The male planner was a head shorter than Pei Tingsong, so he didn't seem to have much weight in front of him. He could only smile awkwardly. "Ah … nothing, I just think it's a pity."
"Really?" Pei Tingsong smiled innocently. "Why is it a pity for a boy to be beautiful? I don't quite understand this logic. Are you saying that only those who aren't good-looking deserve to be praised? "
It was a friendly question, but the planner's back was drenched in cold sweat. He had just witnessed the power of this young male idol. Even a famous photographer had to give him some face. "That's not what I meant …"
"I understand what you mean." Pei Tingsong released his hand from his shoulder. "As a boy, it's not a pity to be good-looking. Being good-looking doesn't mean that 'no wonder' will happen. You want to talk about this, right? "
"Yes, yes."
Pei Tingsong nodded seriously. "That's good. Then our views are quite similar." He acted as if he was relieved. "I thought it would be some low-class loser who would speak and raise his knife. I didn't expect it to be an ally."
"Then I'll put my knife away to avoid accidental injury." Pei Tingsong smiled. "I'm famous for being a prickly person. I'll hit you hard. "
After he finished speaking, he put his hands in his pockets and turned to leave.
After hearing this, the two crew members were already drenched in cold sweat. Most people in the industry knew that Pei Tingsong wasn't someone to be trifled with. They already knew this before, let alone now that he was famous. However, they also thought that Pei Tingsong really didn't get along with Fang Juexia like the rumors said. They didn't expect him to stand up for him. But no matter what, they didn't want to lose their jobs because of their gossips, so they could only swallow their pride and hide in a corner.
The sky gradually darkened. The orange sunset fell on the fir trees, and the snow burned in the twilight.
Pei Tingsong warmed up and walked a few steps towards the shooting location. From afar, he saw Fang Juexia in a black sweater walking forward under the guidance of Lin Mo.
"Okay, turn around and smile."
At that moment, he saw Fang Juexia turn around, his smile brighter than the snow.
Stepping on the snow, he walked closer. His vision seemed to be out of his control, tracking Fang Juexia's figure through the gaps of the crowd.
His whole body was covered in snow, and his face glowed with the color of fresh blood under the snow and the sunlight. When he looked up, the redness at the corner of his eyes extended out like a wound. Her clear eyes were half-covered by her snow-white eyelashes. In the close-up, her soaked eye sockets gave off a sense of transparency under the reflection of the snow, like ice that had yet to melt.
Lin Mo instructed from the side, "Walk further in, Juexia."
Fang Juexia followed his instructions and went deeper into the snow forest step by step. He only stopped when he reached a fir tree.
"Turn around and hide half of your body behind the tree. Move closer." Lin Mo raised his camera. "Yes, only show half of your face."
Pei Tingsong also walked over. He did not know why he walked over. Maybe it was because he was curious, just like when he was young, he was curious whether there was life in the broken section of a dead branch.
"Your eyes are too cold now. You have to have some emotion, tap into your instincts …"
The photographer always spoke very abstractly. Fang Juexia did not know what kind of feeling he was describing. He only felt confused. This was an unfamiliar stereotype. What should it be like to be imprisoned, and what instincts should be like? He could not understand.
Pei Tingsong walked to Lin Mo's side and looked at him from Lin Mo's point of view.
"Look over, yes."
Fang Juexia's gaze met with another person.
Pei Tingsong's eyes moved away from the camera and looked up at him not far away. That pair of beautiful eyes looked straight at him as always, with the last resistance of a dead branch.
"Yes, that's it." Lin Mo's voice was filled with surprise. He quickly took the opportunity to take a few pictures to see the effect.
"Very good. Although this gaze is not quite what I imagined, it's really not bad." Lin Mo even showed Pei Tingsong the picture very proudly. "Look, what do you think? This face is too photogenic, and it's more expressive than I imagined. It's time to change careers and become a model. "
In the picture, Fang Juexia's figure was half covered by a dark tree trunk. The left half of his face was calm, and the red birthmark was the only color in the black and white. The exposed eye emitted a clear light, like the moon in a frozen pool.
This was the rare emotion that Lin Mo mentioned. It was the final struggle of Dong Ri, who was about to fall into a trap.
But this struggle was only separated by a thin layer of fragile ice. It would shatter with a light pinch. Once the warm current invaded, Dong Ri would have no place to hide. He could only be forced to melt, peel off himself, and reveal his original shape.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
Pei Tingsong was fascinated by the picture. Only then did he snap back to reality and nod. "It's very good. He's very suitable."
