41. We Are The Gossipy Bunch

Qi Le An went to bed early that night, he put Sang Jia Yi’s hair under his pillow and fell asleep with a cunning smile.

The system had been complaining about how starved it had been, Qi Le An was relieved that Sang Jia Yi made this so easy.

“Beep, welcome to the Nightmare System.”

The light globe swooshed right in front of Qi Le An and asked anxiously, “Have you brought me food?”

“You betcha.”

“Beep, please start to fabricate the nightmare.”

Qi Le An squinted his eyes and was lost in thought, ‘What kind of nightmare should I fabricate for Sang Jia Yi to make her polite to me, and stay away from Wei Sama!’

Qi Le An thought for a while and then thousands of words flowed from his pen, ‘Sang Jia Yi, you should blame yourself for this! I vowed to avenge myself on anyone who hurts me on the first day of my rebirth, Sang Jia Yi, I hope you are ready to face the consequence.’

Qi Le An slept like a baby that night, he woke up early and went downstairs to have breakfast with Chen Shan for he had shootings in the morning.

As luck would have it, Qi Le An and Chen Shan met Wei Chang Feng and Director Chen in the cafeteria.

.....................................

Wei Chang Feng had heard what happened in the studio when he came back from the commercial activity from Gary. Gary felt it necessary to let Wei Chang Feng know what had happened, Director Chen mentioned Wei Chang Feng’s name when he was furious after all.

Wei Chang Feng hesitated for a while before he knocked on Director Chen’s door.

Director Chen was checking the material from yesterday when Wei Chang Feng walked in, and the aroma of coffee wafted up from the coffeemaker on the table.

‘I wonder Director Chen has slept at all last night, Director Chen works too hard’, thought Wei Chang Feng.

“Chang Feng, you are up early, aren’t you? Would you like a cup of coffee?” Director Chen raised his head and smiled at Wei Chang Feng.

Director Chen didn’t smoke, but he was addicted to coffee and tea.

Wei Chang Feng frowned slightly, “Uncle Chen, easy on caffeine, have you slept at all last night?”

“Take a seat, Chang Feng”, Director Chen laughed, “You know I’m a workaholic and I feed on coffee and tea in movie shooting, try this coffee, Tong bought these beans for me, good stuff.”

“What’s Tong been up to, I didn’t get to talk to her much last time in the audition.” Wei Chang Feng smiled.

Director Chen beamed on mentioning his daughter, “She went to the Northwest with a couple of her photographer friends, I warned her about the weather there, she insisted on going in the name of art!”

Director Chen meant to continue to ‘complain’ about his daughter more when his phone rang, Director Chen checked the screen and frowned, he took a deep breath before he picked up the phone.

Wei Chang Feng took a look at the room, there were so many sockets and cords interwoven on the floor, ‘Director Chen, please don’t work too hard!’

Director Chen hung up the phone with a sigh, “The studio is not functioning properly due to the gale last night, and I happen to need some pickup shots... ...”

“What can I do?” asked Wei Chang Feng promptly.

Director Chen shook his head, “It’s all right, that was the associate director who just called me, he was on it already. Chang Feng, are you here for Qi Le An?”

Wei Chang Feng watched Director Chen sipping the coffee in hand and said, “Gary just mentioned to me what happened on set yesterday, An is just an inexperienced boy, but he is aspiring, please don’t be mad at him.”

Director Chen smiled, “Chang Feng, this is so not you, what on earth have you seen in that boy?”

Wei Chang Feng went silent for a little while and chuckled, “I just... I just feel like there’s a natural bond between us.”

Director Chen gave Wei Chang Feng a meaningful look, and with that Wei Chang Feng rose to his feet, “It’s breakfast time, Uncle Chen, Tong asked me to be her little spy and report to her whether you have taken care of yourself... ...”

Director Chen laughed, “You kids are just... fine, I’ll join you.”

Wei Chang Feng and Director Chen were both sophisticated people, they didn’t go into the subject of Qi Le An in-depth.

.......................................

The hotel staff was used to see the crew members enjoying the buffet breakfast in the cafeteria, but none of them had seen Wei Chang Feng show up in the cafeteria before.

The whole cafeteria went silent on Wei Chang Feng’s entering cafeteria, a waitress ushered him and Director Chen in, and with enthusiasm overflowed in her tone she asked, “How can I help you, Mr. Wei?”

“Can I have some warm water, please?” Wei Chang Feng didn’t need anything, he just didn’t want to dampen the girl’s mood.

The girl was thrilled to see Qi Le An standing right next to Wei Chang Feng when she came back with the warm water, ‘Today is my lucky day or what! Wei Chang Feng and Qi Le An!’

