The Whole World Is Waiting for Me and My Ex-Girlfriend to Remarry (Entertainment Industry) - Chapter 50

“Even if you required me to bind my fate to yours, I would do so willingly.”

The first stage of filming for the movie Flowers Decide to Become Trees at Thirty was set in an old public housing apartment. It was damp, dark, and secluded from the sun. Gray sunlight filtered in, illuminating the “half-light, half-shadow” face of Xiao Hua, played by Dong Huaci.

She was dressed in what could be described as half a nightgown, gazing out the window motionlessly. Both vacancy and vitality spilled from her eyes in a single look.

“Cut—this shot is a wrap.”

First, the large camera above Dong Huaci’s head was moved away, followed by the repositioning of the reflector cloths. Dong Huaci propped herself up, threw on a coat, and walked almost anxiously toward the director’s chair to view the footage.

Zhong Qing sat there today with great poise, her hand supporting her chin and sunglasses hanging from her chest, scrutinizing Dong Huaci in the viewfinder. Seeing Dong Huaci approach, she remained very disciplined in public, refraining from showing excessive intimacy.

Dong Huaci stood behind her, watching as well.

Zhong Qing nodded continuously. “This scene is excellent. The next scene is… you dancing with a waist-high single mirror in the room.” She couldn’t help but let some personal emotion slip in. “Are you sure you can do it?”

This scene seemed to be writing about the childhood of Zhong Qing, yet it also seemed to describe Dong Huaci when she first arrived in Shanghai.

Xiao Hua’s state of mind symbolized the inner world of thousands upon thousands of young women arriving in big metropolises. They live a drifting existence in one apartment after another—places that always have some indefinable, strange flaw. They work grueling jobs, eat endless takeout, and dream one sweet yet bitter daydream after another. Sometimes they want to conquer the city, relying on their abilities to live a life of abundance, dignity, and glory, cutting ties with the past; sometimes they want to meet true love overnight and live a bubble-like dream of a daily life, where they only need to learn about love and companionship, living the most peaceful and happy life known to humanity.

Flower, little flower, you must become a tree.

As Dong Huaci watched, her mind drifted to other things, muttering this monologue under her breath, distracted from Zhong Qing’s question.

Zhong Qing didn’t interrupt her. She simply looked at Dong Huaci’s face and, for no reason at all, smiled. Love is love; she could never grow tired of looking at her. No matter what she looked like, Zhong Qing could instantly scent her soul.

It wasn’t perfume; it was never perfume that captivated her. Dong Huaci had been mistaken about that all along.

Zhong Qing stood up and, under the watchful eyes of the film crew, led Dong Huaci toward the acting spot. A director explaining a scene shouldn’t count as having selfish motives, right? Zhong Qing thought this as she substituted herself for the mirror, reaching out her hand. “I’ll lead you through the positioning once.”

Only then did Dong Huaci snap back to reality—this was the scene.

A moment ago, she almost truly thought Zhong Qing was inviting her to dance.

Her face turned bright red as she reached out. Zhong Qing signaled for her to hold her waist. “You have to imagine me as a mirror.”

A mirror, okay. Dong Huaci repeated silently.

They spun in the small, dark room crowded with clutter. They spun for a long time without moving far from their starting point, yet “Xiao Hua” already felt exhausted and dizzy, “collapsing onto the bed.”

“Can you remember that feeling?” Zhong Qing couldn’t help but laugh as she spoke. “Your eyes right now are a bit… well…” She hesitated over her phrasing. “A bit too sweet. It needs to be more lost, more strained, more frantic, more narcissistic. It’s a mirror, but what ‘Xiao Hua’ sees is her perfect future self in that mirror… they dance together…”

Dong Huaci’s face felt hot. She nodded.

That was another “one-take” scene. The segments for this location were almost finished, and the crew finally had a chance to breathe. Zhong Qing left first, and Dong Huaci moved separately to avoid fans congregating.

Although Zhong Qing had become a director and moved behind the scenes, no longer working as an idol—and despite having admitted to her relationship with Dong Huaci under the pressure of fans and public opinion—she still had many fanatical fans who loved her.

Sigh, a charming woman indeed~

Dong Huaci finally understood Zhong Qing’s state of mind at certain times, muttering to herself with a hint of grievance.

