CSGM - Chapter 107
Chapter 107: An Offhand Remark
Ren Zhi's lips curved into a slight, gentle smile.
"Then you'd better work hard. Let's try to get this in one take."
The two got into position.
Chu Xi lay leaning against a large tree, while Ren Zhi knelt beside her, sword in hand. With their starting positions and emotional states ready, they both raised their hands and gave an "OK" sign.
The Director, sitting behind the camera, blew a smoke ring. He raised his hand, then brought it down sharply.
Director: "Roll camera."
Slate operator: "Scene four, shot one, take one. Mark!"
The slate operator quickly moved out of frame, and the Director shouted, "Action!"
Beneath the pale, waning moon.
"Pfft-" Dark red blood sprayed from her mouth as Meng Wenzhao's strength suddenly gave out, and she collapsed.
"Little Crane!"
Xie Mi was calling out a pet name, chosen from her junior sister's title, "Crane Whose Robes are Brushed by Wind and Moon."
"Senior Sister..." Meng Wenzhao's face was deathly pale, her gaze already unfocused and hazy.
Xie Mi's blood-soaked hand gripped hers. "Little Crane, don't fall asleep. Senior Sister will take you back right now!"
Meng Wenzhao shook her head and pushed her away, her breath faint. "Senior Sister, you should go... Hurry back to Cloud-Born Valley... and have Master... come save me..."
Otherwise, neither of them would be able to escape. At this moment, what else could be done to save them both?
But Xie Mi knew her junior sister was lying to her. If she abandoned her and left, Meng Wenzhao would die from the poison under this tree long before the bandits came to collect her body.
"Don't talk. You don't have the strength. I'll carry you."
"No... don't..."
Meng Wenzhao could still see a shockingly deep and long gash on Xie Mi's back, bleeding profusely.
Gripping the hilt of her sword, Xie Mi stared ahead with a resolute gaze. "Little Crane, don't give up. I will get you back alive!" Even if I have to die here.
Even though both were willing to sacrifice their lives for the other, they still couldn't stop the bandits who were closing in from the front, intending to encircle and kill them, to wipe them out completely.
Meng Wenzhao was overcome with emotion, worried for her senior sister's safety, and coughed up fresh blood.
Fearing Meng Wenzhao wouldn't last, Xie Mi was frantic. She channeled her inner energy against its natural flow into her sword, forcibly raising her internal power, and charged into the crowd, vowing to carve a bloody path out.
-From an emotional scene to an action scene. It looked like a very short part of the script, but by the time the stunt actor extras were actually ready to make their move, an hour had already passed.
Ren Zhi had practiced this fight scene in advance and had already run through it with the previous A-list actress. She brandished her silver sword, creating a flourish of blades, her movements as smooth as flowing water.
As for Chu Xi, she had no action scenes at all.
She just had to hang on Ren Zhi's back and continue being a koala.
Here, what she needed was to act with her eyes.
With her junior sister Meng Wenzhao on her back, Xie Mi weaved through the glinting blades of the bandits, surrounded by the sounds of clashing swords and the agonized cries of falling enemies.
The swords on both sides moved faster and faster, and the bloody slaughter grew more intense.
Xie Mi's eyes were as fiery and tragic as the blood splattering into them, symbolizing her resolve to fight to the death tonight.
Meng Wenzhao said nothing, her breath faint as she rested her head on her senior sister's back.
The only thing she could do now was not to scream.
Not to make a sound that would distract Xie Mi.
Even as the poison took hold, she had to lock the pain in her throat and not let a single sound escape.
She was in agony yet forbearing, struggling, on the verge of sinking into darkness but unable to let go of the Xie Mi before her.
Her expression was complex, her hazy eyes seeming to suppress immense anguish.
The Director stared at the monitor without blinking, his neck craned slightly forward, a look of astonishment gradually appearing on his face.
