After Becoming a Cannon Fodder Side Character, I Became the Group’s Favorite (GL) - Chapter 51

Tang Doudou went to shoot her individual photos, and the three of them sat aside to discuss the content of the short video to be filmed later.

Fifteen seconds is neither too short nor too long, but this was an advertisement, not a TV drama. It was not easy to convey all the information the client wanted within those few seconds, especially in a visually appealing and beautiful way.

“Come here, Chacha, let me tell you about this part. The setting is that you and Doudou are new deskmates who feel a bit awkward meeting each other. The scene in the middle is her going out to buy ice cream and bringing one back for you. When you eat it, you don’t need to smile too sweetly; keep a slightly shy feeling. Use the expression you had earlier for that part, it’s perfect…”

Chen Jingli was quite detailed with her points. Xu Chacha even suspected she had a degree in directing. She listened intently, nodding and responding occasionally.

With one talking and one listening, Wen Mubai, sitting quietly beside them, seemed a little lonely in that atmosphere.

She suddenly disliked Xu Chacha’s name; no matter who called it, it sounded very intimate.

However, Wen Mubai didn’t say anything. She silently got up and went downstairs. By the time Xu Chacha and the others finished talking and turned around to find her seat empty, Xu Chacha hadn’t even realized it.

Xu Chacha sent a text message asking where she went.

Wen Mubai sent back a picture with the name of a certain pharmacy.

Xu Chacha: Are you feeling unwell? Where? Did you not eat breakfast and now your stomach hurts?

These three consecutive questions caught Wen Mubai off guard. She quickly typed a reply.

Dearest Auntie: Buying medicine for you.

Xu Chacha: I’m perfectly fine.

On the other side, Wen Mubai had already taken the medicine box from the clerk, taken a photo, and sent it to Xu Chacha.

Dearest Auntie: [Image]

It was the stomach medicine that Xu Chacha’s family often kept in stock because she often got an upset stomach from eating ice cream since childhood.

Her mother had been controlling her ice cream consumption since she was five years old.

Xu Chacha understood why Wen Mubai had made this trip down. The next scene was dynamic; she definitely couldn’t take a bite and spit it out. Not only would it make the client’s people watching feel uncomfortable, but even if they understood, she couldn’t do it because she had to swallow it in front of the camera and look like the ice cream tasted delicious.

When Wen Mubai returned with the medicine, Tang Doudou’s individual photos were already done, and Xu Chacha was called over to shoot the dual shots.

During the shoot, they fed each other a bite, and Xu Chacha swallowed quite a bit. If her stomach could handle it, Xu Chacha would have been quite happy filming this commercial, as AS’s ice cream was genuinely delicious.

When they came down, Wen Mubai opened the medicine box and asked her, “Want to take one first?”

Xu Chacha licked the chocolate crisp stuck to her lip. “Might as well.”

Her usual limit was about half an ice cream bar. It was January, and wearing a dress with exposed legs was already enough. The few bites she just took made her fingers tremble from the cold.

Wen Mubai handed her the hot milk. “Hold this to warm up.”

Xu Chacha sniffled and obediently held the milk can with both hands, opening her mouth toward Wen Mubai.

Wen Mubai leaned down, pressed a finger on the medicine strip, popped out a pill, and placed it in her mouth, then immediately offered her the same old thermos cup.

“Drink quickly. Don’t hold it in your mouth, or your tongue will taste the bitterness.” The pill had no sugar coating.

Xu Chacha swallowed it with a wrinkled face, sticking out her tongue. “It’s bitter.”

“Then drink the milk.” Wen Mubai raised her hand to wipe the water from her lips and signaled the makeup artist to come over for a touch-up.

Xu Chacha nodded, opened the can, and took a gulp. The sweet milk swirled in her mouth before she swallowed it along with the bitterness. The effect was decent, and she immediately took a few more sips.

The first scene was indoors, the initial encounter between the two protagonists. The set was a modified office, transformed into a classroom with a blackboard and desks.

There were a few extras in school uniforms waiting on the side, shivering in long cotton coats.

Xu Chacha and Tang Doudou were also wrapped in ankle-length black down jackets, huddling together with chattering teeth.

“Chacha, are you very cold? Let me warm you up.” Tang Doudou opened her down jacket and wrapped it around her.

Xu Chacha, cocooned by her, was immobile like a silkworm larva. “No need. Warm yourself up.”

“But you’re so warm. I want to hug you.” Tang Doudou’s height only reached Xu Chacha’s chin. The position of the hug made it look like Xu Chacha was unilaterally holding her.

At least, that’s how it looked in Wen Mubai’s eyes.

Chen Jingli noticed her displeased expression and teased her from the side. “What will you do? Your little sugar mommy is too popular.”

