Your Rival in Love Gets Prettier Every Day

Chapter 29: He Really Changed

Shen Jintai was overly excited. He had filmed a lot of bed scenes in the past, but this was the first time he had filmed one with a man. Yesterday, the director also specifically asked him about his acceptance limits. From the perspective of dedication to art, he replied: “As long as the plot requires it, I can do it.”

Though the subject matter scale is large, it doesn’t mean that the camera lens scale can be large. This world’s attitude towards gay men and women have not reached the point where same sex marriage is legal yet. The silver lining is at least there are relatively few restrictions on the subject matter in the creation of film and television dramas.

“Is there a kissing scene?” Xiao Tang asked curiously.

“The script is written more implicitly,” Shen Jintai flipped through the script while eating his lunch: “It depends on the director’s request.”

“In fact, we can talk about this with the director in advance,” Li Meilan said: “Isn’t it too passive to acquiesce with the director’s request on the spot?”

Shen Jintai read the script as he wrote on it: “Li Xu has nowhere to retreat. The prince turned him around and tore off his robe from behind.” Based on his many years of filming experience, this is artistic treatment. It was full of tension and emotions but not explicit.

To film the scene well, Shen Jintai had returned to his room and took a shower after eating. When he arrived on set, he saw Zheng Siqi waiting for him. He nodded and Zheng Siqi return his nod with a smile. Despite being very kind to Zheng Siqi, Zheng Siqi still seemed to be a little afraid of him.

In today’s scene, the crowned prince was more domineering. Li Xu, the black lotus, had to pretend to be a small white lotus.

“Should we practice a scene first?” Shen Jintai asked.

Zheng Siqi was also planning this.

“Then let’s go to the dressing room and talk.” Shen Jintai said.

Zheng Siqi nodded: “Okay.” He followed Shen Jintai into the dressing room. There were a lot of lights on the set, and it was a bit hot. Shen Jintai only wore a loose shirt and shorts. His arms were long and white, and his back was faintly exposing his shoulder blade. He always unconsciously regarded Shen Jintai as a big star of his generation. Looking at his thin figure and small back, he remembered now that Shen Jintai was only 20 years old.

Zheng Siqi breathed a sigh of relief, and then saw Shen Jintai’s butt.

……

Wow.

Zheng Siqi’s face became heated as he quickly averted his eyes.

—

Yan Qiuchi attached great importance to the drama <The East Palace is Coming>.

Sunshine media started as an artist and entertainment marketing agency. Later it began to get involved in film and television production gradually developing into the comprehensive behemoth of the entertainment industry it was now. In recent years, it has been in direct production of many films and television dramas. These productions have always resulted in TV shows with high ratings and several movies that were dark horses at the box office. The investments to these projects were miniscule though compared to how much Sunshine Media had put into <The East Palace is Coming>, which was a few hundred million.

Costume dramas can easily get popular. Palace fighting dramas* comes with their own rating groups. The TV stations were all optimistic about this drama since the production team was top-notch. Everyone had high hopes for it. Sunshine Media failed to IPO previously and was relying on this drama so they can IPO again. Since it was a weekly drama, the most critical point is the first month of filming. The fate of the drama would depend on how well the filming goes. For this month, Yan Qiuchi had to personally keep an eye on everything.

*Palace fighting drama = drama featuring ancient Chinese dynasty as the background. The focus is on the characters emotional entanglements and political strife for the story line. They are geared towards entertainment and drama than historical.

Yan Qiuchi quickly ate his meal and went straight to meet with Director Guo and the others. After meeting Director Guo, he came to the dressing rooms to meet with the principal actors one by one. Finally, he reached Shen Jintai’s room. As he entered, he saw Zheng Siqi holding Shen Jintai’s shirt. The two of them were pushing and shoving as if they were audition for a play.

“Your hand can go down a little bit more.” Shen Jintai grabbed Zheng Siqi’s hand and moved it directly down.

Zheng Siqi was clinging to Shen Jintai. He was young and it was his first time filming. He didn’t want to move his hands. His thin lips were pursed, his forehead was sweating, and he looked very serious. If he moved his hands any lower, it’ll touch Shen Jintai’s ass.

He didn’t expect his first play would have a gay sex scene. He felt that the body of a man was tough and long, which was inconsistent with the softness of a women. Even if the man had a slender waist, the feeling was still not good.

This was simply a rehearsal. The lines were fixed but the body movements needed to be rehearsed in advance. Zheng Siqi clasped Shen Jintai’s arm and gestured to pull his shirt over his shoulder. As soon as the shirt was pulled up, it revealed Shen Jintai’s bare sides.  

