A Little Kid? Let Me Feed You

They played a few more rounds of Werewolf before it got late.

There were still actors coming in tomorrow to try out for other roles, so Ke Wei waved everyone off and urged them to go back and rest early.

They’d been at it almost nonstop from just after ten in the morning until nearly eleven at night. Even an iron man would have been exhausted by then.

Li Xingqing tucked the script, now covered in dense pen notes, back into her backpack and packed up to return to her room.

She left a little later than most; the people who had been playing games earlier had already dispersed.

Ke Wei chatted with Li Xingqing about the script one last time, discussing the general direction of the revisions. Li Xingqing took it all in stride and, following her lead, offered a few of her own thoughts.

She had originally thought the director might not care about her opinions, but to her surprise, after hearing her out, Ke Wei praised her highly and even said she hoped Li Xingqing would bring up more of her own ideas.

Then they could put together several versions, let the actors compare them, and choose the best one.

After a full day of script reading, Li Xingqing had gradually realized that this crew was nothing like she’d imagined; they were clearly a lot freer. What she hadn’t expected was for the director to be so easy to talk to.

The knot she’d been carrying around all day finally loosened. After saying goodbye to Ke Wei, Li Xingqing slung her bag over her shoulder and left the meeting room.

The hotel corridor was lit with a dim yellow glow. Li Xingqing walked to the elevator, took out her phone, and scrolled for a bit.

Nothing major; September 12 was a peaceful day.

Ding. The elevator doors opened.

Li Xingqing stepped inside, and just as she was waiting for the doors to close, a long hand suddenly appeared in the gap.

She startled and quickly reached out to press the open-door button.

The sensor worked well; the doors slid back open.

Xi Zhen was standing outside.

“Sorry,” Xi Zhen said.

Li Xingqing confirmed there were only the two of them in the elevator and replied, “It’s fine. Just be careful next time.”

She thought that would be the end of it, but Xi Zhen suddenly spoke again. “You’re the screenwriter, right? I heard your self-introduction today. You’re called Li Xingqing? Which Xingqing?”

Li Xingqing hadn’t expected her to ask something like that out of nowhere, but she still answered reflexively. “The ‘xing’ and ‘qing’ in ‘The road by green mountains beyond the inn; the boat before green waters.’”

“What beautiful characters. Hello, I’m Xi Zhen.” Xi Zhen held out her hand.

The same hand that had just stopped the elevator door now appeared in front of her again. Li Xingqing froze for a moment, then reached out and shook it anyway.

“The ‘zhen’ in pearl?”

“No, the ‘zhen’ in sincerity.” Xi Zhen corrected her with a smile, lifting her left hand to tuck the loose strands of hair back behind her ear.

Ding; the elevator had arrived.

Their joined hands separated. Li Xingqing stood where she was, as if she could still feel the lingering touch. Only when she saw the doors were about to close did she step out.

“You’re... Bai Mo’s..."

“Assistant.”

Before Li Xingqing could finish her guess, Xi Zhen had already supplied the answer herself.

“...” Li Xingqing was at a loss for words.

Xi Zhen, who had been walking ahead, seemed to notice the silence behind her and suddenly turned around. “What? You don’t believe me?” She stopped and tilted her head slightly back over her shoulder; her full, wavy hair swayed in a seductive arc. A few strands slipped loose from behind her ear and brushed her face.

Xi Zhen instinctively lifted a hand and tucked those troublesome strands neatly back behind her ear.

The dim yellow light overhead spilled down; her curled lashes cast a small shadow over her eyelids.

Li Xingqing seemed to have been caught off guard and started to babble.

“No... no, I believe you. I didn’t mean that.”

“Then what’s the issue? Hmm?” Xi Zhen stepped forward. The distance between them suddenly shrank.

It was so close that Li Xingqing could clearly smell the perfume on her wrist; a clean, fruity scent with a trace of alcohol.

It was a little like unripe guava tossed into white liquor with a hint of rice fragrance—refreshing, but with a faint intoxicating edge.

“You’re... very beautiful. You don’t look like someone who’d be an assistant.” Li Xingqing, like a criminal being interrogated by the best interrogator in the business, could only confess honestly.

“Teacher Li, your mouth is so sweet. But you can’t judge people by their looks.” The curve of Xi Zhen’s lips deepened. She rose slightly onto her toes and leaned in by Li Xingqing’s ear.

“You’re also very... charming. Good night.”

With that, she immediately pulled away.

She turned around, swiped her card, opened the door, and closed it; all in one smooth motion.

The faint, tipsy scent in the air seemed to intensify for a moment, then quickly fade, as if it had never been there.

Only the reddened skin behind her ear remained, proving that Xi Zhen’s little prank had worked.

Li Xingqing touched her hot ear, then looked at the room number 1203 on the door. Her gaze steadied; in the end, she strode over and opened the neighboring room, 1205.

After a tiring day, once she had washed up, Li Xingqing lay on the bed with moisture still clinging to her all over.

But after rolling over several times, she still felt inexplicably hot. It was clearly autumn already, yet City D still felt like midsummer.

That heat steamed the water from her skin and kept her from sleeping.

Li Xingqing rolled over again, then got up to turn the air conditioner down two degrees. After drinking some water, she lay back down.

Fortunately, by the time she had gone through all that trouble, it was already nearly one in the morning. Drowsiness finally began to creep in, and at last she closed her eyes and drifted off.

When she woke the next day, it was a new dawn.

Li Xingqing got up very early. She wasn’t used to the hotel bed, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She would just have to get used to it slowly; time would change everything.

More of the people eating hotel breakfast that day looked familiar. After yesterday’s script reading, everyone had at least become somewhat acquainted.

