Chapter 48

Chen Mo watched Mu Yu with a look of eager amusement and said teasingly, "Throwing yourself into my arms!"

In that instant, Mu Yu's body stiffened uncontrollably.

Noticing the brief flash in Mu Yu's eyes, Chen Mo deliberately asked in a wicked tone, "So, to avoid the awkward situation of being surrounded by couples when we go to the movies, you'll treat me to a special-effects movie, right?"

Mu Yu nodded slowly. As though afraid of causing Chen Mo to misunderstand, he said carefully but firmly, "I'll treat you to a special-effects movie."

Chen Mo smiled faintly and turned to get out of the car.

Mu Yu remained in the car, his gaze fixed tightly on Chen Mo. Only after Chen Mo's figure gradually disappeared into the film studio did he come back to himself and call his secretary.

Over the phone, Mu Yu asked solemnly, "Do you know what the scariest special-effects ghost movie released in the past two months is?"

The baffled secretary said, "..."

Chapter 48

After returning to the crew, Chen Mo discovered that the staff and most of the actors had become even friendlier toward him.

This time, however, it was not because Mu Yu had visited the set. It was because Father Chen and Mother Chen had used their professional advantages to put extra care into the boxed lunches delivered to the crew. At the same price, although the ingredients had not changed much, the food tasted more than twice as good. Anyone could figure out whose favor they had to thank for it. After all, people who ate someone else's food had to show some consideration, and Chen Mo himself was good at handling people. Director Wang valued him greatly, and he clearly had a promising future ahead. Everyone was happy to do him a favor and build a good relationship.

Thus, over the following days, Chen Mo keenly noticed that life on set had become much easier for him. At the very least, the makeup, camera, and lighting crews treated him more kindly. As filming progressed and his interactions with the other actors deepened, Chen Mo's performance also improved steadily.

About a week later, Director Wang saw that Chen Mo had gotten the hang of things and put his scenes back on the shooting schedule.

That day, they were still filming Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's first meeting with the two Qiaos.

At the sound of "Action," all three cameras began rolling. Sun Ce, played by Chen Mo, and Zhou Yu, played by Chen Yuxiu, rode white horses slowly down the street.

Wan City, which had just gone through a war, had gradually regained its usual peace and stability under Sun Ce's policy of recuperation and rebuilding. Shops along the streets stood wide open, peddlers and vendors called out their wares, and the scent of food came rushing toward them on the spring breeze. The bustling crowds and prosperous market left Sun Ce greatly pleased.

He smiled at Zhou Yu and said, "...As long as the land under my rule is like this—its people safe and sound, its towns prosperous—it will be enough. If it were still like it was some days ago, so silent you could not hear even dogs or chickens, without a soul to be seen in the streets, then even conquering the realm would hold no pleasure."

It was early spring, when the weather had only just begun to warm yet still carried a chill. The sunlight was bright and gentle, not blazing and scorching as it would be in midsummer or autumn.

Sun Ce wore a suit of armor as he sat upon his horse. Since he was not heading into battle, he wore no helmet. His dark hair was gathered beneath a white jade crown, and the warm spring sunlight poured over him in a halo, making his black hair seem like ink and his face like powdered jade.

His features were exquisite, his expression proud and commanding, and a faint smile habitually rested on his lips. When he spoke with Zhou Yu, those ink-black eyes settled upon him. Clear and sharply defined, they seemed to look straight into one's heart. Rich amusement spilled from the corners of his eyes and brows, frank and unrestrained, dazzling with every glance.

He made people feel as though they were basking in a spring breeze, winning their hearts without effort.

Zhou Yu instinctively returned the smile and said with heartfelt conviction, "My lord's ambition lies in the realm, but his heart lies with the people. You will surely achieve great things."

As soon as the words fell, the two exchanged a smile. No further words were needed; in that moment, the tacit understanding between these young friends, ruler and subject alike, had been displayed to the fullest.

