Wen Mubai had already gotten the medicine box from the shop assistant and sent a photo to Xu Chacha.
Dear Auntie: [Image]
It's a stomach medicine that Xu Chacha's family always keeps on hand, because she's always had stomach upsets from eating ice cream.
Xu's mother has been controlling her eating ice cream since she was five years old.
Xu Chacha understood why Wen Mubai had gone down there. They were going to film a video, and she definitely couldn't just take a bite and spit it out. Not to mention that the client would be watching and would feel uncomfortable if they saw it, even if she could understand, she couldn't do that because she had to swallow it in front of the camera and make it look like the ice cream was delicious.
When Wen Mubai returned with the medicine, Tang Doudou's individual photos had already been taken, and Xu Chacha was called over to take a couple photo together.
During filming, we fed each other bites, and she swallowed quite a bit. If it weren't for her stomach being unable to handle it, Xu Chacha would have had a pretty good time filming this commercial, since AS ice cream is really delicious.
When they came down, Wen Mubai opened the medicine box and asked her, "Want to take one first?"
Xu Chacha licked the chocolate crumbs off her lips. "That works too."
Half a stick is usually enough for her. It's January and winter, and she can already handle wearing a skirt with her legs exposed. Those few bites just now made her fingers tremble from the cold.
Wen Mubai handed her the hot milk, saying, "Keep it warm."
Xu Chacha sniffed, obediently held the milk jug in her hands, and opened her mouth towards her.
Wen Mubai lowered his head, pressed his finger on the medicine board, pulled out a pill and put it into her mouth, and immediately handed her her ever-present thermos.
"Drink it quickly, don't hold it in your mouth, then your tongue won't taste bitter." These pills don't have a sugar coating.
Xu Chacha swallowed it with a grimac, sticking out her tongue, "Bitter."
"Then drink the milk." Wen Mubai raised his hand to wipe the water stains from the corner of her mouth, and gestured for the makeup artist to come over and touch up Xu Chacha's makeup.
Xu Chacha nodded, opened the can, and took a sip. The sweet milk swirled in her mouth before she swallowed it down with a bitter taste. The effect was quite good, and she immediately drank a few more sips.
The first scene is an interior shot, depicting the first encounter between the two protagonists. The set was a newly converted office; a blackboard was hung up and a table was placed, instantly creating the feeling of a classroom.
There were extras in school uniforms waiting nearby, all wrapped in long cotton-padded coats and shivering.
Xu Chacha and Tang Doudou were also wrapped in black down jackets that reached their ankles, leaning against each other, shivering and their teeth chattering.
"Cha Cha, are you cold? Let me warm you up." Tang Doudou opened her down jacket and went over to wrap her up.
Xu Chacha was wrapped up in her arms, unable to move like a silkworm. "No need, you can keep yourself warm."
"But you're so warm, I want to snuggle up to you." Tang Doudou was only up to Xu Chacha's chin, so the way she was being hugged made it seem like she was being held by Xu Chacha from one side.
At least that's how it appears to Wen Mubai.
Seeing her unpleasant expression, Chen Jingli teased her, "What to do? Your sugar daddy is too popular."
"It's just kids being mischievous," Wen Mubai replied with a forced smile. "Or do you actually want to be my colleague?"
"Help! Don't try to trick me! I wouldn't dare!" Couldn't she see that this was just a little flirtation between the two of them? She wouldn't dare to get involved even if she had ten lives.
Wen Mubai stopped laughing, which made her feel uneasy, and turned his head back to Xu Chacha.
The director yelled "Action!" and Xu Chacha ran over and handed the coat to Wen Mubai, saying, "It's really cold today, you should wrap yourself up like this. I'll give it back to you when I get back."
"Didn't you put on a heat pack?" Wen Mubai touched her lower back with his palm.
"I put them on, but my hands are cold." Xu Chacha shook her few red "little radishes".
It's okay now, but I guess I'll have to warm up my hands before shooting close-ups later.
"Go."
Xu Chacha walked back shakily, but as soon as the director yelled "Action!", she immediately straightened her back and put on a professional expression, as if it were a summer day in July outside.
In the story, she is a transfer student and is assigned to sit next to Tang Doudou.
