Chapter 578: Corrupting Her Man

The matter in the United States was basically wrapped up; the two of them had been busy here for almost half a month.

Being this busy was about enough; the final overseas box office of Gravity was left to fate, everything that could be done had been done, and the word of mouth had already begun to ferment.

Still, it definitely wouldn't be a loss — it would make money — and the two of them also needed to pack up and get ready to head back home.

After Liu Tianxian returned to the country, she still had a great many things to handle; countless endorsement deals and events came flying at her like snowflakes, for instance Bulgari wanted to strip Carla Bruni of her role as global spokesperson and have her take it over.

Carla Bruni was an Italian aristocrat, and also a supermodel, with an excellent image and bearing.

But she was older, and on top of that Liu Tianxian's international image this time was extremely flawless, her bearing and conversation were exceptional, and her fame and influence were sufficient.

If she could land the Bulgari global endorsement, she could sit back and earn over a hundred million a year, and gain global fame and influence to boot — wasn't that far better than the Xiaomi deal?

The Xiaomi endorsement fee back then was fifty million for two years, and the brand image and bearing didn't suit Liu Tianxian either, since it wasn't a high-end luxury phone.

Now Liu Tianxian was definitely going to take the international high-end route, casting aside some of the smaller, low-class endorsements.

Landing one international endorsement was worth many small ones.

Not every brand could put up fifty million — that was no small sum.

Of course, before heading back to the country, they definitely had to go see Yu Xian, and also say hello to Donna.

They went to find Yu Xian first; he was currently filming the second Fifty Shades of Grey, and had been shooting this film during this period, so he was very busy.

The filming location was in a high-end, luxurious flat; while the flat was lavishly decorated, the floor-to-ceiling windows also offered a view of the skyscrapers outside.

Visually, it was extremely high-end and luxurious.

This place was rented, used only for filming the movie; in one of the bedrooms, the entire crew stood perfectly still, watching the filming set.

Several cameras floated in the air or moved along tracks; Yu Xian sat with one leg crossed over the other, stroked his chin, and stared fixedly at the monitor, as if admiring something.

When Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian pushed through the crowd, they saw a scene that burned their eyes.

The female lead, that is Dakota Johnson, had her eyes covered by a red blindfold, her hands bound and suspended, and was dressed revealingly.

And the male lead was whipping the female lead's body with a tasseled whip, one strike after another, with great gusto.

Right before everyone's eyes, he really admired the crew — being able to stay so composed watching this scene, they must have seen plenty.

In Hollywood, there were tons of films like this being shot; where there was demand, there was a market.

This was unimaginable back home, but the domestic market also had films that shot full nudity, and even films that filmed penetration, and they were even released.

What was that one called, something-something Ring, it was absolutely explosive!

Liu Tianxian saw this scene, her face flushed a rosy red, she couldn't bear to look; she glanced at the man beside her, saw he was watching with great enthusiasm, and couldn't help but kick him.

"What?" Fang Hong rubbed his shin.

"Is it good to look at?" Liu Tianxian leaned in and asked.

"From an artistic perspective, it's not good to look at — vulgar, unbearably vulgar; from a cinematic perspective, this isn't a good film either, it's just a moving image, no viewing value whatsoever." Fang Hong shook his head as he spoke, looking very serious and analytical.

"No viewing value whatsoever, yet you were watching with such gusto." Liu Tianxian's tone was unfriendly.

"I think you have a misunderstanding of me; I wasn't watching with much gusto at all. I'm a director, a professional director — I watch this work with a director's eye. You have to know that any successful work has some merit to it; we must see the essence through the phenomenon, and not be fooled by the surface." Fang Hong spoke as if it made perfect sense.

"I can't be bothered arguing with you." Liu Tianxian waved a hand — she couldn't out-talk him; watching an adult film, and he could spin out a whole heap of grand principles.

As the two of them talked, Yu Xian on the other side overheard a bit and couldn't help snickering inwardly — he could talk it up to the heavens, when did the Principal become so glib?

