Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The new shot only required reshooting Xing Ye’s part; later editing could combine the two segments together.

Pei Chuzhi didn’t need to reshoot; she only needed to face away from the camera.

Honestly, she felt a bit surprised. That scene just now shouldn’t have been difficult for Xing Ye. With his ability, his performance shouldn’t differ so much.

But on second thought, as an actor, how could one guarantee no small mistakes?

So she adjusted back to her previous sitting posture, raised her head, and softly asked, “Do you want me to cry again to help you build the emotion?”

Her voice still carried a nasal tone from crying, the corners of her eyes faintly red, her bright face appearing pitiful.

Xing Ye frowned slightly in displeasure and replied in a low voice, “Don’t cry.”

“Oh.”

Pei Chuzhi responded, feeling his tone just now sounded rather fierce.

During the next take, Xing Ye didn’t make any mistakes and completed the performance smoothly.

The crew’s boxed lunches happened to arrive at this time. The director announced a break, telling everyone to eat lunch before filming the afternoon scenes.

Just like how everyone gathers around air conditioning in summer, at times like this, the few electric heaters on set would automatically attract crowds.

Pei Chuzhi had also brought an electric heater. Her personality was easygoing, and she usually wouldn’t refuse if other actors or staff came to share it.

However, today when she carried her lunchbox and sat by the heater, she found herself like a faded star. Looking around, only one person remained for her.

—Although that person was probably the culprit behind her “declining popularity.”

Xing Ye showed no politeness at all, already sitting by her heater, unhurriedly opening his lunch box. The heater cast a warm glow on his high nose bridge and smooth forehead. Paired with the abundant lunch in his hand, the scene looked quite cozy.

After he broke apart the disposable chopsticks, he looked up and saw Pei Chuzhi standing there unmoving, then stretched out his long leg to nudge the nearby chair forward. “Sit.”

Listen to that tone—such a strong sense of ownership.

Pei Chuzhi twitched her mouth, sat down, warmed her hands first, then picked up her lunch box and asked, “Didn’t the crew prepare a lounge for you? I heard it even has heating. Why didn’t you go?”

Xing Ye picked the cilantro out of the braised beef. “Trying to chase me away?”

“Not really…”

Pei Chuzhi watched him pick out the cilantro bit by bit, silently noting this habit in her mind, thinking she might use it someday when they needed to show affection. Then she continued, “But did you notice? With you sitting here, no one else dares come over.”

Xing Ye seemed not to have noticed. After she said it, he turned to scan the surroundings.

Everyone’s gaze clashed with his in the air, then they all smiled awkwardly and withdrew.

Pei Chuzhi found this reaction quite amusing, so she joked with a smile, “See? It’s lively over there, but we’re sitting here all deserted.”

After saying that, she even shook her head and pretended to be sad. “They all doted on me before. Now it’s great—no one wants to play with me.”

“You’re close with the crew?”

Pei Chuzhi nodded, her tone cheerful. “It’s fun being with them. Sometimes when we wrap early, we go back to the hotel and still gather to play Werewolf.”

Whether by luck or deliberate arrangement by the production team, the members of the “Secretly Fall in Love With You” crew were basically easy to get along with. The usual fighting for scenes and tearing each other apart common in other crews never happened here.

If one had to say, only her second male lead Zhong Li was a bit greasy, but ultimately it was a harmless minor issue.

Xing Ye licked his lips, his chopsticks piercing through a soft-cooked potato.

After a few seconds of silence, he turned his head and asked softly, “Isn’t it fun with me?”

Pei Chuzhi’s hand shook, and a round pea rolled to the ground.

She picked it up with a tissue, and when she looked up again, her face was filled with four words: hard to describe.

Friend, do you know you’re being unreasonable?

These words lingered between her lips several times, but she still didn’t say them.

After all, she had to save him some face.

Xing Ye didn’t know whether he had understood the disdain in her eyes. He curled his lips and sneered. “Little girl, no conscience.”

It was hard to say whether it was the way he enunciated a certain syllable, or that he dragged the final tone half a beat, or ultimately, that his deep voice made the three words “little girl” sound far too ambiguous.

Pei Chuzhi’s face heated up.

She moved her chair back half an inch, pretending she couldn’t stand the heat from the heater, then muttered in a low protest, “You’re only two years older than me. Who are you calling little girl?”

Xing Ye raised his brows. “I debuted much earlier than you. Can’t I call you little girl?”

