Chapter 193

There was a shot where Lu Yan He had to be stepped on. The effect Luo Yuzhong wanted was a close-up of Lu Yan He being pressed to the ground, with someone's foot directly stepping on Lu Yan He's face and grinding down hard.

It wasn't even known if Lu Yan He would be willing to film such a shot.

Such a humiliating shot couldn't be overcome just by saying "an actor must be professional."

In many crews, such shots would be handled differently, such as having someone reach their hand into a shoe and use their hand as a foot to "step" on the actor's face, or using a body double.

Luo Yuzhong came to communicate with Lu Yan He about how to film this shot.

He, of course, hoped to film it for real.

But he also knew that Lu Yan He was currently relying on his face for his career. A shot where his face was stepped on and ground into the ground, regardless of whether it was ugly or not, could easily cause abrasions to his face.

Luo Yuzhong was not a tyrannical director. He was strict when necessary, but he wasn't the type to force an actor to do something they didn't accept.

Therefore, Luo Yuzhong intended to earnestly persuade Lu Yan He to accept filming this shot.

However, Luo Yuzhong didn't expect that as soon as he opened his mouth, Lu Yan He nodded directly and said okay.

This was the tacit understanding between two old friends, and also a consensus on the quality standards of the scene.

Lu Yan He felt as if he were dizzy, his body suddenly stiffened, and then he swayed.

"Senior!" Jiang Yuqian had gone to call someone back. She looked at Lu Yan He in a panic, with four or five meters between them.

"Excellent." Luo Yuzhong walked over and gave Jiang Yuqian and Lu Yan He a big hug.

"Hmm." Lu Yan He nodded, looking completely indifferent.

Even though his eyes were closed and he was lying on the ground, it was as if he could see himself lying there from mid-air.

"Did you hurt your shoulder?" Jiang Yuqian, being observant, asked immediately.

"It's great, I'm very happy we had this collaboration. I hope we can work on more scenes together next time."

Ultimately, to ensure the quality of this shot, Luo Yuzhong chose to remain silent.

At this point, one must mention the acting teacher Chen Ziyan hired for Lu Yan He, Teacher Zhang Ming, who taught him acting theory every day.

Luo Yuzhong: "Just a few more shots and we're done, no need to reshoot. I brought three cameras today just so you only have to act it once. I know this scene is very draining."

The latter is the beauty of performance.

Wang Yunfan sat in his chair, waiting to watch Lu Yan He film the next scene.

He fell straight down.

He didn't feel the impact when he hit the ground, but now the pain was slowly setting in.

The ground hadn't been treated in any way; dust and debris were still present on the surface.

When Luo Yuzhong said "Cut," Lu Yan He felt a sense of relief, yet also a slight reluctance.

With this, the first drama of Lu Yan He's life had wrapped up.

Whatever is said doesn't matter; people already have their answer in their hearts.

Luo Yuzhong nodded upon hearing this and said okay.

Lu Yan He raised his hand to touch the back of his head and felt blood on his hand.

Her eyes weren't looking at Wang Yunfan, but ahead, as if she were contemplating something.

Luo Yuzhong realized that Lu Yan He had never filmed such a shot before; he didn't know it could easily cause facial abrasions, nor did he know how ugly it would look.

The staff watched this scene in the studio.

The set went quiet.

Li Qian was familiar with his personality and knew what he would do.

It was as if he could see her tear-filled face and her helpless fear, as if he could experience that silence of being isolated from the entire world.

Wang Yunfan looked at her with some surprise.

Lu Yan He accepted it in surprise, holding it with his right hand, looking at Luo Yuzhong with delight.

Reality includes both the objectively beautiful side and the objectively ugly side, but performance is reality placed within a lens, which is an abstract beauty that transcends reality.

This didn't fit Li Qian's usual speaking style.

"Do you also think Luo Dao was right?"

"Have you seen Lu Yan He act?" Wang Yunfan immediately and keenly sensed the evasion in Li Qian's words.

He hunched his body slightly, enduring the pain, a fire in his eyes, glaring at the few people in front of him, with a stance of never giving up.

"Camera 3, get a close-up of Lu Yan He's hand." Liu Zeliang suddenly picked up the walkie-talkie and said softly.

Lu Yan He heard Jiang Yuqian's voice and turned his head to look in a daze.

Lu Yan He let out a roar of anger, grabbed the opponent's ankle, and moved it away from his face.

He wanted to greet them, but his vision suddenly went black.

However, she had seen with her own eyes what Lu Yan He's acting was like, and she really couldn't go against her conscience to agree with him.

There are many who boast about their professionalism, many who engage in mutual commercial praise, and some who are forced to be "professional" under the public eye, but to just lie on the ground like dust so calmly and naturally is truly rare.

He saw Jiang Yuqian's worried expression and the classmates behind her.

Upon inspection, fortunately, no bones were broken; he had just hit it hard, causing a bruise and some blood stasis.

