The Fake Daughter is a Max-Level Green Tea [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: The Kiss Scene

The air remained quiet for a moment before Lin Chumu abruptly hung up the phone.

“Boring.”

Du Yaqing usually acted like a strict headteacher in front of younger artists; this was the first time Lu Chaoqing had heard her make such a joke. After the call ended, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Even the heavy atmosphere from the earlier incidents seemed to lighten significantly.

Lin Chumu was about to discuss the current situation in detail with Lu Chaoqing when she suddenly remembered they were still on the film set. The thought of “ears behind the walls” from the previous night left her with lingering fears, so she waved her hand, signaling not to talk here. Soon, the room’s set was fully prepared. The two took a moment to adjust their mindsets and headed over.

Once the lighting technicians and cameras were in place, they both slid under the covers.

After the party, Xiang Yunchen is a bit tipsy after being pressured into drinking. Her roommates have locked the dorm door, and no matter how much she knocks or messages them, no one answers—playing deaf is a favorite trick of theirs. Helpless, she returns outside, only to be called over by Xu Mulin.

Xu Mulin has trouble sleeping; it’s common knowledge that she rents an apartment near the school. In fact, a boy who wanted to pursue her once tried to sneak over there, but Xiang Yunchen warned Xu Mulin, allowing her to alert the neighborhood security and thwart him.

In reality, Xiang Yunchen hadn’t drunk that much at the party. She simply has a constitution that shows intoxication easily; after just one glass, her cheeks are flushed, and she leans against Xu Mulin’s shoulder, breathing heavily. The party rules were five drinks for men and three for women. Through her hazy vision, she can see that Xu Mulin had finished all the remaining drinks for her.

Her senior’s slender hand had taken the small glass and drained it in one go, her tilted neck as elegant as a swan’s, every movement radiating nobility. Even while supporting the tipsy girl back to change clothes, her movements remained gentle. She washed Xiang Yunchen’s face, wiped her arms and legs, and tucked her into bed. By the time she finished cleaning up and got into bed herself, she found the previously drowsy girl had found a second wind and was propping up her chin, staring at her intently.

The indoor light was dim enough to automatically fill the small gap between them with ambiguous colors. Occasional direct or indirect skin contact began to unearth the hidden seeds buried deep in their hearts.

Xiang Yunchen couldn’t help but want to lean closer to Xu Mulin, like a plant growing in the shadows desperately absorbing sunlight and warmth. The Halloween party symbolized that another batch of students would soon leave the school. Realizing she might lose contact with Xu Mulin after this, Xiang Yunchen’s gaze was dazed yet determined as she looked at her, her tongue pressed hard against her teeth.

She asked, “Senior, will you leave next spring? Or stay here for graduate school?”

“I’ll definitely do grad school, but likely in Saint Petersburg.” Xu Mulin had answered this question countless times as graduation approached, but she was exceptionally patient with her cute junior. “Though I don’t want to leave home, it’s a route that was arranged long ago.”

In other words, she wouldn’t stay here; there would be no more intersection. Saint Petersburg was thousands of miles away.

Xiang Yunchen felt a pang of bitterness. She was frustrated that no matter how hard she worked, she couldn’t catch up to her senior’s footsteps, and she hated that even now, she didn’t dare speak plainly to Xu Mulin.

She was sharing a bed with the person she had crushed on for years, their distance within reach, yet she couldn’t—didn’t dare—make her “unacceptable” sexual orientation clear. She couldn’t express her love as openly as others did.

They all loved the same person.

She loved Xu Mulin. She had loved her since high school when she saw her senior come back to her alma mater to give a speech. She would never forget the pair of hands that had pushed aside a group of boys mocking her after class. Although the busy senior hadn’t noticed her face hidden behind thick bangs, she had scolded the boys before hurrying off.

To her, Xu Mulin was a stray beam of light that hit her during her darkest hour, giving her the courage to fight back.

Xu Mulin seemed to see her gloom and reached out to pat her head gently. “It’s okay, Chen. We’re still friends. We can keep in touch on Instagram and WeChat.”

These words were the final straw. Xiang Yunchen’s suppressed grievances finally transformed into courage. She bit her lip, made up her mind, closed her eyes, and leaned in—

“Cut!”

Lu Chaoqing didn’t really know how to film a kiss scene. Though she had seen others demonstrate, she nearly slammed into Lin Chumu’s nose. The main issue was filming in front of a lens; there was a natural tension from having her privacy intruded upon. She could perform freely on a stage, but she couldn’t get used to so many cameras staring at her while she kissed a beautiful woman.

