47: Wen Yu
The atmosphere was a little sombre, a crass birdcall just had to ring out at this moment. Ning Ning looked up and saw a ball of black spinning above her, they seemed to be crows.
After the crows left, Ning Ning slowly looked back at the Doorman. "...What will happen if I change the fate of the lead character twice, or thrice?"
The Doorman let out a laugh, then looked sideways behind him.
Ning Ning followed his vision.
Behind him were masked people. They were packed behind the entrance of Life Theater. They looked at her with jealousy and greed, like prisoners filled with the desire to look at the outside world.
The Doorman slowly turned back and laughed, "You can try it."
How would she dare to?
From that day onwards, everyone with eyes could see that she was distancing herself from Shi Zhong Tang.
Besides the times when they would film together, she would avoid him. If she could not avoid him, she would close her eyes to rest, like now.
Ning Ning was lying down on the chair in front of the dresser, a jacket was draped across her body, her eyes were closed as if she was taking a nap.
"Why have you been ignoring me recently?" Two hands were propped up on the back of the chair she was lying on, Shi Zhong Tang's voice rang out from above her head.
"..." You could never wake a person who was pretending to be asleep.
"I know you are pretending to be asleep." Shi Zhong Tang fell silent, suddenly he asked while sounding hurt, "Do you hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you." Ning Ning thought with her eyes closed. "I'm only afraid of you."
What the Doorman said made her restless. She felt that she did not do anything that would change Shi Zhong Tang's fate, but the Doorman did not feel the same way. When she thought about it again, she felt that the Doorman was right.
After all, she was right in the midst of it. Watching things from an outsider's point of view was different. She might feel that she did not do anything, but from a spectator's point of view, the answer would be completely different.
She sighed and opened her eyes. "Wait till the end of the filming of this movie."
Shi Zhong Tang, "Hmm?"
Ning Ning did not even have the courage to look at his eyes while she spoke. She stared at his reflection in the mirror and said, "I will give you a definite answer after we finished filming this movie."
As she said this, her ending tone had a very slight tremble. She felt like she had become a murderer, especially when she saw the clear and surprised smile of Shi Zhong Tang in the mirror.
How could she tell him—once the filming was done, you would die.
"Then it's a promise. Once the filming is done, you would give me a definite answer." Shi Zhong Tang said with a smile, his eyes were brighter than usual. It was common with most people, their eyes would suddenly lit up when they saw their love interest. "Right, I only take 'yes' for an answer."
Ning Ning closed her eyes, it was even harder to look at his eyes now. She carelessly answered, "Let's talk about it after everything wraps up."
That would be the day Shi Zhong Tang committed suicide.
All alone, without anyone around him, dying alone.
Once he died, this movie would end. Once he died, she would be able to go back. Once he dies, her candle would stop burning. It didn't matter if it was her life, health or anything else that was burning.
But when she saw the lively smile in the mirror, Ning Ning could only firmly grip the bottom of her clothes to force herself not to say anything, to force herself not to ask—why would someone like you commit suicide?
"Here you are." Director Shi's voice suddenly rang out, a beer belly attempted to come in, but it got stuck in the door. "Damn it! Is this a door for dogs! Ahhh! I'm finally out...Come, come. Come out both of you, let me introduce someone to the two of you."
Today, a new actor had arrived in the cast.
An actor who would portray a younger version of the male lead.
"This is my son, Wen Yu." Director Shi pulled Wen Yu out from behind him and introduced him to everyone, "Here, greet aunties and uncles."
Everyone's eyes brightened, because Director Shi had pulled an angel out from behind him. He had fair and tender cheeks, thin soft hair and eyebrows, along with a big pair of untainted eyes.
Ning Ning was taken aback the moment she saw him.
She recognised him.
Although they had not met for two years, he had not changed much. His facial features were the same, his face was a little more chubby due to him being well taken care of, he was also slightly taller.
It was Wen Yu.
It was Wen Yu whose life had intertwined with hers in <<Abandoned Child>>.
"This is a child my dad adopted." Shi Zhong Tang told Ning Ning privately after she looked like she was very bothered by him, "He's not a bad kid. It's just that because of his experience in the past, his personality is, um, a little reserved."
It was not just reserved.
Wen Yu was completely unsociable.
He barely talked to anyone in the crew, once he fell silent he could stay silent for the whole day. If not for him speaking while saying his lines, the people in the crew would have thought he was mute.
When he was not filming, he didn't like to be near anyone else. He would find a quiet spot and sit alone, then take out the sketchbook he always had with him and drew.
"What are you drawing?" Ning Ning arrived behind him quietly.
Wen Yu was sitting on a stool in a wooden cloister. Wisteria flowers were hanging on the cloister, petals would flutter down when the wind blew, they fell on the snow-white paper and were whisked off by a tiny hand.
The owner of the hand glanced up at her. He did not answer, then looked back down and continued to draw.
"I see that you still like to draw..." Ning Ning only felt that it was wrong when she finished talking. She was being too familiar by saying that. Just as she was about to correct herself, her attention was caught by the content of the drawing.
The style of his drawing had changed quite a bit, it was no longer childlike, it was a realistic sketch now. Other than being life-like, the sketch did not look like something that a child would draw anymore.
Ning Ning looked up again after taking a look at the drawing. She followed his line of sight and looked at the model.
Then she asked him doubtfully, "Why did you draw her this way?"
Ning Yu Ren was standing not far away from them. After <<Fighting for Favour>>, her entire body had been thoroughly tempered, it had finally become a weapon of seduction. It didn't matter if this weapon was clothed with a cheap skirt, or the green clothes of a maidservant, they could not mask the amorous radiance from within.
But what ended up on the paper was an ettin1.
Both of its heads were beautiful, but having both of them attached to a single body was enough to make people feel sick.
"She is very weird." Wen Yu glanced up at her, then looked down again. He used a pencil to lightly sketch her hair, "There were many instances where she's like two people."
In front of them, a crew member brought a plate of sliced melons. Ning Yu Ren waved to call the person over. She took a slice and began to eat. After taking two bites, she would suddenly be reminded of her identity, she smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, I was too thirsty, that's why I took two bites. I'll help you bring the rest over?"
It was indeed two people.
The one ordering people around was concubine Ning Yu Ren from <<Fighting for Favour>>. The one who was awkward was the Ning Yu Ren who had meddled around in the entertainment industry for many years with no results.
It was an overnight effort to the people around her, but Ning Yu Ren had already spent ten odd years in <>. While tempering her body to give off an amorous radiance, her habit of ordering people around had also become second nature. She could not shake the habit off in a short amount of time.
Some of the crew members talked about her behind her back, "She is not even big time yet she has started to act like a prima donna."
Only Wen Yu drew an ettin after looking at her.
Ning Ning looked at him blankly for a while from the side. This might be the difference between an adult and a child. A child could see a lot of things from a point of view adults couldn't.
"Carry on." She told him, "What other weird people there are, draw them all."
Wen Yu took a glance at her, he abruptly shifted his butt to the side. After maintaining a distance between the two of them, he flipped to a new page, placed his pencil on the table and looked at her.
The smile on Ning Ning's face immediately stiffened.
The weird person...is me?
Scritch, scritch, scritch. He started drawing, Wen Yu took another glance at her then back at his book.
Her entire body began to stiffen, what did he see? What will he draw? A three-headed person or a four-headed person? Or maybe he would draw her body with Wen Xiao Ning's head?
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1Ettins are giantkin born with two heads.