The light outside the car window was dim and hazy. After a shout of "action", Ji Ning started to perform. He first looked at the slowly receding scenery, then his eyes began to empty, and then his eyelids slowly drooped as if they had their own weight.
Her head swayed slightly with the swaying of the car body, with a soft and weak feeling as if she was half asleep and half awake. Then after shaking a few times, she finally found the fulcrum and fell asleep with her head resting on the male protagonist's shoulder.
Ji Shiyan was watching from the opposite side.
The girl's performance is layered and better than those of her peers or even her seniors. She has a very natural sense of camera and a good sense of proportion, which is a sign of her talent.
Born to perform, born to be an actor.
I had never seen her perform before, and when she first started filming the variety show, I wasn't sure whether she was facing him with herself or her character. It's just that when the girl looked at him, she felt sincere for no reason. Even though she looked a little distant and evasive at the beginning, it didn't make people feel unhappy or offended.
On the one hand, he was expecting her to give him a brilliant performance that would amaze him, but on the other hand, he hoped that her performance would have some traces and not be so natural, so that he could see... what kind of true feelings she had when facing him.
It’s a pity that the girl’s acting skills are so integrated with herself that even her pretending to sleep looks so real.
The next scene is about eating ice cream. The female protagonist saw a popular drink made by someone on Weibo, so she shared it with the male protagonist, who then made a portion for her to drink at the cafe. There was petal sugar in the ice, which was clear and refreshing, and also indirectly highlighted the male protagonist's intentions.
Today's dramas are like dancing with shackles. It's so hard to shoot a youth drama, but they still come up with requirements like "early love is not allowed in high school, and early love is not allowed to succeed", which makes young people very restrained when engaging in ambiguous relationships.
In this scene, they didn't hold hands, nor did they say any ambiguous words. The two of them just sat in a cafe the whole time, studying hard and spreading positive energy, accompanied by some funny interactions and dialogues.
Ji Shiyan finally stopped looking at Zhuo Gong with such a sinister look and stepped away. Zhuo Gong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Ji Ning has been busy these days, her immunity has dropped and she caught the flu. She was coughing while acting, and the director felt bad when he saw her face turn red from coughing: "Why don't we shoot the close-up of her chewing ice cubes? Use warm water instead."
"That won't do. That scene where the two of them chew ice cubes is a famous one, and readers love it very much." Ji Ning coughed twice again, "I'm fine."
"Have you done your homework?" Ji Shiyan asked, looking at her colorful notebook full of notes.
Ji Ning didn't answer, the director spoke first: "Of course, she wrote a character biography during the audition. She has read the original novel five times, and she has thought through some details more thoroughly than I do."
"Let's take a picture," Ji Ning said, "The prop master froze the ice specially, it would be a waste if we don't take a picture of it."
Nono suggested: "How about stopping when you start chewing, and then spit it out instead of swallowing it?"
Ji Ning flicked her forehead, "That's so fake, the audience won't feel it's real."
"Yeah, never mind... You are someone who can soak in ice water for half an hour in winter. Your perseverance and dedication are beyond the imagination of us mortals." Nuonuo turned around, "You shoot first, I'll prepare warm water and throat lozenges for you."
"Um."
The ice-chewing scene had many angles and was filmed four times before stopping. Ji Ning warmed his throat with his hands and ran under the shed to rest and drink water.
Ji Shiyan's gaze followed the girl.
She was bending over and holding onto the edge of the table, coughing, her ears were red, but she had managed to hold it in without making a sound when they were filming just now, so he thought she was fine.
Ji Shiyan walked over and said to her, "The more you hold back your coughing, the more violent it will become."
It means that she shouldn't have resisted just now.
Ji Ning took a while to understand what he meant and took a lozenge: "It's okay to be more aggressive now. If I had coughed just now, I would have had to reshoot."
It didn't matter to her, but the cameraman and prop master were busy under the scorching sun. She couldn't just focus on herself and ignore so many staff members, so she thought she would just endure it and got all four shots through in one take.
Ji Shiyan was about to say something else when he caught a glimpse of her quietly lifting up one of her sleeves to observe something. There seemed to be something red under her sleeve.
When Ji Ning was about to pull her sleeves down, she was held down by someone. Ji Shiyan looked at the large allergic spot on her hand and asked, "What's wrong here?"
She touched her nose and said, "It's allergic."
"I know, I asked you why you are allergic."
"There were a lot of insects when I was harvesting rice, and the rice grains were a bit prickly."
"It's okay," she said, as she often did. "My skin is quite sensitive, and it will be the same if I get bit by a bug."
"Harvesting rice?" The man frowned. "Why are you doing farm work for no reason?"
She looks like a delicate girl who was raised in beautiful mountains and rivers. She is going to harvest rice in the middle of summer
"Recording a show..."
"If you knew you were allergic, you should have stayed away. What's wrong with recording a show? Can we force you to go if you don't want to go?"
"No girl wanted to go, so I should have stepped forward."
Seeing that he was discovered, Ji Ning stopped being sneaky and took out the ointment to apply it. He continued, "I am different from you. Even if everyone else can choose not to stand up, I can't."
