The recording on the monitor was split in half by a ‘wall.’ Half of it showed rain pouring down from a dark sky, while the other half showed a warm scene in a coffee shop. In the recording, Yu Yaoyao was walking in her high heels, her hair was tangled, and her entire body was wet. With trembling hands, she dug a lighter out of her torn shoulder bag. She patted all over her body, but she couldn’t find a cigarette.

She looked outside. Her dry, pale mouth was quickly moistened by the heavy rain. Raindrops collected in her delicate eyelashes and messy bangs and washed the life from her old, empty black eyes.

A man passed by her, only a vague silhouette revealed by the camera. He was slapping away the water on his body as he hid from the rain under the beam of the room. He seemed to understand how she felt just by looking at her eyes.

He handed her a cigarette.

Her peeled lips moved slightly, but no sound came, and they pressed together tightly. She stretched out her seemingly broken slender hand. With all five fingers bent, her index and middle fingers slowly caught the cigarette that had been offered to her. Then she lowered her head and pinched it between her lips.

With a snap, a faint spark ignited from the lighter. After several tries, the half-wet cigarette finally lit from the lighter in her trembling hand.

She closed her hollow black eyes and took a deep breath, as though she were trying to breathe the smell of the smoke and rain into her lungs. Her pale lips opened slightly to try and puff out a smoke ring, but she coughed instead. The obviously painful cough made her hunch forward. When she could breath again, she leaned weakly on the wall.

She held the still burning cigarette between her fingers. Amidst the cough that seemed to have just about expelled her lungs, she covered her face with her hands. Trembling and coughing, she strenuously brought the cigarette to her mouth and took another big puff.

She took one puff after the other. The red embers were almost burning her fingers. Those black eyes with no trace of glamour gradually filled with tears in the rising smoke. The tears slipped silently down her cheeks and mixed with the rain falling under the eaves.

That brought an end to the one-man show.

The two men stood dumbfounded in front of the monitor. They were unable to say anything for a while. It wasn’t until the next scene, where two women were abusing each other in the room, crying and mocking each other because of their uselessness, did the men become animate again.

“Director…” there was only a trace of a bitter smile on Wei Ming’s square face.

The director’s move had been cruel, but he was now extremely motivated after watching the scene. He glanced at Lu Cheng and found that he was still struck to silence. He patted him helplessly.

“How was it?” Director Qi sat down and pointed to the screen. “This one, and this one. It was all acting in these two women’s eyes and expressions. With ease, they sketched out the image of a desperate, helpless and down-trodden woman!” As he spoke, he seemed to also be reminiscing the shooting experience from earlier. He touched his chin unconsciously.

“In the scene with them both, where they quarreled and talked about each other’s concerns, both of them had their own specialties when it came to their lines. Every sentence, every word, and even every pause in their breathing, fit the characters perfectly. It can move the audience’s heart without them noticing,” Director Qi said. “I won’t talk much about the lines. A woman’s tone and voice are naturally more delicate and changeable than a man. I won’t force that on you but,” Director Qi played the scene on the monitor again. He fast-forwarded it to the last scene of Yu Yaoyao smoking under the eaves in the rain, “there isn’t a single line here, and only her upper body is in the shot. She only used her facial expressions, and she was able to tell the story whenever she paused. She was full of vicissitudes and sadness!”

“Just using her eyes, she went from feeling hollow and numb to feeling the struggle of wanting to smoke a cigarette. Then, her eyes went further to show her avoidance, fear, and pain of the fights in her life. In the end, those tears that slowly fell from her teary eyes when she lifted her head…” Qi Hang trailed off. “If you were me, would you be cruel enough to call for a ‘cut’?” Director Qi Hang cleared his throat. “In addition, according to the script, she was supposed to cry out loud and squat on the ground, trembling, to show violent emotions…But instead of following the script, she gave a performance that portrayed a different feeling when she got to that point. Even then, I did not ask for a ‘cut’!” his words, face and tone made him look like the kindest director in the world. He was also very good at pretending that the director who kept calling for ‘cut’ and picking at every fault was not him at all.

Wei Ming couldn’t help but laugh, “Director Qi, when a silent scene can express more feeling than a scene with sound, it is naturally better than the script. If she just acted according to the script, you would have called for an NG,” he ruthlessly exposed Qi Hang’s true colors, like how he was always unsatisfied when they followed the script.

It was harder to cry in silence than out loud. It was even more difficult to suppress such desperate sadness without crying or causing a scene. A person may seem to be calm, but such inner feeling could be expressed through micro-expressions. Forbearance was the most difficult part.

If Yu Yaoyao were the female lead, she could have easily won the best actress award.

There had been no need for a ‘cut’!