November 6, 2021kaychandra
Chapter 56: Getting Injured vs. Visiting the Set
“Okay, good. This way, higher, steady.”
“Camera 3, move closer. Pay attention to close-ups.”
“Okay, this shot passed. Prepare for the next scene.”
Director Jiao put down the megaphone. He looked up at the big sun in the sky, and shook the fan in his hand. “Bring over the heatstroke-prevention medicinal soup[1]. Each person should drink a cup.”
The mountains were beautiful to look at, but when the sun came out, the heat was unbearable. Fortunately, to make the movie more beautiful and make the actors’ costumes more ethereal, the costume fabric wasn’t thick. Otherwise, it would’ve been even more unbearable.
The heatstroke-prevention medicinal soup was brought over with ice, but by the time it was served to everyone, it had become warm. Gongxi Qiao wore the costume of an immortal, but he was holding a small rechargeable fan in his hand, which was blowing hard on his face. He didn’t show any immortal temperament at all.
The ‘Cultivation’ film was very demanding on the artists. Sometimes during wire work, if a single action wasn’t beautiful enough, they would rather re-shoot it several times than settle for a shot that was just okay. Because the shooting location was relatively remote, sometimes there weren’t enough locals from the community to play all the extras, so the cast would come together to make up the numbers. Even Gongxi Qiao, the male lead, played a role as an extra whose face wasn’t visible.
“How do you feel now?” Chen Yi handed him a cup of heat-relief soup and followed his example of taking a small stool to sit under the shade of a tree. “We only came here two weeks ago and I’ve already lost three pounds. My agent no longer has to worry about my weight.”
“Thank you,” after taking a sip of the heat-relief soup, Gongxi Qiao saw Chen Yi’s face full of sweat. He held the small electric fan in his hand and blew towards Chen Yi’s face. “I’m fine. How is Sister Dai?”
“She’s fine, it’s just a little bit of heat exhaustion. I’ve sent her back to her room to rest, and her assistant is taking care of her.” Chen Yi finished his cup of heatstroke soup in one gulp. “I’ll go back to accompany her after my scene is finished.”
“Good man.” Gongxi Qiao gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll try not to hold you back.”
“Of course I won’t worry about that when I’m working with you,” Chen Yi said with a smile. “Actually, I’m not that good. I’ve been with her all these years and she’s given more to this relationship than I have. When I wasn’t famous, I was worried about people saying I was holding her thighs so I never wanted to appear with her in public. Later, because of some things, I came to understand that whatever people said about me wasn’t more important than her. Holding thighs is holding thighs. Other people want to hold them, but they don’t have the ability.”
“Your view is correct. People have to live their lifetimes for themselves, not for others,” Gongxi Qiao agreed. “You are a good man, and Sister Dai is a good woman. You two are a natural pair. Other people can only envy you. “
“Thanks.” Chen Yi smiled at Gongxi Qiao. “When this movie is finished, I’m going to hold my wedding with Ni-Ni. At that time, come be my best man.”
“Ah, okay,” Gongxi Qiao smilingly agreed, “then don’t forget to give me a red envelope[2].”
“Mr. Chen, Mr. Gongxi, it’s your scene.” A staff member came to inform them to prepare for the next scene.
“Coming.” Gongxi Qiao handed the cup and small fan to Jiang Long, who had come toward them. Then, he walked with Chen Yi to the filming location. While the staff secured their wires, the makeup artist did their makeup.
After fixing up their makeup, the wires lifted them slightly, and someone came and strapped swords under their feet. Director Jiao came over and told them what to pay attention to, and then the shooting was ready to start.
Since the subject was cultivation, there was no shortage of classic shots of flying on swords. For the sake of realism, the wires must be stable, not wobbly. Otherwise, the audience would immediately tell that they were hanging on wires, and there would be no immortal atmosphere.
Gongxi Qiao was the male protagonist of the film and Chen Yi played his senior fellow disciple. Although the two didn’t share the same master, their relationship was very good.
Because this scene was mainly a non-action scene without fighting, and the two had experience in shooting scenes on wires, the filming was done soon.
However, an accident happened when the wires were lowered. Somehow, a sudden gust of mountain wind came and Chen Yi’s wire got hooked on a branch. The control engineer of the wires got nervous and caused the wire to drop down violently.
