Chu Yueyi was caught off guard by his question. She unconsciously pursed her lips and said softly, "...Are you trying to provoke me?"
Shi Guanghua replied, "No, I just want to know how strong your desire for revenge is."
Chu Yueyi: "..."
The two faced off backstage, their tones both unfriendly, yet the atmosphere was awkward and strange.
At that moment, the Chief Director pulled back the backstage curtain. He eyed the two suspiciously and said alertly, "What are you two up to in secret again?"
The scene change on stage had finished, but the lead actors were nowhere to be found. The Chief Director's radar went off immediately, suspecting they were up to something in private and avoiding the cameras.
Caught whispering to each other, Chu Yueyi and Shi Guanghua quickly composed themselves and obediently allowed the director to escort them away.
The Chief Director ushered them onto the stage while muttering, "Yueyi, now you've been infected and like to hide in little corners too..."
Shi Guanghua used to always sneak off to dark places, and now Chu Yueyi was following his example, hiding where no one could see them.
Chu Yueyi was too embarrassed to say anything. When she returned to the stage, she indeed noticed the set had changed.
They first filmed Romeo and Juliet's secret meeting on the garden balcony, followed by their wedding witnessed by Friar Laurence.
Inside the church, Shi Guanghua and the friar arrived first, while Chu Yueyi hid behind the curtain, waiting for her cue. This scene began with dialogue between Romeo and the friar, before Juliet's belated entrance.
To be honest, Shi Guanghua had hardly any acting skills. He was completely different from the dashing, playboy Romeo of the original work. Whether it was his lines or stage performance, everything had a strong personal style.
When using flowery words to praise Juliet, he always maintained a hesitant attitude. But his scene with the friar in the church was surprisingly good, much to the amazement of Chu Yueyi waiting in the wings.
"Whatever sad consequences may follow, they cannot outweigh the joy I feel in seeing her for this brief moment," Shi Guanghua stood before the friar. Unlike Romeo's passionate delivery, his tone was calm as still water, more like a knight prepared to sacrifice himself, having long steeled his heart.
His eyes flickered briefly before he lowered his gaze and said softly, "As long as you use your holy words to join our souls as one, allowing me to call her 'my own,' I will have no regrets."
This was the first time Shi Guanghua had immersed himself in the emotions of the play, at least deeply identifying with his lines at this moment. His personality differed greatly from Romeo's, but he strongly resonated with this passage alone.
Even if it was a grand performance before the cameras, at least in this moment, he possessed her. Their names could rightfully stand side by side, and no one would object to it.
Chu Yueyi watched Shi Guanghua's back from behind the curtain, somehow feeling a hint of loneliness in his words, which inexplicably made her heart ache.
His reckless abandon was different from the original work - not like being blinded by love, but rather like a sacrifice after careful deliberation.
She suddenly had an urge to go up and hug him.
"Violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume," the friar said. "The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."
Hearing the friar's lines, Chu Yueyi snapped back to reality, realizing it was her cue to enter. She emerged from behind the curtain and completed the wedding ceremony with Shi Guanghua before the friar, concluding this scene.
This was where the original "Romeo and Juliet" ended, but next came the newly adapted version. Chu Yueyi played Juliet who, despite having confessed her love to Romeo, found their families' feud standing in their way.
The Nanny tried to dissuade Juliet from her foolish love, earnestly advising: "Men are unreliable, without conscience or sincerity. They're all fickle, inconstant, and wicked - nothing but liars!"
The staff performed the original lines, but no one knew the new version's script, since the upcoming plot was entirely made up.
Faced with the challenge of improvisation, Chu Yueyi remained composed and said calmly, "If that's the case, then let him be fickle within my castle."
Backstage, the female Script Directors excitedly enjoyed the performance, commenting, "Domineering Juliet falls in love with me."
"This play is overflowing with web novel flavor."
Shi Guanghua: "?"
The Montague family was swiftly eliminated, for a simple reason - all the staff extras were from the Capulet family, leaving Shi Guanghua as a lone general without any subordinates.
The staff seemed to have a particular fondness for battle-damaged states. The makeup artist meticulously added blood stains to Shi Guanghua, showcasing the intensity of the struggle. Although it was Shi Guanghua who proposed performing the play, everyone around him seemed more enthusiastic than he was, for reasons unknown.