“You only filmed three years earlier than me.” She still refused to concede.

Xing Ye paused, his gaze darkening slightly.

He set down his lunchbox, his eyes sweeping over her face. When he spoke again, his tone carried a bit of seriousness. “Not just three years. The first time I acted was much earlier, when I was still in elementary school.”

Pei Chuzhi froze. Her first reaction was that it was impossible—his debut history was clearly written online. But since he himself said so…

“How old were you then?”

So she completely didn’t remember the little boy who once hid in the artificial rock garden of her house and threw a tantrum.

Not the slightest impression. Even though he sat in front of her and hinted at it, she still couldn’t recall.

Xing Ye chuckled softly. “Forget it.”

·

Four days passed in the blink of an eye.

On Xing Ye’s last day in the crew, Pei Chuzhi wasn’t filming in the same group as him. By the time she wrapped and returned to the hotel, a farewell message he had sent before leaving was already lying in her phone.

The following days grew colder and busier.

Before “Secretly Fall in Love With You” even started filming, a domestic TV station and another online platform had already bought the TV and online broadcasting rights, and clearly requested it to air in the third quarter of next year.

Therefore the crew didn’t dare delay; they didn’t even give everyone a Spring Festival holiday.

On New Year’s Eve, the crew had one day off.

Pei Chuzhi finally slept in, played with Ruan Li and the others after getting up, then ate the New Year’s Eve dinner with the entire crew in the evening, returning to her room after ten to call her parents and send New Year greetings.

She also sent a big red envelope to Xu Lei, who likewise couldn’t go home, then sat on the sofa casually watching the Spring Festival Gala.

Xu Lei ate chips beside her like a hamster. “Zhizhi, aren’t you video-calling Teacher Xing for the New Year?”

Pei Chuzhi snatched a small chip from her hand, barely satisfying her craving. “He’s at his mom’s place for the New Year. It’s not convenient for me to call. I already sent him a message earlier wishing him a happy Spring Festival.”

Actually, that was just an excuse.

Even if Xing Ye hadn’t gone to his mother’s house, Pei Chuzhi wouldn’t need to have a romantic video call with him.

Xu Lei wiped her hands, opened another can of soda, gulped a few mouthfuls, then asked, “His mom is Yu Wan, right?”

“Mm, what about it?”

Mentioning the veteran Best Actress who retired ten years ago, Xu Lei’s tone was full of admiration. “She was my dad’s and my second uncle’s dream lover when they were young. When she got married back then, the two of them even cried together and cursed at a barbecue stall… uh, what’s Teacher Xing’s dad’s name again?”

Pei Chuzhi thought for a moment. “Xing Zhiyuan?”

Xu Lei took out her phone and searched for a while. “Right, that’s him. But I think Yu Wan was really brave. She was at the peak of popularity when she married, right? She just married when she said she would. Later when she divorced her husband too, she separated decisively, then announced her retirement. Ordinary actresses aren’t that straightforward, right?”

The time when Xing Ye’s parents married was naturally long before Pei Chuzhi was born.

To her, it was something very distant, and she didn’t feel much when talking about it.

But regarding Yu Wan and Xing Zhiyuan’s divorce, she had a clear impression.

She had been in fifth grade at the time. Not only did her family driver talk about it all the way home after school, for almost a week afterward, wherever she went she heard adults discussing it.

That was probably the first time she deeply understood the meaning of the word “national.”

Xu Lei seemed to recall childhood experiences too and couldn’t help sighing. “Thinking about it, Teacher Xing really hasn’t had it easy. Whatever happened in his family since he was young became gossip. I saw him on a talk show before—he said even when he was in kindergarten, reporters sneaked in to take pictures of him.”

Pei Chuzhi nodded thoughtfully, suddenly understanding why Xing Ye’s personality was so flamboyant.

On one hand, perhaps he inherited his mother’s decisiveness; on the other…

Given the environment he grew up in since birth, if he chose to suppress his true nature, he probably would have collapsed before long.

Such an unrestrained person had helped her many times in the half year since they met.

Thinking of this, Pei Chuzhi felt that the polite greetings she sent in the afternoon weren’t enough, so she stretched her arm to take the phone from the coffee table and slowly typed:

【Are there fireworks to watch on your side tonight?】

She remembered a notice downstairs at the hotel saying there would be a fireworks show on the opposite riverbank tonight.

