Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Shi Jia looked up with the bow in her hands. A breeze lifted her fur hood, exposing her determined, red-limned faced.
Tarzan looked back and gave her a wide grin.
She reached out, tiptoeing to feel his face. She couldn’t see what was happening with Tarzan in her way, but soon her eyes were dyed a terrifying red.
Her long lashes quivered. The next scene, the last scene of the film, was a close-up of flowing red lava.
“Cut!”
At the director’s command, the entire cast put an end to what they were doing.
So this is it, huh? Tarzan’s actor, Zhou Zizhe, stretched lazily. He knew he was going to miss everything here. They had been filming together for nearly a year, after all, from the start of the one spring till the next. There were no forms of entertainment there, and they stayed in tents, climbed trees, played with rocks, and occasionally feasted on games. That had brought out the child in some of them.
But now they had reached the end. It was time to go on their separate ways.
Yes, it was time for home. Yan Huan laid down the bow and arrow in her hand and sat down. Huddling up, she stared blankly at the peaceful sky. There were no volcanoes, no dinosaurs, only peace and serenity.
The after-production for the film will take up nearly an entire year, so Yan Huan wasn’t sure if they could release it during the New Year window. It was a film with hundreds of millions thrown into it, however, and media attention had not died down since the beginning. That being said, Lin Lang had not disclosed anything yet.
Neither did Yan Huan take on any interviews before the start of the filming.
And now it was all done. It’s a good thing, right? She could go home again.
The crew busied themselves with the final task of packing up. Going there had not been easy after all. They had used helicopters on their way there and back, to transport the numerous props and equipment needed. Talk alone wouldn’t solve anything.
Once they made sure that everything was sorted out, they began packing and cleaning up their trash. It was a natural forest, so anything that shouldn’t be left behind had to go.
Pretty much nothing remained by the time they left, apart from marks of inhabitation that would fade in time.
Time makes you forget the things you shouldn’t forget, the things that mattered.
That’s why it’s the most callous thing in this world.
And that’s why they call it a great medicine; memory-loss never fails to bring away pain.
Yan Huan was among the last to board the helicopter. She wanted a last look at the place, the place where they had spent an entire year. She wondered if the emotions they had there will leave along with them, or remain at their birthplace forever.
As the helicopter gained height, she felt as though everything below no longer had anything to do with her. They had finally returned to reality, their own lives.
She wrapped her coat a little tighter around herself. Early spring was still chilly.
Ye Shuyun knew of her homecoming, and she was greeted by a table of hot dishes when she got home. The frostbite marks on Yan Huan’s hand gave Ye Shuyun a shock.
“How did this happen?”
Yan Huan had never gotten frostbite before. Even during winter, Sea City wasn’t that cold, so it didn’t make sense that she had such bad injuries.
“It happened during the shooting,” said Yan Huan, pulling her hands back. She smiled indifferently. “It’s not a big deal. I’m not getting any pains or itches. It would be fine when the weather gets warmer.”
Ye Shuyun caressed her hair, like a loving mother.
“Alright then. Come eat.”
Yan Huan wielded her chopsticks. There were so many dishes she had trouble deciding where to start. In the past year, she had been living and eating with the entire cast, and that made her forget what it felt like to have a table to herself.
She picked up a piece of meat and ate it. She didn’t like eating meat in the past, but now she had to learn to do so.
She had a lot more to learn, in fact. The first thing she needed to learn was to live without Lu Yi.
The early spring weather soon grew warmer, at least five degrees hotter than what the temperature had been in the forest. The nanny applied some medicine to Yan Huan’s hand. It itched, a feeling she found hard to stand.
The itch didn’t limit itself to the surface either, and she could feel it in her bones. No matter how much she scratched, the itching never subsided. If she kept going on it, the itch would soon be replaced by pain.
She wrapped a silk scarf around her neck, put on her hat, and wore her black-framed glasses, before heading out.
She placed a fresh bouquet before the tombstone, untied her scarf, and squat down. She dusted the tombstone with her fingers, but there wasn’t much dust. Someone must have been there, often.
Ye Shuyun has been visiting her son, hasn’t she?
“It’s good to know that Mom visits you often. That way, you won’t be lonely,” she sat down and leaned her head against the tombstone, muttering to herself once again.
“The shooting has ended, and the film is in its post-production phase now. This film is going to be a massive hit, you can have my word on it. This is my final assignment, and I want to end it on a high note. After that, I’ll focus on accompanying you, alright?”
She curled up her sleeves and wiped the tombstone again. The tombstone said nothing, as it always had and always will, but that didn’t matter to her. It had become her spiritual sustenance, one that she could not live without.
The swell on her frostbitten fingers had gotten a lot better, but the itch still bothered her to no end, tempting her to scratch at every moment. And when she did, it only made things worse.
She sat in the cemetery for a long time, before she was ready to head back. As of now, she didn’t want to deal with Lin Lang’s matters yet.
She was tired, and in need of a good break.
When she got home, the nanny informed her of a visit from Luo Lin, who was waiting for her in the bedroom.
Yan Huan found her working at her desk. She walked over and took the locked laptop away.
“Can I use that?” asked Luo Lin, pointing to the laptop. She didn’t know the password to it.