In the shot, he saw Chu Xi's jaw trembling, yet she was clearly suppressing the frequency of the tremors.
The skin on her neck contracted sharply, revealing bulging veins. The cold sweat on her temples looked incredibly real as it rolled down the side of her jaw.
Such restrained suffering was truly pitiable. The director and producer could even empathize with her from behind the camera!
An incomparably real performance, one that made you forget it was a performance at all.
The Director was starting to think she was genuinely in pain. Not daring to interrupt or call cut, he quickly took advantage of this burst of acting prowess, waving for the camera crew to push in for a close-up, capturing the micro-expressions on Chu Xi's face and the details of her neck.
So Chu Xi really did have explosive acting skills. The Director was now convinced her performance was brilliant.
Her entire face was in pain, yet her entire face was suppressing it. Just watching her made one feel her suffering!
This was what "forcefully suppressing pain" truly looked like.
It was a world apart from that cold, wooden-faced style of acting!
Very good, very good. The empathy in this scene was more than enough!
This is how you portray an injury effectively.
Acting like this will make the audience's hearts ache for the character of Meng Wenzhao.
Cold sweat slid into her eyes. Chu Xi's eyelashes trembled as she closed them, her tightly clenched jaw shaking slightly.
In her very first scene, she had given the director a satisfying performance.
Nearly two more hours passed before the scene finally came to an end.
"3, 2, 1, cut!"
When Ren Zhi set her down, her forehead was also covered in sweat, but it was from the exhaustion of carrying someone for so long while doing an action scene.
Chu Xi chuckled softly. "I'm pretty heavy, aren't I?"
"No, it's just that it took a long time." Ren Zhi took a tissue from an assistant, then gave Chu Xi a look and said, "Wipe your sweat."
Chu Xi didn't take a tissue. Instead, she walked over to the director.
"Is it over? Can I go rest for a bit?"
Her voice was a little weak, lacking strength, which the rest of the crew attributed to her having overexerted herself during the performance.
"Alright, you can. Everyone, take a fifteen-minute break," the director announced.
Chu Xi called her assistant, Jin Yuan, "Come with me."
She borrowed Ren Zhi's private dressing room, went inside, and closed the door. She slowly pulled her right hand out from the sleeve of her costume.
The gauze was barely recognizable as white anymore; it was covered in red blood clots.
Hiss-
Chu Xi felt the nerves next to her temple throbbing with pain just now.
They thought she acted well? That it was very realistic, so good it didn't seem like acting?
Of course it was. Because the pain was real.
So, there's no such thing as "explosive acting" in this world. If there is, it comes at a price.
The director thought her portrayal of endurance was convincing because she was actually enduring it!
Getting bumped by the hilt of Ren Zhi's sword was one thing, but the weapons of the bandit actors had also struck her a few times, as real swords have no eyes.
With all the bumping around, the stitched wound had split open.
Seeing the previously pristine white gauze on her hand suddenly turn like this, Jin Yuan's small, melon-seed-shaped face filled with panic, as if she was about to scream.
Chu Xi quickly covered her mouth. "Don't scream. Help me unwrap it and take a look."
Jin Yuan nodded and leaned over to help her gently cut the gauze, blowing softly on the wound.
"Xixi, does it hurt? Let me blow on it for you, hooo..."
"So you're a fan," Chu Xi said, looking at her with sudden understanding. Only her fans called her that.
No wonder she'd heard Jin Yuan had connections, yet came to be her assistant.
Jin Yuan let out an "Ah," turned to look at her, and nodded shyly. In her panic, she'd exposed herself...
"It's fine. Keep unwrapping," Chu Xi said.
Jin Yuan's attention was already back on her hand. "How did you get hurt? What should we do... hooo hooo..."
Jin Yuan was anxious and aggrieved, as if she were the one who was injured. Her eyes scrunched up, on the verge of tears.
"Heh, didn't you see all those stunt actors waving their props around just now? I got hit by accident a couple of times."
