Chapter 12: Scriptwriter
“Wei Wan, can I ask you how old you are?” Li Mengmeng gazed at her curiously. “Xiang Zeran and I have been guessing for a while. You look really young.”
The people sitting around the tables had mostly resumed chatting, but with Li Mengmeng’s question, their attention refocused on her. Yu Wan instinctively glanced at Shen Qingzhou, who merely threw a fleeting glimpse in her direction. His eyes looked… teasing?! Though she was often asked this question, it wasn’t inherently a bad thing. This meant that she was cute and fluffy, ok?!
“I’m already in my twenties, which isn’t young at all.” Yu Wan glared at Shen Qingzhou for a moment, and the shadow of his smile disappeared in an instant.
“Huh~” Li Mengmeng chuckled. “You’re so cute. It’s wonderful to have such a cute scriptwriter in our crew.”
Yu Wan laughed dryly. Miss Female Protagonist, could you stop talking to me? I don’t enjoy being the highlight of the party. To her dismay, however, Li Mengmeng often shifted topics towards her. From appearance to series, from series to fanservice…
In one meal, Yu Wan felt that she had become the protagonist herslef.
When everyone was getting ready to leave, Yu Wan walked out of the room. Someone tapped her shoulder. “Wei Wan.”
“Miss Li.”
“Don’t be so formal, please. Just call me Mengmeng.”
“Mm.”
“After reading UoW, I started on ‘The Last Tick of Time’. I’ve been reading it in my spare time. If you don’t believe me you, you can ask Xiang Zeran.” Li Mengmeng pulled him over.
Xiang Zeran laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty much a guarantee that she’s become a loyal fan.”
Yu Wan laughed, too. “Gee, thanks.”
“Hey, Wei Wan, what room are you in? I’ll come find you to play when I have time.”
“About that… I don’t even know myself yet. Luo Qian’s assistant was the one who took care of my luggage. I came here to eat right away.”
“Oh, that’s alright. We can still exchange numbers.”
“Mm, sure.”
While she put her number in her phone, she saw Shen Qingzhou walk out of the dining hall. Yu Wan hurriedly bade farewell to Li Mengmeng and jogged to his direction.
Li Mengmeng looked surprised at her determination. Yu Wan pushed through a small posse of staff to get to Shen Qingzhou’s side and actually tapped his shoulder. When Shen Qingzhou turned around to look at her, his expression didn’t change. It seemed that it had already been a habit for him.
It was also a habit for the staff to keep their distance with Shen Qingzhou. Yu Wan pushed forward and started walking shoulder-to-shoulder alone with him.
Li Mengmeng exclaimed out of sheer wonder. “I’m always jittery every time I see the director. I wouldn’t ever think of tapping his shoulder like that. Hey, do you think Wei Wan is really familiar with the director or something?”
Xiang Zeran shook his head. “Probably not. It’s likely that she just isn’t familiar with Director Shen’s personality.”
“Oh, you’re right. Director Shen really hates being too close with others, though. Wei Wan is just, what’s the phrase… Wet behind the ears?”
Yu Wan kept walking all the way after catching up with Shen QIngzhou. “Mr. Shen, why didn’t you tell me that you were the director?”
He glanced down towards her condescendingly. “This is your project. Nobody in their right mind would think you’re not paying attention to it.”
“I just forgot, jeez.” Yu Wan veered away from the topic. “Hey, you said something about discussing the script earlier. Do you want to do that now?”
“Yes. We begin tomorrow, and there are still a couple lines that need tweaking.”
“Oh.”
The two went in Shen Qingzhou’s hotel room along with two other staff members. Yu Wan contemplated his humongous penthouse suite. She couldn’t help but ask, “Is my room like this, too?”
One of the staff laughed. “Miss, I would be dreaming if the rest of the crew could stay in a room like this.”
Yu Wan’s face soured. She complained, “Director Shen, you should treat your staff better. How could you stay in such a good place?”
As soon as she finished, the two staff’s expressions tightened up. They would never even think of cracking a joke with Shen Qingzhou. Who knew whether or not he would flip?
Thankfully, he didn’t have much of a reaction. He even looked quite gentle…
“If you want to live in a room like this, pay for it yourself.”
Yu Wan shook her head. “Freaking capitalists.”
The staff, “….”
Next, the four started to work diligently. Yu Wan’s personality changed entirely while talking about the script. She was serious, attentive, and clear-cut. The two staff members were very surprised. It was a classic example to not judge a book by its cover.
Shen Qingzhou didn’t spare Yu Wan any less glances, either. Indeed, she did have other talents apart from cooking.
An hour passed in a flash. Shen Qingzhou stood up, “Let’s end it here for today. You can leave.”
“Sure, good night.” The staff left as soon as they gathered their documents. Yu Wan made for the door, too.
“Yu Wan.” Shen Qingzhou suddenly called.
“Mm?”
“Do you see that?” Shen Qingzhou gestured to behind her.
Yu Wan didn’t understand. “What?”
