Quite awkward

Chapter 120 "An Apology Gift for Me."

Dinner is officially served.

"Chinese sausage braised rice, mapo tofu, braised fish, garlic fried pork ribs, and small green vegetables."

Ji Xian listed the names of the dishes one by one, estimating that these dishes would suit the two guests' appetites.

"Sister Xian, you've worked hard. You look very hungry." Qi Yu pulled out a chair and sat down. Yan Shen placed a glass of juice drink next to her.

The three of them sat down and chatted while eating.

Ji Xian picked up a piece of pork ribs with her chopsticks, thought for a moment and asked, "Qi Yu, do you have a movie that you haven't appeared in yet?"

Qi Yu sat up straight, nodded, and replied, "Yes, the second female lead in Lotus Seed Heart is Wen Xi. The production cycle is relatively long, and it is expected to be released next year."

"I know this movie. With two famous names like Wen Xi and Director Chen, the box office will definitely be high, and there's even a chance of winning awards." Ji Xian spoke softly, lowering her eyes to analyze carefully.

"Well, everyone attaches great importance to this work and hopes it will achieve good results."

Yan Shen finished a bowl of rice, put down his chopsticks for a while, and praised Qi Yu to Ji Xian again: "She is more professional than me in filming. She graduated from the acting department. The tacit understanding between us when filming has always been pretty good."

Ji Xian looked at the two people sitting opposite her and smiled gently.

"I've been following the entire series 'The Years' from beginning to end, and you two are my favorite couple. In my opinion, your acting is flawless. Yan Shen aside, I watched Qi Yu's self-recorded audition video. It was only a few minutes long, but you accurately portrayed the female lead I wanted for 'The Revolving Door'. But you should know that my film won't get much funding, so the pay won't be high. Furthermore, we're filming in the highlands of Yunnan and Guizhou. If you can't adapt, you'll definitely have to endure hardships."

Yan Shen shrugged his shoulders to show that he didn't care.

His contract at the drama theater is about to expire, and he doesn't want to renew it, so he plans to find another way out. Now he has come across a good script. If he can perform it perfectly, it will undoubtedly become a memorable work in his acting career.

Qi Yu smiled and agreed, "Yan Shen and I have similar ideas. We don't care about the salary, but we want to make a starring role that satisfies us. When I graduated from high school, I lived in Yunnan and Guizhou for more than a month. The scenery is beautiful, and I adapted well to the environment and food there."

After dinner, Ji Xian brought the script and inadvertently mentioned that the script was written by her ex-boyfriend and given to her as a breakup gift before they broke up.

After hearing such a bizarre story, Qi Yu and Yan Shen, as outsiders, just listened carefully and did not react much on the surface.

Until Ji Xian mentioned her ex-boyfriend's name.

Qi Yu's mouth turned into an O shape.

There are many famous and talented film screenwriters in China, but Ji Xian’s ex-boyfriend is the most famous one.

When she was filming "Lotus Seed Heart" in Hengcheng, she took a break to watch a realistic drama. Later, this movie directly became the box office champion of this summer season, and the screenwriter happened to be this ex-boyfriend.

Yan Shen was also surprised. Although he had a personal relationship with Ji Xian, he didn't know that her ex-boyfriend was such a famous person.

"Don't be so surprised now, both of you. When the movie is officially released, I will put his signature on it. It will still be his screenwriter's work." Ji Xian said with a smile, and opened the script, which was full of notes. She was now only focused on work and had long let go of her previous relationship.

The three of them chatted leisurely until one o'clock in the morning, and finally Yan Shen drove Qi Yu back to the apartment.

Driving past a shopping mall, Yan Shen saw a billboard that was still lit and asked, "You're doing so well now, don't you have any movies to shoot?"

Qi Yu also saw his own billboard and couldn't bear to look away, wondering how long it would take for it to be taken down.

After being lost in thought for a long time, she said self-deprecatingly, "Yeah, no one asked me to film. It could also be that I've become so popular recently that I've become impatient, so now I just want to get on set as soon as possible."

-

Since that day, Qi Yu visited Ji Xian's house several times, sometimes alone, and sometimes with Yan Shen.

She couldn't get any other work now and was very idle all day, which gave her just enough time to prepare for the filming of "Zou Ma Deng" in advance.

Ji Xian is about thirty-four or thirty-five years old. She graduated from the directing department and had studied abroad in the United States. After returning to China, she worked as an assistant director in several film crews. Unfortunately, she suddenly fell ill and had to rest for several years. She now wants to start over in her career and has placed her hopes on the movie "Zou Maedeng".

She had some connections in the past and finally managed to get some investment, but she also had to carefully control costs to complete the film.

In the days that followed, Qi Yu rarely posted on Weibo, nor did she frequently use her Weibo account to grab the traffic when she was at her peak. Her fans asked Golden Entertainment about her schedule but received no response. Gradually, rumors began to spread that she had been shelved by the company.

Xiang Wei saw the post from the online marketing account and asked her if something had happened.

