Chapter 62: Absolutely Not, Absolutely Not – A Movie Invitation
Yu Shuangwei yelled “cut” after half a minute. Dong Ling helped Song Mingzhi remove the red silk blindfold, both of their expressions incredibly natural.
Song Mingzhi had a few close-ups to film, and Dong Ling also had a scene later, so she didn’t leave, sitting in a shady spot, watching Song Mingzhi film.
The sun was scorching, Xiao Tong brought a prop fan from the set for Dong Ling to shield herself from the sun, and placed an electric fan and some iced watermelon beside her.
Dong Ling took the fan and shielded herself, looking at the brightly blooming flowers.
She suddenly sensed something and looked to the side.
A paparazzi wearing a mask was sitting on the wall of another building. After meeting her gaze, he quickly left with his equipment.
Dong Ling: … Not bad, quite dedicated.
Since the cast had already been officially announced, Dong Ling didn’t mind the paparazzi taking behind-the-scenes footage. She didn’t plan to suppress it, this kind of thing only attracted the attention of CP fans, it wouldn’t trend.
But that afternoon, when she returned, Yuki told her she was trending.
Dong Ling wondered if netizens were this bored, how did shipping a CP even become a trending topic?
She clicked on the link and found that it was actually a trending topic about her alone, nothing to do with Song Mingzhi.
Most of the comments were praising her looks, both in modern and ancient costumes. Dong Ling casually glanced at them and didn’t pay much attention, holding a cup of ginger tea with brown sugar, she read through company documents while drinking.
Song Mingzhi saw the trending topic, and as she read, her initially upturned lips gradually turned downwards.
@TakeCEODongAway: So beautiful, both her modern and ancient costumes are stunning, one person petitioning for CEO Dong to open a Weibo account, it’s heartbreaking that the actors tag Canghai Entertainment in their promotional posts instead of her.
@QAndAMan: Wife, kiss kiss! The world is more beautiful because of you, wife!
@ILikeBeauties: Song Jie, I’m sorry, but your sister-in-law (wife’s older sister) is too captivating, although this makes me no different from Cao Cao, but CEO Dong is too amazing! (Cao Cao was a historical figure known for, among other things, his fondness for other men’s wives.)
There were more and more of these frivolous netizens calling Dong Ling “wife” and wanting to be close to her.
But she knew that after this movie was released, there would only be more, not less.
Song Mingzhi rarely felt troubled. She looked at the message from Wen Qian about the changing political landscape in Jingzhou and vented her frustration on those relatives causing trouble.
The rest of the filming went smoothly, and because she didn’t have many scenes, Dong Ling was quite relaxed.
Although she had signed a contract, her status was still different from that of other actors, and she could still fly back to Beihai for some important business dinners.
Xuan Du didn’t come looking for her again, not even sending a message. Dong Ling asked Chen Shang Shang to inquire, but couldn’t find out where Xuan Du had gone.
Dong Ling thought perhaps Xuan Du had taken her advice and left, but she also felt that based on Xuan Du’s personality, she wouldn’t really run away, perhaps she was still in Beihai, just hiding somewhere.
At the end of August, He Diesheng held a birthday party.
Dong Ling was invited and found that Xuan Du was actually there, she hadn’t left after all.
Xuan Du had dyed her flamboyant white hair back to black, and was wearing all black, even a black veil, if you didn’t know better, you would think it was a funeral.
Xuan Du’s face was sullen, while He Diesheng seemed to be in a good mood, raising her glass to Dong Ling.
She looked much more radiant than when she first returned, the previous fragile and gloomy aura was gone, but Dong Ling knew her true nature, looking at her was like looking at a smiling doll.
Dong Ling noticed that Xuan Du seemed to want to talk to her, but also seemed to be avoiding something, and finally gestured to her.
They met in the restroom. Dong Ling put away her makeup compact, which she had been pretending to use, and looked at the person leaning against the sink.
