Chapter 21: The Film Emperor Dad Who Was Sacrificed in the Entertainment Industry

The weather was quite hot now, and Su Ru was wearing a slightly oversized white T-shirt with her hair casually loose, making her look very much like a college student who hadn’t yet graduated.

“Teacher Shen, I’m really sorry for coming so late, but we’re filming this scene tomorrow and I really don’t understand it.”

In the script, the tyrant character was designed to treat the female lead as a plaything, often bullying her. This was fine within the drama, but taken out of context, it could easily be misinterpreted.

Shen Yijing took the script and glanced at it, then subconsciously frowned and put it back down.

Shen Yijing still remembered when he first entered the industry, many veteran actors had helped and guided him, so he generally didn’t hesitate to help analyze problems when passionate newcomer actors came to him for advice.

He was just more enthusiastic when facing newcomers because they reminded him of his former self, but to have made it to his current position in the entertainment industry, he was definitely not foolish.

“I don’t really understand this part either, you should go ask the director.”

“The director said that when I don’t understand something, I should come ask you for guidance. Teacher Shen, please help me. If I don’t get it right too many times tomorrow, the director will definitely scold me.”

When Su Ru said this, her eyes were already somewhat red. The director in their crew didn’t have a very good temper, especially when encountering actors who took too long to get a scene right – newcomer actors could basically be reduced to tears.

When Shen Yijing heard this, he was already starting to waver. Before he could speak, the little chick that he had kept in his bag poked its head out first.

“Chirp chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp! Why aren’t you going home yet! I’m still a baby, you know. Even though I’m not human, Dad, this still counts as child abuse.”

Jiujiu found the female lead annoying at first sight, not to mention that in the original plot, they had indeed hurt his father.

Shen Yijing had already confirmed that only he could hear what this little chick said. He didn’t respond directly in public, just used his eyes to signal, hoping he wouldn’t be willful.

“Oh no, Jiujiu’s head is getting dizzy. Wah, Jiujiu is going to starve to death because of his dad. Jiujiu is such a pitiful little thing.”

The little chick sat there, seriously wiping tears with its wings. Although it wasn’t actually crying, its round little body looked quite cute doing this.

On one hand, it was indeed inappropriate to discuss such scenes so late at night, and on the other hand, Shen Yijing was getting a bit of a headache from being bothered by this little one.

He had never seen anyone more noisy than him. The little milky voice was wailing with all its might, and even the fake crying wasn’t convincing, but the pitiful act that made people softhearted was not lacking at all.

“If you don’t understand, you can ask the assistant director more. The assistant director has a pretty good temper. I still have some things to do, so I’ll leave first.”

After getting in the nanny van, Shen Yijing took out the little chick and placed it in his palm, raising his hand to a certain height so they could look at each other eye to eye.

“Are you that hungry?”

“Baby isn’t hungry, but I don’t like her.”

After Jiujiu finished speaking, he rolled around in Dad’s palm. After rolling twice, he noticed that Dad was looking at him strangely, so he walked along Dad’s arm to his shoulder, with his claws stepping on Shen Yijing’s earlobe.

“What are you looking at? Your baby doesn’t like her, so you’re not allowed to like her either.”

After fiercely threatening him, he leaned over and nuzzled Dad’s face with his fluffy little head, making the scolding words that Shen Yijing had originally wanted to say get stuck in his throat.

“This isn’t right of you.”

“Dad being mean to baby isn’t right.”

“She didn’t do anything.”

“Baby didn’t do anything either.”

“Then why do you dislike her?”

“Because baby dislikes her.”

For every question Shen Yijing asked, Jiujiu would seriously answer, but listening carefully, none of the answers were actually accurate. Yet thinking about it afterwards, there wasn’t really anything wrong with them either.

“Fine.”

In the end, Shen Yijing gave up trying to communicate with him and let the little chick climb onto his shoulder and lie there.

At first, he thought every word this little one said was absurd. What did it mean that because he didn’t want to get married, the chick had become a little chick? How could these two things be connected?

But this little chick could not only talk, but only he could hear it, and with all its humanized behaviors, it was hard for Shen Yijing not to believe.

He had even started to reflect on his own wrongs. If it weren’t for his own plans, perhaps he would have become a human and grown up healthy and safe.

Shen Yijing wasn’t sure if he was a good father, but if he really had a child, he would definitely work hard to learn.

Thinking this way, his anger subsided considerably. Turning his head, he saw that this little one had been staring at him with those beady eyes the whole time. Unlike before when he had been easily fooled, this time he asked very seriously:

“You have to give me a reason.”

“Does disliking someone need a reason?”

Jiujiu tilted his head in confusion. Dad had clearly taught him in the previous world that emotions could also be without reason.

