I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 80
Han Feixu opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Everything was the same as before she fell asleep. The sky was dark outside.
She glanced slightly to the side at the digital clock on the nearby table, with its silver-white background displaying the faintly flashing numbers.
It was 3:59 in the morning.
This was a familiar time of the day to her. There was a period in her life when she used to wake up twice every night, once at half-past midnight and another at three-thirty in the morning. Upon waking, she often felt lost and would gaze around with a scared feeling. The silent darkness always seemed like it wanted to swallow her up and then she would cover herself with her blanket, curl up like a baby, and silently chant in her mind, “Sleep, sleep, quickly go back to sleep.”
Insomnia isn’t exclusive to adults; children experience it too.
She was able to run around and laugh like normal during the day, but struggled to fall asleep at night. Even when asleep, her nightmares seemed to plague her, and she’d often wake up in the middle of the night. Looking back on it now, those days were truly painful.
Since talking to others seemed useless, she never shared this with anyone. Sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep, she tried to force herself to cry. Shedding a few tears made her eyes tired, and soon she’d fall asleep.
Han Feixu hadn’t forgotten these past experiences, it had just been a long time since she’d remembered it. It seems that a dream from her past triggered these memories in her.
Lying in bed, Han Feixu remained motionless, trying hard to recall the scenes from her dream.
So, she had met Chloe before. That little girl was Chloe.
What one thinks of during the day often translates into their dreams at night. The explosive news brought back by Ye Mingxin during the day had agitated her, and thus it was normal that she would recall memories of her childhood in her dreams at night.
Han Feixu turned over, ready to go back to sleep. In a few hours, she would attend the opening ceremony of ?The Sleeper?. Dugu Yuehua had invited several major media outlets, so she couldn’t show up with dark circles under her eyes.
Just as she closed her eyes, she suddenly opened them again and blinked rapidly. She sat up quickly, leaned over, and searched the bed for Ye Mingxin’s hand.
Unless in front of a camera, Ye Mingxin never took off her bracelet, even when sleeping. It didn’t take long for Han Feixu to touch a smooth, yet hard object. She lifted the quilt and, in the dim light, finally found Ye Mingxin’s bracelet.
It was exactly the same as the one in her dream.
Han Feixu, in a buttocks-sticking-out position, stared intently at Ye Mingxin’s wrist. She stared at it for so long that even Ye Mingxin, who was in a deep sleep, woke up. Half sitting up, Ye Mingxin looked at Han Feixu in confusion, “Little Xu, what are you doing?”
Han Feixu didn’t expect that just looking at the bracelet would wake Ye Mingxin. She remained silent for a moment, then straightened up and lied with a straight face, “There was a mosquito just now. It landed on you, and I was looking for it.”
“A mosquito? There are still mosquitoes at this time of the year?”
The temperature outside had already dropped to a little over ten degrees celsius. With the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves, the animals and insects alike either died or went into hibernation. The property management of the villas here had regular pest control every summer, and the home service company Ye Mingxin hired checked for snakes, insects, rodents, and pests every half month. Even an egg of a mosquito, not to mention a mosquito itself, would be detected by these experts.
Since it was already hard to find such a small bug in their home during the summer, it was much harder to find one during the autumn and winter. In fact, it’ll get so cold soon that heating will be turned on in a few days. So how could there be mosquitoes at this time?
Obviously, Han Feixu also realized the problem with her statement. She stopped her feigned search for a moment, but she quickly recovered by pretending to be annoyed at Ye Mingxin’s reaction, “Maybe it flew over from the neighbor’s house. Let’s sleep, it probably flew back there.”
However, Ye Mingxin didn’t lie back down. She frowned, “Our neighbor has severe OCD and entomophobia. Forget mosquitoes, if there is even a bug slightly bigger than a dust mite in her house, she’d scream loud enough to summon all the dogs in the neighborhood.’
Han Feixu: “….”
“How can she even see the dust mites?” Han Feixu asked puzzledly.
