After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 22

S City was three hundred kilometers away from D City, a nearly four hours drive, which was by no means a short distance.

Long distance drives were usually handled by professional drivers, but Meng Xingshu didn’t waste a single second waiting. She walked straight to the car and slipped into the driver’s seat.

Fang Ruohan hurried after her. “Teacher Meng, let me drive.”

Meng Xingshu had already buckled her seatbelt. Without looking at Fang Ruohan, she started the engine and said succinctly, “Get in. I’ll need your hard work to set up the assignments.”

The situation with The Price of Wealth was actually just one example of the chaotic malpractices plaguing the industry, it wasn’t particularly rare in the film and television world.

For a newly emerging young director like Xiao Ji, who had genuine talent but remained unknown, and lacked both seniority and a network, having their credit stolen was often a done deal with a single word from higher-up.

However, Filmily, as the platform, naturally stood on a different side than the production house. As long as the drama was good enough and cheap enough, why would they go out of their way to investigate the convoluted, underhanded politics behind it?

Filmily had a mountain of films to review every year. Even if they wanted to look into things, it was impossible to audit every single drama, let alone have a Senior Vice President personally review a small-budget web series.

This time, The Price of Wealth had simply run straight into a loaded gun. It didn’t matter if they hadn’t looked, but once they did, they ended up pulling out a massive scandal. Once Lin Shan saw the situation clearly, she directly invited her mother, Chairman Lin, to step in.

As several consecutive meetings drew to a close, Fang Ruohan closed her laptop and began observing Meng Xingshu’s expression.

Aside from adding a few brief comments during the meetings, Meng Xingshu hadn’t spoken another word.

She had reverted to her usual unreadable, composed self, driving with a placid expression as though nothing occupied her mind… except her speed was a bit fast.

Fang Ruohan tapped open her chat with Ji Youyi and spoke tentatively, “Auntie said she hasn’t come home. Should I ask her where she went?”

“No need.” Meng Xingshu could roughly guess where Ji Youyi was.

After dropping Fang Ruohan off at the villa, she drove alone to the Film and Television City.

The last time she had driven at such a speed was the night Ji Youyi was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning.

That night, in this very car, the girl had been curled up in pain, her face deathly pale. Yet she still thought she was hiding it perfectly, stubbornly saying, “There’s no one else left in the crew besides me. If I don’t go, who will?”

As soon as she sobered up that night, she began revising the script, pulling an all-nighter. The next day, acting as if nothing had happened, she continued to follow the shooting and post-production day and night.

Even with a fever, she handled the crew’s emergencies by herself and managed the scheduling and direction on her own.

When the crew wrapped up for the day and everyone else left, she was still there.

When the crew started work and people sequentially trickled in, she was already there.

If someone could truly share this burden with her, it would be wonderful. But how could anyone be allowed to steal all the glory after she had endured all the hardships completely on her own?

Meng Xingshu took a deep breath to calm herself down.

When exactly had she found out about this?

Meng Xingshu thought back carefully but couldn’t find a single trace.

Every day, Ji Youyi went about her work normally, laughing and playing around with colleagues and friends. She was reluctant to spend money on herself, yet she bought cups of milk tea for others one after another.

She wouldn’t cry out from exhaustion, she wouldn’t cry out in pain, she wouldn’t voice any grievances, and she wouldn’t say she was sad. She would only offer a sly smile, pat her chest, and say, “Just rest assured, I’ve got this!”

Perhaps it was because simply staying alive kept her busy enough, just like how when one drama ended and everyone else was resting, she, who deserved to rest the most, had already plunged headfirst into the Film and Television City just to make a living.

She couldn’t spare the mind to think too much, so she didn’t feel the bitterness.

Instead of Meng Xingshu feeling reassured, it felt like it was Meng Xingshu’s fault.

The car ground to a halt outside the Film and Television City. Her finger hovered over the chat box, hesitating for a long time before she finally typed out a line of text.

Ersilia: 【Are you free lately? I’d like to ask you for a favor.】

Ji Youyi was in luck, she actually managed to find an urgently advertised position.

A certain crew had been working for eight consecutive days straight, and just as they were about to finish shooting, the script supervisor collapsed.

