Chapter 5
Once she decided, Chu Yu acted immediately.
She hugged her laptop and began searching for “char siu pork tutorial.” After watching a few videos, she felt they all looked very simple, so she carried the laptop into the kitchen, set it to one side, and prepared to learn step by step.
She got stuck at the very first step: she did not know how to operate the dazzling array of appliances in the kitchen.
For a girl who relied entirely on takeout or instant meals heated in the microwave, all these dazzling appliances with their different functions… were practically a fantasy from another world.
Chu Yu: …
The Chu Yu of this world clearly did not cook, yet she had prepared such a complete set of kitchen tools. Chu Yu really did not know whether she should call this “a bad student owning too much stationery” or feel sorry for the exploited Su Qingqing.
Chu Yu herself had a habit. No matter what kind of appliance it was, from something as large as a refrigerator to something as small as a phone, she would put all the instruction manuals together in one box, then place that box on top of the refrigerator.
She wondered whether this Chu Yu had the same habit.
She tentatively reached toward the top of the refrigerator, and to her surprise, she really did feel a small box.
She took the box down and opened it. Inside were indeed the manuals.
Chu Yu was slightly stunned.
The exact same habit, the box and manuals that felt so familiar… Were they truly people from two completely unfamiliar worlds?
She could not figure it out.
So she stopped thinking about it. She did not have time to keep thinking about it anyway.
After solving the issue of tools, the next thing to solve was ingredients.
The piece of pork shoulder Su Qingqing had bought really was beautiful.
Not only was it extremely fresh, but it also had gorgeous marbling of fat and lean meat. Anyone who saw this piece of meat would feel they would be letting it down if they did not turn it into delicious char siu.
But to be doubly safe, she divided this beautiful piece of meat in half, preparing to try it once first before moving on to the next step.
Facts proved that she was right.
Especially when, after working hard for an entire hour, she took the first bite and immediately felt she ought to apologize to the pig.
Chu Yu wanted to cry but had no tears.
She had clearly followed every step in the tutorial. Why was the finished product so worlds apart?
Fortunately… she still had outside help.
Chu Yu’s eyes lit up. She immediately ran to the living room and found her phone. For a moment, Su Qingqing still did not know what she was supposed to be doing, and just as she finally decided to go eat some afternoon tea, her phone rang.
Su Qingqing took a deep breath.
Sure enough, all change was fake. A capitalist would always be a capitalist.
She answered the phone. “Director Chu, what are your instructions?”
“Emergency help from the jianghu!” Chu Yu said. “Qingqing, teach me how to make char siu!”
“Huh?” Su Qingqing said. “I can come back right now and make it.”
“No!” Chu Yu immediately said.
This was the dinner she would use to ease her current relationship with Lin Yi, which was as incompatible as fire and water. No matter what, she had to cook a table of food with her own hands. This was a matter of attitude.
So Chu Yu said sincerely, “You just need to tell me which step I did wrong.”
Then she took photos of her half-finished product and her steps and sent them to Su Qingqing.
“The seasoning ratio is wrong,” Su Qingqing said. “Cut the dark soy sauce in half and add another spoonful of char siu sauce.”
“Got it!” Chu Yu said. “Thank you!”
After hanging up, Su Qingqing once again looked as if she had seen a ghost.
She had finally managed to mentally prepare herself for her boss turning back into an evil capitalist, but not only had all that preparation gone to waste, her boss had changed even more thoroughly.
Her boss had even started cooking with her own hands!
This world had gone mad.
Even if Chu Yu announced tomorrow that she was quitting the film industry and becoming a nun, Su Qingqing would probably immediately help her find the quietest, most suitable temple for spiritual cultivation!
After bringing in outside help, Chu Yu’s process was full of bumps, and she wasted half the pork shoulder, but she finally obtained a small piece of delicious char siu.
She cut the char siu into slices of even thickness, then plated them…
By the time she came back to herself, she had already arranged the slices of char siu into a heart shape.
The little dog, suddenly waking as if from a dream, flushed red and felt inexplicably nervous.
Would this be too ambiguous?
Lin Yi must also know that the original owner had wanted her but could not have her, that love had turned into hate… Thinking about it, Lin Yi must hate this affection very much. If it was now displayed so plainly on the plate, Chu Yu could practically already see Lin Yi turning around and leaving without hesitation.
The little dog was startled.
No, no!
She rearranged the heart-shaped char siu into two neat rows. Very simple, very ordinary, very… impossible to get wrong.
She pursed her lips.
She had always thought that if you liked someone, you had to bravely pursue them.
Although she had been single since birth, every movie she had watched and every story she had read said the same thing.
But at this very moment, when she thought of Lin Yi, the little dog suddenly realized that when you liked someone, when you cared about someone, you would instead become afraid, become timid… Even something as insignificant as how to arrange char siu would make you worry about frightening the other person, worry that they would be unhappy.