"Why do you care about him? Just act your own scenes well," Li Qian finally said.

Luo Yuzhong and Liu Zeliang, sitting behind the monitors, couldn't help but nod.

Jealousy is an emotion harder to hide than others.

Wang Yunfan originally wanted to say that he was, of course, fine.

If she hadn't seen Lu Yan He act with her own eyes, Li Qian would have agreed with Wang Yunfan at this moment, because Wang Yunfan was her old classmate, and in terms of emotion and reason, she should stand on his side.

Her assistant, Luo Xiaoyu, came over and handed her a tissue.

The strength in both hands was so great that the veins on the back of his hands were bulging.

He didn't have that concept.

Upon hearing this, Luo Yuzhong remembered the way Lu Yan He had fallen straight down just now, without any cushioning at all.

Lu Yan He tried to move his arm and found he couldn't exert any strength; it seemed to be numb.

Until a distant "Cut" came through.

For filming this scene, the crew had long since hired a physician to prevent such situations.

He blinked in a daze.

Lu Yan He always felt that the last look Luo Yuzhong gave him revealed a hint of pity.

In fact, regarding this scene, Lu Yan He really had no resistance at all.

A person can be beautifully hollow and soulless in a lens, or they can be shockingly ugly in a lens, making one's heart tremble.

Li Qian immediately heard the jealousy in Wang Yunfan's heart.

He couldn't help but remind him: "This shot will make you look very ugly."

The key is that this scene was done in one go, with only a few pauses in the middle.

At this moment, the cinematography was also cooperating.

The anger, humiliation, and embarrassment Yao Yuan felt at this moment all converged on Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He shook his head. "Director, what shots need to be reshot? Let's do it in one go. I'm afraid if I rest, I won't be able to muster the energy to film again. It's just the last few shots, I want to finish them all at once."

"If you want to hear the truth, you might as well watch it yourself later," Li Qian said. "Seeing is believing."

Everything was ready.

"Then let's take a break first," he said.

On such a floor, an ordinary person wouldn't even want to touch it with their hand, but Lu Yan He lay down as soon as he was told, with one side of his cheek directly pressed against the ground.

"How long have we known him, and you've already decided he's different from others?" Wang Yunfan still refused to admit that Lu Yan He was indeed better than they had expected.

He had seen too many actors, all kinds of them, but an actor like Lu Yan He who didn't care at all about putting himself through the wringer was truly rare.

Luo Yuzhong hesitated about whether to explain it clearly to Lu Yan He. But seeing that Lu Yan He had no resistance to filming this shot, Luo Yuzhong hoped to strike while the iron was hot and let Lu Yan He film it smoothly.

This feeling came from truly being stepped on, which was completely different from the hypothetical feeling of imagining it ten thousand times.

Lu Yan He nodded, thinking about leaving, and felt a wave of sadness and reluctance; his eyes suddenly turned red.

Without any cushioning, he fell to the ground.

Jiang Yuqian rushed over, threw herself behind him, pushed him, and called his name.

Li Qian said: "This Lu Yan He really makes me look at him with new eyes. Before, I had prejudices against idol artists like them—no acting skills, no experience. Other than being extremely polite on the surface, they were good for nothing. This time, Lu Yan He is different. He's a top student after all; this spirit is just different."

When the feeling is right, everything you act is right.

Luo Yuzhong patted Lu Yan He's shoulder firmly, full of encouragement.

He immediately shouted: "Call the physician to come take a look!"

Jiang Yuqian smiled and said: "I only appeared at the end. It was mainly Little Lu. Watching him act from the side, I was shocked. He really gets into character the moment he's told to, and he handles it with more layers than actors like us who have been acting for years."

The camera slowly tilted up, and while tilting up, it also moved backward, slowly pulling from a partial close-up to a wide shot.

Luo Yuzhong said to Lu Yan He: "That take after you were hit just now, tsk, from the look in your eyes to turning your head, every detail was good—indescribably good."

Little Lu, you are very naive, which is a good thing. Just sacrifice a little for art.

Mo Zhi held a bouquet of flowers for Luo Yuzhong, and Luo Yuzhong gave it to Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He climbed up from the ground unwillingly.

Luo Yuzhong: "Prepare to continue, come, start!"

The actor held a baseball bat and smashed it hard toward the back of Lu Yan He's head.

He had used force just now, but it shouldn't have been enough to make Lu Yan He scream so miserably, right?

They used three cameras to film this scene, just to get it in one take and not make the actors go through it twice.

"Thank you, Director," Lu Yan He said with gratitude.

Luo Yuzhong was the most surprised.

Luo Yuzhong hadn't even spoken, and Liu Zeliang had already instructed his thoughts.

Luo Yuzhong smiled and hugged him gently.

A feeling of humiliation and anger didn't need to be stirred up; it just flowed out and surged into his heart.

From the beginning, Zhang Ming had instilled in him a concept: performance is beauty extracted from reality.

