“As for what we just talked about…” Chu Feiliang glanced at Rong Guang, thought for a moment with a slightly regretful expression, and said, “It’s been a while, so I don’t really remember. How about I play it for you?”
Before her words had even faded, her hand was already moving to tap on the chat window.
Rong Guang hurriedly grabbed her hand, her face covered in a cold sweat. “Don’t—I, I don’t want to listen.”
How could she possibly have the nerve to listen to what Chu Feiliang’s grandmother said about her?
Putting aside the fact that such messages were private, what if… what if she heard something she couldn’t bear to hear?
Besides, filming her commercial was one thing, but… hearing someone else’s evaluation live was another matter entirely.
Especially when that person was Chu Feiliang’s grandmother.
Rong Guang felt a sense of shame, the kind that always made one feel terribly embarrassed.
“You don’t want to listen?” Chu Feiliang looked at Rong Guang and nodded magnanimously. “Fine, it’s okay if you don’t want to. Grandma didn’t say much, just praised your lips for being pretty, plump and lustrous… said you look blessed at a glance.”
She left something unsaid.
Praising her for looking blessed was one thing, but her grandmother later added that the young lady’s lips looked so full that kissing them would surely be exceptionally comfortable, and biting them would be even more satisfying… that was another matter entirely.
She curled her lips into a smile, her gaze sweeping over Rong Guang’s lips before finally looking away after a long moment.
She was also quite curious to know if Rong Guang’s lips were really that satisfying to bite.
Rong Guang still had quite a few scenes left. Her wrap-up scene was scheduled back at the main film base, but she couldn’t go back for the time being. She treated her time here as a vacation.
This was probably the only benefit of being an unknown. Her time was more flexible, there were fewer restrictions, and she didn’t need a large entourage when she went out—after all, not many people recognized her.
In this day and age, girl group culture wasn’t widespread. It was also easy to disguise herself in the middle of winter. With a hat, scarf, and mask on, Rong Guang dared to guarantee that even if her own grandmother stood in front of her, she wouldn’t be recognized.
When she wasn’t filming, she didn’t have to rush to too many public appearances. In her free time, Rong Guang could take Chacha out to explore.
She had often heard people say that taking children traveling frequently when they were young was beneficial for their personality development.
Rong Guang deeply agreed. At least, Chacha was much more cheerful than before.
Ever since Chu Feiliang had shut her down last time, Duan Nong, for some unknown reason, had contacted her a few more times.
And in the subsequent times, she was no longer satisfied with just chatting through a text box. She insisted on video calls. It was never about anything important; she just wanted to talk to Rong Guang about anything and everything.
Rong Guang didn’t reject the calls. When it came to just chatting, Duan Nong could be quite easy to communicate with sometimes.
As for video calls, it was a common practice in their line of work. Tang Yuan rarely called her phone either; she would either use WeChat calls or video chat.
After answering, she would just place her phone to the side and continue with her own business, listening to Duan Nong and occasionally replying.
A few times, Chu Feiliang happened to see them on a call when she came over. Other times, Rong Guang only answered Duan Nong’s video call when Chu Feiliang was already present.
—This time was no exception.
When Duan Nong saw that Rong Guang had answered, her initially happy face instantly fell upon seeing Chu Feiliang at her side. “Why is she still here? Why is she still here? Why is she there every time I call you?!”
Chu Feiliang looked up from her script and said, “Not every time. Did you pass your advanced math? You still can’t even count. If you didn’t pass, I can tutor you again.”
The tragic memory of being forced to study by Chu Feiliang flooded her mind. Duan Nong felt a wave of dizziness. Recalling her disastrous advanced math scores, she immediately cowered.
She gritted her teeth and decided to ignore Chu Feiliang, focusing on chatting with Rong Guang.
“I’m wrapping up and leaving the crew tonight,” Duan Nong said, sounding a bit wronged. “Can’t you even come back to see me off? It’s my first time wrapping up a drama, after all.”
Rong Guang fell silent.
Chu Feiliang glanced at Duan Nong’s self-righteous expression and let out a long, drawn-out scoff. She knew Duan Nong could hear it on the other end but said nothing more.
