“Hi, everyone. We meet again.” Gu Xiqiao waved at everyone on set.
Do any of the readers know what it was like to get greeted by an unparalleled beauty? Everyone was dazed for a few moments and waved back at her dumbly before they caught themselves in the act. Were they really acting that dumb??
“Er Qiao!” Xiao Yun had just come out from the makeup room, and she immediately spotted the girl that had become the center of attention. “Why are you here?”
After a short silence, everyone on the set returned to their duties, the people in charge of props ran around busily while Li Yu’s makeup artist touched up the makeup on his face as he prepared to take another shot. Cheng Zhou saw Gu Xiqiao and his expression brightened visibly, letting the assistant director handle the camera for a few moments while he walked over.
He was incredibly confident in Li Yu’s abilities, so he knew that it wouldn’t be much of a problem even if he wasn’t there to take charge.
“Ms. Gu, have you thought it over?” He asked Gu Xiqiao politely.
Gu Xiqiao looked right back at him with her signature clear gaze and nodded. “I can try, Director Cheng, but I’ve never acted before, so if it turns out that I can’t do it, I’ll quit.”
Acting depended on born talent to a degree, and if she was really so terrible at it, she wouldn’t be able to act well even if she had the virtual training grounds.
Cheng Zhou smiled brightly as if she didn’t say that second half of the sentence. It was way too hard to look for a suitable actress for the role of Princess Qixia, after all, which was why he had chose Jin Sitian in the first place, even though she couldn’t act well to save her life!
According to his personality, he would have continued to hold a grudge over this matter had she not agreed, because she was the spitting image of Princess Qixia that he had in his mind.
She was definitely most suited for this character!
In any case, Gu Xiqiao looked much more suitable for the role than Jin Sitian, and even if she couldn’t act either, the audience would probably have a better time accepting her character.
“Alright, then go and get into your costume, and we’ll see how it goes okay?” Cheng Zhou waved her away to the makeup room, but deep down he was still worried that the girl might have even more terrible acting than Jin Sitian.
Xiao Yun led her to the makeup room. “Sister Yu, help her with the makeup for Princess Qixia, please.”
As a tritagonist of the drama, she actually had relatively little scenes, so she only had two character costumes—One set of official robes, and one set of casual clothing.
Sister Yu stared at Gu Xiqiao for a good moment before she nodded slightly, gesturing for her to sit down and get started on the makeup.
As a makeup artist, she knew exactly how to accentuate and show off the traits of a person’s face, especially such a diamond in the rough as this one.
“I got you Princess Qixia’s script, take a look at it. Remember, don’t panic.” Xiao Yun handed Gu Xiqiao the script, before quickly rushing off to shoot her next scene.
Gu Xiqiao flipped through the pages of the script, before her consciousness went into the virtual training grounds.
Empire Under Siege was a movie set in a warring historical era, and it was a story of the conflict among four kingdoms. The crown prince of the southern kingdom had always been flippant and had never been bound by any rules, and when he was of age, he went on a journey and met the female protagonist.
The southern kingdom was suddenly attacked by an enemy kingdom, and the only ones left were the protagonist’s old father, the emperor, and Princess Qixia who stepped onto the battlefield, and jumped off of the walls of the city once the enemy succeeded in their siege.
Gu Xiqiao’s scenes ended here, and what happened after was the female protagonist working together with the protagonist to lay conquest over the three kingdoms and hence the entire country, becoming an emperor and living happily ever after with the female protagonist.
Xiao Yun’s role as the deuteragonist was as Princess Qixia’s servant, and the character’s cold personality matched well with that of her own. She followed the princess onto the battlefield, and after her mistress died, she helped the protagonist against his enemies, and finally she died on the battlefield in honor to save the female protagonist.
The military strategy portion of the original novel was extremely interesting and the plot was woven tightly, so the original novel had countless fans too.
Strategies and plots that exploited the hearts of men eventually wove a web that would lead to the conquest of the entire land, and it could make the people that looked at the story unfold feel a sense of historic tension.
