After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 8

At 2:30 PM, Ji Youyi returned to the set, only to realize she had come back far too early.

Because the set was, once again, in the middle of a massive row over a scene.

The scene they were about to film was supposed to be a “sweet point” in the drama. After the female lead’s rebirth, she visits the male lead’s manor, only to be framed by the female antagonist. She twists her ankle and is carried to a couch by the male lead to have medicine applied. The villainous female lead stands by, grinding her teeth in rage, a foil to highlight the protagonists’ sweetness.

The problem lay in the “carry.”

“I really can’t lift her!” Sesame Paste’s shouting could be heard the moment Ji Youyi stepped onto the set. “She’s so heavy, how is it possible to pick her up?”

The female lead, Wen Yang, stood to the side with her head bowed, her hands tucked awkwardly behind her back.

A man in a suit was roaring at her: “Did you not listen to a word I said? I told you a thousand times before joining the crew, fast, fast, fast! Do you not understand human speech? Don’t you know how fat you are? How do you have the face to keep eating?”

A group of people surrounded them, trying to mediate. “Teacher Wang, please, calm down.”

The director was coaching Sesame Paste, his tone like he was coaxing a child: “Maybe your posture isn’t quite right. Ah, of course, your performance is already excellent, it’s amazing for someone who’s never acted before. I’m just saying, it’s possible, maybe, you haven’t found the technique. Here, watch me, lifting someone requires a certain knack…”

Sesame Paste threw a fit, refusing to budge: “It’s not my problem. She’s too heavy. How am I supposed to carry that?”

He glanced at Wen Yang and rolled his eyes. “Seriously, eat less, you fat pig.”

Ji Youyi had originally been squatting next to Li Zhulan watching the drama, but as she watched, she suddenly stood up and walked toward the center of the storm.

Seeing her aura change completely, Li Zhulan hurriedly hissed at her: “Xiao Ji! Xiao Ji!!”

Come back! Don’t look for trouble!!

Ji Youyi happily slipped into the crowd, her bright eyes looking toward the director. “Director, when are we starting? If it’s going to be a while, should I run lines with the leads first?”

“Go, go, get out of here,” the director said, wishing he could swat her away. Couldn’t she see the lines were exactly where the problem started?

“Oh, you need to give the male lead some coaching?” Ji Youyi stood in the center of the group, perfectly partitioning Sesame Paste and the suit wearing man to the other side.

As if she couldn’t read the room at all, she took Wen Yang’s stiff arm and said to the director, “Then I’ll practice with the female lead first.”

“Teacher Wen, in a moment when I trip you, please be careful not to actually hit the ground. Just lift your foot and hold it, we’ll film the actual fall in a separate shot later. Hmm… after that, I’m supposed to watch the male lead carry you away. Since the male lead finds it ‘inconvenient,’ I’ll do it!”

Ji Youyi’s mouth moved fast, and her hands moved faster.

Just as she lightly finished saying “I’ll do it,” she reached out and swept Wen Yang up in a bridal carry.

Her posture was relaxed, her movements effortless, she even gave a little bounce to adjust the weight.

The entire set fell into a dead silence, leaving only Ji Youyi smiling blithely as if no one else were there. “Teacher Wen, are you a fairy? Do you live on dew? How are you so light?”

Lying in Ji Youyi’s arms, Wen Yang’s cheek pressed against her shoulder, not daring to move a muscle.

The embarrassment and humiliation were walled off by a sudden warmth. Wen Yang’s tense body gradually relaxed.

Ji Youyi was very thin, her slender arms pressing against her were firm, almost hard. It wasn’t actually a very comfortable carry, but the tears in Wen Yang’s eyes suddenly fell fiercely.

She buried her head, biting her lower lip hard to keep from sobbing out loud.

As for Li Zhulan, her soul had already left her body.

As expected of her childhood friend, offended the female lead’s camp in the morning, and the male lead’s camp in the afternoon. Perfect, just perfect.

This morning, the female lead’s side had her delete a huge chunk of scenes; in a moment, the male lead’s side would surely come over and demand she write the childhood friend’s character out of existence entirely.

