161: Chapter 161 Beauty Sheds Tears

...

The filming of "the long season" ran from mid-May to early June, with progress moving faster than Director Han had anticipated.

One reason was that Lin Chuyan was not the lead, and another was that he truly performed well in every scene. There were some NGs, but most of the time, it was the fault of others in the scenes with him. Although Director Han had booked him for a month-long schedule, he just let things take their course. He also knew that Lin Chuyan had a movie coming out in a few days and wouldn't deliberately hold him up.

Today was Lin Chuyan's last scene on set. Because it was a night shoot, Lin Chuyan was able to get a rare, full night's sleep and didn't manage to drag himself out of bed until nearly noon.

After washing up and running to the set to mooch a boxed lunch, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Previously, a Hater online named "Mosquito Hits Cannon" had apparently trolled him, saying some bizarre things like asking him to "get up at 6 a.m. to release an album."

He still remembered his reply at the time: "No work, no school, waking up naturally every day"... Hmm, it was fortunate that the other person wasn't very bright; if it had been someone else, they might have shut him down on the spot.

During these past few weeks on "the long season," he had been getting up at 6 a.m. at the earliest and around 8 a.m. at the latest. Getting up every day to put on makeup and film, how could it have been that leisurely... It was only because today was the last day and it happened to be a night shoot that he was able to sleep in until now.

What a silly Hater.

...

Su He had already left yesterday, having wrapped up filming a day earlier than him.

He didn't say any goodbyes when he left, as "the hovering blade" would be released in a few days, and the two would be meeting up again at the premiere in Beijing.

And the scene Lin Chuyan had left for today was the one where his older sister, Shen Mo, had finished killing someone, and he had to help dismember the body.

To Shen Mo, this was a crime of passion committed when she could no longer endure, a direct and powerful counterattack against the injustices of this society.

But what she didn't know was what this meant for Fu Weijun.

She didn't know that the person she killed was the only girl Fu Weijun had ever liked.

His closest sister had killed the girl he liked, and then he had to help his sister dismember the body—he had to dismember the corpse so thoroughly that even the police couldn't identify it, making everyone believe the deceased was his own sister, so that his sister could shed her skin like a cicada and gain a new life.

How was he supposed to act this out? Although the process of dismemberment wasn't involved, there were two solid scenes of Crying Scene in this; hmm, he was a bit unsure.

While Lin Chuyan was pondering this to himself, Director Han Xiao was already preparing his wrap gift, centered entirely around trust.

"Director, could you give me some pointers on the scene? How exactly should I play the one tonight?"

"You usually have plenty of ideas. No thoughts this time? That's not like you."

"I do have some, but I filmed a web movie before where my girlfriend was killed. But that was just purely about finding the killer and getting revenge. This is completely different."

Director Han couldn't help but laugh: "Alright, it's rare to see you not knowing how to play a scene."

"Don't, that's giving me too much credit, Director."

Director Han returned to the topic: "You're a deaf-mute, so how else can you act? It all relies on your eyes, Crying Scene, and some subtle movements. It's just that you need to have depth, and you need to perform different feelings when facing different people. The scene tonight is basically divided into two parts: one is your facial expression change after Shen Mo finishes her Lines and you hear that Yin Hong is gone."

Lin Chuyan nodded and listened quietly, not interrupting.

"You have to remember, you are facing your own sister here; you must grasp that point to act it out. Because it's your sister, revenge or anything like that doesn't exist. Instead, you have to help her cover everything up. This sense of powerlessness, when expressed, means you need to act more subtly."

"The other scene is when you are sitting alone on the steps in front of your house, holding the hairpin." Director Han started to get serious as he spoke, "Okay, here is the key point: you must absolutely not make this a one-man show."

Lin Chuyan's eyes lit up: "Alone, but don't play it like a one-man show?"

"Right. What do you think the hairpin is?"

"Uh, a token of love?"

He knew this from having read the script, of course. Although Yin Hong had rejected him, she had always worn the hairpin he gave her. Even when she was killed by Shen Mo, she was wearing this hairpin on her head.

