Shrine - Chapter 63
Chapter 63
The film crew didn't celebrate any holidays; everyone was rushing to get work done. They had a simple New Year's Eve dinner, snatched a few red envelopes in the crew's group chat, and that was considered celebrating the New Year. After wishing her family a happy new year, Ruan Ruan was pulled into a few media group chats by her manager, where she recorded a voice message with well wishes and sent out a few large red envelopes. Then, she and Wu Mei cooked some dumplings.
The Spring Festival Gala was playing on TV, and a few skits had everyone roaring with laughter. Shi Ran was celebrating the new year in a hall the production had booked. At midnight, she received a message from Ruan Ruan: Happy New Year.
The Gobi Desert area was quite remote, so unlike Jiangcheng, there was no ban on fireworks. The sound of firecrackers and the smell of sulfur drifted in through the window. Mutton was bubbling away on the table, but the dumplings were completely cold. Zhao Ansheng sat nearby with her arms crossed, pointing at a skit on the TV. "They're getting harder and harder to watch."
"The censorship is too strict now," someone chimed in.
Shi Ran was looking down at her phone. It took her three minutes to reply: Happy New Year.
They exchanged a few more words, but neither of them was particularly enthusiastic. Just like with birthdays, they were on the same wavelength once again. The voids in their childhoods made them unenthusiastic about any holiday; they couldn't think of anything worth celebrating.
Shi Ran sat amidst the dense crowd, standing out like a crane among chickens with her fair skin, and standing out just as much with her indifference. In the past few days, as she sorted through her emotions, she had pinpointed what was different about her feelings for Ruan Ruan. She didn't know if a good lover was supposed to have a compensatory quality, one that could make a person unconsciously return to their latent traumas, only to experience them again, but this time, emerge whole and unscathed.
But she had keenly discovered that her interactions with Ruan Ruan felt like a regression to childhood. She became a little simple, a little childish, a little unreasonable, a little irrational.
She would feel the urge to spray Ruan Ruan with a soda bottle, want to hear Ruan Ruan coax her, want to see Ruan Ruan tap her with a script.
It's hard to understand, isn't it? That these were the things she actually craved.
She also wondered why she was so much more anxious this time, even though it wasn't their first time being in different cities. Perhaps their feelings had deepened, or perhaps it was because before, there had been no one else between them.
Shi Ran had a bit of PTSD from the emotional turmoil she faced in her adolescence. When she discovered that Ruan Ruan was more expressive and showed a different side of herself to someone else, she found herself unable to judge the situation again and instinctively wanted to push it away as a form of self-protection.
After the Spring Festival came Valentine's Day.
The Shrine production team released a Valentine's Day special—a behind-the-scenes featurette of Zhong Yi and Ruan Ruan's interactions. The shippers' storehouses were now even more richly stocked, as if they'd been given a bundle of juicy sugarcane, enough to chew on for several months.
Within the crew itself, however, there was no festive atmosphere. Valentine's Day was spent rushing through filming and working overtime. The day after the holiday, filming for the first scene of Shrine's third episode began.
Qiao Qiao knocked on Shen Bai's door, her breathing ragged. "Shen Bai, this film crew isn't clean."
"Not clean?" Shen Bai invited her in, had her sit on the sofa, and poured her a glass of water. "Speak slowly."
"The actress in the room next to mine… there's hair in her trash bag every day."
"Hair?"
"Yes," Qiao Qiao said, clutching a cup of hot water, her whole body trembling. "Every day when I go out to take out the trash, I see her garbage bag by her door. At first… at first, I thought it was a wig. But just now, I ran over to her room."
Qiao Qiao's eyes were red-rimmed, and she blinked out terrifying tears.
"I told her my toilet was clogged and asked to use her bathroom. I looked around—no wigs. But on her vanity, there was a razor and a few strands of hair, as if they'd just been shaved off."
Shen Bai frowned, gesturing for Qiao Qiao to continue.
"Later, I had someone ask an old master. He said this is how you summon a Fox Spirit. You have to offer your own hair to it. If the Fox Spirit accepts the offering, the person's hair will grow back, and they'll become a little prettier."
