CSGM - Chapter 106
Chapter 106: The Crew is Great
The invisible Xiao Ju was moved on her boss's behalf.
If this wasn't doting, then the word didn't exist!
Although she didn't know the specifics, she could tell that Chu Xi had gotten into a fight because of Sister Zhi.
Ah…
Suddenly recalling the few times she'd seen Chu Xi training with the other students at the Three Kingdoms boot camp, Xiao Ju admitted to herself that working out was a great thing.
The car pulled into the hospital parking lot, and Ren Zhi frantically rushed Chu Xi into the surgical emergency room.
The emergency surgeon on duty that night was stunned when he saw the injury on Chu Xi's right hand.
It might not have been extremely serious, but it was ugly and shocking to look at. The flesh on the surface was mangled.
The small mechanical fragments were embedded quite deeply, and there were more than just one or two.
The back of her hand was stuck so full of them it looked like a cactus.
The emergency surgeon was curious how Chu Xi had managed to injure herself like this.
As Chu Xi sat on the examination chair waiting for him to disinfect her hand and remove the fragments, she managed to answer a few of his gossipy questions.
When he heard she'd fought a drone, the doctor clicked his tongue in amazement. "You're the first person I've ever seen do this to themselves."
"That drone had a protective casing. Didn't you think to find a weapon?"
Seeing her hand tremble as he disinfected it, he could tell she was in pain.
Chu Xi clenched her jaw and remained silent, her expression blank, occasionally raising her other hand to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead.
After the doctor finished treating the surface wounds and looked at her twisted and stiff ring finger, she finally asked:
"This one won't move. Can it be saved?"
The doctor smiled. "We can reattach a severed finger if you get to the hospital within six hours. Yours is just a fracture. It'll recover just fine."
Chu Xi pressed, "It won't affect my future mobility, will it?"
The doctor replied, "It's a minor fracture, not serious. If you let it heal properly, it'll be good as new."
Chu Xi: "Oh."
That put her at ease.
Her midnight tour of the hospital ended about two hours later.
Chu Xi left with a bandage and cast on one finger, gauze on one hand and one eye, and a bag of topical medicine.
Back home, she looked in the mirror and seriously thought she should take another seven days off to recuperate.
Somewhere between seven days and half a month. At the very least, she had to let her injuries heal before filming. How could she appear on camera like this?
She told her agent about it, and Yu Yixue was humane enough to agree.
But having everyone ask her "How did you end up like this?" and having to explain it five or six times was truly annoying.
When she said she needed to recover, Yu Yixue couldn't force her. She could only go along with it: 【Alright.】
She thought to herself that she should find some more variety shows for Chu Xi. If she had to go back to being a variety show personality, so be it. It was better than disappearing from the public eye for a year!
Chu Xi's Zen-like attitude was driving her crazy!
The next day at noon, Chu Xi was happily flipping egg crepes with a spatula in her left hand, a fragrant, golden-brown crepe spreading across the frying pan.
She added chopped vegetables, shredded carrots, strips of pumpkin, and a codfish cake... And voilà, it was done.
Besides the one with the cod filling, there was another with a shrimp cake filling. She cut it into several pieces and arranged them on a plate.
The aroma drifted from the kitchen to the dining table just as Ren Zhi, who had said she would drop by that morning, came downstairs.
"Sit, have a taste," Chu Xi said with a smile.
She looked perfectly content and at ease at home.
Hot steam swirled above the plate, and the fragrance filled the air. It smelled like a tempting and nutritious light lunch.
But Ren Zhi didn't start eating right away. Instead, she suddenly brought up their topic from last night.
The topic from before they went to the hospital, before Chu Xi's fight—about the casting for the Jade-Carving Ballad crew.
"Hmm?" Chu Xi mumbled inquisitively through a mouthful of crepe.
She was a little interested in the topic, but not much. After all, hadn't Ren Zhi said yesterday that she wasn't suitable?
Since she'd been rejected, what else did Ren Zhi want to talk to her about? Talk more? About what?
Ren Zhi said, "I misunderstood you yesterday. I think... I want to recommend you for the cast."
Chu Xi tilted her head. Her normal eye looked at Ren Zhi, and so did her puffy, swollen frog-like eye, making her look a bit dazed and comical.
"Through the back door? It's not because I stood up for you last night, is it?"
What was that saying... I won't accept handouts given in pity. The meaning was similar. If Ren Zhi was doing this out of guilt or to compensate her, she'd rather not.
But Ren Zhi said no, and then laid out five points that dispelled her doubts.
One, Chu Xi's own appearance, height, and temperament fit the role of the junior sister.
Two, her acting skills were among the best for actors in her age group. Compared to A-list actresses with similar skills, her age was an advantage.
Three, her salary was low, making her a cost-effective choice for a production that had already wasted part of its budget.
