"I was impolite just now, and I will forget everything as you said."
Her thin back looked stubborn, and Lu Xiaomi sighed softly in her heart.
They've arrived.
Chen Fu was indeed complaining, and she certainly had reason to.
The tumultuous events of the night left Lu Xiaomi exhausted. She bit her tongue to force herself to stay awake and said, "I'm not leaving. Someone just grabbed my hand and asked me to stay and keep her company."
"Was that you?"
The suppressed love in her heart made Lu Xiaomi tremble slightly. She stood up, her figure appearing even taller with the help of her high boots. The diamond ring she had worn backwards when she hit someone was now straightened, and her long, loose hair was casually tied into a cascading side bun. The corners of her lips were slightly curved, and her brows and eyes carried a hint of gloomy ruthlessness.
The oppressive feeling gradually came with the gentle sweep of the gaze. Chen Fu was turned around by having her chin pinched, and she felt as if she had suddenly been frozen in place.
Lu Xiaomi's current expression really does resemble that of a noble lady.
"There was a little mishap when we were kissing just now."
Lu Xiaomi cupped Chen Fu's face in her hands
“I don’t mind giving it to you now.”
My heart skipped a beat because of those words.
Being kissed with your chin lifted is not a comfortable feeling, and Chen Fu forced herself to focus all her attention on the kiss. Perhaps it was the feeling of making amends for something lost and then regained that made the kiss even more passionate than before, like a fire burning between them.
Lu Xiaomi cupped Chen Fu's face in her hands, and 0413's voice came from her mental sea, saying, "Host, your current favorability has successfully offset one OOC penalty. You now have five points of usable favorability left."
Lu Xiaomi gave a cold smile.
"I love you."
Unrestrained, the confession flowed from her throat, transforming into a sea of heat before her. Chen Fu felt, in a daze, that she was about to be burned to ashes. Yet, in the depths of her emotions, her face hardened with solemnity, for she had finally come to terms with it.
Two winding tears slid down Chen Fu's cheeks.
She said okay.
The individual words clearly conveyed a sense of restraint.
"I see."
*
In the middle of the night, Chen Fu's fever returned. As if she had been startled awake from a nightmare, she groggily asked Lu Xiaomi and Ye Xin why they were doing this.
She felt wronged, something she had never easily shared in front of others before. But now that someone loved her, she felt she had to talk about it, which made her grievances even more painful.
"I've always been very careful and have never offended her. Why did she have to embarrass me in front of so many people today?"
She'd been through so much, and once she started talking, she couldn't stop. Her voice choked with emotion, as if the pain was deep, but subconsciously she felt that crying was shameful: Chen Fuhao had been an artist for a long time, and her motto was never to show the slightest sadness or sorrow in front of her fans. She had to always sing like a wound-up machine, "Bringing happiness to my dearest you, and keeping all the sadness to myself."
Lu Xiaomi overestimated her abilities.
It turns out that all the maturity and sophistication were just a deliberately feigned facade, a hardened shell that had been forced to grow. Chen Fu also felt heartbroken and sad, she also felt vulnerable, and she would hide in an empty corner with her knees drawn up, completely baffled by the malice that appeared out of nowhere.
Lu Xiaomi felt her heart was broken.
There is no hatred without a reason. Ye Xin's sudden attack was ultimately for the sake of interests.
"Cultivation" is, in a sense, a female-centric drama. Jiang Qing is her top artist, and she plays the less-than-ideal male lead in this series. The promotional packaging after the drama's release will definitely be biased, and that's what Ye Xin values.
She held Chen Fu's hand, telling her not to be sad and assuring her that this wouldn't happen again and that she would handle it.
But as she spoke, even she herself began to doubt it, and Lu Xiaomi felt her eyes welling up with tears. So many upsetting things had happened these past two days. She was still protecting Chen Fu, yet these people dared to cause trouble and harass her so brazenly. How had Chen Fu survived all those years she was gone?
No wonder Chen Fu was so eager to please him when they first met; she must have been driven to desperation.
Having witnessed Lu Yu reject Chen Fu, Lu Xiaomi felt that her experience of transmigrating into the book was absolutely terrible. The tears welling up in her eyes increased, until she could no longer hold them back.
