Wu Man’s heart jolted, not understanding what Yu Jiaze meant by those words.

“Look how nervous you are—I’m complimenting your acting.” Yu Jiaze smiled at the director. “Right?”

Wang Cheng hadn’t noticed the strange atmosphere between them at all, and honestly commented: “Xiao Man was a bit stiff at the beginning, but now she’s really gotten into the groove. Once the camera starts rolling, she completely becomes Deng Lizhi.”

Wu Man modestly waved her hand: “I need a long time to get into character every time.”

“Actors are really interesting—the moment the camera turns on, they become someone else. The moment it turns off, they become themselves again.” Yu Jiaze was full of interest. “Don’t you really get confused?”

“The more firmly an actor has a sense of self, the less they’ll confuse themselves with their character.” Wang Cheng thought for a moment. “But I’m not an actor myself, so let’s have the actor answer this question.”

Wu Man met their gazes: “I don’t know about others, but I can distinguish very clearly.”

Yu Jiaze said nothing more, but Wu Man keenly sensed that his mood had improved.

His mood had improved, but Wu Man and Wang Cheng’s moods were extremely complicated. The two secretly exchanged glances, both detecting the anxiety in each other’s eyes.

Because after this scene was finished, once they changed locations, there would be a kissing scene.

This wasn’t being filmed in a studio—they only had this location once. If Yu Jiaze didn’t leave, how would they hide a real, actual kiss from him right under his nose?

*

After finishing the graduation ceremony scene, the crew packed up in the evening and relocated to Chimelong Water Park. This scene in the script also happened to follow right after the graduation ceremony: Chen Nan asked Deng Lizhi for a graduation present, and the present he wanted was for her to go on a date with him.

During the location change, Wu Man tentatively asked: “Is it an early morning flight tomorrow?”

Yu Jiaze made a sound of acknowledgment: “Don’t want me to leave?”

You’re thinking too much, Wu Man rolled her eyes inwardly. I can’t wait for you to leave quickly!

“Mm… but I’m also worried about you.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You’ve been here all day today, and tonight’s scene will probably film very late. Why don’t you go back and rest?”

“I would have left for anything else.” He pointed at the location on the call sheet. “But this place—I think my little bird will need me.”

Wu Man froze. Yu Jiaze still remembered that she was afraid of water.

Strictly speaking, afraid of swimming pools.

That was when she had just gotten together with him. Yu Jiaze had brought her to a villa pool party, where all the other young masters’ female companions were smiling sweetly, speaking in gentle, soft voices. Only Wu Man had a stiff face, tactlessly hiding in a corner.

Someone then said to Yu Jiaze, your plaything doesn’t know the rules at all—let me help you discipline her.

Yu Jiaze lazily replied, don’t go too far.

That person told Wu Man to go get him a drink from the bar. She didn’t know he had already calculated it all in his mind. As she carefully carried the drink past the pool, he pushed her from behind.

She fell into the pool without warning, and beneath the splashing water were wild peals of laughter from the shore.

They watched her flailing helplessly in the pool like watching a clown jumping about. Someone said stop pretending—this pool is only one meter deep.

But Wu Man still sank down on her own and didn’t surface for a long time.

Yu Jiaze had personally pulled her out in the end. She had nearly lost consciousness at the time. After waking up, she clutched Yu Jiaze’s fingers and said dependently: “I’m sorry, I’m really afraid of water.”

Yu Jiaze reminisced about how she had looked then, saying with some regret: “That was a rare moment when you showed weakness to me.”

“Because you never took me there again after that, so I didn’t have a chance to show weakness.”

“But now, for filming, you can stop being afraid of water?”

“I’m still afraid.” Wu Man rubbed her arms. “But in the drama I’m Deng Lizhi, and Deng Lizhi isn’t afraid.”

These words seemed to please him. Yu Jiaze laughed: “Indeed, you can distinguish clearly.”

*

After changing locations, Wang Cheng pulled the two of them aside under the pretense of discussing the scene with Wu Man and Zhui Ye, asking worriedly: “Yu Jiaze still isn’t leaving?”

Wu Man felt very embarrassed: “It’s all my fault. I’m sorry, Director.”

“How about this—let’s change the blocking for this part.” Wang Cheng thought it over. “When Chen Nan is about to kiss her, Deng Lizhi dodges. This emotional beat also makes sense. We’ll film one version like this. If Yu Jiaze leaves early, we’ll clear the set and film a pickup of the original script.”

Zhui Ye stood with his arms crossed the whole time, not saying a word.

After discussing it, Wang Cheng had the two roughly walk through the scene, and then they started filming.

In the script, although Deng Lizhi agreed to Chen Nan’s request, she actually couldn’t let go. She didn’t even change into a swimsuit, only saying, watching you play is enough for me. This made Chen Nan unable to enjoy himself, leaving him sullen the whole time.

Therefore, during the actual filming, Wu Man didn’t need to go in the water for the earlier parts. She handled it fairly smoothly.

