Chapter 2 Part2 (1/2)
Ah, Jia He, I understand. I have a hard to saying no, too, much less if it were to my idol. Smiles at the last part!
Chapter 2.2 — A Forced Cameo Role (2)
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There are two people that every woman cannot bear to turn down: one is her lover; the other… of course, is her idol.
Throughout the course of the dinner, as a result of being unable to decline the care that her idol showed her, she ate half of that plate of mantou with cooked pork. She thus made a name for herself in this one ”battle,” and the consequence of that was, from that time onward, she was ”taken care of” for three entire months and ate mantou with cooked pork every day. Naturally, also as a result of Yi Wenze's one statement of ”I think it's quite a good idea,” she did not dare say any more and accepted the role of that character who was hated by everyone who laid eyes on her.
That night, as she stared at the script that she had written with her own hand, she began to spurn herself. Why in the world had she written such a resentful, evil woman?
In fact, it was a very simple task. There were only two scenes in total.
The first scene: a shot of a woman staring resentfully from a distance at the male and female lead.
The second scene: the woman wanted to poison the precious son of the female lead but was found out by the male lead, and at once, tears rolled down her face like raindrops caressing a pear blossom.
Back when she was writing it, she clearly had been exhilarated and flying high, but now that it was time for her to act it out herself, it became a whole new matter.
The next morning, when she, sporting a fas.h.i.+onable, all-natural ”smokey-eye look,” was in the dressing room, she was so sleepy her brain was like a puddle of paste. The makeup artist was continually a.s.sessing her face. After, in a serious tone, giving a praising remark of, ”Your skin is naturally a good base to work with,” she took all sorts of brushes and began applying makeup on her, up and down, left and right.
”You sure give yourself favoured treatment.” Sitting beside her, Qiao Qiao flipped through the script. ”Both scenes are on the same set. One day is enough to finish filming both of them.”
Jia He was unable to turn her head as she complained, ”When I wrote it, I didn't know it would be me.”
”Don't be so discontent with what you have.” Qiao Qiao put on a pretense of comforting her. ”This type of role that's just oozing with evilness is the type that viewers remember most easily. Who knows? You might be catapulted to fame. Hey, remember to come find me to be your agent. You can't let the good stuff go to other people[1].”
Jia He held her silence.
Cheerfully, the makeup artist soothed her, ”Don't be nervous. Doing cameos is a really normal thing. Back when I was doing makeup on the set of The Myth, I even cameoed as a palace maidservant and stood behind Kim Hee-Seon.”
Jia He gave her a polite smile, then carried on having internal injuries over this whole situation.
”I'm staying in Hengdian an extra day just for you.” Wagging her mobile phone, Qiao Qiao leaned over beside Jia He's ear and whispered, ”I'm not even paying attention to my Taiwanese boy. It's all because I was worried you'd be nervous.”
”He's stood you up more than twenty times already. You're still not willing to give up?”
Qiao Qiao typed a row of words on her mobile phone, then handed the phone over to Jia He to read: On his Weibo last night, he wrote, ”By myself and feeling lonesome.” The meaning of that is so obvious. He misses me.
Taking the phone from her, Jia He deleted those words and typed a row of new ones in their place: You sure know how to let your imagination fill in details.
Qiao Qiao gave a shrug and typed another row: If I can somehow happen upon a guy who's hot and devoted and a ”yu choy[2]” [talented, outstanding person], then I'll give up on this one.
Blinking, Jia He silently mouthed two words back to her:
”Yi Wenze.”
Qiao Qiao let out a guffaw. ”Just forget that, you. I very much have principles and never let me claws reach for anything that belongs to my good friends.”
Jia He rolled her eyes, which nearly ended up smearing her still-wet mascara onto her eyelids.
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In this scene, she would be acting opposite the drama's two main leads. When Liao Jing saw her get into the vehicle, she immediately gave her a big round of praise on her appearance today. Looking into that lead-actress face that Liao Jing sported and remembering that she needed to glare with bitter resentfulness at her and also kill her ”child” today, Jia He felt especially weirded out. She could not help feeling more and more admiration for those in the acting profession and how they could slip in and out of role at will. One minute, they were sitting in front of the monitors, sipping their milk tea, and the next minute, they could face the cameras and deliver a heartfelt confession of love. Honestly, it was not a job that the average Joe could do.
Yi Wenze was resting with his eyes closed. Qiao Qiao was carrying on with her frequent texting and, in pa.s.sing, also updating her Weibo.
Her actions served as a reminder to Jia He, and she also pulled out her mobile phone and began carrying out her usual practice of looking through the news. While she was at it, she also secretly went to Yi Wenze's Weibo page for a look. It was still the same as before. Since the story about Tian Chu had exploded into the public eye, no updates had been made to Yi Wenze's Weibo. However, the number of comments on it was increasing exponentially, all comments left by fans. Her fire of rage, which had been extinguished for a few days already, was now incited again by these thousands of fellow sisters who had banded together in anger against a common enemy, and she again began feeling indignation on behalf of Yi Wenze.
For reasons unknown, as if a supernatural presence was directing her, she swiftly registered a new Weibo account and then left a comment: Idol, I'm backing you all the way!
After writing this, she even guiltily stole a peek at Yi Wenze. But she was caught in the act by Qiao Qiao. Before long, Qiao Qiao's message was sent over: There's no crime in being a peeping Tom!
Firing her a glare, Jia He closed her text-messaging window.
All of a sudden, curiosity sprouted in her, and she input Tian Chu's name in and then found her way onto her Weibo.
Unlike the united voices found in the comments in Yi Wenze's Weibo, mayhem that could overturn the heavens had broken out here. There were words of support from Tian Chu's fans, name-calling and revile from Yi Wenze's fans, and demanding questioning from fans of that popular Taiwanese singer.
Tian Chu appeared to be indifferent to all of this and still would, as normal, talk about the content of her new alb.u.m or post some personal photos from when she was recording, and occasionally, she would even sigh rather ambiguously about lonesomeness. As Jia He read through all of this, she would repeatedly sigh feelingly over how Sina[3] was truly a good platform for sensationalism and how Tian Chu's team also really was skilled at exploiting gossip and rumored scandals.
Yi Wenze, in contrast, maintained a pa.s.sive stance in all of this, being very manly and not bringing any shame or embarra.s.sment onto Tian Chu.
”So shameless.” Qing had just finished saying something to Qiao Qiao, and when she turned around and her eyes happened to glance over Jia He's mobile phone, she snapped out these words quietly.
Yi Wenze opened his eyes and looked at her. With a humph, Qing explained, ”I'm referring to a certain well-known singer who's still trying to generate hype for herself on Weibo.” While she spoke, she pointed at Jia He's mobile phone.
Oh, Heaven, please just strike me with a lightning bolt…
With absolute composure, Jia He shut off her mobile phone, closed her eyes, and, tilting her head to the side, feigned sleep.
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When they arrived at the film set, the a.s.sistant director rather dutifully began to talk through the scene with Jia He. However, only a few sentences in, he realized something. ”I forgot. You're the screenwriter. You're fine; you don't need me to explain this stuff.” With that, he immediately went back over in front of the monitors, feeling that it was only natural that Jia He would have no problems at all.
Jia He felt too awkward to say that the two things, screenwriting and acting, were not the same, so she could only stand holding a tray of tea beside the decorative screen and gloomily begin to practice her look of bitter resentfulness.