Zhou Yun had not expected that the first person she would encounter after joining the team was not the director, not Song Chi, but Su Yan.
Zhou Yun had been in the entertainment industry for nearly two years and had encountered all sorts of people, but Su Yan was the only woman who had openly kicked her at the site of a program recording just because Zhou Yun did not support her.
At that time, Zhou Yun was just a little-known celebrity. It was not surprising that Su Yan took her anger out on Zhou Yun.
That’s how their feud started.
Su Yan herself had not expected that in just a few months, Zhou Yun’s rise to fame would be meteoric, challenging her popularity, and even the role in "Heart Inquiry" that Su Yan had fought hard to secure was effortlessly obtained by Zhou Yun because of Song Chi.
In terms of ranking in the cast, Song Chi was the first, Su Yan the second, and though Zhou Yun was not as famous when she signed the contract, Chengqian Entertainment knew they could not demand too much for "Heart Inquiry," so having Zhou Yun play the second female lead was like a gift from heaven. Zhou Yun did not request any specific ranking and was finally given the fifth. All these were actually fine by her.
Su Yan, having read the script, knew very well that while she was nominally the female lead, Zhou Yun’s character as the second female held just as much presence, if not more, both in terms of character relationships and screen time.
The core protagonist of "Heart Inquiry" was He Mu, played by Song Chi, around whom all other characters revolved.
Even if the actress playing Liu Rusu was not Zhou Yun but someone she didn’t recognize, Su Yan would be especially cautious. In this drama, Liu Rusu’s character was her character’s biggest rival. If Su Yan had the power to change the script, she would even erase the character of Liu Rusu completely.
The two met each other.
Su Yan did not interact with Zhou Yun, and Zhou Yun also did not greet Su Yan; the two passed by each other as if they were strangers.
When Zhou Yun saw Su Yan, she thought to herself, indeed, nothing ever goes smoothly.
Zheng Xiaojue said in a daze, "Sister Xiao Yun, why do I feel like that person just now looked at you like she wanted to cut you with a knife?"
"The look in her eyes has improved," Zhou Yun praised.
Zheng Xiaojue was clueless. She didn’t understand why her random comment had earned her praise from Zhou Yun.
Zhou Yun entered the room.
Drama teams usually stayed in hotels, as it was the most convenient.
However, "Heart Inquiry" was being filmed on location, in a remote area with no large hotels nearby, and even several small hotels combined could not accommodate such a large team. In the end, they compromised and rented a hotel in a nearby small town. The hotel environment was average, but the entire place was booked by the drama team, preventing any outsiders from entering.
Zheng Xiaojue said, "I thought our accommodation this time would be better than it was during ’Eighth Heartbeat.’"
Zhou Yun smiled and said, "No way around it, ’Eighth Heartbeat’ was a modern drama filmed in the city. ’Heart Inquiry’ is different; the filming location is too far from the city. If we pursued a better living condition and stayed in the city, a lot of time would be wasted commuting. It’s not that the team is stingy, but time is more important than living conditions. I think the room is quite clean, as long as it’s hygienic, it’s fine."
Zheng Xiaojue nodded, saying, "Sister Xiao Yun, if you think the environment is fine, I have no objections."
Zhou Yun said, "I’ll tidy up first, Xiaoju, please go and ask when there is a car heading to the set."
Zheng Xiaojue nodded and left.
After tidying up, Zheng Xiaojue returned soon to inform Zhou Yun that a shuttle would head to the set in an hour.
An hour later, Zhou Yun and Zheng Xiaojue boarded the shuttle together to the filming site.
This was Zhou Yun’s first time seeing the set in reality. They had built a mansion specifically for the drama, He Mansion, where He Mu’s family lived in the drama. About one-third of the scenes were to be shot there. Next to He Mansion, they had also built a small courtyard, where Zhou Yun’s character, Liu Rusu, lived. Apart from the brothel scenes, most of Liu Rusu’s significant scenes were shot here.
In fact, such courtyards are not as grand as palatial mansions, and they are relatively cheaper to construct. Kang Xin and Song Chi insisted on building these sets themselves because the sets available at the film studio could not be aged appropriately, and visually they appeared too new. Kang Xin pursued a sense of realism in visual presentation, so, be it sets or makeup, he tweaked things repeatedly.
Zhou Yun still remembered her first costume fitting; Kang Xin frowned right away due to two reasons: the costume was too new and not properly aged, and the style was too luxurious for the identity of Liu Rusu.
Nowadays, many costume dramas have this issue. However, this also ties back to the aesthetic preferences of TV drama audiences who prefer glamour and beauty, which is indicative of the developmental phase of TV dramas. Essentially, TV dramas are created to satisfy certain fantasies of the audience. There had even been a time when a TV station thought the makeup made the female lead, who was supposed to be a beggar, look too ugly; they believed that even if she was a beggar, the audience would not want to see her covered in dirt. Reality had proved that this view, from a ratings standpoint, was correct.
But the beauty or ugliness of a character is different from the aesthetics of a drama.
Kang Xin had his unique aesthetic vision.
Some shoot simplicity because they are genuinely plain; others capture the unadorned beauty of bamboo sticks and straw shoes.
After three adjustments, Zhou Yun finally had her makeup finalized. The final effects were quite impressive, one particular shot depicted her sitting in a study, looking down at a book with a hazy light; Zhou Yun wore a simple cyan dress. The texture of the dress did not appear brand-new, as it had visible signs of being weathered, but it was clean and tidy, reflecting a person who keeps everything orderly and pays great attention to life’s details. Though she was wearing makeup, it wasn’t aimed at flawless perfection; her eyebrows weren’t a single stroke of ink without any trace of natural messiness, yet they appeared more elegantly defined than in reality. Her face wasn’t like flawless porcelain without a single blemish, but her skin’s natural texture was visible, yet more sculpted and pure than in real life. Her hair was simply done up, secured with a plain silver hairpin. The whole photo exuded a real sense of unadorned beauty, capturing the core characteristics of Liu Rusu in a single shot.
Zhou Yun loved this photo and even set it as her mobile phone screensaver.
A single photo captured a version of Zhou Yun that she had never seen before.
Zhou Yun stood at the entrance of her small courtyard, pushed open the wooden door, and looked inside; the small courtyard was empty, sunlight streamed inside, and although there were noisy sounds nearby, it was very quiet inside.
"How is it?" Song Chi’s voice sounded behind her.