According to the contract stipulations, to ensure Liang Yuchao’s safety, Xingchen Cinema must not disclose the filming plan to outsiders. In exchange, after the fact, the cinema could promote it without revealing the specific filming content.
Cheng Lele notified customers in advance that the cinema would be closed for one day due to equipment maintenance. On the day of filming, she gave most employees the day off, only notifying Shen Dafeng and Huang Wei to come to work. The former was called in to handle logistical support work, while the latter was called in so she could pass out from excitement.
Sure enough, when Huang Wei learned that Liang Yuchao was coming to Xingchen Cinema to film a movie with Cheng Lele, she fell into an oxygen-drunk state, her eyes hazy, her steps floating, laughing one moment and crying the next. Shen Dafeng very much disdained the foolish appearance of celebrity fans, but when he saw Chen An arrive in grand style bringing Snow White with him, he immediately joined the ranks of the idiots.
After Chen An arrived, he formally introduced Tang Xin to Cheng Lele: “Today I’m your manager, and this is the manager’s assistant Tang Xin, which means she’s your assistant for the day.”
Tang Xin extended her hand: “Hello, sister-in-law.”
Cheng Lele wasn’t quite used to this form of address. Seeing Chen An listen with a composed expression, she didn’t correct it anymore. When she shook hands back, she said apologetically: “I’m sorry, because of me, I’ve caused you all a lot of trouble.” After finishing, she sighed, “I originally thought this would be a very simple matter.”
Tang Xin considerately consoled her: “It’s no trouble at all. I haven’t seen how movies are filmed yet, so it’s a good chance to broaden my horizons.”
Of course she had to say such polite things to the boss’s wife, but the actual situation wasn’t like this.
Actually, these past few days, the company’s legal department, public relations department, and president’s office had all been communicating details with people from Anni Entertainment while sleeping with their armor on.
Anni Entertainment under Jiang Litao’s name was just a medium-sized film and television production company with average industry influence, nothing to fear. The troublesome part was that Anni Entertainment’s partner was simultaneously one of the shareholders of Kou She Media, the latter being a top-ranked public relations company in the industry. Since a PR company could defuse public opinion storms, they naturally were also skilled at how to create and guide public focus. If Jiang Litao sought revenge over the smallest grievance and enlisted Kou She Media for retaliation, the situation would become much more complicated.
So initially, both the legal and PR departments strongly urged the boss to refuse this kind of cooperation, to avoid losing the big picture over small gains.
However, the boss still insisted on the original plan, claiming that those who shouldn’t be offended had already been offended. Refusing to perform would instead deepen the conflict, so it was better to directly demonstrate their strength and make the other party wary.
To prevent problems before they occurred, the PR department applied to meet with Cheng Lele to inform her of all past potential incidents where she could be smeared, but this was also refused by the boss. The reason was not to frighten her over things that hadn’t happened yet.
The PR department ran into a brick wall and could only review whether the boss had any dirt on him. Fortunately, they had always been doing work in this area, and the boss was low-key and self-controlled, always worry-free. If there was any dirt, it was going to Tongda Cinema to beat someone up. After the incident, they had obtained the video footage of the boss beating someone from Tongda Group early on and signed the strictest confidentiality agreement. Tongda Group still had to mix in the capital markets, so they handed it over honestly and thoroughly.
Now they just needed to concentrate their energy on watching over Cheng Lele.
After reaching this conclusion, the PR department and legal department gossiped in the meeting room for a long time about who exactly Cheng Lele was, to make their boss, who on normal days was like an old monk in meditation, stir his mortal heart. Tang Xin recalled the argument between the two on that snowy night and could only make strange whimpering sounds. After nearly being beaten up by them, she finally left one sentence: “Don’t you know the deep meaning of our company name?” Then, she left with her fame and fortune deeply hidden.
Those few seconds of showing off were given to her by Cheng Lele. Tang Xin was grateful from the bottom of her heart—it was she who gave her the opportunity to be the boss’s parasite, finally allowing her to establish a firm foothold in the company.
