Chapter 27
Chapter 20
"Cut! Jiang Li, what's wrong with you? I meant you needed to have some reaction, not to keep getting aroused!" Director Liu scolded, his brows furrowed. His gaze swept over the male lead's lower abdomen, his face full of reproach.
Jiang Li covered his erect penis with his hand, smiled awkwardly, cupped his hands to the staff present, and apologized repeatedly: "I'm sorry, I flew here overnight and I'm not well-rested. Director Liu told me to rest for fifteen minutes so I can get back into shape."
Is it due to lack of sleep?
I think you've been sleeping too much; it's become a conditioned reflex!
Director Liu grumbled inwardly, but could only put on a helpless expression on his face and waved his hand impatiently: "Go, go, go and rest. I'll have a stunt double come over and film all the close-ups in this scene with Hu Lili."
Director Liu's filming habit is to call all the actors by the names of the characters they play during filming.
Now, what he's implying is that he wants to change the way he shoots.
Originally, the male protagonist Jiang Li, the clan leader, and Hu Lili were in the same scene and situation at the same time, with Hu Lili dancing wildly.
But since the male lead is taking a break, the clan leader doesn't need to sit there and pose awkwardly. When he's just a background figure, he can relax a bit.
Director Liu went over to the cameraman, rewound the footage, and looked it over again, but couldn't find anything wrong with it.
The backup dancers were technically superb; the challenge was during filming. Even the backup dancers' micro-expression handling was far better than the male lead's.
Jiang Mingyue seemed to be possessed by a fox spirit, perfectly embodying the keyword "allure".
Director Liu glanced at Jiang Mingyue again, puzzled. His thick eyebrows gradually gathered together. This girl's expressions were full of detail from beginning to end. In any scene with her, even if the male lead occupied more space in the whole scene, the audience's attention would still be drawn to "Hu Lili".
Director Liu has seen actors with the ability to capture the audience's attention, but even among actors who have won Best Actor and Best Actress awards, those who truly possess this ability are extremely rare.
Not only did the production team strike it rich, but Director Liu also knew that he would definitely have a line in Jiang Mingyue's personal profile that read "the talent scout who discovered a genius"!
Director Liu nodded in satisfaction, his gaze towards the camera becoming increasingly gentle.
Holding up a megaphone, he cheerfully instructed Jiang Mingyue: "Lili, you danced very well just now, do it again. Keep the emotions as high as possible, and pay attention to your facial expressions."
“Remember, you’ve already accepted your pretense in human society, and you think that roasted meat, stewed chicken, rice and flour cakes are delicious. You want to keep this kind of life where you can eat different dishes every day, so you’re trying to seduce Jiang Li, not by hunting men’s essence as a vixen.”
The ancients said that "food" and "sex" are the greatest desires of humankind.
Actors' expressions of these two points are actually quite similar, or rather, even actors famous for their acting skills rarely manage to portray these two basic human desires in a significantly different way.
Director Liu has now set a requirement for Jiang Mingyue that is theoretically far beyond the capabilities of a newcomer in the entertainment industry, but Jiang Mingyue has not pointed out the unreasonableness of this requirement.
In fact, she felt that Director Liu was just greedy and didn't realize how terrible his words were.
However, this was not a challenge for Jiang Mingyue, who had spent more than a decade of her acting career portraying lust.
She has played so many roles, including stunningly beautiful courtesans, wicked women who ruin families, and treacherous concubines who bring disaster to the country. In fact, she has played the same type of role more than once or twice. If there is no difference between those roles, how can she ensure that she will not be replaced by newcomers?
The role of Hu Lili may be challenging for young actresses of this age, but it is precisely Jiang Mingyue's domain.
She smiled and nodded in agreement: "Okay, I'll give it a try."
*
Look at me, you'll like me.
The flames I ignited in your eyes have already been set ablaze, and I've seen the reaction in your body.
I knew no man could escape my grasp.
Hu Lili smiled smugly, her eyes brimming with self-affirmation of her charm, an emotion that made her shine even brighter.
...But, are human men really that easily aroused?
Even the taste has changed.
A faint fishy smell entered Hu Lili's nasal cavity. She twitched her nose and quickly figured out what the smell was.
The pride and joy of completing the clan chief's task were replaced by a deeper desire, and Hu Lili felt a strange thirst rising in her throat.
Her eyes suddenly became extremely blank, not understanding what she was craving, but a hunger arose in her gaze as she stared at the male protagonist. This intense and sudden emotion made her involuntarily stick out her tongue and repeatedly brush her red lips with the tip of her tongue.
No, that shouldn't be the case.
If she eats this human man, she will no longer be able to protect the tribe; her only task is to seduce him!
Hu Lili nervously turned her gaze, and saw a roasted lamb leg still with traces of blood on the table and a whole chicken roasted to a golden brown.
Hu Lili took a deep breath—fruitwood, honey, sesame seeds, cumin, salt, sizzling fat, pink lean meat still oozing tender juices, and the already shriveled skin.
The aroma of the food filled Hu Lili's chest, its rich layers stimulating her true appetite.
Her gaze returned to Jiang Li with lustful intent as she looked at a man.
