Chapter 236: Changes

Dong Xuan has always been a strong-willed person.

She was born in a small county town in the Northeast. Her father was a retired soldier, and her mother also worked within the state system. Although neither parent was a leader, their family circumstances were decent.

At that time, working within the state system meant one had to respond to the state's call, so Dong Xuan was an only child.

Her parents held high expectations for her, scrimping and saving to have her learn the violin, piano, and dance from a young age.

What she liked most and stuck with was dance.

Everyone said she had a talent for dance.

She believed this deeply, firmly convinced that she was the most outstanding one.

In 1995, the Fengtian Music Academy's Dance Department, which hadn't recruited in Heilongjiang Province for ten years, offered one spot to the province. Dong Xuan lived up to expectations and became that sole individual.

Because of this, she became even more confident, even more convinced that she was the most excellent one.

At school, although everyone was a top student recruited from various places with excellent dance foundations, she was still the most outstanding one.

Teachers favored her talent and hard work, and her classmates envied and admired her... She was like a proud white swan, believing that she would surely achieve astonishing success in the future, that she would surely succeed.

The year she graduated, the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe came to recruit.

Without the slightest ripple, and without any surprise, she became the only person from the school specially recruited into the troupe.

One must know, that was the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe!

At this moment, she firmly believed she possessed the best dance talent, and firmly believed she would surely become the troupe's principal dancer, surely!

However, after truly entering the troupe, reality deviated somewhat from what she had imagined.

Where was this?

This was the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe.

The dancers recruited here were all the best of the best, all top students from various schools; she discovered that she didn't seem so "special" after all.

This caused her self-confidence to waver a little.

In the troupe, she was no longer the special one, but like all the newcomers, she started from being a backup dancer.

A year later, the situation still hadn't improved; everyone was very excellent, and she hadn't stood out despite her doubled efforts.

She was very depressed and wanted to escape.

Some colleagues had applied to the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy; she wondered if she could give it a try?

Just as she was hesitating, her mother arrived.

Her mother had resigned from her job in the state system and came specifically to take care of her.

Her mother's arrival made her give up on applying to the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy. She knew that her mother had also been a dancer before, but had been forced to take a clerical job in the state system because she got married and pregnant.

Her mother viewed her as an extension of herself in dance, demanding extreme strictness, controlling every detail of her life, including clothing, diet, and even nail clipping, and strictly limiting her social activities.

Whenever she raised objections, her mother would always say: "I'm doing this for your own good, so you can gain a foothold in the troupe, so you can get ahead. Do you think it's easy for me?

When you were little, I gave up dance for you; now, for your sake, I specifically resigned from my job and gave up my career. Why don't you understand..."

One year, two years, three years, four years...

As time passed, amidst her mother's day-after-day "you aren't good enough, you aren't working hard enough," her confidence disappeared bit by bit, almost moving from one extreme to another.

On the surface, she appeared to be a well-behaved, obedient, and hardworking good girl in the troupe.

In reality, she became reserved and timid, her emotional expression was limited, she remained in a state of constant tension, and she was even unable to naturally display feminine attraction, often feeling at a loss when encountering things.

Sometimes she would even experience mental lapses, forgetfulness, and an inability to distinguish reality.

Until this day, the troupe's famous stage play director, Cao Yang, prepared to re-choreograph a new version of "Swan Lake" and was preparing to re-select a lead dancer to play both the Bai Tiane and Black Swan roles.

And she, unexpectedly, became the first candidate.

Pressure followed.

Her Bai Tiane was danced perfectly, but she couldn't find the feeling for the Black Swan; let alone the director, even she felt she wasn't good enough.

But she wanted this role too much!

She wanted to become the lead dancer too much!

She wanted to succeed too much!

Cao Yang, after all, was not at ease regarding Dong Xuan.

He had his own principles when filming; under normal circumstances, he wouldn't get involved with actresses during filming, even with people he was close to like Gao Yuanyuan, Li Xiaoran, Yu Feihong, Pang Bing, and Dong Xuan, it was still a no.

But now, it was no longer a normal circumstance.

As the film's lead actress, Dong Xuan stayed in the best room in the hotel; these suites were on a separate floor, not on the same floor as the other actors.

At 5:00 AM, Cao Yang stood outside Dong Xuan's room, constantly explaining to himself: I'm just worried about Dong Xuan, going in won't result in anything happening; this is what a responsible man must do.

