I Was Taken by the Female Lead After Transmigrating into a Book - Chapter 45

“Lively, cheerful, optimistic, strong, beautiful, and cute.” Bai Feifei listed them all in one breath, looking at Huo Wu nervously, her heart racing. With Huo Wu’s sudden improvisation, she didn’t know what to say. It’s easy for a person to list their flaws, but when it comes to their strengths… she was too self-conscious to say many.

Bai Feifei’s breathing became a little rapid. Her eyes were fixed on Huo Wu, as if she was afraid that she would say something that would make her feel ashamed. But Huo Wu didn’t look at her. She lifted the backpack on her shoulders and continued walking forward, her voice still low and fitting for Wu Ling’s character. “Mhm, all of them. What else?”

Bai Feifei’s eyes widened in disbelief. The heart that was about to jump out of her chest was soothed, and all that was left was excitement.

“You want me to keep going?” Bai Feifei quickly got back into character. She couldn’t help but clutch the straps of her backpack, bouncing along behind her and trying to step on her shadow. She thought for a moment and said, “I’m so beautiful, so good-looking, and I have high emotional intelligence, and so many people like me. I have too many strengths to list all at once—and besides, the scope is too broad. I think having long hair is a strength, and having good skin is a strength. So does that mean from now on I’ll only have strengths and no flaws?”

This time, Huo Wu didn’t answer, and Bai Feifei stopped. She looked up. “I’ve said so much, you can tell me what my flaws are now, right?” Bai Feifei caught up to her again, looking up and smiling. “People need flaws to humbly improve. Otherwise, I can’t make progress. If no one likes me anymore, I’ll just have to cling to you.”

Huo Wu stopped. Bai Feifei, who didn’t stop in time, bumped her head on her backpack. The backpack wasn’t very hard. Wu Ling’s bag was made of soft fabric, already faded from washing, with frayed edges and corners.

Wu Ling turned around. Against the light, Fusang couldn’t quite make out her features. At that moment, the camera pulled back, giving a wide shot. Bai Feifei heard Huo Wu say, “In my heart, you have no flaws. You don’t need to improve.”

For a moment, she couldn’t even tell if the person who said that was Huo Wu or Wu Ling.

That one sentence left Bai Feifei dazed for a long time. Fortunately, the scene was a one-take. Although TV shows don’t have as high standards as movies, getting a one-take is still rare. Bai Feifei had thought this take was just a rehearsal and a chance to get the lines down, but she didn’t expect Huo Wu to go all in.

She crouched on the side, eating the boxed lunch that Fu Xiaoxiao had brought for her, and said, “Why haven’t I seen A-Wu since we finished work?”

“I just went to ask around. I heard she went to pick someone up,” Fu Xiaoxiao said, thinking. She carefully looked at Bai Feifei’s expression and whispered, “I heard she’s picking up her boyfriend… Anyway, everyone in the crew is talking about it. They say her boyfriend came to visit her, and he’s treating the whole crew to a big lunch tomorrow. He’s setting up a buffet with a professional chef cooking on-site.”

“That’s a bit much, isn’t it?” Bai Feifei was surprised. She had no appetite to eat anymore and simply picked up the script to read.

The cicadas of late summer chirped endlessly. Although they were often annoying, when all the sounds synchronized at a certain moment, they could be quite hypnotic. Fusang loved the sound of cicadas. She especially liked to carry a chair and a small solar panel and hide under an old tree with Wu Ling in the summer afternoon to enjoy the breeze, and maybe take a nap. There was a huge tree at the orphanage. The kids were full of energy and didn’t want to waste their precious free time, so they all liked to play there in the afternoons.

Bai Feifei looked down at the script, did some mental calculations, and suddenly felt a bit disheartened. “If we keep up this one-take pace every day, it feels like we’ll be done with filming in less than three months.”

“It won’t be that fast, right?” Fu Xiaoxiao said. “Didn’t they say it was projected to take five months?”

Bai Feifei shook her head and said no more, having her own estimates in her mind. Five months was just an estimate. Most productions finish much earlier than the projected time unless there are major problems within the crew. And clearly, with so many heavy-hitting people in the Guangying crew, such a blunder was impossible.

Bai Feifei frowned, looked in the direction of Huo Wu’s trailer in the distance, took a few sips of lemon water, and said breathlessly, “It’s fine. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

For example, by sending Huo Wu a WeChat message to ask her where she was. Bai Feifei acted on her thought, and a message was sent immediately.