“She bought a precise surgical medical magnifying glass, the kind that doctors use in TV dramas for delicate surgery. Auntie Li often sees her walking her dog when she goes out to buy groceries and apparently she even brings that magnifying glass outside with her to check if the environment is safe.”
Han Feixu was silent for a moment, “If we move again in the future, let’s find a more normal neighbor.”
From the person to the dog, not a single normal living thing lived next door = =
After saying this, Han Feixu laid back down. Ye Mingxin checked herself, making sure there were no unusual bug bites, paused for a while, and then also laid back down.
As requested by the producers, Dugu Yuehua had rented an old office building. Although it was said to be old, it was actually built less than ten years ago. It just looked quite outdated compared to buildings like the Galaxy SOHO.
The office building has eight floors. The lobby and entrance on the first floor will be used for transition shots. On the second floor there is an empty, large room that was set up as the police office, that would also be next to the entrepreneur’s office, and there were a couple of rooms that were used to shoot the living areas for Qi Hanxue and Xia Ning.
The third and fourth floors were similarly set up with nearly identical scenes, and basically, all the indoor scenes will be shot in this building. Dugue Yuehua had rented another building with a rooftop and a large atrium for action scenes and the finale.
Although these buildings are in a place like Beijing where every inch of land is precious, renting these two places wasn’t expensive at all and only cost a few hundred thousand.
The top floor of the indoor scene building would serve as a resting place for the crew and cast, with all the temporary furniture provided and sponsored by Jiang Lingyan.
Hearing this, Han Feixu asked Ye Mingxin, “Is Jiang Lingyan also investing in this movie?”
“No, but Section Chief Shen, who’s in charge of the movie’s censorship evaluation, will inevitably come here often.”
She didn’t say anything else, but Han Feixu understood. So, it turns out, they were all benefiting from Shen Sangluo’s influence = =
Han Feixu didn’t speak again. Ye Mingxin looked at her, “Little Xu, are you okay?”
Han Feixu looked up, puzzled, “I’m fine, why do you ask?”
Ye Mingxin silently observed her. Han Feixu had been more silent than usual today, and occasionally stared off into space from time to time. What made Ye Mingxin most uncomfortable, however, was being watched all day. When she turned to look, Han Feixu would just give her an especially bright smile upon being caught.
…It was quite scary.
Seeing her worried gaze, Han Feixu flashed her another bright smile, “Don’t think too much about it, I’m fine. So, who’s picking Yiyi up tonight?”
“Mom is. She wants us to come over for dinner. I heard it’s because of a request from my paternal grandfather. Since we didn’t go back during the Mid-Autumn Festival, this dinner should be considered a make-up family dinner.”
Han Feixu immediately frowned and said, “At the family dinner, is your second uncle’s family also going to be there?”
“It’s just going to be one meal,” Ye Mingxin said softly, “After the meal, we won’t have to stay for long and can directly take Yiyi home.”
Han Feixu responded despondently, “Alright.”
The first scene will have Qi Hanxue leading a meeting with two team members in their office to discuss clues on the case. Gao Changxiu and Mao Yangjun are the two team members, both fresh-faced young actors playing detective roles and since even their characters’ identities are the same it was hard not to compare the two of them.
Gao Changxiu’s character, Gao Tian, is a naive, optimistic young man from a wealthy family whose life has always been smooth sailing. He was raised by both of his parents as a child and even now as an adult he is being watched over by his elder brother at work. Combining this support with his one effort, his character became a detective right after graduation and was assigned to Qi Hanxue, a genius renowned for solving crimes. Thus, he became an object of envy.
The first ten minutes of the movie had to introduce all the key characters, with the main characters appearing in the first three minutes. This is also known as Hollywood’s golden rule. During the meeting, all three detectives will be shown on camera. Right after the meeting ends, Qi Hanxue will go downstairs to submit an application to her superior and encounter the entrepreneur who just received the city’s honorary award, Gao Tian’s elder brother, Gao Qi.
Gao Qi is played by Yuan Jize. Yuan Jize’s appearance is described as ‘warm and gentle as jade’. With just a smile, he could charm even a bird, so he was quickly able to establish a warmhearted image for his character with just a few lines.