Since her high-profile return to work, she had the money again to “dig” Shi Xiaonan out from the company—though Dong Huaci still belonged to that acting agency and shared a sense of “glory and ruin” with them (perhaps too strong a word). In short, she brought Shi Xiaonan back as her exclusive manager.

From an outsider’s perspective, Shi Xiaonan was holding a script, picking Dong Huaci up from work and seriously explaining something in the parking lot passage. In reality, she was asking if they should drag Zhong Qing along to play Fight the Landlord that evening. After several days of continuous filming and adjustment, Shi Xiaonan was terrified her two “Gold Masters” would overwork themselves.

Dong Huaci looked pensive, but was actually seriously considering whether to mention this to Zhong Qing.

That woman couldn’t possibly still be jealous of Shi Xiaonan…

Turning the corner at the parking lot entrance, they were met by a large group of fans waiting by the RV. Dong Huaci, in a large white down jacket, moved slowly, diligently greeting fans, saying hello, and signing autographs. The idol genes were still in her blood.

Among them was a young female fan wearing a black mask and a red hat with a little tuft on top. She gave Dong Huaci a large, carefully arranged bouquet of beautiful flowers, along with a written ID and blessing.

Dong Huaci caught a glimpse of the ID and suddenly smiled. “Are you Diandian? I remember you.”

The fan was very excited and surprised. She wasn’t a “sasaeng” fan, nor did she follow every single event; she just used to work at an entertainment company and had particularly liked Dong Huaci and Zhong Qing during university. She was a typical CP (Couple) fan. How could Dong Huaci remember her ID?

It couldn’t be that she browses the CP forums.

Dong Huaci assumed Diandian’s excitement was simply due to happiness, and she loved these moments. To Dong Huaci, the greatest emotional charm of the entertainment industry was that she could use her words to transmit real happiness to specific people.

She made a finger heart, sporting “Xiao Hua’s” skin—a head of large brown curls—and said with smiling eyes, “Thank you for always being here.”

Having said that, she slowly moved forward through the crowd and the cameras, waving for a long time before reluctantly boarding the RV.

The RV’s destination was still Zhong Qing’s home. For the first break during the continuous location shooting, Zhong Qing still chose to spend it with Dong Huaci at home.

The feeling of home was always different. Zhong Qing had shed the standard “all-black” director’s outfit and was preparing dinner for Dong Huaci, whose stomach had become exceptionally picky and fragile due to previous induced vomiting. She couldn’t eat things that were too refined, she didn’t like things that were too healthy, and she couldn’t eat things that were too greasy—but she would eat anything Zhong Qing made. Thus, when Dong Huaci arrived home, she saw Zhong Qing washing knives.

“I really need you, Zhong Qing.”

After changing her clothes, she slumped onto the sofa.

Her mind, flushed by everything at the film set today, felt like an antique clock that had suddenly been wound up and let out a chime. Dong Huaci could hardly believe it: she could truly act again, many people still liked her, and all of this stemmed from Zhong Qing’s near-self-destructive determination to start over from scratch. Lying half-way on the sofa and fiddling with her curls, she stared at the ceiling with her large eyes and said those words with almost exaggerated sentiment.

Zhong Qing gave a meaningful “Humph.” For a “B-King” like her, such a sound was practically acting like a spoiled child.

She was naturally proud.

This newly debuted director was very down-to-earthly slicing salmon for Dong Huaci, her face turned away while she secretly pricked up her ears.

“I think I still owe you a confession.” Dong Huaci sat up, walked slowly behind Zhong Qing, and leaned against her with exceptional warmth.

Zhong Qing almost lost her grip on the knife.

She set the kitchenware down and took hold of Dong Huaci’s hand. Thinking that these hands would soon touch a golden microphone, that this face would be under the spotlight of ten thousand eyes, and that the owner of this face would say sweet words to her every day, saying she needed her, saying she loved her most—her blood felt a strange kind of boiling.

Dong Huaci, naturally, did not know what Zhong Qing was thinking.

She simply turned Zhong Qing’s body around slowly, forbidding her from looking at the salmon and making her look at her.

Dong Huaci, this “genius actress,” was trying to come up with words for a confession. She realized she had performed romance countless times in scripts, but when it came to real life, expressing love was so difficult, so clumsy.

