It rained for more than two weeks, and most of the communities where the filming was done were flooded, which directly disrupted the crew's filming plan. Jiang Yin also flew to Wuhan for a meeting. Fortunately, the previous filming schedule was very tight, and the content originally scheduled for two months of filming was compressed into one and a half months, leaving a lot of room for subsequent changes.
"So we're going to shoot the later scenes first?" Xia Xiqing couldn't help but feel a little worried, "But Zhou Ziheng's body shape..."
"Sure." Zhou Ziheng took over the conversation directly, "I will try to lose weight in the next few days, and with the makeup, I don't think there will be any big problems."
"There's nothing we can do about it, otherwise we wouldn't be able to make it to the Berlin Film Festival." Kun Cheng touched his chin and sighed.
Jiang Yin held a pen in her hand and tapped lightly on the table. "Don't talk about the film festival, that's all for the future. The release date we originally planned was December 1, World AIDS Day. The meaning is consistent and the timing is also good, after Double Eleven and before Double Holidays, avoiding the strong schedule. But at least two months will be reserved for post-production editing and production, plus the time for review. You guys do the math."
Zhou Ziheng frowned, "It must be finished by August at the latest."
But now there is only one week left until July, and time is too tight.
"If we don't make up the scenes, we can finish the filming smoothly." Director Kun looked at the scene arrangement, "There are not many scenes left. There are only a few scenes left."
During the rainy days, the crew finished filming all the scenes that required rain. Even the assistant director joked, "This is the most cost-effective crew I've ever been in. All the rain scenes were real rain."
They had just moved to the convenience store where Jiang Tong worked in the play. The stagehands and props staff were setting up the set. Xia Xiqing and the assistant director were standing aside waiting. Hearing the assistant director joking, Xia Xiqing also said, "Wuhan is like this. It's actually been better in the past two years."
As luck would have it, Zhou Ziheng, who had just finished putting on makeup, came over and stood beside Xia Xiqing, listening to him continue, "When I was in high school, it flooded all the time. The stadium was low-lying and became a lake. Driving on the road was like driving a boat. I even caught a fish on the road."
Zhou Ziheng laughed first, "Where will you be flooded?"
"I was a little shorter than I am now, maybe less than 1.8 meters. At the worst, the water was over my knees." Xia Xiqing leaned against the door and recalled, "At that time, many boys in the class carried girls out and dropped them off at the bus stop." As he spoke, he suddenly laughed, "At that time, Chenchen was almost carried back, but he was too embarrassed to agree, and the two of them almost had a quarrel."
The assistant director laughed, "Xi Qing, didn't you take the opportunity to carry the girls in your class?"
Zhou Ziheng imagined the scene, turned his head to look at Xia Xiqing, and smiled as if he was watching a fun scene, "Yeah, what about you?"
"Me?" Xia Xiqing gave a sly smile, "I can't even take care of myself, who would be free to carry them? I wish someone could carry me. Every time it rains, I get several pairs of sneakers soaked."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Zhou Ziheng laughing foolishly, and even the assistant director was a little puzzled.
Is it that funny
After the assistant director left to do other things, Zhou Ziheng bumped Xia Xiqing with his shoulder and said, "I'll carry you."
Xia Xiqing glanced at Zhou Ziheng, and just then the stagehand called his name. He answered, stuffed the half-drunk cup of coffee in his hand into Zhou Ziheng's, and prepared to go to the director.
"You would have carried it anyway even if I didn't allow you to?"
After saying these words lightly, Xiaoxiao took Xia Xiqing away with an umbrella, leaving Zhou Ziheng alone with a foolish smile on his face.
Next to Director Kun stood another new actor, Guo Yang, a handsome man in his forties, who was wearing a well-tailored suit in the play, which made him very attractive. Xia Xiqing had already met him on the night of the meeting, and the two of them had rehearsed their scenes beforehand.
