Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Ten days later, on the film set.

"Act One, cut!" Director Liu announced with great enthusiasm.

Jiang Mingyue stopped what she was doing, and her bright, girlish eyes quickly calmed down.

Director Liu gave her a thumbs up and asked with a happy expression, "It hasn't been that long, and you've already improved again. Did Starry Sky Films find you an acting coach?"

For the past two weeks, Jiang Mingyue had not left her room, completely locking herself inside and immersing herself in the performance space.

The flow of time in the performance space is obviously different from that in the real world. The performance space constructs Zheng Yinping's complete life according to the script. In just half a month, Jiang Mingyue experienced Zheng Yinping's life with perfect clarity.

Even though Jiang Mingyue's final performance of "Zheng Yinping" based on her own understanding and the performance space allowed her to experience "Zheng Yinping" in a completely different way, their core spirit is the legendary life of a resilient woman striving to survive.

She couldn't tell anyone about her "golden finger" ability, so Jiang Mingyue, still wearing makeup, pretended to be shy, lowered her head, smiled, and didn't answer.

Leon squeezed in to touch up Jiang Mingyue's makeup and whispered in her ear, "Chen Ying has been watching you for a long time since you started performing."

Jiang Mingyue's eyes flickered, and she glanced at the crowd gathered nearby. Sure enough, she saw a beautiful woman surrounded by many assistants.

The crew on set were all dressed casually; to put it more bluntly, everyone except the actors was dressed rather sloppily. But the woman was wearing a well-fitting, tailor-made suit that accentuated her slender figure and gave her an air of sophistication and competence, as if she belonged in a high-end office building.

This is Chen Ying.

Just as Leon had said, Chen Ying had been keeping a close eye on Jiang Mingyue. The moment Jiang Mingyue looked over, Chen Ying caught her gaze.

Chen Ying's expression was indifferent, and the corners of her mouth only turned up less than five degrees. After nodding to Jiang Mingyue, she continued to stand in place in her original position, as if she had no desire to communicate with Jiang Mingyue.

Since the other party didn't want to engage in deeper communication, Jiang Mingyue didn't need to go out of her way to build a relationship.

However, since Chen Ying was a film queen brought up by Gu Yifan, and they could be considered "sisters" in terms of their relationship, Jiang Mingyue was determined to show goodwill to Chen Ying.

Jiang Mingyue smiled back at the other person.

After finishing her makeup touch-up, she continued her performance.

When the day's work was over, Jiang Mingyue was surprised to find that Chen Ying was still on set. However, she had taken a folding chair and was sitting properly on it, observing Jiang Mingyue's performance.

Seeing Jiang Mingyue's curiosity, Director Liu smiled and beckoned to Chen Ying, drawing them both to his side: "Chen Ying, this is Jiang Mingyue. Gu Yifan should have mentioned her to you; she's a newcomer he's mentoring. Mingyue, you definitely know Chen Ying. Chen Ying will be playing the adult version of 'Zheng Yinping.' You two will be seeing each other often from now on."

In the end, the lead role actually went to Chen Ying!

Jiang Mingyue was surprised for a moment, but quickly put on a smile and said politely, "It is my honor to act with Sister Chen."

As for the claim that she was "a fan of the other party," Jiang Mingyue did not make it up.

She hadn't really watched much of the other person's acting, and it would be too embarrassing if she said something like that and someone caught her doing something wrong.

"You two don't get to use the same scene very often. We'll meet today, and starting tomorrow, you'll each be filming your own scenes." Director Liu patted Jiang Mingyue and Chen Ying on the shoulders, explained the situation of the crew, and then left.

Although Chen Ying still appeared indifferent, her attitude was quite kind.

She asked in fluent Mandarin, "Your performance was wonderful. With Gu Yifan helping you, you'll definitely become famous very soon."

Jiang Mingyue quickly figured out the key point—Chen Ying and Jiang Mingyue were more than ten years apart in age, so they weren't in direct competition. In a few years, Chen Ying would probably be playing the role of Jiang Mingyue's mother, so there was no need for her to be like those actresses in their twenties, shouting and attacking Jiang Mingyue, who was not yet twenty.

"Brother Gu takes good care of me." Jiang Mingyue pulled out some nonsense and started to flatter Chen Ying, "Sister Chen's Mandarin is very standard, she must have put in a lot of effort."

Chen Ying laughed even more happily: "Gu Yifan said that the film and television environment in mainland China will be better in the future, so I listened to him and specially hired a teacher to help me correct my pronunciation. Being able to speak like this is the result of two years of intermittent practice."

Actually, some problems can be heard when the speaking speed is fast, but the key point is that "the audience can hear the lines spoken by the actor clearly" rather than accent issues.

Chen Ying's acting skills have far surpassed those of the "popular actresses" currently acting in mainland China.

Perhaps touched by Jiang Mingyue's compliment, Chen Ying then added, "I've always heard that mainland actors have a very relaxed filming environment, but I didn't expect it to be this comfortable. The costume designer just took me to try on costumes, and they were all custom-made. They're so beautiful, and the material is so good. There's no strange smell at all."

Costumes used in filming are not allowed to be washed during filming, in order to avoid damaging the costumes and affecting the filming schedule.

However, the filming environment in mainland China is not as terrible as many actors complain when they are playing the victim. As long as the scene being filmed is indoors, there will be air conditioning nearby to regulate the temperature for the actors on set; unless it is to make the actors uncomfortable in order to prank them.

Therefore, actors rarely complain about the filming environment when filming in mainland China.

But Jiang Mingyue inappropriately recalled the famous jokes from several TV stations in the port city that "the costumes are older than the actors"...

A smile uncontrollably crept onto Jiang Mingyue's lips.

Chen Ying knew what she was laughing at, and when she spoke up, she shrugged helplessly: "Look, the whole world knows how terrible the costumes in Hong Kong are, but they just won't approve any funding to redesign them."

The two went to pick up their boxed lunches together, and Chen Ying then waved the lunchboxes and said, "Let's go to my room and talk about our interpretations of the characters."

Jiang Mingyue's portrayal of Zheng Yinping has brought the character to life, revealing her growth trajectory. In Jiang Mingyue's view, Chen Ying's Zheng Yinping is a stereotypical character with a fully mature personality, constantly using thrills and adventures to attract the audience; she doesn't believe there's any need for the two of them to exchange insights about their roles.

So, why did Chen Ying deliberately ask her to come over?

Curiosity killed the cat.

Jiang Mingyue immediately raised her hand and called out to Li Ruojun, who had been waiting for her, "Ruojun, bring me my script."

Li Ruojun immediately took out the script from her bag and quickly handed it to Jiang Mingyue.

Jiang Mingyue smiled apologetically at Chen Ying, "Logically, I shouldn't refuse Sister Chen's invitation, but I've been filming all day and I'm just too hungry and tired. I've put all my understanding of the character into this. Sister Chen, you can look at it tonight. We'll discuss it in detail tomorrow."

After she finished speaking, she shoved the script into Chen Ying's arms, grabbed Li Ruojun, and ran away quickly.

Chen Ying looked at the thin script, which had been covered with sticky notes to a thickness of three times its original size, and her expression instantly became extremely complicated.