Chapter 37: “Serious” Rehearsal
Lu Ciheng touched the face that had been slapped, still able to feel the warm, soft sensation. Xie Shibai’s hand wasn’t very cold just after waking up; thanks to being held for a long time before opening the door, his palm was warm, and the spot he touched was occupied by a lingering fragrance.
He could understand the deeper meaning in Xie Shibai’s words. The sharp-tongued concern that started last night made him feel overly cute. His heart was full, and his possessiveness seemed to find interpretation, though the thought of locking the person up for his eyes only still lingered.
Lu Ciheng touched Xie Shibai’s hand, hiding the dark thoughts in his heart that wanted Xie Shibai to see only him at all times. His black eyes fell straight on Xie Shibai, the corners of his lips hooking into a smile. “Teacher Xie cares about me so much early in the morning?”
Xie Shibai glanced down at Lu Ciheng’s hand. The contact of skin on his fingers stalled his thoughts for a few seconds. His tone was lackadaisical. “Yes. If you die, our contract will naturally be voided. All the money you worked hard to earn over the years will become inheritance and fall into my pocket. Solving a problem and getting a sum of money for nothing—who would miss such a good thing?”
After speaking, Xie Shibai was stunned when he saw Lu Ciheng’s expression.
Lu Ciheng’s black eyes were shining. He ground his fingers together, holding Xie Shibai’s hand in a very clingy manner. “Then wouldn’t we be husbands for life?”
Xie Shibai: …
Husbands separated by death?
Can we have some dialogue for the living?
Xie Shibai had no hope for Lu Ciheng’s brain circuits. He pulled his hand back and got out of bed.
Today, he and Lu Ciheng were responsible for breakfast. They needed to get ready and arrive at the dining room earlier than the other groups.
The netizens in the livestream room, who had wished upon stars and the moon for the cloth on the room camera to be lifted, found that the morning intimacy of the little couple they wanted to see—kissing and cuddling—was nonexistent.
All there was was Lu Ciheng clinging to Xie Shibai asking what he wanted for breakfast, and the backs of the two leaving one after another.
[They got up way too early, right? Not sleeping anymore?]
[Luckily I craned my neck like Su Xingran just now and saw a tiny bit of Brother Xie, otherwise I’d regret it to death.]
Li You was already depressed to death. Ever since seeing Lu Ciheng go downstairs with Xie Shibai, he completely regretted not choosing to go wake people up with Su Xingran just now. Maybe he could have seen Lu Ciheng just waking up, face black the whole time.
Su Xingran passed by him appropriately, deliberately sighing. “Seems like your luck isn’t good.”
Li You’s face was dark, not wanting to pay attention to him. Seeing Xie Shibai and Lu Ciheng enter the kitchen, he actively presented himself in front of the island counter. “Brother Lu, do you need help?”
Lu Ciheng glanced at him expressionlessly. “You want to make breakfast?”
Li You nodded happily immediately, thinking Lu Ciheng wanted him to join and help.
Lu Ciheng directly washed his hands of it, handing the items to Li You in one go. “Leave it to you.”
After speaking, he concentrated on brewing coffee for Xie Shibai, his movements flowing like moving clouds and flowing water. After brewing a cup, he bypassed Li You expressionlessly and, upon seeing Xie Shibai, instantly raised a brilliant smile on his face. “Teacher Xie, want coffee?”
Li You stood bewildered holding a pile of semi-finished breakfast items.
Why is it different from the sweet joint breakfast making he imagined?!
Xie Shibai glanced at the offering from Lu Ciheng, accepted it reluctantly, and took a sip.
Lu Ciheng looked at him expectantly from the side.
Xie Shibai drank a few mouthfuls and commented faintly, “Terrible.”
Lu Ciheng raised his brow slightly, leaning in to ask, “Is it that bad? Let me taste.”
Xie Shibai: “…”
In the other kitchen, Su Xingran passed by “coincidentally” again. Seeing Li You, he feigned surprise. “You’re making breakfast today?”
After speaking, he said to the other two groups coming down: “Li You really likes making breakfast; he actually fought with Senior Lu to cook.”
Mu Zhenzhen was surprised. She didn’t expect someone to actually like cooking for so many people. After thinking for a long time and finding nothing else to say: “Good luck.”
Li You’s face was stiff.
Is this right?
After the meal, it was time for the husbands/couples to experience each other’s lives.
The other groups had already submitted their mutual experience tasks long ago; only Xie Shibai and Lu Ciheng were still in the selection phase.
Mu Zhenzhen and Xu Xiangming chose a personality swap of their usual interaction modes for three days.
