Chapter 45: Something Happened

Today's scene was a big one, with over a hundred extras alone being called in.

In fact, for the role of Zhang Xiaoqi played by Cheng Chen, his very appearance made it a big scene.

In the drama, Zhang Xiaoqi, because of unpaid wages, was in a state of collapse and agitation.

So this placed extremely high demands on the actor's skill.

He had to pull inward to the point of emotional collapse, then let loose to extreme agitation.

As Li Chengru said, their Zhang Xiaoqi role required an actor who could pull in and let go at will.

When Cheng Chen arrived at the construction-site set, everyone stared hard at him.

After makeup, Cheng Chen's face was covered in mud and sweat, looking just like a migrant worker on site.

But what drew even more attention was his buzz-cut hairstyle.

This was something Cheng Chen had discussed with Wang Rui earlier regarding the character's look.

Zhang Xiaoqi was a migrant worker — how could he possibly have non-mainstream long hair like an idol drama?

Of course, it was 2002 now, and in many modern dramas male characters wore long hair, gelled into all sorts of bizarre styles.

For specifics, one could refer to the Tai Sheng phenomenon-level idol drama "Meteor Garden."

But construction-site workers, for the sake of easy washing and to keep hair out of their eyes while working, usually shaved their heads into a crew cut.

Cheng Chen felt a crew cut was too plain, so he simply had the stylist buzz it even shorter than a crew cut.

Commonly called a skinhead.

Director Wang Rui walked up to Cheng Chen, studied him for a moment, and nodded in satisfaction:

"Not bad, fits the character well — just a bit too handsome."

With the buzz cut, Cheng Chen looked even more alert, his features sharper, quite dashing, giving off a Zhao Wenzhuo-as-Fa-Hai vibe.

After Cheng Chen and the other actors finished the blocking run, Wang Rui announced:

"Get ready to roll."

This scene was roughly about Cheng Chen and his co-workers, strapped with explosive packs, kidnapping Li Chengru's character Li Dazeng and bringing him to the construction site.

In front of the gathered civilians and police, he publicly revealed the purchase contract signed by Li Dazeng, Xiao Yun, and Tian Yuanqing, which roused the crowd's anger and caused the situation to spiral somewhat out of control.

"Alright, get ready!"

Director Wang Rui sat back down in front of the monitor and called out loudly.

"Camera OK!"

"Sound OK!"

"Lighting OK!"

"Action!"

……

The clapper had barely sounded when Cheng Chen slipped into character, his emotions instantly surging.

He had thought the criminal police would help him recover two years of unpaid wages, but he never expected them to have signed a purchase contract with the developer.

This collusion between officials and businessmen, birds of a feather, utterly chilled Cheng Chen's heart; in his agitation he grabbed a megaphone and shouted down at the building:

"Listen up, everyone down below — look at what kind of cops these are, the agreement…"

With the explosive pack on his body, Cheng Chen now had nothing left to hold back; he paced as he read out the contents of the agreement.

He even pressed his face right up to the police chief's face and read aloud at the top of his lungs, his expression aggrieved yet seeming to vent his fury.

As if his behavior could let the world see clearly the true faces of these sanctimonious people.

And at the same time, it gave him the thrill of tearing off the mask and taking public revenge!

"Not bad, this kid."

Assistant Director Kan Xuehua watched Cheng Chen on the monitor, a look of appreciation in her eyes.

"He is good — the lines have proper rise and fall, the emotions are full, and his blocking has never gone out of frame. Hard to believe he's a newcomer who's only acted in one film."

Director Wang Rui nodded in praise; by "newcomer" he meant an actor with lines and a certain amount of screen time.

And the most common, most headache-inducing problem with newcomer actors is that they can't find the camera position, often drifting out of frame.

Even after blocking the scene in advance, an actor has to handle expression and blocking while delivering lines — it usually takes several NGs to get a pass.

Veteran actors have a sense of the camera,

they find the camera position on their own, so they almost never make mistakes on blocking.

