afternoon.
The remaining two scenes were filmed on the second floor of the villa. After Song Yecheng and Xu Yi returned to the villa after lunch, they went to the dressing room on the third floor to change into their home clothes, and Xu Miao also changed into her children's pajamas.
These two scenes, which connected to the dinner scene shot that morning, depicted the family of three in their bedroom after washing up for the night. Before filming began, Zhuang Yan spent considerable time adjusting the lighting on set. Only when the camera saw that the light and dark effects perfectly matched the desired atmosphere, with no flaws left to be found, did he finally return to the sidelines and shout "Action"—
It's dark outside the window.
There is only a soft-light table lamp in the pink-decorated children's room.
Fang Qiao was wearing pajamas and lying quietly in bed. Fang Zhi was leaning against the headboard, holding a book and whispering a bedtime story to her: "...The sleeping subjects were awakened by the bells. When they learned that the devil had been killed by the prince, they cheered and sent him to the throne..."
Fang Qiao yawned loudly, causing Fang Zhi to pause. The little girl, though clearly bleary-eyed, continued to murmur, "...and then?"
Fang Zhi smiled helplessly, closed the book, and made up an ending: "And then they lived a peaceful and happy life from then on. Okay, you look so sleepy, go to sleep."
He placed the book on the bedside table, stood up, bent over, and tucked the quilt in for his daughter. Fang Qiao said sweetly, "Good night, Daddy."
Fang Zhi gently scratched the tip of her nose: "Good night."
After turning off the desk lamp, Fang Zhi left his daughter's bedroom and closed the door quietly.
In the master bedroom next door——
Qiao Min was doing her bedtime skin care in front of the dressing table. She poured some lotion into her palm and then placed the bottle on the table.
Fang Zhi unlocked the door. Qiao Min glanced at him in the mirror, then averted her gaze. She dabbed lotion on her forehead with her fingertips and said calmly, "Is she asleep?"
"Well," Fang Zhi walked slowly behind her, leaned over and put his arm around her shoulders. He observed her in the mirror for a moment and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? You seem to be in a bad mood today?"
Qiao Min continued with her actions without looking away, and said expressionlessly, "No."
"Not yet," Fang Zhi said teasingly with a smile, "Look at your aloof face, it's almost frost-covered."
After that, he walked to the side, sat down on the edge of the bed, stared at her profile and said seriously: "What's wrong? Huh?"
Qiao Min paused, glanced at him with some displeasure, then looked away again: "Sometimes I feel that even without me in this family, you two can still live quite happily."
Fang Zhi couldn't help but be stunned. He blinked and said with a bit of a smile: "What are you talking about? You are the backbone of the family. How can we do without you?"
Qiao Min snorted softly: "I think it's enough for you to have a daughter. It doesn't matter whether you have me or not. Anyway, you don't care whether the child is your own or not..."
"Why are you bringing this up again?"
Fang Zhi immediately interrupted her, the smile on his face visibly fading. He glanced warily in the direction of the door and lowered his voice to advise, "She's been with us since she was still young. What's the difference between her and our biological child? And wasn't it you who said you wanted to adopt a child?"
Yes, Fang Qiao was not their biological daughter, but an adopted child a few years ago. This was why when Fang Qiao suddenly mentioned her birthday at the dinner table that night, Qiao Min almost couldn't answer.
As if a long-held sore spot had been touched, Qiao Min turned around and blurted out, "That's because I can't have children! I was afraid you'd think a family without children is incomplete! But now I regret it every day, and I wish I could send her back every day! How could I have known you would treat her like this—"
She seemed to suddenly realize that she had accidentally spoken her heart out, and it seemed as if these words made her feel a little embarrassed to speak. She paused for several seconds before turning back and finishing the sentence: "--So partial?"
The exquisite gift box, the shrimps in the bowl, and the intimate playfulness between father and daughter, these were not the first time that these had happened in their lives.
Qiao Min often thought that if Fang Qiao was her biological daughter, perhaps she would not be so sensitive and uncomfortable. But the fact was that Fang Qiao was not, so those seemingly insignificant trivial matters were like small thorns piercing her heart day after day, sometimes painful and sometimes itchy, and the fine scratches caused by them were filled with unspeakable sourness and even... jealousy.
This feeling seemed to be mixed with some resentment towards her own inability to bear children, making it increasingly difficult for her to control herself and she fell into a narrow vortex.
——The person he once loved the most was me.
——He once loved only me.
Qiao Min could not tolerate this love being divided, even if it was their nominal daughter who took it away.
The bedroom fell into a dead silence. Fang Zhi was stunned by what she said, and recalled the scenes that happened in the evening. It took him a long time before he finally understood the crux of the problem.
