Yu Jiaze seemed to have just arrived and hadn’t seen her crying in Zhui Ye’s arms earlier. Seeing the three of them gathered together bickering, he smiled and said, “The crew’s atmosphere is really quite good.”
Zhong Yueqing’s face changed, stammering a bit: “Mr. Yu, you’re here?”
Zhui Ye stepped forward and, without a word, shielded Wu Man behind himself, meeting Yu Jiaze head-on. The two had similar builds, standing face to face like the Titanic colliding with an iceberg, the tense confrontation causing everyone present on set to stop their movements and steal glances in their direction.
Yet Yu Jiaze didn’t regard Zhui Ye at all. His gaze swept past Zhui Ye and settled on Wu Man.
“Little bird, come here.”
“Sister, don’t go over there.”
The two spoke one after the other. Zhong Yueqing was nearly suffocating as he imperceptibly moved backward. He couldn’t imagine—if even he, who was just caught in the crossfire, felt this much pressure, what kind of situation must Wu Man be in, standing at the storm’s center?
However, Wu Man remained composed. She kept her head down behind Zhui Ye for a long moment, then stepped past him to stand in front, walking toward Yu Jiaze with a calm tone: “You picked a perfect time to visit the set. I just finished filming.”
He said, “I can see that—my little bird’s eyes are all red from crying,” while finally sparing Zhui Ye a proper glance, his eyes brimming with laughter—a kind of pleasure from winning an imperceptible battle.
Zhui Ye’s hands, tucked in his pockets, clenched into fists. He stared at Wu Man’s back as she led Yu Jiaze aside, prominent veins surging destructively up his arms before disappearing into his sleeves.
Yu Jiaze’s mood improved, his movements gentle. He even pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her tears. Wu Man mentioned as if in passing, “Why did you suddenly change handkerchiefs?”
His movements didn’t pause in the slightest as he said casually, “It got dirty, so naturally I threw it away.”
Wu Man made a sound of acknowledgment and didn’t pursue the matter further.
Yu Jiaze lifted the cake box. “Last time you said you loved these, so I brought you some this time.”
“Thank you…” Wu Man accepted the cake. “I’ll eat it later. I need to remove my makeup first.”
Yu Jiaze followed her to the makeup room, leaning against the doorframe watching her in the mirror.
“You went to ‘Girl Group 101’ the other day?”
It seemed like small talk, yet also deliberate.
“Mm, and I even met that recently popular Tang Yingxue.” Wu Man was removing her eye makeup, eyes closed, making it impossible to discern any emotion.
“That ‘little Wu Man’?”
“So you know about her too.”
“I pay some attention to people and matters related to my little bird.”
Wu Man finished removing makeup from one eye and opened it, residual makeup remover creating a murky haze in her vision.
This made Yu Jiaze’s features appear so blurred.
Coming neither early nor late, but choosing to visit the set right after she’d encountered Tang Yingxue—was this deliberate retaliation? Or evasive guilt after feeling he owed her something?
She smiled and said, “You still care so much about me.”
“You’re wrong about that.” Yu Jiaze gently shook his head in disagreement. “Not ‘still’—even more so.”
The matcha cake in the box slowly collapsed from the temperature, but it was packaged perfectly intact, and neither of the two people outside noticed.
*
The filming of “Spring Night” was nearing its end. Aside from Wu Man’s initial difficulty entering the role and the awkwardness of intimate scenes, things had progressively improved toward the end.
Yet precisely at the finale, Wang Cheng sensed something wasn’t quite right with Wu Man’s condition.
“These past few scenes haven’t been filming very smoothly. At this rate, I’m worried you won’t be able to pull off that final farewell scene—it’s a crucial one.”
“Director, I can do it.”
Wu Man spoke with very little confidence.
“Then fine, tell me—where do you think the problem is?”
“…” She couldn’t articulate it.
“Your emotions have been too scattered these past two days.” Wang Cheng shook his head. “This state would be acceptable earlier, since Deng Lizhi was still torn between Xu Long and Chen Nan. But by the final farewell, she’s completely fallen for Chen Nan. Your current emotional depth is nowhere near that level, so you can’t convey that kind of pain during the farewell. This is the most spectacular part of the entire film. I won’t allow any flaws here.”
“Do you have any good suggestions?” After thinking for a moment, Wu Man said firmly, “I will definitely work hard to achieve it.”
“I’m giving you one week. You and Zhui Ye need to live together like Deng Lizhi and Chen Nan. I need you to eliminate all distractions and immerse yourself completely in the role. After one week, we’ll film the crucial scenes—that should be about right.”
Wu Man’s cheek twitched. “…Live together?”
“During this period, hand over your phone to me, don’t attend any appearances, forget you’re an actress. Just be an ordinary, common person. Same for Zhui Ye.”
“…Does he know about this?”
“Of course.” Wang Cheng smiled. “It was his suggestion.”