As expected, Duan Nong gritted her teeth for a while, but not daring to challenge Chu Feiliang to her face, she could only glare at Rong Guang through the screen.
Rong Guang thought for a moment. She wanted to change Chu Feiliang’s impression that she was always being bullied by Duan Nong, so she said very seriously to Duan Nong, “Nongnong, do you know how long it takes to get from the Deer Creek base back to the main base?”
Duan Nong glanced at her and mumbled, “Isn’t it just over three hours?”
Rong Guang hummed in agreement, then said, “So you know it’s three hours?”
“What’s wrong with three hours?” Duan Nong raised her head, her face full of confusion. “When have we not traveled all over the world for location shoots or concerts? Back then, it was way more than three hours. Traveling for over ten hours straight was a common occurrence.”
“How can that be the same?” Rong Guang found it a bit amusing. Duan Nong’s logic always followed its own unique path, leaving others speechless.
She said, “For me to go see you off, it’s nearly four hours one way. But I have to come back, so that’s almost a full day in total. I still have work right now, and I’m close to wrapping up. My scenes are very important. If I take a day off just to travel eight hours to see you, do you know how much that would delay things? And when I get there, would you just let me leave the set? No—you’d drag me to the airport to continue seeing you off, and it would take even longer.”
Duan Nong frowned, understanding now, but she was unwilling to back down.
Rong Guang hadn’t planned on going anyway. Seeing that Duan Nong was being so unreasonable and stubborn, she said bluntly, “I can’t spare the time to come back and see you. Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
Duan Nong was unhappy. The tiny bit of guilt that had just started to rise vanished without a trace. She said, “Why not? You weren’t like this before—how come you’ve changed so much after filming one drama?”
“I’ve never made a special eight-hour trip just to see you before either,” Rong Guang said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“Yes, you have,” Duan Nong said, her neck stiff and her eyes turning a little red. “That time on Wanxiang Mountain, it took you more than four hours to walk up and down the mountain, but you still came to see me, didn’t you?!”
“That was different,” Rong Guang tried to explain. “You were still young then, and you had a high fever. You were all alone outside with only the program staff. I couldn’t possibly leave you there.”
“What’s so different this time? Am I not all alone on the set?” Duan Nong was furious.
Rong Guang was completely speechless. She suddenly realized that arguing with Duan Nong about these things was just making things difficult for herself.
Duan Nong had clearly gotten stuck in her own head. No matter what she said, Duan Nong wouldn’t be able to listen.
Moreover, Duan Nong had a knack for being unreasonable and twisting the topic back onto her.
Rong Guang couldn’t really control her, because she herself wasn’t a very assertive person.
Chu Feiliang finally put down her script and stood up to stretch her limbs.
The moment Duan Nong saw Chu Feiliang, her heart trembled. Seeing her stretch her arms, she was stunned and even subconsciously scooted back. “What are you trying to do?”
“I’m not trying to do anything,” Chu Feiliang said, then chuckled lightly. “I just couldn’t listen anymore and wanted to show you something.”
Duan Nong’s attention was easily diverted. She said, not quite willingly, “Show me what?”
Chu Feiliang didn’t answer her directly. Instead, she turned to Rong Guang and said, “Give me your leg.”
A head full of question marks popped up over Rong Guang’s head. Thinking she had misheard, she couldn’t help but ask, “Wha… what?”
This time, Chu Feiliang didn’t explain further. She simply pulled Rong Guang’s chair back a little, then squatted down and lifted Rong Guang’s leg.
Rong Guang had to grip the armrests of the chair to steady herself. She watched as Chu Feiliang turned her head left and right, examining her leg for a moment before picking a suitable angle and holding Rong Guang’s leg up in front of the phone.
Chu Feiliang positioned her still-swollen ankle directly in front of the camera, then said to Duan Nong, “See this?”
Duan Nong’s eyes widened. She stared at Rong Guang’s injured leg for a long time before saying, “What’s wrong with it?”
“She’s injured. She still needs a crutch to walk.” Chu Feiliang sneered, then reached out and skillfully re-wrapped the elastic bandage she had just removed, her movements practiced, clearly not her first time doing this.
Then she said, “Don’t tell me you still don’t know she’s injured.”
Duan Nong suddenly froze, belatedly remembering something she had forgotten.