“The kids are just being playful,” Wen Mubai replied with a fake smile. “Or are you implying you want to be my colleague?”

“Help! Don’t set me up! I wouldn’t dare!” Could she not see this was just a little flirtatious fun between the two of them? She wouldn’t dare interfere, even if she had ten times the courage.

Wen Mubai dropped the smile that made Chen Jingli’s back crawl and turned her head back to Xu Chacha.

The director called “Action.” Xu Chacha ran over and handed her coat to Wen Mubai. “It’s really cold today. You wear this for now. Give it back when I return.”

“Didn’t you stick on any heating pads?” Wen Mubai touched her lower back with her palm.

“I did, but my hands are cold.” Xu Chacha shook her red, “little radish” fingers.

It was fine for now, but she’d probably have to warm her hands before shooting close-ups later.

“Go on.”

Xu Chacha shivered as she walked back, but the moment the director yelled “Action,” she immediately straightened her back and put on her professional expression, looking as cheerful as if it were a July summer day outside.

The setting was that she was a transfer student, assigned to sit next to Tang Doudou.

When Xu Chacha walked over and sat down, the director gave a close-up of their widely spaced elbows. The only “interaction” was a polite smile.

Tang Doudou was professionally trained. Although she hadn’t been on the big screen, she had the basics. Her probing gaze was perfectly nuanced.

Xu Chacha couldn’t act, but she had some prior modeling experience. She didn’t rely on theory to figure out what reaction or expression she should have at what time. Instead, she fully adopted the role, imagining herself as a transfer student from a remote area. Though she wanted to fit in quickly, she feigned aloofness because she didn’t know how to communicate effectively.

Her face used to be chubby when she was a child, but as she grew up, her facial features became more defined. She usually smiled to appear less distant, but when she truly put on a poker face, she had a bit of that “do not approach” vibe often seen in Wen Mubai.

Chen Jingli secretly thought, Is this the legendary couple’s look?

Because both of them were better than expected, the shoot was much easier than anticipated. The team quickly packed up to move to the next location.

Xu Chacha again habitually bowed to everyone around her and scampered back to Wen Mubai. Before she could reach her, the other woman opened her down jacket and wrapped Xu Chacha inside.

“Is your stomach starting to hurt?” She calculated that Xu Chacha’s period was due around these days, and her reaction to eating ice cream before and during this time was always severe.

“Not too bad,” Xu Chacha held the coat with both hands, half her face buried in it, her moist, almond eyes blinking twice. “Don’t you have to go to work? You’ve been waiting here for me this whole time.”

“I took the day off,” Wen Mubai pulled a hot water bottle from somewhere and put it in Xu Chacha’s arms. “Serving you is more important.”

Xu Chacha’s ears visibly flushed red. She quickly turned her head to check Chen Jingli’s expression, and seeing nothing unusual, she reached out to cover Wen Mubai’s unfiltered mouth.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Wen Mubai dodged her hand, her eyes curving into a smile. “I forgot. Some things can’t be said outside.”

Chen Jingli, whose hand was empty: You steal my hot water bottle and feed me PDA. Does anyone care about the client’s feelings?

Xu Chacha could rest for the next scene, as it was Tang Doudou’s individual shot, filming the part where she went to buy ice cream.

Huddled in the thick down jacket, she sipped the steaming hot tea from her thermos, watching Tang Doudou shiver through the shoot.

Two people stood like pillars in front of Xu Chacha, blocking the wind for her, making her the only one looking relatively comfortable in the biting cold.

After Tang Doudou finished her take, the next shot was a close-up of them eating ice cream. Wen Mubai specifically gave Xu Chacha the hot water bottle to save her frostbitten fingers.

When Tang Doudou came off the set, her manager rushed to serve her with hot tea and a hot water bottle. Even the normally lively Tang Doudou was too frozen to speak, sitting blankly as if her brain had been sculpted into ice.

The director was somewhat humane and gave them half an hour to rest. After adjusting the equipment, he called for action again.

“Hang in there. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can wrap up. It will be even colder after the sun sets.”

“Sigh… sigh… I know… Hurry, hurry,” Tang Doudou threw off her coat and pulled Xu Chacha over. “Let’s just finish shooting. I feel like I’m going to freeze to death.”

“Mhm. I’ll try not to hold you back.”

The scene wasn’t difficult, just the two of them taking a bite of ice cream and exchanging a look and a smile.

Perhaps because of the cold, Tang Doudou’s expression while eating the ice cream was a bit strained. Even though she tried her best to manage her expression, any slight unnaturalness became extremely obvious in the close-up shot.

“Help! I can’t do it. My brain is numb from those few bites,” Tang Doudou’s eyes were red, on the verge of dry heaving from the cold.

