Lu Yinbing waited for several minutes, but there was still no movement in the kitchen. She stood up, leaned over and said to Xia Yitong, "Why haven't you come out yet? I'll go in and take a look."
Xia Yitong looked at her and nodded.
As soon as I moved my feet away from the table, I saw Lu Yunzhang and Liu Xinmin coming out with a big soup bowl, smiling, "It's time to eat."
The two elders took their seats one by one.
The Lu family's dining table was rectangular, with Lu Yunzhang and Liu Xinmin sitting on the long side, and Lu Yinbing and Xia Yitong sitting on the opposite side. Lu Yinbing didn't sit down, but first took three bowls and filled a bowl of soup for his parents and Xia Yitong, and finally it was his turn, so he sat down.
Xia Yitong stared at the two elders in front of her with her eyes wide open, not blinking. She was so nervous that she could hardly hold the chopsticks.
Should I say something? What if I say something wrong? Or should I just keep drinking the soup? I am usually very eloquent, but now I can't even say a word. Xia Yitong was angry with herself.
A spoon was stuffed into Lu Yinbing's hand. Lu Yinbing eased the tense atmosphere and said, "Our family's eating habit is to not talk and concentrate on eating."
Lu Yunzhang swallowed the condolences that were about to come out.
Liu Xinmin: “…”
Hey! This daughter with a crooked elbow.
I always saw her talking a lot when we were having meals before, and now she's pretending to be artistic
Lu Yinbing acted like the head of the family, with both hands outstretched, beckoning everyone, "Eat, eat, ah."
Lu Yunzhang buried his head in his food obediently.
Liu Xinmin pointed at the large plate in front of Xia Yitong and said, "I want to eat that hairy crab."
Lu Yinbing brought her the biggest one. Lu Yunzhang put down his chopsticks and took the hairy crab. Liu Xinmin winked and Lu Yunzhang stopped trying to open the crab shell. He stood up and took a small tool box, and placed the "eight tools for crabs" including a silver hammer, pliers, shovel, and spoon on it.
Xia Yitong was not unfamiliar with these things, as they were often used to eat crabs in her hometown.
Lu Yinbing flipped into the top of his head. He used to do it with his hands, but today he pretended to use tools. Wasn't it just to show it to Xia Yitong
Liu Xinmin's acting is as exaggerated as it can be. She eats a crab and a giant peach given by the Queen Mother as if she has never seen it in her life.
Xia Yitong: "Uncle, do you have any extra crab meat?"
"Yes." Lu Yunzhang was well prepared and took out a complete set from the toolbox.
Lu and Xia ate and peeled the crabs, in perfect sync with Lu's father and mother. Xia Yitong was very skilled. Relatively speaking, Lu Yunzhang, who had not used the eight pieces of crabs before, was slower. Liu Xinmin glared at Lu Yunzhang, who was also helpless. They just wanted to see if Xia Yitong often took care of their daughter.
Xia Yitong lowered her head and focused on peeling crabs. Lu Yinbing fed her food from time to time. Before taking the first bite, Xia Yitong looked at Lu's father and mother worriedly. When neither of them noticed her, she ate. Later, Lu Yinbing fed her more and more naturally, and she ate more and more casually. Occasionally, she looked at Lu Yinbing, who propped up his chin to look at her, his eyes full of sweet smiles, and the air was full of pink bubbles, no different from usual. For a moment, she even forgot that she was at the Lu family's dining table.
The plate of hairy crabs was almost empty, and the other dishes were almost finished. Liu Xinmin and Lu Yunzhang cleaned up the dishes, while Lu Xia and his wife sat on the sofa and rubbed their stomachs to digest the food.
Xia Yitong couldn't sit still and kept looking towards the kitchen. When she saw Lu Yunzhang and Liu Xinmin's heads pressed together, she always felt that they were talking about her.
"What do you think of your parents' impression of me?" Xia Yitong's hands were sweating.
"It's pretty good." Lu Yinbing took out a box of dental floss from the things piled on the coffee table, cut a piece of it and handed it to Xia Yitong.
Lu Yinbing said, "Just treat it as a normal meal. My parents are easy to talk to and won't make things difficult for you. And I don't see that you did anything wrong. Don't worry, I'll hold you up even if the sky falls."
Xia Yitong was still worried.
Lu Yinbing knew that it was useless to comfort her, as only her parents could say these words in person, so she talked about work to change the subject.
"I have been looking for a movie script for you for two months. Xue Yao said there is a clue. I just sent it to my email. Let's discuss it tonight and pick the one you like." Lu Yinbing said, "It depends on your preference. Do you want a commercial film or an art film? Art films are now used purely to win awards. Snow Breaking took in 3.3 billion yuan. It's the first movie you signed. I don't recommend you to take a pure art film. We want awards and box office, and we can't lose either."
Lu Yinbing said, "There's a rising star in the industry recently. She started out as a film actress and was in a variety show with you before. I don't remember her name. You can refer to her route. You're doing the opposite. You started out as a TV actress and just released a big-box office movie. You're in a critical period of transformation. As long as your next movie fails, art films won't necessarily win awards if they don't make a splash at the box office. If you don't win the Best Actress award, your movie will be in vain. Plus, there's at least a year between the filming and the release of a movie. If it doesn't become a big hit, it will hurt your popularity a lot."
