Chapter Sixty
——Airport→Hengcheng——
At six o'clock in the morning, Nan You dug Xu Li out of bed.
"It's snowing in Hengdian, a day earlier than predicted. The film crew is rushing to find a location, so they have to be there by 10 a.m.
Xu Li hadn't gone to sleep until 1 a.m. last night, and her eyes were so swollen they were barely open. She didn't say a word, rolled her thick down jacket around herself, and slipped into the elevator in her disposable hotel slippers. In the elevator mirror, she saw a pimple on her chin, its redness starkly prominent.
In the airport VIP lounge, Tan Yuze sent a voice message: "Report that you have landed safely, and don't try to be brave."
The background noise is the crew's shouts of "Make way for the tracks!" He's also working on his project.
Xu Li replied with a "cat nodding" emoji and then turned off her phone.
The flight was delayed by an hour. Outside the window, the wings were covered with a thin layer of frost. She remembered the last time she flew to Hengdian—a few years ago, before she became famous, she was in economy class, and the man next to her slept the whole way with his elbow on her arm.
Now she was the only one left in first class. The flight attendant asked her softly if she wanted a blanket. She shook her head and took out her script from her bag.
Those were the last ten pages of *No Day*:
[Wei Liao (played by her) kneels on the snowy plain, plunges a sword into her collarbone, and the blood flows into the snow, blooming into black plum blossoms.]
She picked up a pen and wrote in the blank space: Blood must be hot, snow must be cold, pain must be real.
When Xu Li actually stood on the outdoor set at minus eight degrees Celsius, she realized just how brutal the "snowfield" in the script was.
The blower slapped ice shards onto my face, instantly freezing my eyelashes into tiny icicles.
The director yells "Action!"
She had to dig the prop sword out of the snow with her bare hands. The moment her fingers touched the metal, the cold felt like needles pricking her fingernails. She shuddered, but didn't stop.
In the footage, her knuckles quickly turned from white to purple, but the blood couldn't clot due to the low temperature, resulting only in swelling.
The first one passed.
The director yelled "Keep it in one take!" She knelt on the spot waiting for the take to be reset. The snow under her knees melted into water and then froze back into ice.
Suddenly, a pair of black down gloves were handed to her. It was the martial arts instructor, who was also Tan Yuze's senior.
“Tan Yuze told me to keep an eye on you, so you don’t actually freeze to death.” Xu Li laughed, her teeth chattering: “He’s really meddling.”
The temperature in the studio was forty degrees Celsius. She was wearing three layers of thick armor and filming the scene where "Wei Liao" was burned at the stake.
Flames leaped at her feet, and the heatwave turned her face bright red. The director asked her to keep her eyes open and let the smoke bring tears to her eyes.
On the third take, she heard a "sizzle" sound from her hair—the ends of her hair were being flicked by a spark.
Workers rushed to put out the fire, but she waved them off, saying, "It's alright, keep going."
When she finished work, she cut off the stubble in the dressing room.
She had missed video calls from Tan Yuze on her phone, but she didn't reply. Instead, she sent him a picture of herself getting a haircut.
Two minutes later, he replied: [Short hair looks good too, don't burn any more.]
The aftershocks of the relationship haven't stopped.
A hashtag, “The cast of ‘No Day’ has been changed,” trended on social media in the middle of the night.
The reason is that Xu Li's close-up poster was deleted by the official account immediately.
Fans were in an uproar, while haters were chanting "Disgraced artist, get out of the production crew."
At 2 a.m., Nanyou sent a voice message in the group: "The poster was accidentally deleted by the technical department and has been restored. Sleep peacefully."
Xu Li didn't sleep. She sat on the toilet seat in the hotel and used her alternate account to scan the square.
I came across a Weibo post:
Wei Liao is my favorite character of the past ten years. If Xu Li can portray him well, I can forgive her personal life.
She took a screenshot and sent it to Nanyou: "Look, someone is waiting for me to turn the tables."
During the filming of a scene where a stuntman falls from a three-meter-high snow slope, fracturing his ankle.
The scene was in complete chaos, and the director had to change the location on the spot, letting Xu Li take the role herself.
