Chapter 218

Wei Sheng’s display of skill on the first day of filming completely stunned the entire crew.

Even the male and female leads treated him with great enthusiasm.

If Wei Sheng were merely lucky, others would only feel envious, and there would be no need to suck up to him.

But this kid was not only lucky; he could actually dispel bad luck? That made him very much worth befriending.

After all, in this industry, it was inevitable to encounter people with dirty tricks who liked to use underhanded, unlucky methods that were nearly impossible to guard against.

Sometimes, one really needed a “good friend” like Wei Sheng who could call out and break a jinx at any moment.

Being well-liked on a film set could truly save one from a lot of trouble.

For instance, the third scene after the start of filming was a scene between him and the female lead, Zhen Yu, playing childhood sweethearts.

Zhou Mingxing secretly broke into a cold sweat for Wei Sheng. Before filming began, he specifically pulled him aside and used his own meager romantic experience to give Wei Sheng a pep talk.

“Just imagine Zhen Yu as the goddess of your heart. Getting to date your goddess is a rare opportunity, so just go for it with confidence!”

Wei Sheng looked at him with a strange expression. “Are you sure?”

Zhou Mingxing asked, “Is there a problem?”

“There’s a huge problem! Do you even know who the goddess of my heart is?”

“Who?”

“It has to be Lao Gan Ma^[1]!”

Zhou Mingxing: “…”

You might as well stay single for the rest of your life!

Manager Zhou walked away in a huff.

The male lead, Chu Bin, overheard the conversation from nearby and chuckled to himself. He hadn’t expected the seemingly omnipotent Boss Wei to have such a pure and innocent side.

Seeing Zhou Mingxing driven away in frustration by Wei Sheng’s dense, straight-man attitude, Chu Bin suppressed his laughter and stepped forward to offer Wei Sheng a tip.

“If you really can’t act it out, try psychological substitution. Take Zhen Yu’s face and substitute it with your favorite thing in the world, or maybe a delicacy you love to eat. The kind of thing that makes your eyes light up the moment you see it, something you’re reluctant to leave and wish you could be with forever. The feeling of having eaten it but wanting more, of having one but wanting even more. Project that emotion onto the female lead, and that should just about do it.”

Wei Sheng’s eyes lit up, and he gratefully shook Chu Bin’s hands. “I can’t thank you enough! Brother Bin, when we move the production to the film studio city, I’ll treat you to a huge feast!”

“What feast? I’ve seen several of your variety shows and have been wanting to taste your cooking for a long time. It just so happens we’re out here in the middle of nowhere without even a Farmhouse Inn^[2]. How about you show us your skills tonight?” Chu Bin took the opportunity to make a request.

Wei Sheng nodded repeatedly. “Leave it to me!”

With his psychological preparation complete, Wei Sheng was pulled away to have his makeup touched up, trying his best to look like a teenage boy. However, when facing the “striking beauty” Zhen Yu, he still couldn’t help but blush.

He had never been this close to a girl in his life!

Moreover, with her heavy makeup removed and replaced with a “no-makeup” look specifically designed for the character’s age, Zhen Yu was still incredibly beautiful.

Zhen Yu had been in the film industry since her debut. Although she was young, only twenty-six this year, she was already a veteran in the circle. Seeing Wei Sheng’s hesitant manner, wanting to get close but not quite daring to, she actually spoke up to praise him.

“Who says our Teacher Wei can’t act in a romance? Isn’t this quite good?”

“Director Zhang, look. I think Teacher Wei’s emotional expression is very spot on. This is exactly what a youth’s shy crush looks like: cautious, wanting to get closer but afraid to be too near, right?”

Zhang Gaojun stood behind the monitor and gave a thumbs up. “Not bad! Keep that emotion! Teacher Zhen, Teacher Wei, let’s try a take.”

It would have been better if Director Zhang hadn’t spoken. As soon as he called for the cameras to roll, Wei Sheng fell apart.

The first scene ended with Wei Sheng forgetting his lines.

Zhen Yu wasn’t upset; instead, she comforted him. “Don’t be nervous. I saw your scenes with others before, and weren’t they quite good? Don’t keep thinking of this as a romance scene; just treat it like a normal interaction.”

