Jiang Miaomiao opened her door at midnight and was startled by Shao Yichen standing at the entrance, wearing a white dress and looking pale as a ghost.
This outfit made her look even more like a ghost than when she actually played one.
Fortunately, she had already been woken up by Shao Yichen's barrage of phone calls and knew in advance that she wanted to crash at her place for the night, so she wasn't scared to death by Shao Yichen suddenly appearing at her door in the middle of the night. She stepped aside to let Shao Yichen into the room, finding her disposable slippers while asking: "Did you and Li Xingyu have such a fierce argument?"
Shao Yichen turned around with a fierce look in her eyes, like an inflated pufferfish: "Don't mention his name in front of me!"
"...Okay." Jiang Miaomiao had long understood this director's personality and knew she should go with the flow at times like this, tactfully changing the subject. "Would you like something to drink? Although my fridge only has mineral water and juice."
"No need, I have my own solution." Shao Yichen waved her phone. "I ordered bubble tea for delivery—and I got you one too, no need to thank me."
Well, thank modern technology, thank phones, thank delivery. Jiang Miaomiao silently retracted her left foot that was heading toward the kitchen while calculating how many calories the 11 PM bubble tea would add.
Half an hour later.
Shao Yichen and Jiang Miaomiao were curled up on the sofa, each holding a cup of bubble tea, staring at the movie playing on the projection screen in front of them.
This movie was Shao Yichen's latest directorial work, mainly about the war between the Zerg and humanity, mixed with mechs, starships, and holographic online games. It had just been released for over a week, but its box office had already dominated September, possibly making up for Li Qianqian's regret that "The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons" couldn't break three billion yuan.
Usually, Shao Yichen was quite silent when watching her own directorial works, even impatient, since she had directed them herself and was very familiar with the movie plots. But today was different—she watched the movie while passionately complaining to Jiang Miaomiao, and all her complaints focused on Li Xingyu's appearances.
"Why is Li Xingyu here!"
"So he appears here too? Why does he show up in every highlight moment?"
"He's just here to steal the protagonist's spotlight, right? Why does his ability seem so overpowered now? No wonder the Zerg always target him—if they don't seal this cheat character, how can the villain Zerg fight?"
These are all things you filmed yourself, Jiang Miaomiao thought, but she tactfully didn't voice this.
Actually, by her standards, Li Xingyu's appearances in this movie were already much fewer, but since he played the role equivalent to the protagonist's guide, his active figure always appeared in various highlight moments. Even after his death, he would occasionally brush up his presence in the protagonist's flashbacks... In summary, "Even though I'm no longer in the martial world, my legend is still circulating everywhere."
Shao Yichen naturally knew this too, so after seeing Li Xingyu appear for the fifth time, she finally gave up struggling: "Let's... let's watch a different TV series!"
"Then let's watch my 'Mech War God'!" Jiang Miaomiao had been waiting for this line for a long time and eagerly pulled out a disc. "Although I know you definitely read the ending of Qin Lu's manga, the feeling of the TV series is still different from the manga! Besides, to help South Polar Bear Group sell toys, I changed quite a bit of the plot, and I personally think the changes were very appropriate! Like the beautiful romance between the system and humans, the mutual respect between villains and heroes, and my favorite scene of running in the sunset..."
"Mech War God" was the fifty-two episode special effects series that Jiang Miaomiao had filmed some time ago, the one in which both Shao Yichen and Li Xingyu had guest appearances.
Although it was mainly a large toy commercial aimed at children, due to the handsome young star Bai Pufan as the protagonist, plus Li Xingyu's guest appearance as the final villain, along with the serious transformation special effects, it attracted quite a few curious young people to watch. This special effects series also created a miracle in viewership ratings—as a work that was basically equivalent to live-action animation, it went head-to-head with other prime-time TV dramas on other channels without falling behind. Later, its ratings could even stabilize at one percent, becoming the viewership champion of that time slot.
Who would have thought that a special effects series made for children would become the viewership champion of its period...
Shao Yichen had long heard that this TV series created an incredible-sounding viewership miracle—even if she hadn't heard about it, she could see the series' popularity from the video platform revenue report Li Qianqian gave her. After all, it went directly from the animation section's recommendation spot to the platform-wide recommendation spot, and the revenue it brought accounted for more than half of the platform's monthly income—but since she guest-starred as the protagonist's sister who travels through time and space reincarnation, with quite a few mystical lines, she had been too embarrassed to watch it.