Chu Xi was baffled by her. She was the one in pain and she hadn't cried, so why was Jin Yuan getting all teary-eyed?
What was she so worked up about?
If her hand is ruined! How will Xixi be a top in the future!
Jin Yuan was frantic, wanting to cry out of desperation. She quickly asked, "Should we go to the hospital?"
Chu Xi inspected it, squeezed the cast on her ring finger, which seemed fine, and said, "No need. Just go get the medicine and gauze from my bag so I can re-dress it."
The stitches hadn't broken, they'd just loosened. She'd have them tightened tomorrow when she went to the hospital to get her cast changed.
Jin Yuan hurried out.
Chu Xi gripped her right wrist tightly with her left hand, as if that could isolate the pain, and paced around the dressing room to distract herself from it.
Did fight scenes have a grudge against her? She finally had a day where she wasn't the one getting beaten up, and she still ended up getting accidentally injured!
The sound of her deep breaths echoed in the dressing room. Along with Chu Xi's repentance to the gods: She was wrong. Next time she got in a fight, she'd use a rock.
A moment later, the dressing room door was pushed open again. She turned to meet it, thinking Jin Yuan was finally back with the medicine.
But she froze when she saw who it was. Not only had Jin Yuan brought back the medicine, she'd also brought Ren Zhi with her.
Chu Xi's foolish-looking pose-gripping her hand and breathing deeply-came to an abrupt halt.
"Uh... hi?"
Without a word, Ren Zhi led her to the vanity and sat her down. She said to Jin Yuan, "Give me the medicine. I'll change it. I've watched the doctor apply it before."
Jin Yuan offered it with both hands. "Okay! Thank you, Sister Zhi!"
Ren Zhi gently wiped the dried blood from Chu Xi's hand with an alcohol pad. Chu Xi sucked in a couple of sharp breaths, then bit down on her left index finger.
Ren Zhi's brow was furrowed, her expression just as worried and anxious as Jin Yuan's had been.
"You know, the director was just praising you to me. He said your explosive power was incredible, that your performance of enduring pain in this scene was especially realistic. He was shocked. I thought you'd had another breakthrough."
Chu Xi loosened her teeth from her knuckle for a moment to explain, "There was some acting involved, of course." Then she bit down again.
It wasn't all method acting. At the very beginning, she really was just acting. Don't completely dismiss my acting skills, okay.
"If you're hurt, can't you call for a stop? What if the stitches had torn completely? It's fine to remind the stunt actors to be more careful before continuing." It seemed that whenever her hand injury was mentioned, Ren Zhi's tone became filled with guilt.
"They didn't tear..."
"This time you were lucky they only loosened a bit. Don't do this again. Doesn't it hurt?"
"Since the director said the scene was brilliant, it's a blessing in disguise. No need to be dramatic..." Chu Xi said, trying to lighten the mood for her.
"Can you stop being so stubborn? I'm really worried about you." Ren Zhi looked up and shot her a glare.
Chu Xi wanted to scratch her head, but when she touched the smooth, long hair, she remembered it was a wig and put her hand back down.
"You said you wanted to get it in one take. Of course I had to endure it. Besides, it wasn't unbearable."
Ren Zhi was nearly choked by her direct answer. Just... just because I said that?
"I was just saying that offhandedly..." she murmured, her eyes lowered.
But Chu Xi said, "You weren't just saying it. I know."
"The production budget needs to be saved as much as possible, and the schedule for reshoots is tight. You were serious. Otherwise, why would you have chosen me, someone who's good value for the money?"
Chu Xi could figure out how much of what Ren Zhi said was true just by thinking about it.
Chu Xi gave Ren Zhi's shoulder a friendly pat. "I don't care if other people are satisfied with me, but I need to satisfy you."
Making a wish on a shooting star would most likely be useless, but expressing a wish to her had a very high chance of coming true.
Comments
Post a Comment