Chapter 10 Mulberry Branches and Beef
"Help me tell His Majesty that he will be outside, and the king's order will not be affected."
Sang Zhi's interpretation of Fang Che is a little different from what Lei Qiu imagined, a little less aggressive, and it seems calmer, but when you look at it in the original book, Fang Che is indeed such a person, firm and unwavering, and no one from the outside world can make her change her decision.
It is precisely because of her "single-mindedness" that the Southern Chu State was able to achieve the final victory.
This scene was precisely Shan Jinxiu who sent someone to ask Fang Che to collect his troops and retreat, Fang Che asked the historian to go back and reply, "The general is outside, the king's order is not affected", and still continued to lead the troops forward, exterminating the last rebel team that was wandering outside, and laying the foundation for the stability of the Southern Chu State after that.
Lei Qiu made such a comment when he was reading the book: "I feel that Shan Jinxiu basically does not have the dignity of the emperor in front of Fang Che, every time he asks Fang Che to send troops, Fang Che either says that he must not fall for the enemy's tricks or that it is the best policy to retreat now, every time he asks Fang Che to retreat, Fang Che says that he will not be subject to the orders of the monarch outside." β
Song Pingguo's evaluation of this sentiment is: "I basically don't have the dignity of a chef in front of you, every time I ask you if you have anything you don't eat, you tell me that you don't have it, and then as soon as the dish is served, I start to be picky." β
Fang Che would do this not only because of her arrogance, but also because she had absolute confidence in her judgment on the battlefield, when it came time to express this kind of confidence, Sang Zhi was a little stuck, and was corrected by Xia Yiming several times back and forth before finally finding her senses.
"It's not just about brushing your face." Raichu nodded in satisfaction, "It's a malleable material." β
"Are you bored because of the melon seeds, and you started investigating other actors?"
"Isn't this the afternoon when I have a rivalry with Sang Zhi, so I don't have to familiarize myself with it in advance." Raichu touched his chin, "It doesn't seem like a big problem now." β
The crew of "The Old Man Still Sings" is not bad for money, after all, the sponsor Gong Xiao directly told Xia Yiming: "If you need money, ask me for it, as long as the drama can be filmed well." β
Xia Yiming had reservations about this JianyΓ¬ Xia Yiming: "Your father's stomach bleeding has finally improved, don't make him angry and have a stroke again." β
Fortunately, compared to other costume dramas, the cost of this drama is surprisingly low. In terms of props and costumes, Xia Yiming is not sloppy, but the Southern Chu Kingdom in the original book has a particularly significant feature: poverty.
As an emperor who wants to work hard to lead the Southern Chu Kingdom to glory, Shan Jinxiu's first thing is frugality, and even the emperor Shan Jinxiu doesn't have a few sets of clothes, let alone other people in the play.
Because of this, Raichu didn't have to change her clothes from the morning to the afternoon, so she wore that court dress and waited for her turn next time.
When it was time to eat a boxed lunch at noon, almost all the actors were secretly raising their eyes to look at Raichu while eating. In just one morning, she is already a strange woman in the hearts of the whole crew, not to mention that she scared Lu An so much that she didn't come to her senses for a long time, and she didn't talk about Xia Yiming's attitude towards her, just said that she didn't have a script - if it's a movie, a drama or something, it's understandable, shoot a feature-length TV series, play a character with a lot of scenes and more lines, without a script, what courage this is!
Song Pingguo understands them very well. Not to mention them, Xia Yiming and Song Pingguo both wanted to confirm with Lei Qiu from time to time: "Can you really remember?" β
Every time this question is asked, Raichu is impatient: "Of course I remember, and it's not difficult to memorize." β
Song Pingguo felt a deep sense of frustration just like being crushed by the IQ of a top student in her class when she was in high school. Lei Qiu patted her on the back with rare understanding: "Okay, don't be sad, I often encounter people who are crushed by their appearance." β
Eating is definitely the best means for the majority of Chinese people to exchange feelings and create topics, and large banquets often cause silence and embarrassment, this kind of everyone around the box lunch is easy to naturally start talking to each other, some people are more listening, some people are more talking.
For example, Sang Zhi, who makes people think that she is a dignified lady, has shared a lot of her high school life with everyone in the same heroic tone as Raiqiu, and also looked forward to the future by the way, and said with a smile that this drama will become popular if it happens. Lu An also followed and made fun of himself: "What kind of fire is fire, I am definitely not able to fire with me." β
After everyone finished eating, Xia Yiming pinched the stopwatch and calculated the half-hour rest, and then immediately stood up and started shooting.
At this time, Song Pingguo magically pulled out a large pot and a small coal stove from the bed of her small truck, hummed a little song and began to prepare a fire in the middle of the yard to cook.
