Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Nothing much has changed since the completion of ‘Empire Under Siege’. Most if not, all of the crew members that worked in the previous project could still be found here.

A lot of them walked up to greet Gu Xiqiao the moment she arrived at the filming studio.

“I see you didn’t bring Xixi out today, Little Gu,” said Xu Qing as she peered down at Haha who was chilling out in Gu Xiqiao’s arms. She couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and giving its fluffy body a good poke. Haha, being the cute and lovable dog, allowed her to play with it as much as she wanted. “Isn’t this the pet from your post on Weibo?”

“Yup, this is it.” Gu Xiqiao nodded. “Xixi’s not at home today. I was worried that Haha would be bored out of its mind so I’m bringing it along with me.”

“Haha?” Xu Qing was momentarily taken aback. It took her awhile to register that that was the name of this white dog.

She muttered to herself quietly before looking up at Gu Xiqiao with the corner of her mouth twitching. Her naming sense was bizarre. Though, because Gu Xiqiao was a person whom she deeply admired, Xu Qing refrained from pointing this strange phenomenon out.

Li Yu, who had just wrapped up his scene smiled unabashedly at Gu Xiqiao.

Realizing the two leads had now completed their scenes, Xu Qing went off immediately to re-apply makeup on their faces.

It’s great to work with experienced actors. Cheng Zhou spent little time trying to direct them; most of the time, it was left to the veterans themselves to coordinate their steps. The two movie stars would take off immediately after they started discussing amongst themselves, meaning that Cheng Zhou would always be removed from the equation.

“She… is she the one who acted out the scenes with Li Yu perfectly?” Old Liu seemed a little skeptical about Gu Xiqiao, who was acting all buddy-buddy with the film crew.

She was indeed beautiful but she’s way too young, wasn’t she? She seemed younger than Ning Qing even.

Still, she seemed to be well-acquainted with everyone working here. Surprisingly, even Li Yu wasn’t as popular among his co-workers as she was right now.

Cheng Zhou glanced at Old Liu before sighing. “Just wait till you see her act. Then, you’ll know what this pain is. This pain that only Xiang Kun understands.”

“What does she have to do with Mr. Xiang?” Old Liu was even more puzzled now. Wasn’t Xiang Kun a manager?

“I can’t explain it in great detail but you just need to know that Xiang Kun has been secretly trying to drag that girl into our industry. This is the first time I’ve seen him being so obsessed about someone else.” Cheng Zhou gritted his teeth. If Xiang Kun was so eager to work with her, why not Cheng Zhou?

Old Liu was aware of Xiang Kun’s unrivaled fame. He was shocked after hearing what Cheng Zhou had to say. “Xiang Kun’s planning to bring her into entertainment?”

His understanding of Xiang Kun was the reason why Old Liu was even more shocked. That man was notorious for how high he set the bar. If not for that, he wouldn’t have created so many A-list celebrities in the past. To say that Xiang Kun was obsessed with getting someone into showbiz was simply incomprehensible to Old Liu. Perhaps Cheng Zhou had exaggerated it too much?

Cheng Zhou smirked after noticing Old Liu’s facial expression. “I assume you have not watched the teaser for ‘Empire Under Siege’?”

If he had watched it, he would not have had that look on his face.

As expected, Old Liu shook his head. “I couldn’t find the time to watch it. All I did was share it on social media, that’s all.” He wanted to save it for the silver screen.

Cheng Zhou: Then we have nothing to talk about now.

“Keep your eyes wide open for what’s to come.” Something was going on in Cheng Zhou’s mind but Old Liu had not a single clue what it was; the only thing he could see was the glint in his eyes.

Gu Xiqiao approached them.

Cheng Zhou’s cunning demeanor faded away in the blink of an eye. He shot her an angry glare, presumably because of her non-attendance of yesterday’s ceremony. Was she still planning to invest in his film? He grunted grumpily before finally asking her, “Where’d you run off to yesterday?”

Well, she did spend a large portion of her time chilling out in the virtual arena!

Of course, Gu Xiqiao could not tell Cheng Zhou about this. And so, she continued hugging Haha tightly as she responded to the director’s question with a silent smile.

Cheng Zhou, who had grown used to seeing her put up this act, coughed a few times before lifting his cup up to his lips. “Being the noble man that I am, I will forgive you for your mistakes. However! You absolutely must appear in a cameo today!”

“Cameo?” Gu Xiqiao’s hand froze in the air. She spun around and faced the director. “In the film that we talked about?”

When she made the proposition for Director Cheng to handle this movie, she had agreed that she herself would play in one of his films in the future. Playing in a cameo was hands-down, better than that! Or so Gu Xiqiao thought.

