Chapter 2 - Birthday Wish
The next morning, the crew started work and Song Yu was late as usual. He looked up and saw Li Zhao smiling brilliantly, causing his mood to worsen. Smiling, what was so funny?
The a.s.sistant behind him was startled by this bright smile and whispered to Song Yu. “Brother Song, does he want to borrow money from us?”
Or was it because Brother Song gave food to this person every night, turning him silly?
“Brother Song, good morning.” Li Zhao warmly greeted Song Yu and graciously handed him a bottle of mineral water provided by the crew. He also didn’t forget to help unscrew the cap for Song Yu.
Song Yu saw the mineral water being handed to him and raised his chin, speaking in a cold manner. “ No, I only drink imported water.”
Li Zhao hastily put away the bottle of water that was sold for less than two yuan. “Brother Song has taste.”
Very rich!
He clearly wanted to humiliate the other person for being poor. As a result, this person not only didn’t feel humiliation but also showed admiration. Song Yu felt the frustration of hitting cotton and almost rolled his eyes toward the sky. “Hehe.”
‘Calm down Song Yu, you must be calm. Soon, you will be a popular male entertainer and won’t have to know such a poor peasant.’
Thinking of this, he turned to walk away. he had only taken a few steps when he heard Li Zhao’s voice. “Brother Song, walk slowly.”
Hearing Li Zhao’s cheerful tone, Song Yu’s a.s.sistant couldn’t help looking back. The pair of clear eyes with a distinct smile touched his conscience. Smiling so happily, didn’t he know that Brother Song was acting against him? Too foolish.
In a corner of the crew, Director Liu looked at the monitor and was satisfied with Li Zhao’s performance. “Li Zhao might not be a professional but the role he plays is very spiritual.”
Li Zhao had been selected to play the second male lead mainly because he looked extraordinarily good and was cheap. Among the alternative actors’ list, he looked the best. An idol drama always wanted to see the face.
Director Liu felt that this casting would be more appropriate if it wasn’t for Song Yu not wanting to play the first male lead and wanting to play the second male instead.
“All teams are ready. Let’s get ready to shoot the next one.” Director Liu stood up and coaxed Song Yu and the female star to film under the sun. They were the great ones and he was the little director who couldn’t afford to offend them.
After shooting in the afternoon, Li Zhao took the opportunity to talk to the staff of the crew. He said that his agent saw he was without an a.s.sistant and would enter the crew for the next half a month to take care of him.
The staff didn’t think much about it and agreed on the spot. After all, who would’ve guessed that the male star of a crew would bring his own agent here for free food and drink?
He thought about how there would be one more person to wheedle a meal from and Li Zhao’s face subconsciously brightened. Unfortunately, Song Yu was on leave from the crew that afternoon and no one gave him food at night.
Li Zhao found h couldn’t sleep at the hotel and opened a takeaway software on his mobile phone. He found that the nighttime delivery fee was two or three times what it was during the day and suddenly closed the takeaway app.
The takeaway delivery cost was a bit high. Li Zhao was so hungry but he didn’t want to call for takeaway. He was worried for a while before simply changing clothes to go out to find food.
There was a snack stall street near the hotel and this was very busy on summer nights. It was three or four in the morning but there were still many young people coming here to drink beer. Li Zhao went to a store full of people and bought some stir-fried noddles and a few skewers. He hummed as he carried the box and headed back.
The night wind blew a bit of coolness on his face. He found a bench next to the pedestrian street and sat down, opening the plastic food box and preparing to eat.
The rich oil fragrance raised his appet.i.te. Before he could use the disposable chopsticks to put the fried noodles in his mouth, he saw an old man with a dirty body and broken porcelain bowl nearby. The old man’s eyes were focused on the fried noodles in his hand.
He sighed, got up and placed half of his fried noodles into the old man’s bowl. He also gave two skewers. Seeing the old man slowly walk away while eating the skewer, Li Zhao buried his head bitterly to eat.
Half a box of fried noodles couldn’t fill up a 20 year old young man. Li Zhao touched his stomach that didn’t feel full and gnawed the meat clean on the skewer. He even licked the c.u.min powder on top a few more times. There was a saying that adolescents had a sudden increase in appet.i.te due to physical needs. He wasn’t an adolescent so he could only eat poorly.
On the day when Brother Song was away, Li Zhao really missed him. Li Zhao thought of the roasted pig trotters, the milk tea and the meat he sent. It would’ve been nice if he bought two steamed buns just now. Steamed buns with fried noodles were delicious and filling.
He got up and threw the garbage into the trash can. Li Zhao let out a long sigh and prepared to go back to the hotel to sleep. Recently, the production crew had been in a bit of a hurry. In order to match Song Yu’s schedules, the next two days were almost all his scenes.
He took two steps and couldn’t help looking back at the popular snack stall street not far away. He wanted to go back to eat a bowl of fragrant beef noodles. Unfortunately, his poor wallet didn’t allow him to spend money on a midnight snack.
The streets lights pulled Li Zhao’s shadow out into a long and lonely shadow, reaching all the way to the black car parked on the street. The shadow shook and followed its owner slowly.
The window of the black car slowly rolled down. Once the black shadow completely disappeared around the corner, the window rose back up again.
