Chapter 21

Nie Wentao asked, "What do you need that for?"

Yet his hands automatically pulled up several popular time-travel rebirth dramas slated for investment and handed them to Lu Tingzhou.

Lu Tingzhou took them, skimmed the beginning at a glance, then closed them. "The plots are all copy-pasted."

Nie Wentao said, "What can we do? It's the traffic era now. As long as the leads come with their own fan traffic, the drama can make money. As long as there's money to be made, who's going to rack their brains over a good script?"

He added, "I've never seen you interested in this kind of genre before. Why did you suddenly think to ask?"

Lu Tingzhou tossed the scripts onto the table. "Nothing. I just wanted to see whether there was a script where the protagonist knows the future timeline and wins a hundred million in the lottery."

"Seems like there isn't one," Nie Wentao said, genuinely intrigued. "What do you think the protagonist would do after getting a hundred million?"

Lu Tingzhou actually thought about it, then smiled. "My guess is they'd exchange it all for cash and count banknotes to sleep every day. When Kaixin, spend ten million; when not Kaixin, spend twenty million, and spend the rest of their life paired with the RMB."

Nie Wentao said, "..."

What a spendthrift.

Lu Tingzhou took a sip of coffee. The smile in his eyes gradually faded, leaving his gaze unfathomable.

-

The closer it got to Ning Luo's weight-loss deadline, the more the crew suffered.

Shen Wenyu had even made a small group chat to complain about his recent experiences to the other two.

Shen Wenyu: "Yesterday, I was using the bathroom, and he suddenly floated in and stood next to me to pee. That's normal, right?"

Shen Wenyu: "But halfway through, Ning Luo fucking asked me whether, if you took laxatives and sleeping pills at the same time, you'd sleep and shit at the same time that night!"

Wang Lin & Sun Shaoyi: "..."

Shen Wenyu was filled with righteous indignation and insisted on recounting every last bit of his inhuman suffering. "That's not even the end of it! I pulled up my pants and hurried off, but he suddenly stopped me and asked whether he could avoid using toilet paper to wipe his ass."

Sun Shaoyi: "And then?"

Shen Wenyu broke down. "Then! He said worthless ass-wiping paper was like loose sand—it would smear all over your butt after two steps!"

"Is he fucking insane?! Aaaaaah!"

The group chat went silent as the grave.

Ten minutes later, as though they hadn't seen Shen Wenyu's heart-wrenching complaint, Sun Shaoyi calmly asked, "What are we having for lunch?" Together with Wang Lin, she flooded the chat with messages.

Shen Wenyu: "..."

You two will get what's coming to you too!

Ning Luo's unstable mental state had made Wang Lin extremely cautious even when speaking.

He was discussing the later promotional campaign with the production team's producer. "We're about to wrap here, so the online promotion needs to get moving. Xiao Luo invested so much money in us, so we have to go big and strong with the publicity. We can't lose to the production next door—"

Before he could finish, Ning Luo, who could only gnaw on an apple nearby, automatically caught the key phrase.

[Go big and strong! Hahahaha, we absolutely have to go big and strong! Sorry, I was thinking about going big and strong again just now. But now I can't help wondering, how can the television drama "July Is Not Far" work with other domestic dramas to make the entertainment industry bigger and stronger? Where should our future go? Ah, sorry, I'm thinking about going big and strong again... I'm really sorry... Why do we have to go big and strong... Sorry...]

Wang Lin: "..."

He took a deep breath, pretended not to hear it, and continued coordinating the marketing plan with the other side.

Once they finished discussing it, Ning Luo had just finished his apple and gotten his makeup and costume ready. He stood in a corner growing mushrooms.

Taozi saw that he was in low spirits. "What's wrong, Brother Luo? You're about to wrap. Aren't you Kaixin?"

Ning Luo looked up at the sky, feeling that losing this fucking weight was worse than dying. "I'm not Kaixin. I've been poisoned."

Taozi was shocked. "Huh? What poison?!"

