Chapter 20

The morning light of Xiangbei Film City, carrying the scent of earth and fresh wood, filtered through the gaps in the blinds of the temporary dormitory, casting a slender spot of light on Liu Yifan's face.

She woke up earlier than usual. Every detail of Zhou Ping'an's sudden visit and quiet departure last night was clearly displayed in her mind, like an image under a high-precision scanner.

This is not a ripple of emotion, but professional acumen - a top-level "sensor" captures a rare and high-value "signal".

At nine o'clock in the morning, Lin Na and Chen Feng were worrying about the four big words "saturated shooting" on the whiteboard. The theory was established, but how to "saturate" specifically and how to transform the abstract concept into executable shots were still difficult problems.

Liu Yifan pushed the door open and came in. Without any greetings, he got straight to the point, as if submitting a crucial reconnaissance report.

"Around 9 PM last night, Zhou Ping'an arrived alone at the unpaved open space in the southwest corner of the cinema. He was wearing a dark, unmarked jacket that blended seamlessly into the night. His behavior was that he stood still and observed for about two minutes, his focus being an antique lantern being adjusted high up. He acted like a complete bystander, not interacting with any of the workers."

She paused, making sure the information was correct.

"After contacting me, the core of the conversation was threefold: First, confirming the effectiveness of night rehearsals, 'Rehearsing at night? Looking for a different light experience?' Second, raising a key situational question, 'Would you feel lonely standing up there?' Third, clarifying the motive for the visit—correcting the relationship progress and avoiding the public perception bias of 'woman chasing man'."

Lin Na's eyes changed instantly, from tired to hunter-like focus. She had no interest in analyzing Zhou Ping'an's inner thoughts; her focus was entirely on "filmability."

"Standing still and observing... a bystander..." she muttered, quickly walking to the whiteboard and drawing a small figure standing in a huge shadow. "A shot: a solitary gazer in the shadow of the royal city. He doesn't participate in the construction, he merely inspects it. This sense of 'alienation' is the keynote of King You of Zhou as he approaches his own crazy project."

Chen Feng immediately followed suit, excitedly tapping away on his notebook. "This motivation is a gold mine! 'Correcting the relationship'—this could lead to a series of 'performative' interactions! For example, did King You of Zhou deliberately arrange a seemingly accidental encounter to maintain a certain 'respectability' or 'script'? Or did he sense that Bao Si's indifference might stem from being 'neglected' and thus perform a compensatory 'standard operation'? These are all excellent dramatic scenarios!"

"The key is 'night' and 'unfinished,'" Liu Yifan emphasized, fully embracing the role of "Chief Experience Officer." "He stood in the unfinished royal city, darkness swallowing up the clutter, highlighting only him and the local light and shadow. That feeling... wasn't splendor, but a vast emptiness brimming with possibility. This, more than any resplendent finished palace, embodies the emptiness and oppression of power."

"That's absolutely right!" Lin Na clapped her hands. "'Unfinished' is the key word! This 'state of progress' is what we want to capture! The moment the beacon tower is lit, the long shot of the chaotic deployment of the princes' armies on the road, the texture of the palace beams and pillars that haven't been painted yet... These 'unfinished' textures are more powerful than a perfect ending, and are more in line with the sense of progress of 'performance art'!"

She turned to Chen Feng and spoke quickly: "Write this down! New material collection direction:

The "Gaze from the Shadows" series captures those in power gazing at everything from the shadows, from the margins, or in the background. Zhou Pingan was a prime example last night.

'Performative Interaction' series: Design all characters' seemingly natural but actually deliberate interpersonal interactions for specific purposes, such as maintaining decency, testing reactions, and following a script.

The 'Unfinished Celebration' series focuses on capturing the chaos, haste, imperfection, and sense of ruin behind all the grand scenes. It juxtaposes the processes of 'construction' and 'collapse.'

Chen Feng wrote furiously, his face lit with excitement as if he had suddenly realized something. "I see! This way, we have a specific path for achieving 'saturation'! It's no longer just aimless shooting, but a targeted capture of these tense 'states' and 'processes'!"