Meanwhile, Han Feixu had changed into her character’s mental hospital patient uniform. To highlight Xia Ning’s frail and thin appearance, the costume department gave her an oversized uniform, one that hung loose on her body and made her look as if a gust of wind could blow her away at any time.
Dugu Yuehua had previously thought about asking Han Feixu to lose weight, but he threw that out the window due to two things. One, Ye Mingxin would definitely disagree, and two, when Han Feixu wanted to lose weight, she tended to lose weight all over. But that was the past, and now her figure has changed and some parts just couldn’t have their weights reduced no matter how hard she tried.
So after giving up on making changes to her physique, he decided to work on external factors instead. Dugu Yuehua had the costume department switch all of Han Feixu’s clothes to extremely slim-looking ones, filling her wardrobe with dark colors.
Tugging at the oversized mental hospital patient’s uniform she was wearing, Han Feixu leaned back and muttered softly, “I probably won’t be needed on set today.”
Dugu Yuehua was particularly strict with everyone’s first on-screen appearance, even nitpicking Ye Mingxin’s performance twice before finally approving the take. The same went for the famous actor Yuan Jize; Dugu Yuehua always complained that his smile was too gentle and asked him to convey the character’s arrogance more, but not too much arrogance either. So if the character was feeling 100% arrogance, he should show just one percent of that.
Han Feixu felt this was asking too much. How could one even tell if it’s one percent arrogance or not?
Dugu Yuehua approached Yuan Jize, discussed the scene for a while, before doing another take. After this, Yuan Jize finally got it right. Han Feixu had been watching from the side and, honestly, she still couldn’t see what the difference was between that one percent arrogance and no arrogance = =
After voicing her complaint, Nie Kaiyuan, who was also idly waiting nearby, told her, “Except for the actor and the director, no one else usually notices. But once the film is released, that little difference becomes quite evident. Other directors might let it pass if it looks roughly right and pat themselves on the back with a 99/100, but if that one scene is off by one point, and then another scene is off by another point, eventually, the whole movie will become dissatisfactory. Our director’s habit is to nip every one of those one-point errors in the bud, the moment he sees them.”
Han Feixu seemed to understand and replied, “Then I should act well and strive to pass in five takes.”
Nie Kaiyuan nodded, “Then I’ll set a goal too, to pass in six takes.”
Han Feixu laughed, “Why one more than me?”
Nie Kaiyuan shrugged nonchalantly, “Ladies first. Even when it comes to passing a scene, you should naturally go first as well.
Han Feixu was amused by his joke, “It would be great if Zhang Hao was here too. The two of you are like a comedy duo and it really livens up the atmosphere.”
“If Zhang Hao was here, this movie could add a line in its promotion, “Made with love by the original crew of ?I am the Protagonist?.
Four of the six main characters for this movie also participated in the show ?I am the Protagonist? so if they added one more, then they would’ve basically taken over the entire main cast. Han Feixu turned her head and looked at Mao Yangjun and Gao Changxiu resting on the other side and whispered, “They don’t seem to be getting along.”
“Of course, naturally rivals wouldn’t be getting along well.”
It made sense, and although all young male actors tend to be lumped together, these two were the definition of true competition.
Mao Yangjun had just three lines, but had his scene “cut” many times, for many takes. The afternoon was almost over, and he still hadn’t gotten his head wrapped around his role, angering Dugu Yuehua so much that he moved the crew to the first-floor lobby to shoot the scene where Qi Hanxue accidentally meets Gao Qi instead.
The sun was beginning to set, and the natural lighting had been adjusted to white light mode by the staff. Han Feixu glanced at her phone and suddenly felt discouraged, “Had I known this would take so long, I would’ve gone home after the opening ceremony. Even if they manage to wrap up their scenes today, it still won’t be my turn.”
