I’m Afraid I’m Now a Salted Fish Chapter 8

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Chapter 8: Start Filming

　　Chi Song brought Handsome Song’s daily necessities with him to the production group.
　　Handsome Song was not lacking in courage. She walked around the room curiously with a molar stick in her mouth, patrolling her territory.
　　After she finished patrolling, she plunged into her owner’s embrace and boldly fell asleep with her belly exposed.
　　
　　After Chi Song settled Handsome Song down, he went to say hello to the crew.
　　But who would’ve thought that as soon as he left the room, he ran into Cai Qingqing.
　　
　　Cai Qingqing was the female lead in this drama. These past few years, she had continuously acted foolish, white, sweet, doted-on-by-thousands Mary Sue roles, but she was evidently said to have a good character and had a good reputation in the industry.
　　She wore cotton slippers and held two cups of pudding in her hands. She looked like she was about to try to slip into the room secretively.
　　When she noticed Chi Song, she was first stunned, and then frightened, making a “hush” gesture at Chi Song.
　　Chi Song also returned a “hush” gesture, indicating that he wouldn’t say anything.
　　Cai Qingqing looked at the pudding in her land, revealing an expression of reluctance.
　　She thought for a while and reached out her hand, pulling Chi Song into her room.
　　
　　After she closed the door, Cai Qingqing asked, “Do you prefer grape or coffee pudding?”
　　Chi Song replied honestly, “Grape pudding.”
　　Cai Qingqing’s face suddenly started to hurt.
　　Chi Song understood and immediately changed his answer. “Coffee pudding is also delicious.”
　　A cup of coffee pudding was quickly shoved into Chi Song’s hand.
　　Cai Qingqing said, “This is for you. Please don’t tell my agent that I’m going to eat dessert even though we’re about to start filming.”
　　Chi Song held the coffee-flavored hush fee and felt pained. It’s over, he would have to go exercise in the gym for two hours tonight.
　　
　　Chi Song agreed obediently and was about to leave when Cai Qingqing stopped him again, telling him, “Just eat here. When my agent comes in later, you can say that all the food here was brought by you.”
　　Chi Song hadn’t dared to look at the girl’s room, afraid that it would be impolite, so his head had been lowered the whole time. When he heard what Cai Qingqing said, he finally dared to raise his head and look around.
　　… The entire bed was covered in snacks.
　　Cai Qingqing said proudly, “I smuggled these in one by one.”
　　… Chi Song imagined the scene of a little squirrel storing food for winter in his mind.
　　
　　As she talked, she threw herself onto her bed. Then, she picked up the controllers connected to the TV and dangled them in front of Chi Song. “I brought both the Nintendo Famicom¹ and the memory card. Want to play with me?”
　　If it was just any random game, then Chi Song would decline, but when he heard it was a Nintendo Famicom, Chi Song’s eyes lit up.
　　Chi Song’s heart was moved and he gulped. “Nintendo Famicom can even be played using a TV now?”
　　Cai Qingqing smugly said, “I brought an adapter cable and a plug.”
　　
　　And so, Chi Song and Cai Qingqing happily played on the Nintendo Famicom for a whole afternoon.
　　By the time he was supposed to eat his meal, Chi Song’s stomach was already stuffed full with snacks and he went to run on the treadmill, huffing and puffing. He felt both pained and happy.
　　
　　After three hours, Chi Song climbed off the treadmill, feeling like a dead dog. He grabbed his towel and was about to go take a shower when he saw someone using the elliptical.
　　That person was wearing earbuds and was currently pouring sweat.
　　
　　When Chi Song first read the official announcement that listed out the supporting actors and saw this person’s name, he was given a big shock. Now, when he met him in person, his heart was more at ease.
　　He walked over to greet the other. “Brother Harry.”
　　
　　Brother Harry had filmed a movie with Chi Song before, one playing the adult version of the protagonist “Bai Yao” and the other playing the child version of “Bai Yao.”
　　Chi Song was nicknamed “Little Baizi” by the audience, while Brother Harry was called “Brother Yao.”
　　Nine years ago, he was just a young man who was filming for the first time after being picked by the director. When he was around twenty-five, he relied on the role of “Bai Yao” to win a lot of awards both domestically and internationally.
　　These past few years, however, he’s almost seemed to have stopped filming. Producing one film in two years was already considered good for him. Fortunately, the quality of each production was excellent, which comforted his fans.
　　When the official announcement came out, other little stars’ fans were celebrating, but Harry’s fans blew up.
　　Why did Brother Harry want to act in a TV show? And even if he did, why did he join a third-rate one as a supporting actor?
　　Could it be that he was short of money?
　　
　　Chi Song was also very confused, so he went to investigate. After investigating, he understood.
　　… Of course Brother Harry wasn’t short of anything, but his company was short of something.
