Chapter 50 [VIP] Thinking of keeping a young actor on set again?

The cold winter wind howled in the northwest. The old hutong houses had insufficient heating, and the chilly breeze seeped through the small windows along the corridor. Sheng Li leaned against the wall, pulling her coat tighter around her. She took out two slim cigarettes but realized she had forgotten her lighter.

She turned and asked, “Officer Cheng, do you have a lighter?”

Yu Chi lazily leaned against the wall next to her, glancing at her indifferently. He pulled a lighter from his pocket and handed it over. Sheng Li didn’t take it; instead, she casually held the cigarette between her lips, tilted her chin, and gave him a sidelong glance, indicating he should light it for her.

The character Xu Yuan had quite a few scenes at age 17. Sheng Li was 27 this year, still youthful. She usually took good care of herself, so portraying a 17-year-old without makeup wasn’t challenging. Now, Xu Yuan was 31 years old, and this look was more mature and alluring than any of Sheng Li’s previous roles. Every move exuded flirtation, and her “bad girl” aura seemed innate.

Yu Chi didn’t move.

Sheng Li raised an eyebrow and urged, “Hurry up, aren’t you going to teach Sister how to smoke?”

This felt so damn familiar.

More than three years ago, she was just like this in front of him—lying effortlessly, being bad without realizing it.

Was she planning a comeback?

Yu Chi sneered, tossing the lighter casually. Sheng Li scrambled to catch it but missed. She glared at him, bent down to pick it up, lit her cigarette herself, and handed him the other one.

Yu Chi took it expressionlessly, placed it in his mouth, and suddenly leaned down close.

Sheng Li’s heartbeat paused. She bit the filter and looked up. The tips of their cigarettes touched as Yu Chi lowered his eyes and gently inhaled, lighting his cigarette. He straightened up and leaned back, exhaling a puff of smoke, saying indifferently, “That’s what you said, I didn’t agree.”

Sheng Li’s heart pounded fiercely as she stared at him and asked, “Then why did you follow me?”

“I wanted a smoke.”

“...”

Sheng Li calmly leaned back, trying to inhale and exhale a few times, not looking at him, gazing ahead absentmindedly, “You haven’t answered my question from last night yet.”

“How does Sister want me to answer?” Yu Chi’s expression was languid as he flicked the ash off his cigarette. “You can try squeaking once and see.”

Sheng Li: “...”

Her gaze unconsciously dropped, trailing up Yu Chi’s long, straight legs, shamelessly ogling. She coughed, turning to meet his gaze. Yu Chi lowered his eyes, staring directly into hers, smirking, “Sister is almost thirty, that age is quite voracious. Are you thinking of keeping a young actor on set again?”

These words were truly infuriating, and his acting was genuinely despicable—no wonder he was the Best Actor.

Just as Sheng Li was about to speak, Yuan Yuan, who was keeping watch behind the wall, coughed loudly. Then they heard Chen Yuan call out, “Bring them back, we’re ready to start shooting.”

“Hmm?” Sheng Li pretended to be deep in thought, as if seriously considering for a few seconds. She smiled mischievously, hooking her finger into his shirt hem, lowering her voice, “Brother’s value has skyrocketed lately. Keeping you might be a bit expensive. Sister needs to consider whether it’s worth buying for beauty.”

With that, she stubbed out her cigarette, turned, and walked back into the studio.

Yu Chi sneered coldly, turned, and walked in, colliding head-on with Yuan Yuan, who had been eavesdropping behind the wall and hadn’t had time to leave. Yuan Yuan’s eyes sparkled as she stared at him. He felt slightly uncomfortable and frowned, “Something?”

“You… keep it up!”

Yuan Yuan blurted out and ran off.

Yu Chi: “...”

—

Ten minutes later, the scene was officially filmed.

Xu Yuan stood in the old, cold house, bending down to take off her stockings, exposing her pale, straight legs, which broke out in goosebumps. She stepped barefoot onto the stockings and looked at the man standing at the door, chest heaving violently as if enraged and shocked to the extreme. She chuckled lightly, “Why don’t you come in?”

Cheng Nan watched her lift her shirt and rushed over to grab her hand, glaring down at her, “Xu Yuan, what are you doing?”

“Weren’t you looking for me? You’ve been searching for me for over ten years, you must like me. When you were twelve, you always stared at me. Am I pretty?” Xu Yuan blinked innocently at him, “If you like me so much, don’t you want to sleep with me?”

Cheng Nan was extremely angry, “I don’t!”

