As night fell, each group prepared for tonight's night show.
The room was full of people, so there was no place to go, but it was enough to make Qu Yanting feel uncomfortable. He went up the stairs until he reached the fifth floor, and the noise from downstairs became distant.
The voice-activated light was as dim as a candle, and Qu Yanting sat down on the stairs. The light went out, he didn't bother to scream, his elbows rested on his knees, his hands rested on his low forehead, confined in the darkness.
Not long after, someone came up from downstairs.
Qu Yanting had just warmed up the cold steps, hesitating whether to hide on the sixth floor, but before he could make a decision, the other party had already climbed up the stairs on the side of the handrail, one step at a time.
With a flick of the tongue, the light came on.
It was Lu Wen who came up, changed into Ye Shan's makeup and hair, holding the script, and wanted to find a quiet place to recite his lines. He sat down on the steps, but he didn't notice that Qu Yanting was sitting on the stairs above the corner.
Qu Yanting also didn't make a sound, and his breathing was so shallow that it was barely audible.
When the script was opened, Lu Wen read it sentence by sentence in a low voice, repeatedly adjusted the pauses and accents, and read it a second time. His serious appearance was different from usual.
One of the most important scenes was filmed tonight, there was a crying scene, and the whole process was an emotional outburst. The object is still Tao Meifan, and Lu Wen feels a lot of pressure to play with the old senior.
What's more, Qu Yanting came to stare at the show, staring at Ye Shan, who he played.
After reading it for the second time, Lu Wen closed the script and recited the lines from beginning to end.
Qu Yanting heard it, he wrote clearly, and Lu Wen recited it word for word. After reciting it, Lu Wen still felt that it was not enough, so he started to recite it for the fourth time.
Qu Yanting couldn't keep silent and coughed lightly.
"Fuck!" Lu Wen was startled like usual, there are fucking people here!
He got up and rushed to the corner, finally found Qu Yanting sitting on the stairs, according to the first come, first served, it is not easy to ask people "Why are you here", so he stood there.
What Qu Yanting wanted to say was: "Don't make a sound, read silently."
Lu Wen explained: "I didn't know you were there, I didn't mean to disturb others."
Qu Yanting said: "I want you to keep your voice."
Lu Wen went back to sit down, imitating Qu Yanting's posture to support his forehead, and pressed his thumb on his temple. He was quiet for a while, and asked in a prepared manner, "Can we discuss something?"
If Lu Wen's tone was not too gentle, Qu Yanting would have thought that some director, producer or investor was talking to him.
He beat slowly: "What's the matter?"
Lu Wen said: "If I screw up the performance and there are too many people on the set, you want to teach me a lesson, can you find a place where no one is around?"
Qu Yanting slid his palms down, clasped his ten fingers to cover the lower half of his face, and filtered his smiling voice into a muffled voice: "There are too many people on the set, so we might as well go back to the hotel."
Lu Wen said seriously: "Then go to your room or mine?"
Qu Yanting suspected Lu Wen Stockholm. It's a pity that actors will be scolded for acting badly. It's not something that can be prevented before it happens.
Qu Yanting didn't encourage or pressurize, but only told objectively: "Don't think about how to act, just enter Ye Shan's state, just follow the reaction in your consciousness."
Everything is ready on the set, and the two return to 302.
The monitor was moved into the room, and Qu Yanting sat down next to Ren Shu. It was a hard night, and there was a large cup of strong tea on the table, and he said "hard work".
"I'm used to it." Ren Shu said, "I hope the shooting goes well."
Qu Yanting asked, "What do you think?"
Ren Shu replied: "No idea, Xiao Lu caught up with this one when he filmed a crying scene for the first time, let's try one first."
Qu Yanting pondered: "If it's good, don't praise him, he's easy to yell at him. If it's bad, don't yell at him. It's even more troublesome if you get yelled at. Whether it's praise or criticism, wait until the filming is over, so don't affect his mood."
"Okay." Ren Shu agreed and smiled, "You know him quite well."
Qu Yanting turned the phone to silent and started watching the movie.
Today is Saturday, Ye Xiaowu went out to play with his classmates, but he hasn't come back yet, the room looks deserted.
Mother Ye took a large bundle of clothes from the balcony and carried them into the bedroom. The house is small, Ye Shan and Ye Xiaowu sleep on bunk beds and share a desk. Mother Ye finished folding her clothes and rolled up her sleeves to tidy up the messy table.
The books of the two brothers are all piled up on the table, as well as the comics and magazines borrowed by Ye Xiaowu. Mother Ye classified them one by one, no need to look at the names on the test papers, high scores belonged to Ye Shan, and failures belonged to Ye Xiaowu.
