Cheng Fei was beside director Xu Han, listening to him explain the key points of the scene.

Luo Yu also walked over.

Director Xu Han and Lin Yue have different habits when filming. He was not an old-fashioned style who never left his thermos cup, nor did he drink chrysanthemum and wolfberry tea. Instead, he had an ice bucket at his feet filled with sugar-free Coke.

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Legend had it that every time Xu Han was so angry at an actor who was not in the right state, he would open a bottle and gulp it down to cool down his anger.

And Xu Han had a mantra called “No more than three times”.

This meant that no matter if you were a popular traffic star or an experienced veteran actor, if you NGed due to your lines more than three times by him, he would suddenly stand up and roar through a megaphone, letting the whole crew know that a certain actor was not in the right state.

In a commercial war drama he directed before, Dijun Media arranged a small supporting role for He Mu. At that time, He Mu was busy with variety show gigs and did not read the script carefully. The actor opposite him was an experienced veteran actor. It could be regarded as letting him rub off on the veteran actor’s audience popularity.

After the veteran actor finished speaking his lines, He Mu looked around for the assistant’s prompter board, not even looking at the veteran actor.

Xu Han directly yelled “cut” and said “do it again”. He Mu continued to look for the prompter board to recite his lines. Xu Han asked someone to move the inscription board away, causing He Mu to stutter and unable to speak the lines. Xu Han yelled “cut” for the third time. After that, he started to yell with the megaphone.

“Excuse me, are you a goldfish? Can’t you remember a single line? Do you know how to respect others? The actor opposite you keeps making eye contact with you, and you don’t even look at him! You are acting, not doing a poetry recitation! This is not an MV!”

Xu Han’s roar was heard by the entire crew, and He Mu was scolded stupid.

It was only ever the case where the program crew had treated He Mu like an emperor. How had he ever been yelled at like this? 

He Mu originally thought that many people would come to comfort him, but except for the veteran actor opposite him, Mr. Yang who patted him on the shoulder and said, “Kid, you have to be sincere when acting.”

Everyone else went to comfort Director Xu Han.

A bunch of people opened the Coke and said things like “It takes a few sips of Coke to relieve the anger,” and “I have ice here, adding ice is better.”

Xu Han drank Coke and calmed down. He continued speaking through the megaphone without giving any face to He Mu: “Do you remember this line clearly? If you don’t remember it clearly, go to the side and remember it. Don’t waste Teacher Yang’s efforts!”

In the afternoon of the same day, #HeMuGoldfishBrain# was on the hot search trending list. Seeing that something was wrong, Gao He immediately removed the hot search. He was frightened for quite a while. If this hot search hit the top three, He Mu would not be far from becoming the laughingstock of the industry.

Since then, Xu Han’s reputation for “no more than three times” had completely spread, and He Mu and his posse would make a wide circle as soon as he saw Xu Han, like a cat seeing a mouse.

At this moment, Xu Han told Cheng Fei about the scene first, and Luo Yu also listened carefully.

“You two must catch each other’s play. What I want is a contrasting confrontation.”

Cheng Fei and Luo Yu nodded together.

“Cheng Fei, your Ling Jin is to test Huo Haoyan. You know that Huo Haoyan has always been well prepared, so hitting it with one strike is not the purpose of your trip. You are here to ‘reveal’ clues to him, and you want Huo Haoyan to panic . As long as he panics, he will take action. Once he takes action, it is easy to make mistakes and the police will easily catch evidence.” Xu Han said.

Cheng Fei nodded, made an OK gesture towards the director, and said in a voice that the both of them could hear: “Luo Yu, can your Huo Haoyan withstand the pressure from me?”

Luo Yu nodded calmly, “I’ve watched some of Teacher Cheng’s scenes, I feel like I can handle it.”

Cheng Fei chuckled lightly, as if to say, “You overestimate yourself.”

Xu Han looked at Luo Yu and said: “Huo Haoyan has always hidden his sword in the scabbard and will not reveal his blade easily. And people in the business world have always been good at deflection. When Ling Jin aims at you straight in the face, you have to be able to…”

“I have to be able to deflect his strength and return it at the same time. Make his hit be absorbed into the cotton.” Luo Yu replied.

