Huayu 2007: Starting with fleecing the "Fairy Sisters"

In the following days, under Liu Xiaoli's close guard, Wu Wei did not find any opportunity to get close to Liu Yifei.

He didn't have any good ideas for the time being, so he could only work as an extra while waiting for his chance.

The weather in Hengdian was unbearably hot that day.

The sun was blazing overhead, turning the film set into a giant steamer; even the air you breathed in was scalding hot.

Liu Yifei was wearing a leather costume that wasn't breathable at all, and she was already covered in sweat just by standing there.

Unfortunately, all of her scenes these days are action scenes, and they are quite difficult.

After filming began, her performance was clearly not up to par, resulting in frequent retakes.

They only filmed one scene in several hours.

As noon approached, the temperature rose even higher, directly exceeding 40 degrees Celsius!

Back then, Hengdian didn't have the summer heat relief measures of later times. At most, they would put a few large fans around the film set to cool it down, but they had to turn them all off as soon as filming started.

The production team of "The Forbidden Kingdom" was quite wealthy, providing each of the lead actors with a motorhome.

However, when filming, the air conditioning in the RV was useless, no matter how cool it was, so we had to just tough it out.

Liu Yifei's face was flushed from the heat, and she was in even worse condition than in the morning.

She stood under the scorching sun, holding two daggers, doing her best to fight two stuntmen. Her bangs were soaked with sweat, and she looked as if she had been pulled out of the water.

However, director Rob Minkoff kept yelling "Cut!" over and over again.

She gritted her teeth, silently returned to the starting point, got into position, and started playing again from the beginning.

"Cut!"

"Cut!"

"Cut!"

……

Rob Minkoff's voice grew lower and lower with each passing moment, and his brow furrowed more and more deeply.

Despite the temperature being over 40 degrees Celsius on set, the atmosphere was as cold as if it were about to freeze.

The staff around her didn't dare to breathe, and the two stuntmen fighting her and the extras around her were also under immense pressure, not daring to say a word.

Liu Yifei stood in front of the camera, looking completely exhausted.

The repeated failures filled her eyes with the embarrassment, anxiety, and self-blame of trying her best but failing to meet the requirements.

Wu Wei watched Liu Yifei's helpless figure from afar; her body was already trembling slightly, and she was clearly forcing herself to stay upright.

Wang Cheng nudged him with his elbow and whispered, "It's so hot. Liu Yifei looks like she's about to faint from the heat, and the director won't let her rest for a bit."

Wu Wei simply nodded without saying a word.

He suddenly remembered that Liu Yifei had suffered heatstroke on set in his previous life, which must have happened within the last two days.

A thought suddenly came to mind.

Take advantage of her illness and kill her!

Wait, that's not right!

We should take advantage of her difficulties and come to her aid as soon as possible.

He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then had an idea in mind.

Ultimately, the morning's filming ended with the director's disappointed sigh.

Rob Minkoff stood up from behind the monitor, walked over to Liu Yifei, and said in a slightly gentler tone than before: "It's too hot today, so filming action scenes is indeed quite difficult. Go back and rest well at noon, and we'll start filming later this afternoon."

Martial arts instructor Yuan Heping also came over and patted her on the shoulder: "Take a good rest after dinner, you can do it."

"Yes, thank you, Eighth Master, thank you, Director."

Liu Yifei nodded obediently, her voice sounding somewhat weak.

Then, accompanied by her mother, she went to rest in the RV.

……

Wu Wei returned to his dormitory, quickly took a shower, changed his clothes, and without even having lunch, went straight out, hailed a motorcycle taxi, and headed to the nearest pharmacy.

He wasn't going to buy medicine, but rather—fever-reducing patches.

In those days, cooling patches for relieving summer heat were not yet widely available.

Fever-reducing patches are only sold in pharmacies, but their main function is not to relieve heatstroke, but to reduce fever.

However, the ingredients and effects are actually the same.

A moment later, Wu Wei pushed open the door of a pharmacy and asked the clerk, "Do you have fever-reducing patches?"

The shop assistant nodded: "Yes, how many boxes do you want?"

How many boxes do you have in your store in total?

"About twenty boxes, is that a lot?"

"I'll take ten boxes," Wu Wei said, only ordering half so that others who needed them wouldn't be left out. "How much is one box?"