Perhaps due to the forced interruption of her emotions by the system before, as if it were a lingering effect, Lu Xiaomi now finds it difficult to control her feelings.
Then she burst into tears.
...
If Chen Fu's crying was like pear blossoms in the rain, intermittent and pitiful, then Lu Xiaomi's crying at this moment was like a flash flood, with a strong sense of life and death, and a fight to the death.
Just now, Lu Xiaomi put on a domineering CEO act in front of Chen Fu because she was emotional, but now, after listening to Chen Fu's complaints, she cried miserably, and was clearly brought back to her original "mommy fan" form.
Why is this person even more heartbroken than me?
Chen Fu couldn't help but twitch her lips and silently complained.
Lu Xiaomi hugged Chen Fu and sobbed uncontrollably. Just then, the nurse opened the door to change the dressing and saw President Lu hugging his artist and sobbing.
The nurse stood there stunned for three seconds, then quickly declared that she had seen it all and deftly changed Chen Fu's dressing.
"Oh, isn't it normal for young couples to argue? A little crying will make it all go away. Even married couples fight in bed and make up before they get out of bed."
The nurse's words left Chen Fu stunned.
Why does she think we're a couple?
Lu Xiaomi was also stunned for a few seconds upon hearing this.
If it weren't for this damn system messing with me, Chen Fu and I would be officially dating by now.
Thinking of this, Lu Xiaomi cried even louder.
*
Lu Xiaomi didn't sleep well all night.
In the middle of the night, Lu Xiaomi's heart was pounded by the little stories Chen Fu told her, and then she was witnessed dying by a nurse she didn't know. She was so frustrated that she wanted to die on the spot.
She was woken up around 6 a.m. by Yanshan's barrage of calls. Perhaps because anger is the most pathetic thing a person can do, her heroic act was just fodder for Ye Xin's amusement. Not many people cared about what happened last night, except for Yanshan who called early this morning to tell Lu Xiaomi not to be angry, saying he really hadn't expected things to escalate to this point.
But what hasn't happened has already happened. Lu Xiaomi gave Yanshan an ultimatum, telling him that she only had three days to clean up the mess of people and relationships around her.
She knew that most of the responsibility for this matter did not lie with Yanshan, so she did not make things difficult for him. Lu Xiaomi made a phone call home, and Xihe Public Relations Department's annual budget was immediately reduced by two-thirds. Even the production team of "Cultivation" was affected as a result - the headquarters refused to approve the original plan, and the entire project team had to make changes overnight.
Ye Xin hadn't expected that headquarters would sacrifice Xihe's profits for Lu Xiaomi's sake. As the head of the public relations department, she couldn't operate properly until the department received its funding. She now realized that the Lu Group's focus wasn't on the entertainment industry; the profits from a mere film and television company were insignificant, and the livelihoods of hundreds of people meant nothing to them.
Offending her boss made it difficult to continue working there, so Ye Xin gritted her teeth and accepted her bad luck. She wanted to resign, but Sun Hao wouldn't answer her calls, and the HR person's words carried a clear and subtle warning. He said that while Ye Xin could leave if she wanted, shouldn't she first clean up the mess she had created?
So Ye Xin had no choice but to bite the bullet and call Lu Xiaomi.
"I don't have time to argue with you."
Lu Xiaomi's tone on the phone was clearly unfriendly.
"As a department head, you should know better than me why headquarters is cutting funding."
Ye Xin was so anxious that she gritted her teeth, her carefully prepared remarks completely blocked.
"President Lu, it's not for any other reason than that Chen Fu still has half of her contract with Xihe. After filming of 'Cultivation' is completed, we won't be able to keep up with the subsequent public relations and marketing without funds. Please, for the sake of the monk, spare us this time."
Hearing this, Lu Xiaomi couldn't help but sneer. She thought to herself, "There's more than just Xihe Entertainment Company in the mainland. If Chen Fu is unhappy here, I can find her another one anytime. If all else fails, I can open my own studio and focus solely on promoting Chen Fu. Who gave you the right to threaten me?"
