Chapter 61: "The Truly Innocent Zhou Ran!"

“Ah! Why is it a kissing scene right from the start!” Zhou Ran shouted out loud the moment Chef Huang informed him that he would be filming a kissing scene soon.

“What’s wrong with you, Zhou Ran! Why are you shouting like that? Is it really necessary to get so worked up?” Chef Huang was baffled by Zhou Ran’s reaction—after all, it was just a kissing scene, hardly worth such excitement.

But as Chef Huang watched Zhou Ran’s awkward demeanor, he sensed something odd. Why was Zhou Ran so uneasy? An audacious thought suddenly crossed Chef Huang’s mind.

“Zhou Ran! Don’t tell me you’ve never kissed anyone before? My goodness!” Chef Huang suppressed a laugh, leaning in to ask Zhou Ran in a whisper.

Zhou Ran hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah.”

Chef Huang couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into raucous laughter. “Hahaha! My god! You’re so handsome, and yet you’ve never kissed anyone? What have you been doing all this time? Hahahaha!”

The reason Chef Huang found it so funny was because of the sheer drama of it all—it was just too much!

“What’s going on with you guys?” Zhang Xiaofeng, who had been resting nearby, saw Chef Huang’s reaction and hurried over to join the fun.

“Hahaha, ask Zhou Ran! Hahaha!” Chef Huang was laughing so hard he could barely get the words out, gesturing at Zhou Ran.

“What? What’s up, Ranzi?” Zhang Xiaofeng was utterly confused by the commotion.

Zhou Ran’s face flushed a deep red at the question, clearly embarrassed. After all, he had been a pure and innocent man in both his lives. Zhou Ran had always believed in taking things slowly, longing for a single, lifelong relationship—one person for a lifetime.

This led to him remaining single throughout his previous life.

In this life, Zhou Ran had never kissed anyone either, largely because he was so introverted, almost bordering on social withdrawal, and was not good at interacting with people. As a result, he was still alone.

“Let me tell you, the reason is, we’re about to shoot a kissing scene. And our little Zhou Ran has absolutely zero experience with kissing!” After calming down, Chef Huang finally explained to Zhang Xiaofeng, although his face clearly betrayed his amusement—after all, it was truly hilarious.

“It’s nothing, really, just a small issue. So what if you’ve never kissed anyone! I’ve filmed a kissing scene before, even if it was just faked by camera angle!” After hearing Chef Huang’s explanation, Zhang Xiaofeng, like a big sister, walked over to Zhou Ran, patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, and comforted him.

Chef Huang wanted to laugh even more at Zhang Xiaofeng’s display, because as far as he knew, she herself had little experience with filming kissing scenes—she’d only done it once, and that was a staged one.

So in other words, both Zhang Xiaofeng and Zhou Ran were about to have their first real experience filming a kissing scene.

Zhou Ran, after hearing Zhang Xiaofeng’s words, felt so embarrassed he wanted to hide. He grabbed the script and covered his face, thinking, “Ahhh! Let it all end! This damned world!”

But no matter how shy he was, the scene had to go on. After a moment to compose himself, Zhou Ran took a deep breath and marched to the set with fierce determination.

Chef Huang and Zhang Xiaofeng were already waiting at the filming spot. When they saw Zhou Ran’s posture as he approached, they couldn’t help but laugh.

“Zhou Ran! Are you going to a fight? Why are you marching like that? You look like you’re ready to brawl! What good will that do you? Tone it down a bit!” Chef Huang called out loudly, teasing him.

Hearing Chef Huang’s words, Zhou Ran abruptly tried to change his walk, almost tripping over his own feet and stumbling in front of the crew.

The crew burst into laughter at his reaction.

A while later, the set gradually quieted as everyone prepared for filming. Joking around was fine before the cameras rolled, but once filming began, everything became serious.

“Ready! On my mark… 3, 2, 1, action!” Chef Huang called out through the megaphone, announcing the start of the first scene.

The plot for this scene was simple: after the male lead, played by Zhou Ran, failed his performance, he was deeply shaken. The female lead, Zhang Xiaofeng, showed up in time to encourage him, and the two ended up sharing a kiss.

Now it was time to film the kissing part. Zhou Ran could perfectly portray the sense of defeat and frustration in the beginning, but the moment the scene required a kiss, he would suddenly break out of character, his awkwardness all too obvious.

After three or four takes, it was always the same—he performed smoothly up to the latter half, but as soon as it came to the kiss, he simply couldn’t go through with it.

“Zhou Ran, what are you hesitating for? Take a moment and think it over. Take a ten-minute break!” After several failed attempts, Chef Huang was at his wits’ end. The first half of the scene was great, but the kissing part always tripped Zhou Ran up.

There was nothing Chef Huang could do; this was something Zhou Ran would have to figure out on his own.

After two or three failed takes, Zhou Ran was consumed with guilt, feeling that he was holding up the entire shoot because of his own shortcomings. He sat alone on a chair, head hanging in dejection.

He’d tried overcoming it, but at the crucial moment, he would always falter.

Just as Zhou Ran was at a loss, Zhang Xiaofeng stepped forward. She had faced a similar difficulty before—not with a kissing scene, but in another part of her acting.

She believed the situations were fundamentally the same.

Zhang Xiaofeng walked straight up to Zhou Ran and simply said, “Try letting the character in the story do the kissing.” With that, she walked away, confident that Zhou Ran would succeed.

Zhou Ran, who had been sitting there in despair, suddenly saw a glimmer of hope at her words.

“That’s right! If I can’t do it as myself, then let the Zhou Ran in the film do it!”