Nan You rushed to the monitor: "Her back injury hasn't healed!" The director was also anxious: "The long shot must be a real fall, otherwise it will be obvious!" Xu Li wrapped her back brace tighter: "I can do it." She climbed onto the horse, her palms sweaty.
Filming begins—
The horse galloped off, and she released the reins half a second in advance, causing her body to be thrown to the left and crash heavily into a snowdrift.
The snow was thick, but she was still shaken so badly that her vision went black. She heard the director yell "cut," but she couldn't get up for a long time. In the end, the action director carried her to the ambulance.
The X-ray showed a fracture of the old bone, requiring rest. That night, the news that the film crew had suspended filming became a trending topic.
When Tan Yuze called, she had just had her cast put on.
"I'll arrive tomorrow."
"Don't come, you're too busy with your acting."
"I've taken the day off; my flight is in two hours."
She choked up, "Then please bring some roasted chestnuts with you, from the shop near the north gate of Hengdian."
When Tan Yuze brought two large bags of chestnuts to the set, Xu Li was practicing walking in the corridor with crutches.
He squatted down, rolled up her trouser legs to her knees, and saw the graffiti on the plaster cast—a chibi version of Wei Liao drawn by a makeup artist.
Does it hurt?
"pain."
"So, are we still filming tomorrow?"
"Film. The director changed the action scenes into dialogue scenes, so I could deliver my lines while sitting down."
At night, Tan Yuze carried her back to the hotel. The corridor was long, and his back was warm. She counted his heartbeats, and each beat seemed to say, "I'm here."
The scene depicts Wei Liao learning that his entire clan has been wiped out, and collapsing alone on a snowy night.
The director demanded a take.
Xu Li sat in a wheelchair with a blanket covering her knees.
Filming begins—
As the camera zoomed in, she first shed silent tears, then her shoulders trembled, and finally she let out a hoarse "Ah"—like a young animal whose tail had been stepped on.
The entire room fell silent.
Behind the monitor, the director, his eyes red, shouted "Cut!" Nan You quietly wiped away her tears: "This girl risked her life."
Tan Yuze didn't show up; he only sent a thermos with his assistant. Inside was beef brisket noodles and a soft-boiled egg.
The card read: "Finish the noodles, leave the bitterness in last year."
When she finished work that night, she found a small paper bag hanging on the hotel doorknob—roasted chestnuts, still warm.
There was a movie ticket stub at the bottom of the bag: Love Actually was being re-released, and the date was last Christmas.
The back of the ticket stub bore his handwriting: "[Let's watch together next time.]" A candid behind-the-scenes clip went viral. In the footage, Xu Li is seen reciting lines in the snow, leaning on crutches, her short hair flying wildly in the wind.
She suddenly looked up and smiled at the distance—the camera then panned to Tan Yuze waving at her while holding a bag of chestnuts.
Popular comments from netizens:
[It turns out that "meeting at the summit" is real, and the summit can be a snow-capped mountain.]
The negative trending topics quietly disappeared, replaced by #WeiLiao'sKillingEyes#.
In the final scene, Wei Liao commits suicide, his blood pack hidden in his wrist guard. With a slash of his sword, blood splatters everywhere.
When the director yelled "cut," Xu Li was still kneeling in the snow, his blood freezing into ice crystals in the low temperature.
She reached out and touched the "blood," then suddenly burst into laughter, laughing until tears streamed down her face.
The whole crew set off fireworks to celebrate the wrap-up of filming.
She sat in her wheelchair, looking up at the fireworks, the flames illuminating her short hair.
Tan Yuze appeared behind her at some point and wrapped the scarf around her neck.
“It’s over,” he said.
"It's only just begun," she replied.
The flight landed in Beijing, and the sub-zero wind felt like a knife.
At the exit, fans held up signs that read: "Welcome Wei Liao home."
Xu Li took off her mask and bowed deeply.
The crowd was silent for three seconds, then suddenly shouted in unison, "Happy birthday, Xu Li!"
It turns out that she celebrated her birthday according to the lunar calendar.