Hair represents a person's life essence; once it's been drained, it must be discarded promptly. When all the hair has been replaced by new growth, the person is as if they've shed their skin, their seductive allure fully revealed, a fox's heart devouring a human's.
Qiao Qiao was chilled to the bone, as if she'd just been pulled out of a freezer. She looked at Shen Bai, pleading for help. Shen Bai pressed her lips together.
Saying…
"Let me see the script again." Zhong Yi stood up, bowed apologetically, and gestured for her assistant to hand her the script.
Ruan Ruan waited at the side, casually wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.
Wu Mei quickly grabbed her arm, telling her not to move, and asked the on-set makeup assistant to come for a touch-up. Ruan Ruan sat obediently, tilting her face up to cooperate as the makeup artist used a cotton pad to clean up and adjust her makeup.
"Can you use the earlier part?" Zhong Yi asked the director while reviewing her script. "If it's usable, you can just get a single shot of me, right?"
She glanced at Ruan Ruan, who had been in a good emotional state just now. She didn't want Ruan Ruan to have to do it all over again because of her mistake.
"It's fine, I can do it again with you," Ruan Ruan said from under the makeup artist's fragrant hands.
"Yes, the first part is fine," the director called out. "Zhong Yi, we'll pick it up from your line. I'll get an over-the-shoulder shot of Ruan Ruan."
"Okay." Zhong Yi gave a refined smile.
After her makeup was touched up, Ruan Ruan heard the pitter-patter of footsteps outside the studio. The takeout they had ordered earlier must have arrived. She said to Wu Mei, "Have the desserts arrived? Go take a look and help hand them out."
"Are you treating everyone?" the makeup artist asked curiously, closing her powder compact.
"Zhong Yi and I are treating together."
"You two are treating? Huh? I mean, huh?" The makeup artist laughed, raising a finger to cover her nose.
"No," Ruan Ruan explained with a helpless smile. "During lunch, Mei Mei helped scratch off our lottery tickets. We won a few hundred yuan, but since she scratched both our books at the same time, we couldn't tell whose ticket won. So we decided to treat everyone together."
"You scared me." The makeup artist packed up her things and left.
Over on the side, Zhong Yi was ready and told the crew they could begin.
Non-essential personnel cleared the set. After the director yelled "Action!" Ruan Ruan quickly got into character, holding the water cup and saying, "the person's hair will grow back again, and their hair will become a little prettier."
Zhong Yi blinked. "Hair?"
Ruan Ruan covered her mouth with both hands. "Sorry, sorry."
Again.
"…the person's hair will… uh…"
"Grow back," Zhong Yi finished for her with a soft laugh.
The crew laughed too.
Ruan Ruan touched her forehead and looked down to go over the line again.
Third time.
"The person's hair will… pfft." Ruan Ruan looked at Zhong Yi and broke into laughter.
"I didn't do anything," Zhong Yi said innocently.
"You finished my line for me just now."
"And you're still laughing about it?"
The crew laughed again. Ruan Ruan rubbed her face to compose herself and said in a dejected, soft voice, "Let's go again."
The fourth take went smoothly. Ruan Ruan was sweating and felt a great sense of relief. The director announced they could wrap for the day. Ruan Ruan put her hands together, bowed, and thanked everyone. The crew, in turn, thanked her and Zhong Yi for the desserts.
Ruan Ruan put on her coat as she hurried to the car. Shi Ran should be finishing her filming in the next couple of days, and she wanted to get back and ask when she would arrive.
After getting in the car, she was busy dealing with WeChat messages when Wu Mei came aboard after packing up, pulled the door shut, and said, "I think they were saying that Boss Shi was just here."
"Huh?" Ruan Ruan's heart skipped a beat. She thought she had misheard.
"Boss Shi?"
"Yeah," Wu Mei said, also finding it strange. "They said Boss Shi came to visit the set. You must have been filming at the time. She exchanged a few words with Producer Xin and then left."
…Left?
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