The next day.
Song Yecheng woke up before five o'clock to the faint noise coming from outside the window.
The sun rises late in the north in winter, and it is still as dark as midnight at five o'clock, but the village house rented by the crew has already woken up, and all the staff are busy washing up and rushing to the set.
Song Yecheng didn't have the habit of staying in bed, so he got up quickly as soon as he woke up, washed and packed up, then went out in the refreshing north wind.
When he stepped out of the courtyard, he glanced at the house next door and found that the lights were not on. He didn't know whether Jiang Que had not woken up or had already gone out.
Although Douzi and Song Yecheng lived in different rooms, they were in the same courtyard. They had already gotten up when they heard the noise. Now they were yawning and following behind Song Yecheng: "Brother Cheng, didn't Director Zhuang just ask you to watch? You don't have to do your makeup and hair, so do you really need to be so diligent?"
Song Yecheng glanced back at him and said, "Why don't you go back and continue sleeping?"
"That—I can't," Douzi continued to yawn, like a disabled but strong-willed caregiver. "Without my careful care, I'm afraid your tall and majestic body will fall down in the snow from cold and hunger."
Song Yecheng looked at him, dressed as a babysitter, with an electric warmer in his left hand, a wool blanket in his right, a thermos cup tucked under his arm, and a plastic bag hanging from the thermos cup filled with some unknown props. He said disdainfully, "Stay away from me for a while. If Director Zhuang sees me acting so squeamish while watching, he'll have to send me back to write a 3,000-word essay, 'On Actors' Princess Syndrome.'"
Douzi's preparations weren't out of the ordinary. Even if Song Yecheng were just a second- or third-tier star, bringing only this much gear for night scenes or rainy winter scenes would be considered shabby. Douzi once witnessed a scene where, during a low-flow snow scene, an assistant brought in four or five heaters, causing a power outage on set.
But he actually knew that Song Yecheng never liked to show off, and relying on his excellent physique from long-term fitness, he didn't care about many environments that others considered to be harsh. In addition, Zhuang Yan was indeed the kind of old-fashioned director who couldn't stand pampered actors. If he saw the pile of things in his hand that looked like things a little girl used during her menstrual period, he might really be furious.
Douzi curled her lips in anger but dared not say anything. She stuffed the hot electric heater and wool blanket into her down jacket like a small landlord hiding grain, zipped it up and pretended to be a pregnant woman.
The lights on the hillside behind the woods were bright, and each group was busy preparing for the filming.
Song Yecheng could hear Zhuang Yan's loud voice coming from the loudspeaker from a distance, and his resounding words were mixed with the responses from others.
A lot of machines and wires were set up under a temporary shed on one side of the set. The soft light from the chandelier on the ceiling reflected the figure working at the table next to the monitor.
It is Jiangque.
Song Yecheng recognized him just by his back, but when he got closer he found that he seemed to be writing or drawing something with his head down.
"Teacher Bai?" Song Yecheng called softly.
Jiang Que turned his head, and his deep and bright eyes showed no trace of tiredness from getting up early, but his pale complexion and pale lips still exposed his lack of blood.
Douzi didn't get to see Jiang Que yesterday. He only heard Song Yecheng say that he was not only young but also very handsome. It was not until this moment that he saw with his own eyes what it meant to be "young and handsome". His eyes suddenly lit up and he couldn't help but exclaimed "Wow" in his heart. He hurriedly walked forward and greeted him politely.
"What are you writing?" Song Yecheng asked casually, looking past Jiang Que at the table. He saw papers, pens, erasers and other miscellaneous items scattered on the table, and two sketchbooks were spread out among the miscellaneous items.
One of the scripts was clearly a storyboard, with simple shot numbers, scene sizes, lines, and duration marked next to the frames. Song Yecheng was very familiar with the rough painting style and sloppy handwriting; it must have been Zhuang Yan's storyboard manuscript.
The other book also had panels, but it only contained pictures without any text notes. All the pictures were fully colored, and the level of detail made it look more like a comic book to be published.
Song Yecheng was a little curious about this book: "What is this?"
"Oh, I drew it when I was writing the script." Jiang Que said.
Some scenes in the script were complex, and he wasn't sure how they would look when shot through, so he started by drawing them himself to test the visuals. Zhuang Yan was pleasantly surprised, saying some of the shots were exceptionally well-drawn, and asked him to use them to help him refine a few storyboards.
