TL: Hua
It was already the end of February and the beginning of March. The spring atmosphere was getting stronger, but the temperature in the mountains was still very low, and the frost on the wild grass and vines had not melted, giving off a hint of cold air.
When filming in the wild, as long as it wasn’t their turn to go up, everyone wrapped themselves in a thick down jacket.
But the person being filmed is quite miserable. Even if they wear less in low temperatures, they still need to maintain their best acting condition.
The scene being filmed now was a scene in which the white dragon played by Qi Xiaoyu rose from the bottom of the water after Nirvana and was reborn, representing the dragon clan, to negotiate with the heavenly court.
Qi Xiaoyu stood next to the waterfall that fell three thousand feet straight down, and the cold water splashed on his clothes. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, a cloud of mist came out and covered half of his face.
The director shouted “cut” immediately, “Xiaoyu, you can’t do this. The breath you exhale is too heavy, and the picture is ruined.”
Qi Xiaoyu’s clothes are the most expensive and the best-looking, but they are also the least warm. Apart from looking beautiful, they are almost useless. Those glittering scales designed for beauty are as heavy and cold as ice, making people uncomfortable.
More importantly, this outfit is tied too tightly at the waist and cannot be secretly fitted with thermal underwear.
It just so happens that in this scene, he has the most lines, and the high-definition camera can even shoot his pores clearly, let alone his misty breath.
The assistant director heard it and said, “It’s too cold, and misty breath will definitely come out.”
After saying that, seeing that Wang Mingge’s expression did not change, he tentatively suggested to Qi Xiaoyu,
“Why don’t you try holding some ice cubes in your mouth, Xiaoyu? If the temperature in your mouth is low, you shouldn’t exhale misty breath.”
The assistant director was also embarrassed.
Wang Mingge looks easy to talk to, but he is very strict when filming. He can’t tolerate any mistakes. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so much time choosing an actor.
But for Qi Xiaoyu, he didn’t dare be too picky.
Since Qi Xiaoyu joined the crew, Kang Qitao has brought a considerable amount of additional investment, saying that it’s coming for Qi Xiaoyu.
The people on the director’s team are not stupid. They immediately understood what he meant.
These days, everyone has taken care of Qi Xiaoyu and hasn’t let him suffer any hardship in the crew. The makeup artist gave him the best makeup, and daily rehearsals were arranged for him during the day. He basically didn’t stay up all night with the crew.
But today’s situation was really a bit difficult.
The temperature at the water’s edge was at its lowest, and he had to take the big shot all by himself, so there was no way to get rid of the misty breath the fastest except by containing ice.
When Li Kun heard this, he was so distressed that he hurried over to discuss with the assistant director, “The weather is cold. Are you trying to kill him?”
Jiang Sicheng came to watch the commotion with a hot water bottle in his pocket, and he also couldn’t help complaining, “Told you that this crew is unscientific. Can’t you just put a few heaters next to him? The kind with high power and super strong warm wind will definitely stop the misty breath.”
The assistant director directly filtered out Jiang Sicheng’s words as if they were nonsense. Not to mention connecting wires such a long distance, the strong wind by the waterfall alone would make any heater useless.
Qi Xiaoyu thought it was okay when he heard this proposal. Although it was a little cold, he could bear it. He had worked much harder in the troupe before.
Besides, no matter how much he suffered in the troupe, he didn’t know what his future would be. It was nothing compared to the script he had in his hand. In order to look good on the big screen, it was worth it.
He agreed immediately: “It’s fine as long as the misty breath can be stopped.”
The staff hurriedly brought ice cubes, as if he were afraid that Qi Xiaoyu would regret it.
The crew directly packed ice cubes in plastic bags. The weather was cold, and the ice cubes would not melt when left outside. The plastic bags were frozen and stuck together.
The female lead, Cui Jing, who was standing opposite Qi Xiaoyu, ran over to give advice: “Don’t hold a whole piece at a time. Break it up and put it in little by little. Get used to it slowly.”
After filming these days, the people in the crew got along well with Qi Xiaoyu.
Although the crew was very mixed, with people from various entertainment companies, such as the male lead Liu Feng from Orange Juice Entertainment and the female lead Cui Jing from Feichi Media, everyone was not stupid. They could see that the director’s team was taking care of Qi Xiaoyu. No one wanted to get into conflict with the person the director team was taking care of.
Besides, Qi Xiaoyu is likable, good at talking, and knows how to behave, so when he was about to put an ice cube in his mouth, someone among the other actors who were going to appear in this scene said,
“Cheer up and don’t NG.”
“We can’t let Xiaoyu get frozen.”
They were standing far away, but seeing Qi Xiaoyu standing by the waterfall, with wind, water, and ice cubes beside him, it felt quite cold.
Over here, Qi Xiaoyu put the ice cube in his mouth without hesitation.
It was really cool and refreshing, almost like swimming in winter.