Seeing Yan Qiuchi at the door, Shen Jintai wanted to pull his shirt back down, but his hands were held together by Zheng Siqi. In Zheng Siqi’s eyes, his resistance seemed to be cooperating with their rehearsal. It wasn’t until Zheng Siqi caught site of Yan Qiuchi did he quickly let go of Shen Jintai’s hands and bowed to greet him: “President Yan.”

Yan Qiuchi was an important figure in the entertainment industry.

Yan Qiuchi nodded and said: “You guys are rehearsing?”

Zheng Siqi responded with a “Nn.”

Yan Qiuchi said: “You can continue.”

After Yan Qiuchi had left, Zheng Siqi breathed a sigh of relief. Yan Qiuchi was a very imposing person. He rarely seen him smile. He exuded the aura of a cold domineering president. His boss, Ji Fengxing, didn’t like Yan Qiuchi much. He would call him Little Yama* in private. It’s said he’s just as ruthless as his father, Lord Yama, but his methods not as deep.  

*Little yama (小阎王) – Son of Yama lord of the fifth hall of the underwood. English equivalent would be like son of the devil or son of hades.
*Yama (阎罗王) – Lord of the fifth hall of the underworld. The decrees judgements over the dead. English equivalent would be like the devil or hades. Though note that Yama is not the sole ruler of hell in Chinese culture. There are 10 kings of in Chinese Hell.

On the outside he looked like an outstanding young man and a perfect gentlemen, wearing a civilized skin. But in fact, inside he was born as a wolf cub ready to attack. Due to all the rumors, Zheng Siqi had a preconceived view of Yan Quichi, causing him to be very fearful of him. It wasn’t easy for him, a newcomer, to land this role, considering the competitive relationship between Sunshine Media and Monsoon Entertainment. Ji Fengxing told him to keep a low profile.

Unexpectedly, what surprised him most was that just now Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi seemed to treat each other as if they were air. He knew about the scandal between the two of them when he was an amateur. Shen Jintai had chased Yan Qiuchi wildly. At the peak of his career, Shen Jintai retired for love, but Yan Qiuchi who was troubled by the whole affair, politely said to the reporter: “I don’t date people within the entertainment circle.”

“Let’s continue.” Shen Jintai said.

Zheng Siqi nodded and looked at Shen Jintai’s untidied clothes that were revealing a section of his waist.

—

Guo Rui also attached great importance to this night scene. To allow Shen Jintai and Zheng Siqi to act better, he cleared the set. Except for the necessary staff members needed for filming, everyone else wasn’t allowed inside.

Many actors and crew members wanted to come and watch. Intimate scenes between two men were rarely seen on screen. They wanted to see something new and wondered what kind of scene Guo Rui would direct and Shen Jintai would make.

When filming was about to officially start, Guo Rui watched their rehearsal again and made some adjustments.

Yan Qiuchi sat behind the monitor in the distance. Behind him was Gao Qiao and the other crew members.

Shen Jintai was a little uncomfortable at first, but after his mind entered into a working state, he forgot about Yan Qiuchi.

As one of the important blackening factors of the villain eunuch, this scene had to show a love that was poignant and moving. Outside the window scenery were full of roses. The halls were blown by fans that caused the curtains to flap back and forth. The palace lanterns light was faint. Except for natural light from candles, there was nothing else.

Li Xu’s costume was not the same one he wore for the makeup test shoot. The current costume looked more refined. The corners of the robes were embroidered with large clusters of rose patterns. He walked through the halls with a lamp in his hand. He entered the inner chambers but there was no sign of the crown prince. As he put the lamp down, a person suddenly jumped out from behind him and hugged him. It was Zhou Ying.  

Despite only wearing a loose inner shirt, Zhou Ying still maintained his noble and cold temperament. The dim candlelight dulled his aura a little. Li Xu was surprised. He stretched out his hands and held Zhou Ying’s hands. The hall was silent. There was only the subtle sound of two people struggling. The wooden floor made a “creak” followed by a rustling nose at the sound of entangling feet. Li Xu’s green robe was pulled away. He wasn’t wearing an inner shirt. A white back and slender shoulders were revealed as the robe fell below the waist exposing Li Xu.

This shot was done in slow motion to highlight the robe drifting off in the night. It wasn’t easy to capture that beautiful feeling so the scene had to be shot several times.

Li Xu broke free from the shackles of the crown prince. As if he was greatly frightened, he knelt to the ground. The crown prince eagerly stepped forward, causing Li Xu to suddenly fall backwards. The hairpin on his head untied causing his jet-black hair to fall loose. He panted as he looked up at his royal highness the crown prince.