But even this kind of worry was sweet.
The little dog curved her lips, cheerfully wagged her nonexistent tail, and carried the plate of char siu to the table, using a heated table mat to keep it warm.
She also prepared rice, some seasonal vegetables, and, under the guidance of online tutorials and Su Qingqing, this professional outside helper, simmered a pot of delicious soup.
After finishing all this, as dinner time drew closer and closer, she was so nervous she could barely sit still.
But even if it was getting closer, there were still two hours left. If she kept being anxious like this, she would only waste her energy for nothing.
So Chu Yu simply picked up the storyboards and script drafts for Eden from her desk and began working seriously.
Coincidentally, in the real world, Chu Yu had also studied directing.
But in the real world, her career had not gone nearly as smoothly as this world’s Chu Yu.
She had never gotten the chance to direct a film independently. In this entertainment industry, where there were too many monks and too little gruel, and where capital and connections were everywhere, she could only find work as an assistant director or a script supervisor.
They called it assistant director, but the chances for her to actually touch a camera were few and far between. Most of the time, she was assigned to handle the director’s private matters, such as taking the director’s Bichon Frise for a walk or buying milk tea for everyone.
…Just like Su Qingqing.
So later, she would rather work as a script supervisor.
She told herself that once she had worked as a script supervisor on a hundred shoots, she would definitely have the chance to film something that belonged to her.
Fortunately, before she had managed to reach one hundred, she transmigrated into a book—and into the body of a major director with many resources. She could film anything she wanted!
These work drafts that belonged to the original owner did not feel unfamiliar to Chu Yu at all. She very quickly immersed herself in her work.
Eden was a modern literary film based on religion with adaptations added in.
It told the story of an Alpha who naturally loved freedom and a good-girl Omega she brought out of a psychiatric hospital as the two of them eloped together.
It was a literary road movie.
Chu Yu flipped through the storyboards drawn by the original owner. Most of the time, the storyboards had no dialogue, and the shots seemed to have no meaning at all.
Two girls lay on the grass, looking at the sky.
A very blue, very blue sky.
Then one of the girls suddenly turned her head and looked at the other girl.
Or perhaps they were on the road, driving.
The girl in the passenger seat was sleeping quietly. The girl in the driver’s seat secretly turned down the music playing from the car CD.
The story stopped abruptly there.
The original owner had not had time to finish writing this script.
Chu Yu thought for a few seconds, then picked up her colored pencils and continued drawing the storyboards.
She drew many rough sketches in one go, all the way to the film’s final scene.
At the end of the film, there was one long take. The two girls sat side by side on a mountaintop. Before them was the rising sun.
So vast, so dazzling, so bright…
The Omega turned her head, wanting to say something to the Alpha, only to discover that the Alpha had fallen asleep. They had stayed up through the entire night on this high, cold mountaintop, waiting for the rising sun…
But when the sun truly rose, one of the girls was cold and exhausted, and had fallen asleep.
The other girl looked at her sleeping face, her expression gentle, and smiled faintly… But when she turned her head to look at the sun, she suddenly became lost, and yearning.
Everyone was chasing the sun.
She seemed to finally make up her mind. She stood, took one last gentle look at the sleeping girl, then turned and ran toward the sun.
The Alpha who yearned for freedom remained on the mountaintop.
The Omega who had always been obedient ran toward the sun.
The end of the story was such a long take: a long shot of her running the entire time, toward the sun, toward Eden, toward utopia.
Do not look back.
She would not look back.
This seemed to be a sad story, but anyone who saw this final storyboard would not feel sad.
Because anyone could feel the bond between these two girls, through these colored pencils, through this very, very long shot…
When the girl left on the mountaintop woke up, she would not be angry. She would not be unwilling.
She would only be happy that her lover could run toward the sun…
When Chu Yu’s phone rang, she finally woke as if from a dream and belatedly realized that she had been so absorbed in drawing that she had not noticed two hours pass in the blink of an eye.
She pressed the answer button. “Sister.”
That beautiful voice came from the other end of the phone. “I’m outside the gate to your yard. What’s your home’s passcode?”
“Your birthday,” Chu Yu said without thinking.
The other end of the line instantly went silent.
Chu Yu grew a little nervous. She quietly waited for Lin Yi’s voice. For a moment, only the sound of their breathing remained on the call.
She gazed at the storyboards she had just finished drawing, scattered all over the table.
The girl chasing the sun kept overlapping with the beautiful figure in her memories…
Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on that sheet of paper.
She thought, Lin Yi had to be the lead in Eden. Aside from Lin Yi, no one else would do.
It could only be Lin Yi.
“Sister…” the little dog said carefully. “Do you not like this passcode?”
After a long while, Lin Yi said, “No.”
Chu Yu heard the sound of the yard gate opening.
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