Chapter Fifty-Four

  Jiang's strange tone left Jiang Luochen speechless for a moment, and he turned his head to stare at Luo Ni - the little girl was also fair-skinned and delicate-featured, without any signs of plastic surgery, and would be considered a campus belle in any ordinary university... Alright, no matter what, she couldn't just be classified as "not ugly".

  "I don't care about you guys, just don't bother me a few more times," Jiang Luocheng said helplessly, making a gesture to the drama department on the other end of the line, while saying to the two who stood up and adjusted their clothes, "Go."

  Then Jiang Chuan and Ronnie found a trash can to spit out the chewing gum, walking towards the designated filming location - on the other side of the lotus pond. Suddenly, they saw Wang Mo, who played Qiao Sheng, kissing Huajin and Ke Xin. Seeing this, Wang Mo happily waved at them with a bright smile, which made Jiang Luocheng's temples throb: "Smile, you're smiling so brightly now, how are you going to suddenly change into a shocked and angry face? Do you think you're a movie emperor?"

  Wang Mo immediately stopped smiling and the staff around him started laughing.

  For the first time, Jiang Chuan looked very calm when filming a kissing scene, but his pet hamster was so nervous that its fur almost fell off. At this moment, the hamster was pacing back and forth on the agent's thigh with its arms around it, looking very anxious. Although he knew that "kissing scenes" were an inevitable part of acting - not to mention kissing scenes, when he played as Yuan Jinran, he had even done ** with someone before, but when he thought about Jiang Chuan doing this kind of thing with someone else, he felt a pang in his heart.

  Report that person to death! Cultural Bureau is annoying to death!

  Two men fighting side by side without even holding hands is considered unhealthy, but if it's a man and a woman who are passionately kissing instead, that's healthy? What kind of logic is that?!

  The hamster's small eyes rolled around, staring at the master who had already walked to the shooting position with a sense of unease. At this time, under his gaze, Jiang Chuan had sat down in the pavilion by the pond according to the script, lowered his head and cultivated his emotions for a while. When Jiang Luo Cheng shouted "start", he raised his head, and his eyebrows, which were intentionally painted thicker, were slightly furrowed. The pair of eyes that had previously seemed particularly calm were now filled with complex emotions, those azure-colored pupils...

  "Ah!" Jiang Luocheng suddenly popped his head out from behind the monitor, "I give up on you guys! You've been wandering around like ghosts all morning! Jiang Chuan, your eyes are blue without contacts!"

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Jiang Chuan was taken aback, stood up, and ran towards the staff in a hurry - the makeup artist sister made a mistake at work, got splattered with dog blood all over her face. At this moment, she was holding a pair of beautiful eyes, hastily squeezing out of the crowd. In Jiang Luo Cheng's questioning voice "what happened, what happened", she cried and didn't dare to say that Jiang Chuan's aura was too terrifying this morning after finishing her makeup, she ran away in one second without daring to stay longer. When handing over the beautiful eyes to Jiang Chuan, she accidentally lifted her head and made eye contact with him again -

  Jiang Chuan: "What's going on?"

  The makeup artist girl only felt a cool breeze blowing past her neck, and after repeatedly saying "sorry sorry I'm sorry" seven or eight times, she fled in a hurry.

  Jiang Chuan sat to the side, letting Fang Yu hold up a small makeup mirror, and he put on his colored contacts - to be honest, blue eyes still suited him best. Once he put on black contacts, his entire aura would undergo a slight change... If Jiang Chuan had still had a bit of a mischievous air about him before, the black pupils made him look much more proper and ordinary, and indeed more fitting for the role of Huai Jin Daoist.

  His blue eyes only make him look like a demonic monk (...).

  I heard that in the final part of the script, Huai Jin suddenly loses his direction from his originally firm cultivation heart after pulling Qiao Sheng up from the cliff. During a certain practice session, he goes crazy and his personality changes greatly... If another actor were to play this role, they would probably need to wear colored contact lenses by then, but with Jiang Chuan, it's just the opposite - he only needs to take off his contact lenses. However, that's for later, let's not mention it for now...