Shi Guanghua entered the stage with wounds on his face, preparing to fall and act out being surrounded. He truly had a certain ruined beauty about him.
Chu Yueyi lifted his chin with the tip of her prop sword. Her face was full of gentle smiles, but behind her gathered an enormous family army. She said with a smile, "So you're from the Montague family?"
Her tone was soft, and if not for the group of subordinates behind her, she would have seemed completely harmless to outsiders.
Shi Guanghua, rarely looking up at her and forced to raise his head, felt that her face was brimming with the joy of "finally managed to snatch someone, it wasn't easy."
He still couldn't understand the plot logic. In the previous scene, they were lovers secretly marrying before a friar, and now they were engaged in forceful capture. Was this Juliet's way of advancing her career?
Shi Guanghua replied numbly, "Yes."
Chu Yueyi: "Very well, now you're part of the Capulet family. Imprison him in the castle."
Nanny: "Miss, we can't bring an enemy back to the castle..."
Shi Guanghua nodded in agreement, also feeling that the plot didn't make sense. Surely something had gone wrong.
Chu Yueyi: "No, bring him back to the castle to showcase our family's glory!"
Shi Guanghua: "..." Why does your family's glory depend on imprisoning me?
Inside the castle, Chu Yueyi looked at the newly captured prisoner, deciding to demonstrate her family's strength and glory by humiliating the heir of their sworn enemy.
"Since you're the son of Montague, now captured here, you must feel deeply humiliated," she circled around Shi Guanghua, not yet having thought of a way to torment him.
Shi Guanghua cooperatively stood still, looking at her impassively, both as if saying "I'll just quietly watch you perform" and with a sense of resignation towards the absurd plot. He couldn't suggest starting the battle over, since he had said Romeo didn't care about family, which led to his complete defeat.
Shi Guanghua: The disparity in combat strength was too great, this was his fatal mistake.
Chu Yueyi was dissatisfied with his silence and raised an eyebrow, "Why aren't you speaking?"
Shi Guanghua responded good-naturedly, "What do you want me to do?" How should I act in this play?
"What can you do?" Chu Yueyi thought for a moment, blinked, and suggested, "A hug?"
She had wanted to hug Shi Guanghua on stage earlier, feeling he had shown a moment of sadness.
Shi Guanghua was taken aback. Seeing she wasn't joking, he put aside his helplessness towards the bizarre plot and stepped forward to lift her up.
His arms were particularly strong, lifting her legs up along with her dress in a princess carry, letting her lean against his shoulder.
Suddenly suspended in the air, Chu Yueyi immediately tapped Shi Guanghua lightly, exclaiming, "What are you doing!?"
Shi Guanghua looked confused: "A hug?"
Chu Yueyi gritted her teeth, "Not this kind!"
She had only wanted a comforting, warm bear hug, not this thrilling princess carry!
Shi Guanghua was truly thick-headed. She had even slightly opened her arms, how could he hug her like this?
Shi Guanghua hadn't realized she had such specific requirements. He obediently lowered her slowly, saying softly, "Is this how you torment prisoners?"
Back on solid ground, Chu Yueyi had to look up at him again, somehow feeling her imposing aura was lacking. She stepped onto a nearby platform to shorten their height difference and said leisurely, "You're now our family's prisoner, naturally you must serve the Capulets."
Shi Guanghua watched her haughty demeanor, his heart melting like cotton. He said, "No."
Chu Yueyi opened her arms to him again, hearing the prisoner's attempt at rebellion. She frowned slightly, "Yes, you are."
Shi Guanghua adjusted his posture and reached out to embrace her, pulling her completely into his arms. Her body was soft and warm, like a cloud in the sky, making him afraid to use any force for fear that the slightest touch would make her dissipate.
He held her preciously, as if holding the entire world, and corrected himself: "I am your captive, naturally at your service."
Chu Yueyi buried herself in his embrace. Though she couldn't see his expression at that moment, she inwardly complained that Shi Guanghua's body temperature was too high, causing her face to feel hot where it pressed against him.
As the tender embrace ended, the two finally separated.
Shi Guanghua glanced at her, his eyes bright, and asked: "How else do you want to torment me?"
Chu Yueyi: "?" Why did he sound so eager?
Chu Yueyi said expressionlessly: "Do you have any talents to perform? How many years did you practice in the Montague family? Can you freestyle?"