Looking up again, Fang Juexia was already wrapped in a large coat. He was laughing quietly at the staff's teasing. He even reached out and plucked half a leaf from the assistant's head.
Pei Tingsong couldn't lie to himself. He couldn't associate the person in front of him with those rumors. Another voice appeared in his heart.
Perhaps he had never believed those rumors from the bottom of his heart. He was just looking for a valid reason to distance himself from this person, just like how this person distanced himself.
He couldn't tell if this voice was right or wrong. Their biases and stubbornness had pulled them too far apart.
The last bit of daylight disappeared. The moment the setting sun jumped into the snow forest and disappeared behind Fang Juexia, Lin Mo used the camera to capture this scene.
"Thank you for your hard work." After finishing the shoot, Fang Juexia bowed to the staff and walked back in his down jacket. When he walked past Pei Tingsong, he didn't say a word.
Pei Tingsong actually felt a little stifled in his heart.
"Hey, you're walking so fast. Aren't you afraid of falling?"
After he said this, he felt a little regretful. It was as if he had taken the initiative to do something. It was as if he was supporting Fang Juexia in his heart and accompanying him all the way back to the car shed.
But the other party didn't even turn his head. "I'm not walking fast."
Back in the studio, Fang Juexia stomped his feet and checked the film he had taken. He was too old from the cold in the snow, and his limbs were numb.
Pei Tingsong saw that the tip of his nose and ears were red from the cold. His cheeks were also red, and he kept rubbing his hands. Pei Tingsong wanted to give him the hand warmer that he had given him before. But when he put his hand into his pocket, it was warm. The hand warmer was no longer hot.
"This one is not bad. This one too." Lin Mo was very satisfied. "Your behind-the-scenes video can be edited into a music video. The mood is very good. This is the cleanest film I have taken recently."
Fang Juexia was a little embarrassed by the compliment. "Thank you …"
"You don't have to thank me. You are very photogenic. There are basically no wasted films, which is very rare. Also, your temperament is very special. It's a pity that you are not a model. "
Fang Juexia was not good at socializing. In the face of so many compliments, he didn't know how to respond. Like a robot, he searched the barren database for words that could be used.
Just as he was struggling, his hand was suddenly grabbed. Fang Juexia instinctively turned his head and saw Pei Tingsong standing beside him. His frozen fingers were suddenly wrapped in warmth.
It was Pei Tingsong who had grabbed his hand and stuffed it into the pocket of his warm coat.
"I think so too. I just took two pictures with my phone." Pei Tingsong smoothly interrupted the conversation. "The snow here is also very beautiful. It's the icing on the cake." After he said that, he looked at Fang Juexia and asked with a smile, "Right?"
Fang Juexia had yet to recover from his surprise. "Hmm..."
"Your hand warmer is cold." Pei Tingsong didn't look at him and said softly again, "Settle for the next best thing."
So that was the reason.
Settle for the next best thing.
Fang Juexia repeatedly chewed on Pei Tingsong's words in his heart. His thinking was simple and straightforward. Often, he couldn't understand Pei Tingsong's words immediately. But this didn't affect the confusion in his mind. His brain and heartbeat seemed to have established their own systems and were no longer coupled.
His frozen fingers gradually regained feeling. A warm current penetrated his skin from his other hand, surging in his capillaries and flowing to his fingertips.
It was another person's body temperature.
Pei Tingsong's every word was like a trap that flashed with cold light. He was already used to avoiding it, so he would try to break free every time, even if it was in vain.
He was hesitating whether to withdraw his hand, but Pei Tingsong had already let go of the hand holding his wrist, making him miss the chance to break free.
In the small and warm pocket, there were two very different souls squeezed together.
After confirming all the films, there was no time to rest. Everyone ate something in the car and immediately rushed to the two-person shooting location. Both of them had changed into the same style of shirt, but Pei Tingsong was wearing a black shirt and Fang Juexia was wearing a white one. However, his size was slightly larger, so it was a little loose.
This time, the shooting location was very simple. There was only a soft white velvet bed on the ground in the studio.
Fang Juexia was staring at the bed in a daze when he heard Pei Tingsong joking casually, "I didn't expect the first bed scene of my life to come so soon."
He couldn't laugh.
He couldn't imagine how a two-person cover of a big magazine would be shot on a bed.
