21: Knock me out!

'Sister Wan, quick, knock me out.' Li Xiuwu lunged at her.

Jiang Xin didn't push him away; she even wrapped her arms around Li Xiuwu's neck, her body pressing tightly against him.

Yu Min was speechless: 'Cut.'

The shout of 'Cut' jolted the two of them awake.

Li Xiuwu stood up instantly. Jiang Xin's face was flushed red as she covered her clothes and stole a glance at Li Xiuwu.

'Don't move, you two. Li Xiuwu, squat down; we're doing a pickup shot of the knockout.' Yu Min reminded them.

By the end of the morning, they had finally finished filming this shot.

Next, Li Xiuwu began his action scenes, which required wirework. His action scenes weren't many compared to the other actors.

In the Dali storyline, he was always being protected. His internal power worked intermittently, and he only knew one move: Lingbo Microsteps.

'Li Xiuwu, here's some breakfast.' Jiang Xin brought food to Li Xiuwu.

'Thanks, I've already eaten.' Li Xiuwu declined, sitting in a chair looking at the script.

'I heard he has a deep relationship with that Wang Yuyan. When they were in Suzhou, they were often together,' Yang Rui, the actress playing Zhong Ling, whispered in Jiang Xin's ear after seeing her rebuffed.

Hearing this, Jiang Xin said nothing. She bit her lip and looked at Li Xiuwu.

Li Xiuwu, who originally thought filming was no big deal, immediately became humble after several sessions on the wires. He felt like his legs no longer belonged to him.

After more than a month of filming, the Dali storyline was finally finished.

'Everyone, take a break tomorrow. We fly back to Suzhou the day after.'

Li Xiuwu breathed a sigh of relief. Back at the hotel, he lay on the bed, not wanting to move.

'Li Xiuwu, shall we go for a stroll in Dali?' The next day, after breakfast, Jiang Xin came to invite Li Xiuwu.

Li Xiuwu stood at the door with a speechless expression: 'Right now, every step I take makes me feel like my legs aren't mine.'

'I'm sorry, I, I...' Jiang Xin was usually a bold girl, but today she found herself at a loss for words.

'Maybe another time.' Li Xiuwu interrupted Jiang Xin and closed the door.

Since he had entered the entertainment industry, he didn't have any intentions of remaining chaste, but this was different. Li Xiuwu was afraid of getting involved and then being 'knifed' later when she found out about his playboy ways.

Jiang Xin looked at the closed door. She understood what Li Xiuwu meant, but she wasn't willing to give up.

'Meow.' Just as he returned to the Suzhou set, a white shadow pounced on Li Xiuwu like lightning.

'Wuu wuu.'

Little Lion climbed up his clothes and into Li Xiuwu's arms, rubbing its head against his face.

'What's wrong? Why so aggrieved?' Li Xiuwu stroked its fur.

'She bit Meow's tail, dressed Meow in a skirt, it's so scary for Meow.'

Li Xiuwu was stunned and looked at Liu Yifei, who was coming to greet him.

'Li Xiuwu.' Liu Yifei had a joyful look on her face, and there was another girl beside her.

'Look, Chang Chang is here too. You definitely don't know who she's going to play.'

'Hello, Chang Chang. You must be here to play the Elder.' Li Xiuwu greeted her.

'How did you know?' Liu Yifei looked at Li Xiuwu in surprise.

'Did you get inside information?'

It was her recommendation for Shu Chang to play the Tianshan Elder, and she hadn't expected it to actually work out. She hadn't told Li Xiuwu yet.

'I remember that a suitable actress for the Elder hadn't been found yet,' Li Xiuwu said.

Jiang Xin watched the group chatting together and walked over. She greeted Liu Yifei and Shu Chang: 'Hello.'

'Hello, Sister Jiang Xin.' Liu Yifei greeted her happily.

