After having an afternoon tea break, they rested for a while before continuing filming.
Unlike this morning, they were now shooting the thirtieth scene where the hoodlum Xu Jie and top student Chen Mingsheng broke the ice for the first time.
At this point in the film, Xu Jie and Chen Mingsheng still had a bad relationship.
Xu Jie fought with people because of some disputes at his workplace. He had no serious injuries but his face was blue. Afraid that his grandmother would see him, he sat smoking at the stairwell.
The moonlight shone in through the dilapidated stair window. A corner of the glass was shattered and the milky white light fell on his shoulders. The teenager had an untimely numbness on his face, looking as if he was thinking about something and about nothing at all.
Chen Mingsheng had just returned from evening self-study. He was dressed in a clean and tidy school uniform but his schoolbag was dirty.
He should have passed by Xu Jie without giving the other a glance just like he used to.
But today he had a depressing day at school and he had to go back to face his mother’s cries. He saw Xu Jie sitting on the ground like this and he suddenly had a moment of subtle envy.
The two teenagers, one looking up and the other looking down, stared at each other.
Xu Jie held a cigarette between his fingers and Chen Mingsheng was holding onto a bottle of milk.
Chen Mingsheng suddenly extended the bottle of milk forward, “Can I exchange the cigarette with you?”
Xu Jie had probably never heard such a strange request.
He raised his eyelids and looked at the top student who had always followed the rules and didn’t match the downtrodden urban village.
After a while, he agreed.
A bottle of milk for a cigarette.
Two teenagers aged seventeen sat peacefully together for the first time since Chen Mingsheng moved here two months ago.
Chen Mingsheng hadn’t smoked at all and was choking and coughing. Xu Jie looked on coldly but shook his head in amusement.
Liang Muqiu liked this scene very much.
This was where the two parallel lines, Xu Jie and Chen Mingsheng, began to intersect.
He lay back on the chair, like an old man, and listened to Liu Fengtao give a lecture to the two main actors. He bowed his head and smirked unkindly.
He knew the relationship between the two actors but Liu Fengtao didn’t know and said bitterly, “Can you two restrain yourselves? I know you are good buddies and you grew up together but you are supposed to act as strangers who don’t like each other. Don’t always look at each other and want to laugh. Be fierce and indifferent! We’re having you act as rivals, not lovers!”
Liang Muqiu snickered and looked at the two blushing youths.
Liu Fengtao, this thick-headed man, only had the drama in mind once he started up and didn’t recognise his six relatives. He would speak bluntly without any tenderness.
He just happened to hit the nail on the head and even the cool “Xu Jie” bowed his head in embarrassment.
He couldn’t help being happier.
Not to mention the wicked adults, he had passed the time when the deer rammed around on campus and soaked in the big dye vat for a few years. After that, his face thickened and now when Liu Fengtao teased him, he didn’t even blink.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Rbk ibbxlcu ja atf akb affcjufgr yiertlcu, tf ofia la kjr nfgs lcafgfralcu.
Coafg kjamtlcu atf ilnfis rmfcf obg j ktlif, tf rjk atja Ole Mfcuajb kjr rmbivlcu atf akb ab atf ugbecv jcv olcjiis rabbv eq, tjcvlcu Ole Mfcuajb j ybaaif bo kjafg. Lf jrxfv tlw ab gfra ja atf rlvf obg j ktlif jcv qgbmffvfv ab ulnf atf jmabgr j ifmaegf tlwrfio.
The two young people were actually favored sons of Heaven. They had a good family background and excellent grades consistently. Not long after entering university, they were even able to play the protagonists. However, they were portraying two despondent teenagers in dire straits who were obstinate and dazed about the future.
Being a screenwriter, Liang Muqiu carefully analyzed the characters’ hearts again. He wasn’t one to laugh when he was talking about business. He wasn’t very tall but there was a sense of oppression emanating from him.
Even though he liked the two young men in his heart and guided them, he was merciless.
