The most beautiful space

61. Disfigured!?

Today, Su Tong wore makeup. The base makeup made her originally fair and jade-like skin appear extremely pale, and she added a faint bluish shadow under her eyes. Her lips were an unusual bright red, showing the beauty of Li Roujia's unparalleled beauty at the end of her life.

Lin Lili, watching intently from behind the main monitor, was deeply impressed by the performance. The assistant director beside him whispered his admiration: "She acted really well. She captured Li Roujia's essence perfectly. This movie is sure to be a huge hit. Brother Lin has a good eye for talent. But I'm afraid that after watching this movie, the audience will think that Sue herself is just that arrogant."

Lin Lili smiled slightly, "It doesn't matter. With her appearance, the audience will probably prefer her personality."

In the center of the set, Su Tong and Lin Zhen seemed to have transformed into the two young people from 100 years ago: one was in a foreign land, having just learned of the deaths of her loved ones, and the other was young and promising, but her heart was with her country, which was far away on the other side of the world.

Faced with Su Tong like this, Lin Zhen was almost immediately drawn into the scene. For the first time, the movie star Lin followed the rhythm of another actor and became Fang Xinli, who was almost speechless when facing Li Roujia, only muttering a sentence.

"I heard... so I came to see you." What else could he have heard? Of course, it was that Li Roujia's father and brothers had all died for the Qing Dynasty, which was doomed to perish, and that her strong-willed mother and two sisters-in-law had committed suicide. But in front of the calm Li Roujia, he couldn't say anything.

Li Roujia glanced at Fang Xinli, who was covered in sweat and had disheveled hair, raised an eyebrow, and revealed a hint of the arrogance that Fang Xinli was familiar with. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something but ultimately did not speak. Her expression was so calm that it seemed devoid of any human emotion. Although she was shorter than Fang Xinli, she seemed to be looking down at him from a height that Fang Xinli could not reach. She said, "Come in, I'll treat you to a drink."

After saying that, she walked straight into the dark room, lit an oil lamp in the dark, and handed it to Fang Xinli, telling him to wait for her on the second-floor balcony. Fang Xinli stood on the balcony, gazing at the sparse stars in the sky and feeling the cool night breeze. His mind wandered through many thoughts, yet it seemed as if he was thinking of nothing at all. After waiting for a while, he saw Li Roujia come up carrying two small, red-sealed wine jars.

She handed one jar to Fang Xinli, then expressionlessly and swiftly opened the red seal of another jar, clinked it against the one in Fang Xinli's hand, and looked up at the dark blue sky before taking large gulps of wine. Her eyes were completely calm as she said, "Drink up. This is a good wine that's not easy to find even over there."

With her fair skin and black hair, and a proud and aloof air, she drank wine with a graceful and unyielding demeanor that seemed unlike any woman. Her upright back was so strong that it seemed she would never fall, yet in the dim light of the oil lamp, she exuded a unique kind of desolation.

When Li Roujia arrived in Country A, her initial plan was never to return. The only things she brought were a large trunk of clothes and shoes from her homeland, a small trunk of antiques, paintings, several jars of fine wine, and several cans of tea—items that others considered desirable to foreigners, all obtained through connections by her parents. With the Qing Dynasty on the verge of collapse and the country in chaos, while other families sent their sons abroad to carry on their lineages, her parents sent their daughter, born in their middle age, abroad. They said that in this world, any man with a modicum of backbone would find it difficult to live peacefully anywhere, while only she, a spineless and unambitious young woman, would live out her life safely in Country A.

Looking at Li Roujia like this, Fang Xinli felt he had so much to say but couldn't find the words. He could only open the jar of wine in his hand, tilt his head back and take a big gulp like Li Roujia. But as soon as it went down his throat, he coughed repeatedly because of the spiciness, and his eyes welled up with tears. He never expected that the wine that Li Roujia drank so heartily would be so spicy.

Li Roujia was startled by Fang Xinli's disheveled coughing. She snapped out of her reverie; the images of her homeland that had flashed before her eyes while she was drinking heavily—the ornately carved houses, the scholars in long robes and wide sleeves, the women with their hair adorned with jade hairpins and snail-shell buns—all faded away. She turned her gaze to him indifferently. Before her was still the foreign sky, and although the person opposite her bore the appearance of her homeland, he was no longer the person she remembered. Suddenly, everything seemed so absurd, and she burst into laughter, "Hahahaha...hahaha...hahahaha! Hahaha...! Hahaha...ha..."

The more she laughed, the harder she laughed, until she almost choked. She laughed so hard she could barely stand, rubbing her stomach and bending over. Something seemed to be about to spill from her eyes, but it wouldn't.

Her sudden burst of laughter startled Fang Xinli, who had just been coughing violently, leaving him frozen in place. He could only watch as her smile went from a faint, strange glint to a maniacal roar, then gradually calmed down. When she looked up again after laughing, her face, flushed with an unnatural redness from the alcohol, gave off a chillingly eerie and desolately empty feeling.

Fang Xinli felt a tightness in his chest and said, "Stop laughing."

