The set crew was always grabbing the wrong props. The cinematographer’s hands were always shaking. The actors could never remember their lines. The director was always calling cut. Except for the director, everyone else in the cast was a newcomer, so the adjustment period was inevitably longer than on other sets.
By the third day, the director was sitting in the studio smoking a gloomy cigarette, utterly drained of the will to go on.
Nan Chu was playing the second female lead — not many lines. When she wasn’t needed on set, she sat to the side and read. Xi Gu quickly came to realize that Nan Chu wasn’t actually difficult to get along with; she simply couldn’t be bothered to manage the social dynamics.
Nearly everyone on set was a newcomer, all busy greeting each other, trading WeChat contacts, following each other on social media. Nan Chu was the most unbothered of all — reading her book, playing on her phone.
The director looked her over more than once and decided she was the most soothing presence on set. She didn’t drag her feet during filming, got into character quickly, and in her downtime she read books and cultivated her mind. Girls with such a calm, even temperament were rare these days.
Nan Chu read widely — all sorts of things.
One day, the director saw Nan Chu with a copy of The Decameron, and sat down beside her in the shade of a tree. “You enjoy Boccaccio’s novels?”
The director was a proper, composed man.
Nan Chu glanced at him, pressed a corner of the page with her index finger, and turned to the next one. “It’s quite good.”
“Yes, Boccaccio portrays human nature very well — take the ninth story, for instance…”
The director spoke at length, and revealed himself to be a man of real ideas, his analysis thorough and perceptive.
Nan Chu listened to the end. “I read it at a shallow level.”
“Oh?”
“Mainly for the sex scenes.”
“……”
The director quietly stood up.
His expression was that of a man who had just watched a Thomas the Tank Engine roll past.
---
Xi Gu occasionally overheard gossip about Nan Chu.
“She has no father.”
“She had scandal after scandal with men starting at eighteen. Such a loose woman.”
“I saw her just the other day discussing erotic literature with the director.”
And the same people who said these things would turn around and smile at Nan Chu — just like acting. The moment the director called cut, the expression would vanish instantly. Xi Gu hadn’t expected people to deploy their performances with such ease in everyday life.
Nan Chu, by contrast, seemed like she didn’t quite belong.
She never gossiped about anyone, never discussed rumors, and was indifferent to the world.
Just as the world was indifferent to her.
---
That day, Nan Chu and Xi Gu were chatting in the shade when Shen Guanzong came looking for them: “Xiao Xi, go touch up the makeup for those actresses over there.”
Xi Gu flinched as if by instinct. “No.”
Shen Guanzong hissed and crossed his arms, frowning. “Rebelling, are we?”
Xi Gu glanced at the actresses in the distance, then bowed her head and said nothing.
Nan Chu touched the top of her head gently. “What happened? Did they say something to you?”
“No.”
“Then don’t be petty about it. Go help them with their touch-ups.”
“But there’s already a makeup artist on set,” Xi Gu said stubbornly.
“Do it as a favor,” Nan Chu said.
Xi Gu stood up reluctantly. Nan Chu ruffled her hair again: “Be good.”
---
Ten minutes later, Xi Gu came back from doing the touch-ups.
“Tell me then — what did they do to upset you?” Nan Chu said, drinking her coffee.
Xi Gu sat down beside her. “They were talking badly about you behind your back.”
Nan Chu nearly spat out her coffee. She reached out and patted the back of Xi Gu’s head, laughing softly. “Little girl, you’re quite the loyal one.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
She was unconcerned. “Why should it?”
People’s hearts differ just as their faces do.
Nan Chu truly didn’t care — even her gaze was indifferent.
Xi Gu felt as though even the sunlight at their backs had turned cold.
“In this world, apart from life and death — what isn’t someone else’s business to meddle in?”
“Xi Gu — you can’t shut other people’s mouths. So cover your own ears instead.”
---