Chapter 10: Scallop and Pork Rib Congee
Before joining the crew, Mi Hongdou had imagined many scenarios of meeting Ji Junxin again. For example, meeting her during introductions when joining the crew, and she could ask for an autograph like a little fan. Or, meeting her at the snack table in the break room, and starting a conversation about the delicious peanut candy. Or, during a scene together, showing off her acting skills as a newcomer and leaving a good impression on Ji Junxin.
Various scenarios like these, but Mi Hongdou never expected that Ji Junxin would come when she was so embarrassed and flustered. Didn’t they say she didn’t have any scenes tonight!
Qiao Rubai, who was backstage, sneezed again. Her stomach was full of osmanthus rice balls, and sneezing was extremely uncomfortable.
If she had known, she wouldn’t have dragged Ji Junxin out so late. She wondered if she had seen that guy’s acting.
Qiao Rubai and Yang Lianyi both had a good eye for people. Aside from already knowing that Mi Hongdou would become more and more popular, when Qiao Rubai first saw Mi Hongdou at Yang Lianyi’s place, she felt that even the inexperienced Mi Hongdou from ten years ago could handle the role of the empress. Of course, she didn’t expect that the person was the same, but the core was, like her, from ten years in the future. Qiao Rubai had previously hinted to Dajin Entertainment to replace Jiang Duo, and it was going quite smoothly at first. But she didn’t know which part of Dajin’s internal process went wrong, and in the end, it still didn’t work out.
So she had to take a roundabout way, find someone to change the script, and put a lot of effort into convincing the investors that the revised script would be more popular and profitable. Only then could she bring Mi Hongdou to Ji Junxin ahead of time. However, during the meal with Mi Hongdou and Yang Lianyi last time, she pretended to chat casually and mentioned Ji Junxin, but she didn’t see any special reaction from Mi Hongdou. She wondered if she hadn’t become a fan of Ji Junxin yet. Qiao Rubai felt a little depressed. If it were Mi Hongdou from ten years later, no, even six years later, she was confident that she would cooperate to take down Jiang Duo and Zhang Zijing. But now, there was no other suitable candidate for the time being.
She just hoped that Mi Hongdou would still become a fan of Ji Junxin. A die-hard fan with such good cooking skills would definitely be able to defeat that hypocritical Jiang Duo, who looked like she had someone else cook for her.
She was really worried about that stupid foodie. Qiao Rubai thought this as she went to the break room and grabbed two more pieces of peanut candy to put in her pocket.
“Come on, let’s do it again! Xiaomi! Xiaomi! Your expression is good! When you look at Xiaozhang in a moment! Hold it! Hold it!” Director Pan, who had been languidly waving his notebook, suddenly saw Mi Hongdou looking towards him. That somewhat dazed look in her eyes, the surprise, the unease and struggle within that surprise, a little timid, but also an irrepressible joy, that was the look he wanted. No, it was even better than what he had hoped to capture! At Director Pan’s age, he didn’t need more money or fame.
He took on projects mostly to satisfy his own interests. It made him happy to come across a few talented individuals.
Mi Hongdou’s expression at this moment made Director Pan feel that he hadn’t misjudged her!
Huh?
Director Pan’s loud voice pulled Mi Hongdou out of her chaotic thoughts, which included things like, “The real Ji Junxin from ten years ago is even cuter than in magazines,” “I’m so nervous to meet the goddess of ten years ago,” “If I keep NGing, will my first impression on the goddess be so bad that I can never recover?” “I’m so happy, I want to look at her a few more times,” “I’d better not look, if I don’t act well, it will be even more embarrassing.”
Huh? Huh? What’s good? What? Are we filming again?
The goddess is still here, I don’t want to…
Director Pan, who was immersed in his joy, wouldn’t care if the little crying person in Mi Hongdou’s heart was about to pass out from crying.
“Yes, that’s the kind of flustered shyness, very good, but where’s the joy, the joy?”
“No, no, no, it’s a wedding, where’s that feeling of happiness? Why is there only fluster left!”
“Aiya, be happier!” After a few rounds, Director Pan was exhausted. Where was that look from earlier! By now, even without Mi Hongdou saying anything, Director Pan could see it. The problem was that the person Mi Hongdou was looking at was Zhang Zijing. Although he didn’t know what the problem was between them, Director Pan felt that Mi Hongdou’s best look earlier was when she was looking in his direction, which meant that she just couldn’t be happy when looking at Zhang Zijing. This was not a small problem. After all, there were many love scenes between Mi Hongdou’s empress and Zhang Zijing’s emperor.
If Mi Hongdou couldn’t get into character when facing Zhang Zijing, then needless to say, even if she was brought in by Qiao Rubai, she would be the one to go, and Zhang Zijing would stay.
Director Pan was reluctant to let go of such a promising talent like Mi Hongdou, so he had to take her aside again for a private talk.
They had NGed three more times. In total, the number of NGs for this scene was about to break the record for an entire previous drama of his. Mi Hongdou felt terrible.
She lowered her head, not daring to look at Ji Junxin’s expression.
“Xiaomi, if it’s just this scene that you can’t get past, then we can skip it today and film other scenes first. We can reshoot this scene later. We can even skip it or change this close-up, and with some editing in post-production, this scene will be fine. But the problem is, your issue isn’t just with this scene. I don’t want to ask what the problem is between you and Xiaozhang. But you have to understand, in this drama, you have a lot of scenes with him.
