"Are you ready? Let's switch to a side close-up, going around Jiang Tong to Gao Kun's side." Kun Cheng's voice interrupted Xia Xiqing's daze. He quickly adjusted his expression and walked to the position where Jiang Tong had sat just now.
"Pay attention to the shaking feeling of the handheld lens, don't overdo it, but you have to show the emotional fluctuations." Director Kun gave a lot of instructions to the cameraman and sat in front of the monitor. "After the start, Jiang Tong sat down. Gao Kun said don't get too close to me. Do you understand?"
"Yeah." Xia Xiqing half turned around and lowered his head, his palms sweating, his heart pounding against his chest wildly, and he was completely unable to get back into Jiang Tong's mood.
"Action!"
Jiang Tong turned around and slowly bent down, preparing to sit next to Gao Kun. But Gao Kun suddenly said, "Don't get too close to me."
These words frightened Jiang Tong so much that he was stunned for a moment, with a puzzled look in his eyes, but he still moved away and sat down.
The farther the better.
Jiang Tong sat on the side of the road. The sycamore tree behind him was filled with the long, summer-specific cicada chirps, one after another, resonating strongly with his increasingly rapid heartbeat. He turned his head to look at Gao Kun. This man looked like some wild plant, or animal, something he had never seen before.
Sharp eyes and gentle heart.
"What are you looking at?"
"Look at you..."
Xia Xiqing suddenly realized that he had just been confused. Such a conversation would only happen between Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng, not between Jiang Tong and Gao Kun.
"I'm sorry." Xia Xiqing raised his hand to support his forehead, but quickly put it down, stood up hastily and apologized to the staff, "Please do it again, I just forgot the lyrics."
Although he said so, Zhou Ziheng could see clearly. Jiang Tong had no words after Gao Kun finished speaking. He looked at Xia Xiqing who was obviously a little depressed, and a fantasy came into his mind.
Kuncheng said at the other end, "It's okay, let's try another one, and start from that place."
Just when Xia Xiqing was about to return to his position, Zhou Ziheng spoke again.
"I'm sorry, I said too much just now and it affected your state."
I don't know why, but Xia Xiqing suddenly panicked, as if some shameful secret was about to be revealed. He spoke without thinking, "No. It has nothing to do with you."
He spoke so fast that it seemed as if he was speaking to himself. It was too late to undo what had been done, and since it had come to this, Xia Xiqing might as well say something even more extreme.
"I don't even remember what you just said."
Wrap yourself tightly in your shell and you won't be able to get out no matter what.
It was the first time he was so scared.
"Action!"
"What are you looking at?"
Hearing Gao Kun's words, Jiang Tong turned his head away without any response. In fact, he wanted to question the man in front of him fiercely, asking him why he followed him that night and why he wanted to kill him. If he could say all these words to him, he would definitely question him.
But he had no choice.
Thinking of this, Jiang Tong just wanted to leave quietly. Last time, this man didn't really kill him. This time, he saved him, which was considered a compensation. He just wanted to never meet him again. He turned his head to look at him again and found that the blood on his eyebrow wound had not yet completely coagulated, and the blood had already flowed to his cheek. In addition, his knuckles were also rubbed, his lips were cracked, and his jaw was bruised.
Jiang Tong sighed inaudibly, tugged at his old, oversized work clothes with both hands, and finally unbuttoned them, revealing the washed-out black short-sleeved shirt underneath. He had worn this shirt for two years, and the seams on the sides were coming apart. Jiang Tong grabbed the seams with his hands and tore them apart with great effort.
Hearing the sound of cloth tearing, Gao Kun turned his head to look at him, and found that Jiang Tong had torn the hem of his inner T-shirt, and pulled so hard that his face wrinkled, that he finally pulled off a long strip of black cloth.
With a sigh of relief, Jiang Tong came over, holding a piece of cloth in one hand and preparing to grab Gao Kun's injured right hand with the other hand. Before he could touch it, Gao Kun dodged it. As if he was stimulated by something, he stood up and took two steps back, emotionally, "Don't touch me."
Jiang Tong was stunned for two seconds, looked up at Gao Kun, an embarrassed look on his face. He blinked twice without saying a word, withdrew his hand, stuffed the black cloth strip torn from his clothes back into his pocket, lowered his head and quickly buttoned his work clothes.