Gu Xiqiao sat there and read through the entire novel.
Her character only had a few scenes, and after she finished reading through both the source material and the script, she stood up and changed her clothes into Princess Qixia’s ceremonial robes with a single intent, before walking around.
“What do you think, system?” She asked.
[Very mediocre. I advise you to learn from the basics, from the way a princess of that time period of talks and holds herself, to her aura and temperament. One by one.] The system fluttered around Gu Xiqiao and commented.
Gu Xiqiao: At least it didn’t say that I was irredeemably terrible at it…
As the most intelligent artificial intelligence in the world, the system immediately gathered audio clips and information of actors and actresses acting out similar roles, and Gu Xiqiao watched all of them seriously. If she agreed to learn, then she had to do her best.
As the time in the virtual training grounds ticked by, it had only been less than a few seconds in the real world. In the virtual space, Gu Xiqiao had already done Princess Qixia’s signature motion of looking up at the starry sky and sighing for more than a thousand times, until the system was already sick of it. [Why the heck do you keep doing this?]
“I’m trying to understand her, to get into character…” Gu Xiqiao stood up and looked into the distance, her gaze changing from cool nonchalance to brave indignance.
The system spirit stared at the girl practice dazedly, seeing her change from inexperienced to having a grasp of Princess Qixia’s character, and every single step and glance was reminiscent of an actual princess.
It was easy to say that one could achieve anything through hard work, but it was exceedingly difficult to devote so much time to perfecting a single task. Normally a single scene would already be considered boring if practised and reshot for more than ten times, but Gu Xiqiao practised her motions for a thousand times!
For context, all of Princess Qixia’s scenes barely amounted to more than ten minutes after adding them all together.
The system spirit couldn’t help but think back to when Gu Xiqiao’s soul made its way here when she first died, and back then she was the same. Nonchalant, patient, and hardy, she stayed there in the void for an uncountable amount of time, and it proved her worthy of the system.
To succeed, she had to withstand loneliness and isolation that would drive anyone else mad.
After the system spirit gave her the okay upon seeing the final product of her acting, she got out of the virtual training grounds.
As her mental power became stronger and stronger, she didn’t even have any signs of being tired or fatigued after being in the virtual space for extended periods of time.
“How long was I in there?” She asked as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.
The system spirit tilted its head. [Around a month, give or take.]
A month, huh? Gu Xiqiao remembered how she could barely last half a month in the virtual space back when she started before her mental power would crumble.
“Alright, and we’re done.” Sister Yu helped tidy Gu Xiqiao up, and in a rare event, she smiled. “Go and get your photos taken.”
“Thank you.” Gu Xiqiao nodded at her politely, her jet black hair flowing as she did.
While Gu Xiqiao was getting prepared, another bunch of people came to the studio.
“Director Cheng, I’ve heard news that Jin Sitian has been kicked out of your crew.” The one that was speaking was a shrewd-looking woman in her thirties. “Our Zixian is very interested in this character, and if you agree for her to act in this movie, we will invest twenty million yuan into your production, how does that sound?”
Twenty million yuan was already enough for an entire crew for a smaller movie.
If it were in the past, Cheng Zhou would definitely have been undecided, as this money could have been used to get better facilities and sites so that he could recreate the scenes that he wanted, but now that he had the help of Tang Enterprise, funding was already the least of his worries.
Between twenty million and one billion, the choice was obvious. “I’m sorry, it’s not that we don’t want to work with you, but we’ve already chosen someone for the role of Princess Qixia.”
“You’ve already chosen someone?” Peng Zixian’s manager had never heard news of him having auditions for the role after Jin Sitian was booted out, so she thought that he was giving her a hard time on purpose. In any case, who would refuse twenty million? “Director Cheng, our Zixian doesn’t lose to Jin Sitian in looks nor acting ability!”
She urged Cheng Zhou to look at the direction of the crew, where a woman with wavy hair was standing in a red dress and talking with Li Yu.
Li Yu seemed to have just ended a shoot, but he was decently polite and even friendly as he talked with her.