  At this time, Jiang Chuan put on the beautiful pupil lenses again and dripped some eye drops to adapt for a while. Just after putting on the beautiful pupil lenses, his eyes were slightly red. Jiang Luocheng took a look and said it was good, letting Jiang Chuan maintain this appearance of having red eyes and hurry up to act. Jiang Chuan silently nodded and stood up, walking towards the filming location. At this time, each camera position was in place, and Jiang Chuan sat down with a thud. After brewing for a while, when he raised his head again, probably because of the subtle redness at the corners of his eyes playing a supporting role, in short, the emotions he had been suppressing, including anger, confusion, and awkwardness, were expressed even better than the first time.

  Jiang Luocheng didn't stop, he made a gesture for each position to follow and continue performing.

  At this time, Ronnie made his debut.

  Playing the role of a little girl, she happened to be passing by, humming an unknown song in her mouth, with a basket of freshly bought vegetables in her hand, walking along the road with a bounce. As she passed by the pond, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye - she stopped her bouncing footsteps, and the humming song gradually became smaller. Standing on this side of the lotus pond, she seemed to be curious and turned her head to look around, and as a result, she saw Hua Jin sitting alone by the lotus pond at this time.

  "Stinky Taoist!"

  She let out a startled cry and her eyes widened slightly - for an instant, on that delicate face, there was a flash of fear mixed with curiosity.

  It was clear that she thought the person in front of her was the Taoist priest who had killed her family's young lady with one sword, but for various reasons, he did not receive a severe sentence for manslaughter. Instead, he stayed in this town and continued to exorcise demons and calm down several cases of demonic disturbances. At this time, the townspeople had changed their initial fear of him.

  However, Ke Xin was not among them. Su Su's death occurred right in front of him, giving her a huge shock. At the same time, she couldn't deceive herself - she had indeed liked this silent and serious Taoist from the moment they first met... Now, driven by instinct, she tightened her grip on the basket and took light steps towards Huai Jin's direction, but before she could get close, she heard the person with his back to her say coldly: "What are you doing here?"

  Ke Xin was startled, her small body shook, and she took a small step back, the hand that was about to pat Huai Jin's back also hesitated, then withdrew.

  "Me? I'm just passing by, is that okay?" Ke Xin said, "Rather, you, sneaking around again, what are you doing here?"

  "Am I sneaking around?" Huai Jin turned his head, and the tangled emotions on his face were slightly restrained, with a hint of a smile as he looked at the little girl behind him.

  This appearance looked pleasing, and then took a step back, seemingly a little afraid, but still spoke with a stiff upper lip: "Isn't it just sneaky! Ah, right, just now I saw the young master returning from the market direction with a furious expression, and when I greeted him, he also had a sullen face and refused to respond... Didn't you two go out together this morning to investigate that case of the missing girl in the neighboring county town? How did it end so early——”

  Mentioning Qiao Sheng, it was as if he had poked at Huai Jin's sore spot. His eyes, which were originally still shining brightly, suddenly dimmed. He lowered his voice and spoke in a tone that was vaguely tinged with anger: "That good-for-nothing Qiao Sheng is so obstinate, I have no way to continue cooperating with him. If Vice Officer Li doesn't change partners for me, then you all can find someone else to handle this case."

  "Hey, you stinky Taoist, you're so arrogant... I guess you really did have a fight with my uncle? Tsk, my uncle has such a good temper, it's quite impressive that you can make him angry like this...". Ke Xin's eyes widened slightly as she shouted at Huai Jin in an unreasonable tone, "And another thing, stop calling people 'wastrels' all the time! I've already told you that my uncle isn't some kind of mouse spirit, why don't you believe me?"

  "I don't want to discuss this topic with you."

  "What's wrong, are you feeling guilty?" Ke Xin stretched out his hand and poked Huai Jin's shoulder. "Every time this topic is mentioned, you avoid it. You mistakenly identified the wrong person and harmed my family's young lady. Now, the mistress cries every day, and the whole household is restless. If you don't know how to repent, that's one thing, but instead, you keep entangling with Master Gūn..."