Lu Yan He touched his own slimy "blood," crying and laughing, and said: "Thank you, Director, do I need to film another take?"

As a result, Lu Yan He screamed directly, which even startled Luo Yuzhong, who thought he had been too heavy-handed and looked at his own palms with suspicion.

The makeup artist in charge of special effects held the blood bag high above Lu Yan He's head.

The moment he fell to the ground, he felt his soul being thrown out in an instant.

Luo Yuzhong looked at his shoulder nervously.

Luo Yuzhong was stunned.

Suddenly, Li Qian also came over.

This attitude of filming whenever told surprised the entire production team, led by Luo Yuzhong.

Li Qian nodded and said: "I've seen it."

"Start!"

Lu Yan He opened his eyes and looked in a daze at Jiang Yuqian, who was still kneeling in front of him with tears on her face.

At this moment, it was time to drip blood onto Lu Yan He's head.

Jiang Yuqian burst into laughter.

"This kid, is he really that indifferent to his own face?" Even Liu Zeliang, the director of photography, couldn't help but exclaim.

Behind them, Li Qian watched Lu Yan He get ready and turned to ask Wang Yunfan: "Let me ask you, if you were the one filming this scene, would you be so quick to bury your face in the ground?"

The blood flowed out and slowly spilled over.

A staff member brought a specially made baseball bat and swapped the prop in the actor's hand.

When it was Jiang Yuqian's turn, Jiang Yuqian had completely returned to her usual self.

Wang Yunfan: "Luo Dao just said Lu Yan He has high intuition. I want to see just how high his intuition is."

"Hmm, thank you, Sister Yuqian!" Lu Yan He nodded with a smile, and some emotions that only he knew spread within him. "I'm very happy to have gone on a date with you. You are my first girlfriend."

Because they knew his usual style too well, it was too easy to detect any slight abnormality.

"Stop!" Luo Yuzhong called stop again.

Thus, Lu Yan He gritted his teeth and finished filming the remaining shots.

Looking from the lens, a stream of blood flowed down from his head, passed his neck, and slid under his collar.

"Good, cut!" Luo Yuzhong called stop in time. "Pause, change props."

He hadn't even reacted.

"Thank you, Director."

Lu Yan He suddenly felt his shoulder ache, as if he hadn't paid attention to absorbing the impact when he fell just now and had hit the ground hard.

Suddenly, with a loud "bang," a baseball bat smashed toward the back of Lu Yan He's head from behind.

"This scene was performed excellently," Luo Yuzhong said.

Jiang Yuqian took the tissue and wiped the tears from her face.

He never felt he had any problems with professionalism.

But when the words reached his lips, he hesitated. Of course, it would be no problem for him to film such a scene, but he would require the dust and debris on the ground to be specially treated and clean, and he would also hope not to be stepped on for real if possible.

Lu Yan He had already lain down at the designated spot according to the director's instructions.

"Yes," Lu Yan He nodded earnestly. "I will, Director."

"Sister Yuqian." He called out helplessly.

He never felt that every scene he acted had to look good.

"Yao Yuan—" This was the last sound he heard, a shrill scream.

Lu Yan He felt that his vision had truly gone black just now; it wasn't a camera effect, but the feeling of that very moment.

There was a camera capturing a close-up of Lu Yan He.

In Lu Yan He's eyes at this moment, there was a near-tangible unwillingness and anger.

As Luo Yuzhong shouted, the makeup artist immediately popped the blood bag in their hand, and a small splash of artificial blood landed on the back of Lu Yan He's head near the top.

"I'm very happy to be the director of your first drama. I hope that starting from this drama, the whole world will see your talent," Luo Yuzhong said enthusiastically. "You have a very moving talent. Hold onto it well and don't let down the heavens for feeding you this bowl of rice."

The camera focused on Lu Yan He's neck.

The look in his eyes as he watched Lu Yan He was as if he had discovered a peerless treasure.

"Alright, let's not say those sentimental things between men. There's a long road ahead, we'll see each other again," Luo Yuzhong said. "When the drama is promoted, please help out as much as you can. Although it's just a small supporting role, it's definitely a role worth being proud of and remembering."

She moved her chair to sit beside him, looked at the people setting the scene in front, and asked: "What are you sitting here watching?"

The soul returns to its place.

Old friends are just like this; it's too easy to leak one's true thoughts and emotions in front of each other.

She looked at him with a face full of smiles and emotion.

"Prepare!" Luo Yuzhong shouted.

Li Qian: "Things like this, you can see the big picture from the small details."

When the opposing actor's foot stepped on his face, Lu Yan He finally had a real sense of humiliation.

The makeup artist immediately left the frame.

"You're the first one who dared to take advantage of me to my face," she curled her lips. "But since you are my one and only boyfriend, I'll forgive you this time."

Lu Yan He bowed slightly to her in gratitude.

"Thank you, Sister Yuqian, thank you for recommending me to act in this drama."