Huo Wu replied quite quickly, but her whereabouts… were completely different from what everyone in the crew was saying. Bai Feifei stared at the line of text in a daze.

[Bai Feifei: Resting at the hotel?] [Huo Wu: Mhm. The morning went fast, and I don’t have any scenes this afternoon. They’re just doing your and Li Mingming’s reshoots. I’d just make other people nervous on set, so I came back.]

Bai Feifei slowly replied with an ‘okay,’ and then held her phone, staring blankly at the distant scenery. After a long while, she looked around the set and couldn’t find the person she was looking for. She turned to Fu Xiaoxiao and asked, “Wait, where did Li Ran go?”

“I don’t know. He went missing too. They said he also went to pick someone up. Are they all picking up boyfriends?” Fu Xiaoxiao’s thoughts went off on a tangent and she quickly stopped herself.

Although she was fanning herself, she was also boiling hot. Unable to stand the heat, she moved her bag closer. Her bag was like a small treasure chest. She pulled out two cooling patches from it, put one on Bai Feifei’s forehead, and said, “You should go take a nap while you can. You’ll have more energy for the afternoon.”

The car had air conditioning. Bai Feifei had been waiting outside to see Huo Wu, but now that she knew Huo Wu wasn’t there, there was no need to wait. She picked up her small folding stool and stood up to go back to the car. Suddenly, she heard a commotion, like a crowd of people shouting, accompanied by screams, and someone’s name was being called.

But the source of the noise was too far away, and the sound was a little too brief. After that moment, there was only the sound of cicadas. Bai Feifei thought she had misheard and when she looked up again, she couldn’t see anything, so she just gave up.

She had a good nap in the afternoon, and the evening’s work also went smoothly. Bai Feifei thought they were about to finish for the day, but then Li Ke suddenly returned to the set, and unexpectedly added a scene for her, with her as the lead. The plan was for Huo Wu to be in charge of everything today, but Li Ke suddenly appeared and took back control of the entire set, becoming the main boss.

“It’s a scene with Li Mingming. It won’t be an official shoot. You’re just taking him through the set and helping him get used to the rhythm. But the staff will be filming the whole time. If it’s good, we’ll keep it. If not, we’ll delete it. Understand?” Li Ke said.

Bai Feifei paused when she heard this. A strange sense of foreboding filled her. After a long while, she said, “Understood.”

A suddenly added person, a suddenly added scene. And Li Mingming’s scenes were very spread out. The director was afraid that his concentration would be scattered and affect the filming, so he had her, who had the most scenes with him, take the lead. The fact that Li Ke would say “if it’s good, we’ll keep it, if not, we’ll delete it,” and have many people wait around for him, showed that this person was quite important.

Although she was grateful for Li Ke’s trust, Bai Feifei was still a little confused. This kind of arrangement was too familiar. Wasn’t this the standard practice for little idols with no acting skills, no foundation, and no fame who got in through the back door? Some people didn’t even memorize their lines. On set, they would make a pained face that didn’t look like acting at all but rather like they were being tortured. But since their traffic was needed, the director could only do take after take, adjusting over and over again.

Unfortunately, Bai Feifei still didn’t know who she was going to be leading. She could only use her break time to memorize the script, get familiar with the general situation of her scene with Li Mingming, and the time period in which it took place. Most importantly, she had to memorize her lines. A last-minute role has this disadvantage: time is tight and the task is difficult. She had to study the character, memorize so many lines, remember her blocking, and coordinate with her scene partner.

After Fusang’s family went bankrupt and her father committed suicide by jumping from a building, her mother went insane. The whole family was living on a small amount of insurance money and the meager assets in Fusang’s name. The housekeeper, who had been with them for over a decade, reluctantly left to go back to her hometown, and all the responsibilities fell on Fusang’s shoulders alone. The summer before her second year of high school, she had to face a class reshuffle, an increase in exams, and also had to cook for her mother and take care of their golden retriever, who was now too old to walk or even relieve itself on its own.

As a result of this long-term pressure, Fusang gradually became quiet due to exhaustion and stress. She was no longer the little ray of sunshine she used to be. Her grades also began to decline, and she couldn’t stay awake in class. Even if she studied until midnight, she still couldn’t finish her homework. After the class reshuffle exam, she dropped from the first class of the second year to the seventeenth class. There were only seventeen classes in the entire second year, so she had been placed in the last one.