Soon after, the film crew arrived on scene and began setting up. Tang Xin, following the boss’s instructions, spent money generously, giving out red envelopes to everyone she met, playing the nouveau riche all morning. The staff members who had originally been quite critical about the venue change, after receiving money, no longer showed sour faces and were very polite to their luxurious team.
After all, they’d seen plenty of people bringing capital into productions—nothing surprising about it.
Chen Xiaomu came together with the film crew. Cheng Lele hadn’t seen her in a long time and wanted to chat for a bit, but Lawyer Zheng Wendong’s face like a coffin board appeared between them.
“Lawyer Zheng, she’s my friend.”
“Miss Cheng, you still should…”
“Little Brother!” Cheng Lele painfully called out to Chen An, who was sending WeChat messages not far away.
Chen An walked over. Cheng Lele looked at him with pleading eyes: “Can I chat with Chen Xiaomu for a bit? I promise we’ll chat very quietly.”
Only then did Chen An discover the makeup artist was Chen Xiaomu. He extended his hand: “Hello, old classmate, long time no see.”
Chen Xiaomu shook hands back: “Chen An, I deserve a lot of credit for you and Cheng Lele being together.”
Chen An mentally laughed coldly, thinking if it weren’t for you continuously supplying photos of Cheng Lele and Zhong Ming to confuse the situation, I wouldn’t have holed up in Taixi not daring to look for Cheng Lele.
But he still said gracefully: “If you’re not in a hurry to leave, let’s have dinner together tonight.”
Chen Xiaomu smiled: “Thanks, we’ll see.”
After the two were allowed to chat, Chen Xiaomu applied makeup to Cheng Lele while sighing: “Lele, you’re really awesome. Now when you act in a play, you have an entire team serving you—acting coach, legal counsel, manager, assistant, dedicated makeup artist. In the future, will I need to make an appointment through customer service to chat with you?”
Cheng Lele smiled bitterly: “Sigh, the key is after performing in this one, I’m retiring from acting.”
“Ah? Looking at this setup, I thought Chen An was going to push you onto the Golden Eagle Award podium.”
“You might not believe this, but initially I just wanted the crew to come film a scene at Xingchen Cinema.”
“Such Versailles.”
Cheng Lele said: “At the time I thought I was being very clever, but now I feel it was a bit rash. I hope it’s worth the price.”
After a while longer, Liang Yuchao arrived on scene leading a group of people equally matched with Cheng Lele’s team.
Huang Wei’s performance was exactly like Sa Beining wearing an oxygen mask meme. After being glared at by Cheng Lele, she remembered her duties and pulled out her phone to skillfully take photos.
Presiding today was the chief director. He was a Hong Kong native, spoke Mandarin not very well, had his hair tied in a little topknot, his beard dyed gray and white, very much looking like an artist.
He led Cheng Lele to meet Liang Yuchao. Liang Yuchao was a circle thinner than on camera, with slightly upturned eye corners, teeth neat and bright white. When he smiled, he made people feel very youthful.
Seeing Cheng Lele, he stood up from his chair, extended both hands, and very politely said: “Hello, Teacher Cheng.”
Hearing this, Cheng Lele’s face burned with embarrassment. She hurriedly said: “Hello, Teacher Liang. This is my first time acting, please be understanding.”
“Not at all, we’ll learn from each other and improve together.”
The director gave them a script walkthrough right there. Because a teacher had helped explain the script before, Cheng Lele managed not to show a completely clueless expression.
After the walkthrough, Chen Xiaomu simply touched up her makeup. Cheng Lele said softly: “Liang Yuchao doesn’t really put on celebrity airs.”
Chen Xiaomu, a Hengdian native, said: “Are you stupid? Who in the entertainment circle isn’t shrewd? When you can put on such a big show, would he dare give you attitude? He’s probably eager to curry favor with you. He just became popular and his foundation isn’t stable yet. Otherwise, would he be so cooperative, coming whenever called?”
