Chapter 2

Wang Lin wore a dazed look, his eyes unfocused.

He pinched himself hard under the table, his face instantly twisting in a grimace.

[Hiss~ it looks painful just watching. Director Wang actually has this kind of minor sadomasochistic hobby, huh?]

[His mind is already quite perverted, so Director Wang's body really needs to stay healthy]

Wang Lin twisted up even more: ...I thank you!

Ning Luo was still letting his imagination run wild when Sun Shaoyi glanced at him. "Ning Luo, eat your food."

To hear her voice was to know she had reached the limit of her patience.

Ning Luo obediently lowered his head.

[Why only throw cold questions at me? Am I not well-behaved enough? Am I not worthy of being treated tenderly by you?]

Sun Shaoyi's movements paused slightly.

Ignoring the inner voice, Ning Luo seemed to... indeed not have done anything wrong.

The next second.

[Disappointed, sad, want to cry, gotta use toilet paper to wipe away my tears, and then turn into venom, darkly and distortingly crawling on the ceiling]

Sun Shaoyi took a deep breath, her temples throbbing.

Why was Ning Luo's head full of this kind of stuff?!

She angrily glared at Ning Luo's profile, only to see puffed-up cheeks. Ning Luo was biting his chopsticks, his eyebrows drooped, unprovokedly showing a pitiful and aggrieved appearance as his gaze fell on the napkin at his hand.

Li Zhigang did not know everything that had happened between them, and felt quite dissatisfied with Wang Lin stopping his signature. "Director Wang?"

Wang Lin looked at the small black dot where the fountain pen had landed on the contract, and gave Ning Luo a pensive look.

There was a financial backer behind Ning Luo, so it was possible he knew some inside information, but due to tangled interests, he had no way to tell him directly.

Yet even if he had said it outright, he wouldn't have believed him; instead, hearing the inner voice was what gave the matter credibility.

Wait a second, could the fact that he was able to hear Ning Luo's inner voice be a warning from the heavens telling him not to sign the contract?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Being in the entertainment industry, everyone was superstitious to varying degrees.

Wang Lin put down the pen.

Seeing this, Li Zhigang leaned forward, but realizing he looked too anxious, he slowly relaxed. A smile hung on his face, yet his voice grew heavy. "What does Director Wang mean by this? Do you not plan to sign?"

His action did not escape Wang Lin's eyes, causing him to believe Ning Luo a few points more in his heart. With polite formality, he said, "Since Boss Li is busy, we might as well wait until the matter at hand is dealt with properly, and then hold a nice signing ceremony, take group photos, and issue press releases so it looks more formal."

Li Zhigang asked, "Is Director Wang not in a rush for funds anymore?"

This was far too eager to hand over money. Whenever things happened contrary to the norm, demons were sure to be at play. Wang Lin said, "Boss Li's affairs take priority, we're not in a rush."

Knowing he could press no further, Li Zhigang had no choice but to postpone the signing. Harboring pent-up frustration, his enthusiasm for Ning Luo vanished entirely.

Ning Luo picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork to eat, his eyes narrowing in enjoyment.

Big brother, postponement my foot, you won't even have a later on. Going back this time spells your doom.

The banquet reached this subtle atmosphere, and soon broke up in discord.

Wang Lin saw Li Zhigang off, only to be intercepted by Sun Shaoyi.

"What is it?"

Sun Shaoyi pulled him into an empty corner and asked directly, "Director Wang, did you hear some strange voice during the dinner party?"

Otherwise, why suddenly change his mind?

Wang Lin asked, "What?"

"For example, someone shouting loudly in your ear that this crew is done for and you need to look for another agency?"

Wang Lin fell silent for a few seconds. "...You too?"

Sun Shaoyi nodded, and the two stared at each other in dismay.

They discussed it for a bit, ultimately making the unanimous decision not to act rashly for the time being, to keep it from Ning Luo, and to wait and see how things developed.

As for the contract, Wang Lin said, "I'll use my connections to have someone thoroughly investigate this Boss Li. Ning Luo might know something."

Only, failing to secure investment this time meant he had to think of other ways, and his hairline was bound to recede quite a bit more.

Over on this side, Ning Luo hailed a taxi to go home. On the way, he wondered why Wang Lin had suddenly decided not to sign the contract, and after thinking it over and over, he concluded the only reason must be for the sake of making things look more formal.

"Face-saving projects matter more than anything else..." Looking at the whizzing night scenery outside the window, Ning Luo rubbed his chin and thought it was about time he looked for another agency. The original body spent money like water with zero savings, and he couldn't afford to be drinking northwest wind when the time came.

