IPCFS: Chapter 38

Once Qin Yue and Qi An left, Ji Li and the remaining crew watched the replay.

The main cameraman was a veteran of Wang Zhang’s filming team, and his filming skills were excellent.

Even if Ji Li improvised some words and actions during a scene, the cameraman could quickly adapt to capture and create the most appropriate scene composition in an instant.

The occasionally shaky picture highlighted the characters’ struggles and vain hearts to the greatest extent.

It could be said that the acting skills of the actors and the screen composition were equally wonderful.

There was no doubt that this was a good scene.

Feng Cheng and Wei Lai had spent most of the day on set. They waited until Wang Zhang announced the end of the workday before pulling Ji Li off to the side. “Ji Li, work has finished. Do you want to go eat hot pot?”

Ji Li was surprised by their suggestion. “Hot pot?”

Feng Cheng hooked an arm around his shoulder and gave him a familiar look. “Yes, didn’t Director Wang say that the three of us should cultivate our feelings? Do you want to make a reservation for hot pot?”

Wei Lai’s character was even more Buddhist off script, so he just nodded from the side. “There is a hot pot restaurant in the center of town. The restaurant will be open until 1 o’clock in the morning. It isn’t too late to go at this time.”

Compared to Cai Yishu, who was so arrogant that no one else mattered, Ji Li had a good impression of these two leading actors.

In the movie, the three boys had a tight relationship that lasted from childhood to adulthood. It was therefore appropriate for them to quickly establish their friendship outside of the movie.

“Okay, I’ll pack up and go over,” Ji Li responded.

Wei Lai took out his phone. “I asked the assistant to reserve a spot for us first. What type of hot pot soup base do you want to eat?”

Feng Cheng still hadn’t let go of Ji Li, and he raised an eyebrow at the other person. “Should An An decide?”

“Can you eat spicy food? Or should we have the nine grids hot pot?” (Nine grids hotpot: the pot is split into nine grids. This is done because the heating conditions in the middle of the pot and sides of the pot are different, so the temperature is different. Different types of ingredients are cooked in different grids depending on their cooking time and the best temperature for it)

“Of course.” Feng Cheng came from Xiangzhou, a district that loved spicy food. He snapped his fingers in response. “Can you call it hot pot if you don’t eat it with nine grids?”

Wei Lai smiled without refuting the statement and turned around to explain their decision to the assistant.

---

Ji Li finished the scene and returned to the lounge alone to remove his makeup.

There was a knock on the door, and Ji Li called out without looking up, “Baozi, you can come in directly. Why knock on the door?”

There was no sound of unexpected joy. Instead, the voice of the person who came in was shallow and stuffy. “Ji Li, it is me.”

Ji Li reacted immediately and glanced sideways. “Teacher Mu?”

Mu Suian met his gaze and smiled. “Is now a convenient time? I wanted to borrow you for a few minutes to chat.”

“Of course, it is convenient.” Ji Li stepped forward and invited him to sit on the sofa in the lounge.

Before the other person could speak, Ji Li took the initiative to ask, “Teacher Mu, do you think I acted out that scene properly?”

In fact, compared to the senior actors, director and set personnel, the one Ji Li wanted feedback from the most was Mu Suian himself.

After all, he was acting out the other person’s past.

The redness in Mu Suian’s eyes hadn’t completely faded. He had just seen the whole filming process and remembered it in his heart.

Ji Li acted out his despair back then, but also his ‘excessive hope.’ He desperately wanted to protect his mother and he wanted to smile and watch her leave.

“Ji Li, thank you.”

These simple words were enough to express everything.

Just then, Baozi’s footsteps were heard outside the door. “Brother Ji, how are you? Feng Cheng and the others are waiting for you to go together.”

“I won’t bother you any longer, but there is something I want to give you.” Mu Suian stood up decisively and untied a wooden string bracelet from his wrist.

“My mother gave me this amulet before she died. I will lend it to you for a while. Ji Li, I’m looking forward to seeing your Suian on the big screen.”

Compared with his resistance and disgust toward Cai Yishu, Mu Suian was only full of gratitude and trust toward Ji Li in front of him.

Ji Li felt the palm of his hand become heavy, and his heart was also heavy.

He saw Mu Suian’s sincere eyes and nodded seriously. “I will act out this story well.”

“I believed in you from the moment you chose this character.”

Mu Suian left, and Baozi came to Ji Li’s side. “Brother Ji, why are you in a daze?”

Ji Li tied the wooden bracelet tightly around his wrist and asked, “Bao Bao, do you know why I like acting?”

“Why?”

Ji Li smiled and didn’t say anything.

Acting was full of all types of people in the world.

He could act out the role and redeem the people outside the screen.

---

Under the heavens, food was the one thing that could entice people’s hearts, not to mention that it was the nine grids hot pot.

In addition to Ji Li and the other actors, their respective agents and assistants also followed them to the hot pot restaurant. They had a lively meal and quickly became acquainted with each other.

At midnight, everyone went back to their hotel rooms.

Ji Li took a quick shower. Then Snow Cake, whom he hadn’t seen in a day, ran up to him and acted like a spoiled child.

The cat’s appearance had grown a lot after more than three months of feeding. His large, inky blue eyes shone, and there was a shallow scar on his nose that was particularly distinctive.

Ji Li fed Snow Cake very scientifically, so his body was well-proportioned and glossy as a result. His long and soft black fur made people want to stroke it when they saw it.

Ji Li’s cat slave attribute was stimulated, and he rubbed his face against Snow Cake after picking him up. “Baby Cake, Baby Cake, did you miss me today?”

Snow Cake patted his arm with a soft kitten’s paw and cried out in a  childish voice, “Meow.”

Sniffing a cat for a while was cool, and it was always good to sniff cats all the time. 

