Chapter 434: Getting Lunchboxes
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Throughout the whole morning, only three scenes were filmed. Zhang Zian experienced how dull and boring the filming process was. As it turned out, those brilliant scenes on the screen were made by these short takes. Actors and the script were like separate atoms of hydrogen and oxygen, and the director was the key electric spark that added them together to make an explosive chemical reaction.
All that said, Zhang Zian still felt very bored, especially when Feng Xuan shouted "Cut!" He felt inexplicable discouraged, as if a flaw had occurred when a sand castle was about to be built, or as if a customer had asked him questions for an hour and didn’t buy anything in the end.
Famous was full of energy and did not show the slightest impatience. Zhang Zian knew that it must be very tired, because it had run back and forth six times just shooting the first scene. Added with the rehearsals, it had run almost ten times, but every time, it had meticulously met the director's orders and requirements.
When the third scene was finished shooting, it was already 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and Feng Xuan finally decided to take a lunch break. "Come and get your lunchboxes!"
Hearing these words, Zhang Zian, who almost fell asleep while he was standing, finally woke up. He was aware that he was so hungry that his stomach was singing. To make some space in his stomach for the free lunchbox, he barely ate anything that morning.
Having been busy for the whole morning, the rest of the crew members were all tired and hungry. They put down their things at hand and quickly rushed to get their lunchboxes. It was just like the cafeteria in a high school during lunchtime.
"Famous!" Zhang Zian waved to Famous, asking it to come to him. When Famous approached, he asked, "How are you, are you hungry?"
It shook its head slightly. "I'm not hungry."
"How are you not hungry? I can barely stand the hunger even though I was just standing here all morning, but you ran so much, you must definitely be hungry. You wait here, take a break, and I'll get you a lunchbox. You’ve worked so hard, you deserve to have an extra chicken leg." Zhang Zian smiled.
Perhaps because it heard "chicken leg," Famous unconsciously licked its lips and laid down to rest.
In the morning, there were no scenes involving Red Dragon or Prince. They were did not need to be on lease either. They had been behaving very well and did not bark. They went to Famous and lied on the ground.
The crew members were so competitive to get their lunchboxes. Zhang Zian was nervous, wondering if the number of lunchboxes was not enough. He did not dare to delay it any longer. He struggled to squeeze into the crowd and said to the guy responsible for giving out lunchboxes, "Four lunchboxes with extra meat!"
However, the guy handed him only one lunchbox, without raising his head, he said, "One lunchbox per person. No getting on on behalf of others. What do you need so many lunchboxes for? Is it your first day on the crew? Get out of here! You are obstructing others!"
Zhang Zian did not leave. He asked, "Are you sure I can’t take lunchboxes for others? Then I’ll have to let my dogs come and get lunch themselves."
Someone next to the lunchbox guy whispered a few words to him. The lunchbox guy looked up at Zhang Zian. "A dog trainer? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You want four, right? Here! Take them and get out quickly!" He stacked three lunchboxes and handed them to Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian was a little bit annoyed. No business owners dared to treat their customers with such an attitude. I’m just a dog trainer? Well, you are just a guy handing out lunch to the crew. Who do you think you are to be so cocky? But then he thought to himself, No need to be angry with this guy, I should feed myself first.
Holding four lunchboxes, Zhang Zian squeezed out from the crowd and went back to the three dogs. Smelling the scent of the meal, they all came forward and circled around the lunchboxes.
Zhang Zian opened his lunchbox. He was disappointed. The meal was so shabby! In the square lunchbox, half of it was rice, while the other half was scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Moo Shu pork, and sautéed cabbage with vinegar sauce. The lunch standard must not exceed ten yuan! And where was the chicken leg as promised? Most importantly, the meal was already cold! It was cold! He thought he was just unlucky, but then he opened the other three boxes. The food was all the same.
Zhang Zian had not eaten cold meals in a long time. Having such a cold meal in winter, he couldn’t help but complain to himself, Why can’t they serve the meal as soon as the lunchboxes arrived? When they finished shooting, the meal was already cold!
But then he looked at the other people. Whether it was director Feng Xuan or the leading actor Lin Feng, they were eating the same kind of lunch as him. The only difference was that their lunchboxes had been delivered to them, and they could have lunch while sitting. Zhang Zian and the rest of the crew members had to get their lunchboxes in person and could only squat as they ate their meal.
"What should I do, Famous? This meal is cold. Should I find a way to heat it up?" Zhang Zian said, looking up at the windows of the two-story building, wondering if he could find a microwave. Probably not. If there was one, every member of the cew was probably in line to use it.
