After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 13

Inside the hospital ward, Ji Youyi was enthusiastically livening up the atmosphere, while Li Zhulan remained silent, looking as if she wanted to cry but had no tears.

Meng Xingshu swept her gaze over their expressions and understood immediately. “Teacher Li, a pleasure to meet you. I am Meng Xingshu.”

After her greeting, she glanced at the person on the bed who was frozen mid-motion. “I’m heading out for a moment,” she said considerately, before leaving.

The second the door closed, Li Zhulan broke her “seal.” She covered her mouth, stifling a scream. “This is what you called a ‘commoner’? A ‘friend’?”

I was just worrying that you two wouldn’t get along, and then you tell me she’s your, Commoner?? Friend???

“…I can explain.”

Ji Youyi still hadn’t fully recovered from her shock.

In her original world, she had spent a long time in the film industry and knew many superstars, every one of them held high positions and was constantly surrounded by entourages. Meng Xingshu was so low-profile, followed only by a single assistant and today she hadn’t even brought the assistant, which led Ji Youyi to never even consider that possibility.

She opened her browser, typed in the keywords, and looked at the profile photos that popped up. It really was that “Second Female Lead” face she had been coveting for so long.

Settling her nerves, Ji Youyi started spinning a tale. “I know she’s a household name, but my family situation was poor. We didn’t even have a TV at home, let alone a computer. I had no way to watch movies. After I grew up, I was always busy earning money. Even after entering the industry, I never had contact with someone of her caliber, so it’s normal that I didn’t recognize her, right?”

Li Zhulan looked at her gloomily. “But you two became friends.”

“Who says friends have to know every detail about each other? Distance creates beauty.”

In Ji Youyi’s mind, anyone she had crossed paths with was a “friend.” Recalling their encounters, she found a breakthrough.

“She’s the one who didn’t tell me! She even deliberately misled me! I showed her my ID, but she only gave me her surname.”

The more Ji Youyi spoke, the more certain she became. “I saw how beautiful she was and asked if she was a star when we first met, but she insisted she wasn’t.”

Li Zhulan was puzzled. “The question is, what does she gain by hiding it from you?”

Ji Youyi pondered for a moment, and then it clicked.

Previously, she thought Meng Xingshu helped her repeatedly purely out of the kindness of her heart. Now it seemed Meng Xingshu was compensating her. As the current partner of that scumbag, watching that trashy company blacken “Little Ji’s” reputation like that, Meng Xingshu must feel guilty. She probably hid her identity because she feared Ji Youyi would reject her.

As for why she agreed to a phone call despite clearly not intending to join their production, it was surely because she couldn’t bear to reject her directly!

Sigh! She’s a good girl, it’s just a shame she has bad taste in men.

On the other side, Li Zhulan looked at the trench coat draped over Ji Youyi’s shoulders, then at Ji Youyi’s face, replaying Meng Xingshu’s behavior just now. She also had an epiphany.

Li Zhulan was a liberal arts student with a highly active imagination. She loved consuming entertainment, the serious stuff like films, and the “less serious” stuff like fan-edits of beautiful women. She also loved writing the wholesome fluff, and the… well, less wholesome stuff. Her Weibo account had nearly 200,000 followers waiting to be fed every day.

For the past two months, Li Zhulan had been tormented by scripts and had lacked inspiration for a long time. But looking at Ji Youyi now, it was as if her creative meridians had been cleared, her “CP (Couples) Soul” began to burn fiercely.

“Little Ji, tell me, could it be… could it be!” The more Li Zhulan thought about it, the more logical it felt.

Ji Youyi had already calmly accepted the “fact” that Meng Xingshu was showing her charity. She was currently editing a casting call for the second female lead. “What do you want to ask? ‘Could it be she won’t act in our drama?’ Of course she won’t! Even if she wanted to, I wouldn’t agree.”

What a joke. What are the rates for a Best Actress? Can we afford her?

Wen Yang’s daily rate was 3,000 yuan, the budget for the second lead would only be lower. Meng Xingshu wasn’t a philanthropist, there was no way she’d do it.

When she originally wanted to recruit Meng Xingshu, it was partly due to her appearance. Meng Xingshu was too striking. By “striking,” she didn’t just mean pretty, actors need to be pretty, but in a way that is deeper than the beauty of an idol or an influencer. She needed a “storytelling face”, the kind where a viewer sees her and immediately becomes curious about the story behind her eyes. This was commonly known as a “Movie Face.”

On the other hand, the biggest reason was that the crew was broke. A high-quality “commoner” was the most cost effective choice. Now that the commoner had turned into an unreachable star, that plan had to be scrapped.

How tragic. She had even fantasized about tricking Meng Xingshu into acting for free so she could use the money to hire better lighting technicians. Now, she could only re-examine the budget and see where else she could pinch pennies.