Wei Sheng wanted to cry but had no tears. “Then it won’t have the feeling of a secret crush.”

Zhen Yu: “…”

As expected, not a single word from the gossip blogs was true! If Wei Sheng really had a secret lover, regardless of gender, he definitely wouldn’t be acting like this.

Casting a “devoted second male lead” who had never been in love meant the miserable person shifted from the character to the director himself. Pfft!

After three hours of grinding, they finally finished the scene where the female lead and the second male lead discussed life and the future by the river.

Zhang Gaojun was exhausted and desperately wanted to throw himself into his wife’s arms and have a good cry.

The other actors watching from the sidelines were dying of laughter. When Wei Sheng finally finished the segment and was granted a break by the director, they all swarmed over to comfort him.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. A secret crush is a very difficult emotion to grasp. This is your first time filming it, and you adapted in just three hours. That’s already very good.”

“Exactly! Actually, I thought your performance just now was great. It’s just that Old Zhang’s standards are too high. After all, this is his final work before retirement, so let’s all be understanding.”

“Psh, Old Zhang has the nerve to say your emotional acting is too thin and lacks layers? You guys don’t know, but when he proposed to his wife back then, he was so nervous his lips were trembling. He opened his mouth and asked the girl: Can I marry you?”

“Hahahaha!” The air was filled with cheerful laughter.

Zhang Gaojun’s face turned beet red. He had originally intended to come over and give Wei Sheng a few words of encouragement, but having his dark history exposed, he could only cough loudly and chase away the bunch who dared to badmouth the director.

After finishing work in the evening, Wei Sheng decisively fulfilled his promise. He had his assistant, Xiao Bai, find a villager to buy a slaughtered young rooster, a Muscovy duck, some salted duck eggs, and other ingredients, preparing to invite Chu Bin and Zhen Yu over for dinner.

“Teacher Wei is cooking personally? Is there a spot for me?” Director Zhang Gaojun also poked his head in.

Wei Sheng could only add another set of chopsticks for the elder.

Fortunately, they all made their living as performers. To maintain their figures, they couldn’t eat too much at night anyway. A small pot of braised rice was enough for everyone.

But to everyone’s surprise, once the dishes were served, the first thing to be cleared out was actually the rice!

Although Jiangliu Village was a remote and impoverished fishing village, it had an abundance of ingredients, all of which were authentic local produce.

Wei Sheng had taken a freshly slaughtered young rooster, chopped it into pieces, and cooked it with rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms to make a braised chicken with mushrooms.

The Muscovy duck was exceptionally large. Once chopped, it filled a small basin, and a single pot couldn’t hold it all. He simply made two dishes: one was lotus root stewed with duck, and the other was red-braised duck. He added rehydrated tea tree mushrooms and purslane to the latter. While it didn’t look like much, it was incredibly appetizing and paired perfectly with rice.

The yolks of the salted duck eggs were removed separately to make a dish of stir-fried shredded potatoes with salted egg yolk.

Considering that the three actors needed to maintain their weight, he also prepared several healthy green vegetable dishes: stir-fried wild wormwood, cold-dressed Malan head, stir-fried water celery with green peppers, and a goji berry sprout and egg soup.

Zhang Gaojun had originally intended to just be polite, coming over to eat with the lead actors to build some rapport. He hadn’t expected Wei Sheng’s cooking skills to be so impressive. Even more bizarrely, those lightly flavored wild vegetable dishes tasted exactly like the food his wife usually made!

Conditions in the village were simple. Although Wei Sheng had brought some ingredients in his RV for work, he hadn’t brought any alcohol. Consequently, the group buried their heads in their food, and before they knew it, they had polished off the small pot of rice.

“Why did you cook so little rice?” Zhang Gaojun asked, still holding his bowl with a lingering desire, using his chopsticks to pick out the purslane from the duck meat.

Once dried, purslane was delicious whether braised with pork, chicken, or duck. it was chewy and, after soaking up the savory juices, became fragrant and spicy. It was wonderful, but it really made one crave more rice.

