IPCFS: Chapter 29 Part 2

Xie Yan covered the bleeding hole in his chest and his steps were quick and shaky. It was as if he would completely collapse at any moment. Step by step, he finally came to the bedchamber he had been thinking about day and night.

The secret passage he inadvertently discovered back then hadn’t been sealed. That was how he could temporarily escape the pursuit of everyone and come here.

Ever since Xie Chenyuan had become the ‘regent’, he had been living in this Clear Heart Palace for a long time.

The closed door of the palace invisibly added an extra layer of obstacles to Xie Yan’s heart. His pace suddenly stopped and he hesitated at the door of the bedchamber.

Yao Chuan saw this scene and involuntarily straightened his body.

Ji Li’s raised right hand didn’t push open the door directly like in the audition. It hesitated for a few seconds in mid-air.

Immediately afterward, he started trying to wipe at the blood on his face with his hands and tidy up his messy hair, trying to look as clean as before.

Unfortunately, the more he tried, the worse it got.

Xie Yan stared at his blood-stained palms before laughing ridiculously and sadly. He took two steps back and shed two tears.

This series of actions was too wonderful! Moreover, the cameraman gave the close-up very well!

Xie Yan didn’t cry when he was surrounded and suppressed. He didn’t cry when he was seriously injured. Yet now standing in front of Xie Yan’s bedchamber and looking at the blood on his palm that he was all too familiar with, he was suddenly completely crushed.

The screenwriter Fang Zhixing knew that tonight was Ji Li’s final scene and had specially come to the filming site. He didn’t expect that Ji Li’s additions, which weren’t in the script, would instead fill in the character’s psychology in an instant.

Yes, deep in Xie Yan’s heart, he had become a villain whose hands were full of sins. What type of appearance should he use to meet his former royal uncle?

The night was cold and his heart was colder.

The melodious sound of the guqin was heard from the sleeping hall. It was the song Xie Chenyuan had played for him from childhood to adulthood. Xie Yan was stunned and the doubts and grievances that had accumulated in his heart for many years finally erupted like a torrent.

“Why did you betray me?!”

“Why didn’t you want me?”

“Why did you want to leave me alone?”

Ji Li’s explosive force was terrifyingly strong and his heart-piercing questions made everyone on set feel sad. Many staff members who read the original book and understood the plot were provoked to cry on the spot.

“Royal Uncle, why do you…” Ji Li cried bloody tears. His chest heaved violently and his voice trembled and weakened. “Why don’t you want me?”

“Tell me, what the hell did I do wrong?”

Before his words finished, his body shook and he fell down directly.

Outside the set, Baozi looked scared, angry and anxious. “Brother Ji is like this again! He will get more bruises on his body if he falls down like this!”

“Prepare the medicine in advance. This child is really in the act.” Yu Fuya shook her head with a trace of tears in her eyes.

She had been watching the set for so many years but it seemed that this was the first time she had been brought into the scene.

Xie Yan crawled to the door with all his strength, his fingertips trying to push open the heavy door again and again. “…Royal Uncle.”

“Can you look at me again? Can you let Yan’er see you again…”

Tears and blood intertwined on his face and his pleading became lower with every sentence.

Finally, footsteps were heard from inside.

The heavy door was opened. Xie Yan raised his trembling eyes and the figure of the man was finally reflected in his blurred gaze.

He carefully held the hem of the black robe and pulled out a long-lost childish smile. “Royal Uncle.”

The bloodied hand fell to the ground and eventually stopped moving.

Xie Yan was dead.

He died in the last gaze which he thought were alms that Xie Chenyuan had given him.

He didn’t know that the moment of his death, Xie Chenyuan’s eyes turned red from sadness and incompetence.

He crouched and reached out the hands that had already been cut by the guqin’s strings to tap the side of Xie Yan’s neck again, just like in the past.

“Yan’er.”

The whisper that was as light as the wind was suppressed by the flurry of chaotic footsteps.

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The huge studio was so quiet that the sound of a needle falling could be heard. Everyone was caught in the doomed tragic ending and it was difficult to relax.