This wouldn't violate his principles.

Then, he took out the room card, swiped it, the door opened, he slipped inside, and closed the door behind him.

Don't ask Cao Yang why he had the room card for Dong Xuan's room; if you ask, it's because Dong Xuan had shoved it into his hands.

Passing through the living room, Cao Yang walked to Dong Xuan's bedroom door, placed his hand on the doorknob, hesitated for a moment, then twisted it; it wasn't locked.

"Who?"

Dong Xuan sat up abruptly from the bed, then pulled the quilt up to cover her chest, and reached out to turn on the light.

"Cao... Cao Dao?"

Dong Xuan tightened her grip on the quilt with both hands, asking somewhat nervously: "How, how did you get in? I, I haven't made up my mind yet, can you give me some more time?"

Hmm?

What does that mean?

Cao Yang looked at Dong Xuan carefully; the nervous expression on her face didn't look faked.

This...

His heart skipped a beat.

If she wasn't trying to play a role, things were indeed moving in a bad direction.

However, according to past experience, even if there were aftereffects, didn't they only appear at critical moments?

Also, in the movie, the lead actress developed a somewhat "evil" second personality; shouldn't Dong Xuan be influenced to show that?

Why did she look like a touching, innocent little flower right now?

"What do you mean?"

Cao Yang asked. He was using a double entendre; before figuring things out, he tried to say things as ambiguously as possible.

Dong Xuan was stunned for a moment, then frowned, whispering to herself: "I, I am Dong Xuan, filming 'Black Swan', I am the lead actress, not a ballet dancer..."

Exhaling a long breath, Dong Xuan threw off the quilt, got out of bed, and jumped directly onto Cao Yang, wrapping her legs around his waist.

Cao Yang supported her bottom with both hands and also exhaled a long breath.

"You scared me to death. I just had a terrible dream, and when I saw you come in, I couldn't distinguish between the dream and reality for a moment."

Dong Xuan wrapped her arms around Cao Yang's neck, looking at his face, saying with lingering fear.

"It's okay, I'm here." Cao Yang comforted her.

"Mm-hmm."

Dong Xuan nodded vigorously, looking at Cao Yang's face, then seemed to say somewhat shyly: "I really want to sleep with you right now."

After saying this, she cupped Cao Yang's face with both hands and went straight for his lips.

"Don't... Mmph..."

Cao Yang was a man of principle; he really wanted to refuse.

But later, he thought about it; Dong Xuan was his woman anyway, and it wasn't with another actress, so this didn't count as breaking the rules.

Moreover, he was still somewhat worried about Dong Xuan and wanted to stay and watch over her to see if there were any changes.

Cao Yang just like that supported Dong Xuan's bottom, walked forward a few steps, and placed her on the bed.

Somewhat strangely, Cao Yang could clearly feel that Dong Xuan's kissing seemed somewhat unfamiliar, completely different from before, as if she were a different person.

"Slow, slow down..."

Dong Xuan frowned, as if she weren't accustomed to it.

Cao Yang also discovered the abnormality.

If it weren't for the shape still being that shape.

If it weren't for the path still being that path.

If it weren't for the physiological reactions still being the same as before.

Cao Yang would have thought she had been replaced.

Even the sound of her singing was suppressed, like a young girl who hadn't experienced it many times.

Especially when she reached the critical moment, she held Cao Yang tightly with both hands, and even if the sound in her throat broke through, it was restrained.

Her state at this moment was exactly the same as when she had just met Cao Yang.

After gradually getting familiar with Cao Yang, she hadn't been like this for a long time, nor did she deliberately suppress her voice.

According to her, if she didn't make a sound while singing, the pleasure was halved. But now, she wasn't making a full sound while singing again.

After a long while, Dong Xuan lay in Cao Yang's arms, talking and laughing, seemingly having recovered, with nothing appearing different.

Cao Yang sighed in his heart; let's observe a bit more.

The next day, filming continued. The bedroom scenes were basically finished, leaving only the final scene, which was the passionate scene between the two lead actresses.

However, this had to be filmed later; the film had just started shooting, and the other lead actress, Lv Yi, hadn't filmed a single scene yet; it was impossible to start by filming her passionate scene with Dong Xuan.

Today, they were filming the scene in the dance studio; many plots in the film took place here.

