Song Qiao was completely stunned.
Everyone's pointing and snickering made her face burn.
No one had ever dared humiliate her like this.
Song Qiao unconsciously raised her voice. "Do you know what you're saying?"
Xiao Cheng smiled. "I know perfectly well."
"Your pay is eighty million. If you breach the contract, you'll have to pay at least 320 million."
Song Qiao thought Xiao Cheng had gone mad.
She was a goddess who stood high above everyone else in the industry.
Usually, male actors begged her to film kissing scenes.
Xiao Cheng made no comment.
He looked at Liao Xian. "Sorry, Director Liao. This production, I won't..."
Before Xiao Cheng could finish, Jiang Chiyan suddenly interrupted him. "Wait."
Xiao Cheng looked at him in surprise.
But Jiang Chiyan's entire face was covered up tightly.
Xiao Cheng couldn't make out his gaze or his expression.
"Director Liao, sorry for the trouble, but please give us five minutes."
After saying that, Jiang Chiyan pulled Xiao Cheng into a corner and said, "Keep filming this drama. Don't rush to turn it down."
Xiao Cheng's brows drew tight. "Eight kissing scenes and one bed scene, and you want me to keep filming??"
Jiang Chiyan smiled. "I think Song Qiao has a point. Paying 320 million for breach of contract really isn't worth it."
Xiao Cheng held his faintly aching stomach, his complexion poor.
He had a bad stomach, and it hurt whenever he got worked up.
Through gritted teeth, he asked Jiang Chiyan, "So..."
Jiang Chiyan spoke unhurriedly. "So we make Song Qiao breach the contract first and let her pay the penalty."
Xiao Cheng: ???
Jiang Chiyan placed his hand on Xiao Cheng's stomach and gently rubbed it. "Are you really angry?"
Xiao Cheng trembled and shrank back a little. "What are you doing?"
Jiang Chiyan slipped his hand under Xiao Cheng's T-shirt, pressing the back of his hand against his abs. "Don't be angry. In a little while... I'll get even for you."
Xiao Cheng looked unconvinced.
How could he get even with someone as shameless as Song Qiao?
"Don't believe me?" Jiang Chiyan smiled and lowered his head to nip Xiao Cheng's finger.
Xiao Cheng quickly pushed him away, looking guilty, afraid the crew members nearby might see something.
"How about this?" Jiang Chiyan said to Xiao Cheng. "If I can make Song Qiao breach the contract first and voluntarily leave the production, what will you give me in return?"
Without even thinking, Xiao Cheng said, "If you can get Song Qiao to leave, I'll give you anything you want."
Jiang Chiyan's eyes held a smile. "You said it."
He had been lusting after Xiao Cheng's body for a long time.
He wondered how lovely Xiao Cheng's lark-like voice would sound when he cried out in pain late at night.
Jiang Chiyan was looking forward to it.
Amid that anticipation, he first sent Xiao Wu a WeChat message.
Jiang Chiyan: "Xiao Wu, go look around Hengdian World Studios for me and see if anyone sells stinky tofu."
Xiao Wu: "Stinky tofu???"
Jiang Chiyan: "Yes. The stinkier, the better. Buy plenty and come back as soon as possible."
Xiao Wu: "...Okay."
Jiang Chiyan: "If there are rotten eggs, buy some of those too. Buy anything that stinks."
Xiao Wu: "..."
Jiang Chiyan put away his phone and pointed at the script as he told Xiao Cheng, "Go tell the director to film this scene first. Leave everything else to me."
The scene Jiang Chiyan picked was still a romantic scene between the male and female leads.
It was the scene where the male lead cooked noodles for the female lead when she was sick.
After reading it, Xiao Cheng frowned deeply.
Still, he did as Jiang Chiyan said.
Liao Xian breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Xiao Cheng had agreed to continue filming.
He immediately agreed to Xiao Cheng's request to film the noodle-cooking scene first.
Half an hour later.
A crew member bought a pot of noodles at a nearby street of food stalls and ran back carrying the pot.
Song Qiao was rehearsing with Xiao Cheng.
In this scene, the male lead, Ji Zhanbei, took care of the sick female lead, Yao Manman.
On a night of torrential rain, Yao Manman had a fever of 39°C and lay at home, unable to get up, hungry and sleepy.
For Yao Manman's sake, Ji Zhanbei entered the kitchen for the first time in his life and cooked her a large bowl of noodle soup.