At the very center of the light board was a handwritten card by Tan Yuze:
May you henceforth be treated only with the gentleness of snow.
Business contracts are piled up like a small mountain.
Nanyou pushed a stack of new contracts at her:
"Three endorsement contracts have been renewed, and two S+ female lead roles are under negotiation, with the salary increasing by 2.5 times."
As Xu Li flipped through the pages, she suddenly asked, "Sister, do you regret bringing me along?"
Nanyou slammed her pen on the table: "I only regret not letting you freeze sooner. The sooner you freeze, the sooner you'll understand."
—Epilogue—At Home—Late at Night—
Xu Li returned to her rented apartment, pushed open the door, and was greeted by moonlight. A thermos of beef brisket noodles sat on the dining table. Tan Yuze poked his head out from the kitchen: "The noodles are freshly cooked, eat them while they're hot." She kicked off her shoes, walked barefoot over, and hugged his waist.
"Next time, don't make me wait so long."
"No more."
Outside the window, the first snowflake of the new year fell gently, hitting the glass with a soft "thump".
Xu Li buried her face in his chest and heard her own heartbeat—thump thump thump.
The world restarted, and she finally stood in the light.
Xu Li's apartment is on the top floor, the 27th floor, north of the Fifth Ring Road.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city's neon lights shimmer like overturned diamonds.
She had just finished showering, her hair still dripping wet. Tan Yuze knelt on one knee in the entryway and used a towel to dry her feet.
"I'll do it myself."
"Don't move." He held her ankle in his palm, his fingertips drenched in mint-scented lotion, and gently pushed it up inch by inch.
When he brushed against her calf, he suddenly bent down and kissed the old scar on her knee—the one she got while filming "No Day".
“Every time I get a scar, I will plant a mint plant,” he said.
Xu Li laughed, bent down and cupped his face in her hands, "Then does that mean I have to start a farm?"
At eight o'clock, Nanyou's car was waiting downstairs.
Today I'm going to audition for a period film called "Luoyang Snow," where the female lead is the only female swordswoman in history.
The audition scene only had three lines, but he had to perform three sets of swordplay.
Xu Li stood in front of the mirror putting on wristbands, while Tan Yuze leaned against the door frame watching her.
"nervous?"
"I'm afraid I won't play well."
He walked over, grabbed her wrist from behind, and gave her a couple of light swings, saying, "Loosen your wrist and use your waist to generate power first."
Nanyou urged in the group chat: 【Has the elevator arrived yet?】
Tan Yuze let go of her and stuffed the thermos into her bag. "Red date and ginger tea, drink it after you finish taking pictures."
In the audition room, the director was Zheng Ye, a Golden Bear winner, who was known for his strictness.
Xu Li's first strike missed, causing the bamboo target to shake dramatically.
Zheng Ye didn't call for a stop. She gritted her teeth, made a second cut, and the bamboo target split in two.
With the third stab, she used the momentum of the rotation to press the back of the blade against her neck—the character's final move before committing suicide.
The blade was icy cold, yet she smiled.
Zheng Ye looked up: "You're the one. Join the training group next week."
The swordplay instructor for "Luoyang Snow" is a retired martial arts champion, surnamed Qin, a woman in her early forties, who speaks like she's sharpening a knife.
"If your wrist is weak, the knife is just scrap metal."
Xu Li practiced for eight hours every day, causing blisters to form on her hands and feet. When she returned to the hotel at night, Tan Yuze would use a needle to pop them.
"hiss--"
"If you know it hurts, you'll learn your lesson."
I blew on it, applied iodine, and then put on a cartoon band-aid—a Butter Cat pattern.
Xu Li suddenly remembered the orange cat in Hengdian and asked, "Who feeds it now?"
"Auntie property manager, I paid for a year's worth of canned food."
On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, Beijing experienced its first snowfall.
Xu Li finished work early and went to the supermarket to buy glutinous rice flour, saying she wanted to learn how to make glutinous rice balls.
Tan Yuze put the apron over her head and tied a bow at the back.
"The sesame filling needs to be pounded until the oil comes out."
"I know."
"Water-milled flour needs to be scalded."
"I know that too."
