People say spring rain is as precious as oil, but the spring rain in Yinling is just like a wealthy businessman opening his warehouse to release grain, and it has been falling generously for several days in a row.

Fortunately, filming a movie is not like laying bricks to build a building, which must be built layer by layer from bottom to top in a strict order. It is more like a puzzle, breaking the entire script into countless pieces, and finally piecing them together into a complete picture through editing. The process is very flexible in which parts to shoot first and which to shoot later. There is no problem even shooting the ending directly in the first scene.

So since the weather is not suitable for shooting outdoor scenes for the time being, Zhuang Yan simply moved the interior scenes forward a bit, especially the interior scenes that could be shot at the villa, and they were all shot directly during these days.

There are still a few scenes in Villa Area No. 1 that have not been completed.

These scenes were supposed to be filmed consecutively with the previous family scenes, but because Xu Yi and Xu Miao had a mother-daughter scene to shoot at a pre-booked location in the city that night, and Qi Xianyun had not yet arrived in Yinling, the remaining scenes were postponed until now.

The time span of these scenes in the script is quite large, and the most recent one is the first encounter between Song Yecheng and Qi Xianyun filmed on the overpass.

Fang Zhi had completely forgotten about the fortune teller after he returned home that night. After all, it was just an insignificant incident on the road to him, and he didn't even feel the need to think about it.

What he cares more about is the job transfer.

However, he didn't discuss the matter with Qiao Min right away. Instead, he jokingly asked his daughter before bed, "Honey, if there's a great school far from home and you need to transfer to another city, would you be willing to go?"

The little girl wasn't even curious about how good the "very good" school was. She just asked, "Are you and Mom going too?"

Fang Zhi hypothesized, "What if Dad goes but Mom doesn't?"

The little girl curled her lips and thought for a moment, then quickly said worriedly, "How lonely would Mom be at home alone? I would miss her a lot too."

Fang Zhi nodded in agreement and said, "What if both mom and dad go?"

This time Fang Qiao took a lot longer to think, his expression more serious. He rolled his eyes slowly left and right for a long time before finally frowning and saying, "Can we not go?"

"Why?" Fang Zhi asked.

The little girl sighed calmly, "If I transfer, Wang Xiaoyi will definitely cry again, and Yao Yao will be reluctant to leave me. All my good friends are here, and I like all the teachers at school. There's also Grandpa Sun, the security guard at the door, and Auntie Xiaohua, who sells tofu pudding downstairs... If I leave, won't I never see them again?"

After hearing this, Fang Zhi was silent for a long time.

After a while, he suddenly chuckled in relief, because he unexpectedly discovered that the problem he had been entangled with from beginning to end was actually not the main point at all -

When people describe a person who has lived in a place for a long time, they always like to use the word "take root".

This word is actually very accurate.

When a person lives in a city for a long time, he will gradually become familiar with every street and every building in the city, leave traces of his footsteps in many corners, develop intricate connections with the people around him, and have various stories, long or short.

Those footprints, connections, and stories are like roots pulled out from the body, closely connecting a person to a city. When he hears others mention the city, he thinks of more than just a place name, but memories full of laughter and tears that come like snowflakes.

The so-called "homesickness" probably comes from this.

Fang Qiao has grown up here since she can remember. Even though she is only a small sapling now, she has already sprouted tender roots in this city.

Taking her away is equivalent to cutting off her roots. No matter where she is transplanted, it will hurt when the roots are broken.

In the eyes of adults, these sacrifices may be the price paid in exchange for a high-quality growth environment, which is beneficial and worthwhile. But in fact, who should define whether it is worthwhile and by what standards?

If you just make decisions for her out of wishful thinking and think it's worth it, isn't that a self-satisfied "for your own good" that disregards the other person's wishes?

After figuring this out, Fang Zhi didn't say anything more. He patted Fang Qiao's head gently, tucked her in, said good night softly, and then turned and left her room.

After this scene, all the "calm before the storm" parts of the script that took place in this apartment were completed.

Because of the sudden turn of the plot, Fang Zhi's character state will undergo tremendous changes. In addition to his inner psychological changes, the most intuitive change is his appearance.

At this time, in the dressing room on the third floor.

Song Yecheng and Xu Miao both sat in front of the makeup mirror, adjusting their makeup for the next scene.

