I'm not a drama freak, I can really see through the script

Chapter 250, He Really Came Back to Life Like My Colleagues.

At this moment, Mai Jia was genuinely shocked.
This is in the enclosed darkness.

What people living in the dark world should look like.

That is, it is unclear, incomprehensible, blurry and chaotic.

This is also one of the reasons why An Zaitian is so irresistibly attractive to Huang Yiyi in the original novel.

He has distinct personality traits, but you can't tell which of them are genuine and which are not.

Which are disguises, and which are genuine?

Li Xuan seems to have found this balance point, the balance point between these character settings.
He actually found it.

Regardless of his acting skills, and how well he portrays the character An Zaitian, at least...
He possesses 'authenticity'.

At this moment, director Liu Guanglong spoke softly.

"Let's start filming!"

The way Liu Guanglong looked at Li Xuan was also a little different. Originally, Liu Guanglong's positioning of Li Xuan was that he had no time to focus on filming and understanding the script, so he made a 'lower position' choice. This way, he would have more time and energy to focus on understanding the script, or rather, to focus on the second lead role. Huang Yiyi and A Bing are both very promising characters. Based on his many years of filming experience, especially Huang Yiyi, her charm could easily create a hit.

Therefore, after comprehensive and rational consideration, it is better to choose a "lower" option instead of devoting more energy to cultivating this "female impersonator".

Now, even Mai Jia, who used to work in the counter-espionage department, couldn't control his emotions at Li Xuan's performance—it can only be said that Li Xuan's performance this time has truly shocked him.
Interesting. I wonder what it was like when filming started.

Filming for "The Plot" officially began at this time.

Li Xuan has completely become 'An Zaitian'.

To the outside world, he is a researcher at the Institute of Botany.

An unremarkable research institute, both in terms of its people and its departments, is headquartered in the Dayin Mountains of Sichuan.
In reality, this is the front line of counter-espionage, and An Zaitian is the deputy director of the intelligence unit, always fighting on the front line of his work. After the two forces in the country completed their ideological struggle on the main battlefield, the battle is not over yet. The enemy is still in the shadows, breaking up into smaller groups.

The responsibility of Section 701 is to find these people and thwart their plot.

Originally, the counter-espionage operation was very successful, thwarting several major plots by the Kuomintang army. But one day, all the agents' radios disappeared, which was tantamount to blinding 701.

The discussion led to a conclusion.

They went silent on the radio, and the reason for it wasn't hard to guess: they were changing the frequency and equipment used to transmit telegrams.

Such actions rendered all the enemy information accumulated over the years useless.

This means that the other party has realized that they have been unilaterally made transparent and has taken countermeasures.

Losing intelligence is tantamount to blinding our comrades on the front lines.
How vulnerable an army is when it loses its eyes; even the strongest blind man is still blind.
"Within three months, these new enemy stations must be found. This is not a request, but a demand; it is something that must be done."

The order received by Dean Tie
The battle reached a fever pitch, with both internal and external pressures looming.

“Normally, it would take a year to find them. In just three months, we will need to recruit a large number of listening agents.” At this moment, Gao Ming, the veteran actor and Dean Tie, looked seriously at his colleagues below the stage. Among them, the one standing in the center was the protagonist, An Zaitian.
As the vice dean, this supplementary task fell to him.

However, a job as a wiretap operator isn't so easy to find; it requires a high level of confidentiality awareness, skills, and passing various qualification checks.
And at this time.

Standing in the center of the camera's view, Li Xuan showed no sign of confusion in the face of difficulties.
His eyes
At this moment, Mai Jia finally saw what was hidden in those eyes.

It is 'faith'.

It is 'firm'.

This is probably the real him.
Under layers of disguise.

His true appearance under the sun and in the shadows.

"Is he An Zaitian?"

At this moment, Chen Shu was watching Li Xuan from the side, curious about this 'younger brother'.

A man younger than her.

From the moment she joined the crew, Chen Shu felt that the biggest challenge she faced was acting opposite Li Xuan. She didn't know how to make her character, Huang Yiyi, fall in love with this young and naive boy at first glance.

To be honest, Chen Shu and Liu Guanglong are actors of the same era.

Li Xuan, on the other hand, represents the new generation of the newest generation.

If I had to put it into words, looking at him would probably give me more of a younger brother feeling.

But at this time.

When Chen Shu looked at Li Xuan, she didn't feel like she was looking at a younger brother at all. Instead, she looked at him as if he were a towering iron tower.