After tidying up a stack of comic books, Mother Ye sighed and checked if there were any in the drawer. When she opened it, it was filled with the test papers from last semester. She took out one by one and folded them, only to find a notebook hidden at the bottom.
Mother Ye took it out, but she didn't know the old and new, and didn't write her name.
The camera shot a close-up, the cover was opened, and the word "morning" flashed by, in Ye Shan's neat and strong handwriting. Seeing the words were like faces, Qu Yanting thought of Lu Wen's stupid way of squatting outside the door stuffing the note.
Mother Ye flipped through the pages, her cheek muscles tended to tense.
The door lock of the living room rang, and Ye Shan came back. He went to the seafood market to buy goods before dawn, and spent the whole day at the fish stall.
After entering the bathroom to wash his hands, he shouted into the room: "Mom, business is good today."
After washing his hands, Ye Shan went to the bedroom: "Mom, I'll go on Sunday too, you have an extra day off."
Mother Ye didn't respond. When Ye Shan walked in, she turned around blankly, with a gloomy look in her eyes.
When Ye Shan saw the notebook in Mother Ye's hand, his expression changed. He rushed over anxiously, but stopped timidly when he got close to the table, not to mention seeing Mother Ye's expression.
"mom… "
"what is this?"
Ye Shan remained silent and did not answer. Mother Ye didn't want to see him silently, so she asked again: "What is this? What are you writing about?"
Ye Shan was at a loss on the spot, the unwiped water droplets were covered in the palm of his hand, merging with sweat.
Mother Ye lost her patience, turned to the last page she wrote, and read out a line of words on it: "At three o'clock in the morning, mother, you scolded me. Ye Shan, did I scold you? What do you mean?"
Ye Shan shook her head in a panic: "Mom, I wrote something scribbled, it's nothing!"
Mother Ye ignored him and turned to the previous page: "The day before yesterday, at four fifty-seven in the morning, Mom, slap me."
On the seventh, at two o'clock in the morning, I was locked out, and my mother ignored me.
On the 3rd, at 4:30 in the morning, my mother took Xiao Wu back to my hometown alone, but I couldn't find them.
Mother Ye turned page by page, saying sentence by sentence: "On the 29th, at 3:30 in the morning, I dreamed about the day of the senior high school entrance examination..."
These are all Ye Shan's dreams. I can't remember when Ye Shan's dreams became more and more frequent. Every midnight when he woke up, he couldn't fall asleep again, so he got up and recorded the content of his dreams.
Ye Shan begged Mother Ye not to read, he reached out to grab the notebook, but Mother Ye swung it away vigorously.
Mother Ye's breathing was slightly rapid: "Have you been having nightmares?"
Ye Shan's eyes were already red, he denied it: "No..."
It's a pity that Mother Ye didn't believe it, she stared at him and asked: "Ye Shan, you woke up in the middle of the night because of these nightmares? But every time you have nightmares, you dream of me and your own mother?"
Ye Shan shed tears, and Ye's mother asked him: "I dreamed that I scolded you, beat you, and I wouldn't let you go home? I'll take Xiao Wu away, I don't want you anymore, right?"
"Ye Shan, are you delusional? Are you mentally ill?!"
Mother Ye glanced at those words again, raised her hand, and slammed the notebook on Ye Shan's chest. She choked up and said, "I've been busy day and night, pulling you two brothers. It's great, it finally became The villain of your dreams!"
Ye Shan took a step back and dropped the notebook at his feet.
"Think about it every day, dream about it at night." Mother Ye raised her voice, "Let's make it clear today, how dissatisfied are you with me? How much grievance do you have in your heart!"
Ye Shan bit her lip to suppress her crying, the tears flowed down one by one, unable to say a word.
A strand of hair fell from Mother Ye's sideburns, she looked embarrassed and haggard, she pressed her chest, and said bitterly, "Okay, if you don't tell me, I'll tell you for you."
Ye Shan cried and begged: "Mom... I was wrong..."
However, Mother Ye has already said: "You think I treat you badly, I don't value you, don't you? You go to the fish stand to help, you do this and that, but I love Xiao Wu more, you are unhappy, yes no?!"
"The most wronged thing for you is that I forced you to exchange admission tickets with Xiao Wu, and let you take the exam for him, so that you can't go to a key high school, is it Ye Shan?!"
Ye Shan desperately denied it, and could no longer hold back her crying: "No, no..."
"What's that?" Mother Ye had tears in her eyes, "I'm your mother, and I made you have nightmares."
