Shi Guanghua couldn't understand why Chu Yueyi had such a strong reaction. If this had happened a few months ago when he first joined the crew, he might have stuttered and been unable to speak.
But now, having learned from her that sharing food could improve communication, and having become more familiar with each other, he had naturally shed his tension and awkwardness, no longer feeling at a loss as he did initially.
You could call it the boiling frog effect, or you could say it was using the enemy's tactics against them.
Chu Yueyi had taught him how to win people over, but who knew he would end up trying to win her over?
His approach was so simple that it caused her to let her guard down, and she only realized it when others pointed it out.
Chu Yueyi and Shi Guanghua had a difference of opinion on the matter of food-sharing.
Shi Guanghua didn't argue with her, but when he saw her put down her chopsticks, he asked curiously, "Are you not going to eat anymore?"
Chu Yueyi thought to herself that she didn't dare continue eating, but not wanting to be too impolite, she politely declined, "You can take it back and eat it yourself."
Shi Guanghua replied, "I can't eat this."
Chu Yueyi was taken aback. "Why not?"
Shi Guanghua candidly admitted, "I might be allergic."
Having chatted casually quite often recently, they no longer felt the initial awkwardness. Chu Yueyi instinctively asked, "Are you allergic to seafood?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt something was off. Asking him these things seemed to show that she cared too much, but the habit formed over the past few months was hard to break immediately.
"Yes," Shi Guanghua replied, not noticing her unease. "I've never eaten clams before, so I'm not sure if I'm allergic to them."
Shi Guanghua's expression was open, as if he was just mentioning it casually.
Hearing this, Chu Yueyi felt even more confused. He had actually made this specially for her.
Why didn't he feel awkward saying these things!?
After a friendly negotiation, upholding the principle of not wasting food, Chu Yueyi ended up accepting the spicy stir-fried clams.
Although Chu Yueyi straightforwardly told him not to bring food anymore, Shi Guanghua clearly didn't understand why, since it was her idea in the first place.
In the break room, Chu Yueyi held the lunch box, feeling quite at a loss. She happened to run into a female actress from the crew. Seeing the lunch box in her hands, the actress immediately started teasing, "Oh my, he's brought food again?"
In the past, Chu Yueyi would have explained at length, but now she just felt a headache coming on and asked, "Do you want to eat it?"
The actress replied, "No, I wouldn't do something so tactless. You enjoy it yourself. No one in the crew dares to eat it."
Chu Yueyi helplessly opened the lunch box. She thought she should eat without tasting, but unfortunately, Shi Guanghua's cooking was too good, and she ended up eating with relish.
She remembered him frankly saying, "You look happy when you eat," and upon reflection, it wasn't sarcasm, but perhaps just a statement of fact.
The actress noticed Chu Yueyi's subtle expression and sat down eagerly, gossiping, "Come on, tell me! What are you thinking about?"
Sensing her colleague's attitude of watching for entertainment, Chu Yueyi calmly said, "Reflecting on my own gluttony."
"How can you think of it that way?" The actress was greatly disappointed. She then laughed and said, "But you're quite slow to realize it now. Shi Guanghua is usually so difficult to get along with."
Chu Yueyi hesitantly spoke up, "He seems fine to me?"
"How can he be fine? Haven't you heard the Sound Director criticize him for being as stubborn as a mule?"
"...Is he really that stubborn?"
"Tsk tsk, love is blind. I guess only you don't think he's stubborn."
"..."
Chu Yueyi suddenly didn't dare to continue the conversation, but she really didn't feel that Shi Guanghua was that stubborn. After all, when they first interacted, she thought he didn't seem very smart.
That's why it took her so long to notice anything unusual. Firstly, she didn't like to assume things, and secondly, he obviously didn't seem very bright, so who would think in that direction?
For months, all they did was chat and share food. They hadn't even said anything that crossed the line. Probably the most ambiguous part was the crew's gossip!
