IPCFS: Chapter 37

“Action!”

The camera started to slowly move backwards.

Ji Li held the strap of his backpack in one hand and walked slowly toward the door.

Inside the house that was separated by the door, a woman’s suppressed and pained cries for help were heard intermittently and gathered in people’s hearts.

Ji Li’s eyes darkened slightly. The bag slipped from his hand and fell at his feet like garbage.

He looked at the ground in an expressionless manner before bending down to pick up a nearby old, gray brick, hiding it silently behind him.

The closed door of the house was opened by him.

The woman had fallen to the cold ground, her eyes full of fear and the desire for death. She curled up slightly and struggled, and the blood on her forehead was familiar and piercing.

His stepfather heard the movement and looked at him drunkenly. “Oh, the sl*t is back?”

Ji Li lowered his eyes to avoid this person’s gaze, a trace of hatred overflowing from the depths of his eyes.

He stood still and looked at Mother Xiang, who was struggling to remove the rope. “Mom, I’m back.”

His stepfather saw that he was being ignored and threw the belt directly on the woman’s body before ordering the young man, “Get lost  and return to your room! Can’t you see that I am teaching this woman? Eh?”

He staggered forward, his face as stinky as ever. “Do you want me to beat you to death?”

Ji Li saw the opportunity and directly swung the brick that he had hidden behind him. “The one who deserves that is you.”

Bang!

The brick exploded against the man’s head and shattered to pieces.

The brick was a powdered prop that the crew had prepared in advance. The blood pack hidden in Wei Guofu’s wig immediately burst and flowed down his ‘wound.’

The cameraman was very good, and the lens panned between the two people.

On the monitor, the contrast between the two people on the screen was extremely obvious and eye-catching.

One was thin and the other was tall, but they could present an aura that was completely opposite to their own.

The young man on the left released a monstrous killing intent, and his soft appearance had become colder. He was like a sharp knife, and anyone who got close to him would feel cold all over.

The man on the right staggered two steps. He was awakened from his drunken state by the sharp pain. He reached out to touch the blood on his face, and he fell back in disbelief.

Wei Guofu was worthy of being an old actor. He fell to the ground very suddenly, but he didn’t groan in pain.

The stepfather’s face was covered with blood, and he raised his eyelids with difficulty. It seemed he hadn’t completely fainted.

Mother Xiang was frightened and dumbfounded by the sudden change. She couldn’t help calling out, “…An An?”

Xiang Suian glanced at his mother before bending down to pick up the belt on the ground. He had learned from the past movements of his scumbag stepfather and wrapped the belt around his white and slender palm.

The young man in the camera seemed expressionless, but anyone who looked carefully could find that he had many slight changes.

The blue veins on the back of Ji Li’s hand appeared little by little, as if they could break through the thin skin of his hand at any time, the gathered fierceness in his eyes…

Then after four or five seconds, his aura became terrifying.

The group saw this familiar movement, and their hairs stood up.

Someone couldn’t help whispering, “Oh my god, why do I feel like Xiang Suian doing this action is scarier than his scumbag stepfather?”

“Ji Li is too strong! It has been half an hour at most. It is the same role, but the feeling of the performance is completely different!”

The same character, the same scene, and even the lines hadn’t changed too much.

Yet it was this ‘almost identical’ filming mode that made Ji Li’s aura show obvious differences. It didn’t feel abrupt or broken.

“Who cares? I want Xiang Suian to kill his stepfather!”

The moment a staff member finished speaking, Ji Li started to unleash a fierce strength.

“Don’t you like domestic violence?”

—Slap!

“Don’t you like to hit people with a belt?”

—Slap!

“Don’t you want to beat us to death?”

—Slap!

The young man’s soft face was tinged with a maliciousness that caused heart palpitations. Every time he asked a question, he would hit his stepfather, who was on the verge of fainting, with the belt.

Blue veins bulged on his forehead, and there was fine sweat dripping down his face. The force of his hits became heavier, and the more he continued, the heavier the killing intent became.

Wang Zhang and Qin Yue exchanged looks in front of the monitor, and the former sighed slightly. “Using the strength of the whip to convey the intensification of the character’s emotions and to materialize their emotions—this kid Ji Li has a great sense of proportion about the character.”

Qin Yue heard this compliment, and a trace of approval flashed in his eyes.