Pfft!

Before he could swallow the mouthful of water, it sprayed out of his mouth like a fountain. He had never done anything so disgusting before. Hurriedly, he pulled out a handful of napkins to wipe his papers dry.

Gu Xiqiao instinctively hopped backward and did nothing to stop her look of disgust from surfacing on her face.

“I’m letting you appear as a cameo on this film! A cameo! Because of our friendship! Understand?!” Gu Xiqiao had pushed Cheng Zhou to the point where he almost started laughing out of frustration. She really was idealistic. How on earth could he make the protagonist of his film on par with a random passerby?

“Friendship? You still think that sort of thing exists between us?” Gu Xiqiao returned Haha to the ground, allowing it to move around freely for now. “I thought the only thing that exists between us is a pact of mutual destruction?”

Cheng Zhou, who was about to actualize said pact replied instantly, “So what’s your answer?”

His facial expression was indirectly saying to her, “If you’re not going to accept it, I’m gonna go on strike.”

Old Liu had never seen Cheng Zhou act this way before. His jaw was agape after observing their interaction. When on earth did his old pal turn into such a rascal?

“What sorta cameo are we talking about? I have to think about it.” Gu Xiqiao reached a compromise.

Cheng Zhou picked up his script. “You’re gonna play as a demon girl. You’ll only need to say five simple lines. Only one scene is involved. If you can’t even do that, then I think our friendship ends today!”

Gu Xiqiao sank into her thoughts for a while. She had read through the script once and this character that Cheng Zhou talked about appeared in her imagination seconds later. It was just as he said, she only needed to say a handful of lines and there really was only a single scene involved. And so, she nodded in agreement.

“Alright.”

A wide smile broke across Cheng Zhou’s face immediately.

“Director Cheng, I’ll move my scene back so she can finish filming her scene earlier.” Li Yu approached them gracefully and voluntarily offered to let Gu Xiqiao take his time slot. Although there was anticipation in his eyes, there was also a regretful look in them too. “I don’t have any fighting scenes with this demon girl.”

Old Liu’s interest was piqued after noticing how Li Yu was acting. You could lie with words but never with the reactions of so many. He too, was looking forward to seeing Gu Xiqiao act.

There were three dressing rooms in the studio. Sister Yu’s room was the largest out of the three. She usually did only the makeup of the male and female leads but it was a special occasion this time. She was the one who did Gu Xiqiao’s makeup personally.

Old Liu wasn’t the only one who was astonished to see this; even Ning Qing was surprised to see the VIP treatment Gu Xiqiao was getting. The rest of the crew members on the other hand, all acted as if this was normal, as if they had grown used to such a scene. They suppressed their curiosity and started preparing for the next scene.

Sister Yu helped Gu Xiqiao with her makeup and her overall styling. She was a perfectionist; back when she worked for ‘Empire Under Siege’, her routine would take upward of three hours from start to finish. Gu Xiqiao silently looked at herself in the mirror, then at Sister Yu who was working on her attentively. “Sister Yu, I’m just playing a small, insignificant role. Just a basic layer of makeup is enough; let’s not waste the film budget on me.”

Sister Yu’s somber expression faded away as soon as she heard Gu Xiqiao say that. “Little Gu, as Director Cheng had said, the last thing that our project lacks is money, so no biggie!” She then directed a reassuring smile at Gu Xiqiao.

Gu Xiqiao thought to herself, ‘What in tarnation?! Did I just shoot myself in the foot?’

Sister Yu’s gaze warmed up upon seeing Gu Xiqiao’s expression. She then turned to Xu Qing and said: “Go get that red dress for me.”

The unlucky male and female leads had a grand total of five hiccups in the scene they were supposed to play in, meaning there were a total of five retakes for them.

However, considering how well they usually fared, coupled with Cheng Zhou’s good mood ever since Gu Xiqiao’s arrival, they were not yelled at for this. Instead, the director made some remarks in a surprisingly calm tone. “Everything about Li Yu is perfect for this scene. However, something’s wrong with your gaze, Ning Qing.”

“You two are going to jump off the cliff together. You two are surrounded by the Righteous Ones on the opposite side. You did well in every other aspect, like your movement and your tone but the emotions you’re conveying through your eyes need some alteration. The roller coaster of emotions your character is going through must be projected from your eyes, from indignation, to despair and finally, to relief. Your key moment is that kissing scene. There’s only one single scene throughout the entire film. I cannot accept retakes anymore; your expression needs to be more natural…”

Director Cheng was finally allowed the chance to give them a lengthy lecture as the actors had been doing so well up until now. Finally, the time has come for him to act like a true director. He was fairly proud of himself after this. “Hey! Little Su! Aren’t you the one who wrote this script? C’mere! Tell Ning Qing about how her character’s emotions progress through the scene!”

