Chapter 34: Fire

Although Director Zhong was surprised that Ji Ran and Yan Duo were actually married, he quickly understood the meaning behind Ji Ran’s request. After all, the gap in their status was too vast. Without proper buildup beforehand, the sudden announcement of their marriage might not just cause Ji Ran’s fans to abandon him—the backlash could be severe. While Ji Ran wasn’t purely a traffic-dependent celebrity, and a talented actor without a massive following would still get job offers, he wouldn’t be as in-demand as he currently was.

And for Yan Duo to actually agree to a secret marriage, giving up the shortcut to fame by riding Ji Ran’s coattails, could only mean she was truly a good girl.

Once the ordered dishes were served, the group began eating and chatting. As they talked, Zeng Meng, who had been the most enthusiastic, suddenly fell silent. She stared in astonishment at the green vegetable in Yan Duo’s bowl that Ji Ran had placed there, unable to speak. A thousand questions in her mind ultimately boiled down to one thought: How could a man as aloof as an immortal actually serve food to someone?

But she’d never heard of Ji Ran being attentive to any girl, so Zeng Meng felt she must have encountered a fake Ji Ran.

Yan Duo felt extremely embarrassed. She secretly shot Ji Ran a glare, signaling him to tone it down, but Ji Ran gave no reaction, making it unclear whether he had received her message at all.

Director Zhong next to them, despite despising Ji Ran’s hypocritical attitude of “warning not to tell anyone about their relationship one second, then wanting the whole world to know they’re married the next,” could see that Yan Duo was genuinely embarrassed. So, Director Zhong picked up a piece of meat for Zeng Meng and said, “Come, come, eat more, everyone eat more.”

With Director Zhong warming up the atmosphere, the mood at the dinner table quickly returned to normal.

On the way back to the hotel, Zeng Meng pulled Yan Duo aside and asked her, “Be honest with me, is Teacher Ji trying to pursue you?”

The smile on Yan Duo’s face stiffened. “How could that be? We’re worlds apart. Why would he be interested in me!”

Zeng Meng nodded in agreement when she heard this, “That’s true…”

Before she could finish, she realized this was quite hurtful to Yan Duo and quickly comforted her, “It’s okay, I’ll introduce you to a bunch of rich kids later, so you can pick the one you like the most.”

Looking at Zeng Meng’s serious face, Yan Duo’s guilt grew even stronger.

As soon as she returned to the room, Yan Duo called Ji Ran.

“Weren’t we supposed to keep our distance in front of others? Why didn’t you keep your word?”

Before leaving for M City, Yan Duo had specifically discussed with Ji Ran that while it was fine to fulfill their marital obligations at night, she hoped they could pretend not to know each other on set during the day. Ji Ran had clearly agreed at the time.

After speaking without getting a response, Yan Duo said “hello” twice more, before Ji Ran’s voice came through intermittently from the other end.

“The signal isn’t very good. If you need something, come over and tell me in person.”

With that, the phone was hung up.

Yan Duo looked at her phone. The signal was at full bars, showing no signs of being poor. It seemed Ji Ran was the one with the bad signal. Thinking this was quite important, Yan Duo really didn’t want everyone to know about her relationship with Ji Ran on her very first day, so she grabbed her phone and headed out the door.

She took the secure passage to the 808th floor and used the card Ji Ran had given her to swipe open the door. Ji Ran was sitting on the sofa, reading a script.

“Can you promise not to do things that cause misunderstandings anymore? You have to keep your word!” Yan Duo complained as soon as she sat down.

Ji Ran’s gaze shifted from the script to Yan Duo’s face. Seeing her indignant expression, which clearly showed her dissatisfaction with him, she looked like a rabbit with its fur standing on end. Probably without even realizing it herself, not long ago she had been too afraid to speak up in front of him, though Ji Ran didn’t point this out and said, “Alright, I’ll be more careful next time.”

Ji Ran’s attitude in admitting his mistake was so good that Yan Duo didn’t feel like saying anything more. After sitting for a while, she wanted to go downstairs to sleep.