"Fortunately, I am also tall," the 1.9-meter-tall Guo Yang laughed, "otherwise Jiang Tong, as tall as she is, really can't act weak in front of ordinary people."
Kun Cheng also laughed, "This is the drama with the highest average height of male actors that I have ever filmed. I feel like I am falling into a pit every day."
Guo Yang has been struggling in the entertainment industry for many years. He was unsuccessful in his early years and never became a big star, but after entering middle age, he won the love of many young female fans because of his elegant temperament and superb acting skills.
In this drama, he plays Cheng Qiming, a corporate executive who noticed Jiang Tong while buying cigarettes at a convenience store. When he saw Jiang Tong, he thought of his younger brother and treated him very well. He often visited him under the pretext of buying things and brought gifts when he was on business trips.
Jiang Tong was resistant at first, but gradually she was willing to accept his kindness. Later, when she accompanied Gao Kun to the laboratory, she learned from the doctor that the virus in his body had developed drug resistance, and it was very likely that the person who infected him had already taken the medicine and developed drug resistance. He took the medicine late and had almost no immunity. If he wanted to continue treatment, relying on the first-line drugs distributed free of charge by the state was far from enough, but they had no money to buy the medicine at their own expense.
Seeing Gao Kun hospitalized due to complications and high fever, Jiang Tong worked desperately but still couldn't help him, so she could only borrow money from Cheng Qiming for help. Coincidentally, when Gao Kun and Lingling were together, they saw an interview with Cheng Qiming in a magazine.
At that time, Lingling even gossiped about it, "I heard from a girl who works in a high-end club that this man doesn't like young girls, and only looks for the club's ducks to accompany him for drinking."
Gao Kun misunderstood Jiang Tong and they had a big fight.
This is the scene they need to complete today, and it is also the last rain scene in the film.
"Jiang Tong is here, just in time. Let's talk about it together. This section consists of two literary scenes and one conflict scene." A little assistant held an umbrella for Director Kun and walked outside the glass door. "We will use several shots from different angles later, and one is outside this door. So please pay attention to your positioning and try to get a clear shot from this position."
After explaining it briefly several times, Kuncheng returned to the monitor.
“Ready to shoot the first take.”
"The first shot of Scene A in Scene 74 of Tracking, action!"
At twelve o'clock in the morning, Jiang Tong, who had just taken over for two hours, had moved more than a dozen boxes of goods in a row, filling the vacancies on the shelves one by one. He was afraid of strangers and heard that it was inconvenient, so he couldn't be a cashier and could only do some harder and more tiring work.
Aqi, the cashier, suddenly came over holding his stomach, patted his shoulder, and said to him loudly, "Jiang Tong, I'm going to the bathroom. My stomach hurts so badly. Can you help me stand at the counter? Thank you."
Jiang Tong half lowered his head, took off his gloves and put them in his pocket, then walked to the counter. Fortunately, there were usually not many people in the early morning, so he didn't have to worry too much.
Unexpectedly, just as he was thinking this, the automatic welcome voice of the convenience store at the door sounded. Jiang Tong raised his head slowly, then quickly lowered it. All he could see was a pair of legs in expensive suits.
The customer took a cup of coffee, stood in front of the counter again, and said kindly, "Hello, can you give me that pack of Yellow Crane Tower Baby's Breath, please?"
The other party's voice was so gentle that Jiang Tong only heard the three words "Yellow Crane Tower". He hurriedly squatted down, found him a pack, and pushed it to him with his head down.
"No, I want baby's breath, blue soft-covered."
blue.
Jiang Tong knew he had found the wrong one, so he squatted down and found the blue Yellow Crane Tower. He held it with both hands and handed it to the customer, stammering "I'm sorry" in a very low voice.
The hands that took the cigarette were clean, with neatly trimmed nails.
"Thank you, how much is it?"
Jiang Tong took a quick glance, looked up cautiously, saw the number on the screen, and reported it to the customer standing in front of him with difficulty.