When Xu Chacha walked over and sat down, the director gave a close-up of the elbows of the two people who were far apart, and the only interaction they had was a polite smile.
Tang Doudou has formal training in acting. Although she has never been on the big screen, she still has the basic skills. She conveyed the message perfectly with a tentative look.
Xu Chacha can't act, but she has some filming experience. She doesn't know how to use theory to figure out what reactions and expressions she should make at what time. She just puts herself into the role and imagines that she is a transfer student from a remote area. Although she wants to integrate quickly, she can only pretend to be indifferent because she doesn't know how to communicate effectively.
Her face was chubby when she was little, but as she grew up, her facial features became more defined. She always smiled to reduce her aloofness, but when she really became serious, she had a certain air about her that Wen Mubai often had.
Chen Jingli wondered to herself, could this be the legendary "wife-like appearance"?
Because the two were in better condition than expected, the filming was much easier than anticipated, and the team quickly packed up and prepared to change locations.
Xu Chacha bowed to the people around her as usual, then ran towards Wen Mubai. Before she even reached him, he had already opened his down jacket and wrapped her in it.
"Is your stomach starting to hurt?" She calculated that Xu Chacha's period was around this time, and she would have a strong reaction to eating ice around this time.
"It's alright." Xu Chacha clutched her coat with both hands, half her face hidden inside, and blinked her watery almond-shaped eyes twice. "Don't you have to go to work? You've been waiting for me here all this time."
"I took the day off today." Wen Mubai pulled out a hot water bottle from somewhere and stuffed it into Xu Chacha's arms. "Serving you is more important."
Xu Chacha's ears visibly turned red. She quickly turned her head to check Chen Jingli's expression and, seeing that there was nothing unusual, she stepped forward and covered that unrestrained mouth.
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
Wen Mubai turned his head to avoid it, his eyes crinkling into a smile. "I forgot, there are some things we can't say outside."
Chen Jingli, now empty-handed: You stole my hot water bottle and fed me dog food, does anyone care about the feelings of the client?
The next scene is where Xu Chacha can take a break, because it's Tang Doudou's personal shot, where we'll be filming her going to buy ice cream.
She held the still-steaming hot tea in her thermos, huddled in her thick down jacket, watching Tang Doudou shiver as she took photos.
Two pillars stood in front of Xu Chacha to shield her from the wind, making her feel somewhat comfortable in the cold wind.
After Tang Doudou finished filming this scene, the next scene would be a close-up of the two of them eating ice cream. Wen Mubai specially gave her a hot water bottle to save her fingers from being frozen red.
When Tang Doudou came down, her agent rushed over to serve her hot tea and a hot water bottle. The lively girl was so cold that she couldn't speak and just sat there dumbly, as if her brain had been frozen into an ice sculpture.
The director was somewhat humane; he gave them half an hour to rest and only called "action" after setting up the equipment.
"Hang in there, let's finish filming as soon as possible so it gets colder after sunset."
"Hehehe... I know... Hurry up, hurry up!" Tang Doudou threw off her coat and pulled Xu Chacha over. "Let's finish filming, I feel like I'm freezing to death."
"Yes, I'll try my best not to hold you back."
Actually, this one isn't difficult either. It's just that the two of you each take a bite of ice cream and then look at each other and smile.
Perhaps it was too cold, because Tang Doudou's expression was a bit ferocious when she ate ice cream. Although she tried her best to manage her expression, even the slightest unnaturalness would become particularly obvious in close-up shots.
"Help, I can't take it anymore, these few bites have made my brain go numb." Tang Doudou's eyes were red, and she was so cold that she was about to vomit.
Xu Chacha was no better off than her, squatting down and curling up in a ball. "Didn't we agree that dying early would be a good way to be reborn? You lied to me."
"Waaaaah, I want to too, but it's so hard."
"Then don't treat it like an ice pop, treat it like something else. Don't you like barbecue?"
"Barbecue..." Forget about eating it, she can hardly even smell it now. Her manager is stricter with her than with her daughter. Xu Chacha's mention of it immediately whetted her appetite.
But her manager was still the most aggressive, immediately bringing over a pot of steaming hot water. "Drink a few sips of hot water, and once your mouth is warmed up, you won't be afraid of it getting cold."
Xu Chacha hissed from the side, "Eating hot and cold food alternately can easily cause diarrhea."
