Chapter 105: Charity Performance
Such impromptu performances during filming are not a big problem; the only challenge is testing the reaction of one's co-stars.
Although she knew that she only needed to film a short segment here and didn't even need to act, Li Sishi still moved her hand, which had been lightly kissed at the base of her fingers, slightly, according to the character's description. She ran her hand through the sparse, thick short hair on her body, adding a touch of tenderness and affection to the scene.
Then the director yelled "cut" with satisfaction.
He immediately got up from Li Sishi in the early morning, took the clothes brought by his assistant, and sat on one side of the big bed to put them on, leaving the only bed sheet for Li Sishi as "cover" while he dressed.
Li Sishi lowered her head while changing clothes, avoiding looking at him, in order to calm the flutter in her heart caused by his stunning appearance.
You can vaguely hear Ling Chen getting out of bed to explain his sudden little action to the director. The director praised his improvisation, but still asked the two of them to reshoot for later editing. So Li Sishi simply sat obediently on the bed and waited for the second take to begin.
This time, the script was followed smoothly, and the two tacitly avoided mentioning the unexpected incident in the first take. However, the occasional unintentional eye contact did stir a slight ripple in their hearts.
However, neither of them are the kind of newcomers who can't get out of character and fall in love on set. Although the feelings between the two are complicated and a bit confusing, they will try their best not to delve too deeply into it—because for these rising new generations, they not only don't have the time, but also the opportunity.
The hype surrounding the "golden couple" is meant to create a synergistic effect where one plus one equals more than two. However, if they were to officially announce their relationship, it would likely face a united boycott from many of their male and female fans, which could negatively impact their future career development.
Therefore, for fans who are very concerned about their idol's personal relationships but find it contradictory to accept official announcements, the most common strategy is to keep things ambiguous, leaving everyone guessing while occasionally pairing up and interacting with the idol, thus satisfying both sides.
So, dating is out of the question. He just occasionally stirs up some rumors to generate buzz and barely makes a living...
Of course, Li Sishi actually quite enjoyed this ambiguous situation. It allowed her to find some fun amidst her heavy workload without taking any responsibility, and also to check her charm level. Whether in her past life or this one, she really couldn't change this narcissistic mindset of being overly satisfied with her appearance.
However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing; knowing oneself...
Being beautiful and maintaining one's appearance and charm as much as possible is a key issue in the appearance-obsessed entertainment industry.
Unless it was for filming purposes, she would never admit that she was "plain-looking" and then become a member of the Versailles meme family in later generations. After all, the charm of a beauty comes to some extent from being aware of her own beauty.
Just like a passage she once read in a book: All beautiful women have different appearances and temperaments, which complement and balance each other—a beautiful woman who is arrogant is domineering and loses some charm; a beautiful woman who is self-deprecating loses some grace; a beautiful woman who is humble, even with her head bowed, lacks some spirit... Only a beautiful woman who is self-aware and neither arrogant nor self-deprecating can turn ten parts beauty into twelve parts charm, making people infatuated and captivated.
After a short rest, Li Sishi was already back to work. She put aside the textbooks she carried with her to study in her spare time and walked into the kitchen set, which had been changed, full of energy, ready to film scenes of the daily lives of the male and female leads.
This is even simpler: in one scene, she pretends to cook while Lingchen sits quietly watching; and in another scene, the male lead, played by Lingchen, hugs her from behind, acting like an affectionate couple.
After filming the scenes where she stays by the injured male lead's bedside and rescues the battle-damaged male lead in the church set in the early morning, the scenes were basically finished, and she could leave.
In the early hours of the morning, he still had to stay in the film crew of this commercial and suffer through filming those few scenes of dialogue and action for the male lead, as well as the scene in the plot where he was captured by the villain because he didn't have a pass to escape on the helicopter, and then locked in a dark room and whipped...
I wonder what he thinks about this.
Anyway, Li Sishi felt that this kind of scene of being beaten in a dark room would probably suit the tastes of many people. The handsome guy who was tortured and covered in wounds would definitely evoke the sympathy of many viewers and then translate into a large number of views and sales.
Li Sishi calmly reviewed her textbooks, memorized lyrics and sheet music, and occasionally studied scripts and plays. She also squeezed in time to attend classes and accumulate credits. These past few days have been so busy and fulfilling.
In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed, and we've arrived at the last month of the year, when the weather is getting colder and colder.
The drama "Mr. Morning" is now nearing its end. Thanks to the efforts of the male and female leads, the male and female supporting characters, and a group of other actors, all the teachers and students of Band 3 Middle School in the drama are preparing for the upcoming college entrance examination.
It was precisely at this crucial moment that the male protagonist, Li Tiansheng, infiltrated Zeng Dingbaosu's school as an undercover agent.
Mr. Zeng, the school board member who was auditing the accounts, no longer paid much attention to the accounts that Li Tiansheng had almost finished checking, and told him that no matter how hard the school tried to turn things around, it wouldn't make much money.
This will allow him to return to work at the Zeng family's place as soon as possible without having to worry about it.
However, Li Tiansheng, who had developed a sense of responsibility as a "teacher" over the past year, felt somewhat lost and flustered about this long-awaited return.
His confusion stemmed from a change in his work attitude, while his panic arose from sensing something in the words of Mr. Zeng, a member of the school board.