If it was any other person, filming of this scene would’ve already ended a long time ago. Ning Qing’s performance wasn’t bad either. In fact, Old Liu thought her performance was superb. Cheng Zhou was just acting too critical this time.

Old Liu could no longer contain his feelings when Su Wu started explaining the scene to Ning Qing. “I say Old Cheng, aren’t you just nitpicking at this point? I only know a handful of other actresses who can do what Ning Qing did in that scene from before. Your standards are way too high, pal. I highly doubt that you can find anyone else who can pull off what you’ve just described.”

“You don’t understand. Ning Qing’s a really good actress. She just needs some polishing, that’s all. I’m aiming to get her nominated as the film queen after this film gets released. At worst, I still want her to receive a rookie award!” announced Cheng Zhou with a smile.

Old Liu was amazed. “I didn’t expect you to have so much faith in her. What a lucky child she is.”

Cheng Zhou smiled but remained silent. He was impressed by Ning Qing’s skill but that was only one part of the reason why he expected so much from her. The other part was because of Gu Xiqiao. More specifically, she was someone who Gu Xiqiao was trying to help. If Cheng Zhou slacked off now, he would undoubtedly feel bad about it afterward.

Ning Qing was, of course, incredibly lucky to find herself in such a circumstance.

Su Wu had finally ended his explanation and that was when Cheng Zhou rose from his seat. “Alright, action stations! Let’s get this right one final time!”

This scene was as simple as ABC for Li Yu. He just needed to fight a gory battle and then become unconscious after being wounded by an enemy. Then, the female lead would bring him to the edge of the cliff, where they would be surrounded in every direction by the Righteous Ones, who was out for their blood.

The male lead played as a member of the demon sect. The female lead on the other hand, was the daughter of a martial arts alliance. Her feelings of love and hate were distinctly separated and largely paid no heed to the irrelevancies in life. She did wander deep into the demon sect once only to be surprised by how little sins they committed despite their ominous-sounding name. On the other hand, the ‘Righteous Ones’ were just a blood-thirsty mob who used the excuse of moral righteousness to exterminate the demon sect for their own personal gain.

The demon sect was then caught up in a bloody battle, leaving the male protagonist as the sole survivor of their group. The female protagonist rushed over, only to realize that she was in fact, one step too late. She then brought the unconscious protagonist to the edge of a cliff, located behind the base of the demon sect before courageously jumping down into the abyss below.

Her pure white clothes were stained by dark red blood. She smiled unexpectedly and two lines of tears rolled down her cheeks. Slowly, she rose up and kissed the protagonist on the side of his lips. Then, she picked him up and jumped off the cliff together.

Li Yu was nothing but a prop the entire scene; his insane skills weren’t needed as he only needed to act like he had gone unconscious. And so, the spotlight was on Ning Qing the entire time. It was no wonder why Cheng Zhou expected so much from her.

“Cut! Wrong! Something’s just not right!” muttered Cheng Zhou with furrowed brows. “You…”

Before he could start, he noticed how eerily quiet the entire scene had become. It sounded deliberately planned and it seemed familiar to him. Director Cheng took a while to process what was going on before finally turning back, towards the direction of the dressing room.

Her large red skirt had gold lining while silk-like ink-dark hair flowed down from the top of her head. A part of her hair was bundled and held up by a single wooden hairpin while the rest was allowed to flow like a rushing waterfall down her shoulders. There was a plum blossom marking between her brows, reflecting her identity and her lips were as red as a burning flame. In contrast, her skin was as pale as freshly-fallen snow. She smiled at the crowd, standing proudly like a sprig of plum blossom during winter. Her eyes were watery and the corner of her lips were slightly curled up. That smile of hers exuded a subtle sense of evilness. In short, she was a person who radiated beauty from within, capturing the heart and soul of many others who laid their eyes on her.

“What’s holding you guys back?” The way she spoke was tactful; her voice was clear. It was the complete opposite of the lazy slob Gu Xiqiao usually acted like. Her tone sounded extremely alluring, meaning whoever that heard her speak would inevitably find their hearts skip a beat.

Su Wu was the one who was most affected out of them all. None of the actresses fit the characters in his story as well as Gu Xiqiao. It was as if the demon girl, who he created in his imagination had indeed come to life. The demon girl who was an ally of love and justice, but was unfortunately shunned by members of the Righteous Ones.

