First Kiss Diary - Chapter 16

Outside the car window, the light was hazy, and mist lingered. After the “action” cue, Jining threw herself into the performance. First, she watched the scenery slowly retreat, then her gaze began to drift, and her eyelids seemed to slowly droop as if weighted. Her head swayed slightly with the motion of the car, carrying a sense of lethargy akin to being half-asleep. After a few sways, she finally found a support and leaned on the male lead’s shoulder, sinking into slumber.

Ji Shiyi watched from across.

The girl’s performance had layers, better than those of her peers and even predecessors. It had a very natural sense of the camera and a well-balanced restraint, indicating talent. She was naturally suited for acting, born to be an actress.

He hadn’t seen her perform before. At the beginning of filming variety shows, he couldn’t tell if she was being herself or playing a character, but when the young girl looked at him, he inexplicably felt her sincerity. Even though she initially seemed distant and evasive, it never felt unpleasant or offensive.

On one hand, he looked forward to her dazzling performance, but on the other hand, he hoped her performance would leave traces, not be so natural, so he could see… what her emotions were really like when facing him.

Unfortunately, the girl’s acting was seamlessly integrated with her persona, even her feigned sleep was so authentic.

The next scene was about eating ice, inspired by a viral drink the female lead had seen on Weibo. She shared it with the male lead, who then made it for her and brought it to the café. The ice cubes had flower petals inside, transparent and fresh, subtly expressing the male lead’s affection.

Now, they were filming a scene where they danced while wearing handcuffs. Just when they finally got to film a youth drama, they added in a requirement like “high school doesn’t allow early romance, early romance doesn’t allow success”, causing young people to restrain themselves even in ambiguous situations.

In this scene, they didn’t hold hands, nor did they exchange any ambiguous words. They simply sat in the café, studying diligently every day, accompanied by some humorous interactions and dialogues.

Ji Shiyi finally stopped giving Zuo Gong that piercing look, stepping back a bit, and Zuo Gong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Jining had been busy lately, her resistance weakened by a cold she caught. She coughed while acting, and the director felt guilty seeing her face turn red. “Let’s skip the close-up shots of chewing ice, switch to warm water.”

“No, that part where they chew ice together is a highlight. Readers love it,” Jining coughed again, “I’m fine.”

“Have you done your homework?” Ji Shiyi asked, looking at her notebook filled with colorful notes.

Jining didn’t answer. The director spoke first, “Of course, she writes character bios for her auditions. She’s read the original novel five times, and she’s analyzed some details even better than I have.”

“Let’s shoot then,” Jining said, “The props department specially froze the ice, we shouldn’t waste it.”

Nuo Nuo suggested from the side, “How about we stop filming after they chew the ice, then they can spit it out instead of swallowing?”

Jining flicked her forehead, “That would be too fake, the audience won’t feel the authenticity.”

“That’s true. Forget it… You’re the kind of person who can soak in ice water for half an hour in winter, your perseverance and professionalism are beyond us ordinary folks,” Nuo Nuo turned around, “You start filming, I’ll go prepare warm water and throat lozenges.”

“Okay.”

The scene of chewing ice had many angles and took four takes to finish. Jining warmed her throat with her palms and ran to the shade to rest and drink water.

Ji Shiyi’s gaze followed the girl’s movements.

She was bent over the table, coughing, her ears turning red, but during the shoot, she had stubbornly endured without a sound, making him think she was fine.

Ji Shiyi walked over and said to her, “The more you suppress the cough, the worse it gets.”

He meant she shouldn’t have resisted it just now.

Jining understood his meaning after a moment and popped a throat lozenge into her mouth, “It’s okay to suppress it a bit now, but if I had coughed earlier, we would’ve had to reshoot.”

It was fine for her, but the cameraman and props department were working under the scorching sun. She couldn’t just think of herself and ignore so many crew members’ work, so she decided to endure it, and they finished all four shots in one go.

Ji Shiyi was about to say something else when he noticed her discreetly rolling up one sleeve to inspect something underneath, a red patch seemed to be pressed against her skin.

Just as Jining was about to pull her sleeve down, someone stopped her, and Ji Shiyi looked at the large patch of allergy on her hand and asked, “What happened here?”

She touched her nose, “Oh, just an allergy.”

“I know, I’m asking how you got the allergy.”

“There were many bugs when I was harvesting rice, and the rice grains were a bit prickly.”

“It’s okay,” she said, repeating her most common phrase, “My skin is quite sensitive, so it reacts like this even to a bug bite.”

“Harvesting rice?” The man furrowed his brows, “Why on earth were you doing farm work?”

Looking like a delicate girl nurtured by nature, why would she go and harvest rice in the middle of summer?

“Recording a program…”

Of course, here it is with spaces between paragraphs:

“Knowing you have allergies, you should keep your distance. What’s the big deal about recording a program? If you don’t go, can they force you?”

“No other girls want to go, so I should step up.”