Four, precisely because her income was low, there was no risk or suspicion of tax evasion. She had no other illegal scandals, and in fact, had a clean record, having even been credited with helping the police solve a case.
When Ren Zhi mentioned points three and four, Chu Xi's own mouth twitched.
She never thought being cheap would become an advantage.
Finally, for the fifth point, Ren Zhi explained why she had rejected her the previous night and apologized, admitting she had misjudged her.
She had once thought that someone as rational as Chu Xi couldn't have an emotional outburst, but last night she discovered she was wrong.
She had seen a completely new side of Chu Xi. Her emotional expressiveness had enormous explosive potential.
At the very least, Ren Zhi had found that the look in Chu Xi's eyes last night—immersed in a furious rage from which she couldn't escape—was enough to intimidate her.
She probably wouldn't forget that look for a very, very long time.
The madness of someone she had thought to be rational.
With such well-reasoned arguments, Chu Xi believed she was telling the truth, but she was very curious.
"Did I really scare you last night?"
Was I that scary? Hmm? I didn't notice.
"Yes... When I saw you, your eyes were like those of a vicious wolf."
Chu Xi frowned. Was she that fierce?
"Well, I didn't mean to. I was probably just so angered by that guy that I hadn't snapped out of it yet."
She only remembered being furious and anxious, her blood boiling, and she had probably forgotten to control her expression.
Thankfully, in the end, the Peeping Tom's wicked intentions were never realized.
Last night, back at the community security office, the Peeping Tom, shivering from the cold, had knelt by Ren Zhi's legs and begged for mercy, insisting he hadn't actually seen anything.
No, he hadn't even had time to see anything before Chu Xi beat him to the ground.
The high-end drone he had spent millions on was now a pile of scrap metal, but he didn't dare ask for compensation. He only begged Ren Zhi to settle the matter with him and not call the police, kneeling on the ground with four fingers raised to the sky, swearing he would never do it again.
Chu Xi destroyed the memory chip and, after studying the drone's manual, confirmed that given the conditions in the residential complex that night, he wouldn't have had time to save anything to the cloud. Only then did she let him go like he was nothing.
Today, Ren Zhi handed her the script for Jade-Carving Ballad again.
Having discovered that Chu Xi didn't actually have the one flaw she had imagined, Ren Zhi now saw her as the most suitable candidate.
"Right now, I believe you're the actor who can handle the role of Meng Wenzhao. The crew is in a hurry to start filming, so you don't have much time to consider..."
"Consider?" Chu Xi asked back. "If you've agreed, what is there for me to consider? I can join the crew anytime."
This was perfect. She had gotten the script Yu Yixue most wanted for her. And she had found the type of job she most wanted for herself—one where she could be with Ren Zhi.
Killing two birds with one stone. She had to join the crew immediately!
Ren Zhi looked at her, not expecting her to agree so readily, completely unaffected by yesterday's rejection.
Faced with such a straightforward and open-minded attitude, Ren Zhi was taken aback for a moment.
"But your injuries..."
"Oh..." Chu Xi suddenly remembered she still had visible injuries on her face, making her not very presentable.
But it wasn't a big problem.
She suggested, "My eye should be less swollen in about two days, and with a little makeup, it'll be fine on camera. My hand is healing quickly, too. Within a week, I can just film a few scenes that don't show my hands, right?"
"You haven't even had your stitches removed. Are you sure it's okay?"
Ren Zhi was still worried.
Because some of the cuts were quite deep, Chu Xi had gotten a few stitches in her hand last night.
"It's fine, they're just minor wounds. If you're in a hurry, just bring me to the set."
It really wasn't a big deal, she said honestly.
Telling Yu Yixue she needed to rest for seven or fourteen days was just an excuse because she hadn't wanted to join a cast.
In reality, it was just a small problem with one hand that didn't affect her body's mobility at all.
Ren Zhi said decisively, "Alright, I'll send you the contract. You can forward it to your agent."
Chu Xi let out a "wow." "You really call all the shots."
Ren Zhi could actually make the decision to let her join the cast all by herself. Chu Xi could now see that she must have a great deal of power in this production.
That was great. This must be the satisfaction of transitioning from an actress with no say to becoming one of the capitalists.
She was gradually beginning to understand Ren Zhi's stubborn ambition.
Chu Xi rested for two days. Once the frog-like swelling in her eye had mostly subsided, she parachuted into the cast of Jade-Carving Ballad.
At this, Yu Yixue was stunned.
What kind of koi-fish luck did Chu Xi have?!
She had just told her to send in an online audition email to try her luck, and she actually got picked by the Jade-Carving Ballad crew? The odds were lower than finding a needle in a haystack!
Yu Yixue felt as if a huge, fragrant pie had suddenly fallen from the sky onto her head. As if in a dream, she finished signing Chu Xi's performance contract. Staring at the red seal and fingerprints, she was so happy she could faint!
Because she had suddenly become a replacement and was about to film the second female lead role in Jade-Carving Ballad, her value at the company shot up.