Xu Yuan caressed his face, smiling seductively, “Do you think I’m too old?”

“No.” Cheng Nan’s eyes reddened.

“Don’t you want to taste the flavor of a mature woman?”

“Do you think I’m dirty? Afraid I have a disease?” Xu Yuan gently pushed him away, walked barefoot to the bed, crossed her legs, lit another cigarette, and smoked calmly, “Sorry, I forgot you’re a righteous policeman, different from other men.”

She smiled, “Do you know? This is the first time I’ve taken off my clothes and been rejected by a man.”

Cheng Nan never intended to ask what she had experienced over the years. What could a beautiful teenage girl do after being trafficked? Without a word, he bent down to pick up the clothes, walked over to her, dropped them on her lap, and said sternly, “Put them on.”

“It’s also the first time a man made me put on clothes.”

“…”

She remained unmoved, seemingly unaware of the cold.

Cheng Nan’s eyes slightly reddened as he softly asked, “Are you going to put them on?”

Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, “Will you help me?”

“Yes.”

He agreed promptly, snatching the cigarette from her hand and extinguishing it on the table. He hastily pulled the sweater over her head. Xu Yuan had never been treated like this before; she was stunned for a few seconds and started to struggle, “Cheng Nan, are you crazy?!”

Cheng Nan’s strength was no match for her. He effortlessly restrained her, roughly pulling the sweater on her, then the coat, messing up her hair. Finally, he grabbed a crumpled pair of stockings, frowned, threw them away, and turned to leave.

Xu Yuan sat dumbfounded on the bed. In a moment, he returned, holding a pair of gray, flowery cotton pants—pants she had bought for her grandmother... Cheng Nan approached with the pants. Instinctively, she backed away, coldly saying, “I won’t wear those, they’re ugly.”

Cheng Nan grabbed her ankle, dragged her back, pinned her kicking legs, both of them panting during the struggle. He lowered his head and glared at her, “Don’t move.” Xu Yuan froze, her heartbeat racing wildly, her eyes slightly red, looking up and staring intently at his face.

Cheng Nan frowned, forcefully pulling the pants on her.

Well, the image of the flirtatious bad woman was gone.

Only a woman wearing an old, puffy pair of grandma’s cotton pants, with messy hair, sitting on the bed glaring at people.

But her gaze seemed to come alive.

...

Chen Yuan: “Pass!”

The director couldn’t hide his joy, clearly satisfied and excited.

Sheng Li let out a deep breath. During her audition, Chen Yuan had hesitated a bit, saying she was too young, differing slightly from the Xu Yuan in his mind.

Xu Yuan was a superficially dissolute and frivolous bad woman, seemingly indifferent to everything. In reality, she was deeply insecure and yearned desperately to be loved. She felt dirty and desired to cleanse the filth from her body and soul. She envied Cheng Nan for having an upright and bright life and was attracted to his sincere and pure character.

Such a role indeed suited actresses with deeper experiences, but Sheng Li believed that if a 30-year-old actress could portray a teenager, why couldn’t a twenty-something actress play someone in their thirties? Acting was a filter; as long as the performance was convincing, the audience would buy it.

At this moment, her heart was pounding, beating rapidly.

She looked up at Yu Chi, eyes crinkling with a smile, “Brother’s acting skills have really improved, much better than before, carrying me along smoothly, passing in one take.”

Yu Chi lowered his eyes to look at her, calmly saying, “Sister did well too.”

Their mutual praise was formal and stiff.

Unaware, one might think they were quite distant.

The set fell silent for a moment before Jing Yiming laughed, “What’s with all this politeness?”

“All good,” Chen Yuan nodded satisfactorily, “Your chemistry was better than I expected, especially Cheng Nan’s ferocity when putting the pants on Xu Yuan, and Xu Yuan’s final gaze—they were both excellent.”

On set, Sheng Li always spoke her mind. Putting on the slippers Yuan Yuan brought over, she walked over and directly asked, “Director, do you think there’s still a big gap between me and the Xu Yuan in your mind?”

Chen Yuan smiled, “Very surprising, much better than the audition.”

Sheng Li blinked, turning to look at Yu Chi, “It’s because the opponent is strong.”

Yu Chi ignored the comment and walked over.

After this scene, there were some scattered scenes, filling in a few shots.

By evening, when the crew had boxed meals, Sheng Li was still wearing that pair of grandma’s cotton pants. Surprisingly… they were quite warm, just really ugly. After dinner, they filmed a reunion scene with Grandma. Sheng Li’s day of filming ended, and she quickly changed out of the pants.

