A OO Love After Officially Announcing with the Best Actress - Chapter 10

“Ma’am, one jianbing guozi, please.”

“Coming right up! Just a moment!”

At 8:00 AM, the morning rush hour crowd gathered briefly for a single moment before swarming onto buses the next second, vanishing into the city’s veins in the blink of an eye.

The world suddenly felt spacious, leaving only dog walkers, parents dropping off kids, and joggers. The few remaining pedestrians contributed their presence to the breakfast stalls.

The vendor skillfully spread the eggs. Lin Ke stood second to last in line, propping her eyelids open in agonizing exhaustion.

She had only slept for two hours. Right now, she radiated a low-pressure aura, as if a dark cloud were hovering over her head.

Her phone gave a ding.

A message from the Great Demon King: “Remember to add two eggs.”

Lin Ke: “…”

The line gradually shortened and then expanded again. Lin Ke moved from the back to the front, with two chirping middle school girls squeezed in behind her.

“Hey! Do you know Lin Bingran? I heard she’s filming a movie in the water town.”

“Really?!”

“I’ll show you the photo. It’s a leak from a background actor.”

Lin Ke turned her head. Two young girls, still with baby fuzz on their faces, were excitedly huddled together looking at a phone.

She couldn’t help but perk up her ears.

“It’s an Omega x Omega theme!”

“Ah! Who is she acting with?”

“Also surnamed Lin. Not famous. I think she’s called… Ke-ke or something?”

“Like cocoa beans?”

“Hahahahahaha!”

Lin Ke: “…”

Ding, the phone rang again.

Great Demon King: “Double ham, too.”

Lin Ke was noble and cold in her head, but submissive on the internet: “Okay, Teacher Lin.”

Exiting WeChat, Lin Ke tapped into her chat with her industry friend, Zhu Mo.

She typed furiously: “I am definitely going to be more famous than Lin Bingran one day, so I can make her stand in line at 8:00 AM to buy me breakfast!”

Lin Ke stood at the door of 601 and knocked.

About a minute later, footsteps sounded behind the door.

The door opened just a crack. Lin Bingran squinted her eyes, her amber gaze shifting from blurry to clear. She then said, “Come in.”

Lin Ke looked at her feet, then at Lin Bingran. “I…”

“What are you standing there for?” Lin Bingran unwrapped a pair of disposable slippers for her.

Lin Ke took off her shoes, put on the slippers, and stepped onto the carpet of the Room 601 entryway.

The room smelled faintly of an Omega’s green tea pheromones.

Lin Ke kept her eyes focused and her mind disciplined, lining up the toes of her sneakers in a perfectly straight line.

Lin Bingran went to the bathroom to freshen up. When she came out, she was wearing pure cotton pajamas with a cartoon illustration of a giant braised pig trotter on the stomach.

Lin Ke: “…”

The two sat at the balcony. A wooden table on the terrace was prepared with hot water. Lin Bingran brewed tea, handed a cup to Lin Ke, and began eating the jianbing guozi. She asked, “What are you eating?”

The aroma of the crepe wafted out. Lin Ke, lacking sleep, had no appetite.

“You eat. I’m going back to sleep,” Lin Ke said.

Lin Bingran stood up, pulled a script from the sofa inside, and tossed it to Lin Ke. “You can only sleep for two hours if you go back. You might as well run the lines once.”

Lin Ke glanced at the two pages of paper, then immediately looked at Lin Bingran in shock.

The two pages were for the scenes she was shooting today. They were marked with red and green highlighters, detailing Lin Ke’s performance logic and an interpretation of the character Chu Feng.

Lin Ke was astonished: “…This, you didn’t sleep this morning?”

Lin Bingran was fully immersed in her food and didn’t look at her, only saying: “Couldn’t sleep. Found something to do.”

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t surprised. Lin Ke sat down with a complex expression and opened the script.

Lin Bingran ate very quickly this time. After finishing, she offered to run the scene with Lin Ke.

How to deliver the lines, the pauses and emphasis, the character’s logic and mindset.

“Besides this, there’s also a night scene. How is your preparation for that?” After running through the script content five or six times, Lin Bingran suddenly asked.

Lin Ke froze, remembering that specific scene on the call sheet. Her blood pressure spiked: “I… I…”

“I said I would teach you,” Lin Bingran took the two script pages from Lin Ke and said: “Now, I am Chu Feng.”