Supporting himself with the palm of one hand, Jiang Tong managed to stand up. Although his stomach and feet still hurt, he just wanted to leave here.
Gao Kun looked at his reaction and watched his series of actions. He actually felt a little uncomfortable, just like the feeling when he was a child and accidentally stepped on a snail while playing in the fields.
He gritted his teeth and said, "Hey."
Jiang Tong's shoulders shrank again, but this time he did not stop. Instead, he limped and quickened his pace.
Blood smeared his eyelashes. Gao Kun raised his hand and wiped it with the back of his hand. He frowned and looked at the blood on the back of his hand with disgust. He looked at the stubborn boy in front of him and took two quick steps. "Your feet will definitely be broken if you walk so fast."
How could Jiang Tong not know that his feet were aching terribly, but in his current state no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get rid of the person behind him.
With every step he took, the end of the black cloth in his pocket swayed a few times with his staggering steps. Gao Kun stretched out his hand, pulled out the cloth, and quickly wrapped it around his palm several times, covering his bleeding knuckles.
"I asked you not to leave."
no response.
"stop!"
Jiang Tong finally stopped. His hearing impairment made him rely on the hearing aids in his ears to perceive the world. They were old and yellow, and made noisy and harsh sounds from time to time. Since he first put them on at the age of ten, Jiang Tong was rescued from the silent world and had become accustomed to this noise.
But the voice of the person behind me was too clear, as if it didn't come from this little instrument, but through another medium, drilling straight into my heart. It was so clear that it was frightening.
"I'm sick." The other person walked to his side as if nothing had happened, "It's contagious."
Jiang Tong looked up at him. The hearing aid in his ear was a little loose. He pushed it in and stood still. "What... what... disease..." He spoke with difficulty as always, as serious as a child who had just learned to speak.
The boy with dyed red hair lowered his head and said nothing. Jiang Tong also didn't say anything and stood in front of him somewhat awkwardly.
The camera shakes, just like a person's struggling heart. Gao Kun's brows are furrowed, his fingers clench and unclench, his Adam's apple moves up and down, as if something is stuck in his throat.
If we break down silence, we will find that it is countless invisible struggles. No matter what kind of silence it is.
"I scared you that night." He finally spoke, but still lowered his head and kicked a medium-sized stone away with his foot. "I was crazy at the time. I felt that I would not live long. I didn't want to die alone and rot away without anyone knowing where I was. My life is so fucked up. Why did it have to be me? I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I? I just wanted to make money! And I really couldn't..."
He said a lot, fast, and with a lot of emotion. Jiang Tong heard part of it, but he had to guess the rest. But he heard that he didn't want to die alone.
I don’t want to either.
The common point that Jiang Tong suddenly grasped made him let down his guard. Sometimes people are so inexplicable. He was scared to death the last second, but now he is not afraid anymore. He bit his lower lip and tried to speak, "Then, then... you... now... still... want..."
"Not now. I was fucking crazy at the time. Actually, I didn't want to kill you after I saw you..." He didn't finish his words, as if he was hesitating about his words. But after thinking for a long time, he didn't continue. Instead, he raised his bruised chin to Jiang Tong and said, "My name is Gao Kun, what's your name?"
The sudden question caught Jiang Tong off guard, "Jiang... Jiang..."
"Jiang what?"
Gao Kun's questioning made Jiang Tong, who was born with difficulty speaking clearly, even more panicked. He was so nervous that he couldn't say anything. The tip of his tongue was pressed against the back of his teeth. He tried hard to pronounce the word "Tong", but it seemed as if his tongue was stuck and he couldn't utter it at all. His face turned red with anxiety.
"Hey, hey, why are you in such a hurry? Don't bite your tongue." Gao Kun wanted to reach out and pat him, but as soon as he stretched out his hand, he saw blood on his hand. He frowned and stretched out his foot to touch his toes.
Jiang Tong raised his head suddenly.
"What? Did you remember your name?" Gao Kun raised his eyebrows, but accidentally pulled the wound on his eyebrow bone, and took a breath of cold air, "Fuck, it really hurts."
"Tong..."
"Stab?"
His pronunciation was not very accurate, which made Gao Kun confused. "Jiang Tong?" Jiang Tong shook his head, stretched out his hand and gestured twice in the air. He wrote his word "Tong" in the air for a long time, but Gao Kun still didn't understand. He stretched out his hand to Gao Kun's hand, and was about to write on his palm in a hurry, but was dodged by Gao Kun again.
