In the upper right corner were scribbled words: YouSmileISmile.
The room quieted down for a moment. Yi Wenze stood to her right, holding a cup of tea, quietly watching the screen.
Jia He froze her smile, just as she was about to double click the folder, he suddenly reached out his hand, pointing to a spot, and asked: “Is this the 2007 VOGUE cover?”
“Mm.” She held the white mouse in her numb palm.
“A Qing has been looking for this cover issue,” he paused for a slight moment, then continued, “When you have time, burn a copy for her.”
Jia He uttered another “Mm”, and immediately double clicked the file, plugging in her USB drive.
The USB drive continuously blinked its red light, indicating a successful connection.
Liao Jing suddenly smiled, picked up the flower tea pot, and reached to pour Director Jiang another cup of tea: “I didn’t expect that Jia He was still A Ze’s fan.” After taking a drink, Director Jiang seemed to suddenly recall something. “If you didn’t mention it, I would have forgotten. The first time I met Jia He, her story editor had brought up that she became a screenwriter precisely so that one day she could write a script for A Ze.”
Did I say that before?!
Jia He felt an urge to smash a boulder on her chest…
Yi Wenze smiled faintly, and switched to speaking Cantonese with Director Jiang to talk about Jia He’s story editor. Everyone here was clever. It was merely that the screenwriter happened to be the male lead’s diehard fan. He soon steered the conversation away, and Jia He swiftly finished copying over the revised script, finding an excuse to flee the room.
Only when she was in the hallway did she feel her face burning dizzyingly. She really had utterly humiliated herself.
In the ten steps from Director Jiang’s room to her own, she made more than ten hypotheticals about how she could scheme and maneuver to switch out the screenwriter on this production team… By the time she saw Qiao Qiao curled up on her bed, she finally regained some spirit: “How did you get here? Where’s Bei Si Da Ren [Term meaning a wealthy or important person]?”
Qiao Qiao gritted her teeth. “He said he had a performance and wasn’t coming.” After speaking, she used a tissue to wipe her nose. “They let you come back first when they’re being so nice?”
Jia He looked at her resentfully and swiftly recounted what had just happened to her. Qiao Qiao immediately broke into laughter amidst her tears, patting the bed and telling her to sit beside her, pulling her into her arms. “Take advantage of him. Think about it. Yi Wenze is nursing heartbreak right now and is most suited for a forbidden tryst.”
Jia He immediately bristled. “Are you unsatisfied that your indecent advances failed?”
Qiao Qiao let out a cry, hugging her pillow as she collapsed onto the bed. “O noble young miss, I am feeling down. Please watch your words.”
“From that time you had your heart broken in your second year at university and I had to sneak over the wall in the middle of the night, don’t expect to ever hear another kind word from me in this lifetime.”
Qiao Qiao laughed and swore, hugging her pillow as she started madly sending text messages on her phone.
Jia He felt her three souls and seven spirits finally recollect themselves from what Qiao Qiao said.
Some matters would never change, such as how the leads would always have scandals, how Qiao Qiao would always have bad luck in love, and again, Jia He’s extremely strong self-comforting capabilities. She even slowly began to sigh at Yi Wenze’s very graceful reaction. As expected of her idol, he was even able to diffuse an awkward situation like this…
“He’s been famous for more than ten years already. Even my mom is his fan. Don’t think that being a screenwriter means you understand the entertainment circle.” Qiao Qiao said drowsily, “A radish soaked in a vat for two months becomes pickled. A person soaked for twenty years in the dye vat has long been permeated through by the fouled water.” After she finished speaking, she dropped her head down and fell asleep. Screenwriters had the latest schedules, staying up until 3 a.m. and waking at 10 a.m. She still needed to get up at 7 a.m. to put on her make-up and could not afford to lose any rest.
The next morning at 7 a.m., Jia He was still in a deep slumber when she was awoken by Xiao Ou’s phone call. She picked up to hear the other person nearly in tears. “Is Qiao Qiao with you? Her phone is turned off.” Jia He threw her mobile phone onto Qiao Qiao’s face and continued to bury her head under the covers to sleep. She listened to Qiao Qiao clattering about noisily for ten minutes before it finally quieted down again.
She was just about to be embraced again by Zhou Gong [Dream God], no longer blaming him for the past, when her phone abruptly buzzed again.
“Don’t call me before 9 a.m.,” Jia He could not even open her eyes. “I’ll die from lack of sleep…”
“You’re crazy. Guess who I just saw.” Qiao Qiao disregarding life and limb, continued chattering away.
“……”
“Gu Yu.”
“……”
“That Gu Yu who started out as a little journalist but later stepped in dog poo and had good luck, climbing up to a magazine editor-in-chief and dumping you!”
“…… I know.” Was it necessary to repeat it in such detail?
“He personally brought journalists here to do an exclusive interview with Liao Jing! I swear, there is definitely something fishy going on!”
“…… And so.”
“When Liao Jing mentioned your name, he actually wanted to include you in the interview too. I turned it down for you.”
Jia He felt around for her computer beside her and started playing music to completely rouse herself from her dream.
The song playing out slowly was “Take It Sooner.” The version covered by Zhang Yu sounded even more desolate. Jia He asked for the room number after Qiao Qiao finished speaking, hung up the phone, and struggled for a long time under the covers before finding her clothes and putting them on one by one. In her grogginess, she sighed about this unexpected coincidence while automatically and spontaneously incorporating this bolt from the blue plotline into her brain’s store of materials. Old love linking up with a celebrity. How sensational. The viewers would definitely be clenching their fists waiting for the female lead to erupt.
