Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Xu Fei kept reporting his work with a straight face.

Gu Xu cut in, "Is the schedule packed this month?"

"Yes," Xu Fei glanced through the freshly prepared form in his hand. The auction date for the civil aviation land was imminent. Though his boss wasn’t swamped from dawn to dusk, he still had back-to-back meetings every day. Xu Fei asked considerately, "Mr. Gu, should we reschedule the meeting?"

"No need." Gu Xu reached out and lightly brushed the rose petals, the dewdrops rolling down into his palm. "Have you ever received flowers?"

"No." He’d given plenty, but usually, it’s men sending flowers to women...

Of course, Xu Fei kept that thought to himself.

Gu Xu checked the time—six minutes to go before the meeting.

"Did you find that restaurant I mentioned earlier?"

Xu Fei answered, "Yes, they’ll deliver the tonic soup to the set daily, right on schedule."

"Good," Gu Xu got up and made his way to the meeting room, Xu Fei trailing right behind. As soon as they entered the elevator, Gu Xu said, "After the meeting, head back to the old house and bring over the vase I snagged at auction two years ago."

Xu Fei: "Alright."

-

With Lu Yan out for the past two days, Shi Qing had handled a lot of solo shots. Today, she didn’t have many scenes, and after shooting two, Chen Jing gave her a break. While Lu Yan, drenched in sweat, sat in a chair getting his makeup touched up in the armor, she’d already changed into casual wear and was lounging, legs crossed, playing a game.

Xiao Liu came over, crouched down, and said, "Bro Yan, the flowers are already at Mr. Gu’s office."

The makeup artist had caked on too much dust, and Lu Yan wiped the corner of his eye: "Got it."

Xiao Liu asked, "Bro Yan, should we keep sending them tomorrow?"

Lu Yan thought for a second: "Let’s set it up for a week first."

"Okay, all roses?"

Shi Qing, who’d been listening, finally blurted out, "Wait, hold up—you’re sending flowers to that guy?" She added, "And roses??"

Lu Yan blinked: "Yes, why?"

Shi Qing’s face went blank, "Even chasing girls, flowers are out of style, and you’re sending roses to a guy?"

"Is that so??" Lu Yan shot Xiao Liu a confused look.

Xiao Liu nodded right away: "I got my girlfriend roses a while back, and the next day, they were in the trash at her door."

"You could’ve given me a heads-up!"

Shi Qing asked, "Have you ever chased someone?"

Lu Yan admitted, "Nope."

"That’s understandable, with your natural advantages, it’s normal not to have such experience," Shi Qing touched up her lipstick, "Flowers are so last season—try something else."

"Then what should I send?"

"Put yourself in their shoes. If I were chasing a woman, I’d send her 365 lipsticks—a new shade every day for a year. For a guy—a car? Though swapping cars every day for a year might be a stretch."

Lu Yan chuckled, "What is this, a movie? Handing out cars left and right?"

Shi Qing laughed, "We're literally shooting a movie here."

After saying that, she put her lipstick back in her bag, stood up, and said, "But that person doesn’t seem to need a car. Tough break, you’ll have to figure it out on your own. I’m heading back to the hotel to enjoy the air conditioning. Hope you and Mr. NG have a great afternoon."

Lu Yan smiled and said goodbye.

But his smile didn’t last long.

Turns out, Shi Qing was right. That afternoon, thanks to Lin Qing, Lu Yan racked up more NGs than ever before.

The scene where Chen Zhong collapses and Qiu Rong sobs had already hit its eleventh NG.

All because Lin Qing couldn’t shed a tear.

Chen Jing opted for a single take to keep the scene seamless. Chen Zhong had a lengthy speech and a back-and-forth with Qiu Rong before collapsing. So the process went like this—

Lu Yan, eyes red but fighting back tears, delivered a long monologue, then fell and continued a subdued dialogue with Lin Qing. Right when Lin Qing was meant to cry, his face contorted, nostrils flaring. After several attempts, he sheepishly admitted to Chen Jing, "Sorry, I just can’t cry."

Some actors need eye drops or chili to fake tears. But this was a single take, and Qiu Rong’s expression had to shift from anger to grief, so tears couldn’t be induced prematurely.

After the eleventh NG, Lu Yan beat Chen Jing to the punch and stood up.

"You’re a trained actor, and you can’t even fake a cry? Maybe you need to go back to acting school???"

The set went dead quiet.

Lin Qing was too shocked to respond. Before he could, Lu Yan sneered, "Just think of something sad and the tears will come, how hard is that?"

It wasn’t often that Lu Yan lost his cool, so everyone was curious how Lin Qing would handle it.

Lin Qing pouted and innocently said, "Why would I think of sad stuff? That’s just depressing."

Even the crew couldn’t hide their disgust.

You don’t want to feel worse, so you make the whole set suffer? Every NG forces the crew to reset the "blood" and start over. As a result, this scene had already taken over two hours, and Lu Yan had to redo his makeup four times already.

Lu Yan, furious, laughed, "Still can’t cry? Got it."

"Reset the scene, let’s go again."

He sat down next to Chen Jing, took the towel she handed him, and wiped his sweat.

