frugal on clothes.
Zhuang Qin came out and Li Mu went to change.
As he waited outside for Li Mu so they could go to the set together, he saw a phone on the dressing table light up. He thought it was Sister W who’d forgotten to take it and was ready to take it back to her when he discovered that it was actually Li Mu’s phone.
His phone was a common black color. it was a popular brand but not very high-end, and there was no phone case either and could be easily mistaken.
He didn’t know if he accidentally touched the back button, but the screen lit up with the words that were just searched.
“If filming with actors is hard-What should I do?”
Zhuang Qin froze for a second, then hurriedly put the phone back in its original position, then took out the script and pretended like nothing had happened.
This male actor; does it refer to himself?
Li Mu looked like a cold and indifferent male god. How could he search for this kind of thing?
Li Mu finished changing. He glanced at him sitting while reading the script and noticed that the face reflected in the makeup mirror was red.
Did you blush again after reading the script?
“Let’s go.” Li Mu called out to him, “lets go to the set.”
“Oh, oh…” Zhuang Qin stood up and watched Li Mu throw his black phone into the drawer. Zhuang Qin said, “Do you want to leave the phone with my assistant instead? The drawers in the dressing room aren’t really good.”
“Okay.” As Li Mu took out his phone ad gave it to him, he looked down at his red ears and couldn’t help saying quietly, “Don’t be too nervous. I won’t be too rude.”
“I know…”
………………
“Why is it so hot?”
Because of the weather, the air conditioner had actually been turned-on on set.
The set manager said, “Director Guo asked someone to turn off the air conditioner. He said that the hot atmosphere was needed to shoot this scene.”
Director Guo: “you two are here? How are your preparations?”
“We didn’t rehearse yesterday, but we’ve read the script very well.”
Director Guo: “It’s going to be a long shoot today. it’s going to be hard on you guys.”
Zhuang Qin said it was fine.
Director Guo looked at Zhuang Qin’s lips: “The swelling has reduced. That’s good. Then let’s start shooting. You guys go and take your positions. Set up the lights and clear the scene.”
This scene was in a dark room. The curtains were closed, but the lights still have to be on.
Immediately after clearing the scene, the two of them entered the scene. Cameras A and B were aimed at the bed, and the microphone and lighting board were fixed.
Zhuang Qin reached out his hand and Li Mu grabbed him, and then they fell on the bed. This scene was shot yesterday so it was familiar to get back into the state and shoot it again.
Li Mu inserted his fingers into his hair. They embraced each other deeply and kissed wildly. Zhuang Qin entered the role and enacted the character’s abundant feelings. His eyes were closed and you couldn’t see any emotion but could catch the subtle desire from his expression.
Director Guo watched through the monitor and felt that the heat was rising like crazy on set.
He didn’t shout cut.
The two continued to perform the next scene. According to the script, Li Mu kissed his collarbone, then downwards. Zhuang Qin also forgot about those confusing action hints and also forgot what he had thought of last night; all his annotations of where to touch first and later on in the script. The only thing left was the instinct to forget oneself.
At first, Li Mu felt that he could control the overall situation but the more he performed, the more he couldn’t stop. His lips kissed Zhuang Qin’s satin-like skin and his palm moved up his shirt.
The cameraman had shot a lot of male and female scenes but where have they ever seen such a passionate scene where the clothes weren’t even taken off? Fortunately, Camera A’s position was stable and didn’t shake.
Director Guo didn’t like the standard film shot. Camera Position B needed to be handheld and go in for close-ups.
The camera cut to Li Mu’s black hair and gradually goes downward, and then to Zhuang Qin’s trembling eyelashes. A close-up of his red cheeks and then to Zhuang Qin’s stretching out his hand there…
“Cut!” Director Guo won’t mention this but he didn’t even blink during the whole shoot. However, he had to take another look at those two shots to determine whether they needed to be reshot.
Zhuang Qin opened his eyes. Storm-like emotions were still brewing in them and they were tinged with moisture. He could naturally feel Li Mu’s reaction to the scene.
Li Mu didn’t move. His eyes were still closed and he was breathing heavily. Zhuang Qin moved his hand away and said quietly, “Sorry.” Then he pulled over a set of thin blankets and covered them.
The cameraman was the closest. He naturally knew what was happening and awkwardly walked away to avoid this sight.
Shooting this kind of scene, It was hard for anyone to survive it.
t/n: 😂
Zhuang Qin was very close to him and asked him softly, “Do you want to clear the scene and give you some private space? I’ll talk to Director Guo.”
Li Mu didn’t understand him. He’s pressed up again him and he’d kissed him so passionately just now. How can he be a normal person so soon?
Didn’t you like me? Why do you react so little?
“there’s no need.” Li Mu’s temperature was scary hot. He tugged his arm and his voice was very deep. “Don’t go yet. Accompany me for a while.”
“I won’t leave you alone.” After Zhuang Qin finished speaking, he asked another cameraman to help close the door, “Give us some space, thank you.”
The cameraman nodded with an embarrassed look on his face and went out to close the door behind him.
Director Guo was watching the footage just then and looked up at the closing of the room door, but he didn’t say anything.
t/n: so I know the raws say ‘Guo BaoZhen’ instead of Director Guo, but when he’s shooting, I prefer to write Director Guo. Since it’s apparent from the previous chapters that his personality changes outside of filming. not filming, he’ll be Guo BaoZhen to me. ☺️
Zhuang Qin’s original thought was that Li Mu was embarrassed to be alone like this, so he chose to accompany him to be embarrassed.
He was really uncomfortable, but he just didn’t show it.
The room was like a steamer. Li Mu sweated a lot, and so did Zhuang Qin. His hair was wet.
Li Mu restrained his voice from panting: “Are you so considerate to everyone?”
“I’m not.” After shooting scenes with Li Mu for so long, and filming these type of scenes, their relationship would be incomparable to others. “For this kind of film, It was necessary to shoot this scene. Everyone understands that.”
Li Mu’s mind instead divergently thought to the internet search entry from before. Several answers said to use tape to stick and tie up there in advance.
t/n: yes, he’s talking about tying “up there”, or should I say “down there” 😭. that’s brutal..lol
But Li Mu felt that that was too cruel and didn’t do it.
Now he suspects that Zhuang Qin used the tape.
Zhuang Qin felt that he was still very hot in the place that was right next to his own leg. It was like pressing against a burning stone. There was a burst of hot hormones mixed with the light scent of perfumed clothes in his nose
He asked softly and thoughtfully, “Do you want to go to the dressing room? Let me tell Director Guo that we’ll take a 10-minute break. I’ll be outside the room to keep watch for you.”
10 minutes?
Li Mu felt humiliated and trembled with anger. He sat up and said coldly, “No need.”
t/n: ZQ = idiot 🤦♀️
