Chapter 58: Medicine and More Medicine p1
Ji Junxin was a little concerned that Qiao Rubai hadn’t replied to her message, even after she went to bed. She could guess that Qiao Rubai would be angry when she saw it. After all, Qiao Rubai had put in a lot of effort to show her Lu Gaoshi’s true colors. And then… she turned around and pleaded for Lu Gaoshi. If she were in Qiao Rubai’s shoes, having gone through so much trouble to wake someone up, only to have them pretend to be asleep again, she would also be a little angry. So, although Ji Junxin was concerned, she didn’t dare to text or call Qiao Rubai again.
Well, her fear of Qiao Rubai’s anger was only a small part of the reason. The main reason was… she didn’t have the energy to deal with it.
She had a big problem.
In the dark, quiet bedroom, a rustling sound. A figure tiptoed out to the living room. After a long while, the figure slowly returned, lay down in bed, and the familiar scratching sound, like a small animal digging at something, came from under the covers.
Ten minutes later, the figure repeated the same actions.
This happened three times. The last time, the figure returned much slower than the first. And before returning, the familiar sound of rustling plastic bags came from the living room.
This time, after the figure lay down, another figure sat up on the other bed. The first figure remained silent, as if asleep.
Mi Hongdou glanced at the other bed. She didn’t believe Ji Junxin could fall asleep so quickly. She had woken up when Ji Junxin returned to the bedroom the second time. Sensing something was off, and recalling… the night they first moved in, Mi Hongdou thought she knew why Ji Junxin kept getting up.
Taking care of a foodie meant being prepared for midnight medicine runs.
Knowing that Ji Junxin was pretending to be asleep, Mi Hongdou didn’t say anything and quietly went to the living room.
She turned on the living room light, and the soft glow reached the bedroom door. The previously dark bedroom was now dimly lit. Ji Junxin burrowed deeper under the covers and closed her eyes tightly.
When Mi Hongdou returned with the medicine and water, she saw a quail pretending to be invisible.
“Here, take this.” Mi Hongdou, thinking she was being considerate, held the pill on a tissue near Ji Junxin’s face.
The familiar scent of herbs and fruit. Even with her eyes closed, Ji Junxin knew what Mi Hongdou had brought. But the problem was…
The smell didn’t dissipate, so Ji Junxin knew that Mi Hongdou must have seen through her pretense and was now patiently holding the medicine. It seemed there was no escape.
Mi Hongdou, persistent, won this round. She held the medicine and watched as Ji Junxin reluctantly opened her eyes. She moved the pill closer.
Ji Junxin, who had obediently taken the medicine last time, turned her head away and refused.
Overeating and then refusing digestive medicine, was she rebelling? Mi Hongdou was surprised and stubbornly held the pill to Ji Junxin’s lips again.
Ji Junxin, clutching the blanket, rolled to the other side of the bed and, before Mi Hongdou could reach her, said with a flushed face, “This medicine won’t work this time.”
Huh? Mi Hongdou froze.
“It… it seems… I ate something too spicy later.” Ji Junxin gritted her teeth and confessed, “So I had diarrhea at night.” She felt her idol image crumbling in front of Mi Hongdou, how mortifying. It was all because she had refused Mi Hongdou’s offer to help unpack the suitcases Lu Gaoshi brought. Why did she say there was plenty of time? If she had unpacked them, she would have found her usual medicine! Ji Junxin regretted it deeply, not realizing that what she should really regret was eating all the chili oil from the big plate chicken.
Diarrhea from eating something too spicy? Mi Hongdou hadn’t expected this to be the reason Ji Junxin kept getting up. In her previous life, when they became food buddies, Ji Junxin, although usually preferring milder flavors, could handle spicy food. It wasn’t the first time she had finished the big plate chicken sauce by herself… Oh, right, Mi Hongdou remembered the six years they hadn’t known each other. Perhaps some abilities needed time to develop. Even a big eater’s stomach wasn’t built in a day.