To avoid any inappropriate emotional fluctuations, Hu Lili leaned forward, hugged Jiang Li tightly, rested her head on his back, and ran her hands along Jiang Li's strong waist and abdomen, squeezing the man's full muscles through the fabric.
What a wonderful feel to it! She could already imagine the tiny scars that might be on Jiang Li's smooth, honey-colored abs after he took off his clothes.
Hu Lili's breathing became heavier, and her five tails, propelled by the smell of alcohol, unknowingly emerged and wrapped around Jiang Li's limbs along with her arms, firmly holding the man in place.
She opened her lips and kissed the skin on Jiang Li's neck, feeling the pulsating blood vessels beneath her skin. She knew that the life force throbbing there could bring safety to the entire clan.
"A monster! It's a monster! There's a fox demon! Ahhh—!" The scream broke the increasingly urgent music.
Jiang Li's flaws, revealed by pure sexual attraction, disappeared. His years of experience in slaying demons and monsters allowed him to instantly unleash his magical weapon and shake off the fox demon coiled around him.
Hu Lili cultivated five tails, but she had always lived deep in the mountains and had never fought anyone, nor did she know how to fight or protect herself.
The moment he was knocked away by the Heaven-Splitting Ring and fell, his internal organs were already injured.
Hu Lili struggled to sit up, but the pain instantly overwhelmed her, causing her to fall back to the ground. Her whole body felt like it was being burned by a raging fire, and she involuntarily opened her mouth and vomited blood upon landing.
The intense pain had completely dispelled the confusion caused by drunkenness, and Hu Lili was now fully awake.
She rolled over and lay on all fours, frantically scrambling behind the clan leader. But the middle-aged man who had been smiling and assigning her tasks turned pale, shouting "Monster!" and his legs went weak as he sat in his seat, unable to even run anymore.
"You fiend, instead of surrendering, you dare to take hostages—you shall die!"
A blinding light flashed behind Jiang Li, and the giant sword instantly split into countless golden light swords, slashing down at Hu Lili from all directions.
The giant sword did not harm the clan leader in the slightest, but it severed Hu Lili's two tails. She collapsed to the ground in an instant, twitching and shrinking until she finally reverted to her original fox form.
The fox let out a terrified and hateful screech, frantically dug into the soil under the tent, and fled in a sorry state.
"Cut! Good!" Director Liu called out with satisfaction.
After reviewing the footage, I had Jiang Mingyue go back and do a few more close-ups in specific locations. Then I said to her, "Alright, go get your lunchbox first. Bring it back and eat it here. Watching the filming process will do you good."
"Jiang Li, come here and fill in the few scenes where you're on screen. There's another scene tonight where you're supposed to chase after a fox demon, but the chieftain stops you, probably because he's afraid it's a diversionary tactic and the tribe will retaliate if you leave."
The plot is described in detail, but many of the scenes cannot be filmed in one take.
It took Jiang Mingyue two whole hours to finish all the close-ups of this scene. Director Liu even told her not to take off her costume yet and to bring her food back to eat, so that she could go up and be the background for the male lead if needed for additional shots.
Logically speaking, after such a long time, even if I didn't sleep at all last night, I should have been able to get a good night's sleep.
However, after the male lead returned, he filmed this scene very poorly.
Jiang Mingyue sat to one side with her lunchbox in her hand, knowing that the scene could be completed "smoothly" not because the male lead had adjusted his condition after resting, but because he had carelessly given all the highlights to Jiang Mingyue.
But just as Jiang Mingyue knew before joining the crew, the third female lead, Hu Lili, had very little screen time, so all the scenes related to Hu Lili wouldn't be affected even if the male lead wasn't attentive.
Jiang Mingyue just didn't understand...
She had such a great opportunity to play the lead role, something she longed for but couldn't have in her past life, and now, on her first time in this life, she was watching people being abused.
Even if you really can't act well, can't you try harder and persevere a little longer? In this scene, the male lead definitely had room to perform!
But now, Jiang Mingyue knows clearly that as soon as "Seven Stars in a Row" airs, all viewers who see this segment will clearly feel what "suppressing the scene" means.
Perhaps she was thinking too much, because Jiang Mingyue stared at the male lead for quite a long time, and didn't look away until Director Liu yelled "Cut".
The male lead walked up to Jiang Mingyue, brushed his bangs aside, and smiled confidently, "Jiang Mingyue, you've been looking at me the whole time. Are you a fan? I have one more scene to film, but it won't be long. We're staying on the same floor, so why don't you come to my room for something tonight? The crew's boxed lunches are too greasy."
The male lead, Sang Zhuo, is a popular idol who came from a talent show. He is known as a singer-songwriter who can write and sing, but his company has released an entire album without a single original song.
This album was rarely sung outside the public, and almost no casual listeners had heard of it, so its sales performance was naturally not good.
The company found that he wasn't making money from singing, so they switched to having Sang Tiao, who had a decent appearance, act instead.
After a period of acting training, Sang Zhuo's acting skills were surprisingly good enough to be able to handle acting in idol dramas.
Thus, he became the male lead of "Seven Stars Alignment" by taking on all the opening and closing credits and the soundtrack.
Jiang Mingyue snapped out of her reverie and looked at the male lead's appearance, a smile creeping onto her face.
They've arrived.
The "nighttime invitation," which had been played out countless times on various film sets, has appeared.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