  "Am I bothering him?"

  "Isn't that right? Do you see Brother-in-law willing to bother with you?" Ke Xin said, "Every time he mentions you, he's always in a state of being fed up and disgusted, yet you still keep dragging him around with you..."

  "Hua Jin's eyes sank, becoming unfathomably deep: 'Shut up!'"

  "Why should I keep quiet? You've killed the young mistress of our house, and she's gone in her best years, when life was just beginning..."

  Ke Xin became more and more excited as she spoke, at this time her eyes also slightly reddened.

  At this moment, she only felt a black shadow flashing before her eyes. The man who was originally sitting there suddenly stood up and violently grasped her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, the positions of the two people were quickly exchanged. The small basket in Xiaoyu's hand was knocked to the ground, and the vegetables inside rolled all over the place at the same time. She herself was also pushed against the pillar of the pavilion by Huajin!

  She let out a short, sharp cry as the man's hand, which had been cooled by sitting on the edge of the lotus pond for some time, grasped her chin, and she felt his breath suddenly close in on her; with a frightened look on her face, she closed her eyes.

  One second.

  Two seconds.

  Three seconds.

  No news.

  Loni silently opened one eye, and her gaze fell on the face in front of her, which was still incredibly handsome even at close range. The two were so close that they could almost breathe each other's air, and if the man leaned in just a little closer, their lips would touch. Loni heard her own heartbeat pounding loudly, and her cheeks flushed involuntarily...

  Fang Yu inadvertently lowered his head and saw that the hamster squatting on his leg had also stood up excitedly.

  Fang Yu: "......"

  Jiang Chuan: “......”

  Loni: "......"

  Jiang Luocheng slammed his fist on the script in anger: "Bang!"

  Fang Yu silently watched as the hamster fell to the ground with a thud, twitching its short legs.

  On this side, Ronnie blinked her eyes. At the moment when the director shouted "cut", the man who was originally half-pressed on her body quickly retreated, and the breath that surrounded her disappeared. She let out a sigh of relief, but her heart still couldn't stop beating. At the same time, she heard Jiang Luocheng holding a small loudspeaker, shouting from far away: "Jiang Chuan, what are you doing? Didn't we agree that the kissing scene was no problem?! You're just one step away from really kissing me!"

  "Sorry." Jiang Chuan also seemed to feel a bit strange, furrowing his brow and adjusting his hair. He lifted an eyelid and calmly looked at Director Jiang, who was getting excited again, "Let's do it again."

  Jiang Luocheng helplessly picked up the script that had been thrown to the ground: "From the wall crash, all positions prepare for landing."

  Fang Yu looked at the hamster rubbing its belly and climbing up again, maintaining a high level of spiritual concentration to continue watching.

  Fang Yu: "......"

  In the distant pavilion, Jiang Chuan still pushed Ronnie against the pillar with a very standard movement - the force made everyone present feel sore in their backs. At the same time, Ronnie's painful cry was particularly vivid. The next action was Huajin pinching Ke Xin's chin and then kissing her, but after seeing Jiang Chuan's entire back pressed down, the two still froze in the last pose before they were about to touch, again stuck, again ng.

  Jiang Luocheng's eyes were about to roll out of his head.

  "Hey, easy does it, Brother Chuan! You're pushing me too hard, I'm about to break my back!" Ronnie complained in a low voice.

  "Alright," Jiang Chuan glanced at Ronnie, "Sorry."

  "It's okay, it's okay, let's try again. I'm a bit nervous too, and even if we take the picture, my face will probably be as stiff as stone."

  Loni quickly comforted Jiang Chuan - no way, in their past confrontations, it was always her who was the one being dragged down, and Jiang Chuan rarely was the one dragging things down, and this was only the second time, not many times at all. The first time they filmed a kissing scene, everyone was a bit nervous, which was to be expected... Loni comforted Jiang Chuan while also soothing herself, and the two tidied up and began preparing for the third take.

  The third time is still ng.

  Then came the fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time...

