Shang Yechu slowly opened her eyes.
Shang Yechu's face was dry, and her expression was calm. No one could detect anything amiss. Only 103, lurking deep within Shang Yechu's consciousness, suddenly spoke up: "You—"
"I'm fine." Shang Yechu sat up straight and said casually, "Play me some music. Anything is fine, just keep the volume down, whatever you like."
103 wanted to say he didn't know what "like" meant, but he swallowed the words back. He rummaged through the music library and finally picked a song called "Ode to Joy".
103 intuitively felt that Shang Yechu would need such a piece of music at this moment.
As the strains of "Ode to Joy" echoed in her mind, Shang Yechu got up and walked over to director Gu Wenhua. Gu Wenhua was struggling with the script, so Shang Yechu leaned down and whispered her explanation to him.
Gu Wenhua's expression grew increasingly strange and astonished, until finally, he looked at Shang Yechu with an almost ghostly gaze.
"Is that alright?" Shang Yechu asked politely.
Gu Wenhua wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Of course! But can you guarantee there won't be any mistakes with such a long shot?"
Shang Yechu nodded: "Yes."
Gu Wenhua found Shang Yechu to be very strange at this moment, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
If Sheng Wenzhi were here, he would probably see that something was wrong with Shang Yechu at a glance. But there was only the hot-headed Gu Wenhua here, so he could only follow his instincts and intuition, and unconsciously lowered his voice to say, "Alright then. You, you get ready."
Li Zhenxiang, the actor who plays Yongfu, was dozing off in his chair when he was suddenly woken up and told to lie back down and start filming.
The scene of Li Zhenxiang drinking pesticide had already been filmed; all he had to do was lie back down. The rest was entirely Shang Yechu's solo performance.
"Action!"
Xiao Yue walked into the room, and upon seeing the scene inside, she involuntarily took a step back.
For a fleeting moment, Xiao Yue's face went blank. Her pupils also constricted slightly.
After a few seconds of silence, Xiao Yue suddenly walked around Yongfu's body, went to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and lifted the kang mat.
Hidden under the kang mat was a stack of banknotes of various denominations, ranging from 50 cents to 100 yuan. Xiao Yue put the money in her pocket and then opened the wardrobe.
There was also a stack of banknotes hidden in the wardrobe, but this time the denominations were larger, all of them being hundred-yuan bills.
Xiao Yue accepted all the money, stood in front of the cabinet for a while, and after confirming that there was no one who had slipped through the net, went to her small room.
Xiao Yue locked the money in her drawer.
Throughout, her movements were almost coldly methodical, and her face remained expressionless.
After finishing this task, Xiao Yue went into the yard and lit the outdoor stove. In the hot summer in the countryside, burning the kang (heated brick bed) inside the house would cause fires, so many families set up outdoor stoves outside their houses.
Xiao Yue hastily lit a fire, but the excessive amount of firewood clogged the stove, causing thick smoke to billow out and making her eyes water.
Xiao Yue lit two or three fires, then suddenly stood up and went into the house.
Yongfu's body still lay on the ground, like a frozen wax figure.
Xiao Yue's lips trembled slightly.
Suddenly, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground, bursting into tears!
"Ah—ah...ahhhhhh..."
Tears streamed down her face without any pretense or performance. Her cries echoed through the small room, mingling with the mute old woman's singing in the west wing, creating a particularly desolate scene under the fiery sunset.
Xiao Yue burst into tears, crying hysterically, letting out one pitiful howl after another, like a crow struck by a slingshot. Her crying was unrestrained, like a child unwilling to leave their parents to go to kindergarten.
Xiao Yue knelt on the ground, her head pressed against the cold, dirty earth. Her tears flowed like a river, mingling with the pesticide residue, becoming indistinguishable from each other.
Her body was already convulsing from crying. Xiao Yue trembled and cried out mournfully, "Dad! Dad! Dad, I love you... Dad, I'm sorry... I love you. Can you hear me... I will apply to that university, I will live a good life... I will make a lot of money... Dad, Dad!"
Xiao Yue murmured frantically, "You can hear me... It's written in the book, you can hear me... Dad! Ahhhhhh! I love you, I'll be alright—I'll die! Am I dead?—No, I'll be alright! Go! Dad! Don't go, Dad! Dad..."
In this delirious state, Xiao Yue's body trembled, and tears flowed like an endless river. Snot and saliva mixed with the dirt on the ground; this was the most disheveled girl she had ever been in her life.
The setting sun was like blood, and Xiao Yue's body, lying prostrate on the ground, became a black silhouette.
Xiao Yue didn't see that Yongfu, who was lying dead on the ground, had two tear tracks seeping from the corners of his tightly closed eyes.
"Cut!"
When Gu Wenhua called for a halt, nothing changed within the production crew. A long while later, low sobs could be heard.
Everyone cried. The staff who had grown impatient with Shang Yechu's three takes and hours of meditation, the actors, the villagers, and even Gu Wenhua himself. Everyone's face was streaked with snot and tears. No one looked at Shang Yechu with strange eyes anymore; they looked at the young actor with pity and empathy.
Suddenly, Yongfu, the "corpse" on the ground, jumped up, hugged Shang Yechu in his arms, and patted her hard!
"Child, it's alright! It's alright!"
Qi Ming rushed into the set from outside, embraced Yongfu and Shang Yechu, and closed his eyes without saying a word.
No one went up to disturb them. A somber sorrow enveloped the small film set, while outside the window, the true sunset glowed. The eternal sun cast its final rays upon the sky, and Yongfu, in the play, had died. Fortunately, everyone off-screen was alright.
After a long while, Qi Ming finally released Shang Yechu and Yongfu. The group rubbed their numb legs and slowly stood up.
With red circles under his eyes, Gu Wenhua clapped his hands and said, "That's a wrap!"
The crew let out a weak cheer. They were too exhausted to even cheer.
Gu Wenhua clapped his hands again and said, "Let's congratulate our Xiao Yue on officially wrapping up filming!"
The cheers were much louder this time. Several staff members, carrying bouquets they had already bought, stepped forward and handed them to Shang Yechu.
Shang Yechu took the bouquet and said playfully, "These flowers are much more presentable than me!"
Everyone burst into knowing laughter. Shang Yechu's face was covered in dried mud and tear stains, making her look disheveled.
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