This was a devastating blow for Fusang. The two classes were like heaven and earth. The first class was clean and bright. The classroom was in the best location in the school, and there was even a small platform outside the window, a place that all the teachers and students in the school envied. The seventeenth class, on the other hand, was next to the bathroom, in the corner, with poor ventilation and a foul smell. Many insects would even crawl into the room. It was also the most shaded area, and the entire classroom looked very dreary. Even with the lights on, it didn’t do much good.

Fusang’s grades plummeted. She didn’t even take two of the exams, but even so, her scores were enough for her to be the top student in the seventeenth class. Because of this, she went from being an outcast in the first class to an outcast in the seventeenth class. This class was a mix of many kinds of students. Some were just there to get a high school diploma, some had been expelled but were still on probation, some genuinely wanted to study but didn’t know how, and some had given up completely and just went with the flow.

Li Mingming was also an outcast in this class. His grades were very good, but his health was extremely poor, and his family was very wealthy. Logically, a person like him should have been given special attention by the principal. After all, Li Mingming’s father had donated an entire three-story library with the most advanced electronic equipment. He was the principal’s favorite. But he ended up in the seventeenth class. The reason he was there was that he had already been kicked out of seven schools, and he was also a potential threat who had almost single-handedly dragged down the average scores of the entire first-year class. No teacher was willing to take him. No one was willing to risk the future of their graduating class to discipline a mischievous student who could faint at any moment. So he was pushed all the way to the seventeenth class, the only class with a homeroom teacher who was a homeroom teacher in name only.

The newly added scene tonight was an interaction between Bai Feifei and Li Mingming. It was also the first time they met. It was also the last scene that appeared in Li Mingming’s memories when he finished his filming.

When Fusang first appeared in the classroom, everyone in the seventeenth class fell silent. This was a physical education class, so there weren’t many people in the classroom. Li Mingming put tap water from the bathroom behind the door and soaked Fusang as she walked in. He stuck gum in her hair and super glue in it, and he put red ink on her stool. Fusang was caught off guard and sat down on it. The red stain stuck to her skirt, and she was looked at for a long time by a group of people with strange eyes. This was the first scene where Fusang and Li Mingming met.

Fu Xiaoxiao was looking at the script with Bai Feifei. When she saw this part, she was stunned. “This scene looks so familiar…” Fu Xiaoxiao mumbled. “Didn’t I get bullied like this before? But that was in middle school…”

“Mhm…” Bai Feifei paused and continued to flip through the script. “But you weren’t as strong as Fusang back then. You only knew how to cry and didn’t dare to tell your mom. To show that those injuries were from you falling, you even climbed a tree and jumped down…”

Fu Xiaoxiao pouted, looking wronged. “Let’s not talk about the past, baby. That’s all my dark history.”

Bai Feifei reached out and ruffled Fu Xiaoxiao’s hair, then suddenly smiled, her eyes crinkling. Although Fu Xiaoxiao was a coward and probably had a bunch of flaws, as long as someone treated her well, she would treat them twice as well.

When Bai Feifei transferred to Fu Xiaoxiao’s middle school, she discovered that Fu Xiaoxiao had been bullied. She immediately ignored Fu Xiaoxiao’s pleas and tears and went straight to Xi Rong. Xi Rong was truly furious at that time. Unfortunately, the people she was dealing with were a group of kids under sixteen, and she had no evidence. It was then that Bai Feifei gave Xi Rong all the surveillance footage she had retrieved, the hidden camera and audio recordings she had put on Fu Xiaoxiao, and the photos she had taken.

Even if they were under sixteen, they still had to be disciplined. The parents had to pay for the damages. As for the few ringleaders, the hooligans who extorted money from middle and high school students, beat people up, and even engaged in indecent acts, Xi Rong personally sent them to jail. After that, Fu Xiaoxiao was completely immune to school bullying. She would say, “My mom is Xi Rong, and Xi Rong is a great lawyer,” every single day. At the same time, she became the first and only kid in the whole school to be picked up by her parents all the way through college.