"Cut!" Director Wang shouted with great satisfaction as he watched the monitor. "Very good, not bad. Let's do another take."

Chen Mo could not help laughing again. Director Zhang liked to slap his thigh whenever he called cut, while Wang Chusheng always had to add, "Very good, not bad, let's do another take." He wondered whether all directors had their own habitual little gestures while filming.

Chen Yuxiu had no idea that Chen Mo still had the leisure to think about such random things during filming. Seeing Chen Mo smile so happily, he assumed that Chen Mo was celebrating finally getting through without an NG. He smiled as well and comforted him, "Acting is something that gets easier with practice. Now that you're used to the atmosphere on set, doesn't it feel much better?"

Chen Mo smiled in response. After exchanging only a few words, the two began filming again...

As Chen Mo improved, the following shoots went exceptionally smoothly. Especially during the war and fight scenes, thanks to his training in the System Space, Chen Mo could not only fully understand the martial arts instructors' directions, but also "create" movements during actual filming that looked both beautiful and practical. The crew's martial arts instructors were thrilled.

This was most apparent in the scene where Sun Ce battled Taishi Ci. After training in the System Space, Chen Mo had personally experienced that scene and had been deeply impressed by Taishi Ci's martial prowess.

However, when filming began, Chen Mo found the fighting routine designed by the martial arts instructors rather unsatisfying. So, while the instructors fed him moves, he occasionally incorporated some of the counters he had learned in the System Space.

Combat movements refined through actual battle naturally had more texture than routines imagined out of thin air by martial arts instructors. Chen Mo's performance made Director Wang, who had been watching him closely, light up. Remembering that Chen Mo knew martial arts and seemed quite skilled at it, Director Wang called him over and asked with a smile, "What is it? Got some ideas?"

"A few." Chen Mo flashed a brilliant smile and, without any false modesty, stated his thoughts directly.

Director Wang pondered briefly, then waved over the stunt double playing Taishi Ci. "You," he said, "go exchange a few moves with Chen Mo. Let me see how it looks."

The stunt double said nothing upon hearing this. He glanced at Chen Mo before walking onto the set. Several other martial arts instructors also ambled over. Though they did not openly state their opinions, they did not think much of Chen Mo's suggestion. They all understood that fight choreography for the camera differed from real combat. Some moves worked well in real life but might not look good onscreen, and audiences might not necessarily understand their deeper meaning.

Of course, some also felt that Chen Mo, an actor, was overstepping his bounds by meddling with martial arts choreography. They simply could not say much because of Director Wang's attitude and Chen Mo's background.

Their silence at that moment was not entirely without the intention of waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

Chen Mo naturally understood this as well. Thus, when exchanging moves, he took visual appeal into account and only demonstrated the moves and poses he had seen in the System Space that he found particularly stunning. The finest of them were naturally the mounted spear exchanges between Taishi Ci and Sun Ce.

Chen Mo still remembered that, in the System Space, Sun Ce thrust his spear forward. Taishi Ci leaned aside on horseback, not moving very far, yet appearing completely calm and at ease. Then he grabbed Sun Ce's spear shaft with one hand and gave it a light tug backward while thrusting his own spear forward. Sun Ce reacted just as quickly, shifting slightly and catching Taishi Ci's spear.

Their movements locked in a stalemate. Sun Ce simply flipped down from his horse, rolled across the ground as he landed, and spun his spear at the same time, using the momentum to knock Taishi Ci from his horse. The two then faced off with spears on foot, trading three or four dozen exchanges. The entire sequence flowed smoothly and effortlessly, yet every move was razor-sharp and filled with murderous intent.

Watching it had made Chen Mo's heart race. He had wished he could take Sun Ce's place himself.

Therefore, during his later training in the System Space, Chen Mo had not only learned Sun Ce's spear techniques, but had also specially immersed himself in Taishi Ci's role, learning Taishi Ci's spearwork and archery.

