The next scene to be shot was at the seafood market. In the script, it was continuous with the scene they’d just filmed—Deng Lizhi finds Chen Nan and brings him back home. Halfway there, the rain stops. Deng Lizhi remembers he hasn’t eaten dinner yet, and passing by the market, she wants to buy a fish to cook.

The seafood market the art department found wasn’t far from the previous location, and happened to be exactly the feeling Wang Cheng wanted: a jumble of stalls, dead and live seafood piled garishly on cutting boards, some properly kept in tanks, bubbling away.

From far off, Deng Lizhi smelled the fishy odor and remembered to ask, “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

Chen Nan startled, then made an affirmative sound.

“Then let’s just buy a black fish to take back.” Deng Lizhi muttered to herself. “Last time you ate that black fish dish until barely a bone was left.”

“…Sister, no need to trouble yourself. I’ll just buy some bread from the convenience store downstairs. I often make do like this.”

Hearing him say this, Deng Lizhi’s tone became even more unquestionable. “It’s no trouble. Let’s go.”

She pulled Chen Nan into the seafood market. Having just rained, the ground mixed with briny seawater was even harder to walk on. She wore heeled shoes as she wove through all sorts of people, walking with great difficulty, all to select a still-living black fish for him.

Chen Nan stared intently at her back, following step by step behind her, as if the moment her feet slipped, he could catch her from behind.

Finally, the two of them found a fish stall at the end of the market. The owner was off to the side playing poker with someone. The stall was cold and deserted. In the small water tank remained only one scrawny black fish, floating half-dead.

Deng Lizhi bent down, pressing close to the fish tank to observe whether that fish was still alive or not. Behind her, Chen Nan also bent down, his hand braced against the blue water tank, almost pressed against her cheek, leaning in together to look at that fish.

Deng Lizhi’s spine instantly stiffened. She instinctively turned her head, wanting to say “I’m not even asking you to pick the fish, you don’t need to be so close.” She’d barely gotten two words out when Chen Nan tilted his head down and kissed her.

Of course, in reality, Zhui Ye only leaned slightly closer to Wu Man’s face, creating the illusion they were kissing. The camera angle was aimed at the back of Wu Man’s head.

Wang Cheng said from behind the main monitor, “Good, this take passes.”

Someone from the director’s team whispered nearby, “No way, has Director Wang been possessed? He’s actually accepting a fake kiss from Wu Man?!”

“The moment she was cast, I knew this production was doomed. The power of capital… Can’t she sincerely ruin big IP dramas instead of bothering with serious filmmaking?”

“It’s not really about sincerity or not. I heard her financial backer controls her very strictly. From her debut until now, it’s all been camera tricks—not a single real kiss allowed.”

“Fun fact: Wu Man’s on-screen first kiss is still intact.”

Afterward, Wang Cheng had the cinematographer stay behind to shoot some supplementary empty shots. The rest of the crew could wrap for the day.

After the on-site personnel had all left, with only Wang Cheng and the essential camera and sound crew remaining, Wu Man and Zhui Ye emerged from their respective trailers and returned to the seafood market. The few of them exchanged glances, understanding without words.

They were clearing the set to shoot another take of the kissing scene—concealing it from everyone, shooting a take that didn’t require camera tricks, a real kiss.

That day on the balcony, the plan Wu Man had impulsively messaged Wang Cheng about was exactly this.

She had very honestly expressed her difficulty, but she really didn’t want to give up this opportunity. So she pleaded whether they could “deceive everyone”: in front of the crowd, they’d still use camera tricks as usual, so Yu Jiaze wouldn’t know. Then, where no one could see, she would meet Wang Cheng’s requirements and go all out to complete the shooting he wanted.

But this would be very troublesome, wasting everyone’s time and energy, and requiring secrecy and clearing the set every time.

Wang Cheng, however, was quite open-minded about it. He replied that they could just treat it as running through the scene one more time. Moreover, clearing the set was sometimes necessary—for intimate or even more explicit scenes, he preferred giving actors immersive space to perform.

Only then did Wu Man’s sense of guilt ease a little.

Wang Cheng sent a final message saying, “But I have one requirement.”

“Please tell me!”

“If Yu Jiaze wants to assassinate me after seeing the final cut, I hope you can stop him.”

“…I’ll probably be dead before you get assassinated.”

Wu Man joked, but her heart was truly on edge.

She couldn’t imagine Yu Jiaze’s reaction at all, just like people in the past couldn’t imagine what the prophesied end of the world would actually look like. A comet striking Earth? Zombies besieging humanity? Or the globe entering another ice age?

Or perhaps when that day arrived, it would just be an utterly ordinary afternoon.

In the earlier fake kiss take, the camera had already captured a wide establishing shot. What they needed to shoot this time was a close-up of the two people kissing.

Wu Man noticed that Zhui Ye had been holding something in his mouth since getting out of the car. She guessed it was probably a mint or something to freshen his breath. She’d already eaten one in her trailer.

Wu Man took a deep breath, wanting to return to the state from the earlier shoot, but somehow couldn’t get the hang of it.

Her mind was full of kissing scene, kissing scene, kissing scene…

Zhui Ye noticed her trembling calves and said in surprise, “That nervous?”

Wu Man denied it without changing expression. “Wearing heels for a long time is a bit tiring.”

“Those heels are only three centimeters. You seemed very stable standing in ten-centimeter heels for three hours at the Hong Kong Film Awards.”