Xuan Du was wearing her favorite Western-style makeup, she lit a cigarette and took a drag, looking extremely rebellious, but as soon as she spoke, Dong Ling sensed her weariness.
“I’ll return that money to you when I have time, my spending has been restricted after I came back, I don’t have the money right now.”
Xuan Du seemed to feel a little embarrassed and blew out a smoke ring.
“Whenever, I’ll calculate the interest.”
Hearing Dong Ling’s heartless words, Xuan Du’s eye twitched, and she snorted lightly: “If my company hadn’t collapsed, I wouldn’t even need to borrow this little amount of money.”
Hearing her pointed words, Dong Ling shrugged and said: “I haven’t even made my big move yet, it must be your own fault, you reap what you sow.”
If Xuan Du hadn’t targeted Song Mingzhi first, creating that smear campaign, Dong Ling wouldn’t have wanted to have anything to do with her.
“It’s just strange.”
Xuan Du sighed, took a deep drag of her cigarette, the smoke filling her nose and mouth, obscuring her face.
Dong Ling looked at her smoking irritably and waited for a while before asking: “Is this all you wanted to talk to me about?”
Xuan Du nodded and asked with some confusion: “What else is there to talk about between us? Are you planning to make up with me?”
Dong Ling found it ridiculous: “Couldn’t you just send a text message for this?”
“My previous phone was tampered with by her, and my new phone is broken. She’ll know if I call you, and I can’t explain it clearly in a few words on the phone. She doesn’t know I came to see you and borrowed money. Didn’t you say you didn’t want to get involved in the matters between us?”
Xuan Du crushed the half-smoked cigarette and turned on the faucet to wash her hands.
Perhaps because Xuan Du was usually so aggressive, her calm demeanor made one feel a little sympathetic. This thought flashed through Dong Ling’s mind, and then she shuddered.
Xuan Du was a master manipulator, she used to always act like this to gain her sympathy.
“I’ll tell you about the other things next time, after my dad unfreezes my accounts, I’ll take my mom on a trip abroad.”
Dong Ling raised an eyebrow and said: “You’ve figured it out?”
“What else can I do?” Xuan Du scoffed, with the numb indifference of a defeated person, “I can’t win against her, she knows how to manipulate people, how to play power games. Perhaps I could have, if I had continued to endure and grow stronger a few years ago, but I don’t want that kind of ‘what if’.”
“Now that I think about it, I only had one chance, and that was during her mother’s funeral, I should have made her stay crazy forever.”
That undisguised, malicious regret made Dong Ling fall silent.
Dong Ling left the restroom first and unexpectedly ran into today’s birthday girl at the corner at the end of the corridor.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t interfere?”
He Diesheng’s expression was calm, with a chilling coldness.
“I never interfered before.”
Dong Ling replied.
Just like in the past, she wouldn’t interfere now.
“I like your non-interference the most.”
He Diesheng smiled, her entire face softening.
Footsteps came from behind, and He Diesheng put on an even more charming smile.
The smile made Dong Ling uncomfortable, like the exaggerated makeup on a clown’s face, with a chilling undertone.
“A Du, why were you gone for so long? Someone saw you coming this way, I thought you were going to leave my birthday party.”
He Diesheng’s voice was tinged with feigned reproach, she took Xuan Du’s arm.
Xuan Du, thinking of the conditions for unfreezing her bank accounts, resisted the urge to shake her off, and sneered: “I went to visit your grave.”
He Diesheng’s eyes lit up slightly: “So you were thinking about me even when you weren’t with me, truly my good little sister.”
Xuan Du’s expression darkened, and she strode forward, almost causing He Diesheng, who was wearing high heels, to stumble.
But He Diesheng wasn’t angry. After regaining her balance, she continued walking with Xuan Du.
From their backs, they really looked like loving sisters.
Dong Ling’s expression was indescribable, these two were truly not normal.
