Chapter 50: Acting? That’s My Specialty!
Cheng Fei wiped her mouth and went upstairs. Soon, she came running back down carrying a tablet almost as big as a chopping board.
She sat cross-legged on the sofa, laid the tablet flat, and carefully read through the outline again.
Crack crack—
She crossed her fingers and stretched them before her slim fingers began tapping across the screen like a dancer showing graceful movements.
After patiently enduring this for a while, Gao Ming rested his chin on one hand and stared blankly at the screen.
No happiness, no anger.
Cheng Fei honestly could not tell what Gao Ming thought about her revised version.
The fear from over ten years ago, the terror of having the exam paper graded on the spot by the homeroom teacher was like a phantom, quietly lurking around, invisible yet felt deeply in the soul.
What exactly was going on inside this woman’s head?!
Gao Ming was wondering the same thing.
He truly admired how fearless someone could become once they stopped caring.
How bad was Cheng Fei’s writing?
Honestly speaking, even Gao Ming’s high school writing could beat hers by several streets.
If his own writing level compared to professional screenwriters was basically trash, then Cheng Fei’s level was ash from burned coal.
Gao Ming’s head buzzed from frustration, and he no longer had the energy to argue with her.
He closed the tablet and picked up his bowl of rice again, awkwardly using the spoon with his left hand while looking at her face across the table.
“I can’t help it. This is all I’ve got inside my head,” Cheng Fei admitted after being criticized.
“True. Ever since elementary school, your language grades rarely even passed.”
“......”
“But your acting skills are actually pretty good.”
Was he praising her? Probably?
Cheng Fei thought about it with a strange expression.
“Average, average. Third best in the world!”
“You really aren’t humble.”
“Heh. Heh.”
“I think you’d actually be pretty suitable for the female lead.”
“Huh?!”
Gao Ming straightened his posture and spoke seriously.
“I’m planning to make a short movie. I’ll personally play the male lead. Most of the preparations are already done. Right now we’re only missing the female lead and a few supporting characters.”
Cheng Fei blinked.
She had watched videos online where people explained movie production costs, and the numbers alone were enough to make people’s hearts shake.
Gao Ming was seriously too rich and bored to suddenly start doing something this extravagant.
“Rich people really can do whatever they want.”
Gao Ming nodded.
“It is a little extravagant. But if I can preserve the dream I’ve had on and off for five years, then it’s worth it.”
Hey! Could it be that her earlier guess was actually mostly correct?!
Maybe this guy really was someone reincarnated from another world after dying there!
“If you’re not interested, then I’ll find someone else.”
Ride horses. Wear mighty armor. Gallop across endless grasslands.
What passionate young man had never imagined scenes like that before?!
Just getting to experience those things already sounded worth it even without being paid.
But!
This was still a filmed production that would be shown publicly.
Maybe in the end it would even bring Gao Ming profit.
And what if some famous director happened to notice her performance?
Wouldn’t that mean she could soar straight into fame?
Putting those future possibilities aside for now, Gao Ming probably was not stingy enough to refuse paying completely.
Better not pretend to be some noble saint who ignored money and only cared about dreams.
At the very least, she should try negotiating first.
Cheng Fei grinned and brought out the cherry jam she had brought back from her hometown a few days earlier. She made Gao Ming a drink with it.
“Boss Gao, since this is acting... then let’s talk business properly first. We should discuss the salary, right?”
Gao Ming rolled his eyes at her.
He had already promised future compensation, and now she was still trying to squeeze more benefits out of him.
“...Let’s finish making the armor and ancient costumes first.”
“Okay, okay! Easy to discuss!” Cheng Fei raised the cup and handed it to Gao Ming’s unharmed left hand. “Boss Gao, want anything else to eat? There’s still pork knuckle and pig trotters in the pot. Want some more?”
“......”
Why did that sentence somehow sound like she was calling him a “pig trotter” himself?
Everyone has talents. Some talents are already developed, while others are still waiting to be discovered.
Cooking and flattering people were Cheng Fei’s natural talents.
The pork knuckle and pig trotters were oily, but the smell was far too tempting. Rich but not greasy, they were the kind of food that made people unable to stop eating.
She had cooked two small pork knuckles and two pig trotters in one pot.