Gongxi Qiao reflexively reached out to grab it. The powerful inertia made the wire rope instantly abrade his palm. With him acting as a buffer, although Chen Yi fell to the ground, it certainly wouldn’t be as serious as falling directly.
Director Jiao threw down his megaphone and ran towards the two men. The rest of the crew hurriedly followed suit.
Chen Yi was still a little stunned when everyone helped him up. However, he didn’t suffer any injuries apart from a little broken skin on his knee. When he was falling just now, he felt like someone had pulled the rope. He stood up and looked behind him, then saw Gongxi Qiao’s right palm dripping with blood.
“Xiao Qiao, how are you?”
“Nothing, I just broke some skin. You were the one who fell.” Gongxi Qiao’s palm was cut by the wire rope, and blood was already oozing out. Seeing this, the staff helped him remove the wire harness and urged the medical staff to disinfect his palm.
“Fortunately, you pulled me up just now, so I’m fine.” He saw the medical staff disinfecting the wound. Gongxi Qiao painfully sucked in a few breaths of cold air and Chen Yi said guiltily, “I’m sorry, you got hurt because of me.”
“I just broke some skin. It’s better than you breaking your leg,” Gongxi Qiao said, waving his uninjured hand. “If you’re a friend, don’t act so formal. It’s out of place.”
Seeing that both people weren’t seriously injured, the big stone in Director Jiao’s heart finally fell. He, who was always a smiling tiger, turned around and gave a severe criticism to the staff manipulating the wires. They shouldn’t make such low-level mistakes. Today, it was lucky that nothing happened. However, what if Gongxi Qiao hadn’t reached out and pulled, and Chen Yi had been injured from the fall?
If an actor got hurt, there would be a lot of trouble later on. How could they still film well?
“Director Jiao, I think it might rain later. Why don’t we put the equipment away first?” The scene manager looked up at the sky and said, “If it rains heavily, it will be difficult on the way back.”
Director Jiao looked up at the sky. The sky, which was still scorching, was already full of dark clouds, so he nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go down the mountain.”
There was a small hotel at the bottom of the mountain, where the crew rested at night. They had just returned to the hotel when the rain started falling. It got heavier and heavier, as if the water was being dumped on them.
“Qiao Shao.” Jiang Long entered Gongxi Qiao’s room with a medical kit. When he saw him reading the script, his feet stopped and he whispered, “How’s your wound?”
“It’s fine,” Gongxi Qiao wasn’t used to using his left hand, so when he turned the pages of the script, it took two tries to flip the page successfully. He noticed the medical kit in Jiang Long’s hand. “What are you doing with this?”
“I’ll help you treat your wound.” Jiang Long put down the medical kit. “I saw just now that the medical staff only gave you a simple disinfection. I’m worried that the wound will become infected and will affect the wound recovery.”
Gongxi Qiao laughed a little, but seeing Jiang Long’s serious face, he had to hold out his hand and let it be tormented.
Producer Zhou was in a bit of a bad mood because Qiao Shao, whom the big boss had asked him to take good care of, was injured. Although the skin was only abraded on the palm of his hand, he was still a bit upset. When he returned to his room, he grabbed a bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine and went towards Gongxi Qiao’s room.
When he arrived, Gongxi Qiao’s room already had several people sitting in it. In addition to Gongxi Qiao’s assistant, there were Chen Yi, Ma Qian, Ji Yuming, the assistant director and several others in the room.
However, he didn’t care how many people were in the room. He walked in with a smile and said, “How’s the wound? This is a bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine I brought from home. It works pretty well, try it.”
“Thank you, Brother Zhou,” Gongxi Qiao took the bottle of medicine and beckoned for him to sit down. “I made everyone worry. Actually, it’s just a little wound, it’s nothing.”
“Young people don’t take these small injuries seriously,” the assistant director said with a serious face. “There was a martial arts stunt double in our circle who also suffered a small injury, but didn’t take it seriously. It turned out that the wound became infected and was eventually amputated.”
After citing this example, the assistant director continued, “So, it’s good to pay more attention to small wounds.”
So with everyone’s concern, Gongxi Qiao’s wound was disinfected again. He also took a few anti-inflammatory pills, and his palm was wrapped with gauze.