As soon as he put it in, the ice cube touched the inner membrane of the mouth, and he felt his whole mouth frozen and numb instantly.
The staff looked at him and said, “Can you talk? More?”
Qi Xiaoyu took a deep breath and removed the ice cube stuck on his palate. His voice was a little trembling. “Yes, more.”
After he had almost half a mouthful of ice cubes, his entire mouth was basically frozen and numb. When he opened his mouth again, the misty breath finally stopped coming out.
Wang Mingge looked at Qi Xiaoyu’s face close-up through the camera and then slowly pushed a distant view. Behind Qi Xiaoyu was the Jiutian Waterfall, and above his head was the blue and dry sky. Only he stood there alone, with violent eyes and a sword drawn, as if he were going to be an enemy of the whole world.
Wang Mingge nodded and was finally satisfied with the effect: “Not bad, okay, let him relax his expression a little more; don’t be so tense; it’s too much.”
Li Kun watched from the side, feeling sad and distressed. He used his mobile phone to take pictures and record video silently. For ordinary celebrities, if they shoot a summer drama in winter, they will send a lot of press releases to praise their professionalism for not having misty breath coming out of their mouths. He would feel sorry for his salary if he didn’t brag about Qi Xiaoyu.
Ma Weiye also looked over from a distance. He leaned on a prop carriage, fiddling with the camera while watching Qi Xiaoyu swallow the ice cubes, then raised the camera and “clicked” a few shutters. The beauty of eating ice in the cold winter was quite touching.
This was quite different from the Qi Xiaoyu he knew before.
Ma Weiye held a cigarette in his mouth, tilted his head, and took out the vibrating mobile phone from his pocket. A bunch of messages from the same person popped up on the interface. He pressed the clear option for all of them, then clicked randomly at a makeup photo taken of Qi Xiaoyu a few days ago—the original photo that had not been refined.
After the scene was shot, Qi Xiaoyu felt that he was completely frozen and unconscious.
As soon as Wang Mingge called for a stop, Li Kun immediately took a down jacket and a thermos cup over.
“How is it? Do you want a cup of Isatis root? Don’t catch a cold.”
Qi Xiaoyu rubbed his hands and drank a small amount of hot water. “I’m fine.”
Li Kun looked at his purple lips and said, “It’s already March; the temperature should rise after a while.”
Jiang Sicheng threw over the warm water bag he was holding in his hand and wrapped his brown fur coat tightly. “What’s the use of looking good? Clothes are better to be practical.”
Qi Xiaoyu didn’t even say thank you to Jiang Sicheng now, and he sat down next to a heater with the hot water bag in his pocket.
He had a lot of shots in this scene, and he would have more later.
After sitting for a while, Ma Weiye came over with a cup of something.
As he approached Qi Xiaoyu, he shoved the things in his hand towards him and said, “Are you ok?”
Qi Xiaoyu saw that it was a box of instant milk, but he didn’t take it.
Ma Weiye shook his head. “It’s hot, and it can replenish your energy. Don’t you have a few scenes to shoot later?”
Qi Xiaoyu said politely, “Thank you; it’s quite cold. You still need to take pictures; don’t give them to me.”
Ma Weiye was not embarrassed and found an empty stool to sit down next to him. “Well, I still need to take pictures… Your makeup photos are ready; do you want to see them first? If there are any that need to be refined, just let me know, and I will retouch them for you according to your ideas.”
Qi Xiaoyu was still polite: “You are the photographer specially found by Director Wang; just retouch them according to your opinions.”
Ma Weiye put his hands on his knees as if he had encountered a setback, lowered his head, and said jokingly, “Actually, I just want to find an excuse to add you on WeChat. Why is it so difficult? After all, we have worked together several times.”
Qi Xiaoyu did not answer.
After a while, Ma Weiye lowered his head and looked at Qi Xiaoyu from bottom to top. “If the private number doesn’t work, how about I add your assistant’s work number?”
Li Kun looked at Qi Xiaoyu.
Qi Xiaoyu thought about it and decided that they would indeed have some overlap in work since they were on the same crew. He nodded and asked Li Kun to add Ma Weiye’s WeChat with his work number.
Ma Weiye added WeChat, sighed again, and then walked away.
Although the temperature was low and the wind was strong, the weather was good, the visibility was high, and there was a moon at night. With the lighting, the photos were more beautiful.
In order to seize the right time and place, Wang Mingge forced everyone to exert their potential and produced a lot of usable clips.
After finishing the filming, although it was not very late, everyone felt that their bodies were hollowed out.
After returning to the hotel, Qi Xiaoyu took a hot bath before Jiang Sicheng, then changed into pajamas and collapsed on the bed.
He spread out on the bed, not wanting to move even a finger.
The scenes later today were very tiring. Perhaps because Qi Xiaoyu was quite used to holding ice cubes, Wang Mingge felt that he had great potential to be developed. Within one day, he was asked to shoot underwater scenes and a section of martial arts scenes with wires.