He said lightly, “Don’t be so arrogant, there are many talented people in the film and television industry and there are more geniuses beyond this circle. You can’t show that kind of degradation. You’re unwilling to bend your spine but that’s only because you haven’t met someone who doesn’t take you seriously. But you’ll understand when you leave school, that you’re still lacking in certain aspects. Others can be polite to you because they are educated, but this society is no different from an urban village. If people with higher authority want to belittle you, how can you resist?”
Liu Fengtao scolded people with passion while Liang Muqiu poked people’s hearts indifferently.
He took the script and poked “Xu Jie” in the chest, “If you want people to look up to you, you have to be stronger than others, but what do you have to prove yourself? Xu Jie ,even if you take your wages of more than 1000 yuan from odd jobs or your grandmother’s elderly care insurance, people will still look down on you when you make deliveries. Even if you want to find a job, you don’t have a diploma. Why can’t you bend your spine?”
From start to finish, he was called by the character he was playing.
Once the camera started rolling, only “Xu Jie” and “Chen Mingsheng” would be left behind.
The two were flushing with embarrassment but they didn’t refute him. Instead, they lowered their heads and thought deeply.
Liu Fengtao went to Liang Muqiu’s seat while drinking and snacking. He watched Liang Muqiu guide his juniors while thinking that he had the right to relax.
The person next to him was naturally Cen Nan.
Cen Nan had picked up a new interest recently. Liang Muqiu didn’t always have time to talk to him since he was working on the set. He conveniently carried a sketchbook and drew Liang Muqiu’s profile.
Liu Fengtao took a glance and realised that he had a professional foundation. This brother Cen was also an elegant person. He was obviously a lawyer who relied on a battle of words to earn a living but he was also involved a bit in music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
He had never seen Cen Nan paint anything else, but the dozen Liang Muqiu contained a graceful charm. Flowing from the pen seemed not to be lines, but the distinct affection for another.
When this sentence crossed his mind, he was nauseated at first.
He shrugged it off and chatted with Cen Nan, “Have you ever seen Muqiu lecturing people? He has a good temper, but that’s not the case at work. He can't rub sand in his eyes.”
“I haven’t seen much,” Cen Nan said.
He was absent during Liang Muqiu’s transition from school to society, so how could he witness his transformation?
Liu Fengtao smiled. “He wasn’t like this before. Although we earned some extra money at school and followed our teachers to work, we were still students after all. When he first came out to work, he was still a little tender, bold and earnest about his work. But he would get embarrassed when teased twice and was never harsh on anyone. Once, he was criticised by the project leader and was unhappy. He was half drunk from the wine and slept in the company hallway all night.”
Cen Nan’s eyelashes trembled. He never heard Liang Muqiu mention these things.
However, he could imagine how Liang Muqiu, who was working alone and struggling, sat in the corridor. He was so sad but there was no one he could turn to so he could only rely on drinking.
“So what happened then?” He asked softly.
“Nothing ah, he got a little drunk and got a cold the next day, but even so, he still had to get up to work.” Liu Fengtao didn’t take it seriously. This was the norm in the industry and Liang Muqiu had his teacher, Luo Wen, to shield him so his path could be considered smooth.
“After that, he accumulated experience and went on to work on more projects. He suffered a few losses here and there but that’s how he became the current scriptwriter Liang.”
He smiled, “Speaking of which, Liang Muqiu is very lucky, so am I.”
Cen Nan didn’t answer.
Of course, he knew that Liang Muqiu and Liu Fengtao were lucky. In a place like the film and television industry, where there were a lot of fish and dragons mixed, he had never suffered a big loss and had even made small achievements.
But the people closest to him will still cherish every moment as he grows up.
Now Liang Muqiu was very steady and had a successful career. He was able to maintain a calm state when things went haywire and he was the centre of attention wherever he went. Everything was under his control.
But Liang Muqiu didn’t become like this all of a sudden.
When Liang Muqiu was eighteen years old, his smile was even softer than the clouds in the sky. When he didn’t want to do his homework, he would act shamelessly, hooking his sleeve and begging him for the answer.
At that time, he looked at Liang Muqiu’s smiling face and only wanted to take this person into his arms and hide him so that he could shelter the other from the wind and rain.
But later, not only did he fail to be Liang Muqiu’s city wall, but also dealt him a blow head-on when he was twenty.
