Chapter 20 – Heh, men!
Su Yi was in a good mood, so she smiled at her but said nothing.
As Wu Xue was hurrying her along when she was leaving, and this was just a regular gathering before the filming started where the plot would be discussed and no media would be present, she only had on a plain white T-shirt and grey denim. The bottom right corner of her shirt was loosely tucked in her pants, emphasising her beautiful figure and long legs.
On the other hand, Tu Jinglan wore a red spaghetti-strap dress and thick makeup, with a branded clutch in hand. Instead of looking like she was going for a gathering dinner, she looked like she was going to walk the Red Carpet.
Behind her, Lin-jie smiled. “Little Yi, it’s been a while.”
Su Yi glanced at her once, tightened the corners of her mouth and lightly hummed in response.
The four of them walked into the elevator together.
Inside the elevator, Tu Jinglan’s perfume was particularly thick and cloying. Having held her breath for a long while, the moment the elevator door opened Su Yi immediately rushed out.
The car arranged by the production team was right outside. As all the actors were staying in this hotel, they had arranged for quite a few cars. Whoever arrived first, boarded first; each car left when at full capacity.
There happened to be two spots in the first car. Just as Su Yi was about to board, a red shadow flashed by her.
Tu Jinglan had one foot in the car when, as if she had just remembered something, tilted her head and said, “Yi-jie, I’ll go there with you first, let Lin-jie and her sit in the next car.” As she finished, she gestured with her chin towards Wu Xue, indicating who the ‘her’ she referred to was.
In the car were Li Min, the male lead, the second male lead and their agents, all of whom were silently looking their way.
Su Yi said, “Nevermind, you can go with your agent first.”
The car left them in the dust. Su Yi cleanly boarded the next one, even greeting the driver. “Driver, good evening, have you eaten?”
Perhaps he had not expected a female celebrity to be this friendly, the driver paused before nodding. “I haven’t eaten yet, I’ll go eat after sending you all there.”
Su Yi sat in the last seat, crossed her legs, put her head in her hands and with a smile forwarded Chu Ying’s Weibo.
[Su Yiv: /panda/heart Chu Ying: @Su Yi]
As if they were doing a pantomime, not uttering a single word more than necessary.
Wu Xue was sitting beside her. Before she had warmed her seat, the phone ‘dinged’, and a notification appeared on the screen.
After checking what it was, she pinched the waist of the person beside her.
“Do you think I’m dead, hmm? You can’t inform me before posting a Weibo?” Wu Xue said.
Su Yi said, “If I told you, you wouldn’t have let me post that.”
“You’re smart.” Wu Xue sneered. “If you don’t get together with Chu Ying, just wait for others to laugh at you.
Su Yi looked indifferent. Well, she was indifferent. After all, if Chu Ying was willing to take one step, she would take 999 without tiring!
Five minutes later, a girl, in a white dress with her hair tied up in two braids, came aboard. It was the female lead of the show, Cheng Anan, a new celebrity fresh out of acting school. Both her parents were veteran actors, so she had some background, and together with her pure and innocent looks, she was very suited for the female lead of ‘Undercurrent’. Rumour has it that she was the first major character to be cast.
Cheng Anan’s voice was very thin and gentle. “Hello Yi-jie.”
Su Yi smiled at her. “Hello.”
Once she sat down, Cheng Anan turned around and, looking a little shy, asked, “Yi-jie, can I get your WeChat? I’ve always liked you.”
“Of course!” Su Yi passed her phone over, letting her scan the QR code.
Not long after, two character actors and one of the assistant directors boarded. After the car was at full capacity, it left the hotel.
The dinner was at some famous restaurant. When Su Yi and company reached and took their designated seats, there were still four unoccupied seats.
The main lead of ‘Undercurrent’ was a spy. Its actor was a male actor nearing his forties, who had already been awarded the title of cinematic emperor once, Wu Ke. He smiled as he asked, “Why are there still a few seats?”
“The investors are interested.” The Assistant Director smiled. “Give it a while, they just called, they’re on the way.”
Once they’re free, Su Yi realised that there was a person missing. She leant towards Wu Xue, and asked, “Where’s An Xuan?”
Wu Xue said, “She said she has a stomachache, she’s staying in the hotel to rest.”
“What are you whispering about?” Tu Jinglan, sitting beside them, asked smilingly. With one sentence she’d attracted everyone’s attention over.
Wu Ke said, “Little Yi is dressed really simple today.”
“Indeed!” Tu Jinglan tugged at her spaghetti straps, saying, “Yi-jie has such a good figure, she looks good in everything.”
Su Yi said lazily, “Not as pretty as Anan, she’s like a beautiful blossom. It’s good to be young.”
She was not the main lead. She’s not interested in grabbing someone else’s spotlight, and she did not like people commenting on her outfits.
Cheng Anan laughed in a reserved manner. “I dressed the way Yi-jie did in ‘Better the old than the new’, I think it looks good too.”
Su Yi was rendered speechless.
Was it? No wonder she found Cheng Anan’s outfit rather familiar. It was the style she’d rocked when acting as a mistress.
This Cheng Anan, really was her fan?
Just then, the door opened. In the lead was the server who opened the door, followed closely by a guy decked up in a suit.
His hair was neatly fixed behind his head, fiddling with his cuff-links as he walked.
Su Yi came back to herself and hurriedly turned around, and said seriously, “Little Xue Xue, I need cover, I’m going to change my outfit in the washroom.”
Wu Xue’s expression was indescribable.
At a glance, Chu Ying saw that head which was kept really low.
