Chapter 59 – Is An Xumo your wife?

Thank you so much for the ko-fis britener & impatientlywaiting! ♡♡♡

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Ling Sihang stood in the classroom, looking out the window at the bright sun but his complexion wasn’t sunny.

The room was very quiet that you can clearly hear the sound of footsteps outside the door. Everything was going according to plan but in Ling Sihang’s face, there wasn’t much satisfaction with the plan.

He raised his eyes to the door and the classroom door was pushed open. A slender figure in a white trench coat appeared at the door. Bai Qingchi pushed the door in and smiled at the first sight of Ling Sihang.

“Sihang.” He called out.

Ling Sihang glanced at him sideways, familiar with the usual people coming and going in the classroom. Now it was only the two of them left.

“Today’s dance was great,” Ling Sihang said. “Very impressive, congratulations.”

Bai Qingchi smiled, looking somewhat shy. He said softly, “Thank you.”

The room quieted down again. Bai Qingchi hesitated for a moment and slowly walked over, the distance between the two gradually shortened. He was hesitating how to speak but heard Ling Sihang said, “Do you have time tonight?”

Bai Qingchi froze for a moment. His expression was in a daze and hesitant but his eyes lit up with light that was difficult to suppress.

His voice was a little tight. When he opened his mouth, he deliberately disguised and pretended to be relaxed. “Yes ah. What’s wrong?”

Then Bai Qingchi heard an answer that was unmistakably similar to his fantasy.

“Can I invite you to have a drink?”

“Neither alcohol nor sweet,” Ling Sihang’s voice sounded a bit nervous. “I checked that ballet dancers can drink coconut milk and sugar-free yogurt or if you don’t like either, plain water is fine.”

Bai Qingchi helplessly saw himself shot in the chest by a pink long arrow.

Ling Sihang, who has always been calm and restrained, and when faced with a long stick to provoke a gangster who dared to stand in front of him, actually said such things to Bai Qingchi, which made him nervous.

Bai Qingchi looked up to see Ling Sihang’s expression, his figure has extremely excellent proportions but in front of Ling Sihang, he is still a little shorter.

Before he could see it, Bai Qingchi’s line of sight was blocked by Ling Sihang’s outstretched hand. The other person raised his hand and gently circled his shoulder.

This was a very gentle action. Although Bai Qingchi couldn’t see Ling Sihang’s face, he felt the other party’s temperature in his arms.

When he was too close, he also heard Ling Sihang’s voice.

“Xiao Chi……is it okay?”

After asking, Ling Sihang backed away. He was about to pull the distance between them when his collar was pulled by a tug.

The next moment, a warm touch came close ——

It touched his chin.

“Cut!” 

With a shout, Zhou Jinchen had to reach out to help the boy in front of him. Otherwise, he felt that the other party would most likely not be able to stand at all.

“I-I’m sorry……”

An Xumo wanted to hide himself in the hollow part of the listening stick.

Zhou Jinchen only replied to him.

“Look before you kiss.”

In a sense, this was the first time An Xumo had someone to remind him of the same mistake twice.

Ma Lao came over and said to An Xumo, “The first half of the emotion is good and quite natural. From the time Ling Sihang mentioned the date, you collapsed a little too tightly.”

Taking the opportunity to listen to the comment, An Xumo calmed down his emotions. He nodded hurriedly and said, “Okay.”

Ma Lao said, “Although Bai Qingchi is also very nervous at this time, it is suppressed a lot by the desire from his heart. The tension is crumbling, trying to recover something but at this time Bai Qingchi’s emotions are more erupting. That’s why he took the initiative to kiss.”

“Okay, Ma Lao.” An Xumo seriously noted down every word.

It was just the first shooting, the process was carried out smoothly and there was enough room for NG. It seems that because of this reason, Ma Lao did not criticize the wrong behavior that led to a cut but he focuses on the emotions that Bai Qingchi should have at this time.

After speaking, Ma Lao turned his attention to Zhou Jinchen. An Xumo was meditating on what Ma Lao had just said but he heard the person suddenly add another sentence.

“Let’s do it again later and cut it off when the two people are embracing. Shoot a close-up of Ling Sihang before filming the kissing scene.”

An Xumo naturally has no objections, he just nodded his head. He listened to Ma Lao, “Prepare the kissing scene in advance, and kiss again when you see it.”

“……”

After being reminded of the same content by the two big bosses, An Xumo simply felt like smoke was going to start rising from the top of his head.

Ma Lao’s attitude towards An Xumo was quite amiable but when An Xumo went to the side to fix his makeup, leaving only Ma Lao and Zhou Jinchen, the former’s face visibly sank.

Although An Xumo who had just started acting had performed very well, the gap between him and Zhou Jinchen was still irremovable —— this is undoubtedly the case. Zhou Jinchen’s performance was much better than An Xumo’s first shooting. This is not only clear to Ma Lao who directed the film; even the attentive staff on set can clearly see it.

However, in the content filmed by the camera, there was no clear-cut difference in their performance. This is certainly due to An Xumo’s natural performance —— even Ma Lao expressed his approval of this new actor, but there are more reasons……

Once An Xumo walked away, Ma Lao looked at Zhou Jinchen and his expression was not very good. “What were you doing? He is a newcomer acting for the first time, and so were you?”

Zhou Jinchen’s expression did not change but Ma Lao did not intend to reveal this. He directly said. “You are playing as a hunter, waiting for the fish to be caught. Not a big fool who fell in love. Bai Qingchi wants to express his love, Ling Sihang doesn’t have to. The person he likes is waiting outside the door, not in his arms!”