In the broad morning light, while the ambulance was pulling away to rush the person to the hospital with its sirens blaring, Ji Youyi happened to be watching from the side. She immediately took over the job. The pay she negotiated with the crew was 600 yuan a day, paid in cash.

The drama was an urban fantasy micro-short series titled The Supreme Dragon King. Enduring for Three Years, Finally Reaching the Urban Pinnacle.

It was roughly about a male protagonist who had previously swallowed his pride as a live-in son-in-law, enduring countless humiliations before awakening his Dragon King lineage. From then on, he embarked on a wildly arrogant and crazy, no, pinnacle journey. Along the way, whenever he encountered a problem, all he needed to do was smirk slightly, and in the next second, all the antagonists would get their faces brutally slapped.

While Ji Youyi was holding the clapperboard and watching the fun from the sidelines, she tried to mimic the expression, only to find that it was actually quite difficult. The Dragon King truly deserved his title.

When Ji Youyi acted as a director, she kept a strict rein on her own crew, but that didn’t mean she would approach every single job with the same level of seriousness.

She was a film and television worker who excelled at self-regulation, capable of judging which energy saving mode she should activate based on the occasion.

Take this Dragon King crew, for instance:

During filming, the actors’ emotions were so saturated they bordered on the melodramatic. The director sat before the vertical monitor with drooping eyelids, occasionally speaking up to offer guidance, which consistently amounted to complaining that the actors’ emotions weren’t melodramatic enough.

The staff members who temporarily had no work were playing on their phones while cracking melon seeds. The rhythmic crunch-crunch of the cracking seeds sounded like they were setting a beat for the actors to recite their lines.

As soon as a shooting sequence concluded, while the prop masters were setting up the next scene, several actors picked up their phones and began taking selfies, some were even recording videos. For a time, voices, shutter clicks, and camera flashes erupted one after another.

And the director clearly had no objections because he had also unlocked his own phone. A few seconds later, the piercing background music of short videos joined the chorus of sounds.

Look at that, what a harmonious working atmosphere! If she didn’t slack off a bit more, wouldn’t she be a fool?

The clever Ji Youyi slacked off for an entire day, swindling a bag of melon seeds, two bottles of water, and two box lunches out of the crew.

At dinner time, she used her two chopsticks to quickly toss the rice like she was loosening soil, considering it thoroughly broken up. Just as she was about to pour it into her mouth, she caught sight of her phone screen lighting up.

【My Most, Most, Most, Most Dearest Sister Meng~】 had sent a message.

Blame it on Li Zhulan, who used to tell her every single day on set, “If you don’t eat properly, I’m going to report you to Teacher Meng.” Ji Youyi glanced at the box lunch in her hands and put it down guiltily.

This was the first time Meng Xingshu had actively messaged her. Ji Youyi opened it with due solemnity, and upon seeing the message, she let out a sigh of relief.

Excellent. It wasn’t a check-in, she just needed a favor.

When her benefactor came knocking on her door, Ji Youyi naturally treated it with the utmost seriousness.

She immediately set down her utensils and typed back obsequiously. 【Free, free, absolutely free! [Joyful] If Teacher Meng is looking for me, how could I possibly not be free! I’m with a crew right now, and it happens to be dinner time. What do you need me to do?】

Meng Xingshu: 【No rush. Which crew are you with?】

Ji Youyi looked up at the drama title, but ultimately couldn’t bring herself to type it out. She simply sent over her location: 【O-O Just a small, small crew.】

Meng Xingshu: 【Alright. Go about your work, I’ll wait for you.】

“Wait.”

This word carried a rather subtle nuance. It was an action, yet it seemed to be more than just an action.

In an instant, Ji Youyi thought of many similar scenes.

On the day her contract was terminated, just as she finished sending a message, the woman had appeared at the foot of the company building. On the day of the set visit, she had stayed with her until the very end. On the night at the Home Inn, she had suddenly appeared for some unknown reason.

And every night following that, as long as she finished work, she could spot that familiar vehicle downstairs.

“Are you waiting for me?”

Ji Youyi had actually wanted to ask this very question, but considering their identities and relationship, she always felt it wasn’t quite appropriate.

What if the big star just happened to have business nearby during those times? Wouldn’t she just be flattering herself?

Yet, today of all days, Meng Xingshu had actively spoken that very word aloud.

