I Ran Away After Flirting with the Goddess - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Ji Ning felt that Shen Lishu was “toxic,” and for a moment, she couldn’t tell if she was joking.

In this industry, let alone acknowledging someone as an aunt, there are plenty who acknowledge others as “daddy.” If calling someone “aunt” could lead to a wealth of resources, Ji Ning would certainly be willing!

Seeing that Ji Ning was actually considering it, Shen Lishu’s right eyelid twitched. She proactively handed her a bottle of water to move past the topic.

“Calm your heart and learn well from Director Mao. Even if it’s only for two days, you can learn a lot,” Shen Lishu sat on the armrest of the sofa and looked at Ji Ning with a serious expression. “Don’t waste your manager’s good intentions.”

Speaking of which, Ji Ning’s manager had a fairly good relationship with Shen Lishu; otherwise, she wouldn’t have attended that wine gala last time.

Su Jiang was a formidable figure in the circle. When they first started out, she and Shen Lishu’s manager, Su Lin, had a love-hate rivalry for years, which only stopped when Su Lin followed Shen Lishu to establish her studio.

Those two were interesting—they grew up together as sisters in a blended family and had always been on good terms. However, for some unknown reason after university, they suddenly fell out. It became a “you or me” situation, and they practically wished to never cross paths again until death.

Since the Great Manager Su had sent Ji Ning to play a small supporting role in Director Mao’s drama, she likely wanted her to learn from a great director and Shen Lishu herself, intending to cultivate her.

Su Jiang knew Shen Lishu’s temper; her willingness to guide juniors was entirely based on “I feel like it.” If she didn’t like someone, Shen Lishu wouldn’t teach them no matter what. Su Jiang also understood Ji Ning’s personality, which was why she hadn’t told her that Shen Lishu was the lead in this drama.

“Teacher Shen knows my manager?” Ji Ning suddenly turned her head to look at Shen Lishu.

Her movement was so abrupt that the makeup artist couldn’t react in time. The lipstick swiped across her face, leaving a stark, long bean-paste colored line.

Before Shen Lishu could speak, Ji Ning nodded to herself. Of course, how could Shen Lishu not know Su Jiang? With the Best Actress’s status, it wasn’t surprising for her to know anyone.

Ji Ning clenched her fingers tightly, not even feeling her nails digging into her palms.

From Shen Lishu’s tone, she and her manager weren’t just nodding acquaintances. Since their relationship was so good, why didn’t Su Jiang tell her Shen Lishu was the lead before she came? If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have been making a fool of herself in front of Shen Lishu since this morning, leaving a bad impression.

Su Jiang must have done it on purpose, feeling she wasn’t as good as the newcomers and becoming increasingly neglectful.

With the rise of survival shows over the last two years, traffic stars have popped up like leeks after rain, and Su Jiang had more and more artists under her. Ji Ning was the type who had some traffic and some acting skill but was still a distance and some luck away from being second or third-tier. That’s why Su Jiang ignored her, not even remembering that her contract expired at the end of the year. Or maybe she remembered but didn’t think it was important enough to mention.

When she took on Sink, Ji Ning actually had an audition for a female lead in a web drama, but Su Jiang pushed it aside and made her take this small supporting role. Otherwise, she should be getting pampered in a new crew right now, instead of acting like a grandson and watching others’ faces.

At the time, Ji Ning thought Su Jiang wanted her to learn things, but now it seemed she might be planning to make her step aside for other newcomers.

Ji Ning’s expression was ugly. The makeup artist used a wet cotton swab to carefully wipe away the lipstick from the corner of her mouth, asking with concern, “Teacher Ji, are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine.” Ji Ning forced a smile and lowered her eyes to hide her gaze.

Shen Lishu, having finished speaking, went to find An Rongrong with her water, pointing out in a “double-standard” way how her performance earlier could have been improved.

When Ji Ning returned from her makeup touch-up, her acting returned to its morning level.

Director Mao was a man whose heart was even bigger than his stomach. Not long after scolding Ji Ning, he couldn’t help but praise her now that she was acting well. “Aye! Right! If you act at this level, there are no problems at all.”

Ji Ning smiled but said nothing.

She seemed to have suddenly had an epiphany; after being scolded by Director Mao, her acting significantly improved. During her breaks over these two days, she didn’t try to get close to Shen Lishu as before, but sat quietly by herself.

Not far away, Shen Lishu did something that made An Rongrong let out a “chicken-like” squeal of excitement, stomping her feet repeatedly while sitting on her stool.

Ji Ning looked over at the two. An Rongrong was clutching her phone, making whimpering noises of joy. She turned her head toward Shen Lishu in disbelief. “You really added me? You really added me?”

The Weibo mutual-follow An Rongrong had been longing for had happened today without warning. She felt a bit surreal.

Shen Lishu leaned against the armrest of the sofa and showed the phone screen directly to An Rongrong, expressing helplessness at her reaction. “Why are you like those marketing accounts that hate on me? Taking screenshots anytime, anywhere.”