This scene could no longer be judged solely by the actors’ acting skills.

It was because Ji Li completely played the core of Xie Yan.

It wasn’t until this time that everyone understood the original author’s so-called phrase’ follow one person for a lifetime, love and hate one person for a lifetime.’

It was Xie Chenyuan who protected Xie Yan in his childhood, who raised him and taught him everything.

Xie Yan’s heart was focused on him and Xie Yan wanted to be stronger to protect him. In the end, it was he who made Xie Yan helplessly love and it was he who made Xie Yan feel pain in his bones.

Even at the end, the former ran to him like a moth to the flame.

As a director, Yao Chuan was the first to react.

He wasn’t willing to miss such an atmosphere and didn’t give the actors any buffer time at all. He picked up the megaphone and shouted, “Everyone, get ready. The next scene will be shot soon!”

The watching Xu Miaomiao wiped her tears and quickly entered the state.

Even Zhou Qingming took a long breath and struggled to withdraw his gaze from Ji Li’s body to gather his emotions.

The next scene could be regarded as the ‘confession’ scene.

The female and male leads brought people over and happened to meet Xie Chenyuan picking up Xie Yan’s body. The bodyguards sent by the empress dowager said that according to the edict of the empress dowager, Xie Yan’s body had to be broken into tens of thousands of pieces before she could feel at ease.

As a result, they were killed by the regent’s secret troops and only the male and female protagonists were left.

The heroine Xiao Keer, played by Xu Miaomiao, was the daughter of an official and had heard a bit about the affairs of the uncle and nephew in the past few days. She had endured it but now she finally asked the doubts in her heart.

Xie Chenyuan invited them into the hall and told them the absurd and sad truth of what happened many years ago.

The former emperor always suspected that Xie Yan wasn’t of his own blood so he secretly carried out several poisonings using the empress’ hands. It was just that Xie Yan had Xie Chenyuan secretly protecting him. Xie Yan grew up safely and won the hearts of many civil and military officials.

The former emperor didn’t let go of his suspicions toward Xie Yan even until his death.

Under the instigation of the empress, who was now the empress dowager, he pretended to write an imperial edict about Xie Yan’s succession to the throne. Meanwhile, he secretly wrote another two edicts.

The first one was his true will that made the 11th Prince the crown prince. The other was an edict accusing the 9th Prince Xie Yan of ‘killing his father to ascend to the throne.’

The former emperor asked his personal eunuch to leave the palace with the edicts and hand them over to the secret guards he had trained for a long time.

The moment Xie Yan took the throne, the edicts would be made public and the secret guards would sneak into the palace to kill Xie Yan.

Xie Chenyuan had heard about the strength of the secret guards. He didn’t want to risk Xie Yan’s life and he also didn’t want the other person to be scolded by the people of the nation.

Therefore, he pretended to cooperate with the empress and took the opportunity to send Xie Yan out of this ‘cannibalistic palace’ under the name of house arrest.

The so-called ‘regent’ that people called him was actually a superficial gesture used by the empress to threaten and put Xie Chenyuan under house arrest.

He agreed to the empress’ conditions and trapped himself in this exquisite palace. Later, he sent a personal letter of explanation but there was no reply. At that moment, Xie Chenyuan realized that Xie Yan hated him miserable.

Still, how many royal people could follow their own hearts? The young Xie Chenyuan had easily escaped the royal bondage but he was trapped by the shackles of duty for the sake of Xie Yan.

Xie Chenyuan naturally wouldn’t be obediently under the control of the empress. For the past five years, he seemed to be staying in the palace to assist the emperor but he had actually been searching for the will and secret guards, wanting to help Xie Yan clear his worries.

The five year period was approaching and the secret guards had been removed. The edicts had been destroyed.

Unfortunately, their hearts were estranged. Xie Yan was hurt too deeply by him and he hid too deeply. By the time he realized what the former had done in the past five years, it was too late.

Xie Yan hated the palace and conspired to commit a horrific crime. Xie Chenyuan became the true regent and took responsibility.