Peng Zixian was an up-and-rising star that came into the spotlight after a web drama. No one knew how exactly she became popular, and it seemed as if she became the center of attention overnight, much luckier than Jin Sitian was.
But after seeing Gu Xiqiao’s beauty, he knew that no one in the entire industry could make him waver in his choice.
“Look, there she is.” Cheng Zhou smiled as he saw a figure walking out of the makeup room. “She’s our Princess Qixia…Her actress.”
Cheng Zhou took a while to speak the two latter words when he saw Gu Xiqiao.
A plain and elegant white dress, with black lotus flowers laced with gold thread embroidered on the fabric, and a golden sash around her waist, while a beautiful jade pendant the color of lard hung from her neck, symbolizing her identity as the princess. Her jet black hair was tied up with a thin silk ribbon, while her eyebrows were drawn in a curved fashion. Her lips that had always been pale-colored were now as red as roses, and the bright color contrasted greatly with everything else on her color palette, giving her a noble look as if she were really a princess.
With clothes the color of snow and lips as vibrant as fire, she had a regal aura that made it hard for everyone in the crew to look at her directly.
Everyone knew who Gu Xiqiao was, and their impression of her was an elegant and dainty young woman, but when they saw her standing there, the first person that came to mind wasn’t Gu Xiqiao herself, but Princess Qixia who took a stand against the enemies of the kingdom in her last moments.
Jin Sitian and Peng Zixian became immediate afterthoughts!
Even Cheng Zhou didn’t expect there to be such an effect, and he repressed the urge to howl like a wolf in happiness as he looked at Gu Xiqiao. He had expected that he would have needed to train her for a few days, but it seemed to be an unnecessary concern!
Cheng Zhou was so satisfied and content with her portrayal of the character just by standing there that he smiled and chuckled, and it was the first time he had been so visibly happy in all this while he was in the studio.
Peng Zixian’s manager was stunned for a few moments when she saw Gu Xiqiao, and she drew a blank when she tried to connect the face she saw before her to a name in the industry, so she was probably a newbie. “So you’ve got an amateur, Director Cheng?”
“Yes, I’m terribly sorry.” Cheng Zhou smiled, and it was clear as day that he was in an extremely good mood.
“Sorry for interrupting, we will be taking our leave.” Peng Zixian’s manager nodded and didn’t push the topic any further. She had heard rumors that the crew had problems with funding, but it seemed as if it wasn’t the case.
Peng Zixian and the manager got back onto their car.
“An airdropped amateur?”
The manager nodded slightly. “Yes, and probably with a sugar daddy behind her back too.”
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped.” Peng Zixian nodded, her eyelids hooded.
“Er Qiao…” Xiao Yun had just gotten done with her own scenes for the moment, and she was in disbelief as she looked at Gu Xiqiao’s current state. If it weren’t for the fact that they had been friends for such a long time, she wouldn’t believe that this person in front of here was the same person!
“Hm?” Gu Xiqiao looked over and blinked, and in a single moment she returned to her ordinary self. “What do you think?”
Upon seeing Gu Xiqiao’s familiar demeanor again, Xiao Yun nodded affirmatively. “Yes, what you did just now was excellent!!”
Gu Xiqiao breathed a sigh of relief. She probably would have cried if all her hard work was in the wrong direction!
“Quick, let’s get done with your scenes while you’re in the right condition!” Upon seeing Gu Xiqiao return to her regular self, Cheng Zhou was scared that she couldn’t regain the regal aura from before, so he immediately rescheduled everything else to get started on her scenes.
The director’s word was law in the studio, so no one disagreed with his choice.
“Senior Li has a strong aura while acting, so don’t get taken off guard and get nervous okay? Director Cheng has shouted at people that did that before…” Before Gu Xiqiao started officially shooting her scenes, Xiao Yun reminded her of some matters that she had to take into mind. “As for which camera you need to look at, Director Cheng has more than twenty cameras pointed at the scene, so you just need to act however you like.”
Gu Xiqiao nodded, and Xiao Yun retreated to watch on the sidelines nervously.