Chen Jing, despite her high standards, couldn’t help but ask, "Can you still go on? Maybe we should split this into two takes."

Lu Yan shook his head and said calmly, "No need, we’ll get it this time."

"...Alright, if we don’t get it this time, we’ll split it into two takes."

After the set was cleaned up, the twelfth take began.

In the previous eleven takes, Lu Yan’s lines and emotions were flawless, and this time was no different. The earlier parts of the scene were quickly completed.

Finally, it was time for Lin Qing’s crying scene. Everyone on set held their breath, closely watching the center of the set.

Lin Qing, as before, held the fallen Lu Yan, his expression twisted as if trying to squeeze out tears, but his eyes remained dry.

Just as everyone was about to sigh in disappointment, a miracle happened—

Lin Qing’s body went rigid, veins popping, as he let out a raw, guttural scream, "Ah—!"

Then two clear tears rolled down... no, countless hot tears.

This sudden burst of acting immediately shocked Chen Jing, who promptly called "Cut!"

After reviewing the playback, she kept nodding, saying, "Passed, passed! This time the performance was quite good, Lin Qing, keep it up!"

This was the first time Lin Qing had been praised by Chen Jing since joining the crew, but Lin Qing didn’t look happy about the praise.

Because at that moment, he was still stuck in the lingering pain.

As he was trying to summon tears, Lu Yan's hand suddenly reached up from below and gave his calf a hard, twisting pinch. He was wearing armor, but the calf area was covered only by a thin piece of red cloth, so the pinch really hurt.

Because of the angle, no one saw Lu Yan’s hand, and everyone thought it was a burst of acting skill, but in reality, he was crying from the pain.

Finally, the scene was over, and Lu Yan calmly stood up, patting the dust off his armor.

"Good job crying," he said.

After that, he turned to watch the playback, ignoring the death glare from behind.

This scene took too long, and after finishing a few solo shots, it was already dinner time.

Chen Jing sat opposite Lu Yan, looking at the large pot of chicken soup in the middle, and couldn't help but ask, "Are you in a relationship? Don't actors usually keep it low-key when they're dating? Why are you sending stuff to the set every day?"

Lu Yan laughed, "Not yet."

He took out his phone and sent a message to Gu Xu.

"The soup has been received, have you eaten?"

Ten minutes later, he got a reply, "Haven't eaten yet, just finished a meeting."

Before Lu Yan could respond, Gu Xu sent another text.

"The flowers have been received too."

Lu Yan stared at the text for a while, then suddenly looked up and asked Chen Jing, "Have you ever pursued someone?"

Chen Jing rolled his eyes, "Of course, you think my wife chased me?" he said while patting his round beer belly.

"Did you send flowers when you were pursuing your wife?"

"What year is it? Who sends flowers anymore?" Chen Jing said with a look of disdain.

"..."

Lu Yan looked down and calmly replied.

"That was a thank-you gift."

"?"

Seeing the big question mark, he changed the subject, "Today, Lin Qing couldn't cry during the crying scene, so I pinched him to make him cry. Is his leg insured? Do I need to pay for it?"

Gu Xu’s response was unexpected, "Where did you get insurance?"

"Honestly, I have a $400,000 insurance policy on my nose."

"..."

-

Thanks to the tearful scene, today's shooting lasted until nearly 2 a.m. Chen Jing treated the crew to a late-night snack as a reward.

Back at the hotel, lying down, Lu Yan glanced at his phone screen. He had been intermittently texting Gu Xu during the shoot. The conversation was sparse and the topics were mundane, but he didn't find it boring.

The last message was from Gu Xu. He was in the middle of filming at the time, so he hadn't had a chance to reply. He checked the time and decided to respond tomorrow.

Just as he closed his eyes, the message alert sounded.

"Are you done shooting?"

Lu Yan quickly replied, "Just got back to the hotel."

As soon as the message was sent, Gu Xu called.

Lu Yan answered, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Gu Xu's voice was slightly hoarse, "Got up to drink water, saw you hadn't replied, so I sent a message. Do you shoot this late every day?"

"No, shooting ended at two, had a late-night snack, so it got late."

"Eating late can cause indigestion. There will be nourishing soup delivered to the set during this period, make sure you eat well."

Lu Yan couldn't help but explain, "Actually, that was a special case, I eat well every day."

There was a long silence on the other end.

Then, suddenly, a soft chuckle came through, low and inexplicably sensual, making Lu Yan's ears tingle.

"I'm afraid your taste might get spoiled by me."

...

Lu Yan lay flat on the bed, like a salted fish.

Long after the call ended, his heartbeat still hadn't calmed down.

Most of his sleepiness gone, he picked up his phone and opened Weibo to kill some time.

The top trending post was from a big V named Bang Jie. This blogger would adopt a topic from the comments every day and post it on Weibo for netizens to discuss. The comments were all sorts of bizarre, and Lu Yan found them fascinating.

After reading most of the comments, a sudden idea struck him.

He quickly created a Weibo alt account and went to Bang Jie's topic collection post to comment.

"Want to ask everyone how to pursue a man. He's not short of money or cars, online waiting, urgent. Also, I'm a guy too."