ISWMQ – Chapter 133

The vernal equinox passed quickly. It seemed that in the blink of an eye, spring was already over.

Aside from the increasingly large temperature difference between day and night, everyone felt as if they had gone from a harsh winter to the height of summer in an instant.

On the day she joined the production, Rong Guang went to the set in Chu Feiliang’s car.

The filming location was at the film base in H City. There were several large event areas nearby—however, Zhang Nanchuan had made arrangements in advance. Based on Chu Feiliang’s own strong recommendation, some of the scenes would be filmed at her own home and the Chu family’s large residence.

Regarding this, Grandma Chu and Chu Siyue were surprisingly in complete agreement: use it as you please. If necessary, they would even move out to make space.

After hearing this, Rong Guang was utterly shocked. She couldn’t help but keep looking at Chu Feiliang the entire way there.

As they neared the base, she still couldn’t hold back. She leaned close to Chu Feiliang and whispered, “Sister, what on earth did you say to Grandma and Sister Siyue?”

Didn’t they agree a little too quickly?

Rong Guang’s expression became a little suspicious.

Chu Feiliang wrapped a large arm around Rong Guang, pulling her into her embrace. She chuckled and said, “I just said it would be a way to leave behind some beautiful memories—look, it’s a film with two female leads and it’s a modern drama. After we finish filming this one, who knows when we’ll have another chance to film together. So shouldn’t I cherish it?”

Rong Guang was still a little hesitant.

Chu Feiliang pressed on, “Think about it yourself. If one day Chacha wanted to borrow your home for a few days for a class reunion, would you agree?”

“Of course I would,” Rong Guang said with a serious expression.

Then she looked up, realization dawning on her.

So that was the logic.

She also felt relieved.

But after a while, she propped her chin on her hand and looked back at the car following far behind them. With a bit of a headache, she said, “But isn’t it a bit of an exaggeration for Director Zhang’s entire family to move here…”

Zhang Nanchuan, Pei Lingxi, and Chacha’s maternal grandparents had all come along with large and small bags.

The commotion was comparable to moving house.

Chu Feiliang was noncommittal. “He has a place to stay here. A fairly large three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, just right for the family—Zhang Nanchuan is filming here alone, and the elders at home are worried that Chacha’s emotions will be unstable if she suddenly leaves you, which isn’t good for her recovery. In any case, it’s the same for them wherever they are, so it’s not impossible for them to move here together.”

Rong Guang still felt it was too much of a fuss.

Chu Feiliang knew a bit more than she did. Seeing that Rong Guang was still worried, she said, “The two elders of the Pei family are getting old, and the one they worry about most is Sister-in-law. Now that Chacha is back, but isn’t like other normal children, how could the two elders sit still? They’re both hoping the two of them can remarry.”

“Didn’t they not get a divorce?” Rong Guang was confused.

“In name only, existing only in name.” Chu Feiliang said lightly, subconsciously tightening her hold on Rong Guang’s waist and nuzzling into her soft embrace with a contented sigh. “The knot in their hearts is Chacha… and it can only be untied through her.”

Thinking of it this way, it all made sense.

Rong Guang nodded and said, “That’s good too.”

From the car behind, Chacha seemed to have noticed Rong Guang looking at them through the rear window. In her excitement, she stuck her head out of the side window, clinging to the window frame and craning her neck to shout, “Guang—Oww!”

Chacha was pulled back by a beautiful, fair hand grabbing the small tuft of hair on her head.

Rong Guang fell silent. The cry of alarm that had almost escaped her was swallowed back down. She said silently, “…I now feel it’s more than just ‘good’.”

Chu Feiliang also fell silent with her.

Then, at the same time, they saw a small, cast-bound foot, unwilling to be left out, sticking out of the window of the car behind them.

Chu Feiliang, Rong Guang: “…”

Rong Guang muttered to herself with a dazed expression, “Who on earth has this child been taking after these past few days…”

Chu Feiliang wiped her face and said, “Right now, you’re the only one who can keep Chacha in line.”

Chacha’s behavior today was already considered restrained.

A few days ago, as soon as she heard that Rong Guang was joining the production alone while she had to stay behind to recover, Chacha was quiet for several days—not speaking, not acknowledging anyone, just eating when told to eat and drinking when told to drink.

She was as obedient as a puppet.

Rong Guang had been waiting for Chacha to have an outburst.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Chacha started acting up.

First, she would silently stare at people with tears streaming down her face. Then, she would cling to Rong Guang without letting go, not saying a word, just looking at her with teary eyes.

After that, she started to lose her appetite, throwing up everything she ate, her little face as pale as a sheet of paper.

In the end, no one could bear it any longer.

After much deliberation among all parties, the entire Zhang family set off for the film set.

Rong Guang’s face scrunched up like a bun. She counted on her fingers, “Chacha’s separation anxiety, Director Zhang having to leave B City for at least half a year, plus the two elders hoping Director Zhang and Sister-in-law can improve their relationship… why does it feel so coincidental…?” Chu Feiliang thought so too.

She smiled, tilted her head, and glanced at the car behind them—

A big, distorted face was pressed against the car window.

Without asking, she knew it was Chacha.

The little girl was trying hard to cling to the window and look at them, who knows what she could even make out.

She silently retracted her gaze, but suddenly realized that Rong Guang seemed to fall for this kind of thing.

First there was Duan Nong, now there was Chacha. Both seemed to be spoiled by Rong Guang into becoming more and more unreasonable, and the more they acted out, the more reluctant Rong Guang was to leave.

Let’s not even talk about Duan Nong’s bottomless antics—this child, Chacha, was definitely dancing right on the edge of what would make Rong Guang angry, in a way that ensured Rong Guang absolutely wouldn’t get angry.