Qi Xianyun also had a role in the next scene, but his makeup and hair were the same as the day on the overpass, relatively simple. It had been completed while they were filming the previous scene, so he was sitting next to them, chatting with his assistant while waiting for them.

Song Yecheng's clothes have changed from warm tones to cool tones, and makeup artist Daisy is beside him, retouching his makeup.

Looking at the makeup gradually taking shape under her hands, Daisy hesitated for a moment, then suddenly frowned in an ambiguous manner: "Teacher Song, I'm starting to doubt my makeup skills."

Song Yecheng looked at her in the mirror with a face that was pale and thin due to makeup: "Why?"

"I was clearly aiming for a haggard look," Daisy said, her face a mix of laughter and tears as she held the paintbrush. "But now I still look so handsome. What should I do?"

Everyone around couldn't help laughing. Xu Miao, who was sitting in the seat next to him, turned her head curiously. Song Yecheng noticed her gaze and turned to look at her, raising his eyebrows at her: "How is it, handsome?"

Xu Miao stared at him seriously for a moment, then pouted awkwardly: "Well... he seems different from before, but still... kind of handsome!"

Her word "a little bit" made everyone in the room laugh so hard that everyone was rolling on the floor with laughter. Qi Xianyun, who was standing next to her, smiled for a long time with the kindness of a grandfather looking at his granddaughter, and teased her, "What do you mean by 'a little bit handsome'?"

Xu Miao rolled her eyes as if thinking hard: "Hmm... when he wasn't filming, he was 'super handsome', when he was filming the previous ones, he was 'handsome', and now he's 'kind of handsome'!"

Jiang Que sat not far behind Song Yecheng, listening to Xu Miao's words and looking at Song Yecheng's makeup in the mirror. He had to admit that although her description was not so accurate, the stages were still clearly divided.

If Song Yecheng is usually the kind of handsome and elegant with the air of a nobleman, then the makeup he wore when he played Fang Zhishi before was the kind of handsome that concealed his sharpness and made him look approachable.

But now, his skin color was lightened by the white foundation, and contouring was applied on his cheeks and under his brow bones. The deep feeling caused by the shadows made his outline more angular, and with the extra layer of stubble-like gray on his jaw, he looked mature, hard and cold.

He is still handsome, but his handsome temperament is different.

This temperament is somewhat colder and harder than before. Adults may feel that it is a kind of polished and heavy feeling, but children may think it is a bit too serious, so Xu Miao has the feeling that "still handsome, but not as handsome as before".

Jiang Que was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice Song Yecheng had already glanced at him through the mirror: "Teacher Bai?"

"Hmm?" Jiang Que finally came back to his senses.

Song Yecheng said: "What do you think?"

Jiang Que didn't understand what he was asking about "feeling" for a moment, and then he heard Daisy next to him say, "Yeah, what do you think, Teacher Bai? Is this makeup okay now? Will it not make you look haggard enough? Or should I adjust it again?"

Jiang Que stood up and walked behind Song Yecheng. He placed his hands on the back of the chair and carefully examined his makeup in the mirror before answering, "No, it's fine the way it is now. Haggardness can't be expressed with makeup alone; it requires the coordination of facial expressions. Once he gets into the role, his state will be completely different from now, and then the effect will be apparent."

These words were like saying, "Don't worry, he hasn't started acting yet. You'll know how good he is when he starts acting." This made Song Yecheng secretly happy, thinking that he was quite confident in my acting skills.

Daisy said "Oh" in a confused manner, but her expression didn't seem to confirm it. Seeing this, Song Yecheng smiled teasingly, as if to prove Jiang Que's words, and snapped his fingers casually: "Come, I'll perform a magic trick for you."

Before Daisy could ask what magic trick it was, she saw Song Yecheng had already closed his eyes in front of the mirror.

Three seconds later.

Song Yecheng gently raised his eyelids, but did not open them completely. As if out of strength, he only raised them to about four-fifths. The spirit in his eyes had mostly dissipated, leaving only traces of disappointment and dejection.

At that moment, the air in the entire dressing room seemed to suddenly stop, and Daisy, who was closest to him, couldn't help but hold her breath.

But that’s not all.

Apart from the emotions in his eyes, Song Yecheng's brows were naturally lowered, and his lips were slightly parted, as if every muscle on his face had relaxed, leaving only his jawbone, which was wrapped in his cheeks, with obvious sharp lines.

