Brother Qi: It's So Hard to Keep the Corners of My Mouth Down

"A'Yang, nice work."

"You really are our good little brother."

Tang Yan and Qi Wei stepped forward together, their smiles looking rather dangerous.

Hu Ge immediately started begging for mercy, repeatedly shooting Zhang Yang meaningful looks.

"Sister Tangtang, Brother Qi, there are still junior brothers and sisters from our company here."

"Could you at least spare the leading man of our company some face?"

"Otherwise, it'll be hard to keep the team in line in the future."

Zhang Yang stepped in at just the right moment to smooth things over.

Tang Yan and Qi Wei weren't actually going to do anything over the top. Given a way out, they took it, and Qi Wei smiled. "An apology should come with a little sincerity, don't you think?"

"Dinner's on me. I'll treat you all to dinner," Hu Ge readily agreed.

"All right, then I'll let you off this time." Qi Wei nodded slightly, then said to Zhang Yang, "A'Yang, you should come too. You helped me out by filming that music video last time, but we were in such a rush that we didn't even get a chance to eat together. I owe you a drink."

"It's not every day I get to make Old Hu pay for a meal. There's no way I'm missing out." Zhang Yang agreed without hesitation.

Hu Ge glanced at him and blurted out, "That Western meal I treated you to the day before yesterday—did I feed it to a dog?"

Zhang Yang's eyes widened in feigned shock. "Well, well, Old Hu. You actually dared to insult Sister Shishi?"

Hu Ge: "..."

He didn't want to offend Liu Shishi.

"Ahem." Hu Ge cleared his throat and awkwardly changed the subject. "Aren't you going to introduce your junior brother and sister to Brother Qi and Sister Tangtang?"

Zhang Yang stopped fooling around with Hu Ge and gestured to the two people behind him. "This is Jiang Jinfu, and this is Gulnazar Baha'er."

Jiang Jinfu and Nazha immediately greeted them. Nazha took her eyes off Zhang Yang and said, "My name's a bit long, so you can just call me Nazha."

The two women only gave Jiang Jinfu a polite nod. With Hu Ge and Zhang Yang as examples, they thought this new actor signed by Tangren was just average.

Nazha, on the other hand, made them take a few extra glances. They thought she was extraordinarily beautiful. They were envious of her plump, youthful skin and complexion that seemed to glow, and figured she'd go far.

Qi Wei warmly put an arm around Nazha's shoulders and smiled. "You're Nazha, right? Stick with me from now on, and I'll look after you."

Tang Yan's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

It was no secret in or out of the industry that Qi Wei was a sucker for good looks.

Whether she saw a handsome man or a beautiful woman, she'd be unable to resist making a beeline to befriend them.

Of course, they were only friends. To become close friends, they still had to get along and have no conflicts of interest.

Nazha was clearly an actress on a different track from them, so there was no reason to feel threatened.

"Brother Qi, move aside. If anyone's taking care of Nazha, it'll be me." Tang Yan pushed Qi Wei aside and said, "Shishi specifically asked me to look after this girl. When Xuanyuan Sword starts filming, I'll be the female lead, Shishi will be the second female lead, and Nazha will be the third. Nazha and I will be sisters."

At that, Zhang Yang's eyes flickered.

If he wasn't mistaken, Cai Yinong had already arranged for Nazha to learn from Hu Ge.

"But will things really go the way you want?" Zhang Yang glanced discreetly at Jiang Jinfu, filled with anticipation.

After everyone had met, Hu Ge checked the time and said, "A'Yang, Jinfu, Nazha, come with me to meet the producer and director."

The three had no objections. Led by Hu Ge, they went around greeting the more important people on the production crew.

That included Dong Xuan, as well as Qiu Ze and the others, who had just returned from the restroom.

After the greetings, the director announced the next round of filming: a scene with Hu Ge and Dong Xuan.

They filmed until noon. Then the director raised his megaphone and announced a one-hour break for lunch.

"Time's tight, so I won't take you to a restaurant. Is boxed lunch okay?" Hu Ge asked Zhang Yang and the other two.

"We're here to learn, not to cause trouble for the crew. Even if you arranged a restaurant, we wouldn't go." Zhang Yang put it nicely, then brought Jiang Jinfu along to help the production assistants hand out boxed lunches.

Since he'd said he would teach Jiang Jinfu, he wasn't about to do it halfheartedly.

As the saying went, it was easy to meet the King of Hell, but hard to deal with his underlings. It was important to build good relations with most of the crew.

Of course, if you were a big enough star, you could treat the crew to food and the like instead of doing odd jobs. Otherwise, people might look down on you.

After lunch, Zhang Yang patiently explained the finer points to Jiang Jinfu and Nazha.

He went over the roles of producers, directors, assistant directors, lighting technicians, cinematographers, production assistants, and others, as well as the details to pay attention to when dealing with different people.

When filming resumed in the afternoon, Zhang Yang stayed on the sidelines, giving Nazha and Jiang Jinfu pointers on their marks and other details.

At three o'clock, the director announced that the day's work was over. He left behind an assistant director, a screenwriter, and a camera crew to film Zhang Yang's cameo.

Hu Ge had already made the arrangements, so none of the people staying behind objected.

They headed to an artificial lake near the building, where the assistant director began having the crew set up the cameras.

While they waited, Qiu Ze went over to Tang Yan, who was having her makeup done, and said, "I booked a table at XX Restaurant. Want to have dinner together tonight?"

"Huh?" Tang Yan looked up in confusion. "Old Hu's treating us tonight. I already said I'd go. Didn't you say yes too?"

"You can always make up an excuse to get out of something like that," Qiu Ze said. "It's not an important dinner. I hardly ever invite a girl to eat with me. Don't you want to spend some time alone with me?"

Tang Yan: ?

She wanted to ask what had made him think she wanted to spend time alone with him.

He was pursuing her, and she hadn't even agreed yet.

She suddenly thought Qiu Ze was a little full of himself. He wasn't even as good-looking as Zhang Yang, yet he spoke with such confidence.

His arrogance was making her feel... turned off?

She hadn't even agreed to date him, and he was already acting like this.

What would he be like if she said yes?

Tang Yan tried to think of a way to let him down gently.

Qiu Ze thought she was hesitating. He coolly put on his sunglasses. "It's up to you. I'm fine either way."

Tang Yan: "..."

If I turn him down outright, will I hurt his pride too much?

Zhang Yang watched the whole thing from a distance and said to Hu Ge, "Old Hu, the junior brother and sister are watching. Don't mess up later."

Hu Ge thought Zhang Yang meant that messing up would be embarrassing. He nodded. "I'll be fine. You're the one who hasn't been on set in ages, A'Yang. Don't hold us up."

"Just watch." Zhang Yang's eyes flickered. He called out to Tang Yan, "Sister Tangtang, come over here. Let's run through our lines early so we can get it in one take and wrap up sooner."

That gave Tang Yan the perfect excuse. She immediately asked the makeup artist to stop, got up, and hurried over to Zhang Yang and Hu Ge. "Then let's run through our lines. I didn't have enough for lunch, so I want to get to dinner early."

Left standing there, Qiu Ze was completely dumbfounded.

Qi Wei, who had watched the entire scene, turned away, her shoulders shaking.

Help, help! It's so hard to keep the corners of my mouth from turning up.