Even if everyone can pass with 60 points, she can't do it. She must get 80 points to pass, otherwise the fierce public opinion will come back again. She knows too well how strict netizens are with her, because the vague black spots before have left a bad impression on everyone, and she can be scolded even if she lies down, so she must do more to save everyone's impression.
Ji Shiyan suddenly couldn't say the words "If they don't go, you shouldn't go either. Why should you suffer?"
She is so insightful, so insightful that it even makes people feel a little distressed.
He watched her apply the medicine for a long time before he asked, "How long did it take to get so stuffy?"
"More than three hours." She also helped someone pick corn.
"You really aren't afraid of tormenting yourself," the man lowered his eyelids, "How can a female artist do this?"
"I also took photos of 'Moonlit Corridor' and 'Sonnets'. It's not surprising."
Filming was so hard back then, especially for her first drama. No one looked after her and she had no experience. She had to jam in scene after scene under the director's guidance. After work, she would go back to the room and air herself for ten minutes. She would take off her long sleeves and wring them out, and there would still be a layer of sweat at the bottom of her pelvis.
"I admire you so much," Zhuo Gong appeared out of nowhere and joined the group chat, "If you come from a rural area, it's normal for you to endure hardships, but you can tell from your upbringing that you were spoiled. When you go out to play, there must be someone to bring you water, and even when you moved the big boxes after graduation, it was the boys who rushed to help you move them, right? The little princess is so hardworking and resilient, you really have a lot of perseverance."
Ji Shiyan looked at her without any emotion.
She suddenly didn't know how to answer, even though Drogon's guess was correct...
"Did you guess right?" Drogon punched her shoulder. "I understand you."
"That's enough of being pretentious. I'll be replaced," she replied. "There are so many beautiful young actresses in the entertainment industry. Replacing me will be easier than baking cookies."
Besides, there are many people who either have strong family background or strong connections, so she can only compete by relying on hard work and acting skills.
"Don't underestimate yourself, you have a very competitive face." Zhuo Gong said, "Many actresses only look good in retouched photos, but they don't look good on camera. There are also those who look beautiful on camera but have no soul, and they are not as lively as you..."
"Zhuo Gong." Ji Shiyan, who had been silent all this time, suddenly called his name.
"What's wrong, brother?"
"Have you memorized your lines?"
Zhuo Gong was stunned for a moment: "Isn't this the end of the work..."
The man said in all seriousness: "A good actor never calls it a day. He has to figure out the character and the context at all times. Those who haven't memorized their lines have no right to chat here."
Zhuo Gong didn't know why his senior was so strict with him all of a sudden, but he soon laughed out loud: "But I've memorized tomorrow's lines! Hehe, you never expected that!"
"… "
"Do you think memorizing lines for one day is enough? Don't you know that a successful play must be prepared at least five days in advance, and new insights will be gained every day?" Ji Shiyan's eyes were calm, "And you are still here praising others for their beauty."
Zhuo Gong thought that when I praised someone for being beautiful, I was telling the truth, but that was wrong...
He scratched his head.
"Let's continue chatting here." The man narrowed his eyes, "If you want the audience to scold you for acting like an AI."
After hearing the first half of the sentence, Zhuo Gong was about to say "OK", but after hearing the second half, he took out the script and went back to the hotel without stopping.
"I don't want to talk about it anymore, brother. I really don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm going to go back and think about the play right away!"
Ji Ning stood up: "Then I'll leave too."
After finally getting one person away, the man became displeased when he saw Ji Ning was about to leave too: "Why are you leaving?" Reading a script with Zhuo Gong
"I've only memorized it until the day after tomorrow," Ji Ning blinked, "Didn't you say I should memorize it five days in advance?"
"You don't have to."
Ji Ning:
Seeing that Ji Ning's eyes were becoming more and more confused, the man's Adam's apple rolled and he looked away.
“The requirements for male and female actors are different.”
"Please sit down so we can chat."
"… "
///
After chatting about other topics for a while, Ji Ning saw that the movie emperor was next to him. He thought there was no need to waste such a resource, so he finally took out the script and picked out a few parts that he was not sure about to discuss with him.
When the discussion was almost over, Nuo Nuo came running over from the side, holding a cell phone in his hand and looking unhappy.
Ji Ning had faced too many similar scenes, and he had already understood everything before Nuo Nuo ran over.
"What's up? What did the marketing account make up to discredit me this time?"
"You're the one who answered first," Nuonuo handed the phone over, "It's about your plastic surgery."
Plastic surgery has been a black spot that has been with her for a long time. It all started when she had to take archive photos on the day she joined the company. She didn't know that the night before happened to be Song Yu's birthday, and a bunch of people were drinking and eating skewers.
Ji Ning didn't drink alcohol but he did drink beverages. He did eat skewers and instant noodles. The next day, his face was a little swollen due to excessive salt intake. In real life, you can't really see anything. But the camera is strict after all. Even the slightest bit of fat can make you look like you're middle-aged and fat. Of course, the swelling of your face is also... magnified several times.