Cheng Zhou got onto the director’s seat, and waved everyone into position. “All cameras at the ready, scene fifty eight, action!”
The scene that Cheng Zhou chose for Gu Xiqiao to act out first was the scene where she jumped from the city walls. There weren’t a lot of lines, and it was heavily dependant on her acting ability. If she acted this scene well, it would be able to move people to tears, but if she didn’t, the unparalleled beauty Princess Qixia wouldn’t be any different than any other face in the crowd.
The reason why Cheng Zhou was so picky about the role of Princess Qixia in the first place was because her characteristics as written in the novel were too perfect and flawless, in both looks and personality.
Qixia had a lot of fans in her short run in the original novel, so if the actress for this role wasn’t picked carefully, the crew would be hated on even if the other actors did well in their roles.
The moment the camera started rolling, Gu Xiqiao’s presence itself changed. Her clear gaze became resolute and sorrowful as they were cast downwards slightly, as if she really were looking down from the vantage point of the city wall. From her gaze alone, one could see the enemy troops marching towards the city from down below, while she was the only person left on the city walls as it snowed.
A teardrop slid down the side of her face, and she didn’t make a sound, neither a change in her expression as the entire atmosphere around her changed to one of an unspeakable sorrow, making everyone on set hold their breath.
The cool voice brought with it and undeniable strength as if shouted, “I have no regrets dying on the battlefield in honor with our troops, my only hope is for Brother to come back one day and lay waste to Jiang Kingdom!”
She looked at the dark sky that stretched for miles, and as she stared at the snow that slowly covered the barren land with a white blanket, she slowly closed her eyes.
And jumped.
Nowadays, the general audience seemed to care less and less about actual acting ability, but instead the popularity of the actors and actresses portraying the roles of the characters, and more often than not, people recognized characters as the people acting as them instead of the characters themselves.
The ones that would get awards nowadays were mostly the ones that acted exaggeratedly but had more popularity, instead of the ones that devoted themselves to the art of performance, and that was just the truth of the current situation.
Someone had said before that the highest realm of acting was when the actor could act in such a way that the audience would not be able to see the actor themself, and make them feel as if they were the actual person themself instead of being an act.
Gu Xiqiao achieved that splendidly, becoming Princess Qixia from soul to external appearance the moment Cheng Zhou yelled “Action!”.
One of the girls that was an original fan of the novel was there in the crew, and she couldn’t help but cry. “Boohoohooo Princess Qixia is dead! She died just like that! The crown prince was going to arrive in just a moment, all she had to do was hang on! I hate you, screenwriter!”
The man next to her was shaken back into reality by the volume of her voice, and she poked her shoulder. “Stop that! Do you want to get a cut from your salary?”
The girl sniffled and wiped her tears and snot, finally remembering that it was the studio, and she smiled bashfully. Thankfully enough, everyone was taken aback by Gu Xiqiao’s acting, so no one blamed her.
Cheng Zhou was shaken out of his mind. It had been a gamble when he asked her to play the role of Princess Qixia, but he never thought it would have such an effect.
In the past, he could only see such impactful acting when Li Yu acted together with extremely experienced actresses, and now he was surprised out of his mind!
To have her act was the best choice he had ever made since deciding to direct this movie!
Upon hearing that Gu Xiqiao’s family might be disapproving of her acting, he immediately arranged for all of the scenes that had her in them to be shot, and no one was against this decision.
Li Yu wasn’t unhappy in the slightest, even though his scenes were pushed back and postponed, and upon seeing him chat with Gu Xiqiao happily, Cheng Zhou put down his last bit of worry.
Meanwhile, Jiang Shuxuan was dealing with the cleanup work at the hotel after Gu Xiqiao had left. He was the only one left on scene, and because it was quite a terrible incident that involved Gu Xiqiao, he decided to deal with it personally.
This world had a side to it that was unknown to normal humans—Ancient martial arts, ninjas, vampires, exorcists…Hence, every country had its own special departments to deal with these supernatural happenings, hidden from the lens of the surface world.