There he stood.

It stands like an iron tower.

He stood tall and proud, declaring that he was certain he could complete the task.

Every character has their own driving force.

And what drives Anzai in the heavens.

It seems that they are very determined.

The first target of the eavesdropping genius was named 'Three Ears'. He was a genius who was said to be able to hear sounds that others could not, which was exactly what 701 needed. He was a teacher at Xinghai Conservatory of Music. When An Zaitian found him, he discovered that 'Three Ears' had been assassinated and was on the verge of death.

The enemy got there first. This was related to "Three-Eared's" life experience. He had once tuned the piano for Madam Song, which became the biggest stain on his fate. He was also disliked and even ostracized at school.

This recruitment by 701 was a perfect opportunity to clear his name, but he got too excited, drank alcohol, and blurted it out.

This led to his death.

Before he died, his last words were to introduce another person whose hearing was even more acute than his own. This person lived in Wuzhen, not far from Shanghai.

This is what makes "The Plot" different from other war dramas. Other war dramas tend to make viewers subconsciously overlook the personal fates and experiences of the characters.

And 'Three Ears' is such a person, a person with stains and flaws, who is rejected and ostracized in this era, and what he wants to do is simply to wash away these rejections and suppressions. It's just that he no longer has the chance.

On the way to Wuzhen, the camera captured the only appearance of An Zaitian's wife, Xiaoyu, and their chubby son throughout the entire event.

At this moment, a colleague next to An Zaitian looked at him and laughed.

What are you staring at so intently?

"Oh, I saw a cute child, chubby and adorable," An Zaitian said casually.

The simple lines convey emotions that are light and joyful, making it feel like you're really just watching a cute little boy and a woman.

But when 'emotion' is transmitted through sound and reaches the ears of the crew members present, it takes on a different form.

It was a kind of pain hidden beneath a facade of ease and pleasure—an extreme kind of pain.

His wife and children were right in front of him, but he couldn't recognize them and could only pretend not to know them.

But the pain was only momentary.

It was only a tiny, very restrained micro-expression, and the expression in the voice.

While here.
Even Liu Guanglong didn't dare to say that Li Xuan was his subordinate.

How is his acting, his emotional expression, so amazing?
Even pain.

They all seemed to be restraining themselves.

It's really heartbreaking.

This scene itself isn't important; it's just meant to highlight the hardships faced by special forces personnel. However, Li Xuan's performance in this scene was indeed excellent.

This sufficiently highlights An Zaitian's character, what his organization represents, and the significance it embodies.

And his awareness, their awareness.

At this moment, everyone knew what kind of person An Zaitian was—he was someone who put the safety of the country first, and put his own family, including himself, second.

This is the basis of his character.
That's also the image Mai Jia wanted to create.

That's it.

A remarkable man with an absolute level of enlightenment.

The man he came to Wuzhen to find, Abing, was also a remarkable person in a sense. He was blind and naive, but he had a hearing that was more acute than anyone else's.

In the script, his hearing is even somewhat 'supernatural'; when you talk to him, you don't feel like he's blind. He can hear sounds that many people can't.

In this shot.

The correspondence between An Zaitian and Abing, and Abing's dependence on An Zaitian.
That kind of dependence and trust is like a natural performance.

Perhaps it was because An Zaitian gave Abing a sense of security.

A kind that is different from his mother's.

A feeling of trust.

Having grown up in Wuzhen, it seems that he only had one person he could trust: his mother.

Now there's another one, An Zaitian.

This genius was exceptionally gifted, sensitive, fragile, and mentally incomplete. In the secular world, he was not even considered a normal person. He was rejected, questioned, and ridiculed, and Ah Bing became increasingly withdrawn.

But in the world of 701.

He was a genius, an expert in eavesdropping. What fifty people couldn't do, he could do in one night by himself. Even if the enemy changed the code, it didn't matter. He could even tell which radio operator sent the code from their habits.

Thus, the frequency band can be deciphered.

He was a hero and a genius, and Abing was completely absorbed in it.

Wang Baoqiang was completely absorbed in it.

Without the acting industry, he would have been a migrant worker, just another ordinary person, but he gave him that opportunity.

Just like Bureau 701.

It gave me a stage to showcase myself.

I am very grateful to him.

When Wang Baoqiang was acting, he completely immersed himself in the role, perhaps because of the similarity between the character and the actor.

Perhaps it's also because of An Zaitian.

Because of Li Xuan.