Ning Luo let out a long sigh. "The doctor said it was good mushroom poison."

Taozi fell silent for a moment, then gave an awkward laugh. "Haha, is that so? Brother, your collar isn't fixed properly. I'll straighten it for you."

The later part of the plot was set in winter, and filming it at this time of year was just right.

Bai Xi and Yin Zhijing worked at the same law firm. A project team had been temporarily assembled for a case, and the two had been so busy with it that they barely distinguished day from night, spending most of their time together.

This day, they worked until dawn again.

Even when he wasn't working, Bai Xi had a hard time falling asleep at night. He often suffered from insomnia.

Fortunately, work distracted him.

Bai Xi rolled his sore, stiff neck. When he turned around, he saw Yin Zhijing asleep with her head on the desk.

Bai Xi stared at the sight in a daze, as if remembering something. A moment later, the young man often described as sharp-tongued and cold rose to his feet, draped his overcoat over her, and softened his gaze.

He then went downstairs to the twenty-four-hour convenience store beside the company and bought coffee and late-night snacks for two.

But when he came back up, Yin Zhijing was already gone. Only a sticky note remained, drawn with a smiling face and the words: "Thank you for the coat, Xiao Xi."

Bai Xi dropped the plastic bag and hurriedly went looking for her. In the end, he saw two people standing in front of a car in the underground garage, kissing passionately.

They held each other tightly, entwined in lingering kisses.

Yet they did not see someone standing quietly in the corner, silently watching the scene.

The cold wind poured into his loose shirt. The thin fabric clung to his body, faintly outlining the jagged line of his spine. His skin had frozen pale and bloodless.

As if he could no longer hold himself up, his slender body tilted, and he leaned against a filthy pillar.

His sleeve had rolled up from rubbing against it, exposing crisscrossing knife wounds. When the not-yet-healed injuries were pressed, tiny beads of blood seeped out, running down his pale, thin wrist bones before he carelessly wiped them away.

That calm face was like a piece of thin white-glazed porcelain with a chipped corner.

"Cut!"

Wang Lin watched the footage captured by the camera, thoroughly satisfied. "Shoot another close shot and some close-ups."

While they filmed the close-ups over there, the assistant director watched the performances of the three in the monitor, especially Ning Luo's, and praised them nonstop. "I thought this production was doomed, but who knew things would turn around? We got the perfect second male lead who joined with funding. Look at those changes in his eyes—damn, it's incredible."

Even without the context or a recap, you could read the character's feelings just from his eyes. Only veteran actors who had immersed themselves in acting for years could pull that off.

Wang Lin agreed. "Exactly."

And Ning Luo seemed to have successfully turned his resentment over dieting into the second male lead's anguish at loving without being able to have it. His emotions were fuller than before.

Hmm... should he make Ning Luo keep dieting until he wrapped?

Wang Lin stroked his chin and began seriously considering the question.

"Achoo!"

After finishing a take, Ning Luo sneezed loudly and rubbed his nose. "Who's thinking about me?"

Xiao Song wrapped him in a thick military coat and quickly took him to warm himself by the little sun heater nearby.

In subzero weather, wearing nothing but a shirt was no joke.

Ning Luo held his frozen hands over it. His cold, pale fingers gradually turned pink, and only then did he feel alive again. Hugging a hot-water bottle, he went to find Wang Lin.

Sun Shaoyi and Shen Wenyu were filming a kissing scene, their lingering embrace moving from outside the car to inside it.

Ning Luo stood behind Wang Lin and watched with great interest, even pulling out a handful of sunflower seeds from his military coat to snack on.

[Whoa, whoa, whoa, their lips touched, they're hugging! Kiss, kiss harder! Oh my god, their lips are rubbed red... God, they even have to change angles. You two are so good at cheating the camera—are you sure you aren't really kissing?!]

[Oh my god, oh my god, that messy hair, those flushed faces, those gazes dripping with emotion! I'm giving Director Wang two hundred as a wedding gift!]