“So I really suspect that the reason I don’t have a partner to this day is because of my mom,” Fu Xiaoxiao said angrily. “If it wasn’t for my mom, would I have been forced into an online relationship? She even deleted and canceled all my game accounts. My game account was worth hundreds of thousands! I even spent tens of thousands on my online wife, and my mom didn’t even ask for the money back. She didn’t even give me my wife’s contact information…”

“Excuse me, that’s your ex-wife,” Bai Feifei said, interrupting Fu Xiaoxiao’s rambling. “You’re probably complete strangers now with no contact whatsoever.”

Fu Xiaoxiao wilted. Looking back on her innocent online relationship years, it truly felt like a fleeting moment.

“My ex-wife… she told me she was so good-looking. She was a little older than me and she even showed me her photo. She was wearing black stockings, but her face wasn’t in it. I didn’t save it either,” Fu Xiaoxiao sighed. “If I had known, I would’ve at least saved it. She had a red birthmark on her chest. It was so pretty.”

“No matter how pretty it was, you can’t just go around ripping people’s shirts off just because of a birthmark,” Bai Feifei laughed so hard she couldn’t stand up straight. “Let the past be the past.”

Fu Xiaoxiao grumbled something else and fell silent.

That evening, Bai Feifei worked overtime. Not many actors were left on set. Although many staff members were still at their posts, they all knew what was going on tonight. They looked lazy and out of it. Bai Feifei didn’t mind. After her makeup was done, she waited outside the seventeenth classroom. The scene was supposed to take place in the morning, but since it was night, they had to use artificial lights. The large lights heated up the entire set, and the temperature that had finally cooled down at night suddenly rose again.

Bai Feifei let out a breath and couldn’t help but take a few sips of iced water. Fu Xiaoxiao whispered to her, “I heard that this person who was suddenly added is only here for a few days, and he even brought his own trailer…”

A black trailer drove from a distance and stopped on the field. Bai Feifei looked down from the corridor and saw two people walking out of the car, each with an assistant by their side.

“Isn’t that Li Ran?” Bai Feifei wondered. Li Ran was supposed to have a scene with her today, but he skipped work, which was why she ended up acting with Huo Wu on the spot. Now Li Ran had returned with someone else… a new person? Were they close?

Bai Feifei craned her neck to get a better look. She was shocked and almost fell off the second-floor balcony. “Why is it him?” Bai Feifei was dumbfounded. She looked for Li Ke on both sides. “Why didn’t Director Li tell me who this person was? Did he know all along?”

“Who?” Fu Xiaoxiao had inherited nearsightedness, and although it was only a hundred degrees, it was still a challenge to see from the second floor at night. She could barely even tell if they were men or women, let alone who they were.

“…You know him too,” Bai Feifei said with difficulty. “Ling Xinghe.”

“Ling Xinghe?” Fu Xiaoxiao was stunned. Her mind couldn’t keep up. “Your ex-teammate’s little ex-boyfriend? Or the fake one? The fake Ling Xinghe is here?”

Bai Feifei couldn’t help but laugh and cry. Where did this silly girl’s mind go? “No, I’m not talking about that fake guy from before,” Bai Feifei said, tapping her temple. “I mean the little boy you used to play with in the yard when you were a kid, the young master of the Ling family.”

This time, Fu Xiaoxiao reacted. She slapped her forehead and said, “Oh, you mean him. What’s he doing here? Just visiting?”

“I think…” Bai Feifei’s voice trailed off. “He’s here to act.”

“Xinghe is here.” “Good evening, Brother Xing. Good evening, Brother Ran.” “Young Master Ling, Brother Ran.”

As the two of them walked closer, the greetings and salutations were endless. Bai Feifei sighed in amazement, thinking that fate really was a wonderful thing. She stood stiffly by the corridor railing like a telephone pole, her face full of a strange expression as she watched the two of them get closer. The two pairs of people formed a parallelogram, looking at each other without saying a word.

After a moment, Ling Xinghe leaned forward. “What’s up? Are you so stunned you can’t speak? It’s only been a little while since we last saw each other. You don’t recognize me?”

Fu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at him. Ling Xinghe had no beef with her, but Li Ran did. She hadn’t forgotten how Li Ran had glared at Bai Feifei and said mean things to her these past two days.

“Heh heh,” Fu Xiaoxiao snorted in a sarcastic tone, which was a response. Ling Xinghe, however, didn’t seem to care at all. He even took another step forward, putting his arm around Bai Feifei like they were old buddies, and said, “Feifei, I’ll apologize for Li Ran. This kid told me everything. He misunderstood you…”

“Apologize? Apologize for what?” Bai Feifei tried her best to understand what he was saying, but she couldn’t. Her words confused both Li Ran and Ling Xinghe.