“Give Li Xu a close-up.” Guo Rui said as he stared at the monitor.

Everyone around didn’t dare to breathe. The camera zoomed in closer to Li Xu’s moisten eyes. It move back and forth several time to capture the scene. Li Xu’s forehead was damped as it reflected the light of the candles. When the staff moved the light board, Li Xu’s face became more emotional. Though his facial features were not beautiful, the eyebrows were tightly knitted as if they were surging with desire. Looking through the monitor, the scene was even more vivid and intriguing.

This Shen Jintai was completely unfamiliar to Yan Qiuchi. He was no longer Shen Jintai, but Li Xu. There was no trace of Shen Jintai in his body.

“Afraid of me?” Zhou Ying asked.

Li Xu grabbed the robe off the ground and said: “This slave is not afraid. This one is only afraid they will defile your royal highness.”

Zhou Ying: “Since you are afraid of contaminating this crown prince*, why are you wearing nothing underneath?”

*Crown prince (Taizi) [太子] = title of the crown prince. He’s calling himself by his title.

Li Xu looked the prince and said: “Because this slave not only has the most shameless body, but also the most shameless heart. He wants to stain his Royal Highness.”

Li Xu’s chest was heaving. His expression was cowardly, but his hand moved away from the covering robe and showed the prince the body of the eunuch that he had always been ashamed of.

Yan Qiuchi stared at the monitor, feeling his heart beating wildly.

“Cut!”

The lights suddenly became chaotic, and Zheng Siqi quickly pulled Shen Jintai up.

Since Shen Jintai was playing a scheming little eunuch in the scene, he had no clothes on. The cameras didn’t focus on private parts, so he was still wearing underwear. To him, it was simply work so he didn’t feel embarrassed at all. The staff picked up his robe and handed it to him. Shen Jintai grabbed it and smile to Zhang Siqi: “You tore off all the buttons.”

Guo Rui noticed Shen Jintai’s butt and was astounded. An inspiration suddenly came to him. Every director has an unrestricted heart when it came to art. TV dramas aren’t as good as movies in a sense that they cannot be filmed if the scale is too large. However, he had his ways.

After the next shot, he changed the scene to the two of them embracing while they slept.

Shen Jintai’s role was Li Xu, who’s supposed to be a beautiful young eunuch. In terms of beauty, however, Shen Jintai was a bit lacking. To offset this, Guo Rui decided to focus more on his physique. Shen Jintai was in good shape and his figure looked good. He didn’t want the focus to show off the masculinity but rather to make the story look more reasonable.

He wanted to tap into the most attractive point of Shen Jintai’s body, so that the audience could feel that it was understandable for the crown prince to fall for such a person and love him all his life.

In the footage afterwards, he asked Shen Jintai to wear the prince’s robe. The clothes that his lover had just taken off were wrapped around his body as it was sprayed with water mist. It created a look of love that was visible from the shoulders to the body, to the feet.

Guo Rui personally help to make this look. Shen Jintai felt embarrassed at first but after thinking about it, wasn’t his beauty a career?

For the sake of his career, being naked is not a problem!

Thinking like this, he let go.

In the dim candlelight, he was wrapped in a silk robe. His long hair was scattered, and the camera swayed from behind him to the side. With wide shoulders and slender hips, the scene show an indescribable sensuality.

Yan Qiuchi remained motionless, sitting behind the monitor. He gently rubbed his lips with his fingers, as if he had a premonition that Shen Jintai’s reborn appearance might be able to shine on the screen when it was broadcast in the future.

He was convinced that Shen Jintai had really changed. The Shen Jintai he had known no longer existed. He had changed from idol with a mixed reputation to a real actor.

Prince Zhou Ying’s character design was simple making it easy to play. Zheng Siqi’s inexperience fitted well in this particular scene. While it looks like the prince is the stronger character, in fact it’s really the eunuch, Li Xu, who’s in full control of the situation.

After the shooting, it was already late at night. Shen Jintai wrapped a robe around himself and came to the monitor to watch the replay. He was very satisfied with the scene.

Everyone was very excited. Guo Rui said with a smile: “You guys have worked hard. Go back and have a good rest.”

Shen Jintai didn’t have any scenes tomorrow. He gave Guo Rui a bow and said to the staff on set: “Everyone has worked hard. I invite you all to have super if you want to come.”

There were many young members among the crew on set and they all cheered in unison at the invitation. Guo Rui turned to Yan Qiuchi and said: “President Yan has worked hard today.”

