The makeup artist was taken aback when Ji Hengyun suddenly burst into laughter after she finished speaking, and wondered if she had said something wrong.
Although everyone says Ji Hengyun has a good temper and is approachable, no one in the industry dares to underestimate him once he reaches a certain level.
Ji Hengyun naturally noticed the makeup artist's unease in the mirror, and he waved his hand, "I just think it's very interesting."
Seeing that he wasn't angry and even had an uncontrollable smile on his face, the makeup artist guessed that she had also said something wrong, so she softened her expression as well. "Is this someone that Teacher Ji knows?"
“Not familiar with it,” Ji Hengyun said, as he looked down and opened the script.
The makeup artist knew that this meant the other party didn't want to continue the conversation, so she quickened her pace.
...
Cen Yu, wearing a long down jacket, arrived at the card and chess room that the film crew had found.
The interior decorations were all modified according to Gu Hanyin's wishes. When Cen Yu arrived, the extras were already sitting in the chess and card room. They were mostly local villagers, with a few young people occasionally in the room.
For them, being able to play cards, earn money, and watch movies being filmed was naturally a good job.
When Cen Yu arrived, Gu Hanyin was standing to the side, seemingly lost in thought. She greeted him upon seeing him.
Cen Yu handed her down jacket to Xie Jinshen, revealing the clothes underneath.
Perhaps because it was indoors, Qian Aige was wearing a sweater, a plain style, with frayed cuffs.
His hair was somewhat dull and dry, with black hair growing out on top, the ends of which were straw-like, and the top of his head had an oily sheen from not washing it for several days—the hairstylist had just done it specially—Cen Yu looked down at himself, "Is it okay?"
Gu Hanyin spoke even less than usual on set.
He was wearing gloves, whether from the cold or simply because he didn't want to come into contact with anything else, I don't know.
“Okay,” Gu Hanyin said.
Then Cen Yu entered the film set. Gu Hanyin watched the scene on the monitor in the distance. At his signal, Cen Yu's first scene after joining the crew began.
...
Cen Yu sat in the chair, touching the mahjong tiles with one hand and taking out a cigarette case from his pocket with the other.
He deliberately threw the cigarette pack on the chess and card table.
Several young men nearby saw this and immediately said—
"Brother Qian, have you struck it rich?" a man with a buzz cut said. "He's even smoking cigarettes now."
Cen Yu casually took a cigarette from the pack and put it in his mouth.
He stepped onto a stool, took out a match from his pocket, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, shook the match, and threw the burnt-out match on the floor of the card room.
He coughed a few times, then cleared his throat. "Stop dawdling, if you want one, take it yourself."
He took a deep drag on his cigarette before saying, "I've recently set my sights on a fat sheep."
The three people at the table each took a cigarette. Cen Yu watched their actions, his brows furrowed, clearly looking pained. But Qian Aige, who was used to pretending, obviously liked to be generous even when he was poor. He waited until the other three took their cigarettes and the four of them started puffing away on the table before Cen Yu put the pack of cigarettes back on his right.
"What fat sheep?" the crew-cut man asked again.
"You don't know?" The speaker was a skinny man wearing glasses. "A few days ago, a businessman came to the billiard hall." He coughed and spat on the ground. "He started with this many bets."
He gestured with five fingers.
"So generous?" The man with the buzz cut took a deep drag of his cigarette, then looked at Cen Yu. "I remember your sister-in-law is in that pool hall?"
When Cen Yu heard Lin Meili's name, his expression became slightly uncomfortable.
He sat with one foot on the chair, his legs bent. "What sister-in-law? Just for fun," he said nonchalantly, then squinted and said, "I think that old man has his eye on Lin Meili."
"What the hell?" he cursed. "He slipped me a five-dollar tip just for playing pool? Who does he think he is, some kind of foreigner?"
The remaining three people exchanged glances.
Everyone here knows that besides selling pirated DVDs, Qian Aige also does honey trap scams with Lin Meili.
However, there weren't many people in this county town, and over time, the only people who could be fooled by these two were easy targets from out of town.
Because of its natural resources, this county town occasionally attracts business people—Qian Aige and Lin Meili's target is this group of business people.
"I'm not talking about it anymore, it's bad luck." Cen Yu slammed his hand on the table, put his legs off the chair, and looked annoyed with a cigarette in his mouth. Then he casually put the cigarette on his right side into his pocket.
"Playing cards, playing cards."
...
That's how the first scene ended.
It went relatively smoothly for Cen Yu, but as he sat in the chair, he didn't hear Gu Hanyin say "OK." He glanced at Gu Hanyin in the distance with a sense of unease.
Sure enough, Gu Hanyin's voice came from the loudspeaker, "One more take."
The three people he acted with were not actors; they were all found from the neighborhood.
The three of them weren't particularly emotional; after all, those who could say a few lines were paid well... Cen Yu pondered for a moment, but still couldn't understand why it hadn't passed.
Before he could think, the four of them extinguished their cigarettes and threw them on the ground. After all, there were already a lot of cigarette butts on the ground when the card room was decorated.
...
Xie Jinshen held Cen Yu's down jacket and watched him film.
He stood at a spot that was neither too close nor too far, just enough to see all of Cen Yu's expressions. When the first scene failed, he slowly walked behind Gu Hanyin.
Someone noticed that he had sided with Gu Hanyin. It turned out to be Cen Yu's assistant, who was about to reprimand him when Gu Hanyin stopped him.
"Uncle Gu," Xie Jinshen greeted him.
"Hmm," Gu Hanyin replied indifferently, wearing gloves as he looked at Cen Yu on the screen.
From his perspective, he felt that Cen Yu's acting was not bad, but it lacked Qian Aige's fierceness and unpredictable eccentricity. He just felt that Cen Yu could have acted better, and that he was holding back too much and not letting go.
Because he wasn't satisfied, Cen Yu filmed this scene five times.
Because of the constant reshoots, the atmosphere on set became tense... Gu Hanyin wasn't the kind of director who would yell at the actors on set; he would just quietly look at you and say, "Let's do it again."
But this can bring a sense of oppression and suffocation even more than cursing.
Even the three people acting alongside Cen Yu felt uncomfortable... They cautiously observed Cen Yu's expression.
In their view, a star like Cen Yu, who was asked by the director to reshoot five times, and whose performance was better each time, must have been suppressing his anger when they couldn't see any mistakes.
But Cen Yu didn't react at all.
"This is the last one for today," Gu Hanyin said.
The last message today means that if Gu Hanyin is not satisfied, she will reshoot.
Cen Yu took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and looked at the tiled walls, which had turned yellow from age and the smoke from the card room, the noisy people, and the three people sitting opposite him.
After announcing the start of filming once again, he sat down to play mahjong, but his thoughts had changed again.
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