Xi Jia approached, "What is it?"
Seeing her arrogant, cocky, and absent-minded demeanor, Zhou Mingqian suddenly lost his patience. He pointed to a line on a page of the script and said, "Useless!" On camera, this part of the dialogue was pretentious and lacked tension.
Xi Jia looked at it carefully and didn't think anything was wrong. Coupled with his attitude and tone, or perhaps the sudden hearing loss, it made her lose her usual good mood.
She blurted out, "Okay, I understand. Director Zhou, please calm down, otherwise the fire hydrant will look like a flame and the chicken leg will look like a useless piece of meat."
Suddenly, silence fell over the surroundings. Everyone exchanged bewildered glances. Xi Jia was undoubtedly the first person to dare confront Zhou Mingqian directly.
Jiang Qin sipped her coffee leisurely, with an expression of watching the show unfold.
Mo Yushen was worried that Xi Jia would be bullied on set; he would be grateful if she didn't bully anyone.
Zhou Mingqian's face was even more gloomy than a snowy day. He didn't say a word and just stared straight at Xi Jia.
Yu An was now standing on pins and needles. To ease the tension, she quickly handed Zhou Mingqian a water glass. Zhou Mingqian took it, but his cold gaze remained on Xi Jia.
Yu An wanted to bring Xi Jia a hot drink, but he was stopped by a scolding as soon as he took a step.
"Yu An, where are you going!" Zhou Mingqian's stern voice rang out again.
Yu An lowered his eyes, not daring to take another step forward.
Zhou Mingqian never imagined that one day he would be ridiculed by a woman.
He's still an amateur.
Xi Jia met his gaze with a defiant look, showing no sign of backing down.
All scripts undergo re-creation during filming, with additions and subtractions, which is normal. However, this particular scene required Xi Jia to spend a whole day and night writing more than a dozen versions before finally settling on the final version.
As a result, Zhou Mingqian spoke so rudely and even said in public that it was a useless thing.
Even if you just tell her behind her back that you want to cut something, she won't get that angry.
These past few days, the temperature in Beijing has been around minus five or six degrees Celsius. Even wearing my last down jacket, the cold wind still seeps into my bones.
The staff members all had a tough job, and Xi Jia didn't want to delay the filming schedule, so she didn't argue with Zhou Mingqian anymore.
She tried to convince herself that Zhou Mingqian was a director with a broader vision than her, and that he wanted to express something different and interpret things from a different perspective. He had his reasons for making the cuts.
Another screenwriter in the crew, Teacher Shang, called out to her, "Xi Jia, come over here."
Seeing that Xi Jia didn't react, Yu An thought she was still angry and hadn't calmed down, so she quickly reminded her, "Sister Xi Jia, Teacher Shang is calling you over."
Xi Jia was stunned again.
She nodded, smiled, and walked over.
"Teacher Shang, aren't you cold?"
“I’ve worked on film crews before, and the conditions were even worse than this. I’m used to it.” Teacher Shang moved the stool to the right, where it was sheltered from the wind, for Xi Jia to sit on.
Teacher Shang: "I watched the dialogue in that scene just now, and from our screenwriter's perspective, it's impeccable."
Xi Jia said gratefully, "Thank you. You flatter me, Professor Shang."
Teacher Shang: "Directors have their own perspective, which we often don't understand. In the future, avoid direct confrontation. If you were in Director Zhou's shoes, you might have an even bigger temper than him. This drama is his life's work; how could he not want it to be even more perfect?"
"You're clearly spoiled by your family's darling. You can't stand the slightest grievance, just like my daughter."
Ms. Shang is in her forties and is also a mother.
Xi Jia pondered for a moment: "I'll be more careful in the future."
During this period, she learned a lot from Teacher Shang and benefited greatly from working with him.
She and Teacher Shang had a clear division of labor: she was responsible for the psychology and emotions of young people, while Teacher Shang had a better grasp of the psychology of middle-aged people than she did.
The two worked together very well.
She had previously worried that there would be friction between the two screenwriters working together. Now, it seems that her worries were completely unnecessary.
The crew members are all nice, except for Zhou Mingqian, of course.
Zhou Mingqian drank a glass of water, which calmed him down considerably. He rubbed his temples, unable to describe his feelings at that moment.
He got up and went to give Xiang Luo and Huo Teng some acting advice.
Subconsciously, he scanned the film set and spotted that figure.
Xi Jia quickly adjusted her mood, found a warm place to read the script, and took notes.
She wrote that her hands trembled slightly involuntarily as her hearing deteriorated.
She can hear things up close without any problem, but she can't hear anything from further away.
While she was lost in thought, Wu Yang sent her a message saying that he was coming to visit the set over the weekend and asked if she was on set.
Xi Jia: [Yes, I'm here every day.]
The drama was filmed in two locations: Beijing and the mountains.
The mountain retreat was chosen to be Mr. Yue's hometown, the place where she recuperated.
They're filming winter scenes in Beijing and spring scenes in the mountains. If filming goes smoothly here, the crew will move to the mountains in March.