Song Yecheng picked up Jiang Que's book and flipped through it. He found that his painting skills were quite good, both in terms of composition and brushstrokes. He raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Professional?"
"Not really," Jiang Que said cryptically, "I just learned a little from my dad when I was a kid."
Song Yecheng nodded: "Is your father a painter?"
It was originally just a casual question, but Jiang Que seemed to have recalled some interesting memories. The expression between his eyebrows softened a little, and even a faint smile appeared on his lips. "I guess so, but he doesn't admit it. He said 'something family' is too grand, and it makes me feel guilty."
Hearing this, Song Yecheng instantly recalled Ms. Qiu Mingyue's dissatisfaction when she heard others praise her as an "old artist". At that time, Song Yecheng thought she was dissatisfied with the word "old", but Ms. Qiu said: "What kind of artist? I dare not let myself go after I wear this high hat!"
Thinking of this, Song Yecheng couldn't help but smile: "Your dad is quite interesting."
Jiang Que nodded without denying it, and subconsciously clenched his hands into a fist and held it in front of his mouth to blow gently.
Song Yecheng was keenly aware that his hands were a little frozen from holding the pen for too long in the cold wind, so he quickly unzipped his down jacket and put his hands into his arms.
This action was very subtle. A girl with a boyfriend would think that he was taking out his wallet, an elite in the business world would think that he was taking out his business card, and to someone like Jiang Que who had written countless bizarre stories, this posture inexplicably looked like he was pulling out a gun.
Of course, it is impossible to pull out a gun.
Song Yecheng simply tore off the two heating pads that Douzi had shamelessly put on him before he went out from the inside of his clothes. He rolled one into a cylinder and stuffed it into Jiang Que's clenched fist, and placed the other on the table where he had originally placed his hand.
Douzi, who had followed Song Yecheng for many years, immediately understood what he meant when he saw his action. He quickly pulled out the electric heater from his arms and stuffed it into Jiang Que's pocket. He also shook out the wool blanket and wrapped it around him: "Come on, Teacher Bai, don't get cold."
Their movements flowed like flowing water, and Jiang Que instantly looked like a housewife. After a long pause, she said with a mixture of laughter and tears, "...Thank you."
"You're welcome! These are all prepared by Brother Cheng. He said that it was freezing cold on the set and Teacher Bai had no experience since it was his first time with the crew. We can't let Teacher Bai catch a cold, so you have to bring everything you can use!" Douzi talked nonsense without blushing or beating his heart, feeling that he was contributing to the journey of narrowing the distance between his Brother Cheng and his idol.
Song Yecheng: "..."
He hadn't expected his casual gentlemanly act to be transformed into a calculated act of flattery by Douzi's artistic manipulation of his lies. He stared at him in disbelief for a full ten seconds, and finally turned back under Jiang Que's puzzled gaze, forcing out two dry laughs: "...Yes, yes, that's right."
By the time each group was ready, it was already dawn.
Zhuang Yan led Jiang Bei to the preset locations twice. When they returned to the shed, they saw Song Yecheng and Douzi standing behind Jiang Que, who was wearing a blanket, holding a hand warmer, and holding a heating pad in his hand. They looked like two bodyguards protecting their disabled young master in a wheelchair.
Douzi hurriedly poured him a cup of hot tea and served it to him in the face of his suspicious gaze, which just stopped him from talking. Zhuang Yan then reluctantly swallowed his urge to complain, took the cup to moisten his throat, and raised the loudspeaker towards the audience.
With the sound of the script supervisor's clapboard, the filming of "Searching for the Light" officially kicked off.
There are two scenes to be filmed in the morning, one outdoor and one indoor, and both scenes take place at the young boy Fang Zhi's aunt's house.
Fang Zhi's parents died early, and his grandparents passed away one after another after raising him to junior high school. The only close relative he had left was his aunt.
Superstition is prevalent in the village. Everyone says that Fang Zhi has a bad fate and will bring bad luck to his relatives. His aunt, who has already married and has children, doesn't want to take care of him. However, Fang Zhi's parents helped her family a lot when they were alive. The couple was afraid that the neighbors would gossip about them and say they were ungrateful, so they had to adopt Fang Zhi reluctantly.