After a long moment of frowning silence, he reluctantly stood up, took two steps forward, and half-knelt in front of the dressing table. He held Qiao Min's hand and looked up at her from below. "Is it because you feel that I'm always around her and I have less time to spend with you?"
Qiao Min lowered her eyes silently, but from her expression it was indeed true.
Fang Zhi smiled gently and said kindly, "Isn't it mainly because she's still too young? Children always need more company from adults. In two years, when she's older, maybe we'll find her too annoying even if we want to spend time with her."
Qiao Min was actually feeling embarrassed for being jealous of a child. Her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to explain something, but she heard Fang Zhicheng say sincerely, "It's all my fault. I was always distracted and often forgot to care about you and your feelings. But I will definitely pay more attention in the future, okay? Hmm?"
Qiao Min shook her hand as he held it, raised her eyes to look at him, and her attitude had obviously softened.
Fang Zhi suddenly thought of something and struck while the iron was hot, coaxing her: "How about this, isn't she going to the Children's Palace for classes tomorrow? Let's take her there, and then I'll go shopping, eat, and watch a movie with you. Let's try to rekindle the feeling of being alone together. How about that?"
Facing his sincere and smiling gaze, Qiao Min's lips finally curled up slightly, and she nodded reluctantly.
——“OK, call it a day!”
When Zhuang Yan finally shouted this sentence, it was already dark outside.
The last scene was the most difficult of the whole day. In addition to the expression of complex emotions and the control of micro-expressions, there was also the issue of the shooting angle of the mirror image. During the process, not only did we NG several times, but we also had to reshoot a shot to change the interaction and movement as a backup. It was almost dark when everything was completed.
Seeing that Zhuang Yan was finally satisfied, everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. However, before Xu Yi could fully relax, she suddenly remembered that her work for the day was not yet finished - she had to go to the city with Xu Miao and Zhuang Yan to shoot a night scene between them.
"Okay, you two go upstairs and change your clothes."
Zhuang Yan came over and said to Song Yecheng and Xu Yi, then instructed Xu Yi: "I will take people to the city to set up the set later. Miaomiao will go directly with me. You can rest for a while after dinner and go back after 8 o'clock."
Xu Yi agreed without hesitation, and then hurried to the separate dressing room on the third floor with his assistant Xiao You.
Everyone around began to pack up their equipment and props. Seeing that Song Yecheng hadn't left yet, Zhuang Yan suddenly remembered something and reminded him, "Oh, right? Do you know the arrangements for tomorrow? Don't get up too early in the morning. We'll shoot the office scene this afternoon. When Mr. Qi arrives, you two can go over the scenes together. You'll definitely have to stay up all night tonight."
The old Qi he mentioned is named Qi Xianyun, a highly respected veteran actor and the starting point of the film's main plot "Searching for the Lantern" - the actor who plays the fortune teller. He was supposed to arrive before the filming started, but due to some unexpected matters, he changed his schedule to join the crew tomorrow afternoon.
The daily shooting tasks are actually written on the notice sheet, but during the actual shooting process, temporary adjustments are often made due to unexpected situations. This is commonplace.
"I know," Song Yecheng nodded. "You should take it easy too. Take more rest when you have time. Don't overwork yourself."
There are few positions in the crew that are not hard. After all, every extra day of shooting means huge expenses, and they have to work around the clock. The director is the first to bear the brunt of this. He has to be present at every scene and keep an eye on it all the time, which is both physically and mentally taxing.
Zhuang Yan smiled gratefully and patted his shoulder, then was pulled out by the assistant director while talking.
Song Yecheng watched him go out, then turned and walked to the window to look down. Coincidentally, Douzi came in from outside and said shrewdly, "Brother Cheng, are you looking for Teacher Bai?"
Song Yecheng turned around and asked, "Where are the others?"
He was always very focused when filming, so it was not until he finished filming just now that he realized that Jiang Que, who was originally next to Zhuang Yan, had disappeared at some point.
Douzi pointed upwards and said, "When I came back earlier, I saw him going upstairs. Maybe he was tired and went upstairs to rest for a while?"
Hearing him say "come back", Song Yecheng then remembered that he had asked him to go to the city to buy something after lunch, and hurriedly asked: "Did you buy it?"
Douzi nodded with a tired expression, "I did buy it, but it's too—hard to find, isn't it? I practically searched the entire city and suburbs before I found it!"
"Has it been delivered?" Song Yecheng asked again.
Seeing Douzi nod again, Song Yecheng finally patted his shoulder with satisfaction: "Thank you for your hard work, my dear. I'll give you a great credit. Oh, yes - I'll have someone buy you the limited edition bag your girlfriend wants. The bill will be on me."