He was the only one who appreciated himself.

It's not about making yourself look like a clown.

Treat it as dispensable waste.

The process of deciphering the code was also very realistic and detailed, thanks to Mai Jia's eight years of experience working in the intelligence department. Apart from some discrepancies in the individual heroism aspect, it was basically his job.

The work is tedious, involving reconnaissance and listening, using the most primitive methods to find subtle wavelengths in the darkness.

Ah Bing was a genius. His amazing ability was that he could even tell the sex of a chick by its sound, and even tell who was whose son and daughter, and who their relatives were. This near-mystical ability was powerful and awe-inspiring.

His status in Unit 701 was also rising steadily.

Compared to his status outside, he gained respect and trust here that he could not obtain outside.

But this trust and reliance gradually made him arrogant, and this hero of 701 began to swell with arrogance.

He stopped being polite to his comrades. Except for An Zaitian, he treated everyone the same, no longer respecting them. Relying on his heroic status, he constantly sought special privileges and even went so far as to do outrageous things repeatedly in a unit that required secrecy.

The initial vulnerability, sensitivity, and timidity formed two completely different faces.

This is also the heart of the play.
I am merely discussing espionage, war from a macro perspective, and individuals from a macro perspective.

It not only features grand narratives, but also narratives of individual destinies.

“He was like an untamed wild beast, while I was more like a tamer, training him and guiding him onto the right path.”

An Zaitian had always been seen as a caring older brother to A Bing. Whenever A Bing was confused, An Zaitian would appear and comfort him.

Even in terms of image, it replaced the ecological niche of Abing's father.

At least that's what Ah Bing thought.

The cruel truth is that An Zaitian was dealing with A Bing.

He viewed them merely as wild beasts with extraordinary abilities, and An Zaitian was the beast tamer.

This is such a cruel description, yet so true.

Ah Bing's one-sided feelings.

His flaws are becoming increasingly apparent.

“Son, my greatest hope is that you can carry on the family line. We are both good people, and we have done good deeds all our lives, so we cannot let our line end.”

The old man's words were deeply imprinted in A Bing's mind.

There are two people he cares about most in his life.

One is An Zaitian, and the other is her mother. Whatever they want her to do, she will do.

And this very request was precisely the beginning of the tragedy.

Ah Bing was a great hero in the collective world, in the world of 701, but in the secular world...

He was Blind Abing.

Having made such a great contribution, theoretically he could have anything he wanted.

Then the blind man, Abing, thought of his mother's wish.

I'm getting married.

I don't want anything, I just want to get married.

I want children.

A man who saved the nation, a man who saved countless lives, had only this one request.

Can we get a different one?

This request is really a bit embarrassing.

This request was really... but it was the only request from Ah Bing, who had no interest in material rewards.

There were some setbacks at the beginning.

Fortunately, a woman named Lin Xiaofang was willing to marry him.

She was a nurse in the team. When she heard that Abing was a national hero, she wanted to marry him.

This should have been a happy occasion for everyone.

Ah Bing was a hero.

Lin Xiaofang admires heroes.

Because her brother was a hero who sacrificed himself for the country, she wanted to marry someone like him.

So they got married.

But they were unable to have children for a long time.

That's the root of the tragedy. Ah Bing desperately wanted to fulfill his mother's wish, but unfortunately, no one had ever taught him how to have a child.

Neither his mother nor the education system of this era could teach a blind man with the mental capacity of a 10-year-old how to have a child.

"If you can't lay an egg, I'm going to divorce you."

Ah Bing said this to Lin Xiaofang.

This led to the subsequent tragedy.

Lin Xiaofang had no choice but to marry him, as she didn't want to tarnish her brother's reputation. She had to resort to artificial insemination to have a child. However, Ah Bing was a man who could tell which rooster was the father of a chick.

He wailed, cried, and wailed at the door of the ward, looking for his mother and An Zaitian.

Ah Bing died by suicide; he was electrocuted after touching an electric switch. Before he died, he left a letter for An Zaitian, accusing his wife of fathering another man's child.

Lin Xiaofang was also taken into custody.

"I taught him, but he wouldn't even let me touch him. But then he said he'd divorce me if I couldn't have children, and I was momentarily blinded by greed."

Lin Xiaofang was crying her eyes out in front of me.

She regretted it deeply and knew she had been bewitched.

An Zaitian had already prepared many things to say to her, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to say them.

Was Ah Bing right?

Or rather, was I not wrong?