After a long moment, she said hesitantly, “I knew… I just forgot…”
“Yes, you forgot. You also forgot that this isn’t just your first time filming; it’s Rong Guang’s first time too. And unlike you, she doesn’t have your powerful background and connections. She got in through round after round of auditions, working very hard.” Chu Feiliang let go of Rong Guang’s leg and placed it back where it was.
After doing all this, she leisurely sat back down in her own seat, her hands folded in front of her stomach. “But you forgot, and Rong Guang is too embarrassed to remind you. So you just let yourself get cocky, let yourself guilt-trip her, making her travel back and forth for eight hours with a leg like this just to see you…”
As Chu Feiliang spoke, her face filled with disbelief. She looked at Duan Nong and said, “How can you take advantage of her kindness like this, constantly making an unreasonable scene, and expanding my worldview in the process?”
Duan Nong’s face immediately felt hot, and Chu Feiliang’s words made her squirm uncomfortably.
She looked at Rong Guang and said, “Why didn’t you say so earlier…”
Before she could finish, she shut her mouth again.
—Rong Guang had told her long ago that her leg was injured.
It was clearly her own fault for not remembering, for forgetting about it completely, and then insisting on making such an unreasonable request.
“Then don’t bother coming to see me,” Duan Nong mumbled, her lips pursed. She sounded a bit pitiful, but she couldn’t bring herself to apologize and said in a small, sulky voice, “I’ll just go back by myself then.”
Rong Guang looked at her for a moment, wondering if she should say something.
Once Duan Nong left this time, they would probably barely see each other again, except for the final farewell stage.
Even after the performance.
Rong Guang and Duan Nong were bound to go their separate ways.
Thinking of this outcome, Rong Guang fell silent again.
Chu Feiliang put down her script once more, waved her hand, and said, “Don’t be like that. Rong Guang can’t see you, but it’s the same if you come to see her, right? It’s only a four-hour trip anyway, and you’ll only need four hours to get back and catch your flight. Let me calculate, that’s only eight hours in total. You can squeeze it in; there’s always time. There’s no time like the present, so why don’t you just find a car and come over tonight? You two can see each other, how great is that? It’s a win-win situation, just a little tiring, right?”
Duan Nong was rendered speechless by Chu Feiliang’s words.
After a long moment, she pursed her lips and said in a muffled voice, “Sister Chu, please stop. I know I was wrong.”
This time, Chu Feiliang finally returned a cold smile.
Duan Nong’s meaning was clear: she wasn’t planning on coming over.
Duan Nong’s lips moved a couple of times. She looked at Rong Guang, wanting to say something but hesitating for a long while, before finally placing her phone face down on the table.
Not long after, the sound of the call ending was heard.
Rong Guang glanced at the message that popped up on her WeChat. It was from Duan Nong.
【Duan Nong: I didn’t mean it. Don’t be angry.】
【Duan Nong: I really have something to do, I can’t make it to Deer Creek. I’ll come visit you on set when I have time.】
【Rong Guang: Okay.】
【Rong Guang: No need to visit the set, I’ll be wrapping up soon too. Happy wrap-up.】
After that, Duan Nong didn’t reply again.
Rong Guang waited for a few minutes, then turned off her phone screen and put it in her pocket.
Chu Feiliang seemed to have a firm grasp of Duan Nong’s situation. After hearing the WeChat notification, she glanced over and said, “Did she apologize and back down?”
Rong Guang nodded.
Only then did Chu Feiliang toss aside the script she hadn’t been paying much attention to anyway and say breezily, “To deal with her, you have to be even more shameless and unreasonable than she is… Come on, try pestering me, let me see if you pass.”
Rong Guang had been listening to the guidance with a serious expression.
After all, in both her lifetimes, Duan Nong was the only person she had ever met with such a genuine spoiled-rich-girl temper, and she really didn’t know how to handle her.
If she could learn more ways to deal with people, that would naturally be for the best.
However, she hadn’t expected that Chu Feiliang would lose her seriousness midway through and start steering the conversation toward teasing her again.
This… this made her feel as if Chu Feiliang had other intentions toward her.
Because when Chu Feiliang spoke to others, she never had this attitude. She was always cool and distant, yet perfectly appropriate.