"mom… "
"Okay, I have the ability to dream of your dad going!"
In an instant, Ye Shan's expression became dazed, his knees went limp, and he knelt down in front of Ye Mu.
Ye Mu's voice finally lowered, like recalling an old news, and also like dropping a sharp knife on Ye Shan's head: "If you didn't go to the movies when you were eight years old, your father came back to pick you up... Nothing will happen on the road."
In the close-up shot, Lu Wen froze for three seconds.
Qu Yanting looked away from the screen and looked at the back figure of Lu Wen kneeling on the ground. The broad shoulders tightened, trembling with breathing, and the back bowed into a shallow arc, looking so helpless and humble.
He saw Lu Wen grabbed the corner of "mother" and said in tears, "Mom... I know you hate me."
So I tried my best, just to please the other party, and to get the same closeness between mother and child as my younger brother. What those frequent dreams magnify and reflect are not grievances at all, but the fear formed by guilt over the years.
Mother Ye denied it softly: "Ye Shan, you are my son, I will not hate you."
But before she became a mother, she was a wife who loved her husband deeply. In the long and bitter years, what she experienced was another pain.
"When I see you... always think of your father."
Tao Meifan pushed Lu Wen's hand away.
Lu Wen's eyelids were red, he blinked, and slowly slumped on the ground. He lowered his head and picked up the notebook, tears pattering down on the paper.
Prickly, he tore off a page.
Cry, cry, wail.
One record after another, every morning after waking up from the nightmare, they were all destroyed.
Everything at the scene seemed to stop working, only Lu Wen's heartbreaking cry. He was clutching a hand full of papers, and described "I'm sorry" hoarsely, but his lips and teeth were trembling, and he didn't make a sound.
Qu Yanting let it go slightly, immersed and withdrawn from all this, unable to tell whether it was Lu Wen, Ye Shan, or who
Out of breath, he got up and quietly left the room.
At the same time as the door was closed, the picture freezes, and the shooting of this scene is over.
The staff rushed in, Ren Shu got up immediately, strode towards the two actors, and applauded as he walked. The photographer stepped aside: "I'm about to cry."
Tao Meifan wiped the corners of her eyes, and asked with a smile, "Director Ren, how are you doing?"
Ren Shu nodded again and again: "I'm so satisfied, really, I'm so satisfied."
Tao Meifan said: "This scene is really enjoyable, Xiao Lu is not timid at all."
Lu Wen was still sitting on the ground. He was not as experienced as the old senior, so he couldn't get out of the role quickly. He cried until his temples hurt, and he just stopped crying.
Ren Shu tugged at him: "Get up quickly! Lu, I was worried that you wouldn't be able to catch Teacher Tao's scene, but I didn't expect the filming to be so smooth. Emotions and body are in place, delicate, and the performance is quite good."
Lu Wen had a painted face, red and swollen eyes, like a sad blind man.
Tao Meifan joked: "Let my son take it easy and wash his face."
Lu Wen was dizzy and went to the bathroom to wash his face. After splashing cold water, he recovered his soul and completed the process of entering and exiting the play, leaving a sense of emptiness.
There were so many people in the room, he wanted to be alone.
Lu Wen went downstairs and walked towards a place where there were few people. He thought he was aimless, but in fact, he walked towards the grape vines with Ye Shan's emotions.
In the script, there is also a tree in my hometown in the north, which was planted by Father Ye before his death, and Yeshan planted this tree after he came to Chongqing.
Lu Wen walked over and paused when he got close, not expecting someone inside.
Under the vine, Qu Yanting sat there alone. With his face sideways, his arm resting on his pillow, he lay on the edge of the table regardless of dirtiness, the light from the bulb hit the prominent brow bone and the bridge of the nose, like moonlight falling on a mountain peak, and his eyes were hidden in the dark.
Lu Wen was stunned unexpectedly, he thought that Qu Yanting had left and was staying here, but he didn't know why Qu Yanting was here.
Surprised by him, Qu Yanting straightened her body. There were no sporadic waves in her eyes, but there was warmth, probably a little colder than the wind in the middle of the night.
After looking at each other for a while, Lu Wenxian said, "I didn't act badly."
Qu Yanting said hoarsely, "You acted very well."
This is the first time that Qu Yanting has praised him since we met.
Lu Wen was neither surprised nor pleased. The director praised him, and Teacher Tao also praised him. The director applauded excitedly, and Teacher Tao laughed and said it was fun.
He stared at Qu Yanting, and asked in a deep voice, "Then why are you unhappy?"