Still Not Wanting to Forget | Chapter 11

Cheng Chen suddenly said, “Let me read the script that you’ve altered.” Si Nian immediately let out a sigh of relief and ran into her bedroom. She handed to him a stack of binded A4 papers. “Do you need me to turn on the lights?”

“No need.”

She made an “oh” sound. She gently nudged Sprite’s belly with her foot, playing with him. Sprite smartly understood that it was playtime and obediently rolled over on his back. Cola meowed and then jumped on Sprite’s belly… Si Nian’s eyes were wide open at the harmony of the two pets.

She then heard Cheng Chen called for her, “Si Nian.”

She turned around and saw that he was pointing at a line in the script. “Tell me, what does ‘pupils suddenly contracted’ mean? How do you want the actor to act that out?”

“Ah?” She looked at him strangely. “It’s when someone sees something frightening, his ‘pupils suddenly contracted’.”

Cheng Chen made an “en” sound. Removing his glasses, he lightly massaged the bridge of his nose. “I understand, tell me how to act that out.”

Si Nian went blank. 

This was indeed a legitimate question. Shen Zhe’s acting, it shouldn’t have reached the levels of being able to act ‘pupils suddenly contract’…

“Last time my friend did a film,” Cheng Chen said, putting the script aside, “One of his assistants saw the words ‘movement as if running away from a rabbit’ in the script and really went out and caught a rabbit.”

Si Nian laughed dryly. “… how amusing.”

“Therefore sometimes, just write something others will understand, it’ll save time and effort. It will also not the cause of ridicule.”

Si Nian made an “oh” sound. “I wrote that to sound more poetic, to indicate he’s really frightened.”

“But when actors receive the script, they will usually ask me, ‘Director, how to act?’,” Cheng Chen said. Leaning close to her, he asked, “How do you think they should act?”

That was the problem.

Si Nian stared into his eyes, trying desperately to pretend he was a character out of a horror movie. Just look at that pair of eyes, dark as sin, he was also blocking the light. She stared at his nose bridge, his lips… ah, lips didn’t seem to have anything to do with horror.

The room was very quiet, only the soft pendulum sound could be heard. The light beating sound traveled to her ears to her heart.

A long, long time ago.

The both of them once discussed about a topic.

Back then she was a young girl with barely discovered romantic feelings, she actually unashamedly asked him if they should kiss the first time they meet. The both of them started discussing very seriously over the phone. Since they were already husband and wife, such necessary procedures should be done and over with… then?

She suppressed her fluttering heart, she could taste his breath.

“I think… I better adjust the script,” she said, desperately trying to find a conversation topic.

His lips seemed to curve slightly. “Okay.”

“Change it to ‘turn pale with fright’, let Shen Zhe interpret himself…”

“Okay.”

The sound of pendulum grew increasingly loud.

Usually it was never that loud…

Cheng Chen leaned forward, his hand grasping for hers, holding it gently.

His palm also felt incredibly hot, so hot that she lost all other senses. She was in a daze…

She pursed her lips looking at him, no longer evading.

Think properly, if you kiss me, I’ll consider that we’re back together…

A very, very small distance.

She saw that he seemed to be hiding a smile, a very charming smile.

…

In the moment she closed her eyes, a piercing sound of cat meowing rang through the night. She was so shocked that she opened her eyes. A flash of white shadow sprang at Cheng Chen.

Ah, shit.

Si Nian reached to catch her cat but could only brush across the tail.

Cola meowed loudly, her eyes flashing green. She turned around to glare at Si Nian.

“Cola… gets jealous easily.”

Si Nian laughed dryly. She hugged and coddled Cola in her arms, not daring to look at him.

Truly it was Sprite that was calm at such times, he didn’t even open one eye to look at the uproar… When Cola was finally soothed to calmly sit in her embrace, only then did she lifted her head to look at the clock. “It’s already twelve thirty…”

Cheng Chen patted Sprite’s back lightly, the dog obediently ran to the kitchen to drink water. With quick steps Sprite ran back to the door, sleeping there.