Staring down at the cold lunch, Famous did not say anything. It sniffed the food and started to eat. Reluctant as they may be, Red Dragon and Prince were too hungry and began to eat the food just like Famous.
Zhang Zian sighed, separated the disposable chopsticks, picked up a piece of ugly scrambled egg, frowned, and put it into his mouth. It was a little salty. He quickly put a bit of cold rice into his mouth. He kept chewing and did not swallow them until they were warmed up by his mouth. Even so, he felt the food was cold and hard in his stomach, as if he had swallowed a bunch of small stones.
"Eating alone?" A pair of lady’s high-top shoes and gray trousers appeared in the corner of his eye. The sound was somewhat familiar. With rice on his mouth, Zhang Zian looked up. It was the makeup artist Xu Junyu.
While she was eating and talking with the other makeup artists, she noticed that Zhang Zian was lonely and pathetic squatting in one corner all by himself. She decided to come over and speak with him.
"I’m not alone." Zhang Zian wiped the rice from his mouth. He pointed to Famous and the other two dogs. "They are here with me."
Holding a pair of chopsticks and her half eaten lunchbox, she curiously asked, "Why don’t you eat with the other dog trainers? You should have common topics to talk about, right? Don’t you feel lonely eating by yourself? You should communicate with others more frequently now that you have joined the crew."
Zhang Zian smiled. Instead of answering directly, he just said, "Two of a trade can never agree."
"That’s true." She could relate to that. "Do you mind if I have lunch with you?"
"Suit yourself." Zhang Zian moved aside to give her room. She also squatted down, but she ate rather elegantly.
Zhang Zian noticed that she was not using the disposable chopsticks with wood splinters on them, but was using a pair of delicate bamboo chopsticks that she probably brought with her.
"Right, I would like to ask, are all the lunchboxes in the crew…" he asked, pointing to the lunchboxes. He wondered, if the movie industry was so lucrative, then why was the crew reluctant to serve better quality lunch?
"Garbage?" She smiled, picked up a mouthful of sautéed cabbage with vinegar sauce, and ate it. "Not all of them. Do you see that guy handing out the lunchboxes? He is said to be related to the production director Nie Yuan. And because of that, he was arranged to be responsible for meals during filming. Now, this is a very lucrative job. The lunch standard should be 25 yuan per person. By providing lunch of lower standard, the money he saves ends up in his pockets. He earns more than you and me every day."
Having been with many film crews, Xu Junyu was used to such things that she never felt like complaining. In general, films shot by private companies had more nepotism, but even in the crews such as Dog Warrior, which had support from the government, similar events were inevitable.
Xu Junyu intended to complain a bit more, revealing some insider secrets of the industry to him as his predecessor, but she was stunned as she saw that Zhang Zian did not eat the Moo Shu pork in his lunchbox. Instead he put it into Famous’s lunchbox.
Famous looked up at him. It stuck out a forepaw, blocking his chopsticks.
"I'm not hungry. You’ve been tired all morning, you should eat more." Zhang Zian smiled. A human’s hand was after all more flexible than a dog's paw. His chopsticks went past Famous’s forepaw and put the meat in its lunchbox. "And the pork is fat, I don’t like eating fatty meat."
Famous looked at his eyes. It could tell that he was lying. A very clumsy lie. He could fool others, but he could never fool Famous. His body language was clearly saying that he was hungry and wanted to eat meat. But Famous did not hate this lie. Famous liked it and felt moved by it. It removed its forepaw, bowed its head, and ate the Moo Shu pork. There were only a few slices of meat, but they were surprisingly delicious.
Xu Junyu looked at the other dog trainers from afar. They were also having lunch with their German Shepherds. Everyone’s food was the same, but no one gave the meat in their lunchboxes to their dogs as Zhang Zian had. She even saw that someone had taken meat from their dog’s box, eating the meat nonchalantly, turning a blind eye to the begrudging look of their dog.
Suddenly, she realized why Zhang Zian did not eat with other dog trainers. It was not only because of what he had said, "two of a trade can never agree," but also because he was a completely different kind of person from them. In the morning, she told others that she envied this new chief dog trainer. She wondered how his dog was so obedient. Now, she believed she had found the answer.
She used her exquisite bamboo chopsticks to pick out the Moo Shu pork from her lunchbox as Zhang Zian had, and put it into Red Dragon and Prince’s lunchboxes.
Unlike Famous, Red Dragon and Prince did not hesitate to accept the meat. However, after eating the meat, they were obviously more intimate with Xu Junyu, even sticking out their tongues to lick her palms.
"I'm trying to lose weight, so I don’t want to eat meat," she smiled and said in response to Zhang Zian's curious gaze.