Shrine - Chapter 83
Chapter 83
For a people-pleaser, perhaps the cruelest discovery is that their "pleasing" is worthless.
The kindness she thought she had received for her efforts was never truly hers. The things she was grateful for were perhaps being scorned, discarded. In this process of discarding, she had picked up a plastic bag, and completely unaware, she still thought she had earned it.
Perhaps only Shi Ran was different. She had given her so, so much. Ruan Ruan listened to the voice messages Shi Ran had sent her before, one by one.
"Have you eaten?" Her tone was different from Zhou Jiafen's. She must have been on the road; the end of her words trembled slightly.
"Tired." When she said this word, it was followed by a long sigh, and then a small laugh.
"When we meet, will Little Cat Officer salute?" This was the most intimate chat record she had left among her daily voice messages. She must have really missed Ruan Ruan that day; her voice was husky.
Ruan Ruan played this message about ten times, shutting herself under the covers, listening to it over and over again.
Afterward, she crawled out, like surfacing from water onto the shore, her ears red, breathing in the fresh air.
Shi Ran hadn't contacted her yet; she was probably still working. Ruan Ruan wanted to search online for leaked photos from her set to see what she had done today, but she discovered a related trending topic for Shi Ran. It was already marked in red, probably about to climb the trending list.
Ruan Ruan pressed her lips together and clicked on it. It was a marketing account that often broke gossip.
"Shi Ran, 360 Times of Missing You."
Ruan Ruan frowned. This movie had just been greenlit a while ago, developed by Wenying Entertainment. The project's synopsis was utterly absurd—a hodgepodge-style comedy with elements of Western fantasy, modern urban life, and the Republican era. The director's surname was Qiu, and the production team and investment were both mediocre. Furthermore, the male lead had already been cast—the ugly son of some capitalist.
No one would think this movie had anything to do with Shi Ran.
Even the fans didn't bother saying "pass." They'd just glance at it calmly, have a laugh, and move on.
Having experienced the maneuver with Shrine and the fandom's reaction, Ruan Ruan knew this was most likely another case of "Teasing a Project." Shi Ran's masterful team would likely have a big move to announce later. Shi Ran had been very busy lately; she must have come into contact with some especially good resources.
Ruan Ruan put down her phone, hugged Xiao Hei, and stared blankly out the window. Just like her first impression, Shi Ran truly was "a strong person who never complains about their circumstances." She was always powerful, always had a backup plan, was always the one playing the game, always making calculated moves. And her own most glorious moments, when she made no missteps, were when Shi Ran was by her side, guiding her.
It seems every time we're apart, things go badly, don't they? Ruan Ruan carefully recalled. Is that true?
When Non-Desire ran into review problems, Shi Ran had the confidence not to compromise with Director Tang and resort to crooked means. While notifying the crew to prepare for a reshoot, she went and found better resources herself. Capable people always have a plan B.
Incapable people don't even have many lifebuoys.
For a second, Ruan Ruan wondered if her previous life was more suitable for her. Was she really ready to be a female lead?
Late at night, after finishing work, Shi Ran video-called Ruan Ruan.
She was exhausted, but she seemed to be in a good mood. The two chatted about what they ate and drank that day and other odds and ends. Ruan Ruan asked Shi Ran, "When are you coming to visit the set?"
Shi Ran, dressed in a robe, was as beautiful as a painting. She softly said, "Not for now."
"If something really happens to Chu Ju, Non-Desire will probably have a reshoot at the end of the year. I need to keep my schedule open, so I've been rushing through my work lately."
"So tough." Ruan Ruan remarked, lost in thought. She quickly came back to her senses, wrinkling her nose with a smile and adding, "So busy."
"Yeah, so busy, so tough." Shi Ran smiled helplessly, the corners of her mouth tucking in.
They gazed at each other quietly for half a minute before finally saying goodnight.
The next day, the rundown call sheet was adjusted at the last minute to film Shen Bai's solo scenes and some establishing shots. The reason was that Zhong Yi had a last-minute TVC ad to shoot and would need to take three days off to fly to Jiangcheng. Ruan Ruan stayed home and cooked fish soup for herself, Wu Mei, and the kitten, then lay on a lounge chair, watching the sunset for a long time.
It was at sunset on this day that she received news that a certain "friend of the brand" role she was in talks for might be halting negotiations. The management team told Wu Mei that some of the previously planned brand placements in her personal outfits could be canceled.
Wu Mei found it ridiculous. "Fuck, seriously? It hasn't even gotten that bad, has it?"
To put it bluntly, how many people were even cursing her out? And the brand was already pulling out?
This was too… Anyway, she couldn't understand it.
