For the next period of time, the news about Qin Jiangshan and Qin Xiao continued to flood the internet, and matters related to the Zhang and Zhu families pertaining to the Qin family also surfaced. The Zhang family decisively cut off ties with the Qin family, and the Zhu family also denied the engagement contract with Qin Xiao.
Jiang Dao, who was with the crew, wasn’t greatly affected.
Everyone in the crew was surprised when the news erupted a month ago. With Director Mu’s presence, they couldn’t openly ask Jiang Dao about things, so they could only pretend not to hear and wait to watch a good show.
The filming schedule was very tight across all of May. Fortunately, the drama and combat scenes were interspersed, giving everyone some time to rest and adjust.
The resistance was chased and intercepted by the city guards, and decided to hide in the dangerous mountains and forests and start a protracted guerrilla war.
But the strange thing is that no matter how they run, the city guards can always block their way, as if able to see all their marching movements.
“It’s weird.” The leader of the resistance army, Xia Feng, had a solemn expression on his face. “Before, we secretly diverted information, and no one leaked the fake news. Even if we randomly change direction midway through, the city guards can actually make adjustments in time… And those few key suspects haven’t made any suspicious actions recently.”
“Have all the locators been checked?” A staff officer chimed in, then turned to Xia Tian and asked, “What about Little Gray Wolf?”
“There’s no problem with him.” Xia Tian replied solemnly. “He doesn’t have any positioning device on him. I know him inside and outside, and there’s no problem with his equipment. I used some tactics to test him before, and the city guards didn’t take the bait at all! Is it meaningful to stare at him all the time?”
“I feel that there’s something wrong with him.” The staff officer was serious.
“Can intuition be used as evidence?” Xia Tian hummed. “I respect you as a military think tank. You told me to investigate him, didn’t I? I’ve been staring at him as you asked recently, but he just doesn’t have a problem!”
Everyone was silent for a moment, and finally Xia Feng said: “Xia Tian, take out the pendant he gave you.”
Xia Tian’s face blackened. “That’s a stone, and the instrument didn’t detect anything before…”
“Safety is the most important thing.” Xia Feng’s stare brooked no refusal.
After a long time, Xia Tian gritted his teeth, took off the pendant carved in the shape of a little wolf, and placed it by Xia Feng’s hand.
The stone pendant was cut into pieces, and no trace of any positioning device was found. Everyone was silent.
“Xia Tian…” The staff officer tried to comfort him.
Xia Tian suddenly stood up, stretched out his hand and swept the table full of debris to the ground, waved open the curtain of the tent, and strode away. His back quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Seeing Xia Tian’s departing back, Xia Feng knocked on the table after a moment. “Little Gray Wolf is promoted to squadron captain. Give him a team, and let him go east… Do another test.”
“Yes.” The staff officer promised immediately.
After coming out of the tent, Xia Tian went straight to the barracks for the wounded where Little Gray Wolf was. Without saying a word, he dragged the youth who was helping to take care of the wounded into a nearby bush.
Then he hugged the boy tightly, and said with guilt: “I’m sorry, the things you gave me were destroyed by them…”
The originally clear eyes of Little Gray Wolf suddenly dimmed a bit.
After a moment, he raised his hand and patted Xia Tian’s back with a smile. “It’s okay, it’s just a stone, I’ll make another one for you later.”
Xia Tian held Little Gray Wolf’s face and confirmed to him again: “You didn’t betray us, did you?”
Little Gray Wolf lowered his eyelashes and remained silent for a long time, then he looked at Xia Tian, staring into his eyes. “Why do you keep asking me? How many times do you want me to answer this kind of question? Since you don’t believe me, and must get what you want to hear, then I admit that I am—”
The remaining words were silenced by an eager kiss. After it ended, Xia Tian took Little Gray Wolf into his arms. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have asked you so many times, and I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
Laying against Xia Tian’s chest, Little Gray Wolf’s heart was full of bitterness.
He didn’t raise his hand to hug Xia Tian. The fingertips hanging by his side trembled slightly, and finally he slowly clenched it into a fist.