He played with the cat for more than 30 minutes, and his body and mind completely emerged from the scene. He took out his phone and logged onto Weibo, which he hadn’t looked at for a long time.

It had been half a month since he last posted on Weibo.

Ji Li remembered Yu Fuya’s advice before returning to his room, so he quickly typed out a sentence and clicked to send it to his Weibo page.

[New friend, new character, Xiang Suian is here.]

The photo below was a group photo of the three of them. The photo was taken by Feng Cheng with him and Wei Lai when they were eating together at the hot pot restaurant.

Not long after it was posted, the fans who were ‘waiting to be fed’ poured in.

–Ahhhhhhhh! Mom is here too!

-This is welfare for sleeping late. I waited and Ji Li finally posted on Weibo! So handsome, tender and good-looking!

–Brother, eat more. I miss you so much.

–Is that Feng Cheng and Wei Lai in the photo? Damn, how did the three of you meet? Sure enough, the handsome guys in the entertainment industry are all going to play together!

-The three of them should be making a movie together, right? Is Xiang Suian the character name in Ji Li’s movie? Listen well!

–Wei Lai and Ji Li are from the same company, and there was a group photo two days ago with all of the movie’s crew. I can understand the two of them knowing each other, but why is little brother Feng Cheng also there?

–It seems that the melon I ate is real? A certain male protagonist was changed after acting like a demon and now Feng Cheng is starring in the movie?

–Demon? How did Cai act like a demon? I haven’t looked at it for a few days. What melon did I miss?

–Don’t talk about other artists under the comments of Baby Ji Li! Be wary of a battle!

Ji Li saw the direction of the comments and his heart was vaguely worried.

Cai Yishu had just been replaced. Would he post on Weibo at this time to cause trouble for Feng Cheng?

Ji Li hesitated for a moment before finding that the number of forwards on his post had suddenly increased a lot. He clicked on it to take a look and found that it was Feng Cheng who forwarded the post.

[Yes, the three of us are acting in a movie together. Please pay more attention in the future!]

In addition, he directly followed Ji Li’s Weibo.

Ji Li saw this and immediately clicked to follow back.

In the next second, the online surfing Feng Cheng sent a private message: [Ji Li, even if the comments mentioning Cai Yishu become big, don’t worry about it. My PR team will be responsible for handling it. I will apologize to you first in case it affects you.]

Ji Li was a bit surprised by the other person taking responsibility and hurriedly replied: [I didn’t think it through. I should’ve discussed it with you before posting the photo.]

Feng Cheng replied: [Why does it matter? If you didn’t post the group photo, then I would’ve posted it. I am an artist of Yuexing Culture, and Qin Yue personally selected me to play the male lead. Our side has a way to suppress the backlash if Cai’s side dares to make trouble.]

Yes.

It was completely reasonable for Qin Yue to find his own artists to appear in the projects he invested in. Even if he hadn’t privately announced their cooperation at this time, they would’ve officially announced the roles after filming.

This time, Cai Yishu’s change of role was completely justified, and he shouldn’t dare to make trouble in a short period of time.

Ji Li was relieved. He said good night to Feng Cheng and prepared to fall asleep.

---

It was almost 1 o’clock in the morning when the plane arrived in Shanghai.

Qin Yue closed the electronic script and rubbed his slightly sore eyes. “Teacher Fang’s second version of the script has been revised well. The company can appropriately mention a movie investment.”

Qi An sat beside him. “Yes, we can start preparing the preliminary work. How do you plan to choose the three core characters in the script?”

Fang Zhixing wrote a movie script. His long-time partner, Director Yao Chuan, saw this and planned to switch to the movie industry to test the waters. Therefore, they found Qin Yue.

Qin Yue felt that the script was good, and he planned to invest and serve as a producer. Thus, he had a bit of say in the casting for the script.

“For the villain, you can contact Yifei’s agent tomorrow and ask if he would like to take the role.” Qin Yue already had an idea of who to cast when he read the script.

“Are you talking about Yuan Yifei?” Qi An was a bit surprised and expressed his considerations. “He has always played positive roles, so he might not necessarily take this role.”

Qin Yue’s vision was very accurate. “This is a perfect opportunity for him if he wants to transform.”

Yuan Yifei was one of the few actors who had strength and traffic, but there were always people who overlooked his real strength due to his popularity.

Since his debut, Yuan Yifei had stayed in his comfort zone when selecting roles, and he now urgently needed an ‘unconventional’ image to break out of his stagnant deadlock.

“I understand. I will contact Yifei. What about the other two leading actors? Do you have any ideas?”

“I want to choose a newcomer who hasn’t entered the movie circle…” Qin Yue paused and his eyes flashed with consideration. “Forget it. I will see Director Yao in two days and discuss it in detail.”

“Okay.”

Qin Yue put down his tablet and took out his personal mobile phone. On the screen, a Weibo post caught his attention.

Qin Yue clicked on it and immediately saw the content and photo posted by Ji Li. The background of the photo was a hot pot restaurant, and the ingredients and the nine grids spicy pot really did stimulate people’s taste buds.

However, Qin Yue’s eyes instinctively fell on one person.

Feng Cheng, who acted familiarly from the beginning, circled Ji Li from behind with a bright face and made a cool gesture. Wei Lai was holding a bottle of Coke and was also very close to Ji Li.

Ji Li was pushed into the middle by them, and his smile was charming and warm.

Qin Yue saw it, and his eyes subconsciously darkened.

“Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?” Qi An casually asked while looking at the empty street.

He wasn’t expecting to receive an answer from the other person because according to his friend’s nature, Qin Yue wouldn’t eat at this time.

Unexpectedly, the man beside him spoke a few words for the first time.

“…Hotpot, the nine grid hotpot.”

Proofreader: Azure