Seeing she was discovered, Ji Ning no longer sneaked around. She took out the ointment and continued, “I’m different from you. Even if everyone else can stay silent, I can’t.”

Even if everyone else could pass with a score of sixty, she couldn’t. She had to achieve at least eighty to meet the standard. Otherwise, the aggressive public opinion would resurface. She understood too well how strict netizens were with her because of the negative impressions from previous incidents. She had to do more to win back everyone’s approval.

Ji Shiyu couldn’t say his previous line, “If they don’t go, why should you suffer alone?”

She was too insightful, so much so that it was a bit heartbreaking.

He watched her apply the ointment for a while before asking, “How long has it been like this?”

“Over three hours.” She even helped someone else pick corn afterward.

“You really don’t mind bothering yourself,” the man lowered his eyelids, “Female artists can’t handle this.”

“I’ve also filmed ‘Moonlit Corridor’ and ‘Sonnets’ before, it’s nothing new.”

Filming was tough back then, especially the first drama. No one looked out for her, and she lacked experience. Under the director’s guidance, scene after scene was a struggle. After finishing work and returning to her room, she would hang her long sleeves for ten minutes, only to find sweat still pooling in the basin.

“I really admire you,” Zhuo Gong, who had been silent, suddenly joined the chat. “If you come from the countryside, it’s normal to endure hardships, but you obviously grew up in comfort. Yet, you’re so resilient even as a little princess.”

Ji Shiyu looked at her without much emotion.

Suddenly, she didn’t know how to respond, even though Zhuo Gong’s guess was accurate…

“Got it right, huh?” Zhuo Gong patted her shoulder, “I understand you.”

“Being sentimental won’t help, I’ll be replaced,” she replied, “There are so many beautiful and young actors in the entertainment industry. It’s easier to replace me than baking cookies.”

Moreover, many had strong family backgrounds or connections. She could only compete with hard work and acting skills.

“Don’t underestimate yourself; your face alone gives you a competitive edge,” Zhuo Gong said. “Many actresses just rely on heavy editing to look good, but they’re like ghosts on screen. And those who look beautiful on screen but lack soul… you’re different.”

“Zhuo Gong.” Ji Shiyu, who hadn’t spoken, suddenly called his name.

“What’s up, bro?”

“Have you memorized your lines?”

Zhuo Gong was puzzled, “But we’re done for the day…”

The man said seriously, “A good actor doesn’t stop working. You should always immerse yourself in the character and context. Those who haven’t memorized their lines aren’t qualified to chat here.”

Zhuo Gong didn’t understand why the senior suddenly became so strict, but he quickly grinned, “But I’ve memorized tomorrow’s lines! Didn’t expect that, huh?”

“…”

“Do you think memorizing lines for a day is enough? Don’t you know that a successful play requires at least five days of preparation, with new insights every day?” Ji Shiyu’s gaze was firm. “And here you are, praising others’ beauty.”

Zhuo Gong thought to himself, isn’t praising someone’s beauty just stating the truth? Is that also wrong?… He scratched his head.

“Let’s continue chatting here,” the man narrowed his eyes, “Unless you want the audience to criticize your acting as robotic.”

Zhuo Gong was about to agree after hearing the first half of the sentence, but upon hearing the second half, he hurriedly grabbed the script and returned to the hotel.

“I’m out, bro. I really am. I’ll go back and focus on rehearsing!”

Ji Ning stood up, “Then I’ll leave too.”

Finally getting rid of one person, the man was about to leave, but he became displeased when he saw Ji Ning preparing to leave as well, “Why are you leaving?” Are you going to review the script with Zhuo Gong?”

“I’ve only memorized up to the day after tomorrow,” Ji Ning blinked, “Didn’t you say we should memorize five days in advance?”

“You don’t have to.”

Ji Ning: ?

Seeing Ji Ning’s increasingly confused expression, the man cleared his throat and looked away.

“The requirements for male and female actors are different.”

“You can stay and chat.”

“…”

――

After chatting about other topics for a while, Ji Ning saw the leading actor nearby and didn’t want to waste the opportunity. So, in the end, she took out the script and discussed a few uncertain points with him.

When they were almost done discussing, Nuo Nuo came running over from the side, holding a phone with a displeased expression.

Ji Ning had faced many similar situations before, so she already had a sense of what was going on before Nuo Nuo approached.

“What’s wrong? Did the promotional account make up another story to smear me?”

“You’re even preempting the responses now,” Nuo Nuo handed her the phone, “It’s about your plastic surgery.”

Plastic surgery had been a long-standing black mark on her reputation. It all started when she had to take archive photos for the company on the day she joined. She didn’t know that the previous night happened to be Song Yu’s birthday, and there was a lot of drinking and barbecue going on.

Ji Ning didn’t drink but had some soft drinks and ate the barbecue, even instant noodles. The next day, she woke up with a swollen face due to excessive salt intake, which wasn’t very noticeable in real life. But the camera was strict; even the slightest excess flesh would make you look like a middle-aged person gaining weight, and a swollen face… would be magnified several times over.