The company was also counting on her to rise in status with this drama, so the assistant they had long failed to assign her was finally arranged within a day.
Chu Xi's new assistant was named Jin Yuan, a well-connected fourth-year university student who had gotten an internship at the agency through her network. She joined the crew with Chu Xi that same afternoon.
Listening to the fashionable young woman with curly red hair and a luxury coat more expensive than her own finish her self-introduction, Chu Xi thought the name wasn't bad.
Yuan, as in 'garden.' It was perfect for gathering Ren Zhi's Four Little Flowers.
The first scene Chu Xi had to film after joining the cast was an outdoor night scene. The makeup artist spent an hour meticulously applying her injury makeup. The work was diligent, but the artist's attitude was sour.
Chu Xi could tell the makeup artist wasn't very pleased with her arrival.
It wasn't just the makeup artist; the other actors in the cast also seemed to think she was a well-connected person who had parachuted in.
It was simply because the gap between her and the A-list actress who had previously played the second female lead—and had since had her career derailed—was just too wide.
And that was true, she admitted it herself.
Even if this disgruntled group were to walk up to her right now and demand to know what advantage she had over the previous A-lister, she could only say—she was cheap.
Regarding the dissatisfaction from some quarters, the director said nothing, and neither did Ren Zhi.
Everyone starts from obscurity and slowly makes their way to the A-list or B-list. They couldn't just dismiss Chu Xi because she wasn't famous yet.
The key point was, they weren't the investors, just actors working for a paycheck. They had no real say on set.
They had to accept the people they didn't like.
Ren Zhi understood why some of the actors felt resentful and patiently spoke to them privately to smooth things over.
She admitted that she had chosen Chu Xi, and that Chu Xi was not without her merits. She could play the role well, so everyone should just calm down and focus on their work.
Ren Zhi was giving them a warning: there was no room for baseless jealousy.
The first night scene to be reshot tonight was a dream sequence in which Junior Sister Meng Wenzhao returned to the past. That year, not long after she and her Senior Sister Xie Mi had first ventured out into the world, they were ambushed by mountain bandits in Wanshui Village. Meng Wenzhao was severely poisoned, gravely injured, and on the brink of death. Xie Mi, also wounded, carried her on her back and fought their way through the bloody siege.
Chu Xi played Meng Wenzhao, and Ren Zhi played Xie Mi. In the drama, their relationship was as close as sisters.
Chu Xi finished getting into her costume and makeup—a pale cyan robe stained with blood. The makeup made her face look even more frail. A blood pack was strapped to her body, ready to be activated.
She tiptoed—afraid of bursting the blood pack—into Ren Zhi's dressing room to check on her and saw that Ren Zhi had also nearly finished her character's radiant, jade-like makeup.
But like her, Ren Zhi's costume was also smeared with mottled bloodstains.
Standing together, she and Ren Zhi looked like two patients who had climbed over the wall and escaped from an ancient infirmary.
However, this particular "patient" was quite happy. Gazing at Ren Zhi in the mirror, who had her eyes closed as the makeup artist detailed the wounds on her face, she said with a grin:
"This crew is great. I get to lie on your back as soon as I arrive."
Ren Zhi opened her eyes slightly and glanced at her in the mirror.
After closing them again, she demanded coolly, "Don't smile."
Chu Xi's smile vanished, but she was puzzled. "Why?"
"Meng Wenzhao doesn't smile much. Don't ruin the atmosphere. Use this time to get into character."
The usual cadence was gone from Ren Zhi's tone. Her voice became cold and detached, as if it were merging with the cold air outside the dressing room.
Chu Xi was stunned for a moment. It was as if Ren Zhi had become a different person after getting into costume and makeup.
She had truly transformed into the decisive, resolute, and ruthless Xie Mi.
Ah...
Chu Xi could only rub the bridge of her nose and wait for her by the wall.
The stars were faint tonight, and the moonlight cast a cold glow, almost perfectly matching the atmosphere of that night in the script.
Bleak and sorrowful.
As the two of them, now in full costume, prepared on set, Chu Xi asked, "Should I secretly stand on my tiptoes later?"
Ren Zhi looked up at her. "You look down on me that much?"
Chu Xi: "No, that's not it. I have a lot of muscle, so I'm heavy... I'm just worried it'll be a strain for you. Or will someone be holding me up with a board?"
After saying this, she even looked around, genuinely searching for a crew member preparing one of those off-camera support boards.
Isn't that what they use when some male actors can't do a princess carry with the female actors?
Ren Zhi let out a laugh, thinking Chu Xi was overthinking things.
"Carrying you on my back is hardly a challenge. You could fall asleep on me later, and it would be fine."
Chu Xi's eyes lit up. "Wow."
"I get to enjoy this kind of perk."
She had definitely come to the right crew! When else would she get the chance to do things like this with Ren Zhi!
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