Pregnant with the Alpha Best Actress's Child - Chapter 21

“Cut!”

“Perfect, that’s a wrap!” In front of the camera, the assistant director gave a thumbs-up to Fan Wu and Zhan Yuerou.

As the head director, Fan Wu naturally walked over to check the footage, and Zhan Yuerou took the opportunity to lean in as well.

While Fan Wu watched the playback, the assistant director couldn’t help but praise her: “Director Fan, your state lately has been truly incredible. No matter the scene, you perform it perfectly. Sitting behind the camera just now, seeing that look in your eyes gave me goosebumps.”

Fan Wu’s attention was entirely on the recording, so she didn’t respond immediately. The assistant director noticed Zhan Yuerou behind her and added conversationally, “You performed very well too. You really captured that feeling of the guitarist’s unrequited love for Mu Yining. Are you a performing arts student?”

Hearing the praise, Zhan Yuerou lowered her head shyly. “Thank you for the recognition, Director. I’m—I’m not that great, just an ordinary extra.”

As she spoke, she stole a shy glance at Fan Wu’s back. “It’s because Director Fan acts so well. Her emotions influenced me, so I was able to perform beyond my usual level.”

The assistant director nodded repeatedly. “That’s still very good. If you didn’t have talent yourself, even with someone of Best Actress caliber like Director Fan leading you, you wouldn’t necessarily get into character. You’re quite good.”

Blushing, Zhan Yuerou thanked him repeatedly.

For some reason, Lin Jiahe had felt a lack of fondness for Zhan Yuerou ever since the day of the role auditions at the hotel.

She and Sang Zhijiu were positioned not far from the director’s group, and she could faintly hear the conversation between the assistant director and Zhan Yuerou. She immediately muttered under her breath, “It’s just an ordinary scene, isn’t it? They’re praising her to the heavens.”

To her surprise, Sang Zhijiu actually spoke up, and she did so to defend Zhan Yuerou.

“No, I actually think he’s right. Zhan Yuerou played this scene very well—it was even more nuanced than her scene with me just now.”

Lin Jiahe was stunned and wrinkled her nose. “Seriously?”

Sang Zhijiu nodded. “Seriously. It’s at a level where even Teacher Yu Ping would praise her if he were here.”

Lin Jiahe’s job was a manager; in terms of judging acting, her appreciation was only at an average level and she couldn’t see the deeper layers. Sang Zhijiu, being an actress herself, could discern much more from the performance.

Of course, Lin Jiahe still trusted her own artist’s eye.

She couldn’t help but feel puzzled. “I remember when we went to the hotel for auditions, her performance was quite poor, right? It hasn’t been that long—how did she improve so rapidly? She… doesn’t look like someone who has the financial means to hire an acting coach.”

Sang Zhijiu remained silent for a moment.

After a long pause, she lowered her eyes and whispered a guess: “Perhaps this performance just happened to match her true state of mind.”

Lin Jiahe didn’t hear her clearly. “What?”

Sang Zhijiu shook her head, dropping the subject. “Let’s not talk about others. I have a scene in the next set; I’ll check the script again.”

Lin Jiahe nodded and sensibly walked away, giving her enough space.

After she left, Sang Zhijiu couldn’t help but cast her gaze toward the director’s group again.

Fan Wu had finished checking the recording. With a faint smile on her face, she looked back at Zhan Yuerou. She had likely praised Zhan Yuerou’s performance just as the assistant director had.

Receiving recognition from Fan Wu made Zhan Yuerou even happier than before. Her face flushed a deep pink with excitement, overshadowing the blush in her makeup.

Sang Zhijiu rubbed her temples thoughtfully.

She clearly remembered that on the first day they joined the crew, when she happened to run into Zhan Yuerou, the girl had asked her a question—

“Is Fan Wu single?”

At the time, Sang Zhijiu had laughed it off and glossed over it, guessing that Zhan Yuerou was either a part-time gossip reporter or had feelings for Fan Wu.

Looking at it now, the situation was obvious: Zhan Yuerou likely liked Fan Wu.

This sort of thing was normal.

Who was Fan Wu? Her fans across the internet probably numbered in the tens of millions. Zhan Yuerou was simply one of the lucky ones, following her idol right into the film crew and even having the honor of a scene together. More fortunately, the character she played also happened to like Fan Wu’s character in the drama, and the two even had brief physical contact.

Even though everything was logical, Sang Zhijiu didn’t know why, but her chest felt a bit tight.

On the surface, she was holding the script, but in reality, her mind wasn’t on it at all. She puffed out her cheeks, sulking to herself.

Until—

Fan Wu came to her side. Seeing her cute expression, she couldn’t resist and reached out a finger to poke her cheek.

The air she was holding in her mouth was poked out, and Sang Zhijiu was dazed for a moment before looking up and spotting the culprit immediately.

She couldn’t help but snap, “What—what are you doing?!”

Amused, Fan Wu pointed to the script. “Nothing. Just here to remind my little Chen Yue to get ready; our scene is about to start.”

Sang Zhijiu snapped out of it, lowered her head in embarrassment, and rubbed her slightly sore cheeks.

She said unclearly, “I remember. I don’t need you to remind me.”

Fan Wu loved this awkward side of her; she was especially fun to tease.

But now was not the time to play with the youngster. She asked, “That fall earlier didn’t hurt, did it? From a distance, I saw that your complexion didn’t look very good. Should I call a doctor over to take a look?”