  The seventh time, not to mention Loni, even Jiang Chuan looked a bit tired and out of state. When Jiang Luocheng finally couldn't bear it and called Jiang Chuan over, the two exchanged a glance, and surprisingly, they both saw a sigh of relief in each other's eyes. Jiang Chuan ran to Jiang Luocheng's side, who immediately asked him what was wrong with a stern face. Jiang Chuan sat down, took a sip of water, thought for a moment, and said "I didn't sleep well last night", then sincerely apologized to the rest of the crew. This one shot was going smoothly until they got stuck on the kissing scene, re-shooting it back and forth for almost an hour and a half, wasting a lot of time.

  "This won't do," said the director teacher. "Xiaochuan, are you a bit concerned about the recent news with Xiaoran and can't bring yourself to say it?"

  Everyone: "......"

  The teacher in charge is always so direct.

  Under the silent gaze of the crowd, Jiang Chuan shook his head and looked up at Jiang Luocheng - as expected, the latter's expression was subtly looking at him. Jiang Chuan subconsciously furrowed his brow, not knowing why he suddenly felt a little annoyed, with "what's it to you" filling his mind, but when the words reached his lips, he reacted and realized that he had no reason to be angry with Jiang Luocheng.

  Jiang Chuan lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked at Ronnie who had run to the assistant's side to massage her sore back and suggested: "Why don't we just switch positions? - In a while, I'll hold her face, you guys pay attention to change the shooting position of the machine..."

  Jiang Luocheng actually didn't like shooting kissing scenes with a stand-in, but they had already done it seven or eight times. Jiang Luocheng himself knew that if he continued to insist on doing it this way, the effect would only get worse and worse. After thinking about it, he finally agreed to Jiang Chuan's suggestion and reluctantly nodded in agreement. This time, he didn't even bother to threaten Jiang Chuan, just waved his hand to signal them to hurry up and shoot, finish work and let everyone rest and adjust their state, ready to eat lunch.

  This time, there was no direct kiss scene, and the shooting went extremely smoothly.

  In the shot, Jiang Chuan's large hands are holding Ronnie's face, with his thumbs pressing on her lips and slightly parting them. As they lean in close, the camera cleverly moves to the side, capturing Jiang Chuan's kiss just as it lands...on his own thumb.

  Two people changed their angle, and in the knowledge of everyone, they stared blankly at Jiang Chuan's serious face as he madly kissed his own thumb - if it weren't for the terrible atmosphere on the director's side, it wouldn't be impossible for everyone to burst out laughing.

  The entire "kiss" lasted for about thirty seconds. Thirty seconds later, the actor playing Mu Sheng rushed into the camera with a tangled face, and the person playing the Taoist seemed to have a feeling, paused slightly, and glanced at the person rushing over not far away through the pillar of the pavilion, then continued kissing for two or three seconds before releasing the panting person in his arms.

  Qiao Sheng stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly as he stared at them with a mixture of anger and shock: "What are you doing?!"

  Mr. Ke Xin was stunned for a few seconds, then let out an exclamation, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and squatted down to hastily gather the scattered baskets - while Huai Jin stood still on the spot, he didn't even look at Ke Xin, those eyes that shone particularly brightly in the sunlight stared fixedly at Qiao Sheng for a moment, then smiled: "You've all seen it, haven't you? Kissing, whatever you want to call it, never seen it before?"

  "Wow, damn it, Xiao Qiao, this script is so poorly written!" Staff A sighed, "I really want to beat Huaijin! He's useless!"

  (Xiao Qiao hehehe smiled.)

  (Jiang Luocheng let out a loud "hiss" and raised the rolled-up script in his hand, as if to hit them. The two of them covered their heads and scattered.)

  At this time, Qiao Sheng, who had witnessed everything, was apparently anxious and angry. He pointed at Huai Jin and stuttered for half a day, but couldn't say a word. Finally, he asked in a stammering tone, "Why do you want to do this!"

  "I felt like doing it, so I did." Huai Jin's eyes sparkled, "I suddenly wanted to kiss someone, and this girl happened to be passing by, so I kissed her. It didn't matter who it was - if you had arrived a few seconds earlier..."