Ji Youyi could still recall that time in Meng Xingshu’s car, when she had looked at Meng Xingshu’s face from a close distance and felt a bizarre sensation that made the tip of her heart shiver.

She scratched her head, tossing aside the chaotic thoughts.

As the exam preparation guide stated, skip the questions you don’t know how to answer.

Ji Youyi chose to skip it and eat first.

She flipped through her emojis for a long while before finally selecting a plain, cute expression to send back.

Once it was sent, she put her phone away, picked up her chopsticks, and using one in each hand, honestly mashed her food before eating it bite by bite.

Though it wasted time, it seemed quite fitting for her “slacking” state today, so it wasn’t a big deal.

During the evening shoot, Ji Youyi was somewhat distracted.

It had to be because her workload wasn’t heavy enough. She kept thinking while working about what kind of waiting Meng Xingshu meant by waiting for her, and where exactly she was waiting.

Several times she picked up her phone wanting to ask, only to put it back down. Consequently, after a short while, she would start wondering again. The filming location this crew rented is so rundown, she couldn’t possibly be waiting here, right? It’s so below her status.

But on second thought, she reasoned: Actually, the creative park where post-production was done was pretty rundown too.

Slacking off until two in the morning, the crew finally wrapped up.

Even though her mind kept telling her it was impossible, the moment Ji Youyi received her wages, she still immediately pocketed her bag and bolted down the stairs at full speed.

A girl from the same crew who had arrived on an electric scooter asked if she wanted a ride home. She yelled back while running, “No need! My sister is coming to pick me up!”

As soon as she finished shouting, she heard the person she left behind laugh, “Why are you so happy? You look like a kid getting out of school.”

What nonsense. Since when was she happy! She was merely being polite!

What if the other person really came? It wouldn’t be good to keep someone waiting long!

Downstairs at the Film and Television Base building.

A set inside the building had just wrapped up, and people were sequentially trickled out of the previously quiet entrance. Meng Xingshu raised her eyes, looking past the crowd, and spotted the person she was waiting for running out of the exit.

The ponytail at the back of her head was still swinging, and the bangs on her forehead parted to both sides due to her running. The young girl cradled her backpack with her left hand while resting her right hand on her knee, catching her breath. She tilted her head up to look around, and the moment her gaze locked onto the direction where Meng Xingshu was parked, her beautiful eyes visibly lit up. Immediately, she kicked off her stride again, rushed down the steps, and bounded toward her on the spring night breeze.

The passenger door was swung open, and a rush of evening wind abruptly burst in.

Ji Youyi buckled her seatbelt and urged as usual, “Teacher Meng, let’s run fast! If we don’t run now, we’ll be caught by the paparazzi!”

Meng Xingshu withdrew her gaze from the girl’s messy bangs, suppressing the urge to reach out. As she started the car, she handed over a bottle of water.

Ji Youyi lowered her head to look, it was entirely covered in foreign words and looked obscenely expensive.

She hurriedly declined and pulled out her half-empty bottle of mineral water from her bag, the one she took for free from the crew. Free water was truly the tastiest.

After drinking the water and steadying her breath, she opened her mouth to ask, “Teacher Meng, what kind of help do you need?”

“Are you free for a whole stretch of time in the near future?” Meng Xingshu countered as she drove.

Truthfully speaking, Ji Youyi wasn’t. She still had to continue working to pay off that five-million yuan debt.

Yet without any hesitation, she replied, “Yes, I am.”

Meng Xingshu gave an “un” sound, her tone casual and ordinary. “I’ll ask first, are you interested in directing a drama for a platform?”

Web series were divided into several categories.

For instance, the drama The Price of Wealth that Ji Youyi had just finished filming belonged to the revenue-sharing category, produced independently by the production company before being sold to a platform.

Because there was no guarantee a drama would make money once it was shot, investors generally didn’t dare to pour too much capital into them. Consequently, revenue-sharing dramas were almost always small budget productions.

Contrasting sharply with these were platform produced dramas and commissioned dramas.

The former were entirely produced by the platform itself, while the latter were funded by the platform, which would then find another company to handle production. For example, Rising Star often produced television dramas for Filmily.

These two types of dramas possessed clear advantages. Backed by a platform, they had no worries about distribution after filming, which allowed for bolder investments. The remuneration for cast and crew would be set much higher, and the quality of the work would generally rise accordingly.