Lin Fan watched as Song Shi'an shoveled the last mouthful of rice into his mouth and then drank the soup bowl dry, and couldn't help but admire him.
My brother has an amazing appetite. Other celebrities wouldn't even dare to touch rice, but he eats it with more gusto than the crew's production assistants.
In the afternoon, Song Shi'an was like a tool, moving things wherever he was needed.
Sitting in my seat as a backdrop gets me a bunch of photos, walking down the hallway gets me a bunch of photos, and even spacing out in my seat during breaks gets me a bunch of photos.
With nothing to do during breaks in filming, he flipped through the test papers prepared by the props team on the table and found that they were past years' college entrance examination questions. He picked up a pen and started writing.
The director glanced at it as he passed by and casually remarked, " Xiao An, it's going to be a close-up shot later, just write whatever comes to mind."
Song Shi'an verbally agreed, but his hands didn't stop moving at all.
My new brain works so well! I can get the ideas right away with just a glance at the question, and my pen flies across the paper. After finishing one page, I turn to the next and continue writing.
Looking at the full stack of exam papers, I felt a great sense of accomplishment.
When the camera panned to the exam paper, the director saw the neat handwriting on the monitor, nodded, and remarked that it was written quite well.
Xu Linchuan, who was waiting for his next scene, is a student in the senior class of Jingchen Affiliated Middle School High School. The school lent the students in the senior class to the film crew for two days of filming so that their studies would not be affected and they could relax at the same time.
He had practiced this set of past exam questions countless times, and watched helplessly as Song Shi'an wrote out the answers so smoothly without even blinking.
A question mark popped into his head: had the production crew given him the answer and made him memorize it? But just now the director had told him to write something random.
As soon as the filming ended, Song Shi'an also put down his pen.
The director walked over and said, "Tomorrow is the most important scene—the scene where you jump off the building. You're not afraid of heights, are you? We'll be filming on the top floor of this building tomorrow."
Song Shi'an nodded and said no problem.
As soon as the director left, Xu Linchuan went to his seat, picked up the exam paper, and read it through from beginning to end.
Ruan Wenbin leaned over and said, "What are you looking at, bro? We're done filming. You know, filming is actually quite fun."
Xu Linchuan handed him the test paper, and Ruan Wenbin took it and saw that the last, most challenging question had two solutions.
"Holy crap!!!" Ruan Wenbin looked up at Song Shi'an, who had already walked away, then looked down at the exam paper. "Are the standards for actors this high now? And it's just a supporting role. Is it really this difficult for highly intelligent people to find employment?"
Song Shi'an removed her makeup, changed back into her own clothes, and looked up as she walked out of the teaching building.
This building has more than ten floors, and I'm going to jump from the top floor tomorrow. Just thinking about standing there, with the wind whistling past my ears and looking down makes my legs go weak. It seems that being an actor is a high-risk profession.
Lin Fan dropped the person off at the school gate, and then Song Shi'an told him to go home.
Reaching the dormitory entrance, he pushed the door open and roared, "Old Sun is back!"
Nobody paid him any attention.
The dormitory was empty; not even the lights were on.
He turned on the light. Three of the four beds were neatly made, and Pei Zhiyan's computer on the desk was not turned on.
He glanced at the time; it was almost 4:30. He had almost forgotten that the three of them were all finance majors, and they probably hadn't finished class yet.
Normally at this time, Chi Xun be in front of the computer watching his idols, and Jiang Ye would be rolling around on the upper bunk scrolling through videos. But today, they all disappeared as if they had planned it together.
Song Shi'an ordered takeout and took a shower while waiting for it to arrive. When he came out, the takeout had just been delivered. He dried his hair while unpacking the package, ate half a bowl of noodles, and then realized that no one had come back.
He picked up his phone and sent a message to Chi Xun: "Dude, where did you guys go? You sneaked out for a get-together without inviting me?"
After a long while, no one responded. It was astonishing that Chi Xun, who was always on his phone, wouldn't check his messages. Had the sun risen in the west?
He sent another message to Jiang Ye, but it went unanswered.
Song Shi'an slurped up a mouthful of noodles and casually opened his WeChat Moments to browse through them.
As he scrolled through the screen, a post on the campus wall caught his eye, its headline in bold red. "Finance Department VS Physical Education Department Basketball Match Starts Tomorrow! The Loser Has to Give Up the Court and Call Me Daddy!"
He hissed, his chopsticks freezing in mid-air.
He almost missed out on this kind of juicy gossip. He was just about to scroll through the comments section to see what happened when the dorm room door was suddenly kicked open.
Jiang Ye was the first to rush in, his face flushed red. He threw his backpack onto the bed, still muttering curses, "So what if they're sports students? Don't other departments have to play ball? Only they can play?"
Chi Xun followed him in, his face also pale, his eyebrows furrowed behind his glasses.
Pei Zhiyan was the last to enter, her expression as indifferent as ever, but the door slammed shut a little louder than usual.
The three of them turned their heads and saw Song Shi'an sitting on a chair, slurping noodles.
He still had a mouthful of noodles in his mouth, his eyes were wide open, and his face was full of the excitement of someone who was halfway through eating melon seeds.
Jiang Ye was taken aback. "Weren't you filming? It's over already?"
Song Shi'an swallowed the powder. "I came back as soon as today's filming was finished. There's one more scene tomorrow and then we're done. What's wrong with you guys? I just painted a picture on the wall saying you're going to have a competition with the sports department. Are you serious about this bet where you call me 'Dad'?"
Jiang Ye ripped off his coat and threw it onto the back of the chair. "Those idiots think we only know how to study and call us weaklings. That won't do. We have to get our revenge and take back our territory!"
Chi Xun pushed up his glasses, his tone more agitated than usual. "We booked the court this afternoon, but they came and took it all, saying the finance department shouldn't be playing basketball, they should go back and settle accounts. Old Pei went to argue with them, and their leader said the basketball court is a place where the ball is the deciding factor, and if they weren't convinced, they should have a game."
Song Shi'an heard Pei Zhiyan go to argue, he turned to look at Pei Zhiyan.
The man had already sat down at the table and turned on his computer, as if he wasn't the one Chi Xun mentioned earlier who had directly confronted the sports student.
"And then you agreed?"
"What can we do if we don't agree? We can't just let them ride on our heads." Jiang Ye took a sip of water. "Tomorrow at 2 PM, let's go head-to-head. If we lose, we'll call them daddy; if we win, they're out of here."
Song Shi'an slammed his chopsticks on the table, stood up, and said, "Then I'll rush back after filming tomorrow to cheer you all on!"
Jiang Ye patted him on the shoulder. "Good brother! It just so happens that Old Pei can play too, so we have enough starters. You just need to cheer us on from below."
Pei Zhiyan looked up from behind the computer and glanced at Song Shi'an, then lowered her head and continued typing.
Song Shi'an glanced at it; a document was open on the screen with the neatly written title "List of Participants".
The first name listed below is Pei Zhiyan himself, the second is Jiang Ye, the third is Chi Xun, and there are several other names he doesn't recognize, probably classmates from the finance department.
Song Shi'an pointed to the screen. " Chi Xun also come on?"
Chi Xun adjusted his glasses and gave him a long, meaningful look. "I'm a substitute. My main function is to stand on the sidelines and kill the opponent with my eyes."