After getting through those flashy harness scenes.
The next scenes were a lot simpler.
Just standing on the wooden scaffolding and fighting.
But even though the content was simple, shooting them was anything but easy.
Jiang Nian and Li Lianjie were fine. One of them was a genuine martial artist, and the other was a former champion in martial arts routines.
Both had a background in martial arts, so shooting action scenes came naturally to them.
The main problem was Zhou Xun.
As someone who usually stars in period dramas and palace intrigue films, she didn’t know the first thing about martial arts fighting.
At best, with the action director’s guidance, she knew what poses to strike, barely managing to get through the shoot.
This meant that the moment she stood between Jiang Nian and Li Lianjie, even if she did nothing at all, she felt completely out of place.
Like a husky that had wandered into a pack of wolves.
It was incredibly awkward.
Xu Ke could clearly see this, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Because the aura Jiang Nian and Li Lianjie carried came from years of martial arts training. He couldn’t just stop the shoot and send Zhou Xun off to learn martial arts, waiting for her to develop that presence before resuming filming, could he?
That just wasn’t realistic.
So he had to settle for the next best thing, constantly adjusting the scenes to reduce that sense of dissonance.
And this adjustment.
Took a full half hour.
Finally, when Ling Yanqiu flicked the longsword in her hand backward, beheading Yu Huatian.
Jiang Nian’s final scene was done.
Stepping down from the wooden scaffolding.
To be honest, wrapping up your role right at the start of filming felt really strange.
Jiang Nian even instinctively wanted to change out of his costume and go home.
“Great work, everyone.”
Seeing that everyone had safely come down from above, Xu Ke stood up and greeted them.
Zhou Xun rubbed her shoulders and back. “I’m exhausted, Director Xu. How does the final product look?”
“Come take a look and see for yourselves.”
With that, Xu Ke stepped aside and invited everyone over.
Seeing this, Zhou Xun and the others didn’t hold back and crowded around the monitor.
Watching the smooth, fluid action, Li Lianjie nodded. “Not bad.”
Zhou Xun, on the other hand, looked utterly amazed. “Is that really me? Director Xu, are you sure? Why does it look like it’s from a completely different layer?”
While acting earlier, she’d felt pretty good about herself, thinking she hadn’t done a bad job.
So why did she look so awkward on the monitor?
Hearing that, Xu Ke shrugged. “What did you think? Why else would I have cut you so many times?”
Then he turned his head to look at Jiang Nian, who was standing off to the side.
Seeing that he showed no sign of wanting to come over, Xu Ke couldn’t help asking, “Jiang Nian, don’t you want to take a look?”
At that, Jiang Nian just smiled slightly. “I trust your judgment, Director Xu. If you say it’s good, then it’s definitely good. No problems at all.”
Of course, the main reason was that Jiang Nian was confident his performance was flawless.
Watching it or not didn’t really mean anything to him.
“Alright then.”
Since Jiang Nian had said that, Xu Ke didn’t press the matter.
He just turned back to continue watching the footage with Li Lianjie and the others, thinking over whether anything needed fixing.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the day was over.
Playing the lead role is both a pain and a joy.
The joy is that with more screen time, you earn more money.
The pain is that the lead role has so many scenes!
Especially since Jiang Nian was juggling two scripts.
That meant he barely got any rest all day.
In the morning, he’d put on Yu Huatian’s costume and play the eunuch.
In the afternoon, he’d have to change into Feng Li Dao’s outfit and fill in those scenes.
Luckily, Feng Li Dao’s character was pretty similar to Jiang Nian’s own personality, so playing him wasn’t too hard.
Plus, he could turn the memories of Yu Huatian from the system on and off whenever he wanted.
Otherwise, working nonstop like this, Jiang Nian’s body might hold up, but his mind probably wouldn’t.
“Time to clock out, time to clock out.”
He headed to the makeup room, took off his makeup, changed his clothes.
Jiang Nian couldn’t wait to get out of there.