“Tomorrow is the first day of filming, are you ready?” Ji Ran suggested.

A while ago when they were at home, the two had rehearsed their scenes together whenever they had free time. Yan Duo had already memorized the lines perfectly, but when Ji Ran suddenly asked, she felt a bit uncertain. “Let’s run through it again.”

As they went on, they lost track of time, and Yan Dazhi absentmindedly showered in Ji Ran’s bathroom, got into his bed, and ended up sleeping with him twice, only returning to her own room to change clothes the next morning Impressed, she then ignored Ji Ran’s invitation to ride together and went to the film set in Zeng Meng’s car.

“Waiting for You Through the Years” is a film about past lives and present reincarnation. Because of a promise, the heroine waits for her lover who left and never returned for three hundred years. She waits from life to death, from ancient times with inconvenient transportation and communication, to the rapidly changing modern times, never leaving.

In the pleasant March weather, Sun Yizhou was invited out for an outing by his graduate school classmates. Carrying a pile of snacks, he couldn’t find the location his classmates mentioned. Instead, he got lost in a large rose garden. After wandering for half an hour without finding an exit, the exhausted Sun Yizhou walked with his snacks to a very antique wooden pavilion to rest.

Trying to call his classmates again, there was still no signal. Sun Yizhou sighed, put away his phone, and prepared to find a bottle of water from his bag. When he turned around, he discovered a girl in water-pink Hanfu standing beside him, staring intently at the horseshoe-shaped pastries in his bag.

Sun Yizhou had been wandering around the garden for quite some time without seeing a soul, so the girl’s sudden appearance made him feel particularly friendly.

“Want some?” As he spoke, Sun Yizhou took out the water chestnut cake from the bag, unwrapped it, and placed it in front of the girl. “I’ll treat you.”

The girl’s eyes followed the water chestnut cake. Hearing Sun Yizhou’s words, she looked up happily and asked, “Really?”

Their eyes met, and only then did Sun Yizhou get a clear look at the girl’s face. She appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, with large almond-shaped eyes and fair, delicate skin that seemed as if it would break at a touch. The innocence between her brows and the dimples by her mouth left Sun Yizhou momentarily dazed.

“Of course.”

Sun Yizhou averted his gaze, a faint blush rising on his face.

The girl was delighted to hear this. She took out a white handkerchief from her sleeve, picked up a horse-hoof-shaped cake with it, sat on the stone bench, and began to eat it in small bites.

Sun Yizhou had seen many girls on the street wearing Hanfu with ancient hair accessories, but rarely saw anyone carrying a handkerchief with them. A girl like the one before him, who exuded the temperament of an ancient lady from the bone, was even rarer. This made Sun Yizhou, who had originally just wanted to ask for directions, unable to resist wanting to know her name.

“What’s your name?”

The girl’s gaze shifted from the horse-hoof cake to Sun Yizhou’s face, answering seriously, “My name is Wen Jun, ‘Wen Jun’ from the line ‘Learning calligraphy, I also got to ask Wen Jun Sun’.”

Sun Yizhou hadn’t expected that not only did the girl have an ancient charm about her appearance, but even her name was full of poetic and artistic flavor, so he said with a smile, “Whoever named you must be very learned.”

Wen Jun smiled, looking at Sun Yizhou as if seeing a distant past, “Yes, he is the most talented person I have ever met.”

After the first scene was successfully filmed, Director Zhong was very satisfied with Ji Ran and Yan Duo’s performance, letting them rest for half an hour before shooting the second scene.

When Zeng Meng saw Yan Duo come down, she immediately went over and sat beside her, exclaiming in surprise, “Wow, Duo Duo, I haven’t seen you for a few months, and you’ve completely blown me away. Come on, tell me, did you get training from some famous expert?”

I still remember in the last drama, although Yan Duo’s performance was decent after she got into character later on, in the early stages she was the one the director would nag about every single day. Nothing like now, where she got into character right from the first scene and nailed it in one take—simply amazing!