Cheng Lele felt Chen Xiaomu made a lot of sense: “Then if he’s so eager to curry favor with me, can I have him sign lots of posters later? I bought ink pads on Taobao, have him make celebrity handprints to hang at the entrance.”
“Lele, get it together. Even at this point, you’re still thinking about your little plot of land.”
After resting a bit more, filming began.
The cinema scenes had no dialogue. The two just needed to watch the movie seriously and occasionally converse to show they were discussing the plot. Sound wasn’t being recorded on site. The cameraman held equipment and filmed take after take from various angles.
When the cameraman moved to their side, Liang Yuchao asked very softly: “Is that gentleman standing in the lobby corner earlier the president of Ping’an Xile?”
Cheng Lele wasn’t allowed to talk to other people, but not responding now would also be impolite, so she also said very softly: “I’m not very clear about that.”
Liang Yuchao chuckled lightly: “Not being forthcoming, huh? Won’t even reveal this.”
Cheng Lele smiled apologetically.
Liang Yuchao leaned in a bit closer: “I heard Ping’an Xile has never touched film and television investment, but now they’ve made an exception to help you pursue your acting dream. You’re so fortunate.”
Liang Yuchao probably thought that since this was Cheng Lele’s first time acting with capital backing, he saw her as one of those common naive sweethearts in the industry who didn’t understand how things worked. He was obviously fishing for information, seeming to expect her to share gossip under his flattery so he could dig out some useful information.
Cheng Lele thought, sure enough, anyone who could reach this level wouldn’t be simple.
She still just smiled. The director called cut and came over to tell Cheng Lele to say more: “This is the most intimate scene between you and Liang Yuchao. You need to bring him hope, be like a warm spring breeze. You can’t be as cold as before.”
Cheng Lele felt her pressure increase dramatically under the director’s guidance.
She didn’t like strange men speaking intimately in her ear, their hot breath making her want to wipe her ear with a wet tissue. She was already enduring it with great difficulty, her fingertips pinched red, and had tried her best to be polite—that was already spring breeze enough. If it weren’t for acting, if someone got this close to talk, she would have slapped him into winter long ago, but the director seemed to want the effect of enthusiastic summer.
When filming resumed, Liang Yuchao started chattering again: “Actually, the script for ‘Fragments of Time’ isn’t that good. You can use it to practice, but for your next one you can challenge yourself with a big production.”
Cheng Lele smiled more obviously following the director’s instructions: “My acting skills aren’t good enough.”
“Don’t be afraid of that. Find someone familiar to act with you, it’s easy to get into character. Aren’t you performing very well right now?”
Cheng Lele caught the subtext—Liang Yuchao was encouraging her to have Ping’an Xile invest in a big film and then bring him into the production.
Cheng Lele asked: “Acting must be very tiring, right? I can’t memorize lines.”
“It’s all post-production dubbing, you can just say 1234, like right now.”
Cheng Lele nodded, then smiled and began reciting 1234, while making eyes full of affection and gazing at him with tender devotion. After gazing: “Like this?”
Liang Yuchao paused, then said: “More or less.”
Cheng Lele then continued reciting numbers, blocking Liang Yuchao’s excessive chatter.
The director satisfactorily called cut. Cheng Lele’s shoulders drooped and she let out a long breath.
The next scene required Cheng Lele to lean on Liang Yuchao’s shoulder.
After the slate clapped, Cheng Lele properly placed her head on Liang Yuchao’s left shoulder. The director immediately called cut, saying her performance looked very much like someone had a knife to her throat, with a feeling of facing death unflinchingly.
After the second cut, the director was still joking: Don’t march valiantly to your death.
After the third cut, the director couldn’t quite laugh anymore.
Chen An, who was by the monitor, had started feeling uncomfortable when the two made eye contact earlier. Now watching them perform intimate scenes again and again, his face had turned completely black with torment, the low pressure emanating from his entire body making even Tang Xin hide beside Shen Dafeng.
Liang Yuchao was also a bit embarrassed, joking: “Is my charm insufficient?”