Ling Xinghe’s eyes widened. With his height of over six feet, he somehow looked like a complete idiot. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Bai Feifei was full of questions. She had a feeling she was supposed to know something.

Li Ran clenched his fists and took a step forward. “It’s because of these past two days that I…”

“What are you talking about here?” Li Ke’s voice suddenly interrupted them. “Hurry up and come inside, we’re about to start.”

Li Ran looked like he wanted to say something else, but Li Ke was standing at the door waiting for them. Li Ran could only say sullenly, “You guys go in first—do you have time tonight? I’ll treat you to dinner tonight.”

Bai Feifei was surprised but shook her head. “I don’t know what time we’ll finish. Some other time.” With that, Bai Feifei left. Li Ran opened his mouth to say something else but didn’t have time. His face inexplicably turned red.

Ling Xinghe smiled his standard eight-tooth smile and put his arm around his shoulder. He said with a laugh, “Don’t get discouraged, brother. It’s not too late to make up for a silly mistake. I know you had good intentions for me. We’ll just invite my sister and Feifei to dinner and apologize, and it’ll be over…”

Li Ran punched his shoulder. “Just get inside.”

The first scene wasn’t completed because Ling Xinghe could never get into character. His line delivery was decent, after all, he had been giving speeches on stage since he was a child. But for some reason, when he was acting opposite Bai Feifei, Ling Xinghe clearly had the feeling that he was “acting as someone else.”

Li Ke called a halt to the filming and took Ling Xinghe aside to talk to him. Bai Feifei took a break and looked at the time. It was already 9:40. It was completely dark. Fu Xiaoxiao brought her some late-night snacks: a pile of vegetable leaves with a little sweet vinegar dressing. They were blanched, so they were easy to eat. Bai Feifei ate them absently, occasionally grabbing a few cherry tomatoes to pop in her mouth. When she heard the commotion next to her, she didn’t move. She just asked, “What’s going on over there? Why did it suddenly get so loud?”

“I think Ms. Huo came back to visit. She brought a lot of food,” the staff member who spoke ran off immediately after saying that.

Bai Feifei smiled and patted Fu Xiaoxiao’s leg. “Let’s go, let’s go grab some food…” With that, Bai Feifei took Fu Xiaoxiao’s hand and ran over.

A large crowd had already gathered. The smell of food filled the small space, and the vegetables in Bai Feifei’s hand suddenly didn’t smell so good anymore. She gave up the fight and ran over to grab a plate. She picked up two pieces of beef and was surprised to see Wu Qingying in a white outfit. Bai Feifei blinked. “You’re here too?”

“Mhm, I have a scene. The director hasn’t called me yet, and I didn’t dare to ask, so I’m waiting here to see,” Wu Qingying said, a little embarrassed. Her face was even paler against her white clothes. Bai Feifei couldn’t help but look at her for a few more seconds, then said, “You should go ask later. Director Li is very approachable. He might have just been too busy and forgot.”

Wu Qingying smiled gratefully. After choosing her food, she went to the side to share it with her assistant. Bai Feifei was just curious and looked at her back for a moment before turning back.

Fu Xiaoxiao seemed to know what she was thinking. “Why does she always wear white clothes?”

Bai Feifei shook her head. She didn’t know either. The first time she auditioned, Wu Qingying wore white. Later, in the parking lot, she was also in a new white outfit. Later, when they were on set, she caught a glimpse of her on the top floor, and she was also wearing white. She was still in a plain white outfit now, just a different style.

“Who knows,” Bai Feifei said. “Maybe she just likes to be clean. She wears a lot of colors in the show, so she’s not against wearing them.”

Fu Xiaoxiao had a mouth full of meat. She stuffed a few pieces of lettuce in her mouth to cut the grease and couldn’t speak. She could only nod. Suddenly, Fu Xiaoxiao pointed behind Bai Feifei with a look of excitement on her face, the joy in her eyes almost spilling out.

Bai Feifei laughed. She turned around and said, “What did you see that makes you so happy late at night? Be careful not to choke…”

Not far away was Huo Wu, carrying two plates, walking upstairs. Fu Xiaoxiao finally swallowed the mouthful of meat. While taking a breath, she said, “Is Huo Wu… very close to Li Ran?”

