Chapter 109: The Veteran Thespian's Craft

Dawn at the Beijing film and television base, a thin mist shrouded the old house that had been built. Xiang Fei sat before the monitor, watching Li Mingqi warming up on screen.

"Teacher Li, the first scene is you cooking alone in the kitchen." Xiang Fei walked over and said softly, "You need to convey the old lady's loneliness, but with a trace of warmth."

Li Mingqi nodded, suddenly hunched her back, and her right hand began trembling involuntarily: "Like this?"

Xiang Fei was startled to discover that her eyes had instantly grown cloudy yet tender, and even her finger joints seemed to truly suffer from arthritis.

"Action!"

The camera pushed in for a close-up of Li Mingqi's hands. She was cutting cabbage with trembling hands, her knife work seeming clumsy yet precise. Suddenly, a piece of cabbage stem dropped onto the floor.

The script didn't have this detail.

Li Mingqi naturally bent down to pick it up, her movements so slow it was heartbreaking. Just as she was about to touch the cabbage stem, her fingers suddenly cramped, forcing her to stop and catch her breath.

"Cut!" Xiang Fei called a halt. "It's too perfect! But Teacher Li, this hand trembling..."

"I've observed elderly people at nursing homes." Li Mingqi straightened her back, the aged demeanor just now vanishing completely. "Many of them have mild Parkinson's, but they don't want to admit it."

The young Miss from the props crew was already red-eyed: "Teacher Li's acting is too real..."

In the afternoon, they filmed the ensemble scene of the whole family eating. Li Mingqi's Chu Zhi sat in the main seat, tremblingly serving dishes to her "grandson."

On the third day, they filmed Chu Zhi's monologue scene recalling the past. Li Mingqi arrived three hours early, sitting alone in a corner brewing her emotions.

When shooting began, she faced the mirror and recounted the past of abandoning her child in her youth. When she reached "I left him at the orphanage gate," a single tear landed precisely at the instant her line ended.

Even more brilliant was the twisted smile she immediately followed with: "But you know... I'm doing quite well now." That smile contained guilt, self-mockery, and release—complex enough to break one's heart.

The cinematographer Old Zhang later secretly told Xiang Fei: "I've shot films for ten years, and I've never seen such precise emotional control."

When filming the interaction scene between Grandma and Baihe, Li Mingqi completely overturned the on-set directing approach.

"Come, Grandma will teach you to fold paper cranes." She had actually prepared colored paper, teaching the young actress while filming. The camera captured the little girl's genuine surprise and learning process.

Li Mingqi's performance even influenced the other actors. Zhou Xun confessed: "Watching Teacher Li act is when I truly understood what it means to 'live inside the character.'"

Chen Daoming went even further, directly seeking guidance from this veteran thespian: "How do you manage to make every glance tell a story?"

Li Mingqi merely smiled: "Treat the character as a real person, not as a character."

This line later became the crew's motto. Mei Yanfang, when filming Nobuyo-san's deathbed scene, specifically asked Li Mingqi to direct from the side.

Filming the final scene—Chu Zhi dying alone in the rented room. Li Mingqi designed a heartbreaking detail: she clutched a yellowed photograph in her hand, a "family portrait."

When sunlight poured into the room, her fingers loosened slightly, and the photo fluttered to the floor. This shot was filmed three times, and each time Li Mingqi could precisely control the rhythm of her fingers releasing.

At wrap, Xiang Fei personally presented Li Mingqi with flowers: "Teacher Li, you've created a classic."

Li Mingqi, however, waved her hand: "It's the character Chu Zhi who was written well." She gazed at the young actresses playing in the distance and said softly: "These children remind me of my own grandson."

The crew later learned that during filming, Li Mingqi brought homemade pastries for the two young actresses every day.