Chapter 889 - 888: Blood-Stirring Hormones

Mu Qiu had quite a lot to bring this time, so she prepared a backpack.

First, she packed Cheng Zhirang’s clothes.

The bedroom closet was actually quite big, but the space for storing clothes wasn’t evenly divided between the two. Her clothes took up eighty percent of the space, leaving only a bit of room for Cheng Zhirang’s casual wear and complete suits. As for the drawers where they stored their personal clothing, there were six in total, and she used four of them, leaving the rest for his belts, underwear, and other accessories.

In terms of space usage, the mention of Cheng Zhirang’s name almost conjured a pitiful image.

She casually folded two sets of clothes neatly, packed underwear into a small pouch. A three-minute task, yet the remaining few hours were spent entirely on choosing her own clothes and other belongings.

While organizing, her mind was suddenly empty, and she thought this scene felt a lot like a few years ago.

In school, before vacations, she would pack her luggage like this, bustling around the dormitory to tidy everything up, then drag her suitcase out of school, catch a ride to the station. The thought of going home to eat the lavish meals cooked by her parents was delighting, but the idea of facing their lectures again was irritating.

In the exchange between happiness and unhappiness, she would rush home like a bird flying back to its nest.

Back then, the concept of missing home hadn’t really taken form, it was more about the food at school never being as tasty as the meals made at home.

She lowered her head and smirked slightly; thinking, at just over twenty years old, she already harbors thoughts like "back in the day," "ten years ago," "a few years ago." It’s true that once you leave school and enter society, your mindset changes significantly.

Busy with packing for a while, lunch wasn’t had until two in the afternoon. Without Cheng Zhirang calling to check on her, she could blissfully relax.

And what was Cheng Zhirang doing?

On the film set.

Cheng Zhirang’s gray shirt was already drenched in sweat, and as he breathed heavily to start a new round of pull-ups, his arm muscles tensed, his abdomen tightened, and the bandages on his hands were soaked through.

Sweat slicked his hair, and droplets trickled down his chin.

His scene was scheduled for an hour later, requiring him to have his upper body half-exposed, muscles distinctly present.

Recently, he had even been drinking a lot less water, worried that bloating would impair his appearance.

Lately, he also had fight scene training, coupled with staying in this spacious yet inevitably stifling training room, itself a trial; when he returned to the hotel last night, he felt like he had been fished out of the water.

Forty minutes later, the program group announced it was time to prepare for filming his scene. Assistant Wen took the slightly dusty bandages from the female makeup artist’s hand and wrapped them around Cheng Zhirang.

This could not be done by a woman, as wrapping these bandages required reaching around Cheng Zhirang’s back, resembling an embrace; if this were performed by a woman, and paparazzi filmed it from a different angle, rumors like "Cheng Zhirang hugging a stranger on the set" would spread everywhere.

Moreover, having just exercised, the male hormones were overwhelming; what if a woman couldn’t control herself and lunged at him?

"Brother Cheng, why don’t you rest for a moment and have some water."

"No need, the next scene requires having just run."

So after bandaging, he still had to maintain this panting state; fortunately, there’s not much makeup, or it would easily smudge, the handsome face would have streaks of sweat, washing away the foundation, how terrifying that would be.

Everything was ready, only bits of wrapping up for other actors’ scenes remained, Cheng Zhirang stood behind the camera watching, not feeling at all strange about being half-naked.

Yet just standing there, he was the most prominent presence in the room, everyone couldn’t help but glance at him.

Simply a burst of hormones; a single look accelerates the heartbeat and induces swallowing.

Assistant Wen stealthily snapped a photo from behind and hesitated before sending it to Mu Qiu.

The photo was crowded, but only one shirtless man, the bandages wrapped from shoulder to abdomen, chest muscles wrapped several times, conveniently covering a red dot.

That’s quite tantalizing.

When Mu Qiu received the photo, she couldn’t help but zoom in to study it for ages.

Wow, just for this photo, she’s definitely following this film, but she must reprimand Qing Rong a bit for the dystopian male lead always getting injured.

After grumbling, she reluctantly put her phone down, sat on the small balcony and daydreamed.

A moment later, she picked up a pen and started scribbling away; the sticky notes quickly filled up with three or four pages, lined up neatly on the small table.

Indeed, Cheng Zhirang was her muse.

Inspired by this simple idea, she conjured many plotlines, but couldn’t thread them into a lengthy novel, ultimately deciding to write a series of short bedtime stories.

Throughout the evening, she remained hunkered over her desk, writing away; typing alone felt dull, so she specifically penned some of the inspirational snippets, collected them in her storybook before recording them digitally.

The new storybook would aptly be named "Bedtime Story Collection."

...

Saturday morning.

Mu Qiu fully equipped herself as she left; hailed a taxi to Hai City Airport.

Even though she wasn’t a celebrity, to reduce hassle, she didn’t forgo sunglasses, a hat, and a mask; she even removed the forest green long-legged fluffy monkey from her luggage, hung house keys on it instead, tucked into her backpack.

Fortunately, she wasn’t a big star, not recognized at the airport, although people frequently glanced her way where she sat in the waiting area. But she was prepared, didn’t remove her sunglasses, kept her head down playing on her phone throughout.

Successfully boarded the plane, finally exhaled when arriving at Linhai Airport, joyfully pursued the program group’s directional signs.

After squeezing through the crowded exit, she reached the smooth, sparsely populated areas where she could even slide around on her suitcase.

At the end of the signs stood a small door designated for the program group, leading directly to the sea breeze, much cooler than Hai City.

The program group’s car was outside, for solo pickup; she removed the sunglasses and hat, thanked the staff helping with luggage, and the moment she sat in the car, she locked eyes with the camera positioned in its center.

"It’s starting already?"

She wiped sweat as she asked the accompanying director seated in the front passenger seat.

The director nodded: "We’ll be taking a boat soon; do you get seasick?"

"Boat?"

She leaned against the car window, observing outside, this one-way road from the airport led forward; built over water, evidently fed by seawater.

But looking further, there indeed was a sea region, not the vast kind stretching out of sight like a previous sandy beach episode, rather a small sea expanse isolating the land. They were cruising to the other side of this sea.

"Going beyond the sea... is there a Smurfs’ village beyond the sea and mountains?"

The accompanying director chuckled, covering his mouth: "Guan Yu sang that song too upon arrival."

"Sister Guan Yu already here? Who else arrived? I’m not the last, am I?"

"You’re the third, Shu Ran’s here as well."

"Sister Guan Yu and Sister Shu Ran together wouldn’t argue, right? They’re not in the same car, are they?"

"Everyone has their own vehicle because there’s a preliminary interview."

Mu Qiu sat upright, seriously observing the central camera: "Alright then, interview about what? As long as it’s not an 800-word essay, I should handle it."