“We’ll talk about this later.” The only strategy Ning Ran could think of was to delay the inevitable.
“Nope, no ‘later’ and no discussions. You must spend the night with me!,” demanded Zhen Lunlun.
No one, not even the person standing closest to the duo – Cheng Xiangyun, was able to hear what they were talking about.
Cheng Xiangyun could not contain her curiosity so she leaned in to eavesdrop on the duo.
In the end, she could only make out that last sentence – ‘you must spend the night with me’.
Cheng Xiangyun was so stunned that her jaw dropped, forming a huge and permanent ‘O’ on her face.
She firmly believed that she heard right. Zhen Lunlun wanted Ning Ran to spend the night with him!
Holy shit! Those two knew each other? And they’re close! So close that Zhen Lunlun was demanding Ning Ran to spend the night with him!
Ning Ran didn’t want to talk to Zhen Lunlun, and she especially didn’t want anyone to know that she and Zhen Lunlun were old friends.
She didn’t want to be known as the woman who was only successful because she knew another celebrity personally.
That was why, in a lowered voice, she said, “Quit fooling around! Everyone’s watching. We’ll talk later.”
Zhen Lunlun extended his hand to Ning Ran and said loudly, “Hello, my name is Zhen Lunlun. It’s nice to meet you.”
Everyone was surprised while Luo Fei was so furious that she bit her own lips.
Zhen Lunlun ignored a celebrity like Luo Fei who was welcoming him with her arms opened. Yet, he was warm and sweet when dealing with a nameless actress like Ning Ran? What the hell?
Ning Ran reached out to shake his hand in response, but she realized that her hands were dusty from the fall so she quickly clapped her hands clean then shook his hand. “Hello,” said Ning Ran, “I am Ding Mi.”
“Ms. Ding, you look just like an old friend of mine,” said Zhen Lunlun with a smile.
This idiot was charming when he smiled, and he exudes a feminine aura that created a sense of warmth and familiarity.
There were times when his smile was so dazzling that it confused the person looking at his smile.
Yet, as dazzling as his smile was, it wasn’t so overwhelming that it would make anyone uncomfortable.
“Do I?” said Ning Ran calmly.
“You do, except my friend isn’t as stunning as you, Ms. Ding,” replied Zhen Lunlun.
Upon hearing this, the women standing around them instantly became jealous because it sounded like Zhen Lunlun was flirting with Ning Ran.
Many devoted fans were willing to die just to be on the receiving end of Zhen Lunlun’s flirting.
However, that was not the case with Ning Ran. She knew that the nicer Zhen Lunlun was to her, the more jealous the women on set would be, and she was not interested in being hated by them.
If anyone decided to post rumors on the internet, Ning Ran would be attacked by an army of Zhen Lunlun’s fans.
Ning Ran did not want to enrage those deranged fans as the whirlwind caused by those fans could destroy her career.
That was why she didn’t respond to Zhen Lunlun’s words. Instead, she turned around and walked away.
Cheng Xiangyun followed behind and cornered Ning Ran before firing a series of questions. “Be honest,” asked Cheng Xiangyun, “How did you and Zhen Lunlun meet?” “How long have you known him and what is the relationship between the two of you? “How close are the two of you? Have you been on a date? Did you sleep together? How many times did you two sleep together?”
Ning Ran was stunned. She never realized just how ‘creative’ Cheng Xiangyun was. What kind of plot was she cooking up in that head of hers?
“Calm down, old woman. How am I supposed to answer all those questions when you fire them out like that?” asked Ning Ran.
“You’re the old woman with two kids!” “How am I old when I’m not even married? I am a young lady with a tough exterior and beautiful soul!” replied Cheng Xiangyun angrily.
“Fine, fine, I’m the old woman, satisfied?” said Ning Ran, admitting defeat.
“Answer my question!”
“Which one?”
“All of them!”
“Alright, calm down, woman. I told you about him. I knew him because I owe him some money and he would use that to annoy me every once in a while to get me to play with him, that’s all,” said Ning Ran innocently.
“When have you ever told me about him?” “And what do you mean by ‘play’? Does he play with your body? Or do you play with his body? Or is it something mutual?”
“I have told you. He’s Tony, the friend who just came back from overseas. I went to the airport to pick him up the other day.”
“Tony is Zhen Lunlun? I thought Tony’s a hairstylist?”
“Okay, let’s go through this again. Tony is a great name, but a lot of hairstylists adopt that name so it became almost synonymous with being a hairstylist. However, that particular Tony, my friend, is Zhen Lunlun. Got it?”
“As for ‘play’, we’re not playing with our bodies, we’re just playing video games.”
“Video games? Which video games?” demanded Cheng Xiangyun who was determined to get to the bottom of it all.
However, the assistant director interrupted the conversation to get Ning Ran to go put on her costume to begin shooting.
“I have to go, we’ll talk later,” said Ning Ran.
Ning Ran’s costume for the day was not the tight cheongsam. Instead, she was to put on a rather loose outfit and she had worn a singlet underneath the costume so she was not pricked by the needles hidden in the costume.
The mirror showed a sweet, Ming Dynasty woman standing there.
Ning Ran was happy with her outfit and style. That is how she imagined a Ming Dynasty woman would look like.
On the other side, Luo Fei was also changing her outfit until the assistant came in and said, “Ms. Fei, the director said that you don’t have any scenes to shoot today so you don’t need to change.”
“What? I’m the first female lead actress while Zhen Lunlun is the first male lead actor. Today is his first day on set. Shouldn’t he and I share a scene? Why wasn’t I included?” screamed Luo Fei.
“I don’t know. That’s what the director ordered. They’re only shooting the scene between Ding Mi and Zhen Lunlun today,” explained the troubled assistant.
“I’ll go ask Wang Yan. There must be some sort of mistake!”
That was Zhen Lunlun’s first day, and Luo Fei was planning to get close to him when shooting their first scene together so that she could raise some eyebrows. That way, she’d be able to use his fame to give her own name a nice boost.
But the woman shooting the first scene with Zhen Lunlun had become Ning Ran. She refused to accept that!
Hence, Luo Fei walked up to the director, all mad, and demanded, “Director! There must be some mistakes. Why am I not shooting today?”
“No mistakes, Ms. Fei, we’ve already sent out the notice. We’re not shooting your scenes today,” clarified the director with a grin.
“I never received any notice! And I never received the script either. In any case, I am the first lead actress! Now that the first lead actor is here, I should be doing a scene with him, not that b****, Ding Mi!”
Luo Fei had always been good at hiding her distaste for Ning Ran and had always been polite to Ning Ran when others were present. However, she was too furious that day, and all the curse words came flying.
Wang Yan was stumped.
He’d been in the entertainment industry for quite some time so he understood that Luo Fei was trying to use Zhen Lunlun to boost her fame, but he didn’t have a choice, because that was the order of the boss – Nan Chen.
Although Luo Fei was still the first female lead actress on paper, the revised script had turned Ning Ran into the actual first female lead actress.
But Luo Fei was unaware of the change in the script because she would have caused a scene if she did.
Nan Chen wanted Zhen Lunlun and Ning Ran to shoot their scenes together first so that the duo could get to know each other and develop some on-screen chemistry.
That was why Zhen Lunlun’s first scene on set was the one between him and Ning Ran.
Luo Fei standing there and demanding an explanation had made things rather difficult for him, the director.
After all, he couldn’t afford to offend someone like Luo Fei.