“…Can you shut up?”

“Of course.” Whether deliberately or not, Zhui Ye reminded her, “But when I shut up, that’s when I’ll be kissing you.”

Wu Man’s calves trembled even harder.

From a distance, Wang Cheng made an okay gesture, signaling they could begin.

Wu Man bent down, her gaze rigidly fixed on that black fish. It was as if she wasn’t thinking about how to kill it to make it taste good, but rather treating this fish as a lifeline.

She counted down in her mind: three, two, one…

Zhui Ye’s chest pressed over her shoulder from behind.

His face slid past hers, his rain-dampened temple brushing a wet trail across her cheek.

Wu Man’s breathing became very light. The spring night evening breeze blew open the hair on her forehead. Zhui Ye’s bright eyes crashed straight into her own.

One hand braced against the blue water tank, the other encircled her shoulder as he slowly leaned down.

No one was around. Though the camera was still rolling, Wu Man strangely felt they weren’t filming a scene, but were truly kissing in a hidden corner.

This wasn’t Chen Nan and Deng Lizhi at all.

The instant before contact, she frantically dodged away.

“I’m sorry, Director!”

She immediately realized and apologized to the director for her unprofessionalism.

Wang Cheng waved his hand. “I anticipated this. You’ve never filmed actual intimate scenes, so having resistance is normal. Let’s do another take. I believe in you.”

Zhui Ye crossed his arms and leaned against the water tank, with a hint of coercion, saying deliberately, “I’m a bit sleepy. If you dodge again next take, don’t blame me for grabbing your waist and not letting you escape.”

Wu Man coldly swept her gaze over him. “You think I’m afraid? I’m just not used to it.”

“Then let’s get it in one take next time, Sister?”

“Just you wait and see.”

The second take began.

This time, Wu Man banished many distracting thoughts from her mind. She told herself she was Deng Lizhi, who didn’t know such a kiss was coming, so her body right now must be relaxed, unguarded.

When Zhui Ye approached, Wu Man still couldn’t help tensing up. From Zhui Ye’s perspective, her slender neck stretched slightly upward, revealing faint purple veins.

This nervous helplessness made one want to tease her.

Wu Man’s shoulder was once again encircled by Zhui Ye’s hand. This time he grasped higher up, his fingers almost touching the back of her neck.

His eyes suddenly flashed with mischief that didn’t belong to Chen Nan, as if saying: See, I’ve caught your vital point. You’ll surrender obediently.

Wu Man was stunned for an instant. In that moment of confusion, Zhui Ye’s lips pressed down.

This was Wu Man’s first kiss with a man other than Yu Jiaze.

His lips weren’t like Yu Jiaze’s, which were always ice-cold year-round. On the contrary, they were particularly warm. The taste between his lips and teeth carried a young person’s sweetness, with a hint of sourness.

Zhui Ye closed his eyes with devotion, his long lashes trembling faintly. The blue rippling light from the water tank played across his brow. The market air was full of fishy smells mixed with the damp scent from his still-wet clothes. She felt herself being dragged by him into an ocean, beginning to forget how to breathe.

The hazy thought in her mind… so what he’d eaten earlier was preserved plum candy. That’s why this kiss smelled so pleasant.

But this wasn’t at all what Deng Lizhi should be thinking about.

Wang Cheng called cut. Zhui Ye quickly pulled away.

Wu Man forced herself to say, “I’m sorry, Director. My emotion still wasn’t right just now.”

Wang Cheng rubbed his brow, brief and to the point. “Again.”

Wu Man couldn’t help feeling a bit anxious, because this time the problem with the scene wasn’t that she didn’t understand the character. But what was it then? She wasn’t very clear.

She steadied her emotions. Just as she was working hard to get into character, a trace of dampness slid across her face.

A light drizzle began falling from the night sky. The market was open-air. Rain fell into the fish tanks, splashing up little flowers of water.

The cinematographer said helplessly, “Director, we can’t shoot. The continuity is broken.”

Wang Cheng furrowed his brow, observing the rain for a while. Spring night drizzles were the most lingering, usually pattering on for quite a while. He dismissed the thought of waiting and sighed. “That last take was acceptable anyway. Mark it down for me.”

This makeshift kissing scene might become a flaw in this film. But even knowing it was a flaw, there was no way to correct it, because the production didn’t have the budget or energy to come back here to book the venue and set up the scene again.

And she was the instigator of this flaw.

This rain extinguished the shoot, and also extinguished Wu Man’s pride that had been continuously battered today.

She hesitated for a moment, then decided to lower her head to Zhui Ye and seek advice from this person who’d won the Palme d’Or at such a young and spirited age.

“…Do you have any methods for getting through kissing scenes?”

Hearing her question, Zhui Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise—not knowing if he was surprised by the question itself or by her showing weakness.

He thought about it, then said very perplexedly, “Does this need getting through?”

“I didn’t film kissing scenes before.”

“I didn’t film kissing scenes in ‘Crystal Boys’ either. This is also my first time.”

Wu Man felt defeated again. Why was it so effortless for him, with absolutely no sign of awkwardness?!

He looked at her, his pupils reflecting the ripples from the water tank, appearing pure and innocent, yet his mouth dropped a bombshell: “If you have the impulse to kiss someone, don’t you just kiss them?”

Before Wu Man could react, she heard him say, “I mean Chen Nan toward Deng Lizhi.”

“…”

She’d discovered it now—this kid liked to take dramatic pauses when he spoke.