Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 602 Did you cheat on me?
Liu Yifei debuted at the age of 14 in "The Story of a Noble Family" and has been acting for 15 years. Apart from not knowing anything when filming "The Story of a Noble Family", which made it difficult to act, she said that she has not encountered any particularly difficult situations in her 15 years of acting.

She could endure the hardships and fatigue of training and filming because she believed that these were physical tortures that she could overcome.

But "The Butterfly Lovers" is different.

During her time filming "The Butterfly Lovers," she experienced mental anguish, and for the first time in her 15-year acting career, she felt what it meant to be emotionally exhausted.

She knew she wasn't talented enough, and Li Qiutang had talked to her about this. Li Qiutang's exact words were:
“You’re not a naturally gifted actor. You can’t reach the level of Zhou Xun and Zhang Ziyi right away. And you’re an experiential actor, so if you want to improve, besides a lot of learning and training, you can only rely on time to hone your skills and accumulate experience. You’re still young now. As you gain more experience and accumulate more knowledge, your acting skills will naturally improve.”

Of course, there is another possibility, which is more metaphysical and called sudden enlightenment!

This is indeed the case in artistic work: once you have an epiphany, everything you do afterward is right.

Let's take Zhang Manyu, whom Li Qiutang likes very much, as an example again. When Zhang Manyu first debuted, she was also completely clueless.

But at the age of 23, she encountered Sylvia Chang's "The Story of Erotica," which was a breakthrough for Maggie Cheung. At 24, she filmed "As Tears Go By," which unlocked her full potential, and from then on, she could play any role perfectly.

Liu Yifei lacks a role that can truly unlock her full potential.

This play might be the current "Butterfly Lovers," or it might not. This play might come in three to five years, or it might not come for ten or twenty years.

Liu Yifei doesn't pin her hopes on some mysterious enlightenment; all she can do is try her best to play each role well.

But Zhu Xiaoyan is having a really tough time!
The difficulty lies in the complexity of the character. Although she has experienced life, Zhu Xiaoyan is still a character far removed from her own. Her forbearance, her strength, her compromise, her vulnerability, and her insignificance are all completely different from Liu Yifei herself!
The difficulty also lay in the director's extremely high demands on her. Li Qiutang had high ambitions for this play, and even though the actress was his wife, he wouldn't allow any performance to be "good enough."

So since filming began, he has repeatedly tormented the actors, not just Liu Yifei, but also the other two main actors, each of whom has been cut dozens of times.

After nearly a month of filming, Liu Yifei is exhausted.

She was the one her husband criticized the most, sending her 57 messages in two days. Although he didn't verbally abuse her, he spoke to her in a harsh tone more than four times.

But she's not the kind of actress who brings her personal emotions onto set. It's true that her husband is the director, but on set, she mostly sees the person sitting behind the monitor as the director. Only when they go home and sleep together after work does she realize that this jerk who cuts dozens of takes from her during the day is her husband.

She has a happy and fulfilling marriage, but now she has to play a woman whose family life is not so happy, who suspects her husband of cheating and is also suspected of cheating by her husband.

What's even more problematic is that she's an experiential learner.

So she was in a lot of pain during this period, and this pain was indescribable. She felt bad, her chest felt tight, and she couldn't say what she wanted to say.

Li Qiutang noticed the change in Liu Yifei, but he didn't say anything. Without going through this, her performance wouldn't change. Without enduring this pain, she could only continue to languish in the mediocre range of 60 or 70 points.

However, Li Qiutang did not expect that Liu Yifei would transfer this pain to him.

After finishing work that day, Li Qiutang and the film crew reviewed the footage and held a meeting. They returned to their hotel room at midnight, ready to try out the foot bath tub with massage function that her assistant had just bought the day before.

Li Qiutang sat on the ground reading the instruction manual for the foot bath tub. When she saw Liu Yifei coming over, she showed off to her: "You should soak your feet more often. Every year before winter even arrives, your feet are freezing cold, and you even rub them against me."

"This even comes with a massage function, you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Liu Yifei interrupted, "Are you cheating on me?"

"Huh?" Li Qiutang was completely taken aback by Liu Yifei's words and laughed, "Can't you get out of character, huh?" "Stop being so cheeky." Liu Yifei retorted, sitting opposite Li Qiutang with her legs crossed, looking arrogant. "Are you still in contact with those two ex-girlfriends?"

"Are you crazy? That happened so many years ago, I've already deleted all the contact information."

But Liu Yifei seemed to genuinely believe that Li Qiutang had done something to wrong her: "If other women offered themselves up, could you resist? You men are all like this, who wouldn't take a free meal?"

"You're too immersed in the role. I won't argue with you, but it wouldn't be good if you continued."

Liu Yifei said angrily, "I can't even speak anymore, is that it? I don't even have this much power in this family?"

"What exactly do you want?!"

"I just want to know if you've wronged me."

"No, no, I've only ever been with you in my life, how many times do I have to say it?" Li Qiutang was getting a little angry.

"You're good at saying nice things," Liu Yifei said, disbelieving.

"Take it or leave it." Li Qiutang had been busy all day and wanted to relax by soaking her feet, but now she was in no mood for it at all.

Liu Yifei said, "You must have countless women outside who want to throw themselves at you. Can you refuse once or twice, three or four times? Which man doesn't cheat on his wife?"

"There's nothing I can do if that's how you think," Li Qiutang kept telling herself. She was too immersed in the role, too immersed in the role, and she couldn't be blamed.

Li Qiutang is indeed a tempting target in the entertainment industry, and it's true that countless women want to throw themselves at him.

"You're too lazy to even explain to me now, are you?" Li Qiutang's nonchalant attitude only fueled Liu Yifei's anger.

"How do you expect me to explain? If I said I didn't, would you believe me? You're convinced that all men will cheat on their partners, so I have nothing to say." Li Qiutang took out her phone to distract herself, but after glancing at it for a couple of seconds, she tossed it aside and said, "It's all because we don't have children. If we had children earlier, this wouldn't happen."

Liu Yifei remained silent. This was exactly like the plot of "The Butterfly Lovers," where Liang Jiangong and Zhu Xiaoyan also had no children.

Li Qiutang remained silent for a while before saying, "If I had known that this movie would turn out like this, I would never have agreed to it."

"What does this have to do with my acting? Just because I'm not acting in this movie doesn't mean I can't suspect you of cheating."

"You keep talking about cheating, what are you trying to do?" Li Qiutang gradually lost patience.

The two have never argued since they started dating, and Li Qiutang has never been so fierce to Liu Yifei.

Tears welled up in Liu Yifei's eyes; if Li Qiutang said one more word, she would burst into tears.

"I don't want to argue with you, it's a waste of time." Li Qiutang sat back down and remained silent.

Li Qiutang still retained a shred of rationality at this moment. She did not leave Liu Yifei behind, nor did she say that she would ask Liu Xiaoli to uphold justice, nor did she say anything like breaking up in anger.

The two sat there for an hour, then silently washed up and went to bed. They didn't touch each other or talk to each other, and fell asleep.

(End of this chapter)