SM Chapter 75

Chapter 75 Extra 1 (Film Set Dressing Room)

Chapter 75 Extra 1 (Film Set Dressing Room)

“Director Ye, I feel that last take could be a little more obvious.” Jiang Zixuan walked over after filming, standing next to Ye Lai, bending down to look at the monitor with him.

Sheng Mingqian had just been called away by the stagehand, Ye Lai moved his chair to the side: “You sit here to watch, no need to stand.”

“Okay.” Jiang Zixuan sat down, this time seeing even more clearly.

When Sheng Mingqian came back, Ye Lai and Jiang Zixuan were sitting side by side under the sunshade, still discussing the scene they had just filmed.

“Just now, in this turning around, the smile and gaze could be a little deeper.”

“Yes, I also felt it was a bit superficial when I was acting just now, the emotion wasn’t enough.”

“And here, those few steps forward, faster at the beginning, then gradually slowing down, giving a progressive level.”

“Yes, Director Ye, let’s do another take later.”

“Okay, we’ll shoot another take later.”

Sheng Mingqian stood beside them for a while, Ye Lai felt the familiar shadow cast behind him, turned back to look at Sheng Mingqian: “You’re back, is everything handled over there?”

Sheng Mingqian nodded: “Yes, it’s handled.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Lai continued to discuss with Jiang Zixuan, Sheng Mingqian didn’t wait for Ye Lai to say anything else.

Jiang Zixuan was the new actor that Ye Lai insisted on using during the audition. He works very hard in filming and has his own ideas. He is a promising actor.

In Sheng Mingqian’s eyes, the only bad thing was that Jiang Zixuan loved to find Ye Lai for no reason, pondering over every scene with Ye Lai for a long time, discussing before filming, and communicating after filming.

In his eyes, this one bad point had outweighed all the good.

As long as they weren’t filming, Sheng Mingqian found him displeasing no matter how he looked at him.

Ye Lai is the Director. From the start of filming until now, Sheng Mingqian, besides giving some professional advice, tried not to interfere too much with Ye Lai’s ideas with his own set of things.

Ye Lai’s filming ideas were very bold, and in the end, it would produce a different effect.

Moreover, compared to Sheng Mingqian’s almost ruthless harshness, Ye Lai’s approach was much softer, but within that softness, there was his own persistence, grasping it just right, so the actors and staff in the cast and crew liked to get along with Ye Lai more.

The two, one firm and one gentle, were a seamless match when working together.

The only disharmonious place was regarding Jiang Zixuan. Ye Lai had pure appreciation and a sense of kinship, while Sheng Mingqian’s tolerance was tinged with thorns.

After a few minutes, Sheng Mingqian finally couldn’t bear it anymore.

He found another chair himself, and taking advantage of Jiang Zixuan’s raising his head, placed the chair between them, plopped down, raised his left leg and placed it on his right knee, leaning lazily against the back of the chair, stretching out his limbs, taking up a large area, and leaned over to watch the monitor together.

“Jiang Zixuan, wasn’t your scene just finished? Why don’t you go back and rest? It’s quite hot today, don’t get heatstroke.”

“I won’t get heatstroke, Director Sheng,” Jiang Zixuan moved his chair to the side, and said, “Director Sheng, regarding the emotions in that last take, I think giving a bit more in the eyes would be better.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Ye Lai again: “Director Ye just went over it with me again, and I feel I understand it even more thoroughly now.”

Jiang Zixuan’s scene was reshot, and the effect that came out was indeed better than the last take.

There were no more scenes for Jiang Zixuan after that. As soon as it was finished, Sheng Mingqian chased him back to rest.

–

–

The afternoon’s scenes were Sheng Mingqian’s and Ye Lai’s. Ye Lai first put on his stage costume.

The opera teacher who taught Ye Lai before was the opera instructor for this film. Before filming started, he instructed Ye Lai to practice several times.