The corner of Wei Sheng’s mouth twitched slightly. He really wanted to say: Director, you didn’t give me any notice. You came to crash our meal last minute; you’re lucky to have dishes to eat, and now you want an endless supply of rice? His RV only had a mini rice cooker that could barely make a few bowls to begin with, alright?

Beside them, Chu Bin took the opportunity to solve the director’s problem. “I saw them handing out boxed lunches just now. There should be extras. How about I have my assistant go over and grab a few boxes of rice?”

“Good! Go quickly!” Zhang Gaojun stared at the remaining red-braised duck sauce, deciding that once the rice arrived, he would mix it with the sauce.

Sure enough, Chu Bin had his assistant bring back three large boxes of rice. After the five of them divided it up, they actually managed to finish all the remaining dishes along with the sauce.

Having eaten and drunk her fill, Zhen Yu secretly touched her noticeably bulging stomach, feeling like crying without tears. Teacher Wei’s food was delicious, but the “after-effects” were too great. Over the next few days, she would definitely be forced to go on a strict diet.

Unexpectedly, Director Zhang looked at Wei Sheng, then at her, and suddenly spoke.

“Teacher Wei, why don’t you and Zhen Yu start a livestream together? You could dig for wild herbs, cook some food, and increase your interaction.”

“Haven’t you been struggling to find the right feeling with the female lead? It just so happens that our production’s official video account is live. You two should find opportunities to interact more.”

Wasn’t this just pushing a “CP” ship? He didn’t have a problem with it; he was mainly afraid Zhen Yu wouldn’t agree.

Before coming here, he had asked Zhou Mingxing for information on the main cast. He knew that the reason Zhen Yu was highly regarded by Director Zhang wasn’t because of some “untold story” between her and the director. On the contrary, it was because she had insisted on being a non-marriage advocate since her debut. Aside from acting in scenes together, she usually kept male artists at a respectful distance.

Director Zhang was a famously henpecked husband^[3] in the industry, so he was naturally willing to work with female artists like Zhen Yu. It was safe! Most importantly, it put his wife’s mind at ease!

To his surprise, Zhen Yu actually agreed.

“Sure. It just so happens that the female lead and the male second lead, who are childhood friends, don’t end up together in the show. The CP fans will definitely be heartbroken. Let’s start working together now to give the fans some ‘provisions’ to hold onto.”

What else could Wei Sheng say? If the girl didn’t mind, what did he, a guy, have to fear?

However, he still had to consider the male lead’s feelings.

“Brother Bin, don’t get jealous now. Even though I’m the childhood friend, the audience knows that you’re the female lead’s official match^[4]!”

Chu Bin patted his bloated stomach, taking the chance to demand emotional compensation.

“You two can interact however you want. Anyway, I haven’t even appeared in this fishing village segment yet. But, I want a large portion of the cooked food. I don’t want hers!”

As he spoke, he pointed at Zhen Yu, who was currently acting the part of a gentle and virtuous woman.

In the script, Zhen Yu was not only a business prodigy, but she had also run a stall selling fish balls during her early entrepreneurial days. Her excellent cooking skills were a major reason why she “captured” the male lead later on.

But in reality, Zhen Yu was a master of “dark cuisine^[5]“!

Forget about cooking a proper meal. Once, while they were filming together, she said she wanted to make a stew and would prepare a portion for Chu Bin.

At the time, Chu Bin thought she was a good cook and gladly agreed.

The result was a double-boiled fish maw and chicken soup where the fish maw was as tough as boiled rubber. The free-range chicken was even worse; it hadn’t been blanched, so the resulting soup was covered in a layer of white scum!

What was even more outrageous was that to save her own dignity, Zhen Yu didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her teammate. She cheerfully skimmed off the top layer of foam and told them the soup underneath was definitely drinkable.

It was drinkable, in the sense that it wouldn’t kill you. But after drinking it, he felt nauseous for several days and couldn’t stand the sight of any meat dishes.

After that, for a long time, Chu Bin never ordered chicken soup when eating out.

With such a “painful” experience, how could Chu Bin dare to eat food personally cooked by Zhen Yu?

He came to the production to be the male lead, not a victim.

(End of Chapter)