In the early years, no matter what Shen Lishu posted, there were anti-fans “stalking” her account. Even if she withdrew a post to change a punctuation mark, they would provide before-and-after screenshots to speculate on the deep meaning behind the action.

An Rongrong giggled as she saved the screenshot. Shen Lishu, of course, didn’t understand why she did it.

She wanted to carefully save every bit of their time together. In the future, no matter what happened between them, she would have things to slowly reminisce about and remember how good Shen Lishu was to her.

To remember only her goodness.

An Rongrong stared foolishly at the Weibo friend interface, still unable to believe the Goddess had actually followed her back! How could something so good happen!

For the next half day, An Rongrong was silly and joyful. Whenever someone spoke to her, she would find any opportunity to tirelessly mention that Shen Lishu had followed her back, the expression on her face extremely proud.

If An Rongrong had a tail behind her, it would be wagging frantically toward the sky!

Shen Lishu watched from the side, wanting to laugh. She didn’t know a Weibo mutual-follow could make An Rongrong this happy.

In the afternoon, Ji Ning finished her scenes. The assistant director prepared a large bouquet of flowers and handed them over. “Teacher Ji, thank you for your hard work.”

Ji Ning’s scenes were few, and they had prioritized her parts over the last two days, so she finished quickly. There might be some pick-up shots later, but she could leave the crew now.

“Thank you, Director Mao, thank you everyone.” Ji Ning held the flowers, turned around, and bowed to everyone with a face full of smiles. She cooperated with the camera crew for a group photo before getting on her RV to leave. Even as the car drove off, Ji Ning waved goodbye through the window.

The assistant director couldn’t help but sigh to Director Mao, “Ji Ning is quite a good person. Even though she was scolded to tears by you yesterday when she arrived, she doesn’t hold a grudge now that she’s leaving.”

Director Mao snorted. “I did that for her own good. Acting needs to settle before finding the right moment to explode, rather than showing off and hogging the scene. If she learned that point, then these two days weren’t in vain.”

The assistant director didn’t bother discussing it with him and turned back to work. Meanwhile, the moment Ji Ning closed the window, the smile on her face vanished. Her face-changing technique was unparalleled.

She tossed the flowers aside casually, not caring for them at all.

Su Jiang had sent a message half an hour ago, asking if she had finished her scenes. Ji Ning gave a perfunctory reply before opening Weibo and clicking directly into Shen Lishu’s homepage.

The Best Actress’s latest post was from yesterday morning about the same time Ji Ning had arrived on set. Ji Ning also followed Shen Lishu, she just wasn’t followed back. The Best Actress didn’t have many friends and didn’t care for commercial “mutual-praising” marketing friendships, so she followed very few people. No wonder An Rongrong was so happy to be added as a friend.

Ji Ning would be happy too if it were her.

Ji Ning couldn’t understand what An Rongrong had. She was just from a girl group survival show no works, no acting skills. She didn’t know what Shen Lishu saw in her. Comparing An Rongrong to herself, it was impossible not to feel jealous.

She gripped the edges of her phone case, staring intently at Shen Lishu’s latest post. The comments underneath were all speculating about who she was talking about.

Who else could it be? An Rongrong!

Ji Ning was distorted with jealousy. She couldn’t help but think how great it would be if Shen Lishu were praising her.

Ji Ning didn’t go directly back to the company but returned to where she lived. On the way, she closed her eyes and thought a lot. Finally, before getting out of the car, she opened Shen Lishu’s page again. Her eyes flickered, and she bit her teeth as she reached out a finger to “Like” that post by Shen Lishu that didn’t mention a name.

Ji Ning’s departure had little impact on the crew. Everyone continued as usual, with the only difference being a small night scene today.

In summer, the sky stays bright late. Director Mao wasn’t willing to film early, so they had to wait for sunset. Shen Lishu, unable to film and unable to eat, felt a bit bored. She glanced at An Rongrong, who was chatting with someone.

“Rongrong,” Shen Lishu remembered Ji Ning’s reaction yesterday. Resting her face on her hand, her eyes moved. she couldn’t help but tease An Rongrong. “Call me something nice.”

An Rongrong looked up at her, blinked her eyes, and asked tentatively, “Is there any benefit?”

Shen Lishu raised an eyebrow, interested. “What kind of benefit do you want?”

An Rongrong’s eyes darted around. She turned off her phone screen and leaned forward, resting on the sofa under Shen Lishu’s elbow. Being very close, she looked up, shrugging and lifting her face toward her.

An Rongrong liked sitting on a stool, so she was half a head shorter than Shen Lishu on the sofa. By leaning on the armrest, she was looking up even more.

From an outsider’s perspective, this posture looked like An Rongrong was asking Shen Lishu for a kiss.

She was indeed asking Shen Lishu for something.

An Rongrong twisted her upper body, her fingers picking at the fabric of the sofa beneath her palm. Her pure, clean eyes stared straight at Shen Lishu as she unconsciously acted spoiled. She whispered boldly, “I want your phone number.”

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