Even from outside the cubicle, fanatic screams could be heard, presumably after the fan had taken a photo together with the movie star. Turning around toward the source of that voice, Jiang Zhi now understood what was happening.
She was learning tricks while performing it simultaneously.
While annoyed by it, Jiang Zhi would feel even worse if he pointed it out. Turning back to her, he ordered, “Come with me.”
Zhou Xufang pulled the hood of her jacket down over her face and trailed behind him.
Immediately after they left the scene, the people around them began gossiping about their odd exchange.
“Who is that lass?” asked the producer.
The stage manager replied, “I don’t know.” She had hidden herself too well for him to make out who she was clearly.
The producer was visibly confused. “Isn’t the Director gay? Why is he walking so close to another girl?”
“Perhaps she’s one of his besties.” the stage manager speculated.
“…”
‘Bestie my ass!’
The assistant director butted into the conversation. “My son’s in his second year of middle school. Apparently, he dyed his hair the same type of blue that the director has.”
‘That kid isn’t even fully grown downstairs, honestly, how dare he get that little head dyed blue!? What does he think he is? Some kind of a gangster?’
“So you’re saying that Director Jiang is going through his chuunibyou phase right now?”
The assistant director was perplexed. “But Director Jiang is already 24.”
“I guess he’s a late bloomer” came the stage manager’s reply.
Suddenly, the assistant director’s hand came slapping on his head unexpectedly. “Careful when you speak! You don’t want the director to hear you, do you?”
The stage manager massaged his head.
‘I don’t know anything nor do I want to know either.’
Ah Wan was standing guard outside the director’s lounge. Focusing all his attention, he concentrated on… eavesdropping on what the young master was up to behind that door.
“Are you afraid of me?”
“Not at all.”
Jiang Zhi was seated while Zhou Xufang remained standing. There was a distance of at least 5 meters in between them. Of course, that was due to him holding back his overflowing urge to pull her over.
“Then why are you standing so far away?” Jiang Zhi then pointed toward a sofa opposite where he sat. “Sit there.”
Zhou Xufang hesitated for a while before finally caving in to his order.
He walked off to fetch her two cans of milk and a box of marshmallows which he placed right in front of her.
“Thanks,” said Zhou Xufang. Picking up the box, she proceeded to stuff the marshmallows, one after the other, into her mouth.
Just like a hamster storing food in its cheek pouches.
She acted the same way in his dream last night although, the Zhou Xufang in his dream was much more obedient than the one in front of him right now. Last night, instead of sitting meters away from him, she had heeded his command to sit on his lap while stuffing her face with marshmallows. While she had been busy with the marshmallows, he was able to do anything to her like wrap his arms lovingly around her, kissing every part of her body. The way she acted in his dream was way more irresistible than how she was acting right now. Hell, he was willing to pile up all the sweets in the world in front of her if she wanted him to. The deeper Jiang Zhi went down the rabbit’s hole, the greater his heart started to itch.
“Have you eaten all the sweets that I’ve given you?”
Zhou Xufang cracked open a can of milk which she passed to Jiang Zhi first before cracking open another one for herself. “Nope.”
“Remember to call me when you’ve finished them.”
She replied with an “okay”.
How obedient.
Jiang Zhi’s smile never went away throughout their entire interaction. His gaze toward her was initially flickering, like a candle in a breezy corridor, which made it quite obvious that he hadn’t had a good sleep last night. Still, after seeing her face, all he could see now were the colors of spring.
“You should stop going to that hair salon to work as a hair model. Too much hair dye will damage your hair beyond repair.” Jiang Zhi no longer concealed his intention to treat her nicely. “If you lack money, I’ll allocate more screen time for you”
He wasn’t too eager about seeing her photo being put up in public so easily nor did he enjoy the idea of her going around working her ass off for peanuts. Still, if he handed her money as if she was a charity case, she would surely reject his offer.
Maybe it was best for her to continue working as an actress. At least this way, she would constantly be under his watchful eyes.
“Alright.”
Zhou Xufang finally agreed to his offer.
How very obedient.
She would be easy to kidnap if she acted this obediently.
“You..”
His sentence had yet to come out of his mouth entirely before his body started to feel like it was burning up. Jiang Zhi was now feeling so nervous that he had unconsciously turned the blanket he was using into a messy clump.
With a handful of marshmallows still stuffed inside her cheeks, she looked back at him blankly.
“Hm?”
“Cough,” Jiang Zhi pretended to cough as he shifted his gaze away from her eyes onto her hand that was currently squeezing a fluffy piece of marshmallow. Then, in an almost robotic tone, he asked her, “Do you think I’m attractive?”
One could hear just how carefully he was treading when he asked Zhou Xufang that question.
Xue Baoyi had told him that with that face of his, seducing a girl was as easy as ABC.
That turned out to be quite true…
While she was visibly embarrassed by the question, she nodded her head meekly regardless.
After all, Zhou Xufang would always speak the truth.
The colors of spring instantly poured out from Jiang Zhi’s gaze. His eyes were like that of a wolf, who, after being starved for a very long time, had just had its first taste of meat. He enveloped her entire body using his eyes which were glowing so brightly that it made Zhou Xufang freeze in her tracks. Opening his mouth, he asked another question. “Then, do you…” He gulped nervously. “Do you want to get me?”
His alluring gaze softened as he awaited her answer.
If she said yes, then he was willing to give her his all. But… without any second thoughts, Zhou Xufang answered his question right away.
“No.”