Because he was injured this time to save someone else, the staff in the crew who were still a bit envious and jealous because of his status as a rich second generation changed their opinion of him.
Qiao Shao’s ability to lend a helping hand without hesitation in a crisis demonstrated that his character was very good. Also, since the filming began, he had never complained of hardship and tiredness, and never asked for a stunt double if he could do something himself. His positioning was up to standard, his diction was good, and his acting skills were even better than most young artists in the circle.
As the saying goes, time reveals a person’s heart. After this time, the crew got along with Gongxi Qiao with less formality and more sincerity. Chen Yi became close buddies with Gongxi Qiao, and Dai Ni often teased them as being blood brothers.
More than twenty days of filming time passed. Everyone was tired because of the tight shooting schedule. Plus, the accommodations in the remote town weren’t good. The things they could buy were limited, not to mention that there were no so-called delicacies. In Zhao Yikun’s words, he was even having dreams about a big meal.
“If someone came to visit me with a big pile of food at this time, I would definitely marry him.” Mi Yue picked at the tasteless boxed rice and said bitterly, “I miss delicious Chinese and Western food, delicious hot pot, and I even miss street-stall barbecue.”
“Bear with it. There’s still a week left before we can go back,” said Gongxi Qiao, chewing the tasteless rice in his mouth. He also lost his appetite because of what Mi Yue said, and then looked out the window. “If it hadn’t rained so often recently, we would have finished filming and gone back by now.”
“The weather isn’t cooperating.” Mi Yue let out a long sigh. “My whole body is tanned.” After saying that, she gave Gongxi Qiao a jealous look. “The whole crew is tanned. Why are you still so pale?”
“He’s naturally beautiful.” Zhao Yikun put down his chopsticks and wiped the oil on his mouth, “It can’t be the effect of sunscreen, right?”
“You’re the one who’s naturally beautiful. How can you describe a man that way?” Mi Yue glared at Zhao Yikun in disgust. “This is called a gift of God. Otherwise, how could Qiao Shao play the Venerable Immortal Lord with both beauty and manners?”
Zhao Yikun gave a scoff, but couldn’t refute that Gongxi Qiao’s performance was really outstanding. When he auditioned for the male lead with Gongxi Qiao, he was already accompanying the prince to study. It was normal that he wasn’t chosen. Then, Ringstar did their best to get him a role, but it wasn’t easy.
“Yue-Yue is right,” Chen Wen said while wiping the corner of her mouth. “If I hadn’t already spent a few years in the entertainment industry when I ran into Qiao Shao, I would have been obsessed with him.”
Zhao Yikun felt like something was wrong when he heard what she said. He looked at Chen Wen and then at Gongxi Qiao, but he didn’t say anything.
“However, a man like you isn’t suitable for a relationship. With you, she wouldn’t feel secure enough. It’s not that you can’t protect your partner, but as your partner, she would have to worry every day whether someone would steal her man. That life is too tiring.” Chen Wen shook her head and sighed. “The person who can match you must be mentally strong enough to do so.”
“Isn’t that an exaggeration?” Gongxi Qiao’s face was full of innocence, “In your eyes, am I that unpopular?”
“On the contrary, it’s because you’re too nice and too popular.” Chen Wen carefully examined his face and shook her head. “A good family background, high education, high status, famous, rich, classy, respectful of women, and a gentle person. It’s too easy for a man like you to attract the attention of the opposite sex, because you’re the most ideal man in the eyes of many women. But also because of this perfection, it’s too easy for people to feel pressured. Anyway, women like me, at most, just admire your beauty and don’t even dare to think about anything else.”
In fact, when she was on the set of ‘Princess of the Closed Moon'[3], she had her heart set on him. However, as Gongxi Qiao became more and more famous and his merits were revealed more and more, her thoughts were extinguished.
She wasn’t a woman who was good at dreaming, so when the facts told her that Gongxi Qiao wasn’t a person of her world, she wouldn’t waste her feelings.
Gongxi Qiao wasn’t stupid. He guessed from Chen Wen’s words that she’d had a crush on him, but since she had already moved on, he wouldn’t make a fool of himself and take it to heart. “I’m not as good as you say. In fact, I have a whole bunch of flaws, too many to count. It’s just that you haven’t found them.”
