I Was Taken by the Female Lead After Transmigrating into a Book - Chapter 35

Li Ke’s words grew smaller and smaller under the four increasingly icy stares from the back seat, until his voice finally disappeared.

Li Ke glanced at them through the rearview mirror and muttered, “I was just talking, can’t I even talk anymore?”

Bai Xue ignored him, her gaze fixed on the window. They were slowly entering the most bustling business district of the ancient city, but the filming location wasn’t here. It was on a “mountain” in the city center.

The terrain there was relatively remote. Although it was zoned as a city district, most of the residents were elderly. It was incomparable to the prosperous and lively business district they were in, which even had people setting up live-streaming stands. This kind of scene was common in Boyuan City, with neon lights and trendy decorations everywhere. Bai Xue only looked for a moment before turning her gaze away.

Bai Feifei didn’t immediately react to who she should reply to first, but her body was always faster than her mind. She immediately picked up the flower pot from the console, cupped it in both hands, and held it up like a treasure. With bright eyes, she said, “It’s this!”

Huo Wu’s eyebrows furrowed as she scrutinized the succulent. Finally, she spoke, “What is it? A specimen model?”

The quality of the Queen Rose was so good that it looked like a clay model, so it was normal for Huo Wu not to recognize it. Today, the most common plants in homes were easy-to-care-for greenery like green radishes and money trees. Of course, many people had succulents, but few had a collection as refined as Bai Feifei’s, with almost every variety, not to mention a rare one like the one in her hands.

“This is a succulent plant called the Queen Rose, the most beautiful kind,” Bai Feifei’s cheeks were a little flushed. She emphasized the word “most.” “It’s late summer now, so it’s faded a bit. It’ll be even prettier in autumn. The leaves will turn pink then, a special translucent kind, like they glow.”

Perhaps because she was holding it up for a while, Bai Feifei’s arms, without any support, started to tremble a bit as she was still recovering from her illness. Just as her elbows were about to drop, trying to use the console for support, Huo Wu took the slightly heavy flower pot from her.

Huo Wu’s face was expressionless as her beautiful eyes constantly examined the plant in the center. The flower pot was very beautiful. Huo Wu had once filmed a low-budget movie where she played the heir of a declining kiln factory, so she had some knowledge of glazed pottery. The one Bai Feifei used was not cheap, costing anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand yuan. There was even her name on a corner of the pot. The entire surface of the pot was covered in a layer of fine, golden-yellow crushed stones, with no soil visible. Every single leaf was plump and clean.

It was a succulent that had been cared for very meticulously. She held it in her hand and said, “Tell me about it.”

Bai Feifei’s eyes lit up. As if she had been waiting for this, she took a thick stack of papers from her bag. With a serious expression, she said, “A-Wu, it’s not easy to raise this little one well. I’ve written down all the care instructions, from beginner tutorials to advanced courses—the one for the Queen Rose is on… page seven!”

With that, she held up the thick stack of A4 paper and looked at her with a big smile.

Huo Wu looked at the neat handwriting on the pristine white paper and fell silent. At a glance, it was about a dozen pages, densely packed with text. Some parts even had simple line drawings, with colors. The drawings weren’t masterpieces, but they were easy to understand, explaining how to care for it, how to provide sun protection, how to supplement light, how to prevent pests and diseases… Everything was included.

A look of disgust gradually appeared on Huo Wu’s face. She frowned and said, “Is it that delicate?”

Bai Feifei quickly waved her hand. “Succulents aren’t delicate. They can live with just a little water.”

Huo Wu’s eyes looked even more brilliant, with an unreadable smile in them. “Not delicate, and yet it has this many instructions?”

Bai Feifei’s brows furrowed in distress. She said in a low voice, “Succulents are easy to care for, but if you want to raise them to be especially beautiful, you have to be careful. Otherwise, they’ll just become green and fat. But being a little fat also looks good and full of life.”

Huo Wu raised an eyebrow, her gaze lingering on Bai Feifei’s face. Bai Feifei had been discharged from the hospital for a while. Jiang Yueming’s condition had also stabilized. With Fu Xiaoxiao on the inside and Xi Rong and Bai Xue on the outside, her only task was to take care of her own body, which she had clearly done very well. Her face was now a healthy white with a hint of red, her eyes were clear, and even without makeup, you could tell from her eyes whether she was excited or tired.

“Green doesn’t look good?” Huo Wu said slowly.

Bai Feifei reluctantly searched for a few pictures of etiolated succulents and, looking at the crystalline Queen Rose, said, “Even though it looks so beautiful right now, if it’s not cared for properly, it’ll turn out like the ones in these pictures.”

Huo Wu played with the nice-feeling flower pot for a moment before finally nodding and saying, “Got it.”

The car drove for another forty minutes before they finally arrived from the airport to a small district on the opposite side of the ancient city.

Li Ke, who had been holding it in the entire way, got out to stretch his muscles. As he walked around giving instructions, he said to them, “The hotel is nearby, only ten minutes from the set. For now, it’s a confidential shoot, but there are quite a few crews filming here, so we’re not the only ones. There are a few other groups next door. There are a lot of paparazzi and sasaengs, so be careful not to get caught doing anything you shouldn’t—you just arrived today, so take a rest and adjust.”

Bai Feifei looked at the film set in front of her with a little surprise. It was a very old, lived-in area. The old streets were dotted with messy but strangely charming advertisements. The sign for the “Advertisement Design” shop next door had fallen apart, with only the numbers “one, two, ten” left. The dot from the middle character for “design” was lying on the ground, playing dead, and no one had bothered to pick it up.

