Back on the set. 

When Lin Cheng and Lin Momo walked in the director came up to meet them. There seemed to be a bit of excitement in his eyes, and who knew whether it was for Lin Cheng or Lin Momo.

“Here you are! Let’s go to the back to talk first.” Director Liu led Lin Cheng and Lin Momo to the working area behind the filming location with a big smile on his face. He asked the field staff to take care of Lin Cheng and Lin Momo’s luggage. The crew had allocated actors a temporary room to rest and stay in, and they gave a pass each to the two members of the Lin family.

… …

Lin Momo didn’t expect that the crew would actually also prepare a pass for her: it had the title of the film: [Against the Grain], Lin Momo’s name, and a ‘Category B’ written on it.

There was also a photo of Lin Momo on it.

“We were pressed for time, and it was too troublesome to take photos, so our staff just took a random screenshot from the Internet. It’s all the same anyway, haha,” thee director Liu explained with a smile.

Looking at the photo on her pass, Lin Momo fell into deep thought: “…”

This 1×1 inch photo was taken out of the replay of the livestream of [Living with Dad]— it featured Lin Momo when she followed Lin Cheng around various crews in the Film and Television City for an entire day. She was so tired back then that she fell asleep leaning against Lin Cheng with her mouth half open.

Her hair was a mess, her head was full of sweat, and she was carrying various items on her body: water bottle, towel, and leaflets. The way she was huddled on the bench against her dad… she really looked a bit like a beggar ah!

……

“Have you more or less memorized the script I gave you this morning?” Director Liu asked Lin Cheng.

“More or less,” Lin Chen responded.

“That’s good,” Liu nodded and added, “The parts you need to shoot are almost ready. Come here first and I’ll talk to you about the plot, and then we can start shooting.”

… …

Director Liu had said all these in a serious tone. The act of dragging Lin Cheng into the crew and wanting to start filming immediately aroused a heated discussion in the livestream channel:

[What? Is the filming about to start now? ]

[Isn’t this too hasty? ]

[Hahaha, no, Director Liu seems to have this style whenever he’s filming.]

Whichever venue was available would be filmed first, and whichever actors were available would be filmed first.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Director Liu took Lin Cheng and started explaining the scene.

In the entire play, there were 9 scenes featuring ‘Lin Annan’—4 of which were scenes to be shot with other actors, and 5 scenes would be shot by Lin Cheng alone.

Due to time constraints, Director Liu arranged for one scene between Lin Cheng and another actor, and two other multiple-actor scenes to be filmed these coming two days. The rest would be filmed after the recording of [Living with Dad] was finished, or on weekends as the schedule permitted.

After going through the play quickly with Lin Cheng, Director Liu glanced at the back of the set and said, “Just right, Teacher Zhou is also here on set. You have a scene with him. You guys will be acting together soon. Let’s try it out first and get a feel for it.”

After saying that, Director Liu couldn’t help but stare at Lin Cheng for a few more times.

——It was temporarily decided to shoot the part of ‘Lin Annan’ first. In order to get a feel for it, he looked over the historical information and character background of Lin Annan very carefully on the way to the set.

Lin Annan and his Lin family have left too few traces in history. The crew could only find some images and scenes of Lin Annan in the photos left by some reporters at the time.

After such a comparison, Director Liu found that the eyebrows between Lin Cheng in front of him and Lin Annan in the photo were somewhat similar.

Is it because of this that Teacher Zhou recommended Lin Cheng to play ‘Lin Annan’?

Director Liu silently muttered in his heart: If this is the case, then Teacher Zhou Haihua’s vision must be gold standard!

“Let’s go over there to put on makeup and change clothes first,” Director Liu said. At this time, he was already looking forward to Lin Cheng changing into ‘Lin Annan’ clothes.

On the other side, Lin Momo was temporarily entrusted by Lin Cheng to the care of the set manager.

The staff took Lin Momo to the rest area behind the shooting venue.

… …

At this time, Zhou Haihua was also staying with several younger actors in the rest area. When he saw Lin Momo, Zhou Haihua’s eyes lit up.

Lin Momo, on the other hand, shrank her neck instinctively. The scene of Zhou Haihua scolding the two actors that morning was still very vivid in Lin Momo’s mind. 

Lin Momo was a little scared of this old man.

She looked around the rest area and finally found a seat in the corner, right by the edge—the farthest place possible from Zhou Haihua—and sat down. She lowered her head, sat quietly so as not to disturb other people, and tried to reduce her presence as much as possible.

However, it backfired. After talking to the two young actors for a few more minutes, Zhou Haihua walked towards Lin Momo with a smile on his face.

“Xiao Momo is here.

“I have some candy here, would you like some, Xiao Momo?” After saying that, Zhou Haihua took out a few pieces of candy from his fishing-vest pocket and offered them to her. 

Seeing these candies in front of he face, Lin Momo shook her head and whispered, “Thank you, I don’t want any.”

As if he didn’t notice Lin Momo’s discomfort, Zhou Haihua took out a small hand-held battery-powered fan and asked Lin Momo, “Is it too hot, Xiao Momo? Look, I have a small fan here. It’s a blue, fat doll with a big head. It’s not cute but you are welcome to use it and blow air to yourself.”

Looking at the picture of Doraemon on the small electric fan, Lin Momo: “…” 

“This is Doraemon, he’s a robot cat,” Lin Momo corrected in a small voice.

Hearing this, Zhou Haihua was surprised and stared at the blue, fat figure on the small fan for a long time, squinting his eyes.

This small hand-held fan was actually thrown away by some young man in the crew. Zhou Haihua took it and repaired it. As for the blue, fat guy on it—he really didn’t know who it was at all.

It’s just that… looking at it from the left and from the right, this guy seemed to have no resemblance at all to cats.

“Okay, okay, Robot Cat, Robot Cat,” Zhou Haihua nodded and turned his attention back to Lin Momo, looking at her with an affectionate smile, as if looking at his own eldest great-granddaughter.

Serve as Contrast Team in a ‘Dad with Baby’ Show translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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