Chen Wen smiled and didn’t say anything. The real flaws could only be found by the person he loved. She was just a passerby in his life. How could she see the truth under the surface of his perfection?
“I knew you were the best at putting on an act.” Zhao Yikun moved his stool towards Chen Wen. “Wen-Wen, will you go to a show with me later?”
Chen Wen looked at the pleasing smile on Zhao Yikun’s face and nodded slightly. She was about to speak when she suddenly heard a clamor coming from outside the hotel.
“It’s raining so hard outside, why is there so much noise?” Mi Yue stood up, “Let’s go take a look.”
The hotel was a twenty year old building. There was a long balcony outside each floor that was a walkway. They lived on the second floor, and the only way to see the commotion was to go to the balcony.
“Wow, there are a lot of SUVs parked downstairs. Are they here to visit the set?” Mi Yue stood on the balcony, not afraid of the rain blowing on her, and stretched her neck out curiously. She really couldn’t believe that, in such bad weather and in such a remote area, there would really be people so excited to visit the set.
Gongxi Qiao grabbed a hat and put it on his head. He looked down and saw several people carrying boxes of stuff from the cars towards the hotel. Only the car closest to the door had no movement.
A young man with a black umbrella walked to the door of this car, bent down and opened the door. From the inside came a man in a white shirt. Unfortunately, despite the umbrella, the rain was too heavy. As soon as his feet stepped on the ground, his shoes as well as the sides of his trouser legs were splashed with a lot of mud spots.
“That, that’s not ……” Mi Yue opened her eyes wide, somewhat incredulous.
The man standing downstairs stopped and slowly raised his head to meet Gongxi Qiao’s eyes.
Gongxi Qiao froze for a moment, and then revealed a gentle smile.
T/N
Heatstroke prevention soup: In traditional Chinese medicine, soups and tonics are used to treat or prevent many ailments by balancing qi. Red envelope: Money is given in a red envelope as a traditional gift on important occasions. Princess of the Closed Moon: The author actually wrote “Charming Princess” but I assume that the author made a mistake since that wasn’t the name of their drama. I changed it to Princess of the Closed Moon to avoid confusion.
November 6, 2021kaychandra
Chapter 56: Getting Injured vs. Visiting the Set
“Okay, good. This way, higher, steady.”
“Camera 3, move closer. Pay attention to close-ups.”
“Okay, this shot passed. Prepare for the next scene.”
Director Jiao put down the megaphone. He looked up at the big sun in the sky, and shook the fan in his hand. “Bring over the heatstroke-prevention medicinal soup[1]. Each person should drink a cup.”
The mountains were beautiful to look at, but when the sun came out, the heat was unbearable. Fortunately, to make the movie more beautiful and make the actors’ costumes more ethereal, the costume fabric wasn’t thick. Otherwise, it would’ve been even more unbearable.
The heatstroke-prevention medicinal soup was brought over with ice, but by the time it was served to everyone, it had become warm. Gongxi Qiao wore the costume of an immortal, but he was holding a small rechargeable fan in his hand, which was blowing hard on his face. He didn’t show any immortal temperament at all.
The ‘Cultivation’ film was very demanding on the artists. Sometimes during wire work, if a single action wasn’t beautiful enough, they would rather re-shoot it several times than settle for a shot that was just okay. Because the shooting location was relatively remote, sometimes there weren’t enough locals from the community to play all the extras, so the cast would come together to make up the numbers. Even Gongxi Qiao, the male lead, played a role as an extra whose face wasn’t visible.
“How do you feel now?” Chen Yi handed him a cup of heat-relief soup and followed his example of taking a small stool to sit under the shade of a tree. “We only came here two weeks ago and I’ve already lost three pounds. My agent no longer has to worry about my weight.”
“Thank you,” after taking a sip of the heat-relief soup, Gongxi Qiao saw Chen Yi’s face full of sweat. He held the small electric fan in his hand and blew towards Chen Yi’s face. “I’m fine. How is Sister Dai?”
“She’s fine, it’s just a little bit of heat exhaustion. I’ve sent her back to her room to rest, and her assistant is taking care of her.” Chen Yi finished his cup of heatstroke soup in one gulp. “I’ll go back to accompany her after my scene is finished.”