This world belonged to the Xie family and the people were innocent. Xie Chenyuan had no way to cover up Xie Yan’s actions. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to save Xie Yan but that Xie Yan had already cut off his path to live.

In addition, Xie Chenyuan needed to completely dismantle the incompetent emperor and vicious empress dowager. The opportunity that he had spent five years preparing for was precisely at this juncture.

What about a final confession? The two of them had long since left the past.

It was better to let Xie Yan die with the ‘hatred’ in his heart than with regret and affection.

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This scene was mostly Xie Chenyuan’s monologue.

Qin Yue controlled the mentality of the character very well. He interpreted such long lines and there were no mistakes. It was flawless.

Xu Miaomiao and Zhou Qingming were carried into the scene by his acting and the reaction at each node was very appropriate. In particular, the former had been acting in dramas for four years and this was the first time she couldn’t tell the difference between inside and outside the act.

She was crying for Xie Yan and inside, she was crying for the CP she had just supported.

She didn’t understand. What type of feelings did Xie Chenyuan have for Xie Yan?

If she said it was love, how could he watch Xie Yan die, not to mention what happened in the past. If she said it wasn’t love, why did he expect Xie Yan to come and send away the guards. Why did he play that childhood song to the other person who was in pain…

Xie Yan definitely had a place in his heart but was it more than his nation and responsibilities?

After Xie Yan’s death, Xie Chenyuan looked terribly calm but his eyes were terribly crazy.

No wonder why there were so many book fans trapped in this uncle-nephew relationship and couldn’t come out. The author had never explained their relationship so the book fans could only imagine the answer.

There was no answer so it became the most obsessive and moving thing.

Did Xie Chenyuan regret it?

There was no answer in the book and no one had an answer. If there was no answer, it became the most obsessive and moving thing.

Yao Chuan stared at the freeze-frame on the monitor screen and finally sighed with relief.

It should be said that the most difficult part of this script didn’t belong to the male and female protagonists but the uncle and nephew, Xie Chenyuan and Xie Yan. Now Qin Yue and Ji Li had handed him the most perfect answer sheet.

“It is over! Everyone has worked hard!”

The heavy atmosphere of the crew was finally relieved.

Xu Miaomiao ran to her assistant to ask for tissues. Zhou Qingming looked at Ji Li who was still in Qin Yue’s arms and left the filming position with a complicated expression.

Yao Chuan had shouted to stop work but not a lot of the staff members had left. Their eyes were on Ji Li’s body. After the scene just now, their hearts were filled with sadness.

Even the scene manager in charge of ordering food said in a weepy voice, “If I knew this was the case, I would’ve added a bit more food to Ji Li usually. This child hurts me to death.”

In their hearts, Ji Li was Xie Yan and Xie Yan was Ji Li.

They had to be distressed and heartbroken.

Qin Yue looked at Ji Li in his arms and his mood wasn’t relaxed. From the moment he started his monologue, he had felt Ji Li’s tense body.

Unlike Xie Yan, who died in the script, Ji Li could fully hear the truth about that time from his mouth.

Ji Li obviously knew it was the plot but he still got deeper and deeper.

The moment he heard Yao Chuan shouting ‘cut’, he buried his face in Qin Yue’s arms and cried uncontrollably until he collapsed.

Qin Yue signaled for the others not to come up first. He just caressed Ji Li’s back over and over, letting this person vent his emotions.

After a long time, the person in his arms calmed down.

Qin Yue stroked the side of Ji Li’s neck and spoke in a tone of gentleness that even he didn’t notice. “Is it better? Everyone cares about you. Be good and don’t cry.”

“……”

“It is time to play. Do you want to eat ice cream? I’ll buy it for you, okay?”

Ji Li said that he was used to eating ice cream when he was sad.

The man in his arms heard this and finally got up.

Ji Li covered his embarrassed face with his hands and answered through his fingers. It was sullen but mixed with cuteness.

“…Then Brother Yue, I want to eat the most expensive one.”

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Ji Li: The six yuan ice cream is no longer good enough.

Brother Yue who was affected by the cuteness. “*&%￥#@…Okay!”