“…”
Wu Man reflexively doubted the reliability of this suggestion. Then, thinking again, this suggestion was very Zhui Ye indeed.
He called himself a method actor. Practice makes perfect—her kissing scenes had indeed become more proficient through one kiss after another.
Just like she still found him disagreeable, cursing him with her mouth, yet the moment his lips approached, she would obediently close her mouth and involuntarily lean toward him.
Seeing her lack of response, Wang Cheng said, “If you think there’s a better method, you can tell me.”
“It’s fine.”
Two days earlier, Wu Man might have refused this suggestion.
But remembering that black handkerchief with gold patterns, Wu Man felt there was no need.
Right now, the only thing she could rely on was her career. If she did this, perhaps Yu Jiaze wouldn’t even bother to care. When you have a new toy, who would still care about the old one?
She let out a long breath, posted a message on her social media about going offline for a week, and handed her phone to Wang Cheng.
*
To help them get closer to their characters, Wang Cheng practically wanted them to live directly in the constructed studio set, but this obviously wasn’t realistic.
Finally, the production supervisor found a hutong in the old district within the Second Ring Road and rented an idle courtyard house. She and Zhui Ye each had a room—both private yet not excessively so. The environment was old and dilapidated, fairly matching the plot. Most importantly, there was a real wisteria tree in the courtyard.
She packed a week’s worth of clothes and cosmetics from the villa, quite like a warrior severing their own arm in determination.
Wei Wei wrung her hands anxiously on the side: “What if Mr. Yu comes and finds you’re not there and asks about it?”
Wu Man wasn’t flustered at all. “Just one week—he won’t come.”
She was very doubtful. “Really?”
Wu Man pinched her face. “When you have a better golden house, it’s hard to remember the silver one.”
Wei Wei’s eyes widened, revealing a shocked expression.
Wu Man casually dropped this bombshell and drifted away as if nothing had happened.
The car could only drive to the entrance of the hutong and couldn’t go further. When the driver got out to help Wu Man carry her luggage in, she refused.
Her slender hands hoisted the twenty-kilogram suitcase from the back seat. She smiled brightly: “From now on, I’m an ordinary young married woman with no one to help me. So I’ll walk this stretch myself.”
She dragged the suitcase, its wheels rolling over the cement road, particularly jarring in the quiet little alley.
The path was narrow, both sides lined with silver bicycles, white tufts floating in the air.
Ah, willow catkins.
Wu Man had the least tolerance for these things. After walking just two steps she stopped and let out an earth-shattering sneeze that nearly broke her back.
When she straightened up, she saw fiery clouds at the edge of the sky.
A figure was silhouetted against the dusk of those burning clouds, hands in pockets, leaning against the vermillion-lacquered gate.
The twilight was deep, the air torn into soft cotton fluff floating everywhere.
Wu Man said between sneezes, “Quick, help me take this in. I’m about to be killed by willow catkins.”
Zhui Ye stood without moving—perhaps sulking because of what happened last time.
Seeing he made no move, Wu Man stopped talking as well. The atmosphere between them grew somewhat awkward. She gritted her teeth and rolled up her sleeves. Just as she was silently about to hoist up the suitcase and cross the threshold, his hand reached over from behind her, in a posture half-encircling her waist, making a detour to lift her suitcase with one hand.
Wu Man stared at his back and pursed her lips, humming a thanks to the air.
She walked into the courtyard to the sound of earth-shattering dog barking.
“?” Wu Man turned her head sideways. In the corner was a chained local dog that looked exactly like Zhui Ye’s WeChat profile picture.
Person and dog made eye contact. It bared its teeth and started being fierce again.
“Xiao Huang!”
After putting down the luggage, Zhui Ye came out and called out sharply. The dog immediately drooped its ears and whimpered.
…This dog has two different faces?
“Is this the Xiao Huang from that note?”
“Mm, cute, isn’t it?”
Wu Man moved two steps away. “So fierce… Do I have to live with it for a week?”
“With me here it won’t bite you.”
“Ha, likes handsome guys but not beautiful women—it’s female, right?”
Zhui Ye said regretfully, “Xiao Huang is male.”
“Oh.” Wu Man shrugged. “So it’s gay.”
“…”
“For the next few days, let’s get along well in the identities of Deng Lizhi and Chen Nan.” Wu Man said seriously. “From now on I’ll call you Chen Nan.”
Zhui Ye said indifferently, “Alright, Sister.”
Wu Man was startled, only then realizing that the way Zhui Ye addressed her didn’t need to change at all.
Should she say he planned ahead, or that he’d already thoroughly implemented method acting? At this moment, she had no doubt that perhaps on that spring night in Guangzhou, in that dark corner where the spotlight moved away, as they crouched facing each other, Wu Man had already ceased to exist in his eyes.
After that, what he saw was always only Deng Lizhi.