"Mr. Lu, I can assure you that what happened before will never happen again, you..."
"I don't have time to talk to you about this. Think about it yourself."
This wasn't an excuse; Lu Xiaomi genuinely didn't have time to argue with Ye Xin. The hospital didn't deliver breakfast in the morning, so Lu Xiaomi had to go downstairs to buy it herself. She hadn't slept well and her head was still foggy, plus the events of the past few days had been absolutely awful. Lu Xiaomi's face was incredibly dark, startling the breakfast shop owner, who thought she was going to rob him.
Although last night's process was very painful, it brought Lu Xiaomi and Chen Fu closer together and helped her understand her attitude towards Chen Fu.
That's right, she really likes Chen Fu, she likes her to death!
The concerns she had previously held vanished in an instant after Chen Fu's explanation. This was her script; she wanted to have a relationship with her goddess, so why make such a fuss?
talk!
*
It was already past eight o'clock when they returned to the ward. Chen Fu, dressed in her hospital gown, sat obediently on the bed, while 0413 lay in her arms, the two of them having a great time.
0413 is a master of playing favorites. It has been with Lu Xiaomi for so long, and usually calls her "host" affectionately, but it never lets her pet or hug it. Saying that acting cute is too idiotic and it can't learn it. Now, lying in Chen Fu's arms, it is as happy as can be, whimpering incessantly without any restraint.
"Your puppy is so cute."
0413 is a cub, and it's quite fat, so many people confuse it with a puppy. Lu Xiaomi would always correct it in a rather irritating way at times like this, but she was very hypocritical in front of Chen Fu. She nodded, patted 0413's head with great satisfaction, and said, "That's right, look who raised it."
"0413, bark once for your sister to hear."
0413 twisted and turned into a pretzel in Chen Fu's arms, finally letting out a soft whimper that sounded like a bark.
Seeing this scene, Chen Fu couldn't stop laughing, and she put 0413 down from her arms.
With 0413's departure, the atmosphere between the two of them became visibly awkward again.
Lu Xiaomi had a lot to say to Chen Fu, but she didn't know how to start, so she simply kept quiet and focused on peeling fruit for Chen Fu.
Just then, the nurse came in to change the dressing.
"You've made up?"
Last night, people watched such a good show. Even someone as easygoing as Lu Xiaomi can't help but smile shyly now.
How did you figure out... about our relationship?
The nurse was checking Chen Fu's basic condition when she heard this and gave Lu Xiaomi a disapproving look.
“You went to the hospital last night and carried her to register, looking as fierce as if you were going to eat us alive. What friend would be in such a hurry?”
Chen Fu took the apple from Lu Xiaomi, and felt a gentle prick in her heart.
Chapter 15 CP15
After three days of rest in the hospital, Chen Fu finally joined the crew. Yan Shan kept his word, and all the shady characters in the crew were fired. Even Ye Xin came to Lu Xiaomi to apologize in person.
Lu Xiaomi gave Ye Xin a cold shoulder, grunted twice, and walked past her. She was busy instructing Yanshan that Chen Fu's leg injury hadn't fully healed, and asked him to postpone some of the more intense action scenes.
After dealing with these trivial matters, the filming of "Cultivation" finally resumed. The relationship between the male and female leads in this drama is quite turbulent. Due to family issues, the female lead develops deep feelings for the male lead, and her attitude towards him is different. This difference exists in the subtle details of her expressions and body language. To put it simply, a unique magnetic field is established between the two of them.
To achieve this effect, the actors must have an extremely high level of chemistry. However, Chen Fu and Jiang Qing have only known each other for less than three days, so this kind of chemistry is clearly nonexistent...
Therefore, filming the romance scenes in "Cultivation" was exceptionally difficult...
The script was written by Yan Shan himself. He prided himself on being a master of social relations research and was very proud of the lingering emotional entanglements of the characters he created, believing that this was the essence of the entire TV series. However, when he saw the perfunctory and stiff expression on his female lead's face when she looked at the male lead, he felt that his girlish heart had been shattered.
"The female lead's expression should be more natural. The person standing in front of you is the love of your life. Can you please not look at him like he's a block of wood?"