  "Tell lies."

  "What's the big deal?"

  "You, you, you - I don't care, you're just lying!" Qiao Sheng's ears turned bright red.

  At this time, Jiang Luocheng behind the monitor let out a sigh of relief and shouted "cut", indicating that filming had ended, barely passing.

  Jiang Chuan's face quickly regained its composure, and he resumed his expressionless state. Ronnie wiped the sweat from her forehead and stood up straight. Wang Mo also stopped rushing towards them and changed his embarrassed expression to a smiling one in an instant. He said "good job" to Jiang Chuan and the others. The onlookers also wiped their sweat and let out a long sigh of relief, thinking that it was finally over. This back-and-forth fuss over a single shot was torture for both the actors and the filming crew.

  Everyone happily finishes work and prepares for dinner.

  Jiang Chuan took down Mei Ling, and was caught by Fang Yu who dripped some eye drops into his eyes. Afterwards, he found a long bench to sit on with his pet hamster, closed his eyes and began to rest. The surrounding staff were bustling about cleaning up, but it seemed to have no effect on him. The man slept under the shade of a tree, and around him an invisible aura or barrier seemed to form naturally, separating him from others. Behind him was the lotus pond, when the clear wind blew by, the lotus leaves swayed gently, one person and one mouse, sleeping extremely peacefully.

  It's like a beautiful realistic painting.

  At this time, some staff members who had finished their work and were idle happened to see the scene. The photographer among them quietly found an angle, squatted down, and took a few shots with the camera. This noise startled others, and those with mobile phones nearby also took out their phones to take a few photos. Those without mobile phones looked at the screens of others' phones and sighed, saying, "Oh, this one is good, send it to me on WeChat when you get back."

  Jiang Luocheng also came over to take a look at the photo in the photographer's camera, thought for a moment and called the crew's publicity team, they huddled together and discussed in low voices, then that afternoon, this photo appeared on the Weibo of "Republic of China Strange Record", with the caption: Busy but leisurely.

  Weibo is naturally another round of crazy comments, with some people exaggerating that they smelled the breath of summer in this picture.

  Summer is indeed very close now.

  ……

  At lunchtime, Fang Yu walked over to Jiang Chuan with his lunchbox and sat down beside him - usually they would eat together as a group of actors, but today Jiang Chuan was being unusually antisocial. As his agent, Fang Yu wanted to show some concern: just as he sat down next to Jiang Chuan, he saw Jiang Chuan stuffing the peanuts from his lunch into the mouth of that fat hamster.

  "Hey, Brother Chuan." Fang Yu called out teasingly.

  Jiang Chuan initially furrowed his brow in annoyance, lifting an eyelid to scan the newcomer and finding it was Fang Yu. The annoyance on his face didn't dissipate at all; he merely shifted his buttocks slightly and asked indifferently: "What do you want?"

  He plopped his butt down and started peeling rice, muttering vaguely: "You're a bit off today, not yourself at all - don't tell me you're nervous about the kissing scene, someone like Ronnie who's genuinely into her co-star is already a great condition for a kissing scene partner, you just didn't want to kiss."

  Jiang Chuan expressionlessly picked up a slice of cucumber and stuffed it into his mouth, not making a sound.

  "It's not entirely accurate to say that today is abnormal, I think you've been acting a bit off since yesterday. You've been here for so long and I haven't seen you go clubbing before, how did you suddenly... "

  The hamster's swift gnawing of the nut came to a sudden halt, its head raised in a statue-like pose amidst the wind, staring at its owner with an air of disdain. The latter, however, seemed rather nonchalant, letting out a snicker as he put down his chopsticks and swept a glance at the agent beside him with piercing blue eyes: "Suddenly feel like doing something, just go try it out, no matter who you are..."

  Fang Yu listened in surprise, and only then realized that this wasn't Huai Jin's line. He stretched out his hand and patted Jiang Chuan's back with a "pa pa" sound.