“I’ll continue reading the script, you go to sleep first.”

He picked up the stack of papers again, serious to the point of looking slightly muddled.

Considering the situation, Si Nian could only surrender. “I’ll go bring your pillows and quilt.”

He made a noncommittal sound without even lifting his head.

If Cola didn’t interfere…

Si Nian leaned her head on her hands, sitting at the table on the balcony. Even though she obviously had a lot of work emails to reply to, she had absolutely no heart to work. Thankfully, A Beauty’s Makeup had started filming. Cheng Chen had already flown to Xin Jiang, far away in Gobi desert.

Therefore, as a young person who wanted to continue pave her way to success, she started discussing new scripts with other companies.

Basking in the sun of the late autumn, when she was about feel drowsy, Shen Wei Jue’s photo suddenly popped up in her QQ.

Shen Wei Jue: Sigh, I’m about to be jealous to death thanks to your ‘past incarnation’.

Si Nian: ??

Shen Wei Jue: Go and look at the Weibo that you have abandoned for a thousand years.

Si Nian: ?!

She didn’t use her real name on Weibo, all her followers were readers of her novel. Other than Shen Wei Jue and her editor, there were almost no other followers who knew in real life. So for a long time, she didn’t use it. After a while, she also got used to not using it.

Unexpectedly she received a blood-stimulating notification, someone mentioned (@) her.

“Ge’s blood-pumping university days, who did he spent it with? @NianNian, it was this girl that guided ge read that book, whatitscalled Dreams of Red Chamber something, that was how she opened the curtains to a passionate young man’s heart, even called each other ‘past reincarnation’ love, this buried love ge had already buried until there was no longer shape. But such reunion, how many more reincarnations this buried love would have go through?”

Si Nian’s happiness immediately dissolved all her sleepiness.

It was actually Lin Xin.

She didn’t even give it much thought before writing a reply with a smile. Whatever she was planning for the script had already been pushed aside.

“Our first meeting in this life, you came over to the dorm to give some people snacks in the middle of the night, I thought of you as deity. Through various entanglements afterwards, our fate kept on piling. Now after n years of not meeting, we still ended up reuniting. Can this be considered as an endless loop of fate?”

In her arms, she was hugging her cat, on her feet, she was nudging the dog. The more she looked at it, the more she felt content.

Soon enough, someone also replied a short sentence.

Cheng Chen: “The script has problems, come over to Xin Jiang to discuss.”

…

…

Not only did he mentioned (@) at her, he even posted it on her Weibo page.

Therefore within three minutes, she was mentioned more than three thousand times, all of them were Cheng Chen’s fans. Only three person sent her private messages.

Shen Wei Jue: Oh my, your first love got jealous.

Shen Zhe: Xin Jiang welcomes you, remember to buy me xiao long bao, ha.

Lin Xin: Haha haha haha…

Si Nian nearly grasped at her cat’s fur. She first replied Lin Xin: “How did he know of my Weibo?”

Lin Xin: Didn’t you realize that your first love and I are mutual friends?

…

The air conditioner was blowing warm air, yet she actually felt chilled to the bone.

This time she was really done for… After thinking for a long time, she took out her phone to call Cheng Chen. She was going to ask if he really wanted her to go to Xin Jiang. It was already almost winter, all the actors were paid in millions of RMB, even if it was cold they could just bear it. But she was just being useless there, what for she had to go?

The phone was left ringing for a long time, yet he did not answer. She was about to hang up when she heard Cheng Chen’s voice. “What’s up?”

“… about that, what problems did the script have? I want to first hear your opinion,” Si Nian said, trying to sound reasonable and polite.

“The problem isn’t really big.”

Si Nian quietly let out a breath of relief.

“It’s best if we discuss face-to-face.”

…

For anyone who was arguing about conditions, they would be most afraid of the word “best”. The meaning of the word was very clear, it meant no further discussion necessary, that was the best solution. Therefore as a scriptwriter who seriously lacked human rights, she had no choice but to wait for Cheng Chen to hang up and book plane tickets online.

