Chapter 91
This year, Lunar New Year came earlier than last year, with New Year's Eve falling at the end of January. Director Wang had said filming would start after the New Year. Li Chu, after finishing a few public appearances and giving Qian Duoduo time off, settled down at home.
According to Chinese custom, preparations for New Year's Eve should have begun bustling well in advance, but Li Chu felt no such urgency. Her family wasn't in this world, so she didn't need to visit graves or offer sacrifices to ancestors. A perfunctory exchange of greetings and some money sent to her original mother's side of the family sufficed. Apart from Ning Manqing, she was practically unattached.
Even Ning Manqing wasn't with her now. Looking at the script in her hands, Li Chu pulled the small blanket she had draped over herself a little tighter. Ning Manqing had returned from abroad and was currently at the Ning family's old house, dealing with a whole host of relatives. Li Chu found the mere thought of that kind of gathering tiresome.
Ming Zhi had been busy rehearsing for the New Year's Eve gala these past few days. Since joining Mu Xiao's Tiange Entertainment, her career had been flourishing, with increasingly better resources coming her way. Zheng Ru was playing a supporting role in a drama, gradually becoming a familiar face to the audience.
With the arrival of the new year, everyone seemed to be doing well. Only Zhao Zhichun occasionally messaged Li Chu, lamenting his lack of a suitable script. After his last drama wrapped, he joined a variety show as a regular cast member and hadn't had any new film or television projects since. He didn't actually rely on acting for a living; he was a low-key, wealthy second-generation heir who would have to inherit the family business if he didn't put in the effort. So, he wasn't in a hurry, carefully picking and choosing his roles, occasionally performing in stage plays.
【Zhao Zhichun】: I envy your new drama. You don't know my pain, wuwuwu.
【Xiao Chu】: Be envious then. [Cat with hands on hips.jpg]
Zhao Zhichun had actually considered trying for a role in The Exiled , but Director Wang had flatly refused. After all, Li Chu and he were the leads in Die at Dawn and Dusk . While the storylines were completely different, having them both in a similar crime drama felt a bit odd, and Director Wang wanted to avoid any confusion.
Li Chu chatted idly with Zhao Zhichun, feeling drowsy, but a strange message from him jolted her awake. He first sent a photo, seemingly taken at his home, showing quite a few people.
【Zhao Zhichun】: Oh oh oh, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.
【Li Chu】: ?
【Zhao Zhichun】: Li Zi, keep an eye on your precious darling.
【Li Chu】: ??
Confused, Li Chu went back and looked at the photo several times, but she didn't see Ning Manqing anywhere. And based on the timing, Ning Manqing should be at the Ning family's old house, which, according to the book, was decorated in a classic, antique style. The setting in Zhao Zhichun's photo, however, was a modern mansion. How was this suddenly related to Ning Manqing?
【Li Chu】: An alpha who only speaks half a sentence will get pregnant!
【Zhao Zhichun】: I got caught eavesdropping qwq. Wait, let me summarize!
【Zhao Zhichun】: I'm at home, and my family has a lot of relatives over for dinner. I was hiding in the corner to avoid the nagging of my aunts and uncles, and I overheard a few betas and omegas talking.
【Li Chu】: Discussing Teacher Ning?
Li Chu knew Ning Manqing was captivating, but she wasn't worried about someone stealing her away. If they were to separate, it would be because of issues between them, not because of someone else's interference. Li Chu had this basic confidence. Besides, Ning Manqing's new movie had just been released, so it was normal for her to have many admirers.
【Zhao Zhichun】: Yes, someone asked another person, who I think was an omega, if she was excited about her upcoming blind date with Sister Ning. They kept teasing her.
The group's laughter and slightly envious tone made it sound as if the omega was already involved with Ning Manqing. It was a good thing Li Chu, the actual girlfriend, hadn't heard it, or she would have exploded, even though Zhao Zhichun had just given a general summary.
【Li Chu】: ?????
Li Chu was furious. Where the hell did this ridiculous blind date rumor come from? How could Ning Manqing go on a blind date behind her back?
【Li Chu】: And then?
【Zhao Zhichun】: There's no 'and then.' I was discovered, and they stopped talking.
【Zhao Zhichun】: Don't worry, Li Zi. I'll definitely find out for you.
Li Chu was now wide awake. Even though she was confident in her relationship with Ning Manqing, it didn't mean she liked the idea of someone interfering. This rumor could only have originated from three sources: Ning Manqing herself, the Ning family, or other unrelated parties. Li Chu believed Ning Manqing wouldn't spread it herself. Even if she were using it as bait, she would have discussed it with Li Chu first.
That left two possibilities. Regardless of which one it was, it was malicious. Li Chu immediately messaged Ning Manqing, but she didn't reply, probably because she hadn't seen it yet.
Li Chu paced back and forth in the somewhat dry room, pouring herself a large glass of warm water, which helped her clear her head. While waiting for Ning Manqing's response, Li Chu continued studying the script, immersing herself in Rong Yun's character and emotions.