“Good man.” Gongxi Qiao gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll try not to hold you back.”
“Of course I won’t worry about that when I’m working with you,” Chen Yi said with a smile. “Actually, I’m not that good. I’ve been with her all these years and she’s given more to this relationship than I have. When I wasn’t famous, I was worried about people saying I was holding her thighs so I never wanted to appear with her in public. Later, because of some things, I came to understand that whatever people said about me wasn’t more important than her. Holding thighs is holding thighs. Other people want to hold them, but they don’t have the ability.”
“Your view is correct. People have to live their lifetimes for themselves, not for others,” Gongxi Qiao agreed. “You are a good man, and Sister Dai is a good woman. You two are a natural pair. Other people can only envy you. “
“Thanks.” Chen Yi smiled at Gongxi Qiao. “When this movie is finished, I’m going to hold my wedding with Ni-Ni. At that time, come be my best man.”
“Ah, okay,” Gongxi Qiao smilingly agreed, “then don’t forget to give me a red envelope[2].”
“Mr. Chen, Mr. Gongxi, it’s your scene.” A staff member came to inform them to prepare for the next scene.
“Coming.” Gongxi Qiao handed the cup and small fan to Jiang Long, who had come toward them. Then, he walked with Chen Yi to the filming location. While the staff secured their wires, the makeup artist did their makeup.
After fixing up their makeup, the wires lifted them slightly, and someone came and strapped swords under their feet. Director Jiao came over and told them what to pay attention to, and then the shooting was ready to start.
Since the subject was cultivation, there was no shortage of classic shots of flying on swords. For the sake of realism, the wires must be stable, not wobbly. Otherwise, the audience would immediately tell that they were hanging on wires, and there would be no immortal atmosphere.
Gongxi Qiao was the male protagonist of the film and Chen Yi played his senior fellow disciple. Although the two didn’t share the same master, their relationship was very good.
Because this scene was mainly a non-action scene without fighting, and the two had experience in shooting scenes on wires, the filming was done soon.
However, an accident happened when the wires were lowered. Somehow, a sudden gust of mountain wind came and Chen Yi’s wire got hooked on a branch. The control engineer of the wires got nervous and caused the wire to drop down violently.
Gongxi Qiao reflexively reached out to grab it. The powerful inertia made the wire rope instantly abrade his palm. With him acting as a buffer, although Chen Yi fell to the ground, it certainly wouldn’t be as serious as falling directly.
Director Jiao threw down his megaphone and ran towards the two men. The rest of the crew hurriedly followed suit.
Chen Yi was still a little stunned when everyone helped him up. However, he didn’t suffer any injuries apart from a little broken skin on his knee. When he was falling just now, he felt like someone had pulled the rope. He stood up and looked behind him, then saw Gongxi Qiao’s right palm dripping with blood.
“Xiao Qiao, how are you?”
“Nothing, I just broke some skin. You were the one who fell.” Gongxi Qiao’s palm was cut by the wire rope, and blood was already oozing out. Seeing this, the staff helped him remove the wire harness and urged the medical staff to disinfect his palm.
“Fortunately, you pulled me up just now, so I’m fine.” He saw the medical staff disinfecting the wound. Gongxi Qiao painfully sucked in a few breaths of cold air and Chen Yi said guiltily, “I’m sorry, you got hurt because of me.”
“I just broke some skin. It’s better than you breaking your leg,” Gongxi Qiao said, waving his uninjured hand. “If you’re a friend, don’t act so formal. It’s out of place.”
Seeing that both people weren’t seriously injured, the big stone in Director Jiao’s heart finally fell. He, who was always a smiling tiger, turned around and gave a severe criticism to the staff manipulating the wires. They shouldn’t make such low-level mistakes. Today, it was lucky that nothing happened. However, what if Gongxi Qiao hadn’t reached out and pulled, and Chen Yi had been injured from the fall?
If an actor got hurt, there would be a lot of trouble later on. How could they still film well?
“Director Jiao, I think it might rain later. Why don’t we put the equipment away first?” The scene manager looked up at the sky and said, “If it rains heavily, it will be difficult on the way back.”
Director Jiao looked up at the sky. The sky, which was still scorching, was already full of dark clouds, so he nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go down the mountain.”