Ha… haha… hahahaha…

Anyone with a brain could hear the sarcasm in Ji Youyi’s words, and Sesame Paste was, presumably, a person.

His face turned a deep red. “So what if I can’t lift her? I’m not a professional actor, I haven’t learned your ‘techniques.’ I can’t lift her, so what?”

“You’re being so strange. I didn’t even mention you,” Ji Youyi blinked her eyes, looking utterly surprised. “But really, you can’t lift her? Why? I’m 168cm and weigh only 40kg, yet I can lift her. Are you physically weaker than me? You should eat more. The crew has that Sesame Paste sponsorship, right? I’ve had two cups today and I feel so strong. Haven’t you had any yet? You should go drink some, it’s supposed to be great for your health. If you’d drunk it earlier, you wouldn’t have to lose face like this now.”

“Pfft!” Somewhere in the distance, a few staff members couldn’t hold it in, and a muffled chuckle rippled through the set.

Ji Youyi ignored it and continued with a troubled expression, “But if you really can’t learn… well, I guess the gap between people is just… sigh. Then you’ll just have to beg the director to see if he can change it to a close-up.”

The bridge was extended, and Director Hu jumped on it immediately. “A close-up isn’t impossible. How about we just film it that way?”

He bowed slightly, asking Sesame Paste with a consultative tone.

Sesame Paste was fuming. He pointed at Ji Youyi. “Fine, film it however you want. Just one thing: she isn’t allowed to be in the shot.”

As long as the boss was happy, everything else was a minor detail.

“No problem!” Director Hu let out a massive sigh of relief and picked up his walkie-talkie to start barking orders. “Stop dazing off! Prepare, prepare! We’re rolling!”

He turned back, saw Ji Youyi, and couldn’t help but scold: “Why are you still holding Teacher Wen? Put her down!”

This little ancestor!

Ji Youyi gave an “Oh” and gently set her down.

Wen Yang kept her head down in silence. From Ji Youyi’s angle, she could see the girl’s eyes were bloodshot and water droplets hung from her chin.

“What are you crying for? I’ll go call the makeup artist to touch you up.” Ji Youyi’s lips curled slightly. Her voice lost its previous playful tone, leaving only gentleness.

She reached out to wipe the moisture from Wen Yang’s face, whispering in a voice only the two of them could hear: “Silly girl, the road is long. Walk slowly.”

The first day of filming was such a mess that the production schedule was compressed to the limit.

Ji Youyi skimmed the latest schedule; the crew would have to pull at least six consecutive all-nighters to catch up.

However, none of this had anything to do with Ji Youyi, because her scenes had been cut to the bone. Her next scene was in a week, and she would wrap immediately after.

Fantastic.

Ji Youyi removed her makeup, changed her clothes, and went to the producer to claim a lunch box. She wrapped it tightly in a plastic bag and put it in her backpack, intending to have it for breakfast tomorrow, then headed out to meet Fang Ruohan.

Fang Ruohan was dressed even more formally than their last meeting, her high ponytail replaced by a more serious bun.

Ji Youyi lunged at her the moment she saw her, giving her a bear hug. “Babe, are you here for a World Government summit?”

“Stop it.” Fang Ruohan was teased into a smile. “Is filming going well?”

“Better than well,” Ji Youyi said with genuine feeling. “In the morning, I had a ‘heated discussion’ with the director about shots, at noon, I leaned on the screenwriter’s shoulder to ‘study’ the script and in the afternoon, I took the chance to princess carry the female lead. You have no idea, our lead is so soft and cute.”

Fang Ruohan laughed heartily. “Are you there to act, or to flirt with girls?”

Ji Youyi tilted her head playfully. “Can’t it be both?”

The two girls walked arm in arm, chatting and laughing through the streets, finally picking a BBQ stall to sit down.

Fang Ruohan was driving and couldn’t drink. In D-City, prices were cheap, for 100 yuan, they ordered a table full of skewers and had a blast washing them down with Coke.

After their fill, they parted ways at the night market. Ji Youyi walked slowly from the bustling market back to her quiet guesthouse.

