I Transmigrated Into A Fanfiction And Got Pregnant With The Movie Star's Child - Chapter 5

Ji Xing stood obediently by the sink, running the water until his arms ached without daring to stop.

“Has enough time passed?” he asked Xiao Lin.

“What time?” Xiao Lin asked, looking somewhat puzzled.

“Teacher He said we must run cold water for a full ten minutes.”

“Oh, oh.” Xiao Lin checked his watch. “It has been exactly ten minutes since Teacher He left.”

Hearing this, Ji Xing finally dared to pull his hand back.

“Are you really that afraid of him?” Xiao Lin asked as he handed Ji Xing a tissue to dry his hands and pulled out the burn ointment to apply.

“Aren’t you afraid of him? He looks pretty… pretty strict.” Ji Xing searched for a milder word to describe He Chenchen, swallowing the word scary that had nearly slipped past his lips.

Xiao Lin wasn’t afraid of He Chenchen at all. Right now, he was far more concerned with something else. “Teacher He actually seemed quite worried about you.”

“If anyone else had gotten burned today, he would have done the exact same thing,” Ji Xing said.

He wasn’t trying to brush anything off; he was just thinking of an incident back on their movie set. A scene involving water had been scheduled during that shoot, and on the eve of filming, when He Chenchen learned the production crew hadn’t arranged medical staff or lifeguards, he specifically sought out the producer to ensure proper personnel were in place before starting.

The production team had felt the scene wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant such a fuss. But constrained by He Chenchen’s status, and with regulations technically requiring it, the crew ultimately arranged for medical and safety staff before shooting.

The filming went smoothly, and the deployed staff weren’t even needed. Later on, somehow, the matter trended online, and several of He Chenchen’s anti-fans attacked him, accusing him of throwing his weight around due to his status.

He Chenchen hadn’t stepped forward to explain until another actor clarified things, stating that the person entering the water was himself, not He Chenchen. Only then did everyone realize He Chenchen wasn’t fighting for his own safety, but for his colleagues on the crew.

Following that incident, the producer permanently stationed medical staff on set, upgrading the medical safety net for their entire crew. That very move ended up saving a crew member’s life during a minor accident shortly afterward.

“He’s always been quite conscientious about safety on set.”

“I honestly couldn’t tell,” Xiao Lin admitted.

Ji Xing was quite surprised too. He hadn’t expected that in this world, even though He Chenchen possessed a somewhat unhinged persona, he had retained a portion of his past temperament and integrity.

Come to think of it, while this world contained many absurd settings, most people and events still adhered to basic logic. For instance, the variety show brought in five top-tier industry heavyweights because of the plot’s setup, yet each heavyweight’s behavioral pattern matched their original persona remarkably well.

Teacher Zhang went out of his way to understand the trainees, continuing his consistent personal touch; Pei Yun might have been just a plot device in the original novel, but here he felt genuinely alive; and He Chenchen remained the same, continuing to care about safety issues on set as he always had.

These details had never been mentioned in the original fan fiction.

This convinced Ji Xing that as long as he worked hard and avoided doing anything to provoke He Chenchen, he could certainly alter the trajectory of the story.

After dinner came the post-interview segment.

The segmented director in charge of the interviews asked him which mentor’s team he wanted to join the most.

Ji Xing thought about it very carefully for a moment and said he wanted to go to Teacher Zhang’s group the most. When asked what he would do if Teacher Zhang didn’t take him, Ji Xing failed to spot the trap entirely and honestly replied that joining Sister Xin’s or Teacher Wu’s groups would be fine too.

Sister Xin and Teacher Wu were the remaining two mentors, who were a Best Actress and a Television Queen respectively.

Thinking such interviews were merely a matter of routine formality, Ji Xing put the matter out of his mind after it wrapped up. It wasn’t until he arrived at the studio the next day that he learned the production team had worked overnight to edit their interviews into a short clip, playing it on site directly in front of all five mentors.

He knew the production team loved stirring up drama, but he hadn’t expected them to stir it up quite like this.

Out of the twenty-odd pending trainees facing the same question, over half had played it safe, claiming they wanted to join every single group. The rest expressed deep admiration for specific mentors, stating their desire to join their idols’ teams.

