Lady By The Pillow - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Waist (2)

◎ “The Clothes” ◎

Guo Xi’s seat was indeed a bit cold. As soon as Shi Qing sat down, she put on her jacket.

Next to her, Wei Jiuli didn’t seem to feel cold at all. She was still in a T-shirt, her jacket hanging alone on the back of her chair.

Maybe she’s wearing thermal underwear under her shirt, Shi Qing thought.

After they switched seats, Director Fan Erhua continued with the meeting.

The script reading was mainly for everyone, especially the actors, to understand their roles. During the reading, each person would read their lines according to the script. At important scenes, the director would stop them to brainstorm and discuss the key points of the scene and how to shoot it.

People outside the industry might think that actors start filming on the first day. This is not the case. The script reading is so important that for a large historical drama like The Empress, which is scheduled to be 72 episodes long, the script reading alone would take seven days.

Fan Erhua valued efficiency in her work, so she wasted no time and jumped straight into character analysis.

“Let’s start with the characters. Since I already contacted everyone, you’ve all written character biographies. Let’s go in order and share them to help your scene partners understand your respective roles.”

She looked at Wei Jiuli.

“Jiuli, you go first.”

Wei Jiuli pulled a folded stack of A4 papers from her jacket pocket. She unfolded them and pressed them flat on the table, barely smoothing out the creases.

“Okay, I’ll start and share my interpretation of Ji Lan.”

The paper was held between her fingers, and the fold on the back formed a subtle angle against her knuckles.

Wei Jiuli’s fingers were beautiful, with long, slender knuckles. Her first finger joint, in particular, was long and thin. Even with her nails trimmed to the quick, they were a perfect rectangle, as if they were made for playing the piano.

Only her middle finger had a flaw.

The side of her first joint had a prominent callus, a leftover from when she practiced penmanship as a child. Wei Jiuli had beautiful handwriting, and the callus was her most obvious badge of honor.

—The same callus that once made Shi Qing cry and lose her voice.

They had been intimate. Many times.

Shi Qing was very particular about cleanliness and always made Wei Jiuli wear a finger cot, which Wei Jiuli enjoyed. Sometimes, she would even play tricks, stroking the soft flesh with the cot on, and whispering in Shi Qing’s ear, “A-Qing, can’t you feel it this way? Should I go a little harder?”

At those moments, Shi Qing would hit her back in frustration, and once, when she was really worked up, she even pulled her hair.

But the very last time, she didn’t wear a finger cot.

That day, for some reason, Wei Jiuli asked, “I’ve washed my hands and sanitized them. Can we skip the cot today?”

Shi Qing glanced at the callus on her middle finger, hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed.

The feeling of skin-to-skin contact was completely different from using a finger cot. Especially with that callus. Shi Qing was in such a state of ecstasy that her legs shook uncontrollably, and half her pillow was wet with tears.

To be precise, it wasn’t crying.

It was a physiological overflow of tears when her body reached its breaking point.

The feeling was so deeply ingrained that even after a year, it could still awaken the memory in her body.

“I have thought countless times about that night. Jiang Ke was bathing in the Peach Blossom Immortal Bath, and I was guarding the door. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had gone in. Maybe I would have killed Jiang Ke, or been killed by Jiang Ke, or perhaps we would have both survived but with half our souls dead…”

Wei Jiuli read her character biography quickly, finishing the last section in just a few minutes.

Shi Qing listened, relieved.

When she used to write her character biographies at home, Wei Jiuli would always watch. Sometimes she would sneak a peek, sometimes she would steal a kiss, and Shi Qing had thought she was just casually looking. She never imagined that Wei Jiuli had learned all of her techniques for writing a biography.

When she finished, the whole room applauded, and Director Fan Erhua nodded in approval.

“Good, very good. Especially that section about the Peach Blossom Immortal Bath, your analysis is spot on. You read the original novel?”

Wei Jiuli nodded. “Yes. In the novel, their relationship is a bit more obvious. The script focuses more on the politics, so the emotional thread is a bit more restrained. But I think, when we’re acting, we can still show those emotions through our expressions.”

Fan Erhua turned to Guo Xi. “What do you think, Xi-zi?”

Guo Xi said, “Mm,” in agreement. “It’s fine. The novel was also pretty subtle. Both of them are ambitious. Whether it’s love or family, everything is a sacrifice for power. So their emotions should be restrained and contained. They can’t be spoken, they have to be expressed through their eyes.”

Fan Erhua was pleased with this answer. “That’s what I thought, too. The more direct it is, the less it feels right. A subtle approach is what the audience likes, a kind of ‘half-covered lute’ feeling. We’ll decide on the details later. Now, let’s continue with the character biographies. Shi Qing, tell us about ‘Jiang Ke.'”

Shi Qing leaned forward. “My character biography is quite long, and some parts are a bit wordy, so I won’t waste everyone’s time. I’ve prepared a concise version to tell you about ‘Jiang Ke.'”

Her original biography was over ten thousand words long, which would be time-consuming and tedious to read. Since the purpose of this sharing was for everyone to understand each other’s roles, she decided to get straight to the point.

“My name is Jiang Ke. I entered the palace at 14 and was immediately made a royal consort. But the Emperor didn’t show me much affection. After many years in the palace, I had no children and relied on my family, the Jiang clan, to maintain my position. The harem was treacherous, with new women constantly arriving. A beautiful concubine came, then another concubine, and I finally realized that the root of all these problems was not women, but a man—the one on the throne.

