Chapter 100: Fried Yellow Croaker p2
After a scene, while preparing for the next one, Ji Junxin was holding the baby, and several actors were playing with it. Mi Hongdou joined them, hoping to interact with the baby, and perhaps with Ji Junxin, but Ji Junxin didn’t even look at her, and Mi Hongdou’s heart sank.
She didn’t dare to try again.
Thanks to Mi Hongdou’s restraint, the afternoon filming went smoothly. In this cold winter weather, filming at the estate, everyone wanted fewer NGs and an early wrap. The makeshift tents offered little protection against the cold.
During the estate scenes, they had lunch with Jiang Lingling, and dinner was just the two of them. With Ji Junxin’s “pregnancy” act, they usually just went back to the hotel, and Mi Hongdou would make a simple dinner.
In the chauffeured car, Mi Hongdou was planning what to make for dinner to appease Ji Junxin when, upon arriving at the hotel, Ji Junxin went straight to the buffet restaurant downstairs.
Mi Hongdou watched Ji Junxin enter, stunned.
In her previous life, their friendship had started with Mi Hongdou’s cooking, a talent inherited from her mother. After years of practice, she had become Ji Junxin’s regular dining companion. In this life, with her culinary experience, she had used food to win Ji Junxin’s favor, their relationship progressing beyond just food buddies. They were now good friends.
And today, watching Ji Junxin enter the restaurant without even looking back, Mi Hongdou suddenly felt that… Ji Junxin no longer needed her. If she didn’t need her, could they still be friends? Mi Hongdou’s heart was filled with anxiety.
She hesitated outside the restaurant, then followed Ji Junxin inside.
But she didn’t know what to do once she was inside.
She felt like a middle school girl who had seen her crush and followed them into a restaurant, too shy to even approach, let alone speak.
She was… afraid.
Both Ji Junxin’s attitude and her own overthinking made her afraid.
Inside the restaurant, Mi Hongdou didn’t look for Ji Junxin, but just surveyed the buffet area and found a seat.
This buffet restaurant was on the first floor of their hotel. Having lived there for a while, they had eaten here often. Mi Hongdou knew which dishes were good, which were just okay, which were Ji Junxin’s favorites.
She chose a seat near the salad bar.
Ji Junxin’s favorite dish here was the fried yellow croaker, small fish marinated and coated in batter, fried until crispy and fragrant. She could always eat a small plate of them.
But remembering that Ji Junxin had already had lunch and then barbeque with Director Pan, Mi Hongdou chose Ji Junxin’s second favorite: salad.
The salad dressing here was good. There were two kinds of salad, mixed fruit and plain banana. Mi Hongdou preferred the former, Ji Junxin the latter. Ji Junxin always said that banana was the perfect complement to salad dressing, those who ate mixed fruit salad, like Mi Hongdou, couldn’t appreciate the true essence of salad dressing.
Mi Hongdou didn’t understand how one could appreciate the “essence” of salad dressing…
She sat there, a little nervous.
She had been sharing a room with Ji Junxin for months, she shouldn’t be this nervous…
Mi Hongdou, having carefully chosen her seat, after waiting for a while, saw Ji Junxin approaching.
She clutched her sleeve, unsure whether to sit up straight or try to appear smaller.
Perhaps because of her poorly chosen location, Mi Hongdou watched as Ji Junxin bent down, took a plate, filled it with salad, and walked away… without even glancing in her direction.
So, there was no telepathic connection between them? Mi Hongdou leaned back in her chair, disappointed.
Meanwhile, Ji Junxin returned to her table with the salad, but she didn’t sit down. She stood there, looking around.
She didn’t see the person she was looking for. She had been standing there for a while, even if Mi Hongdou couldn’t find her immediately, she should have seen her by now! Had Mi Hongdou not even come? Ji Junxin was unhappy! They had agreed to have dinner together every night!