Douzi's face, filled with sorrow, instantly turned into a burst of joy, tears welling up in his eyes with excitement: "Brother Cheng! You really are my brother!"
Song Yecheng quickly pushed away the chest that he was trying to hug, turned around and strode out the door while waving his hand and said, "You don't have to follow me tonight, you can do whatever you want."
Third floor, powder room.
Night has fallen outside the window. There is no main light in the house. Only three side-by-side makeup mirrors with a circle of white mirror lights are on, creating a quiet and deserted atmosphere for this small world.
Jiang Que leaned back in the armchair in front of the mirror, his hands folded in front of him. The cold light from the lamp in front of the mirror made his already light skin look even whiter, and also cast a cold halo on his handsome eyebrows.
He just stared at himself in the mirror quietly, but his eyes seemed to have no focus, as if his thoughts had drifted to somewhere unknown, trapped in distant and hazy fragments of memory.
"You also know that I can get sick?"
Late one night a long time ago, a woman's questioning came through the door, like a long-suppressed anger pouring out.
"Do you care? You only care whether he gets caught in the rain or whether he can't get home!"
It was the summer vacation when Jiang Que was twelve years old. That night, he had just walked to the door of the master bedroom and had not yet had time to knock when he heard these words from his adoptive mother Ye Ying.
That evening he went to his teacher's house to get some information. When he was about to go home, it started to rain heavily outside. He called his adoptive father Jiang Di and said he would be back later. Jiang Di asked him to stay at the teacher's house and not leave, and he would drive to pick him up later.
Jiang Di didn't bring his cell phone when he went out that day. After picking up Jiang Que, he encountered a traffic jam caused by heavy rain and flooding. When he returned home a few hours later, he found that there were countless missed calls on his cell phone, and Ye Ying was sitting next to the phone, soaked and in a mess.
In the afternoon, Ye Ying drove out alone to do some business. In the evening, due to heavy rain, she had a scratch on an electric car on the road. Both parties were not injured, but the owner of the electric car was aggressive and swearing. Ye Ying's first reaction was to call Jiang Di, but she couldn't get through.
She struggled with the other party for a long time in the heavy rain, during which the other party almost attacked her. The situation was barely resolved until the traffic police arrived. When she returned home, she was exhausted and soon developed a high fever.
Ye Ying had never suffered such injustice, or rather, she had never suffered any injustice since she was a child.
When she was a child, she was the apple of her parents' eyes. When she grew up, she was a favored child in everyone's eyes. She had countless praises, honors, halos, and a beautiful love that was praised and envied by others.
Jiang Di is like a prince tailor-made by God for her, the princess. He is talented, humorous, gentle and considerate. His companionship and protection since their student days make her believe that this is what is called destiny and a match made in heaven.
She once felt that she was the one favored by God, and thought that such happiness and perfection would last forever, until shortly after her marriage she received the diagnosis from the doctor confirming that she was unable to get pregnant, and until they brought back the orphan who would become her son from a remote border town thousands of miles away.
From then on, everything began to change quietly.
She gradually realized that the concern and love that originally belonged to her were being slowly and inadvertently divided away. The satellites that originally revolved around her were gradually deviating from their orbits, gradually no longer revolving around her, and becoming increasingly difficult to pull.
The quarrel that night was not accidental, but the outburst of long-simmering resentment. The sudden car scraping incident and the high fever caused by being caught in the rain were just the fuse, which ignited the knot in the heart that had been hidden for years.
"Yes, it was me who proposed the adoption in the first place. I was such a jerk that I had to bring trouble upon myself!"
In the eyes of outsiders, Ye Ying is always proud and elegant, and she almost never uses such fierce and inappropriate words.
But Jiang Que outside the door was not surprised at all by the wording. As if he had a premonition, he silently lowered his hand that was about to knock on the door.
That was the fifth year since he was brought to this "home".
In the first year, Ye Ying treated him with an attitude close to "love". She would gently touch his head and talk to him, pick clothes for him like dressing up a doll, and take him to amusement parks and underwater worlds with Jiang Di, which he had never imagined he would be able to enter one day.
However, starting from the second year, Ye Ying's attitude gradually changed. It was as if the novelty had worn off and she was no longer interested in playing the role of a "family of three". There were even some emotions in her eyes that Jiang Que could not quite understand at the time.
Although he couldn't understand it, his sensitivity to people's words and expressions since childhood made him vaguely aware that the emotion didn't seem so friendly.
In the following years, when Jiang Di held the paintbrush to teach Jiang Que to paint, when he rewarded Jiang Que for his excellent grades, when he took Jiang Que to see newly released movies and bought him idol merchandise, that emotion appeared in Ye Ying's eyes again and again.
