CH 2.2

There are two people that every woman cannot bear to turn down: one is her lover; the other… of course, is her idol.

Throughout the course of the dinner, as a result of being unable to decline the care that her idol showed her, she ate half of that plate of mantou with cooked pork. She thus made a name for herself in this one “battle,” and the consequence of that was, from that time onward, she was “taken care of” for three entire months and ate mantou with cooked pork every day. Naturally, also as a result of Yi Wenze’s one statement of “I think it’s quite a good idea,” she did not dare say any more and accepted the role of that character who was hated by everyone who laid eyes on her.

That night, as she stared at the script that she had written with her own hand, she began to spurn herself. Why in the world had she written such a resentful, evil woman?

In fact, it was a very simple task. There were only two scenes in total.

The first scene: a shot of a woman staring resentfully from a distance at the male and female lead.

The second scene: the woman wanted to poison the precious son of the female lead but was found out by the male lead, and at once, tears rolled down her face like raindrops caressing a pear blossom.

Back when she was writing it, she clearly had been exhilarated and flying high, but now that it was time for her to act it out herself, it became a whole new matter.

The next morning, when she, sporting a fashionable, all-natural “smokey-eye look,” was in the dressing room, she was so sleepy her brain was like a puddle of paste. The makeup artist was continually assessing her face. After, in a serious tone, giving a praising remark of, “Your skin is naturally a good base to work with,” she took all sorts of brushes and began applying makeup on her, up and down, left and right.

“You sure give yourself favoured treatment.” Sitting beside her, Qiao Qiao flipped through the script. “Both scenes are on the same set. One day is enough to finish filming both of them.”

Jia He was unable to turn her head as she complained, “When I wrote it, I didn’t know it would be me.”

“Don’t be so discontent with what you have.” Qiao Qiao put on a pretense of comforting her. “This type of role that’s just oozing with evilness is the type that viewers remember most easily. Who knows? You might be catapulted to fame. Hey, remember to come find me to be your agent. You can’t let the good stuff go to other people[1].”

Jia He held her silence.

Cheerfully, the makeup artist soothed her, “Don’t be nervous. Doing cameos is a really normal thing. Back when I was doing makeup on the set of The Myth, I even cameoed as a palace maidservant and stood behind Kim Hee-Seon.”

Jia He gave her a polite smile, then carried on having internal injuries over this whole situation.

“I’m staying in Hengdian an extra day just for you.” Wagging her mobile phone, Qiao Qiao leaned over beside Jia He’s ear and whispered, “I’m not even paying attention to my Taiwanese boy. It’s all because I was worried you’d be nervous.”

“He’s stood you up more than twenty times already. You’re still not willing to give up?”

Qiao Qiao typed a row of words on her mobile phone, then handed the phone over to Jia He to read: On his Weibo last night, he wrote, “By myself and feeling lonesome.” The meaning of that is so obvious. He misses me.

Taking the phone from her, Jia He deleted those words and typed a row of new ones in their place: You sure know how to let your imagination fill in details.

Qiao Qiao gave a shrug and typed another row: If I can somehow happen upon a guy who’s hot and devoted and a “yu choy[2]” [talented, outstanding person], then I’ll give up on this one.

Blinking, Jia He silently mouthed two words back to her:

“Yi Wenze.”

Qiao Qiao let out a guffaw. “Just forget that, you. I very much have principles and never let me claws reach for anything that belongs to my good friends.”

Jia He rolled her eyes, which nearly ended up smearing her still-wet mascara onto her eyelids.

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In this scene, she would be acting opposite the drama’s two main leads. When Liao Jing saw her get into the vehicle, she immediately gave her a big round of praise on her appearance today. Looking into that lead-actress face that Liao Jing sported and remembering that she needed to glare with bitter resentfulness at her and also kill her “child” today, Jia He felt especially weirded out. She could not help feeling more and more admiration for those in the acting profession and how they could slip in and out of role at will. One minute, they were sitting in front of the monitors, sipping their milk tea, and the next minute, they could face the cameras and deliver a heartfelt confession of love. Honestly, it was not a job that the average Joe could do.

Yi Wenze was resting with his eyes closed. Qiao Qiao was carrying on with her frequent texting and, in passing, also updating her Weibo.