Seeing Lin Mo walk over, Pei Tingsong was full of curiosity and immediately asked, "What positions are we going to use? Juexia Ge and I. "
As soon as he said this, the props team girls who followed him over covered their mouths and laughed. Pei Tingsong didn't understand and looked at Fang Juexia with a puzzled expression. Under certain circumstances, this boy who grew up abroad would occasionally say some strange things because the situation didn't suit him. Even though he had a high literary level and a strong learning ability, he still couldn't understand.
Fang Juexia didn't know how to explain it, so he simply said, "You can't use the word 'position' casually."
Pei Tingsong asked why with an innocent expression. Fang Juexia didn't want to respond because the group's camera was still following them. He didn't want to be recorded discussing adult topics.
"Why?" Pei Tingsong asked again.
Fang Juexia said helplessly, "I don't know. Don't ask."
Pei Tingsong frowned. "Why are you criticizing me if you don't know?"
Fang Juexia was speechless.
Lin Mo didn't have much time to discuss the position. After he finished discussing the lighting with the lighting technician, he called Fang Juexia over and asked him to lie on the large velvet bed. Fang Juexia was serious about his work. He followed whatever the cameraman said and lay down obediently without saying a word.
"Lie on your side and face this way. Yes."
After confirming Fang Juexia's position, Lin Mo said to Pei Tingsong, "You, turn around and lie down." As he spoke, he made a gesture to turn around.
The surrounding staff members burst into laughter again with unknown meanings. Pei Tingsong was puzzled, but it was work after all, so he followed Lin Mo's instructions.
"Xiao Pei, go down. If you go down, your head will be near Juexia's head. Yes, both of you turn around and face each other. "
Hearing the instruction to turn around, Fang Juexia, who was lying on his back, turned his face to the side. However, the distance between them was too close, and the tip of his nose almost touched Pei Tingsong's. He immediately shrank back and pretended that nothing had happened.
They lay on their sides on the round velvet bed, half curled up. Their faces were close to each other, facing each other.
"It's not close enough." Lin Mo stepped forward and adjusted it himself. "I need the side lines of your faces to fit perfectly. If this distance is compressed to the minimum, it will fit perfectly. Do you understand?"
Lin Mo was only describing the effect he wanted to achieve, but this description inevitably led people to have wild and fanciful thoughts.
"Especially the straight line of the nose bridge. I want it to be parallel here, but one of you is from top to bottom, and the other is upside down, from bottom to top."
Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia kept getting closer to each other at his request, like two shooting stars drawing mutually repulsive trajectories. They moved towards each other like Tai Chi, but their bodies seemed to extend in opposite directions. They were balanced, and opposites were unified.
"Very good, just like that." Lin Mo moved away from the bed and checked again. "Very good. Bring the props over."
Pei Tingsong asked innocently. "There are more props?" The people around them laughed again. Even Cheng Qiang helplessly put his hand to his forehead.
Fang Juexia, who was closest to him, just wanted him to shut up.
The props team brought over a long vine with green leaves. There seemed to be a flower on it, but it hadn't bloomed yet. It was just a small bud.
"What is this?" Fang Juexia reached out and touched it.
Before the staff could speak, Pei Tingsong answered himself, "Honeysuckle." Fang Juexia was slightly surprised by his strange knowledge. "How do you know?"
"I planted it in my garden when I was young." Pei Tingsong's answer was very simple.
Honeysuckle.
Fang Juexia silently repeated the name in his heart and felt that it was wonderful. It was wonderful, but it didn't stop there.
They wrapped the green honeysuckle vine around Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong's bodies, until it reached Pei Tingsong's arm. It was as if the vine had appeared from Pei Tingsong's body.
"I feel like a tree spirit."
"No, you're not. You're a flower fairy." Andy used hair gel to fix a few clematis on top of Pei Tingsong's head. There were flowers on the side of his ears, shoulders, and arms.
Lin Mo came over to help them pose again. "Xiao Pei, put your hand on the back of his neck."
Pei Tingsong quickly understood what he meant. He put his arm around the back of Lin Mo's head and held his slender neck.
"Very good." Lin Mo stepped on a chair and bent down to take a picture. "Make your expression more natural. Look at him."
But after a few tries, the film didn't reach the feeling Lin Mo wanted. He felt that something was missing. "It's still not enough. The tension isn't enough. Xiao Pei, relax a little. "
For some reason, Fang Juexia thought of honeysuckle again. He silently repeated the word 'endure' in his heart, and a new idea arose. He sat up and looked at Lin Mo. "Teacher Lin, I have an idea."