The first exterior scene was shot when Fang Zhi came back from school one evening.
When Fang Zhi walked into the yard, he heard through the door that an aunt from the village was gossiping about his aunt, saying that he was a "jinx" and that his cousin's recent frequent illnesses were all due to the bad luck brought by him.
In the camera, the young man Fang Zhi, played by Jiang Bei, was indifferent when he heard the word "death star", as if he had heard similar words countless times and had long been numb. But when he heard that the other party actually blamed him for his cousin's illness, he couldn't help but raise his eyes in shock, his chest heaved violently several times, and he clenched his back teeth tightly.
Teenagers should be the most rebellious age, but having experienced the separation of life and death and the warmth and coldness of human nature too early, he forced himself to resist the urge to break in and confront.
He gradually loosened his clenched fists at his sides as his aunt sighed and echoed him. He slowly took a few steps back, turned around and walked to the corner of the side of the house, then squatted down with his back against the wall.
He didn't have the guts to throw a tantrum.
If he could drop out of school early and go out to work, perhaps he could support himself and no longer suffer bullying, but he knew that would be killing the chicken to get the eggs and draining the pond to catch the fish. If he could not get into high school or college, with only his education that did not even graduate from junior high school, even if he left here, he would probably live forever at the bottom of society in the dark.
He had to go to school, and his aunt gave him the opportunity to go to school and provided him with food, clothing, shelter and transportation. Even though those were all out of necessity, his aunt did not owe him anything after all.
He leaned quietly against the wall, listening quietly to the door behind him being opened, and then listening to his aunt politely escort his aunt out of the yard, then turning back into the house and closing the door again.
It was not until his aunt's back disappeared at the end of the mountain road that he finally stood up from the wall on his knees. He blinked tiredly, raised his hands and rubbed his stiff cheeks vigorously, then tried to pull the corners of his mouth towards the air. Then he pretended that he had heard nothing, turned around and walked towards the door step by step.
“Cut!”
The scene ended here. Zhuang Yan paused the moment Jiang Bei opened the door, reviewed the scene twice, and then nodded and said to the other side, "Go!"
The pin-drop silence of the entire set was finally broken, and cheers rang out from all directions - all crews were spreading the old rumor that "the smoother the first shot of filming, the better the omen", and even Zhuang Yan's loyal team was not immune to it.
After the noise, each group began to move around to prepare for the next scene. Zhuang Yan stood up and walked towards the center of the field, ready to tell Jiang Bei the key points of shooting the next interior scene.
Song Yecheng watched him walk to Jiang Bei. From a distance, he saw Jiang Bei deftly take something out of his messenger bag and hang it over his ear. Then he suddenly realized something: "He wasn't wearing a hearing aid just now?"
Yes, Song Yecheng looked down at the monitor again and confirmed that Jiang Bei's ears in the camera were empty from beginning to end, and there was no hearing aid.
"Well, he didn't wear it during the audition," Jiang Que looked up and said, "Director Zhuang only found out later that he was hearing impaired."
"Then how does he listen to the lines?" Song Yecheng asked in surprise.
He didn't know the exact severity of Jiang Bei's hearing loss, but since he had to wear hearing aids, his unaided hearing must be very poor. If they were acting face-to-face, at least he could read their lips, but for a scene like this, where he had to rely solely on listening through the door and reacting, he obviously couldn't use his eyes.
"He's always memorizing other people's lines at the same time," Jiang Que said, "and he's also read Director Zhuang's storyboards and knows the duration of each shot. He keeps track of the time in his head and recites his lines silently."
There was nothing wrong with the logic behind this statement, and it even sounded quite easy, but Song Yecheng silently simulated it in his mind and soon discovered that it was extremely difficult to actually put it into practice.
He wanted to ask something else, but the next scene was already prepared. Zhuang Yan quickly returned to the tent, picked up the loudspeaker and shouted "action" for the second time.
Because he noticed that Jiang Bei didn't have his hearing aids, Song Yecheng looked at the monitor again with a more inquiring mindset than before.
The second scene is an interior scene. The time point of the plot is not completely connected with the first scene, but it also takes place at Aunt Fang Zhi's house.
This is a scene where a family of four sits around a table to eat.