Xia Yiming had to shout the card once - he is now accustomed to replacing the "card" with "open the meal", and shouting "card" when the meal is really open - walked over with his hands behind his back and trained the distracted actors one by one: "What do you see?" Is it time to eat? Is today's scene finished? I've filmed a lot of your bites! β
There happened to be no Lei Qiu's scene in this scene, and she could rest for a while, so she naturally ran to Song Pingguo's side happily and looked at the spices she took out of the pot: "How much do you like to eat curry rice?" β
"This time it's not the same as the last time it was given to you. It was Malaysian chicken curry and now Indian beef curry. β
The water in the pot boiled, Song Pingguo turned around and went to the truck, dragging a large piece of beef down - it was really a big piece, and Song Pingguo felt a little difficult to hold it.
"Where did you get such a big piece of beef? Do you have cattle at home? β
"You just raised cattle at home, this was given to me by the landlord Aunt Sun."
Aunt Sun's relatives took advantage of the discount at the farmers' market to bring her a lot of beef, but only in a thin plastic bag, just when Aunt Sun was about to carry the beef to the kitchen, the bag broke.
Beef is a strange thing, as soon as it falls to the ground, it will immediately be stained with a layer of dust, and this layer of dust is very stubborn, no matter how you brush and wash it, it will still stay in place, if you want to remove the dust, you can only cut off the outermost layer of meat.
For the elderly Aunt Sun, this is not an easy job, so she went to find Song Pingguo.
Where each piece of meat was stained with dust, Song Pingguo only cut off a thin layer, almost no loss of beef, and Aunt Sun expressed her gratitude at the same time, she also generously gave Song Pingguo a large piece of beef.
After listening to Song Pingguo talk about the origin of the beef, Lei Qiu asked her, "Why didn't you leave a piece for the two of us to eat?" β
"You're pretty reasonable." Song Pingguo began to use a kitchen knife to cut the beef into small pieces that could be cooked in a slightly weaker coal stove, "I kept a piece, and you will have a separate share another day." β
Soon after throwing the beef down and cooking, Xia Yiming's angry voice came from the house: "Lei Qiu! It's your turn! How many times are you going to let me call? β
The minefield reluctantly left the pot that began to exude the fragrance of meat, and went into the house to film in three steps.
This scene is not only a rival play, but also a rare solo rivalry between Fang Che and Shan Siyan. These two people are the souls of "The Old Man Still Sings", and it is often the decisions made by the two of them to promote the plot from both sides, but the strange thing is that the scenes where the two of them actually meet can be counted on one hand.
What Lei Qiu and Sang Zhi are about to play is the scene where Fang Che and Shan Siyan have a private conversation after Shan Siyan personally led his troops to relieve the siege of Izumo City.
When Lei Qiu entered the door, Sang Zhi was still holding her script full of marks to confirm with Xia Yiming: "Is it really okay to shoot such an important rival scene in front of this?" β
"Don't worry, I won't see you perform beyond the norm because I know you very well." Raichu poked his head out from behind her, "If you don't worry, let's try it first?" Lao Xia, can I close the door when I apply for filming, this beef flavor is too tempting. β
The room was even hotter than the outside, and the few theater managers who followed in were sweating, wiping their sleeves and plackets. Raichu looked at Mulberry Branch, she seemed to be trying to slow down her breathing, and she moved so loudly that she didn't sweat too much.
"Thank you, Your Highness, for saving me this time, otherwise I am afraid that the last general will die out of Cloud City." Once he entered Fang Che's state, Sang Zhi's voice became calm and steady, "I am grateful for everything, I can't express it." β
"General Fang is actually afraid of death?" The siege of Izumo Castle has been lifted, and Shan Siyan also joked, "When I heard that you were going to stay in the city, I really thought you were a master who was not afraid of anything." β
"Your Highness can't help but think highly of me. is a mortal, no matter how open-minded he is, he also attaches some importance to life and death. Fang Che was embarrassed, took off his helmet and put it on the table beside him, "It's a pity that the city has been guarded for many days, and the banquet can't be placed, only some coarse tea and light rice are entertained to His Highness." β
"Enough, the general doesn't have to worry about it."
Just a few simple conversations in the room, two people who knew each other before but had never talked alone suddenly felt that heroes cherished heroes, and they had a tacit understanding.
Shan Siyan played by Lei Qiu is the Shan Siyan in the book who has a city in his heart but is not ruthless; Fang Che played by Sang Zhi is indeed a little softer and shyer than Fang Che in the book, but Fang Che is still the same Fang Che, he has not changed his image because of this shyness, and he is still an iron-clad general.
None of these two people will have a good conversation with their confidants, they just drink at the table, seem to be chatting about trivial matters, listening to each other's words, and silently admiring in their hearts.
"Good!" Xia Yiming clapped his hands with great satisfaction, "I'll just say it's definitely no problem, there's nothing to do with the two of you for the time being, go and rest." β
Lei Qiu took a step forward, shook the hand of the mulberry branch, raised his chin and pointed at Song Pingguo in the courtyard: "Her cooking is very delicious, eat more dinner." β
That's Raichu's greeting to his new friend.