"I was just laughing at you for not being able to drink even a little bit of strong liquor," Li Roujia said calmly, her sigh devoid of emotion, though there was still a hint of arrogance in her disdain for Fang Xinli's uselessness. "It's just a pity about Master Li's Daughter's Red wine from Xin'anfang. It's strong, mellow, and has a long aftertaste. Master Li hasn't produced any since he went mad. I brought the two jars I still had at home, and I didn't give them to anyone. I kept them for myself until now, and now this jar has been wasted by someone as ignorant as you."

Fang Xinli looked at the wine jar in his hand, then at Li Roujia's eyes, which seemed to be filled with past memories yet also empty and unfocused, and asked, "What happened to Master Li?"

"My daughter was defiled, and when my son came to seek justice, he was beaten to death." Li Roujia took two more sips of wine, speaking as if it were nothing.

“Li Roujia.” Fang Xinli became serious, shaking the bottle in his hand, “This wine is gone now, but it will definitely be available again in the future. When things are peaceful, new winemakers will come to brew this wine, and they will brew it even better than Master Li. Not only the wine, but the Xinhai Revolution has now succeeded, and soon everything will be alright. In a few years, when things are better in China, you can go back home. You can teach some girls to dance, and you can find a reliable and hardworking man to marry. Everything will be great. At that time, maybe even my parents and I will go back to visit.”

His eyes were so serious, and everything he said seemed like it could become a reality tomorrow, but Li Roujia simply said, "Is that so? Probably."

She understood our dynasty better than Fang Xinli, and therefore saw things more clearly than Fang Xinli, but she didn't say a word and just drank again.

In scenes like this, many film crews would normally use water directly, but Lin Lili said that it would be difficult for the actors to perform well with water, so they used a very low-alcohol liquor. Lin Zhen stood under the lights and cameras, holding a jar of very low-alcohol liquor, watching Su Tong gulp down her jar of liquor. It felt like he was really standing next to Li Roujia, who was drinking strong liquor, and he also took big gulps, coughing and drinking heavily.

The onlookers were all stunned; the scene was so realistic, it felt like a real story was unfolding right before their eyes, and no one could get a word in edgewise.

At the end of the scene, Li Roujia and Fang Xinli finished drinking. Li Roujia held up an oil lamp and saw him off downstairs. Fang Xinli stood outside the door and finally turned back to tell him with concern, "Everything will be alright. Don't do anything foolish."

Li Roujia nodded calmly; "No, I'll just have a drink to vent my frustrations."

"Don't do anything foolish!" Fang Xinli warned again.

Li Roujia nodded again, "You should go back quickly. Although it's better here than in our country, it's still not peaceful outside at night."

Fang Xinli then turned and strode away. Behind him, Li Roujia, played by Su Tong, quietly leaned against the door frame, holding an oil lamp. The dim light illuminated her stunning face, her pale skin tinged with an unnatural red. She watched Fang Xinli's departing figure for a long time, her eyes like frozen ice. But as the camera zoomed in, a closer look revealed a blazing fire in her eyes, a fire that seemed capable of burning everything away, as if it would consume all of this woman's life force in the next second, a sight that chilled the heart!

"Cut!" the script supervisor shouted.

Su Tong suddenly felt all her strength drain away. She squatted down against the door frame, burying her head in her knees. Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. She felt as if all of Li Roujia's despair was weighing on her heart, so heavy that she couldn't see any light. She had no way to express her feelings or find a solution. Her chaotic emotions were tearing at her heart, causing her unbearable pain.

Many onlookers were still immersed in the scene and hadn't reacted yet, but Lin Zhen, who had just played Fang Xinli and hadn't gone far, but whose figure was pulled back by the camera as if he was walking away, was the first to turn back and hug Su Tong, who was squatting on the ground, tightly, saying repeatedly, "It's okay, it's okay, it's just a scene, it's okay, it's just a scene."

Su Tong knew this wasn't the time to cry, so she forced herself to suppress her emotions, wiped her eyes a couple of times, and stood up. She gave Lin Zhen, who promptly let go of her, a forced smile: "Thank you."

Just then, a pair of hands reached out from the side, one holding a pack of tissues and the other a bottle of water. It wasn't Su Tong's assistant, but Lin Shanshan, who still had a cold face even while trying to be friendly. She said somewhat awkwardly, "Have some water."

Su Tong smiled and said "thank you" to her again, took out a tissue to wipe her eyes a couple of times, unscrewed the cap and drank a little water, and was then escorted downstairs by her assistant. After Wang Hai saw that Su Tong was not in good condition, he quickly dealt with the matter and got into the car to go home.

Su Tong collapsed onto the back seat of the car, her mind still filled with the complex and desperate feelings Li Roujia had before her death. Although she stopped crying, she couldn't think of anything. Gradually, she felt something unnatural on her face, followed by burning and itching. Su Tong finally couldn't help but sit up and call to Wang Hai, "Stop the car, stop the car, I'm feeling a little unwell."

When Wang Hai glanced at Su Tong in the mirror, he was instantly horrified, as if his very soul had left his body. Su Tong's once stunning face was now covered in a dense mass of large and small, red and purple bumps, as were her neck and hands—a truly horrifying sight. (166 Reading Network)