“It’s perfect!” Director Cheng’s senses had finally returned to him. “It’s this feeling again!”

“Oh ho, I think I have a female boner now,” muttered Xu Qing under her breath.

Sister Yu, who stood next to her lectured her. “Can you act a little more reserved?”

Xu Qing replied: “… you think I’m bad? Just take a look at Li Yu!”

“Hey, I haven’t updated my Weibo yet.” Li Yu got up from the ground and grabbed the phone his assistant was holding. He then walked over to Gu Xiqiao and snapped a photo of them together.

“…”

The crew members were left speechless. What on earth was going on?

“Hey, her makeup’s freshly-applied. Quick! I want this scene to be filmed right this instant…” Old Liu struggled to regain his senses. Cheng Zhou was still barking out orders to the crew excitedly when he turned around. The demonic Gu Xiqiao entered his vision as soon as he was done issuing orders.

She was still in that outfit and she still had makeup on. However, as if her backbone had melted suddenly away, she sank into her comfy seat lazily while holding that white dog in her embrace.

“… that state she was in! Where has it gone?” Old Liu was heartbroken!

Cheng Zhou was not surprised by this. “Relax, she’ll return when the cameras start rolling.”

However, he also increased the speed at which he was working as he said that. He feared that Gu Xiqiao’s lethargy would carry over to the filming session if she was left to her own devices for too long.

The filming studio was huge. They were currently filming in an outdoor setting, and there were sufficient extras to make this scene feel real. Cheng Zhou, standing in front of the camera, announced, “Get ready! Unit 01 and Unit 02! Act number 278 of ‘River’s Lake’ is commencing–now! Action!”

Gu Xiqiao’s lazy expression faded away the moment Director Cheng finished his sentence. Life returned to her eyes and a seductive smile broke across her face in an instant. Slowly, she raised the sword in her hand.

Peering down at her brothers and sisters who died tragically under the hands of the Righteous Ones, she wiped the blood off the corner of her lips. Painfully, she got back on her feet and there was only a handful of her men left to protect her. The glorious Demon Mountain had now been reduced to mere rubble. It was hell on earth for these folks. Death came swift, regardless of whether you were a demon sect elder, or if you were only a three-year-old innocent child.

On the opposite side, there stood a group of brutes who labeled themselves the ‘Righteous Ones’ cackled wryly.

“Saintess, you have only cultivated the Divine Phoenix Scroll till the fifth level. You absolutely must not use this technique!” said an old man who sensed her rising powers. “Stop while you can! Let us old folks protect you! One day! You and the young master must avenge us!”

Her power continued surging despite their warning. “Elder, how old’s your grandson? Isn’t today his third birthday?”

A tear rolled down her eye and yet she forced it back into her eye. “I am the only one who can stop them now. You guys go. Leave this to me.”

The Divine Phoenix Scroll was the demon sect’s supreme technique. It was their trump card which was also what the Righteous Ones were after when they attacked their base. She had only reached the fifth level for this technique, meaning death was imminent after unleashing it on their enemy!

The elders and a couple of other demon apprentices who were under her protection scurried away for their lives. They would turn around frequently as they ran. In the end, what they saw was her lying in a pool of blood. They were so devastated that tears failed to come out of their eyes.

She was so young. No more than sixteen.

“I want more scenes for her!” Old Liu clenched his fists as he finally recovered from the shock of witnessing her unworldly performance.

Cheng Zhou couldn’t stop himself from replaying that clip. Upon hearing Old Liu’s demand, he replied, “More scenes? You think it’s that simple?”

He pointed at Gu Xiqiao. “Take a good look at that slacker! You can demand more screentime for her and she’d still take off her makeup and act like she hadn’t heard what you said!”

Old Liu felt a stabbing pain in his heart. “Why?” Her acting was a solid ten and no doubt, she really was born to act.

“Because she’s a med student,” replied Cheng Zhou nonchalantly. He had grown used to taking such blows. Seeing Old Liu being shot down was pretty amusing. For a moment, he felt superior to his old pal.

Ning Qing was still stunned by Gu Xiqiao’s performance. Cheng Zhou shot her a glance. “Little Gu, I want you to walk Ning Qing through this scene!”

Gu Xiqiao was heading for the dressing room to remove her outfit. Her footsteps stopped for a moment when she heard the director’s order but she continued walking as if she was deaf.

Cheng Zhou was surprisingly calm about this. “This is Ning Qing’s sixth retake this week. I don’t know how long it’ll be before she clears this hurdle. Sigh.”

Gu Xiqiao looked back at Cheng Zhou with a face devoid of emotion.

‘You win this round, Director Cheng!’