No matter how many wild horses were stampeding in her heart, she had to maintain an elegant and calm exterior.
So, Rong Guang cautiously sized up Chu Feiliang’s expression and said tentatively, “Teacher Chu, it’s all up to you. If you think it’s necessary to add it, I… I can fully cooperate.”
The words “fully cooperate” seemed a bit too obvious. Rong Guang didn’t want Chu Feiliang to think she was too forward.
She quickly corrected herself, adding embarrassedly, “The scene is more important. You don’t have to worry too much about me. I’m fine with anything.”
“Fine with anything?” Chu Feiliang raised an eyebrow at her.
Rong Guang nodded like a chick pecking at rice.
Chu Feiliang propped her chin on her hand and smiled slowly, her eyes curving as she said, “So you mean, no matter what I do to you, you’ll be fine with it?”
“Yes.” Rong Guang nodded, giving Chu Feiliang a particularly firm look.
Just then, the makeup artist in charge of her came in with her costume.
Rong Guang glanced back, bowed to Chu Feiliang, and pointed to the side, saying, “Teacher Chu, please carry on. I’m going to change.”
Chu Feiliang waved her hand, gesturing for her to go. When Rong Guang’s figure disappeared behind the partition door, she finally couldn’t help but laugh.
Shi Xiaoyun glanced back at the partition door and asked her in a low voice, “I haven’t seen you tease anyone like this in all these years. Why the sudden interest?”
“Don’t you think it’s quite fun?” Chu Feiliang was all smiles. “I’d really like to see if I can tease this milky little kitten until she bares her teeth and acts fierce with me.”
As she spoke, she raised her hand. Remembering something, her fingers curled slightly.
She did bite, but the one who bit looked to be in more pain than the one who was bitten.
Her words left Shi Xiaoyun speechless.
After a long moment, she gave the flawless Chu Feiliang in the makeup mirror a speechless look and couldn’t help but sigh, “Other people can’t wait for others to be nice to them, but you? You’re actively asking for someone to be fierce with you?”
What kind of weird habit is that?
Shi Xiaoyun kept the latter half of her thought to herself.
Chu Feiliang shrugged and didn’t answer, silently and unconsciously brushing her neck a couple of times with a makeup brush.
Chacha and Ye Zi were squatting in a corner, both looking completely bewildered.
“Do they still need to add a kissing scene?” Chacha’s hands were still covering her eyes.
Ye Zi was also on set learning today and had seen the scene where Chu Feiliang went off-script. Hearing this, she also shook her head and whispered to Chacha, “But didn’t they already kiss?”
“Exactly.” Chacha scratched her head. “They’ve already kissed, so is it really that important whether they add it or not?”
“Maybe she thought the kiss was too comfortable, so she wants to add more.” Ye Zi slapped the table.
Finally, she and Chacha looked at each other and couldn’t help but sigh, “We really don’t know what these adults are thinking. What’s so great about kissing, anyway…”
Before long, it was the latter half of the night.
The vast darkness descended. In this film studio, miles away from the lights of any town, it seemed particularly oppressive. In places without light, you truly couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
Rong Guang had already changed her clothes and was waiting for her cue. The bed scene Chu Feiliang had mentioned earlier was, in fact, real.
It just wasn’t as suggestive as she had made it sound.
Because they were filming the next scene in sequence, it happened to be the one after Rong Guang’s character, Wen Mou, was carried into the general’s manor by the Eldest Princess.
The princess needed to go to the palace overnight to report, but she didn’t.
After being attended to by the maids and finishing her bath, she could get into bed and lie down. It was just that the clothes she wore were too thin.
Moreover, due to the speculation of the servants in the princess’s manor, the clothes they gave her consisted of a dudou underneath and only a layer of sheer, tantalizing gauze on top, clearly meant to add a bit of spice.
She was currently wrapped in a shawl, frowning as she read the upcoming script.
The next scene was an action sequence, leaning towards a sharp confrontation.