Shu Chang merely nodded to her. She felt that Jiang Xin was hostile towards them. Liu Yifei was too inexperienced to notice, but she could feel it.

'Hello, Yifei.' Jiang Xin also put on a smile.

'Little Lion, you ungrateful little thing. I took care of you for a month, but as soon as your master returns, you ignore me.' Liu Yifei looked at the Lion Cat clinging to Li Xiuwu.

'Meow, meow.' Little Lion buried its head in Li Xiuwu's neck, its voice muffled as it complained about how Liu Yifei had treated it.

'Meow is disfigured, Meow is dirty, Meow has no face to see anyone.'

Li Xiuwu picked up Little Lion to look. The originally snow-white fur on its face had been stained with blush.

There was also a butterfly hair clip on top of its head. No wonder it felt uncomfortable just now.

'Why did you dress it up like this?' Li Xiuwu took off the hair clip and gave it back to Liu Yifei.

'It looks so good. I even took photos.' Liu Yifei was full of enthusiasm.

Li Xiuwu frowned.

'You only care about your own happiness and ignore its feelings?'

Li Xiuwu couldn't control how others raised cats, but Little Lion had its own joys, sorrows, and aesthetic sense, all of which Li Xiuwu could clearly perceive.

Liu Yifei was startled by Li Xiuwu's sudden seriousness.

She lowered her head and kicked at a pebble: 'I was just dressing it up to make it look pretty.'

Li Xiuwu sighed upon hearing this.

Humans and animals cannot communicate, so humans can only guess a pet's preferences based on their own.

'It's a cat. It's more comfortable when it's clean and natural. Don't mess with it like this in the future.' Li Xiuwu stroked Little Lion.

'I understand,' Liu Yifei said with her head down.

'Alright, let's go back.' Li Xiuwu saw that only the few of them were left.

'Are you injured?' Liu Yifei asked, watching Li Xiuwu walk with a bow-legged gait.

'The wires,' Li Xiuwu reminded her.

'Oh.' Liu Yifei realized belatedly, remembering they were filming a martial arts drama.

Wang Yuyan didn't know martial arts and had no fight scenes, so she basically didn't need to do wirework.

'Is it serious? Do you need to go to the hospital?' Liu Yifei asked worriedly.

'It's fine.' They walked into the hotel together.

Li Xiuwu wasn't the only one walking bow-legged; most actors with action scenes were basically like this.

Hu Jun, Gao Hu, and Xiu Qing were all about the same. They were the lead actors and had been suspended in the air every day during this period.

Unless it was an exceptionally difficult move, almost no one used a stunt double.

'Pfft.' After her initial worry passed, Liu Yifei started laughing again at the way Li Xiuwu was walking.

Li Xiuwu didn't want to pay her any mind.

The three units merged to start filming the large-scale scenes.

'Old Zhou, how about we adjust today's scenes?' Big Beard Zhang approached Zhou Xiaowen.

'Nonsense! Making a filming schedule like this with such high intensity is complete nonsense.' Zhou Xiaowen looked at the scene schedule Big Beard Zhang handed over.

After resting for a day, Li Xiuwu arrived at the set in the morning only to see Big Beard Zhang and Zhou Xiaowen arguing.

'What's going on? When did Big Beard Zhang arrive?' Li Xiuwu asked Liu Yifei.

Big Beard Zhang had only stayed for one day at the start of filming before leaving to network and pull strings everywhere.

'He's been here for a few days and has argued with Yu Min Zhou Xiaowen several times.' Liu Yifei shook her head. She didn't understand what there was to argue about.

Hearing this, Li Xiuwu's eyes flickered. He looked around and walked toward the photography team.

'Teacher Shen, what's going on?'

Shen Xinghao was the head of the photography team and was from the Beijing Film Academy circle.

'What else could it be? He's finished raking in money outside, so now he's back to skim what little money is left from the production crew.'

Through Shen Xinghao's explanation, Li Xiuwu finally understood the story behind it.