Aside from the single pork knuckle Cheng Fei ate herself, everything else ended up inside Gao Ming’s stomach.
However...
Those foods were extremely oily.
How could anyone feel comfortable after eating too much?
During the first half of the night, Gao Ming managed to hold on. During the second half, he practically lived in the bathroom, and things did not calm down even by sunrise.
Cheng Fei slept quite well.
Gao Ming, meanwhile, ended up with huge dark circles under his eyes. He almost looked like a panda.
Sigh...
Greed for food brings suffering.
Being soft-hearted led to this outcome.
If he had known things would end this way, why did he eat so much last night?
…………………………
The next day.
Cheng Fei had already completely forgotten how she desperately pushed meat onto him last night.
Yawning, she went to cook plain rice porridge for Gao Ming.
After helping him settle into bed…
Ahem, helping him onto the bed, not getting into bed together.
Cheng Fei ended up sweating all over again.
By the time she finished cleaning up, it was already ten in the morning.
She wanted to go to the shop, but her legs did not really feel like obeying her.
So she casually called Liu Zhi and Miao Lei to explain the situation before turning around to prepare lunch.
Rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea.
Every day was just the same household routine.
It had not felt very obvious before, but now that she had become like this, Cheng Fei increasingly felt like a real full-time housewife.
And once her thoughts started sliding in that direction, they completely lost control and headed toward very dangerous places.
Thinking about it...
Her favorite kind of story was always the “repairman comes to fix something, and then—”
Stop!
Cheng Fei slammed the brakes on her thoughts just in time.
Looking at her reflection in the kitchen knife, she suddenly shivered.
If she had not changed, things would be fine.
But now...
She would be the one getting “handled.”
Forget it. The more she thought about it, the stranger it felt...
Ding dong!
The doorbell rang so suddenly that Cheng Fei felt like her soul had nearly been blasted out of her body.
She steadied herself and repeatedly muttered,
“Come on, what year is it anyway? And I live in a big city. Those are just adult movies! Just movies!”
As if those words carried magical power, Cheng Fei finally calmed down a little.
“W-Who is it?”
Well, only barely calmed down. Her voice still trembled badly, like someone running naked through snow in winter.
“Hello, Shunshui Express delivery!”
A woman’s gentle and soft voice answered from outside, instantly calming Cheng Fei’s wild imagination.
Wait.
Something was wrong.
After thinking carefully, Cheng Fei noticed a huge flaw.
There was an intercom system downstairs. Delivery workers could enter the apartment complex, but without her permission, how did this person get through the building entrance?
“The downstairs intercom is broken. They’re repairing it.”
Oh. Really?
Cheng Fei peeked through the peephole.
Sure enough, it really was a young woman.
And honestly, she looked pretty.
Bah! Not again.
She might be flirtatious, but she was not shameless.
If this kept happening, people would start thinking she was some hungry wolf obsessed only with bodies.
“I’m coming!”
Time flowed quietly like running water.
The armor and horses Cheng Fei had been looking forward to still had not appeared. They had only measured her body once before everything suddenly stopped progressing.
She understood a little about this industry.
Unlike cheap costume rentals, handmade armor required small metal pieces to be connected one by one by hand. Just that process alone took enormous time and effort.
Not to mention arranging locations and schedules with scenic areas afterward.
None of it was simple.
Meanwhile, the date of her ridiculous “wedding” with Gao Ming kept getting closer.
So she was really about to marry herself off just like this? Even if it was fake, what difference did that make?
Everyone else believed it was real anyway, and she had no way to explain otherwise.
Annoyed and troubled, Cheng Fei could not stop herself from thinking about these things whenever she had free time.
Her only stress relief was eating nuts that Miao Lei had bought during their outing that day.
Crunchy and fragrant, they always managed to pull her worries somewhere else for a while.
But life was never that simple. Even if Gao Ming’s life moved as smoothly as a high-speed train, railway tracks still had curves sometimes.
And Cheng Fei’s life was far from smooth.
Night arrived.
The streets became crowded again. The little shop grew lively once more.
Bai Xi arrived at the store early, preparing to go with Cheng Fei later that night for the wedding rehearsal scheduled three days later.