In just a few seconds, he brought everyone in the room into a solemn, oppressive and confused atmosphere. It felt like a huge rock was pressing on their chest, slowly robbing them of their remaining breath.

Just as they were gradually immersed in this atmosphere and almost couldn't help but speak to comfort him, Song Yecheng suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled, and all his spirits returned in an instant: "How is it, are you relieved now?"

Daisy clapped her hands vigorously as if waking from a dream, then took a long breath and covered her chest. "Oh my God, I almost couldn't breathe just now! How can this be magic? This is simply witchcraft! I feel like makeup is unnecessary now. I can even take it all off for you!"

This exaggerated statement did not make Song Yecheng feel embarrassed at all. After all, he did not dare to talk about other things, but when it came to acting, he had never been inferior.

However, he did not respond to the conversation. Instead, he turned his gaze and looked at Jiang Que in the mirror. His eyes sparkled like a peacock spreading its tail, and four large characters were written on the screen -

I'm awesome, right?

Jiang Que was almost amused by this look, and he managed to suppress the upturned corners of his lips, but he couldn't hold back the smile hidden in his eyes, and it overflowed from the corners of his eyes without him noticing, and was then caught exactly by Song Yecheng in the mirror.

After the makeup was completely done, all the actors and staff went down to the second-floor bedroom and made their own preparations for the upcoming filming.

The turning point of "Searching for the Light" occurs after the company transfer incident.

After leaving Fang Qiao's room that night, Fang Zhi had completely given up the idea of ​​taking her to transfer schools. He didn't even mention it to Qiao Min. The next day at work, he directly replied to his leader and politely declined the transfer arrangement.

He just put this little incident, which was not a big deal, behind him, and his life soon returned to normal. He went to work, came home from get off work, bought groceries and cooked, and picked up his daughter from school. Although it was not very exciting, it was peaceful and warm, just like before.

However, just when he thought his life would continue to be stable, fate played a huge joke on him.

It was a weekend afternoon.

Fang Zhi and Qiao Min were both working overtime in their respective companies. Fang Qiao was originally taking her painting class at the Children's Palace, but unexpectedly the teacher had to end the class early due to something urgent. She then went to Qiao Min's company near the Children's Palace and prepared to wait for her to get off work and go home together.

Qiao Min's job is model house decoration design. That day she happened to be going to a new real estate project to do data statistics before the design. Seeing Fang Qiao coming, she took her to the destination and planned to go home directly after work.

The accident happened in the new building.

Just as Qiao Min and his colleagues were busy with the surveying of the model house, Fang Qiao, who was playing alone nearby, fell from the eighth-floor balcony which had not yet been completely enclosed and died on the spot.

This sudden misfortune was like a bolt from the blue, shattering his once peaceful life. The excruciating pain and heavy blow made Fang Zhi, who was originally full of hope for the future, emaciated and haggard in just a few days.

Late at night, in the pink-decorated children's room.

The dim light from the bedside lamp barely covered a corner of the bed, and in the corner of the room, where the dim light could not reach, Fang Zhi, wearing a shirt that he hadn't changed for a long time, sat against the wall with one leg bent, staring down at the photo frame in his hand.

The ashtray next to him was filled with dirty cigarette butts, his wrinkled shirt hung askew on his body, he hadn't shaved for a long time, his pale and thin face made the bloodshot eyes look as if they were about to bleed.

In the photo frame, the background is a huge roller coaster in the amusement park. Fang Qiao, who is being carried on a "palanquin" made of their hands by Fang Zhi and Qiao Min, is wearing a pointed colorful wizard hat, holding a pink marshmallow, and smiling like a newly bloomed sunflower.

Fang Zhi stared at the brilliant smile, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily curved slightly along with hers, but the arc was quickly drowned out by the sudden pain, and it froze coldly and stiffly at the lips.

The tightening of his heart brought an intense feeling of numbness, which suddenly condensed the mist in his red eyes. He could no longer suppress his emotions and leaned his head against the wall. He choked and closed his eyes, and let out a breath of hot, foul air with intermittent and trembling breaths.

This was the umpteenth night that he had stayed alone in Fang Qiao's room. From the moment he learned the bad news, his whole world seemed to have fallen into a bottomless whirlpool, with everything upside down and in chaos.

