comfort

After figuring out Xiao Yase's personality, Li Li began to shape her.

Facing the dressing mirror placed by the crew, Li Lai thought of a child with low self-esteem. She would not straighten her back, but hunched over to reduce her presence. She did not dare to look at others when speaking, but because of jealousy, she would look at people with a raised gaze and look at them from behind.

After having these, I opened the script and added or subtracted according to the plot set by the screenwriter. The script only wrote that she was attached to the third brother, which means that she is very close to people who are good to her.

With a rough idea in mind, Li Li bravely went to find Mu Yan and described his own understanding of "Xiao Yase".

Mu Yan nodded frequently while listening, saying that Li Li was very good at understanding people, and this was exactly the feeling she wanted.

"Well, I'll arrange a time for you and Jing Shengxi to meet with the Peking University professor, and the three of you can study the characters in person based on the script."

Speaking of this, Mu Yan also sighed: "There are big contradictions in Jing Shengxi's performance now. He is too eager to show himself."

Li Li didn't know what Mu Yan meant. She didn't want to respond, but her mouth was faster than her brain. She was eager to know what happened to Jing Shengxi.

"What happened to him?" Realizing that he had lost his composure, Li Li added inexplicably, "I was just asking casually."

"You can't say his performance is bad," Mu Yan said, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "He gave me the feeling that he was trying too hard, trying too hard to appear affectionate."

"Ah?" Li Li didn't quite understand.

"You'll see it when he's filming in a bit. He's using too much force."

Before filming, we have to go through the scenes and rehearse the lines.

Both of them spoke their lines flawlessly and fluently, and with the director's consent, they began filming.

This scene is about Jing Shengxi and Lu Jia meeting unexpectedly on the street. This is out of the surveillance range of the house. The two have a lot to say to each other, but are later reminded by someone next to them that they understand that their current identities cannot go beyond the line.

This scene should be very interesting to shoot, showing the transformation of the identities of Jing Shengxi and Lu Jia.

When the filming officially started, Jing Shengxi walked casually from a distance according to the pre-arranged movement order, and stood in front of a small stall, where he happened to meet Lu Jia who was also shopping.

Jing Shengxi was surprised and delighted to see Lu Jia, and looked at Lu Jia with burning eyes. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a crisp "cut" paused the performance.

Everyone under the camera looked towards the monitor. Mu Yan shook his head with regret: "The performance was too exaggerated. Everyone, please try again."

Jing Shengxi touched his nose, returned to the original position, and started performing again.

After shooting 26 takes, she still couldn't produce a single video that satisfied Mu Yan. She suppressed her anger and told everyone to take a break and relax, while she brought a cup of coffee to Jing Shengxi.

"Chat?"

Inside the RV, Mu Yan showed Jing Shengxi some sample footage.

Jing Shengxi was called away by the director to watch a sample of his performance. He knew in his heart that the director was dissatisfied with his acting skills, and he felt conflicted and ashamed.

"Your acting skills are not certain. You cry when you should cry and laugh when you should laugh, but don't you feel like something is missing?"

Although he did not graduate from a professional college, he put a lot of effort into acting. He hired a professional acting teacher to teach him, and he also studied scripts and wrote biographies of characters.

"If you're a good singer, you can act; if you're a good actor, you can sing. Your achievements and honors in music are unquestionable, but your acting is holding you back a bit."

He did not deny what Mu Yan said. Every time a new drama was aired, he would search the Internet for news about himself.

The reviews were mixed, with some fans praising his improved and delicate acting skills, while some haters said that he acted like a puppet.

The comment I remember most clearly was, "Putting everything aside and just looking at his acting, Jing Shengxi can get 60 out of 100, and even 60 out of 120, because his ceiling is only 60, and he's very stable."

"Nowadays, people categorize acting as experiential, method, and expressionist. You belong to the academic school. You cry when you cry, laugh when you laugh, and when you see your first love, you look at them with lingering eyes and purse your lips."

Mu Yan mercilessly criticized Jing Shengxi's performance and said, "If you were a newcomer, everyone would think your performance was delicate, but you have been in this industry for almost ten years. Ten years is like going from the first grade of elementary school to the first year of high school. The knowledge you learn is completely different."

Jing Shengxi's hands were placed on his legs without any mistakes, and then he took them and crossed them on the table. In fact, it wasn't just Mu Yan who said that he had acting problems. Liang Boshan also mentioned this problem during the break of recording the variety show "Life Star".

"You have so many thoughts in your mind that you want to express, and then you express them all. You originally thought that you would give the audience a perfect performance, but in the end, you don't even know what you are acting."

She pursed her lips in annoyance and bit the dead skin on her lips, but then she remembered that Mu Yan said he often pursed his lips when acting, and she stopped. For a moment, her brain didn't know what to do and she was stunned for four or five seconds.

He found that he no longer had the ability to express himself, as if he was trapped by a transparent glass cover.