Rong Guang tried, but she couldn’t quite find the right way to be unreasonable and pestering.
She mustered her courage and said, “I… I’m not very good at it.”
“You’re not?” Chu Feiliang stood up, stretched lazily, and said, “No need to rush if you’re not. I’ll teach you slowly in the future.”
Rong Guang could only nod subconsciously.
The moment Chu Feiliang walked out the door, she turned her head and smiled, a brilliant smile. “With me here, what are you afraid of not learning?”
Only then did Rong Guang realize what Chu Feiliang had said she would teach her.
Teach someone how to be unreasonable and pestering?
Rong Guang’s face was blank with stupor. Had she gone crazy, had the world gone crazy… or had Chu Feiliang gone crazy?
Since when did being unreasonable and pestering become something that needed to be learned?
Just then, Chacha popped out from somewhere, holding a psychology book. “A person’s personality is inextricably linked to their childhood experiences, more or less built up from them—so Sister Guangguang, you don’t have to force yourself.”
Rong Guang nodded, agreeing with this statement, but after a thought, she added, “That’s not entirely true. Chacha, did you know how to act cute before?”
Chacha shook her head.
Rong Guang ruffled Chacha’s fluffy hair and said, “But you do now.”
Chacha wrinkled her nose and said, “That’s because you spoil me. You’re good to me, and I know you won’t get angry, so I act cute.”
At this, Chacha’s eyes suddenly lit up. She looked up and said, “Sister Guangguang, I get it now!”
“Get what?” Rong Guang chuckled and ruffled her head.
Chacha shook her head sagely and said, “Sister Chu won’t get angry with you, so you can act cute with her… An expert once said that acting cute and being unreasonable aren’t that different. They’re just different ways of achieving one’s goal. To put it nicely, it’s called acting cute. To put it bluntly, it’s called being unreasonable. You can do it! I believe in you! When you do things with Sister Chu, it’s not being unreasonable, it’s called acting cute.”
Rong Guang raised an eyebrow. “What expert said that?”
Chacha patted her small chest and said seriously, “Of course, it was the great expert, Chacha.”
After some time, Rong Guang finally received a message from the director’s team, telling her to get ready to start filming the ending.
The ending had actually been worked on for a long time. The screenwriting team had been constantly trying to revise and perfect it, and only now had the final version been decided.
“The ending has been changed.” Zhang Nanchuan frowned, his face covered in stubble and his eyes bloodshot as he looked at the script. “The Li Dynasty can’t be completely destroyed. Otherwise, within the established historical context, even if Ji Ying and Wen Mou don’t die, they will become a tragedy in the audience’s hearts, an irreversible regret.”
Rong Guang nodded, agreeing with this concept.
She didn’t remember what the ending of The Eldest Princess was, only that at the time, all the viewers were begging for a second season.
Unfortunately, by then Chu Feiliang had stopped acting and was in a state of semi-retirement, so this regret remained.
Not being able to gather the original cast wasn’t the most important thing, but if the main character changed, the soul of the entire drama would be gone.
Zhang Nanchuan had also been holding onto the script for the second season of The Eldest Princess without filming it, probably waiting for Chu Feiliang to return.
—Whether it was to give Chu Feiliang the most powerful weapon on the day of her return, allowing her to stand before the audience once more, or for his own sincere dream for his work, Zhang Nanchuan had no intention of selling the script or finding some other popular actor to film it.
Chu Feiliang, sitting on the other side, also responded in agreement upon hearing this.
Rong Guang glanced at her.
She hadn’t changed into her costume from the drama yet, only had her hair done.
However, Rong Guang had seen Chu Feiliang’s promotional photos before, so she knew that she was wearing the clothes of an ordinary commoner.
Her appearance wasn’t magnificent. There were no extra accessories, no more long robes with wide sleeves. It had been replaced by a neat and tidy outfit. The wrists and calves were bound with ropes made of coarse cloth, and a belt-like object was slung diagonally across her waist.
She looked very much like a working person.
During this period, her hair was tied into a simple, neat ponytail with just a red string. Her makeup was not as exquisite as before, and the overall effect looked much rougher.
