631 From Light to Darkness
Song Ci was also stunned by her own reflection in the camera. It could only be said that Qian Wu had great cinematography skills. The composition of the whole picture was clean and neat. The blue sky was so beautiful that it seemed to be painted on. The large area of light dyed the girl’s fair skin, making her look even more pure and innocent. She could not help but exclaim, “It looks so beautiful!”
“Right?” Qian Wu was very satisfied. “By the way, you don’t smoke, do you?”
Song Ci shook her head. She did not know how to smoke. In the later stages of Chen Guihua’s life, when she had lost all hope, there was a scene where she took a cigarette to relieve her worries. She smoked with all her might, choking herself until tears flowed. “I’ll try to learn how to in the next two days.”
Qian Wu: “Don’t do it yet. In a few days, you can learn it during Chen Guihua’s first smoking scene. It just so happens that you don’t know how to smoke. It’ll make the scene more realistic.”
“Alright.” Song Ci nodded obediently. She recalled the scene where Chen Guihua smoked for the first time. She choked on the smoke and coughed non-stop. Shi Qiang and the others saw and laughed at her while she kept coughing. Slowly, tears flowed out. Shi Qiang and the others laughed even louder. When Chen Guihua heard their laughter, she laughed heartlessly, even though her tears had yet to dry.
It was also from this day onward that she would laugh whenever anyone laughed. There was no particular reason, but she did it to fit in. She was finally not what people called ‘unconventional’.
As Qian Wu wanted to film her first smoke, Song Ci had been holding it in. It was not until the scene where Chen Guihua smoked for the first time that she came into contact with cigarettes. Just like Chen Guihua, she was choking and coughing. As if in a fit of pique, she kept smoking the cigarette in her hand. However, the more she wanted to smoke easily, the more difficult it was. The cigarette fiercely choked her throat, and she coughed more and more violently. As she coughed, for some reason, tears came out.
However, everyone laughed, so she had to laugh too. It was no matter why they laughed. Even if they were laughing at her, she still had to laugh. That way, everyone would be the same.
The bright sky was filled with happy and wanton laughter.
Song Ci had done a great job in this scene, especially when she smoked numbly and coughed out tears. It made for an especially pitiful and sad scene when she smiled at the end.
It made people sigh. A few surrounding actresses could not help but secretly wipe their tears.
Song Ci coughed until her throat hurt. She took the water from yang Haoran and drank a few sips, but her throat still felt uncomfortable. She really did not understand how people who enjoy smoking did it.
Seeing her condition, Yang Haoran gave her a few more lozenges.
Song Ci looked at the cigarette in her hand. She really did not like smoking, nor did she like people who smoked in public. She had never touched a cigarette in her life. Even when she was at the lowest point in her life, she had never once thought to numb her thoughts with them. However, she was an actor. It did not matter if she liked it or not. If the character in the movie needed her to smoke, she had to.
Song Ci remembered she still had a smoking scene to shoot tonight. She lit the cigarette in her hand and continued to practice. She would have to get used to smoking in the future, anyway. After finishing one cigarette, Song Ci lit another. Slowly, she found the feeling of smoking that was also linked with Chen Guihua. She seemed to understand Chen Guihua’s feeling at that time, the thought of accepting her fate and giving up.
To make a person who had worked so hard for so long have no choice but to accept their fate was too unreconciled and cruel.
Chen Guihua sat outside and smoked the entire night. She kept letting herself accept her fate. She could only follow a fixed lifestyle and could no longer be herself. However, she was subconsciously reluctant to accept her fate… until she finished smoking and the sky was bright. It was then that Chen Guihua completely accepted her fate and gave up.
This scene could be considered one of the highlights of the movie. Qian Wu had already chosen the time and location for the shooting and picked a white short-sleeved shirt and black coat for Song Ci. From white to black, he walked from light to darkness.
As night fell, the lights in the house did too, and flowers bloomed in the fence of the small courtyard.
Chen Guihua sat at the door of her house, looking at the stars in the sky. She slowly lit the cigarette in her hand as if to light up the remaining little passion in her. Chen Guihua’s eyes were emotionless and dull as she quietly smoked one cigarette after another. From the initial coughing to the final numbness…
