Rong Guang stood to the side, watching eagerly as the brown iodine solution gradually covered Chu Feiliang’s waist, mixing with the occasional specks of blood to form a deeper, burnt umber color.
Chu Feiliang regularly went to the gym, so the lines of her body were exceptionally beautiful. You could even faintly see the hint of V-cut abs, which also happened to be the background image on many of Rong Guang’s electronic devices.
But now, even though she was seeing the real thing she had mentally licked countless times, she couldn’t muster any other thoughts. Her face was written all over with heartache.
Chu Feiliang frowned, occasionally taking a light, sharp breath. The hissing sound reached Rong Guang’s ears, making her heart flutter with anxiety.
She saw a fan on the table and immediately thought of something. Her eyes lit up as she picked up the fan, walked a few steps toward Chu Feiliang, and began to fan in time with the doctor’s movements.
The waves of coolness that washed over her indeed relieved much of the pain.
Chu Feiliang happened to look down and saw Rong Guang’s serious expression, her mouth involuntarily making small blowing motions. She couldn’t help but let out a low laugh.
The laughter caused her abdomen to tremble slightly. Rong Guang froze for a moment, then subconsciously looked up and asked shyly, “What… what are you laughing at?”
“I’m laughing at how cute you are,” she said, tilting her head and staring at Rong Guang’s flushed face.
Rong Guang shuffled her feet, unsure of what to say. Seeing the doctor resume applying the medicine, she lowered her head again and carefully continued fanning in time with the doctor’s movements.
“Be careful from now on. There shouldn’t be any scenes requiring a wire harness on your waist for the next week, right?” The doctor frowned and said, “The wounds aren’t deep, but the area is large. In this weather, I’m worried it will get stuffy and lead to infection. Make sure to let the wound breathe.”
Chu Feiliang didn’t react much, but Rong Guang remembered it all clearly. She even took out her phone, opened the memo app, and wrote down every single word.
So the doctor logically shifted the target of his instructions—after all, every doctor likes the obedient family members of a patient.
“From now on, apply the medicine three times a day—morning, noon, and night. You don’t need a large amount. You can stop once it scabs over.” The doctor looked at Chu Feiliang’s wound and said, “The weather is hot now, so the wound will heal quickly. If things go well, it probably won’t hurt by tomorrow.”
Rong Guang nodded, carefully noted it down, and solemnly accepted the bottle of iodine and the bag of cotton swabs from the doctor.
Chu Feiliang’s assistant, Wang Lujie, stood to the side, finding it awkward to intervene.
After a long moment, she braced herself and said, “Teacher Rong, why don’t you give the medicine to me?”
Rong Guang finally snapped back to reality. Responding a beat too late, her hand had already passed the medicine over. “Oh…”
Once she realized what she had done, another wave of reluctance washed over her.
Although she couldn’t actually touch Chu Feiliang, still…
The thought of the two of them possibly being alone in a room, of Chu Feiliang lying on the sofa with her slender waist exposed, whether facing her or with her back turned, letting Rong Guang have her way with her…
Rong Guang blinked in disappointment, her entire being radiating reluctance as she watched Wang Lujie put the medicine bottle away.
Like a cat that had its dried fish snack snatched away.
“Stop spacing out.” Chu Feiliang tapped the top of Rong Guang’s head and said with amusement, “You have a scene with Teacher Zhao tonight. Prepare well.”
Rong Guang was suddenly jolted back to her senses and slapped her forehead. “I almost forgot!”
Her afternoon scene had been postponed to the evening because Chu Feiliang needed to reshoot a few action scenes.
And tonight’s scene would be Rong Guang’s first time acting opposite a veteran thespian, a scene with the Class-One National Actor, Teacher Zhao Xiuqi.
She grew a little nervous just thinking about it.
Because they were shooting out of sequence, she hadn’t experienced the process of Wen Mou gradually opening her heart and entrusting her life to Ji Ying. She could only speculate on the infinite possibilities from the limited script.
And in this scene with Zhao Xiuqi, who played the emperor, she had to simultaneously portray her character’s worldly ignorance and her deep shrewdness and strategic mind, all while convincing the emperor to lower his guard against Ji Ying… and his intent to kill.
That night, her character was summoned to the palace by the emperor. Upon hearing the news, Ji Ying would gallop back from the military camp ten li outside the city. Unfortunately, it would be too late to change anything, so she would simply kneel outside the imperial study for the entire night.