Ji Ying returned to her manor after reporting military intelligence, bringing back several carts full of rewards, and was in high spirits.
Just then, a servant came to report that Wen Mou had woken up.
“We’ll pick up filming from here—” Zhang Nanchuan tapped the script and said, “After Wen Mou wakes up, she has complete amnesia. She’s kind to the maids she’s never met, but she has an innate hostility and wariness towards Ji Ying. Although she has no memory, she remembers the moment Ji Ying flirted with her.”
Rong Guang nodded, indicating she understood.
“But that’s just how Ji Ying is. The more she likes someone, the more she wants to tease them.” Zhang Nanchuan said as he wrote, “So, when she sees Wen Mou, who is full of thorns, in a dazed state, and having just lost her memory, this wicked nature of hers erupts.”
Chu Feiliang suddenly smiled. “Continue.”
Rong Guang didn’t know why she was smiling, but she thought Chu Feiliang looked beautiful when she smiled, so she secretly stole a couple of glances.
Zhang Nanchuan shook his head and continued, “This is the one and only thing about Ji Ying—the Eldest Princess, the Great General, and the nation’s idol—that all the scholars in the land condemn in writing. This is what I discussed with the screenwriting team and what I want you two to portray.”
Chu Feiliang nodded, thought for a moment, and said, “Alright, I understand.”
This scene, truth be told, wasn’t actually that difficult to film.
But Director Zhang’s requirements were too demanding.
Because it was mostly close-up shots, and the space to perform was so small—just that one bed. So the two of them had to go at it for real. Not only that, but they had to fight with passion, with sharp confrontation, and with a sense of being evenly matched, neither willing to back down.
On top of that—they also had to fight with the ambiguity Director Zhang wanted.
This made things very difficult.
The various crews were still adjusting the equipment and the hazy lighting that Director Zhang required, while the costume, makeup, and props departments were also preparing on the side.
Chu Feiliang read the script for a while, then looked at Rong Guang, who was biting her fingertip and deep in thought. She raised an eyebrow and simply tapped Rong Guang’s shoulder lightly with the script in her hand.
Rong Guang was taken aback. “What is it, Teacher Chu?”
“Come on, let’s practice. Don’t just sit there thinking.” Chu Feiliang gestured with her chin and said, “The action director is here.”
Director Zhang was quite willing to spend money; two action directors came over to give them one-on-one instruction, demonstrating for them in earnest what it meant to fight, brawl, struggle, and scuffle.
After all, they couldn’t expect the instructors to do their work for them. The more detailed choreography had to be attempted and added by Rong Guang and Chu Feiliang themselves after they learned the moves.
An actor’s job, after all, is to take a defined script and make it blossom through their performance.
She was a little too embarrassed to ask Chu Feiliang to run lines with her. Just a moment ago, she had been wandering around the set looking for Chacha to see if they could practice together first.
Therefore, when Chu Feiliang suggested they practice, Rong Guang was overjoyed.
“Okay!” Rong Guang happily put down her script and carefully tied the garment draped over her shoulders.
It was a batwing-style outer garment, similar to an air-conditioning shawl, with very wide sleeves and body that wouldn’t interfere with her costume.
Chu Feiliang smiled at the sight, reached out, and hooked the ties on Rong Guang’s chest. She tugged them lightly a couple of times but couldn’t undo them, and couldn’t help but laugh, “Tying it so tightly? Are you afraid it’ll be too easy for me to untie later?”
Rong Guang’s face, betraying her, turned red again.
In the scene, after Chu Feiliang’s character, Ji Ying, entered her room, she was wearing a set of loose, casual clothes.
Because she had just returned from the imperial study, Ji Ying wasn’t planning to sleep yet, but being in her own home late at night, her clothes were rather loose, faintly revealing the elegant lines of her collarbones. She wore only light makeup, and her ink-black hair was draped down her back, adding a sense of boundless languor.
When someone dressed like that approached her… Rong Guang was afraid her own limbs would go so soft she wouldn’t be able to lift them.