Ruan Ruan pressed her lips together and opened her WeChat Moments. Still no reply.
The young girl she had met at the High Jewelry Exhibition—she had added the assistant's WeChat. The assistant usually posted updates about the girl's activities, and Ruan Ruan would occasionally like or comment, which the assistant would always reply to enthusiastically.
The last two times she commented, the assistant hadn't replied. The first time might have been an oversight, but the second time couldn't be a coincidence.
Ruan Ruan stared blankly at the setting sun, her head tilted, like a little bird that had been shot.
She also found it ridiculous. The controversy clearly wasn't that big, so where had things gone wrong? Or rather, in this vortex-like game, who exactly had entered the fray?
Before, Ruan Ruan didn't have any so-called rivals because she was too much of a flop—so unpopular she didn't even qualify to be a thorn in anyone's side.
And now? She went over her path to fame and found it was fraught with peril at every turn.
Was Zhang Nuoran involved? She had tried to leech off her once but had the tables turned on her on the trending topics.
What about the companies of the young actors who shared the stage with her at the Feihua TV Festival? That time, she alone wore a vintage dress, and with Shi Ran present, she stood out among the twelve and captured all the attention.
Or maybe it was those who wanted to move from the third row to the second at the awards ceremony, only to find a "Resource Player" had parachuted in. Or those who were already in the second row, unable to get to the first, but unwilling to be pushed back to the third.
She didn't know them, had never met them, or even crossed paths with them. But they were competitors locked in a fierce battle, all wanting a piece of the same cake.
Everyone wants to be noticed. Some choose to put on more exquisite makeup; others choose to cover someone else's face.
And then there was Ruan Ruan's former company.
When Ruan Ruan terminated her contract, she was a worthless, discarded pawn to them. Afterward, every inch of her shimmering, pearlescent glow was a sharp sting to their eyes. Her former boss and manager lamented at a dinner party that they never realized she was so scheming.
She had clearly latched onto someone powerful and found a better way out, but she kept it under wraps, tricking and coaxing them into letting her terminate the contract. And after getting a new agency, she still held back the breach of contract fee she owed her old one.
They were straightforward people; Ruan Ruan was the self-serving one. And Ruan Ruan's fans even had the nerve to curse them out for being useless and burying her talent for so many years.
These words, embellished and twisted, appeared in an insinuating Weibo post by some industry insider, making a small splash.
It's too easy to decide someone has bad character; every little detail becomes supporting evidence. And the people who seize upon these clues don't realize they're operating on a presumption of guilt. They just say, "I knew it."
And Ruan Ruan was like someone who had taken out a loan for the most magnificent gown. When the ball was over, every single thread was waiting for her to pay up.
On the third day, filming for the second episode of Shrine's second season began.
In front of the Buddhist shrine, Sister Qian finally confessed her secret.
Hopeless yet full of hope, she said, "I fell in love with a person, but I am not human."
Since she was a pup, she had been raised in the inner courtyard of the family home, a watchdog. The young miss would hold her while she read, wrote, and tossed her handkerchief. She would chase away the young servant boys who tried to climb the walls to steal. Day and night, love began to grow in her heart.
The young miss's betrothal gift was a pearl from the East Sea. When the miss took it out to admire it, the little dog accidentally ate it and died on the spot.
The little dog dazedly went to be reincarnated. She drank the soup of amnesia, but because of the East Sea pearl, she did not forget her past life.
She escaped from the path of animals and cultivated in the deep mountains. Two hundred and seventy-four years later, she attained human form.
"I have come from past lives and bygone days, from across the ages, crossing the markers of time, switching between male and female bodies, all just to find her."
In this life, the young miss was reincarnated as a man. Sister Qian bore him a child, the first fruit of their love across all their lifetimes. But she was originally a house dog, and the child she bore had an unstable human form. An old Taoist priest in the mountains once said that the fur of an adult dog must be woven into a three-meter-long rope of longevity, wrapped around the infant's body, and worn for a full forty-nine days to preserve its human form.
So…
Shen Bai frowned, let out a long sigh, and looked at Qiao Qiao beside her.
But Qiao Qiao… smiled.
…
"Cut." The director looked up from the monitor and picked up his walkie-talkie.
"Why are you smiling here? You should be moved, wistful, sighing, right? Why did you give me a smile?" The director had the on-set assistant director go over and quickly explain the scene to her again.
The set was very quiet. Zhong Yi tilted her head, looking at Ruan Ruan thoughtfully.
Ruan Ruan felt empty inside. She dazedly said to Zhong Yi in a low voice, "I was trying to sigh just now. Could you feel it?"
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