The shooting location was rented, and conditions weren’t as good as in a film city. There were no private lounges for the lead actors, so those with RVs brought them.

Sheng Li’s RV was parked downstairs, warm, clean, and spacious. She changed her clothes in the RV. Yuan Yuan handed her a cup of hot water and hesitated, “Today afternoon, Xu Yuan ‘s start trended, and Brother-in-law got heavily criticized... It feels like a lot of black PR...”

“You mean to say the black PR was bought by Sister Rong, right?” Sheng Li took her phone and opened Weibo.

“Before, Little Lu Ge also wanted this role, but Brother-in-law took it... Little Lu Ge went berserk at the company, smashing things. Even now, I feel uneasy thinking about it—it was the first time I saw him so furious.” Yuan Yuan was troubled and worried, “Even though Little Lu Ge and Brother-in-law have always competed for resources and were arch-enemies, Brother-in-law has never been criticized so harshly before.”

Sheng Li looked at the news online; many marketing accounts that had previously praised Yu Chi’s acting skills, calling him a deserving rising star with a promising future, had now turned against him. First, they criticized him for being love-struck, vowing to chase after his first love right after winning Best Actor, lacking ambition, choosing scripts poorly, and taking on an artistic film despite being newly crowned Best Actor—he was done for. Moreover, they accused him of deliberately grabbing resources to strike at rivals...

In short, finding a negative point and ruthlessly attacking it.

Now, even some fans were dissatisfied.

“Isn’t Rose getting a sequel? Wasn’t there news that part two would start filming in March? Doesn’t this clash with the schedule?”

“Did he push back Rose 2 to take on Xu Yuan ? If that’s the case, career fans cannot accept it.”

“If Rose 2 isn’t cast with the original lineup, then what’s the point of watching it?”

“Chi Zhai, can you come out and explain? Why not shoot Rose 2 ?”

...

Some marketing accounts even began speculating whether Yu Chi’s first love girlfriend was related to Xu Yuan . For example, among the female actors participating in this movie, could one of them be his first love? But this post hadn’t gained much traction before being controlled by comments from Xing Sheng CP fans—trying to break our CP again? Get lost!

Sheng Li guessed that, probably due to her, Rong Hua dared not go too far in black PR against Yu Chi.

She frowned, staring at the barrage of black PR, wondering how Yu Chi was doing?

Sheng Li got out of the RV with her phone, seeing Yu Chi already changed into his own clothes, casually wearing a long black down jacket, unzipped, standing under the streetlight in the winter night making a phone call. From a distance, she could only vaguely hear his voice but couldn’t make out what he was saying.

The biting cold wind blew. Yu Chi kept his hands in his pockets, speaking into the phone, “I know, don’t worry. I won’t say anything on Weibo. There’s nothing to say. If you think something needs to be posted, tell me, and I’ll cooperate.”

Huang Baiyan was at his wit’s end, “I knew Rong Hua wouldn’t miss this opportunity.”

Yu Chi felt somewhat guilty inside and softly said, “Sorry, this time I was selfish.”

Apart from sighing, Huang Baiyan couldn’t say much.

Filming had already begun.

The crew wrapped up, people coming and going.

Yu Chi hung up and walked over to Sheng Li. His car was parked next to hers.

The car lights illuminated the road. Sheng Li had already removed her makeup, wearing a white quilt-like down jacket, pacing in front of the RV. Her current appearance was very different from her earlier costume, clean and pretty, resembling a casual college girl.

Yu Chi stopped in front of her, looking down at her, “Sister waiting for me?”

Sheng Li originally wanted to ask how he planned to respond to the online situation and reassure him not to worry too much since Rong Hua would be cautious about her and wouldn’t go too far. But then she thought about how perceptive Yu Chi was—even sensing their breakup—and how, after three years in the industry, he had dared to cultivate any persona for himself. His team hadn’t shied away from black PR against Lu Xingyu either.

She figured, this matter probably meant little in Yu Chi’s eyes.

He was no longer the eighteen-year-old Little Yu Chi.

He was...

Yu·Niuhelu·Chi Ge.

Sheng Li kept her hands in her down jacket pockets, smiling mischievously at him, “Oh, nothing, just reminiscing about today’s scene, feeling a bit sentimental. Back when we were dating, all you ever did was take off my clothes. You never once helped me put on pants.” She leaned closer, her beautiful eyes full of mischief, tilting her head to meet his cold gaze, softly provoking, “Brother, you’re so bad.”