So she stammered, “Then… should I loosen it a bit?”
In the script, Ji Ying was supposed to tease Wen Mou, so after subduing her, she would deliberately reach out to untie the sash on Wen Mou’s robe.
If all went as expected, Rong Guang knew this part would probably be filmed as a high-definition close-up.
Not just the action, but also the look in Chu Feiliang’s eyes as she gazed at her.
It was strangely intimate, and her face felt a little hot.
Chu Feiliang crossed her arms and replied lazily, “Mm, untie it.”
Rong Guang’s breathing grew ragged, and her toes kept curling inside her shoes. Finally, she mustered her courage and loosened the knot she had tied so tightly.
Just as she finished untying it and looked back at Chu Feiliang with her sparkling eyes, Chu Feiliang suddenly slapped her own forehead and said, “Oh, look at my memory.”
Rong Guang jumped. “Wh-what’s wrong?”
A smile played on Chu Feiliang’s lips. “This scene isn’t a long take. When I get to the part where I untie your clothes, they’ll shoot a separate close-up of my hands.”
Rong Guang froze.
Then she waved her hands frantically and said repeatedly, “It’s okay! Striving for perfection is how it should be. You’re right to do so. We can’t mess up during the actual take!”
What if she really couldn’t untie it? Wouldn’t all their previous takes be wasted?
Rather than that, it was better to tie it loosely from the start. At worst, she would just have to be a little more careful herself.
Chu Feiliang probably hadn’t expected Rong Guang to reply like this. She paused for a moment before nodding in deep agreement, saying righteously, “Right. Striving for perfection. You should pay attention to this aspect in the future, too.”
Rong Guang broke into a happy smile, her eyes curving as she nodded, her smile especially brilliant.
Chu Feiliang suddenly felt that itch again. She even wanted to reach out and pat Rong Guang’s head, then touch her cheek, and even her lips.
Her gaze lingered on Rong Guang’s lips for a few seconds before she shifted her eyes away without a trace.
The crew’s meals had been rather light these past few days, so Rong Guang’s lips looked much rosier. They should be very soft to the touch.
“Stop with all the ‘yous.'” Chu Feiliang smiled. “We’ll be seeing each other day and night for at least a few dozen more days. Using formal address all the time, isn’t that a bit too distant?”
This wasn’t the first time Chu Feiliang had brought up the issue of address with her.
Rong Guang was a bit stunned, and said hesitantly, “I’ll remember, but I don’t know what would be a better way to address you.”
“What’s there not to know?” Chu Feiliang glanced at Rong Guang’s fluffy head again and finally couldn’t resist reaching out.
She gave the soft hair buns on top of Rong Guang’s head a couple of squeezes, finally getting her wish.
Then she squeezed them again, finally satisfied, and her whole body visibly relaxed.
“I should be about seven or eight years older than you. Calling me Sister can’t be wrong.” Chu Feiliang bent down, met the eyes of Rong Guang who was sitting and having her hair styled, and leaned in with a smile, saying, “Come on, say it. Let me hear it.”
Rong Guang held her breath the moment Chu Feiliang leaned in.
When Chu Feiliang spoke, she was very close, so close that Rong Guang could even smell the faint, sweet fragrance of the Shine Muscat grapes Chu Feiliang had just eaten.
That light, barely-there scent lingered, making one’s heart itch with an unbearable desire to seek out more.
Rong Guang’s voice involuntarily slowed, and she stammered, following Chu Feiliang’s lead, “Chu… Sis… Sister…”
“Mm.” Chu Feiliang chuckled softly, sat down, and propped her chin on her hand to look at her, her features appearing gentle under the light. “Drop the surname. Say it again, let me hear it.”
Rong Guang was so red she didn’t dare look at her. Staring at the ground, she mumbled, “Sister…”
“Mm, louder.”
Rong Guang was about to lose her composure. Her hands crumpled her clothes as she cried out, “Sis-Sister!”
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