Qiao Jiayi and Mi Qiran chose a reenactment of their proposal day, swapping identities to re-experience the other’s feelings at that time, completing everything from proposal planning to the proposal itself in three days.
The two pre-fabricated couples were more plastic. They chose what they were good at. Li You was an actor and chose his favorite script for Su Xingran to experience. Su Xingran directly chose the theme song from his boy group days for Li You, requiring a singing and dancing stage to be completed in three days.
Li You’s face turned black. He was tone-deaf and couldn’t sing at all, plus he had zero foundation. Starting from scratch, he couldn’t finish it in three days.
For the sake of his image in front of the camera, he simply asked the program if he could change it, but received a negative answer, stating that this was the most precious and profound experience for the partner.
After the first three groups were revealed, the netizens in the livestream room began to look forward to what Xie Shibai and Lu Ciheng would choose.
Xie Shibai’s choice was simple. He and Lu Ciheng didn’t have overly profound memories together, and since both were actors, their experience of acting was almost identical. But Lu Ciheng had one experience he really wanted to try, so he said bluntly.
“I want to act in Broken Traces.”
A trace of surprise flashed in Lu Ciheng’s eyes.
Broken Traces was the movie for which Lu Ciheng won Best Actor. When the casting was public, Xie Shibai had also looked at the script and was very interested in the character Qin Shang played by Lu Ciheng. But he had just finished filming Bei Shan at the time, and his condition was at its worst. Even with medication, he couldn’t have close contact with people, so he couldn’t try out for it.
It was as if he had been stamped with the word “failure” without even having the chance to fight for it.
Now that there was a chance, he wanted to try.
The bullet screen in the livestream room was also excited.
[I remember rumors saying Director Zheng looked for XSB to act back then. They were about to sign the contract, but later LCH intercepted it.]
[Definitely fake. With their relationship, is there a need to intercept? Besides, if XSB acted, how could LCH, with his licking dog appearance, go intercept it? He’d be kneeling on a washboard when he got back.]
[If they are really dating, the previous rumors actually collapse on their own. Who would steal their own partner’s resources?]
[Marketing accounts harm people deeply!]
Lu Ciheng thought for a few seconds. “Then can I choose to experience Teacher Xie’s Bei Shan?”
Xie Shibai didn’t ask why. It was already good enough that they had mutual experience works. After all, unlike the first two groups, they didn’t have emotional intersections or shared works. Acting forcefully would definitely expose their plastic marriage.
“Up to you.”
After deciding on the swap experience, Xie Shibai got the script for Broken Traces first. Lu Ciheng held the script for Bei Shan. The two simply returned to their room for a table read with just the two of them.
Acting out all the protagonist’s scenes in three days was impossible, so they simply picked the character’s highlight moments.
Xie Shibai played Qin Shang from Broken Traces, and Lu Ciheng played Rong Zhou from Bei Shan.
Both were very serious about their work. They quickly analyzed the character highlights and prepared their personal understanding and character biographies.
While Xie Shibai was thinking about how to familiarize himself with the character, Lu Ciheng smiled. “Teacher Xie, want to run lines together?”
Both were the original lead actors. Running lines together would make it easy to bring the other into character and improve efficiency. Xie Shibai didn’t refuse.
Qin Shang was a private detective who got dragged into a murder case during a commission and was accused of being a suspect. While investigating on his own, he accidentally discovered the murderer. Amidst surrounding dangers, a series of reversals occurred until the end left a cliffhanger, leading most movie fans to analyze that Qin Shang was the real murderer, and all his analyses against the enemy were lies to the camera.
And what they were going to act was the scene between Qin Shang and the invisible murderer. In the original movie, this segment had always been the most blood-pumping and mind-bending part.
Acting Qin Shang in front of the original actor was a challenging thing.
It was also exciting enough.
In the script, this segment was Qin Shang’s memory. After learning he was implicated in the murder, he returned to the villa to revisit the old haunt. After inspecting the villa, he found something the prosecution hadn’t provided and saved it, only to encounter a mysterious person claiming to be a neighbor as he was leaving.
Qin Shang had sneaked into the crime scene using a fraudulent identity and didn’t want to increase suspicion after being discovered. The mysterious neighbor expressed he had new clues to tell Qin Shang, inviting him to his house to see the new evidence.
Upon entering the neighbor’s house, Qin Shang discovered something was wrong. The mysterious person claiming to be a neighbor was actually unfamiliar with his own home. What followed was a danger-filled probe and self-rescue.
“Coffee, tea, water. Officer, which would you like?”
Xie Shibai entered the state quickly. “Coffee, thanks. Haven’t asked for your name yet, sir.”