"It's not a big problem, her stomach is made of iron." The agent smiled and spoke in a tone like Pan Jinlian serving medicine to Wu Dalang, holding the cup to Tang Doudou's lips, "Here, drink it. Last time you secretly went out to eat at a buffet behind my back, you had hot pot and ice cream, and I didn't see you having any trouble with it."
Tang Doudou could only drink it with tears in her eyes, and then a makeup artist came over to touch up her makeup, and the machine started running again.
Tang Doudou is in much better condition this time, mainly because she is really afraid that her manager will drag her back and force-feed her another mouthful of hot water.
The two took a bite of the ice cream, the chocolate shell burst open, the jam filling flowed out, and finally they swallowed the soft vanilla filling along with it.
The more she chewed, the more relaxed her expression became. Xu Chacha turned around and gave Tang Doudou a faint smile, like the first ray of warm spring sunshine breaking through the ice. Tang Doudou didn't even need to react; the corners of her mouth naturally curved up with her smile.
She never imagined that after studying her major for so many years, she would be led by the nose by Xu Chacha, who had absolutely no experience, in her own job.
Fortunately, the director didn't seem to notice anything amiss, and even thought the chemistry between the two looked harmonious. He added a few more close-ups from other camera angles and happily called it a wrap.
"Cha Cha, have you ever thought about trying acting?" Tang Doudou asked in her ear.
"Hmm?" Xu Chacha turned her head. "No, I think."
When it comes to acting, she had already been playing children for over a decade, which was exhausting enough. Moreover, she knew that it was difficult for her to detach herself from the role in this way. Today she was just playing a transfer student, but if she were asked to play a mentally ill person or a murderer tomorrow or the day after, how long would it take her to get rid of those negative emotions?
"I'm serious." Tang Doudou's eyes widened. "You're in such a good state once you get into character."
"I'm just afraid of getting too into character," Xu Chacha said with a smile.
Wen Mubai arrived just in time to hear their last two sentences. She pressed the down jacket against Xu Chacha and pulled her into her arms. "Go change your clothes and go home early."
"Oh yeah, it's freezing." Xu Chacha rubbed her hands together and said goodbye to Tang Doudou, "Bye Doudou, I'll call you out for dinner sometime next time."
...
Wen Mubai didn't bring a driver today; he drove himself. Xu Chacha lay in the back seat, her eyelids half-closed in exhaustion.
When Wen Mubai first glanced at her in the rearview mirror, he thought she was sleeping. But when he went to open the door and call her after she got to the underground parking garage, he found that Xu Chacha's cheeks were flushed with an abnormal redness after removing her makeup, her eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and her lips were pale as if she had lost too much blood.
"Are you feeling unwell?" She reached out to touch her forehead and found it was burning hot.
Xu Chacha gave a soft "hmm" through her nose, opened her tightly closed eyes, her eyelashes wet with physiological tears, and said, "It hurts."
Wen Mubai noticed her hand pressing tightly against her stomach. "Does it hurt your stomach or your lower abdomen?"
Xu Chacha shook her head, her voice barely audible, "My period."
"Take your painkillers first, then I'll take you to the hospital." Fortunately, she had a habit of keeping painkillers in her car, so she immediately opened one and gave it to Xu Chacha.
Xu Chacha opened her mouth in a daze, almost biting Wen Mubai's finger in the process. Then, holding the thermos, she swallowed the medicine with difficulty and said to her pitifully, "I don't want to go to the hospital."
"Painkillers work better if taken in advance, and getting an injection at the hospital will help you recover faster."
"I don't want to go to the hospital," Xu Chacha repeated, leaning softly against her. "I want to sleep, I'll feel better after a nap."
Wen Mubai sighed, wrapped the person in his coat, and then picked them up, coat and all.
"Try taking a nap first. If you're still not feeling well, then go. No matter how much you plead, it won't work."
Does that mean it's still effective to act cute now?
Xu Chacha leaned on Wen Mubai's shoulder, gazing longingly at her tense jawline, trying to ease the tension, "Then come with me."
Chapter 52 Sticking Together
Xu Chacha's "together" wasn't just about wanting Wen Mubai to stay; she was only happy after pulling his arm and tucking him into bed.