ISWMQ – Chapter 137

Filming officially began.

The weather in Yuegang City wasn’t very good that day. It had been raining for several days in a row, accompanied by strong winds, supposedly due to a typhoon. The temperature had also plummeted from thirty degrees to around ten.

The weather was strange. It was cold if you wore one too many layers, and hot if you wore one too few.

Taking advantage of a rare break in the rain, the school leadership had specifically checked the weather forecast. The awards ceremony was scheduled for nine in the morning, and the next downpour was expected to start again at eleven-fifteen.

Duan Xi was dressed in a simple, standard-issue blue and white school uniform. Her long, thick hair was combed back and tied into a ponytail, neither too high nor too low, the ends falling soft and fine.

She stood on the athletic field with her eyes lowered, her expression serene, as if she were detached from the world, not in the same reality as the students who couldn’t help but whisper to each other.

It was noisy all around her, and Duan Xi had to strain to hear the sound from the old speakers on the stage, which sounded as if it were muffled by a blanket.

She didn’t react as she heard name after name, until her own was called. Only then did she raise her hand and slowly step out of line under the excited and proud gaze of her homeroom teacher. With all eyes on her, she walked onto the stage without looking away.

After she went on stage, the noise from below grew much louder.

Duan Xi’s eyes swept over the vibrant, curious faces below, and a faint smile finally appeared. She said softly, “Thank you, Teacher.”

“I’m no teacher,” a slightly magnetic female voice sounded. Duan Xi froze. The cold air at the tip of her nose was suddenly replaced by a fragrant scent.

She sniffed twice. In that instant, she felt as if she were in a sea of flowers, a brilliant, scorching sun before her eyes.

“You…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the woman gave a soft laugh. Her full, alluring red lips curved slightly as she placed the award certificate in Duan Xi’s palm. “This is the reward you deserve,” she said softly. “Keep it up, good student.”

The two of them only spoke for a brief moment, yet Duan Xi felt that the woman’s gaze had lingered on her face for a long time. Then, with what seemed like a hint of regret, she turned and returned to her seat.

Duan Xi followed the line off the stage. While waiting near a small flowerbed beside the platform, she looked up again, and her gaze met that of Yin Shuanghan, who was resting her chin on her hand and casually looking in her direction.

A fleeting glance. Duan Xi hastily averted her eyes, her fair face flushing bright red.

“Xixi?” A classmate beside her looked at her and said softly, “Why is your face so red? Are you sick? Should I take you to the nurse’s office—ah, your ears and neck are all red too. Is it an allergic reaction?”

“N-no.” Duan Xi calmly tightened her grip on the certificate, not noticing that she had already crumpled one of the corners.

She smoothed it out and followed the group back to her class’s line.

As if guided by some unseen force, she took one last look back up at the stage and saw the alluring, dazzlingly intense woman again.

She didn’t look much older than herself.

Duan Xi’s lips felt a little dry, and her breath was scorching. She pressed a hand to her wildly beating chest, tugged on the sleeve of the girl next to her, and asked in a low voice, “That person on the stage… who is she?”

“You don’t know her?” The person who answered was full of surprise. “She’s the young lady from Yin Tech, the family that sponsors you. She’s also the future head of the family. Mr. Yin is sick and couldn’t come this time, so she’s here to go through the motions for her father.”

There was a hint of blame on the speaker’s face as she added, “You’re too careless.”

Duan Xi was stunned.

It took her a moment to realize what her classmate meant.

She pressed her lips together again and hugged the certificate in her hands tighter.

The stage was already very far from the student lines.

With the distance of two running tracks between them, and over a thousand students below in identical uniforms, the people on stage probably couldn’t tell who was who.

Duan Xi pursed her lips. With the cautiousness of a newborn cub, she secretly raised her head again.

Their eyes met. Even from nearly two tracks away, Duan Xi could see it—the person on the stage was also looking at her.

She once again hurriedly averted her gaze, fixing it on the certificate in her hands and muttering nonsensically, “I’m sponsored by the Yin family, maybe she’s seen me before…”

Duan Xi’s voice trailed off, drowned out by the vice principal’s speech from the stage.

“All along, while we have focused on our students’ cultural education, we have also emphasized their moral and character education…”

The voice gradually faded into the distance. A flock of wild geese appeared on the horizon, streaking across everyone’s retinas.

“Cut!” Zhang Nanchuan picked up the walkie-talkie, satisfied. He couldn’t help but look up at the sky, his face beaming with joy. “That flock of geese was simply divine. At first, I was wondering how to put a perfect final touch on this scene. Now it’s settled. The northern geese fly south, what a perfect full stop.”

Chu Feiliang, still in her alluring and grand makeup, heard this and snorted disdainfully. “What’s so good about it? Tell me what’s so good about this crappy ending.”

Zhang Nanchuan glared back at her. “What’s not good about it!”

Chu Feiliang gritted her teeth resentfully, adjusted the machine, and rewound the footage to two minutes before the end.

Everyone held their breath, watching the scene appear on the monitor.

—Indeed, there was a flock of geese migrating in neat formation. However, after this flock passed, two more flew up behind them, one large and one small, like a pair.

Zhang Nanchuan was just about to shout, ‘So what if two of them fell behind? We can just edit them out later, do you have to be like this’—but before he could put his thought into words, he fell silent.

After flying together intimately in the sky for a while…

…they flew off in different directions.

Without a backward glance, utterly indifferent.

Zhang Nanchuan: “…”

Chu Feiliang gave him a cold look. “Excuse me, Director Zhang Nanchuan, is this supposed to be a tragedy?”

Zhang Nanchuan looked at her expressionlessly. “It is not, Ms. Chu Feiliang. This is a comedy.”

Chu Feiliang let out another heavy, cold snort and walked away in her high heels.

What a bad omen.

Not only did she think so, but Zhang Nanchuan felt the same.

Then he thought about it carefully and said, “Cut the entire ending shot with the sky. We’ll patch it in later, shoot something else. We still have a few more scenes with the whole school assembled. Pay attention to the scenery here for the next few days and focus on filming that.”

The film crew received their orders and took them to heart.

Rong Guang was being held down by the makeup artist for her makeup. The hair extensions had been removed, and her soft hair fell loosely. Her gaze, soft and gentle, watched Chu Feiliang from the mirror. Just looking at her brought a sense of peace to Chu Feiliang’s heart.

Rong Guang looked at Chu Feiliang and gestured for the makeup artist to wait a moment before doing her lip makeup.

The makeup artist thought for a moment, considered the situation, and simply left with her team, giving the two of them plenty of space.

Only then did Chu Feiliang’s lips curve into a smile. She locked the door from the inside and, as she turned, said softly, “How many times did Teacher Rong sneak a peek at me just now? Hmm?”

Rong Guang blushed.

She glanced again at Chu Feiliang’s exquisite figure, which couldn’t be hidden by the dark red dress, and felt her face flush. She whispered, “Not… not that many times…”

Chu Feiliang moved closer to her, her tone slightly dangerous as she whispered, “If a good student doesn’t behave, she’ll have to be punished.”

That was… a line from The Lover.

Rong Guang was so embarrassed the tips of her ears turned red. She looked around and spotted a security camera, so she could only whisper, “Then… let’s go somewhere else, not here…”

Chu Feiliang stared at Rong Guang’s face for a long moment, then silently cursed in her heart.

Fuck.

Does Rong Guang have any idea how seductive she is when she says things like that with such a pure and innocent face?!