Inexplicably disliking someone was still disliking them. He shouldn’t try to please others at the expense of wronging himself.

“Disliking someone might not need a reason, but I think you do have one, right?”

“Wow, Dad is so smart.”

Jiujiu leaned over and gave Dad’s face a kiss, as a reward for Dad being so clever.

Shen Yijing didn’t feel flattered by the praise at all. Earlier when this little one had crawled out and seen that woman, the feathers on his body had bristled like an angry cat. If he couldn’t see that Jiujiu disliked that woman, he would have to be blind.

“I always feel like she wants to cause trouble.”

“Cause trouble?”

Previously, Shen Yijing had a pretty good impression of Su Ru. She hadn’t been out of school for very long, and with her pure appearance and willingness to work hard during filming, she rarely held others back.

“Yes, Dad, she’s already an adult. How could she not know to avoid suspicion? Look, even Jiujiu knows not to go looking for other people at night.”

As he spoke, Jiujiu proudly puffed out his chest. Even a baby like him knew such things, so how could an adult not know?

Shen Yijing had previously thought she just wanted to quickly resolve the matter, but now, after being reminded by his own little one, thinking deeper about it, he realized it really wasn’t that simple.

Most people in the entertainment industry had very good self-protection awareness, after all, no one could be sure whether the next person they met would have any moral boundaries.

Even he wouldn’t look for actors to discuss scripts too late at night, unless the director had called everyone together.

For safety, and also to avoid suspicion.

“I don’t like her. If Dad pays attention to her again, I’ll peck you.”

Jiujiu had just finished his threat when they arrived at the hotel. Before getting out of the car, Shen Yijing put on his baseball cap and mask. Just as he was about to casually stuff his little one into his bag, Jiujiu spoke:

“Dad, where’s Jiujiu’s hat?”

“I’ll make one for you next time.”

“Okay then, Dad, you must remember.”

Shen Yijing nodded lightly. This suddenly appearing little one was a bit of a chatterbox. If he didn’t agree, he could keep nagging endlessly.

Rather than arguing with him and then doing what he wanted anyway, it was better to just agree when he first brought it up.

After arriving at the hotel, Shen Yijing took a shower and checked the time. It was already very late, but strangely, after getting past that sleepy period, he felt quite awake instead.

He had no scenes to film the entire next day, as they needed to move to another film studio.

He sat on the sofa in his pajamas and took out the script to read it over carefully.

The assistant had already washed fresh strawberries before they returned. Shen Yijing held the script in one hand and a strawberry in the other, feeding it to his little ancestor’s mouth.

(T/N “Little ancestor” means a spoiled or hard-to-handle person, often said with affection or frustration.)

Jiujiu ate five strawberries, and after getting full, climbed onto Dad’s shoulder and squatted down, looking at the script content together with his father.

“Why does this drama require kissing her?”

“The script I got yesterday – the screenwriter has already changed this part.”

“Oh, that’s good then.”

Jiujiu nodded his head in satisfaction. If it weren’t for Dad’s unwillingness, he would definitely pluck one of his own feathers to give to that screenwriter as a thank-you gift.

“You’re just a little chick, why do you care about this so much?”

Shen Yijing turned a page of the script and reached out to rub Jiujiu’s head. Jiujiu was rubbed right off his shoulder and fell onto the soft sofa, unhappily climbing back up.

“Use less strength!”

“Okay, there won’t be a next time.”

Shen Yijing also knew he had done wrong, so he reached out to place Jiujiu in his palm and looked at the script together with him.

He didn’t know if this little one could understand it, but judging by how he was nodding and shaking his head, he looked quite serious.

“Do they still need to hold hands here?”

“Not in the newly revised script.”

During filming, screenwriters could change the script at any time, deleting some unreasonable parts or making modifications. Shen Yijing had never received a complete script before filming began.

He was long used to this, and sometimes when bored, he would compare the two scripts side by side.

“Right, that’s how it should be.”

Shen Yijing turned to look at the little one who was stroking his non-existent beard with his wing, then leaned over to kiss his head.

He didn’t know if it was because he said this was his own little one, but Shen Yijing indeed felt more and more affectionate toward him the more he looked at him.

This time, little Jiujiu who had been knocked over by Dad’s kiss didn’t hold it against Dad, and even used his wing to point at parts he couldn’t understand, asking Dad to read them to him.

“You’re not that old either, so why do you seem like a little old man from feudal society?”

Holding hands while filming was already quite restrained intimacy. Although Shen Yijing hadn’t filmed romance dramas before, he had seen the filming sites of friends in the industry.

Jiujiu straightened up, adjusted his non-existent tie, and said to his father with particular righteousness:

“You’re already the father of a baby. You need to have the awareness of being a dad.”