But seeing this, Qin An felt a bit uncomfortable and, regardless of whether his brother could see it or not, he walked straight over to Ruan Tian’s chair, “Don’t you want to use a stand-in, ah? It’s painful to fall like that.”
By now Ruan Tian’s impression of Qin An had become a little better, and she only felt that he was just a spoiled young master who didn’t know about the sufferings in this world.
He was just naive, and his malice wasn’t deep.
“No need. I have thick-skin, so a little fall doesn’t hurt.”
“It hurts for me just looking at it. Ruan Tian, today I’ve discovered that you are actually such a brave person.”
“It doesn’t hurt, I’ve experienced worse things anyway.”
Qin An’s eyes were filled with confusion, as if asking if what she said was true.
Ruan Tian took a sip from her water bottle and then grinned, “Just kidding, ah.”
After being tricked, Qin An angrily snorted: “Scram!”
Ruan Tian hadn’t quite lied, and besides she didn’t want to act like Xianglin’s wife and go around crying about her troubles. (tl note: Xianglin’s wife (祥林嫂) is a character from《祝福》who had a miserable life and spends a lot of time telling people about it, so being compared to her is sort of like saying that the person is always ‘throwing a pity party’? I can’t think of a better idiom.)
She was an optimistic person anyway.
She had just unluckily been given a script that called for a bitter love!
Shit.
Back at her high school graduation ceremony, it had been very uncomfortable to watch the boy that she liked and her sister hugging in front of her, and it had been even more uncomfortable when someone had kicked her down the stairs so hard she had almost broken two of her front teeth.
That time had been really painful.
Painful enough that she had cried.
Just sitting on the ground, crying noiselessly.
After that, she had taken a few more falls while working as a stand-in.
The pain in her body from those falls had been at least ten times worse than the pain she had felt at the graduation ceremony, but her heart had hurt much less.
To be a bit melodramatic, perhaps her heart was already numb.
She had even thought a few times that it would be nice if she could take a particularly hard fall one day and just forget everything.
Forget it all, the happy and the unhappy together.
But unfortunately she didn’t have the qualifications to enjoy the standard amnesia plot so many heroines in movies and dramas got to experience, so nothing convenient like that ever happened.
Eventually, they resumed filming and Ruan Tian did another take of the stair stunt. After filming it, she was feeling some pain in her waist so, while rubbing her waist, she asked: “Was it alright this time?”
Director Cheng was a man who always pursued perfection so, after a moment of silence, he said slowly, “Let’s do it again, it’s still not quite there.”
In the end, Director Cheng didn’t let the scene pass until Ruan Tian had done four takes. By that point, she had a sore waist and aching shoulders, but she never said a word of complaint.
After finishing shooting, Director Cheng was looking at Ruan Tian in a new light. He really felt he had found a good seedling this time.
She really had an amazing talent for acting and also an aura that many people wouldn’t be able to imitate even after decades of training.
But the most important thing was that she was very modest and studious. She worked very hard and didn’t just rely on her little bit of talent to do whatever she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid to endure hardships.
Director Cheng patted her on the shoulder, “Well done. Come here for a moment, let’s take a picture.”
Ruan Tian, who was holding a small bouquet of flowers sent by the crew, nodded with a smile and said, “Okay.”
After she finished taking the photo with the director, Ruan Tian looked around at the surrounding staff members and gave a polite bow, “Thank you for your care, you’ve all worked hard.”
“It’s fine, it wasn’t hard. It wasn’t hard.” The staffers chorused.
But then Qin Yu, who had been sitting off in the dark, suddenly got up and walked over towards her and put his cool fingers gently on her shoulder.
Ruan Tian’s body stiffened, and her expression froze.
In her mind, she was tangled between cursing him out and holding back.
In her heart, she kept meditating on the words ‘Take a step back’, ‘To live, we must be open-minded’, ‘I am a lotus’, and ‘I have no temper’ in order to suppress the sudden murderous impulse gripping her heart.
Qin Yu’s low voice then rang in her left ear, “En, well done. Take a picture with me too.”
Ruan Tian: I’ll take a picture with your mother.
Was the word ‘unwilling’ not scrawled across her face obviously enough?
But Qin Yu, regardless of her mood, forcibly gripped her wrist and pulled her up to take a few pictures with her before releasing her with a smile.
Ruan Tian’s face was grey and dull, seeming wilted and sapped of spirit.
Even until now, she really didn’t understand this Qin Yu. She just couldn’t figure him out.
Sometimes crazy, sometimes normal.
He wasn’t any less crazy than a wild dog, and there was always a chance he would bite her when he caught her.
Thanks for the chapter 🙃
I have such conflicting feelings, Qin Yu has such an immature love, but I feel like the plot will be so fun with his awkward actions. But I like our white lotus young master too
Argh.. He just wanted a photo together!
So childish.
Ah well, Qin Yu never learns to properly express his feeling. He was sick from childhood so his family tended to give him everything he wanted. Now that he grew up, the only thing he can’t get is Ruan Tian’s heart. Well, boss, try more hard. Not hard as more bullying. Tone down that a bit and be more gentleman.