Her actions served as a reminder to Jia He, and she also pulled out her mobile phone and began carrying out her usual practice of looking through the news. While she was at it, she also secretly went to Yi Wenze’s Weibo page for a look. It was still the same as before. Since the story about Tian Chu had exploded into the public eye, no updates had been made to Yi Wenze’s Weibo. However, the number of comments on it was increasing exponentially, all comments left by fans. Her fire of rage, which had been extinguished for a few days already, was now incited again by these thousands of fellow sisters who had banded together in anger against a common enemy, and she again began feeling indignation on behalf of Yi Wenze.

For reasons unknown, as if a supernatural presence was directing her, she swiftly registered a new Weibo account and then left a comment: Idol, I’m backing you all the way!

After writing this, she even guiltily stole a peek at Yi Wenze. But she was caught in the act by Qiao Qiao. Before long, Qiao Qiao’s message was sent over: There’s no crime in being a peeping Tom!

Firing her a glare, Jia He closed her text-messaging window.

All of a sudden, curiosity sprouted in her, and she input Tian Chu’s name in and then found her way onto her Weibo.

Unlike the united voices found in the comments in Yi Wenze’s Weibo, mayhem that could overturn the heavens had broken out here. There were words of support from Tian Chu’s fans, name-calling and revile from Yi Wenze’s fans, and demanding questioning from fans of that popular Taiwanese singer.

Tian Chu appeared to be indifferent to all of this and still would, as normal, talk about the content of her new album or post some personal photos from when she was recording, and occasionally, she would even sigh rather ambiguously about lonesomeness. As Jia He read through all of this, she would repeatedly sigh feelingly over how Sina[3] was truly a good platform for sensationalism and how Tian Chu’s team also really was skilled at exploiting gossip and rumored scandals.

Yi Wenze, in contrast, maintained a passive stance in all of this, being very manly and not bringing any shame or embarrassment onto Tian Chu.

“So shameless.” A-Qing had just finished saying something to Qiao Qiao, and when she turned around and her eyes happened to glance over Jia He’s mobile phone, she snapped out these words quietly.

Yi Wenze opened his eyes and looked at her. With a humph, A-Qing explained, “I’m referring to a certain well-known singer who’s still trying to generate hype for herself on Weibo.” While she spoke, she pointed at Jia He’s mobile phone.

Oh, Heaven, please just strike me with a lightning bolt…

With absolute composure, Jia He shut off her mobile phone, closed her eyes, and, tilting her head to the side, feigned sleep.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

When they arrived at the film set, the assistant director rather dutifully began to talk through the scene with Jia He. However, only a few sentences in, he realized something. “I forgot. You’re the screenwriter. You’re fine; you don’t need me to explain this stuff.” With that, he immediately went back over in front of the monitors, feeling that it was only natural that Jia He would have no problems at all.

Jia He felt too awkward to say that the two things, screenwriting and acting, were not the same, so she could only stand holding a tray of tea beside the decorative screen and gloomily begin to practice her look of bitter resentfulness.

Yi Wenze did a simple rehearsal through the lines with Liao Jing and then glanced over at Jia He.

With this one look from him, the bitter resentfulness that Jia He had just managed to build up with her practicing now all crumbled again…

And so, she carried on with keeping her head down. Head down and practice hard.

Fortunately, in this scene, she only needed to carry a tray and briefly show half her face. Most of the scene’s action was with the male and female lead. Naturally, then, it was quite a bit easier than she had imagined. Once the director pronounced an “Okay!” she breathed out in relief, set the tray aside, and turned her eyes fixedly onto Qiao Qiao to check with her. Qiao Qiao was not at all about to let pass by this chance to poke fun at her. “Not bad, not bad. The love was intense, and the jealousy even more so. Your acting brought it all to life.”

Through gritted teeth, Jia He bit back, “Thank you.”

The next scene very easily caused her to become dejected and frustrated.

When Yi Wenze saw that she, facing the little boy, her hand raised with a cake in it, had gone blank in the mind for the fourth time, he motioned to his assistant, signaling that he wanted to have some water. In reality, everyone could tell that this was to allow Jia He to ease her tension a bit. The director understood, and turning his head, he began speaking to Liao Jing. Qiao Qiao also went along with him, saying that milk tea had been delivered and telling everyone to take a break.

Taking in the sight of all this, Jia He felt even more remorseful. Who knew how long they would have to keep at it like this today?

As Yi Wenze drank his water, he instructed his assistant to bring a paper cup over. He poured a warm drink for Jia He as well. “Have something to drink. There’s no rush.”

Filled with guilt, Jia He took the water from him. “Thank you.”

The liquid was a faint, warm-brown colour, and when she took a sip, it was sweet in flavour and tasted like malva nuts.

