Chapter 62: It's clear that they must love you very much

In truth, while filming this scene, Chen Nuo had been enduring his back pain the entire time.

The spot where that small pebble had dug in—Qi Yuntian had checked it this morning and said a large bruise had already formed. His waist still couldn't bend freely, and he had applied a full eight medicated plasters.

Fortunately, the director had changed this scene into a dialogue-heavy one; otherwise, he really wouldn't have known what to do.

While filming, the pain occupied a large portion of his focus. He remembered Zhang Yi once saying, and Li Er had also emphasized, that an actor must remain authentic. Yet, he felt quite inauthentic right now; clearly, his body was uncomfortable, but he still had to play a robust and strong young hero.

After acting it out again, sure enough, he heard the director call "cut" once more.

Beside the monitor, Zhang Jizhong said, "No, it's not the same type of acting at all. Liu Yifei is acting in an idol drama, while Chen Nuo is acting in a movie."

Yu Min smiled bitterly and said, "Then what should we do? I just told her to follow the other person's rhythm and keep her focus on Chen Nuo, to truly listen and watch. As a result, she really just kept staring at Chen Nuo's face. What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to teach her?"

Zhang Jizhong pondered and said, "We all know what Liu Yifei's acting is like, and we didn't choose her to play Little Dragon Maiden because of her acting; the audience doesn't care about that either. Since Liu Yifei can't be reasoned with, then let's do this: you go tell Chen Nuo to tone it down a bit."

Yu Min asked in astonishment, "Will that work?"

Zhang Jizhong said, "Why wouldn't it? The audience is here to watch the Return of the Condor Heroes fall in love, not to watch Yang Guo crush Little Dragon Maiden. Go tell him to get on the same channel as Liu Yifei."

Thus, following Liu Yifei, Chen Nuo was also given a lecture on acting by Yu Min. Yu Min called him aside and asked a very abstract question: "Little Chen, have you ever played table tennis?"

Chen Nuo was a bit confused and replied, "I have."

"In table tennis, there is men's singles, right? And you, let's use an analogy, are like a talented young player in men's singles who has the ability to win a medal at the Olympics. However, the coaching staff suddenly won't let you play singles anymore and has transferred you to play mixed doubles. As for your female partner, she mainly relies on her own playing style to gain recognition from fans. Of course, she can play matches too, but her skill level is about that of a school team's fourth-string player. At this time, what should you do?"

Chen Nuo said speechlessly, "Director Yu, I'm already in the national team; why would I go play with a partner from the school team?"

Yu Min looked at him deeply and said, "Because the national team is too professional, and ordinary audiences don't understand it. Therefore, we need to cultivate some handsome men and beautiful women from the school team to attract audiences who are just here for the spectacle to pay attention to the match."

Chen Nuo was silent for a moment and said, "Director Yu, what do you mean?"

Yu Min said, "I mean, you have to switch your national team playing style and play like a school team member. Although the school team's style is flashy and superficial, after a round of jumping up and down and looking the part, the audience just loves to watch that kind of thing."

Chen Nuo did not speak.

Yu Min added, "Think about it carefully. Once you've thought it through, we'll shoot the next take."

Yu Min's table tennis theory had a great impact on Chen Nuo. According to Chen Nuo's understanding, Yu Min was simply asking him to act more exaggeratedly and more fake; to put it bluntly, he wanted him to use the method he used to film short videos in his past life. He was actually quite familiar with this kind of performance. But this was completely contrary to what he had learned previously from Zhang Yi, Li Er, and even Chen Kexin.

However, since the director had requested it, as an actor who was paid to film, logically he had to unconditionally follow the director's requirements.

The next take was a medium shot cutting to a close-up. Chen Nuo stood up and walked toward Liu Yifei with a gentle smile: "Didn't you say you wanted to share the joys of the world with me?"

Liu Yifei continued with a calm expression: "Guo'er, if you were to stay on the mountain with me forever, wouldn't you feel bored?"

Chen Nuo walked up to Liu Yifei, his eyes filled with affection, his voice soft but firm: "I wouldn't. If you don't want to go down the mountain, then we won't go down."

Liu Yifei finally smiled a little: "Okay." She then returned to her calm expression: "But Guo'er, if you stay on the mountain with me forever, it will be hard to be happy."

"Good! Cut, that's a wrap," Yu Min said loudly into the walkie-talkie, then turned his head to say to Zhang Jizhong, "This actor is good; he understands as soon as you say it. No wonder he can win awards in Berlin. Mr. Zhang, you really do have an eye for talent."

Zhang Jizhong also showed a satisfied expression and said, "Exaggerated but not greasy, superficial but still heartfelt, slightly pretentious yet easy to understand. He went from literary life to costume idol in an instant. What's even rarer is that every movement considered the camera angles; his sense of the lens is a ten out of ten. It's truly quite good."

After this take was finished, Zhang Jizhong and Yu Min called Chen Nuo over and praised him heavily. He then suddenly realized that TV series were just like short videos—they were all the same damn routine.

Filming went smoothly, so they finished work very early that day. Chen Nuo followed the staff, preparing to take the crew's vehicle back to the hotel. Just then, over a dozen tourists happened to arrive by the vehicle, taking photos of the lake where they were located. Among the tourists were a few teenagers who, upon seeing Chen Nuo approach, all ran over, ignoring the staff's attempts to stop them, and shouted, "Yang Guo, look, that's Yang Guo..."

A group of middle-aged and elderly tourists suddenly surrounded Chen Nuo, asking for photos and autographs. It was Chen Nuo's first time encountering such a scene, so he quickly said, "Alright, alright, I'll sign, I'll sign. Don't be impatient, one by one."

Chen Nuo took the pen from the aunt in front of him and, without a word, wrote his name on her white down jacket.

The "Chen" was like a flying dragon, the "Nuo" like a dancing phoenix.

After writing, Chen Nuo smiled with satisfaction. He had practiced his signature for a long time in his past life; now, writing it in one go, it was as if it had been carved into the fabric—his skill had not diminished in the slightest from those years.

The aunt looked at her clothes, her expression stiffening. She grabbed his sleeve and said, "Young man, why did you write this 'Chen something' on my clothes? Aren't you Yang Guo? Besides, I wanted you to sign this notebook. No, you must compensate me for my clothes!"

When Liu Yifei came over, she happened to see Chen Nuo looking miserable under the siege of a group of aunts. Hearing the reason from her assistant, she quickly lowered her head and walked around them.

She got into the car first. After a while, Chen Nuo got on, a black fingerprint on his face—he didn't know who had touched his face in the chaos.

Liu Yifei turned her face away, staring out the window.

Chen Nuo was also a bit embarrassed. He looked at the seats on the car and found that only the empty seat next to the lead actress was unoccupied, so he had to bite the bullet and walk over to sit down.

"Hehe, these fans are too enthusiastic," Chen Nuo said. Then he closed his eyes and began to feign sleep.

Liu Yifei endured and endured, but finally, she said softly, "It's clear that they must love you very much."

(End of chapter)