Because he had no cooking experience.
Several blisters had formed on Ji Zhanbei's hands from burns, and his fingertips bore cuts from the knife.
Yao Manman was deeply touched and ate the entire large bowl.
As long as he wasn't filming romantic scenes, Xiao Cheng got everything in one take.
He portrayed the awkwardness and clumsiness of cooking noodles in the kitchen perfectly, without a single flaw.
Once his shots were finished, it was time to film Song Qiao eating the noodles.
At that moment, the outdoor temperature in Hengdian was 35°C.
Song Qiao was playing a patient with a high fever. Wrapped in a thick quilt, she also had to pretend to shiver with cold, and the ordeal was nearly driving her mad.
When she finally reached the table and picked up her chopsticks to eat the noodles...
Song Qiao sniffed and nearly threw up.
"Urgh!"
An indescribable stench wafted from the pot of noodles.
Watching her from behind the monitor, Liao Xian threw down his script in anger.
"Song Qiao, what is wrong with you?"
"Director, I..."
"Aren't you supposed to be the ratings queen? You can't even manage a scene where you eat noodles?"
Liao Xian's face was dark.
He had been fed up with Song Qiao for a long time.
Bringing funding into the production, forcing the screenwriter to change the script, buying trending topics, hiring paid commenters, throwing her weight around...
Song Qiao had done just about everything Liao Xian despised.
Song Qiao was subjected to a vicious tongue-lashing. "Director, these noodles don't smell..."
"I think you're just making excuses. Xiao Cheng got that eight-minute long take in one try. What about you?"
Liao Xian had smelled the odor from the pot too.
But with this rare opportunity to give Song Qiao a hard time, he simply played dumb.
Song Qiao gritted her teeth, tears glimmering in her eyes as she looked at Xiao Cheng, feeling terribly wronged.
Xiao Cheng stood in the shade of a tree, playing on his phone as though he hadn't seen her.
Song Qiao sniffed and could only give in. "I'm sorry, Director. Please let me try again."
Liao Xian sneered. "Fine."
"Everyone in position. Scene forty-eight, shot three, setup five. Action!!"
Song Qiao took her chopsticks and fished noodles out of the pot.
The pungent stench nearly made her faint.
Yet she had to put on a deeply moved expression and say the noodles were delicious, the best she had ever eaten.
Song Qiao put everything into her performance.
But Liao Xian, whose eyes were more venomous than a viper's, could always find a problem.
"Song Qiao, you're supposed to be moved, not angry."
"Song Qiao, take big mouthfuls. Eat the whole bowl!!"
"Song Qiao, this take is good. We can keep it. Let's do another!!"
By the end, Song Qiao had eaten so much she could hardly breathe.
The unbearable stench smelled like stinky tofu and rotten eggs, with something else seemingly mixed in.
The texture of the noodles was strange too.
Song Qiao felt as though she were eating shit.
She botched several takes and ate five whole large bowls of noodles.
She emptied the entire pot of noodle soup, leaving not even the broth.
After Liao Xian called out, "That's a good take"...
Song Qiao couldn't hold it in and threw up with a retch.
She vomited everything in her stomach.
Even the food from the previous night came back up.
Watching from nearby, Xiao Cheng froze on the spot.
Xiao Cheng asked Jiang Chiyan, "What did you do to her?"
Jiang Chiyan smiled without speaking.
Xiao Wu answered from beside them. "Cheng, there were three whole boxes of stinky tofu, two rotten eggs, and a can of surströmming in that pot of noodles."
Xiao Cheng: "..."
The next second, he heard Song Qiao's tearful voice.
"I'm not filming this drama anymore!!"
Xiao Cheng: "..."
Studio B descended into chaos.
There was definitely no continuing the shoot that morning.
Xiao Cheng followed Jiang Chiyan back to the hotel room.
As soon as they entered, Jiang Chiyan shut the door. "Best Actor Xiao, didn't you promise me something on set earlier, about Song Qiao?"
Xiao Cheng scratched his head awkwardly.
Jiang Chiyan held his chin. "Hmm? Playing dumb with me?"
Then Jiang Chiyan took his phone out of his pocket and pressed a button.
A recording played from the phone.
-"If I can make Song Qiao breach the contract first and voluntarily leave the production, what will you give me in return?"
-"If you can get Song Qiao to leave, I'll give you anything you want."
Xiao Cheng coughed, averted his gaze, and asked awkwardly, "Then... then what do you want?"