"Senior Yan?"
"..."
"Senior Yan!"
Lang Yuxuan had to wave in front of Yan Renzhong's eyes to draw his attention.
Yan Renzhong shifted his gaze to Lang Yuxuan.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Nothing, just... I asked you something just now, but you didn't answer. Are you occupied with other matters? Should I not disturb you?"
The young man's lips quivered slightly when he spoke.
The onlookers thought that Lang Yuxuan was too pitiful. Despite his earnest efforts, the young man couldn't garner the attention of his influential mentor.
Yan Renzhong might have stopped staring at Shen Jingwei and Feng Jietang, but his mind remained stuck to them and their inexplicable relationship with each other.
"Scene ready to roll for hunt participants!" A crew member cried out from a distance.
"You shouldn't even be here," Yan Renzhong told his mentee. "You are supposed to wait at the entrance. Go over there. We will talk later."
After giving Lang Yuxuan a pat on the shoulder, Yan Renzhong walked away to shoot the remaining scenes in the hunting area.
An hour later, all hunt participants returned to the mountain base; Yan Renzhong with a giant snake prop, and Shen Jingwei with the man-eating demon head prop.
The next scene to shoot was an easy one. It was the one where Zhang Fengxi presented his bloody pink orchid to Xie Jianyu, followed by the crowning of the Ethereal Beauty of the year.
"Cut!"
Director Ma beamed at everyone.
"Thank you for all your hard work! We will continue after lunch break!"
The crew had already ordered a substantial amount of lunch boxes for the meal. To protect their costumes from food stains, each actor and actress was additionally provided with a napkin.
While the cast and crew generally enjoyed harmonious relationships, tight-knit cliques often emerged. These groups typically formed due to shared professional backgrounds, such as working together on previous projects or being represented by the same agency.
Shen Jingwei, with his lacking background in acting, did not have a lot of connections with the others.
He thus often ate together with his manager Zhu Dongyi in a separate corner.
Until today.
"Yo, Little Shen!"
Feng Jietang came over, dragging Lin Ruoye with him.
"Can we eat with you two?"
Zhu Dongyi almost shed tears from gratitude.
"Of course!" He cried out. "Take a seat, take a seat! Let me get some drinks for the both of you!"
"Ooh, thank you very much, Manager Zhu!" Feng Jietang waved happily at the manager's retreating back.
Lin Ruoye was a lot more beautiful close-up.
"Senior Shen," she greeted Shen Jingwei with a little nod. "I am constantly in awe with your performance. It was me who begged Senior Feng to intrude on your lunchtime. I hope you don't mind."
Which insane men would mind having a beautiful girl joining them for lunch?
"Not at all. Miss Lin, there is no need to be so formal."
Lin Ruoye laughed.
"If that's the case, Big Brother Shen, why don't you call me Ruoye? That way we can converse with each other more casually."
"Naturally!" Shen Jingwei happily agreed.
The lunchbox consisted of fragrant rice with roasted eel in soy sauce, fried vegetable rolls, pickled cucumber slices, and grapefruit cutlets.
Feng Jietang wrinkled his nose at the pickled cucumber slices.
"Oh, I hate these," he said.
"Don't waste food," Shen Jingwei reprimanded him.
"Well, do you want them then?" He offered.
Shen Jingwei shrugged. "Why not. Trade with grapefruit? I don't really like grapefruit."
"Deal!" Feng Jietang quickly agreed. He lifted the pickled cucumber slices off his lunch box and moved them to Shen Jingwei's.
The grapefruit slices were relatively big.
"Should I put them on top of your rice?" Shen Jingwei suggested.
"Ew, no! What a bad idea!"
"What to do then?"
"Why don't you just feed them to me right now?" Feng Jietang asked with a shameless wink.
Shen Jingwei gave him a look.
"Oh come on. Friends feed each other all the time. Right, Ruoye?"
Lin Ruoye, the third wheel, almost choked on her roast eel.
"Yes," she said with tears in her eyes. "Yes, yes."
Shen Jingwei rolled with his eyes.
"Whatever," he said. He then picked up the grapefruit slices off his lunch box and fed them to Feng Jietang, one slice after another.
"Yum! Thank you, Little Shen! They were delicious!" Feng Jietang pressed both hands against his face, looking a lot like a Japanese high school girl who wanted to appear cute in animes.
"You are welcome."
Shen Jingwei did not think much about this innocent interaction. He also did not know that cameramen were told to take candid pictures of the crew and cast members during lunch time.
That was how a picture of him feeding grapefruit slices to Feng Jietang circulated on Weibo hours later, sparking the creation of the hashtag #JieWei and a dedicated fanbase.
Comments flooding the original post extolled the undeniable chemistry between Shen Jingwei and Feng Jietang.
Given the heartbreaking one-sided nature of their characters' love story, a wave of speculation arose among fans, questioning whether the actors shared a romantic connection in real life.
Shen Dou Dou, the avid worshipper of the canon couple, had to message her brother that very night with utmost urgency.
"Big Brother, I beg you, please do not cheat with Jiang Muchen! You need to give birth to Zhang Fengxi's child to save the three realms!"
Shen Jingwei, after taking a deep breath and steadying his nerves : "Dou Dou, I am going to screenshot this chat and send it to Mom."
Shen Dou Dou immediate deleted the message.
Shen Dou Dou : "Big Brother, I am rooting for you! Good luck~!"
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Author's note :
Shen Jingwei : I don't get it. Why is the hashtag #JieWei and not #JingTang?
Author : You exude a lot of bottom energy, Shen Shen.
Shen Jingwei : (ノ￣皿￣)ノ ⌒== ┫