Xu Ruobing stared at the few lines on her phone screen, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the edge of the script over and over, the rough paper creasing into deep folds.
The fluorescent light in the dressing room was blinding.
Xu Ruobing looked up at the mirror, at the deliberately deepened red at the corner of her eye.
At first she thought it looked pretty good—a style she’d never tried before—but now it seemed to draw out all the irritation inside her, an eye-stinging red.
“Ruobing, thank you so much this time! If it weren’t for your help, Jiang Lai and I wouldn’t have gotten this far. Maybe there were some small misunderstandings before, but don’t take them to heart~ We’ll treat you to dinner when we’re back!”
A soft, cute emoji followed Chi Yingyu’s message, but in Xu Ruobing’s eyes, every word of that message was a thorn of gloating.
When the people around her noticed Xu Ruobing’s mood shift, neither the makeup artist nor the manager dared say a word, afraid they might accidentally set off the awkward atmosphere.
Xu Ruobing’s phone screen went dark, reflecting her own tight face.
She pulled at the corner of her mouth, picked up the thermos on the table, and took a sip of warm water.
The cold wall of the cup pressed against her burning fingertips, barely suppressing the anger surging in her chest.
‘This feeling of failure, plus Chi Yingyu’s “I won, but I’m magnanimous” attitude—it really pisses me off.’
Resentment filled her heart.
If she followed the normal schedule and finished her scenes before going back, it would be several weeks from now.
But she couldn’t wait that long.
‘If I could, I’d book a plane today and go back tomorrow morning.’
But she was the leading actress in this film.
If she stopped, the entire project would stall.
Xu Ruobing wasn’t unreasonable.
No matter how much she suppressed herself or how much she wanted to go back, she still managed to control her bad mood.
Even though she couldn’t leave immediately, she decided to go find the director and ask him to move all her remaining scenes forward, so she could finish as early as possible.
Having thought of a solution, Xu Ruobing felt a little better.
She told the makeup artist to continue.
After her makeup was fully touched up, she walked to the outdoor filming location.
Xu Ruobing paused, saw her destination, and headed straight for the director’s monitor.
“Ruobing? Come over, look at this scene.”
The director pointed at the playback on the monitor.
It showed some footage of her character, the female lead.
“The emotion here can be dialed back a little. You don’t need tears, but your eyes should show a hint of emptiness, like something was suddenly scooped out of your heart.”
Xu Ruobing leaned in to look.
Her on-screen self had her brows furrowed and lips pressed into a straight line, but the emotion in her eyes was indeed lacking.
Normally, if she was even slightly dissatisfied, she would immediately reshoot, but now she couldn’t help hesitating.
After agonizing for nine minutes, she finally relented.
“I understand, Director. Then let’s do one more take for this scene.”
She took a deep breath, raised a hand to rub her temples, trying to suppress those chaotic thoughts.
But she also had something of her own to say.
“Director, I’d like to discuss something with you. Could we rearrange my remaining scenes? If I can finish them earlier, that would be better. I have a personal matter that I need to handle as soon as possible.”
“Time is a bit tight, but I don’t want to delay the crew’s progress. So, Director, could you help me compress the schedule as much as possible? Is that okay?”
The director was taken aback.
Usually, Xu Ruobing was meticulous about her work.
At least during their collaboration, she would never let personal matters affect her work.
As far as the director could remember, this seemed to be the first time Xu Ruobing had made such a request.
He took out his phone and opened the shooting schedule.
“Concentrated shooting is possible, but at most it seems we can only cut one week. As for more, let me see…”
The director’s finger slid across the screen, constantly checking the daily timeline.
“If we want to save even more time, the schedule will have to be denser. You might have to shoot over ten hours a day. Can you handle that?”
“As long as we can concentrate all the scenes and finish as early as possible, I’m fine with it!”
“I can do it!”
Xu Ruobing nodded immediately, her tone urgent.
“You don’t need to worry.”
The director looked at her serious expression, didn’t say much, and took it all upon himself.
“Alright, then I’ll have the coordinator redo the schedule and send you the adjusted timetable tonight.”
The director patted her shoulder.
“But no matter how urgent, don’t push yourself too hard. Take care of your health. If you’re really tired, just tell me, and we’ll adjust.”
Xu Ruobing nodded.
As long as she could finish earlier, she could go home a day sooner.
Then she could talk to Jiang Lai properly and ask her how she could so easily agree to Chi Yingyu’s proposal.
But changing her upcoming schedule might be something she could decide on a whim for herself, but for her studio, it was a huge deal.
Moreover, to finish those scenes early, she would have to shoot at least twelve hours a day for over a week.
Her body absolutely couldn’t handle it, and even if she survived, she would be exhausted…
However, when the studio staff contacted the manager who was currently with Xu Ruobing, they roughly understood why their boss had made such a choice and why she was so determined.
It was all because of Jiang Lai.
Apart from Miss Jiang, they couldn’t think of anyone else who could provoke such a strong reaction from their boss.
As employees, they had no right to interfere.
After all, one was their boss, and the other was the person their boss was pursuing—someone almost equivalent to the “Madam Boss.”
So they kept their mouths shut.
But from what the manager told them, the boss’s eagerness to finish filming early was mainly to come back and see Jiang Lai.
So, in the two days since Xu Ruobing decided to return early, the studio staff and the manager privately came up with a small plan.
Since their boss wanted to see Jiang Lai, and since the boss couldn’t come back anytime soon because of filming, they could absolutely arrange for Jiang Lai to go to the boss instead.
They didn’t know exactly what had happened, but using work as an excuse to send Miss Jiang over shouldn’t be a problem.
After all, it could count as work too!