Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

Three days later, when Lu Chen finished work in the evening, his phone rang.

"I've arrived." Liu Yifei's voice came through the receiver, carrying a hint of fatigue from the train journey, but more so a sense of self-assurance.

"Where are you?"

Why didn't you call me so I could pick you up?

"You go about your business, I can find it myself. Hongqi Guesthouse, right? I'll take a taxi over."

"Taxi in the mountain town—"

"I've even ridden in unlicensed taxis."

The two met for the first time, and Lu Chen first struck up a conversation with him in a black cab.

"You've never ridden a taxi in this mountain city."

"What else could be different about a taxi?"

"The taxis in this mountain town fly up the mountain."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"Then I'll definitely check it out. Come down and get me in a bit."

Twenty minutes later, Lu Chen stood at the entrance of the guesthouse and saw a yellow taxi turn into the alley.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, the back door was pushed open.

Liu Yifei got out of the car, wearing a black down jacket, a gray scarf, her hair tied in a ponytail, and no makeup on her face.

She was a little thinner than when Lu Chen last saw her, but her eyes were still so bright.

She stood at the entrance of the guesthouse, looked up at the faded wooden sign, then at the cat crouching at the door, and turned to look at Lu Chen.

"Is this what you mean by 'bad conditions'?"

"It's worse than you think," Lu Chen said. "Are you sure you want to stay?"

"I'm sure." She picked up her travel bag and walked inside.

"Does your guesthouse have hot water?"

"Yes. From 6 PM to 8 PM."

"What time is it now?"

"5:30."

"I'll put my things down first, then I'll take a shower at six." After she finished speaking, she took two more steps, then turned back, "You still haven't asked me if I've eaten."

Have you eaten?

"No. The boxed meals on the train are terrible."

"Let's go then, let's eat first."

"What do you want to eat?"

There's a small noodle shop next to the guesthouse.

"Another roadside stall?"

"Mountain City Noodles are the fighter jet among roadside stalls."

Liu Yifei glanced at him, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly: "Okay, let the investor experience life."

Su Chang ran downstairs and saw Liu Yifei. The two fifteen-year-old girls hugged each other, laughing and jumping like two frolicking cats.

"You're here!" Su Chang grabbed her arm.

"Come see my 500,000," Liu Yifei said.

"You spend your 500,000 yuan a day in the toilet," Su Chang said.

"What?"

"They filmed in a public restroom all day today."

Liu Yifei turned to look at Lu Chen, her expression complex.

Lu Chen remained expressionless: "It's necessary for art."

Liu Yifei arrived at the film set on the afternoon of the twelfth day before wrapping up filming.

She stood at the entrance of the alley, looking at the rudimentary equipment, the cardboard reflectors, and the power lines running from the residential buildings, and remained silent for a long time.

"Should we just shoot it like this?"

"Shoot it like this."

"Three hundred yuan a day for the venue, five yuan for a boxed lunch, and filming locations in public restrooms." She listed them one by one.

"Where's my 500,000?"

"I've got my knife on the handle," Lu Chen teased her cheekily.

Liu Yifei rolled her eyes at him.

After inspecting the location, Lu Chen took Liu Yifei to a room in the guesthouse, turned on the 21-inch color TV, connected the DV camera, and started playing the footage from the past few days.

The image quality is rough, the lighting is imperfect, and some shots are a bit shaky.

But Liu Yifei didn't say anything after watching for ten minutes.

When she saw the toilet scene, she laughed so hard she squatted down, and after laughing, she stood up and continued watching.

After reviewing the footage shot over the past few days, I thought, "My investment of 500,000 yuan was worth it."

She spoke very seriously, not like a fifteen-year-old girl at all.

Lu Chen looked at her, wanting to say something, but didn't say it.

Liu Yifei stood up and said, "I'm hungry."

Her tone was soft and sweet, her eyes fixed on Lu Chen, but her expression seemed to say, "If you don't take care of my meals, I'll kill you."

"Come on, I'll treat you to something good."

When Liu Yifei saw Lu Chen bringing up two bowls of dumplings while sitting on the guesthouse rooftop, she practically rolled her eyes to the heavens.