What was even more unfortunate was that Ji Ning cried while watching TV series after returning home the night before, and his double eyelids were gone when he woke up the next day because of crying.
She asked her agent if it was a big deal, and the agent said it was okay to just take a photo and save it, and the boss would know what she looked like.
So she didn't wear double eyelid tape, and she didn't know there was a device that could push and pull to reduce swelling. She foolishly took a photo with half of her bare face and saved it for later use. After she took the photo, someone dug up the photo of the sonnet.
Coupled with the psychedelic lighting on that day and the preconceived notions and fanning of flames by marketing accounts, comparing the photos of her at the peak of her beauty with the photos of her edema, even Ji Ning felt that she had gone for plastic surgery.
It's true that the professional haters care about her more than her fans. Yesterday, I watched her live broadcast at the Warm Inn and found that her face was swollen after harvesting rice. I spent a whole night writing a brilliant and rubbish press release, and today I came out in a hurry to join the haters.
The comments don’t care if she is allergic or not, just criticize her:
It's so scary. Did you get an injection recently? Your face is so swollen. I remember you were so beautiful when you wore cheongsam before.
How naive! Who doesn't know that Ji Ning is a head-changing monster? His face was a little broken a while ago, so of course he had to find a time to rebuild it. But I didn't expect that he would participate in a variety show right after the injection.
She is so brave. She is the first female artist to directly confirm that she had plastic surgery. For a moment, I didn't know how to scold her.
The person above keeps calling her a head-changing monster. He really knows her better than her mother. May I ask, do you know what allergy is
The fans’ control of comments had little effect, after all, the comparison pictures were too good to be chosen. There were even marketing accounts that deleted fans’ clarifying comments.
Ji Ning looked up and confirmed: "I'm going to Korea next week to watch a haute couture show, right?" It seemed that it was the resources given to her by T company.
"Let's do something else while we're at it. It's time to respond to the plastic surgery issue."
Nuo Nuo was obviously stunned: "How to respond, doctor's appraisal?"
"That's so boring, we need to find something interesting."
Most of the doctors' appraisals are fake, and people will not buy them and they will easily be criticized. She is not that stupid.
Nuo Nuo added, "By the way, Sun He is also going to the show. I heard that she has made sufficient preparations. She customized a dress in advance, ordered a pair of very expensive limited edition high heels, and even made an appointment with the most expensive makeup artist in Korea."
Ji Ning tilted his head: "She's not going on a catwalk, why is she dressing so gorgeously?"
"I want to follow your path, you know how to outshine the draft," Nono's eyebrows moved, "It is said that the draft has been written a long time ago, and it will be released at the beginning of the show."
"She is really an ugly imitator. To be more beautiful than others, she has to be considered more beautiful by everyone. Why is she trying to be more beautiful than you? Is she as pretty as you?"
Ji Ning raised his eyebrows thoughtfully.
Originally, I didn’t want to go to the show because I was busy, but now I not only have to go to dispel a rumor, but I also have to be in the same frame with Sun He to see how... she outshines him.
///
The big show started a week later and Ji Shiyan was also among the invited guests. As soon as Ji Ning got off the plane, he opened his small account and checked Weibo, and was rewarded with Ji Shiyan's beautiful photos.
Raw photos mean unretouched photos. Only when the artist has a good foundation, fans dare to post the photos without retouching. Of course, some fans will also post the photos first, and then edit and replace them on Weibo when they have time.
But it is obvious that Ji Shiyan does not need to be replaced, and it does not matter whether he is repaired or not.
He was wearing a C suit today, with side-swept bangs, and he looked like the student council president of the neighboring aristocratic school who came out of a comic book.
After watching the pictures of Ji Shiyan killing people with his face all the way, when he got off the bus, Ji Ning used his own account to repost today's rainbow fart:
I was wondering why I woke up today even though the alarm didn’t ring. It turns out I was woken up by Ji Shiyanshuai.
The handsome photo of Ji Shiyan is the culprit for my insufficient storage space.
The name of her secondary Weibo account is Ji Shiyan's "secretly married wife outside the entertainment circle". When she took it out, she was dissed by Song Yu, who said that if she was secretly married, she should keep a low profile. Why did she put up the name of "wife outside the entertainment circle"? Who would know
Ji Ning was forwarding the message while walking towards the lounge. As soon as he opened the door, he saw the male protagonist in the forwarded message sitting on the leather sofa opposite him.
The photos are already amazing, but my first reaction when I saw him in person was that he is not photogenic. The photos can't even depict one-tenth of his three-dimensionality.
Ji Ning raised his hand to say hello, but he tripped over something and almost fell. Fortunately, he managed to keep his balance within three seconds.
The person didn't fall, but the phone was not so lucky.
Before he exited the homepage of his secretly married wife, the phone flipped from her hand and landed in front of Ji Shiyan, seemingly at the perfect angle for him to read.
Ji Shiyan subconsciously grabbed the phone and looked down.
Ji Ning froze, and the blood in his body seemed to start flowing backwards.