Yan Duo discreetly glanced at Ji Ran, who was drinking water not far away, and said through gritted teeth, “Indeed, it’s through relentless day and night practice that I’ve achieved today’s results.”

Ji Ran on one side couldn’t help but curl his lips, very clear in his heart that this was blaming him for what happened last night.

But Zeng Meng didn’t catch on, tsk-tsking twice. “Just from that one sentence, I can tell how hard you’ve worked. It must have been so difficult for you. But the results are great. Hey, why don’t you introduce that famous teacher to me? I want my acting skills to improve by leaps and bounds too.”

Yan Duo thought to herself, no, you can’t understand my hardships, nor will you ever comprehend what I’ve truly been through, but on the surface, she readily agreed, “Alright.”

Ji Ran paused while drinking water.

Zeng Meng: “Where is that famous teacher?”

Yan Duo: “Right here in our film crew.”

Ji Ran’s hand holding the water glass tightened.

Zeng Meng: “Who is it?”

Yan Duo leaned close to Zeng Meng’s ear and said a few words.

Zeng Meng asked suspiciously, “Really or not?”

Yan Duo said, “Of course it’s true. You should try it tonight when you don’t have any scenes. Maybe overnight you can be just like me. niaoshuw.com”

“Alright, I’ll try it tonight then.”

……

Assistant Ma Peng, who had just returned from outside the set, noticed that Ji Ran’s complexion didn’t look good, so he leaned in and asked, “Brother Ji, are you okay?”

Ji Ran: “It’s nothing, I was just thinking about what to eat tonight.”

“What do you want to eat, Brother Ji?”

“Rump meat.”

Ma Peng oh-ed a couple of times, “I’ll go to the market to buy it, and get some other vegetables for you while I’m at it.”

Ever since he was stopped along with Ji Ran a couple of days ago for carrying a lighter, which ended up trending on social media and even made netizens speculate that Ji Ran had broken the law, Ma Peng had been feeling quite guilty. As a result, he had been particularly diligent these past few days. Now, thinking that Ji Ran was going to cook dinner, he frantically ran out of the film set to buy groceries.

Ji Ran glanced at Ma Peng’s retreating figure but didn’t offer any explanation.

In the evening, Yan Duo and Zeng Meng returned to the hotel after having dinner outside with their assistants. As soon as they entered the room, they found Ji Ran sitting on the casual sofa, leisurely reading a book.

“What are you doing here?” Yan Duo put down her bag and couldn’t help but pout. When Ji Ran had insisted on taking her key card earlier, she knew nothing good would come of it.

Ji Ran didn’t even look at her, answering coldly: “If I don’t come here, should I wait for your good friend to knock on my door tonight?”

Thinking about Yan Duo encouraging Zeng Meng to find him tonight, Ji Ran was in a terrible mood. He had repeatedly suspected that Yan Duo’s feelings for him were nothing more than the faint admiration a fan has for an idol, not the “possessive” love she claimed to have for Ji Size. The thought left Ji Ran feeling utterly defeated.

Yan Duo froze for a second upon hearing this. When she realized that Ji Ran had actually fallen for it, she burst out laughing, bending over with amusement.

That morning on the film set, the “master teacher” she had whispered to Zeng Meng about wasn’t Ji Ran at all, but Director Zhong. And what she had encouraged Zeng Meng to “try” tonight wasn’t knocking on his door, but watching Director Zhong’s online teaching videos, as he was also a teacher.

Of course, she deliberately said suggestive things just to get a little revenge on Ji Ran, who had been playing mind games with her!

Only then did Ji Ran realize he’d been deceived. He threw down the book he didn’t know what was about, walked over, pressed Yan Duo onto the bed, lifted her skirt, and bit down.

Yan Duo’s laughter instantly turned into a terrified scream, like a wolf crying and ghosts howling.

Ji Ran, however, was satisfied. Looking at the bright red mark on her fair skin, he thought to himself, how could the rump meat in the kitchen refrigerator possibly be as delicious as this!