She sat down angrily and poked at the small plate of fried yellow croaker in front of her, her appetite gone. It had been the same at lunch. She had thought that having barbeque with Director Pan and the others would comfort her, but she had no appetite, just watching them eat. She had felt so hungry in Jiang Lingling’s car earlier, thinking she could eat three more bowls.
It was all Mi Hongdou’s fault! Forbidding her from eating certain foods! Not even eating with her! And saying her birthing scene was so realistic! Ji Junxin stabbed a fish with her fork, looking at the mixed fruit salad she had placed on the opposite seat, her mood terrible.
She had waited all afternoon for Mi Hongdou to come and coax her! She had even planned to make up with her if she came… Now! Hmph! Ji Junxin angrily stuffed a fried yellow croaker into her mouth.
Mi Hongdou, completely unaware of what she had missed, sat at her table, dejected, oblivious to the growing resentment in the same restaurant.
Knowing Ji Junxin was here, although she had no appetite, Mi Hongdou didn’t leave. She kept glancing towards the salad bar, hoping that Ji Junxin would come and she would have the courage to approach her, and with the help of food, perhaps they could talk and resolve their awkwardness.
After all, Ji Junxin always got a second, sometimes even a third, helping of salad… Mi Hongdou thought and waited patiently.
But Ji Junxin, having lost her appetite, after just a few pieces of fried yellow croaker, went back upstairs.
She had left early, not because she wasn’t hungry, but because she wanted to go upstairs. Perhaps Mi Hongdou was cooking, and seeing her back so early, she would ask if she had eaten, if she was full, and then Ji Junxin could pretend to be pitiful and complain about the terrible buffet food, and Mi Hongdou would invite her to eat something else. Then they could reconcile!
Ji Junxin had it all planned out. But she never expected the hotel suite to be empty!
They had agreed to have dinner together! She was here! Where was Mi Hongdou! Ji Junxin stood in the empty suite, furious!
Reconciliation? No way!
Meanwhile, Mi Hongdou, the object of Ji Junxin’s anger, waited in the buffet restaurant, but Ji Junxin never returned to the salad bar. Perhaps she had eaten too much of something else and wasn’t in the mood for salad, Mi Hongdou thought, disappointed… Unable to even seize this opportunity for reconciliation, she was definitely going to be blacklisted.
Dejected, she left the restaurant, bought some groceries, and returned to the suite. The first thing she saw was Ji Junxin, sitting on the sofa, looking at her coldly.
Mi Hongdou, who had been treated with indifference all day, shivered.
Was there anyone who could tell her what she had done wrong!
She had thought that although Ji Junxin’s gaze was cold, since she was looking at her, she would say something.
But she didn’t…
Ji Junxin quickly looked away and started playing with her phone.
Mi Hongdou, frozen at the door, felt incredibly awkward.
She quietly entered, closed the door, put down the groceries. Neither of them spoke. The awkward silence stretched between them.
“Are you full?” Mi Hongdou, surrendering first, asked, trying to break the ice.
Ji Junxin slowly looked up, her gaze thoughtful, then…
“Hmph!” She replied with a single syllable and turned her head away with an exaggerated, tsundere-like motion, straight out of a cheesy teen drama.
“Pfft…” Mi Hongdou’s frozen heart shattered from Ji Junxin’s childish behavior.
“What’s so funny!” Ji Junxin, having heard Mi Hongdou’s laughter, turned back and glared at her. “You finally decided to come back! Do you know what time it is! You were gone for so long, why didn’t you just fly away!”
“Hahaha… I told you to stop reading those Weibo posts, you’re so funny.” Mi Hongdou finally relaxed. So, her earlier worries about being blacklisted or ignored were unfounded. Ji Junxin now looked like a wife waiting for her drunk husband to come home late at night, fuming…
Although Mi Hongdou knew her analogy was a bit off, it was accurate! Her anxiety gone, her courage returned, and she laughed heartily.
Brave people always faced greater challenges.
Mi Hongdou’s unrestrained laughter pushed Ji Junxin, who was already on the verge of exploding, over the edge!
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