Chapter 45: One Hundred Thousand Points of Critical Damage

Time flies like an arrow. Moving from Yang Mi to Liu Feifei and finally returning to Jiang Xin, a mere month passed as the first ten episodes were completed. The four early female characters who had constantly entangled themselves around Gu Cheng were once again gathered together.

The "Western Crazy" persona portrayed by Gu Cheng instilled an indescribable sense of temptation and allure in every actress performing alongside him.

It seemed as though all the interpretations of Yang Guo accumulated by actors and directors of the past had been infused with a brand-new soul.

So Yang Guo could be played this way! So Yang Guo was already far from a petty hoodlum by the time he left Peach Blossom Island!

As Gu Cheng became increasingly lost in his role, he naturally entered a state of true-to-life authenticity.

By merely tweaking his values and emotions slightly while retaining his innate, unfiltered temperament, he achieved extraordinary results.

For instance, no actor playing Yang Guo had ever thought that "because Yang Guo lost his father at a young age, he would attribute his tragic childhood to a lack of proper guidance."

Yet Gu Cheng not only thought of it, but was also able to internalize it with deep resonance—

Wasn't his own physical vessel forced to leave his homeland at a child-labor age due to his father's early death, abandoning fairly decent academic prospects to travel far to Dongyi and become a trainee? Although everything turned out well in the end, that painful memory could still be periodically unearthed to temper his state of mind.

Another example was Yang Guo's disdain for explanations, especially when an explanation "could not temporarily solve the problem anyway." This trait might have been incomprehensible to Louis Koo or Richie Jen, but it closely mirrored Gu Cheng's own temperament.

Two years ago, Kwon Boa had tipped him off, saying that Kim Han-gyul seemed emotionally unstable and intended to air some dirt on him. Later, after Gu Cheng cleared the air, Kwon Boa was heartbroken for a time, feeling she had misjudged him.

Gu Cheng would rather be misunderstood by a girl who shared a mutual appreciation with him than bother explaining himself before he had ironclad proof.

Therefore, in the two episodes where Yang Guo was at the Quanzhen Sect—whether being tormented by Zhao Zhijing or misunderstood and punished by Qiu Chuji and Hao Datong—Yang Guo's reactions were far more reserved, giving off a profound, darkened vibe of "do not bare your weapon until you are certain of victory."

Compared to Gu Cheng's haughty and unruly demeanor, Huang Xiaoming's historical portrayal resembled a ruffian street punk, while Richie Jen played him as a crude, thick-headed martial arts wanderer. Louis Koo was wonderful in every aspect, yet lacked that singular arrogance.

After all, who else among the actors who had ever played Yang Guo possessed such an innately wild and haughty nature?

Having a dominant, domineering CEO play a character of the "Eastern Heretic and Western Crazy" archetype naturally yielded a rich depth that ordinary idol actors could never achieve.

...

Today was November 5th. Gu Cheng wondered if he should call his cousin far away in a foreign land to offer her birthday wishes.

On the set, they had already reached a minor turning point in the sequence where Yang Guo drifted from place to place, accompanied in turn by numerous maidens—

Yang Guo and Cheng Ying were being pursued by Li Mochou in Niujia Village, only to be rescued by the passing Huang Yaoshi. Next came Yang Guo's journey to the Hero Flag Gathering at Dasheng Pass, where he would reunite with his Aunt, culminating in the small reunion climax of the first third of the story.

At the subsequent Hero Gathering, all four maidens were scheduled to appear, making today a rare occasion where everyone was present.

Only Gu Cheng, Jiang Xin, and the actress playing Li Mochou were inside the set, pitting their wits and combat skills against one another, while Liu Feifei and Yang Mi watched from the sidelines.

Mr. Jin had recently carried out a major revision of his early works over the past two years, resulting in the "Century New Revised Edition" well known to later generations, and *The Return of the Condor Heroes* was among them. Although Gu Cheng was filming before the official release of the new edition, Mr. Jin had shared the manuscript with him to serve as a reference for the screenwriters—which was precisely one of the chips that gave Gu Cheng the confidence to take on this drama and ensure a fresh approach.