Thinking of this, Cen Nan’s chest felt a bit stuffy.
However, he wanted to hear more from Liu Fengqiu about the Liang Muqiu he didn’t know.
He handed Liu Fengtao a cigarette. Two people held onto a coffee and a cigarette. Liu Fengtao had nothing to hide. All he knew, Liang Muqiu’s life and work in the past few years had been shaken.
Liang Muqiu finished his lecture and returned. “Xu Jie” had a layer of skin peeled off and “Chen Mingsheng” also didn’t escape.
But words can only be words, it was up to the actors themselves to be enlightened.
Liang Muqiu leaned back on the chair and saw that Cen Nan had painted the scene just now. He took a closer look and raised his eyebrows. “Why are you painting this? I look like a headteacher.”
Cen Nan covered the sketchbook, “No you don’t, with such a beautiful teacher, I would be willing to be lectured. I was afraid that the two boys wouldn’t hear anything because they were too fixated on you.”
Liang Muqui rolled his eyes at his exaggeration.
He wasn’t a gold brick that would be thought about wherever he went.
They didn’t know if Liang Muqiu’s and Liu Fengtao’s consecutive bombardment had any effect but when they resumed filming, “Xu Jie” and “Chen Mingsheng” were more immersed into their characters than at the beginning.
Everyone behind the camera was staring at them.
After two more takes, it was over.
The stone in Liang Muqiu’s heart also fell and he was relieved. Actors weren’t afraid of new things, but they were afraid of not being able to understand their roles.
Even if he wasn’t an investor, he still hoped that the drama would be portrayed well.
Taking advantage of the break, he asked Cen Nan, “Where should we go for dinner tonight?”
Since Cen Nan was present, he didn’t intend to go to dinner with the crew. It was also interesting to explore the local snacks with him.
Cen Nan turned on his mobile phone and asked him to select one of the restaurants he had filtered out.
When Liu Fengtao passed by them, he saw two heads close together and his heart was sour.
He nudged Liang Muqiu. “Don’t be too eager to leave. Stay a little longer, the third male lead is coming over later to greet the crew, you should meet him.”
The third male lead played the grown up Chen Mingsheng.
The role was first set for a middle-aged actor called Zhao Rong, who later encountered a conflict in his schedule. After that, two more actors were switched out before the final one was decided before filming started.
Liang Muqiu didn’t care about this matter and didn’t know who the new third male lead was.
While talking, Liu Fengtao’s mobile phone rang.
Liu Fengtao looked down, “Yo, look who’s here.”
As he spoke, he got up to pick up the person.
Liang Muqiu didn’t take it to heart at first and was still discussing with Cen Nan what to eat for the evening, but when Liu Fengtao brought the person in and he looked up, the whole person was stunned.
Liu Fengtao was followed by a tall man dressed in casual clothes with clear eyebrows and mild temperament. He was not the most handsome but his smile was very attractive.
Liang Muqiu recognized him.
Wen Yang, a thirty-two year old actor from a scholarly family, was originally a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. When he was twenty-six, he unexpectedly caught Director Zhang He’s eyes and made his debut. His acting skills were excellent but the entertainment industry was a side occupation for him. He rarely took on films and only accepted those he liked.
As for why he knew this person…
Because this was the partner his teacher had arranged for the blind date, which came to nothing.
Liang Muqiu looked at Wen Yang across from him and in his mind, he could only think of the complaints he made two days ago.
“Why are there so many gays in this crew?”
Who would have thought that this whole crew was filled with gay!
Liu Fengtao was still introducing enthusiastically, “This is our screenwriter, Liang Muqiu. Wen Yang, you should know him. Muqiu, this is Wen Yang, our third male lead, it took me a long time to get him.”
Liang Muqiu glanced at Liu Fengtao who knew nothing.
Heh, the only remaining straight man in the crew is really blind.
Author’s note: Xiao Liu, Qiuqiu is scolding you in his heart.
Translator’s note:
tHiS wHoLe CrEw Is FiLLeD wItH gAy!
Also, the fact that the author never gave the actors who played Xu Jie and Chen Mingsheng proper names will forever get me
Thank You for the new chapter ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)