“The kitchen.”
She paused. “So….”
He walked closer to her and spoke very matter-of-factly. “Your salary will be reinstated, and you’ll keep cooking for me.”
Yu Wan’s jaw dropped. “Director Shen, I’m here to work. And you’ll always be at the set, so how am I going to get you food from the hotel?”
“Most of your time spent here will be free, so you’ll have plenty of chances. My assistant can pick up your dishes and bring them to the set. I don’t enjoy switching new tastes, so I need you to keep cooking for me.” Shen Qingzhou’s expression was as calm as water. His pupils rested on Yu Wan.
A big question mark rose in her heart. He didn’t enjoy switching tastes? Then how did he survive while filming before he met her? Just admit that my cooking is amazing!
“That makes sense, but… Does my room have a kitchen? Is my room the penthouse suite?”
Shen Qingzhou, “You can come cook here, in my room.”
Yu Wan’s face stiffened. “Director Shen, aren’t you worried that someone else would be mistaken? If they think something fishy is going on…”
He glanced at her confusedly. “You really think someone would suspect a scriptwriter to be involved in something fishy?”
Yu Wan, “…”
“Here, take this. If I need you to cook, I’ll let you know.” Shen Qingzhou passed her a room card. “You can leave.”
“Okay.” Yu Wan took the card in defeat. She admitted to herself that she was useless and couldn’t even reject Shen Qingzhou. Of course, she didn’t want to, either. “Then I’ll be going.”
“Mm.” Shen QIngzhou walked away without looking back.
When she went out, she called Luo Qian to ask what her room number was. She flopped down on her bed as soon as she entered her room. With a plane flight and a huge dinner all in one day, she was exhausted.
Yu Wan sized up her room. Though it wasn’t as extravagant as Shen QIngzhou’s, it was good enough.
“Ding…”
Her phone rang. When she saw the caller ID, she suddenly remembered something she had completely forgotten about. Yu Wan immediately picked it up, “Hey, bro.”
“Yu Wan, I’m filming in the countryside this week, so the signal is pretty bad.” Yu Huan said. “So I just found out today that the director for UoW is Shen Qingzhou, y’know?”
“I know…” Yu Wan said. “Bro, I forgot to tell you. I’m at Beijing right now.”
“What? Why are you at Beijing? You never said a word.”
Yu Wan coughed. Didn’t she pick up just as she remembered it?
“The filming of UoW will take place in Beijing. I’m the scriptwriter, so I have to be here.”
“You’re so… Whatever. Take care of yourself. Shen Qingzhou doesn’t have a good temper.”
“Not at all, I don’t think it’s that bad.” Yu Wan instinctively countered.
“You’ve only met him just now. What will happen when you two disagree on the script during the set?”
“It’s my script, so he’s gonna have to listen to me.”
Yu Huan laughed. “You’ve got some spunk. Also, the male protagonist is going to be Zeran, right? I’ve worked with him before, and we’re pretty familiar with each other. Why don’t I tell him to keep an eye on you? You might not be able to get used to this line of work quickly.”
“Hey hey hey, hold up. I can definitely get used to it in no time. I don’t need that kind of protection. Don’t tell anyone that I’m your sister.”
“What the… Do you lose face if you say you’re my sibling or something?!” Yu Huan exclaimed.
“Nope,” Yu Wan sighed. “I lose my freedom. I’ll never be able to go out in public peacefully again.”
Yu Huan stammered, “It’s not like I’m going to shout it out from the heavens or something. I’ll just slip the word to Zeran.”
“Forget it. It’s not like something can happen to me, anyways. All I need to do is focus on my script.”
Yu Huan had no other options. “Fine. You’re like a boulder; I can’t budge you at all.”
Yu Wan chuckled.
The rest of their conversation was mainly Yu Huan teaching her how to build and maintain relationships. He knew that his sister, who spent all her time holed up in her home, was far too inexperienced in terms of being social. The showbiz was just another nail in the coffin.
After she hung up, Yu Wan took a long, relaxing shower before updating her chapters on her laptop. The novel version of “Underworld of Wolves” was indeed slow in terms of progress. Now that she had the whole TV-show business temporarily under wraps, Yu Wan could finally write in peace.
When she was done, Yu Wan opened her Weibo.
She typed up a tweet:
[Arrived in Beijing. Met the director and the crew. The long road of filming is about to begin.]
After some meticulous editing here and there, an idea suddenly popped up in her mind.
Her final post was:
[Arrived in Beijing. As soon as I met the director, I predicted that “Underworld of Wolves” will be a hit. Shen Qingzhou.]
A swarm of netizens started commenting as soon as she pressed send.
“The director is Shen Qingzhou~ That’s some real quality assurance there~~”
“Weiwan-sama is in Beijing?!! Please have fate let us meet (though I have no clue what you look like)”
“The cast looks pretty decent.”
“Please, don’t put the novel to shame!!!”
“Director Shen is quite strict. I can already imagine how Weiwan-sama is going to be aboosed.”
….