But since the director had invited her today, Shao Yichen couldn't escape anymore. She nodded bravely: "Alright, I can also see if my acting has improved."
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Ten minutes later, Shao Yichen began to feel drowsy.
Sure enough, for works whose plots she already knew, even if she appeared in them herself, they couldn't capture her attention...
Jiang Miaomiao watched her head nodding as if she might fall asleep at any moment and felt anger rising from her heart to her guts.
—As expected, this person only regains some spirit when Li Xingyu is mentioned!
She decided not to save face for this person anymore and grabbed a cushion to throw at her.
Shao Yichen instinctively caught the cushion with a start, her drowsiness mostly gone: "What happened, alien invasion of Earth?"
"No." Jiang Miaomiao stood with her hands on her hips looking at her. "I just want to ask what exactly happened between you and Li Xingyu."
Shao Yichen: "Don't mention his name in front of me—"
"You're the one who broke into someone else's house in the middle of the night." Jiang Miaomiao showed no mercy and began attacking Shao Yichen. "If you don't want to tell me even this much, I'll call Li Xingyu right now and tell him you're here—"
"No, no, no!" Shao Yichen immediately gave in. "I'll talk, okay!"
She cleared her throat, recalled the process of her argument with Li Xingyu, and her voice lowered again: "Actually, it's nothing much... I just wanted to get a cat, and he disagreed, saying I couldn't take good care of a cat. Then I tried to explain to him properly, but he acted like he wasn't listening."
"Then I told him that since that was the case, I would visit a friend who has cats tonight. I thought he would at least pretend to try to keep me, but he didn't make any such gesture, so I... actually left."
Jiang Miaomiao: "...That's it?"
Shao Yichen nodded: "That's it."
Jiang Miaomiao: "It sounds like you were being a bit unreasonable."
"But I was actually joking when I said I was leaving!" Shao Yichen scratched her hair. "I originally just wanted to go downstairs to buy a fruit tea, but then I found out he didn't even try to verbally keep me, so I got angrier and angrier... then I really ran away. And his attitude was really wrong, just that kind of looking-for-trouble attitude, not speaking properly either—you know? He could have carefully explained why it wouldn't work, and I could have accepted it, but he just kept making sarcastic remarks, so of course I was very angry..."
Hearing this, Jiang Miaomiao's brain began operating at high speed.
Regardless of what Shao Yichen did wrong in this argument, the fact that Li Xingyu would actually be sarcastic was already enough to surprise her.
Based on her understanding of Li Xingyu, this person didn't seem like someone who would be jealous of a creature like a cat? She thought that with one word from Shao Yichen, let alone asking Li Xingyu to keep one cat, even if she wanted to keep a dozen cats, forming a cat soccer team, Li Xingyu wouldn't even frown.
She never expected he would have a day when he'd argue with Shao Yichen over something as trivial as keeping a cat?
She tentatively asked: "He's not allergic to cat fur, is he?"
"No!" Shao Yichen also looked completely confused. "I specifically asked him if he had any allergies, and he said no!"
Intuition told Jiang Miaomiao that this matter wasn't as simple as it appeared on the surface.
She carefully recalled Shao Yichen's statement and suddenly had a flash of inspiration, feeling a bright light flash through her mind.
"What was his reason for disagreeing with getting a cat?" Jiang Miaomiao pushed her non-existent glasses. "Did he say you couldn't take good care of a cat? Besides that, did he say anything more specific?"
"Um..." Shao Yichen thought carefully for a while. "He also seemed to say something about how I don't have time to come home, and even if I bought a cat, it wouldn't really be me taking care of it."
"No time to come home—yes, I think this might be the real point!"
Jiang Miaomiao realized her guess might be correct and showed a confident smile.
"When was the last time you two went out together?" Jiang Miaomiao asked again.
Although Shao Yichen didn't know why the topic suddenly shifted to her dates with Li Xingyu, she realized Jiang Miaomiao was helping her solve the problem, so she answered honestly: "When we were filming recently, we were together until he wrapped, and we'd see each other when we got home from work, as long as I wasn't traveling for the film's post-production."
"Meeting at work during filming is different from going out together during rest time!" Jiang Miaomiao felt she was gradually approaching the core of the problem. "Tell me, when was the last time you two ate together? When did you last go on a trip? Have you recently refused any of Li Xingyu's requests?"