What did this mean? It meant that she also had feelings for Fu Weijun. When the latter held the hairpin and realized this, he collapsed even further.

Director Han didn't beat around the bush: "Exactly. At this moment, you know that Yin Hong did like you, otherwise she wouldn't have been wearing the hairpin, so you are very desperate. Then you have to dismember her, which makes you even more desperate. Here's the key: the body has already been cut into several bags by you, kid. So, what does the hairpin represent?"

Lin Chuyan replied without hesitation: "The hairpin is Yin Hong."

Director Han nodded: "A complete Yin Hong."

Lin Chuyan snapped his fingers: "Got it, Director."

"You are teachable."

Lin Chuyan was truly impressed now: "That's awesome, Director. If you're this awesome, why didn't you teach me more earlier? That's going too far..."

"Definitely next time."

Lin Chuyan: "..."

Damn, this is the very last scene.

...

When evening arrived, Lin Chuyan looked at his "Crying Scene" stat, which was only at 58 points, and couldn't help but boost it directly to 200.

Perhaps this is what it means to give it your all...

He still had quite a few special skill points now, and even after spending them, he still had 23 points left.

With 200 points in Eye Acting and Crying Scene, Lin Chuyan felt it for a moment. How to put it? In his opinion, it was pretty awesome, but it didn't quite give him the same feeling as when he first started adding points.

That was a process of going from 0 to 1.

Now, he just felt that there was a bottleneck in adding points. As for whether there could be a bigger breakthrough, perhaps he would have to add even more to find out.

Pulling back his thoughts, Lin Chuyan began to immerse himself in the scene.

This scene only had Fu Weijun and Shen Mo. After Shen Mo finished killing the person, she said one sentence to him. The camera would give a close-up directly on Lin Chuyan, and he had to perform the feeling the director wanted within this one line of Lines.

The show was about to begin.

"Lighting and camera ready... Action!"

...

It was a calm night, so calm that it felt somewhat wrong; even the sound of the cicadas had faded significantly.

Shen Mo stood right in front of Fu Weijun, her back to the camera.

Her expression was a bit strange.

It was as if she were afraid, as if she were bewildered, but after the fear and bewilderment, it transformed back into determination, without a trace of regret.

For some reason, Fu Weijun suddenly had an ominous premonition. He wasn't directly facing Shen Mo, but was half-turned, as if listening with his hearing aid, yet also seeming to want to escape—to escape the impending news.

This news was finally spoken from Shen Mo's lips at that moment: "Yin Hong is gone. She is me now."

Fu Weijun's heart finally died.

Tears quickly welled up in his eyes, but there was not a trace of expression on his face.

He just stared at Shen Mo silently. When she said that sentence, his pupils dilated slightly, his originally pursed lips parted imperceptibly, and his body swayed ever so slightly.

All these changes were in a very subtle state, but when these few points were added together, it allowed the audience to feel his pain within the subtlety.

There was no hysteria, nor was there any need for crying or shouting. Fu Weijun just let the tears keep gathering in his eyes, as if brewing something.

He still stared quietly at Shen Mo, not blinking, not moving, just letting his eyelids slowly droop. As they lowered, the tears brimming in his left eye flowed down his cheek just like that.

Not for anything else, but for his love that had just died.

Everything that happened within this one line of Lines actually added up to less than ten seconds, but everyone felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

This was a silent cry.

It was also breathtaking acting.

"Cut!" Director Han said without hesitation, "Perfect, perfect. Get ready to film the next shot!"

Director Han sat behind the monitor, the expression on his face unable to hide his smile.

Goodness, with Fu Weijun's character design combined with Lin Chuyan's looks, how did it manage to perform a bit of a "The Beauty Sheds Tears" vibe? No wonder some call him "Lin the Beauty." Heart-fluttering, simply too heart-fluttering.

No question about it, this take must be kept! Want him to change it for another take? Don't even think about it!