  "Alright, alright, stop right there. So it's just a sudden hormonal imbalance explosion... Hmm, young people having these needs is normal too, it's hard for you to hold back for so long......" Just as Fang Yu was saying this, he seemed to think something wasn't quite right and paused mid-chew, "But that's not right either, didn't you still end up not doing anything in the end?"

  "Hmm," Jiang Chuan said with a stiff face, "because I found that I'm not as casual as Huai Jin."

  "...Mr. Yu, 'Do your feelings have a specific object?'"

  "I thought there wasn't," Jiang Chuan said, "but the fire that has been ignited doesn't seem to be so easily extinguished by just a few words."

  Even if I were to go crazy, I'd still be picky - with these few words, Jiang Chuan, your Chinese must have surpassed level 8.

  Saying Chinese is no good, who are you kidding?

  Unfortunately, before he could even start praising him, the uneasy feeling in his heart deepened a bit - thinking back and summarizing, Jiang Chuan was still normal when he left for the airport yesterday morning, but when did he start to become strange? - It started after returning from the hospital, because on the way back, this guy seemed a bit silent - after returning, he directly disappeared without a trace, and unusually took leave from the crew without notifying his agent, and didn't show up for dinner until someone called at half past three in the middle of the night to say that Jiang Chuan was back and hadn't spent the night outside.

  At that time, Fang Yu, who was still half asleep, thought this guy was quite reliable and knew that there had been a lot of news about himself recently, so it wasn't good to stay out again and create some weird news.

  Now think about it——

  Fang Yu: "......"

  However, the fire that has been ignited is not so easily extinguished by just a few words.

  The fire is burning.

  Fang Yu: "......May I ask impolitely, where did you get the fire from?"

  Jiang Chuan said, "Yuan Jinran."

  Fang Yu fell silent for three seconds.

  In the fourth second, when the squirrel on the dinner table dropped the walnut in its mouth with a "crack", Mr. Agent spat out all the food that had not been swallowed yet from his mouth.

  "Ah!"

  Jiang Chuan quietly picked up his lunchbox to avoid the spray, and only put it back after he finished spraying. Before he could even open his mouth to speak, Fang Yu grabbed him by the collar.

  "You, you, you - I, I, I - damn it, are you kidding me? Are you telling me a fairy tale or something? Yuan Jinran..." Fang Yu trembled slightly, looked around and unconsciously lowered his voice, "Ah, that guy, he's just lying there doing nothing, and you're telling me you... lit a fire in him? I... your sister!"

  Jiang Chuan calmly patted away the hand grasping his collar.

  "It's not what you think," Jiang Chuan said, "I didn't suddenly fall in love with him, ah, how to put it, I just wanted to sleep with him desperately."

  Just go to bed.

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Fang Yu: "......"

  The man said as he picked up the petrified hamster, using a tissue to wipe off the rice grains that had been sprayed on it by Mr. Agent, and spoke in a calm tone: "I shouldn't have touched him yesterday - the texture was really good, I'd never felt skin like that before, and suddenly I felt like I might be reacting... At the time, I thought it was just because I hadn't done it in too long, but when I went to the bar at night, I found out that not everyone can..."

  Jiang Chuan said, raising his hand and staring at the fingertips that had touched the young black-haired man's cheek yesterday: "I'm also very puzzled and troubled."

  Although the tone of speech did not sound "perplexed" or "troubled" at all.

  Fang Yu felt like he was suffocating.

  Jiang Chuan stopped his cleaning work with the hamster, turned around and looked at Fang Yu with sparkling eyes: "I've only interacted with girls when I was abroad, I haven't tried it with boys before. Yesterday, I don't know what happened, but suddenly I really wanted to try..."

  Fang Yu's expression completely disappeared, and he calmly said: "You should go see a doctor, I think you might have necrophilia."

  Jiang Chuan gave a glance with an expression of "you're kidding me" and snorted softly: "How can he be so lively and yet look like a corpse?"

  "They all said that the word 'vivid' isn't used this way anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  "Speak softly."

  "I'm going to call the police!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  “……”l3l4