Jiang Tong's eyes dimmed for a moment. Cars whizzed past on the road. The sharp and abrupt sound of car horns startled the birds hiding in the dense branches and leaves. The birds flapped their wings and flew away into the distant sky.
Its recklessness and panic carried away a palm-sized green leaf, which fell slowly in the wind like a startled feather, and landed between Jiang Tong and Gao Kun.
Jiang Tong stretched out his slender hand and grabbed the sycamore leaf. The setting sun shone through its veins, just like shining through the capillaries under the white back of Jiang Tong's hand.
A look of joy instantly appeared on his face, and he held up the leaf and shook it in front of Gao Kun.
"What are you shaking?" Gao Kun looked at him as if he was a fool. "It's just a paulownia leaf."
Wutong? Gao Kun's eyes flickered, "Your name is Jiang Tong?"
Jiang Tong nodded immediately, looking happy. As the night approached, the sunset glow became darker and darker, adding a bit of color to Jiang Tong's overly pale face, like the beautiful fruits on the imported frozen shelves in the supermarket.
"Jiang Tong... It's okay, just listen." Gao Kun couldn't say anything educated. He coughed twice, snatched the leaf from his hand, and turned it between his fingertips. "Let me test you. What is my name?"
"Gao... Kun..." The amazing thing is that compared to his own name, he pronounced the two words Gao Kun much more accurately, and after he finished speaking, his face showed an expression that looked like he was waiting for praise. Gao Kun stopped turning the leaves with his fingers and looked at the surface of the leaves. They were quite clean.
He gently touched Jiang Tong's head with the leaf and said, "Okay, that's pretty good."
“Cut!”
Finally, they finished shooting this section before the sunset. The camera was switched several times in the middle. Fortunately, the scenes of the two actors were connected, so the efficiency was not dragged down. After the shooting, Zhou Ziheng and Xia Xiqing ran to the monitor to watch. Unlike Zhou Ziheng, an experienced veteran, Xia Xiqing was actually a little nervous. Although he usually looked careless and lazy, once he started doing something, his desire to win was stronger than anyone else.
"The foot movement that Gao Kun just added is good." Kun Cheng is used to calling the characters by their names on the set. He pointed to the screen and said, "It matches the movement with the leaf at the back." He looked up at Zhou Ziheng and said, "It's pretty good. You can improvise whatever you want. As long as it doesn't affect the progress, I absolutely encourage it. Don't act too rigidly. It's boring. Act like a person, not a play."
Kun Cheng said so much, but Xia Xiqing was absent-minded and didn't listen much. Just now, when Zhou Ziheng stretched out his toes during the filming, he was already startled and almost failed.
"Jiang Tong is also very good, and has a natural talent for eye expression."
Xia Xiqing came back to his senses and smiled at Director Kun.
"Let's go eat something first," Kun Cheng checked his watch, "We will go to shoot the night show at 8:30, Gao Kun and Jiang Tong will change their looks immediately after dinner."
Zhou Ziheng saw that Xia Xiqing was a little dazed. As soon as the director left, he grabbed Xia Xiqing's arm and asked, "What's wrong? Are you tired?"
"No." Xia Xiqing wiped his face, "A little tired." The two of them left with most of the crew. Zhou Ziheng got into his nanny car, and Xiao Luo was taking out his dinner. When he turned around, he found that Xia Xiqing was gone.
"Huh? Where are the others?"
Xiao Luo clicked his tongue twice, "Did you forget? Sister Jiang Yin gave him a nanny car and an assistant, not our car." He stuffed the chopsticks into Zhou Ziheng's hand, "Eat quickly, you've been up since six in the morning, and you really don't feel tired."
When filming in the past, Zhou Ziheng would become silent as soon as the word "cut" was shouted. The process of acting consumed too much emotion, making him tired when he returned to himself. But it was different when Xia Xiqing was around. He couldn't wait to become Zhou Ziheng again.
He stuffed a piece of green vegetable into his mouth with chopsticks, but it was tasteless. Zhou Ziheng lowered his head and took a bite of rice. Xiao Luo looked at him and asked, "Is the air conditioner not cool enough? It's too hot to eat." He turned down the temperature a few degrees, and heard the noise outside. He stood up from his seat and looked over, "Why is it so noisy?"