Ji Youyi immersed herself in work, leaving Li Zhulan like a restless squirrel, carrying a mind full of burning fantasies with no one to share them with.

Li Zhulan resorted to opening Weibo to draft a post:

Bamboo Pig A-Choo: [Guys, I must be starving for content. I actually want to “ship” a real-life pairing involving a female star. Who gets it? T T A superstar Best Actress goes undercover as a commoner to pursue a dense, workaholic, 18^th tier starlet. A trope I wouldn’t have blinked at before suddenly tastes so delicious! WHO GETS IT!!!!]

The “pit” Li Zhulan dug could only remain a pit for now. After posting, she was dragged back to scriptwriting by Ji Youyi, who had just finished the budget. The two fought through the night until dawn.

At 7:00 AM, after eating breakfast at the hospital, Meng Xingshu drove them to the set.

Upholding her resolve to never be a “third wheel,” Li Zhulan had intended to slip away, but Ji Youyi stuffed her into the back seat without a word.

Li Zhulan had been a fan of Meng Xingshu for many years, she never imagined that one day she would be sitting in a car driven by Teacher Meng. She was incredibly stiff, feeling the luxury of the leather seats while watching Ji Youyi talk animatedly up front.

“…That’s the current state of our project. The conditions are indeed poor, but the people doing the work are hand-picked by me. I can guarantee the quality. And then there’s our screenwriter.”

Li Zhulan, suddenly being put on the spot, jumped.

“A Master’s graduate from S University, a top-tier scholar with a stunning resume. She’s definitely going to do great things. If this wasn’t her debut work, I wouldn’t have been able to snatch her up. I sent you a few segments of the script last night, you can check them out when you have time. It’s very high-quality.”

“I read them. They are indeed good.” Meng Xingshu glanced at Ji Youyi’s glowing face, her voice unconsciously tilting upward. “The screenwriter you mentioned last night who ‘couldn’t even speak properly’… is that her?”

“Of course not,” Ji Youyi denied categorically. “Our Teacher Li is very eloquent. Right, Teacher Li?”

Li Zhulan, who had been shrinking into the back seat to lower her presence and focus on “shipping” the two, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. She was like a hamster being lifted by the scruff of her neck, the half-eaten nut in her hand dropped to the floor, and her brain went blank.

“Say… say what? Squeak, squeak?”

For a moment, two pairs of eyes landed on her simultaneously. Li Zhulan wanted to dig a hole and bury herself.

Ji Youyi reacted quickly, saving the situation. “See? Our screenwriter is very humorous.”

After circling around with her praise, she finally reached her actual point. “The only thing I’m worried about now is distribution. Our crew are all newcomers, and the investor is doing film for the first time. We’re afraid of being lowballed if we approach platforms ourselves. I wonder if Teacher Meng has any advice?”

Hearing the change in address to “Teacher Meng,” Meng Xingshu’s fingers rubbed the steering wheel slightly, and the emotion in her eyes dimmed. “I’ll look into it.”

“Great! Thank you in advance, Teacher Meng!”

“Don’t mention it.”

The atmosphere of the conversation somehow became less warm than before. Ji Youyi couldn’t figure out why, so she stopped thinking about it. She had pulled two consecutive all-nighters and had a mountain of problems to solve, she didn’t have the energy for anything else.

When they got out of the car, it wasn’t even 7:30 AM. The actors were still in makeup. Ji Youyi sent Li Zhulan off to sleep and headed straight for the makeup room.

As she expected, as soon as she opened the door, she saw the helpless expression of the makeup artist.

Wen Yang sat in the chair with her head down, while her manager was pounding the table and shouting, “If you don’t have the skills, don’t stay in this business! Wen Yang has always used the whitest foundation and pink blush. Look at this dark, muddy mess, are you trying to make my artist ugly on purpose?”

The makeup artist had a temper too. She replied calmly, “I said, I only follow the Director’s arrangements. If you’re unhappy, go find the Director. Unless she says to change it, you can curse at me a hundred times and I won’t budge.”

“What’s going on?” Ji Youyi stood by the table, carrying an innate air of authority. “I told you last night, the script has been majorly overhauled. Cao Qiu’s characterization has changed, so the styling must follow.”

The man in the suit hated Ji Youyi, but since she was currently the director, he suppressed his anger. “Director Ji, Wen Yang is only 20. She has always gone for the ‘polished idol’ style. Why are you giving her such an old look?”

Ji Youyi looked at Wen Yang’s face. The low saturation, matte Chinese style makeup perfectly neutralized the girl’s immaturity.

“The technique is fine. It’s well-applied,” Ji Youyi smiled at the makeup artist. After the compliment, her eyes swept coldly toward the man in the suit. “She is a ‘polished idol,’ but is the character she’s playing one?”

