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Ability to Imitate (3)
His plan was beautiful, in theory. However, the actual outcome was rather disappointing.
The first piece of meat that Xi-laoshi attempted to barbecue came out burnt.
“HAHAHA!” Director Zheng laughed and continued, “Let me.”
He rolled up his sleeves
. and
 the meat he barbecued was also burnt.
In the end, Bai Qi put on the apron that the server had brought for them. He tied it around his waist properly. Xi Chengyun noticed that it really accentuated the beautiful curves of his waist.
“Let’s not waste food. I’ll do the rest.” Bai Qi took a pair of chopsticks and a food tong.
In the end, Bai Qi had to do all the hard work to feed the two useless people.
This ruined Xi-laoshi and Director Zheng’s self-esteem.
Xi Chengyun said in a low voice, “I’ll get A-Da to sign me up for a cooking class when I’m free.”
Director Zheng nonchalantly said, “Who on earth takes extra cooking classes? Bai Qi, I’ll bring a chef with me the next time we have a meal together. You’ll never need to cook for yourself.’
Xi Chengyun shot a look at Director Zheng. He looked at him as if he were looking at a complete idiot. This caused Director Zheng to become unhappy. “I can ask numerous Michelin chefs to come and cook for us, no problem at all!”
Xi Chengyun ignored Director Zheng. He didn’t want third wheelers to be around when he and Bai Qi were having a meal together, even if the person was a Michelin chef.
Bai Qi burped and put a perfect full stop to this meal.
Xi Chengyun stood up to pay the bill and Director Zheng didn’t forget to bring the mini sound amplified along with him.
Director Zheng had something to do the next day, so he took his leave.
Xi Chengyun and Bai Qi stood at the roadside while they waited for Xi’s assistant to come to pick them up.
Xi Chengyun couldn’t help but ask, “Don’t believe in anything coming out of Zheng Ming’s mouth.”
He realized that he was uncontrollably jealous over the smallest things in life. As long as it had something to do with Bai Qi, he lost all control over himself.
“Huh? In what sense?” Bai Qi asked as he blinked in confusion.
“He is a people pleaser and has a way with words. He would always try to find similar interests; he knows how to imitate others very well.”
“Imitate?” Bai Qi repeated.
Xi Chengyun paused for a moment before continuing, “Mn. Because of this bad habit of his, countless in the entertainment industry have misunderstood his friendliness as flirtation. That’s why till this day, many would diss him and say that he’s a player. I’m sure you’ve seen a fair share of his rumors written by speculative accounts.”
That’s true.
A few years ago, he saw an article about Director Zheng in a famous gossip magazine. The article was about how Zheng had let down his significant other who was an actor.
Back then, when Bai Qi was still in school, they didn’t have much to do. So, their means of having fun was by circulating these magazine cutouts around the class among each other.
Xi Chengyun turned to look at Bai Qi. “I met Zheng Ming overseas and we bonded over having the same problem. We can’t bring ourselves to like this world, and neither can we fit into society. In the end, he resorted to imitating others to survive in society. He likes whatever another person likes.”
“How about you?” Bai Qi interrupted.
“I’ve tried doing that, too. That’s why a lot of the trivia that you can find about me on Wikipedia doesn’t really represent who I am or what I like.”
Xi Chengyun had tried Zheng Ming’s method for a bit, but concluded that Zheng Ming’s method was really too dumb.
If you were to copy the likes and dislikes of whoever you met, you’d end up liking tangerines one day and peaches on the next. Wouldn’t that cause people to think that you have a multiple personality disorder? Either that, or they’d think you’re a compulsive liar.
Thus, Xi Chengyun built a habit of picking out certain characteristics from the characters that he’d portrayed and made it his own. He did this in order to have a richer personality.
In essence, his goal was to not seem to be like a fake person.
However, characters in movies are written for artistic purposes. Hence, Xi Chengyun still comes off as quite an aloof person despite his efforts.
His fans described him as a perfect man who’s like an untouchable mirage.
Bai Qi suddenly understood where he was coming from. “Ah, that explains it!”
No wonder. He could admire Xi-laoshi’s acting skills, but he has never rooted for Xi Chengyun the way he rooted for his idols.
Just then, Xi Chengyun’s phone rang. It was a call from his assistant.
“Sir, where are you and Mr. Bai waiting? Are you at the roadside?” A-Da asked. “Oh, Oh! I see you!”
A-Da drove over and stopped right in front of them.
It was late in the night and there were few people on the streets.
Xi Chengyun opened the door for Bai Qi.
Bai Qi felt like A-Da kinda ruined the moment. When he was in the car, he whispered to Xi Chengyun, “So, is the Xi-laoshi I’m talking to now the real Xi-laoshi?”
Xi Chengyun rubbed the tips of his fingers and restrained himself from giving Bai Qi an actual answer. “What do you think, hm?”
A plethora of thoughts surfaced in Bai Qi’s mind.
‘Am I being too self-confident?’
He bit his lower lip and said, “I think you are, half of the time.”
“Mn,” Xi Chengyun answered with a smile.
The other half of his true self was still learning how to gently make an appearance in front of Bai Qi without scaring him away.


On the next day, the director from Team B directed their remaining scenes.
Director Zheng couldn’t be there because he had a high-end fashion show to attend. Of course, he was just there to watch, not there to walk on the runway. He wore a pair of sunglasses and a face mask to the event.
If it weren’t for the fact that the designer had provided him and his team with countless beautiful designs over the past few years, he wouldn’t have bothered to attend the fashion show.
When the show was over, Director Zheng was met with a huge group of reporters at the entrance of the showroom.
“Question for Director Zheng, did Xi-laoshi really bring Bai Qi along to appear in the movie you’ve been directing?”
“Yes,” he replied without even taking his shades off.
They were used to his one-worded answers and continued to ask, “Did you take your anger out on a megaphone?”
“That’s just bullshit,” Director Zheng replied.
‘How dare they ask about something like this?’
The reporters stopped for a moment and realized that they weren’t being the most polite. They rephrased themselves and asked, “Do you have anything to say to Xi-laoshi for bringing his wife along to work?”
Director Zheng cursed them in his heart. ‘If I do, I can go back to the set and tell Xi Chengyun straight to his face, can’t I?’
In the end, he cleared his throat, pondered for a bit, and said, “Oh
 Your wife is very cute.”
‘He even bought a mini voice amplifier for me!’
The reporters were in shock.