Mi Hongdou thought of the noodles she had mixed for Ji Junxin at dinner, adding several extra spoonfuls of chili oil. Later, when Ji Junxin mixed her second serving, she hadn’t eaten the noodles strand by strand, but in small bowls. If it weren’t for her bad example, two servings of noodles wouldn’t have used up all the sauce. But because she had mixed it all together like that, Ji Junxin had finished all the sauce. Mi Hongdou’s intention was for Ji Junxin to eat something spicy, so she could vent her emotions. Even if she didn’t cry in front of her, at least the spiciness would be a good excuse for her tears. Mi Hongdou had been so focused on helping Ji Junxin vent that she hadn’t realized… Ji Junxin couldn’t handle that much spice yet.
Sigh, she should spend more time understanding the current Ji Junxin, not relying on her past experiences… Mi Hongdou tightened her grip on the digestive tablets, the triangular pills digging into her palm, a slight pain she didn’t notice.
Ji Junxin, huddled under the covers, glanced at Mi Hongdou, who was lost in thought, seemingly frozen. So… from overeating to having diarrhea, her idol image had truly crumbled beyond repair…
Ji Junxin buried her face in the pillow, mortified.
Seeing the quail-like figure on the bed, Mi Hongdou realized that this wasn’t the time to space out. Without even putting down the glass of water, she darted back and forth between the bedroom and the living room, this time with two norfloxacin tablets.
“Take your medicine…” Mi Hongdou was filled with apologies, not only for her bad example of mixing the noodles with so much chili oil, but also for her negligence and presumption. Her voice was soft and gentle, full of remorse.
To Ji Junxin, it sounded incredibly tender. She lifted her face from the pillow and looked at Mi Hongdou, who was looking down at her, her gentle eyes filled with… only her. A warm current flowed through her heart.
It seemed her idol image wasn’t completely shattered… Ji Junxin sat up, relieved, took the medicine and water, and swallowed the pills in one gulp.
Even taking medicine, a foodie was more efficient than others…
It was best to wait a while before lying down after taking medicine, or the bitterness might come back up. Ji Junxin quickly finished the water and got out of bed. “I’ll go put the glass away.”
“No, you’re wearing so little, you’ll catch a cold walking around like that.” Mi Hongdou, who had a jacket on when she got out of bed, looked at Ji Junxin… and her nightgown.
The white cotton nightgown looked so fitting and cute on Ji Junxin. Um… perhaps too fitting… Mi Hongdou’s gaze awkwardly shifted from Ji Junxin’s chest, and she unconsciously tightened her jacket.
“It’s okay, it’s just a few steps.” Ji Junxin said and, without waiting for a reply, turned on the bedside lamp and quickly went to the living room to put the glass away.
When Ji Junxin returned, Mi Hongdou was back under the covers.
“I’m turning off the lights.” Ji Junxin said, standing between the two beds.
“Okay.” Mi Hongdou looked up and inadvertently saw Ji Junxin… Okay, she really wasn’t looking on purpose. It was all because of that bra topic this morning, how annoying!
The first time she saw it, the room was only dimly lit by the light from the living room, so she only saw a vague outline. But just now… the room was brightly lit… the white cotton becoming slightly see-through under the light… and from below… so round… Mi Hongdou clutched the corner of the blanket.
The lights went off, and the room darkened. But the image from just before the lights went out lingered in Mi Hongdou’s mind.
Mi Hongdou suddenly recalled an experiment she had read about in a book long ago. If you stared at an image without blinking for more than ten seconds, then looked at a white wall and blinked rapidly, you would see the image on the wall. She vaguely remembered the conclusion: after seeing something, the visual effect would briefly linger on the retina. If you closed your eyes at this time, it would be as if you could still see the object, but it was just the brain processing the information recorded on the retina.
