Global Film Emperor

Chapter 108 Drama

The fire in the stove inside was blazing. Lu Ze stretched his hand out over it for a while, and the intense heat of the flames warmed his palm.

There was another heavy snowfall late last night. When I chatted with the elderly people in the village, they said that this year's harvest is a bit strange. There has been no light snow, only heavy snow. It seems that next year's harvest should be good.

The snow was already up to their calves deep, and every step required a lot of effort. When the snow stopped, the staff began to clear it. Lu Ze also went to help. After working for forty minutes, he went back inside to warm up.

By evening, the owner of the farmhouse, who had become familiar with the film crew, called everyone to dinner. Lu Ze dried his shoes, put them on, washed his hands, went to the farmhouse's warehouse, took out some wine, and poured a bucket into a kettle.

Go to the kitchen, take out a fire spatula, and rake the charcoal ash a couple of times to flatten it. Place the kettle on top, gently touch the edge of the kettle, and once you feel its warmth, lift it up and gently pour some white wine onto your fingertips. That should be enough; any hotter and it will catch fire.

One of the staff members, who was quite young and not even as old as Lu Ze, quickly took the water bottle from Lu Ze's hand and poured everyone some baijiu (Chinese liquor) to ward off the chill.

Zhuang Yu wasn't upset. Filming in the countryside was actually quite cheap; the only expense was paying the staff's salaries, which was within his budget, and he had more than enough funds.

This play is very difficult, not only for Lu Ze, but also for all the main actors. So even though Lu Ze is in good condition, the progress is still slow.

"Give me some too."

A hand reached out, with long, beautiful fingers. Wang Zhen handed over a plastic cup and asked Lu Ze to pour her a sip of baijiu (Chinese liquor).

Wang Zhen, who plays Xiao Mei, is 34 years old this year, but she is very well-maintained and beautiful. If you said she was in her early twenties, people would probably believe it.

She starred in several popular TV dramas in the early 2000s, and Lu Ze practically grew up watching her dramas. Later, she took a break from work for a few years due to illness and disappeared from the public eye.

Perhaps the medical treatment had depleted her finances, making life more difficult. She started taking on acting roles again, but her luck wasn't as good as it was in the early 2000s. She remained relatively unknown and never achieved much success again.

Lu Ze poured her some baijiu (Chinese liquor), she picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks, drank the baijiu, breathed out a breath, squinted her eyes, and seemed to have warmed up a bit.

"Give me some more, it's quite warm."

Lu Ze glanced at her. Apart from acting together, the two hadn't said much to each other, let alone drunk together. Lu Ze really didn't know how much alcohol she could handle.

"Not too many, right?"

"No, don't worry, come on, cheers."

The two clinked glasses, and she finished her drink again. She didn't drink any more after that, since she had scenes to film that night. Lu Ze observed her for a while and found that she was indeed fine, so he didn't bother with her anymore.

Perhaps she was a little nervous, which is why she asked Lu Ze for a couple of drinks. But out of professional ethics, she only drank a little to relieve stress and that was it. It was impossible for her to say that she wouldn't act or to find a stand-in.

Without exchanging many words, the two ate in silence, and after finishing, they went to prepare their own meals.

After changing into a red shirt in the dressing room and putting on a cotton-padded coat to cover myself up, I ran to the shooting room. The props team had already started setting up the scene. Zhuang Yu, as expected of a photographer, had even won international photography awards. His use and control of color were spot-on. The small red light on the wall was on, and when the main light was turned off, the originally festive wedding room looked a bit eerie.

Wang Zhen also came in wearing a cotton-padded coat, nodded to Lu Ze, because there was really nothing to say, and it would be awkward to say too much.

"Everyone else, go out. You two can go upstairs and lie down first."

Zhuang Yu didn't know how to ease the tension. After the makeup artist finished doing the makeup for the two of them, she asked the other staff to leave first, leaving only herself, the photographer, the lighting technician, and the two lead actors in the room.

Without hesitation, Lu Ze took off his cotton-padded coat first, revealing a red shirt, and then took off his shoes and got onto the kang (heated brick bed). The crew was quite considerate; the kang was heated quite warmly.

Then Wang Zhen also lay down, and the two of them lay in the same bed, covered with a blanket, listening to Zhuang Yu talk about the play. The scene was actually a bit funny.

"Wang Zhen, you'll lift up Lu Ze's shirt in a bit... and remember, Lu Ze, your expression absolutely mustn't change, and your voice too, understand? The rest is up to you guys to improvise. Now, let's start filming, lights out."

With the main light off and the small red light inside on, the room, which was already a bit eerie when no one was lying there, suddenly became somewhat ambiguous with the presence of a man and a woman.

Lu Ze rolled over, his face expressionless, staring blankly at the ceiling, the blanket covering his stomach. Wang Zhen, on the other hand, turned to the side, looking at Lu Ze.

"Hello, Mr. Tree, Scene 4, Act 9, Begin!"

After the clapperboard was struck, everything went smoothly, and Lu Ze's first time performing a scene on a heated brick bed began.

"Click! Passed!"

Zhuang Yu exclaimed, surprised that the two of them could film such a passionate scene in one take without any accidents. They both showed their best selves, and it was so realistic that it made Zhuang Yu and the photographers breathe heavily.

This scene wasn't actually testing Lu Ze, but Wang Zhen. As the one experiencing it most directly, Lu Ze wasn't a novice and understood that things between men and women were just like that, not as comfortable as portrayed in the movie.

That kind of thing is nothing more than pursuing a spiritual level of pleasure. And in this bed scene, even if the two of them didn't actually do *that*, the spiritual pleasure that Wang Zhen brought to Lu Ze actually surpassed that of reality at one point. That's the strength of an excellent actress, a kind of strength.

After the filming was finished, Lu Ze did not get up because...
Wang Zhen also picked up the shirt and trousers that had been thrown aside and put them back on. After Zhuang Yu and the photographers turned on the lights, they notified Lu Ze to prepare for the next scene, and then quickly put on their yo-yos, leaving the room to Lu Ze and Wang Zhen.

"Um, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, it's for the plot, I understand. We're all actors, filming is nothing. I'll go now, once you've recovered, we'll move on to the next scene."

She put on her shoes, put her cotton-padded coat back on, nodded to Lu Ze, and left the room first, getting up to prepare for the next round.

(End of this chapter)