"This drama is a platform-based mission drama. If you perform well, it will be the icing on the cake for your career. If you perform poorly, it will not affect your future career."

Mu Yan put the tablet back into his canvas bag. Seeing Jing Shengxi looking devastated, he said something that didn't make him very happy: "Actually, you're a very hard-working actor."

Thank you, these words really didn't comfort Jing Shengxi.

Not wanting to be seen in his embarrassment by other people on the set, Jing Shengxi calmed himself down and prepared to continue studying the script.

Passing by the backstage of the house, I saw a man wearing half-worn and ill-fitting clothes standing there with his head lowered. The first thing that came to my mind was that a paparazzi had sneaked into the theater.

The filming in the theater is a confidential stage, and no photographers are allowed to sneak into the set to leak the plot.

He stepped forward and intended to personally persuade the photographer to leave, but when the other party looked up, Jing Shengxi was slightly surprised.

The original delicate makeup on Li Lai's face was washed off and replaced with a slightly bland makeup. Her hunched back made her look less imposing. She wore a pair of jade bracelets with silver wire on her hands.

"Isn't there anyone doing your makeup? The director said your costume needs to be altered, too." Jing Shengxi thought someone on the crew was taking advantage of Li Li. "Who's your stylist? I'll go find them."

He said that he was going to go find her in a rage, and Li Li tried to pull him back twice but failed.

“No… no.”

"It's not what it's not," Jing Shengxi said, not knowing where the anger came from. "It's understandable that the costumes aren't new, but how come they can't even fit me?"

"This is the appearance feature I designed for the character."

"Ah?" Now it was Jing Shengxi's turn to be confused.

Li Lai explained the ingenuity behind her character design: "My character is an illegitimate daughter, disliked by her elders at home. No one pays special attention to her clothing and appearance, so her rouge and powder are the cheapest. She doesn't dare to wear too much makeup for fear of waste. Her clothes and shoes are also ill-fitting."

Seeing Li Lai designing the appearance for the character, Jing Shengxi felt that he was useless.

Noticing Jing Shengxi's change in mood, Li Li comforted him, "It's okay. It's hard for everyone to get into character and find the feeling. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

"Li Li, to be honest, I don't know how to act now. I can't even say a complete line."

Knowing that Jing Shengxi didn't satisfy Mu Yan after shooting 26 takes, his self-esteem must be very hurt.

Not knowing how to comfort him, I tried to pat his shoulder gently, then patted my own shoulder vigorously, with a righteous look on my face: "Even though we are breaking up now, you will still be able to lean on my shoulder for a while."

This was the trick Li Li often used to comfort Jing Shengxi.

He is too strong-willed. He doesn't react at all when he's tortured into sleep because he can't write a song, when he's scolded by the director during filming, or when he sees bizarre videos made by black fans.

Just hold it in, go against yourself, do extreme things where no one is paying attention, torture yourself to the point of being mentally exhausted and unable to lift a needle to prick yourself, and that's when it's over.

At the worst time, his thighs and arms were covered with needle holes, which were purple and red and scary to look at.

At that time, Li Lai tried every method, including watching him all the time, stopping work to take him on a trip, or throwing away all the sharp objects in the house, but none of these worked.

One day, when I had just thrown away things at home and came home to see the new scars on Jing Shengxi's arms, I felt more heartbroken than angry.

Without complaining, she walked over to him and said, "If you are tired and want to quit, I will support you."

Jing Shengxi, who was already taller than her, leaned his head on her shoulder and replied with a hoarse voice, "I'm too tired."

From then on, Jing Shengxi loved to lean on Li Li's shoulder whenever he had time.

"You already said you broke up, so it's not appropriate to do this." Jing Shengxi smiled forcedly.

"That's right."

Li Li felt distressed when she saw Jing Shengxi's sad expression. She secretly despised herself for being too sanctimonious, but she couldn't help but care about the other person.

"Did the director say that and you feel bad?"

There was no concealment. Perhaps in front of Li Li, all of Jing Shengxi's disguises could be seen.

"I don't understand. I've been filming for so many years, but why haven't I improved at all? I'm still stuck in the same place."

"Didn't our teacher teach us to write a biography? Have you done it yet?"

"I wrote it, but it still turned out badly."

Li Lai carefully analyzed the situation in his mind and came to a very important conclusion: "You have too much work, which interferes with your time to study the script."

Li Lai began counting Jing Shengxi's recent announcements on his fingers. "There's the variety show 'Life Star,' participation in the recording of 'Our Song,' and several business interviews, as well as platform variety shows. These are all exploiting your time. If you can calm down, I believe you will definitely find the feeling of the character soon."

That being said, Jing Shengxi's commercial value is very high now, but there are many things that he can no longer decide. If he is asked to spare time to study the character, the first person who would not agree is his agent.

"Time is money." This is what he often said.