"I came all this way, and this is what you offer me, your auntie?"

Wang Yan bought the dumplings from the dumpling shop at the alley entrance; they were pork and cabbage filling, ten for one yuan.

Lu Chen and she sat side by side on the steps.

His expression remained unchanged: "You don't know anything. Look at these dumplings, they're both a meal and a dish, convenient and easy."

He paused for a moment, then added, "It also symbolizes family reunion, happiness, and harmony."

Lu Chen's voice grew softer and softer as he thought to himself, "How could I mention a happy family to a 15-year-old girl? Now I'll have to study criminal law again."

To cover his embarrassment, Lu Chen picked up his chopsticks, took a dumpling, chewed it a couple of times, and continued, "They say, 'Nothing tastes better than dumplings, nothing's more fun than...'"

Damn, that foul mouth of his today.

Forty years of life experience wasted.

Lu Chen glanced at Liu Yifei in front of him, then quickly lowered his head to eat his dumplings.

"What's more fun than what? Huh? You dog, what are you thinking all day long?"

"Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue, it means standing is not as good as lying down." "Lying down is comfortable, lying down is comfortable."

Liu Yifei glared at him again, but Lu Chen was busy eating dumplings and didn't see it.

From the rooftop, you can see the night view of the mountain city; the buildings look like matchboxes carelessly tossed onto the hillside, and the Yangtze River Bridge in the distance is brightly lit.

The fog was very heavy in December, and the lights turned into warm yellow patches in the fog.

Liu Yifei sat on the cement steps, dipped the dumpling in vinegar, took a bite, and then picked out the dumpling filling and put it into Lu Chen's bowl.

"You're not eating the filling?"

"I'll only eat the crust," she said. "The filling is too greasy."

Lu Chen looked at the extra dumpling filling in the bowl without saying a word.

"You've lost weight," Liu Yifei said casually, as if she were talking about the weather.

"no."

"Yes. Your chin is more pointed."

"That's called well-defined outlines."

"You didn't eat properly." She rolled her eyes at him, picked up another dumpling, and as usual, gave him the filling.

The two sat on the rooftop, eating dumplings that cost one yuan for ten, and watching the night view of the mountain city.

In the distance, the sound of ship whistles on the Yangtze River could be heard; nearby, the meows of stray cats echoed in the alleyways. The fog was cold, but the dumplings were hot.

"Lu Chen," Liu Yifei suddenly called out to him.

"Um?"

Are you scared?

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid I'll mess it up."

Lu Chen thought for a moment: "I'm afraid."

"Then why did you still film it?"

"Being afraid and not doing it are two different things, they're not related," he said. "What I'm afraid of isn't messing it up, but losing the courage to do it."

Liu Yifei looked at him without saying a word.

A few seconds later, she picked out the filling from the last dumpling and put it in his bowl, then stood up.

"Let's go, time to sleep."

"Where are the dumplings?"

"You eat it. You need it."

"What about your sister-in-law?" Lu Chen teased her.

Liu Yifei's ears finally turned red, and she spat out a curse under her breath.

"Get lost, you dog."

Lu Chen laughed heartily.

Liu Yifei dusted off her pants, walked towards the stairwell, took two steps, then turned back.

"I'll come watch you film tomorrow."

"OK."

Don't let me down.

"Absolutely."

She disappeared at the top of the stairs.

Lu Chen sat on the rooftop, looking at the mountain of dumpling filling in his bowl, then looked up in the direction Liu Yifei had disappeared, and silently added a sentence to his mind.

I will never let you down.

He finished the filling bite by bite, put away the empty bowl, and went downstairs.

When he reached the corner on the third floor, he saw that the door to Zhang Songwen's room was ajar and the light was on.

Zhang Songwen and Ning Hao were both present, discussing a major event for tomorrow.

Seeing Lu Chen approach, Ning Hao waved to him, "Come on, I've been waiting for you for ages."

"Thinking about the scene in the jade exhibition hall tomorrow?"

"Yes. If the rhythm of this scene is off, none of the scenes that follow will hold up."

Lu Chen sat down on the chair next to him: "What do you think is wrong with the pacing?"

