When Slackers Meet

Chapter Ten

The audition venue was deserted. A few actors were scattered about trying out, and their performances made Li Wenchuan cringe so hard he could have clawed out an underground imperial mausoleum on the spot.

After enduring that bunch of spiritless men with great difficulty, a delicate-looking girl knocked on the door and asked, "Is this the audition site for The Crown Prince's Strike Log?"

Several staff members nodded casually. They had assumed she would leave disappointed, since most people did. Unexpectedly, the girl's eyes lit up as she said happily, "Great! I thought it had already ended."

Li Wenchuan: "..."

No, he did not care. In this situation, as long as there was work and a salary, that was enough. His standards were low. But what was up with this person?

He Meng: "..."

Suddenly, she no longer felt that her artist was such a sucker.

Director Yang—eyes shining, utterly delighted—asked for her name and flipped open the audition list. "Chen Danyan, you're auditioning for Xiao Liangyuan?"

"Then do the dance where she 'stunned' the Crown Prince," Director Yang said. This role required a certain foundation in dancing. They had already passed on several people that morning, and finding a suitable actress was truly difficult.

Chen Danyan nodded and asked, "Can we play music, Director?"

"Sure."

An ethereal, melodious piece of music began to play, suddenly mixed with mysterious language incomprehensible to humans. Its cadence rose and fell, eerie and soul-stirring. The girl in the center lay prone on the floor, then suddenly "convulsed." She raised her hands and lowered them again, repeating the movement several times before springing up like a carp and beginning to spin and leap.

The entire room fell silent, every eye seized by that incomparable dance.

When the dance ended, Chen Danyan bowed. "My performance is over."

Li Wenchuan: "...I feel like I'm about to go to the underworld again."

He Meng: "???!!!" Why did he say again?!

Director Yang looked at Chen Danyan and clapped excitedly. "Why didn't you come sooner? You're the one. No one understands Xiao Liangyuan better than you do."

"Really, Director?" Chen Danyan covered her mouth, her face full of excitement.

"Also, I'd like to discuss something with you." Director Yang twirled the pen in his hand, then stopped and tapped it against the table. "Could you also work part-time as the production's dance instructor? Don't worry, we'll sign a contract and pay you extra."

Chen Danyan nodded, looking utterly bewildered and at a loss.

"What is that dance called? It looked pretty good."

Everyone: "..." Are you sure?

"Shaman dance. I signed up for classes and learned it from a teacher last month." She had not expected one dance to make such a stunning impression. What an unexpected gain.

Li Wenchuan twitched at the corner of his mouth and quietly asked He Meng, "You have to take classes for that?"

"...I don't know." He Meng shook her head soullessly.

No matter how he looked at it, this production crew seemed terribly unreliable. It gave people the feeling that they might run off with the money at any moment.

Li Wenchuan was usually not very reliable himself, but he knew this was a historical drama, and the costs involved would certainly be greater than for a modern one. Yet judging by this... he could not help asking, "Director Yang, is the cast all the production is missing?"

The other man scratched his head, unconcerned. "More or less."

Why did that make him trust it even less?

After signing the contract and settling some scheduling matters, everyone said their goodbyes.

There was still some time before The Crown Prince's Strike Log began filming. Director Yang said the timing was uncertain, but Li Wenchuan could at least arrange his schedule freely for the next month or two.

After night fell, the world settled into silence. Li Wenchuan ordered takeout. The payment for You and Me Back Then had arrived, and his life had returned to relative comfort.

But why had his CEO father shown no reaction whatsoever? Had his performance on the show not been sincere enough?

Sea City, inside an office in a commercial building.

The floor-to-ceiling windows took in the city's splendor, but the atmosphere inside was cold and heavy.

"You're saying he hasn't touched a single cent?" Li Zhengyuan closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

Li Mingyu nodded. He was usually a man of few words, but seeing his father's despondent expression, he could not help comforting him. "Maybe Brother just... doesn't lack money. And the jobs he's getting now are pretty good. He should have an income."

Li Zhengyuan shook his head. "No. He still hasn't forgiven me."

"Don't overthink it..."

"You don't understand! Your brother grew up living in a two-hundred-square-meter room. Whenever he had nothing to do, he stood on the balcony and looked down at the twelve-hundred-square-meter garden and small swimming pool, with that Ragdoll cat in his arms—the one that had earned a CFA Grand Champion title. Even his bed had to have a silk quilt and velvet. If a pea was placed beneath the mattress, it could leave a mark on his back."

"..." There was really no need for that.

"You won't understand. What kind of place is he living in now? The last time I told him to come home, he secretly picked the lock and ran away. Is the outside world really that good?"

"..." That seemed to have been the time people said his brother had been kept by a sugar daddy. "That was because you lied to him and said his cat had feline infectious peritonitis and was going to die. But it didn't."

"Didn't he ever consider that I, his father, might get FIP and die too?!"

"..." There was no need to curse himself like that.

Li Mingyu: Suddenly, he wanted to run away from home like his brother too.

After Li Wenchuan left home, he had never used the family's cards again. Li Zhengyuan did not know his new bank card number either. It seemed he would have to think of another way to stuff money into his hands.

Inside the rented apartment, Li Wenchuan was eating takeout when his chopsticks accidentally fell to the floor. With no choice, he bent down to pick them up. As he felt around, he found several flat objects beneath the sofa. Pulling them out, he saw they were all snapped bank cards.

Putting the assorted pieces together, there were probably six, seven, maybe eight cards in total. Li Wenchuan fell silent.

What a young master who treated money like dirt.

A little after ten, Li Wenchuan was so depressed that he put on a mask and planned to go out for some fresh air.

With his level of popularity, he probably would not be recognized even if he wandered around the streets. But he was afraid of running into some unexpected incident. Today, he only wanted some peace and quiet.

Late at night, there were especially few pedestrians on the streets. Even the roads seemed empty, and the cars drove alone with the speed of arrows loosed from a bow. As he passed a shopping mall, he saw a massive poster displayed outside the cinema on the top floor—Deliverance, starring Jiang Hansheng.

At the center of the poster stood a man dressed in a wide-sleeved robe the color of ink, his robes billowing as he held a sword.

He took the elevator upstairs, bought a ticket for the nearest showing, and heard someone call his name while he sat waiting for a seat.

"Li Wenchuan?"

The newcomer was also wearing a mask and holding a cup of Coke. His expression could not be seen, but the warmth and gentleness in his eyes and brows were unmistakable.

"Is the Best Actor here to boost ticket sales for his own movie?" Li Wenchuan asked quietly as he approached. The moment he said it, he froze. He had mixed them up again.

This was not Jiang Chengyu from back then, yet he had grown accustomed to using this attitude when facing that same face.

A habit formed over so many years could not be changed, even when time and space had shifted and everything had changed.

Fortunately, Jiang Hansheng did not mind much. "If I could, I'd rent out the entire theater for myself. Everyone in the company should come watch it at least once."

"..." This guy was definitely not Jiang Chengyu. Cheng Yu was nowhere near this shameless.

He must have been obsessed. How could he connect two completely unrelated people? Something as fantastical as possessing another's corpse—how could there be so many coincidences like that in this world?

Jiang Hansheng saw that Li Wenchuan's expression had not changed much, and that he had even nodded subconsciously. He felt that His Majesty surely understood him.

As expected, only His Majesty could understand him. If it was acted so well, everyone ought to come watch it.

Worthy of His Majesty.