　　Brother Harry was a star from Hong Kong. In recent years, the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industries had inevitably been going downhill. The company that Harry signed on with had been high profile for several years, but recently had run into a problem with insufficient funds. Thus, they could only try to find ways to promote their artists in mainland China.
　　Producing movies required far more time and money than TV shows, so in order to make up for the lack of funds as soon as possible, producing TV shows was the fastest method.
　　
　　The show “Brilliant Starlight” was Harry’s first attempt at testing the water.
　　And the role he was playing was Chi Song’s respected gold backer.
　　
　　Brother Harry had a cold temperament, but once people became acquainted with him, they would discover that he easily became shy.
　　When Chi Song was a child and joined the crew to start filming, the first time he saw Brother Harry was when he just had a face-full of make-up applied and was looking around with sharp eyes. Chi Song started trembling with fear, thinking that he had really met a bad guy.
　　From then on, Chi Song had always tried to avoid Brother Harry.
　　… Until the day Chi Song accidentally entered Brother Harry’s room and found a huge Doraemon pillow doll and a large Nobita Nobi doll placed on the bed.
　　He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, using the two big dolls to act out a little show. He was clearly having a great time playing.
　　What burned the eyes more was that Brother Harry was acting as Takeshi Goda².
　　Brother Harry, who had been caught red-handed, was embarrassed enough to die. He blushed very hard and bought some candy for Chi Song, telling him to not tell other people what he’d seen.
　　
　　From then on, the two people became good friends.
　　After Chi Song went abroad, every Chinese New Year he sent a message wishing Brother Harry a happy new year at midnight according to Brother Harry’s timezone. Whenever he saw snacks, he would pack some and ship them to Brother Harry.
　　When he returned to China, Chi Song became busy, so he hadn’t been able to find a chance to meet Brother Harry up until now.
　　
　　Brother Harry took out his earbuds when he heard someone calling him and raised his head. When he saw who it was, his eyes lit up. “Little Baizi?”
　　Chi Song looked at his bare chest. Upon seeing the strong chest muscles, Chi Song felt envious and wanted to touch them.
　　The two of them were too familiar with each other, and within a few moments, Brother Harry entered his old friend mode.
　　”You should stop losing weight,” Brother Harry said. “If you get any thinner, you’ll look emaciated.”
　　He patted Chi Song’s chest and furrowed his brows, saying, “I can only feel bones at first touch… You might not think it’s anything now, but once you’re my age, you’ll suffer from stomach pain and arthritis. That’ll be really terrible.”
　　Chi Song touched the back of his head and smiled, “It doesn’t matter. If I work harder now, then I won’t have any regrets in the future. Besides, Brother Harry, you aren’t old either.”
　　Brother Harry stared at Chi Song and exclaimed, “It’s so nice to be young.”
　　
　　Chi Song’s face flushed.
　　He thought about his family’s husband. Once, after playing around together, his husband had laid down comfortably on the bed and said, “It’s so nice to be young. Your hand speed is also fast.”
　　Chi Song, whose head was full of impure thoughts, rubbed his aching face and invited Brother Harry to play with him. Brother Harry readily accepted.
　　
　　The former Chi Song was a little white flower without any desires. After getting together with Mr. Song, only work can weaken his desires.
　　Chi Song felt that he had been led astray by Mr. Song.
　　So after he finished playing, he sent a message to Song Zhihuai, strongly condemning this situation.
　　
　　On the other side, Song Zhihuai held his phone and revealed an evil smile.
　　
　　Chi Song received a call from Song Zhihuai and without another word, he was forced into a phone play.
　　After half an hour, Chi Song was very tired and out of breath. He yelled that he would not play anymore.
　　Song Zhihuai smiled and said, “You can lose weight this way.”
　　Chi Song, as if trying to uphold the golden rule, said solemnly, “Brother Harry said that I can’t lose any more weight.”
　　Song Zhihuai paused. “… Brother Harry?”
　　Chi Song agreed, “Yes, Brother Harry was playing with me.”
　　Following that, Chi Song boasted to Song Zhihuai about Brother Harry’s beautiful chest, praising it up to the heavens.
　　Song Zhihuai had mixed feelings about this and thought, Chi Song loved looking at mens’ chests. Did this prove that he was truly as bent as a paperclip now? Did this prove that he not only had to be vigilant towards actresses but also actors now?
　　… Really a mess.
　　
　　Song Zhihuai felt that the number of love rivals had inadvertently increased exponentially overnight.
　　
　　The filming of “Brilliant Starlight” had begun.
　　In order to save time when filming, the film crew was divided into a Group A and a Group B. Group A would film the male and female leads, while Group B would film the supporting actors. Only when the supporting roles in Group B had scenes with the lead roles would they be able to go to Group A.
　　Chi Song was filming his last scene today. This scene was the one where, at a certain award ceremony, his character shook hands with the female lead but was interrupted by the male lead and he could only run to the bathroom to weep.