“This is so hard.” Rong Guang wrung her hands. “I heard Teacher Zhao really likes to play Go, and we have to play it in the scene, but I don’t really know how…”
“If you don’t know how, just play randomly,” Chu Feiliang said with a smile. “Just improvise. Very few people actually know how to play. I don’t either.”
“But your calligraphy is so good,” Rong Guang sighed in admiration.
Chu Feiliang came from an exceptionally good family and knew how to do a great many things.
In her previous life, it was only much later that she learned Chu Feiliang had been pushed by her older sister to learn many, many things.
Piano, calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, violin… Although she wasn’t an expert in any of them, she had at least earned certifications for a few.
And Chu Feiliang had later said that it was a good thing her sister had made her learn them; every additional skill was now a specialty, and a comfort she could use to pass the time.
Although Chu Feiliang didn’t know how to play Go, she had studied game records in her spare time at home, and even had a Go board on a table in her house. She was surely much better off than someone like herself who knew nothing at all.
So Rong Guang thought for a moment, then took her script and squatted down next to Zhang Nanchuan, intending to seek his wisdom and ask the director how she should play.
At that moment, Zhang Nanchuan was waiting for a response from the props department.
Because the drama’s setting was late autumn, the props department had to create an especially desolate atmosphere. As for how to make it desolate… that wasn’t his problem. A director’s sacred duty was to find fault.
So when Rong Guang went over with her script, Zhang Nanchuan was leisurely brewing tea while ordering the props team to go find withered leaves.
In a town, there would probably be piles of withered leaves, and since it was the right season, you could just pick them up off the ground.
But in this film studio, where there were hardly even any birds, where on earth were they supposed to find withered leaves?!
The group was furious but dared not voice it. Some went to look for trees, others went to borrow things; they were just short of rummaging through the trash cans.
“How to play?” Upon hearing her, Zhang Nanchuan savored the cup of tea in his hand and said, “Play randomly. I’m giving you and Teacher Zhao free rein for this scene. Aside from a few key lines, you can do as you see fit.”
Rong Guang nearly threw her script in Zhang Nanchuan’s face. She really had to thank him for thinking so highly of her, letting her go head-to-head in an acting battle with a veteran thespian just like that.
Rong Guang’s lips twitched. “I should play randomly?”
“Yes.” Zhang Nanchuan smiled and pointed to Chu Feiliang, who was listening nearby. “Do you know what your Sister Chu did the first time she had a scene with Teacher Zhao?”
Rong Guang’s spirits lifted, her eyes brightening as she asked, “What did she do?”
Chu Feiliang waved her hand to stop Zhang Nanchuan and said helplessly, “Hey, Director Zhang, those are things from when I was young. Let’s not bring them up again now.”
“How could you call that being young?” Zhang Nanchuan sighed wistfully. “You were incredibly arrogant back then. Relying on… ahem, with that audacious attitude of yours, so many people gritted their teeth in anger just thinking about you.”
“Gritting their teeth in anger didn’t stop them from praising me later,” Chu Feiliang said, raising her cup. “We’re artists. Who doesn’t have a bit of a temper?”
Her words left Zhang Nanchuan speechless for a moment.
But it was true. What artist didn’t have a bit of a foul temper?
“If you want to know, just do a search,” Zhang Nanchuan said with a mischievous smile. “The stories about your Teacher Chu from back then are still widely circulated today.”
So Rong Guang said goodbye to Zhang Nanchuan and Chu Feiliang, returned to her room, and pulled out the tablet Chacha used for studying. She tried a few keywords in the browser and found a mountain of results, including web pages, articles, and videos.
After searching for a long time, she finally found a behind-the-scenes clip from many years ago when Chu Feiliang and Zhao Xiuqi were filming together.
The title was very conspicuous, getting straight to the point—quickly, accurately, and ruthlessly.
—“Help!! Chu Feiliang was so cute when she was little!!!”
Rong Guang’s head was filled with question marks.
In the video, Chu Feiliang’s face looked particularly childish, a far cry from her current maturity. Her entire being exuded a sense of youthfulness and ethereal charm.
Moreover, the pixel quality from back then wasn’t high. In the thumbnail screenshot, Chu Feiliang’s face had an added hazy beauty, enhanced by the filter of childhood memories.
With a video thumbnail and a title like that…
How did that have anything to do with the word “arrogant”?!
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