“Xiang Yunchen’s eyes were wrong just now. Your gaze should be full of fear and struggle, a feeling of giving it your all for one last shot,” Ji Xiuyuan frowned. “You are struggling with your orientation; you don’t know how she feels about homosexuality. In your subconscious, she’s straight. If you go for it, she might hate you, and it’ll be the end. But you can’t help it—it’s instinct. After the kiss, there should be a sense of bewildered guilt.”

Lu Chaoqing tried to gather her emotions again.

Perhaps because views on homosexuality were relatively open in both her old world and this one, she felt no psychological burden about being a “姬” (lesbian). In fact, she quite enjoyed it. Therefore, it was actually quite hard for her to empathize with Xiang Yunchen’s fear of her own orientation.

She tried a few more times, but when she closed her eyes and tilted her head, she only felt a racing heart and nervousness; she couldn’t quite capture that “all or nothing” struggle.

While Ji Xiuyuan was famously strict, Lu Chaoqing’s performance had been good so far, so today’s slip-up was within his tolerance. He and Jiang Yanqiu patiently guided her.

After the seventh NG on the eye-acting, Lin Chumu, who was adjusting her own emotions, suddenly spoke up: “How about I demonstrate?”

“Right now, you are Xu Mulin, and I am Xiang Yunchen.”

She brushed aside her bangs. Her light, natural makeup made her eyes appear more spirited, yet they weren’t “bright.” Her slightly lowered lashes hid her true emotions, even trembling slightly with her breath.

Lin Chumu took a soft breath, then suddenly steeled herself, closed her eyes, and leaned in. She didn’t use any auxiliary physical movements; it was just a sudden resolve, and using that nameless courage, she touched Lu Chaoqing’s lips.

The soft sensation of the lips had barely arrived before they separated. There wasn’t even time for a lingering taste, yet the afterglow left one dazed for a long time. This was supposed to be a “stage kiss” (cheating the angle), but for the sake of the demonstration and the shot, Lin Chumu had actually kissed her. As Lu Chaoqing had said before, it wasn’t like they hadn’t kissed, but this one felt entirely different from the past.

In that moment, Lu Chaoqing didn’t feel like she was with Lin Chumu at all; she was with Xiang Yunchen, who had poured all her passion into that impulsive kiss. Those eyes looked over with bewilderment after the lips parted, breathing heavily, quickly becoming clouded with a faint mist.

The acting was so good it left her in awe.

But in the next second, the woman who had detached from the emotion said calmly, “Have you learned?”

Lu Chaoqing: “…I’m ‘learned’ to death.”

A simple night scene that started after 9:00 PM lasted until past 10:00 PM. Including the set-up time, it took over an hour. Lin Chumu NG’d once; Lu Chaoqing NG’d nine times. By the time she got off the bed, despite having done nothing strenuous, her legs were weak.

Ji Xiuyuan was famously demanding, but he wasn’t angry after the long session. He was satisfied with the final product and waved everyone off to sleep. He then requested that the two practice their “intimate interactions” so that future scenes wouldn’t take so long.

Lu Chaoqing, feeling guilty for keeping so many staff members late, apologized profusely, wishing she could vanish into the floor. She bowed to everyone before they left: “Sorry everyone, I’ll practice hard so this doesn’t happen next time!”

She was gifted in singing and dancing and decent at acting, but she still had stage fright with these types of scenes—especially with the lingering fear from the bugging incident.

Before the director’s team fully withdrew, Lin Chumu asked for a spare, standalone camera. Under Lu Chaoqing’s confused gaze, she set it up herself, aiming the lens at the bed where they would be lying.

When they weren’t filming, this set was their living quarters.

“This kind of camera is standalone; it can’t connect to other systems except via Bluetooth. And this one can only connect to one device at a time. I saw the cameraman take his Bluetooth device away; this one will connect to mine,” Lin Chumu said. “Don’t be afraid.”

Seeing Lu Chaoqing’s continued confusion, she continued patiently: “Didn’t you want to practice properly? Let’s try filming those kinds of scenes for the camera first. Otherwise, if you have to film with someone else or a senior later and they’re in a bad mood, it won’t be this easy.”

Lu Chaoqing, who was just about to start by studying an acting textbook: “…”

Talk about an eye-opener. Is this the peak of ‘straight girls sacrificing for art’?