Because his cousin was sick, his aunt stewed a pot of chicken soup for him to nourish his body. Fang Zhi consciously went to the kitchen to serve dishes and get bowls and chopsticks. He only sat down after the other three people were seated.
My cousin is young and playful. Even when he is sick, he won’t sit still. He grabs the chopsticks and sticks them into the rice to play with them. When he sees the chopsticks stand up, he laughs foolishly.
The aunt immediately became anxious when she saw this. According to superstition, sticking chopsticks in rice is used for offerings to the dead, which is extremely unlucky. However, she did not blame her cousin. Instead, she turned around and said to him in a bad mood, "He is so young, why are you giving him chopsticks? Don't you have a spoon in the kitchen?"
As she said that, she pulled the chopsticks out of her cousin's bowl, stood up and went to the kitchen.
"Oh, I'll get it." Fang Zhi quickly stood up and took two steps forward, took the chopsticks from her hand, and quickly went to the kitchen to replace them with a spoon.
When I came back, my aunt was leaning over the table, pulling the chicken leg in the pot with one hand and poking the base of the leg with chopsticks with the other hand, trying to pull it off. However, the chicken was too hot right out of the pot. Her hand holding the chicken leg shrank because of the heat, but she still blew air on it while pulling it hard.
"Let me do it."
Fang Zhi hurriedly put the spoon into his brother's bowl and reached out to help, but his aunt warily "snapped" his hand with a chopstick and said, "What are you doing here? Have you washed your hands?"
Fang Zhi's hand shrank back when he was slapped, and the back of his hand with protruding joints hurt. However, his face did not show any displeasure. He just rubbed the back of his hand and said with a lowered eyebrow: "I have washed it."
My aunt seemed to realize that she had overreacted and that she had been hit really hard. She glanced at him awkwardly and said, "Just sit down and eat your meal. You don't have to do it."
Fang Zhi nodded, sat down, picked up the chopsticks and started to eat the rice in his bowl.
My aunt tore off a chicken leg and put it in my brother's bowl, then tore off another one and handed it to my uncle.
"Hey, I don't..." My uncle was about to refuse, but my aunt gave him a look and he immediately shut up. He obediently took the chicken leg and put it in the bowl.
My uncle was a kind man. Seeing Fang Zhi eating rice with his head down, he felt sorry for him and pushed the soup spoon in the pot half a circle towards him: "Xiaozhi, have some soup."
Fang Zhi raised his head and was stunned for a moment: "Oh, okay."
He picked up the soup spoon almost as he was instructed, and as soon as he scooped up a spoonful, he found a round, yellow egg in it.
His hand paused slightly in mid-air, and his aunt, who was staring at the soup spoon, also paused.
The next second, Fang Zhi moved his hand holding the soup spoon to the side, scooped the soup and the egg into his brother's bowl, and scooped another spoonful of clear soup into his own bowl.
My aunt didn't say anything, but she was obviously satisfied with his behavior. She looked away and lowered her head to eat her meal.
“Cut!”
Zhuang Yan called a halt at the right time. This time, before he could even look back at the screen, Song Yecheng knew that this one must have passed.
Jiang Bei in the camera is almost possessed by Fang Zhi himself. His cautiousness as a dependent, his subconscious attempt to please others, his forbearance when being unreasonably accused, and his sensitivity to other people's attitudes are all vividly expressed in his movements, expressions and subtle changes in his eyes.
——This does not include the difficulty of him having hearing impairment but not wearing hearing aids.
After watching the replay, Zhuang Yan shouted "pass" to the audience, and then looked up at Song Yecheng with a happy expression: "How was it? Not bad, was it?"
Song Yecheng nodded approvingly. He had to admit that Jiang Bei's acting skills really surprised him. If he still had some doubts about the "connected people" yesterday, he had now completely dispelled this idea.
Zhuang Yan seemed a little proud. "I had a feeling he'd be good when he was auditioning. You know what, this guy really does look a bit like you back then. That's why they say some people are just born for the camera. Wherever they stand, they have a natural flare. Nothing can stop them."
After saying that, he patted Jiang Que on the shoulder again: "You have found a treasure for me. If you train him well in the future, he will have a bright future!"
Jiang Que neither confirmed nor denied, but just smiled faintly.
At this time, Jiang Bei had already run over with his tattered bag. After entering the studio, he skillfully put on his hearing aids. "How is it? Is everything okay?"