"The problem isn't with the rhythm, it's with the coordination," Ning Hao said.

"The jade exhibition hall is an enclosed space where three groups of people enter and exit one after another, but they cannot meet each other. This is easy to write, but difficult to film. How do you let the audience know the positions of the three groups at the same time, without letting the characters see each other?"

"Split screen?" Lu Chen asked.

"No, that's too deliberate," Zhang Songwen shook his head.

Ning Hao then said, "Split screen is a lazy way of filming; the audience can tell at a glance that you're using tricks. The best effect is for the audience to discover it themselves, which is a hundred times better than simply splitting the screen."

"So how do you want to film it?"

"I want a long take." Ning Hao stood up and walked around the small room.

"The camera follows Bao Shihong into the exhibition hall. Bao Shihong is looking at jade. The camera pans to the left, and Dao Ge comes in through a side door, with Jingjing following behind him. The camera follows Dao Ge. Dao Ge doesn't see Bao Shihong because Bao Shihong has already gone to the inner room. The camera returns to the middle of the exhibition hall, and Hei Pi climbs in through the window, while Xiao Jun keeps watch outside."

As he spoke, he walked around the room, simulating the movement of three groups of people, like he was performing a complex dance.

"I agree, let's see if there are any problems with the actors." Lu Chen said, turning to look at Zhang Songwen.

"If we shoot like this," Zhang Songwen said, "each shot will take at least two minutes."

"Two minutes and fifteen seconds," Ning Hao corrected. "I timed it once before I came."

Zhang Songwen looked at the two of them, "The actors' abilities should be fine, shall we give it a try tomorrow?"

After listening to Zhang Songwen's words, Lu Chen turned to look at Ning Hao.

This person's mind isn't filled with lines and expressions, but with time and space.

His way of thinking about performance is geometric.

"Let's give it a try," Lu Chen said. "But two minutes and fifteen seconds of handheld shooting will really test the cinematographer."

"Zhao Bo is good," Ning Hao said. "His hands are steadyer than a tripod."

The three exchanged a glance and said in unison, "Then let's try."

Zhang Songwen sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"There's one more thing," he said. "Guo Tao told me today that he thinks Bao Shihong must have had a subconscious action in the exhibition hall, touching his pocket."

"Feel in your pocket?"

"Bao Shihong's wife asked him to buy sanitary napkins, and he kept remembering it, but forgot about it once he got to the exhibition hall. Checking his pockets was a reminder."

"But the next second, his attention was drawn to the jade, and he forgot about it again. This detail of forgetting and remembering, remembering and forgetting again, can add to the underlying character of Bao Shihong."

Lu Chen thought about it and thought this detail was good.

Bao Shihong is not a big shot; he is just an ordinary person who is chased by the trivialities of life.

He came to the exhibition hall to work, but he was still thinking about the task his wife had given him. This feeling of distraction is so real.

"Add him," Lu Chen said. "Let Guo Tao try it out during tomorrow's rehearsal."

Zhang Songwen nodded again.

Lu Chen stood up, patted his butt,

"Go to bed early," Lu Chen said. "We have a tough battle to fight tomorrow."

He returned to his room and closed the door.

The faint rustling sound of Xing Aina turning pages as she revised her script could be heard from next door. Lu Chen quietly finished washing up and lay down on the bed.

He closed his eyes, his mind racing with plans for tomorrow's filming.

The long take in the jade exhibition hall, the intersecting movement lines of the three groups of people, the detail of Guo Tao touching his pocket, and Zhao Bo's handheld shooting route.

As he was thinking, he suddenly realized something.

He changed Dao Ge's ending, added a door panel design for the toilet scene, and had Huang Bo change the lines himself.

He also collaborated with Ning Hao and Zhang Songwen to design the long take staging.

Is that movie still "Crazy Stone"?

Lost in thought, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

There were no movies, no mountain city, and no three million budget in my dream.

There was only one old alley, and at the entrance of the alley was a roasted sweet potato stall. The stall owner was packing up. The charcoal in the stove was still glowing red, and the sweet aroma of sweet potatoes wafted in the mist.