“Big sister, you’re being very cunning. You clearly agreed to go on a date like a couple, but now you’re making it seem like you’re a mom accompanying her kid to play.” Chen Nan lay at the pool’s edge, looking at Deng Lizhi standing beside him. “Aren’t you bored like this?”

“I’m watching you—how could I be bored?”

One sentence made Chen Nan’s face turn bright red. He suddenly ducked under the water and swam away elsewhere, flustered but adorable.

She stood on the shore holding Chen Nan’s phone when a message came in. He hadn’t set it to hide notifications, so she could clearly see the content.

It was from the girl who had chatted him up.

“What school do you want to apply to? I’ve asked lots of people, and I also want to use yours as a reference~”

“Oh right, our grade is apparently organizing a graduation trip to Taiwan. Do you want to come along?”

Dark clouds gathered in the gloomy sky, and there was thunder in the distance, rumbling.

Chen Nan swam a lap and came back to see Deng Lizhi holding the phone in a daze. Her expression was like the sky—lifeless and bleak.

“Big sister, it looks like it’s going to rain.”

She came back to herself and said absent-mindedly: “Mm, then come out. Let’s find somewhere to take shelter from the rain.”

Chen Nan’s eyes darted around, scheming something, and he swam away again: “Wait a bit—let me do one more lap.”

Many people hurried to leave the pool before the rain started. Soon it was empty, with only Chen Nan remaining.

The raindrops arrived right after, falling hard and urgent. Even using her bag to shield her head, Deng Lizhi was already soaked through. She shouted through the curtain of rain to Chen Nan, who was submerged somewhere at the bottom: “Where did you go? Come up quickly!”

The water surface was quiet and fierce. Chen Nan was hiding underwater, deliberately not responding to her.

“Stop fooling around!”

To see more clearly, she moved closer to the pool’s edge. In a flash of lightning, the boy became a cunning merman bursting out of the water, grabbing her legs.

“You’re already drenched anyway—come in, big sister!”

He laughed loudly, pulling her down into the water.

Wu Man had been giving herself a pep talk throughout rehearsal, thinking that so many years had passed—she should be more capable now, right?

But when the icy water wrapped around her legs, rose past her chest, and submerged her head, everything around her became distorted.

Everywhere she looked, the originally empty pool was crammed full of people—children’s feet, women’s full chests, men’s beer bellies, noisy and clamorous, a hubbub of voices.

The smooth pool tiles became old, showing stains that years of washing couldn’t remove. Wu Man looked up through the rippling water surface—the rainy sky had disappeared, replaced by a ceiling in the style popular at small-town swimming halls twenty-some years ago.

A woman’s gentle, soft voice sounded in her ears, very close yet very distant.

She said: “Man Man, holding your breath is very easy to learn.”

Wu Man turned her head. Beside her appeared a woman in a red swimsuit, whose features resembled hers far too closely.

Wu Man’s lips moved beyond her control, opening and closing, producing a childish, milky voice.

“Mama, I can’t hold it that long…”

She sighed: “If you can’t even hold your breath, how will you learn to swim? Try again.”

She pressed her head down under the water. Her eardrums bulged, everything around her drew away, and all that happened carried a muffled echo, yet the voice above her head remained incomparably clear.

Gentle yet cruel.

“You need to know many skills to become a big star. I’m doing this all for your good.”

She gasped heavily in the water, flailing to try to swim up, but the hand pressing down on her head used even greater force.

Push down, struggle, push down, struggle, push down.

She slowly stopped moving.

In that moment approaching death, someone cupped the back of her head and breathed a life-saving breath into her mouth.

Wu Man opened her eyes groggily. Everything around her had returned to normal. The rain was still falling, even more thunderous than before. The thunder was closer than earlier, seeming to explode right above their heads.

But separated by just a thin layer of water surface, only the two of them embraced beneath the water. The world was quiet, everything was safe.

Zhui Ye’s lips pressed against hers, trying to give her artificial respiration, briefly pulling back her consciousness. But he discovered that those damned TV drama tropes were all lies—it simply couldn’t be done underwater. After this attempt, Wu Man remained listless, half-consciously clutching at his shoulders.

She opened her eyes hazily, meeting Zhui Ye’s anxious gaze—like it had been washed by pool water, wild yet clean, without impurities. When looking at her, it suddenly rippled with gentle waves.

He said indistinctly: “I’ll take you away.”

Suddenly, the water surface violently surged, crashing down together with a thunderclap, and a figure plunged into the depths.

When Wu Man could clearly see the approaching figure swimming closer, her already unclear consciousness scattered even more in shock.

Yu Jiaze was swimming toward them.

His appearance blurred and overlapped with how he had looked ten years ago—the black silk shirt clinging to his skin, the normally meticulously groomed hair hanging messily over his forehead, less lofty and aloof, more like his younger self.

His expressionless face was wrapped in pool water, radiating an inorganic, cold handsomeness.