Chapter 12
"Miaomiao, remember to take lots of photos of the film crew for me, I want to see them!"
"Also, eat more food! If it's really not tasty, eat snacks, but don't skip them."
"Also, I saw in the weather forecast that it will rain in Xishan. It's at a high altitude there, so remember to bring a couple of thick coats."
Li Zhi's trivial instructions came through the phone.
As Yu Miaomiao listened, she silently refuted him in her heart.
It's just a mountain with an altitude of over 2,000 meters, how low can the temperature get?
But she didn't say anything in the end; she just listened silently.
"Okay, I'm going to class now, bye-bye!"
A long beep sounded, and Yu Miaomiao turned off the phone. Looking out the car window, she saw a bustling scene.
This time, we'll be staying on the mountain for a week. Members of each group are stuffing machines and supplies into the vehicles. Two large trucks are already full and there's still room to spare.
The production manager, holding a megaphone, shouted at the top of his lungs, "We're about to set off! The signal is bad up in the mountains, so we might not be able to make or receive calls. Remember to call your families beforehand!"
The sound of phone calls could be heard from every corner.
"Mom, don't worry, it's perfectly safe. It's just up in the western mountains, and we live in a villa!"
"Yes, you'll be staying for a week. Don't stay up late while you're home alone. I made two hundred dumplings for you. If you don't want dumplings, you can go to Aunt Wang's house next door. I've already told her not to order takeout; those aren't healthy..."
Yu Miaomiao suddenly felt bored and closed the car window.
The production crew was well-treated; the lead actors were provided with a minivan with good soundproofing—once the windows were closed, you couldn't hear any annoying noises from outside.
However, the noise inside the car cannot be isolated.
The two lead actors rode in the same car, with Jiang Chengyi sitting on the other side, one seat between them.
He was also on the phone. Yu Miaomiao didn't want to listen, but the faint sound from the phone still drifted into her ears automatically.
"Old Jiang, what am I supposed to do without you? I haven't even touched my elective course assignment!"
A pitiful wail came from the other end of the phone: "And there's the basketball game against the Vehicle Engineering team tomorrow. Without you as the point guard, I'm like a piece of wood, I can't hold them up. We'll be crushed!"
"If I had known I'd gone with you, I really wanted to ask for leave!"
Jiang Chengyi's response was slow and deliberate.
"Write the paper yourself, and I'll send you the references in a package."
"I've already discussed it with the vehicle engineering department and moved the basketball game to a week later."
"Don't even think about taking leave. You've already taken three leaves in less than two months since the start of the semester. If you do that, you might as well drop out."
"Aaaaaaah, Jiang Chengyi, you're my god! My best brother, I love you!! I can't survive at A University without you! Aaaaaah!"
The cat is so noisy.
Yu Miaomiao silently covered her ears.
During the few days she spent infiltrating Jiang Cheng's family, she had already thoroughly investigated their network of relationships.
The person on the phone was named Cheng Nuo, from the Department of Physical Education. He seemed to be Jiang Chengyi's childhood friend and the only one who dared to speak to Jiang Chengyi so casually.
Jiang Chengyi's tasks include, but are not limited to, filling in for teammates in basketball, copying homework, bringing food, logging in to check in, and getting a discount on Pinduoduo.
Jiang Cheng would usually disagree with most of them, and would generally refuse them without hesitation and then propose a better solution.
But if anyone else makes these unreasonable demands, he'll hang up the phone in the next second.
Yu Miaomiao deduced that Cheng Nuo had saved Jiang Chengyi's life.
At the end of the call, Cheng Nuo said, "Old Jiang, Aunt Jiang called me yesterday to ask about you."
"What did you say?"
"Don't worry, I didn't say anything, I was just making small talk with her."
"If they call again, I'll block them. Don't worry about it."
Jiang Chengyi's voice carried a rare hint of helplessness, clearly shocked that her mother had turned her attention to her friend.
"Okay," Cheng Nuo agreed.
-
The filming location was in Xishan, a suburb of City A. Although the altitude was not high, it took the convoy two hours to get through the narrow and winding road to reach the destination.
On a gentle hillside, two villas stand side by side, their style ornate and their gates tightly closed, yet they appear quite eerie hidden by the dense forest and bushes.
The location producer explained the origin of this scene to everyone.
"These two villas were built by a wealthy person at a high price. He originally thought that the scenery here was beautiful and the temperature was low, so he would invite his family and friends to come for a summer vacation."
"I didn't expect it to have so many drawbacks. The road is difficult to travel, there are many mosquitoes, the express delivery can't be delivered, and there are strange noises everywhere at night, which is terrifying. I can't come here even once every few years, it's practically abandoned."
Someone joked, "Hey, so you sent everyone here to suffer?"
The location producer proudly puffed out his chest, "There's a forest right outside the villa. We can handle two scenes at once, saving a lot of money!"
Saving money is the top priority.
A chorus of boos erupted from the surrounding crowd.
We arrived at the villa in the late afternoon, and with the equipment and temporary dormitories set up, the official filming was postponed to the next day.
Since there were no boxed meals available on the mountain, the production team specially hired several chefs to take care of the crew's meals. The first thing to be set up was the stove.
As night fell, everyone put down their work and gathered together for a noisy meal.
Yu Miaomiao picked up the lunchbox and casually picked through the vegetables inside.
