Today’s phone call was truly one out-of-the-blue matter after another.
Clutching her mobile phone, Jia He reacted for a few seconds before saying, “Hello?”
Qiao Qiao made threatening gestures with her fingers, using her expression to ask who it was. Jia He put her forefinger to her lips and got out of bed.
“Since you weren’t saying anything, I thought I had dialed the wrong number,” Tian Chu said breezily. “I was a little rash. I should have originally had my manager contact you, but since you’re A Zhe’s friend, I thought it would be better if I personally made the call myself.”
Her voice was very pleasant to listen to. Jia He had assumed Tian Chu was like some singers, who could never leave the recording studio, but just from this one phone call, she understood the reason Tian Chu was able to swiftly rise to fame. It was not only because she had cleverly taken advantage of connections and scandals. She herself also had genuine talent.
“I’m truly very sorry,” Jia He hurried into the bathroom and swiftly locked the door. “Teacher Yi has probably already told you. My friend wanted to find an endorser for her client’s cosmetic products and asked me to help make some connections. I didn’t expect I would actually manage to get in touch with someone as big as you, so I was caught off guard for a moment.”
In reality, what she truly had not expected was that, right after eating breakfast with her idol, she would receive a phone call from said idol’s ex-wife.
Unlike when she was gnashing her teeth at the microblog, Jia He was unexpectedly very calm. It seemed those years of screenwriting were not spent in vain. Other than when facing her idol and losing her mind a little, even an A-list celebrity was still just another person.
Tian Chu thought it over briefly. “I’ll give your contact details to my manager. If there is an opportunity, I do hope we can have the chance to collaborate.” She suddenly apologized and stopped speaking. There seemed to be someone beside her speaking to her in a low voice, and the phone muffled it so Jia He could not hear too clearly.
Jia He waited patiently, staring at herself in the large bathroom mirror and making herself sober up.
The storyline was too melodramatic. Even she, who touted herself on melodrama, could not accept this anymore…
After a while, Tian Chu removed her hand from the phone and continued, “It was Sis Mai who asked me originally. I didn’t expect A Zhe to also personally call me.” She did not say anything further, only giving a laugh before continuing, “I’ll be going to Hangzhou this week. We can all meet up for a meal together.”
Jia He uttered an “okay” and also thanked her several times in a row. It seemed the other party had something urgent come up as well since she did not say anything more. After hanging up the call, Jia He finally breathed out slowly, pressing her hand over her heart as she tried to calm herself down. But then she suddenly thought of a question. She was coming to Hangzhou this week? To see her idol? Could it be they were going to rekindle their romance?
Her mind was full of questions marks and she felt somewhat stunned by this explosive speculation, to the point that the person outside had run out of patience and lazily started tapping on the door. “Open the door, open up.”
As soon as Jia He opened the door, Qiao Qiao’s face instantly crowded over with an ear-to-ear grin. “Who was it? You even specially hid in the bathroom to take the call.”
“Tian Chu,” Jia He honestly reported.
Qiao Qiao blinked rapidly, then blinked again. “A thousand mile chase? Between the two of you, who’s actually whose romantic rival?”
Jia He nearly spat out blood. “It was about the endorsement. Also, she said she’s coming to Hangzhou this week.”
“Hangzhou?” Qiao Qiao’s eyes narrowed. “To film? I’ll have Little Ou look into it this afternoon.”
Jia He did not take it seriously and pulled out her mobile to phone Xiao Yu. As soon as the latter heard this news, she immediately reacted with a Chinese-edition scream and repeatedly interrogated Jia He about whether she truly had an affair going on with her idol. Not waiting for Jia He to finish speaking, Xiao Yu had already declared that Jia He should take advantage of her beauty to get a bunch of autographed pictures to send over to her that could be kept for when she was unemployed in the future and sold later at sky-high prices…
Unable to decide whether to laugh or cry, Jia He told her to wait for further updates from her before promptly hanging up the phone and flopping down onto the bed. The quilts still held some warmth. She buried her head and listened as Qiao Qiao fired off question after question at her while she made an effort to play dead.
“Fine,” Qiao Qiao resentfully glared at her. “Since you’re not going to talk, then I won’t tell you either what I happened to see last night,” she said as she finished getting dressed. From the crack under the door, she picked up the call sheet and scrutinized it closely. “You’d better not beg me.”
Jia He took a deep breath and continued feigning death.
Very quickly, Qiao Qiao told her that Tian Chu truly was here to film. After rapidly bursting into popularity, she had finally started crossing over into acting.
Every time Jia He thought about this matter, she could not help feeling an itch to see some reaction on Yi Wenze’s face. In the end, she could only sigh. As expected of an idol. Unfathomably cool-headed.
Because he had been away in Hong Kong for three days, Yi Wenze’s schedule was packed fully from morning to night over the next few days.
Jia He started using this time when she had no modifications to work on and chatted with Director Jiang in the hotel about ideas for their next project. Sometimes, they would talk for four or five hours before feeling tired and then she would ride along in the vehicle to the filming location to watch for a bit. She would always stand amidst a bunch of people at the back and watch Yi Wenze act or listen to the director discuss the scenes with him. Sometimes, they would all greet one another, but because everyone was so busy, there was no true interaction.
Occasionally, Yi Wenze would post pictures from the set on his microblog, mostly without any words.
