Chapter 364: This braised pork trotter rice deserves a five-star rating
"Get away! Don't touch !"
A sharp female voice tore through the silence of the film set, carrying the fury of soone pushed to the brink.
Gu Zhiyuan's hand, which had been gripping his own hair, froze. Lin Wan's weary face also showed a trace of impatience.
The argunt grew more intense, right at the entrance to the set.
A figure clad in a bulky yellow delivery down jacket, wearing a full-face helt,
was being shoved forcefully by two burly security guards.
That bright yellow uniform stood out starkly against the backdrop of the gray, dilapidated ruins.
The girl's fra looked especially frail in front of the two hulking n.
She was tightly clutching a thermal delivery bag stamped with the "Supersonic Delivery" logo,
her movents a bit clumsy.
Her voice ca muffled from inside the helt, still tinged with urgency despite the layer of plastic.
"Let in! There's an urgent order of braised pork knuckle rice inside! I'll get fined fifty bucks if I'm late!"
The security guards had clearly lost their patience, roughly trying to shoo her away.
"This is the 'King of Extras' film set, we're holding auditions! Unauthorized personnel, get lost! Even the Emperor of Heaven himself would have to sign in!"
Lin Wan frowned deeply. This chaotic scene was the last straw for her already frayed nerves.
She was just about to signal her assistant to handle it when Gu Zhiyuan, beside her, jolted as if struck by lightning.
He stared intently at the source of the voice. The flush that had colored his face from the failed audition drained away in an instant.
Jiang Ci also walked over.
He wasn't curious about the argunt; he was curious about that phrase "fined fifty."
He did a quick ntal calculation.
A serving of braised pork knuckle rice was, at most, thirty bucks. Delivery fee, five bucks. The platform took a twenty percent cut.
By the ti it reached the courier, it might only be three or four yuan.
A fifty-yuan fine for being late on one order.
That ant she might need to run over a dozen orders for free just to earn back that fifty.
This platform's penalty system was a bit harsh.
Gu Zhiyuan's lips trembled. He tentatively called out to the yellow-clad figure.
"Chen... Chen Yi?"
The fierce argunt and shoving abruptly stopped.
The two security guards froze. The girl they had been pushing around also stiffened in place.
Slowly, she raised a hand and took off her helt.
A face, reddened by the winter wind, was revealed.
No makeup. Her lips were even a bit chapped from dehydration.
A few strands of sweat-dampened hair clung to her temples.
The face wasn't classically beautiful, but it held a kind of raw, uncarved vitality.
It was Chen Yi. The sa Chen Yi who had collaborated with Gu Zhiyuan on that arthouse film three years ago, hailed within the industry as the "most promising new talent."
She saw Gu Zhiyuan, saw Lin Wan behind him, and finally swept a glance at Jiang Ci standing to the side.
The shock and disorientation in her eyes lasted only a second.
The next mont, those lingering emotions were replaced by a numb acceptance.
It was as if her soul had been instantly sucked away, leaving only a shell driven by the need to survive.
She didn't even spare the newly crowned Film Emperor a second glance, treating his face—enough to drive countless fans wild—as if it were invisible.
Chen Yi didn't say a word. She opened the old thermal bag she was clutching and pulled out the still-steaming container of braised pork knuckle rice.
She walked straight up to Gu Zhiyuan and shoved the al box into his arms.
Her movents were chanical. Her tone was flat, as if speaking to a complete stranger.
"Director Gu. Perfect timing. This order was placed by one of your set assistants."
She paused, lifted her face, and added the rest.
"Please give a five-star rating. I have another order to catch."
Gu Zhiyuan felt his mind go completely blank.
The braised pork knuckle rice in his arms was still warm.
That warmth seeped through the thin plastic container, yet it burned, making his insides twist and cramp.
Five-star rating.
She had used that term.
That term completely severed all the ugly history between them.
It condensed that period of mory he dared not look back on into a simple comrcial transaction.
He was no longer the director who had ruined her future. She was no longer the talented actress he had dragged down.
They were rely rchant and custor.
This professional numbness, this deliberately maintained distance, was more devastating than any tearful accusation.
It instantly shattered all the confidence Gu Zhiyuan had just built up with the investnt from Tian Guang Entertainnt.
It hamred the ambitious, high-spirited "Niohuru Zhiyuan"
back into the original form of that failure who had hidden in a garbage-filled room, clinging to idealism just to survive.
Jiang Ci watched this scene unfold.
His gaze slowly shifted from Chen Yi's expressionless face
down to her hands, tightly gripping the handlebars of her electric scooter.
Those hands. Nails clipped short and blunt. Knuckles rough and swollen red.
As if repeatedly whipped by the winter wind. Traces of grease, impossible to wash out, lingered under her fingernails.
Images of the hands of the previous actresses flashed through Jiang Ci's mind—smooth, pale, each nail a ticulously crafted work of art.
An absurd thought popped into his head:
Those previous hands were for playing the piano and signing checks.
These hands in front of him were for brawling with life itself.
Liu Piaopiao had washed glasses in a nightclub for three years. Her hands should look exactly like this.
After saying those words, Chen Yi didn't linger for even a second.
She deftly put her helt back on. That plastic shell once again separated her from this world that had brought her sha.
She swung a leg over the battered, scraped-up electric scooter parked nearby—its side mirror held together with tape—
twisted the throttle, and left without a trace of nostalgia.
The scooter emitted a faint electric whir,
rged into the dusty little road outside the set entrance,
and soon disappeared into the evening traffic.
From her appearance to her disappearance, the whole process took less than three minutes.
She was like the wind. She ca, and then she was gone.
Leaving behind only a container of scalding braised pork knuckle rice, and a man nailed to the pillar of sha.
Gu Zhiyuan stood rooted to the spot.
He hung his head, staring fixedly at the braised pork knuckle rice in his arms.
On the plastic lid of the al box was printed the shop's comical smiling pig logo.
Next to it was a line of advertising copy: "Eat well, drink well, live forever."
He felt that pig was mocking him.
The weight of this container of braised pork knuckle rice crushed all his high spirits and ambition.
Lin Wan looked at the devastated Gu Zhiyuan, then at the direction where Chen Yi had vanished, her heart a tumult of mixed emotions.
The real "Liu Piaopiao" didn't need to act at all.
Jiang Ci didn't speak.
He looked at Gu Zhiyuan, who seed on the verge of shattering,
then looked again in the direction Chen Yi had disappeared, lost in thought.
That girl possessed the most standard, professional heartbreak he had ever seen.
Not performance. Life.
He walked over to Gu Zhiyuan, took the container of braised pork knuckle rice from his rigid hands, and casually remarked:
"Director Gu, stop standing there. If you don't give her that 'five-star rating' soon, that fifty bucks is going to be on you."
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