The director decided to give her a chance to try, and if it didn’t work out, he would have the makeup artist redo her styling.
"Okay, extras get ready, move the camera in, action!"
With the director’s command, the camera moved forward, capturing the entire street in the background.
Exiting the border for a marriage alliance was a good thing for the court, and for the Marquis Mansion, it was also a celebrated matter for the Rongmu Family, so everywhere you looked, the lights and decorations were festive.
"At this corner, a woman’s voice of complaint could be heard, "Why hasn’t this child changed into her wedding dress?" As the camera moved in, it captured the woman’s displeased expression, "You are now the Princess He Ning, personally titled by His Majesty. Every move you make represents the Royal Family, and you can’t be capricious anymore."
"If I were capricious," a cold, indifferent voice responded, "the person you’d be marrying off today would be a corpse." It sounded like a lonely tree standing firm amidst the cold wind, clear and undisturbed.
The next second, a flash of a white dress skirt appeared around the corner, the camera traced along the patterns on the window grilles, settling on the face of the speaker.
In the instant the camera cut to her, Director Zhang, who had been sitting, suddenly stood up excitedly, "Give me a close-up, a close-up."
The camera continued to move in, capturing Su Wan’s ice-cold eyes within the lens.
Her eyes were cold, as if covered with a layer of solid ice, forming a deliberately erected icy barrier.
But it wasn’t a rigid coldness; it was cold yet shattered, occasionally glancing up and revealing a light in the depths of her eyes, giving off the feeling that she was about to cry the next moment.
Yet she did not cry. She blinked, and while her eyes were still moist, they were once more covered with solid ice.
The normally obedient daughter talking back so fiercely greatly annoyed the Marchioness. In her habitual manner, she raised her hand and slapped Su Wan on the face, "Don’t think that just because you’re now a Commandery Princess, you’re beyond my control. When you’re married outside the border, you’ll still depend on the Su Family to arrange everything for you. You’d best behave."
Su Wan’s face now bore several finger marks from the slap, but she didn’t emit even a whimper, and her expression didn’t waver in the slightest—it appeared even colder.
Until she sat in the sedan chair, Su Wan hadn’t said another word, regardless of what the Su Family tried to tell her.
In fact, here Su Wan had made many alterations in the script.
In the original screenplay, there was a severe conflict between Su Wan and the Marquis Mansion at this point, and Su Wan ended up crying as she entered the bridal sedan.
But Su Wan had deleted all her lines, responding with silence throughout.
The reason why Director Zhang didn’t stop Shu Wan was that, while she hadn’t spoken a word, the effect she achieved was even better than if she had spoken.
Because her eyes were speaking the whole time.
The emotional changes within a character, intended to be revealed through the eyes, pose an immense challenge to professional actors.
And Shu Wan had displayed this range of emotional change most vividly.
From the close-up shot, everyone could clearly see Su Wan forcing herself to craft an icy facade at first, but gradually, the coldness spread from the outside in, slowly turning her entire being into a block of ice.
Until she climbed into the sedan chair and the curtain dropped, a round tear slipped from Su Wan’s eye.
The shadows within the sedan chair completely enveloped Su Wan, and looking through the curtain at her sitting there, lifeless, it sent a shiver through the hearts of the viewers.
Even though it was an early morning with the sunrise, everyone felt a chill as if they had truly been frightened by the tragic scene playing out before them—a life being devoured by feudal ethics.
Even Director Zhang was so shocked by Shu Wan’s performance that it took him a while to come back to reality.
Shu Wan had already lifted the curtain and stepped out of the sedan chair, while Director Zhang was still savoring the image of her face that had seemed to turn blank in an instant.
"Director, can we move on?" Shu Wan asked.
Director Zhang, as if awakening from a dream, looked at Shu Wan with eyes full of amazement, "I knew you were talented yesterday, but I didn’t expect it to be to this extent. Your eyes, those are the eyes of a true lead actress."
Director Zhang was highly respected in the industry, and his reputation for being exacting was well known; nobody had ever seen him praise anyone before.
But thinking back to the scene they had just witnessed, everyone felt that Director Zhang’s words weren’t an exaggeration because Shu Wan truly had delivered an exceptional performance.
"This Shu Wan is really surprising."
While Shu Wan was acting, other actors would gather around to watch; Qin Yu and Lin Man were sitting to the side, observing.
Lin Man glanced at Shu Wan, now back to normal under the sunlight, but she couldn’t forget the performance Shu Wan had just delivered.