Superstar's Development Diary
Chapter 433 - 434 Fight Scene

Chapter 433: Chapter 434 Fight Scene

"Scene 263, Shot 3, Action!"

Hé Jìnxia, playing the role of Deng Meili, started her fight choreography in front of the camera, delivering a ferocious hook punch to a life-sized stuffed doll!

"Good, switch to the next move." The director, watching through 3D glasses, gestured with his hand for the next scene.

Hé Jìnxia turned around, her back to the doll, and when the director shouted "Start!", she spun and delivered a kick backwards, her foot connecting squarely with the doll’s head—sending it flying before it toppled to the ground.

"Good, continue with the next one!"

Following the director’s call, Hé Jìnxia went through one move after another, honing the details. If any move wasn’t executed perfectly, they had to do it all over again.

In the production crew, it wasn’t just Hé Jìnxia filming fight scenes—several actors playing students were involved as well, but they didn’t have to fight against a stuffed doll.

Since the students’ fight scenes weren’t as crucial, the production didn’t need to resort to green screens or more advanced technology; it was enough to have the students simply move around and throw a few punches to convey the gist.

However, such fight scenes were a true test of the actors’ control over their strength: hit too hard, and the extras would be in pain; not hard enough, and the assistant director would complain about the lack of force, leading to take after take—a torture for the actors.

After numerous NGs, the assistant director finally sensed that the student actors were flagging and kindly gave them a break of about fifteen minutes to rest and regroup for the next scene.

As soon as they heard "break", the actors relaxed their tense muscles, and without a care for cleanliness, they lay down on the ground to rest. Controlling one’s strength in a fight scene was no easy feat!

Their gazes drifted to Hé Jìnxia in the corner, where she was filming smoothly and methodically, a touch of envy flickering in their eyes.

The voice of the assistant director drifted over from close by; he, too, was watching Hé Jìnxia’s performance while lavishing praise on her - applauding her acting skills, her prowess in fight scenes, and her precise and elegant moves.

A disgruntled actor muttered under his breath, "If I had a dummy in front of me and just had to whack it, I could make it look pretty darn fierce too!"

Another actor sitting nearby furrowed his brows, casting a skeptical glance at the complainer, "Are you sure?"

"What else? Fighting an inanimate object has got to be better than fighting a person—you don’t have to worry about hurting it, but with a person, you’re afraid of hitting too hard and causing an injury!"

Someone else chimed in lazily, "That might not be the whole story. On one hand there’s that, but on the other, if you look closely, haven’t you noticed that all the fighting scenes Jinxia is shooting are high difficulty? Ah, those mid-air twirling side kicks are simply stunning!"

Others joined in on the conversation, "Yeah, we just need to grapple and pretend to fight, but Sister Jinxia’s scenes require a certain level of skill. Without it, the movements would not be precise, and the repeated NGs would make life unbearable."

The group went back and forth, all the compliments ultimately circling back to Hé Jìnxia.

The male actor who had first complained flushed red, hanging his head and mumbling, "You guys are just trying to suck up to her because she’s popular. If you want to pay compliments, go say them to her face, not behind her back where she can’t hear!"

Spotting an opportunity, someone curiously asked, "Zhou Zhengfei, you weren’t like this a few days ago. Who was it that wanted to go up to Hé Jìnxia and ask questions? How come today you’ve turned your back on her the moment you saw her?"

The others nudged the man who spoke, offering an explanation: "Just look, Zhengfei’s new girlfriend is over by Hé Jìnxia, holding a bottle of water and a towel, ready to hand them to her."

The actor called "Zhengfei" then spoke up in a subdued voice, "That’s not the case, I’ve already broken up with her!"

The others were stunned and quickly asked, "What happened? You guys have been dating for less than a week, right?"

Zhou Zhengfei said with a dejected tone, "To be precise, it was five days and three hours. She broke up with me yesterday, saying she wanted to learn from He Jinxia and didn’t want to start dating so early. She even told me to cheer up and strive hard to make it to a second-tier actor position."

A month had passed since He Jinxia last posted on Weibo. The ratings of "High Energy Classroom" were steadily rising and had secured third place among the weekly dramas; with time, there was hope to rush to the second place.

These past few days, the cast of "High Energy Classroom" has been doing rounds of interviews, and every journalist made sure to ask whether He Jinxia was dating someone or not.

He Jinxia’s answer was always no, using the same explanation she gave to Mrs. He, a phrase she took to heart from a book.

Some netizens expressed disbelief, scrutinizing every photo posted, studying everything from the flowers to the table, to the surrounding environment, determined to get to the bottom of it.

In the end, they deduced that the flowers were specially airfreighted from another country, and the table was made of fine Phoebe zhennan wood. The surrounding environment seemed like a hall for receiving guests, yet it also resembled a conference room, and so on.

No matter how hard they dug, they just couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the place was, who the owner was, whether it was He Jinxia or some scandalous boyfriend of hers they had never heard of.

A month had gone by, but the netizens’ cries for information hadn’t diminished.

Since the photos didn’t reveal much, they had to start from He Jinxia’s side, which resulted in "High Energy Classroom" and its cast members receiving an unprecedented amount of attention over the month; the actors, in turn, were also spotlighted.

Some media speculated that perhaps He Jinxia had developed feelings for one of the male actors in the crew and sent out press releases frantically, putting every male actor in the crew under the media’s scrutiny.

This news might fool others, but the male actors in the crew were very clear that nothing of the sort had happened.

He Jinxia spent more time on the set than any of them, and they had seen with their own eyes that unless it was necessary for the scene, she would not talk to them, let alone chat in private.

Especially the male actors, who had their pride, found it impossible to cozy up to her with the kind of warm inquiries the female actors would make.

And because of the Weibo incident, they were even more afraid to get close to He Jinxia, worrying that the media might misunderstand and write all sorts of nonsense.

Even more so, some wondered if He Jinxia might be a lesbian?

After all, He Jinxia usually seemed closer to the female actors in the crew, leading to such a misunderstanding.

The others comforted Zhou Zhengfei, "Career first. You weren’t together long enough to develop deep feelings—better to break up now. It would have been much tougher had you split after getting more attached!"

"Yeah, think positively. With your qualities, you won’t have trouble finding a girlfriend."

"You’re still young, focus on your career. You can think about love after you’ve made a name for yourself at thirty."

Although comforted by these words, Zhou Zhengfei knew they made sense, yet he still felt upset.

He didn’t dare to look at He Jinxia, and with his head lowered, he gritted his teeth and said, "So being famous is impressive, huh? Being famous means you can meddle in other people’s relationships just like that!"

"She never had this idea before, so why did she suddenly tell me yesterday she wanted to learn from He Jinxia? It must have been He Jinxia who said something to her. Yesterday, I heard her mention He Jinxia many times; it has to be He Jinxia’s doing!"