Chapter 55 – Practice kissing first

Where else can An Xumo eat, it’s all good if he doesn’t choke.

While he was trying to maintain his calm expression, Zhou Jinchen continued, “The newly revised script is to let Bai Qingchi take the initiative to kiss. Have you thought about his state?”

After starting to talk about business, An Xumo’s mood slowly settled down. He has been doing character sketches of Bai Qingchi since long ago, even if Bai Qingchi’s experience has changed. An Xumo can also infer Bai Qingchi’s thoughts from following Mr. Tao’s pen and ink.

An Xumo said, “Before Bai has been misunderstood and hurt for many years, it was overwhelming. Mr. Tao said he had never been in love so Ling is his first love. This kiss is also his first initiative.”

Trying to peel off his feelings for his brother, An Xumo tried to analyze objectively and comprehensively. “Bai must have a lot of worries before he kissed him…… even he originally never thought so, that is, the atmosphere is just right, he couldn’t help it.”

The warm breeze in the room was very comfortable. Two people sat face to face discussing the upcoming scene across a table of hot food. After the psychological state of the two characters was completely analyzed, An Xumo finally breathes a sigh of relief. He felt as if he had finished a final three-question, and the complex information is finally no longer surrounded by fog but became a well-organized, logical, and orderly emotional development. Every move and expression was supported by good reasoning, allowing him to better identify what he was trying to show.

Of course, these discussions only stop at the mannerisms and emotions before and after the kiss — as for the part during the kiss, Zhou Jinchen skipped over it without mentioning it and An Xumo really didn’t dare to ask.

After they finished talking, An Xumo also ate almost all of the oden. He was hesitating over the two snow-white meat buns when he heard Zhou Jinchen say, “If you can’t eat it, don’t force yourself.”

An Xumo looked up and saw that the man was looking at him. Before he could say anything, the other party asked, “Are you full?”

An Xumo nodded honestly.

Zhou Jinchen motioned in the direction of the bathroom, “Go and take a bath.”

As he carried his clothes to the bathroom, An Xumo quietly glanced at the man inside the room with his back on him. The other party is calling his assistant and asking someone to come and take away the rest of the food.

This feeling is too strange, An Xumo thought silently. More wonderful than a dream, yet so real.

After taking a shower, An Xumo didn’t have the heart to wear a bathrobe directly, he changed into a simple cotton t-shirt with loose pants before walking out of the bathroom.

The table has been restored to its previous neatness and the dutiful ventilation system of the room has dispersed all the smell. The owner of the room was sitting at the table looking at his laptop and the position was just blocking the way to the inner sofa. An Xumo hesitated and sat on the left side of the king-size bed.

Yes, the crew booked double rooms for most of the actors but main actors like Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui, as well as Ma Lao and the others, were booked in single rooms.

Although the conditions of the single room are also very good, it’s impossible to have two beds in the room.

Although the bed in the single room is nearly two meters wide, being invaded in their private space makes people very easy to feel resentful so An Xumo asked before he came whether he should sleep on the sofa – then he automatically silenced himself in his brother’s sight.

They came to sleep in the same room in order to cultivate the necessary feelings for filming, coupled with the fact that they are of the same gender and have a former brotherly relationship……so Zhou Jinchen did not agree to his suggestion to sleep on the sofa.

An Xumo thought so and his heart also did not give birth to a bitter smile.

It’s obvious that he was the one who wants too much, but why is this case now……

He let out a low sigh.

People with strange thoughts will have a guilty conscience.

Before coming out of the bathroom, An Xumo had already blow-dried his hair. He didn’t dare to come out with wet hair and make a mess on the floor. As a result, An Xumo found out that he seems to have made a mistake. The room was too quiet that he didn’t even get a chance to wipe his hair to find something to do.

It was fine when they were eating and discussing their roles and there was not much difference from how they usually get along. Now that the room was quiet, leaving only the occasional sound of the keyboard, An Xumo became uncontrollably nervous. 

—— He and his brother are in the same room and will be sleeping in the same bed later.

The mere thought made An Xumo want to bury his face in the blanket.

In order to control his thoughts, An Xumo had to find something to do. But now that he’s sitting on the bed and the new script hasn’t been delivered, there are very little things he can do.

When he came out of the bathroom, An Xumo inadvertently glanced at the laptop’s screen. He originally thought that the other party was watching something related to the movie but unexpectedly, the screen was showing complicated zigzag lines and colorful reports.

Zhou Jinchen was busy with his own business so An Xumo had to find something to do for himself. He reached out and pulled the two pillows stacked together on the bed, placing them on each side, and then quietly moved the pillow on the left side a little outward.

Moved a little bit more.

It was not until An Xumo almost hung half of the pillow on the left and solved the problem of ‘how to keep half of the pillow hanging on the side without falling’ by the bedside. He was concentrating then he suddenly paused.

It seems that he hasn’t heard the sound of the keyboard for some time.

An Xumo subconsciously turned back and instantly crashed into the man’s bottomless dark eyes.

Zhou Jinchen looked at the person for a while until An Xumo felt like he was going to be cooked^[1]heat up again, the man said, “The TV remote control is in the left drawer.”