If he were still living in Wuzhen, that peaceful little town, he would most likely still be sleeping in the apple orchard next door.

But there was no going back.

Or rather.

Look back again.

An Zaitian will still choose to become that beast tamer.

"He regrets it, but if he had the choice again, he would make the same decision."

Regret and making the same choice again seem contradictory, yet also quite normal. At least for An Zaitian right now, this is the final decision he has made.
She still has no regrets about taking Ah Bing out of Wuzhen.

Rational and emotional thoughts are completely separated.

at this time
It was Wang Baoqiang who made Mai Jia and Liu Guanglong feel the profound pain and difficulty of acting.

His performance in that final, agonizing outburst was truly superb.

That pain, that helplessness, hearing the resentment and anguish of realizing his son wasn't his own—should he feel pain? He certainly should. After all, having a wife and child who isn't one's own is an utter disgrace in China's five thousand years of history. Any man can empathize with that kind of pain.

But similarly, Lin Xiaofang's tragedy lies in the fact that Ah Bing is not a 'complete' man. He is unwilling to even touch her and unilaterally believes that children can be born as long as you have them. From beginning to end, no one taught her. Was she wrong?

She was wrong.

One detail is that An Zaitian once asked Lin Xiaofang if she had any difficulties that required help, and Lin Xiaofang hesitated and said no.

In that era, sex was such a taboo subject that it was difficult to talk about. Even the difficulties caused by sex were hard to express.

This also led to this tragedy.
Abing's mother always kept repeating, "We are good people, and good people should have offspring," but she never taught him how to have offspring. This is something that is difficult to talk about in this era.

This led to the defeat of 701's hero, this extraordinary person, by the mundane world.

There's one last scene to film, and that will complete the "Listening to the Wind" segment. It's a scene about An Zaitian and Dean Tie, discussing the relationship between "marriage" and "revolution."

In other words, Dean Tie initially wanted to arrange for another young comrade to marry Abing, but he was quite resistant to it.

If Lin Xiaofang hadn't taken the initiative to marry him, it would probably have been that young comrade who married Abing.

After all, he was a hero who saved the country and the people.
At this time, An Zaitian opposed arranging for the young comrade to marry Abing.

"I think that when it comes to marriage, it's best if both parties are in love."

"Your mother remarried for the sake of the country."

Dean Tie said softly, "At that time, your father had just passed away, and your mother was being pursued by a high-ranking official from the Kuomintang. In order to obtain higher-level intelligence, she obeyed the organization's orders and left you, who was only 11 years old at the time, to marry that officer."

This is a past event that An Zaitian was unaware of.

Only Dean Tie, who was an old acquaintance of the parents, knew the truth.

Speaking of this, An Zaitian wasn't surprised. He already knew about it through other channels.

Later, that officer was also recruited as one of our comrades, but unfortunately, they were discovered by the enemy and both were killed.

When An Zaitian recounted this past event, he remained calm. Even when Dean Tie and Director Hua showed signs of grief and reluctance, An Zaitian remained composed—this was not a mask; he would not wear one when facing the two of them.

This is his most genuine reaction.

At this moment, Liu Guanglong let the camera focus on his face—his reaction, the reaction of his muscles, was so natural.

Regardless of whether this reaction is logical, its 'naturalness' is absolutely undeniable.
强.
An Zaitian said softly.

“When my mother was imprisoned, she carved many numbers on the wall of her cell with her fingernails every day. The last two sets were 1095 and 1467, which she carved on the day she was murdered. As for the White Rabbit, it has been a mystery for many years, but I deciphered the meaning of these numbers at just one glance.”

After a moment of silence, An Zaitian continued,
"She was separated from me for 1095 days, and from my father for 1467 days."

She obeyed orders, but she still loved her father.
If it were me, I would also obey orders, because the country is above all else. Like my mother, everything they did [enlightenment] is something that we, their descendants, those who were once protected, need to inherit. I have a responsibility, I have an obligation, but that is limited to myself.

However, please respect personal feelings.

We are human beings.

This solo scene has been filmed.

Liu Guanglong was utterly shocked, while Chen Shu beside him had a flickering look in her eyes. Mai Jia remained silent, packing her things and heading back to her hotel to rest.

That's all for today's filming.

Tonight, Mai Jia had a dream about his colleagues and about that period of time on the secret front.

Wang Baoqiang, your acting is superb.

But Li Xuan, he really resembles my colleagues.

It's like it came back to life.

(End of this chapter)