After having dinner with Li Weili, Jiang Chi changed his clothes, put on a mask and sunglasses, wore a baseball cap backward, and hurried to the set early.

The hotel was only a ten-minute drive from the shooting location. When Jiang Chi arrived on set, it was just seven o'clock, and even Ren Haichuan hadn't arrived yet.

Fortunately, Jiang Chi's dressing room was already prepared. After greeting the Assistant Director, Jiang Chi went to his room.

"Brother Jiang, your attitude is too good." Li Weili rubbed his shoulders and sank into the sofa in the dressing room. "It's already enough to wait for hours on end for your scenes after work starts, yet you still come so early every day. Which fresh meat is like you? Not throwing a tantrum, being late, and making the whole crew wait is already considered professional."

Jiang Chi smiled. "Is Ye Lan a big enough star? Have you ever seen him be late?"

Li Weili was at a loss for words.

"It's precisely because I have to wait a long time every time that I try to come early. If I'm fully prepared, the progress will be faster, and we can wrap up earlier. Besides..." Jiang Chi lowered his head, rummaging through his backpack for a power bank, "no matter where we are, we're just playing on our phones. What's the difference between playing at the hotel and playing here?"

Li Weili, who was engrossed in reading gossip, heard this and laughed, "That's true."

Jiang Chi plugged his phone in to charge and eagerly started scrolling through the entertainment news about Ye Lan's group interview from earlier.

He opened the search page, and the number one trending topic was the news about Ye Lan's live stream crashing the server due to overload.

The platform that was live-streaming Ye Lan's group interview had frozen for a full three minutes during the broadcast due to excessive traffic. Below the news article, there was a flood of angry comments from fans, blaming the platform for not preparing in advance. The long-awaited eighteen-minute live stream they had been looking forward to was cut short by three minutes.

Further down was the platform's apology notice and a video recording of the entire group interview. Jiang Chi quickly clicked on it, carefully watching the part he had missed when it froze.

Watching it again, Jiang Chi's ears still turned red with excitement when he saw Ye Lan mention him. 'This counts as... an affirmation of my performance, right?'

He exited the video and went back to the news. As expected, everyone was full of curiosity about the mysterious co-star Ye Lan was working with. There were all sorts of guesses. All the female artists who had been rumored to be with Ye Lan over the years were brought up and analyzed one by one. After refuting countless possibilities, everyone then locked their sights on this year's popular young actresses.

In short, no one had the discerning eye to guess it would be Jiang Chi.

Nevertheless, Jiang Chi scrolled through with great interest. In any case, he himself knew that the person Ye Lan praised as "very professional and talented" was him.

"Teacher Jiang, Director Ren has arrived, and the set is ready. Can we start on your makeup now?"

After waiting for less than half an hour, a crew member came over and asked, "If you're ready, I'll go get the makeup artist."

"Yes, yes." Jiang Chi put his phone away and asked, "Has Brother Ye Lan arrived?"

The crew member smiled, "He arrived about ten minutes ago. He's already getting his makeup done."

A thought stirred in Jiang Chi's mind. 'Ye Lan's new look!'

This scene was set five years earlier in the story. At this time, Zhan Ming was a good-for-nothing playboy who had just graduated from university.

Jiang Chi had never seen Zhan Ming's look for this time period. It was said to be quite... dissolute.

After his makeup was done, Jiang Chi changed his clothes and followed the crew member to the set. Before he could find the "dissolute" looking Ye Lan, he was first blinded by the countless dazzling mobile spotlights on the set.

Jiang Chi narrowed his eyes. "So pungent... what's that smell?"

The crew member fanned Jiang Chi while explaining, "The Assistant Director's instruction was to create a smoky atmosphere for the set, like 'a group of people has been smoking all night'."

"The coordinator here is inexperienced and prepared a dry ice machine. You know, smoke is smoke, and mist is mist. Dry ice produces mist, and that mist doesn't rise, it just lingers around people's feet. It's too unrealistic. Director Ren would definitely get angry if he saw it... Time was tight, and there was no time to prepare anything else, so we burned almost a whole carton of half-damp cigarettes. It looks the part, but it's a bit pungent..."

Jiang Chi nodded in understanding. "It's good, it looks very realistic."

"My god..." After entering the set, Ye Lan was hit by the smoke and subconsciously shielded his eyes, frowning. "Are you guys having a barbecue in here?"

The crew member stifled a laugh. "Teacher Ye, come over here. The smoke is thicker over there."

Ye Lan walked over with a frown, followed by Cen Wen, his makeup artist, assistant, and others. The lighting on the set was still being adjusted, so it was dim off-camera. It wasn't until Ye Lan walked right up to Jiang Chi that Jiang Chi got a clear look at him.

Compared to the interview this afternoon, Ye Lan seemed like a completely different person.