She didn’t know if Huo Wu and Li Ran were close, but it was certain that Li Ran and Ling Xinghe were. Bai Feifei paused. “I’m going upstairs.”

Fu Xiaoxiao grabbed her things. “I’ll go with you.”

Upstairs, Huo Wu opened the door to a classroom that was being used as a temporary rest area. She looked around at the entrance and said, “Did you see Feifei?”

“No.” “I think she went downstairs just now?” “I don’t know. She was holding her little assistant’s hand and ran off somewhere… Is there something you need her for, Ms. Huo? Should I call her assistant?”

Huo Wu, who was about to leave, stopped again. She raised an eyebrow curiously. “Little assistant? You mean Fu Xiaoxiao?”

“Yes, that’s her,” the staff member said with a laugh. “She runs faster than anyone. She’s like a monkey. Even people who work out all year don’t have as much energy as she does.”

Huo Wu smiled and said, “Mhm. You don’t have to call her. I’ll go find her myself. It’s nothing important.”

When she saw Ling Xinghe, he looked terrible. He was probably scolded harshly by Li Ke. Seeing Huo Wu walk in with two plates, Ling Xinghe lifelessly looked up and mumbled, “Hey, sis.”

“Mhm,” Huo Wu walked in. “Were you scolded?”

When he was reminded of this, his handsome face became even more disheartened. Ling Xinghe didn’t say a word, and the Li Ran next to him said, “Xinghe is inexperienced, after all. Director Li didn’t say anything bad. He was just giving him pointers.”

Ling Xinghe nodded and said, feeling wronged, “I know he has my best interests at heart and is trying to be considerate of my feelings and pride, but that just makes it even harder to take.”

“How can a little girl like Bai Feifei be so alive and vivid? I feel like she’s already bringing me into the scene, but when I look at what I filmed, I look like a puppet…” Ling Xinghe said with a frustrated expression. He then whispered, “Director Li even said that in that scene, Bai Feifei was already trying her best to cooperate with me.”

Huo Wu raised an eyebrow and found two clean takeout containers on the table. She covered the food on the plates she was holding. “In what way?” Huo Wu asked.

Ling Xinghe sighed. Although he was dejected, his face was very serious. Despite his sadness, he was still holding the script and repeatedly watching the film that Li Ke had just given him. When he heard her, he said, “You and Bai Feifei had a scene today. Director Li said that scene was filmed very well, even though it was just a quiet afternoon. That’s the effect he wanted. The big picture is calm, but in both of your eyes, you can see the drama and the surging undercurrents… but when it comes to my scene, it becomes…”

Ling Xinghe got stuck. He said “becomes” for a long time but couldn’t think of a suitable word, so he just hummed and fell silent. He looked up and finally noticed a scent. He looked up at the food and said, “What is this? Is it for me?”

“No,” Huo Wu looked up at him. “Your weight is barely at the ‘not fat’ stage for the camera. You want to eat meat late at night? Are you trying to kill yourself? Do you really want Li Ke to post a video of you crying and saying you’re not doing it, not filming, and not acting?”

Huo Wu’s words were not made up. Li Ke’s dramas and movies were not for anyone who wanted to be in them, especially for top celebrities or small idols. There was an idol who complained about filming being too hard and exhausting and couldn’t handle the pressure. He threw a fit in front of everyone and started crying. He cried and said Li Ke was abusing him. He cried and said Li Ke had no respect for human rights. He cried and said Li Ke was intentionally torturing him out of spite. He even sat on the ground and started to throw a tantrum with all his might.

Before that, the idol’s fans had already gotten some inside information and were very dissatisfied. When the incident became known, the verbal attacks on Li Ke spread all over the internet. It was the first time a director had been subjected to such a widespread online bullying campaign by a small idol’s fans, which shocked many people at the time. However, Li Ke didn’t back down. He just posted the video. Not only that, but the video had sound. While the idol was throwing a tantrum and crying, Li Ke personally held the camera and filmed him, asking, “Are you still crying? Have you cried enough? Are you willing to film now? If you cry again, I’ll delete all your scenes? I mean what I say.”

The little idol was so enraged that he just kept saying, “Just you wait. My fans will dig up your entire family history. You better be careful when you go out. Be careful not to get put in a sack by my fans! Be careful not to drown in my fans’ spit!”