Xu Chacha was in no better state. She squatted in place, curled into a ball. “Didn’t we agree on ‘a quick death for a quick rebirth’? You lied to me.”

“Wuwuwu, I want to, but it’s really too hard.”

“Then don’t think of it as an ice cream bar. Think of it as something else. Don’t you like to eat barbecue?”

“Barbecue…” Forget eating it; she could barely stand the smell right now. Her manager was stricter with her than with a daughter. Xu Chacha’s mention of it immediately piqued her craving.

But her manager was even tougher. She brought over a pot of steaming hot water. “Drink a few sips of something hot. Once your mouth warms up, you won’t be afraid of the cold.”

Xu Chacha hissed from the side. “Eating hot and cold things alternately can cause diarrhea.”

“No big deal. Her stomach is made of iron,” the manager said with a smiling expression, handing the cup to Tang Doudou with the tone of Pan Jinlian offering medicine to Wu Dalang. “Here, drink it. Last time you secretly went out for an all-you-can-eat and had hot pot and ice cream together, and you were perfectly fine.”

Tang Doudou could only drink it with tears in her eyes. Then, the makeup artist came over for a touch-up, and the cameras started rolling again.

This time, Tang Doudou’s condition was much better, mainly because she was genuinely afraid of being dragged back and forced to drink more hot water by her manager.

The two of them took a bite of the ice cream. The chocolate crisp cracked open, the jam filling flowed out, and finally, they swallowed the soft vanilla core together.

The more they chewed, the more relaxed their expressions became. Xu Chacha first turned to Tang Doudou and gave her a faint smile, like the first ray of spring sunshine breaking through the ice. Tang Doudou didn’t even need to react; her lips naturally curved into a smile with her.

She hadn’t expected that after years of professional training, she would be led by the nose in her own job by Xu Chacha, who had no formal experience.

Fortunately, the director didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. He even thought the chemistry between the two looked harmonious. After taking a few close-ups from different angles, he happily called it a wrap.

“Chacha, have you ever thought about trying acting?” Tang Doudou asked in her ear.

“Huh?” Xu Chacha turned her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

When it came to acting, she was already tired enough from playing the role of a child for more than ten years. Moreover, she knew that her method of fully immersing herself would make it hard to break out of the role. Today, she was just playing a transfer student. If she were asked to play a mentally ill person or a murderer tomorrow or the day after, how long would it take her to shake off those negative emotions?

“I’m serious,” Tang Doudou widened her eyes. “Your performance was amazing once you got into character.”

“That’s exactly why I’m afraid of getting too immersed,” Xu Chacha smiled.

Wen Mubai arrived just as she heard their last two sentences. She pressed the down jacket onto Xu Chacha, wrapping her in her arms. “Go change your clothes. We’re going home soon.”

“Oh, right, it’s freezing,” Xu Chacha rubbed her hands and said goodbye to Tang Doudou. “Bye, Doudou. I’ll call you out for a meal when I have time next.”

—

Wen Mubai hadn’t brought a driver today and was driving herself. Xu Chacha lay in the back seat, her eyelids half-closed in exhaustion.

Wen Mubai initially glanced at her in the rearview mirror and thought she was sleeping, but when she reached the underground parking garage and opened the door to call her, she found that Xu Chacha’s face, after removing her makeup, was flushed with an abnormal redness. Her brows were tightly furrowed, and her lips were pale as if she had lost too much blood.

“Are you uncomfortable?” She reached out to touch her forehead and found it was burning hot.

Xu Chacha gave a faint “mhm” from her nose, opening her tightly shut eyes. Her eyelashes were wet with involuntary tears. “It hurts.”

Wen Mubai noticed her hand pressed tightly against her abdomen. “Stomach pain or lower abdomen?”

Xu Chacha shook her head, her voice weak. “Period.”

“Take a painkiller first. I’ll take you to the hospital.” Fortunately, she kept painkillers in the car. She immediately opened one and handed it to Xu Chacha.

Xu Chacha opened her mouth vaguely, almost biting Wen Mubai’s finger along with the pill. Then, holding the thermos cup, she struggled to swallow the medicine and said pitifully, “I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

“Painkillers work better if you take them early. A shot at the hospital will make you feel better faster.”

“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Xu Chacha repeated, leaning softly against her. “I want to sleep. I’ll be fine after a nap.”

Wen Mubai sighed, wrapped her up in the coat, and picked her up, clothing and all.

“Let’s try sleeping first. If you’re still not better, we’re going. No amount of pouting will help.”

Did that mean pouting was working now?

Xu Chacha rested her head on Wen Mubai’s shoulder, looking eagerly at her tense jawline, trying to lighten the mood. “Then you’ll sleep with me.”