Chapter 40
In early spring in Xiangbei, the chill still lingered, the air crisp, yet a hint of life emerged from the earth. The sunlight, clear and penetrating, slanted into the main hall of the now-completed "Royal Palace."
When Liu Yifan stood in front of the towering rammed earth city wall again, he felt a solidified heaviness that was completely different from the late autumn of last year.
The city wall stands tall, with huge traces of rammed earth clearly visible. The surface has been eroded by wind, rain and human craftsmanship to produce colors of varying shades, as if it has experienced hundreds of years of vicissitudes.
The black flag on the city wall, a symbol of royal power, fluttered in the cold wind of early spring, and its edges even had frayed edges, tearing out desolate lines.
The electric scooter she was riding slowly entered the city gate, casting a shadow that blocked out the still-chilled sunlight. The wheels made a dull sound as they rolled over the newly paved, yet deliberately uneven, mixture of rammed earth and gravel.
The air was no longer filled with the smell of earth and lime, but a mixture of ancient wood, dry thatch, cold metal, and a faint trace of cool smoke from burning pine and cypress used to create a sacrificial atmosphere.
The interior of the royal city already looked "completed".
The central palace area is no longer the empty construction site of mere framework and foundation. The massive, unpainted log pillars retain the wood's inherent texture and strength. Together with the layered brackets, they support the deep, thatched roof, creating a heavy and ancient silhouette. The adobe walls shimmer, their surface stained by firework and artificial aging, creating a sense of age.
She slowly walked up to the rammed earth platform where she had stood countless times, experiencing loneliness. The base was surrounded by antique bronze railings, cold to the touch. Atop the platform, a bronze throne carved with ferocious animal patterns was already in place, with a thick, dark animal hide spread beneath.
Her eyes swept across the corner of the palace. The low ritual vessels "zu" and "dou" had been restored and placed according to the research, and a set of imitation bronze chimes hung silently on the shelf.
She recalled Linna's previous scene:
[Scene setting: Ancestral temple sacrifice]
Atmosphere keywords: solemn, bloody, fireworks, strict hierarchy
Core props: sacrificial pit (newly excavated), divination bones (newly burned), human sacrifice symbol (terracotta figurine/sacrifice), ritual vessel array
Performance Tip: Here, you need to demonstrate Baosi's complete indifference and silent mockery of the Zhou royal family's sacred sacrificial system. Her "disrespect" isn't an active provocation, but rather a deep-seated weariness with this hypocritical ritual that maintains power.
The "ancestral temple" area built for filming has now been completely set up. The newly excavated sacrificial pit is still freshly soiled, and scattered nearby are divination bones (tortoise shells and animal bones) meticulously reproduced with fresh burn cracks by the crew's prop masters.
Pottery figurines or models of sacrifice, symbolizing human sacrifice, were placed at the edge of the pit, creating the scene after the sacrifice. The cool, pine-cypress-like mist in the air, slowly released from a hidden smoke device, simulated the austere atmosphere immediately after the sacrifice.
The entire palace itself is a silent historical masterpiece full of symbols and oppression.
Liu Yifan walked through this silent and huge building complex, his fingertips brushing against the cold and rough walls.
She tried to imagine what kind of mountain of gold and silver would be needed to so precisely reproduce the dust and weight of history. This behemoth, devouring gold and jade, exhausting all manpower and material resources, cost an astronomical figure she didn't want to calculate. The expenditure, measured in billions, now felt like the reality of every brick and tile, weighing heavily on her breath.
This city, this "world," was finally completed thanks to Zhou Ping'an's unlimited resources and the artists' obsessive polishing. It no longer waited to be built, but rather to be activated, infused with soul—or, to be destroyed.
She no longer needs to rely on her imagination to fill the void, and now she needs great determination to avoid being swallowed up by this huge, concrete historical illusion.
She returned to an independent courtyard near the palace area prepared for her by the crew, put down her luggage, and without resting, she said directly to her assistant:
"Notify Director Lin and Director Chen that I'm ready. Tomorrow morning, we'll start filming the scene after the ancestral temple sacrifice."
After returning to the studio, the first scene she had to perform was the scene where Bao Si returned to the palace after passing through the solemn, bloody and smoky sacrificial scene, and faced King You of Zhou's extreme indifference when he tried to share the "oracle" with her.
She no longer needed to "search" for her state. This perfectly replicated, cold and heavy royal city itself was the best catalyst for her state. This "cage" that Zhou Ping'an had built for her with his resources and paranoia had now become her most powerful support for completing her ultimate performance.
She stood in the courtyard, looking up at the hideous silhouette of the eaves at the highest point of the palace. The afterglow of the setting sun dyed it dark red, like solidified blood.
She took a deep breath of the air that smelled of stale incense, and her eyes gradually cooled and settled until they became bottomless, as if she had already entered the soul cursed by power and nothingness.
The curtain is about to be completely opened.
The filming of the ancestral temple sacrifice took place in the early morning. The newly excavated sacrificial pit was deliberately magnified, and imitation bronze ritual vessels shone with a cold, hard luster. Beside the carefully arranged sacrificial pit, half-buried pottery figurines lay in distorted postures. The air was filled with the cold and solemn smoke of burning pine and cypress trees.
Lin Na sat behind the monitor, her expression solemn. This scene set the tone for Bao Si's character, requiring her to burst forth with a complete disregard for the sacred amidst an extremely subdued sense of ritual.
“Action!”
Liu Yifan, as Bao Si, dressed in elaborate black ritual attire, walks slowly through the sacrificial scene. Her steps are steady, without a trace of hesitation or reverence, and her gaze calmly sweeps over the artifacts and sacrifices that symbolize power and divine authority, as if sweeping over a pile of insignificant stones.