Ye Lan wasn't wearing foundation anymore. His skin tone and lip color were a few shades lighter than before, making him look several years younger in an instant. His hair was completely down, lightly permed on the sides, with bangs resting untidily on either side of his brow bones, revealing a face even more wild than his previous look.

Ye Lan wore only a shirt on his upper body, with the top three buttons undone. His tie was draped loosely around his collar, looking as if a slight tug would cause it to be lost somewhere in a pleasure-seeking venue, becoming a souvenir of Zhan Ming's one-night stand.

Jiang Chi took a soft breath.

Back in university, his acting teacher had once said in class that a good actor isn't someone who acts like the character; it's someone who becomes the character they're playing.

The example the teacher used back then was Ye Lan.

It had only been a day since the last scene, but Ye Lan had already precisely adjusted his state to five years prior, not a bit more, not a bit less. The man from yesterday, weathered by life and cautiously begging his former lover to get back together, had turned around and become today's shameless, heartless nightclub prince.

The nightclub prince's lips moved slightly, as if muttering something. He looked down and rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows, then suddenly turned his head and whispered to Jiang Chi, "That old coot Ren Haichuan was staring at me while I changed, I didn't even have time to put on a heat pack. I'm freezing to death."

Ren Haichuan was just a short distance away. Jiang Chi struggled to hold back his laughter.

Ye Lan scanned Jiang Chi from top to bottom and smirked. "Not bad. Which university's junior are you from? Just graduated?"

Jiang Chi was no longer wearing a crisp suit. His glossy black hair had been dyed back to a deep brown, his eyebrows were also a slightly lighter shade, their shape no longer sharp, and his eye makeup was no longer intimidating. The whole person instantly lost some of his sharpness and gained a bit of gentleness. To differentiate from his previously gaunt cheeks, some highlighting powder had been applied to his face, adding a touch of youthfulness.

He was used to Jiang Chi being cold and aloof towards him during filming. Seeing his younger look for the first time, Ye Lan found it quite novel.

"Jiang Chi first." Ren Haichuan waved away the smoke in front of him, walking closer with a frown. "Start from the entrance, go down the corridor, and then walk all the way in. Zhan Ming has an important meeting to host tomorrow. You've done all the preparations for him. You know he's out partying because he's counting on you and isn't worried. But you're afraid he'll stay out too late, wake up late tomorrow, and affect the meeting, so you've come looking for him, wanting to take him back... cough..."

"Stop burning them! Is there no end to it..." Ren Haichuan's face turned red from the smoke, and he cursed, "If you keep this up, the actors are going to start crying. How are we supposed to film?! Stop!"

The Assistant Director hurried over to smack the crew member on the head. Ren Haichuan continued speaking to Jiang Chi, "You're angry at his lack of ambition, but there's nothing you can do. It's just your luck to be stuck with someone like him. At this point, you still have a secret crush on him, so you need to hide your feelings a bit."

Jiang Chi nodded, thinking to himself, 'Typecasting again.'

Ren Haichuan called out to the Assistant Director, "Where are the extras? Are they in position?"

The Assistant Director replied, "The stand-ins have already run through the scene with them twice. Should they take their positions?"

Ren Haichuan nodded and then went over the scene with Ye Lan.

By the time everything was in place, half an hour had passed.

"Clear!!! The!!! Set!!!"

"The Scum, scene thirteen, take one!!"

"How many in your party, sir?"

The doorman politely asked Jiang Chi. Jiang Chi furrowed his brows, "Where is Mr. Zhan?"

"This way, please." The doorman gave a slight bow and walked to Jiang Chi's front left to lead the way.

In the corridor, several women with hot figures in revealing clothes walked past, laughing loudly. One of them turned back to glance at Jiang Chi with a smile. Jiang Chi uncomfortably turned his head away, pretending not to hear the women laughing and talking about him.

As they passed a private room, a middle-aged man came out. The man was half-drunk, eyeing Jiang Chi up and down with a sneer. His gaze made Jiang Chi extremely uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but ask again, "Are we not there yet?"

"It's just ahead." The doorman stopped.

From four or five meters away, Jiang Chi could already hear the loud laughter and noise coming from the private room the doorman mentioned. He paused, gave a self-deprecating smile, and numbly stepped forward to push open the luxuriously decorated door.

"Cut!"

Jiang Chi's performance was very good, and they got it in one take. Next, they began shooting from the angles of a few extras. Jiang Chi cooperated and walked through it again. Ren Haichuan nodded. "That's a wrap."

Before Jiang Chi could breathe a sigh of relief, Ren Haichuan added, "The emotion just now was good. Keep it up in a moment. Don't act too heartbroken. You've been jealous so many times that you're almost indifferent. It's more about your dissatisfaction with him. He's already in his twenties, fooling around all day, and you're anxious about it."

Jiang Chi nodded. "Understood."

After a few more pickup shots, this scene was perfectly finished. The crew members quickly moved the equipment, shifting to the next scene.