Indeed, one had a history of mental illness, and the other had a history of drug abuse. But He Diesheng’s breakdown was because Xuan Du locked her up, Xuan Du’s downfall was inseparable from her traumatic childhood, and her traumatic childhood was because of He Diesheng and He Diesheng’s mother, and of course, mainly because of her father’s inaction.
These two were entangled in a karmic cycle of resentment, it was hard to say who was right or wrong.
After attending the birthday party, Dong Ling slept at home for a night, then flew back to the filming location the next day. Looking at the busy Song Mingzhi, Dong Ling was a little lost in thought.
Perhaps because that task had a generous reward of 10% progress, Dong Ling hadn’t received any more tasks in the past month and a half, except for that “walk across the film set” task, not even daily tasks.
Dong Ling and 021 counted down the days, the 10% hadn’t been awarded yet because filming wasn’t finished, and with the world’s energy consumption, her current main storyline progress was 48%, just a little bit away from halfway.
021 sighed: [Oh my god, I truly miss the voice of my old friend. (The task system)]
Dong Ling was startled by its sudden dramatic tone and replied: [Dude, what’s wrong with you?]
021: [I found some movies I saved for other hosts in my messy database, I rewatched them.]
Dong Ling was surprised: [You can save resources for hosts?]
021 proudly puffed up its chest: [Of course, I have everything.]
Then it quickly added: [But you can’t, girl, because you don’t have the authority.]
Simply put, temporary workers didn’t enjoy the same benefits as regular employees.
Dong Ling mentally gave it the middle finger, but she didn’t have any such needs anyway.
Perhaps sensing her eager anticipation, the task system, which had been silent for a long time, finally spoke in Dong Ling’s mind.
[Task: Go to the cinema to watch a movie with the female lead. Countdown: twelve hours. Completing this task will reward 2% main storyline progress.]
After the notification, the task system went silent again, leaving without a trace.
Dong Ling was initially happy, then worried. She went to find Song Mingzhi’s assistant, Xiao Tan, and asked about Song Mingzhi’s filming schedule for today.
As Dong Ling expected, it was fully booked. If everything went smoothly, Song Mingzhi should finish around 10 pm, if not, it could even be 1 or 2 am.
It was currently past 1 pm, twelve hours meant the deadline was only until a little past 1 am tonight.
Dong Ling would never ask Song Mingzhi to stop filming and go to the cinema with her, it would not only disrupt Yu Shuangwei’s filming schedule, but such a request was also very inconsiderate, Dong Ling didn’t like that, and didn’t want Song Mingzhi to see her that way.
Dong Ling didn’t go anywhere today, just sat on a small stool beside Yu Shuangwei, watching Song Mingzhi’s performance, following them as they moved between locations, mentally calculating the time.
The first two scenes went smoothly, and Dong Ling estimated that Song Mingzhi would probably finish around 10 pm, plenty of time.
But as Murphy’s Law dictated, anything that could go wrong, would go wrong, and various problems arose.
Either the camera angle wasn’t right, not meeting Yu Shuangwei’s requirements, or the other actors’ performances weren’t up to par. After several retakes, even Song Mingzhi’s energy was drained, requiring more takes.
Finally, when they reached the last scene, it was already past 11 pm.
Dong Ling could only pray for it to end quickly, but then there was a problem with the props, the props team rushed to fix it, even so, it was past midnight when they finished filming.
The film crew finally wrapped up, Dong Ling, looking at the less than an hour remaining, thinking of the travel time, felt her heart sink.
“Why are you still here so late? You seem to be constantly checking the time.”
Song Mingzhi walked over and asked with some confusion.
“Because I have something important to do, I was planning to invite you to a movie, but you were busy today, Mingzhi, can you please change quickly? I’m afraid I won’t make it to the beginning of the movie.”
Although this was her unilaterally making the decision, to Song Mingzhi, it was a long-awaited invitation.
Dong Ling had been anxiously waiting all day, just to watch a movie with her.
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