The location was still the same meeting room as yesterday. Li Xingqing stuffed an egg tart into her mouth and walked in with her laptop on her back.

Ke Wei was still the first one there. As soon as she saw Li Xingqing, she hurriedly called her over. “Xingqing, over here.”

“Okay.” Li Xingqing agreed and set her backpack on the empty chair beside her.

It had gotten a little late yesterday; after returning, Li Xingqing had only roughly written out an outline of the parts that needed revision.

She showed the outline on her laptop screen to Ke Wei, and Ke Wei pointed out a few more sections that might need to be discussed later.

Li Xingqing nodded and first marked the parts that could be confirmed, planning to finish the rest today.

They had all come quite early; the meeting room that had been packed yesterday now had only a handful of people in it. Li Xingqing found a seat at random and began typing without distraction.

When a person is focused on one thing, time always passes very quickly.

Li Xingqing picked up her water cup and tilted it, only to realize it was empty. She glanced at the screen, then set the cup aside again.

The next second, a familiar scent drifted in, along with a bottle of mineral water.

Li Xingqing looked up, and the person who had been the target of last night’s prank was standing beside her, smiling.

Her jet-black hair, thick as seaweed, was tied back at the nape of her neck, perfectly revealing the exquisite structure of her face.

Xi Zhen was beautiful, but not in the aggressively striking way. Her brows were broad and relaxed; her peach-blossom eyes held a smile, the outer corners slightly lifted. When she looked at someone, her gaze was bright and open. Yet Li Xingqing always seemed to catch something else beneath that clarity. She didn’t know whether she was being too sensitive, or whether the other woman was doing it on purpose.

Seeing that Li Xingqing still hadn’t responded, Xi Zhen gave the water bottle a little shake. “Drink this first.”

“Thank you.” Li Xingqing took the water and thanked her. Only then did Xi Zhen return to her original seat, satisfied.

Li Xingqing turned to look at her, only to see that she had already begun doing something on her computer again. Suddenly, Li Xingqing felt a little dry-mouthed and twisted open the cap.

—It was sweet.

Today’s script reading was delayed a bit because there were other actors coming to audition. It had nothing to do with Li Xingqing, and it just so happened to give her plenty of time to revise the script.

By four in the afternoon, the basic storyline from the earlier part had been mostly revised. Li Xingqing sent the script file to Ke Wei, and only then realized she hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

The moment her stomach caught up with her brain, it began protesting noisily. But since she had missed lunch, leaving now didn’t seem quite right.

Li Xingqing sat in her chair and rummaged through her backpack. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing to eat inside; she didn’t usually keep snacks in her bag.

Forget it; it was already four, almost dinner time.

Li Xingqing comforted herself inwardly, then went back to checking the revised script, repeatedly making sure the plot transitions were smooth enough.

Unfortunately, her stomach’s protest only grew louder. Hunger didn’t disappear just because she shifted her attention elsewhere.

She was mentally calculating how long takeout would take to arrive at this hour when a piece of bread appeared in front of her.

It was taro filling; a sweet, rich flavor that happened to suit Li Xingqing unexpectedly well.

She followed the hand holding out the bread upward. At first, she thought it was someone familiar, but it turned out to be Ke Wei.

“I’m looking over the script. You didn’t eat lunch, did you? Have some bread first. Young people still need to take care of their bodies.”

A motherly aura briefly emerged from Ke Wei, and Li Xingqing took the bread gratefully, thanking her. But after one bite, she seemed to smell another scent clinging to the bread bag.

???

A very familiar perfume?

Li Xingqing relied on her memory and turned to look toward the seat Xi Zhen had been in that morning, but unfortunately, it was empty.

She glanced around again, left and right; Xi Zhen was not in the meeting room.

Maybe she was overthinking it. Perfume was just perfume; maybe someone else wore the same one?

Li Xingqing silently cursed herself for being delusional, then bit hard into the bread.

It really was good. The dense taro filling was packed into the soft bread, and the texture was excellent.

Ke Wei returned to her seat, closed the chat window she had just been using with Xi Zhen, then opened the script Li Xingqing had just sent over.

And on that chat window, which had been closed without mercy, several lines of text were still clearly visible.

Kekekeke: [script.docx]

Kekekeke: [Who found this person? Not bad at all. When I talked to her this morning, her ideas were really good [snicker.jpg]]

Ten Bodies: [I’ll take a look later.]

Ten Bodies: [There’s bread in my bag. Take it to her.]

Kekekeke: [Bread as a reward?]

Ten Bodies: [...]

Ten Bodies: [She didn’t eat lunch. Otherwise, why do you think I was so fast?]

Kekekeke: [You’re paying attention that closely? [doghead.jpg]]

Ten Bodies: [Go.]

Kekekeke: [Roger that; mission guaranteed complete]

After finishing the bread, Li Xingqing finally felt somewhat revived. She closed her laptop and began listening to the actors around her run through their lines.

The crew was mostly made up of young people, but youth had its advantages.

They didn’t have much experience, but everyone was extremely professional.

Bai Mo spoke at length about his understanding of many different emotions, while Zheng Yuyu beside him didn’t say much, but every time he did, it was right on point; the two of them complemented each other well.

The other actors were the same. Even the production assistant reading lines with them temporarily set aside his rough Hunan-accented Mandarin and read with great feeling.

Unfortunately, due to his natural speech habits, some of his pronunciations were truly hilarious, which also helped create a harmonious atmosphere.

Author’s Note:

Xi Zhen: Watch me seduce her with complete seriousness.

Li Xingqing: (╯▽╰ ) So fragrant~~