Still, while a monk stayed in the temple he had to ring the bell; since he was still with the film crew, he had to treat the job properly. Ning Luo considered himself to have professional ethics.

Upon returning home, he picked up the script the original body had casually tossed on the table and began to study it carefully.

This was an urban workplace drama where Ning Luo played the tragic and beautiful second male lead who suffered from a dark period of campus bullying, and after being pulled out of the quagmire by the female lead, he viewed her as his own salvation, only to turn dark when she transferred away without a word, searching like a madman with no results, believing he had been abandoned once again until they met in the workplace years later.

A role like this was clearly one that could wring out every last tear from the audience, and the character was also three-dimensional. No wonder Ning Xibai had wanted to play it back then, though he later discarded this script upon finding something better.

Ning Luo roughly summarized it: the campus flashback needed to capture the bitter and innocent feelings of unrequited love, while the second half of the workplace scenes focused on the intertwined conflicts of love and hate. It wasn't too difficult, and he could grasp it with a little bit of contemplation.

It wasn't that he was being conceited, but having an actor whose very debut was a silver screen production, whose acting skills had been honed and polished by major well-known directors, come act in a television series was a dimensionality reduction strike in itself.

"How should I gauge the scale of my acting tomorrow on the set?" He pondered carefully; acting too well would arouse suspicion, while acting too poorly would do a disservice to his lifelong reputation.

"Finding a balance is really hard. This is just the trouble of being too talented."

Harboring troubles of this sort, Ning Luo arrived at the set the next day.

"Director Wang," he greeted, looking at the dark circles under Wang Lin's eyes. "Didn't rest well last night?"

Wang Lin thought to himself, how could I possibly have rested well? Ning Luo's words were like a sword hanging over his head, leaving him in a dilemma of whether to advance or retreat. He waved a hand and said listlessly, "I'm fine. Go to the makeup room first."

Watching Ning Luo all the way into the makeup room, Wang Lin let out a heavy sigh.

Right now, he had both far-reaching anxieties and immediate worries, the most difficult problem at hand being Ning Luo's thoroughly wretched acting skills.

"It can't possibly be all long and medium shots for every single scene..." Wang Lin pulled at his hair in anguish.

"...Forget it, at worst I'll just suffer a bit, record a bit more, and let the editing team do a good job." He adopted a fatalistic attitude with a bitter expression.

The editor in charge sneezed loudly.

Ning Luo stepped out of the makeup room, and a gust of wind made him sneeze from the cold, prompting him to rub his arms.

In the autumn weather, he wore only a thin summer school uniform. In the plot, his outer jacket was intentionally soaked with water by someone, making it even colder when pulled on.

At this moment, he was merely a pitiful little kid suffering from school violence, waiting for the female lead to save him.

Soon, the extra roles entered and the actors were ready.

Wang Lin had originally intended to step up and offer Ning Luo some pointers—after all, the other person might have done him a huge favor last night, and he couldn't let him get cursed out too miserably by netizens. But upon seeing Ning Luo's magnified expression through the viewfinder, he froze, and hurriedly told the assistant director beside him, "Are you ready? Action!"

He was terrified that a second too late, Ning Luo would lose this state.

"Action!"

Several punks and hoodlums pressed forward step by step, backing the thin, pitiful youth in the camera into a corner. His back pressed tightly against the cold, yellowed wall, veins bulging on his neck as he swallowed nervously.

Watching Ning Luo stand dazed in place with rapid breathing, his voice carrying a weak, tearful sob even as he questioned the hoodlums, Wang Lin secretly thought it strange.

It wasn't that Ning Luo was acting badly; rather, it was quite good.

Even the subtle facial expressions were exceptionally brilliant, especially the instant the punk stepped forward to grab his collar, the trembling lips captured by the camera.

Could Ning Luo actually act or not? If he really could, why had his previous acting been garbage like that?

Wang Lin fell into deep bewilderment, yet his hands moved faster than his brain to cut to a close-up.

The scene ended quickly, and they took an intermission.

Wang Lin replayed the footage and discovered that Ning Luo's performance was genuinely faultless, with even the previously disastrous close-up shots holding up remarkably well. Coupled with the blessing of his face, his every appearance was a visual crit.

This acting was... truly very good!

Once might be a coincidence, but multiple times could not be. By the whole morning, let alone Wang Lin, the entire film crew was shocked by Ning Luo's transformation, their minds full of question marks.

No, who was this person?

Where was Ning Luo? Had he been eaten?!

Repeatedly rewinding the clip of Ning Luo from just now, Wang Lin asked in disbelief, "Ning Luo, did your company do uniform training?"

Ning Luo replied, "No."

"Then how did your acting improve so much?"