It really took him a lot of effort to go up and down the sea.
Qi Xiaoyu lay down for a while, almost falling asleep in a daze, and suddenly he shuddered again, remembering that he seemed to have forgotten to reply to Xun Qian’s message.
Xun Qian seemed to have sent him a message, but he was in a hurry to shoot and had no time to reply.
He stretched out his hand and hooked the phone on the bedside.
As soon as he unlocked it, the phone vibrated. He quickly opened it and saw that it was indeed from Xun Qian, asking him if he had finished work.
There was another message that he hadn’t replied to in the afternoon, which was a picture of White browed Hero’s lunch.
Qi Xiaoyu was typing on his phone, and just after typing the three words “just finished work,” he deleted them all.
Then he glanced in the direction of the bathroom, where he heard the sound of water splashing and singing.
Jiang Sicheng usually takes half an hour or forty minutes to take a shower. Seeing how he was washing and singing, it would probably take longer.
Qi Xiaoyu himself is too tired to type, so he pressed the video call button.
Xun Qian was a little surprised when he received the video invitation. He and Qi Xiaoyu had never had a video call.
Not only Qi Xiaoyu, he had never had a video call with anyone.
He didn’t need to video call with others. His relationship with others was either as cold as an enemy or as simple as that of superiors and subordinates. He only needed to give orders.
Except for Qi Xiaoyu, no one dared to send him a video request.
He was stunned for a moment.
The little black dog next to him heard the noise and barked around the wheelchair.
He first put away the magazine in his hand, then took out a handkerchief and pressed it to the corner of his mouth to cough a few times before pressing the connect button.
Qi Xiaoyu on the other end of the video had just finished taking a shower, and his hair was still a little wet.
Xun Qian thought that he must have placed his phone on the bed and looked at the camera with his face tilted, so the face on the screen was a little distorted but still very good-looking.
Xun Qian also thought that Qi Xiaoyu must be very tired today; his eyes were barely open, and his face was a little swollen.
So the first thing Xun Qian said after connecting the video was, “Why aren’t you sleeping yet?”
Qi Xiaoyu smiled and said, “Who would advise others to sleep right after a video call?”
Sure enough, he was tired, and his voice was eight degrees softer than usual.
Xun Qian also smiled. He chose a comfortable position, holding the phone in his right hand and the black dog in his left hand. “Let’s take a look at Xiao Hei?”
Qi Xiaoyu stared at the screen carefully for a while. “Has it gained weight?”
Xun Qian stroked the dog’s fur and said, “It’s about 7 or 8 kilograms now.”
“It weighed 7 or 8 kilograms in just a few months. At this rate, it will probably grow to 20 or 30 kilograms when it grows up.”
Qi Xiaoyu, “What did Mama Li cook for him today? Pies?”
“Beef pie.”
“Tsk, it’s better than what I eat.”
Xun Qian shifted his gaze from Xiao Hei back to the screen, lowered his eyelashes gently, and asked, “When will you finish filming?”
“It should take another month.”
Xun Qian said “oh” with an ambiguous meaning, then looked up at the screen again and said, “You should rest early.”
“Hmm…”
Qi Xiaoyu ended the video, looked at the chat page with Xun Qian for a while, then turned his head to look out the window of the hotel, feeling very relaxed—a soothing relaxation.
Then he set the alarm clock and prepared to cover himself with the quilt to sleep. Suddenly, he realized that he was acting a little spoiled just now when he said, “better than what I eat”.
He tried to concentrate his somewhat sleepy consciousness and recalled whether his tone just now was spoiled… and whether Xun Qian noticed the difference in his tone.
Today’s shooting was indeed the most tiring day compared to other days, but he didn’t think he’d suffer so much that he’d act spoiled…
Whether he was standing in the cold wind with ice cubes in his mouth or filming in the water with a temperature of several degrees below zero, he didn’t care about being tired when he was working. He only felt that this was a job, and he had to do his best to complete it well.
And he really thinks it’s nothing. What job isn’t hard work? Who doesn’t work hard to make a living? Not to mention the fact that he gets paid so much for his work.
But when he was on video call with Xun Qian just now, he seemed to have a vague feeling of seeking comfort, so what kind of tone did he use to speak?
This kind of emotion only occasionally occurred in front of his senior sister before, when he was very young.
Qi Xiaoyu scratched his hair regretfully and even a little shyly, feeling that he was a little pretentious. He was obviously fine during the daytime filming, so how could he have so many awkward emotions when facing Xun Qian?
After filming that day, the director seemed to have discovered more possibilities for his actors and pushed them to break through themselves.
Then, after more than a month of filming in several places, the filming of “The Evil” is finally coming to an end.
At the same time, a series of starring posters, character stills, and theme songs are also ready to be released soon.