So I drove a wedge between the Emperor and the Crown Prince, enticing him to launch a rebellion that killed the Emperor. Then, I used the Princess ‘Ji Lan’s loyalty to kill the Crown Prince under the pretense of putting down the rebellion… Finally, I had killed all the men in the royal family and sat on the throne as Empress Dowager, ruling from behind a curtain. Ji Lan had always trusted me. She had no idea that I had been using her all along. Later, I saw her power and ambition growing, so I couldn’t tolerate her being by my side any longer. I found a way to frame her for treason and exiled her to the borderlands…”

Shi Qing continued to read the character’s life story. Her voice was beautiful, soft, and delicate, just like her. She had once thought that if her acting career failed, she would get a broadcasting license and become a late-night radio host. For that reason, she had practiced broadcasting for six months.

In Shi Qing’s character biography, there was no mention of the “Peach Blossom Immortal Bath” incident that Wei Jiuli had so heavily focused on.

“Good, very good.”

Fan Erhua began the applause, praising her.

“Shi Qing’s character biography is the most profound and most like the character’s original form. And, you didn’t include the ‘Peach Blossom Immortal Bath’ scene, which is so important from ‘Ji Lan’s’ perspective.”

Shi Qing nodded, explaining, “In the novel, this scene is a major turning point for ‘Ji Lan.’ I know she’s outside the door, but ‘Jiang Ke’ doesn’t. At that moment, she’s simply bathing as she normally would, completely unaware of the turmoil and struggle happening outside the door.”

Fan Erhua was full of praise. “That’s the best part right there. You, the actor, know the full story, but the character doesn’t. I think everyone should consider what I mean by this. Shi Qing’s understanding of her character is very thorough. Sometimes, you shouldn’t approach a character with a god’s-eye view from having read the entire script. You need to see things from the character’s own narrow, limited perspective. That’s how you make the character feel real.”

When she finished, the actors who were next to read their biographies felt a weight on their shoulders. Some drank water to soothe their throats, and others nervously scanned their notes. A few veteran actors playing old officials, however, sat calmly. Praising the lead actors’ work ethic during a script reading was a common tactic for directors to boost their confidence and encourage the entire cast.

The script reading, which was scheduled to start at 2:00 PM, had already taken two hours for just the character biographies.

Shi Qing had been traveling all day, from her early flight to a taxi ride to the studio. Her waist had been aching since an hour into the meeting. It was an old injury from her dancing days; she couldn’t sit for long periods.

She would usually find a cushion to place behind her back to relieve the pressure on her lower back muscles. But this was her first day on the job, and she didn’t want to make a fuss about her minor ailment. Instead, she just secretly massaged her lower back with her hands, using her knuckles to knead the painful spots.

At 4:00 PM, there was a break. She used the opportunity to go to the bathroom and stretch by the sink, listening to her bones crackling in protest. It made her feel a little better.

“Oh, my neck—”

A young actress next to her tilted her head back and quickly did two eight-counts of neck stretches.

“We end at 6, and there are still two more hours.”

She was the actress playing the princess’s close confidant, and her scene partner was her twin. Shi Qing couldn’t tell which was the older sister; they looked exactly alike.

The other actress swayed her hips a couple of times. “Just bear with it. We’ll do a hot compress when we get back tonight. That chair isn’t comfortable. It’s hurting my back.”

She looked at Shi Qing. “Teacher Shi, is your back bothering you too?”

Shi Qing smiled. “A little, but I’m fine.”

“I saw online that you used to be a dancer. Do most dancers have back problems?”

“Most of them do.”

“Then why don’t you take your jacket off and use it as a cushion? I’m going to do that later.”

“Hmm, that’s a good idea.”

It was a good idea, and she had often done it before.

But her new seat wasn’t warm, and if she took off her jacket, she would likely catch a cold tonight. A backache was a small problem, but a cold that would affect filming was a big one.

Shi Qing considered it and decided to just bear it for another two hours.

Time flies.

4:10 PM.

The actors who went to the bathroom began to return. Shi Qing followed the group back to the conference room but stopped in front of her seat.

There was a cushion on her chair.

To be precise, it wasn’t a cushion. It was a perfectly square bundle made from a black down jacket, placed on the back of the chair.

It was the down jacket from the Film Academy.

It was Wei Jiuli’s.

She looked over at the owner of the jacket. Wei Jiuli was talking and laughing with Fan Erhua, completely oblivious to the cushion.

Fan Erhua noticed Shi Qing. “What’s wrong? Why are you standing?”

Wei Jiuli also turned to look at her, her eyes clear, with a slightly over-the-top expression of confusion.

Shi Qing composed herself and said with a faint smile, “Nothing, I’m fine.”

Fan Erhua raised her hand. “Sit down then. We’re about to start.”

“Okay.”

Shi Qing didn’t say anything else. She moved into her seat, pulled her chair closer, and sat down.

Her tired back slowly leaned back, and the support immediately relieved her discomfort. The cushion was soft yet firm.

Everyone sat down, and Fan Erhua smiled. “All right, is everyone here? Our female lead just told me that most of you traveled today and came directly to the script reading. I can tell you’re all tired and still need to unpack when you get back. So, let’s speed things up and try to finish early. What do you say?”

Everyone cheered as if they had just been granted a pardon.

“Yes!”

Shi Qing shifted her aching back and said to herself:

Yes.