It wasn’t so much Ji Li interpreting the character as it was him interpreting the ‘self’ in the script. His sense of proportion came from a natural empathy with his character.

Just then, the filming Ji Li made a timely change.

The young man’s face turned red. Unexpected tears burst out, and he roared while crying.

“The one who should be beaten is you!”

“You are the one who deserves to die!”

“For all these years, why did you treat us like that? Tell me! What qualifications do you have to treat us like that?”

“—Ah!!!”

The rhythm of the beating gradually became chaotic, and the strength wasn’t as neat and decisive as before.

After all, Xiang Suian was a sensitive teenager, and he would never become a cruel and violent murderer.

Finally, he fell to his knees in front of the man, covering his face while crying bitterly.

“Why?”

“Why did I do wrong? I’m so tired, I’m really tired…”

His inner breakdown would intensify with every rebirth.

He was obviously familiar with the details and wanted to change it again and again, but it was still a bottomless abyss in the end.

“An An, Mom knows that you are tired. You are obedient, the most obedient… you are okay. Don’t scare Mom.”

Mother Xiang was obviously stunned by his reaction.

She struggled to remove the rope and moved to the young man’s side with great effort. She pressed her already crying face against his cold and trembling hand. “An An, it is Mom who is wrong. I shouldn’t bother you…”

Xiang Suian lowered his hands and stared at Mother Xiang with red eyes.

The woman’s body was a mess, and the gentle eyes in his memories had long been beaten by the years and lost their light.

Xiang Suian wiped away his tears and silently untied the rope around his mother’s body.

He had gone through so many rebirths and could already untie this rope with the fastest speed.

Mother Xiang stared at him in a trance. “An An?”

“Mom, wait for me.” Xiang Suian saw the bruises at the corner of the woman’s eyes and looked away weakly.

He got up, easily retrieved a bag of simple luggage from inside the cupboard, and walked back. “You go. The further you go, the better.”

Mother Xiang stiffened, and her slightly open mouth froze. She was unable to utter a single word.

This duffel bag was actually packed by her in the morning.

Xiang Suian snorted indifferently and put on a bitter smile. “I know you want to escape, but you can’t leave me alone.”

The meal on the night that his third year of high school started was actually the last meal cooked by his mother. She had already secretly contacted a friend from another province and planned to escape again.

The reason why his stepfather beat her was because he heard her and her friend on the phone.

Xiang Suian carried the luggage with one hand and led her to the door of the house with the other.

A few seconds later, Mother Xiang looked at the luggage stuffed into her hand and burst out crying. “An An, can you forgive me?”

She had really reached her limit. If she didn’t leave this time, then there was only one dead end in her life.

Xiang Suian hugged her gently, his voice hoarse. “You aren’t wrong, and I don’t blame you. You have raised me until I turned 18, and I will go my own way in the future.”

The young man’s tone was very slow, and he seemed familiar with this type of parting.

“Remember, don’t contact me after running away. You can treat it as if you don’t have a child.”

“I won’t go with you. I will stay here and help you watch him. I won’t let him go to you again. Don’t be afraid.”

The camera moved behind Ji Li. Song Xingchen slowly raised her hand, but she never dared put it on her child’s back.

She was afraid of being soft-hearted.

She admitted that she was a cowardly and incompetent mother who not only made her life a mess, but also brought her own flesh and blood into such dire straits.

“I’m sorry, An An.”

After a brief hug, Mother Xiang walked away resolutely.

The night covered her thin figure and also took away the last trace of warmth from the young man’s home.

Ji Li stood alone in the doorway, motionless.

In a trance, the words that Mu Suian told him in the lounge came to mind.

–Ji Li, the thing I regret the most in my life is crying to make my mother stay on the night of my first day of senior year in high school.

–She was soft-hearted and promised not to leave. Yet two days later, she was beaten up again in the middle of the night and thrown into the river in front of the house by the drunken scumbag.

-Later, the scumbag pleaded guilty and surrendered himself. I guarded her swollen and white corpse for three days. Even though my tears dried up, I couldn’t get her to call me ‘An An’ again.

–If life could be repeated, I swore I would send her away with a smile.

Ji Li took two deep breaths and tried his best to hold back his tears. He took out the photo from his pocket and held it tightly in the palm of his hand.

