55: Chapter 56: Substitute (1) 55: Chapter 56: Substitute (1) After that night, Yu Zexiao ignored Jian Anning for several days.
Without that annoying presence lingering around her, Jian Anning actually breathed a sigh of relief.
Yu Zexiao was normally rather fussy and particular, such as needing to change the bedsheets daily, disinfecting the bathtub and toilet every day, and not wanting to see even a speck of dust in his room.
Moreover, for fresh air, he preferred having a fresh bouquet of flowers early in the morning….
Regarding meals, he absolutely wouldn’t eat the fast food set by the film crew.
Luckily, Jian Anning had learned to cook at home before, in order to better integrate into her stepfather’s family, and she was capable of making both Chinese and Western home-cooked meals.
Each day, Jian Anning would prepare meals at the hotel and deliver them to him in his special lunchbox.
Although Yu Zexiao had never acted in a TV series or a movie before, he had done some advertising and music videos, and after being slightly raw for a day or two, he quickly immersed himself into the filming.
In front of the camera, Yu Zexiao seemed like a natural spotlight stealer, emitting brilliance regardless of the angle or scene—even a fleeting shot of him in the corner of the frame shone impressively.
The protagonist of the story, their background, aspirations, and even personality, was like a replica of his own.
He portrayed the character effortlessly.
Another aspect was that, after a few days of filming, Yu Zexiao’s relationship with Jiang Xuanqi remained respectful yet cold.
This actually matched the initial setup of the TV series.
The male and female leads start off as bickering foes, with Jiang Xuanqi taking an immediate dislike to the haughty and arrogant rich second-generation male lead, leading to a tense and confrontational relationship between the two.
It is only after an accidental kiss that the male lead develops a nuanced affection for the female lead and, upon discovering her unparalleled talent on the drum set, begins to take a liking to her.
Privately, Jiang Xuanqi really wanted to get to know him better.
During breaks from shooting, she would always approach him with an attitude of “eagerly seeking guidance,” asking him for advice on musical matters.
Jiang Xuanqi had a background in film and television arts but was not adept in music.
Prior to taking on this role, she had indeed learned to play the drum set for a while.
On joining the crew, once she learned that Yu Zexiao had studied the drum set, she immediately pretended to be a novice and went to “learn” from him whenever she had the chance.
Yu Zexiao found this bothersome.
His demands on music bordered on the exacting.
How could someone like Jiang Xuanqi, who had no prior musical foundation and was only making a show of it for the sake of acting, be worthy of seeking his instruction?
Moreover, he could clearly see it—the way she lit up whenever she saw him.
Her flattery and deliberate attempts at seduction, which her makeup couldn’t hide, really annoyed him.
But just to keep the filming going, and since the company had given him a heads-up that they might spin a rumor about a romance between the two of them using this TV series to gain publicity, they told him not to be too cold towards Jiang Xuanqi.
This underlying alienation was manageable at the beginning of the shooting, but once the male and female leads began to develop feelings, it would impact the TV series’ production.
And today’s scene—Yu Zexiao’s on-screen “first kiss”—marked the beginning of the emotional chemistry between the male and female protagonists.
However, Yu Zexiao simply couldn’t get into the right state of mind, and even after two hours of shooting, not a single take passed.
Even though the final kiss would be faked with stand-ins or camera tricks, the preceding conflict and the emotional outburst after the kiss surely required Yu Zexiao’s portrayal.