If she hadn't known about his seafood allergy and that he still made clams, she could have continued to treat him as just a friend to exchange snacks with!
Seeing Chu Yueyi's conflicted expression, the actress comforted her, "But if you really don't have feelings for him, you can just reject him directly."
Chu Yueyi replied weakly, "Friend, I need to have a chance to reject first. There's nothing between us yet."
One can only reject a confession, and right now, the most they could reject was food-sharing. What else was there to reject?
Chu Yueyi once doubted if she was still overthinking things. Maybe the crew was just making things up, and Shi Guanghua was simply a nice person. Otherwise, Shi Guanghua might be too high-level, actually a master of push and pull, making it impossible to settle things definitively. But his mind didn't seem that sharp?
She firmly believed there was no one she couldn't see through, but of course, she couldn't be too arrogant and still needed to be somewhat vigilant.
If Shi Guanghua was a master of emotions, then she could predict his next move and absolutely wouldn't fall into his trap easily.
However, he didn't follow the usual playbook. His approach was too simple, making it difficult for her to respond.
Shi Guanghua would still occasionally bring food, and Chu Yueyi would sometimes politely decline, but when she couldn't refuse, she would accept it.
She generally didn't accept things with a long shelf life, but homemade dishes couldn't be stored, especially since he couldn't eat seafood, so she had to consume these dishes herself.
Over time, Shi Guanghua summarized his experience and concluded that she only liked seafood, so he started bringing only these types of dishes.
Chu Yueyi also noticed his change, and later on, she accepted all the dishes he brought.
Chu Yueyi thought to herself: Well, well, he's treating me like a game character to win over, giving gifts to increase favorability?
As this went on for a while, Chu Yueyi felt something was off. She reluctantly asked, "Why do you keep bringing food?"
Shi Guanghua tentatively asked, "Do you not like eating this anymore?"
Chu Yueyi replied, "It's not that. I just want to tell you, even if you insist on bringing food, you might not get the result you want..."
She felt her words were clear enough, especially since he hadn't said anything either.
Shi Guanghua looked confused and asked, "The result I want? What result do I want?"
Chu Yueyi: "..." Are you really not understanding or just pretending?
Chu Yueyi: "...Then what's your purpose in bringing all this food?"
Shi Guanghua felt she had asked a similar question before. He blinked and honestly said, "It makes me happy."
This was his true feeling. He just felt very happy. After all, she liked the food he cooked, and he felt a shared joy, even if it was seafood he couldn't eat himself.
Shi Guanghua wasn't a person with strong ulterior motives. He kind of followed his feelings. At first, he felt happy just seeing her, then he felt happy talking to her, and later, he felt even happier cooking for her.
He hadn't thought about the end result; he was satisfied just in the moment.
Chu Yueyi was confused by Shi Guanghua's answer.
Her current feeling was like the first time she played a game with him. She had thought he was a confident wild card player, but at the start of the game, she found out he could only choose Princess Yaoyao.
His appearance didn't match his skill level at all.
Chu Yueyi complained, "Do you also like feeding small animals?"
Shi Guanghua replied, "No, I don't."
Chu Yueyi wanted to say that his attitude made it very easy for him to become a backup or a pushover, but his appearance seemed incompatible with such terms, so she swallowed her words in the end.
Let it be. She was tired.
She couldn't figure out Shi Guanghua's thoughts and decided to put this issue aside for now. That's right. Undefined things don't exist, and he indeed hadn't said anything inappropriate. As time flew by, the two continued to chat during their free time on set, continued to be gossiped about by those around them, and still had no breakthrough in their ambiguous relationship.
If one ignored some of the special treatment, Chu Yueyi would think that Shi Guanghua just wanted to be good friends with her. They indeed had no conflicts and occasionally did some boring things to pass the time, like watching ants move their nest during breaks.
Did this resemble the ambiguous interaction between adult men and women?
Every time Chu Yueyi heard the crew members joking, she felt utterly speechless, always feeling that reality was completely different from what they were saying.