So… Ji Junxin’s image was recorded on her retina? … In the darkness, Mi Hongdou opened her eyes, then closed them, opened, closed, opened, closed… Perhaps because of this repetitive action, the image from before the lights went out, and the earlier glimpse, were even more vivid in her mind. Mi Hongdou suddenly felt hot and kicked off the covers, half her body exposed.
Ji Junxin was really too much. If it weren’t for her bringing up the bra topic this morning, she wouldn’t have paid attention. She hadn’t noticed anything when Ji Junxin got up in the middle of the night to look for medicine. Thinking about this, Mi Hongdou tried to remember if she had actually seen anything then… and she couldn’t fall asleep.
That night, Ji Junxin, having taken her medicine, slept soundly, while Mi Hongdou tossed and turned until dawn.
So, the next day, when Director Pan saw Mi Hongdou’s dark circles, he almost exploded, frustrated that his earlier consideration of letting them go back early to rest was wasted.
By now, Mi Hongdou’s indoor scenes for “Divorce, So Be It” were almost finished. The outdoor scenes would be scheduled later. And finally, they could start filming the young empress’s scenes for “Imperial Secrets.”
In her previous life, “Imperial Secrets,” excluding post-production, took almost a year to film. Now, it had only been two months since filming started, and they had already undergone a major script revision. Many of the scenes filmed in the first month couldn’t be used. But Director Pan wanted to finish filming within eight months. These eight months included the first month, which was already wasted, and the second month, when Mi Hongdou wasn’t filming. So, they only had six months left. The palace scenes had just begun. The estate scenes, besides the test shoot, hadn’t progressed. And then there were the battle scenes…
Mi Hongdou felt that this couldn’t be Director Pan’s idea. This accelerated pace must be Qiao Rubai’s doing. Mi Hongdou couldn’t guess what Qiao Rubai was planning. But after this drama finished filming, Qiao Rubai probably wouldn’t let Zhang Zijing and Jiang Duo have any more opportunities to work with Ji Junxin. So, all Mi Hongdou could do was cooperate and hopefully finish quickly, saying goodbye to the remaining two scumbags.
Costumes and makeup for historical dramas were much more complicated and time-consuming than those for modern dramas. As the second female lead, Mi Hongdou’s return meant a fuller schedule for the crew. The main actors had to arrive before dawn for makeup and costumes, and they often filmed night scenes until after dark.
After two days of intensive filming, Ji Junxin and Mi Hongdou had a very low NG rate, often completing scenes in one or two takes. The second takes were usually due to external factors like camera angles, wind direction, or some clueless crew member walking into the shot, not their mistakes. Their performance greatly satisfied Director Pan. And there was another person, Jiang Lingling, whose performance also surprised him.
Compared to the experienced Ji Junxin and the talented Mi Hongdou, Jiang Lingling’s initial performance wasn’t very good. However… after Qiao Rubai suggested that Pan Xiang revise Jiang Lingling’s scenes, her performance improved considerably. If at first, Director Pan felt that Qiao Rubai, as an investor, frequently changing actors and revising the script wasn’t appropriate, then Mi Hongdou’s performance and Jiang Lingling’s improvement made him increasingly trust Qiao Rubai’s judgment. This was also why he agreed to Qiao Rubai’s proposal of compressing the year-long filming schedule to eight months.
However, although Ji Junxin, Mi Hongdou, and Jiang Lingling were performing well, the others weren’t. Like Zhang Zijing… and Jiang Duo…
Director Pan couldn’t understand. Zhang Zijing’s performance in the first two months had been decent, and although Jiang Duo’s acting was average, her NG rate wasn’t particularly high. But why, after filming their scenes for two days, had their performance deteriorated so much? In the past two days, whether it was the three with high completion rates, or the other supporting actors, whenever they had scenes with those two, the NG rate was astonishingly high. Director Pan had gone from angrily giving directions to silently calling for another take.
It seemed that Zhang Zijing and Jiang Duo were having a streak of bad luck. Their poor performance even shocked themselves.
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