A few hours ago, Wang Lin had still thought Ning Luo would ruin this classic flashback segment, but now he only had one thought.

It was in the bag.

What did a tragic and beautiful second male lead rely on to make people's hearts ache? Wasn't it just tragedy!

Once this segment of Ning Luo's aired, it was guaranteed to rake in a massive wave of audience tears!

"I was afraid of being cursed at by netizens again, so I crammed for a few days," Ning Luo said with a modest expression, though he was secretly feeling immensely pleased. "Director Wang, did I perform all right?"

[I've started growing out my hair, losing weight, changing my style, and charging forward]

[Pardon me, but this time, I—Crystal-Snow-Cherry-Blossom-Mist-Illusory-Tear-Mist-Return-Purple-Heart-Love-Glaze Youle Prince—will definitely make you look at me in a new light!]

Wang Lin: "..."

Wang Lin's words of praise choked in his throat, unable to be spat out no matter what.

The assistant director gave plenty of face, raising a thumb and looking deeply moved. "Quite good!"

Great! Judging by this progress, there wouldn't be any need to work overtime!

Even Sun Shaoyi, who was usually sparing with words, nodded slightly and popped out two syllables: "Very good."

Ning Luo held back and held back, but still couldn't stop his little tiger teeth from showing as he smiled sweetly.

Just as Wang Lin wanted to say something else, his phone rang. Pulling it out, he saw it was precisely the friend he had asked to investigate Li Zhigang last night. He walked over to an empty corner to answer. "Found anything out?"

"No need to check anymore," the friend said. "Li Zhigang was arrested by the police an hour ago, and by the criminal police at that. I had people ask around, and they said he's suspected of crimes like money laundering and organized crime involving underworld forces."

"With this explosion blowing the lid off, all the film crews he invested in have suspended operations to await investigation, and there's no telling how long it will drag out. Those small film crews are probably going to be dragged down to ruin. Just goes to show, how could pie ever fall from the sky?"

The friend sighed. "Wang Lin, you kid managed to escape a calamity. Your luck is truly good."

Wang Lin felt conflicted after hearing that.

If not for Ning Luo, he would have been one of the directors dragged down by the production, and by then he probably would have had to pour his own savings into it just to get by.

In the past, he felt that Ning Luo was bad at everything—his acting skills were terrible, and his personal character was awful.

Yet looking at him now, he felt the other man was like a giant Leshan Buddha, the kind coated in gold and glowing.

This was truly saving someone from the depths of fire and water.

He needed to repay him properly!

Wasn't wanting to find a new agency just out of fear of lacking resources and entering a dry spell? Setting other things aside, he had deeply cultivated the entertainment industry for many years and still had connections!

Furthermore, Ning Luo had only worked hard for a few days and already changed so much. Although it sounded absurd, that was the only reason.

What did this indicate? It indicated that Ning Luo had enormous potential, and that he had misjudged him previously.

Since that was the case, there was no need to take on those vase roles anymore and waste a good seedling for nothing.

Wang Lin slapped his thigh and decided to introduce him to a big project to properly repay this great Buddha. Who knew, maybe other opportunities awaited him in the future as well.

His eyes swept across the room and locked onto Ning Luo in the corner. With an eager gaze, he hung up the phone and strode over.

Meanwhile, Ning Luo was agonizing over how to bring up finding a new agency to his manager. As he carefully typed and pondered over his message box, a pair of shoes appeared before him. Following them upward, it was precisely Wang Lin's face.

Ning Luo got a fright, hurriedly extinguished his phone screen, and straightened his back, forcibly suppressing his guilty conscience. "Director Wang, were you looking for me?"

Wang Lin reached out and grasped the hand holding the phone.

Ning Luo grew instantly alert.

Could it be that he saw those messages and came to cause trouble?

Help! Would he end up unemployed before even finding a new agency?!

Wang Lin grabbed both of his hands and held them tight, shaking them vigorously as he spoke with high-spirited passion, "Ning Luo, right? Have you found your next resource yet? If you haven't, I'll recommend a few to you—pick whichever you like!"

He magnanimously patted his own chest.

Huh?

Ning Luo was shocked, feeling dizzy from being hit by a pie dropped from the sky.

Such a good thing existed?!

Wait, something wasn't right.

Ning Luo barely maintained a shred of vigilance as countless rumors of directors' unspoken rules flashed through his mind.

[Being this good to me all of a sudden, he surely isn't lusting after my looks, right? (twisted in terror face)]

He silently withdrew his hand to cover his chest and retreated step by step.

Wang Lin: "..."

Enough! In what world did he make Ning Luo feel like he was some kind of starved homosexual?!