Li Zhiqing reflexively approached the wall, and turned to look at the door. He had a smile on his face, but his eyes were alert.
The first person to enter the door was a short-haired woman with short stature. She stared at Li Zhiqing with burning eyes. Her fingers pointed at him a few times, and she spoke strongly: “It’s him, stronger than the previous one!”
The woman was the scriptwriter of the crew, she wasn’t famous, but her works were popular, many had been turned into movies or dramas, and she knew many small directors, plus she and the producer were cousins, she had a lot of authority in the crew.
“Alright.” The director’s brain ached at the sight of her, and then a glance at Li Zhiqing, mad his head hurt even more.
The group actor, to put it nicely, was called a supporting actor, but they were actually live props for the cast, to play a supporting role to the important actors while fleshing out the plot.
Most people took it for granted that stars were handsome and had good acting skills, but an ordinary passersby who looked good enough to act was worth the novelty.
Without hesitation, he would have chosen him but the problem was that Li Zhiqing’s looks were really eye-catching, and his acting skills wasn’t shabby.
The consequence of using him as a small role was that he was likely to draw the audience’s attention away from Cheng Jiarun, and may also suppress the guest appearance of Cheng Jiarun.
The entertainment industry was originally a place where relationships were stacked on top of relationships, and ultimately, it was the fear of offending the team behind Cheng Jiarun. If the actor in the scene was also an ordinary actor, the director would have been happy to use Li Zhiqing’s face to please the audience, but once it was replaced by Cheng Jiarun, he would rather use a wooden lump.
“Who are you showing this bitter face to?” The screenwriter didn’t think of Cheng Jiarun for a moment, and came over and slammed the rolled up script on the director’s shoulder, “Such a nice young man, what are you not satisfied with.”
The director didn’t have the good grace to give her a glance and didn’t want to pay attention to her.
The scriptwriter immediately glared to say something, but was dragged by the assistant director, who quietly reminded her: “The guest actor is Cheng Jiarun, the Cheng Jiarun.”
The name “Cheng Jiarun” was like a bucket of cold water that just came out of the well, directly washing the words that the scriptwriter wanted to say. She had to step back and compromise even if she felt pity, and before she could sigh out, a few people came in behind her.
“What else are you not satisfied with, Director Deng.” Cheng Jiarun had finished with her makeup, she entered the door with a casual lift of her skirt, but she didn’t look pretentious.
She didn’t put on a show, yet she had the aura of being a queen of television, she just arrived on the set to get familiar with the other actors.
When Li Zhiqing was performing, they were standing by another window and didn’t bother her, Cheng Jiarun didn’t care much at first and watched it, but she didn’t know at which point Li Zhiqing’s performance touched her, Cheng Jiarun “snapped” her hand to the window frame, the action was so sudden that several of the main actors next to her couldn’t help but glance at her.
Several people were the essence of the scene, Cheng Jiarun looked at the young man who could understand, obviously she appreciated him. As for the whether it was his face or acting, no one was sure.
Now that she spoke up, they all had to smile and agree.
Li Zhiqing had scruples about the previous chill. He smiled at the window without losing etiquette. He looked at the crowd again and looked at the door inadvertently. After failing to find the line of sight that made him uncomfortable, he secretly rubbed a copper coin hanging between his wrists with his fingers, and gradually loosened the tight string.
This copper coin came from Tang Shunshi, and he had carried it close to him since he could remember. It was said to be a good thing that could exorcise evil spirits. In the past, every time he met something terrible, it gave some response. Now it was quiet, unlike before.
This room door and windows were wide open, from time to time there was wind blowing in, but he wasn’t sensitive to the cold.
“It’s not like there isn’t a replacement, it wouldn’t be good to change it again.” The director half-jokingly pushed the words out, and the assistant director reacted quickly, following up with a snort.
Cheng Jiarun naturally knew what the crew is worried about, and smiled unconcernedly: “How can acting be done on a first-come, first-served basis, it’s the norm for those who can get on the level.”
“I heard that Sister Cheng was a substitute when she first joined the circle, so what, now she is starting to cherish talent with nostalgia?” The person who played the male lead laughed in tandem.
“I recognize the talent, but not the nostalgia, I am not old.” The other and Cheng Jiarun were in the same company, and their relationship was good, so she pinched his arm and laughed.
The words of the two people talking wasn’t very funny, but the other people had to pretend to be happy.
It wasn’t that they intended to make it awkward, but they simply gave the director a way out, so that they wouldn’t find it troublesome keeping Li Zhiqing.
Song Junlin’s jaw fell open when he heard that Li Zhiqing was going to stay and act, then he was happy for him, hd happily hit his shoulder: “I told you that with your face, you would definitely have a chance to be in the movie!”
“You should be able to stay,” Li Zhiqing remembered that he said he often helped on the set and was a half familiar face, “If you aren’t in a hurry to deliver food, you can wait for me in front.”
“Okay, I’ll be your little assistant.” Song Junlin assured.
“What assistant, I’m asking you to observe the shooting process properly.” Lai Zhiqing looked at him helplessly and was summoned to the big dressing room before he could say more.
Song Junlin was stunned and couldn’t help but heave a couple of laughs after understanding the other party’s meaning.