Xia Yitong asked: "What about the TV series?"
After all, she has not yet completely transformed. There are many actors in the industry who use movies to improve their status and TV series to increase their popularity. Moreover, she is known as the queen of TV ratings. The time cost of a TV series from production to broadcast is less than that of a movie. If there is a TV series as a buffer, the choice of movies will be much greater.
Lu Yinbing showed a look of disapproval and shook his head, saying, "To be honest, I haven't watched domestic TV series in recent years, but I have heard of them. Including the ones you filmed... I'm not saying that your acting is bad, but it has limited training for your acting skills, and the production team and scripts are getting worse and worse, and most of them are money-making works. The few good ones are all male-led dramas, and the female protagonists are just a bluff, but in fact they are Mary Sue. Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"How did you get up?" Lu Yinbing asked instead of answering.
"New Yi Tian." She thought for a moment and added, "And "Breaking Snow."
Lu Yinbing nodded: "It is very difficult for an actor to find a role that fits him/her perfectly. Before, there was Zhao Min, which made you a sensation, and then there was Chen Qing, which made you nominated as the female lead. There was an element of flattery in it. The next TV series you take on will inevitably become the same as those you filmed before, which is a waste of life. Unless there is another production team that is no less than "Breaking Snow" to carefully tailor a brand new TV series for you."
Xia Yitong was stunned: "..."
This is too difficult, she might as well pick a good script and make a movie.
Lu Yinbing smiled and said, "It might have been possible 20 years ago. Liu Xiaoqing's Empress Wu was the peak era of TV dramas with female protagonists."
The more she talked, the more frustrated Xia Yitong became. Finally, he tilted his head and fell into her arms, snorting, "Aren't you making things difficult for me? I was only two years old in 1995."
"I'm six years old, but I still didn't catch up. If I was born in that era, maybe "The Secret History of Xiaozhuang" would have been mine. It would have been a good idea to just play a supporting role in "Empress Wu Zetian" earlier." Lu Yinbing pinched her ears and kissed the soft white flesh.
"Ahem." Lu Yunzhang sat down on the double sofa, "Be careful of the impact."
"Okay, Dad." Lu Yinbing sat up straight.
Lu Yunzhang said: "Your mother has entrusted me to represent her and convey her opinions."
Lu Yinbing: "What's your opinion?"
Xia Yitong sat upright.
Lu Yunzhang looked between the two of them and said in the tone of her mother: "Bingbing has always had a little temper. If you are with her in the future..."
Xia Yitong thought he would say something like "be more tolerant", but Lu Yunzhang said, "You must spoil her."
Lu Yinbing shouted in dissatisfaction: "My temper is much better now."
Xia Yitong agreed in a good voice: "Yes, yes, you have the best temper."
Lu Yunzhang also laughed and said lovingly, "I have been in business for so many years, and I am good at judging people's self-praise. You are gentle, kind and non-competitive, which is a perfect match for our little bully. If she makes trouble in the future, you can tell me and I will teach her a lesson."
Lu Yinbing was delighted: "Dad, what is your opinion..."
Although Liu Xinmin seems to be the boss of her family, in fact, when it comes to important decisions, it is Lu Yunzhang who makes the decisions. As long as Lu Yunzhang says it is okay, then it is okay. As for the second half of the sentence "unreasonable interference", is she such an unreasonable person? So it is definitely not her.
Lu Yunzhang smiled and said, "I have no objection. Miss Xia will be the daughter-in-law of our Lu family in the future. When can you meet your mother? Our two families can have a meal together to get to know each other."
He only mentioned his mother and not his parents. Xia Yitong was deeply moved. Lu Yinbing must have told them privately. Their family is so nice, no wonder they could raise such an outstanding daughter like Lu Yinbing.
The three of them were chatting in the living room. Lu Yinbing asked about her mother, and Lu Yunzhang pointed in the direction of the kitchen: "She's wiping her tears. Go comfort her."
Lu Yinbing went to coax her mother. Without their daughter as a diversion, the "father-in-law and son-in-law" or "father-in-law and daughter-in-law" had no common language at all. The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. Lu Yunzhang asked a question and Xia Yitong answered it.
They waited until Lu Yinbing came back and brought Xia Yitong upstairs. Both of them looked as if they had been pardoned.
Xia Yitong accidentally splashed some crabs on her clothes while peeling crabs at night, so she went to the bathroom to change clothes and take a shower. The cell phone left outside rang, and Lu Yinbing took a look at the caller ID - Qin Mu.
She didn't answer the phone. Xia Yitong probably didn't tell anyone about their relationship. If she answered the phone and someone heard it, it would cause trouble.
The call was automatically disconnected.
The next moment, a call came in on her own mobile phone. It was an unfamiliar number from City S. Lu Yinbing had an inexplicable intuition in her heart. She used her fingerprint to open Xia Yitong's mobile phone, found the missed call, and compared it. It was the same one.
She narrowed her eyes and pressed the answer button.
"Boss Lu, I'm Xia Yitong's former boss Qin Mu," the woman on the other end said. Her voice sounded about her age. "I have a project involving Xia Yitong. Are you interested in cooperating?"