After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 31.1

Quite the opposite, the celebrity she loathed the most was Meng Xingshu.

And now, she hated her even more.

Ye Ciyin spent the entire class period feeling thoroughly dejected.

As dismissal approached, she agonized for a moment before sending Ji Youyi a cute emoji, asking. [Want to drink milk tea?]

Only when she saw the other party’s reply of [Sure, I’ll come back to pick you up.] did her mood improve slightly.

The dismissal bell rang. The moment the teacher announced the end of class, Ye Ciyin grabbed the completely untouched, long cooled egg tarts and bolted out of the classroom, entirely disregarding the strange looks from her teacher and classmates.

In the corridor outside the classroom, several students were lining up to take photos with Ji Youyi and asking for her autograph.

Ji Youyi’s voice was sweet and gentle, sounding like she was coaxing young children. “But my handwriting is really ugly. I’ve never practiced an autograph. Do you really want me to sign? How about I draw a little heart for you instead?”

Ye Ciyin’s heart quickened its pace again. Nervously clasping her hands behind her back, she walked over slowly.

While Ye Ciyin hadn’t figured out how to interact with Ji Youyi yet, Ji Youyi had already made up her mind.

Ji Youyi had wandered around S Film and added a few more girls, but none were as suitable as Ye Ciyin.

Seeing Ye Ciyin come out now, she wished she could just tie the girl to her bicycle and take her back for a screen test immediately.

Barred by legal constraints, she couldn’t do that. She could only wheel the girl to a milk tea shop first, quickly scanning the QR code to pay in advance.

Ji Youyi’s own bank account was still frozen. Her current electronic payments were linked to Meng Xingshu’s card.

As the producer managing the budget, Meng Xingshu had likely found it too troublesome for Ji Youyi to request permission every time she bought something. She had simply opened a supplementary card for her, telling her to buy whatever she wanted.

Ji Youyi had once again been startled by this philanthropist’s actions.

How could someone mingle in this industry for ten years and still be so incredibly naive?

Letting someone swipe a credit card freely without a spending limit, isn’t she afraid I’ll run off with the funds??

However, having electronic payments truly made daily life far more convenient.

Ji Youyi had no choice but to accept the card. While using it, she repeatedly cautioned Meng Xingshu. “My case is a special circumstance. You absolutely must not do this when organizing other projects in the future. You can know a person’s face but not their heart.”

Meng Xingshu always nodded and said “Okay,” but Ji Youyi suspected she didn’t internalize it at all, so she could only add, “If you find anything amiss, call the police to arrest me immediately.”

Today’s expense was incurred for casting the female lead, so Ji Youyi swiped the card with a clear conscience, unafraid of being arrested.

Carrying two cups of milk tea, Ji Youyi selected a quiet, secluded corner in the shop and sat down opposite Ye Ciyin. Cutting straight to the chase, she introduced the project they were working on.

Ye Ciyin was stunned. “Me? The female lead? But I’m not an acting major.”

Not coming from a professional background is exactly why it’s good, the acting fee is cheap!

Naturally, Ji Youyi wouldn’t state that aloud. Keeping her face perfectly neutral, she said, “What major you are in isn’t actually important, what matters is talent. Look at how many actors without formal training have filmed outstanding works.”

The passage sounded somewhat familiar. In an instant, it reminded Ye Ciyin of what the neighborhood aunt often said to her mother. “For an actor, appearance is definitely the most important thing. With your Yinyin looking like that, what a pity it would be if she didn’t become an actor.”

Ye Ciyin lowered her eyes to stare at the tabletop, her fingers digging into the surface of the milk tea cup. She paused for several seconds before murmuring, “But I don’t want to be an actor.”

Ji Youyi pulled her fingers away. “Stop scratching it. If you keep scratching, your nails will be ruined.”

Holding Ye Ciyin’s fingers with her left hand, she pulled out a tissue with her right, gently wiping away the adhesive residue caught on the fingertips. In a conversational tone, she said, “Is it convenient to share why you don’t want to? It’s fine if you don’t want to say, I just find it a bit of a pity.”

“A… pity?”

“Yeah.” Ji Youyi’s tone was light and casual, her praise perfectly calibrated. “I could tell from that scene at the school gate that you’re quite talented. Your acting was very natural, your mind turns quickly, and your articulation is clear. Do you know how many actors lack this ability? If you were studying acting, I could understand it, but since you aren’t, I can only attribute it to raw talent. Wouldn’t throwing it away be a pity? Oh, though the name you gave me was a bit tacky.”

Saying this, she curved her eyes into a smile at Ye Ciyin.

Yet Ye Ciyin froze for some reason, pressing further, “Is that all?”

Ji Youyi tilted her head. “Otherwise?”

The young girl looked conflicted. “Is there no… reason regarding my appearance?”

Ji Youyi laughed out loud. “I see, I left that out. You are indeed very beautiful. I didn’t say it right away because I assumed you already knew and were accustomed to it.”

Coaxed until her face grew warm, Ye Ciyin turned her head away unnaturally.

