Costume fitting
The shadows of the trees crawled slowly across the ground, and only the rustling of the wind through the grass and the occasional distant bird call could be heard in the open space. The cat and the human remained silent in tacit agreement.
Shen Yi'an's cigarette slowly burned out, and he stubbed it out in the metal box he carried with him.
After an unknown amount of time, this tacit silence was broken by Shen Yi'an, who stood up, dusted himself off, and walked towards Yun Jin.
"Sigh, these are things we still have to face eventually."
Yun Jin jumped into his arms with a meow and nuzzled his hand.
What a unique way to relax.
The car started again, heading towards the location of the film crew of "Secrets in Spring".
As the vehicle slowly came to a stop in front of a high school, Yun Jin's ears involuntarily perked up. A notice board for the filming of "Secrets in Spring" was hanging at the school gate, and crew members were pushing prop carts in and out.
"Secrets in Spring" is a female-oriented campus novel that tells the story of how the innocent female protagonist meets, falls in love with, and reconciles with the school bully male protagonist. Shen Yi'an plays the sickly second male lead who loves the female protagonist but cannot have her.
Yun Jin plays a cat responsible for delivering love letters between the second male lead and the female lead. Her role is small, which she only learned after she went back to read the novel.
A high EQ perspective: Yun Jin's scenes play a very important role in the development of the plot.
A low-EQ way of saying: "I don't have much screen time."
A short-haired student walked past the car, which suddenly reminded Yun Jin of Qin Yi.
Yun Jin shuddered at the sudden flashback, and unconsciously scratched at the seat with her paws.
The memory of that nightmare—the blinding spotlight on stage, the screams from the audience, and the distorted smile on Qin Yi's pale face—if she were really recognized…
Shen Yi'an's hand suddenly landed on her head, patted her head, and interrupted her thoughts.
"Xiaoyun, don't grab the seat." Shen Yi'an picked up Yun Jin and opened the car door.
The film crew set up a filming area on campus, and the area outside the cordon was crowded with students in blue and white school uniforms.
The girls, with their hair tied in lively ponytails or loose, gathered in twos and threes, whispering among themselves; the boys, on the other hand, pretended to be mature, their hands in their pockets, feigning indifference while their eyes kept sneaking glances at the filming area.
"It's Shen Yi'an!"
Someone shouted first, and the crowd suddenly surged like a tide, trampling the cordon line under their feet. Several girls stood on tiptoe, all pointing their phone cameras at this side.
"Teacher Shen—"
"Look here, look here!"
"Could you please sign this?"
Yun Jin was startled by the sudden shout and instinctively covered her heart with her paws. Then she sighed that youth was wonderful and full of vitality.
"That cat is so pretty, can I pet it?"
"Is that Xiaoyun? I'm a huge fan of Yunmiaomiao!"
Upon hearing this, Yun Jin's tail unconsciously perked up; she was a cat with fans too.
Shen Yi'an put his index finger to his lips in a "shh" gesture, his voice low but with a hint of amusement: "Be careful, the teacher might come and confiscate your phones."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a loud, clear voice rang out from afar, "The school bell has already rung, what are you still doing here?"
A male teacher walked in with a stern face, and the students scattered like startled sparrows.
The figures in blue and white school uniforms scattered in a panic. One student lost his campus card but didn't bother to pick it up. Yun Jin pointed with her paw, and Shen Yi'an immediately bent down, picked it up, and handed it to the stern male teacher.
"Teacher Shen, you're here so early!" The stagehand jogged up to greet her.
Shen Yi'an nodded slightly. "I've come to see if there's anything I can help with, so we can prepare in advance."
"Well... Ms. Shen, let's try on the makeup first. The other actors haven't arrived yet, so it's not convenient to rehearse right now," the production assistant said with some difficulty.
After saying that, she pointed to the makeshift dressing room, "The costume designer said there might be some minor changes..."
"It's nothing," Shen Yi'an waved his hand.
As Yun Jin listened to their conversation, she was suddenly taken away by a pair of hands wearing rubber gloves.
"Xiaoyun needs to take a shower first." The bespectacled guy from the costume department pinched Yun Jin's waist. "She looks a little chubby, and she might look even chubbier on camera."
"Meow—I just have long fur!" Yun Jin arched her back in grievance, her tail wagging back and forth defiantly.
Shen Yi'an chuckled softly and gently tapped her head: "Our Xiaoyun is just fluffy, not fat."
Then, turning to the staff member, he became more serious, “By the way, she’s very afraid of the sound of a hairdryer.”
"We'll keep that in mind." The bespectacled guy from the costume department smiled and took Yun Jin away.
Arriving at the pet shop, the warm water flowed down, allowing Yun Jin to temporarily forget about her weight and immerse herself in the lemony scent of the foam, enjoying the massage from the masseuse.
Having enjoyed a free bath, Yun Jin comfortably rolled over, watching the bubbles slowly engulf her tail.
Yun Jin inadvertently glanced at herself in the mirror. Her fur, completely soaked with water, clung tightly to her body, and her usually fluffy tail now looked like a thin, long rat's tail, sinking to the bottom of the basin.
The cat's round face appeared unusually thin due to its fur lying flat against its body, resembling a triangle stuck in its slender frame, looking exactly like a disheveled, drenched chicken... no, a drenched cat.
"puff……"
A suppressed chuckle reached her ears. Yun Jin turned her head sharply, and the young lady's lips curled into a slight smile.