On set, he’d been busy filming all day and hadn’t had much chance to practice martial arts.
Now that he was finally off work, he naturally wanted to make up for lost time and upgrade his [Sword-Breaking Technique] from “Novice” to “Intermediate” as soon as possible.
So he grabbed some food from a street vendor and hurried home.
But on his way back.
“What are you doing? I’m warning you, don’t come any closer!”
As Jiang Nian passed by a shopping mall, he heard a familiar voice from within the crowded mass of people.
Hearing that, he frowned slightly and looked over.
He saw a woman dressed very discreetly, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. In front of her, a man was holding up a bouquet of flowers, down on one knee.
This was—
“Li Guifei?”
Jiang Nian’s eyes narrowed as he recognized her.
He couldn’t help feeling a bit curious.
Was this a confession?
With a “love watching the drama unfold” mentality, he stopped in his tracks and watched.
In front of Li Guifei, the man looked at her with a fanatical expression and shouted loudly, “Yu Xin, I like you. Will you be my girlfriend?”
Faced with such a bold declaration of love.
Li Guifei didn’t feel any romance or surprise at all. Instead, she covered her face with her hand in annoyance. “Let me say this again. First, I don’t know you. Second, I don’t want to be with you. And third, stop pestering me, alright?”
Hearing that, the man didn’t react at all. He just pulled a necklace from his pocket and smiled. “Wanwan, you’re being naughty again. Remember? This is the token of love you gave me half a year ago. How could you not know me? How could you not want to be with—”
Before the man could finish his sentence, Li Guifei interrupted him, her face full of disgust. “Enough! Are you ever going to stop? This isn’t some token of love. It’s a prize from a promotion. A prize, do you understand? Can you please stop using it as an excuse?!”
She now deeply regretted holding that online sweepstakes event half a year ago.
Because ever since that event, this man had clung to her like a demon.
No matter where she went, he followed her like a shadow, persistently declaring his love and treating that prize as a token of affection. It was unbearably annoying.
But facing her rejection, the man acted as if he couldn’t even feel it, smiling as he said, “Xinyu, I know you’re shy. There are too many people here, and you’re embarrassed to admit it. That’s fine, I can accept that. You must be tired from filming these past couple of days, right? I brought you some water. Here, drink it, and then I’ll take you home to rest.”
With that, he handed over the bottle of water that had been opened who knows how long ago and looked a bit cloudy.
Li Guifei wasn’t stupid.
She immediately understood that something was wrong with that water. She quickly pulled out her phone and dialed 110. “Hello, is this the police station? I want to report a crime. Someone is harassing me and trying to drug me. I’m currently at…”
Hearing Li Guifei give out the address.
The man could tell she was serious. The smile on his face froze, and then his eyes turned dark and fierce!
He immediately dropped the flowers and lunged forward to grab the phone, shouting angrily, “Give me the phone!”
Li Guifei refused to let him have his way and held onto her phone tightly. “No! If anyone’s letting go, it should be you. Let go!”
“Why are you doing this? Look at this necklace. Don’t you love me at all?”
“I’m so done with this! If I’d known hosting an event would attract someone like you, I would’ve given this necklace to a dog instead of you!”
Li Guifei was furious. She was really angry now. She looked at the necklace around the man’s neck, and the more she looked, the angrier she got.
Finally, she just reached out, yanked hard, and tore the necklace right off!
As the necklace fell to the ground.
The man, who had been acting so crazily just moments ago, froze on the spot.
He stared blankly at the necklace, with only one thought in his head.
The token of love was broken.
Li Guifei didn’t love him!
In an instant, his eyes turned red.
He couldn’t accept this.
So he turned to look at Li Guifei, pulled a dagger from his waist, and swung it at her with a crazed look.
He wouldn’t allow Li Guifei not to love him.
And he wouldn’t allow Li Guifei to love anyone else either.
If he couldn’t have her, then no one else would either!
