Chapter 4: Century Egg Congee
Hate clickbait titles the most. After Mi Hongdou finished reading the entire report, her worried expression gradually eased. Flipping back to the magazine cover, she thought, this magazine’s reputation… who knows whose money they took to publish such an ambiguous article. It vaguely stated that after a month of filming, there were rumors of internal problems within the crew, Qiong Yu Entertainment was inexplicably suppressing a newcomer, and after many attempts at mediation by the crew, Qiong Yu Entertainment was considering having their lead actress, Ji Junxin, withdraw from the production.
This matter had been confirmed by an anonymous investor. Currently, Qiong Yu Entertainment and Ji Junxin had not yet made a clear response. More details would be revealed next week.
Because of Ji Junxin, Mi Hongdou had previously looked up information about this movie. The film had ample funding. In addition to Qiong Yu Entertainment, which was the major investor, several other small and medium-sized entertainment companies also had a stake. Excluding post-production, the filming itself took almost a year. So, it was true that filming had started about a month ago. However, in the information she saw back then, the filming process was smooth. Besides making Qiong Yu’s Ji Junxin even more famous, other actors from other entertainment companies also received widespread acclaim. Where did this talk of suppressing a newcomer come from?
Moreover, Qiong Yu Entertainment’s Qiao Rubai was a big eccentric, almost stubbornly serious and upright. He was one of the most righteous people in the entertainment industry and wouldn’t suppress a newcomer for no reason. Mi Hongdou thought it over and felt that the so-called suppressed newcomer and the anonymous investor who confirmed this to the magazine were both highly suspicious.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t even stepped into the industry yet. Things that could have been easily clarified with a few phone calls ten years later, she could only try to subtly ask Yang Lianyi about tomorrow when signing the contract.
She didn’t know why she was so concerned about Ji Junxin. In her previous life, at this time, Ji Junxin was just one of many stars on the screen to Mi Hongdou.
She truly started to pay attention to her, understand her, care about her, and want to get closer to her, probably starting from this movie that was released a year and a half later. In the drama, Ji Junxin played the role of a naive and innocent official’s daughter who entered the palace through a talent selection, going through ups and downs to eventually ascend to the throne as the powerful empress, and finally becoming the kind and wise empress dowager with white hair at the end of the drama. She led the audience through this woman’s life and into that fictional country. Court intrigues, layers of mystery, peeling away layer by layer, Ji Junxin, who maintained her original heart until the end, was a very positive character in the drama. She portrayed a woman’s gentleness, kindness, forbearance, sacrifice, and even persistence so vividly that she gained countless fans.
Mi Hongdou had just become popular at that time and was being tutored by Yang Lianyi on the ins and outs of the entertainment industry. It was then that she became one of the fans captivated by Ji Junxin.
At first, Mi Hongdou just watched it a few more times because she liked it. Then, she couldn’t stop. She watched all of Ji Junxin’s TV shows and movies since her debut, even the few variety shows she had been on. Ji Junxin just debuted early and became famous quickly. In terms of age, she was only two years older than Mi Hongdou, so she didn’t have many works. Mi Hongdou watched everything she could find over and over again, and the more she watched, the more she wanted to know more about Ji Junxin. She searched for Ji Junxin’s past interviews, news reports, commercials, even fleeting appearances in some entertainment videos. At that time, Mi Hongdou was completely captivated by Ji Junxin, and quickly became her die-hard fan.
Unfortunately, whether it was fate or destiny, she and Ji Junxin never had the opportunity to collaborate. They hadn’t even been on a variety show together. At most, they attended the same award ceremonies, and Mi Hongdou didn’t dare to approach her. The entertainment industry was so small, yet the distance between them was so vast. So, for five or six years, Mi Hongdou was just like an ordinary fan, silently supporting Ji Junxin, and no one knew. Interestingly, in the sixth year, Mengguan’s Yang Lianyi took a liking to Qiong Yu’s Qiao Rubai. The two were entangled, and Qiao Rubai, as the head of Qiong Yu, couldn’t possibly sign with Mengguan.
It was the first time Yang Lianyi couldn’t sign someone she wanted. She was unwilling to give up and put in a lot of effort. Qiao Rubai had no choice but to cause trouble by trying to poach Yang Lianyi’s most popular artist, Mi Hongdou. However, Qiao Rubai didn’t know that Mi Hongdou was actually a mole sent by Yang Lianyi to Qiong Yu. Mi Hongdou thought that with this transfer, she would be in the same company as Ji Junxin, and there would be plenty of opportunities for collaboration in the future.