Jiang Shuxuan took out his phone and called an unknown recipient, then continued sitting there peacefully in wait.
And so, the ones that came to help all saw such a scene: There was a body by the door that seemed to be a…Woman? Its face was melted off and rotten black, and the entire room smelled pungent, while another man and a girl was passed out at the side.
Such a scene was too gory, and with the scent, the normal person would probably have passed out or gotten sick.
But their boss was there sitting at the table and eating his meal elegantly and slowly, as if he were sitting in an exquisite palace.
Of course, the actual scene around him was disgusting beyond belief.
“Boss.” The leader walked towards Jiang Shuxuan, and even though he had his fair share of creepy moments, he was still immensely disgusted by the rotten face…He wouldn’t have dinner later, that’s for sure.
Their boss was truly a different breed.
Jiang Shuxuan put down his chopsticks and wiped his hands with tissues. “Take that woman and investigate thoroughly on the mastermind behind this. As for those two, just make sure that they remember nothing from today.”
“Roger that, Boss.” After Jiang Shuxuan gave his orders, they all started carrying out their duties.
They checked on the faceless woman’s body with many types of tools and apparatus, before making research notes and looking back at Jiang Shuxuan. “Boss, this sort of technique seems to be from priests from abroad…”
“Priests?” Jiang Shuxuan observed Sun Jiajia carefully, before a cold frost emanated from his finger.
The temperature of the room lowered as the pure white frost circled around Sun Jiajia, before Jiang Shuxuan shook his head slightly. “It’s not likely that it’s done by a priest, and this isn’t the only case of this happening either. I would say to investigate more on evil aura.”
Everyone at the scene was fans of Jiang Shuxuan, so they followed what he said and agreed immediately. The person in charge of notes nodded seriously and wrote down what he said, highlighting it and underlining it as he did.
The manager of the Royal Hotel heard that something was amiss, so he came down to check on what was happening. As soon as he got to the entrance, he was blocked by two burly men in black suits outside the private room, and upon seeing that they couldn’t be trifled with, he immediately put on a shrewd smile.
“Is there…” Before he could say any further, he was stopped by one of the bodyguards.
“We will be securing this hotel for a while, and you can claim any losses directly from the government.” The bodyguard took out a piece of paper and wrote down a phone number with a pen, before smacking it onto the manager’s body reassuringly.
The manager knew that things were serious since it had to do with the government itself, and as he was about to call a higher-up to report this matter, his boss rushed over hastily.
“Hello, is Mr. Jiang inside?” The boss asked one of the bodyguards politely.
“You can’t go inside.” The bodyguards replied stoically.
“Of course, of course.” The boss nodded understandingly and stood there outside the door patiently, greatly shocking the manager that was looking on at the entire scene.
Inside the room, Jiang Shuxuan stood up and prepared to leave upon seeing that everything had been dealt with. “Update me on any further discoveries.”
“Yes Boss!” They had gotten news that boss wasn’t going to deal with any matters in the ancient martial arts world for a while in the near future. In the past, they weren’t even needed for certain operations, just Jiang Shuxuan was enough!
Jiang Shuxuan nodded as he thought to himself that he should cultivate more helpers so that he would have more free time in the future.
The lackeys looked on as their boss ‘accidentally’ stepped on the hand of the blonde man passed out on the floor…
Since when did their boss become like this? Baffled.jpg
The moment he stepped out the door, his phone rang, and upon hearing that it was the special notification that he set, he took out his phone and switched it on, before standing there in place, stunned.
On the screen of his phone was a photo sent by Gu Xiqiao, and the subject of the photo was both unfamiliar and foreign to him. She had the same delicate features, and dressed in a white dress and with lips the color of blood, she looked into the camera with a regal and noble aura.
Jiang Shuxuan stood there at the door for a full moment, staring at the picture.
The boss outside immediately came forward upon seeing Jiang Shuxuan. “Hello, Mr. Jiang, I’m…”
“If you have anything to say, go talk with the ones inside.” Jiang Shuxuan tucked the phone back into his pocket, and as soon as she spoke, his figure had vanished from the doorway.
