Xu Yanzhi crouched down, set the prop knife aside, and reached out to help him up.
His eyes were still slightly red, but Song Shi'an's remark had already derailed his expression, leaving his lips pressed together in a barely suppressed smile.
Song Shi'an grabbed his arm and stood up, brushing the dust off his costume.
"How was my acting just now?"
Xu Yanzhi looked at his face, smeared with fake blood and dust, and his carefree grin, then fell silent for two seconds.
"The part where you licked the blood," he said. "If you'd warned me beforehand, I wouldn't have nearly failed to keep up."
"But if I'd warned you, you wouldn't have been shocked," Song Shi'an said with complete confidence. "And without that shock, you wouldn't have been Qin Yan."
Xu Yanzhi thought about it and actually found it somewhat reasonable.
After removing his makeup and changing, Song Shi'an had just left the dressing room when he ran into Xiao Zhou, one of the set assistants.
Xiao Zhou was holding a bulging kraft paper bag, which she pushed into his hands.
"Brother Shi'an, this is a little wrap gift the crew gives every actor. There are snacks and signed production stills inside."
Song Shi'an took it, glanced inside, and thanked her.
He shouldered his backpack, said goodbye to a few staff members he knew on set, and headed toward the film studio complex's main gate.
It was already the following afternoon when he returned to campus.
Song Shi'an wheeled his suitcase through the campus gates. The leaves along Parasol Tree Avenue had begun to turn yellow.
The trees had still been deep green when he left, but by his return, their crowns were already edged in gold. The late-September breeze felt much cooler against his skin.
Fully armed with his usual mask and cap, he kept his head down and walked briskly toward the dormitory.
When he pushed open the dorm room door, Chi Xun was sitting in a chair eating instant noodles.
Hearing the door, he looked up, and his chopsticks fell from his hand.
"Shi'an!" Chi Xun sprang to his feet, nearly knocking over his bowl of noodles. "You're back! Why didn't you tell us beforehand?"
"I posted in the group chat."
"You said 'back tomorrow,' not what time in the afternoon!" Chi Xun circled him, inspecting him from every angle, then pushed up his glasses. "Good, you haven't lost weight. The food on set must've been decent."
"Two boxed meals every meal," Song Shi'an said, dragging his suitcase over to his bed. "But that costume had three layers. With the belt cinched around my waist every day, I couldn't eat any more after half a box."
Chi Xun's expression instantly turned anguished and indignant. "Three layers? Your character really had it rough, having to die and wear three layers. Was the pay good?"
"The rate for a featured actor. Not bad." Song Shi'an gave a vague answer, then glanced around the room. "Where are Jiang Ye and Pei Zhiyan?"
"Jiang Ye went to play basketball. Old Pei should be in class."
The words had barely left his mouth when the dorm room door swung open.
Jiang Ye came in with his hair drenched in sweat and a basketball in his hands. His first reaction upon seeing Song Shi'an was to toss the ball onto the floor, stride over, and clap him on the shoulder.
"Bro! I missed you to death! If you hadn't come back soon, I was going to visit you on set!"
"Was it really me you missed?" Song Shi'an rubbed his shoulder, numb from the slap. "You just wanted me to save you a seat, didn't you?"
"Both, both," Jiang Ye said with a chuckle, then leaned closer and lowered his voice. "It's all over the campus confession wall that you played a eunuch. Is it true?"
"It's true."
Jiang Ye looked at him with an expression that said, "Bro, have you been kidnapped?" Only after a long while did he manage to squeeze out, "Can you still play other roles after this? You won't be stuck playing eunuchs forever, will you?"
Song Shi'an gave the question serious thought. "Probably not. I'm planning to play a normal person next."
"What kind of normal person?"
"Haven't decided yet, but definitely not a eunuch."
Reassured, Jiang Ye picked up the basketball and shoved it under his bed, then turned to Chi Xun. "Dinner together at the cafeteria tonight to celebrate Shi'an wrapping filming. Your treat."
Chi Xun pushed up his glasses. "Why is it my treat?"
"Because you're the richest."
"That's my scholarship money!"
"So you've got money, haven't you?"
Watching them bicker, Song Shi'an smiled and opened his suitcase to start unpacking.
He set the bag of wrap gifts from the crew on his desk and put his toiletries back beside the sink.
His phone vibrated. He tapped it open and saw a message from the crew of The Emperor's Ambition, essentially thanking him for his performance and saying they would notify him to help with promotion once postproduction was complete.
He replied, "Okay, thank you," and put his phone down.
Outside the window, the parasol trees cast shadows on the dorm room wall, swaying in the wind.
Jiang Ye and Chi Xun were still refusing to budge over who would pay for dinner. Laughter and chatter drifted from the room next door, and slippers slapped along the corridor.
Song Shi'an leaned back in his chair and let out a breath.
Second cannon fodder, successfully wrapped.
On his first weekend back after wrapping filming, Song Shi'an spent two solid days sleeping in the dorm.
He woke up once on Saturday and blearily checked his phone. Eleven thirty.
Chi Xun was eating instant noodles below his bunk. Hearing him stir, he looked up and said, "You're finally awake. I thought you'd slept yourself to death." Song Shi'an rolled over, mumbled a response, and fell asleep again.
By the time he opened his eyes again, it was dark. Chi Xun was still sitting below, only the instant noodles had been replaced with takeout.
"You haven't even changed positions," Chi Xun said, pushing up his glasses. "I'm starting to suspect you went off to haul bricks at a construction site, not act."
Song Shi'an buried his face in his pillow, his voice muffled. "Standing in a studio in three layers of costume for ten days wasn't much different from hauling bricks."
On Sunday, he slept through another morning and only fully woke up in the afternoon.
When he came out of the shower, Chi Xun was sitting in his chair scrolling through his phone. He glanced up at him.
"Why do I feel like you're even paler than before you left? Didn't you say it was hot on set?"
"Most of the scenes were shot indoors. Only two were on location," Song Shi'an answered casually, drying his hair with a towel.
Song Shi'an sat down in his chair and opened his suitcase to start putting things away. There was a production still signed by the principal cast and crew of The Emperor's Ambition. He pulled it out for a look. Xu Yanzhi's signature sprawled across most of one corner in flying dragons and dancing phoenixes, while his own character's name, "Meng Zhen," was written in the bottom right in such tiny lettering that it went unnoticed without a close look.
Chi Xun leaned over for a glance. "Xu Yanzhi's autograph? Did you get one for me?"
"No. He stabbed me in the drama, so I felt too awkward to ask."
"He stabbed you, not your face! What did you have to feel awkward about?"
Song Shi'an laughed and slipped the still into a textbook on his shelf.
After reporting back from leave on Monday, his days returned to the rhythm of classes and food deliveries.
The weather had cooled considerably by late September. The leaves along Parasol Tree Avenue were beginning to yellow, and whenever the wind blew, a few spiraled down onto the pavement.
Every day, Song Shi'an rode his little electric scooter around campus. When he had class, he went to the classroom and claimed a window seat in the back row; when he didn't, he put on his helmet and mask and headed out to make deliveries.
There were fewer delivery orders after the semester began than during summer vacation, but no one would take the stair-climbing orders to sixth-floor apartments in older residential complexes. After a while, his legs no longer ached. Climbing six floors was like walking on level ground, and he could even take the steps two at a time along the way.