If you can’t get past this scene, can you get past the next one?” Director Pan paused, “Although you were introduced to the crew by Xiaojiao, because you’re a newcomer and don’t have any previous work, and I heard you’re not even from an acting school, she took on a lot of pressure.
If you can’t get past the scenes with Xiaozhang, I’m afraid she won’t be able to help you either.”
She had already tried her best to control her emotions, but she didn’t expect to be seen through so clearly. Mi Hongdou also understood that if she continued like this, she probably wouldn’t be able to play the empress.
Being able to film with Ji Junxin, with so many scenes together, and with such a cute script… Mi Hongdou was really unwilling to give up.
“You just don’t like that Zhang Zijing, right? Just pretend he’s not Zhang Zijing.” A voice suddenly interjected from the side, startling both Director Pan and Mi Hongdou.
“Why are you here?
You scared me to death, appearing without a sound!” Director Pan blew his beard and glared, “Didn’t you have to accompany your grandmother to have congee today?”
“Why can’t I come? I’m half the screenwriter of this drama now. I have to come and see my work. I wasn’t being silent. I’ve been here for a while. It’s just that you two didn’t see me and started talking about that Zhang Zijing. Speaking of which, I don’t like that Zhang Zijing either. I think the plot should be that the emperor died during that expedition, and then the child raised by the empress and Miao Qianye was smuggled out, raised by loyal officials, and came back to take revenge. What does it have to do with Ji Yan? But the crew won’t let me kill him off early.
Besides, look at the time. I already accompanied my grandmother to have congee. She’s probably asleep by now. Is it okay for you to film without looking at the time?
You’re not hungry, but others are probably starving.” A little girl with big, round, black-rimmed glasses and her hair in a bun said as she climbed down from a tall stack of prop boxes. Then, as if performing a magic trick, she pulled out a large bag from beside the prop boxes below and handed it to Director Pan, “Grandma asked me to bring this.”
Director Pan, who had been sternly scolding her, immediately broke into a smile when he saw the bag and took it to open it.
Open, open, open, open, open it! Inside the bag was a thermal lunchbox, filled with congee.
Soft scallops, tender pork ribs, fragrant mushroom slices cooked in meat broth, and chopped green celery sprinkled on top of the white congee. It was cooked to perfection, just waiting to be eaten. A late-night bowl of love… Director Pan took out a spoon with a look of bliss, stirred it, and a rich aroma of meat congee wafted up, making him finally acknowledge his growling stomach. “Ahem, Xiaomi, if you’re hungry, there are pastries in the break room, or you can ask them to order you a boxed meal.” Director Pan was a little embarrassed to eat alone, but he didn’t want to share his wife’s loving gesture with others, so he was a little awkward.
“You eat, you eat…” Mi Hongdou wasn’t blind. The bad-tempered Director Pan was known for loving his wife. He dared to offer, but she wouldn’t dare to accept this love-filled lunchbox.
“Hello, my name is Pan Xiang, Pan as in Director Pan, Xiang as in fragrance.” The little girl glanced at her suddenly spineless grandfather and extended her hand to Mi Hongdou with a mature air.
Qiao Rubai, this person, really… Mi Hongdou didn’t know what to say. Pan Xiang, the Fragrance Master who should have debuted as a screenwriter five years later, the Fragrance Master whose every script was a big hit, the key was that every script was full of ambiguous BL undertones, had been brought in early, and brought in to change the script! Was she even twenty yet? Probably not! “Hello, Mi Hongdou.” As Mi Hongdou shook her hand, she quickly went through the plot of in her head. It didn’t seem like there was much room for BL speculation. Had the early debut of the Fragrance Master changed her style from BL-filled to something else?
Something seemed off…
“Grandpa was right. There are many love scenes between Qin Muxue and Ji Yan. If you can’t film this scene, the trouble is still ahead.” The little girl pushed up her big, round, black-rimmed glasses, looking serious, “I think you should try to imagine that the person who pushes open the door, Ji Yan, is someone else, like your boyfriend or something. Wouldn’t that be more loving?”
“Isn’t that kind of substitution likely to break character?” Director Pan interjected between bites of his pork ribs.
“Even if it’s likely to break character, it’s better than not being able to get into character at all.” The little girl looked suspiciously at Mi Hongdou, who hadn’t responded, “Don’t tell me you’re this old and don’t have a boyfriend?”
That’s right, I don’t! Is that a problem! Studying is hard work, okay? Acting is hard work, okay? Cooking is hard work, okay? Being a fangirl is even harder work, okay?
As an older single woman (still single ten years later) with no boyfriend, she had no one to imagine as a substitute. Mi Hongdou shook her head silently.
“Then what about someone you have a crush on, or a male celebrity you like?” Faced with Mi Hongdou’s repeated shaking of her head, Pan Xiang was a little speechless, “If all else fails, just imagine someone you have a good impression of. If that still doesn’t work, imagine a cat, a dog, flowers, grass, anything you don’t hate!”
Someone she had a good impression of… A figure quickly flashed through Mi Hongdou’s mind, but something seemed off?
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