The Movie Queen’s Private Little Chef - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

April is a rainy season, but fortunately, it was merely overcast when she left the house that morning.

Yun Yun carried a large beige bag and wore an outfit she had carefully coordinated the night before. By the time she took a taxi to the company’s recording studio building, it was just past eleven in the morning.

Her manager, Wei Zhanhong, was waiting on the eighth floor of the studio dressed in trendy “hypebeast” attire. As soon as he saw her step out of the elevator, he rushed forward to look her over, smiling with satisfaction. “Not bad. Looks like you got some good rest last night? You look spirited. I’ll have the makeup artist touch you up properly in a bit.”

Yun Yun smiled, the slight upward curve of her lips sweet yet restrained—neither too frivolous nor too distant. it perfectly showcased her soft yet dignified features.

This was her trademark smile, one she had crafted in front of the mirror over her many years of live streaming.

Faced with a pleasant-looking beauty smiling at him, Wei Zhanhong couldn’t help but smile back, his voice softening instinctively. “The people coming today are all ‘hardcore’ big shots. You’re our number one creator in the food section; Hardcore Live will have you do a simple personal interview first…”

Talking as they went, the two walked into the recording studio. The sets weren’t fully assembled yet, and people were rushing back and forth testing equipment, far too busy to pay them any mind.

Wei Zhanhong had other matters to attend to. After speaking with the planners and directors from Hardcore’s side, he walked back and gave Yun Yun a hand signal, indicating he was leaving.

“Wait a moment!”

Yun Yun called out to him, reaching into her bag to pull out a large jar filled with vibrant, multi-colored fondant cookies.

Seeing this, Wei Zhanhong’s smile widened until his eyes were mere slits. “Oh, man, every time I take you out for business, I have to worry about my weight. My wife is going to nag me again when I get back…”

Yun Yun opened the lid with a smile and took out a small bundle of fondant cookies wrapped in cellophane and tied with a colorful ribbon. She handed it to him. “Then share some with her. Eat them together. There are only a few, so you don’t have to worry about getting fat.”

“Hahaha, as expected of our lovely Xiao Yun, you always know the right thing to say. Alright, I’m off. Give it your all today, I’m rooting for you!”

Yun Yun smiled, her eyes curving into crescents as she nodded. Wei Zhanhong felt a literal “spark” of charm; he rubbed his arms and quickly fled the scene.

Watching Wei Zhanhong’s retreating back, the complex flavor belonging to him gradually faded from Yun Yun’s mouth.

The older people get, the more complex their “flavor” becomes. Sometimes, it’s truly hard to distinguish the components. For example, over the past few years, Wei Zhanhong’s flavor had shifted from an initial spicy, savory grilled meat scent to this current lukewarm, muddled taste.

It felt like… a leftover Mala Xiang Guo (spicy stir-fry pot) that had been diluted with water and boiled again.

Perhaps life is simply a mixture of the five flavors.

Yun Yun sat alone in a corner of the studio and began playing on her phone. She didn’t dare look around too much, fearing strange tastes would appear in her mouth.

A young girl who looked like an assistant ran past, clutching a large stack of backdrop boards. Just as she passed Yun Yun, a board slipped and fell to the floor.

Yun Yun caught sight of the board out of the corner of her eye, picked it up, and looked up to hand it to the girl. “Is this yours?”

The girl’s cheeks were flushed from running. Suddenly seeing such a poised, beautiful woman with a classical grace, she became tongue-tied. “Um, that, it’s mine—no, it belongs to the company…”

Yun Yun gave her an encouraging smile. “It’s alright, go on and get back to work.”

The girl grabbed the board and sprinted away, looking back once after a few steps. She felt she had never seen a girl with such a unique temperament.

She was different from the typical internet celebrity. Although this was a gathering spot for influencers, that girl was truly distinct—elegant in aura, yet carrying a sense of warmth and kindness that made people want to approach her.

A truly magical person.

Yun Yun didn’t know she had gained a new fan just by picking up a board. As the garlic scent belonging to the girl faded from her mouth, she continued scrolling through Weibo, reading comments on the video she had stayed up late editing the night before.

When it was time for lunch boxes to be distributed, the planner finally remembered there was an influencer sitting there and hurriedly came over to invite her to the small room next door for lunch.

Two other influencers invited for the event—both from the beauty category—were already seated in the small room. Yun Yun didn’t have much in common with them, so she simply greeted them and ate her meal quietly.

Lunch box food was always mediocre. Yun Yun picked at a few side dishes, put down her chopsticks, cleared away her meal box into the trash, and sat quietly, taking her water bottle out of her bag.

She brought her own lemon water. Since she frequently needed to cleanse the flavors from her mouth, lemon water was the most effective tool.

This small room was actually just a partitioned space. The door was left open for ventilation. Looking out into the distance, the hallway was filled with stacks of foam boards, and people were busy preparing for the event.

Her phone suddenly rang. Yun Yun answered. “Hello?”

“Baby!” A loud, exaggerated shout came from the other end, so piercing that the earpiece sounded like it was on speakerphone.

The two influencers eating nearby looked up in shock. Yun Yun gave a frequent apologetic smile, grabbed her bag, and walked out the door, standing behind a pile of foam boards in the hallway.

Only then did she speak into the phone: “Mom, I’m at work.”

“You’re always at work, working at all hours of the day! Then tell me, when am I supposed to call you, my baby? You’re going to be the death of your mother!”

Yun Yun’s mother always spoke with dramatic rising and falling intonations, her emotions forever at full capacity. This was a mysterious talent Yun Yun had never been able to decipher over the years.