He used to be mostly active in the backyard and had no opportunity, much less reason, to wander around the front, relying only on luck to steal a few glances at the details of the live shooting process, with limited gains. He only casually said it was a pity during a casual conversation, but never thought it would be taken into account by the other, it made his heart warm.
When Li Zhiqing went to put on his makeup, he acted as a scene worker as usual and helped out, and by the way, he looked around on the set, and when Li Zhiqing came out of the dressing room, his eyes widened.
Not only Song Junlin, but also a few of the actors standing in the corridor were stunned.
Wide sleeves with a long shirt made his already long and upright figure look even more handsome and slender, a few hair extensions were added making his hair longer and more voluminous.
Although his features were more three-dimensional than normal people, it wasn’t as deep as Westerners, with the unique mild and soft oriental look, was deliberately deepened after the contour directly hid some parts and raised his eyes. The most important thing was that he had a smile in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth were already curved, which made people like him even more.
Song Junlin spoke stammering at this time: “Zhiqing, you, you’re too suitable for this costume.”
Li Zhiqing stroked one side of the sleeve, loosened the braided rope tied with the copper coin, and re-tied it to prevent accidental exposure during filming.
He raised his eyebrows and smiled at Song Junlin, who looked a bit silly, and was about to speak when he noticed that the other party’s expression became abruptly shocked and his gaze crossed his shoulder to look behind him.
Li Zhiqing subconsciously turned back, and before he could see the person coming, the other party had already smilingly walked forward, and placed one hand on his shoulder, the other hand handed him a few pages with a little clip of Li Zhiqing’s appearance and a few lines, the edges were simply bound, looking light and airy: “Li Zhiqing, right? This is your script.”
Li Zhiqing recognised the person after a moment, then moved half a step to the side, placing a small distance between them, he took the script with both hands, then smiled and thanked him.
Chen Yipei, the male lead actually came to give a script to a small supporting character, and he even remembered the name of the small character.
If it were any other group actor, they would have been flattered to be treated this way by the main actor.
“I was arranged to lose to the other contestants when I participated in a competition in the past, and it so happened that I bumped into Sister Cheng when she came to be a temporary guest in that period, and she also helped me to speak, otherwise I would have been brushed off and I wouldn’t have a chance to sign with the company.” Chen Yipei withdrew his hand and said, “We’ve both been helped by Sister Cheng, our experiences are quite similar.”
Li Zhiqing didn’t say anything, just looked at him and smiled.
“You have such a good appearance, we may meet again in the future, let’s get to know each other in advance, my name is Chen Yipei.” Without waiting for Li Zhiqing to say anything, Chen Yipei reported his age, “I should be older than you, right? How much younger are you?”
This question was so blunt that Li Zhiqing couldn’t avoid it: “Four years old.”
“You’re too good in my eyes, really.” Chen Yipei grinned, “What’s your sign? We must be quite compatible.”
“Sorry, I don’t pay much attention to horoscopes.”
“Then when is your birthday? I’ll check it out for you.”
Li Zhiqing had reservations about people he didn’t know, and looked to the side briefly and pretended to think, and then apologized a moment later, “I rarely celebrate my birthday, so I can’t remember.”
Chen Yipei’s face was just showing disappointment when Song Junlin, who had been standing quietly next to him, suddenly reminded, “The ninth of last month! I remember it clearly.”
Li Zhiqing looked at Song Junlin, who had a confident face, and felt helpless.
“No way, the same day as me?” Chen Yipei was more surprised than happy, “What time is it? It’s not the same as me, right?”
Li Zhiqing immediately shook his head, “I’m not sure about that.”
Chen Yipei wanted to ask more questions, but coincidentally, someone called him from afar, so he could only swallow the question and told Li Zhiqing to look at the script and remember the lines, and then quickly rushed to the other end of the corridor.
“You don’t even know what time you were born? Didn’t you have your fortune told when you were a kid?” Song Junlin pulled back his eyes glued to Chen Yipei’s back and looked at Li Zhiqing, “This thing is related to the eight characters, it’s quite mysterious, next time ask your family.”
Li Zhiqing sighed and slapped his hand hard on Song Junlin’s back, completely convinced by his thick nerves.
Of course he knew his birth date and eight characters, and it was because he was clear about this that he was reluctant to answer questions about the birth date and even the time, he could talk to Song Junlin frankly because Song Junlin was guarded by Tang Shunshi, if he met someone who knew how to do things with bad intentions, who knew what would be done.
When he thought of this, Li Zhiqing was struck by a sudden shock and turned to Song Junlin to borrow his phone, opened his browser, entered Chen Yipei’s name in the search box and clicked on his wiki information.
Song Junlin followed and tilted his head to look at it, and gave a puzzled “Huh?” He has a birthday at the beginning of the year, how can he say it’s the same day as you? Wait a minute, he’s obviously five years older than you!”
As his words fell, a loud reminder to start filming came from the set.
Li Zhiqing curved the corners of his mouth, the bottom of his eyes reflected the block of light on the screen, making his pupils glittering and transparent.
As for the warm and soft smile that lingered earlier, it had disappeared without a trace.