The Director Gave Him Extra Points

"Later, I'll have the assistant director arrange for someone to stay close to you. Don't let strangers near."

Shen Qi offered the warning out of kindness.

He didn't want anyone groping her during the wedding games.

After all, they were all here to film a show.

If something happened, it would be awkward for everyone.

They still had at least another week or two of rural scenes to shoot, and they'd be dealing with the villagers throughout.

"Wait... would they actually try to touch me?"

Pan Yuchen was startled.

"It happens everywhere. People play games with the newlyweds in the city too."

Shen Qi had been to city weddings.

Some of his university classmates had gotten married almost as soon as they graduated.

"Do all those things in the script really happen in the countryside?"

Pan Yuchen kept her voice low.

"They do, but it's rare for them all to happen to one family or in one village. The show puts them together for dramatic effect."

Some things were exaggerated, others pieced together. Otherwise, where would all the drama come from?

Migrant Workers was fairly grounded in reality.

It didn't have a happy ending. The Ju Family's story ended in tragedy.

Because Ju Guangda spent years away from home and didn't even return for his son's wedding, and because of other things that happened, Ju Shuangyuan's mother, Liu Yanmei, gave in to her attraction to Guo Changyi, a man in the village who had long carried a torch for her.

Then Guo Changyi's wife made sure everyone knew about it.

Before Ju Shuangyuan and Li Ping's wedding, he told Li Ping not to mention in the village that she had lived with another man. She didn't listen and told Pan Tao, played by Liu Siyan.

Pan Tao didn't keep her secret.

Word spread through the village that Li Ping had lived with a man before marriage. It was the last straw for her mother-in-law, who died suddenly in the fields.

Ju Shuangyuan and Li Ping had a fierce confrontation.

Their marriage fell apart.

The Ju Family was shattered.

The show followed two generations of migrant workers who left home for the city, tracing their hopes, confusion, struggles, and compromises...

Through their stories, it laid bare the hardship and pain of real life.

"You two, come over here. Let's run through the scene first and try to get it in one take."

Kang Honglei had underestimated the villagers' enthusiasm too. They kept bringing up all sorts of rural wedding customs.

The script had already been rewritten several times.

"How are we supposed to rehearse with this many people?"

Shen Qi took care to protect his suit. If it got wrinkled, the crew had no spare.

"Pretend there's a crowd. I'll talk you through what they're doing..."

In truth, Kang Honglei trusted Shen Qi. It was Pan Yuchen, a city girl, whom he worried might struggle with the scene.

It wasn't a question of her acting ability.

With so many people milling around, one careless remark or one shove too many could ruin the shoot before it began.

After going over the details again, Shen Qi and Pan Yuchen were called in to film.

Shen Qi suggested having crew members pose as extras and surround them to keep the villagers from jostling them.

Kang Honglei strongly approved.

It was a sensible precaution.

Bad wedding customs existed all over the country, and they could be especially excessive in rural areas.

People usually excused them as "livening things up" or "sharing in the joy."

Some took liberties with the bride.

Some did the same to the bridesmaids.

Some even pulled humiliating pranks on the groom's father and the bride.

Of course, things like that happened in cities too.

Sometimes they went beyond anything a reasonable person could understand.

Thanks to Shen Qi's suggestion, he and Pan Yuchen had a much easier time.

Shen Qi was looking out for himself as well.

With his looks, he stood out even in the countryside.

If an auntie lunged at him to cop a feel, who could he complain to?

Still, they kept some wedding games for the sake of realism.

They just didn't let things go too far.

Some people called for him to carry her, others for them to kiss.

When a request wasn't too much, like carrying her, they went along with it.

Shen Qi carried Pan Yuchen straight to the place where they would bow for the ceremony.

Unable to lift his fellow actress?

That was never going to be a problem for Shen Qi.

If he ever married twins, he could carry both at once.

He'd heard that in some places, twins were expected to marry together.

The ceremony began.

First, they bowed to their families; second, to the villagers; then the couple bowed together...

It hardly felt different from a real wedding. If Shen Qi ever got married, he might as well consider it his second time.

"Excited, happy, a little shy..."

Pan Yuchen was the better actor.

Even while filming, she managed to quietly prompt Shen Qi to stay with the scene.

Finally, the newlyweds entered the bridal chamber together.