"You're here? Come sit down."

He greeted the two of them, then signaled his little honey to bring over two chairs.

Fang Hong walked over, sat down beside him, and asked: "How's the filming progress on your end?"

Of course, as he spoke, his gaze was still fixed on the monitor.

Liu Tianxian didn't sit down, but stood beside them with her arms crossed; her peripheral vision was, of course, watching that man's every move, a hint of displeasure on her face.

If she'd known today would be like this, she shouldn't have come — what they were filming was way too explicit.

"Almost done filming, just these next two days." Yu Xian finished speaking, then looked up at Liu Tianxian standing beside them.

Then he dragged over a small chair, scooted close to Fang Hong, and whispered: "Exciting or what?"

"Don't talk to me about that stuff, focus on filming." Fang Hong pushed him, looking very proper, signaling him to shut up and film properly.

Liu Tianxian was right here — what was the point of chatting this nonsense with him? Liu Tianxian's ears were sharp.

Of course, the subtext was: hurry up and film something even more exciting.

Liu Tianxian merely glanced at the two of them and said nothing, though she was already displeased inside.

Yu Xian was a smart man these days; he spoke into the walkie-talkie: "Keep this scene and blocking the same, next shot."

On set, the female lead was still suspended, except the "instrument of torture" in the male lead's hand had changed — into a soft bristle brush.

The brush brushed lightly over the female lead's body, making her half-wanting to cry out, half-not, giving her a feeling of being in seventh heaven — it was utterly addictive.

No wonder a film like this could sweep several hundred million at the global box office, and three films sweep over a billion.

Just on that basis, those lsp's were bound to buy in!

"There's still a clothes-stripping scene later." Yu Xian scooted over again, afraid his household was too harmonious.

"That can be filmed?" Fang Hong was surprised — she was already down to underwear, strip any more and she'd be stark naked.

Even if the United States was open-minded, they shouldn't allow certain sensitive bits to be shown, otherwise it really would just be an adult film.

He remembered this film at most showed a bit of butt. "Can't film it, but the performance technique requires stripping — for the sake of realism, they strip on set, and it'll be cut out in post." Yu Xian said.

When the male lead strips the female lead's underwear, it's real stripping, but it'll be edited in post, nothing too revealing.

Of course, that meant on set it was exposed.

Fang Hong glanced at Liu Tianxian, saw her expression was stern, she said nothing, and he couldn't tell what she was thinking — her inscrutability was beautiful.

"I'm curious — isn't this your old flame? How can you treat her like this?" Fang Hong asked a question outside the film.

He really wanted to say: don't you feel a vast green prairie on your head?

"Treat her like what? Stripping some clothes, is that mistreating her? Even if she doesn't strip in a film, she shoots photo books, swimsuit shoots — isn't she still stripping? Buddy, be more open-minded." Yu Xian patted Fang Hong's shoulder, urging him to take it easy.

"I'm not as open-minded as you; I'm still quite traditional and conservative." Fang Hong waved his hand.

This answer satisfied Liu Tianxian quite a bit, and eased some of her temper — she knew this man was only getting his fill by looking.

"Everyone has their own way of thinking." Yu Xian didn't want to discuss this issue with him. Truth was, he felt a little uncomfortable inside, but for the sake of filming, what had to be let go had to be let go. He wasn't planning to marry this woman anyway.

"Then how did you handle the especially intimate scenes? You didn't actually do it for real, did you?" Fang Hong asked.

This film had a lot of those bedroom scenes — coming at it from every angle, all kinds of positions.

"Of course it was fake, how could it be real? The male lead was all wrapped up in bandages." As Yu Xian spoke, he even gestured at his own lower body.

He said it with great expression and feeling, but this kind of movie was always like that — don't be fooled into thinking they weren't wearing anything, they were actually bound up.

"What if you got a reaction?" This question came from Liu Tianxian, quite curious.

"If there's a reaction, just deal with it." Fang Hong replied.