Erupt? Facing the mirror in the washroom, she thought about how she had not seen Fellow Comrade Gu for five years already.
The saying, “marriage between families of equal status,” applied in any era. Back then, she had been a little journalist, so how could she have hoped for the magazine’s editor-in-chief to remain faithful? The entertainment circle openly practiced the “casting couch.” The media circle secretly rolled around in bed. Marriage was for having affairs. Legs were for splitting open.
Actually, when they broke up back then, she truly had not felt much heartache. She estimated it was because she was always realistic in love, taking half a step forward if the other person took a step forward or taking three steps back if the other person took one step back.
Therefore, when Gu Yu wanted to step back, she had already retreated until there was no road left to retreat down and could only completely exit that circle.
The proprietor of the Marriott Hotel really knew how to do business. The central air conditioning vents in the lobby and hallways were always shut off all year round, chillingly cold. She rubbed her hands, wrapped her scarf around herself three times, and only then walked along the hallway to stand outside that room’s door and lightly rapped a couple times.
Last night, she had not fallen completely asleep until 4:30 a.m., she was so mortified. Right now, when she went out, her entire body felt sluggish in addition to the February chill cutting through her. It certainly woke her up fully.
The door was opened by Qiao Qiao, who bared her teeth at Jia He before letting her in.
Because this room was exclusively used for make-up application, the air conditioning inside was very strong.
The people inside were currently busying themselves, while the female lead sat in the outer area waiting for her interview. She had already put on her make-up early and had her hair in a tidy, elegant chignon bun. In traditional garments, she was very pleasing to the eye as she held a microphone, her head lowered as she looked over her prepared script. A young journalist stood to one side. The man sitting beside Liao Jing wore a tidy suit but had no tie on. In profile, his features were elegant as he spoke in low tones with Liao Jing, discussing details.
“Teacher Gu,” Qiao Qiao smiled without sincerity, “Our screenwriter is here.”
When Gu Yu lifted his head, Liao Jing also set down her papers. “Jia He, Teacher Gu said you two used to be colleagues?”
“A very long time ago, yes,” Jia He quietly looked at Gu Yu. “I wasn’t as capable as Teacher Gu as a journalist, so I could only switch careers to get by.”
Gu Yu likewise looked back at her but smiled without speaking.
“Then that’s perfect. Later, let’s take a picture together with A Ze and release it together with the still photographs from make-up and costuming.” After she finished speaking, Liao Jing gave Gu Yu a gentle smile, coquettish but not overly alluring, just right.
“Jia He has always been obsessed with Yi Wenze,” Gu Yu cleared his throat and said smilingly. “This time could be said to be fate.”
Liao Jing laughed. “So you knew about it too? Yesterday, Director Jiang also talked about how Jia He entered this industry precisely because she wanted to write scripts for A Ze one day.”
Gu Yu was rather interested as he lifted his head to take a look at Jia He.
“You know, I’ve liked him since I was thirteen,” Jia He honestly stated this fact, but it was as if, with this sentence, she was telling him that if they were talking about who came first, you, Gu Yu, were definitely not the first.
Qiao Qiao pressed her palm against her forehead, filled with mixed emotions as she threw a look over.
Only now sensing that peculiar atmosphere, Jia He hastily turned her head to look in the direction of the make-up room. Unknown to her when it had happened, Yi Wenze had at some point come out, wearing flowing, moon-white traditional costume garments. His eyes smiled as he watched them. His outer robe was loosely tied at the waist. With sculpted eyebrows and eyes, he was so handsome Jia He somehow became a little distracted, her mind only able to think of the line in the novel: Even if he was unmatched in handsomeness in his youth, his bearing was still elegantly remarkable and difficult to describe in words…
Right now, wrapped in her thick down jacket with a scarf covering more than half her face, because she had been speaking this whole time and forgotten to take off her outerwear, her face was somewhat flushed from the heat. In the eyes of onlookers, naturally, there would be other interpretations.
Liao Jing was clever. She immediately giggled, “A Ze, with a fan confessing her adoration to you at such a close distance, what are your thoughts?”
Yi Wenze’s smile grew deeper. “I’m honored.”
This type of interview was very simple. Actually, the script had already been prepared beforehand. Gu Yu’s discussion earlier with Liao Jing had only involved making slight adjustments. For lazier journalists, getting photographs from the production team to publish would be fully adequate and there would be no need whatsoever for them to make this trip here at all. Jia He naturally understood all of this, so she also could not blame Qiao Qiao for saying something fishy was going on.
Of course, for the production crew here, if mainstream media outlets were willing to help promote them, they would not decline that. Who would bother over the underlying reasons and exchanged favors?
In the end, when taking the photographs, Liao Jing truly did not forget to pull Jia He in, but had her suggestion firmly declined on the basis that it was against protocol. She sat to the side, her head lowered listlessly as she considered whether she should go back to catch up on some sleep, when the photograph session finished over there. Yi Wenze, however, unexpectedly stood up and walked over to sit down beside Jia He. “Qiao Qiao, please help take a picture of Jia He and me.”
Everyone stared dumbfoundedly. Yi Wenze stretched out his arm and casually pulled Jia He into his embrace, smiling slightly as if no one else was present.
Her mind bombed at this. Only one thought was left: As expected of her idol, he even helped vent anger on an ex-girlfriend for a fan…
Leave a Reply