Ji Xing was the sole exception.

He neither played it safe nor named four mentors, explicitly listing three specific names, which means he directly excluded Pei Yun and He Chenchen. Among five people, having one chosen while four were left out was nothing awkward. But when the chosen ones became the majority and the excluded ones became the minority, things grew rather subtle.

Seeing that interview segment, Ji Xing was completely stunned.

He had made that choice for specific reasons, but others might not see it that way.

Upon watching the clip, Pei Yun turned directly to He Chenchen beside him and said, “Well, look at that. Both of us got rejected.”

He Chenchen’s expression remained unchanged, though his gaze lingered for a split second on Ji Xing’s slightly reddened hand.

Once the short clip finished playing, the production team had the mentors select another batch of trainees from the pending pool, leaving only six individuals remaining after the cuts. Ji Xing was one of them. The mentors gave them a bonus challenge, asking all six to each mimic an animal, and the topic Ji Xing drew happened to be a snail.

He felt terribly awkward before stepping onto the stage, but once up there, he grew strangely calm.

Who hasn’t said the wrong thing at least once in their life? He couldn’t just stop living because of a misplaced sentence.

As for He Chenchen, Ji Xing figured the man wasn’t petty enough to mind, especially since the person he avoided was Pei Yun, meaning he should be safe.

“Hello, esteemed teachers. I am ready to begin my performance,” Ji Xing bowed to the five of them before slowly dropping to the floor, mimicking the crawling posture of a snail. He crept forward inch by inch, arched his back and torso, and occasionally poked his head forward to imitate a snail using its tentacles to probe the path ahead.

With his slender frame and flexible torso, his posture during the snail imitation bore a striking resemblance, drawing curious and amused glances from everyone present.

He Chenchen watched the little snail on the ground, his gaze involuntarily dropping to the younger man’s lower back. Ji Xing was wearing a pale pink T-shirt today, and while performing on the floor, the hem of his shirt accidentally rode up, revealing a section of his slender lower back.

And right there on his waist, partially masked by the edge of the T-shirt, was a small patch of bruising.

“That’s enough,” He Chenchen spoke up abruptly.

Unexpecting his performance to be cut short, Ji Xing hurried to stand up and straightened his posture obediently.

The mentors all looked toward He Chenchen, clearly surprised by his interruption. Since the recording began, not a single trainee’s performance had ever been cut short mid-way, especially since Ji Xing was practically finished anyway.

Some people began to silently speculate whether that interview clip had provoked He Chenchen into sudden anger.

Even though He Chenchen had never shown any desire to have Ji Xing on his team from the start, a movie emperor looking down on a trainee was one thing, but a complete nobody publicly snubbing a movie emperor was an entirely different matter.

They figured He Chenchen was using this opportunity to teach Ji Xing a lesson.

Everyone present understood social tact, and under these circumstances, nobody wanted to cross He Chenchen. It wasn’t about sucking up to power, given that their own industry statuses were already quite high.

Rather, they felt that if He Chenchen truly was petty enough to let Ji Xing take a minor lesson, it might actually work out for the best. Once the movie emperor vented his frustration, he would likely let Ji Xing off the hook afterward.

“Your performance was exceptionally cute, but unfortunately, my team is already full.”

“My team already has a trainee matching your type, so I need to save my spot for someone more suitable.”

“I think I’ll wait until I’ve seen all the trainees’ performances before deciding…”

The three mentors Ji Xing had mentioned in his interview all offered polite refusals. Pei Yun stayed quiet; although he usually had a sharp tongue, he refrained from mocking Ji Xing at that moment.

“Thank you, teachers.”

Ji Xing bowed to the five of them once more and turned to walk off the stage.

He felt no overwhelming disappointment inside; if he got eliminated right here and now, it would be precisely what he wanted. To keep his performance from looking too intentional, he even intentionally furrowed his brows slightly to make himself look a bit dejected.

Yet just as he was about to step out of the studio, a voice suddenly called out to him.

Following that, amidst everyone’s astonished gazes, He Chenchen extended a team-joining card toward Ji Xing.