A large plot of land like a school in a prime downtown location could certainly be very profitable—provided that the school is no longer built on it.
The enormous profits have changed Mr. Zeng's original intention to fulfill his parents' last wish, making him forget the lofty ambition he had when he started the school: "I hope everyone can have access to education."
If it were the former top actuary, Li Tiansheng would have already begun calculating the astronomical profits that the land acquired after the school's closure could generate in the future.
Unfortunately, Li Tiansheng was moved by the transformation of the school's teachers and students, who were determined to climb out even when they were stuck in the mud. Therefore, after realizing the truth, he hurriedly brought the news back, hoping to unite all the teachers and students to find a way to change Mr. Zeng's idea of killing the school and turning it into a shopping mall.
The final crisis, which had been built up all along for the grand finale, finally met the audience in front of their televisions, causing many people whose alma maters had been demolished and rebuilt for various reasons to sigh with regret.
While keeping track of the TV series' broadcast schedule, Li Sishi still insisted on practicing singing—the second Saturday of December was the annual "Joyful Celebration in Guanghua" charity performance.
In addition to participating in the charity events organized by the Li Xian Association during the day, she will also perform a classic Cantonese opera excerpt, "The Sword and the Hairpin," with her mentor, Le Yun, at the TVB City Studio 1 stage in the evening to raise funds for this year's charity performance.
Therefore, Li Sishi has been focusing her recent singing practice on mastering the opera style, striving not to disgrace her teacher—and also for her own sake.
These days, there are many older people who listen to and understand opera, and the ones who donate the most money in charity performances are also these elderly philanthropists. Even if the donors don't mind, Li Sishi herself can't accept that her stage performance has fallen too far behind her teacher.
However, fate is unpredictable. Just as Li Sishi was practicing diligently, Le Yun suddenly received a phone call. He then sat down with a troubled expression and said that the performance of "Happy in Guanghua" would be delayed until later that evening.
It seems unlikely that I'll be able to share the stage with her.
Li Sishi listened to Le Yun's explanation with a bewildered look, only to learn that it was because the former powerhouse vocalist Yin Mei intended to return to attend this year's charity performance, so Le Yun decided to accompany her old friend on stage—so she could only sigh inwardly that what goes around comes around...
She temporarily replaced Yin Mei in Project Sun, but now that the main character is back, she will definitely have to give up her place.
However, witnessing the collaboration again between two Cantonese music legends, Lok Wan and Yin Mei, is definitely worthwhile.
The only problem was that her partner had dropped out—so Li Sishi turned to her senior, Cheng Erjian, who was practicing singing, and asked, "What are you going to perform this time?"
“I’m performing the hot coal stomping act with Ah Lok and the others,” Cheng Erjian answered honestly. “Do you want to come? The more people there are, the more lively it will be. The more famous the performer, the more donations will be made.”
Li Sishi looked speechless: "I'll think about it..."
"Honestly, you're tough enough to play this, but your junior sister is delicate and you let her play this too. No wonder you still don't have a girlfriend!" Le Yun said with exasperation, rolling up the sheet music in her hand and hitting Cheng Erjian with it before turning her attention back to Li Sishi.
"Don't worry, your master will definitely not leave you all alone. I'll call Apei right now and have her perform with you."
As she spoke, Le Yun actually picked up the phone again and dialed: "Hello, Pei, it's me, Le Ji..."
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“Yes, yes, Yin Mei is back and I’m going on stage with her, so Ah May won’t have a performance partner for the time being this year. Can you come and help out?” Le Yun listened attentively to the reply from the other side and nodded. “We haven’t practiced much yet. You want to switch up the repertoire, right? Something happier and more cheerful… ‘The Dragon and the Phoenix’? Okay, okay, I’ll talk to Ah May about it.”
"Alright, I've heard you." Li Sishi resignedly put aside the half-finished "Sword and Hairpin" and turned to look for the score of "The Dragon and the Phoenix." "Is it the Huangmei Opera version or the Cantonese Opera version?"
"The Cantonese opera version, the one borrowed from 'Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake'," Yue Yun instructed Li Sishi to take out the sheet music.
"That's alright, I don't have the skill for Huangmei Opera yet..." Li Sishi breathed a sigh of relief and began to look forward to the time when she and Pei Yansang would sing "The Dragon and the Phoenix" together.
As it turned out, when they went to the TV station to practice their scripts, Pei Yansang wasn't the only one there.
“I want to perform with Sally!” Pei Yansang said, holding Ye Shanyun’s hand with one hand and pushing the grinning Shang Hanyou forward with the other. “But I found you someone who just finished a concert and is relatively free. You can perform with him.”
Li Sishi responded with a wry smile and a "okay."
Seeing Li Sishi and Shang Hanyou head towards the prop shelf, Ye Shanyun quietly tugged at Pei Yansang's sleeve: "I didn't realize you actually had the leisure to play matchmaker for someone?"
"Tsk." Pei Yansang waved her hand. "Wasn't I forced into this?"
Ye Shanyun looked confused: "Huh?"
"Ugh, anyway, it's that brat Hanyou who, just because he's two years older than me, always acts like a big brother in front of me all day long..." Pei Yansang pouted, "This time, it's rare that he's taken a liking to such a young girl like Ah May, so of course I have to give him a good talking to!"
"If he really becomes my 'brother-in-law' then, let's see if he still dares to talk big in front of me!"
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