Now that he displayed them, there was a faint air of ten years of practice for one minute onstage.

Naturally, after Sun Ce and Taishi Ci lost their weapons and began fighting barehanded, along with the parts where their battle tore their robes to shreds, Chen Mo conveniently forgot all of that.

As the saying went, when an expert made a move, one immediately knew whether they had the real thing. The moment Chen Mo demonstrated these movements, Director Wang at the monitor and the martial arts instructors gathered around the set all brightened.

In the middle of the crowd stood a young general, white horse beneath him and spear in hand, handsome as a jade tree in the wind. His spearwork flowed like moving clouds and carried the force of a tiger, as though a fierce general had been reborn.

Yao Xining, who played Taishi Ci, was delighted as well. Since Chen Mo's entire set of movements had been designed for him, although he personally could not perform them and would have to use a stunt double, the face shown on the big screen in the end would still be his.

With such a sequence to guarantee his appeal, he would probably receive many more invitations to act in action films and wuxia dramas in the future.

Only Taishi Ci's stunt double was unhappy. Chen Mo's actions had invisibly increased his workload, and he could not even get paid more for it. Naturally, the stunt double was displeased. Though he said nothing, his movements while feeding Chen Mo the choreography became perfunctory.

They completely lacked the spirit and energy Chen Mo had displayed in his own demonstration.

Chen Mo did not care. It was not his responsibility to stir up an actor's emotions. He only needed to design the movements clearly according to Director Wang's instructions. The rest would naturally be handled by the director.

Sure enough, after shooting several takes without achieving the desired effect, Wang Chusheng angrily called "Cut!" He told everyone to rest for a few minutes, then signaled for the assistant director to take the stunt double off the set.

During the break, Yao Xining, who played Taishi Ci, patted Chen Mo on the shoulder and said with a grin, "After feeding me all those moves, you've made Taishi Ci look stronger than Sun Ce."

Actually, Yao Xining was also curious about Chen Mo's actions. Having been in the industry for so many years, he had seen actors terrified of failing to stand out onscreen, desperate to use every possible means to add scenes and steal attention. Someone like Chen Mo, who clearly had the ability to give himself more scenes yet was willing to make someone else shine, was truly rare.

When Chen Mo designed the movements, he had only considered recreating the original plot as faithfully as possible. He had not thought as deeply as Yao Xining. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "The two were evenly matched to begin with. Otherwise, Sun Ce would not have remained so preoccupied with Taishi Ci after that battle."

Only then could Sun Ce's eagerness to recruit worthy talent be shown even more clearly.

Chen Mo felt that the original story's logic was sound.

Yet to Yao Xining's ears, Chen Mo became even more likable.

Afterward, Wang Chusheng also discovered that whenever Chen Mo filmed martial arts or war scenes, he was completely in his element. Not only could he bring his own scenes vividly to life, he could also inspire the others. In particular, when filming large-scale battle scenes, Chen Mo even had excellent insights into troop formations and deployment.

During filming, he used his own knowledge to help the crew arrange the extras into battle formations. The way he pointed out strategies and commanded the scene made it seem as though the Little Conqueror of Jiangdong had truly possessed him.

By the end, Wang Chusheng could not help saying, "If I'd known Chen Mo had such a gift for action scenes, we should've filmed those first. We wouldn't have wasted so much time."

They had originally assumed that, since Chen Mo debuted in idol dramas, he would be more familiar with emotional scenes. Now it seemed Director Wang had been wrong from the beginning.

Chen Yuxiu, who played Zhou Yu, smiled and chimed in, teasing Chen Mo, "A hero in his youth indeed. All you think about is making achievements and building a career, not romantic entanglements."

That was why he had stumbled over emotional scenes for so long.

After so many days of filming, Chen Mo had already integrated into the crew's atmosphere. Since he often rehearsed privately with Chen Yuxiu, Lu Xiaonong, and Zhao Lan, they had all become familiar with one another.