On Set

“Manager Lan, next time we absolutely can’t let Zhu Qing log into your account,” Qian Chu said from start to finish, juggling the latest hot-search mess and doing everything she could to minimize the damage while maximizing the positive buzz. She was practically exhausted. “Luckily these photos turned out really well; you picked up more than three hundred thousand new followers.”

“She wanted to clap back; I had no reason to stop her. I can tolerate fans criticizing and nitpicking me. Xiao Qing doesn’t need to force herself to swallow it for my sake. Bottling up anger can give her nodules.” After saying that, Li Lan even scanned Qian Chu from head to toe, her gaze clearly saying, You should watch out for nodules too.

Qian Chu silently took a big gulp of bitter tea.

Li Lan wasn’t completely at ease either. Since Zhu Qing was young and prone to impulsive decisions, she also had to plan for the variety show they were about to film. “Has everyone else been confirmed?”

Qian Chu said, “There’s still one young couple riding a CP hype wave who hasn’t been confirmed.”

The variety show had four couples in total: an elderly pair, a middle-aged pair, a young pair, and one pair of fresh-faced youngsters.

Li Lan didn’t really want to admit it, but although she was very confident in her looks, she was already thirty, so she could only go into the young-adult group.

“Several companies want to push their own artists and are fighting over the slot,” Qian Chu said. “There are also a few rising heartthrobs with some popularity, but no work and no relationship rumors, who are trying to get in too.”

Li Lan nodded. “Let me know as soon as it’s finalized.” She needed to make preparations in advance.

Qian Chu had resigned herself to it too. “Let’s hope Miss Zhu is your lucky charm.”

Even though Zhu Qing wasn’t from the industry and had already started fighting with fans before even making her appearance, she had still managed to drag Li Lan onto the hot search with just a few cozy photo sets. That kind of ability really couldn’t be underestimated.

Maybe Zhu Qing really was quite capable.

Li Lan arrived on set an hour early. In the afternoon, they were filming a candy commercial, so she first went to greet the director, then checked the storyboard with the cinematographer.

An hour later, the male lead still hadn’t arrived. Li Lan glanced at the time; she had an interview tonight, and tomorrow morning she still had to catch a flight to the next city.

Qian Chu walked over, frowning. “The male lead just got off the plane. It’ll still take him another hour to get here.”

The male lead, Qi Yao, was a rising traffic magnet. He’d blown up from a period drama, and his popularity was at its peak.

The director and the advertising team came over trembling to apologize to Li Lan. “We’re really sorry. We’ve already been rushing him; he’ll be here any minute.”

Li Lan didn’t say much. She only asked the makeup artist to finish her makeup and shoot her solo shots first.

“Qi Yao is a newcomer; his status really isn’t high enough, but MeiYu Media behind him wants to push him,” Qian Chu said with obvious disdain. “Just put up with it this once. Consider it repaying Mr. Qi’s favor. I’ll reject all future collaborations involving him.”

Li Lan nodded; she didn’t want to make a scene. “Fine.”

There were currently two giants in the industry. One was MeiYu Media, whose main strength was producing stars; every year it launched a batch of newcomers, and it practically monopolized the source of fresh faces in entertainment. At the same time, whenever any internet celebrity suddenly blew up online, they would quickly sign them under their banner.

The other was He Guang Tong Chen, which was the complete opposite of MeiYu Media. It mainly scouted promising young talent from major schools and still followed the traditional film-and-television route: making dramas, making movies, and competing for awards. Li Lan had worked with them many times.

But the entertainment industry was a world of human relationships. Years ago, Li Lan had owed Mr. Qi of MeiYu Media a favor; now that she was playing second lead to help promote Qi Yao, that counted as repaying the debt.

Qi Yao was a full two hours late. When he finally arrived, he brought three assistants with him, wore sunglasses, and looked awful.

The makeup artist spent another two hours covering his dark circles.

By then it was already seven in the evening. Li Lan had finished filming all her solo shots; only the two-person scenes were left. Once those were done, she could leave.

Who would have thought Qi Yao couldn’t even handle basic blocking without the script supervisor personally walking him through it step by step?

After Li Lan cooperated with him through seventeen retakes, she discovered he hadn’t even read the script in advance and had misunderstood even the basic meaning of the lines.

“Sweet as bubbles, happy and not clingy!”

Here, Qi Yao was supposed to circle behind Li Lan and approach her with the kind of expression a cat used when rubbing its face against someone; he also had to keep a cat’s pride and not actually touch her.

But Qi Yao played it as straight-up harassment.

“Teacher Li, help me act this out,” Qi Yao said, growing a little irritated after getting stuck over and over. “You keep dodging me; how am I supposed to film this?”

Li Lan swallowed her twenty-third candy of the day, then actually laughed in exasperation.

Not dodge him? Let him rub his whole body against her?

Li Lan turned around and faced Qi Yao directly. Her model height, plus her eight-centimeter heels, made her look down at the male actor with near-contempt.

The staff tensed up, afraid the leads were about to clash. Just as the assistant director was about to step in, the director raised a hand. “Wait.”

On the monitor, Li Lan’s expression suddenly changed.

She gave Qi Yao a light glance, then casually looked away, with the arrogance of a cat that had spotted a stupid dog wandering too close and couldn’t be bothered to entertain it.

Then she turned around, extended two fingers, and pinched the sleeve of Qian Chu, who had been watching from the sidelines, pulling her in front of herself.

Li Lan began walking around Qian Chu. Her steps were so light they made almost no sound, but she stopped abruptly when the bridge of her nose brushed Qian Chu’s cheek.

Close, but never touching.

Her shoulder was only an inch from Qian Chu’s; the scent of her perfume drifted over. Her lashes lowered, and her gaze flicked up once before she immediately turned her face away.

The entire performance lasted only a little over ten seconds, yet it perfectly captured the essence of the line.

“Do you get it now?” Li Lan straightened up, casually flicked Qian Chu’s sleeve clean, and looked coldly at Qi Yao. “Being tsundere means I notice you, but you’re not worthy. You’re playing a tsundere cat, not a heat-crazed mutt. If you can’t tell the difference, go downstairs and drink some water to calm yourself down.”

Qian Chu froze for two seconds, then couldn’t help clapping twice. Immediately after, everyone on set burst into applause.

Every movement Li Lan made carried feline energy: elegant, picky, and teasingly distant, nailing that perfect push-pull of seduction.

Compared with her, Qi Yao’s clumsy acting was simply unspeakable.

Humiliated by Li Lan’s crushing, dimension-reducing beatdown, Qi Yao felt both his face and pride ripped to shreds. No one had ever dared talk to him like that before; he immediately darkened.

He turned around and slammed the script into his assistant’s arms, the pages scattering all over the floor with a crash. “Fuck! What kind of trash lines are these? They’re fucking disgusting!”

The assistant trembled, bent down to pick up the script, and didn’t dare say a word.

The director had just breathed a sigh of relief and was planning to let Qi Yao act according to Li Lan’s demonstration; that kind of acting sample was basically being fed right to him, and if he copied it, the shot would turn out well. But after seeing Qi Yao’s ungrateful reaction, the director couldn’t even speak, and his expression turned extremely ugly.

The script had been finalized in advance; the actors had definitely read it already. Qi Yao was clearly venting his frustration and picking a fight on purpose.

Not much experience, but plenty of temper.

The set suddenly fell silent, the atmosphere unbearably tense.

————————!!————————

Zhu Qing stared at her three-thousand-yuan salary: making money isn’t easy.

Li Lan stared at the monsters and demons: agreed.