Yan Qiuchi saw Shen Jintai smiled and glanced at him when he heard the words. He didn’t know if it was because of the lighting but his eyes were particularly bright.

He was about to answer Guo Rui when he saw Shen Jintai turned his eyes and invited the crew to supper. The scene became chaotic as all the lights were turned back on. It was a bit dazzling. Zheng Siqi was among those who were thrilled. He was talking eagerly with Shen Jintai as the exited the set. Shen Jintai was still wrapped in a loose robe that were rolled up, exposing his thin white calves.

“Not bad, right?” Guo Rui asked proudly.

Yan Qiuchi retracted his eyes and said lightly: “He has changed a lot.”

Tremendously! Gao Qiao thought. It’s almost like a different person! Besides his acting skills that have improved leaps and bounds, his attitude towards President Yan had changed as well. When he looks at President Yan, his eyes were sober and had no feeling of clinginess at all.

Standing behind the monitor with Yan Qiuchi just now, for a moment, Gao Qiao even felt that Shen Jintai had a different temperament. Determined and calm.

It was already late at this time, and Yan Qiuchi planned to head back. When he was about to get into the car, he saw Shen Jintai again who was discussing with Zheng Siqi and the others about where to go eat. When his car drove past them, he deliberately stared at Shen Jintai, trying catch any subtle movements from him, such as pretending not to care but secretly looking at his car.

There was nothing.

Shen Jintai didn’t seem to even know that it was his car. He was wearing a white shirt, baggy pants, and was in sandals holding a cigarette in his hand. 

—

Perhaps it was because Guo Rui was pleased with the shooting, the next day, the official blog posted a new poster. It was a picture of Shen Jintai’s back, wrapped in a robe, half hidden in the dark night. It was tempting and seductive.

“Holy crap! What is this?!”

“This ass, I want*!”

*I can (我可以) = slang to refer to someone or something that you like very much with intense affection. Like “I can sleep with him” or “I am willing to date him”. I decided Englishize it since I can just doesn’t flow well.

“It looks like a man. Can anyone tell who it is?”

“There’s a small imprint on the upper left corner. It’s Shen Jintai!”

“Fuck! It turned out to be Shen Touhua?”

“Shen Touhua has such a good figure. He’s so fine.”

“<The East Palace is Coming> will be like no other drama. Even the posters are really well made. It deserves to be a masterpiece of the year.”

“What should I do? Now I’m looking forward to it. I originally decided not to watch it because I couldn’t stand seeing Shen Touhua’s acting. Is it really fragrant*?”

*Reminder: really fragrant (真香) = Slang that means vowing not to do something but did it in the end.

“It’s really fragrant. I talked about it in the building next door yesterday. The biggest highlight of this drama must be Shen Touhua. He must have good sense if he’s playing that role!”

“The Touhua water army is here again. What can a random poster analyze? We can pass judgement when the trailer comes out.”

“This poster can only say that this drama is worthy of being the masterpiece of the year. What good is there to boast about Shen Touhua. There’s a kind of beauty in this world called: MeituPic*. I hope you know it well.”

*MeituPic [Meitu Xiu Xiu] (美图秀秀) = image editing software that mostly used in Mainland China that provides tools for editing photos like filters, retouching ect.

“Touhua has many enemies and he’s been all over the news these days. I really hated him at first but I can’t bear to see him being scolded so badly. To be honest his image has been good since he made his comeback. It’s not surprisingly that his appearance has also changed. Can’t we all just look forward to it?”

“It really feels like he was reborn recently. I don’t think it’s a matter of physique but temperament. The temperament of the whole person has changed.”

“Ahhhhh! I was really shocked by this poster today. My head now has yellow waste*. You have to listen to it!”

*Yellow waste (黄色废) = I’m not sure what this referring to.

“I’m willing to listen to this ass.”

At this moment, someone suddenly posted a GIF. It was a GIF at the launch conference. At the time, the cast was invited to play a small game on stage. Shen Jintai who had his back to the stage had bent over. His slim-fit pants that were wrapped tightly around his slender legs exposed his ankles. But that wasn’t the most eye-catching part. It was his ass.

“Fucking hell.”

“I want to watch this show!”

“Touhua deserves to have the number one ass in the entertainment industry!”

The author has something to say：

Tender ass man.

Kinky Thoughts: Reading about Yama reminded me of the anime Hoozuki no Reitetsu that I thought is pretty good. Is it almost time for Yan Qiuchi to start chasing his wife in the crematorium?