Sweet Wife in My Arms

Inside the cave, Yan Boxuan and Guan Yuexin were engaged in idle banter, just as they had done during their first meeting.

"Sister Qing Yao still looks so stern and scary." Guan Yuexin wrinkled her nose.

Yan Boxuan reached out and tousled Guan Yuexin's hair. "She's actually a very nice person. She's been looking out for me from the day I reached the top of the mountain. I bet she's just annoyed at you for not taking things seriously--you're too playful and cheeky."

"Who, me?" Guan Yuexin resented that: she was a good girl. When had she ever been playful and cheeky? And besides, the path of cultivation was incredibly boring. What a waste of life!

"Hmm, I seem to recall a certain someone pretending to be a demon and scaring me in the middle of the night. Who was that, I wonder?" Yan Boxuan had swiftly poked a hole in Guan Yuexin's defense. He was only doing it to tease her, however; the young lady really was unpredictable and cheeky, and he did not blame everyone else for not knowing how to handle her.

The two of them were clearly comfortable with each other.

A bonfire. Laughter. Vague hints of budding romance.

The camera zoomed out. The director watched his monitor in stunned silence: Qing Yao was standing outside the cave, a hand upon the stony cave wall. She was viciously ripping out pieces of broken stone from the wall.

Her actions were full of explosive anger, but her cheeks were wet with tears.

The tears dropped ceaselessly from the corners of her eyes. She lifted her face; the expression on it was still proud and arrogant.

Everyone on the set had been watching the man and woman in the cave with their full, undivided attention because of the relaxing atmosphere they created together. Their frank, easy banter made everyone feel warm and fuzzy inside. But as soon as the camera zoomed out, that sweet feeling of simple happiness was immediately underlined with deep, inexplicable pain.

It felt like getting pricked all over with a fine needle. It was both uncomfortable and painful.

"Cut!" The director yelled at just the right moment.

There were still tears in Yan Huan's eyes. She saw everyone looking at her, and flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh my, you're a shy one, aren't you?" said Liang Chen as she walked over to Yan Huan; a moment ago she had been an innocent, naive girl, but now she sounded more like a suave millionaire trying to put the moves on a nice, homely girl. She reached out and pinched Yan Huan's cheek, marveling at the lack of make-up on her face. "Ah, youth! What lovely cheeks you have!"

"My dear girl, I'm impressed. You slip in and out of character as easily as putting on a jacket. Best of all, your crying scenes are extremely realistic." Liang Chen was generous and sincere with her praise for Yan Huan. Everyone knew that crying scenes were the most difficult to pull off; not everyone was able to start crying at the drop of a hat. It was the true test of an actor. The worst kinds were, of course, actors who could not cry on command, and actors who could cry, but looked incredibly fake while doing it.

Liang Chen was impressed that Yan Huan could pull it off at her young age.

"Keep up the good work," she said encouragingly to Yan Huan. Right after that, she walked off to look for her manager.

Yan Huan touched her cheek. She let out a small sigh of relief; Liang Chen was actively helping her, and Yan Huan was grateful to her for that. She knew that her journey to stardom would be extremely difficult if the superstar had decided to sabotage her instead.

She had nothing but gratitude for the older actress. She wished she knew what had happened to Liang Chen in her previous life; all Yan Huan knew was that she had eventually replaced Liang Chen, and then Su Muran had replaced Yan Huan after that. By then, Liang Chen had faded out of showbiz, forgotten by the masses. Yan Huan had been 26 years old at the time, and Liang Chen had been nearly 38.

That was around the time Su Muran reached peak popularity. Yan Huan had died before she could find out what happened to Su Muran after that, but she guessed that Su Muran, too, had succumbed to the cruelty of time. She would grow old, lose her popularity, and be forgotten.

Yan Huan let out a soft sigh. That was just the way the world worked--humans were hard-wired to forget.

She walked over to Yi Ling and sat beside her. The production crew would be handing out their lunch boxes in a moment; nobody dared complain about the lunch boxes because Liang Chen, the superstar, would also be getting the exact same lunch box, and she had not uttered a single word of complaint about it.

"I'll go get the food. You stay here and rest," said Yi Ling as she covered Yan Huan with the large coat she had left nearby. Yan Huan's costume was made of thin, sheer fabric that fluttered in the wind in a dreamy, mystical manner. But it was nearly winter now, and the weather was very cold--cold enough, in fact, for their breaths to mist in the air.

Yi Ling jogged to the lunch queue to get the lunch boxes provided by the production crew. The lunch boxes were filled to the brim with food, but not one of the actors dared to finish the entire box. They had to watch their weight and figures; it was okay to lose weight, but it would be a disaster if they put on weight and could no longer fit in their costumes.

"Here, take these." Ding Ming held out two lunch boxes to Yi Ling.

Yi Ling immediately felt sick to the stomach when she saw that hand. She had to stop herself from puking right then and there. She hastily grabbed two lunch boxes from someone else and ran off.

Ding Ming gaped after her, his outstretched hands arrested in mid-air. He felt hurt. He touched his face: was he really that ugly? What was with all the disgusted reactions to his face recently?

Yi Ling ran all the way back to Yan Huan and placed a lunch box in her hands. She said angrily, "I saw that disgusting man just now. He used that filthy hand of his to hand me a lunch box! It's so gross, he's basically contaminating everything he touches. Eww!"

She was disgusted. Repulsed. Completely grossed out.

Yan Huan was certain that Yi Ling now hated Ding Ming's guts. How could she not, after witnessing such a disgusting scene? Even if Ding Ming crossed paths with Yi Ling again in the future, she was sure that Yi Ling would never give him the time of day. He was now forever branded as a vile pervert in Yi Ling's mind, and this was a label he would not be able to change, no matter how hard he tried. The only way to undo it would be to go back in time, but that was simply not possible.

Yan Huan was not particularly fond of meat. She picked out the meat from her lunch box and gave them to Yi Ling, who accepted them gratefully. The two women found a secluded spot and ate their lunch boxes in peace.

It was time to shoot the next scene, which took place inside a tomb. The production team did not know it yet, but the suspenseful writing here would later receive wide-spread praise among the show's audience. The set was empty save for a green screen background; there would be a lot of complicated CGI added to the scene in post-production, but right now the actors had to use their own imaginations.

The extensive use of CGI spared the production team from having to look for suitable real-life locations to film in, but without a physical set around them, the actors were forced to rely on their instincts to interact convincingly with their surroundings.

It was not easy to shoot a scene entirely in green screen, but Liang Chen was an experienced actress and could deal with any situation. Qi Haolin, too, had been improving rapidly as an actor. Not only that, he had worked with Liang Chen many times, which meant that they had excellent chemistry together.

Yan Huan was not particularly worried about her own performance. She had a vivid imagination, as well as her experience from her previous life to draw on.

All the scenes involving the three of them were therefore completed quickly, using only the minimum number of takes. Best of all, Yan Huan and Liang Chen performed all of their own stunts, saving the production a lot of time and money.