There was a small hotel at the bottom of the mountain, where the crew rested at night. They had just returned to the hotel when the rain started falling. It got heavier and heavier, as if the water was being dumped on them.
“Qiao Shao.” Jiang Long entered Gongxi Qiao’s room with a medical kit. When he saw him reading the script, his feet stopped and he whispered, “How’s your wound?”
“It’s fine,” Gongxi Qiao wasn’t used to using his left hand, so when he turned the pages of the script, it took two tries to flip the page successfully. He noticed the medical kit in Jiang Long’s hand. “What are you doing with this?”
“I’ll help you treat your wound.” Jiang Long put down the medical kit. “I saw just now that the medical staff only gave you a simple disinfection. I’m worried that the wound will become infected and will affect the wound recovery.”
Gongxi Qiao laughed a little, but seeing Jiang Long’s serious face, he had to hold out his hand and let it be tormented.
Producer Zhou was in a bit of a bad mood because Qiao Shao, whom the big boss had asked him to take good care of, was injured. Although the skin was only abraded on the palm of his hand, he was still a bit upset. When he returned to his room, he grabbed a bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine and went towards Gongxi Qiao’s room.
When he arrived, Gongxi Qiao’s room already had several people sitting in it. In addition to Gongxi Qiao’s assistant, there were Chen Yi, Ma Qian, Ji Yuming, the assistant director and several others in the room.
However, he didn’t care how many people were in the room. He walked in with a smile and said, “How’s the wound? This is a bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine I brought from home. It works pretty well, try it.”
“Thank you, Brother Zhou,” Gongxi Qiao took the bottle of medicine and beckoned for him to sit down. “I made everyone worry. Actually, it’s just a little wound, it’s nothing.”
“Young people don’t take these small injuries seriously,” the assistant director said with a serious face. “There was a martial arts stunt double in our circle who also suffered a small injury, but didn’t take it seriously. It turned out that the wound became infected and was eventually amputated.”
After citing this example, the assistant director continued, “So, it’s good to pay more attention to small wounds.”
So with everyone’s concern, Gongxi Qiao’s wound was disinfected again. He also took a few anti-inflammatory pills, and his palm was wrapped with gauze.
Because he was injured this time to save someone else, the staff in the crew who were still a bit envious and jealous because of his status as a rich second generation changed their opinion of him.
Qiao Shao’s ability to lend a helping hand without hesitation in a crisis demonstrated that his character was very good. Also, since the filming began, he had never complained of hardship and tiredness, and never asked for a stunt double if he could do something himself. His positioning was up to standard, his diction was good, and his acting skills were even better than most young artists in the circle.
As the saying goes, time reveals a person’s heart. After this time, the crew got along with Gongxi Qiao with less formality and more sincerity. Chen Yi became close buddies with Gongxi Qiao, and Dai Ni often teased them as being blood brothers.
More than twenty days of filming time passed. Everyone was tired because of the tight shooting schedule. Plus, the accommodations in the remote town weren’t good. The things they could buy were limited, not to mention that there were no so-called delicacies. In Zhao Yikun’s words, he was even having dreams about a big meal.
“If someone came to visit me with a big pile of food at this time, I would definitely marry him.” Mi Yue picked at the tasteless boxed rice and said bitterly, “I miss delicious Chinese and Western food, delicious hot pot, and I even miss street-stall barbecue.”
“Bear with it. There’s still a week left before we can go back,” said Gongxi Qiao, chewing the tasteless rice in his mouth. He also lost his appetite because of what Mi Yue said, and then looked out the window. “If it hadn’t rained so often recently, we would have finished filming and gone back by now.”
“The weather isn’t cooperating.” Mi Yue let out a long sigh. “My whole body is tanned.” After saying that, she gave Gongxi Qiao a jealous look. “The whole crew is tanned. Why are you still so pale?”
“He’s naturally beautiful.” Zhao Yikun put down his chopsticks and wiped the oil on his mouth, “It can’t be the effect of sunscreen, right?”
“You’re the one who’s naturally beautiful. How can you describe a man that way?” Mi Yue glared at Zhao Yikun in disgust. “This is called a gift of God. Otherwise, how could Qiao Shao play the Venerable Immortal Lord with both beauty and manners?”
