Chapter 24: The Little Turtle’s Resolve and a Wig’s Untimely Demise

Little Turtle Su flailed a few times.

“Uh, why don’t you guys put me down first?” he mumbled awkwardly.

Su Xuan was lowered by the technicians, who were still stunned into silence.

Hua Na’s expression hovered between ‘How could this be!?’ and ‘Why is this happening?!’ He roughly wiped his face, then forced a twisted, yet supposedly kind, smile at Su Xuan.

“Su Xuan,” he began, “what you just did, well, it’s not quite right. But it’s okay, really, it’s fine. Don’t be scared.”

‘Your smile is terrifying, Director,’ Su Xuan thought. ‘How can I not be scared?’ He sighed, acknowledging his fault. “I’ve caused you trouble, Director Hua. My action scenes are indeed a big problem.”

‘You know your action scenes are a problem, so why accept this kind of script!?’ Hua Na cursed inwardly.

Su Xuan looked at him and smiled. “Director Hua must be cursing me in his heart, wondering why I’d take on a role like this when I know my action scenes are problematic.”

Hua Na’s eyes widened slightly.

“No, no!” he quickly denied.

Su Xuan gazed at Hua Na. “But Director Hua, if I never take on difficult action-heavy dramas, how will I ever learn and master action scenes?”

Hua Na paused, taken aback.

“Director Hua knows that no matter how many times one rehearses outside of a shoot, true acting skills are only learned when you fully immerse yourself in the role,” Su Xuan stated with utmost sincerity. He looked directly at Hua Na, his tone earnest and firm. “Since someone believes I can grow rapidly in this production and chose me, I am willing to try.”

Behind Hua Na, Shen Chao’s movements momentarily faltered.

“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll voluntarily withdraw,” Su Xuan continued. “You can contact Emperor Wang; there will be no breach of contract fee.”

Hua Na was truly dumbfounded.

He had never encountered an actor like Su Xuan before.

After Su Xuan finished speaking, he told Hua Na to film other scenes first.

Hua Na couldn’t help but ask, “We can’t stay here for long. What if you still can’t do it by then?”

Su Xuan was direct. “If I can’t do it within that time limit, Director Hua, you can dismiss me directly.”

Su Xuan worked incredibly hard. This wasn’t some empty slogan; Hua Na genuinely saw an insidious, needle-like aura of determination emanating from him.

Su Xuan seized every moment to practice his movements. He didn’t exhaust himself, ensuring he ate and slept normally, but he constantly pushed himself to the very edge of his limits.

He wouldn’t shout hysterically that he was giving his all, but every time Su Xuan intently watched Shen Chao gracefully circle and thrust his sword through the air, Hua Na had never seen such powerful determination in someone’s eyes.

Hua Na found himself constantly paying attention to Su Xuan, an actor he had initially been so ready to give up on.

He knew Su Xuan’s resume: an outstanding graduate, a brilliant start, followed by a precipitous decline. For several years, he hadn’t performed in any decent roles, his career a complete washout.

Acting, like athletic competition, involves muscle memory. If you don’t practice for a long time, you lose your edge.

There’s a reason action actors mostly perform action roles, and literary actors mostly perform literary roles. These are established rules, not easily broken.

Yet, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

The last actor who freely broke such boundaries, succeeded at everything they tried despite having no prior experience, was named Shen Chao.

And Su Xuan, Hua Na watched him, time and again, being hoisted up like a little turtle, grimacing as he applied medicine to the abrasions from the harness, gradually progressing from stable to smooth movements.

Hua Na thought of his father.

He began to understand what Hua Wei had said: [You can learn a lot by nurturing Shen Chao].

Would Su Xuan be the next Shen Chao?

He didn’t know for sure, but one evening, Hua Wei called him, asking, “Hua Na, do you want to replace Su Xuan? Wang Muzhe hasn’t joined the crew yet, so it’s still not too late.”

Hua Na opened his mouth but didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked a question: “Dad, back when we were casting the male lead for the film *Nine Currents*, among all those actors, besides the original author insisting on Shen Chao, why did you ultimately agree to choose him? I remember he wasn’t a very good option.”

Hua Wei seemed to recall, finally chuckling. “Though it sounds absurd, Shen Chao truly moved me at the time. He couldn’t do wirework back then, but he told me he’d completely master it within ten days, or he’d leave on his own accord.”

“What happened after ten days?” Hua Na asked.