According to the description in the new edition, in this scene, when both characters suffered internal injuries and were unable to fight with brute force, Cheng Ying was supposed to use the Peach Blossom Island formations to stall for time, employing the musical and acoustic techniques taught by Huang Yaoshi to disrupt Li Mochou's state of mind and prevent her from breaking the formation with peace of mind. Originally, Yang Guo was set to know nothing of these arts and could only wait helplessly for death.

How could Gu Cheng tolerate such a character setting falling into his hands? Brother Cheng always reserved the spotlight entirely for himself, leaving others nowhere to go; how could he possibly let a maiden protect him instead?

Gu Cheng himself possessed a natural literary elegance and extraordinary musical mastery. At the "Jiangnan Gathering," he had even used the guqin to compose *The Lanting Pavilion Preface*.

In this drama, Yang Guo was set to have been "coaxed by Guo Bofu on Peach Blossom Island into studying the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting for several years without learning martial arts," rendering his temperament all the more extraordinary.

Naturally, the unrefined act of roaring into the sky from the original work was changed into a duet.

Cheng Ying held the standard jade-green flute of Peach Blossom Island, harmonizing perfectly with Yang Guo's qin. A 360-degree tracking shot circled the perimeter to heighten the atmosphere, accompanied by a background score specially commissioned from master Wu Pak-chiu in Hong Kong, creating an uncanny illusion among the onlookers—

Were the figures on the set truly Yang Guo and Cheng Ying, or were they Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng? Were the pursuers and rescuers waiting outside "Great Songyang Hand Fei Bin" and "Xiao Xiang Night Rain Mo Da," or were they Li Mochou and Huang Yaoshi?

Watching from the sidelines, Liu Feifei and Yang Mi found their hearts fluttering uncontrollably. Liu Feifei, in particular, had just come from Producer Zhang's *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils* crew at CCTV, and after a month here, she had fully grasped the vast gap between the two productions.

Producer Zhang was about to start filming *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, and she couldn't help wondering how badly that version of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer* would be thrashed by mid-next year—every single display of swagger and cool posturing was completely crushed here.

While Liu Feifei's mind wandered, Li Mochou broke through the formation after a fierce battle within the set, raising her palm to execute Yang Guo and Cheng Ying, who were already injured and incapable of resistance.

At this moment, Gu Cheng—portraying a severely injured Yang Guo—suddenly burst into a loud, disdainful laugh.

"Cough, cough... Hmph, evil witchess, today Yingmei and I share the same zither-and-flute harmony and walk hand in hand to the Yellow Springs. Even in death, we are a hundred times happier than a lonely single dog like you standing all by yourself!"

The term "single dog" was, of course, an impromptu piece of modern mockery improvised by Gu Cheng. Mr. Jin's original text at this point was more subtle, stating simply, "If we die in the same place and chat and laugh on the road to the netherworld, isn't that ten times better than this wicked woman?"

Hearing the words "single dog," the actors watching from the sidelines almost burst out laughing. Jiang Xin, who played Cheng Ying in the scene, barely managed to hold her composure. Fortunately, her reaction was quick, and she maintained a cheerful and proud smile directed straight at Li Mochou, which actually gave her an air of carefree detachment.

In the plot, Li Mochou's Five Poisons Divine Palm struck halfway through the air, but upon hearing those words, she forcibly reined back her internal energy. The disrupted internal breath surged wildly through her blood vessels, dealing critical mental damage equivalent to one hundred thousand points.

During post-production, a voiceover inner monologue would be added here: "If they perish at this moment, they really will be happier than me living in desolate isolation. I won't let them off that easily."

Seeing that their lives were temporarily spared, Yang Guo continued to think on his feet, pulling Cheng Ying's waist into an embrace and making a motion to kiss her. With the dashing flair of a classical scholar, he pointed at Li Mochou and cursed wildly, sprawling out shamelessly: "If you've got the guts, strike me and Yingmei dead right here, right now! Just make sure you never separate us!"