Time seemed to last only a few short days, yet it also seemed to be endless.

The endless pain transformed into a quagmire of sadness. The blood-red claws that stretched out from the quagmire strangled his throat like vines and entangled his body, determined to keep him at the bottom of the quagmire and sink into the endless darkness.

He and Qiao Min hadn't spoken a word to each other since the funeral. It wasn't because of blame or anger, but because he suddenly didn't know how to face the person he used to talk to about everything.

And Qiao Min seemed to understand what he meant, and she kept the same silence as him, staying alone in the master bedroom for countless days and nights.

The two door panels separated two worlds, two worlds that were both heavy and gloomy, both similar and different.

The alarm clock on the bedside table ticked softly.

The second hand gently sweeps across the seconds, blurring the boundary between reality and illusion bit by bit.

After an unknown amount of time, Fang Zhi's stiff back finally relaxed. He kept leaning his head against the wall and fell into a daze of half sleep and half wakefulness.

quiet.

Very quiet.

Even the ticking of the second hand has disappeared.

"dad……"

The real and illusory call reached my ears, seeming ethereal and distant in the silent room.

"dad……"

Fang Zhi opened his eyes in confusion. After seeing his daughter's figure gradually emerging in the dim light, he was stunned for a second or two. Then, his eyes flashed with disbelief and surprise: "Qiao Qiao?"

"Dad," Fang Qiao stood in the middle of the room, his smile as bright as in the photo, "Did you miss me?"

"Qiao Qiao, what's wrong with you..." Fang Zhi was almost incoherent. He immediately bent his legs and tried to stand up, but the numbness from maintaining the same sitting position for a long time made him feel a little out of control from his torso to his limbs. Just when he was halfway up, his legs slipped to the side. He barely managed to support himself on the ground with his hands to avoid falling down.

But at this moment, he could no longer care about many things. He used his hands and feet to prop up his body in this awkward posture, and almost staggered to get up.

However, as soon as he stood up straight and raised his head, before he could get close to his daughter, he saw a streak of bright red slowly seeping out from the corner of his daughter's forehead and flowing straight down along her temples.

As the blood fell, the daughter's smiling face gradually turned colder, and then became numb and indifferent. There was almost a hint of cold resentment in her eyes: "Dad, why don't you want that lamp?"

Before she finished speaking, more blood oozed out from her head, ears, and even eye sockets. Like venomous snakes, it slid across her tender cheeks, weaving a terrifying blood-red spider web on her face. "Why won't you save me?"

Sen Han's questioning was as sharp as an ice spike, freezing Fang Zhi in his tracks. He just stared blankly at his daughter's face, which was gradually covered in blood. After a long while, he hurriedly took two steps forward as if awakened. "No, no, Qiao Qiao, Daddy didn't refuse—"

The voice stopped abruptly.

Because there was no one in front of me.

"Qiao Qiao?" Fang Zhi called her name in surprise, then looked around the room in panic, his steps becoming disorderly and chaotic, "Qiao Qiao...Qiao Qiao?!"

There was no response at all.

The air around seemed to be frozen in an instant, filled with deathly silence.

At this moment, a mocking old laugh suddenly came from behind.

Fang Zhi seemed to have a premonition of something, and turned around like lightning, only to see that another person had replaced Fang Qiao's standing place - the fortune teller he had only met once!

The old man was still wearing the clothes he wore on the overpass that day, holding the lotus lantern that Fang Zhi had ruthlessly rejected. His face was full of undisguised mockery and pity: "I told you, young man, you will regret this."

Fang Zhi's pupils trembled violently, and then he roared in anger: "Where did you take Qiao Qiao?!"

The old man snorted ironically.

Fang Zhi rushed forward frantically: "Give her back to me!"

Just when he was about to catch the old man, the old man disappeared in an instant, leaving Fang Zhi empty-handed.

Laughter rang out from behind him. Fang Zhi stopped in his tracks, turned around and pounced again: "Did you hear that? Give her back to me!"

The old man's unbridled laughter echoed throughout the room.

Whenever Fang Zhi was about to pounce on him, he would disappear in the blink of an eye and then reappear in another corner, making Fang Zhi's repeated futile attacks seem both embarrassing and ridiculous.

"Give her back to me...Give her back to me!"

Fang Zhi shouted nervously over and over again, sometimes muttering and sometimes roaring, rushing around like a trapped beast, but the only response he got was the merciless ridicule lingering in his ears.