Chu Feng had been cleaning for the Li family for a week. Every time she left, Mrs. Zhou would pay her some wages.

Mrs. Zhou said the people in the water town were simple and honest; Chu Feng was honest and worked efficiently. If the Li family had work in the future, she could come back.

Chu Feng smiled, revealing a row of white teeth. She gave Mrs. Zhou a deep bow and ran out of the hall. At the door, she looked back at the round window on the second floor.

For the next half month, Chu Feng never saw Li Fengling again.

The ancient residence backed onto a small hill, built at the highest point on the edge of the water town. There was a tree directly facing a certain room on the second floor.

After school, Chu Feng would dangle a blade of grass in her mouth and daze out against the tree trunk. Sometimes she would pull out a notebook to do homework. Sometimes she did nothing, simply wondering what that young lady’s name was.

The weather grew hotter day by day. It was the time for the village to harvest grain. Chu Feng didn’t go to the back hill today; she went straight home after school.

“Sister—” Chu Feng knocked on the door bolt. No one answered.

There were only two sisters in the Chu family. They lived in a cob house left behind by their parents.

Black tiles and mud walls. Lin Ke jumped over the shoulder-high wall into the main gate.

She stepped on something. Looking down, she saw her own family’s duck, disemboweled and tossed into the yard.

She went to the kitchen water vat to scoop a drink and heard the rising and falling sounds of lust coming from the main hall.

Chu Feng was angry and helpless. She poured a ladle of water over her head and ran to kick the door of the hall.

The coarse laughter of a man and the whimpering cries of a woman came from inside.

There were no men in the Chu family. In the afternoon, after a fierce argument erupted between Chu Feng and Chu Qiu, Chu Feng slammed the door and left.

Chu Feng sat on the tree trunk, twisting a leaf to block the sun, peering closely at that small casement window.

“Cut!”

Lin Ke’s unfocused eyes regained their luster.

Shen Feng laughed loudly and patted Lin Ke on the shoulder. “Xiao Lin, good acting! It’s like you suddenly had an epiphany. Who gave you a lesson? Hmm?”

Wang Bingbing and Shen Kuo walked out. Lin Ke felt sheepish and shyly turned her head to look for another figure on the set.

Lu Tu came over carrying two bottles of water. She handed one to Lin Ke and one to Shen Feng, asking curiously: “Director Shen, Best Actress Lin didn’t come to the set today?”

Lin Ke’s nerves twitched. She heard Shen Feng say: “She doesn’t have scenes today. Probably resting at the hotel.”

Shen Feng looked at Lin Ke and said: “Rest for two hours. Notify Lin Bingran to come over and prepare for tonight’s scene.”

Lu Tu gave Lin Ke a suggestive smile and poked Lin Ke’s arm repeatedly with the script rolled into a tube.

Lin Ke gulped down a bottle of water and went to lie down on a lounge chair by the floor fan. The fan whirred loudly. Her temples throbbed with pain; as soon as she closed her eyes, the memories of the morning flooded back.

“You play me?” Lin Ke had asked in shock.

Lin Bingran casually picked up a throw pillow and hugged it, reminding Lin Ke: “Watch closely. I’m starting.”

Lin Bingran first smiled at Lin Ke, then slowly closed her eyes. Her smile changed.

Lin Ke saw a flush rising on Lin Bingran’s face, like the crimson of a rose.

The woman opened her mouth, uttering melodious, subtle sounds.

Following the climax of the scene, Lin Bingran’s hands tightly twisted the pillow, wringing it tighter and tighter.

Lin Ke’s nerves were also being twisted bit by bit. Her palms sweated, wetting Lin Bingran’s matching tea set.

A few minutes later, Lin Bingran suddenly stopped. She opened her eyes to moisten her throat with tea and, with her face still flushed, asked seriously: “How was it?”

Lin Ke couldn’t offer a critique. She dropped the script and fled Room 601 in a panic.

As she reached the door, Lin Bingran chased her out and said something that made Lin Ke’s feet slip.

“I hope I’m in your dreams.”

Bang!

A loud slam of the door was Lin Bingran’s response.

“Scene Nine, ‘Spring Dream,’ take one!”

“Set ready—”