Li Min got up, greeting. “Director Chu.”
Since the director was already up, the others naturally had to get up too. “Director Chu, here, you can sit here,” the Assistant Director said, with a smile.
Although Su Yi stood up, her eyes were still fixed on the floor.
“You’re not even going to look up?” The guy spoke as he walked past the table, his voice full of ridicule.
“…”
Su Yi looked up, giving him a silly smile, a stark contrast to the person with her legs crossed and leaning back on the chair from before.
Li Min said, “You know Little Yi?”
“Yeah.” Chu Ying looked at her, almost smiling as he said, “We’re familiar.”
Li Min was not someone who checked Weibo regularly, but the actors were all regulars. They were all well aware of the duo’s interaction today.
Now that Chu Ying’d said his piece, their relationship was basically cemented.
Not that Su Yi felt that way. There were too many who were familiar with Chu Ying, just the army buddies she had met could fill a big truck.
Her goal was clear – to be the one most familiar with Chu Ying.
Chu Ying had not come alone. Other than the two assistants, there was another suited man sitting right next to Chu Ying.
Once the Assistant Director had introduced Chu Ying, he shrugged and gestured to the next person. “This is Director Qi.”
Director Qi smiled at everyone around the table. Su Yi could feel the other’s attention lingering on Tu Jinglan a little longer than normal.
She raised an eyebrow, silently waiting for the dishes to be served. She kept her hands hidden under the table, like a student playing with their phone in class.
Immediately a clear notification sounded from across the room.
Chu Ying took out his phone, and side-eyed her.
[Goddess Su Yi: Why are you here?]
He ignored the Assistant Director still going on, picking up his phone and making it clear he was not about to continue entertaining anyone.
The Assistant Director was sensible enough to stop bothering Chu Ying, and instead turned to chat with Director Qi.
[Chu Ying: Didn’t I say, I’m taking you out.]
[Goddess Su Yi: !!!? You came from Beijing to Shanghai to take me out?]
[Chu Ying: I cannot?]
[Goddess Su Yi: You cannot!]
[Goddess Su Yi: I don’t care, this doesn’t count. You have to treat me to something else [you smelly piggy.jpg]]
[Chu Ying: Sure.]
On the table, Tu Jinglan leaned her head to the side, her chest unobstructed by much, delicately asking, “Director Qi, you are here this time…”
Director Qi said, “We have a branch company here and just finished a meeting, so we dropped by to see how you’re doing.”
At once, Su Yi’s euphoria diminished.
It wasn’t that hard to figure that out. Chu Ying had such a huge company to run, how could he actually come all the way to Shanghai just to take her out for a meal? But once it was confirmed, she did still feel a little bit of disappointment.
Tsk, this man, he’s learnt to woo ladies?!
This would not do, he looked good enough, he cannot be good at wooing ladies too!
[Goddess Su Yi: Heh, men.jpg]
When he saw the expression of the character in the sticker, Chu Ying really wanted to go through that woman’s phone and see how many stickers there were .
Once the dishes were all served, the conversation finally turned to the main topic.
“Little Yi.”
It was only when someone on the table called her did Su Yi stop paying as much attention to her phone. It was Li Min. She locked her phone.
“Director, what is it?”
“Why are you playing with your phone while eating?” Li Min asked, “Are you familiar with the script?”
Su YI said, “I am. Teacher Li Min, how about you pick a part and I’ll recite it from memory?”
A peal of laughter erupted from all around the table.
Wu Ke said, “Little Yi has quite the sense of humour.”
“If I were your teacher the first thing I’d do is confiscate your phone.” Li Min’s voice hid her laughter. “Alright, let’s not play around and get to the topic. I’m putting this first, we’ve already spoken about this before, no matter which character you’re acting as in the show, we do not allow any actors to take another role from another show at the same time.”
“I never do that, it’s easy to get distracted, that would really affect the filming.” When she finished speaking, Tu Jinglan looked at Su Yi. “I heard that Yi-jie does this a lot, it is rather amazing she can multitask without getting distracted.”
Su Yi turned her face around, smiling. “I am that amazing!”
“…”
The words she had prepared before were suddenly stuck in her throat. Tu Jinglan silently closed her mouth.
In the middle of dinner, Su Yi got up to go to the washroom.
She did not expect to run into an old acquaintance when leaving the dining room. The other was clearly waiting for her, just standing outside showing a smile that was not a smile upon seeing her. “You’ve got quite a lot of scripts going your way recently, congratulations.”
This old acquaintance was Tu Jinglan’s agent Lin-jie, Su Yi’s first agent.
“You say, you held out against this for so long when working with me, and now you’re still going with it, aren’t you?” Lin-jie jeered. “If only you had accepted this earlier, you would have achieved way more than this. Wu Xue’s too soft, she cannot take you very far.”
Su Yi stopped, and turned around.
“Such a pity that a talent like you was born in this era.” She sneered, not bothering to hide her disdain. “After all, someone like you would be called a pimp in this era, and that does not sound as pleasing as Lao Bao [1] in the past.”
[notes]
[1] Lao Bao is actually a kind of bird; Bao Mu (‘mu’ written with the character for ‘mother’) refers to a woman who runs a brothel, and is what the prostitutes call their boss. In the past, people thought that Lao Bao was a female-only species, and thus to have offsprings they have to breed with birds from any other breed. As such they were also known as ‘wife of ten thousand birds’, and thus people use that to refer to a prostitute that can take anyone like they would their husband.
this chapter was edited by larkspur!