Hua Wei smiled. “He put on the harness, leaped from a height, and thrust his sword into the air, stopping an inch from my face. He coldly asked if I’d done anything wicked. I was so scared I couldn’t utter a word, thinking, ‘This is him. He’s the Bai Di I’ve been looking for.'”

Hua Na watched Su Xuan, dressed in white, standing high above. Shen Chao stood beside him, also in costume.

“Su Xuan, are you ready?” Hua Na yelled through the megaphone.

Su Xuan swallowed hard, silently praying three times, ‘May the Bodhisattva bless me.’ He felt like a student who had diligently reviewed for an exam. ‘I hope this acting test yields a good score!’

Hua Na clapped the slate. “*Nine Currents*, Scene 14, Take 1, Second Attempt!”

Su Xuan closed his eyes, then took a deep breath. He leaped from the cliff, his gaze fixed on Shen Chao, and thrust his sword behind him, cutting through the air. He could hear the wind being sliced open past his ears.

Su Xuan’s sword pointed directly at Shen Chao’s brow, stopping about an inch from his eyes, making the hair at Shen Chao’s temples flutter.

Shen Chao looked up at him, a hint of a smile in his eyes, but it vanished instantly, replaced by an icy coldness. He seamlessly picked up Su Xuan’s cue, parrying Su Xuan’s sword with a broken blade, then flew up to confront him.

Su Xuan’s smile was radiant. “Who are you, across from me? State your name.”

Shen Chao raised his gaze. His eyes seemed to traverse a long, long time before finally settling on Su Xuan. He spoke faintly, his right hand gripping his sword, his black robes fluttering in the mountain wind. “The one who will cut you down.”

‘It’s a success!’ Hua Na roared excitedly in his mind.

“Cut! Perfect!”

Su Xuan snapped out of his daze, looking disbelievingly at the smiling Hua Na, still a little stunned.

‘Damn it! I passed!’

The subsequent filming proceeded with unprecedented smoothness. Hua Na admitted Su Xuan still had many flaws, but as Hua Wei had said, it felt like Su Xuan was indeed the Rong Yanzhi he had envisioned.

Song Xiao felt a strange sensation. “I’ve never seen Shen Chao act so… so…”

She couldn’t quite describe the feeling. She had worked with Shen Chao on many productions, but this time was different. Shen Chao’s eyes were fixed on Su Xuan from beginning to end. He acted with an intense focus, as if he didn’t want anything to happen to Su Xuan, especially since Su Xuan was new to wirework.

Yet, Su Xuan performed quite smoothly. He rarely overexerted himself, promptly calling for a cut whenever he encountered an issue.

Hua Na was extremely pleased. “I think this scene can be done in one take!”

“You’ve done no evil, so I won’t kill you.”

“You fool.”

Amidst the shifting light and shadows, black and white robes fluttered. Su Xuan extended his sword to untie Shen Chao’s hair band.

He had been filming all day, and this was the first time he was so close to Shen Chao. He could see the sweat on his forehead and his tensed jaw. Under the fatigue, Su Xuan’s mind wandered for a moment, and he didn’t control the strength in his wrist.

The sword poked inward.

It directly pierced into Shen Chao’s hair bun.

Su Xuan’s eyes widened.

Shen Chao’s eyes widened.

“…Cut,” Hua Na murmured.

Su Xuan’s face instantly flushed red. Getting a ‘NG’ wasn’t scary, but getting one because he’d zoned out was incredibly embarrassing. In his panic, he reached out to pull his sword free, but Shen Chao frowned, trying to stop him. “…Wait…”

But it was too late. Su Xuan’s hands were too quick. He gripped the ceremonial sword with both hands and pulled upward.

Shen Chao’s wig, impaled on the sword, was yanked off.

Shen Chao’s hair stood on end due to the static electricity from the wig. The wig hovered a short distance above Shen Chao’s head, making him look, at a glance, like he had a six-foot-tall pompadour.

With a ceremonial sword stuck in it.

Su Xuan’s jaw dropped.

Shen Chao’s jaw dropped.

Hua Na’s jaw dropped.

“…” Song Xiao exclaimed.

What had she just witnessed!

A wild Shen Chao without his wig had appeared!

Su Xuan was terrified. He slapped the wig back onto Shen Chao’s head with a wet thud. Shen Chao’s hair spilled out from under the wig’s edge, plastered to his forehead in clumps from the sweat.

He looked very much like a kappa.

Su Xuan was speechless.

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