Shrine - Chapter 36
Chapter 36
After dinner, Ruan Ruan took out the contract, placed it on the coffee table, and asked Shi Ran to help her look it over.
She habitually knelt on the wooden floor while Shi Ran sat on the sofa behind her, checking the clauses one by one. The termination agreement with her former company had already taken effect. To be safe, Ruan Ruan still postponed the start of her collaboration with Xin Chen's agency by two months. This gap would give the new company time to find a team for her. She had no work scheduled recently, so she could manage on her own.
Shi Ran was experienced, after all, and was crystal clear on all the points Ruan Ruan had questions about. Ruan Ruan listened and took notes at the same time.
She had suffered quite a bit because of her limited education, but she was eager to learn and always remembered what her elementary school teacher said: "The faintest ink is more reliable than the best memory."
Once they were mostly through the contract, Shi Ran gently tossed the document back onto the table. "The profit share she's giving you isn't bad."
The terms weren't too harsh either.
Ruan Ruan pursed her lips into a smile. With her back to Shi Ran, she wrote and said softly, "It's because of you."
"Me?"
"I told her you were the one who told me to find her. From her expression, she must have misunderstood, so our negotiations went very smoothly. She probably thinks that by signing me, she's also doing you a favor."
Shi Ran gave a faint smile.
Ruan Ruan took out a pen to sign. There were two copies, and she had to sign in several places without connecting the characters. As she signed meticulously, she heard Shi Ran ask from behind her, "What was your thinking behind signing with her?"
They barely even knew each other.
"I don't have access to many resources. Besides, last time you told me she wanted to build an IP, so I thought about tying myself closely to her. That way, from the web series to the feature film, wouldn't the chances of keeping the original cast be higher? I don't know."
Ruan Ruan wrote the same two characters stroke by stroke, habitually murmuring them under her breath. She paused, then added, "Also."
"This project is A-list. From what I heard you guys say, you're also trying to secure the platform's best promotional resources. This means it will get a lot of attention, and the discussions around the initial casting won't be quiet either."
"I have no fame and no connections. If I just drop into the female lead role out of nowhere, people will speculate a lot, and it might directly affect my reputation and the show's."
"But it's different if I'm a contracted artist of the production company."
Ruan Ruan was very direct. A production company properly promoting its own artist is something that can be presented openly, which sounds much better than ambiguous speculation about unspoken rules.
She really knew how to use her head. Shi Ran raised an eyebrow.
A moment later, she threw out the next question. "Since you wanted Xin Chen to sign you because of your connection to me, why didn't you just come to me directly?"
After all, Shi Ran was much more familiar with her.
Ruan Ruan finished signing and gave it a final check. "Because with you, I have no bargaining chips."
Her voice was faint, like a little cat that would never hurt anyone.
"This drama was a gift from you. If I used your resources to negotiate with you, no matter how we negotiated, wouldn't it just be…" She leaned back, her slender shoulders resting against the base of the sofa, and looked up at Shi Ran with a soft gaze. "Taking wool from the sheep's own back?"
She had no reason to ask Shi Ran for another favor; she would only end up owing an enormous debt of gratitude.
Shi Ran looked down at her. She was smiling obediently and shyly, with a hint of cunning she didn't easily show others, forming a side of Ruan Ruan that no one else had seen.
She was a girl who did what she said she would. She would try to be as bare as possible with the person she liked.
Shi Ran felt more and more at ease with her. She reached out and stroked her chin. "Am I a sheep?"
"I don't know," Ruan Ruan answered against her palm.
"You don't know?"
"I'm still getting to know you, too," she said softly and sincerely.
Ruan Ruan was just that wonderful. She would occasionally use a retreating posture to say something offensive, just like now.
Shi Ran smiled, withdrew her hand, and had Xiao Lin come up to take the contract downstairs to Xin Chen.
When she opened the door, she also brought in the fresh vegetables delivered by hotel room service, then tied up her hair and started cooking with Ruan Ruan. Aside from her time on the variety show, Shi Ran almost never cooked. A person who lived by a schedule had too little time for self-arrangement, even for arranging the demise of food.
And one of the things that attracted Shi Ran most to Ruan Ruan was the sunset-like quality about her.
The moment of the day when it was easiest to rush toward life, when everyone knew a long, unhurried night was about to begin.
As the two were enjoying dinner, the doorbell rang. Shi Ran saw from the monitor that it was Xin Chen. The contract was signed. She had personally handed it to Xiao Lin and said she'd come up with her, since it had been a while since she'd seen Shi Ran, and wanted to say hello.
Shi Ran chatted with her at the door for a bit, politely saw her off, then closed the door and handed the contract to Ruan Ruan.
Ruan Ruan eagerly flipped through it. The official seal was conspicuous. Normally, the approval and stamping process wouldn't be this fast, but a contract delivered by Shi Ran's assistant always had priority.
And so, the dust settled. Ruan Ruan felt both grounded and empty, as if she had accomplished something huge, yet the tremor was smaller than the flutter of a butterfly's wings.