“…”
The rose-tinted vision of his was shattered into a million pieces. The only thing he wanted to do at that moment was to curse someone out. That piece of sh*t Xue Baoyi was the worst! What the hell kind of trap had that bastard led him into!?
His smile now faded away, Jiang Zhi glared at her furiously. “Didn’t you admit that I’m attractive!?”
Zhou Xufang had caused so many contradicting emotions to arise within him in such a short amount of time that it was as if she was flipping through a book. After being accused by Jiang Zhi, her eyes were wide in confusion. “Can’t I say that?”
‘Everyone said the same thing, so why can’t I say that to him?’
She really wasn’t interested in his looks.
Push on with the plan regardless! New strategies will arise from the ashes of failed ones!
His favorite doctrine of “survival of the fittest” would probably fail disastrously against her. Jiang Zhi’s fear had come true—that he would have to be patient in his pursuit of Zhou Xufang.
Jiang Zhi breathed in deeply before taking a sip of his milk. Quickly, he concealed the panicked look in his eyes. He then coughed a few times, enough to make his eyes water. Looking into Zhou Xufang’s eyes with his dreamy eyes, he asked, “Are we not friends?”
He understood that Zhou Xufang had to be approached the “soft” way, not the “hard” way.
She paused for a moment before nodding.
“Then, you should bring me out for dinner tomorrow.” Fearing that she would turn him down like she had so many times before, Jiang Zhi made sure to remind her, “I’ve already given you that chandelier.”
This time, she made her promise in the blink of an eye. “Sure, it’s gonna be my treat.”
And so, Jiang Zhi’s twisted face finally relaxed.
All of a sudden, her phone rang. Glancing down at its screen, she looked back up at Jiang Zhi. “Are you free now?”
“Yeah.”
He would have answered yes even if it had been otherwise.
“I have something I want to give you.”
Zhou Xufang then led Jiang Zhi out of Film City. They were greeted by someone shouting Jiang Zhi’s name through a loudspeaker the instant they stepped out of the gates.
“Jiang Zhi!”
“Jiang Zhi!”
Jiang Zhi was pissed off by someone making a ruckus out in a public venue whilst screaming his name, thus, he shot a look at Ah Wan.
Instinctively, Ah Wan walked over to check out the commotion. Who was it that was yelling his master’s name out in public!?
“Jiang Zhi!”
“Which one of you is Jiang Zhi?”
Upon closer inspection, the noise was coming from a truck driver who was yelling out of his window through a large red loudspeaker. Ah Wan walked toward the massive truck that was parked across the street in front of the subway station to check out just what the hell was going on.
Zhou Xufang’s arm then shot up into the air, waving left and right. “We’re here!”
The truck driver across the street then replied through his loudspeaker, “You are Jiang Zhi?”
Zhou Xufang’s bucket hat bobbed up and down as she nodded to the truck-driving uncle’s question. The actual Jiang Zhi, who was standing behind her, was clueless as to what was happening.
The truck driver then clambered down from his truck. Despite being in the middle of winter, the man was wearing only a single t-shirt and a thin cotton vest above that to keep warm. With the order receipt in hand, the uncle glanced at Jiang Zhi and especially at his hair before finally explaining, “The eggs y’all ordered have arrived. That’ll be, in total, three thousand four hundred and ninety-six eggs. Please sign here.”
The driver spoke with a heavy accent.
Maybe this was why Jiang Zhi doubted what he had just heard. “What’s this?” he asked Zhou Xufang.
“These are the eggs that you wanted.”
Jiang Zhi stared at the 2 meter-tall green-colored truck.
‘Three thousand, four hundred and ninety-six…eggs? Wanted my ass!’
He had gone with eggs because it was the cheapest thing he could think of, but to think that she would give him a truckload of these.
Without any second thoughts, he asked the truck driver, “Is it possible to cancel this order?” Having lived for over 2 decades now, he had never once put in the effort to make monetary gains. Even so, he could feel the pain in her stead for ordering such a huge amount of eggs.
The truck driver flashed an impatient look at him.
‘This blue-haired kid must be another one o’ those bloody hooligans! His momma and poppa sure gave him quite the pretty face but too bad he’s got himself involved in sum’ dirty business.’
The truck driver rolled his eyes disappointedly at Jiang Zhi. “It’s been paid fer’ already. No refunds, no cancellations!”
“…”
“Didn’t you say you wanted eggs?” Zhou Xufang wore a confused expression. She could clearly recall Jiang Zhi telling her that he loved eggs. So, why wasn’t he happy after receiving her gift?
“I can’t eat all of these by myself,” explained Jiang Zhi.
Everything was fine so long as he didn’t hate it.
Zhou Xufang signed the paper the truck driver was holding and then said to Jiang Zhi, “There are rice husks and wood shavings underneath the truck, you should store them in there. They’ll keep for very long during wintertime, so no worries if you can’t finish them all. You could also give them away to friends and relatives.”
Jiang Zhi felt conflicted as he stared at the truck. While he was certainly pleased by Zhou Xufang’s thoughtfulness, he was still worried about her financial wellbeing. “How much did you spend?”
“It was no small change.” She suddenly remembered something that made her happy. “Mister Xue Baoyi ordered plenty of phone covers from me yesterday! Since I get 8 yuan profit per piece, I earned quite a lot of money from that deal alone.”
With the same expression, she said to Jiang Zhi, “I’m not short on cash.”
Once again, Jiang Zhi choked up and went silent.