The night was colder than the day. It wasn’t that Ji Youyi didn’t want to walk faster; it was just that her stomach hurt.

Original Ji’s stomach seemed a bit more fragile than her own. So what if she’d had her stomach pumped a few days ago, had irregular meals for two days, and just ate a ton of BBQ? Why did it have to hurt this much?

By the time Ji Youyi reached the guesthouse, she was drenched in sweat. She found the stomach medicine Fang Ruohan had bought her, swallowed it with water, and wrapped herself in the cashmere coat, which had now effectively become a blanket for a short nap. Finally, she felt a bit better.

The night was long. After a shower, Ji Youyi lay in bed screening casting calls she could apply for, then talked to Li Zhulan about the script until 4:00 AM before finally drifting off.

At 6:00 AM, Ji Youyi’s alarm went off. she got up punctually, finished her breakfast in ten seconds, splashed her face with cold water, and headed out.

Today, she was going to film that short drama titled The Cruel Tyrant’s Palm Pet.

Calling it “filming” was a stretch, she was mostly there with a learning mindset. She was curious about how micro-budget film projects operated and wanted to see if she could produce things this way in the future.

There were only two filming locations, a rented ancient building for indoor scenes and a free public street for outdoor scenes.

The entire crew consisted of barely ten people. The casting director who interviewed her the day before had vanished after overseeing the leads’ makeup at the hotel.

Only when Ji Youyi arrived on set did she realize that she wasn’t just the casting director, she was also the prop master and the lighting technician. She had to arrive early to set everything up.

The waiting time was long. Actors who weren’t needed sat on plastic stools playing on their phones, but Ji Youyi, wrapped in her thick coat, ran outside with great interest to watch the filming.

Regrettably, even after an hour of observation, Ji Youyi couldn’t find the “essence” to grasp.

To put it bluntly, anyone could be a short drama director.

The visuals lacked cinematography. Hints were just close-ups, a single person speaking was a medium close-up, two people interacting was a medium shot. The actors had no room to perform, all emotional output was singular and blunt, with exaggerated and formulaic expressions. The pacing of the plot was shockingly fast.

Finally, watching the male lead clutching the camera and roaring in agony. “Woman! Did you ever even love me?!” Ji Youyi looked away from the eyesore and asked a coordinator nearby, “Do people… actually like watching this kind of thing nowadays?”

The coordinator, who had been dozing over his phone, perked up instantly. “Yeah, this stuff is fire.”

He gave an example. “Do you know what the total movie box office was last year?”

“How much?”

“40 billion. 9 billion of that came from Meng Xingshu’s Record of the River Journey alone. The rest of the market only had about 30 billion plus.”

The coordinator asked again, “Then do you know the size of our short drama market last year?”

Ji Youyi didn’t know the economy of this world. Based on his tone, she guessed, “30 billion?”

By movie box office standards, that was already a massive number.

The coordinator sneered and shook his head, holding up five fingers. “Can’t guess it, can you? It’s 50 billion! Cinema is dead. These days, who watches movies? The future belongs to us and short dramas!”

“I see. Thank you.” Ji Youyi didn’t say anything more. She gave a polite smile, stood up straight, and continued watching the shoot.

Short dramas and long dramas might have different styles, but they pulled the same all-nighters.

It was nearly 7:00 AM when Ji Youyi finished work. She changed her clothes and came out, wondering whether to head back to the Life set to scavenge some breakfast or just buy a steamed bun on the street, when the phone in her bag started vibrating incessantly.

Li Zhulan had left three missed calls.

Ji Youyi picked up. On the other end of the line was Li Zhulan’s panicked voice: “Xiao Ji! Are you awake? It’s over, it’s all over! The set exploded! The set exploded!!”

“Exploded” (Zha Zu) in industry slang meant the core members of the crew had quit and run away.

Ji Youyi didn’t hear clearly and asked, “What exploded? Who exploded?”

“Everyone!” Li Zhulan was on the verge of a breakdown. “The investors ran away, the male lead ran away, the director, producer, and cinematographer, they ALL! RAN! AWAY!”