Liu Yifan watched the two people instantly ignite, and the vague personal feelings in her heart were completely replaced by professional excitement. She successfully transformed a night visit into high-quality "creative parameters" that the entire team could use.

"Well," she began calmly, "in the next phase, I will continue to observe and 'trigger' more of these 'performative interactions' to provide more diverse samples for 'saturation photography'."

Her mission is clear and specific: she is not only an actor, but also a pioneer who goes deep into the front line of this grand "saturation shooting" operation, responsible for bringing back the most critical intelligence and inspiration.

After Liu Yifan finished speaking, silence fell over the room. She expected another heated discussion about Zhou Ping'an's motives, but instead, Lin Na simply stared at her quietly, her gaze penetrating, as if to penetrate her calm demeanor and get to the heart of her matter.

After several seconds, Lin Na slowly spoke. Her voice was not loud, but it was like a precise scalpel, cutting directly into the most sensitive area: "You repeated it very clearly, and every detail was in place."

"But, Yifan," she leaned forward slightly, her gaze locked with Liu Yifan's eyes, which were trying to remain calm. "What I want to know is not what he did or said. What I want to know is, when he stood there in the night, when you heard him say, 'It's not appropriate to have you running around alone all the time,' when he stood in the audience, looked up at you and asked, 'Will you feel lonely?' - how did you feel, Liu Yifan, at that moment?"

The question was so direct, so personal, that the professional composure on Liu Yifan's face froze for a fraction of a second. Then she tried to rebuild her defenses with a slight shrug and faster speech: "As an actor, it's necessary to experience loneliness in that environment..."

"No," Lin Na interrupted her mercilessly, her tone even carrying a hint of undeniable harshness. "I'm not asking about Bao Si. I'm asking you. Strip away all the roles and scripts. At that moment, your heartbeat, your breathing, the temperature of your skin, did your throat tighten for a moment? Tell me, as a person, as a woman, how you felt at that moment."

Chen Feng also held his breath, realizing that Lin Na was trying to open a more valuable and dangerous treasure.

Liu Yifan was stunned by the question. She opened her mouth, and those feelings that had been forcibly suppressed by reason, classified as "useless emotions," now surged under Lin Na's gaze. She felt the panic of being examined nakedly, and also the hidden temptation of being allowed to face her own weaknesses.

She took a deep breath, her fingertips unconsciously curled up, and finally gave up all her defenses. Her voice trembled with an imperceptible tremor: "I... I feel... very exposed."

As soon as the word came out, it was as if the floodgates had opened.

"He stood there, so quiet, as quiet as a part of the night itself. The way he looked at me... wasn't like he was looking at a partner, or even a woman he 'admired.' It was more like... an inspection. Inspection of a work he had put so much effort into, and how it would turn out under that special light."

Her speech quickened, a kind of cathartic pain emanating from her voice. "He said that, 'not quite right'... He sounded like he was thinking of me, but it felt like a cold calculation. He was adjusting a parameter to make the entire system run more in line with his logic."

She paused, her voice lowering as she recalled the question: "He asked me, 'Will you be lonely?' ... At that moment, I suddenly wanted to laugh and cry. I stood on that cold, unfinished platform, surrounded by immense darkness, and he stood in the shadows below. The feeling of loneliness was real and piercing.

But what made me even more uncomfortable was the tone in his voice when he asked this question. It was so calm, so... curious. As if my loneliness was just another data point he needed to understand to complete his construction of "Bao Si."

Liu Yifan raised his head, a thin layer of water in his eyes, but beneath that light was a burning, complex fire. "I feel like... a sacrifice. Placed on the altar, even my feelings and pain have become part of this 'art'. I hate this feeling, this feeling of being completely seen through and completely objectified! But at the same time..."

She choked and admitted with difficulty, "But at the same time, I couldn't help but feel a kind of... fatal attraction. Because only under this extreme, suffocating pressure can I seem to touch the deepest, cold core of Bao Si's soul."

You could hear a pin drop in the studio. Liu Yifan's frankness was like a small storm, sweeping over everyone.

Chen Feng looked at her in shock, as if truly getting to know his longtime collaborator for the first time. Lin Na's expression shifted from stern to one of deep, almost compassionate understanding.