Dugu Yuehua had strict requirements for outdoor scenes. There was one scene of Qi Hanxue driving and then a few seconds of her speeding in her car and only the time period between one to three in the afternoon had perfect natural lighting that would meet his high standards. That perfect window of time has now passed, so they would definitely have to skip this outdoor scene today. After the outdoor scene, Qi Hanxue is then supposed to enter the mental hospital, and then make brief eye contact with the psychiatrist Jin Liang. And then finally, after all that, it would be Han Feixu’s first scene.
Whether Nie Kaiyuan would get a chance to act today was uncertain, but Han Feixu definitely wasn’t going too.
But, what depressed her the most was that she couldn’t leave just yet because she had to join Ye Mingxin later at her grandparents’ house for a family dinner.
Nie Kaiyuan, on the other hand, was quite calm as he studied the set, “Today’s shooting was quite fast. I thought we wouldn’t even finish the first scene.”
After saying this, Nie Kaiyuan turned his head and found Han Feixu looking at him in disbelief.
Nie Kaiyuan: “….”
He scratched his head, “Did I say something wrong?”
A movie is at least ninety minutes long, with most films now going over two hours. Thus, most movies now film for about three months, with some shooting for about half a year. So to finish shooting a two minute scene in one day was indeed quick.
Han Feixu silently lowered her head. She didn’t want to expose the fact that she didn’t understand or know any of this = =
Nie Kaiyuan observed her for a while, “Are you not in a good mood today?”
Han Feixu looked up sharply, “Why do you ask?”
Her reaction was too quick, making Nie Kaiyuan pause, “I don’t know, you just seem different from usual.”
Han Feixu continued to stare at him, “How am I usually? You’ve only seen me a few times, how would you know what I’m like normally?”
Nie Kaiyuan: “…”
Well, at the very least you’re not usually firing rapid questions like a machine gun.
Nie Kaiyuan wisely kept his mouth shut and didn’t dare to say anything more. Han Feixu lowered her head again and rubbed the soles of her shoes against the tile floor, deep in thought. Nie Kaiyuan could feel the inner conflict and melancholy just from looking at her head. He silently titled his head, trying to think of a way to get out of here without being too awkward.
Before he could come up with an excuse however, Han Feixu suddenly called out to him, “Hey, Nie Kaiyuan.”
“Eh?”
Han Feixu turned to look at Ye Mingxin standing in the distance. She was talking to Dugu Yuehua. Han Feixu looked away and turned to Nie Kaiyuan, “Have you ever been lied to by others.”
Nie Kaiyuan laughed, “No, I’m the one usually lying to others.”
…You seem quite proud of that.
Han Feixu looked at him questioningly, “Have you ever lied to your lover?”
Nie Kaiyuan pondered for a moment before answering, “I don’t have a lover. I’m a lifelong single.”
Han Feixu looked at him speechlessly, “Stop kidding. At your age, who would believe you’ve never been in a relationship? That might work on the younger girls, but not me.Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. In exchange, I’ll tell you a secret. I have a lover.”
Nie Kaiyuan thought for a moment and then, with a confused fact, asked her, “Isn’t your lover Ye Mingxin? What kind of exchange is that? I’ve known about that for a long time.”
Han Feixu was startled, “How do you know?”
Nie Kaiyuan was about to say that Zhang Hao told him, but he stopped himself abruptly and swallowed his words, “Never mind how I know. So what happened, she lied to you or something?”
Han Feixu looked distant, pondering for a second, “It can’t really be considered a lie, as I wasn’t hurt. People choose to lie to others for their own benefit, and by doing so, the other person gets hurt, while they gain something. But in our case, she didn’t gain anything, and I wasn’t hurt.”
Nie Kaiyuan had to think hard to understand her words, “So, are you saying she told you a white lie?”
Han Feixu shook her head, “Not well-intentioned, because I didn’t see any kindness in it.”
Nie Kaiyuan gave up, “Can you clarify? I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
Han Feixu turned her body, resting her arm on the chair’s armrest and lowering her head to explain, “She lied to me, but it brought her no benefit. At the same time, it did me no harm. In fact, it was disadvantageous for her, while for me, it was neither beneficial nor harmful. What do you think she is trying to do?”