She stared at a potted plant in the corner for a long time. Finally, gathering her courage, she turned her head back, looked into Ji Youyi’s eyes, and spoke:

“Are you… wanting me to play the female lead because I look like Meng Xingshu?”

“Huh?” Ji Youyi blanked, her clear eyes falling into a momentary haze.

Subconsciously, she asked back, “Do the two of you look alike?”

This reaction somehow pleased Ye Ciyin.

Pursing her lips, Ye Ciyin began to smile, nodding vigorously. “Then let me give it a try.”

The next day, the screen tests for Anaerobic resumed after a two days pause.

This time, the participants weren’t just actors already in the industry whom the crew had contacted, but also amateurs Ji Youyi had spent two days unearthing from various major universities.

The auditions proceeded continuously from eight in the morning until eight in the evening.

After watching another audition, the assistant director led the actor out.

Meng Xingshu looked at a visibly exhausted Ji Youyi, took a piece of candy from a bag, and handed it over. “How does it feel?”

Ji Youyi peeled off the candy wrapper, tossed the sweet into her mouth, and asked back, “What does Teacher Meng think?”

Meng Xingshu shook her head.

Ji Youyi then looked at Li Zhulan. This low-energy individual was so exhausted she was slumped directly on the table, and she shook her head as well.

Keeping the candy in her mouth, Ji Youyi said with a bit of a headache, “I also think it won’t do. Let’s keep looking. If we still haven’t found anyone particularly satisfying by this week, we’ll pick one from the short listed candidates. Winter is coming soon; if we drag it out any further, the summer scenes will be hard to shoot.”

“Actually, the actors aren’t that important, right?” Li Zhulan had just collaborated with Ji Youyi on The Daughter’s Bones and considered herself somewhat experienced in this regard. “When I first saw Wen Yang, I also felt she couldn’t portray Cao Qiu and indeed she couldn’t. But later, you taught her hand-by-hand, and didn’t you manage to guide her through?”

Relying solely on the character of Cao Qiu, Wen Yang’s Weibo follower count had broken past ten million, leaping to become a newly minted top star.

As a spectator and participant throughout the entire filming process, Li Zhulan could say in good conscience that this could no longer be encapsulated by the phrase “guided her through.”

It should be said that without Ji Youyi, there would be no Cao Qiu, let alone the subsequent celebrity effect.

Ji Youyi didn’t think much of it. To her, The Daughter’s Bones was merely a work she had filmed. Aside from the production being too broke and the investors being too brainless, there was nothing else special about it.

She stated simply, “Anaerobic and The Daughter’s Bones are different. The production mindset for The Daughter’s Bones was highly commercialized, the character archetype was greater than the character itself. As long as we pushed the actor toward the archetype, we could succeed. But Anaerobic is exactly the opposite. To film it well, we must completely reveal the character’s original countenance, which requires the actor to understand the character and express her delicately.”

Li Zhulan thought about the mainstream idol dramas on the market and sighed. “You should have said so earlier. If you had, I would have written The Ten Thousand Piece Bone. At least the actors would be easy to find.”

“No need, writing the same formula all the time gets boring too.” Ji Youyi patted her head. “The way things are now very good.”

Li Zhulan was chuckling while resting on the table when the meeting room door was pushed open once more, and a girl dressed in a long skirt walked in.

Her collar was snow-white, her dark blue skirt fell just above her ankles, and her jet-black hair was straight and smooth.

A pair of thin lips were naturally pursed, and her features were beautiful. The smooth, soft lines of her face made her appear non-threatening, yet her dark irises lent her an unusual sense of pressure.

Li Zhulan stared, dazed.

Beside them, the director of photography, Ruan Congfei, arched an eyebrow, edged toward the back to get close to Ji Youyi, and gossiped in a low voice, “Do you get the feeling she looks a bit like Teacher Meng?”

“Not at all.” Ji Youyi felt their temperaments were entirely different.

Ruan Congfei’s brows knitted as she racked her brain. “They don’t? I find her so familiar.”

“Shoo, stop chatting.” This young girl has so many expressions and looks so full of vitality. Wearing a little dress, how cute. Where exactly does she look like Meng Xingshu?

Ji Youyi waved her hand, driving Ruan Congfei back to continue filming.

In the center of the stage area, Ye Ciyin stood still and bowed deeply to the panel. She smiled and looked straight ahead, about to introduce herself, when her body suddenly stiffened upon spotting something below the stage.

The panel of judges sat in a row below. Seated right in the center was Ji Youyi, and to Ji Youyi’s left, a woman dressed in a black shirt was looking at her placidly.

She kept her head slightly raised, her superior bone structure ensuring that she looked flawlessly beautiful even from a downward perspective.

Ye Ciyin was all too familiar with this face.

She had once analyzed her movies frame by frame, and she had saved up her allowance to buy every magazine featuring her. But later, those magazines were all stuffed into the deepest corner of her bookshelf.

They were hidden away tightly, safe from dust, and absolutely never to be taken out again.

Ye Ciyin’s hands, clasped in front of her, tightened involuntarily.

Yesterday, when Ji Youyi introduced the project, she had said Anaerobic was a small production that couldn’t afford famous actors, making it just right to look for university students like her.

