Silver Linings

Chapter One - Meeting the other half

[Author's Note]

Two years ago today, the two protagonists of this story, flew in to the Hangzhou airport. As they sat in their cars, making their way towards Hengdian, they had no clue that their lives were about to change - forever.

Here we go!

⊂ (▀▿▀) つ❤

[25 MAY 2020]

⁂ GONG JUN ⁂

This particular Monday started off just like any other Monday, except that Gong Jun didn't have to get up early. In fact, he hadn't even set the alarm. He woke up well rested, had a shower and climbed into the pants that had been left out on the chair in his bedroom after his wardrobe had been packed the day before. To be honest, he hadn't paid too much attention to what he had packed. As long as the clothes were comfortable for getting to and from the filming studio, that was all that mattered. He would be spending most of his time in costume anyway, so he only really needed comfortable underwear. And of course clothes that he could use hanging out in his trailer. Needless to say, he had packed a lot of sweatpants, t-shirts and caps. And they didn't necessarily need to match.

After putting on his newish light blue Ader Jeans and a white t-shirt of the same brand, Gong Jun headed to the kitchen to cook himself some brunch. He needed food and he needed to be as comfortable as possible for obvious reasons—he was heading into a week of martial arts training. Well, to be more exact, tomorrow was the first day of the Shan He Ling production and the flight for Hangzhou would leave later today. From there they would drive a few hours to the hotel in Hengdian.

Just when he was about to sit down and enjoy the beef with stir fried vegetables and rice, there was a distinct knock on the door and his assistant, Xie Wenrui arrived. She took a seat at the kitchen table and smiled at the amount of food, before taking up her phone to go over today's schedule. Guess someone is a little nervous this morning?

Gong Jun only listened with half an ear, too focused on moving the wooden chopsticks non-stop between the four different plates and his dry lips. He had already memorized the schedule for the entire week anyway—just like he always did. He wasn't too sure if he had 'new-drama' jitters or if he was just hungry, but he vacuumed the plates. Though, it most certainly wasn't because he was nervous to meet his co-lead or that they had to meet for the first time during martial arts training.

It wasn't unusual for him to eat a lot of food, but maybe not at the speed he managed this particular Monday morning. And he did feel calmer afterwards so he was probably just hungry—this was food coma. Xie Wenrui barely raised an eyebrow, too used to the amount of food her boss could gobble down in a short amount of time, and just kept her smile as she watched.

Her phone pinged and she quickly swiped at it, her voice and eyes focused on the screen, "Gong Laoban (1), The car is here. Let's go to the airport."

Gong Jun smiled and stood up. He grabbed both his mobile phones and tucked them into his small black shoulder bag. He watched Xie Wenrui roll two black Lancel suitcases out the door and towards the elevator. He plopped a blue cap on his head, grabbed his script with his left hand and locked the door behind him.

Not that they would be shooting or practicing any scenes until next week, but he spent most of his 'free' time memorizing Wen Ke Xing's lines and he would have plenty of time to kill on the flight from Beijing to Hangzhou. He really wanted to learn them all, ahead of time, so that they would roll off his tongue as easy as breathing during filming. He did not want to miss a single word. And maybe, just maybe, he was learning it because he enjoyed the flirting and bantering, hoping some of it might rub off on him. Though if anyone asked, it was because the schedule was tight and he was known for not requiring any re‑shoots.