Only one time was especially unique. He had uploaded a photo of a dish in his boxed meal, exclaiming that the chicken leg was the best delicacy that day. Jia He stared at that chicken leg, constantly feeling that it was very familiar. After thinking it over for a long time, she finally remembered that that meal that day was one everyone had crowded around together to eat… It turned out her identity as a fan allowed her to reap without sowing. At that time, she had also been at roughly a 45 degree angle to his takeout box, similarly gnawing on a chicken leg.
The more she thought about it, she started doing a right click to save the picture, feeling a tiny thrill as she specially stored it in a folder and pompously named it “Chicken Leg I Gnawed On Together With My Idol.”
And so, Jia He’s journey of fangirling gradually entered the initial stages where she looked more at his microblog updates than his actual person.
On this particular night, she discussed the script with Director Jiang until seven or eight o’clock. Director Jiang suddenly glanced out the window. “It’s snowing again.”
Still cradling her cup, Jia He also turned her head to look outside. It truly was snowing again. The weather this year really was odd. Even though it was already the end of February, it was still exceptionally cold to the point it was actually still snowing.
“The scenes today are outdoor shoots,” Director Jiang pushed up his shirt sleeve to check his watch. “They started filming at two o’clock this afternoon. They shouldn’t have finished shooting yet. Let’s go take a look.”
Not daring to delay, Jia He swiftly bundled up and followed Director Jiang’s vehicle to the filming location.
The snowfall was not heavy, but it was extremely cold.
By the time she arrived at the filming location, quite a few people were already gathered together drinking hot water. Because they had just come from the warmth of Director Jiang’s hotel room and the vehicle’s air conditioning, when they first stepped out of the car, she had only felt it was chilly. However, once she drew nearer, she discovered even the prop chairs were covered by a thin layer of frost. Only then did she have some awareness about what the actual temperature was. Her mind started repeatedly recalling what these scenes they were filming were about and whether filming them in this weather would severely affect her idol… Just then, a pair of black boots appeared before her eyes.
“It’s so cold out, yet you still came to the filming location?” Yi Wenze remarked.
One sentence from her idol successfully organized all the jumbled thoughts in her brain and rendered it a complete blank.
With her hands stuffed in her pockets and a scarf wrapped around her until only her eyes were visible, Jia He, with her pitch-black eyes, stared at Yi Wenze for half a second before saying, “Director Jiang saw it was snowing and said to come take a look at the progress.”
“Do you want some hot water to drink?” Yi Wenze courteously asked. He was still garbed in thick, flowing robes and finery for his costume with an utter mess of style.
Jia He hastily shook her head. “I drank a lot of water already back at the hotel. I don’t need any. You should quickly duck inside and get out of this wind.” After she finished speaking, she took two steps back to make room for Yi Wenze, nearly kicking over a chair in the process and successfully punting a paper lantern across the ground…
Inwardly wailing, she had embarrassed herself again.
The truth was, where she was standing was not actually warm either, but at least it could block some of the wind.
As Yi Wenze walked over, Qiao Qiao happened to catch sight of Jia He as well and was just about to come over to greet her when she saw Yi Wenze and immediately halted her steps. While his back was to her, Qiao Qiao gave Jia He a “jiayou” gesture with her hand. Jia He felt the urge to cry but had no tears. Still, she needed to keep a straight face, not daring to let her idol see the twists and turns going on behind him.
Of course, in a world where there existed a tactful Qiao Qiao, there would surely also exist a tactless A Qing.
Yi Wenze had just positioned himself in place when A Qing came over carrying a thermal flask and unabashedly took out two paper cups to pour water into, one for each of them. Jia He wanted to decline but it was too late and could only accept to stand there stupidly, holding scalding idol water. The thickening snowfall truly seemed to have seized winter’s final chance and was thoroughly squandering it in one go.
“I didn’t have a chance yet to ask you, how are things going with your friend?” Sheltered from the icy gusts of wind by Yi Wenze’s position a head taller than her, Jia He was isolated outside in that bone-chilling cold.
“I’ve already connected her with Tian Chu’s manager on her behalf. What happens next depends on how well their talks go,” Jia He said gratefully, still carefully skirting around mentioning Tian Chu’s name. “Thank you.”
“No need to be so polite. These are all business dealings for the company. If we can help out a friend, that’s naturally even better.”
After Yi Wenze said this, he gave A Qing some instructions to pour hot water for the fans who had come specifically to visit the filming set. Only then did Jia He notice that, because this was a rare outdoor shoot today, more than a dozen fans were off in the distance. The majority were naturally Yi Wenze’s fans. Since they were going to continue filming soon, he did not walk over to greet them. Unlike the supporting actor, who had gone over to make a couple funny faces for the fans. But just his action of getting someone to pour water demonstrated he still cared very much about his fans.
At this time, the director was already calling for them to resume filming. Yi Wenze handed his cup back to A Qing and walked over to the center of the lighting, where he started softly running lines with Liao Jing to warm up. Jia He was watching them attentively when A Qing beside her stretched out an arm to refill her cup but then suddenly cried lightly, “Oh heavens, why did she come?”
Jia He gave a start, reflexively following along A Qing’s line of sight toward the other side of the set.
A woman wearing a pink down coat had just positioned herself there. A female assistant stood beside her, continuously picking up incoming calls. Because her face was masked and a scarf was wound around her, and she was standing in an inconspicuous corner, no one had noticed her at first. But Jia He was able to recognize her at a single glance.
After all, she had sung her songs for so long already. That figure and those eyes were still very easy to recognize.
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