"Fifteen, there are four pieces in a box."

Fifteen yuan a box, that's not cheap these days.

Fortunately, he had worked part-time while in school and saved up several hundred yuan.

Wu Wei paid the money, picked up a bag of fever-reducing patches, and went out.

He thought about it and realized that ten boxes only contained forty tablets, which wouldn't last more than a few days.

Since we're already out, we might as well buy more.

So Wu Wei asked the motorcycle taxi driver to take him to several nearby pharmacies, where he bought a total of 32 boxes, spending almost all the money in his pocket.

……

At 2 p.m., the film crew resumed their work.

Wu Wei stood among the extras, his eyes constantly searching.

As it approached 2:30, the figure he had been longing for finally appeared.

Liu Yifei sat down gently on the folding chair. Her face, covered in drab makeup, was devoid of any smile, and she looked preoccupied.

The frequent NGs in the morning must have put a lot of pressure on her.

Behind her, Liu Xiaoli followed closely, her eyes scanning the surroundings. When she saw him, she lingered on his face for a couple more seconds.

"It seems like we can't send this out."

Wu Wei looked helplessly at the bag he had placed in the corner. Inside were 30 boxes of fever-reducing patches. Apart from the two boxes he had kept for himself, the rest were all there.

Just as she was worrying, a middle-aged man wearing leather shoes and a shirt, with slicked-back hair, walked up to Liu Xiaoli. After exchanging a few words, Liu Xiaoli left with him.

Wu Wei was delighted to see this.

The opportunity is coming!

Once Liu Xiaoli's figure had completely disappeared from the set, he immediately picked up the bag and quickly walked up to Liu Yifei.

Liu Yifei was worrying about her afternoon's scenes.

Although we've now avoided the hottest part of the day at midday, temperatures are still close to 40 degrees Celsius.

Once filming begins, her performance will likely be just as bad as it was this morning.

"Liu Yifei".

Wu Wei called out to her.

Liu Yifei was startled by the sudden sound and immediately looked up.

Upon seeing that it was Wu Wei, his expression clearly showed some surprise.

Without wasting any words, Wu Wei placed the bag in front of her and opened it: "It's too hot today. These are fever-reducing patches. They'll feel cool and refreshing on your body, which can help cool you down. You can put a few inside your costume later; it will make you feel much better and will last for several hours. When you're resting, you can also put them on the back of your neck and forehead to cool down."

Liu Yifei was stunned.

She looked down at the fever-reducing patches in the bag, then looked up at Wu Wei.

His face showed no particular expression; he neither sought praise nor flattered her, but simply explained things to her earnestly and meticulously.

She instinctively wanted to refuse.

From a young age, her mother told her not to accept things from strangers, especially from men.

But the words just wouldn't come out.

She knew this was not just a simple gift, but a sign of his genuine care for her.

It turned out that he had seen and remembered all the embarrassment, torment and helplessness she felt on set that morning.

Faced with the high temperature and physical exhaustion, even her mother only told her to try her best to overcome it.

But he brought her a fever-reducing patch that could truly help her solve her high temperature and get out of her predicament.

Her initial anxiety immediately subsided.

Did you buy it?

Liu Yifei asked softly.

"right."

Wu Wei nodded: "I saw you were so hot this morning that you almost fainted, so I went to the pharmacy to buy this for you. Use it as much as you want, and I'll buy you more when you run out."

Liu Yifei remained silent.

She reached into the bag and took out a box of fever-reducing patches. After looking at them, she couldn't help but feel touched.

"Thank you, I'll try it in a bit."

Liu Yifei looked at Wu Wei with bright, sparkling eyes, her voice carrying a gentleness she herself didn't realize: "Do you have one yourself?"

"I kept two boxes."

Wu Wei smiled and patted his chest: "I'm healthy, that's enough for me."

Just then, the group leader's voice came through the loudspeaker from behind: "All extras! Assemble over here! Hurry!"

Wu Wei said to Liu Yifei, "I'm leaving. I'll have my work hours deducted if I'm late."

"Um."

Liu Yifei nodded, her eyes following his retreating figure until he returned to the group of extras, at which point she looked away.

She looked down at the large bag of fever-reducing patches, a faint smile spreading across her face.

Then she picked up the bag and walked towards her RV...