“Sir, you haven’t eaten for 10 hours…”
“En?” The man sitting in the back of the car was a shadow. Only a white hand was exposed in the yellow light of the street lights. Then the hand soon returned to darkness. The car was quiet again.
Two days later, Li Zhao’s agent Zhang Xiaoyuan dragged a large suitcase and came to the crew. He acted as Li Zhao’s a.s.sistant and had fast hands and feet and a sweet mouth. Every time someone in the crew shared snacks, he always helped Li Zhao get a share.
Song Yu’s holiday ended on this day and the staff’s mood was a bit low. They clearly hated this life where they had to keep smiling. It was really difficult. Thus, once Song Yu entered the crew, the first one to warmly greet him was Li Zhao.
“Brother Song is back, Brother Song has worked hard.” Li Zhao trotted over to Song Yu while Zhang Xiaoyuan moved several plastic stools behind him. Then he asked Song Yu’s a.s.sistant to sit down.
“Li Zhao, during the two days I was shooting an advertis.e.m.e.nt, the manufacturer sent me the endors.e.m.e.nt products.” Song Yu had his a.s.sistant give Li Zhao a whole box of chocolates. “Take it back and eat slowly. If it isn’t enough, I have more here.” Song Yu was content at the thought that he started shooting advertis.e.m.e.nts while Li Zhao was still unknown.
He didn’t believe that so many high-calorie chocolates couldn’t make Li Zhao fat.
“Thank you Brother Song, you’re a good man.” Li Zhao took the box containing the chocolates and looked at Song Yu’s eyes, which seemed like there were stars shining.
Song Yu felt a bit guilty facing this look. He twisted his head to avoid Li Zhao’s line of sight and vaguely snorted. He closed his eyes so he would no longer see Li Zhao. Zhang Xiaoyuan looked at the chocolate in Li Zhao’s hand and opened his mouth to say something. Then he saw the smile on Li Zhao’s face and fell silent again. Li Zhao was brought out by him so no one knew better than him how much Li Zhao was afraid of hunger.
Days pa.s.sed and filming was near completion. Li Zhao also ushered in his 20th birthday. The crew was busy and chaotic so no one remembered his birthday.
Once the shooting ended at night, Zhang Xiaoyuan dragged Li Zhao out to eat noodle ca.s.serole.
“Zhao ah, I’m sorry to you. I said I would bring you out to live a good life. I didn’t expect the company to close down.” Zhang Xiaoyuan put a palm-sized cake box on the table and pushed it in front of Li Zhao. He opened the packaging and enthusiastically arranged several candles on top, lighting them. “Happy 20th birthday.”
“Thank you Brother Xiaoyuan.” Li Zhao scratched his head. “Brother Xiaoyuan, don’t worry about what you said. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve lived a worse life than now.”
Zhang Xiaoyuan smiled bitterly. “Come on, make a wish before blowing out the candle.”
Li Zhao thought seriously with his hands pressed together, silently making a wish. He hoped that Brother Xiaoyuan wouldn’t lose his job and that they could eat a lot of food in the future.
Zhang Xiaoyuan only ate a small piece of the cake and the rest went into Li Zhao’s stomach. They came out of the rice ca.s.serole store and saw a high-end restaurant nearby with many beautiful flower baskets. The flower baskets had the balloons that children liked tied to them. On each balloon was written, ‘Happy 10th birthday to w.a.n.g Qiang.’
Seeing this scene, Zhang Xiaoyuan couldn’t help turning his head to look at Li Zhao.
“Brother Xiaoyuan, Brother Xiaoyuan!” Li Zhao pointed not far away. “There are people there selling balloons.” He finished speaking and trotted over.
Zhang Xiaoyuan followed and heard Li Zhao bargaining with the seller. A minute later, Li Zhao bargained the 15 yuan price of a balloon down to 10 yuan.
“I think it is a good sign.” Li Zhao properly tied the balloon to his wrist. “This bodes well for my future. I will definitely be able to eat countless delicious dishes.”
As a child, the entire inst.i.tution only had one TV and he and the other children most liked to watch the cartoon ‘Chuka Ichiban!’ Everyone had drooled watching the dishes in the cartoon and dreamt about eating great food when growing up. To realize this dream, he needed to make more money.
“You’re right.” Zhang Xiaoyuan patted Li Zhao on the shoulder. “It will come true in the future once you are popular.” He looked up at the uneven colour of the balloon, showing it was an obviously inferior product, and felt a glimmer of hope for the future.
What if it happened?
That night, a roadside surveillance video was released by a government news media Weibo. In the video, a young man gave half of his food to a homeless old man. Once the food was divided, the young man sat back on his seat and seemed very hungry. The official government news media sent this video to promote the goodness of human nature. It didn’t expect many netizens to forward and discuss it.
Spring Flower: The video isn’t HD and I can’t see the little brother’s appearance. Still, my intuition is telling me that this is a handsome little guy.
Bear Meal: Watching the little brother sitting alone to eat, I inexplicably feel a bit distressed. He looks very young.
Can I Not Work Overtime Today: Isn’t it only me who noticed the little brother is licking the meat skewer? There is an impulse to buy him food.
Forty Metres Blade: After watching this video, I picked up my brother who was being a picky eater and hit him…
The author has something to say:
Birthday Wish G.o.d: Okay, I agree.