"This..." Shao Yichen was momentarily speechless. "Eating together... seems like it was at the wrap party, we really haven't been alone together... we definitely haven't gone on any trips... he seemed to want to invite me to dinner together one evening recently, but that day was the release date for the second part of the Ice Galaxy game, so I refused, and we ended up ordering takeout at home..."
Hearing this, Jiang Miaomiao was heartbroken.
"Unromantic! How can there be someone who actively refuses to go out on dates!" She showed an expression of "this child cannot be taught." "Don't tell me you've also been coming home very late recently?"
"When I was doing post-production for the movie, it did seem to be a bit late—but Qianqian always drove me home! Luo Anan, as Li Xingyu's manager, also knew I was doing post-production and promotion for the movie, so I definitely wasn't out fooling around..."
"But that's how you neglected Li Xingyu's feelings." Jiang Miaomiao hit the nail on the head. "You're busy every day, but isn't he busy too? Liming Group has been undergoing major personnel changes recently, and as the new chairman, he should theoretically be busier than you!"
"Under these circumstances, he went to great lengths to free up one evening, wanting to go out to dinner with you, maybe even carefully prepared a surprise for you, and you ended up ordering takeout at home with him because of a game launch?" Jiang Miaomiao severely criticized Shao Yichen. "Couldn't you play the game one day later?"
Shao Yichen felt increasingly guilty as she listened.
It seemed... this was indeed the case.
In this romantic relationship, she seemed to be quite inadequate.
Scummy, really scummy.
And scummy without self-awareness, naturally scummy, more deserving of criticism than ordinary scumminess.
Thinking of this, Shao Yichen began deep self-reflection. She humbly asked Jiang Miaomiao: "In that case, how should I correct this?"
"First of all, before correcting anything, you should give up the idea of getting a cat. After all, if you want one, there will always be cats, but Li Xingyu isn't as easy to find as cats." Jiang Miaomiao sat cross-legged facing Shao Yichen and began providing relationship guidance. "Although I know Director Shao's personality is more, uh, homebody-type, for the sake of your partner, you also need to appropriately change your habits."
"For example, if Li Xingyu wants to invite you out next time, even if you don't want to go that day, you should arrange a time for next time—"
Jiang Miaomiao was about to continue her guidance—God knows how this person who hadn't really dated much herself could act so knowledgeable about such theories—when there was another sudden knock at the door.
Jiang Miaomiao and Shao Yichen looked at each other. The former looked through the peephole and relaxed—it was Li Xingyu and Qin Lu.
She used her eyes to ask Shao Yichen, who hesitated for a long time before waving her hand, tentatively indicating agreement to open the door.
Jiang Miaomiao opened the door, and Shao Yichen awkwardly moved over. Before she could figure out how to apologize, she first noticed the small furry bundle Li Xingyu was holding.
"A cat!" she exclaimed in surprise, immediately throwing their recent argument to the back of her mind and actively moving closer to Li Xingyu. "It looks very small—ah, is the left paw injured? But it's already been bandaged..."
"I just found it by the garden in our neighborhood." Li Xingyu carefully held the cat. "I never knew there were stray cats in our neighborhood, maybe it was just passing through. When I went downstairs to look for you, I saw it crying pitifully by the garden. When I got closer, I found it seemed to have a leg injury, so I urgently contacted a pet hospital."
At this point, Li Xingyu shook the bag in his right hand: "It should be fine now, but it needs to rest for a while. It doesn't seem afraid of people, so I bought cat food and a cushion. It can live with us while it recovers. Of course, if it wants to continue living with us after it recovers, I wouldn't mind either."
"Really!" Shao Yichen jumped up excitedly, then suddenly remembered their previous argument and instantly showed an apologetic expression: "I'm sorry, just now I—"
"I had a bad attitude." Li Xingyu apologized before Shao Yichen could. "My attitude was too poor earlier. I just blindly accused you of being irresponsible without considering your thoughts or listening to your explanations."
"No, I know the problem isn't with you!" Shao Yichen quickly raised her voice. "Now that I think about it, you haven't been in a good mood for a while, but I just didn't notice... and I refused your dinner invitation. Looking back now, was there some special significance to that day?"
"That's not the case." Li Xingyu said lightly.
Li Xingyu said this, but Shao Yichen couldn't think this way, or she would be too heartless. She desperately recalled and vaguely felt that June seemed to be a special time for both of them.
After thinking for a long time, she finally remembered.
Li Xingyu's confession to her was also in June?!
After thinking of this, Shao Yichen momentarily had the urge to cover her face.