Chu Feiliang stroked her chin, looking at Rong Guang’s face that also kept looking back, and suddenly fell into deep thought.

“Sister, what are you thinking about?” Rong Guang happened to turn back and see Chu Feiliang’s expression. For some reason, she suddenly felt the hairs on her body stand on end.

Chu Feiliang tapped her index finger against her lips and smiled slowly. “Nothing. I just feel that in life, one must constantly learn.”

Rong Guang didn’t understand why Chu Feiliang had suddenly brought up learning, but she still nodded cooperatively and said, “That makes sense.”

Chu Feiliang let out a soft laugh, buried her head in Rong Guang’s embrace, and said with a chuckle, “You really are a treasure…”

Rong Guang’s face grew a little hot. She shrank her neck and answered softly, “Mmm.”

The Lover was a modern drama, so whether it was props or other things, everything was arranged very quickly.

The hotel was right next to the set, and it only took about ten minutes to get there by RV.

After Rong Guang joined Big Dipper, the company provided her with her own RV.

But given Rong Guang’s current status, she was given a standard model to avoid dissatisfaction from the company’s other artists. Rong Guang had no objections—in fact, she barely used her RV. Especially on the set of The Lover, she had spent almost all her time in Chu Feiliang’s vehicle these past few days.

“The first scene is a head-to-head confrontation. You two, be prepared.” Zhang Nanchuan stared at Rong Guang and Chu Feiliang, saying, “The prison location isn’t easy to practice in. They have scheduled outreach times and have only given us three days, all in the afternoon. The timeline required by the scenario is very tight and urgent. You must familiarize yourselves with it as quickly as possible, understand?”

Rong Guang nodded nervously to show she understood.

Chu Feiliang gave a noncommittal response, glanced at the script, and smiled with the corners of her lips turned up. “Don’t worry, Director. I like this role very much, and Teacher Rong is also very fond of it. There definitely won’t be any problems.”

This drama was, in the truest sense, a drama that promoted two female leads.

Very few scripts could give equal weight to both male and female leads—most were designed to promote one person, so there would be biases in character design, plot logic, and even the level of angst.

And the most precious aspect of The Lover was precisely this.

In the drama, Rong Guang played a poor university student who had been sponsored since she was young, named Duan Xi.

She was beautiful and impeccably clean, and had always been grateful to her sponsor. However, in her second year of high school, everything changed.

Chu Feiliang played Yin Shuanghan, who saw Duan Xi at an awards ceremony.

It was love at first sight.

But Yin Shuanghan’s character was a cynical second-generation heir.

Her biological father, out of guilt towards her and her mother, granted her almost every wish, but he couldn’t curb his philandering ways. He was always chasing women and even married a young stepmother who was about the same age as Yin Shuanghan.

Yin Shuanghan was initially a favored daughter of heaven, but later deliberately indulged in a dissolute lifestyle.

But ever since Yin Zhong’s accidental death and the subsequent family infighting, she was forced to shoulder everything for the Yin family, becoming a domineering CEO who appeared cold as ice on the surface but was actually a veteran of the bar scene.

Because of this, Yin Shuanghan didn’t believe in true feelings.

So her relationship with Duan Xi began purely as a transaction.

But Duan Xi had a crush on Yin Shuanghan for almost half her life. For her, that transaction was already a once-unattainable dream.

But Yin Shuanghan was the type of person who thought, ‘the nicer you are to me, the more I’ll look down on you and torment you.’ She used almost every means possible to trample Duan Xi into the dust.

Her path to becoming the head of the Yin family was not easy, and many of the accounts were not clean.

By a strange twist of fate, Duan Xi became an undercover agent planted in the Yin family by a rival company, and ultimately sent Yin Shuanghan to prison with her own hands.

The story should have ended there.

But it was only at the very end that the secrets began to be revealed.

—Duan Xi had initially planned to take all the blame herself and go to prison in Yin Shuanghan’s place.

—And Yin Shuanghan knew all of this. So she beat Duan Xi to it and coolly sent herself to prison.

But Duan Xi didn’t know any of this.

Duan Xi had always thought that a part of her plan had gone wrong, accidentally sending Yin Shuanghan to prison, and she felt very guilty about it.

Then she left a huge mess for Duan Xi to clean up. The timing was set for right around when she would be released from prison.

When Rong Guang read the script, she actually sighed for a while.

In her past life, the director of The Lover was more focused on portraying the emotional entanglement and ambiguous scenes between the two female leads, but neglected the overt and covert power struggles between the two women within the context of the time.

It was clearly a plot full of ups and downs, but not a trace of it could be seen in the previous life’s version of The Lover.

Rong Guang couldn’t help but point at the script and say to Chu Feiliang, “Do you think Duan Xi will ever find out that Yin Shuanghan is so… so…”

Chu Feiliang glanced at the script and said with a deadpan expression, “Are you trying to say that Yin Shuanghan is such a dog?”

Clearly, Yin Shuanghan had long wanted to throw in the towel and quit.

She had long grown tired of the ups and downs of the business world and had wanted to take down all the dirty people in one fell swoop—Duan Xi acted a step ahead of her, so she simply went along with the mistake, step by step grooming Duan Xi, and finally, logically, became the victim.

And that wasn’t all.

The problem was, after Yin Shuanghan got out of prison, she spent all day blackmailing Duan Xi with the fact that Duan Xi had sent her to prison.

Dog.

An absolute dog.

Chu Feiliang stared at Rong Guang, then patted the script and broke into a smile. “But I like it very much. Do you like it? Huh? Teacher Rong?”