They hadn’t arrived too late. The breakfast stalls hadn’t been completely packed up. The streets were lined with shops: a supermarket, breakfast joints, and four or five barbershops, each with a rotating three-color pole out front and a neat row of towels drying on a rack.

Bai Feifei exhaled, feeling a strange warmth in her eyes. She murmured, “I feel so nostalgic…”

“Nostalgic for what, baby?” Fu Xiaoxiao had stepped on some gum and was scraping it off on the side of the road, already covered in sweat. “Have you ever been to a place like this before?”

“Of course,” Bai Feifei muttered to herself, but she only lingered for a moment and didn’t elaborate. Her gaze went up to the iron-barred windows, the old blue window frames, and even the bedsheets and bright red shorts waving in the wind outside the windows, which gave her a sense of déjà vu.

This was the environment she had grown up in. Bai Feifei blinked. At that moment, Bai Xue stepped forward, walking into the shade of a parasol, and said, “Nice set.”

Li Ke, who seemed to have heard her, quickly sidled up with a smile and said, “After all, we both came from this kind of place—I’m telling you, for that orphanage next door, I gave the props team I-don’t-know-how-many lists to prepare. I’m going to restore the most authentic set.”

Bai Xue glanced at him from the corner of her eye and finally gave him a rare positive affirmation. “You’ve never been careless in this area.”

Huo Wu had already returned to the hotel to rest. Bai Feifei had been in the car and on the plane all day, and even though she had been sleeping, her body was still very tired. The aroma wafting from the small streets of the ancient city made her a little hungry, and the vague sounds of the hustle and bustle made her feel especially nostalgic. She couldn’t help but say, “Let’s buy some food to take back. We can eat and then go to sleep.”

Of course, Bai Xue and Fu Xiaoxiao didn’t object. They were different from Huo Wu. Even though this was a small film production base with many crews, wherever Huo Wu went, as soon as she was recognized, she couldn’t avoid trouble. If she ran into an acquaintance from the industry, chatting would take up a lot of time.

Sincere love.

The three of them bought a lot of food and returned to the hotel, going to their separate rooms. Fu Xiaoxiao’s room was next to Bai Feifei’s, and Bai Xue’s was next to Fu Xiaoxiao’s. Bai Feifei’s was the innermost room, against the wall. Because it was on the corner, it had an extra window, and the light in the room was the best, with sunlight almost all day long. The downside was that it was very stuffy when you first entered, and it took almost twenty minutes for the air conditioner to cool the room down.

Fu Xiaoxiao didn’t go back to her own room. She was used to being with Bai Feifei and liked eating with her. After arranging the things on the table, she plopped down on the carpet.

“Baby, eat!” Fu Xiaoxiao grabbed a purple rice cake and stuffed it into her mouth. After a few bites, she said, “This tastes so good. So fragrant. The one I ordered from Shangnuo Pavilion before was so ridiculously sweet. I ate one and didn’t touch a purple rice cake for two months… Baby, where are you going?”

Bai Feifei was holding a takeout box, which she had filled with some of the food they had just bought. She was about to go out. Hearing Fu Xiaoxiao, she turned her head, winked, and pointed a finger upward.

Fu Xiaoxiao tilted her head, her cheeks stuffed, not understanding.

Bai Feifei had already opened the door. The hallway was empty, so she said softly, “To find A-Wu. To bring her some food.”

Fu Xiaoxiao understood and nodded, waving a strawberry-patterned napkin at her. “Then I’ll wait for you here.”

This hotel was the only one in the area that could be considered a bit high-end. It was bright and clean, not inferior to many hotels in B City, and it was filled with the unique historical charm of the ancient city. Huo Wu’s room was a suite on the seventeenth floor. Bai Feifei’s was on a lower floor, the eighth.

She rang the doorbell twice, and the door opened. The person who opened the door was Guan Ziyao. Seeing Bai Feifei, she stepped aside and said, “Sister Feifei, Sister Wu is inside. You can go in. I’m going downstairs to buy her some food.”

Bai Feifei had come at the perfect time. She shook the takeout box in her hand and said, “I brought some food. You can go and do what you need to do.”

Guan Ziyao blinked, still a little hesitant, but then she saw a figure standing in the doorway. The figure was wearing a silk pajama set with thin straps that hung loosely on her shoulders, revealing her prominent collarbones. Huo Wu’s hair was half-dry, no longer dripping. With all her makeup removed, her facial features were more defined but also softer. It was the look Bai Feifei was most familiar with. Her nose bridge was straight. Few girls had such a high nose bridge, unlike her own petite one. But when they had kissed before, she would always accidentally bump into it.

Huo Wu looked at the food in Bai Feifei’s hand. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, a lazy smile on her face. “Why are you just standing there?”

Bai Feifei shook her head, feeling a little embarrassed to stare at Huo Wu’s lips, and looked away. Only then did Huo Wu say to Guan Ziyao, “Go on.”

Guan Ziyao nodded and left, carefully locking the door behind her.

Huo Wu went into the room first. Bai Feifei stepped into a pair of disposable slippers by the door and followed Huo Wu inside. When she looked up, she saw the succulent placed on the windowsill. A makeshift sunshade had been set up over the succulent to block the midday sun. The leaves were plump, and a wooden stick was inserted into the soil. It was a tool that beginners often used to determine if a succulent needed water.

Bai Feifei’s heart immediately burst into fireworks. She happily ran into the living room and saw many books and papers on the table. On the left was the script for Light and Shadow. On the right was the dozen-plus pages of succulent care instructions she had handwritten. Both were open. On the right-hand side, Huo Wu had even used a red pen to mark several notes on the instructions.

The succulent was delicate, but as long as its owner was serious, they could raise it to be both beautiful and healthy.