He seemed to be walking slowly, but in a flash, he disappeared out of sight.
-Studio City-
After getting the sponsorship of Tang Enterprise, Cheng Zhou’s standards towards decor and setting became much higher, like using real flowers instead of fake ones, for example.
Because Gu Xiqiao’s scenes were all being taken at once, it was eventually a scene with both her and Li Yu.
As the crown prince and the princess, both Qixia and Nan Qiubai were well versed in martial arts, so that they would both be able to protect themselves from assassins, and step onto the battlefield when the time came.
“Camera one, camera three, ready!”
Li Yu immediately got into character, the crown prince swinging around his sword as if it were an elegant but dangerous dance, and his body moved with the sword. When he swung his sword, there seemed to be an arrogant but regal aura that emanated from him, and when he finally stopped and sheathed his blade, the audience could finally see his handsome face.
“Your mastery of the sword is becoming better by the day, crown prince,” Concubine Zuo Qiuxiang commented as she handed him a handkerchief, and deep in her orbs was a deeply suppressed infatuation.
Concubine Zuo Qiuxiang’s character was quite lovable. As the childhood playmate of the crown prince, she knew him better than everyone else, to a point where she knew what he was thinking with a single glance.
Later on, she would step onto the battlefield together with Princess Qixia, and would be sent to find Nan Qiubai, overcoming trials and tribulations only to come back to the dead body of Princess Qixia.
Later on, Nan Qiubai would swear to the heavens to destroy the three kingdoms with the help of the female lead that was intellectual equals with him, and Concubine Zuo Qiuxiang stepped back to the sidelines as a supporting role, knowing she couldn’t measure to her, before dying to save her.
And so, her life came to a halt.
Xiao Yun was very much in character for this scene, and even Gu Xiqiao could feel the love in her gaze.
Until Cheng Zhou shouted “Cut!” everyone on set didn’t have enough of the clashing of acting between the two.
The next sequence was the fight between Princess Qixia and Nan Qiubai, and the fight choreographer showed Gu Xiqiao how the entire fight was supposed to go down. “Do you understand?”
Gu Xiqiao nodded, and the fight choreographer didn’t press her because he knew that she wasn’t a professional in the first place. “Let’s go over this one time, and I’ll point out any mistakes you have.”
Nan Qiubai had just finished practising his sword, and was standing underneath a peach blossom tree, petals falling in the wind. Seeing a familiar figure walk closer from a distance, he bowed with folded hands and a smile. “I heard Master say that your swordsmanship has improved, may I have the pleasure?”
Princess Qixia unsheathed her blade, and swung it beautifully in the air before raising her chin slightly. “You may.”
Both Cheng Zhou and the fight choreographer were greatly surprised by Gu Xiqiao. It was common knowledge that Li Yu was well versed in swordsmanship and combat, so he always excelled in action scenes, but now he was evenly matched with her.
Neither of them knew that martial arts and combat were right up Gu Xiqiao’s alley.
The crew of Empire Under Siege had quite the following on social media, so as soon as news of Jin Sitian being booted came out, so did a bunch of haters.
Jin Sitian was quite pretty, after all, so she had a lot of fans that loved her for her appearance.
Under the official Weibo of Empire Under Siege, there were daily comments of:
“Are you bullying our Tian Tian for not having a sugar daddy? Is the crew not going to explain this?!”
“I’m only here for my God Li, I don’t care about anyone else ?”
“+1, Empire Under Siege for our goddess!”
“Is there anyone that can be better than acting and prettier than our Tian Tian in the entire industry? You owe us an explanation!”
“I heard that there was an airdropped amateur, poor Tian Tian! QAQ”
“I’m just a passerby that doesn’t really care about Jin Sitian, but the crew needs to revise their actions.”
“Poor Tian Tian…QwQ”
…
That was until that night, when the official Weibo of the crew posted a bunch of pictures.
Many people came across this post, and soon after, the comments section was filled with:
“AAAAAAAA”