The dishes looked delicious, two meat dishes and one vegetable dish, all glistening with oil and appealing to the eye and nose. However, she wasn't interested and only ate a few mouthfuls of white rice.
She ate cat food for most of her childhood, and as she grew up, she had little interest in human food.
Several times, when Li Zhi took Yu Miaomiao to the cafeteria for meals, she was always shocked by the fact that most of the food was left uneaten.
That's why she specifically told me to eat more over the phone.
The crowd gradually dispersed and went back to their work. Someone came to clean up the leftovers, and Yu Miaomiao put down her chopsticks and prepared to leave.
"etc!"
A rough, hoarse voice rang out.
She turned around and saw a robust woman wearing an apron carrying a full lunchbox—it was hers.
The woman had thick arms and a ruddy complexion. "Little girl, is this your lunchbox?"
Why aren't you eating?
Yu Miaomiao casually said, "I'm not hungry."
"Everyone has been traveling all day, how could they not be hungry?"
The woman shook her head, her eyes full of disbelief. "My daughter is just like you, as thin as a chopstick. She doesn't like to eat regular meals, she just loves to eat unhealthy takeout."
Yu Miaomiao realized that this person was the one who had called the child when she left in the morning.
"Is it because you don't like the taste? I have some more dishes in the kitchen. What would you like to eat? I'll make you two more dishes!"
The woman wiped her hands on her apron, pulled the person toward the kitchen, and said, "There are no takeout shops here. If you don't eat now, you'll go hungry all night."
Yu Miaomiao looked at the hands that were holding her; they were large and strong, with prominent knuckles and dry, white calluses—the result of years of working in the kitchen.
I looked up and found myself being pulled into the kitchen.
The woman deftly chopped vegetables. "I noticed you don't seem to like strong flavors, so I'll make you two milder ones."
In less than fifteen minutes, two dishes were ready: one was celery stir-fried with yam, and the other was red chili stir-fried with pork. The portions were small, and they were served to Yu Miaomiao.
"Here, try it and see if it suits your taste."
Looking at the expectant gaze of the woman in front of her, Yu Miaomiao's originally cold words of refusal stuck in her throat, and she couldn't say them no matter what.
She picked up a piece of yam and put it in her mouth. It was crisp and refreshing, with a light but not bland taste.
It has a completely different texture and taste from canned or freeze-dried food.
She swallowed it. "It's delicious."
The woman clapped her hands happily, "That's good."
"The crew's boxed meals tend to be heavily seasoned and can't cater to everyone. If you don't like them next time, come to me and I'll cook something special for you."
“My surname is He. When you come, just say you're looking for Aunt He, and everyone will know.”
Seeing that Yu Miaomiao was eating seriously, Aunt He did not disturb her.
After tidying up, she picked out the clean parts of the leftover rice, boiled them in hot water, and poured them into a pitted tin bowl.
She tapped the tin bowl with her rice spoon, and soon after the "clanging" sound rang out, a cat emerged from the dark grass, slowly walked to the tin bowl, and began to enjoy its dinner.
"All you do is go out and have fun all day long. You're only around when it's time to eat. Honestly, what's the use of raising you?"
Aunt He complained, but she kept stroking the cat, picking off the grass and small twigs from its body.
"Oh dear, it was already ugly, and now that its fur is all messed up, it's even uglier."
Yu Miaomiao glanced up during her meal and saw that it was indeed a very ugly cat.
This could be described as a black and white cat, with black and white patches scattered haphazardly on its thin body. One eye was golden, the other gray, its tail was missing a section, and a black spot covered its left eye, making it look like it had been punched.
When Aunt He saw Yu Miaomiao looking over, she smiled apologetically, "I don't know who dumped it at the restaurant entrance. It was covered in injuries and barely had any breath left. I thought it wouldn't last more than two days, but it actually survived, so I took it in."
"Don't let its appearance fool you, it's actually quite well-behaved. It doesn't scratch or bark, it just loves to play and spends half the day playing outside."
At this point, Aunt He patted the cat's head and said, "What's so fun outside? You three-legged cripple cat, you can't even catch a bird, you're always being bullied by other cats."
The black and white cat seemed to understand what humans were saying. It meowed a few times in dissatisfaction, its voice as rough and hoarse as sandpaper, but it still obediently let itself be petted and ate its food slowly with its head down.
It took Yu Miaomiao almost half an hour to finish all the food. The portion wasn't large, but she really wasn't used to human food, so she ate with difficulty.
The temporary dormitory was set up on an open space on the side of the villa, some distance from the kitchen. On her way back, she encountered the black and white cat, Santiao, again.
San Tiao's left front leg was empty, and he walked with a limp, but he was not slow and soon overtook the leisurely Yu Miaomiao.
The mountain nights are cool, with a breeze carrying the sounds of cicadas and the raw scent of plants. A person and a cat walk one after the other, passing by the streetlights, their shadows shortening and lengthening.
Not far away, the dormitory lights were right in front of them, and the cow cat stopped at the fork in the road leading up the mountain.
San Tiao turned around and glanced at Yu Miaomiao, then called out in a rough voice, "Meow, meow~"
Yu Miaomiao understood; it was saying, "Little cat, it's dangerous up in the mountain. Don't follow me anymore, go back quickly."
In San Tiao's eyes, she was a cat.
The three of them limped into the dark mountain path, glancing back worriedly. Seeing the girl still standing there, they meowed contentedly.
Its golden left eye gleamed in the darkness.
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