Having agreed on a time for Xi Jia to visit the set with Wu Yang, Xi Jia gathered her thoughts and continued writing.
Not far away, Jiang Qin was reading a script. It was cold, so her assistant gave her a blanket to put on her lap and handed her a hand warmer.
Jiang Qin glanced at Xi Jia every now and then. Xi Jia's nose was red from the cold, and the back of her hands was also red, but she was still writing non-stop.
Filming has only been going on for a little over ten days, and that thick notebook is already more than two-thirds full. On set, besides discussing the script with the actors, Xi Jia spends all her time writing.
She had originally planned that as long as she made sure no one bullied Xi Jia on set, she could just pick fights with Xi Jia to pass the time.
Now, she feels it's meaningless again.
Jiang Qin put the blanket and hand warmer on the chair, picked up the script, and walked around the film set, reading as she went.
The assistant assumed that she would stay warm standing like that, so she didn't say anything and wrapped the hand warmer in the blanket.
Jiang Qin goes wherever there's a road, and sometimes she even goes over lines with Huo Teng.
As he wandered around, he walked up behind Zhou Mingqian, who happened to be standing up and leaning over to look at another monitor. He said a few words of advice to the assistant director.
After giving him his instructions, Zhou Mingqian was about to sit down when Jiang Qin gently pulled his chair back. Zhou Mingqian only sat on about a third of the chair, and the chair almost tipped over, startling him.
Jiang Qin reached out to support him at the right moment, pretending to be a good person: "Director Zhou, be careful."
Zhou Mingqian: "Thank you, it's nothing."
Today, even drinking cold water is a struggle.
Jiang Qin's assistant brought her a phone; a call came in from Mo Yushen.
Jiang Qin answered the call in a quiet place. "What is it? Speak quickly," she said in an unfriendly tone.
Mo Yushen: "I'm going to visit the set, I'll be there in ten minutes."
Jiang Qin: "..."
Before she could say anything, the phone was hung up.
Mo Yushen hadn't seen Xi Jia for more than ten days, and his flight had just arrived in Beijing that afternoon.
On the plane, Secretary Ding asked him if he wanted to visit Jiang Qin on set.
Mo Yushen said reluctantly, "Then let's go take a look on the way."
As soon as Secretary Ding left the airport, he called a coffee shop and ordered over two hundred cups of coffee to be delivered to the film crew. He then said to Mo Yushen, "Mr. Mo, we didn't order one for Mrs. Mo. We don't know what flavor she prefers."
Mo Yushen: "I'll buy it for her."
He didn't buy her coffee because it would affect her sleep, but he bought her a glass of milk instead.
It's perfectly normal for Mo Yushen to visit the set. Most of the people in Zhou Mingqian's production team know Mo Yushen, and his company is an investor in this TV series.
Every time Mo Yushen visited the set, the entire crew was provided with food and drinks.
It's a hot drink now, and there will be a big meal at the resort hotel tonight.
Mo Yushen greeted Zhou Mingqian and sat down to talk to Jiang Qin.
He didn't see Xi Jia; he searched around but couldn't find her.
"Where is she? Didn't she come to the set?"
Jiang Qin tilted her chin slightly towards a corner, "Over there."
Mo Yushen looked in the direction Jiang Qin indicated and saw Xi Jia quietly writing something in a corner. She wasn't taking notes; it seemed she was revising a script.
"Does she do this every day?"
Jiang Qin hummed in agreement.
"Is anyone bullying her?"
"...Who dares?" Zhou Mingqian yelled at Xi Jia this afternoon, so she got her revenge.
Mo Yushen dialed Xi Jia's number, and she answered quickly.
"husband."
"Hmm." Mo Yushen looked at her and lowered his voice: "Turn around."
Xi Jia didn't hear her. "Hello? Can you hear me? My signal might be bad."
Mo Yushen hung up the phone. With people around, he couldn't speak too loudly, so he sent Xi Jia a message: "Turn around."
Xi Jia turned around and immediately saw Mo Yushen. A smile suddenly appeared on her lips.
Jiang Qin took a few sips of coffee, glanced at Mo Yushen, then at Xi Jia, watching from afar like lovers meeting on a magpie bridge.
She cleared her throat and said loudly to Xi Jia, "Screenwriter Xi, our CEO Mo wants to fully understand this drama. I can't explain it clearly, so could you come over and talk to him?"
Now everyone heard it.
Zhou Mingqian glanced at Mo Yushen out of the corner of his eye. This man was hopeless; he was using a pretext to see his lover. Jiang Qin was also a fool; she didn't even realize that Mo Yushen was using her, and she was still happily covering for him.
Having completed her task, Jiang Qin leaned close to Mo Yushen's ear and whispered, "You blocked me on WeChat before, apologize to me, or I won't be so kind next time!"
She rolled her eyes at him again.
Xi Jia has arrived.
Jiang Qin grabbed a coffee and went to her assistant to ask for the script to read.