"I wouldn't dream of letting you two adulterous lovebirds off so easily! I'll seal your acupoints, take one of you away from here, hack their body to pieces, and then come back to kill the other! That way, your corpses will be incomplete and your faces unrecognizable, so even on the road to the netherworld you won't find each other!"

"Then take me away and leave Yingmei here!"

"Then take me away and leave Brother Yang here!"

Yang Guo and Cheng Ying blurted out simultaneously, both blushing deeply only after the words left their mouths.

Li Mochou grabbed Yang Guo and made to leave, but because she had delayed too long, she ran into the approaching Granny Sha and Huang Yaoshi shortly after setting off, and was finished.

"CUT! Moving on, that's it for the morning." Assistant Director Guan Hu sat in front of the monitor, thoroughly satisfied with everyone's impromptu performances.

...

After wrapping up the morning shoot, staff members pushing carts of boxed lunches arrived to handle the chores, and Gu Cheng amiably joined everyone else to eat.

Since the afternoon's Hero Gathering would feature all of Yang Guo's maidens, the four actresses gathered around Gu Cheng during the break to chat and discuss the key points for the afternoon's performance.

Liu Feifei and Yang Mi were the focal points of the afternoon session and still felt a bit nervous. Jiang Xin, on the other hand, only needed to provide background presence and was much more relaxed. After chatting for a moment, she couldn't resist teasing: "Brother Cheng, how did you ever come up with the term 'single dog'? It's so vivid; there's truly no better way to describe Li Mochou."

"It just slipped out. Do you really need to think about such slang terms? It's nothing special anyway—oh right, make sure not to go around spreading that I invented it. Just say the assistant screenwriter forcibly wrote it in."

With that, Gu Cheng buried his head to bite into a piece of fried yellow croaker, then quickly shoveled down a couple of mouthfuls of rice to buy himself some quiet time.

He certainly didn't want to attract attention for "inventing" such slang; it wasn't anything to boast about anyway.

Jiang Xin smiled knowingly. "Brother Cheng is so disdainful of single people, so he certainly isn't single himself. You keep your secrets so well hidden; I suppose we'll never get the chance to meet our sister-in-law."

Gu Cheng had no intention of elaborating on the matter, as they weren't particularly close.

Out of nowhere, however, Liu Feifei piped up: "You guys have got it all wrong. Brother Cheng is a single dog himself; he was just making fun of his own situation."

Both Jiang Xin and Yang Mi flashed knowing looks, appearing thoroughly intrigued.

Yang Mi, being young, had no fear of losing face and knew how to act cute and innocent. She grabbed Liu Feifei and pressed further: "Sister Feifei, how do you know? Ah! Could it be that when you and Brother Cheng worked together on *The Story of a Noble Family*..."

Liu Feifei straightened her expression. "What nonsense are you talking about? You have to separate what happens on screen from real life. Brother Cheng has extremely high standards; he doesn't even belong to our little circle."

"Not belonging to our circle? Then whose circle does he belong to? The circle of ultra-wealthy tycoons?" Jiang Xin frowned in thought, though she didn't feel that particular circle was all that noble either.

Although she was only nineteen, she was already a "veteran child star" who had spent nearly ten years grinding away as an extra, and she had heard more than her fair share of industry secrets.

As for the real estate scions known as the "Four Young Masters of Beijing," one of them used to hang out with Zhao Wei's clique before recently shifting his targets and hooking up with Sister Chen Zihan, whom Sister Hui had originally wanted to cast as "Guo Fu."

Another among the "Four Young Masters" had recently grown quite close with the Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu, who had shot to fame after acting alongside Brother Cheng.

Who said wealthy tycoons looked down on female celebrities anyway?

"Brother Cheng is single definitely for some other reason; it's just that Feifei is too young and lacks life experience to see it," Jiang Xin mused to herself, before immediately finding it somewhat amusing. Why waste so much thought on such a topic? She really was turning into a gossip.