Lu Ciheng met the indifference, his dark eyes staring dangerously at Xie Shibai. “My surname is Rong, given name Rong Zhou.”
Surprise flashed across the bottom of Xie Shibai’s eyes. He instantly understood Lu Ciheng’s intent. Qin Shang’s internal persona was similar to Rong Zhou. Using Rong Zhou’s persona to play the mysterious person wasn’t jarring at all. Moreover, the neighbor in the movie had more mysterious colors and less detailed description. Only later did many movie fans guess that this mysterious person was actually Qin Shang’s dark side, which was why he never appeared front-on.
And he understood Lu Ciheng’s meaning. For an unchanging imitation performance, the audience would be better off watching the original movie. Since they were acting, acting according to the original script was boring. Might as well add something new.
Xie Shibai’s hidden competitive spirit poked its head out. He took the coffee cup from Lu Ciheng’s hand and raised his eyes. “The owner of this house shouldn’t be surnamed Rong, right?”
Lu Ciheng laughed low, approaching step by step, his finger pointing straight at Xie Shibai’s pocket. “Compared to what the owner’s surname is, Officer, you should be more concerned about whether you can walk out alive. Taking things that don’t belong to you at will can cost you your life.”
When the clue was hooked out by Lu Ciheng’s finger, Xie Shibai abruptly grabbed Lu Ciheng’s hand, seizing the clue paper without yielding.
Crisis erupted in an instant.
Xie Shibai snatched the clue and was about to retreat when Lu Ciheng pressed down on his waist, guiding him backward with the momentum.
Suddenly, Xie Shibai lost his footing defenselessly and fell backward into weightlessness.
Lu Ciheng hooked Xie Shibai’s waist, his other hand cushioning the back of his head to protect him. Simultaneously, the two landed on the mattress with a bang.
The soft mattress instantly engulfed most of Xie Shibai’s body. His nasal breath was filled with a scorching, familiar scent, and his vision was completely occupied by Lu Ciheng.
Lu Ciheng propped up his body, logically taking the clue from Xie Shibai.
He hooked his lips, whispering in a victor’s stance, “Teacher Xie, it seems I won this scene.”
Xie Shibai’s eye tails lifted slightly. For the first time, he felt a joy he had never experienced in acting. But under his competitive spirit, he didn’t want to allow this inexplicably mixed-up scene to end with his failure as the weaker party.
“Is that so?”
Xie Shibai’s waist and abdomen instantly exploded with astonishing power. His fingers gripped tight, and he suddenly exerted force to flip over and sit on Lu Ciheng. With a bang, the dominance between the two instantly reversed. The sudden movement left no time to adjust; his knee rubbed up Lu Ciheng’s shirt hem, revealing solid, blocky abs. Xie Shibai’s thighs pressed against them, straddling him, the force in his hands suppressing firmly.
Lu Ciheng groaned, indulgingly allowing Xie Shibai to move. His messy black eyes were dyed with excitement. Tacitly, neither of them stopped this scene.
His gaze stared from the bottom up, as if fixing on prey that had delivered itself to his door. His teasing tone was lingering, as if the two were intimate lovers. “Great Detective Qin, could it be you want to use this method to please me into giving up killing you?”
Xie Shibai looked at him, and suddenly the corner of his lips hooked into a smile. His iceberg-like face bloomed alluringly, dazzling enough to make the breathing of the person beneath him heavier. Simultaneously, the hand placed on the side of Lu Ciheng’s neck touched the skin and stroked gently.
Lu Ciheng licked his dry lips, staring straight at Xie Shibai, his deep voice slowly enticing. “If you do something, maybe I can consider letting you go…”
Xie Shibai’s hands mercilessly pinched the sides of Lu Ciheng’s neck. As he leaned down, the distance between them was close at hand, as if nose tip touching nose tip, the exhaled breath sweeping across the other’s lips. His hands exerted slight force, laughing contemptuously. “Who walks out alive isn’t certain yet. Aren’t you a bit too confident, Mr. Rong?”
Lu Ciheng gazed at Xie Shibai, his eyes filled with excitement. Even though his neck was being pinched and the hands were tightening, he didn’t care.
The netizens in the livestream room had gone crazy.
[Ahhhhh is this a serious rehearsal?!]
[Is this acting Broken Traces? Why don’t you two just DOI (do it)!!!]
[Holy crap, so amazing. The protagonists of two movies together are actually this thrilling.]
[Is there a director ahhh, let them act it again! Just like this! I’ll max out my credit card!!]
[Why is their fighting scene so thrilling too?]
[They fought all the way to the bed, can it not be thrilling?]
[Stop acting, you two just direct DOI!]
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