"I wasn't asking you. You seem to know an awful lot about it — have you filmed something like that before?" Liu Tianxian interrogated.

"What movies I've filmed, others may not know, but don't you know?" Fang Hong said.

"Before you met me, who knew what you'd filmed?" Liu Tianxian put on an unreasonable look.

"I can testify on this one — before the Principal met you, he was working like a horse and an ox for other people, he hadn't filmed anything." Yu Xian raised his hand.

Liu Tianxian fell silent. Of course she knew her man hadn't filmed anything before — she was just in a slightly foul mood, deliberately making things difficult.

"I haven't even asked you yet — before you met me, did you ever take on any revealing scenes?" Fang Hong turned the tables.

"I did." Liu Tianxian said.

"What?!" Fang Hong reacted strongly, jumping straight to his feet and staring at her.

This reaction made Liu Tianxian smile inside, though her face stayed serious as she said: "What? I just took one, that's all."

"No way — really or fake?" Fang Hong didn't quite believe it. He flipped through her résumé — there was nothing like that, all very proper roles, nothing out of line.

"Really." Liu Tianxian nodded, saying it earnestly.

Fang Hong instantly deflated like a punctured ball, sitting back down with all the life drained out of him.

"What's wrong? The love's gone?" Liu Tianxian bent over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Sigh — since ancient times, the sentimental have only regret to show for it, a regret that goes on and on without end!" Fang Hong recited a poem. The poem's meaning was regret.

The two of them bantering had Yu Xian laughing nonstop on the side, not even properly filming anymore.

"Let me tell you, I really did take one on, but I turned it down." Liu Tianxian tucked a strand of fallen hair behind her ear.

"Eh, what's the story?" Fang Hong tilted his head.

One sitting, one bent over — they were close together.

"Back then the director of Lust, Caution, Li An, came to me to play the female lead. He was a big director, so hearing he wanted me to film I was pretty excited — I didn't even read the script, just happily agreed. But after I met Li An in person and got the script, I turned it down. The scale was just too big, and they wouldn't let me use a body double. I couldn't accept it, so I refused." Liu Tianxian said.

Although it wasn't as big a scale as what they were filming now, for her it was still a line crossed, unacceptable.

"There's that story too?" It was the first time Yu Xian had heard gossip like this.

Perfectly normal — he hadn't been back in the country for a long time.

"Yes, at the time I remember Li An approached a lot of people — he also approached Guoji Zhang, Shu Qi, and others, but none of them took it. Only later did it fall to Tang Wei." Liu Tianxian knew a bit about the situation back then.

A film like that, once shot, became a matter of being taken to task — no one dared take it. Tang Wei was the one who got taken to task; the other male leads and the director were all fine, only she got criticized.

"Oh, I see." Yu Xian indicated he understood, then added: "Then that film never should have been made — it was just wrong."

What it told was the story of a female spy falling for a big traitor and letting him go. That was only because it was Li An — anyone else filming it would probably have had it killed outright, no way it would have passed censorship.

The few of them chatted about the inside story of those days, and Fang Hong felt relieved — he'd actually thought Liu Tianxian had really filmed some scene he didn't know about.

"How about it? Has your heart settled now?" Liu Tianxian lowered her head and patted his chest.

"You're so wicked, scaring my poor little heart into going thump thump thump." Fang Hong used a finger to tilt up her fair, smooth chin.

"Ugh, I can't take you two." Yu Xian shuddered with disgust.

As the two of them talked and talked, they drifted into flirtatious banter, completely forgetting the scene was still being filmed — the shooting set was outrageously steamy.

"Look, look, it's coming off!" Yu Xian excitedly patted Fang Hong's leg, pointing at the monitor.

No one knew what he was so worked up about.

After the male lead finished using the "instruments," he had to take off the female lead's little bra, and her little panties too.

"Get lost, watch it by yourself!" Liu Tianxian gave Yu Xian's shoulder a heavy smack, then grabbed Fang Hong and walked off.

Leading her man astray!

(End of chapter)