Nie Kaiyuan’s brain turned to mush. It is said that women with large breasts are brainless, but when a man’s chest muscles are too big, it seems their IQ also goes down = =
After about a minute of silence, Han Feixu began to wonder if he had died. Finally, Nie Kaiyuan spoke, “How do you know what this matter brings to you or her, in terms of benefits and harms?”
Han Feixu stared at him dumbfoundedly.
Nie Kaiyuan continued, “You said you just found out she lied to you, so do you already know her reason why? Everything has a reason, find that reason, and you’ll understand why she did it.”
Han Feixu blinked slowly and then suddenly slapped Nie Kaiyuan’s arm, “Not bad, big dude!”
In the empty area, even with its various noises, the sudden, crisp sound of a slap couldn’t be suppressed.
Everyone instantly turned their heads to see Nie Kaiyuan closing his eyes tightly, one hand firmly covering his arm in apparent pain.
The gaze then shifted to the attacker. Han Feixu sat innocently in her place and even grinned and smiled when she found everyone looking at her.
As Han Feixu expected, she really didn’t get to act today.
What a waste of a day = =
Wei Xun drove her car to an intersection with little foot traffic, and then parked the car. After Ye Mingxin’s car drove up, he switched cars and successfully transferred them to the new one before driving them away together.
Wei Xun knew the way to Ye Mingxin’s grandparents’ house the best, so it was a good idea to let him drive them. Outside, it was completely dark as she watched the lights pass by outside her window, Han Feixu suddenly said, “Nie Kaiyuan also knows about us.”
Ye Mingxin was wiping her hands with a wet wipe. Hearing this, she paused, “Is that why you hit him?”
“…Who hit him?! I just patted him lightly.”
Ye Mingxin didn’t hide her doubt, “Really? Just lightly?”
Han Feixu answered without changing her expression, “Really, he’s just not very durable.”
Ye Mingxin silently smiled, and then lowered her head to continue wiping her hands. Han Feixu watched her side profile, a war waging in her heart.
Should she investigate or just ask directly?
More importantly, if she asked directly, would Ye Mingxin tell the truth?
In fact, recalling the past, no matter what she asked Ye Mingxin, she always answered honestly. But for some reason, Ye Mingxin didn’t have any credibility in her eyes. For some reason, there was this subconscious feeling in her heart that was telling her that Ye Mingxin wouldn’t tell the truth and would find ways to evade.
At another intersection, Wei Xun stopped the car as he waited for the light to change. Han Feixu, with her eyes downcast, decided to probe first.
“This morning, I remembered something.”
At first, Ye Mingxin didn’t react, staring blankly at Han Feixu for two seconds, then looked at her with concern, “What did you remember? Did you remember a lot?”
“Not much, just one thing,” Han Feixu looked at her, “It’s about you.”
Han Feixu stared at her firmly, “You told me before that you would never hide anything from me again.”
Wei Xun, sitting in the front, was trying his best to reduce his presence, so much so that he didn’t notice when the green light came on. The car behind honked twice, the sound prompting Wei Xun to look up and step on the gas, while also bringing Ye Mingxin’s attention back to the present.
She pursed her lips, “I’m sorry.”
Not expecting her to admit it so quickly, Han Feixu took a deep breath and then looked at her puzzledly, “I don’t understand, why did you feel the need to hide this from me?”
Ye Mingxin fell into silence and, after a long time, said in a low voice, “I was afraid that once you knew, you wouldn’t trust me anymore.”
Han Feixu blinked. What did her memory of what happened at her grandmother’s house long ago have anything to do with her trust in Ye Mingxin?
Ye Mingxin continued with her head lowered, confessing, “The first time we merged investments, the loss was so severe, I was embarrassed to tell you, and it’s been a long time since then, I thought you wouldn’t care anymore…”
“Wait, merged investments?”
Before Ye Mingxin could finish, she looked up in confusion, “What you’re talking about isn’t the merged investment issue? Then, is it about the press conference?”
Han Feixu: “”……”
How much have you been hiding from me?!