Ding Jia hid the pity in her face and pulled out a smile.
"Yes, the doctor said that Big Sister is alright now so I can't stay here anymore."
A flash of envy appeared on the little girl's face that broke Ding Jia's heart. Even if she doesn't know what kind of illness the little girl has, just by seeing her appearance, she understood that the little girl would have to stay in the hospital for quite a long time.
She felt more pity for the little girl because this was supposed to be the age where she should be playing endlessly with other children. But she's missing all the fun because of the illness she's suffering in.
She stroked the little girl's head and comforted her.
"Don't worry. You'll be able to leave the hospital one day just like Big Sister. Just always listen to your doctor, okay?" She tried her best to cheer up the little girl. The little girl paused for a second before she nodded at her. She pursed her lips while hugging her porcelain doll tightly within her arms.
After that, Lin Lin called her over so she quickly bid goodbye to the little girl. Receiving the sunglasses and mask from Lin Lin, her manager, the two of them left on a different exit along with her bodyguards to avoid the paparazzi and reporters waiting for her at the front door of the hospital.
Of course, Ding Jia wasn't going to return to the big and small screen very soon. Lin Lin wanted her to carefully choose the first project she would act in for her comeback on the screen. And so out of all the hundreds that sent her their scripts as soon as the news of her waking up was announced, Lin Lin filtered them and gave Ding Jia five different scripts for her to choose from.
"I didn't think a romance drama would make it on your list." Ding Jia said in passing as she skimmed the first page summaries of the scripts.
"Of course it's not the cliche-type romance stories. Anyways, that one is from Director Wen who you worked with two years ago. It seems that's a big-investment project that they have been planning for more than a year and so he wanted to offer you the first female lead role." Lin Lin casually explained her decision, handing over some pen to Ding Jia so she could start writing notes on those notebooks.
She continued skimming the first pages of the scripts and paused on a particular script that caught her eye. "A horror?"
She picked up the dark cover and showed it to Lin Lin as if she couldn't believe her selection.
"Are you sure you want me to work on a horror film with lousy effects for my first comeback?" She uttered in disbelief at the genre. Hey, it's not like she's belittling the horror film industry here in her country but really, she could only count on one hand that could really be considered good horror films.
Lin Lin furrowed her brows as she casually replied, "That's the work of 'Shen Ru'. It was a pretty good and quality script so it was included in our options."
"...What?! This is Shen Ru's?!" Ding Jia flipped the cover and read the unfamiliar title. "Illusions of Time: The Alibi Series, what's this? I don't know this book? Are you sure it's Shen Ru's?"
Gosh, she was a total Shen Ru fan but how was she not aware of this title? Lin Lin must be joking, right? She couldn't remember this title at all.
Lin Lin knocked her head. "Stupid, of course, you won't know that. That's a book just released recently. It was a really big hit that our company bought the rights for this movie. Since it's a pretty popular title, your name is the first on the list of actresses that fits the conditions set by the author for the character."
"????"
Her?
Ding Jia opened the script and read the character page.
Female? Well, the protagonist is female of course.
Attractive? Hmm, well. Need she say more?
Great actor? Definitely.
Persistent? Well, that depends.
Original? Uh...what's this?
Ding Jia squinted her eyes at the description but no matter how much she tried to think of the definition, she really couldn't figure this out.
"What does it mean when they listed 'original'?"
"That's what the author mentioned. For the action scenes, he said he prefers if the actress and actors do the scenes personally instead of using stuntmen."
"...Isn't that too ruthless?" Ding Jia said in disbelief. Only a few percent of the actors and actresses in the industry can actually do their stunts on their own. The majority of the people usually have their own stuntmen for the dangerous scenes.
Well, she's included in those few percentages of people who do their own action scenes. Though she was just purely lucky because she was a black belter in martial arts and she used to take weightlifting lessons for her film projects in her early days. If she didn't grow up with such insane stamina and strong body, she wouldn't have trained at all.
"But isn't this usually the call of the director? What if the scenes are way too dangerous?"
Yes, actors usually need stuntmen not only because they couldn't do action scenes but also, it's their area of expertise. It's not like months of training will make an actor an instant expert in something especially when it's too dangerous for training.
"Well, I'm not sure how their negotiation with the author turned out like this so I can't answer that for you. Anyways, I read the two books of the series for you so I can at least assure you that it's still within your capabilities."
"..."
They believe in her too much. Hadn't she just got discharged from the hospital? Do they secretly conspire to make her return there again so much?
Well, if her manager says that it would be fine then she guessed that it would be really fine.
Ding Jia resumed in reading the other scripts until the car finally arrived at the luxury apartment complex she was staying.
Lin Lin handed her a black mask to wear.
"Auntie kept your place well maintained even while you were in comatose so you don't have to worry about it being dirty there. And also, I dropped off the present that was delivered to the company earlier this week so good luck with opening those presents as well." Lin Lin nonchalantly stated to her while she was getting off of the car.
Ding Jia thanked her before the car sped off. After that, she went straight to the elevator and swiped the card to access her floor. It was a luxury complex in which you can only get in if you have the card to your place which can access the elevator and fire exit.
She saw the familiar sparkling hallway and two big doors facing each other. She walked over to her own door and heard in passing some cluttering at the other door making her glance at her neighbor.
"Seems like someone already moved in while I was away." She murmured as she recalled that the place was still empty before. She shrugged her shoulders and swiped her card to her apartment.
"Oh.My.God." Her mouth almost fell to the floor when she saw the mountain of presents in her living room. Heck, it was even taller than the Christmas tree she bought for December!
She gulped.
Lin Lin was right. She does need good luck right now. Because there'll be a bunch of wrappers and boxes to clean up later. She sighed in defeat while holding her aching temples.
Goddammit! She would have to spend the entire day opening the presents just to make enough space for her to walk on in the living room ah!!!
Ding Jia pulled her hair a few more times before she started to move her hands into work.
Three hours later. No, after 500 fallen hairs later from pulling her hair out in frustration, Ding Jia was already halfway of opening the presents she received from her fans.
She carefully tucked away all the fan letters into the letterboxes, the stuffed toys in her mini toy room, the flowers in her multiple vases, the other presents in her storage room.
Ding Jia casually reached out for another gift and tore open the wrapper. She paused as soon as she saw a porcelain doll with jet black marble eyes staring back at her.