Whenever the lead actress was sitting or curled up in the practice room, they would use high-angle shots, using a bird's-eye view to imply the lead actress's suppressed living space and mental bondage.

For the shots of the lead actress practicing dance, the camera almost always slowly pushed in toward her face or limbs, magnifying the audience's perception of the character's psychological alienation through the gradually approaching sense of oppression.

In the practice room, there were quite a few scenes between Huang Xiaoming and Dong Xuan.

Yesterday, Huang Xiaoming had actually breathed a sigh of relief seeing Dong Xuan perform quite well.

He had a characteristic when filming: he needed his opponent to stimulate him.

!

The better the opponent performed, the more it could stimulate his competitive spirit, and the better he could perform.

If the opponent performed poorly, the more he wanted to "pull" them over, and sometimes he would end up using too much force.

The latter point wasn't something he realized himself; it was a reminder from his head teacher at the Beijing Film Academy, Mother Cui.

However, although Huang Xiaoming respected Mother Cui very much, he didn't quite agree with this point; he didn't feel he would use too much force, but rather felt that it was a manifestation of wholehearted devotion, which could move people more.

Of course, this had all been verified through practice.

Sometimes, if his opponent performed poorly, if he didn't work hard, it was easy to be led into a "ditch," but by being wholeheartedly devoted, he might just be able to pull the opponent over.

There was nothing bad about that.

Huang Xiaoming believed that with Dong Xuan's acting skills, he still needed to use a little force; she shouldn't be able to compare to him.

Thinking that this was Cao Dao's film, there were no bad acting skills among the lead actresses.

He then believed that Dong Xuan's acting skills hadn't been fully unleashed yet, but this was a process of adaptation; it was impossible for someone's acting skills to be just so-so yesterday and immediately become god-like today.

Huang Xiaoming was full of confidence; Dong Xuan's acting skills would improve, but wouldn't his own improve as well?

Cao Dao had lectured on the play for such a long time; he had long since memorized the film's core and plot by heart. As long as he adapted, he didn't believe he could be worse than Dong Xuan!

No matter what, he was considered the male lead; although he didn't have as many scenes as Dong Xuan, as long as he performed well, he might just be able to win a big award.

More importantly, he must let Cao Dao see his potential, preferably becoming Cao Dao's go-to actor.

Come on, Huang Xiaoming, you can do it.

Then, reality gave the confident Huang Xiaoming a big slap in the face.

"Cut!"

Cao Yang waved his hand, signaling Huang Xiaoming to come over.

"You are the stage play director who holds the initiative, not her little follower. You need to act out the director's aura, understand?"

This was already the fourth time Huang Xiaoming had been suppressed in his performance.

"I'm sorry, Cao Dao, my fault. Give me ten... twenty minutes, I'll adjust properly." Huang Xiaoming raised his hand, indicating it was all his fault.

"Don't follow Dong Xuan's rhythm."

Cao Yang thought for a moment and said: "You can add some invisible little actions yourself to segment the rhythm so you aren't led away by the other party."

After thinking about it, Huang Xiaoming quickly said with a smile: "Okay, Cao Dao, I understand. Thank you, thank you."

Then, he put his hands together toward the staff around him, "Sorry everyone, I've caused trouble for you all."

He walked to his resting area and sighed. He had already performed very well, but helplessly, the other party was god-like; how was this supposed to be handled?

Clearly, everyone should have been on the same level yesterday; how did it become like this today? Where did the problem arise?

Cao Dao really lived up to his reputation; his ability to train actors, especially actresses, was quite formidable!

Acting opposite Dong Xuan today, Huang Xiaoming couldn't even describe the feeling; it seemed to be even more stressful than acting opposite famous acting powerhouses like Chen Daoming and Wang Gang.

Acting opposite powerhouses like Chen Daoming and Wang Gang, at least there were traces to follow; as long as he found the rhythm, he could keep up.

But what was Dong Xuan's situation?

It was like she was acting as herself; there were simply no traces to follow. Her acting was natural, and it felt like there were no traces of performance at all, yet it could make you feel that acting this way was the most correct.

It didn't seem like acting at all; it was like the character in the film was acting out her own joys and sorrows!

"Invisible little actions?"

That is to say, the little actions added couldn't affect the plot and couldn't fracture the plot.