As a result, all the glutinous rice balls cracked when they were put into the pot, and the sesame filling floated into a pot of black porridge.
Xu Li poked at it with a spoon, "Oh no, it looks like a disaster scene."
Tan Yuze ladled out a bowl, blew on it, and said, "It's pretty good, like black sesame paste."
She took a bite, and it was so hot she jumped up and down, but she laughed until tears streamed down her face.
The company added a last-minute notice, and Xu Li didn't finish work until 11 p.m.
Tan Yuze was waiting for her in the underground parking garage, his trunk filled with sparklers.
They drove to the roof of the unfinished building, where the wind was so strong it felt like it would blow them off.
Xu Li huddled inside his down jacket and lit the first sparkler, sparks flying everywhere.
"Make a wish," he said.
"I hope to win Best Action Choreography next year."
"Not the Best Actress?"
"The action design was done by Ms. Qin, and she deserves it."
As the second sparkler burned out, there were sporadic firecracker sounds in the distance, like distant war drums.
Tan Yuze took out a small box from his pocket; it was velvet and dark green.
"New Year's gift".
Xu Li opened it and found an extremely thin silver ring with "LL&Y" engraved on the inner circle—the initials of their names.
“It’s not a proposal,” he explained. “It’s a mark, in case you run away.”
She put the ring on her right ring finger, and it fit perfectly. The wind blew snow into her collar, but she felt it was burning hot. Tan Yuze booked an old movie theater and showed "Love Actually".
At the end of the film, when Mark is holding up a card to confess his feelings, the theater lights suddenly come on.
Behind-the-scenes footage, filmed secretly, appeared on the big screen:
Xu Li wielded a knife in the training hall, her sweat splattering in arcs; she memorized her lines on the set with crutches; she fell and got up again in the snow... The final image is of her sitting in a wheelchair on the day filming wrapped, looking up at the fireworks, her face showing both tears and smiles.
The subtitles slowly appeared:
【To my warrior princess.】
Xu Li turned her head and saw Tan Yuze kneeling on one knee between the seats, holding a second ring in his hand—this time set with an extremely small and brilliant diamond.
"Last time it was a mark, this time..."
Before he could finish speaking, she lunged at him, knocking him backward and causing the chair to creak.
The audience erupted in applause from the theater's sound system—that was the pre-recorded audio track.
She laughed until her voice choked with emotion: "I'd like to, but I'd rather have the noodles you cook."
The official announcement for the drama "Luoyang Snow" was made, with Xu Li standing in the center position. A reporter asked, "It's rumored online that you were replaced due to your relationship. Is that true?"
Xu Li raised her hand, and the silver ring flashed briefly under the flashlight.
"Rumors stop with works of art."
She turned to the side, gesturing to Teacher Qin behind her, "The real center position belongs to this person, my swordsmanship master."
The audience erupted in applause.
Backstage, Tan Yuze was holding a bunch of mint—not roses, but fresh mint with roots and soil still attached, tied with thick hemp rope.
"The seed planted on the day filming wrapped up has come to life."
Xu Li buried her face in the mint leaves, choking and sneezing, but her smile was brighter than any flower.
The movie "Luoyang Snow" was released and its box office exceeded 2 billion yuan.
Xu Li won Best Action Choreography (nominated) and Best Actress (won).
At the awards ceremony, she wore a black high-slit dress and the silver ring on the ring finger of her right hand.
The last sentence of the award acceptance speech:
"I am grateful to one person who taught me that a knife can be used to cut outwards or inwards; only by cutting through fear can new bones grow."
In the audience, Tan Yuze clapped, his eyes slightly red.
After the event, in the parking lot, he put the trophy in the trunk, turned around and hugged her.
"Going home for noodles?"
"Mmm, add more cilantro."
The car drove onto the elevated road, and the night breeze was gentle.
Xu Li leaned against the passenger seat, her silver ring flashing briefly under the streetlight, like the first magic wand on that snowy night.
The world is vast, the knife is swift, and the snow is cold.
But at this moment, she knew that what she was holding onto was the warmth of humanity.
The next day, since nothing major was happening, Xu Li went with them.
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