Although it was very far from the hotel, she should be able to see a little from the window.

Xing Ye replied: 【…I’m in the United States. It’s daytime now.】

Pei Chuzhi laughed silently. Just looking at the line, she could imagine his helpless expression.

She continued typing: 【Then I’ll give you a gift in half an hour.】

Near midnight, Pei Chuzhi ran to the window and pulled open the curtains. For filming effect, she even told Xu Lei to turn off all the lights, then raised her phone toward the distant sky.

A few minutes later, dozens of brilliant fireworks bloomed simultaneously in the sky.

Pei Chuzhi quickly pressed record and filmed a video amid Xu Lei’s cheers.

The night scene captured by the phone wasn’t very clear, and the cold wind blowing through the open window made her hands shake badly. From a professional perspective, the video really had little viewing value.

However, after she sent the video, Xing Ye replied with a voice message.

His voice carried a smile. “Thank you, I like it very much.”

·

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Pei Chuzhi officially wrapped filming.

The crew prepared a farewell dinner for her. Since others still had filming tasks, they couldn’t indulge too much, so they held it in the hotel restaurant.

Pei Chuzhi exchanged contact information with everyone around her.

A screenwriter who had a good relationship with her hooked her arm. “I really like you. Several key scenes of Jiang Nanyan were written by me, and you perfectly presented what I imagined when writing the script. Let’s collaborate again if there’s a chance!”

Just as Pei Chuzhi was about to agree, Xu Lei beside her let out a scream.

Everyone was startled. Someone with a straightforward temper was about to ask what she was yelling about, but Xu Lei raised her phone in front of Pei Chuzhi first. “Zhizhi, you… you’re trending.”

Pei Chuzhi: “???”

Rewind to two days earlier.

A well-known uploader “Su Lizi” posted her latest edited video:

【I said before I turned from passerby to fan of Miss Pei Chuzhi. Now the mission is accomplished! Everyone come see my new goddess!】

As a veteran editor in the editing community, Su Lizi herself had a considerable number of followers. Once the video was released, even people uninterested in Pei Chuzhi clicked it just to appreciate Su Lizi’s editing skills.

After watching, they finally understood that when Su Lizi said last November that she fell into the fandom after gossiping, it definitely wasn’t paid promotion.

Because…

Pei Chuzhi was indeed too beautiful.

Many people’s impression of Pei Chuzhi came from the advertisement she filmed with Xing Ye.

But an advertisement lasted only a few minutes. Aside from showing the product and Xing Ye’s screen time, only about ten seconds were left for Pei Chuzhi.

Yet in Su Lizi’s seven-minute video, all the roles Pei Chuzhi had played before—even the NPC she portrayed in “Who Is the Murderer”—were included.

Different hairstyles, different makeup, different outfits.

No matter how the styling changed, the only constant in the video was that strikingly beautiful face.

The most eye-catching part was the segment at the end of the video.

As the soaring female voice in the background music gradually faded, Pei Chuzhi, wearing a black evening gown, walked along a deserted street at midnight. The dim streetlights slowly spread beneath her feet, and the intricately designed hem of her dress trailed behind her like a tail, lightly brushing the wet street as she swayed gracefully.

When she walked up to the camera, the extremely close shooting distance still didn’t ruin the perfection of her bone structure.

In the video, Pei Chuzhi looked at the camera and gently bit her lip.

With just that single movement, her eyes flowed, and countless charms emerged.

She looked like a spirit seeking pleasure in the night.

The rapidly increasing bullet comments honestly reflected the viewers’ feelings:

【Is this level of beauty real? Even close-up shots show no flaws!】

【Sister! Sister, look at me! I’m available, super available!】

【You guys are exaggerating. I don’t think she’s that pretty (said a passerby with a nosebleed)】

【Such a great beauty not being popular is unbearable. She could totally commit crimes with her looks, okay?】

Perhaps too many people felt that with Pei Chuzhi’s stunning beauty, remaining unknown for so long was indeed unacceptable.

After two days of fermentation, at six in the evening on the day Pei Chuzhi wrapped filming, she finally trended on her own for once.

#CommittingCrimesWithBeautyPeiChuzhi#.

Author’s note: Zhizhi: Yay! I finally learned to walk independently!

By the way, this counts as today’s update; there won’t be another one tonight.

Also, because it will be featured tomorrow, the next chapter will be updated tomorrow (the 29th) after 11 PM. Hope everyone understands, muah!