Seeing Yun Jin's serious expression, the young lady quickly pretended to cough, but the upturned corners of her mouth betrayed her.
"Ahem... um..." The young woman hurriedly grabbed a towel, "We'll dry you right away!"
"Meow meow—So ugly, am I really that ugly?"
Yun Jin covered her eyes with her paws in shame and indignation, her tail tip twitching involuntarily. A dry towel was placed over Yun Jin's body, and through the gap, she could see that the young lady's shoulders were trembling as she tried to suppress her laughter.
The whispers of the stagehands drifted over from one side, mixed with the sound of the store's speakers, making it difficult to hear clearly.
"The lead actor still hasn't been decided?" The assistant director, with his hair in a bun, lowered his voice. "The first encounter scene is scheduled to be filmed the day after tomorrow."
"The casting director said..." The boy in the baseball cap leaned closer, "The investors put several actors in auditions, but none of them matched the original character."
So it was gossip. The comb brush moved back and forth on her back, and Yun Jin's paws unconsciously stepped on her breasts.
"Who is it that can get Shen Yi'an to be a supporting actor..." The girl with the bun rubbed her eyes. "Who is it? Someone so big?"
"Shh—" The man in the baseball cap suddenly caught a glimpse of a shadow flitting by the door and whispered, "I heard some news, he might become the male lead..."
The sound of a hairdryer filled the air, the warm air whistling through, drowning out their conversation. Yun Jin felt a little disappointed.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh".
The hairdryer was still warm, and Yun Jin's fluffy fur looked like a colorful cotton candy. She sat quietly on the styling table, watching the cat hair fluttering in the air and slowly drifting down like dandelion seeds.
"Little Sanhua, don't move around," the makeup assistant coaxed gently. "I'll give you a beautiful haircut right away."
The curtain at the door was suddenly lifted.
The woman was wearing the pet store's standard black T-shirt, her short hair was neatly tucked behind her ears, and a pair of slightly droopy eyes were visible above her mask. The name tag on her chest shimmered under the lights.
"Oh my god! Isn't this Yun Miaomiao herself?" The stylist's eyes lit up, and her mask couldn't hide her surprised tone. "I've been a fan since you only had 10,000 followers!"
Yun Jin immediately puffed out her chest, raised her tail to the sky, and deliberately tucked it between her legs, meowing a few times. She even tilted her head and widened her eyes to look cute.
Being a star must be great, Yun Jin thought, already feeling a bit too proud.
The stylist interacted with Yun Jin for a while before starting work. Her left hand gently gathered the long hair on her chest, while her right hand wielded silver scissors, and the orange hair fell like snowflakes.
“When I was a child, I was actually very afraid of cats,” the stylist suddenly softened her movements, her scissors stopping in mid-air. “I was so scared by that old lady with a cat face that I had a high fever for several days.”
Yun Jin's ears twitched; she had also heard about that rumor.
An old woman died on her way home from grocery shopping, but just then a cat walked by. Suddenly, the old woman sat up, her body remained the same, but half of her face turned into the cat's face.
Yun Jin only knew that it definitely wasn't the cat demon who did it, as cat demons generally wouldn't attack children or the elderly.
"Looking back now, it's nothing," the scissors continued, trimming Yun Jin's overly long claw hairs. "It got better gradually. I also had a stray cat named Xiao Meng, but it passed away a few years ago..."
A wisp of downy fur landed near Yun Jin's paw. After a moment's hesitation, she gently placed her pink paw pad on the stylist's wrist.
"Oh dear, is our Yunmiaomiao trying to comfort me?" The stylist smiled. "You're such a good cat, just as understanding as my Xiaomeng."
After cutting it, she took a small dried fish out of her pocket. "We should reward Yunmiao with a small snack. She's so good."
The curtain at the door was suddenly pushed open, and a stagehand peeked in: "Teacher, is the haircut done? We're about to take the official photos."
"Okay, okay," the stylist replied, speeding up his work.
Yun Jin felt the downy hair on the back of her neck being lifted, and the scissors brushed against her skin with a cool touch, the cut hairs dancing in the air like golden snowflakes.
She saw herself in the mirror. Her previously wildly grown silhouette had been sculpted into a rounded curve, and her "scarf" on her chest and her fluffy tail had been made fluffy and cute.
Beautiful, and worth it. That's what Yun Jin said.
After being carried back to the set by the production assistant, Yun Jin met Shen Yi'an, who had been waiting for her.
He was dressed in a school uniform, wearing a crisp navy blue school uniform, with the top two buttons of his shirt undone, revealing his delicate collarbone.
To better fit the character, the makeup artist deliberately deepened the shadows around his eyes, making his already deep-set eyes even more melancholic and sickly, perfectly embodying the "prematurely deceased white moonlight" from the original novel.
"Oh, is that Xiaoyun?" Shen Yi'an raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I really didn't recognize her."
"Meow meow meow meow—that's not it." Yun Jin deliberately twirled around with elegant cat steps, her fluffy tail sweeping back and forth on the ground.
"Oh my god! This look is so cute!" The stage assistant squatted down and patted Yun Jin's head. "I want to get one for my dog too."
"Teacher Qin personally handled it," said the stagehand organizing her toolbox. "She's a fan of Xiaoyun and specifically requested it."
Yun Jin's heart sank, and the big tail silently fell down.
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