Qi Yu comforted her by saying that these were just some groundless reports, and then took the initiative to mention that she was preparing for her next movie, so she rarely paid attention to online developments recently.

Zhang Pei also called and asked Qi Yu to wait for a while. He would let her slowly resume work in a month at most.

Qi Yu just agreed superficially and did not tell Zhang Pei that she had taken on a movie on her own initiative and it was about to start shooting.

-

One morning, Qi Yu woke up and checked the unread messages on his phone.

One of them was Xu Yan asking her if she was free to attend his birthday party tonight.

Qi Yu rubbed her eyes, woke up a little, sat up and replied to him with "OK". She then asked about the specific time and address of the party.

Xu Yan had helped her several times this year, giving her discounts on hotel rooms, acting as a middleman so that she could earn 500,000 yuan, and he was also the landlord of the apartment where she lived now. He also provided her with many other small bits of help.

Since she was still in Linjiang, there was no need to refuse Xu Yan's invitation. Giving him a gift and staying at the party for a while was something he would enjoy, as good friends would celebrate his birthday together.

When the mall just opened in the morning, there were the least people, so Qi Yu went out to the mall to pick out a gift for Xu Yan.

She didn't know much about Xu Yan's interests and hobbies, and she thought that he never wore a suit, so giving him things like ties, cufflinks, and brooches would be of no use to him. She could only wander around aimlessly.

Before she picked out a suitable gift, she found a brand name quick-drying jacket for herself. After trying it on, she was very satisfied and thought she could wear it to keep warm during breaks in filming in Yunnan and Guizhou.

Since she came to this store, she wanted to get things done at once. She looked around and picked out several men's windbreakers. After careful comparison, she chose a cardigan and a pullover, both of which were casual styles.

At the beginning of the year, when drinking in Xu Yan's sky bar, he casually mentioned his height and weight, and said that he grew a few centimeters taller and lost more than ten pounds after studying abroad.

"My friend is 180cm tall and weighs about 135kg."

The salesperson immediately agreed and went to the warehouse to get clothes of the corresponding size.

The task was completed, Qi Yu was in a good mood, paid the bill and went home with the shopping bag.

……

In the evening, Qi Yu took a taxi to a bar street.

The place is full of lights, wine and women, and the life is extravagant and decadent, which is completely different from Xu Yan's own bar. The air is freely filled with the excitement that is unique to young people.

She walked through the crowd and took seven or eight minutes to reach the bar at the end. A waiter in black and white business attire opened the door and invited her in.

She hadn't taken a few steps when she ran into Mu Chenan. He was wearing only a white shirt and had a cigarette tucked behind his ear.

If someone else appeared in such an occasion, they would have a bad and ruffian air, but he still had that cold expression and noble and deep temperament.

The two people were going in completely opposite directions, one going in and the other going out, and they looked at each other in the dim light of the bar.

Qi Yu's heart tightened, and he quickly looked away, eagerly looking for the stairs, wanting to get to the box where Xu Yan's party was as soon as possible.

She was wearing shoes with slightly high heels today, so she couldn't run very fast. She could only take big steps forward and didn't dare to look back.

But a clear masculine scent came from behind and surrounded her. It didn't have the smell of cigarettes as she had imagined, but it had a faint smell of foreign liquor, which was not too bad.

Mu Chenan put his arm around Qi Yu's waist and within a few seconds, took her to a secluded and dark corner.

There are always ambiguous things happening in the bar, and it is not surprising to see a man and a woman kissing passionately.

After she stood firmly, he released her hands and supported himself against the wall behind her. This posture looked like a wall-dong.

Mu Chenan glanced casually at the shopping bag in her hand. Recognizing it as a brand that sold men's jackets, he asked casually, "What did you buy? An apology gift for me?"

Qi Yu put the shopping bag back and wondered how shameless he must be to think that.

“No, it’s for a friend.”

“Do you have any male friends?”

After he finished speaking, Mu Chenan's eyes paused. He almost forgot that the woman in front of him had an extremely good relationship with the opposite sex.

“What are you doing in the bar?”

“It’s the birthday of a male friend of mine who I’ve known for years.

Qi Yu's attitude was not friendly and her patience was lacking, but she did not hide anything and told him everything truthfully, with some deliberate emphasis in her words. She just hoped in her heart that he would let her go quickly.

But if she turned her head she would bump into his strong arm.

She was completely trapped in a small corner and couldn't escape.

"Oh, I'm here to celebrate my friend's birthday too." Mu Chenan murmured.

Qi Yu didn't want to know why he appeared here, he just felt unlucky that he happened to meet him.

"How are you reflecting on this?"

After saying that, he rubbed her earlobe and moved closer, their breaths entwined.

Qi Yu turned her head to shake off his hand, but this action made his palm move down and place it on her neck. His palm was warm and full of ambiguity.

She raised her eyes slightly and looked carefully, and found that Mu Chenan might have drunk a lot. Although he was not drunk, he might be easier to deceive now than before.