My Dreamy Old Husband
Chapter 408

When afternoon came, the filming team of “War Dragon’ suddenly received a notice from thedirector; he felt that their progress was lagging behind. In order to speed up the timeline, it wasdecided that all their afternoon breaks would be canceled, and filming would stretch up to sixteenhours or more per day.

Upon catching wind of this news, the entire filming team grumbled and complained. They werealready tired, yet they had to rush their filming schedule. Wasn't the director running them into theground with exhaustion?!

Nicole didn't say anything about it; she had always been a workaholic, and would have liked nothingbetter than to film 24 hours a day. It would be good for her to wrap up this show quickly since shestill had many contracts to fulfill. Once she was done filming “War Dragon’, she would still need toreport for another show's filming.

However, the supporting ladies were whining about it. Not only that, among the supporting castwere names that Michael was familiar with.

Joe had invested several billion into the Huffs as a form of repayment, so the Huffs managed tosecure a supporting female role in “War Dragon’ for Faye, which was originally meant for Kayla.While the role was pegged as a supporting character, it was akin to an extra with more screen timethan usual.

The general plot of “War Dragon’ described a former military man who changed his identity and rana business in Africa after he was discharged from the army. By chance, he found out that a localhuman trafficking ring was smuggling a group of foreign girls as they crossed the African continent.They were being escorted by a band of mercenaries to the Middle East so that they could be soldoff to several Middle Eastern moguls.

The sister of the male lead's dead comrade was among this group of trafficked girls. In order to savethis group of girls, the male lead waded into danger alone and ran into the female lead, who hadfollowed the trafficking ring’s trail all the way to Africa from her home country in order to save heryounger sister. The two of them joined forces to locate the girls, but they never expected a war tobreak out in the nation. Meanwhile, some of the girls were being escorted by the most elite ofmercenaries...

Harry played the role of the male lead, while Michael was cast as the leader of the mercenaries whowere hired by the trafficking ring to escort the girls. Nicole played the female lead, while Faye andXyla played two of the kidnapped girls, Kidnapped Girl A and Kidnapped Girl B.

Faye was most displeased by this. “Why are we working such long hours? I'm quitting!”

The director glowered at them. Why did they have so many complaints even though they were justextras?

“If you're quitting, you can book a ticket back home tomorrow. Your parts will be cut.”

If their parts were cut out from the movie, their earlier efforts would've been for naught; they hadmanaged to wrangle a role in a movie with international collaboration so that they could spreadtheir names after much difficulty. If their parts were truly cut, that would be a complete waste!

Faye shut up immediately.

All Michael could think about right then was rushing back home; he was worried that if he delayedhis return any longer, one of the random Fletcher men would actually steal his wife away.

When night came, Michael returned to his hotel after a day's filming work. He and Harry were thelast actors to return; all the other actors had already gone back to the hotel earlier to rest. To theirsurprise, they saw someone standing in an empty spot in the gardens at the back of Nicole's hotel.That person had a full-length mirror placed under a street lamp and was rehearsing her lines andactions.

They already had very little time to rest, but Nicole was still using whatever limited break time shehad to practice her craft. It was something to commend, and it was fortunate that such a hard-working actress was cast for the lead role; that was the only reason why their filming progress wasmaking a bit more headway than scheduled. If it weren't for those idiotic supporting actressesdragging things out, they would have been able to make even more progress.

Seeing that Michael had returned, Nicole said to him, “Mr. Fletcher, someone was looking for you inthe hotel lobby."

Michael nodded and patted Harry's shoulder. “You two have a major scene tomorrow, so you shouldpractice together.”

Harry seemed a little reluctant to do so. Michael immediately said, “Come on now, Lord Winston—you're a senior actor now. You should be guiding the newbies more.”

Harry had no choice but to practice with Nicole. Even though he had been acting for over a decade,there weren't many people with the drive Nicole had; if he nurtured her properly, she wouldblossom into her own in the future.

Nicole was extremely nervous about practicing with Harry. She hastily gathered her wits and put allher sincerity into her rehearsal. This was her first time playing the female lead in a major movie, soshe viewed it importantly. She knew how she ended up getting the role as the female lead—it wasbecause that one person liked her. Even though she didn't know who it was, the orphanage stillreceived a monthly donation from that person.

While she may have accepted this role, Nicole still hadn't received her paycheck yet. Hence, she hadpretty much no money on her right now, and was relying on that person to support the orphanage’sfinances. That person even helped the orphanage replace a new permanent location to move to; theyno longer had to worry about being forced to move anymore. That was why she had to completethe filming well!

Right before Michael entered the hotel, he glanced at Nicole's serious and hard-working figure. Asense of deep understanding flitted across his eyes; after all, she was his wife's idol. He was rathersaddened by that. Only one actor could be Sophia's absolute favorite, and it was Nicole—Taylorcould only be second.

Nicole's lead roles in the past were mostly shows set in rural villages. Sophia would often grill somelobsters and whip out a bottle of red wine out of the blue, munching on her food as she watchedNicole's drama in her home theater. Although Michael was reluctant to watch Nicole's shows, hewas forced to do so. Naturally, he already knew of Nicole before they met each other.

Michael had worked with Nicole before, but she had been cast as an extra in their works together.Nonetheless, he had to admit that Nicole was quite a spirited woman. After working with her for awhile, he thought that she wasn't bad at all. It was incredible that he would think this way of anactress who had just gotten her first leading role in a major film after she had been type-casted asan actress for countryside dramas. He hoped that Nicole would be able to make her shift from rolessuccessfully, blooming from a country bumpkin actress to an acclaimed one on the silver screen.After all, dramas set in the countryside were freaking painful to watch!

He never wanted to see any of Nicole's countryside dramas in his own living room ever again!Michael pushed open the door to the hotel and entered. This hotel was the poshest hotel in town,and it had been fully booked by the filming team. The rooms were awful, but it beat sleeping on thestreets.

A woman dressed in military attire was seated in the lobby. When she saw Michael come in, shewalked over instantly; her graceful figure entered his sight.

“Hi, do you still remember me? I'm Irene, Joel's girlfriend.”

Michael looked at Irene. It took a few seconds for him to respond as he said, “Hello there.”

"Our performance troupe just so happened to be performing for the peacekeeping forces here atthe moment; I heard that you were filming nearby, so I just dropped by to see you,” said Irene.Michael didn't have any other expression on his face as he smiled placidly. “Thank you for coming.”The two of them chatted for a while before Irene handed over a thermal container to him and said,“Please take care of your health while you're away from home; here's some soup made with somestuff I managed to scrounge up from the grounds. If you don't mind, have a taste of it.”

Michael smiled as he took the container. “Thank you, Irene.”

Irene grinned, her eyes crinkling up. She looked exactly the same as the dazzling girl in Michael'smemories; her smile seemingly brought Michael back to those days of his youth when he had beena clueless person. They had played together without worries and with untainted feelings.

"We're not strangers—you don't have to be so polite. Take care of yourself then. I'll be heading offnow.”

After exchanging a few more words, Irene took a taxi home. Michael walked back to his room, thecontainer of soup in his hands weighing him down. When was the last time such a gorgeous womanmade soup out of concern for him? Irene may have given him the soup, but she was no longer thesame person as before; everything had changed with the flow of time.

He went up to the second floor and placed the container of soup on the lid of the bin by theelevator.