He took out a hundred-yuan bill from his wallet and handed it to Jiang Tong, waiting patiently for him to give him the change. Finally, he said thank you, opened the door and left.
Jiang Tong heaved a sigh of relief only after the automated voice at the door ended. When he looked up, he could only see half a figure under a black umbrella. He opened the car door and got in.
“Cut!”
Although Kuncheng has a good personality, he is very demanding when filming. He filmed the scene of buying cigarettes 21 times. In fact, he was also puzzled. Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng had a lot of tension when acting together, but he always lacked a little bit of interest with other people. It always took a while to find that feeling.
"In the scenes later, where Jiang Tong and Cheng Qiming gradually get to know each other, you need to show a sense of attachment to your father, but the scale cannot be too excessive. You need to grasp it well."
After hearing Kuncheng say this, Xia Xiqing felt even more difficult.
Children who lack fatherly love since childhood often develop two personality tendencies when they grow up. One is an extreme desire for fatherly love and always hopes to find similar substitute emotions from others. The other is an aversion to fatherly love and similar emotions.
Xia Xiqing is obviously the latter, and asking him to play the former is a huge leap.
After acting several times, Director Kun was still not satisfied, "There is only tenderness in your eyes, not the kind of dependence that makes you open your heart to him."
After talking about the play for a long time, Zhou Ziheng, who was standing aside, also joined the discussion, "Director, do you really think Jiang Tong has opened up to Cheng Qiming? Although I am looking at it from Gao Kun's perspective, I think the only person Jiang Tong really relies on is Gao Kun. He would not ask Cheng Qiming for help if he had no choice."
The two of them almost got into an argument over their roles, but this was a common occurrence in the crew, and everyone was doing their own thing and no one intervened. The two of them were arguing so much that Xia Xiqing finally expressed his opinion.
"If he really depends on Cheng Qiming, he would have told him about Gao Kun's illness early in the morning. He has been hiding it, which is actually a sign of distrust." He paused and said, "Besides, with Jiang Tong's living environment, he has watched his mother bring all kinds of adult men home since he was a child, and scolded her for the slightest displeasure. I think it is unrealistic for him to feel dependent on a middle-aged man in such an environment."
Zhou Ziheng looked at him worriedly and reiterated his opinion to Kuncheng. Even Guo Yang, who was watching from the sidelines, took sides. "Actually, I also think their analysis is more reasonable. If I were to play Jiang Tong, I would also be more afraid and timid." At this point, he began to joke again, "But I can only play the middle-aged Jiang Tong, hahaha."
Kuncheng then compromised, feeling that his ideas were a little biased, but he has always been a director willing to accept suggestions from actors. Filming is a team work, and sometimes a director may not feel more deeply about a role than an actor.
"Then let's do it again along this line of thought."
After shooting three or four more takes, Zhou Ziheng stared beside the monitor, watching the emotions in Xia Xiqing's eyes. For Xia Xiqing, pretending to be weak was not a difficult thing at all, and with his face, there was no sense of incongruity at all. But the striking thing was that when he looked at Cheng Qiming, in addition to timidity and cowardice, there was also a complex emotion in his eyes, the discomfort of accepting other people's kindness, and a kind of stubbornness hidden in his bones.
Those emotions belong to Xia Xiqing.
"Alright." Director Kun glanced at his watch. It was already three in the morning. "Let's hurry up. We won't be able to shoot after daybreak."
The last scene was the conflict scene that Gao Kun participated in. The stylist took Guo Yang downstairs to change clothes, and the makeup artist came up to touch up Xia Xiqing's makeup, while Zhou Ziheng was beside him to help him rehearse.
As he was speaking, Xia Xiqing glanced at Zhou Ziheng. He looked very ugly. There was a herpes at the right corner of his mouth, some of which had broken. His eye sockets were sunken, his face was an unhealthy yellow, and the lymph nodes in his neck were swollen. Although he knew it was the makeup artist's work, he couldn't say why. He felt distressed just by looking at Xia Xiqing.