However, all decisions made in the present would trigger a "butterfly effect." She didn't know where she was headed; she only knew for certain that she was moving forward.
Shi Ran put the dishes in the dishwasher. Ruan Ruan placed the contract in the compartment of her suitcase. Before she could get up, she received a WeChat message from Xin Chen.
"You're in 2101?"
2101 was Shi Ran's room number.
Ruan Ruan sent a question mark emoji with a tilted head.
"When I went up, she was eating. There was some noise inside. That was you, right?"
Ruan Ruan sent a cute cat emoji.
"Take another look at the contract, Teacher Ruan," Xin Chen said.
The next message: "I'm your boss."
Ruan Ruan pressed her lips together and sent a nodding emoji.
It was hard to say if she was admitting she was in 2101 or admitting that Xin Chen was her boss.
Xin Chen didn't reply. Ruan Ruan gently scratched her cheekbone, confirmed the other party didn't want to chat anymore, locked her phone, and prepared to tidy up the room.
Shi Ran stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, maintaining her posture and reciting her lines for tomorrow a few more times. Ruan Ruan rustled about, tidying the room. She took a broom and cleaned up the cat litter the kittens had tracked out, trying to minimize the inconvenience to Shi Ran.
A few kittens wound themselves around her. Xiao Ju sat by the TV cabinet, too lazy to move.
Shi Ran heard Ruan Ruan whisper, "Move it. I know you understand me, what are you pretending for?"
She poked Xiao Ju's bottom with the broom. Xiao Ju leisurely flicked its tail, ignoring her.
Shi Ran pulled her gaze back to the script, her eyes holding a smile. She couldn't focus anymore. She sighed softly.
They didn't do it that night because Shi Ran had a 7 a.m. call time the next day. Ruan Ruan didn't put on finger cots for her. Instead, with her hands behind her back, she propped up her right leg and half-knelt by the bed, having Shi Ran extend her hand and put a hand mask on her using the same posture as putting on finger cots.
She didn't say why, but her entire delicate body was saying: Shi Ran had said she liked seeing her do this, so she was doing it again to make Shi Ran happy.
Shi Ran used her hand, now in the hand mask, to cup Ruan Ruan's face, and they shared a long kiss.
And so they began their natural yet unnatural cohabitation. Worried about causing trouble for Shi Ran, Ruan Ruan avoided going out as much as possible, shutting herself in the room for days on end to avoid being photographed coming and going.
Fortunately, it was a rare, idle vacation for her. She filmed videos of the kittens and made cat food, finding her own enjoyment in it.
She still scrolled through casting calls on her Moments. Before she sent out her resume, she would ask Shi Ran, but Shi Ran thought this one wasn't good, and that one wasn't good either.
Ruan Ruan couldn't help but suspect that Shi Ran didn't want her to join a new production so soon.
So, after cutting a watermelon, she sat on the sofa and asked her. Shi Ran didn't answer, only looked over the character profile sent by the casting director a couple more times. "This is the one you want to audition for?"
"Yes."
"The female lead's house-born maid. She mistakenly eats a soup sent by a concubine, is poisoned and rendered mute upon her first appearance, then is locked in the woodshed and starved for three days and three nights. In the end, while escaping with the female lead, she takes a knife for her and jumps off a cliff."
Shi Ran summarized the character's life story, then looked up to confirm, "This is what you want to play?"
Ruan Ruan took her phone back. "I'll keep looking."
After living there for two weeks, Ruan Ruan felt she had gotten to know Shi Ran a little better. After removing her makeup, her eyelashes were still thick, but her eyes and brows looked purer the more you looked at them. She seemed unapproachable, but she was actually good-tempered and rarely got truly upset. She used Xiao Lin's side account to browse social media, watching not only high-brow film analyses but also quick, short-form dramas. She would occasionally discuss the different acting styles for vertical and horizontal screens with Ruan Ruan, completely unconstrained by the industry's pecking order.
She had a powerful aura but wasn't arrogant. When she wasn't feeling lazy, she was very efficient with housework.
And just like her, she would talk to the cats.
At the end of the month, Ruan Ruan bought some salmon sashimi. Xiao Ju stared at it eagerly. Ruan Ruan got a small dish, put a little on it, and placed it in front of the cat. Xiao Ju looked down at the salmon, then up at Shi Ran, then bent down to sniff the salmon, then looked up at Ruan Ruan again.
"Go on, eat. What are you pretending for?" Shi Ran said softly.
"Pfft." Ruan Ruan laughed out loud.
Shi Ran smiled too, a cool and clear smile, as if breaking the ice.
They did it once that night. Shi Ran said she had taken leave from the film crew to attend a business event. A luxury hotel brand was opening in Jiangcheng, and they were holding a private dinner after the grand opening. Not many people were invited—some important VIC clients and socialites, as well as some artists with good relationships with the brand.
"There will be a small concert. Interested?" Shi Ran asked Ruan Ruan.
"Me?"
Shi Ran gave a cool smile. "Aren't you tired of being in the hotel all the time?"
"Let's go. I'll take you out to relax."
Get instant access to all chapters now.
Comments
Post a Comment