“Hahahaha, hahahaha…”

Just as the laughter grew louder and louder, piercing enough to burst the eardrums, the whole world suddenly spun around.

Boom!

Fang Zhi, who was sitting by the wall, hit his head hard against the wall, making a loud noise. Then he suddenly woke up, his chest heaving violently, and he took several deep breaths in rapid succession. Finally, he returned to reality from that strange and terrifying nightmare.

As his pounding heart gradually calmed down and his heavy breathing gradually subsided, the entire room fell into silence again, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

However, in this silence, he looked at the empty room before him, thinking of the petite figure that no longer existed like a mirage, and suddenly realized that reality was even more cruel than the nightmare -

A sober cruelty that leaves no trace or room for maneuver.

A deep sorrow surged from the bottom of the heart, carrying with it self-blame, regret, pain and countless heavy emotions, spreading to every part of the body, and then breaking one's heart.

He slowly bent down and buried his head in his elbows like an ostrich unwilling to face reality. His fists were clenched tightly, veins bulging, and he trembled, collapsed, and cried silently.

“Cut.”

I don’t know if it’s because the atmosphere is too depressing, but Zhuang Yan’s voice when he called for a halt was much lower than usual.

Song Yecheng was still sitting by the wall with his head buried. The others were also still immersed in sadness. Some of them even had red eyes and were about to burst into tears.

Jiang Que's heart also felt like it was being pressed down by a huge rock, so heavy that he almost suffocated. He lowered his head and breathed a sigh of relief, and finally he slowly relieved the pressure.

After feeling a little relieved, he raised his head again. Just when he wanted to go over and talk to Song Yecheng to help him calm down, he saw Song Yecheng had already put one hand on the ground, jumped up nimbly, strode to the side of the field, picked up Xu Miao, and spun around in a big circle: "It's finished, little darling! Are you happy?"

Xu Miao had already gone to the city with Xu Yi to shoot the scene where Fang Qiao fell from the building on the night they were filming the family scene, so this is her last scene in the movie, which means today is the day she finished filming.

It was true that the filming was finished and should be celebrated, but Song Yecheng's shocking change of mood caught everyone off guard. It was as if they were watching a top scholar with a red flower on his chest and a beaming face heading to the Qionglin Banquet riding a fast horse into the funeral procession carrying the coffin.

Xu Miao, who was being held high by him, pouted and looked at him tearfully, as if she was about to cry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Song Yecheng had no sense of being the culprit at all. He was frightened by her expression and quickly squatted down to put her back on the ground. "Did I hurt you?"

Everyone: “…”

No, brother, can you give us a break? Not everyone can interpret schizophrenia as vividly as you do, okay?

Xu Miao finally couldn't stop the car. She whimpered and threw herself over to hug Song Yecheng's neck, sobbing and crying on his shoulder: "You acted... so... badly! It's... so hard... to watch..."

Although she should have been very sad, her messy sentences and aggrieved look were so funny that everyone couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Song Yecheng was also amused by this funny guy and quickly patted her on the back: "Oh, okay, don't cry, don't cry, that's all fake. Look, you've finished filming, right? We even prepared a little surprise for you..."

Jiang Que listened to his gentle and soft words of persuasion, and watched him patiently pat Xu Miao's back. He couldn't help but think of an almost identical scene many, many years ago.

As the images overlapped, a warm current slowly caressed his heart, leaving a gentle aftertaste at the corners of his lips and eyes.

The atmosphere became lively again.

Although Xu Miao was only a child actor and her role was actually very small, the crew still prepared a bouquet and a cake for her in a proper manner - pink baby's breath and a cute cartoon-style fruit chocolate cake.

Everyone joined in the fun and gave her a brief wrap-up party in the villa. They took photos with her, ate cake with her, and gave her many small gifts.

After she was picked up by her mother, Zhuang Yan asked Song Yecheng to shoot two more medium shots of him alone. It was not until late at night that they finished shooting and were ready to call it a day.

Douzi was talking to Song Yecheng about something. Jiang Que took out his cell phone and checked the time, and found that it was almost ten o'clock.

At this moment, a WeChat message popped up on the silent phone screen.

Jiang Que took a quick look and was stunned:

He Jingsheng: It's the end of April, bro! When will you be back?