Time on set passed quickly, and even the longest shoot would eventually end.
The crew welcomed the wrap-up, and everyone gathered together.
At the wrap party, Chu Yueyi ran into the Sound Director, who indeed strongly disliked Shi Guanghua. He inexplicably started listing his faults, implying that he was arrogant and self-centered.
Shi Guanghua and the Sound Director didn't have much work overlap, and it was unclear why they had become enemies, let alone why it was being mentioned in public.
Shi Guanghua never attended such gatherings, so of course, there was no chance for him to refute in person, otherwise, the Sound Director wouldn't have been so bold.
Others tried to mediate, saying, "Come on, it's not a big deal. That's just how his personality is..."
Chu Yueyi knew she shouldn't interject at this moment, but hearing Shi Guanghua being slandered one-sidedly suddenly made her a bit upset. She smiled and said, "Actually, he's not that arrogant, is he?"
The Sound Director was caught off guard by her rebuttal, momentarily stunned into silence for quite a while.
Shi Guanghua was somewhat like an outsider in the crew, unlikely to cross paths often in the future. But Chu Yueyi, being a long-term actress in the industry, naturally had a different status.
Hearing this, the others didn't remain silent like the Sound Director. Instead, they burst into laughter: "Oh my, Old Yang! You've got yourself in big trouble now. Didn't expect she had someone backing her up, did you?"
"He's getting nervous! And he's been denying it to us every day, saying there was nothing between them..."
Usually, Chu Yueyi would have explained, but facing the embarrassed Sound Director, she felt that completely siding with Shi Guanghua would leave him isolated and defenseless.
If she continued to hear slander against him, she'd likely feel increasingly uncomfortable.
Chu Yueyi chuckled lightly, "Maybe so."
The crowd erupted in even more excited cheers, as if they wanted to beat drums and gongs in celebration, their joy seemingly inexplicable.
The Sound Director felt out of place in this environment. He didn't speak again for the rest of the wrap party.
In the night, Chu Yueyi left the noisy banquet and walked along the path towards the hotel. She happened to run into the absent person.
He was enjoying the quiet solitude outside, his figure tall and striking in the moonlight, eye-catching even from afar.
Chu Yueyi raised an eyebrow: "You seem quite leisurely."
Shi Guanghua turned to see her and asked, "Is the wrap party over?"
Chu Yueyi nodded, "Mm-hmm. Why didn't you attend? Why are you still here?"
Shi Guanghua pondered for a few seconds, glanced at her, and said softly, "I don't want to say goodbye."
He felt the time with the crew had passed so quickly. Nearly half a year had gone by in the blink of an eye.
They might not have many chances to meet again, making him reluctant to say farewell just yet.
Chu Yueyi mocked, "You don't want to say goodbye? Do you know what others are saying about you?"
Shi Guanghua: "Who's talking about me?"
Chu Yueyi: "The Sound Director says you're aloof and superior."
Shi Guanghua: "Oh, that's probably because his level is too low, so he feels I'm high up."
Chu Yueyi: "..."
Chu Yueyi looked at him in disbelief: "Seems like what I said earlier was too generous."
Shi Guanghua asked curiously: "What did you say earlier?"
Chu Yueyi's eyebrows twitched: "I said you weren't that arrogant, but now it seems you really are."
Chu Yueyi felt like she'd been proven wrong at lightning speed. She'd never seen him so sharp before. Who knew he could talk to people like this?
Hearing this, Shi Guanghua felt a slight stirring in his heart. Suppressing the surging joy in his chest, he asked with a slight smile, "You stood up for me?"
Looking at Shi Guanghua's slightly blushing, excited expression, and recalling his indifferent tone when evaluating others just now, Chu Yueyi quipped, "...How come you have two different faces!?"
Chu Yueyi thought: I believed the rumors about him in the crew were all false, but it turns out I just hadn't seen his true side!!