Yet Cheng Chen, from action to now, with his wide blocking range and heavy lines, hadn't had a single NG.

This made Li Chengru, who had also been quietly keeping an eye on Cheng Chen, secretly praise him as well.

A promising talent!

This scene was filmed for roughly two hours and went smoothly into its final stretch.

There had been a few NGs in between, but all because the extras' reactions didn't keep up, or other actors' expressions were off — even Li Chengru, who played Li Dazeng, had one NG.

"We worked for nothing for two years, worked for nothing for two years, we can't even go home!"

Cheng Chen paced helplessly around the set, his voice choking, like an aggrieved child pouring out his bitter ordeal.

"Xiao Liu — Xiao Liu's mom, just because there was no money, she's been lying in a hospital bed till now, waiting for the money to save her life — why is he carrying an explosive pack to rob people of their money…"

Cheng Chen's lines poured out in long stretches, tears welling endlessly in his eyes.

Pushed to this point, even a man whom the construction site's hard, grueling labor had never bent now choked up like a child.

He was only eighteen or nineteen, after all!

Cheng Chen walked up to Li Chengru, venting by pounding him a few times, crying out:

"And — and cops like you — how dare you shield him! How dare you!!!"

Their eyes met.

Li Chengru froze.

Cheng Chen's eyes had always been his most powerful weapon as an actor; even though Li Chengru had already witnessed it during the audition, he was still shaken to his core.

The emotions filling those eyes were far too complex — there was grievance, disappointment, and even fury…

"Close-up, quick! I want a close-up on the eyes!"

Excitement rang through Wang Rui's voice.

The camera immediately swung to Cheng Chen's eyes.

Two years of blood, sweat, and tears at Baiqian, and they hadn't gotten their wages back; the boss kept squeezing them dry, and the police were shielding those bad guys.

That despair of wanting to drag the whole world down with him was vividly portrayed by Cheng Chen.

But Li Chengru was, after all, a veteran actor — he picked up Cheng Chen's performance with perfect naturalness.

After a few seconds of eye contact, Cheng Chen went berserk again, dragging out a fellow worker whose arm had been injured at the construction site…

The whole set watched in silence as Cheng Chen, like a mad dog, hurled his accusations; his lines and expression were so infectious that everyone was moved, lowering their heads in shame.

A teenager doing the hardest, most grueling work — at this moment he cried out every ounce of that emotion.

"Director Liu, I'm begging you — the kidnapping was all my doing, Zhang Xiaoqi planned the whole thing single-handed, it has nothing to do with them. Just get the surnamed Tian to return the money, and you can truss me up and drag me away yourself…"

Before the criminals, before the police.

In that moment, Cheng Chen was Zhang Xiaoqi — kneeling on the ground, desperately pleading for the blood-and-sweat wages that were rightfully theirs.

And shouldering every bit of the blame onto his own shoulders.

"Good, cut!"

Wang Rui rubbed his sore, stinging eyes and called out.

When the director called cut, everyone else rolled their arms and stretched, but only Cheng Chen remained kneeling on the ground, unable to pull himself out of the scene for a long time.

The others wanted to help him up, but Li Chengru stopped them all with a look.

"This kind of thing, he has to work through it himself."

Li Chengru said to the crowd gathering around.

It was common enough for actors to get so deep into a role they couldn't get out; Cheng Chen only stood there stunned for a few minutes, then gathered himself and quickly came out of it.

Everyone looked his way and gave him an approving thumbs-up.

Those who had originally come to watch the pop star make a fool of himself acting were now, against their will, won over by Cheng Chen's performance.

Cheng Chen smiled and greeted them, then walked toward the edge of the set.

When he got his phone back, he saw many missed calls — all from Wang Tianxiao.

"Hello, Sister Xiaoxiao, what's up?"

Cheng Chen called back and asked.

"Cheng Chen, something happened to Yuanyuan…"

Wang Tianxiao said anxiously.

…