She was supposed to take the plane at four pm but upon reaching the airport, she found out that the flight was cancelled. She was arranged for a plane at an even later time.

When she reached Urumqi airport, it was 23:40.  It took another three hours for her to reach Jimsar.

Tonight they were filming a night scene. When she got off the car, they were wrapping up. Everyone was having supper together.

The weather was so cold that everyone was huddled together, surrounding a pit of fire. When Si Nian was walking over to join them, one of the assistants was already setting down a huge bowl of spicy duck-blood soup from Urumqi with a happy smile. “Si Nian jie bought this for us after she got off the plane.”

At three am in the morning in the biting cold, there was actually a bowl of steaming hot, fragrant duck-blood soup, who cared if it wasn’t authentic? Especially when everyone was already so exhausted and cold.

Si Nian glanced at Cheng Chen who was sitting near the fire pit. Having stayed in the desert for so many days, it was inevitable that he would get somewhat tanned.

But, a slight tan also seemed to look good…

“Eh?” Shen Zhe seemed to have thought of something. “Our Director Cheng likes this the most, this is seriously coincidental.”

Si Nian fumingly glared at him.

“Look at how fragrant it is,” one of the female actors Tong Jia said. “I like spicy stuff the most. But the weather here is too dry, I’m scared of getting pimples. You guys eat, I’ll go to sleep first.”

She stood up and started hugging everyone one by one, thanking them for the hard work.

When she reached Shen Zhe, he immediately buried himself in the food, ignoring her.

When she reached Cheng Chen, he was about to put down his chopsticks. He was going to tell Si Nian something but Tong Jia had already walked over to him, telling him softly, “Director, you’ve worked hard.” She extended her hand, about to hug him…

Dong Xiao looked so bewildered seeing the scene. Si Nian merely glanced at Cheng Chen, then immediately looked away. With a low voice, she told Dong Xiao, “You must get used to this. The cast and crew are a family, don’t you know. It’s very normal, very normal.”

“You’ve also worked hard today,” Cheng Chen said indifferently. He glanced at Si Nian. “That day, didn’t you say you don’t quite understand the script, coincidentally the scriptwriter is here. You can discuss it with her tomorrow during lunch.”

“Okay, thank you Director Cheng.” With a smile, Tong Jia retrieved her hand and left.

The rest of them continued to discuss the latest rumours.

“Si Nian,” Shen Zhe said, pulling a chair between him and Cheng Chen, “Come, let’s discuss the script.”

In the middle of the night, what was there to discuss about.

Si Nian suddenly felt depressed, her mood became very bad. She sat down and stared at the spicy duck-blood soup, it was beginning to irritate her. Just look at the colour of the pepper, just how dark it was, it definitely couldn’t be fresh, there was so little blood, they even put in so much vegetables, how dark was their hearts… in conclusion, the bowl of soup irritated her.

Even Shen Zhe could tell something was amiss, he only quietly finished his food.

Cheng Chen’s voice was very quiet. “Tong Jia is like that, everyone’s already used to it.”

Everyone else was sitting close to the fire pit, only the three of them sat further away. Even if someone was watching them talk, most of them would have thought they were discussing the script.

Si Nian made an “oh” sound but didn’t say anything.

He continued, “I never hugged her, you don’t misunderstand.”

“I’m not misunderstanding anything.” Si Nian kept on looking everywhere but him.

“I’ve also never hugged her,” Shen Zhe interrupted, wanting to adjust the mood.

Si Nian and Cheng Chen simultaneously looked at him.

“Just pretend I never said anything,” Shen Zhe immediately shut up.

Cheng Chen cleared his throat. “Since you’re already here, tomorrow morning I’ll take you around. There’s some rather nice scenery around here.”

“Didn’t you say that tomorrow I have to discuss the script with Tong Jia?” Si Nian thoughtlessly picked up a pair of chopsticks to stir the contents of the bowl. She ate a slice of spam, it was so spicy that she immediately started coughing.

He immediately handed her a bottle of water, it was his personal thermos.

“Drink some water, eat slowly.” His voice sounded tired yet there was undeniable gentleness.