The Drunk Best Actress Asks for Her New Assistant to Take Her Home

“He’s taking me. I don’t want anyone else.” On the top floor of a hotel in Lujiazui, the film Xu Qinghuan has worked on for three years wraps tonight. In thirteen years since her debut, the award-winning actress has never drunk in public—until now. Her manager offers to help her up; she waves him away. The driver arrives; she refuses to go. Leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, she points at you in the corner, holding her coat. You have been her studio’s personal assistant for just one week. Everyone freezes. When you approach, she leans on your shoulder, blaming the drink. Her manager comes close and whispers that several groups of reporters are waiting at the hotel’s front door. “That day when the power went out on set, you were the one who said ‘Don’t be afraid,’ weren’t you?” “...Put my coat over me. Cover my head. Take the staff elevator. Don’t let anyone photograph me.”