Director Chen almost thought this encounter was a setup when he saw Qi Le An, but Qi Le An’s facial expression said otherwise.

“Director Chen, Wei Sama! Good morning!” Qi Le An beamed at them.

“Morning, An.”

With that Director Chen, Wei Chang Feng, Qi Le An, and Chen Shan sat together.

“What else do you feel like, Wei Sama, I can get it for you,” suggested Qi Le An.

Wei Chang Feng shook his head and signaled that he was good with his salad and scrambled eggs.

Director Chen laughed, “I wish I were as handsome as Chang Feng, everyone kept asking him whether he needs more stuff, the girl, and now An.”

Qi Le An stuck his tongue out and said, “What can I get you, Director Chen?”

“I’m just playing with you, I’m happy with my noodles here. Thank you, An.” Director Chen smiled.

Qi Le An grinned and left the table.

Chen Shan frowned on seeing the food Qi Le An got for himself, “An, a kitty eats more than you, here, have some har now.”

With that Chen Shan slid the plate across the table.

Qi Le An insisted on taking the shuttle bus to get to the set after breakfast, but Chen Shan drove Qi Le An to the set after the breakfast in his Porsche, saying he wanted to make sure Qi Le An could get some rest on the way.

They had arrived at the set slightly late than Qi Le An, but they were still pretty early.

Chen Shan turned furious when the Production Supervisor told them that Qi Le An had to wait until the afternoon because some props were broken by the gale last night, Chen Shan stepped forward and meant to ask reprovingly, “Why didn’t you inform us this morning!”

Qi Le An grabbed Chen Shan and smiled at the Production Supervisor, “That’s all right, I’ll wait.”

The Production Supervisor looked so relieved when Qi Le An said it was all right, she heaved a sigh and said, “Thank you so much, An, aren’t you an angel? Unlike that someone, who is lousy at her job and late every day!”

‘It must be Sang Jia Yi that she is talking about, Sang Jia Yi is late, great, the nightmare worked!’

Sang Jia Yi was late for about an hour, the Associate Director had to change the shooting order to make sure the schedule of the day run smoothly.

The movie shooting was a cash-burning industry that every minute counted on set, how dare anyone to be late for an entire hour! Hence Director Chen didn’t even care to spare Sang Jia Yi a look when she finally arrived.

Director Chen was busy talking with the Script Supervisor and Sang Jia Yi tried so hard to chime in and apologize but to no avail.

Qi Le An was standing not far away from the camera, he was intrigued to see what would become of Sang Jia Yi. Soon the Production Supervisor joined him, “Hey, guess what I heard, Sang Jia Yi said she was late because she had a nightmare last night! How ridiculous is that! A nightmare!”

A Customer had joined them as well before Qi Le An had realized it, he offered everyone some popcorn before he opened his mouth, “That’s nothing compared to what I have heard, apparently her assistant has to do everything for her, including washing all of her socks and underwear, and she only pays her assistant 2000 Yuan per month!”

A prop master emerged from nowhere gasped, “What? 2000 Yuan per month?”

“It’s true, I just saw her assistant shedding tears in the dressing room.” a makeup artist took some popcorn from the Customer and said, “She was crying in the dressing room, geez, we all left the room after comforting her. It has something to do with Sang Jia Yi’s nightmare last night.”

“Sang Jia Yi said she dreamed that a cat had scratched her face, and everything felt so real, so she asked her assistants to rummage her room and find her the cat in the morning!” the cameraman joined the conversation as well.

“That’s absurd, I say she is just guilty!” replied the Production Supervisor, “Wait for a second thought, what are you doing here, Mr. Cameraman!”

With that everyone raised their heads and stared at the cameraman.

As luck would have it, the Associate Director waved at the cameraman and shouted, “Come back here! Now!”

The cameraman stuffed the popcorn into Qi Le An’s hands and left in a hurry.

Wei Chang Feng who had just walked out from his RV was surprised to see so many people surrounding Qi Le An, “What are you guys doing?”

“Look over there, I gotta change that prop, right?”

“An, your makeup is on point!”

“An, let me find a new jacket for you, wait for me right here.”

With that everyone had fled in every direction, leaving Qi Le An and Chen Shan on the spot.

“Wei Sama, popcorn?” Qi Le An offered the popcorn the cameraman stuffed into his hands.

Chen Shan looked away to suppress the laughter.

“Sure, thanks, An.”

The two walked towards Director Chen and Sang Jia Yi together with popcorn in hand. Sang Jia Yi who was trying too hard to shed some tears got distracted by them, she turned pale drastically on seeing Qi Le An who was standing right next to Wei Chang Feng.