Zhou Jinchen was silent which Ma Lao took it as submission.

“Ling Sihang only wants to deceive Bai Qingchi, but the entire camera has to know and all the audience has to understand that Ling Sihang doesn’t like Bai Qingchi. He is using him. Do you still remember this ah?”

Being stared at by Ma Lao’s compelling gaze, Zhou Jinchen finally opened his mouth.

He said, “I remember.”

Ma Lao threw his hand: “Then you still act like this!”

His voice was a little loud and the originally noisy set was instantly silenced by this sound.

Everyone on the set looked at each other and watched the development with curious eyes, either explicitly or implicitly.

When Ma Lao used to talk about the scene, the crew members were busy with their own affairs, and they had to prepare for the second filming as soon as possible. Under Ma Lao’s high demands, the crew never had the habit of being lazy and timid.

Perhaps when Ma Lao just walked passed by, there would be some people who would like to pay more attention to the development on this side —— after all, the reason for calling cut this time was an obvious mistake. With everyone’s understanding of Ma Lao’s temper, even if he criticized in public without mercy, not many people would be surprised.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the merciless public criticism did happen but it didn’t happen to An Xumo. Instead, after everyone had already witnessed the calm comments of Ma Lao, it happened to Zhou Jinchen who rarely made mistakes.

An Xumo who was fixing his makeup on the side heard this, he was also stupefied for a moment and looked over their way.

The sight that gathered around did not make Zhou Jinchen’s expression appear any fluctuation. He still quietly listened to Ma Lao’s words. Until everyone realized that the imagined conflict did not appear, several assistant directors also began to clean up the scene so that everyone returned to their positions. The eyes gathered on their side gradually decreased a lot.

At this time, Zhou Jinchen who was questioned by Ma Lao about why he acted this way opened his mouth to explain.

“Everyone knows that the feeling is faked but Bai Qingchi must believe it’s true.” The surrounding sight had dispersed and the set was noisy again. Zhou Jinchen’s suppressed voice was difficult to be heard by a third person.

“Only by feeling Ling Sihang’s feelings can Bai Qingchi express his love.” Zhou Jinchen said the names of the characters in the scene but the meaning in the words was another layer.

Sure enough, Ma Lao’s anger subsided a little but he still frowned and stared closely at Zhou Jinchen.

“It may be difficult for new actors to feel the indifference of ‘Ling Sihang’ and to also show their love with the mentality of believing in this feeling.”

Zhou Jinchen said, “I asked you yesterday, and you said that the average number of re-takes for previous kissing scenes was fifteen. When the actor is not in good condition, they might shoot in two or three days.”

“So you wasted NG times to bring An Xumo into the scene?” Ma Lao’s expression was still not very good but his voice has been significantly lower than before.

Zhou Jinchen did not retort. “You know his memory, he can find the right state to remember and after that, he will not be out of the scene.”

Seeing Zhou Jinchen admit personally, Ma Lao didn’t show too much of a surprised expression.

Zhou Jinchen’s performance during the first shoot was too gentle —— so gentle that he didn’t look like he was acting. Ma Lao’s eyes are shrewd and ruthless; he could see at a glance that Zhou Jinchen had deliberately weakened his performance.

That’s why he got angry in public.

But for Zhou Jinchen’s explanation, Ma Lao is also the one who understands the deeper meaning.

《Different Roads》 has been filming for such a long time. Everyone who has an interest has understood Zhou Jinchen’s style of acting. He is like an extremely sharp knife, in every shot that requires an emotional outburst. It can make everyone inside and outside the camera feel the pressure.

Even if it’s not within the frame, Zhou Jinchen’s presence is also very strong. His sense of existence is not shown in stealing the shot but in an imposing manner which is unclear but can’t be ignored by everyone.

If you act against an actor with comparable acting skill, it will be a full-on^[1]to one’s heart’s content [idiom] drama. But more often than not, the actors who act with him will say that they will be affected by Zhou Jinchen’s emotions and unconsciously get deeper into the scene.

This kind of thing may be a good thing for actors in general. But fundamentally, this is a double crushing of acting skills and aura. In fact, they are all being carried along by Zhou Jinchen’s performance.

In the kissing scene with An Xumo, Zhou Jinchen could have completely opened his aura from the beginning. With his ability to show deep love on one hand and let everyone know he is acting on the other. He can definitely manage this kind of multi-layered performance.

In contrast, An Xumo is much thinner in terms of both the task being in the state of mind and acting experience. He is likely to be compared to a dry, Silly Baitian,^[2]lit. silly white sweet; it describes people who are silly: but sweet/foolish, but kind/stupid, or but warmhearted/naïve.unable to show that he is worth liking in front of the camera.

The shyness and nervousness of seeing your secret love, the happiness and elation of that secret love coming true, and the sourness and sweetness of forbearance, are emotions that everyone will hide deep in their hearts.

Ma Lao naturally knows that this is the kind of emotion that resonates most easily on the screen. The audience must see these beautiful things in Bai Qingchi in order to like him, which is a test for An Xumo.

And now, it’s Zhou Jinchen who uses his own wrong performance to evoke these potentials within An Xumo little by little.

Ma Lao looked at Zhou Jinchen whose expression had not changed in front of him and his chest was still filled with some anger.

“Why didn’t I know when you are so helpful,” Ma Lao eyed him. “Is An Xumo your son or your wife, with you teaching him so gently?”

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The author has something to say:

The next chapter will definitely wrap up the kissing scene! Fourteen kisses are enough!