Cheng Lele scratched her head: “No, no, I’m sorry Teacher Liang. It’s my acting that can’t support it.”
The director had everyone take a break. Chen Xiaomu came to touch up makeup: “Damn, Liang Yuchao is so handsome and you still can’t lean on him.”
Cheng Lele sighed: “I can only lean on him by treating him like a piece of wood.”
Chen Xiaomu asked quietly: “Are you afraid of men because of what happened back then?”
“No, that person didn’t end up doing anything to me in the end. I wouldn’t be afraid of men, right?”
“Then you have physical contact phobia because of that person.”
“I have no problem having contact with Brother Zhong.”
“Then you have stranger physical contact phobia because of that man.”
“Come on, aren’t you uncomfortable with physical contact with strangers? Don’t look at too many scripts and always bring up psychological shadows. I’m formally notifying you, I don’t have psychological shadows.”
“Tsk, someone who truly doesn’t have psychological shadows wouldn’t say it like that.”
“Then how should they say it?”
“They wouldn’t mention the term psychological shadow at all.”
“You’re the one who led me into it, okay?” Cheng Lele paused, “Hey, was my acting really unnatural earlier?”
Chen Xiaomu nodded: “It really isn’t the director being difficult with you. When you leaned over, you did it in two steps. First step, your neck bent 90 degrees first. Second step, you placed your dropped head on. Like ‘The Walking Dead’—who would think of love?”
Cheng Lele felt the pressure was tremendous. She only now realized she really rejected this kind of intimate behavior: “Tell me, could we have my Little Brother replace Liang Yuchao in the role?”
“Cheng Lele, you’ve gotten too big for your britches. He’s an A-list celebrity and you actually dare to want to replace him?!”
“Then replace me instead. I see you’re quite willing—why don’t you do it.”
“I’ve been in this industry so many years, I’ve seen kiss doubles and bed doubles, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a shoulder double. You’re amazing.”
“Stop talking, you’re making it sound like I’m really unprofessional.”
“Is it really that difficult? Just pretend Liang Yuchao is Chen An.”
“How can I pretend that? A stranger is a stranger. Sigh, honestly I just can’t get into character. I’m not cut out for this line of work.” Cheng Lele thought about having to go through this scene over and over later and felt annoyed enough to die. When facing work pressure before, working hard to deal with it always got her through, but acting was different—the harder she tried, the more deliberate it became, and the more deliberate, the more nervous, walking into a dead end.
“Is my Little Brother okay?” Cheng Lele asked.
Chen Xiaomu said: “Do you even need to ask? His face could directly be used as a wok for cooking.”
Cheng Lele stood up: “I’ll go coax him.”
“Take care of yourself first.”
“No way, I’m also going to relax a bit. I’m really too nervous. I’m about to start cursing.”
Running in front of Chen An, Cheng Lele said expressionlessly: “Little Brother, come with me for a moment.”
Chen An had almost turned into an ice sculpture standing by the monitor. With a dark face, he followed behind Cheng Lele to the general manager’s office where there were “no cameras.”
Reaching the door, Cheng Lele said loudly: “Little Brother, my pressure is too great, let me relieve it a bit.”
Before Chen An could react, Cheng Lele had quickly opened the door, pulling him inside in one motion.
Without turning on lights, everything in their vision was blind spots. Chen An was pushed and pressed against the back of the door. A soft body immediately pressed against him, the body’s owner hooked around his neck, and pain came in waves from his lips.
This was the first time Chen An had seen Cheng Lele so proactive, enthusiastic, and fierce. The jealousy from earlier scattered to the ninth heaven. He cupped Cheng Lele’s face and responded enthusiastically. The two chased each other, wildly gnawing and biting for a moment, both trending toward getting aroused and unable to stop.
Outside, someone probably knocked over equipment, making a loud commotion.
Cheng Lele became slightly more clear-headed, pushed Chen An away a bit, and cursed: “Damn, being an actor really isn’t work for humans. It’s like selling yourself.”
