The scene wrapped without much fanfare, and the crew broke for lunch.
Shen Baizhu had every intention of asking Rong Shu to eat with him. He wanted to spend time with her, wanted to reduce whatever distance still sat between them in whatever small way he could manage. He couldn’t stand the thought of her spending the next hour with someone else, and he knew, without particularly wanting to examine it, that jealousy was governing his every action.
Unfortunately, someone else got before first.
Huo Yuqi came alongside Rong Shu with an easy and unhurried manner of a man who never had to try very hard, draping one arm around her shoulders and asking what she felt like eating.
Rong Shu offered Shen Baizhu a small, polite smile in greeting before turning back to Huo Yuqi, her expression brightening into something entirely different. “A crew bento is fine for me.”
It was the first time Shen Baizhu had ever felt that Rong Shu’s smile was irritating and had an impulse to wipe it off.
Huo Yuqi being a philanderer, instantly recognised the look of jealousy on Baizhu’s face and held his gaze with Baizhu for just a moment, but long enough to make a point of his victory, then walked away with her at his side.
“Then I’ll keep you company. I’ve actually never tried set food before.”
They settled in the backstage area of the filming hall, pulling up two red plastic stools and making themselves at home. Huo Yuqi had ordered from a hotel kitchen, and the delivery arrived with generous and fragrant food sumptuous enough for two.
Rong Shu spotted the spicy stir-fried squid and a tray of hand-pressed sushi, and the look on her face was immediate and completely unguarded. It was the expression of someone who sees food they want and simply cannot pretend otherwise. “That looks so good.”
She turned to Huo Yuqi, her voice carrying something warm and genuine. “Yuqi-ge, thank you for being so patient with me. I’ve only been in the industry three days and I’ve already run into you and Teacher Shen. I really am lucky.” She tilted her head slightly. “Are you always this busy? You’ve been on your phone since we sat down.”
Huo Yuqi was, in fact, on his phone, and doing something he would very much prefer not to explain out loud. He had an impressive number of girls in various messaging threads and was currently engaged in careful, ongoing logistical management of that situation, which involved distributing contact information while ensuring none of the relevant parties discovered each other. It was, frankly, a full-time operation.
“Hmm. Yes I am usually busy.” He set the phone face-down on the stool beside him. “Let’s exchange contacts. Come find me if you ever need anything,” seeing her in disbelief he added, “I mean it. Your acting is solid, and if a suitable role comes up I’ll keep you in mind.”
Rong Shu looked at him with the full weight of her gratitude. “I don’t even know how to thank you properly.”
She leaned back against the corner edge of her stool, long hair spilling forward to curtain one side of her face. Huo Yuqi leaned in at the same moment to show her something on his screen, and from any outside angle, the two of them looked entirely like people who were about to kiss.
Shen Baizhu, despite the fact that he kept telling himself not to look and not to overthink, nothing could ever happen between them, kept on glancing every few seconds and their proximity sent a jolt to him, he heard the sharp crack before he registered the pressure he’d been putting into his grip.
He looked over only to realize his chopsticks were in two pieces.
Su Wanying who was sitting nearby as well, was watching the pair with a dark and vicious look, she and at sight of them leaning narrowed her eyes. She’d always known Huo Yuqi was greedy, but she hadn’t anticipated him having the patience for a slower game. He was keeping Rong Shu at arm’s length while quietly building something with Rong Shu, and it had dismantled every arrangement she’d carefully put in place.
There was something else too, something she hadn’t expected to feel. She’d spent enough time complaining about Huo Yuqi trailing after her, but watching that attention land so completely and comfortably on someone else stirred up an unpleasant feeling she didn’t want to name. On impulse, she opened a message thread and typed: [Didn’t we say we were eating lunch together?]
The reply came fast.
[Get lost. The nerve of you.]
[Oh, and I forgot to delete you.]
Su Wanying stared at the screen. [What? You were the one who asked me.]
A red error mark appeared beside her last message. Blocked.
She stared at it for three full seconds. Then she threw her phone down onto the table. The screen cracked on impact. Several of the junior cast members nearby flinched and looked over.
Shen Baizhu’s gaze moved to her, cool and unhurried.
“Watch yourself. Your reputation is attached to mine out here, and Hengdian has eyes everywhere. Don’t fall apart in public. I’d like to get through filming before we officially announce the end of things, and I don’t want anything leaking that affects the drama’s performance.”
He wasn’t comforting her. He was managing her, the way you’d manage a variable that had started behaving unpredictably.
Su Wanying sat with the weight of that pressing down on her chest. “All you’ve ever cared about is the bottom line. There was never any room for me in any of it.”
Shen Baizhu decided the conversation was over. “Go get your head on straight.”
He turned back to watching the other two.
Su Wanying muttered something under her breath, low and pointed. “Hasn’t taken her long, has it.” Then she left.
Zhang, his assistant, produced a fresh pair of chopsticks. Those snapped too, a clean sharp sound cutting through the ambient noise of the lunch break.
Shen Baizhu watched as Huo Yuqi picked up a piece of food with his own chopsticks and set it carefully into Rong Shu’s bowl. Those same chopsticks. That same mouth. Rong Shu reached down, picked up the piece of sushi, and lifted it toward her lips.
Was that not an exchange of something?
Was that not, in some roundabout way, a kiss?
The images assembled themselves without invitation: Huo Yuqi and Rong Shu, close, the way they had looked through that door crack during filming. Why was she attracted to that playboy? What did Huo Yuqi have that he didn’t? What was he missing?
The noise in his head reached a pitch he couldn’t contain anymore.
He shoved up from the table.
t/n : HAHAHA….. TWO PAIRS OF CHOPSTICKS. He snapped TWO. This man has seventeen critically acclaimed drama credits to his name. He has won awards. He cannot survive one lunch break.
Also Su Wanying getting blocked by Huo Yuqi and then shattering her own phone screen is the most unhinged form of self-destruction I’ve witnessed in a while. Girl your screen. Your screen did nothing to you. Take that up with the man who blocked you!!
The chapter ended mid-motion and I am on the edge of my seat. He shoved up from the table. He is moving. Something is about to happen and I need it immediately. 🐾