Unable to see clearly through the sunshade glass, Xiao Luo simply opened the car door and stuck his head out to take a look, "Hey, Xiaoxiao, what are you doing? Do you have popsicles? Hey, give me one. What flavors are they?"
His assistant was seduced out, Zhou Ziheng raised his head and glanced at the car door with disgust, only to see Xia Xiqing striding into the car with his long legs, slamming the door, and throwing a bag of popsicles in his hand onto his table.
Zhou Ziheng couldn't hide the surprise on his face, "You bought it for me?"
"You don't want to eat it, right?" Xia Xiqing grabbed the popsicle and tore open the bag, "Then I'll eat it myself."
"Eat!" Zhou Ziheng quickly snatched the popsicle he had been longing for, tore open the bag and put it in his mouth. It was so cold that his teeth were chattering, but he still insisted that it was delicious.
"No one is competing with you for it. Everyone has it."
It turned out that the popsicles that Xiao Luo mentioned were bought by Xia Xiqing. Zhou Ziheng was instantly disappointed when he realized this, "Everyone has one."
"Yes, it cost me a lot of money." Xia Xiqing took the chopsticks in front of Zhou Ziheng and ate the food he was eating, then put down the chopsticks. "You were clamoring for a popsicle just now, but now you don't want to eat it?" He grabbed Zhou Ziheng's wrist, brought the popsicle in front of him, and took a bite. "It's delicious."
Seeing that Zhou Ziheng still looked unhappy, Xia Xiqing understood all of a sudden. He supported his chin with his hand and smiled lazily, flicking his face with his fingers leisurely a few times, "The ones I bought for others were all three yuan, but the one I bought for you is the most expensive, with three or four layers of filling."
Zhou Ziheng glanced at him unhappily.
"It's okay if you insist on being unhappy, but you have to understand the cause and effect." Xia Xiqing tapped the takeout box with chopsticks in his hand. "As for me, I bought them popsicles because I wanted to buy you one, not because I bought one for them and gave it to you at the same time. Do you understand?"
The cream on the ice cream melted a little bit and flowed down. It was a pity to see it. Xia Xiqing pried Zhou Ziheng's hand away and snatched the ice cream. "Forget it if you don't want to eat it. It's a waste. I might as well feed it to the dog."
"Who said I don't want to eat anymore?" Seeing Xia Xiqing took a bite of the ice cream and walked out, Zhou Ziheng became anxious. He stood up regardless of anything, ignoring his 1.9-meter height, and suddenly hit the roof of the car with a bang. He lost his balance in pain and fell down. Xia Xiqing was startled by the sound and quickly turned around to see, but was knocked down by Zhou Ziheng in the nanny car which was originally quite spacious.
This actor, who had never acted in a romance film before, performed the most cliché scene in an idol drama due to a series of coincidences.
Throw yourself down, press close, and touch your lips.
The soft touch woke Zhou Ziheng up from the pain. He raised his head, afraid of crushing Xia Xiqing, and quickly got up from him.
“Fuck... my back..." Xia Xiqing also held his waist and sat up. His squinted eyes relaxed slightly and his vision gradually became clear.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
It's a habitual apology again, no matter what the time.
The ice cream in his hand was half melted, and it was sticky and dripping between his fingers. This sticky touch made him uncomfortable. Xia Xiqing raised his hand and licked the slippery white cream on his fingertips. He looked lazily at Zhou Ziheng's face, which was sincere every time he apologized.
He took a bite of the ice cream, knelt on the ground, leaned over to Zhou Ziheng, and kissed him on the mouth. The cold and wet ice cream, the soft and warm lips, the moment they touched, turned into a fierce invasion of the tip of the tongue, using the softest weapon to engage in a battle of ice and fire, the rich sweetness was about to explode.
The short prank came to an end. Xia Xiqing licked the cream-stained corner of Zhou Ziheng's mouth with the tip of his tongue, then stuffed the almost melted ice cream back into Zhou Ziheng's hand. The corners of his eyes raised, and the smile in his tone was provocative and seductive.
"I'm sorry. I did that on purpose."
The author has something to say: Xiaoxiao: Xiao Luo Xiao Luo, your nanny car just shook a little, and it shook really hard!
Xiao Luo hurried over to stop Xiaoxiao: No, no, don’t open the door!
Xiaoxiao (innocent face): Why
Xiao Luo (smirking and pulling away): Let’s go eat popsicles. Who knows what they are doing in there…