“This is your first cameo?” Yi Wenze drank very slowly.

Jia He gave a firm nod of her head. It truly was her first one.

Yi Wenze was not surprised in the least, and he began to slowly talk through and very meticulously and carefully explain the scene to her. Jia He listened as he spoke each sentence. As he and she were both in ancient-period costumes, she actually was caught in a daze for a moment. It truly seemed as if they had gone back to ancient times, and inexplicably, she began to somewhat get into her role.

Detecting that her frame of mind had changed, she once more feelingly sighed to herself, it was no wonder he was her idol; he understood this scene even better than she did…

Everyone rested for another while. When Qiao Qiao saw that Yi Wenze had moved away, she stepped over and, with a grin, said quietly, “You’re just awesome. With other people, it’s the screenwriter who talks through the scenes with the actors, but when it’s you, you get this exception. This is my first time ever seeing an actor explaining the scene to the screenwriter.”

One sentence completely transformed her infinite admiration for her idol into deep disdain for herself.

“Actually, this scene of yours is really simple,” Qiao Qiao suddenly remarked.

Jia He scoffed, “It’s easy for you to say. You want to take my place?”

With a glance at Liao Jing, Qiao Qiao murmured to her, “Just think of Liao Jing as Tian Chu. I guarantee you’ll get into the role then.”

Jia He wholly believed Qiao Qiao had come to watch her make a fool of herself, plus throw some mocking jabs at her.

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After Yi Wenze’s help, when they were acting out the scene with everyone again, Jia He noticeably was much better.

She fed the little boy the cake without a hitch, smiling so very much like a woman who was virtuous, kind, and understanding, and then after Yi Wenze strode in and she was discovered, she displayed her panic. Then, when she was faced with his silent aggression… her mind went blank. Those raindrops-caressing-a pear-blossom tears wouldn’t come out.

Using eye drops would look too fake. No matter what, for this drama that was her own creation, she would persist and force herself to make it more realistic. But as a little cameo actress who had no formal training and who simply sat in front of her computer every day, pounding words out on it, how could she just cry whenever she felt like it?

And so, Qiao Qiao once more began inviting everyone to have milk tea.

Yi Wenze was not anxious and, in fact, started talking to his cameo “son.” Liao Jing, on the other hand, was somewhat impatient and annoyed and began making calls on her mobile phone. Jia He was vaguely able to make out the voice on the other end of the call and whom it belonged to. Actually, Liao Jing had already been very cautious, but Jia He and Gu Yu had been together for such a long time that she had long become so familiar with him that it was as if they were one person. She was simply too familiar with the way he spoke, such that even though Liao Jing had merely given a few sentences in answer, she was already able to guess who was asking the questions.

She suddenly remembered, back then, when Gu Yu was travelling for work, in order to save on mobile phone fees, she would pretend that she needed to work overtime, and then when there was no one left in the office, she would finally call him using the landline telephone. It was not until later, when they had broken up, that she learned that in that period when Gu Yu’s business trips had been most frequent, he had actually been together with her department manager. It might very well have been that such late phone calls from her had spoiled their “fun.”

There was a tingly, aching feeling in her heart. Jia He all of a sudden spoke up. “I’m good now, Director.”

Let’s just hurry and get acting, hurry and get acting. My mood’s going to pass soon.

Though everyone was somewhat bemused, filming nonetheless started once more.

This time, the take went smoothly. Discovered in the middle of her attempt to poison the child, she turned her head and then, seeing Yi Wenze, instantly began to weep like she had been wronged. Tears flooded over unabatedly, to the extent that even if she were to try, she would not be able to stem them. And Yi Wenze’s stony expression that was facing her only served to intensify her feelings of misery and abjection.

Holding himself tall as he stood where he was, Yi Wenze watched her wordlessly for a long time. Then, suddenly, he reached forth a hand and brushed away her tears.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

[1] 肥水不流外人田. Literally, this translates as “the fertile waters should not be allowed to flow into other people’s fields,” which basically means you should keep the “good stuff” within your own inner circle and not give outsiders the opportunity.

[2] This originated as Internet slang. 油菜 “you cai” is the name of a Chinese green vegetable that is commonly transliterated in English as yu choy or, sometimes, choy sum. It’s pronunciation, “you cai,” is homophonic with 有才, which means a person has talents or is capable.

[3] Sina Corporation is the company that created the currently most popular microblogging service in China, Weibo, which actually has the full name of Sina Weibo.