"I was just praising you to them," Zhuang Yan smiled and stood up. "Not bad, keep it up."
Jiang Bei happily replied, "Okay," and then heard Jiang Que remind him, "Don't drift away."
Jiang Bei pouted unconvincedly, while Zhuang Yan jokingly raised his chin towards Song Yecheng: "If you don't understand something, ask your brother Cheng. The ready-made movie star is here, so why not ask?"
After saying that, he asked Jiang Que to go with him to see the venue layout for the afternoon, and walked out of the studio with the storyboard.
Douzi was thinking about his brother Cheng's lunch. Seeing that the director and screenwriter had left, he said goodbye to Song Yecheng and went down the mountain to prepare to go.
So only Jiang Bei and Song Yecheng were left in the tent.
Jiang Bei sat down in the seat that had been occupied by Zhuang Yan, heaved a long sigh, and glanced around the table: "I'm so thirsty, is there any water?"
Song Yecheng handed him the thermos that Douzi brought, and then took a paper cup for him. Then he bent down and sat beside him: "Have you ever studied acting?"
"No," Jiang Bei unscrewed the lid of the cup and poured himself a glass of water, blowing on it while saying, "I wanted to take the art exam, but my brother asked me to think it over carefully. I haven't decided yet."
Song Yecheng recalled Jiang Que's noncommittal attitude when Zhuang Yan said "train him well" and asked, "He doesn't support your acting?"
"That's not the case," Jiang Bei said, "He's just afraid that I'll be too enthusiastic and regret it later."
Song Yecheng nodded in understanding and asked, "Have you ever acted in a play before?"
"No," Jiang Bei seemed to find his questions a little strange. After thinking about it, he suddenly realized, "Do you think my acting is particularly good?"
Song Yecheng did not deny it: "It's really good, I thought you had learned it."
"Oh? That's rare," Jiang Bei teased, "Who said I was related yesterday?"
Song Yecheng couldn't help but sneer: "Why are you still holding a grudge?"
Jiang Bei raised his eyebrows proudly, lowered his head and took a sip of water. After a moment, he sighed calmly and said honestly, "Actually, I might not be able to play another role as well. As Fang Zhi, I mainly played myself, which is a bonus."
Song Yecheng was stunned: "What do you mean?"
Although he knew that Jiang Bei was an orphan, he didn't know what he had experienced. Could it be that he had also lived under someone else's roof?
Jiang Bei licked his lips and chuckled, "I was adopted from an orphanage when I was a child, but was later returned. During the time I was adopted, my life was similar to Fang Zhi's, so I have some experience with living under someone else's roof."
He said it lightly, but the disparity between being adopted and then abandoned and the oppression of living under someone else's roof were not difficult to imagine. Song Yecheng couldn't help but frown slightly: "Why was it sent back?"
Jiang Bei glanced at him, his tone still nonchalant: "They originally thought they couldn't have children, so they wanted to pick a healthy, older, self-sufficient child from the orphanage to take home. But healthy ones aren't that easy to find, so in the end, they had to pick the best from the worst, and they chose someone like me who was hard of hearing."
At this point, he chuckled self-deprecatingly: "At first, they were very nice to me, giving me good food and drinks, buying all kinds of things, just to coax me into calling them mom and dad. Then, my adoptive mother suddenly became pregnant again, and they became much colder towards me. After the baby was born, they even thought I was in the way and found everything about me unpleasant. In the end, they really didn't want to raise me anymore, and insisted that the orphanage hadn't told them I had a hearing problem, saying they had been defrauded, and sent me back."
Adopting a child is not a trivial matter. The law stipulates that once an adoption relationship is established, it cannot be terminated before the adoptee reaches adulthood without special reasons. "Fraud" is one of the "special reasons" that can terminate the adoption relationship.
Perhaps it was because there were loopholes in the original procedures, or perhaps the couple simply won by being unreasonable, but in any case, the final result was that Jiang Bei was sent back to the welfare home.
Song Yecheng was silent for a long time, so long that Jiang Bei couldn't help laughing out loud: "Hey, why are you so serious? In fact, if they hadn't sent me back, I wouldn't have met my brother. I can't thank them enough."
Hearing this, Song Yecheng's attention was finally successfully diverted: "How do you know him?"
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