An Xumo didn’t dare say anything and hurriedly looked down to find the remote control.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed and had to bend over when searching the drawer. By the time he found the remote control, Zhou Jinchen had already looked away. An Xumo turned on the TV and heard the other party say, “If you have other questions, you can ask them now.”

The black screen popped up with a selection of program categories and An Xumo’s hand shook for a moment before he managed to steadily hold the remote control. After finishing his words, the man turned his eyes back to the screen.

The characters and plot have been thoroughly analyzed earlier, and An Xumo couldn’t find out what questions he had for a while. The only thing they didn’t discuss was the process of the kissing scene, and on this issue, An Xumo found it a little difficult to open his mouth.

After thinking hard for a while, he finally found a question he could open up.

“Brother……”

Zhou Jinchen looked up at him from the laptop.

“En?”

“When you were filming kissing scenes before, for the preparation stage……what would you do with someone?”

“……”

The room was quiet once again.

An Xumo swallowed carefully, he vaguely perceived that the atmosphere seemed a little strange but he couldn’t figure out where it had gone wrong.

The question just now……is not quite right to ask?

After a while, An Xumo who couldn’t help but stiffen up heard the man’s voice.

“No preparation.”

“Ah……?” An Xumo looked over blankly.

Zhou Jinchen’s gaze had already returned to the laptop, while looking at the screen he said, “This is the first time I cultivate feelings with the kissing scene as the subject.”

An Xumo felt that his mind turned upside down, “But didn’t Mr. Tao say that before filming a scene, they usually let the two actors together……” 

Otherwise……why would he come to his brother’s room to sleep?

Could it be that brother used a stand-in for the kissing scene before? An Xumo thought wildly. He had also heard various rumors about the popularity of stand-ins in the industry before. However, 《Different Roads》 did not have any dangerous scenes so far. In addition to Ma Lao’s requirements, An Xumo had never seen a real stand-in scene.

Zhou Jinchen did not notice An Xumo’s expression. He lightly tapped the keyboard twice, the action and the voice did not interfere with each other, “I have filmed three kissing scenes, two are other shots covered by a finger, and one real shot is a borrowed position.”

An Xumo foolishly repeated, “Borrowed position?”

“The camera was shot from the side, the other side of the hand reached over and kiss the back of your own hand.”

An Xumo clenched the remote control in his hand and for a moment, he didn’t know whether to be relieved or lost.

So is that why my brother has never directly discussed the process of kissing scene with him? Because it was already known in advance, as long as you flash past the camera, there was no need to go to such great lengths to think about it in advance……

It took a while before he found his voice.

Regardless…….always have to ask the question.

“Then this time,” An Xumo said hesitantly, “do you want to use the other shot or borrowed position shot……?”

Zhou Jinchen finally moved his eyes away from the screen this time.

He looked at An Xumo and frowned slightly.

“Why do you think so?”

An Xumo stammered, “You just said that, with your own hands……”

Zhou Jinchen said, “That’s a TV series, it’s hard for movies to use this way.”

An Xumo’s brain buzzed and exploded.

“Moreover, Ma Lao would not agree to borrow position. He pays close attention to the quality of the camera. From the very beginning, the kissing scene was set as the actual shot.” Zhou Jinchen said, “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have proposed to replace Lin Rui.”

An Xumo really felt the taste of bungee jumping back and forth in a short period of time.

And the man not far away looked at him again and asked: “Do you have other ideas?”

An Xumo hurriedly shook his head, “No, no……”

Zhou Jinchen said, “If it’s about the image of an artist, you don’t have to worry. Zimai and I have mentioned it to me that your team has no intention of giving you an extreme image, and doing kissing scenes will not affect your future.”

In such matters, the situation is the same for both male and female artists. The flawless “no kissing scenes” good boy image may be completed in a short period of time but it is also followed by a high-level of constraint and restrictions. Once the artist is a little careless with their words and actions, the fans that were initially attracted by their persona will be taken off in large numbers or even turned black.

Even if the artist can use resources to pile up a new persona, slapping faces is by no means a fun thing to do.

Zhou Jinchen has considered such a long-term, and An Xumo found it difficult to argue. He never thought of such a complicated reason, the only worry was that his brother would detect his feelings while filming……

But the only truth can’t be laid out on the surface.

“No, brother, I’m not worried about that……”

An Xumo said stiffly, “I’m worried because……don’t have……on, no kissing experience before……”

Being watched by the other party and telling the truth, An Xumo can’t feel his face burning.

“So I’m afraid that when I take the initiative to kiss, I may not do well……”

He had almost given up on himself.

There was a frightening silence in the air. An Xumo can only hear his own ‘thumping’ heartbeat. He waited for the other party to be dissatisfied, laugh, blame, or unresponsiveness, and envisioned a thousand worst-case scenarios.

However, after the silence, An Xumo heard a soft “click”.

The slender fingers closed the dark gray laptop. Zhou Jinchen looked at An Xumo, his voice was still consistent indifferent and magnetic.

“Instead of worrying about this,” he said, “you might as well practice in advance.”

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The author has something to say:

Kiss to find out.

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Editor: who said the room is just for cultivating feelings???

Jie Jie: *gasps* a wild editor suddenly appeared! Hahaha~

Again, thank you for the ko-fis impatientlywaiting! ♡