Shao Yichen, oh Shao Yichen! How could you forget such a thing because of making a movie!
However, this didn't mean Shao Yichen had forgotten about anniversaries, she just calculated anniversary dates differently from Li Xingyu. Li Xingyu's "one-year dating anniversary" was most likely calculated from the day he confessed, but for Shao Yichen, their dating anniversary should properly be calculated from the day the system restrictions were lifted and she officially accepted Li Xingyu's confession.
There was a whole three-month difference!
Thinking of this, Shao Yichen decided to temporarily let this issue go, but secretly resolved that on the day of their official dating anniversary, she would give Li Xingyu a good surprise to make him recognize the time difference in their anniversary dates.
But before that, there were more important things to apologize for.
Shao Yichen petted the cat in Li Xingyu's arms, and it very comfortably accepted her touch, its attitude even somewhat righteous.
She looked at the small animal in his arms and said: "I've indeed been very busy recently, coming home very late, and spending less and less time with you. Although filming work was part of the reason, looking back, I could have solved the work-life balance issue better and could have come home earlier."
"This is my first time dating someone, my first time starting a life with two people, and I haven't fully adjusted my mindset. I always feel like I'm still alone, but because of this, I neglected your feelings. But I won't be like this again! I'll adjust my habits and won't selfishly impose my thoughts on you anymore..."
Shao Yichen wanted to continue her self-criticism, expressing things like "for example, when you want to date in the future, I absolutely won't say takeout tastes better anymore, thinking back, that was just brain-dead behavior, how could I be so stupid," but was interrupted by Li Xingyu again.
"Actually, I thought a lot on the way here too." Li Xingyu leaned forward slightly, moving closer to Shao Yichen. "Indeed, during this time I discovered for the first time how unbearable your busy periods are, and I also discovered for the first time that sometimes our rhythms can't completely match."
"But I can't demand that you change yourself because of these reasons—because what left the deepest impression on me will always be Director Shao Yichen who handed me a genius script. I love you, and I also love your movies. If my love actually affects your career, then there must be something wrong with my way of expressing it."
"Whatever decision you make, I will always support you. At the same time, as long as you still need me, I will always be your exclusive male lead."
At this point, Li Xingyu rarely softened his voice, seeming somewhat embarrassed: "Saying such things so directly in front of friends is really quite... challenging for me."
Shao Yichen looked up and found that his earlobes were rarely a bit red.
The kitten in his arms closed its eyes and nuzzled him, making a "meow" sound, as if expressing agreement.
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Although this nighttime drama ultimately didn't reach any unified conclusion, and Shao Yichen and Li Xingyu still needed a long road to work things out, at least they had found a common direction again.
On the way home, since Li Xingyu was driving, the responsibility of holding the cat fell to Shao Yichen. She absent-mindedly scratched the kitten's ears, watching the lights flying backward outside the car window, when a question suddenly arose in her heart.
"Speaking of which, why was Qin Lu there just now?" she asked.
"Because he has experience keeping cats, although they were his parents' cats." Li Xingyu answered while driving. "I didn't know where there were pet hospitals, so I asked him for help."
"Then how did you know I was at Jiang Miaomiao's house?" Shao Yichen looked confused.
"Qin Lu told me that too." Li Xingyu was completely honest.
"That's exactly the problem!" Shao Yichen snapped her fingers. "I knew something was off—I'm at Jiang Miaomiao's house, how would he know that?"
Li Xingyu: "...You really don't know?"
Shao Yichen looked completely bewildered: "I really don't know. Is this matter so obvious?"
"No, I just didn't expect that someone so good at writing scripts couldn't see through something like this." Li Xingyu smiled.
Shao Yichen became alert: "What thing?"
"Actually, it's nothing major." Li Xingyu easily turned a corner. "It's just that Qin Lu and Jiang Miaomiao are dating."
Shao Yichen: "Oh—what?!"
Her voice instantly shot up, so loud that the cat that had been sleeping peacefully in her arms opened its eyes and looked at her disdainfully, as if mocking her slowness.
"This kind of thing... I never heard about this kind of thing at all!" Shao Yichen was still immersed in shock and couldn't recover.
"No wonder Jiang Miaomiao acted like a relationship guidance master just now—turns out she really has romantic experience!!!"
Li Xingyu suppressed his laughter: "Yes, that's right. I'm also surprised you just discovered this."
The cat in Shao Yichen's arms meowed once, again expressing agreement.