Her breathing was a bit heavy, and a strange sensation rose in her stomach. Since Zhong Qing had returned to the country and watched over her meals, she rarely felt this way.

She was nervous.

Dong Huaci embraced Zhong Qing. After a long silence, she said, “I’m so sorry for hitting you before. I didn’t mean it…”

After all that, she said that.

“I’ll say it again: I never blamed you.” Zhong Qing smiled, smoothing her hair until, eventually, their hair inevitably became entangled again. “I was even quite happy at the time. I thought it was a manifestation of how special I was to you.”

Zhong Qing swallowed another sentence.

As long as you don’t leave me, anything is fine.

Don’t use cold violence on me again, don’t stop contacting me, don’t pretend to be a stranger to me, don’t give me fake smiles, and don’t try to avoid me.

I don’t want to download your photos from the internet anymore, I don’t want to find out your news from the headlines, and I don’t want to look at chat logs and pretend we still live in the past. I don’t want to dream of you when I can’t write songs, and I don’t want to think about how great it would be if you were by my side or could see me and be proud of me when the dancing and cheering are at their peak.

Most of all, I don’t want you to suffer in the entertainment industry, and I don’t want you to forget me after becoming famous—but I want even less for you to remain obscure forever.

There were too many things she didn’t want…

Zhong Qing patted Dong Huaci’s back, and at that moment, Dong Huaci thought of her second sentence.

“Zhong Qing, you are like my great destiny.”

She tried her best to control herself, trying not to cry yet. “Because of such intense happiness, when I was too young, I felt afraid. Because you were too good, too powerful, to the point where I feared your control over my fate… I’ve been in the entertainment industry too long to distinguish what is control and what is love—or perhaps, love is just inherently complex…”

“But no matter what kind of person you are, at this moment—” Dong Huaci took a deep breath, no longer daring to meet Zhong Qing’s gaze, simply burying her head in her shoulder to say the next words:

“Even if you required me to bind my fate to yours, I would do so willingly.”

She recited this sentence with a rather dramatic flair.

Was this a form of luck or misfortune? Her life could no longer be detached from Zhong Qing. Without Zhong Qing, she might still be dancing at her old company; perhaps she could have become a minor star or a bit player, but eventually, lacking background, connections, and enough desire to endure humiliation, she would likely have made a panicked exit, wandering into the fated, submerging currents of destiny. She would have been dragged down to death by her father, and she would have been lost for a long time because she hadn’t finished university and couldn’t return to a normal track. Perhaps she would have found a way out of a desperate situation through some other chance, but at this very moment, Dong Huaci lacked the imagination and the mental energy to think about it.

Without Zhong Qing, there was no meaning.

She wept.

Dong Huaci had once truly believed that career success and the accumulation of wealth were what she wanted most, but all of that was perhaps just a temporary storage for life’s energy when one couldn’t find a place to anchor love. And her true wish was standing right in front of her, skin pressed against skin, breath entwined with breath.

Zhong Qing was also deeply moved. “Little Tree, now, I seriously want to ask you… Is there… is there anything else you want?”

“To be Best Actress.” Dong Huaci struggled out of Zhong Qing’s embrace, her voice still sobby. Perhaps because actors have extra-rich emotions, she currently had the vibe of saying whatever came to mind.

“Maybe our first movie really can do it!” Zhong Qing’s confidence always showed its sharp edge in her career. “Anything else?”

Dong Huaci suddenly thought of that little fan, Diandian. “When we finish filming, we can go abroad to hold our wedding. Then we can develop an app of our own to share all of this with the fans. After all…”

“We’ll post it on public platforms.” Zhong Qing’s tone was very serious, as if she had truly considered this. “We’re not afraid of being banned anymore. We’ve made it through these two years… Those people from our past who were involved in grudges have either been caught for tax evasion or have left the circle due to various scandals. We haven’t committed any wrongs, Little Tree.”

Dong Huaci wanted to cry again.

Zhong Qing wiped her tears away and, half-helplessly, picked up where Dong Huaci left off: “After all… after all, they’ve been waiting for us to ‘remarry,’ haven’t they?”

Dong Huaci instantly burst into a smile through her tears.

She kissed Zhong Qing, missing out on tonight’s salmon and the scheduled game of Fight the Landlord.