Here’s the translation:

“Even more unlucky was that the night before, Ji Ning cried while watching a TV series at home, and when she woke up the next day, her double eyelids were swollen from crying.

She asked her agent if it was serious, and the agent said it was nothing, just take a photo for the record, so the boss knows what you look like. So she didn’t use double eyelid stickers, nor did she know there were instruments to reduce swelling. She foolishly took a photo without makeup for the record, and after taking fourteen lines of poetry, someone dug up the photo.

With the addition of the psychedelic lighting that day, and the marketing accounts setting the tone beforehand, comparing her peak beauty picture with the swollen one, even Ji Ning felt like she had undergone plastic surgery.

Netizens were more concerned about whether she was genuine than her fans were. Yesterday, they watched her live stream at a cozy inn and noticed her swollen face after the surgery. After spending the night, they hastily wrote a garbage statement, and today they rushed out to join in the criticism.

Comments didn’t care whether she was allergic or not; criticizing was the main point:

[‘So scary, did she get injections recently to make her face swell like this? I remember she looked beautiful when she wore a cheongsam before.’]

[‘Naive, who doesn’t know Ji Ning swapped faces? Her face was a bit off before, of course, she had to pick a time to go under the knife again, but she didn’t expect to go on a variety show right after getting injections.’]

[‘She’s so brave, the first female artist to openly admit to plastic surgery, I don’t even know how to criticize her for a moment.’]

[‘The comments above all call her a face-swapper, they know her better than her own mother, don’t you dare ask if they know what an allergy is?’]

The fans’ controlled comments had minimal effect, after all, the comparison images were too good, and there were even marketing accounts deleting clarification comments from fans.

Ji Ning looked up and confirmed, “Am I going to Korea next week to attend a high fashion show?” It seemed like it was a resource provided by T.

“Take care of other things while you’re there, it’s time to address the plastic surgery rumors.”

“How should I address them? Have a doctor confirm it?”

“That’s too predictable, we need something more interesting.”

Having a doctor confirm it would be too fake, and it would easily attract criticism while not being believable. She wasn’t that foolish.

Nuo Nuo added, “By the way, Sun He is also going to the show. I heard she’s well-prepared, she pre-ordered a gown, bought expensive limited edition high heels, and booked the most expensive makeup artist in Korea.”

Ji Ning tilted her head, “But she’s not walking the runway, why dress so fancy?”

“She wants to follow your path, overshadowing the negative publicity, you know,” Nuo Nuo raised her eyebrows, “I heard the press release is already written and will be released at the beginning of the show.”

“It’s really imitating others, overshadowing the publicity only works if everyone thinks you’re glamorous. What’s the point if you don’t look good?”

Ji Ning raised her eyebrows thoughtfully.

Originally, she didn’t want to go to the show because she was busy. Now, not only did she have to clarify rumors, but she also had to appear in the same frame as Sun He, to see how she could outshine her…

—

A week later, the fashion show began, and Ji Shiyin was also invited. Ji Ning opened her alternate account on Weibo as soon as she got off the plane and found Ji Shiyin’s stunning natural photo.

The term “natural photo” means unedited. Only artists with good natural looks dare to post without editing. Of course, some fan sites would post unedited photos first and edit them later.

But obviously, Ji Shiyin didn’t need editing; whether edited or not, he looked almost the same.

He was wearing a suit from the C brand today, with a side-swept fringe, looking like the student council president from the neighboring aristocratic school in a comic book.

After seeing Ji Shiyin’s photos all the way, when she got off the car, Ji Ning used her alternate account to repost today’s rainbow fart:

[‘I said my alarm didn’t ring today, why did I wake up? Turns out it was Ji Shiyin’s handsomeness that woke me up.’]

[‘Ji Shiyin’s handsome photos, the culprit for my insufficient storage space.’]

Her alternate Weibo name was “Ji Shiyin’s secret wife,” which was dissed by Song Yu at the time, saying that if you’re secretly married, keep a low profile. Who are you afraid wouldn’t know if you don’t announce yourself as an outsider’s wife?

As she reposted, she headed to the dressing room. Just as she pushed open the door, she saw the male lead from her repost sitting on the leather sofa opposite.

The photo was already stunning, but seeing the person in real life, her first reaction was that he didn’t look as good in person. The photo couldn’t capture even a tenth of his three-dimensional presence.

Ji Ning raised her hand to greet, but something tripped her foot, and she stumbled, nearly falling. Fortunately, she regained her balance within three seconds.

She didn’t fall, but her phone wasn’t as lucky.

The page of the secret wife hadn’t been closed, and the phone flipped out of her hand, landing in front of Ji Shiyin, seemingly at a perfect angle for him to read.

Ji Shiyin instinctively caught the phone and looked down.

Ji Ning froze, feeling as if her blood was flowing backward in her body.