She had assumed Ji Youyi was putting together some sort of “student crew” indie project that needed her help, so she had gladly come along.

She hadn’t imagined Meng Xingshu would be here at all. If she had known, she would have definitely…

Forcing herself to snap out of it, Ye Ciyin opened her mouth with a smile. “Apologies, I lost my composure just now, because I…”

Tombs of words caught in her throat before being forcefully pushed out by Ye Ciyin, “I, really, like Teacher Meng very much.”

Everyone present worked in film and television. They had appreciated too much masterful acting to miss the anomaly in Ye Ciyin’s behavior.

How could this kind of reaction possibly be liking someone?

The atmosphere turned somewhat subtle for a moment.

Ji Youyi tapped her ballpoint pen against the desk to draw everyone’s attention, speaking in a leisurely tone, “Ah, another fan meeting scene. I don’t know how many times I have to see this a day. I always say working with Teacher Meng makes it easy to feel inferior.”

She tilted her head toward Meng Xingshu, teasing with a smile, “But Teacher Meng, your expression is too stern, you’ll scare away your fans.”

“What should I do then? Like this?” Meng Xingshu followed her lead smoothly, lifting the corners of her lips to reveal a perfectly arched smile.

“Forget it, forget it, it looks too fake. You’d better not smile. Let the young girl bear with it for now. Once we start filming together in the future, she’ll get used to it after seeing it often.”

Ji Youyi let out a sigh. “You guys don’t know, when I first met Teacher Meng, I was terrified too. I didn’t dare say much.”

Pairs of gossipy ears instantly perked up alertly.

Meng Xingshu chuckled softly. “It’s my fault, I apologize.”

“No, no, no, it’s entirely because I hadn’t built up my tolerance back then. Now I can chat with Teacher Meng all night long.”

The gossipy ears perked up even higher. Ruan Congfei couldn’t resist speaking up on behalf of the masses, “Chatting about what all night long?”

Ji Youyi raised an eyebrow. “Is that something I can tell you?”

The room erupted into laughter.

Within a few sentences, the tension in the room dissipated completely.

Ji Youyi secretly winked at Ye Ciyin on stage, making a “please” gesture. “Apologies, we chatted for a bit and delayed your audition. Shall we start now? Could you first do a self-introduction?”

Ye Ciyin knew exactly who had actually delayed the audition.

Having already adjusted her breathing, she bowed deeply once more and spoke with a smile, “Hello, teachers. My name is Ye Ciyin. I am 19 years old, 171 cm tall, and weigh 47 kg. I come from C City, and I am currently studying at…”

The focus of the screen test lay in the acting. Yesterday, Ji Youyi had sent Ye Ciyin three scenes, asking her to choose two to perform.

The preparation time was short, the information scarce, and Ye Ciyin lacked a professional background. Coupled with her palpable awkwardness and nervousness, her performance was far from ideal.

Ji Youyi didn’t say much. Offering a “Thank you for your hard work,” she dismissed her to go home and wait for updates.

At 10:00 PM, all the screen tests concluded. The exhausted creators could finally rest and dig into the late-night snacks prepared by the production team.

After delivering the food, a junior producer whispered something in Meng Xingshu’s ear. Meng Xingshu nodded, turned to Ji Youyi, and said, “I’m heading out for a moment.”

Ji Youyi had just polished off an entire bowl of steamed egg with shrimp and was focused intently on her computer, reviewing the audition clips filmed today. Hearing this, she gave a casual response.

Inside the hotel lobby, the other auditionees had long since departed. Only a girl who had finished her screen test as early as 8:30 PM was still sitting there.

Ye Ciyin was idly playing with her phone, occasionally casting a glance toward the direction of the meeting room.

Seeing Meng Xingshu approach, she was caught somewhat off guard. Standing up awkwardly, she hurriedly bowed. “Hello, Teacher Meng.”

“Hello. No need to be so polite.” The corners of Meng Xingshu’s lips curved faintly without much warmth before smoothing out, serving as a greeting. “Is there something the matter?”

“I…” Thinking of the relationship between Meng Xingshu and Ji Youyi, Ye Ciyin felt embarrassed to say she was waiting for Ji Youyi to finish work.

She had no choice but to brace herself, lifting the insulated bag in her hand for Meng Xingshu to see. “Director Ji treated me to milk tea yesterday and gave me an audition opportunity. I’m very grateful to her, so I bought some desserts and wanted to hand them to her personally. I sent her a message, but she hasn’t replied to me…”

“Personally.”

Meng Xingshu recalled that transaction record from the milk tea shop yesterday, her gaze turning cooler. “She is busy and hasn’t had time to look at her phone. I’ll pass the message along for you.”

Ye Ciyin quickly said, “No, no, don’t disturb her. I can wait until she finishes her work.”

“It’s fine.” Meng Xingshu’s face remained blank. Before turning to leave, as if suddenly remembering something, she added to Ye Ciyin, “Eating too many sweets at night affects one’s health. Besides, her stomach isn’t very good. It would be best to buy something else in the future.”