"Don't look at me." Zhou Ziheng covered his face with the script.
"Don't look at him," the makeup artist held Xia Xiqing's chin with her hand, "You can't put on your makeup if you're just looking at him."
"Who's looking at him?" Xia Xiqing turned his head and heard Zhou Ziheng laughing beside him.
He suddenly remembered that he had come to the audition in order to prevent other young actors from filming with Zhou Ziheng, and he had to disrupt the situation. Thinking of this, he was really stupid at the time.
But if he hadn't come, their relationship might still be unbreakable.
"The first shot of Scene A in Scene 76 of Tracking, action!"
It was raining heavily. After moving the goods, Jiang Tong quietly went into the employee lounge, took off his coat, soaked it with a towel, and put it back on.
When he closed the cupboard, he saw a lunch box and a small box of chocolates inside.
After this night, I will buy a hot bowl of three-fresh bean curd tomorrow morning and take it with me to the hospital to see Gao Kun. Jiang Tong closed the cabinet door, took out his cell phone to check the time, and just as he was about to put it back, a text message came in. He hurriedly put the phone in his trouser pocket, walked out of the lounge, and looked around.
A man in a suit stood outside the convenience store, still holding the dark umbrella. He leaned the umbrella back, showing his face and smiled at Jiang Tong.
Jiang Tong glanced at the cashier counter. The girl who worked the night shift with him tonight was concentrating on watching a drama. He made an excuse to go out, and bent over repeatedly when he saw Cheng Qiming.
Cheng Qiming walked to the eaves of the convenience store, put away his umbrella, and smiled kindly, "Others have shifts, why do you work the night shift every day?"
The rain was loud, but luckily his voice was also loud, so Jiang Tong could barely hear him. He half lowered his head, trying to explain but unable to, "I... I..."
"I'm just asking, don't be nervous." He naturally reached out and patted Jiang Tong's thin shoulder, but Jiang Tong sensitively dodged and didn't look up.
"Oh, by the way," Cheng Qiming immediately changed the subject, "You said you had something to tell me, what is it?" Jiang Tong smelled of disinfectant, and it was obvious. He asked again, "Is it related to your sick friend?"
Jiang Tong understood this very clearly. He nodded immediately and tried to sign subconsciously, but he put his hand down again as soon as he raised it. He explained to him with great difficulty, "The illness... is very serious... I need... a lot... of money... You, you..." He was so anxious that he accidentally choked and coughed several times. Cheng Qiming stepped forward and patted him on the back, "Slow down, slow down." He looked up at the convenience store, "It's not convenient to talk here, why don't you come with me to the car and talk?"
Jiang Tong glanced at the car and shook his head, "I... I want to, want to... borrow some... money..." He said the last word "money" very softly. His humbleness and the embarrassment he had experienced since childhood made it impossible for him to ask for money openly. But he was afraid that Cheng Qiming would think he was a liar, so he wanted to explain it to him. He took out a notebook and a pen from his work clothes pocket, "You... you... wait... for me..."
After saying that, he quickly squatted down and tried desperately to write down everything he wanted to say, what disease Gao Kun had, why he got sick, why he had to pay for the treatment himself, he wrote out the whole story stroke by stroke, but the more he wrote, the more anxious he became, and his whole body was shaking.
"Don't worry, come on, let's get up and talk." Cheng Qiming pulled Jiang Tong up, "Let's go to the car, you can sit, it's so inconvenient to stand here."
Jiang Tong shook his head at first, but then nodded. Ren Cheng Qiming held up the umbrella, half put his arm around his shoulders, walked to the expensive car, and opened the door for him like a gentleman.
"Come in."
Jiang Tong was just about to bend down to go in when a man suddenly came out and pulled him out with great strength. Jiang Tong was startled and looked up to see that it was Gao Kun!