Cheng Qiang, who was standing to the side, was a little surprised. The person who spoke was actually Fang Juexia, not Pei Tingsong.
After all, in his limited memory, Fang Juexia wasn't the kind of person who would easily express his own ideas.
Previously, Pei Tingsong had repeatedly overturned his plans several times. Lin Mo had already accepted this way of working. "Go ahead."
"When I saw the honeysuckle, I thought of a problem. We seemed to have made an assumption at the beginning of the shoot. "
Pei Tingsong was still lying on the bed. He looked up at Fang Juexia, who was sitting up. His words were very logical.
"We've always assumed that in this kind of relationship, the one who endured was winter. What about spring?"
From Pei Tingsong's perspective, Fang Juexia's eyes were looking up. The light shone on his face, and his whole face was shining. "Then if we break this a priori condition, we'll look at this relationship again."
As he spoke, Fang Juexia's snow-white eyelashes flickered. "Actually, spring is also enduring."
This sentence appeared flatly, and it made Pei Tingsong's heart skip a beat.
What was spring enduring?
Enduring to worry about gains and losses, enduring to ask for nothing.
After enduring to get close, he had to watch helplessly as he melted and lost his original posture.
He had to admit that at this moment, he was emotionally convinced by Fang Juexia's point of view. He wasn't a silent formula. His spiritual energy was hidden in the rules of permutation and combination.
The resonance of inspiration between creations was wordless. Lin Mo stretched out his index finger and pointed at Fang Juexia several times. "Yes, you're right. This kind of mutual emotion is right. "
Tension didn't mean that it had to be a crossbow restraint and resistance. It could also mean that the emotion wanted to get close to the ice and snow, but the rationality had to endure. The rationality knew that it had to avoid the warmth, but it couldn't control its heart that wanted to rush to the spring.
Fang Juexia lay down again.
Having understood the concept, Pei Tingsong didn't reach out to hold the back of his neck this time, but stepped back a little. He stretched out his hand to the side of his face. His fingers were slender and clean. His fingertips pulled the tendons and veins on the back of his hand, giving him an illusion of forbearance.
Suddenly, Fang Juexia called out Andy's name. When he came over, he asked, "Can I draw frostbite makeup on his hand?"
"Frostbite?" Andy's fake eyelashes flickered.
"Yes, not only that." Fang Juexia said again, "Please wrap more honeysuckle vines around my neck and chin, all the way up. Then, Brother Andy, please draw some small wounds on my neck and face, as if I was cut by the honeysuckle vines. "
"Yes!" Lin Mo nodded quickly without swallowing the coffee in his mouth. "Yes, yes, this is very good."
"Why?" Pei Tingsong actually had an answer, but he still wanted to ask.
Fang Juexia answered simply and calmly, "Only when you've paid the price can you be considered to be patient."
Pei Tingsong had to admit that he didn't just have a beautiful appearance.
Everything went according to the plan that had been discussed at the last minute, and Lin Mo was very satisfied. He needed to connect the part of the solo film, so he sprinkled the flower petals that had appeared on camera before between Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia.
The camera focused on this scene, and he felt that everything was in place. "Very good, let's begin."
In the close-up, there were two side faces. They were close to each other, but seemed to be resisting. Pei Tingsong stretched out his hand, and his fingers were already blue from frostbite. His fingertips were only a few millimeters away from Fang Juexia, but they still didn't touch. Even if it was a still photo, it seemed that his trembling hand could be seen.
Bound from bottom to top by the honeysuckle vines that were full of spring vitality, as if they would always be woven into a green cage. Fang Juexia closed his eyes and frowned slightly, as if even breathing was exhausted.
The birthmark at the corner of his left eye was the only color on this face, like a flower petal or a cruel scar. Opposite him, Pei Tingsong also had a scattered early cherry blossoms at the corner of his eye.
The moment Lin Mo pressed the shutter.
Fang Juexia, with his eyes closed, showed a subtle smile at the corner of his mouth.
This blockbuster was booked by the editor-in-chief on the spot as the cover without any surprise. There was no need to choose at all. Experience and intuition directly told him that this was the best. Fortunately, this spring had long been swallowed up by the desire to monopolize, but still struggled to maintain the last bit of restraint.
Fortunately, winter was imprisoned and abused, but in the end, it abandoned itself.