“Stop.” Director Mu clapped his hands. “Again. Even if Little Gray Wolf is struggling, add a little more feeling of seeking self-destruction. He may feel like he’s being wronged now, but he did betray the resistance in the past, so he has to continue to lie to Xia Tian. With so many emotions weighing on him, he’s already on the verge of collapse.”
Jiang Dao nodded, closed his eyes, sorted out his emotions, and resumed filming.
Compared with scenes with a single emotion, such scenes with complex emotions are more difficult to grasp. Sometimes the actors and directors will even disagree on their understanding of these subtle feelings. Even though Jiang Dao’s performance is getting better and better, this scene still took three retakes.
Director Mu finally nodded in satisfaction, allowing them to wrap up the day’s filming.
After returning to the hotel to wash up, Jiang Dao lay on the bed as if he had no bones, and muttered to Chu Yinlong: “I really admire those actors in literary films. I would rather shoot an action film for a month than a literary drama for a week… Crying and laughing, again and again, would drive me crazy.”
Chu Yinlong said helplessly, “If you really shot action scenes for a month, you’d be screaming that your whole body hurts. Hey, you weren’t so squeamish before?”
Jiang Dao smiled playfully: “Isn’t it because I’m looking for an excuse to act coquettish with you? Did I act squeamish on set?”
Chu Yinlong reached out and rubbed Jiang Dao’s head. “I think you’ve become better at getting into character recently, unlike before when it took you a long time to get into the mood. This is good progress, and you need to keep it up.”
Jiang Dao grabbed the wayward hand and clasped fingers around them, and put them on his chest. In a half-joking and half-serious manner, he said: “Maybe it’s because I had an epiphany recently, it’s normal to fly1as in, suddenly improve.”
After that strange dream that time, he felt he had let go of a lot of things.
The demons in his heart have disappeared. After that, he’ll no longer be trapped into emotions and have difficulty getting out when recalling the things he experienced before.
…
After the drama in the resistance army base ended, the battlefield plot followed.
Jiang Dao, who had just been promoted to the squadron leader, received a mission from the squad leader to lead a 20-person team to explore the east, trying to find a path that would allow a large group to evacuate safely.
At the same time, another decoy unit split off the arm to travel along the original route, while the main force shifted westward, hiding in a dense forest, waiting for news from the decoy unit.
Three days after the division of troops, Xia Tian’s face turned pale when he saw the news reported by the scouts.
After a long silence, he calmed down and handed the message to the leader.
“The city guards have gone east?” Xia Feng looked at Xia Tian.
“…Yes.” Xia Tian seemed to have lost his soul.
“But the bait we released was Uncle Ninth, as you know.” Xia Feng continued.
“…Yes.” Xia Tian lowered his eyelashes, his lips trembled, “But he, but he may not know it himself. He is just being…”
“…being used?” Xia Feng raised his eyebrows. “Then why didn’t the city guards go after him when we split up our troops last time? He was bait last time, so who leaked the news?”
“Then why weren’t the city guards fooled this time?” Xia Tian said anxiously. “This doesn’t mean that Little Gray Wolf didn’t betray us this time!”
Xia Feng looked at Xia Tian and repeated two words: “This time.”
Xia Tian suddenly lost his voice.
Xia Feng said: “The person we have been looking for is Little Gray Wolf. It was his betrayal that led to the disastrous defeat on Vise Slope, the deaths of Lao Wu and Xiao Xie, and the death of so many soldiers! Xia Tian, you can’t cover up the culprit just because you like him! I’m not just your dad, I’m the leader of the entire army! Do you understand?”
Xia Tian gritted his molars, and after a long silence, he raised his head, eyes red and choked out, “Let me go to the eastern front, I want to ask him in person.”
“Xia Tian, you—” Xia Feng shouted angrily.
“Dad! Not as a scout captain, but as a son, please!” Xia Tian finally couldn’t help it, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Let me find him. I have a way to make him tell the truth… If he really is, I will… personally execute him, I promise!”
After a long time, Xia Feng whispered: “Send a written report. If it is true and you let him go, I will deal with you based on military law.”
…
After watching Xia Tian leave, Xia Feng conveyed the order: “Prepare to outflank. In this battle, the guards’ pursuit must be completely solved.”
Shorter chapter because of the natural break after the filming part
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