Although it was Sheng Mingqian’s first time acting, his acting was natural and smooth, bringing out the particularly uninhibited temperament of the warlord to the fullest.

The afternoon’s scene was set after he had just quelled a bandit rebellion, at the height of his spirits. After returning to the city, he was pulled by a friend to the Pear Garden to listen to opera, where he met Ye Lai for the first time.

Just looking at that person, there was no need to deliberately find the feeling and state.

The most frequently said sentence by another screenwriter of this drama on set was:

Director Sheng, please restrain your gaze towards Ye Lai, restrain it a bit more, that’s right.

Sure enough, as soon as the screenwriter came out, he rolled up the script in his hand and waved it in front of Sheng Mingqian’s eyes: “Your eyeballs aren’t even moving, restrain it, restrain it…”

As soon as he said this, everyone else laughed.

Ye Lai on stage was already used to their teasing, his skin gradually thickened. Feeling Sheng Mingqian’s gaze, he walked to the edge of the stage, waving his water sleeves, and deliberately turned his head to give Sheng Mingqian a look, his peach blossom eyes containing a charming smile.

Sheng Mingqian felt a tightening in his throat as he watched, and coughed lightly, turning his eyes away.

He still had to act later.

As for the rest, he’d deal with it after filming.

At seven o’clock in the evening, they wrapped up for the day.

Ye Lai and Sheng Mingqian returned to the dressing room together, preparing to remove their makeup and then return to the hotel to rest.

As soon as they entered the dressing room, Jiang Zixuan, who had been “chased” away by Sheng Mingqian in the morning, was still inside reading the script, writing something with a pen in hand. Seeing them come in, he came over to find Ye Lai with his pen and script.

“Director Ye, regarding tomorrow’s scene, I think it would be better to change the prop. Changing the long-handled knife to a dagger would be more appropriate. This character has a more restrained personality, usually not showing his true colors, delivering a fatal blow at the crucial moment, without any extra movements, clean and neat.”

After hearing what he said, Ye Lai felt he was right, and turned his head to ask someone to tell the props team to prepare a dagger instead of a long knife.

Ye Lai was still wearing an extremely heavy headdress, so his movements wouldn’t be too big. Sheng Mingqian, with his arms folded, leaned against the makeup table, watching them discuss.

Ye Lai felt Sheng Mingqian’s burning gaze, turned his head, and smiled at him.

With his smile, Sheng Mingqian’s chest swayed with Ye Lai’s smile again, and he felt that Jiang Zixuan was even more of an eyesore at this moment.

He reached out and beckoned: “Jiang Zixuan, let Director Ye take off his costume first. The things on his head weigh several pounds, it’s quite heavy. If you want to chat about the scene, come here, come over here and chat with me.”

Jiang Zixuan was serious, although he didn’t have much tact, he could hear the meaning in Sheng Mingqian’s words. He secretly took a breath, closed the script and said as he retreated: “Well… Director Ye, Director Sheng, it’s getting late, I won’t disturb you any longer, I’ll leave first.”

After Jiang Zixuan finished speaking, without waiting for them to speak, he turned around and ran.

Ye Lai stroked the phoenix crown on his head and was still saying: “Jiang Zixuan is really good, he takes acting seriously, and he’s very talented. He’ll make it in the future.”

Sheng Mingqian agreed with his view, but didn’t say anything.

The makeup artist came over to remove Ye Lai’s makeup. Sheng Mingqian directly took the things from his hand: “I’ll do it.”

“Director Sheng, can you do it?” the makeup artist asked with a smile.

Sheng Mingqian said: “I’ve watched it so many times, I should be able to do it, I’ll remove it.”

The makeup artist handed him the tray, and Sheng Mingqian told him to go back and rest.

Sheng Mingqian first helped Ye Lai take off the opera costume, leaving only the long inner shirt inside.