After a while, he pulled out a sincere smile and whispered, “Mom, goodbye.”

The wind of the autumn night was quiet and swept away the young man’s last farewell.

From now on, he was really an orphan that no one wanted.

***

The five minute long shot ended with loneliness and relief.

The staff members were brought to tears and secretly wiped away their tears. “Mother Xiang is too cruel. She just left, and An An is alone. Will he still be able to live once his scumbag stepfather wakes up?”

“Domestic violence should be da*ned!” Someone else responded. “Oh, Ji Li’s performance was too good at the end.”

Wang Zhang suppressed the throbbing of his heart and shouted, “Cut! It’s over!”

Song Xingchen walked out from the shadows. Her tears still hadn’t completely stopped, and she hugged Ji Li who was standing in the same place. “My good son, thank you for your hard work.”

The other person’s embrace was very warm and carried the familiar smell of his mother. This relieved Ji Li’s heaviness from the scene in a timely manner.

“It wasn’t hard. Thank you, Teacher Song.”

Ji Li withdrew from her arms and hurriedly walked to Wei Guofu’s side. “Teacher Wei, just now…”

“No need.”

Wei Guofu raised his hand generously and stopped the unspoken apology. “Everything is for the better effect of the movie. A junior like you knows this, so how can I be hypocritical as a senior?”

Song Xingchen nodded in agreement.

Ji Li smiled and bowed deeply to the two veteran actors. “Thank you. This time, I benefited a lot from being able to act with you.”

Wei Guofu’s eyes were full of appreciation. “I have acted in many works, and I have never met a young actor like you who didn’t get an NG in a one-shot.”

Song Xingchen added, “I didn’t see you hold the script the entire time. It seems that you have remembered it all in your heart.”

The onlookers heard this and suddenly realized.

Yes!

Ji Li never held the script from start to finish!

He didn’t make any mistakes even in his initial audition.

How many young actors could achieve such memory and concentration?

In addition to being shocked, the staff members felt admiration and couldn’t help discussing it in a low voice.

“I’ll just say it here. If Ji Li can’t become popular, then who can become popular?”

“Do you still need to say it? Anyone who isn’t blind can tell that he must have a place in the future movie circle.”

Qin Yue walked up calmly and silently stood beside Ji Li.

“Teachers, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and make a cameo appearance. I will invite you to dinner when I return to Shanghai and you are free.”

Song Xingchen didn’t reject his invitation and nodded. She instead asked, “Okay, can Ji Li come as well? I can’t eat in this movie, so I plan to have a meal with my ‘son’ outside the movie.”

Qin Yue readily agreed, “Yes, I will take him with me next time.”

Ji Li nodded cooperatively, completely unaware of the subtlety of the man’s words.

The crew’s photographer walked up. “Teachers, can I take a group photo?”

“Of course.”

Qin Yue took the initiative to give up his position and let the ‘family of three’ stand in a group photo.

Ji Li was favored by the two veteran actors and pushed to the middle. He heard the photographer’s instructions and revealed a bright and satisfied smile.

Qin Yue stood to the side. He saw that Ji Li wasn’t invested in the scene like the previous two times, and the worry in his heart completely dissipated.

“Qin Yue, it is almost time to go.”

Qi An came over at this time.

The company’s quarterly meeting was tomorrow, and the two of them had never been absent.

They changed their flight to the latest flight and now had to leave. It would probably be one or two in the morning when they arrived at their homes in Shanghai.

Ji Li finished taking the group photo and happened to hear this sentence. “Brother Yue, are you leaving in a hurry?”

Qin Yue nodded.

Then he praised the young man in front of everyone, “You performed very well in this scene and completely raised my expectations for this investment project.”

Ji Li smiled, and his eyes curved slightly. “Thank you, Brother Yue.”

Qin Yue looked around at the lively staff. He was afraid that his appreciation of Ji Li would bring him some inconvenience.

He thought about it for a moment before calling over Feng Cheng from his company. He gave a few instructions in the tone of a boss.

Feng Cheng obviously hadn’t expected that Qin Yue would give him instructions alone. He nodded in a flattered manner, and his eyes were full of energy. He was already inwardly screaming in his heart.

Ahhh, I’ll work hard, Boss! I won’t let you down, Boss!

Proofreader: Azure