Caught between laughter and tears, she could only reply, “I always answer your calls seriously, don’t I?”

“Oh, so it’s only when I call you. You never think to check on your mother. I’m so lonely at home by myself. Your uncle is busy with work, and there’s no one to talk to…”

“Mom… you call three times a week. Every time I think about calling you, you just happen to call first…” Yun Yun soothed her softly over the phone.

Fortunately, her mother didn’t dwell on the phone call issue. The topic immediately shifted to how useful the neighbor’s new dryer was.

“Alright, if you want one, I’ll buy one for you too,” Yun Yun said.

“Who said I wanted one? I’m just telling you it looked nice. You have it hard enough, I don’t want your money…”

Yun Yun sighed. While listening, she pulled the phone away and made a memo: Buy a dryer for Mom.

With the phone in hand, she suddenly heard the sound of a group of people walking toward her from the other side of the foam boards—their footsteps were messy and hurried.

She instinctively hid further back. She didn’t like crowded occasions because there would be too many flavors in her mouth.

“…A new dog arrived at the plaza these past few days…” her mother’s voice continued in her ear.

“I am terribly sorry, we have to trouble you to wait here for a moment. Our event is starting shortly, very shortly…” On the other side, the General Manager of Hardcore Live was speaking anxiously to someone.

“What do you need me to do?” a female voice asked.

Yun Yun instantly froze. She stood rooted to the spot, not daring to move an inch. Her finger brushed against the sharp edge of a foam board, leaving a white mark.

She didn’t feel it at all. Her heart was racing wildly in her chest, thumping and drummed so hard it felt like it was treating her ribcage like a playground.

The familiar voice of the Hardcore GM continued to speak, but she didn’t bother to distinguish what he was saying.

In her ears, there were only those few words from that female voice.

Cold, clear, and elegantly lazy.

That was… Qi Ziling’s voice.

Qi Ziling was now less than a hundred meters away, and the distance was closing.

Yun Yun could only hide awkwardly behind a large pile of colorful, precariously stacked foam boards that looked like a modern art installation.

She didn’t dare return to the room, fearing the sound of her high heels would be heard and draw attention.

“Baby? Baby, are you listening to me?” the thin, nagging voice asked from the phone.

The space wasn’t quiet—people were constantly talking in the studio, and audio equipment was being tested—but at this moment, her ears were practically glued to the group of people on the other side of the boards.

She even stood on her tip-toes, peeking over the foam boards, but saw only a sea of heads.

“Baby!”

A sudden scream erupted from the phone, loud enough to pierce the heavens, echoing through the hallway for a long time.

“Mom, I’m working. We’ll talk tonight.” Yun Yun pressed the phone to her ear, whispered the sentence, and hung up immediately.

The footsteps of the group were now within arm’s reach. People were still talking, but Qi Ziling didn’t speak again.

Yun Yun stood in the corner, feeling both regretful and embarrassed. Regretful that she had come out to take the call, and embarrassed by her current predicament—it was too late to go back into the room, but staying put felt like eavesdropping.

The crowd arrived.

The first thing she saw was a pair of calves.

The proportions were perfect, the lines smooth. The subtle, elongated muscles of the calves moved with the slender, delicate ankles like precision machinery.

Step by step, in black flat-soled lace-up sandals, the person walked neither too fast nor too slow, poised and deliberate.

Then, the flowing ribbons of a dress fluttered by. Even though there was no breeze, the fabric seemed to move on its own, cradling that beautiful body.

It was the person she had seen countless times on screens and in photos. That face, yet it was so familiar it almost felt strange.

Is it really her?

Her aura was as powerful as a hurricane, her beauty dizzying.

She simply walked past with a nonchalant, understated air, yet it felt as if a storm had risen from the ground, sweeping everyone’s gaze onto her.

That person seemed to carry her own halo; one could hardly focus on the details of her features or figure, only sensing that every part of her was perfect—a masterpiece meticulously carved by the Creator.

Can a person really be this beautiful?

Yun Yun had always known Qi Ziling was beautiful, but before seeing her in person, she hadn’t realized she was this beautiful.

She couldn’t help but swallow nervously.

And with it, she took in a huge gulp of the “flavor” belonging to Qi Ziling.

A sensation of total, refreshing comfort spread through her.

“Please rest in the room next door for a moment. We will come get you before the event starts. Do you need anything else?”

Someone was talking incessantly. Only then did Yun Yun spare a glance at the people nearby, seeing the General Manager—who was always haughty when speaking to her—now bowing and scraping with a fawning smile toward Qi Ziling.

And Qi Ziling, as she passed the pile of foam boards, suddenly glanced toward Yun Yun’s direction.

Yun Yun instinctively tensed her body.

Qi Ziling’s gaze was lazy and simple, very casual. When it swept over her, it was no different from sweeping over the surrounding objects.

It looked very indifferent.

But that indifference made Yun Yun breathe a sigh of relief, like a student successfully avoiding a teacher’s eyes in class.

With just that one glance, Qi Ziling continued to lead the crowd forward, frowning slightly and nodding once. “No, thank you.”

The group, surrounding her front and back, walked into the large reception room next door and closed the door.

Only then did Yun Yun realize that the phone she was clutching in her palm was covered in sweat.

In that short span of time, she had been so nervous she broke into a cold sweat.

As expected of Qi Ziling. Recalling her appearance, Yun Yun felt a bit dazed.

That kind of intense, sensory-shocking beauty, yet paired with such a lazy, nonchalant, and unique aura.

It really was her.

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