Chen An laughed in the darkness.
“You can still laugh, Little Brother. My pressure is so great.”
Chen An said: “Why don’t you practice that scene with me.”
Cheng Lele opened the door: “Okay, let’s practice in the theater.”
She had just taken a step when Chen An pulled her back: “I’ll go find Chen Xiaomu first. Your makeup is all smeared.”
Saying this, Chen An went out, first going to the adjacent bathroom to wash his face, washing off the lipstick marks on his face before going to call Chen Xiaomu.
Chen Xiaomu was invited by Chen An into the general manager’s office. Seeing Cheng Lele looking like an oily-faced clown, she said: “Damn, why don’t you spread out a bed in here?”
Chen An looked at the ceiling somewhat embarrassed. Cheng Lele, thick-skinned, said: “Spread out what bed? If we really went to bed and finished this quickly, wouldn’t you worry about your good friend’s future happiness?”
Chen An felt his ears burning, thinking how Cheng Lele dared to say anything, and heard her throw dirty water at Chen Xiaomu: “Isn’t it because you put on such heavy makeup?”
“You’re in heat and you’re blaming my professional capabilities?”
“Hurry up, I still need to go to the theater with Little Brother.”
“Again? Then what’s the point of me doing makeup?”
“We’re going to practice the scene, okay? Don’t let the lewd see lewdness.”
“Who’s lewd? Who’s lewd? Let me hold up a mirror for you, who exactly is lewd?”
Chen An couldn’t listen anymore and said: “I’ll wait outside for you.”
Before he even closed the door, Chen An heard Chen Xiaomu comment: “How come Chen An is like a little virgin, blushing at the drop of a hat?”
“That’s because my Little Brother is pure-hearted, unlike you, like a madam.”
“Damn, I’m not doing this makeup. Your ego is too big, I can’t serve you.”
“Aiya, I was wrong. Sister is the most pure-hearted, the most pure-hearted, no longer the good friend who sends me porn videos.”
Chen An closed his eyes, recalling how Cheng Lele looked when watching “Lust, Caution” back then, and thinking of the fierce pouncing just now, he immediately sighed that there were benefits to early ideological liberation. Student Cheng Lele could both entice and be provocative, progressing rapidly by leaps and bounds. His marriage plans could completely be moved forward.
Chen An came out in high spirits. Not long after, Cheng Lele called him into the theater. They practiced the shoulder-leaning motion countless times until muscle memory almost formed, then finally stopped.
Entering the filming scene again, it indeed went much more smoothly. Of course, it still didn’t quite satisfy the director, but after filming two takes, they muddled through.
After finishing filming the cinema scene, they would next move to Siming Mountain and Jingping Temple—relying on Quan Zirong’s help, Chen An had helped the crew obtain approval documents as quickly as possible and also greeted relevant units.
Before leaving, Cheng Lele took out a pile of sketch paper and requested Liang Yuchao’s signature. The manager didn’t quite understand Cheng Lele’s approach but didn’t stop Liang Yuchao. So Liang Yuchao signed with a flourish, while signing and intimately saying to Cheng Lele: “Lele, please take care of me more in the future.”
Climbing the mountain was outdoor filming. On a weekday in the dead of winter, not many people went mountain climbing, but the film crew carrying equipment up and down still attracted some people’s attention. Learning it was a crew filming, some immediately pulled out phones to shoot short videos. Nowadays everyone was an uploader—who didn’t have a Douyin or Kuaishou account? Small places hadn’t seen filming before. By evening, Taixi’s public accounts and short video bloggers began posting content like “Shocking! Big star Liang Yuchao appears at Siming Mountain!” “Breaking news: Liang Yuchao brings crew to film in our county.”
When Cheng Lele saw the news at Jingping Temple, she was secretly delighted and bounced her leg. The contract stipulated the cinema couldn’t leak information in advance, but they couldn’t control passersby providing leads. After this place’s popularity floated for a day or two, when they posted photos and videos on their official blog and WeChat, this matter would be settled.