Zhao Yikun gave a scoff, but couldn’t refute that Gongxi Qiao’s performance was really outstanding. When he auditioned for the male lead with Gongxi Qiao, he was already accompanying the prince to study. It was normal that he wasn’t chosen. Then, Ringstar did their best to get him a role, but it wasn’t easy.
“Yue-Yue is right,” Chen Wen said while wiping the corner of her mouth. “If I hadn’t already spent a few years in the entertainment industry when I ran into Qiao Shao, I would have been obsessed with him.”
Zhao Yikun felt like something was wrong when he heard what she said. He looked at Chen Wen and then at Gongxi Qiao, but he didn’t say anything.
“However, a man like you isn’t suitable for a relationship. With you, she wouldn’t feel secure enough. It’s not that you can’t protect your partner, but as your partner, she would have to worry every day whether someone would steal her man. That life is too tiring.” Chen Wen shook her head and sighed. “The person who can match you must be mentally strong enough to do so.”
“Isn’t that an exaggeration?” Gongxi Qiao’s face was full of innocence, “In your eyes, am I that unpopular?”
“On the contrary, it’s because you’re too nice and too popular.” Chen Wen carefully examined his face and shook her head. “A good family background, high education, high status, famous, rich, classy, respectful of women, and a gentle person. It’s too easy for a man like you to attract the attention of the opposite sex, because you’re the most ideal man in the eyes of many women. But also because of this perfection, it’s too easy for people to feel pressured. Anyway, women like me, at most, just admire your beauty and don’t even dare to think about anything else.”
In fact, when she was on the set of ‘Princess of the Closed Moon'[3], she had her heart set on him. However, as Gongxi Qiao became more and more famous and his merits were revealed more and more, her thoughts were extinguished.
She wasn’t a woman who was good at dreaming, so when the facts told her that Gongxi Qiao wasn’t a person of her world, she wouldn’t waste her feelings.
Gongxi Qiao wasn’t stupid. He guessed from Chen Wen’s words that she’d had a crush on him, but since she had already moved on, he wouldn’t make a fool of himself and take it to heart. “I’m not as good as you say. In fact, I have a whole bunch of flaws, too many to count. It’s just that you haven’t found them.”
Chen Wen smiled and didn’t say anything. The real flaws could only be found by the person he loved. She was just a passerby in his life. How could she see the truth under the surface of his perfection?
“I knew you were the best at putting on an act.” Zhao Yikun moved his stool towards Chen Wen. “Wen-Wen, will you go to a show with me later?”
Chen Wen looked at the pleasing smile on Zhao Yikun’s face and nodded slightly. She was about to speak when she suddenly heard a clamor coming from outside the hotel.
“It’s raining so hard outside, why is there so much noise?” Mi Yue stood up, “Let’s go take a look.”
The hotel was a twenty year old building. There was a long balcony outside each floor that was a walkway. They lived on the second floor, and the only way to see the commotion was to go to the balcony.
“Wow, there are a lot of SUVs parked downstairs. Are they here to visit the set?” Mi Yue stood on the balcony, not afraid of the rain blowing on her, and stretched her neck out curiously. She really couldn’t believe that, in such bad weather and in such a remote area, there would really be people so excited to visit the set.
Gongxi Qiao grabbed a hat and put it on his head. He looked down and saw several people carrying boxes of stuff from the cars towards the hotel. Only the car closest to the door had no movement.
A young man with a black umbrella walked to the door of this car, bent down and opened the door. From the inside came a man in a white shirt. Unfortunately, despite the umbrella, the rain was too heavy. As soon as his feet stepped on the ground, his shoes as well as the sides of his trouser legs were splashed with a lot of mud spots.
“That, that’s not ……” Mi Yue opened her eyes wide, somewhat incredulous.
The man standing downstairs stopped and slowly raised his head to meet Gongxi Qiao’s eyes.
Gongxi Qiao froze for a moment, and then revealed a gentle smile.
T/N
Heatstroke prevention soup: In traditional Chinese medicine, soups and tonics are used to treat or prevent many ailments by balancing qi. Red envelope: Money is given in a red envelope as a traditional gift on important occasions. Princess of the Closed Moon: The author actually wrote “Charming Princess” but I assume that the author made a mistake since that wasn’t the name of their drama. I changed it to Princess of the Closed Moon to avoid confusion.