The makeup artist used a darker foundation on her, at least four or five shades darker than her original skin tone.
Chu Feiliang looked at herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but laugh. “On the battlefield before, they just made me a bit tanner and put some black powder on my face. This is great. After leaving the battlefield, even if I went to Africa to give massages for three years, I wouldn’t be this dark, would I? If we don’t turn on the lights at night, can you even see my face? You’d probably only see my front teeth, right?”
Zhang Nanchuan coughed lightly and said, “We need to give the audience a contrast—after all, you and Wen Mou have been living in seclusion in the mountains for three to five years. You chopped the firewood, you tilled the land, you hunted the prey yourself, and you tanned the hides yourself. You’re used to rough work, so you can’t still have such delicate skin.”
Chu Feiliang glanced at the black dirt in her fingernails, endured it for a moment, but couldn’t hold back any longer. “Let’s not talk about the rest, but is it necessary for my hands to be like this?”
Zhang Nanchuan didn’t speak, just looked up at the sky.
Rong Guang looked at Chu Feiliang’s fingernails, thought for a moment, and then said, “Director, maybe we should change Teacher Chu’s hands?”
Zhang Nanchuan looked at her and said, “What’s wrong? You have an idea?”
Rong Guang smiled.
The biggest difference between Zhang Nanchuan and other directors was that he would say ‘idea’ instead of ‘opinion’.
This way, it wouldn’t make people feel uncomfortable.
Otherwise, the four words “You have an opinion?” sounded very much like a confrontation.
Rong Guang said, “When my grandfather was sick in the hospital, my grandmother once went for more than half a month without a proper bath—in the summer, during very stuffy weather. Her body was covered in sweat, but her hands were the only clean part, because those hands had to touch my grandfather, feed him, and wash him. She was afraid of bacteria.”
Zhang Nanchuan pondered for a moment, then said after a while, “That’s true…”
This was a very common detail in ordinary families.
When caring for a sick person, no one would want to touch them with dirty hands, for fear of infection.
Ji Ying also had a small detail in the drama: she always liked to wash her hands.
This detail had appeared abruptly in Zhang Nanchuan’s mind; he hadn’t even realized why he added it. But after Rong Guang’s explanation, it suddenly made sense.
Ji Ying had painstakingly cared for Wen Mou for over three years. Wen Mou’s limbs were normal, not atrophied, her muscles hadn’t wasted away, and she was even very clean and healthy.
Under these circumstances, no matter how dark Chu Feiliang’s body was, at least when she was caring for Wen Mou, her hands had to be clean.
“Teacher Rong is right.” Chu Feiliang was extremely uncomfortable. Looking at the dirt in her fingernails made her want to cut her nails short and then soak them in water for several hours.
She endured it, frowning as she said, “With Ji Ying’s personality, how could she possibly tolerate touching Wen Mou with such a pair of hands?”
In her heart, Wen Mou was a noble person, a brilliant pearl, a stunning genius—a deified figure.
How could she possibly let Wen Mou be stained by dust and mud because of her?
This was clearly inappropriate.
After all, the first thing she did after bringing Wen Mou to this small hut was to wipe Wen Mou’s body completely clean before she started to tidy herself up.
The more Zhang Nanchuan thought about it, the more right it seemed. He immediately nodded, perfected the script himself, and said, “Approved.”
Approved my ass, what took you so long?
Chu Feiliang couldn’t sit still any longer. She finally stood up from the stool and ran towards the sink as if her life depended on it.
Zhang Nanchuan glanced at Chu Feiliang and said with some helplessness, “I never saw her have this obsession with cleanliness before. When she was filming a military-themed movie, she was covered in mud from head to toe, and I didn’t see her being so awkward back then.”
Rong Guang smiled, her eyes curving. “Teacher Chu’s clothes are still clean. Besides, she has to eat later. If you get her hands done first, she’ll definitely feel awkward looking at all that dirt under her nails.”
Zhang Nanchuan thought it made sense and nodded. “That’s true. You seem to understand her quite well now.”
Rong Guang smiled, revealing her teeth, her eyes curving as she said, “It’s just the basic quality of a fan.”
Zhang Nanchuan chuckled at her words.
Once everything was ready, Zhang Nanchuan picked up his megaphone and called for everyone to assemble.