Sang Zhijiu refused. “No need, I’m perfectly fine.”

Speaking of this, she couldn’t help but rub her stomach again. “It’s just that my stomach feels a bit uncomfortable…”

Fan Wu’s reaction was very similar to Lin Jiahe’s; she smiled and said, “You fell on your butt, so why is your stomach suffering instead?”

She reached out and lightly touched Sang Zhijiu’s stomach. Before Sang Zhijiu could react, she quickly withdrew her hand. “Judging by the amount of softness here, you shouldn’t have continued dieting these past few days, right?”

Sang Zhijiu snapped out of it and instantly flared up: “Fan! Wu!”

There were too many things to complain about; for a moment, she didn’t even know whether to complain about the other person saying there was “softness” on her stomach first, or be angry about the act of touching her stomach!

The corners of Fan Wu’s mouth curled up. “Mm, good. Maintain this look. You’ll easily master the feeling of Chen Yue being angry in the next scene.”

Sang Zhijiu gritted her teeth. “But right now I only want to ‘kill’ Mu Yining, I don’t want to argue with Mu Yining.”

Fan Wu quickly stepped back. “Is that so… Then take it out on Mu Yining. I’m leaving first.”

Sang Zhijiu tossed the script onto the chair and chased after her, making a scene and messing around all the way.

Lin Jiahe was not far away, watching this scene with a bit of bewilderment.

As Sang Zhijiu’s manager, she knew that Sang Zhijiu hadn’t liked Fan Wu in the past. At this moment, the image of the two of them bickering did technically border on “discord” on the surface, but why did she feel…

That there was a mysterious sense of intimacy between Fan Wu and Sang Zhijiu?

Was it an illusion?

Just as Lin Jiahe was lost in thought, a can of a drink suddenly appeared before her, accompanied by a sentence.

“Want a drink?”

Lin Jiahe hurriedly looked up. After seeing who it was, she greeted, “Sister Mengzhi?”

Jiang Mengzhi raised her hand, signaling her to take the drink.

Only after Lin Jiahe took it did she stand beside her and ask, “What are you looking at?”

Lin Jiahe hesitated for a moment and said honestly, “I just feel like… Zhijiu and Sister Fan Wu seem to be getting closer and closer lately.”

If it were anyone else, she definitely wouldn’t have said it. But Jiang Mengzhi was Fan Wu’s manager; discussing this together was better than her running around like a headless fly on her own.

Jiang Mengzhi rubbed her temples. “Aren’t they playing a couple in the drama right now? You’ve followed Zhijiu to quite a few film sets, haven’t you? This kind of situation… isn’t it quite common?”

Even though Jiang Mengzhi used a rhetorical question to emphasize her point, Lin Jiahe felt that the other woman was actually in a very uncertain state herself, just like her.

She tentatively asked back, “You and Sister Fan Wu have more experience with this sort of thing, right? So this is actually… really quite normal, isn’t it?”

Jiang Mengzhi pursed her lips into a straight line. After a few seconds, she slowly nodded. “Mm… yeah, normal. It’s normal.”

Normal, my foot!

She had been with Fan Wu for so long, and she had never seen Fan Wu treat a mere colleague with such special regard just because of an on-screen relationship!

But if she had to come up with another reason, she really couldn’t think of one. She had wanted to feel out Lin Jiahe, but she didn’t expect Lin Jiahe to be just as dazed as she was.

So, maybe it was because this was the first film Fan Wu was directing, and that’s why things were different?

Beside her, Lin Jiahe let out a long sigh of relief because of those words. “Normal, it’s good that it’s normal. I knew it… Zhijiu takes this role very seriously; she might just be too deep into character.”

Jiang Mengzhi nodded. “Mm… Fan Wu cares a lot about this project too.”

In any case, both of them were temporarily relieved.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Mengzhi suddenly asked, “By the way, Jiahe… do you have much experience handling romantic scandals for your artists?”

Lin Jiahe was dazed. After processing it, she replied, “Ah? No, not much. Our Zhijiu has almost no romantic scandals.”

The gossip related to Sang Zhijiu that needed special handling was usually rumors about her having a temper or discord with so-and-so.

Jiang Mengzhi rubbed her temples. “I don’t either.”

In all her years since debut, Fan Wu’s romantic scandals were also pitifully few. Even if there were any, they were debunked before she even had to clarify.

Lin Jiahe pursed her lips. “Why do you suddenly ask?”

Jiang Mengzhi sighed. “Even though the shoot is confidential, there’s no guarantee that news won’t leak. If it gets out and a scandal starts between Zhijiu and Fan Wu… I think we should think of a response plan in advance.”

Lin Jiahe was struck by this. “Mm-hmm, I understand. Thank you, Sister Mengzhi!”

She looked full of admiration. “Sister Mengzhi, you really are amazing. I want to be like you in the future, a great manager who sees through everything in advance.”

Jiang Mengzhi was just about to say goodbye and leave when she heard this, and she almost twisted her ankle.

Relying on her years of experience wearing high heels, she managed to stay standing.

“No need to thank me.” Jiang Mengzhi gave a very forced smile. “You… have potential. Take it slow. I still have some things to do, I’ll be going now.”

Lin Jiahe nodded heavily, hugged the drink she had been given, and watched her leave with a smile.

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