Huang Xiaoming considered carefully what he should do so he wouldn't follow the other party's rhythm and could walk out of her rhythm.

Fortunately, there was only one Dong Xuan; others definitely didn't have her acting skills.

"Here we go again!"

Ning Hao and Old Gu, taking advantage of the time Huang Xiaoming was thinking, sat together silently looking at the sky.

This performance style, which was exceptionally natural and completely integrated into the character, was equally shocking no matter how many times one watched it.

How long had it been since he saw this phenomenon?

Old Gu thought for a moment; ever since Cao Dao started filming experimental films, there hadn't been such "shocking" scenes.

To see Cao Dao unleash his true ability to train actors, one still had to look at pure art films.

"You lost."

Old Gu said in a calm tone.

"I lost."

Ning Hao's tone was also calm.

"Haven't you and Old Tian been studying Cao Dao's method of training actors? Didn't you also film 'Crazy Stone'? Did you practice it? How was the effect?"

Old Gu asked suddenly. He didn't ask if the effect was like Cao Dao's, because there was only one Cao Dao in this world. Now, countless people were learning from Cao Dao; as far as he knew, Xiao Gangpao had already used it.

His old classmate, Old Mouzi, had also deliberately strengthened the script reading sessions before filming, extending this time from the previous two weeks to six weeks.

The poet Chen Da didn't learn from his junior fellow apprentice, but when filming "The Promise," he would deliberately and tirelessly lecture the actors on the play.

Ning Hao, even more so, before filming "Crazy Stone," took turns with Old Tian to lecture the cast and crew on the play for two months.

Hearing Old Gu mention this, Ning Hao grinned.

"The effect was okay. There was a small actor named Huang Bo whose understanding was very unique, and his performance was very distinctive."

"Compared to this one..."

Old Gu nudged his chin toward Dong Xuan's direction and asked.

Ning Hao's wide mouth twitched, and he glared fiercely at Old Gu.

This old thing, he couldn't stand to see others doing well; he really wasn't a decent person.

How could this be compared?

Ning Hao could be certain that Cao Dao training Dong Xuan's acting skills so painstakingly was clearly aimed at the Best Actress award at the three major European film festivals; there was simply no comparability.

After twenty minutes of adjustment, filming started again.

After consideration, Huang Xiaoming thought of a good method, which could also be considered an invisible little action: before speaking each time, he would silently count to three in his heart before saying his lines.

The benefit of doing this was that after counting, he could walk out of the other party's emotions and no longer be led by the rhythm.

Counting to three was the result of Huang Xiaoming's careful deliberation; too few, and he couldn't fully get out, too many, and it would make the plot appear fractured.

This time, the scene was significantly better; at least he didn't follow Dong Xuan's rhythm, but it wasn't without problems, because after counting to three in his heart, it sometimes led to inconsistent emotions, making his acting look like it was fluctuating.

Cao Yang felt uncomfortable for him.

Especially since in the practice room, there were not only scenes with Dong Xuan but also scenes with Lv Yi.

Huang Xiaoming had originally thought Lv Yi would be easier to "deal with," but who knew, he was suppressed in his performance again!

Lv Yi originally belonged to the type of person who was very confident when dancing, and Cao Yang added two immersive experiences for her, which made it even more extraordinary; even if she wasn't dancing, just standing there could make people feel her confidence and feminine charm.

Huang Xiaoming had no choice but to use counting again to cope.

Everyone could see that he was acting very painfully.

Cao Yang couldn't bear to watch; he might as well add an immersive experience for him tonight.

In the afternoon, Cao Yang received a call from Hou Ke Ming, asking if he wanted to go to the Beijing College Student Film Festival awards ceremony held on the 14th.

His "Nine-Tailed Fox" had been submitted to the Beijing College Student Film Festival in the name of the Beijing Film Academy.

Cao Yang had originally refused, but shortly after, he received another call.

This time it was from the old leader of the Beijing Film Academy, who had now transferred to Beijing Normal University; Beijing Normal University was one of the founders and organizers of the Beijing College Student Film Festival.

The old leader said directly that his work was difficult to carry out and he needed Cao Dao's support.

There was no way around it; he still had to give this face.

A few days ago, Old Gu and Huang Xiaoming had already asked for leave, saying they wanted to attend.

It just so happened, they would go together then.

(End of chapter)