Her walk wasn't aimless. She maintained a subtle, half-step-behind following posture, her gaze occasionally fixed on a point in the void before her, as if the invisible King You of Zhou were walking there. Her rhythm and pauses precisely echoed those of an unseen leader, yet her aura maintained absolute independence and detachment.
There are no lines. All the drama is in her eyes, her steps and her subtle body language.
When she stopped and tilted her ear slightly, as if listening to the "existence" in front of her trying to share the so-called "oracle" with her, the camera zoomed in and gave Liu Yifan a very long close-up of her face.
Her face was expressionless, without mockery or impatience, only a bottomless, almost nihilistic calm. Her eyes seemed to penetrate the solemn ceremony and the invisible king before them, seeing the hollowness and absurdity of the power dynamics behind them. A cold, soul-deep ennui threatened to overflow from the screen.
That was not an act of "coldness", but a complete "indifference" from the bottom of her heart to all these rules, symbolic systems and even the man who controlled it all.
“Crack!”
Lin Na's voice trembled with a subtle tremor, brimming with excitement. "It's done! Perfect! That's exactly how it feels! Bao Si's 'coldness' isn't confrontational; it's condescending! It's complete disregard! She even ignored the existence of that 'king'!"
Liu Yifan slowly came out of that state, nodded slightly in the direction of Lin Na, his face still expressionless, as if he had just completed an ordinary walk.
The following day of filming moved forward at an almost frenetic pace.
Linna's voice echoed throughout the empty palace area, carrying with it an irrepressible excitement and focus. Each instruction was clear and decisive, as if the scenes she had rehearsed countless times in her mind were being precisely projected into reality.
Liu Yifan's state of mind was astonishingly stable. She seemed to have completely shed herself, completely merging into the body of Bao Si, enveloped by the ethereal monarch and invisible rules.
She no longer needed to "search" for emotions or motivations. The icy royal city Zhou Ping'an had forged for her with his vast resources and obsessive will had become the perfect emotional cage and catalyst. Every piece of cold earth, every wisp of bleak smoke, every ritual object symbolizing power and restraint, silently nurtured her "coldness" and "weariness."
She walked under the shadow of the huge palace, her eyes sweeping blankly over the crawling "ministers" and the solemn "ceremonial guards", as if she was watching a silent drama that had nothing to do with her.
She sat at the foot of the cold bronze throne, listening to the "words" of "King You" that were recorded in advance by the voice actor and now came through the headphones, which were either majestic or trying to please. There was no fluctuation in her eyes, only a kind of fatigue that penetrated everything and saw through all the hypocritical games.
Her performance is no longer "acting," but a kind of "existence," a pure, cold "presence" stripped of all passion and expectation.
Lin Na often held her breath watching from behind the monitor. What she saw was no longer the actor Liu Yifan, but the soul imprisoned at the pinnacle of power, using silence to defy the entire world.
"Good! Great! This is exactly the feeling!" Lin Na's voice often trembled slightly with excitement. "Hold on! This kind of complete nothingness where you don't even bother to 'resist'! This is the cruelest!"
Chen Feng nodded frequently, his eyes sparkling. Liu Yifan's performance far exceeded his expectations. She could even improvise subtle yet powerful reactions, like the almost imperceptible, fleeting curve of her lips when she heard "King You" declare another meaningless victory in a "conquest." That wasn't a smile, but the ultimate mockery of all grand narratives.
The entire crew was captivated by this high-quality, efficient creative atmosphere. The staff moved with swiftness and coordinated effort, seemingly immersed in this grand yet oppressive epic narrative, driven by a shared artistic pursuit.
However, outside this bustling and focused creative hotbed, Liu Yifan's life has fallen into an extreme, almost ascetic silence.
Zhou Ping'an never returned to the Rongcheng house she left behind after evacuating. For her, it had fulfilled its historical mission—a laboratory for "observation" and "triggering." Now, without the experimental subjects, the laboratory had lost its meaning.
She had a room at the hotel where the Xiangbei Film Studio crew was staying, but she spent very little time there. After work, she preferred to stay alone in the empty palace area.
She often sat alone on the edge of the high rammed earth platform, beneath her the vast and silent royal city gradually swallowed by the night. The cold spring night wind swept past, carrying with it the lingering scent of smoke and the faint hum of machinery in the distant sheds.
She didn't need to speak or communicate, she just sat quietly, letting the soul she played during the day sink deeper into her limbs and bones.
Yang Wei wanted to talk to her several times about the upcoming business arrangements and the increasingly heated public opinion, but she gently rejected her.
"We'll talk about it after the filming is finished." This is always her answer, her tone is calm, but with unquestionable determination.
She completely cut off unnecessary contact with the outside world, completely isolating herself in this magnificent cage built just for her. She greedily absorbed every ounce of nourishing energy within this space, while also enduring the growing loneliness brought on by this extreme immersion.
It was a dangerous balance. She was hollowing herself out bit by bit to fill that ancient soul. The price of success might be killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of her own.
But she didn't look back.
Occasionally, in the extreme silence of the night, when she briefly broke free from Bao Si's body and returned to the hotel room, facing the cold and lonely room, she would subconsciously pick up her private mobile phone.
The screen is clean, with no unread messages or missed calls.
The name for which she had set a special reminder tone remained silent.
She wouldn't contact him, and he clearly had no intention of contacting her.
His withdrawal was so thorough and decisive, which was consistent with his usual style - solve the problem and then move on.
She looked at the dark screen, and the corners of her mouth would slowly curl up in a very faint arc, which was hard to tell whether it was mockery or understanding.
That's fine.
They do not disturb each other, and each runs wildly in its own field towards a common, but potentially completely different destination.
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