Ye Lai sat on the chair again. Sheng Mingqian took off the phoenix crown and ornaments from Ye Lai’s head one by one and placed them in the tray. The hairpieces and tape were attached to the scalp. It hurt a bit when removing the makeup. Sheng Mingqian was clumsy, and he would stop as soon as Ye Lai frowned. In the end, it took him a long time to take off the headgear and hairpieces.

Ye Lai’s scalp was sore from being pulled. He raised his hand to scratch it and got up to go to the bathroom to remove the greasepaint on his face.

He was still washing his face with his eyes closed when he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, knowing it was Sheng Mingqian. He told him with his eyes closed: “Mingqian, help me get a face towel.”

Sheng Mingqian didn’t move. Ye Lai urged him again. Sheng Mingqian walked closer to Ye Lai, circled his arms around him from behind, buried his face in Ye Lai’s shoulder, and took a deep breath.

Although he had removed his makeup, Ye Lai still had a faint smell of powder on him.

Sheng Mingqian held Ye Lai with his left hand, and the palm of his right hand clasped Ye Lai’s side, with a layer of underwear still separating his palm, although it was thin, Sheng Mingqian still found it bothersome, and pinched it hard with the base of his fingers.

Because of acting, Sheng Mingqian often had to hold heavy objects and gun barrels, and calluses had slowly grown on the palms and fingertips. Ye Lai straightened his waist like he was electrocuted.

“Hiss…”

Ye Lai hadn’t wiped his face yet, and the water droplets on his face kept flowing down. As soon as he turned around, the water on his face and hair wet the collar of his long shirt, as well as Sheng Mingqian’s chin.

Sheng Mingqian lowered his head and bit Ye Lai’s lips that were still covered with water droplets, grinding his teeth.

The slight pain was transmitted to the top of his head, and Ye Lai gently pushed Sheng Mingqian: “There are still people outside…”

“There’s no one, I told them all to go back.”

“What if someone comes in…”

“I locked the door.”

“You…”

As soon as Ye Lai said a word, Sheng Mingqian stuck out his tongue and licked the water droplets on his lips again.

It was hot.

The bathroom that came with the dressing room was not big, and the heat waves from the two people quickly filled the small space, and then drilled out through the cracks in the small window.

Penetrating to the outside of the window, the indoor heat wave hit the hot wind in the summer night, just escaping a disaster, and then suffering another.

Nowhere to hide.

After kissing enough, Sheng Mingqian finally relaxed a little: “You were doing it on purpose just now on stage…”

Ye Lai hooked his arms around Sheng Mingqian’s neck and directly admitted: “Yes, I was doing it on purpose.”

Sheng Mingqian said close to his lips: “So, now it’s your turn to pay…”

The night outside the window deepened, catering to the intertwined breaths.

Sheng Mingqian was still wearing his military uniform from the play, the shirt buttons were open, the neckline was a little slanted, revealing his broad shoulder blades, and his muscles were tense like a fully drawn bow.

Half of the long shirt that Ye Lai was wearing was wet, the cool fabric was clinging to his back and legs, the skin of his calves was showing red, his palms were pinching the side of the sink hard, and his slender white neck was illuminated by the wall lamp on one side. The water droplets that hadn’t been wiped off were mixed with sweat, swaying with his breathing.

“Mingqian…” Ye Lai called Sheng Mingqian in a daze, his eyes half-closed.

“Hmm?” Sheng Mingqian tightened his jaw and squeezed out a syllable from his throat, barely responding.

Ye Lai called Sheng Mingqian, but what he wanted to say had long been shattered by the lights, his brain was blank, following the most instinctive reaction in his body.

“I love you.”

With Ye Lai’s words, Sheng Mingqian’s red eyes were like those of a demon, and he bit Ye Lai’s Adam’s apple in one bite.

They both felt a pain.

It seemed like a long time had passed before Sheng Mingqian finally let go: “I love you too…”