But before that came the more important part: toasting the guests.

They went from table to table.

Both filming units were shooting at the wedding.

With everything set up today, failing to finish in one day and having to do it all again would waste too much time and money.

By the time the wedding scenes were done, it really felt as though they'd gotten married.

Worse still, they had to film a funeral the next day.

At the end of the series, Ju Shuangyuan's mother, Liu Yanmei, died.

For Ju Shuangyuan as a son, and Ju Guangda as a husband, it was a devastating loss.

Complicating matters further was the fact that Liu Yanmei had been "unfaithful."

And there was Li Ping's past cohabitation with another man.

None of it would end with Liu Yanmei's death.

The story showed just how much damage gossip could do.

Yesterday Shen Qi had been filming a wedding. Today he had to play a man who had lost his mother.

Even though this was nothing new to him, being only a half-trained actor, Shen Qi struggled to find the right emotional footing for such a swing from joy to grief.

Fortunately, the funeral scene had fewer people on camera.

They didn't have to finish it all in one day.

And he still had the Magic Book. He had saved six parchment sheets of performance records for challenges like this.

"Leaving when you're having such a hard time doesn't feel right. I can take a few days off!"

Seeing how drained Shen Qi looked, Huang Qidao couldn't help thinking how hard Shen Qi worked to make a living as an actor.

"Just go. Get back to your classes!"

Shen Qi closed his eyes.

The scene he had to play now was Ju Shuangyuan accidentally overhearing the truth about Li Ping.

The anger, despair, and bewilderment were incredibly hard to convey.

He had already gone through three failed takes.

Huang Qidao had heard that some actors got too deep into their roles.

Even after filming ended, they couldn't shake them off. That was why Huang Qidao was so worried about Shen Qi.

But Shen Qi insisted that he leave.

He looked thoroughly impatient.

Huang Qidao stopped arguing and turned to go.

But he didn't actually return to the capital.

Even watching Shen Qi from a distance would put his mind at ease.

It was only two days off at the start of term. Beijing Sport University's graduate courses were notoriously halfhearted anyway.

The students went through the motions, and so did the teachers.

Though Shen Qi had failed three takes, he had found the feeling he needed.

He felt utterly defeated, yet burning with indignation.

Anger smoldered inside him, with nowhere to go.

He staggered down the alley, his gaze vacant and his face blank, as though his soul had left him.

"Run into him. Yes, right there!"

Kang Honglei shouted directions through his megaphone.

There was no dialogue in this part of the scene, so they didn't need to record sound.

Ju Shuangyuan bumped into a passerby and stumbled slightly—that tiny stumble particularly pleased Kang Honglei.

Ju Shuangyuan was over six feet tall and powerfully built. Few people could make him stumble without putting their weight behind it.

But right then, all the strength had gone out of him.

His whole world was collapsing.

Stumbling from a simple collision showed his state of mind all the better.

There was more to Shen Qi than met the eye.

He took acting seriously, learned quickly, and was willing to study his craft. He was a rare talent.

Kang Honglei had already decided to save a good role for Shen Qi in his next production.

Shen Qi had no idea he had earned himself more points with the director.

He had used Fan Ming's performance record, and he had genuinely sunk into the role. Before he knew it, he heard the director call, "Okay!"

They had the shot!

But Shen Qi didn't move. He didn't even drink the water someone handed him.

He just waited for the next scene.

"While you're in the right state, let's move locations and shoot the argument between you two."

Kang Honglei really was working Shen Qi to the bone.

He was a demanding director by nature.

Even though he worried about Shen Qi's condition, he wasn't about to go easy on him and give him a few days to recover.

They might as well film everything they could while Shen Qi was in the right state. Once the hardest scenes were done, the rest would be smooth sailing.

In truth, few actors could slip into a role when needed and step back out just as easily.

It was a challenge every actor had to face.

You could even call it a basic skill.

If you couldn't manage it, you couldn't make a living at this.

"All right. Let's shoot!"

Shen Qi nodded. He wasn't some fragile flower, and his resolve was strong.

He could handle getting even more worked up.

Next, an enraged Ju Shuangyuan grabbed Li Ping and dragged her home, demanding to know why she had told the villagers about living with another man.

That was when the clash between their beliefs came to a head.