After that, Li Ke continued to film him, but when the film was released, everyone found out that he had completely deleted the character. The little idol’s fans were furious. They all went to Li Ke’s personal Weibo to verbally attack him. Every single one of them wanted to be a little warrior for justice and tear him apart. This time, Li Ke didn’t avoid them either. He just released the footage of the little idol’s scenes.

He took two days off for a cut on his finger, saying he couldn’t do physical work or take a bath because of the wound. He took a week off for a fall, saying his leg was injured and he couldn’t walk, so he needed to rest. He also said he was cold because the temperature difference was too great between day and night, and the next day he said he had a fever. The only two scenes he filmed looked like a poem recitation by a kindergarten child. He was just short of opening his arms and shouting, “Ah! I embrace you, my love!”

From then on, the incident ended, and no one dared to defy Li Ke again—especially not those idols and celebrities. Ling Xinghe was probably familiar with this famous incident. He instantly looked green and mumbled, “Why on earth did I get it into my head to come to the set to see my sister-in-law…”

His voice was so soft that no one heard it except for Li Ran, who was sitting next to him. Not long after, when Bai Feifei came in, she saw Huo Wu, Ling Xinghe, and Li Ran sitting in an isosceles triangle, with Huo Wu at the top and the two men on the other two corners. Ling Xinghe and Li Ran were like conjoined twins, shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg. Kindergarten kids weren’t even this close.

“You’re here?” Huo Wu turned around. Seeing her just enter, she said, “Where did you go?”

“I ate a few bites of beef downstairs,” Bai Feifei said, licking her lips. She was still holding her plate of vegetables. “It was very good. Was it made by a local chef from Luoshui City?”

“Mhm,” Huo Wu paused and smiled. “That was the only good thing on the whole menu. You picked well.”

This made Bai Feifei a little embarrassed, and her face turned red. “I don’t usually eat this much, but I used up a lot of energy today, so I wanted to eat more.”

“You did use up a lot of energy,” Huo Wu said, subtly moving the covers off the two plates, revealing the fruit and meat underneath. “Thanks for leading him for so long. Eat more. I saved this for you.”

Ling Xinghe’s eyes widened. “Sis, didn’t you just say it was bad to eat too much at night and that you should diet?”

“My exact words were that it was bad for you to eat too much,” Huo Wu said without looking at him. “Feifei is still growing. Why would she need to diet? Do you think she’s like you?”

Huo Wu finally looked at Ling Xinghe and expressionlessly dropped a single word: “Fat.” Ling Xinghe opened his mouth, bit his finger, and finally choked.

That night, perhaps because she was full, Bai Feifei suddenly felt very energized. Although Ling Xinghe never got into character, it didn’t affect her performance. She even became a natural at leading him.

“Alright, that’s enough. Go back for tonight,” Li Ke finally said. When they finished, it was already past eleven. Although they had dinner, by the time everyone got into their cars to go back to the hotel, it was almost midnight.

Before Bai Feifei’s car drove off, she saw a white figure pass by the window. For a moment, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. The car drove to the entrance, and Bai Feifei looked out and saw that it was indeed Wu Qingying. She quickly had Fu Xiaoxiao stop the car, rolled down the window, and said, “Good evening. How are you getting back? Has your car not arrived yet?”

Wu Qingying shook her head. She was frowning slightly, holding her phone in her hand. She had pressed the power button a few times, but it wouldn’t turn on. The battery was dead. The assistant next to her looked frustrated with a portable charger in her hand. “It’s all my fault. I forgot to charge the portable charger. The crew suddenly changed the time, and the driver probably couldn’t wait any longer and thought we had all gone back, so he left… Now we can’t reach anyone.”

“Get in my car then,” Bai Feifei said. “It’s no trouble at all. I can give you a ride back.”

Wu Qingying thought for a moment. There was no reason to refuse, so she thanked her and got into the car. The ride was smooth, and they arrived at the hotel. Bai Feifei had to follow Fu Xiaoxiao to the underground parking lot, so she let Wu Qingying and her assistant go upstairs first. After they said goodbye, the two of them returned to the first floor. As the elevator doors opened, Bai Feifei saw Wu Qingying walk towards the express elevator to the top floor, while her assistant took the elevator to the eighth floor.

“What’s she doing on the top floor?” Fu Xiaoxiao wondered. “Isn’t Huo Wu and the director and the head screenwriter the only ones who live on the top floor?”