The man was incensed. “What does that have to do with the character? Wen Yang is suited for that other look! Don’t tell me I don’t understand. TV dramas are about having a beautiful face. If the face is pretty, the fans will come. You’re intentionally making her ugly, what are your intentions?”

Ji Youyi arched an eyebrow. “Sure, a pretty face is enough. Then don’t let her act. Go film MVs and photo books, retouch them eight hundred times, and the fans will naturally come.”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking, using your position for personal gain.” The man pointed at Ji Youyi’s nose. “If you don’t change it back, I’m taking Wen Yang and leaving right now. Let’s see how you film then!”

Ji Youyi didn’t get angry, instead, she laughed. She casually held up her phone and shook it. “Then leave. The moment you walk out that door, I’ll count it as a strike. With one phone call, I can have a new lead here within an hour for a cheaper price. As for you, I can guarantee you won’t see a single cent.”

Hearing she might be fired, Wen Yang panicked and finally spoke up. “Director Ji, I didn’t say I didn’t want to act. I can be obedient.”

Ji Youyi looked her in the eye. “What do you think of this makeup?”

Wen Yang bit her lip. She wanted to say something, but glancing at her manager, she shrank back and stammered, “It… it’s not very suited for me…”

Ji Youyi nodded. She pulled over a chair and sat next to Wen Yang, then said to the other two, “You two head out for a bit. I want to talk to Wen Yang alone.”

The makeup artist fled as if liberated. The man in the suit lagged behind a few steps. Before closing the door, he gave Wen Yang a look.

A notification popped up on Wen Yang’s phone. She peeked and saw a message from her manager:

[This woman has a role in the drama too. She’s adding scenes for herself and making you look ugly on purpose because she wants to outshine you, get it? Don’t let her trick you. Remember to record this.]

In front of her, Ji Youyi’s gentle voice came through: “Can you look at me?”

Wen Yang hurriedly turned off her screen and looked up, meeting a pair of smiling eyes.

“Yangyang, let me ask you a question first,” Ji Youyi began. “Do you want to be an ‘idol/traffic’ star, or an actor?”

“I… can’t I be both?”

Ji Youyi smiled. “Of course you can. But you must realize that while they overlap, they are essentially two different modes of operation.”

“If a person’s career is like planting a fruit tree, an actor needs to cultivate professional skills, constantly expanding their canopy and root system. This process is time consuming and exhausting, but in return, you will have a long harvest period. Even when winter comes, you’ll have enough nutrients stored to wait for spring.”

“But a ‘traffic’ star only has one job, forced ripening.”

“You rise to fame quickly through high exposure and trending topics, with fans and data as your measure of value. Fruit that should have taken decades to grow is plucked in a few years. Because you can’t wait that long, your looks, body, and persona are everything. The moment your status slips is the day you are eliminated.”

“For a company, it’s obviously more profitable to cultivate ‘traffic.’ Time is money, and people are the cheapest commodity. Ripen a tree, harvest it to the extreme, then chop it down and plant another. Wen Yang, do you really want to be that kind of commodity?”

Wen Yang’s hands were clasped tightly. After a long pause, she answered, “No. I want to be an actor.”

“Good.” Ji Youyi’s expression turned serious. “In that case, you must learn to shape a character. I read the character biography you wrote last night. To be blunt, it’s completely inadequate.”

“Don’t project those stereotypical ‘sheltered lady’ impressions onto Cao Qiu. After witnessing the death of her entire clan, she died in despair. How could her keywords be ‘beautiful’? They should be ‘fear,’ ‘pain,’ ‘hatred,’ and the determination to force herself to grow strong as quickly as possible to fight every enemy to the death.”

“An actor’s job is never just to showcase beauty. The current makeup indeed doesn’t ‘suit’ you, but it suits Cao Qiu perfectly. Clean, natural, resilient.”

Ji Youyi stood up, picked up a brow gel, leaned down, and gently brushed it through the front of Wen Yang’s eyebrows.

“Drawing eyebrows this way gives a sense of natural growth. Cao Qiu is resilient and brave; she is a giant tree that has taken root for years and will eventually stand green and tall. I believe you are too.”

Her voice was infinitely gentle. “I know you’re new to acting and you’ll face many difficulties and confusion, but don’t worry. I’ll be with you to solve them. Just focus on giving the character blood and flesh, and then wait for the character to give back to you and win the audience’s love.”

Ji Youyi patiently finished the brows. Looking down, she saw Wen Yang staring at her blankly, her eyes filled with tears.

“Alright, alright, don’t cry. We agreed to take it slow, right?”

She tilted her head, studying Wen Yang’s face, and gave a confident smile. “Our Yangyang is definitely going to be a great leading lady one day!”