Where the camera couldn't see, the two leads opened their eyes and looked at each other, killing intent flashing in them.

Ning Luo, just you wait!

The instant Wang Lin called cut, the two immediately separated. The first thing Shen Wenyu did was stride over to settle things with Ning Luo.

Only to hear Ning Luo ask Wang Lin with deep regret, "That's it already?"

[I haven't had enough yet. Tsk, tsk, tsk.]

Shen Wenyu's fists clenched. He stretched out an arm and pinned Ning Luo down, smiling without warmth. "Since you're so disappointed, how about I ask Director Wang to add a kissing scene for you next time?"

"Really?!" Ning Luo's eyes instantly lit up, and he said bashfully, "Then can I choose my scene partner?"

He had never filmed a kissing scene before!

Shen Wenyu snapped, "Don't just pick people wherever you stand."

-

As "July Is Not Far" was about to wrap, its online promotion needed to keep up. One of the production side's plans was to build momentum through a livestream.

Shen Wenyu had recently signed a contract with a short-video platform and needed to livestream to attract and retain fans, so the task fell to him.

He sent the time notice in the group chat, and everyone replied that they had received it. Ning Luo said he had a night scene that evening and might have to wait until filming was over.

The filming content naturally had to be kept confidential. Shen Wenyu said he understood and started the livestream at seven thirty that evening.

Netizens who had been waiting for ages immediately began sending comments.

[It's finally live. I've waited forever.]

[Good evening, Brother Wenyu~]

There were also the scheduled greetings from gossip-hungry netizens.

[Is this the crew Ning Xibai was originally supposed to join? I smell a melon patch.]

[I heard someone recently ran into Ning Xibai at the same film base. He and Ning Luo are definitely less than five hundred meters apart! If not, I'll eat snail noodles upside down.]

[Fight! Fight!]

Shen Wenyu acted as though he hadn't seen those comments. He greeted the camera first, then took his selfie stick around to pull the actors over to say hi.

"Say hello to everyone."

[Aaaaaah, it's Sister Shaoyi! Sister is so beautiful and badass, lick lick lick.]

[Are all the actors this high-quality? They're so pretty, so good-looking. Very friendly to my eyes.]

[Why can't I find Ning Luo anywhere? Isn't he the second male lead?]

[Looks like someone isn't a team player and got kicked out of the group chat.]

Without batting an eye, Shen Wenyu gifted the person who said that a blacklist-and-mute package, then explained with a smile, "Xiao Luo has a night scene, but judging by the time, he should be done by now. Come on, let's go check on him and Director Wang."

Ning Luo had indeed finished filming. Since today's workload had been too heavy, his hypoglycemia had flared up. After eating a few pieces of candy, he had just finished slurping down a mango.

Wang Lin had initially been worried, but seeing him eat endlessly while looking perfectly fine, he said, "Are you better or not? Stop pretending and say something."

Ning Luo clutched his chest and slowly collapsed onto the sofa. "Ah, I feel awful."

Wang Lin's mouth twitched. "Stop acting like I'm abusing you."

Seeing that his complexion was poor, Wang Lin was still genuinely worried. "Anyway, we're done for today. Have your assistant take you back to rest."

Ning Luo said nothing. Instead, he stared at the half-empty mango peel in his hand and fell into deep thought.

After asking the assistant director, Shen Wenyu held up his phone and entered the filming area.

"Alright, now let's take a look at what the set looks like after filming is finished."

The camera swept over, and the million online viewers saw Ning Luo wiggle his foot at Wang Lin.

On it was unmistakably... half a mango peel?

[What kind of move is this?]

Ning Luo looked at Wang Lin with a solemn expression. "A bamboo staff and mango shoes are lighter and better than a horse."

Having said that, he wiggled his "mango shoe."

Shen Wenyu's pupils abruptly widened.

"..."

Wang Lin took a deep breath, smacked his foot down, and sneered. "A rat riding a cat like a horse."

The comments fell silent for one second, then instantly exploded.