Who knew that less than two months after the transfer, the popular Ji Junxin would retire from acting!
She just wanted to be friends, why was it so difficult!
Without the opportunity to collaborate, Mi Hongdou, who had transferred to Qiong Yu, was once dejected. Unexpectedly, when one door closes, another opens. Later, through Qiao Rubai’s connections, Mi Hongdou had the opportunity to become friends with the retired Ji Junxin. Although they weren’t close confidants, after three or four years, they could meet up for meals and tea a few times a week. Some people, when they are far away, just looking at them from afar brings joy. When they really come down and stand in front of you, that joy turns into uncontrollable ecstasy! Mi Hongdou knew that her feelings for Ji Junxin were a bit excessive. Perhaps this was the hidden feeling of a die-hard fan who was close to their idol but couldn’t directly ask for an autograph.
You were in front of me, but I couldn’t tell you how much I liked you. Until Mi Hongdou fell from the wires, she never got Ji Junxin’s autograph, nor did she have time to tell her how much she admired her, for nine years.
This was one of Mi Hongdou’s greatest regrets in her previous life.
Living again, she must be a good and loyal fan! Mi Hongdou secretly clenched her fist in her heart. First, she had to find an opportunity to destroy the source that ultimately led to Ji Junxin’s retirement!
Mi Hongdou thus spent her first night after her rebirth full of ambition.
Perhaps because she thought too much and went to bed too late the night before, when she woke up the next day, her mother had already gone to work. Ever since her parents divorced, her mother stopped working as a pastry chef and went to work as an accountant at a paper company. Sometimes it was idle, sometimes it was really busy. In a few months, her mother wouldn’t have to work so hard… Mi Hongdou ladled a bowl of preserved egg and lean meat congee from the pot, feeling a little sour in her heart.
Her mother raised her alone. In her previous life, she still broke her mother’s heart once, but this time, she wouldn’t!
In her previous life, when Mi Hongdou was filming , although she had received some training from Mengguan, her lack of acting experience was still evident. Fortunately, the experiences of Lin Qiao in the script were somewhat similar to Mi Hongdou’s real life. Mi Hongdou studied the script thoroughly, and during filming, she tried to immerse herself in Lin Qiao, feeling like Lin Qiao was her, and she was Lin Qiao. This method of immersing herself in the role made the filming go smoothly, but it caused trouble for Mi Hongdou, who was getting into character for the first time, and doing so quite deeply.
The title of the drama was fitting to the content. Lin Qiao’s parents, ever since she was born, had talked about divorce multiple times due to various issues such as the first child being a girl, whether to have a second child, the seven-year itch, in-law relationships, and the appearance of a mistress. The closest they got to actually divorcing was when they were already sitting in the Civil Affairs Bureau. But for various reasons, they argued for years but never actually divorced. The first drama had a happy ending. No one is perfect, and in the end, everyone tried to live together, stumbling along the way, reflecting the reality of society. Lin Qiao, in the drama, was a strong and independent character who longed for her family’s love and didn’t want her parents to divorce.
She tried her best to mediate and comfort them. Mi Hongdou immersed herself too deeply in this role, and even after filming ended, she couldn’t get out of character for a long time. Her mother was sure to watch Mi Hongdou’s first drama. She remembered her mother asking her after watching it, “Do you think that I should have agreed to have another child, so you wouldn’t have felt like you had a father but didn’t for so many years?” At that time, still unable to get out of character, Mi Hongdou nodded in agreement, which made her mother very sad for a long time.
It wasn’t until Mi Hongdou filmed that she finally emerged from the story of the first drama. Although she later comforted her mother a lot, the damage at that time could never be undone.
Who would like that father who she only saw once a year? Immersing oneself in a role can be dangerous, proceed with caution!
This time, Mi Hongdou would definitely not make her mother sad again.
Thinking about the stupid things she had done in the past, the preserved egg congee in front of her was almost cold. Mi Hongdou quickly stirred it to even out the temperature. Full of the fragrance of preserved egg and meat, red sausage pieces, white salted pork pieces, and diced preserved eggs, the pot had been simmering for a long time and was now very thick. Taking a spoonful, the preserved egg and rice grains melted into a liquid in her mouth, enveloping the sweet sausage and savory salted pork. After chewing a few times, she felt like she was glowing! No need for side dishes, just eating this was the best. A whole pot?
Absolutely no problem!
Mi Hongdou naturally moved “signing the contract” on her schedule behind “finishing this pot of congee.”
Leave a Reply