After Secretly Marrying the Top Celebrity, I Fell in Love - Chapter 57

In the blink of an eye, two months have passed since the filming of “Nine Heavens” began, and half of the shooting schedule is complete. This month, and the next, the focus is squarely on the action sequences.

As a Wuxia (martial arts) drama, action accounts for two-thirds of the entire series. In particular, the male lead’s fight scenes are not only numerous but also highly challenging. Fortunately, Zhou Wen Kai himself possesses an excellent martial arts foundation.

Furthermore, the show’s action choreographer is Jiang Hua, the country’s foremost action director, who has propelled many action superstars to fame. With Jiang Hua guiding the production, the quality of “Nine Heavens”‘s fight scenes is assured.

The female lead also has a significant number of action scenes. Fortunately, this is not Fu Yu’s first Wuxia drama. Although her martial arts foundation is not as strong as Zhou Wen Kai’s, her skill in action sequences far surpasses that of most female celebrities in the domestic entertainment industry, making her quite capable.

Among the three leads, Bai Yiyan is the only one with absolutely no martial arts background. Thankfully, compared to the other two leads, Bai Yiyan’s fight scenes in the drama are relatively few.

Moreover, Bai Yiyan is exceptionally hardworking. Once, during an action scene, she endured being suspended by a wire for three hours straight to accommodate the mistakes of other actors.

When filming finally wrapped, Bai Yiyan felt her legs were completely numb and weak, and she nearly collapsed. Luckily, a staff member immediately supported her, and her assistant quickly rushed over.

Despite the grueling nature of the shoot, Bai Yiyan never complained, quietly enduring all the hardship. In her regular WeChat conversations with Ye Manqing, even when the topic of filming came up, Bai Yiyan would never grumble, not saying a single word about how tough the shoot was.

She did not want Ye Manqing to worry about her.

Since the last incident where she was “scolded” by Ye Manqing for “poking her hand with a needle” for a scene, Bai Yiyan has not done anything else to harm herself for the sake of filming. However, injuries are inevitable during action scenes—bumps, bruises, skin breaks, or scrapes are common occurrences.

After a month of shooting action sequences, Bai Yiyan has acquired quite a few “medals” on her body. Bruises have been constant; just as the old ones start to fade, new ones appear.

In addition to bruises, Bai Yiyan also has several scabs from scrapes and bleeding, notably on both of her elbows and her knees.

Bai Yiyan doesn’t think much of these minor injuries, but she dares not let Ye Manqing know. When the two of them video chat, Bai Yiyan always wears long sleeves and long pants. Fortunately, it is late autumn, so this attire does not raise suspicion.

The secret has been safely kept.

By her count, the two of them have not seen each other for over a month.

Ye Manqing’s new movie was released on the 27th of last month, making today exactly one month since its premiere. During this month, Ye Manqing has been busy not only traveling with the film crew for promotional tours in major cities but also attending to other engagements, making her schedule completely packed.

Bai Yiyan’s filming schedule is also very busy, exhausting, and tough. It is no exaggeration to say that Bai Yiyan is so tired that she crashes the moment she gets back to the hotel.

However, Bai Yiyan worries about missing Ye Manqing’s calls if she is asleep, so she set a daily alarm for “10:00 PM.”

When the alarm rings, Bai Yiyan forces herself to get up and call or video chat with Ye Manqing.

Today, the crew wrapped up relatively early, finishing just after 7:00 PM.

After wrapping, Bai Yiyan, wearing several layers of her costume, was walking toward the makeup room.

As she reached the door of the makeup room, Bai Yiyan unintentionally overheard a conversation nearby. The content immediately caught her attention because she heard the words “Teacher Ye.”

“I’ve looked at the schedule—Teacher Ye is joining the crew the day after tomorrow.”

“Are you sure it’s the day after tomorrow?”

“Definitely, absolutely sure.”

“That’s great! I finally get to see my idol!”

Noticing some glances cast her way, Bai Yiyan discreetly withdrew her peripheral vision, reached for the makeup room door, pushed it open, and stepped inside.

“…!” Xiao Can, following behind Bai Yiyan, naturally also overheard the conversation and was equally thrilled and excited to hear that their boss would be joining the crew the day after tomorrow.

Inside the makeup room, Bai Yiyan changed back into her own clothes. All the hairpins were removed, and the wig was taken off. Her straight long hair was untied from the hair ribbon, spreading out. Freed from the restraint of the ribbon, her smooth dark hair instantly draped over her entire back.

Bai Yiyan, distractedly wiping off her lipstick with a makeup pad in one hand, used the other to open the WeChat app and went straight to her conversation with Ye Manqing.

After a moment’s thought, Bai Yiyan decided to ask directly.

Bai Yiyan: [Teacher Ye, are you joining the crew the day after tomorrow?]

After sending the message, Ye Manqing did not reply immediately. It wasn’t until Bai Yiyan was in the car heading back to the hotel that she received Ye Manqing’s response.

Ye Manqing: [Yanyan, how did you know?]

Bai Yiyan: [I overheard people talking.]

Ye Manqing: [Yes, I’m joining the crew the day after tomorrow.]

Ye Manqing: [I’ll be filming for four consecutive days.]

Ye Manqing is a special guest star, with a total screen time in the drama not exceeding fifty minutes, roughly forty-five minutes, so four days should be enough to complete her scenes.

Typically, the next day’s filming schedule is only released around noon the day before.

Since Ye Manqing is not joining the crew until the day after tomorrow, a notification has not yet been sent out in the work group, so not everyone knows yet.

She would get to see Ye Manqing soon, act with her, and see her every day. Although it was only for four days, Bai Yiyan was already very satisfied.

…

Upon returning to the hotel, Bai Yiyan first took a long, comfortable hot bath. All her pores seemed to open up, and the sense of fatigue instantly dissipated.

After the bath, Bai Yiyan was wearing a set of light pink long-sleeved pajamas. The messy bun she casually tied up while showering was still intact.

Her bare jade feet were tucked into a pair of comfortable, fuzzy slippers—pink rabbit slippers.

The temperature had dropped recently, so Bai Yiyan had switched to the slippers she bought not long ago. When shopping online, she had also bought a pair for Ye Manqing—also fuzzy rabbit slippers, but white ones.

Bai Yiyan had been filming action scenes all day, and she was so exhausted that she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

Night fell, and everything was silent.

The bedroom light was on, and on the bedside table lay her phone, which she had forgotten to charge, with only five percent battery left.

An hour later, the phone completely ran out of battery. Because the phone was dead and powered off, the ten o’clock alarm did not go off.

Bai Yiyan slept soundly through the night, waking up the next morning.

She dreamt of Ye Manqing last night, and the dream felt incredibly real. They kissed in the dream, the feeling of their lips touching being extremely authentic.

When she woke up in the morning, Bai Yiyan savored the memory of the kiss in her dream for a long time.

On the soft, large bed, Bai Yiyan rolled over, stretched her arm to reach the phone on the bedside table, wanting to check the time, only to realize the phone was dead and powered off.

The motion of turning over allowed the slightly cool morning air to sneak under the duvet.

In the midst of the silence, a woman’s voice, carrying a hint of tiredness and a distinct, rich, pleasant quality, suddenly rang out.

“Yanyan, you’re awake.”

“…!” Bai Yiyan’s entire back stiffened. Her first reaction was that she was still dreaming.

It seemed she was pining away.

Bai Yiyan closed her eyes again, planning to gather her thoughts before getting up.

Behind her, the voice that had appeared countless times in her dreams rang out once more.

“Yanyan.”

Support