So Su Yang's secret was that he had always secretly liked Qiao Sixiao.
"You see, I tried my best, she ignores you, I can't do anything about it."
Qin Wei looked at Qiao Sixiao walking away, patted his shoulder,
"You made me a lot of delicious food before, to show my gratitude, I'm willing to keep the secret for you, but my bottom line is to help you keep the secret, you can like her, that's your freedom, but if you want me to help you pursue her, that would be interfering with other people's lives, I can only tell you I can't do it...
I have to go first, from what she just said it sounds like I still have dinner to eat, if I'm late, she might change her mind, then I'll have nothing to eat."
"Sorry bro, I gotta go first, I'm hungry." Qin Wei said and then ran off.
...
The next morning, Qin Wei had no filming schedule, but she still got up early, got dressed and went to knock on Qiao Sixiao's door. It took a long time before someone opened the door for her.
Qiao Sixiao took one look at Qin Wei, closed the door with an unhappy expression on her face and went back to lie on the bed in her room.
Qin Wei was quick to block the door, then slipped in, pulled Qiao Sixiao up by the hand:
"Qiao Sixiao hurry up and change, let's go eat."
"Get out, go eat your horse's..."
Qiao Sixiao cursed, since it was just the two of them in the room, no one else, no cameras pointing at them, so why bother keeping up appearances?
After saying that, she shook Qin Wei's hand off and picked up a pillow to throw at her.
Hitting Qin Wei in the face, but she wasn't angry, still smiling and said:
"Oh my, someone's got quite the temper this morning, it's alright, let's go for a morning run first then go eat..."
"Run your..."
"I know, run my horse's... No, run your horse's, hey Qiao Qiao, don't be mad, look I'm kowtowing to you."
Hearing this, Qiao Sixiao looked back to see Qin Wei standing by the bed with her arms crossed looking at her.
Qiao Sixiao rolled her eyes at her, reluctantly got up and sat on the bed to look at her:
"I'll count to three numbers, get out, three, two..."
Qin Wei went out and closed the door properly.
She took out her phone to check the time, not even 6:30 yet, she must be too tired, go for a run first, then come back to take her to eat afterwards.
...
The crew also booked a hotel in the Baijing Tu scenic area, located by an artificial lake in the scenic area. From the outside it looks like an ancient building, often used as an ancient inn set in period dramas. But inside it was actually a high-end resort hotel.
The scenic area's opening times were 9:30am to 4:30pm. Apart from guests staying at this unique hotel inside the scenic area who could remain inside during non-operating hours, other visitors could only visit during the prescribed times.
In other words, with the hotel booked out by the crew, there were currently no tourists visiting the scenic area.
Jogging around the lake, one loop took about thirty minutes. Go back to eat after, just in time.
Although it didn't have a dedicated jogging track like the previous hotel, the road around the lake was smooth, the air was fresh, and she could enjoy having the place to herself. This put Qin Wei in a much better mood.
But even though she was alone, she always felt someone was following her...
Qin Wei slowed down and observed her surroundings inconspicuously.
No one...
Was it her imagination? Qin Wei hesitated a little. But this was a scenic area, there were security cameras installed anyway, plus it was broad daylight, if someone was following her, she should be able to spot them right?
Maybe she was being a bit paranoid.
But the feeling was so distinct...
Suddenly there was a "splash" from the lake. Qin Wei stopped in her tracks and looked in the direction of the sound.
It was roof tiles falling from the eaves of the pavilion by the lakeside, the tile nails must have come loose. By the time Qin Wei saw it, the tiles on the edge that were teetering also fell off.
Why would it just...
"Qin Wei!"
Suddenly someone called her name. Qin Wei turned to see Sheng Lin walking towards her.
"What are you doing here? Don't you not have any scenes at the moment?"
Qin Wei waved at him.
"Don't stand by the lakeside in a daze."
Sheng Lin pulled her by the arm and moved her aside a little.
"Especially when you're alone..."
"I wasn't in a daze."
Qin Wei pointed in the direction she was looking just now,
"The roof tiles over there were diving into the lake, so I was watching."
"I see..."
Sheng Lin smiled,
"Oh right, Director Yao told me to come over and coach you on archery when I'm free. I asked your assistant and heard you had no schedules this morning, so I came over."
There was an archery range in the scenic area. Qin Wei followed Sheng Lin to practice for the whole morning. Compared to the teacher Xu General Manager had invited for her previously, what Sheng Lin taught was more professional yet simpler. Qin Wei studied diligently, at first she could only go through the motions, but by around noon, she could already shoot the arrows onto the target.
"Have another piece of bread, I'll demonstrate one more time."
Sheng Lin took the bow, prepared it briefly, then nocked an arrow, drew the bow and casually loosed the arrow.
He shot three arrows in quick succession without pause, each one hitting dead center.
Qin Wei watched applauding with a piece of bread in her mouth. She had practiced all morning herself and was already quite pleased to be able to even get the arrows onto the target, hitting five out of ten. Let alone hoping to achieve such pinpoint accuracy.
"Amazing! So cool! Coach, I wanna..."
"Maybe think about that some other time."
Sheng Lin put the bow back on the rack and handed the quiver of arrows to the range attendant before preparing to leave. But not before reminding her,
"What little I can do is just scratching the surface. Hitting the target doesn't mean much. Prey is moving, and you'll be on horseback moving too. Aiming is difficult...
Luckily this is just acting. As long as your form looks right, the audience can't nitpick."
Admiration aside, Qin Wei also knew her own skill level, and that mastery would likely be very difficult to achieve in a day. Perhaps a genius could do it, but that genius certainly wasn't her.
Qin Wei finished her bread and glanced at her phone after taking off the gear. She said to him,
"It's gotten quite late. I need to head back and get into costume and makeup. We start shooting in the afternoon. Thanks Sheng Lin. Luckily the scene this afternoon has some action sequences, what you taught can come in useful.
Want to head over together now?"
Sheng Lin shook his head. He put on a hat and jacket getting ready to leave, but not before reminding her again,
"No need, I don't have any scenes arranged with the crew at the moment. The company has some events that need my participation. You go ahead first... Also, find a friend to jog with in the future, and stay farther away from the waterside, it just feels unsafe somehow."
...
The scenes filmed previously were all inside the imperial palace. Luo Yang didn't get to show off her skills much. Today they were to film a scene of her being chased in the city. Arriving on set, Director Yao first went through the filming sequence with Qin Wei and Su Yang, then expressed what kind of effect he wanted.
Seeing Qin Wei's slightly bewildered expression, Director Yao already guessed the reason:
"Qin Wei, seeing that confused look in your eyes, I know you're probably thinking chasing scenes are very complicated to film. That's because you've played too many fairies recently and aren't familiar with this aspect.
Actually no matter how complex, it won't be done in one long take. Like this, I won't demand you understand everything either. I'm the director here, not you. You just need to follow my instructions. I'll talk you through every scene and every shot, just do as I say and there'll be no issues!"
Qin Wei and Su Yang were both hooked up to wires as Director Yao pointed to the roof of the ancient building replica:
"Because we need to shoot some wide angle shots, we're still on location here. If it was just close ups of the roof we'd shoot it in the studio. Later when we start rolling, you two will be running on the rooftop, then jump from this roof onto the one opposite, still that same line: don't fully rely on the wires to hold you up. Make it look like you two used qinggong to leap across!"
When they got onto the roof, they realized this height was taller than they had imagined...