“Maybe she wants to ask about the schedule?” Bai Feifei shrugged. “Who knows. Let’s go upstairs first.”

On the eighth floor, to Bai Feifei’s surprise, there were people waiting for her at her door. The people were a little unexpected: Huo Wu, Li Ran, and Ling Xinghe were all there. She stopped in her tracks. Seeing Huo Wu beckon to her, she had to bite the bullet and walk over. “It’s so late. Why are you all outside my room?”

“We’re waiting for you,” Huo Wu said. “They have something to tell you. Open the door first. We shouldn’t let anyone see us.”

“There are already a lot of people who saw us,” Ling Xinghe grumbled. “Sis, are you really trying to keep this a secret? If you wanted to keep it a secret, you could’ve just told my sister Feifei to go to the top floor. The privacy on the top floor is so good…”

Huo Wu gave him a look without saying anything, and Ling Xinghe immediately shut up.

Fu Xiaoxiao went inside and poured them all some water. Then, with a pair of huge, clueless eyes, she sat next to Bai Feifei. She put Bai Feifei’s little legs on her lap and started to use a small hammer to massage her calf muscles.

Huo Wu broke the ice first. “Does Fu Xiaoxiao do this for you often?”

“Mhm,” Bai Feifei nodded. “Xiaoxiao says it helps me relax my leg muscles. After all, I have to stand for a long time during the day and can’t rest whenever I want.”

Huo Wu nodded. The room fell silent again.

Bai Feifei looked around in confusion. Too much had happened today, and she had no idea what was going on. She couldn’t even connect all the events.

“Um…” Li Ran cleared his throat and finally took the plunge. Bai Feifei’s eyes turned to him, and she saw Li Ran suddenly stand up and bow to Bai Feifei. “I’m so sorry!”

Bai Feifei was so startled that she scooted back. “Why are you apologizing to me?”

Li Ran’s face alternated between green and white, and he kept his back bent. After a moment, he straightened up a little, with one hand on his knee, his ears visibly turning red. He stammered, “It’s… about me misunderstanding that you were the other woman between Xinghe and Ms. Huo…”

Bai Feifei: “…” Bai Feifei: “?” ??? Her brain couldn’t process the sheer amount of information in that single sentence. She couldn’t help but lean forward and ask again, “What did you just say?”

“You…” Li Ran suddenly looked up, seemingly flustered out of embarrassment. But when he saw Bai Feifei’s genuinely confused expression, which was exactly how he looked not long ago, he fell silent and said, “I misunderstood that you were my brother’s mistress and were trying to seduce my brother’s wife…”

This time, Bai Feifei finally understood. Her eyes went from Huo Wu, who was calmly sipping tea, to Ling Xinghe, who was burying his face in a pillow to stifle his laughter. She finally asked with difficulty, “Are you saying…”

Li Ran’s expression was even more difficult than hers. He nodded. Bai Feifei: “…” She suddenly understood something. A light bulb went off in her head. “So you’re saying that the rumored boyfriend of A-Wu’s in the industry is actually Ling Xinghe?”

Ling Xinghe’s face and neck were beet red from laughing, but he still tried to stand up straight, wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. “That would be me, the one you asked about… Ha ha ha ha, this idiot Li Ran is hilarious! Ha ha ha ha!”

Li Ran angrily covered Ling Xinghe’s head with a pillow. “If you laugh one more time, I’m going to kill you—!”

Huo Wu calmly blew on the tea in her cup. She looked at Bai Feifei and said, “That’s what happened.”

After seeing the three guests off and even Fu Xiaoxiao went back to sleep, Bai Feifei lay in bed alone, her sluggish brain still trying to process everything that had happened in the past two days. Li Ran’s inexplicably changing attitude towards her, Huo Wu’s constant private meetings with Li Ran, and the vague rumors about Huo Wu’s boyfriend she had been hearing.

In the end, Bai Feifei confirmed one thing. She hadn’t guessed wrong. Huo Wu didn’t have a boyfriend, and she couldn’t possibly have one. The more Bai Feifei thought about it, the faster her heart beat. She couldn’t help but take out her phone, open her chat with Huo Wu, and almost uncontrollably send a message.

[Bai Feifei: A-Wu, if you don’t have a boyfriend, can I be your girlfriend?]

The message wasn’t replied to. It was already three in the morning. Bai Feifei couldn’t fight her biological clock any longer. With her phone in her hand, she reluctantly fell asleep.