“High… High…”
"Come here." Gao Kun's umbrella was now overturned on the ground, and the rain was hitting his face. His eyebrows were twisted into a ball, and he reached out and pushed Cheng Qiming away, "What the hell are you doing?" He pushed again, "Where do you want to take him?"
Cheng Qiming wanted to explain, but before he could finish, Gao Kun started to hit him. Jiang Tong immediately stood between them, too anxious to speak. He could only scream and grab Gao Kun's hand, and the small notebook in his hand fell to the ground.
Gao Kun suddenly remembered that he had just received an injection and there was still a needle hole on his hand. He immediately withdrew his hand, but he was still furious. "Let me go, let me go!"
Jiang Tong was startled by him, and blankly let go of his arm and looked into his eyes.
"Go home." Seeing him standing there motionless, Gao Kun yelled again, "Don't you understand what I'm saying when I tell you to go back?"
"Don't be like this, he is trying to help you..."
Gao Kun interrupted Cheng Qiming's explanation and said, "Did I ask you to speak? Please stay away from him. If you want to harm others, don't go to him! Don't think that you can abuse others casually just because you have a little money!"
Jiang Tong suddenly understood what Gao Kun meant.
He bent down silently, picked up his little notebook that was soaked through, and handed it to Gao Kun without saying a word. But Gao Kun was angry and hadn't finished arguing with Cheng Qiming yet, so he had no time to care about Jiang Tong.
"I'm telling you! I have no right to control whether you like men or women, but you are not allowed to touch Jiang Tong! He is not your type, so stay away from him!" Gao Kun said as he recalled the boy he had seen at the epidemic prevention center before. He was also fair-skinned and a little younger than Jiang Tong. He got drunk, raped and infected with AIDS after just one night at the bar. He suddenly became like him, trembling with fear every day.
Gao Kun pushed Jiang Tong with his elbow, "Go home, go home."
Jiang Tong's notebook was pushed away by him again. He hurriedly picked it up, stood up and was about to give it to him when he found Gao Kun lying at his feet.
He was so scared that he immediately knelt on the ground, hurriedly hugged Gao Kun's head in the heavy rain, and turned to face Cheng Qiming. He wanted to hand him the small notebook in his arms but he had no way. He could only kowtow to him continuously, and his already incoherent voice was cut into pieces by the heavy rain.
"Save... him... Please, please... you..."
After Gao Kun was knocked down several times in a row, Cheng Qiming could not bear it any longer, so he had to squat down and together they lifted Gao Kun into the car and closed the door.
"Go to the passenger seat. We need to get your friend to the emergency room now."
Jiang Tong sat on the passenger seat, but he almost turned his body around, staring at Gao Kun who was lying unconscious in the back seat, trembling all over.
Cheng Qiming glanced at him, sighed, started the car and drove towards the hospital.
"Pass."
It took fourteen takes to get this scene right. The three actors struggled in the rain for an hour and a half. As soon as the director called for a stop, several assistants immediately came forward with umbrellas and wrapped them in bath towels. The car that Jiang Yin arranged for Xia Xiqing had a problem on the road, so Xiaoxiao could only temporarily take him to Zhou Ziheng's RV. Anyway, it was raining heavily at this time, and there were almost no paparazzi waiting there.
"We finally finished the shoot before daybreak. If we had continued like this, we would have gotten sick." Xiaoxiao took some clean clothes and some hot tea that had been prepared long ago, and removed the makeup off Zhou Ziheng's face. "Xi Qing has only recovered from her illness for half a month."
Xi Qing smiled and said thank you. Xiao Xiao then followed Xiao Luo to the front driver's seat and very considerately helped them close the curtains. "You can get some sleep. It will probably be daybreak when we get back to the hotel."
When Xia Xiqing got in the car, Zhou Ziheng had already changed his clothes, and now he was the only one left.
"Turn around."