　　
　　It was such a seemingly simple scene, but because of the male lead, the filming was delayed.
　　The actor who played the male lead was Yu Xu, a little second-rate actor that had become popular recently. A long time after the filming was supposed to start, Yu Xu’s personal assistant ran over, looking embarrassed, and said that Yu Xu had a fever and was in poor condition.
　　The director asked euphemistically if the male lead could hold on for the one scene he had to film today. The male lead only needed to perform one action, which was to stop the third male lead from approaching the female lead in this scene. As for the scenes where he comforted the female lead after and kissed her to show affection, they could all be filmed later.
　　The personal assistant wiped his sweat and ran off.
　　
　　Chi Song first filmed his exchange with Cai Qingqing and then filmed the scene where he hid in the bathroom crying.
　　He entered the mindset of his role very well, probably because this role gave him a deeper sense of connection. As soon as the filming started, he was completely in the right state.
　　… On the way to the bathroom, he was extremely cautious, refusing to let anyone touch his hand. His gold backer found that there was something wrong with him and asked if there was anything going on. He put up a strong front and smiled, replying no. After he pushed open the bathroom stall door, he slid down against the stall partition, staring blankly at his hand. He first tried to cover his mouth to prevent the sounds of his laughter from spilling out. After smiling for a while, tears started flowing down silently, the expression in his eyes changing from dazed happiness to uncontrollable sadness. His shoulders trembled and his blood vessels protruded, but he still repressed the sound of his sobs.
　　He was crying for himself, and he was crying for a love that would never begin.
　　
　　Both the scene where Chi Song and the female lead performed together and his own one-man performance were praised by the director.
　　
　　Afterwards, in order to wait for the male lead, the entire crew stayed behind for another two hours.
　　
　　Chi Song’s eyes were red as he sat on the bench with his clothes hung over his shoulders, turning over the script of scenes that had nothing to do with him.
　　Some actors only paid attention to their own lines, but Chi Song was a bit obsessive-compulsive.
　　He had to understand the mentality of the other characters in order to play the supporting role without colliding with their respective personalities.
　　But as he turned over the script page by page, he became more and more distressed.
　　This female lead… Chi Song couldn’t understand her.
　　
　　Whenever the female lead encountered difficulty, she only knew how to cry or look for help from her boyfriend, the second male lead. Later, when she met the male lead, she would look for the male lead when she needed help. The male lead gradually fell in love with her. After the second male lead learned of the male lead’s existence, he became very jealous and asked the female lead to choose between them. Male lead or second male lead. The female lead cried and said, “You are all my loved ones. Why can’t you all get along in peace?”
　　Chi Song staggered at the heavy Mary Sue aura.
　　… This was the female lead? Was this an inspirational drama of the entertainment circle?
　　
　　Chi Song read until he felt the need to pee, so he could only set down the script and go to the bathroom.
　　
　　The director was already very panicked and called for people to check on Yu Xu’s situation.
　　When Chi Song finished washing his hands and came out of the bathroom, he happened to see the person sent by the director come back in a hurry, anxiously reporting to the director, “Yu Xu had a fight with his girlfriend! He said that he needs to make up with her before he comes to film!”

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Translator’s Note: Tsk tsk, this male lead is so irresponsible. Mary Sue scripts are so funny lol. Actually, I was thinking of starting on a new novel? I know that it might be too much for me haha (my updates for this novel is so slow anyway- I’ll probably finish this novel first and my arc for QT Cannon Fodder), but… I really really like QT BL! So I kind of wanted to try translating that, but… Anyway. If you have any recommendations, feel free to say so! No Qidian novels, please! Preferably not a 1000+ chapter one~ Maybe 200 at most? Haha, I know I’m really picky, but yes!

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Footnotes:

[1]: Nintendo Famicom (红白机, hóng bái jī)- not sure if this is right… should be the image below. Honestly, I have no idea what this is. I’ve never played any of these games, sorry! My childhood only had books and Netflix. If you want to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Disk_System↩

[2]: Takeshi Goda (胖虎, pàng hǔ)- one of the characters from the show “Doraemon.” Actually, I’ve only ever watched this in Chinese, so I don’t know what the characters’ names are in English… thus, I Googled them! So I think Fat Tiger (the direct translation for 胖虎) is actually Takeshi Goda (see pic below) (based on Google). Doraemon and Nobita Nobi are also characters from the show, so basically Brother Harry’s a big fan! ↩