Shi Guanghua: "..."
Although the Montagues were surrounded, there were still remnants causing trouble. They contacted Romeo in the castle and handed him a carefully crafted poison, instructing him to find an opportunity to poison the new Capulet family head, Juliet.
The Script Director handed Shi Guanghua a vial of loquat syrup in an exquisite bottle. Playing the role of a Montague remnant, she said mysteriously: "This is a fast-acting, lethal poison. Once consumed, it will spread throughout the bloodstream, causing immediate cessation of breathing and death. Now that you're living with the Capulet family head, find a chance to poison her with this, and you can win a chance of survival for our family."
"Juliet is wary of you, so she certainly won't drink the poison easily. You'd better use other means to make her lower her guard, such as mouth-to-mouth feeding..." The Montague remnant winked at Shi Guanghua, "...you understand?"
Shi Guanghua couldn't come up with the subsequent plot, so he had to rely on the professional staff. Since it was a love story, the plot had to serve the main storyline, so they were definitely heading in the direction of a kissing scene.
Shi Guanghua held the poison vial and, after hearing the increasingly strange story direction, calmly asked: "If I may ask, where were you during the battle?"
Shi Guanghua thought: Where did this family remnant come from? Was I the only one fighting?
The Montague remnant righteously declared: "As long as the green hills remain, one need not worry about firewood."
Very good.
Everyone had low loyalty to the Montague family.
Shi Guanghua took the stage with the vial, but was immediately stopped by Chu Yueyi.
She looked at the strange vial in his hand and criticized: "Are you just going to appear on stage with the poison like that? Don't tell me the next line is 'Darling, it's time for your medicine'?"
How blind would Juliet have to be to be easily taken down by him?
Shi Guanghua could only retreat. He pretended to take a small sip of the poison, feigning that he was going to poison Juliet with a mouthful, and returned to the stage. However, this is where he reached the limits of his knowledge. He couldn't understand how poisoning could be done mouth-to-mouth.
In the staff's design, Romeo was supposed to have a seduction scene, coaxing Juliet to swallow the poison, and even if she knew he was trying to kill her, she would willingly lower her guard. Romeo also wasn't using real poison; it was just a sedative to appease the family, with no harm to the human body.
In the end, there would be a happy ending. That's how all Jinjiang literature is written.
This was the plot deduction of the female script directors.
But Shi Guanghua had never read Jinjiang literature, let alone mainstream romance where it's usually the woman seducing the man, so he was confused about how to reverse it.
Shi Guanghua circled around Chu Yueyi a few times, realizing he really didn't know how to do this.
Chu Yueyi felt dizzy from his circling and simply patted the castle sofa, advising: "Sit down and think slowly."
The murderer and the victim sitting together had a strangely harmonious feel.
Seeing that he couldn't come up with anything, Chu Yueyi, as the victim, kindly suggested: "Why don't you just take out the vial, and I'll take a sip directly?"
She wanted to be considerate to the new actor, as asking him to improvise lines on the spot was truly demanding too much.
Shi Guanghua stared at her intently, his gaze deep but silent, not offering the vial.
The next second, he suddenly leaned in and lightly brushed against her, deliberately rubbing his face against her lips, like an animal's friendly nuzzle.
Chu Yueyi was caught off guard: "?"
Shi Guanghua, after nuzzling her, said: "You did that on purpose."
Chu Yueyi: "???"
The next moment, Chu Yueyi watched as he leaned down closer, his falling shadow gently enveloping her, followed by a soft and sweet kiss, with a familiar sweetness.
His eyes were tightly closed, his breath light, his raven-colored eyelashes lowered, the whole process careful and tentative, his movements like those of a devout pilgrim.
Perhaps she should have closed her eyes too, but at this moment she greedily watched the scene, wanting to imprint it deeply in her heart.
After a while, Shi Guanghua straightened up, his eyes flickering with fragments of light, and said hoarsely: "Now we're even."
By all rights, Chu Yueyi should have been poisoned on the spot, but she couldn't help saying: "That's called a scam, is that allowed?"
He had bumped into her himself, then said she did it on purpose. It was completely a scam tactic.
Shi Guanghua looked at her: "...Should we do it again then?"
Chu Yueyi: "..."
She immediately clutched her chest and fell back against the chair, displaying the most exaggerated acting of her life: "Ah, I'm dead!"