Zhou Ziheng had a half-smile on his face and lowered his voice a bit, "I've seen it all from the inside out."
Xia Xiqing was too lazy to argue with him, "Turn around if you want." He quickly took off his shirt. Zhou Ziheng obediently took a towel to dry his upper body and put his short-sleeved shirt over his head.
The makeup on her face had long been washed away by the heavy rain, and she changed into a white short-sleeved shirt. Xia Xiqing now looked like a student, simple and refreshing.
"Let me help you with your pants too?" Zhou Ziheng picked up the pants on the table and shook them. The next second, they were snatched away by Xia Xiqing, who glared at him fiercely.
Although he was joking, Zhou Ziheng turned his face away out of consideration for his assistant in the driver's seat. His mind was full of the scenes in the play and he had not yet completely recovered from his emotions.
After Xia Xiqing changed his clothes, he lay down on the sofa bed in the RV, feeling drained.
Zhou Ziheng also lay down on his side, kissed Xia Xiqing's eyes, and whispered, "Your eyes are all swollen from crying."
After hearing this, Xia Xiqing covered his eyes with the back of his hand, thinking about filming, "If the swelling continues, I won't be able to act tomorrow."
"Don't cover it." Zhou Ziheng kissed the palm of his hand, "You look beautiful when you cry. I like to watch it."
Xia Xiqing took his hand away and patted his forehead. "Why do I feel like you have a tendency to abuse others? Are you a yandere at heart?"
"Yandere? What is a yandere?" Zhou Ziheng grabbed Xia Xiqing's hand and kissed it again.
"It's just..." How to explain it? Xia Xiqing thought about it and felt that he couldn't explain it clearly, "Forget it, go and check it yourself." He looked at Zhou Ziheng, who had lost a lot of weight. It seemed that he had lost some of his former aura of dominance. He actually looked like a 20-year-old child, with a youthfulness that could not be hidden even by his red hair.
Xia Xiqing first touched his face, then pinched Zhou Ziheng's waist, "You've lost a lot of weight. You must have lost about 15 pounds in this period of time."
"Almost 20 pounds." Zhou Ziheng sighed, "Director Kun said I need to lose more weight. I don't have any abdominal muscles anymore."
These days, all of Zhou Ziheng's lunch boxes were specially arranged by Jiang Yin. Sometimes he would just have a bowl of boiled lettuce, or at worst, he would eat some chopped apples in the middle of filming. He was losing weight day by day, and the figure he was once proud of turned into a skinny bamboo pole.
An actor's body shape needs to be adjusted according to the role; this is part of his job. Zhou Ziheng has experienced this before when filming a movie, and he is willing to devote himself to art. But now when filming with the person he likes, he doesn't want him to see him looking ugly.
Xia Xiqing poked his sunken cheek and sighed, "Let's finish it quickly."
If I keep losing weight like this, my body will break down.
"You can't bear to watch it anymore." Zhou Ziheng said with a smile.
"Why do you say that?"
Zhou Ziheng lowered his head and hugged Xia Xiqing, his voice much softer, "Didn't you say before that you just like this face and figure..."
Before he finished speaking, Xia Xiqing burst out laughing. Zhou Ziheng looked up at him, "What are you laughing at?"
"How could I be fooled by a fool like you?"
"you… "
"Although I don't mind cheap chicken, you'd better get in shape as soon as possible after the filming is finished, otherwise..." Xia Xiqing leaned close to Zhou Ziheng's ear and held the small silver earring on his earlobe. Her tongue was wet and hot, rubbing against the cold metal and the gradually hot skin.
Just like his voice, soft.
“Many postures cannot be unlocked.”
The author has something to say: It’s almost finished~
The script is written in a way that makes it seem more baseless than realistic. If such a play really comes out, I will probably cry and write fan fiction.
Tomorrow seems to be the Little New Year, ao3 invites everyone to celebrate the Little New Year