Gradually, Jiang Que seemed to realize the meaning of this emotion, but he was uncertain and hesitant. Because he was young, he didn't know how to deal with this emotion, let alone how to resolve it. He could only try his best to do the best he could, try not to cause them trouble, and try his best to let Ye Ying feel his kindness.
But obviously, Ye Ying doesn't need it.
The quarrel in the bedroom continued, but it was more like Ye Ying's one-man show of venting than a quarrel.
Jiang Di did not confront her head-on, but just like Fang Zhi treated Qiao Min, he sincerely admitted his neglect of her, and comforted her softly, guiding her to change her way of thinking and not get stuck in a dead end.
However, Ye Ying was not as easy to convince as Qiao Min. She did not think there was anything wrong with her idea at all. Although her words were no longer as fierce as before, the meaning she expressed was more thorough than before.
"Yes, I regret it... Can I admit that I regret it?"
"Weren't you happy before when it was just the two of us?"
"Shall we send him back?"
When he heard the last sentence, even Jiang Di, who had always been calm, almost couldn't control his voice: "What nonsense are you talking about?!"
However, Jiang Que outside the door could no longer hear anything. The three words "send it back" were like a basin of ice chips thrown from the void, hitting his ear holes and eardrums heavily, causing his heart to tighten, and also causing the cup of hot milk in his hand that he was originally going to give to Ye Ying to lose its last bit of warmth.
After a long time, he finally lowered his eyes, walked away from the door silently, walked back to his room, put the cold milk on the bedside, climbed onto the bed mechanically, and wrapped himself tightly with the quilt.
It was a summer night without air conditioning, yet he couldn't feel the warmth of the blankets. He was still a child in every sense of the word, yet he once again experienced the familiar pain of insomnia.
After an unknown amount of time, the door was gently pushed open a crack. He knew that it was Jiang Di who was afraid that he would be woken up by the previous argument, so he came to check if he was sleeping well.
Jiang Que didn't say anything and didn't move.
Just closed my eyes gently.
Only after the door closed again and the last ray of light was swallowed by darkness did he slowly reopen his eyes. Then he just stared at the dark void, feeling the silent passage of time, until the clock passed midnight and headed towards dawn.
The dressing room was silent.
Those tender eyes in the darkness many years ago have traveled through the torrent of time and are reflected in the cold mirror at this moment.
The pale cold light of the lamp in front of the mirror enveloped Jiang Que in the armchair, making him seem like an ice-white, delicate yet fragile porcelain sculpture.
Perhaps it was because his thoughts drifted too far and were too deeply entangled that he didn't even notice when the dressing room door was pushed open.
It wasn't until Song Yecheng walked quietly behind him and a figure in home clothes suddenly appeared in the mirror that he looked up as if waking from a dream and turned his head to ask, "Is the shooting finished?"
"Yeah, it just ended," Song Yecheng said with a seemingly unintentional smile, and sat down in the chair next to him, "What are you daydreaming about?"
Even before he entered the dressing room, he had already seen Jiang Que's daydreaming state through the crack of the half-open door. For some reason, that reminded him of what Jiang Bei had said: Jiang Que sitting on a bench by the lake in high school, not wanting to go home.
Was he also so quiet and absent-minded at that time?
What would he be thinking?
After staring at him for several minutes, Song Yecheng finally pushed the door open and walked in. He thought he would be discovered as soon as he entered, but who knew that Jiang Que was so distracted that he didn't wake up until Jiang Que walked behind him.
This state was so unusual that Song Yecheng couldn't help but observe his expression carefully again: "Tired? Or in a bad mood?"
He didn't ask this casually.
Ever since the filming of this family scene began, he could feel that Jiang Que was distracted all day long. He didn't know if this was related to the plot in the script, but his intuition told him that it might be related.
However, Jiang Que did not reveal any clues. Instead, he smiled softly and said, "No, I just came up and sat for a while because I couldn't help much from down there."
After saying that, he quickly changed the subject: "Is your friend here? Didn't you say you wanted to have dinner together?"
Song Yecheng was just about to say, "He'll probably be a while," when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and looked at it, then immediately raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh, speak of the devil, and he'll appear!"
He picked up the phone and said, "Hello? Where are you?"
Song Yecheng was surprised when he heard someone's reply. "So soon? I was planning to send a car to pick you up. Okay, I've just finished here too. See you later."
After hanging up the phone, Song Yecheng said with a mixture of laughter and tears: "He actually took a taxi here by himself."
"Have we arrived yet?" Jiang Que asked.
"Not yet, but soon," Song Yecheng stood up. "I'll go change my clothes and then go meet him at the gate. Will you wait for us here?"
Jiang Que hesitated for a moment, then stood up as well: "I'll go with you."
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