"That's right." Lin Na's voice was unusually soft, yet packed with immense force. "It's this sense of exposure, this pain woven together from the rage of being objectified and the helplessness of being attracted. This is Bao Si's truest, most core emotion when facing King You of Zhou!"

Lin Na walked up to Liu Yifan, placed her hands on her shoulders, her eyes burning. "Remember this feeling, Yifan. Remember it firmly! This is not your weakness, it is your most powerful weapon. Zhou Ping'an used his own way to inadvertently force you into this situation, making you experience Bao Si's soul-wrenching pain.

What we want to film is not a symbolic cold beauty, but a real woman who feels immense pain and anger under the gaze of extreme power, yet cannot break free! "

Liu Yifan's tears finally fell, but her eyes became clear and resolute at that moment. The confusion and struggle she had felt before seemed to be purified and sublimated after she vented her pain.

She understood that the most brutal analysis leads to the most profound empathy, and the emotional storm she had just experienced would become the most authentic and powerful source for her interpretation of Bao Si.

Lin Na's words were like a bolt of lightning, splitting through all the self-protective barriers in Liu Yifan's heart. The stinging feeling of being exposed and objectified, intertwined with a strange and dangerous attraction, formed a scorching experience that almost burned his soul.

"Remembering it isn't enough," Lina said firmly, with the unquestionable command of a director. "Grab it! Right now! When you're overwhelmed by this feeling, pin it down!"

She almost roughly thrust a thick, blank-covered hardcover notebook and a pen into Liu Yifan's hands. "Don't embellish, don't think, just use the most primal words and pour out your feelings! Quick!"

Liu Yifan's fingers trembled slightly as they touched the cold page. She took a deep breath, as if to draw the painful energy that permeated the air into her lungs. She closed her eyes, no longer resisting, letting the complex emotions she had just described wash over her like a tide. Then, she suddenly opened her eyes, leaned over the table, and the tip of her pen scraped across the paper, making a rustling sound at an astonishing speed.

She writes and draws, sometimes words, sometimes twisted lines, completely immersed in an almost instinctive catharsis.

At the same time, Lin Na suddenly turned to the agitated and bewildered Chen Feng, her eyes blazing. "Old Chen! Don't just watch! Strike while the iron is hot! Use her current state and write a scene right now! No complicated plot needed, just one scene, one moment to nail down this 'objectification of being stared at' and this 'icy attraction'! Now! Immediately!"

Chen Feng was startled by Lin Na's roar. He seemed to be struck by lightning. He stood there in a daze, with a light of extreme excitement in his eyes. He muttered to himself: "Acceptance... materialization... cold attraction... That's it! That's it!" Then he rushed to the computer. His fingers were shaking with excitement, but he tapped on the keyboard at an astonishing speed, as if those words had been circling in his mind for a long time, just waiting for an outlet.

Chen Feng typed the last period with a heavy breath, and suddenly looked up at Lin Na and Liu Yifan, who had just put down his pen and was pale.

Lin Na quickly scanned the words on the screen, her eyes gleaming with astonishment. "That's the feeling! 'Cold scale' and 'fatal attraction'! Old Chen, I've got it! This is the moment!"

She looked at the scribbled but powerful words on Liu Yifan's notebook, especially the sentence "Wailing is also material", and nodded heavily.

"Yifan," Lin Na's voice softened, carrying a deep sense of affirmation. "What you just experienced, and what you recorded, is the core tragic power of Bao Si. Maintain this mixture of fragility and sharpness. This scene Chen Feng wrote was prepared for you in this state."

Liu Yifan looked at the words she'd unconsciously scrawled in her notebook, then at the brief yet intense scene on her computer screen. A strange feeling washed over her. Her pain, her struggle, in just a few minutes, had been so quickly and precisely captured and transformed into a concrete, filmable scene.

This process itself also carries an almost cruel artistry. She once again confirmed that she is not only an actor, but also the most direct and painful raw material in this grand creation.

But this time, she didn't feel objectified. Instead, she felt a sense of heroic solidarity. She gently closed the notebook, as if temporarily sealing away the simmering emotions.