To play Rong Yun well, she needed to understand what kind of person Rong Yun was, to simulate her psychological state and perform her actions based on her logic and emotions. For Li Chu, Rong Yun was both easy and difficult to understand, requiring more effort to immerse herself in the role.
Rong Yun was easy to understand in that Li Chu knew the general type of person she was. To use an exaggerated example, she was like an artificially intelligent being, a cold, emotionless, non-human machine. But the difficulty also lay in this: her logic differed from ordinary people, making it hard to predict her next psychological move.
Artificial intelligence operated based on programs written by humans, with internal structures and core algorithms. But Rong Yun was different. She was human. No one gave her instructions, and no one could truly understand her.
When Li Chu tried to embody her, her heart felt desolate, like inorganic, pure white. Rong Yun was different from Qin Mu. Qin Mu's inner emotions were actually very rich. She used a facade of harmlessness to conceal her malice towards the world, but that malice would inadvertently leak through the cracks of her mask. She had love and hate. Rong Yun, however, was different.
In most cases, Rong Yun was emotionless. She didn't rejoice in solving cases, nor did she feel anger at murders. She didn't sympathize with innocent victims or sigh for criminals driven to desperation. She simply observed the world coldly and calmly, with a hint of inner scrutiny. She didn't experience significant emotional fluctuations, carrying out everything based on her understanding of social laws.
Li Chu had discussed Rong Yun's inner emotions in depth with Writer Qian. They started with a hypothetical scenario: Imagine waking up to find your secret crush dead in your arms, and you're accused of being the murderer. How would an ordinary person react?
Most people would break down, feeling grief, despair, anger, disbelief… and so on.
Rong Yun's first emotion, however, would be confusion. Confusion about how things could have turned out this way, confusion about who orchestrated it all, followed by a sense of melancholy.
Like a program running in a loop, riddled with bugs, someone had fixed a few, but before they could get to the core issue, that person was gone forever. The soul residing in her cold heart, after the colors in the pure white faded, became increasingly indifferent to the world.
When accused of being the murderer, she remained calm, searching for any way to find the real culprit. But confined and with limited resources, she accepted the verdict after failing to prove her innocence, without feeling any resentment. Because she had rationally anticipated the possible consequences and deemed them lawful, she wouldn't object, nor would she be angered by being wrongly accused. This detached, indifferent acceptance was chilling.
Such a person, with such emotions, was truly difficult to portray. Li Chu exhaled, glanced at her still silent phone, and picked up a mirror to continue practicing her expressions.
Just as Li Chu felt she was about to become expressionless, her phone vibrated. It wasn't Ning Manqing, but Zhao Zhichun.
【Zhao Zhichun】: I found out. Oh man, there were so many relatives just now, I couldn't even take out my phone to reply.
【Zhao Zhichun】: Turns out that person is a socialite, not in a derogatory sense, but the kind everyone knows, a virtuous and demure omega. She's the only daughter of Kaifeng Real Estate.
【Zhao Zhichun】: Her name is Mu Qinxi.
Li Chu's head started buzzing. She remembered the name because she had complained about it not fitting the style of the story, feeling like an ancient female lead had wandered into the wrong era. This was the third female lead in the original story. If Bai Wu was the second female lead who made the original male lead jealous, then Mu Qinxi was the one who made the original female lead feel insecure.
Mu Qinxi's character setting was that of a perfect high-class lady, the ideal wife for an alpha, the perfect daughter-in-law in the eyes of parents-in-law, a gardenia-scented omega. She was virtuous, gentle, skilled in cooking, embroidery, accounting, and household management. Her hobbies were flower arranging, opera, and painting. She had learned violin and ballet, appearing elegant and poised in public and sweet and docile at home. She was an omega praised even by other omegas.
Li Chu felt exasperated. It seemed she had truly inherited the female lead's storyline. How could she even inherit the love rivals? Couldn't this Miss Mu just stick to liking Mu Xiao?
【Zhao Zhichun】: New Year's Eve dinner is starting. Gotta go. Let me know if you need any help!
Seeing this message, Li Chu realized it was dinner time. She touched her stomach, not feeling particularly hungry, and thought back to the blind date rumor. She vaguely remembered that the male lead interacted with Mu Qinxi because of a business collaboration with her family's company. Mu Qinxi, interested in marrying him, became the project liaison, and her father also intended to set them up, leading to frequent contact between them. The tea artist, Miss Mu, to lower the male lead's guard, acted completely normal, even expressing helplessness at her father's actions, claiming she had an alpha girlfriend studying art abroad whom her father disapproved of. Her tactics were highly sophisticated.
Even though none of this had happened yet and might not even happen, Li Chu already had a headache. Perhaps it was the mental exertion from practicing the script, but she developed a real, physical headache. Coupled with the warm air in the room, she drifted off to sleep on the bed and had a bizarre dream.
In the dream, Mu Qinxi, trying to showcase her tea artistry, invited Li Chu for tea. Ning Manqing, however, kicked over the teacup and coldly declared that her own tea was the best. Mu Qinxi, flustered, took her tea leaves and ran away, sobbing.
The dream was so funny that Li Chu laughed herself awake.
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