Rong Guang sat on the small wooden bed, patting the soft quilt. She was a little surprised. “Why is this quilt so fluffy?”
She hadn’t been sleepy before.
But she had just eaten lunch, and now she encountered such a soft bed that seemed to be filled with the scent of the sun…
Rong Guang couldn’t help but yawn a few times. A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over her, and she couldn’t fight it off.
Chacha, who was warming her hands on a water bottle, trotted over with a smile. “I took it out to sunbathe at noon, and I also borrowed the local villager’s heated brick bed to warm it up. It’s not damp at all, it’s so comfortable now.”
Rong Guang stroked Chacha’s head and said softly, “Good girl.”
Chacha happily retreated to the side, picking up her iPad to continue her lessons.
The props provided by the props department didn’t really consider the feelings of the young actors, and no one would ever think to air out the bedding from time to time.
The thatched hut was already quite damp, and the bed she was lying on was near a window. It had been raining and snowing for the past few days, and Rong Guang felt like she could smell the musty scent.
Although she didn’t actually have to sleep on it, external props had a huge impact on an actor’s performance, and physiological reactions were not so easy to control.
Just like how a person would subconsciously close their eyes when thrown into water, and couldn’t possibly fall in with their eyes wide open, if she lay on such a damp and cold bed… it would probably be difficult to truly sleep as ‘peacefully’ as the script described. If she didn’t get it in one take, she wouldn’t be able to lie there for long before her whole body became damp and cold, and things would only get worse.
Now, Rong Guang lay down relaxedly, and after a short while, she began to feel drowsy.
Chu Feiliang was reading her script nearby, still waiting for the cameras to be adjusted and the final prop check. Seeing Rong Guang like this, she smiled and said, “Sleepy?”
Rong Guang nodded. Due to her sleepiness, she seemed a bit soft and sweet, and her voice was gentle. “A little. I get sleepy after eating.”
“Then sleep if you’re sleepy,” Chu Feiliang said, propping up her chin. “You’re a very still sleeper anyway. Why not just try what we talked about before? You really sleep, and I’ll improvise.”
Rong Guang was taken aback. “That’s not really okay, is it…”
“If you can stay awake, that’s fine too.” Chu Feiliang shrugged, patted Rong Guang’s shoulder, and pushed her down. “You’re at the age where you’re still growing. More sleep is good for you.”
Rong Guang’s eyes curved, but she had become a bit more alert. She smiled and said, “I’ll be nineteen next year. I can’t grow much more.”
“Then who was it that was clamoring about how she could still grow taller?” Chu Feiliang glanced at her sideways. Remembering how Rong Guang looked at that time, she couldn’t help but smile.
Rong Guang blushed a little, too embarrassed to admit that she was the one who had stood on her tiptoes and said she could still grow taller.
Seeing her fall silent, Chu Feiliang didn’t continue to tease her. She went back to reading the script in her hands and then stretched her body.
In a moment, she had to go move bricks.
Properly move bricks.
So she had to warm up her body.
She looked back and saw Rong Guang lying on the bed, blinking her eyes as if she were about to fall asleep, her gaze hazy. From time to time, her eyes would drift, clearly on the verge of losing consciousness.
She was certainly comfortable.
Chu Feiliang paused, remembering what Zhang Nanchuan had said earlier: ‘You and Jiang Wenmou have been living in seclusion here for three years. You wash her body every day and are more familiar with it than she is herself. So whatever you want to do, you have to do it smoothly, boldly, and unrestrainedly. It’s a scene that depends entirely on your improvisation. There’s no fixed script, no fixed blocking. Everything is up to your feelings. If you feel something is right, just do it boldly.’
Since it was all up to her feelings…
Chu Feiliang suddenly squatted down by Rong Guang’s bed. Looking at Rong Guang’s hazy gaze, she said softly, “Later, if you fall asleep and feel me kiss you, remember to give a little reaction, but not too much, understand?”
Rong Guang was as sleepy as a kitten. She didn’t hear anything, but she nodded trustingly, giving a very faint response.
Chu Feiliang stood up again, a slightly wicked smile on her face.
Taking advantage of someone’s predicament was something she had always been very good at.
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