Add us to your reading list and subscribe if you’ve enjoyed our s!
He said to Ji Ning, “When your mother died, I kindly took over your custody rights and let you live under my roof. I also helped you transfer to An An’s school and even asked the teacher to arrange for you to be in the same class as Gu Qing, all for your good. I’d never expected you to think of me this way. What? Living with me means suffering? And living with your mother means happiness?”
Ji Ning shook her head, “No, I didn’t mean that.”
“Still lying,” Ji Liguo raised his volume and yelled at Ji Ning, “You are like your mother, your contempt for me is from the bottom of your heart.”
Ji Liguo raised his hand and was about to slap Ji Ning.
Gu Qing, who came back from the basketball court, saw this scene when he entered the house. He immediately threw the basketball on to the ground and rushed forward to stop Ji Liguo.
“Uncle Ji, we can talk about this; she is also your daughter.”
“OK, perfect,” Ye Zian called cut. “Everyone, rest for ten minutes and rehydrate. The makeup artist will come over to fix Liu Man and Yang Huayue’s makeup.”
This long shot made Liu Man very tired. Sitting on the dilapidated props chair, Yang Huayue sat down opposite her and handed her a bottle of mineral water with a straw.
The two were too deeply absorbed into the act just now, and their faces were all red. No wonder Ye Zian made them take a break.
“I am suddenly feeling a little scared,” Yang Huayue said to Liu Man.
Liu Man was puzzled, “Why?”
“When I read the script before, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with acting as a villain. Now that we are rolling, I found that Ji An is a way too evil role. I am worried that the audience will have a negative impression of me after the movie is released. I’m even more afraid of my existing fans leaving.”
“No way… Acting is acting. You are playing a role, but it doesn’t mean that you are the same in real life.”
Liu Man and Yang Huayue didn’t know each other before, but Yang Huayue took the initiative to add her WeChat and follow her Wei Bo. Liu Man thought she was very friendly.
“You don’t understand because this is your first time being an actor. The audience can all be easily swayed. If someone says something is bad, they will believe it. If someone says something is good, they will believe it, too. If your role is a heroine, they will think you are righteous. If your role is a villain, they will think you are evil.”
Lu Yi was the actor playing Ji Liguo. He laughed when he heard Yang Huayue’s words, “It is like that in this industry; you will have to get used to it. But the good thing is the audience is forgetful. When you play a new role next time, they will not deliberately remember your previous role, unless your new role is still a villain.”
Lu Yi joked, Yang Huayue laughed, “This time, I went along with this role because I have no experience. For my next job, I will not play the bad guy.”
“Good guys and bad guys are all just characters; they are fake. The way I see it, acting as a villain will help you become a better actor. After all, good guys are all the same, but the bad guys have their own merits. Besides, you don’t need to be afraid. Don’t you think, in this movie, Cheng and I have it even worse?” Lu Yi was quite proud to play the bad guy.
The Cheng he was referring to was Cheng Fenglan. She was the actor of Gu Qing’s mother, Gu Juan. She also had a role in this scene and had been waiting outside the room.
Their chattering voices were quite loud. Cheng Fenglan heard their conversation and heard Lu Yi mention her name. She only smiled but did not interrupt; she just turned to talk to her assistant and makeup artist.
Lu Yi and Cheng Fenglan were both experienced actors who were about 45 years old and specialized in playing the protagonist’s elderlies in film and television dramas. Lu Yi was the most famous. He had appeared in hundreds of movies and TV series. Chinese audiences all recognized his face, but they didn’t necessarily like him because he had played the villain ever since he was young. The villains that he played were so evil that when some children saw his face, they cried in fear.
However, in the crew, both the actors and the staffs respect Lu Yi. First, he is the oldest and most experienced. Second, He is down-to-earth and very kind to others. He chats with the extras all the time. In real life, he is nothing like how he appeared in film and television drama.
Yang Huayue sighed and said to Lu Yi, “The younger sister I played, strangled her blood-related sibling, the father you played and the mother Sis Cheng played worked together to cover up the truth about her death and deceived the police. After that, you inherited the legacy left to her by her mother without any scruples and lived a rich life. The characters that the three of us played are all cruel.”
Lu Yi spread his hands and made an innocent expression, “I used to act as a villain who was way more vicious than this, so I don’t feel anything anymore.”
Liu Man, who was listening to the two chattings by the side, said at this time, “I think the worst character in this play should be Gu Qing.”
Yang Huayue disagreed with Liu Man, “Gu Qing is not bad, he is the only person in this family who supported Ji Ning, he likes Ji Ning, he has always remembered Ji Ning. The female lead that he ends up with, at last, Yan Xialan, is a copy of Ji Ning.”
“In my opinion, he only supported Ji Ning on the outside. Why didn’t he say something when Ji Ning was forced by father to buy the garden villa with the money her money left her? I don’t know whether he really liked Ji Ning or not; I only know he was happy to use Ji Ning’s legacy when she died to live a better life; I only know he went to America for college with the background from a supposedly ‘rich family’ and tried to make Yan Xialan his girlfriend all using Ji Ning’s money. He even lied to Yan Xialan when her life was threatened like Ji Ning was. Duan Nafeng and the other cops came to search the garden villa, and he didn’t even tell the truth to Duan Nanfeng. He probably only likes himself.”
Liu Man’s tone was filled with contempt towards Gu Qing. She read the script about twenty times, and she remembered almost every character and every line.
Because Duan Nanfeng refused to believe Ji Ning would suddenly suicide, he, who had good grades and could’ve gotten a better future, applied for a police academy behind his parents to discover the truth. After ten years, he was already a police officer. During these ten years, he had been searching for evidence all along that proved it was the Ji family who killed Ji Ning.
“Ji An and her father, and Gu Qing’s mother, were bad people, yes. But they at least showed their villain side to others and were not pretentious. Only people like Gu Qing would hide their ugly inside with a ‘righteous’ outside.”
After listening to what Liu Man said, Yang Huayue thought back to the script. The script, of course, did not directly write about Gu Qing like that. On the opposite side, the script emphasized on how the male lead, Gu Qing, couldn’t forget about her even after she died — He couldn’t forget about her for ten years. He didn’t get a girlfriend for ten years, either, until he met Yan Xialan. Yan Xialan looked similar to Ji Ning, had the same temperament, also played piano, and also grew up in the US. She was even rich, just like Ji Ning.
“After hearing what you said, he does seem like that kind of person,” Yang Huayue suddenly realized the truth, “Now that I’ve thought about it, I consider Gu Qing a scumbag. He spent the money from a woman for a decade. First, it was from Ji Ning, and now from Yan Xialan. He’s a real loser.”
Credits: Isabella & Sydney