Xu Han nodded, knowing that there was no need to remind Luo Yu too much.

Luo Yu and Cheng Fei walked forward side by side. Cheng Fei said, “Are you familiar with the lines?”

“I’m familiar with it, Teacher Cheng, don’t worry.”

“Although Director Xu’s bottom line is three times, I, Cheng Fei, only allow one.” Cheng Fei said.

Cheng Fei was a well-known “one pass” in the industry.

He glanced at Luo Yu, thinking that Luo Yu would show dissatisfaction with him, and even predicted Luo Yu’s inner thought: The director can tolerate three mistakes, who do you think you are, Cheng Fei?

Unexpectedly, Luo Yu nodded in agreement: “Teacher Cheng is right. If you don’t remember the lines and cause NG, you and the opposite actor will become emotionally disconnected from the scene. Even if you reshoot later, the emotions will hardly be exactly the same.”

Cheng Fei opened his mouth, thinking that Luo Yu’s tone was quite tough, which was interesting!

This was the first scene to be filmed. It took place in Huo Haoyan’s office. The scene was when the economic investigation team leader Ling Jin came to Huo Haoyan’s office to talk. Ling Jin wanted to observe Huo Haoyan’s reaction and Huo Haoyan returned the move. This was the first confrontation between them in the drama.

With the sound of “action”, the first scene of this drama kicked off.

Huo Haoyan was sitting at his desk, signing documents with a pen.

The light from the floor-to-ceiling windows cast a faint light on his body. The whole office was very quiet. The high piles of documents were on the right side of Huo Haoyan. His expression was calm and focused, which immediately gave the feel of how high paced and efficient a big company’s financial department was like.

Xu Han put his fingers against his chin and squinted at the display screen.

Because no one at the set had seen Luo Yu’s audition performance, and others didn’t know what his skills were like, everyone was worried that Xu Han would get angry if he got stuck on his lines. A director’s assistant had already picked up a bottle of iced Coke, ready in case Luo Yu’s performance was bad, and he had to unscrew it quickly and hand it over to the director.

Probably because Luo Yu’s Huo Haoyan had a quality that attracted people to appreciate slowly, the cameraman took the scene of him approving documents for nearly a minute. When the director raised his hand to indicate, Ling Jin was ready to enter the scene.

After knocking on the door twice, before Huo Haoyan could say “come in”, Ling Jin walked in wearing casual clothes.

“Long time no see, Mr. Huo.” Ling Jin pulled the chair across from Huo Haoyan, sat down, leaned back, and looked at Huo Haoyan’s face with his eyes.

It must be said that Ling Jin’s gaze was very powerful. Sitting opposite him made Huo Haoyan feel like he was being judged.

“Hardly. We obviously just met last week.” Huo Haoyan received his opponent’s gaze calmly, closed the document and capped the pen slowly, as if he was deliberately trying to wear down the opponent’s patience.

He didn’t ask Ling Jin if he wanted to drink something, nor did he ask his secretary to come in with a cup of coffee. Instead, he took a bottle of mineral water from the side and handed it to him.

Ling Jin looked at Huo Haoyan with a smile, but refused to take the bottle of mineral water, as if he was competing to see who could endure the other’s provocation better.

“I almost forgot, you came to the station to pick up Accountant Wang last week.” Ling Jin said with a smile.

His line skills were very good and his rhythm was just right. This line seemed as if he was simply chatting with the other, yet there was a hint of sarcasm aimed towards the other’s hypocritical attitude.

“Yes.” Huo Haoyan was not angry when he saw that the other man did not reach out to accept the mineral water. He left his seat and put the water by Cheng Fei’s right hand. Seeming to show his humility, but his face remained steady, “Then this time, did Captain Ling come here to understand something else, or did you need to retrieve some information?”

Ling Jin’s eyes dimmed, staring at Huo Haoyan as if he wanted to unwrap his hypocritical skin, “You have a sum of money that you sent to a shell company.”

“Oh, really? How much? Which company?” Huo Haoyan showed a surprised expression, but this surprise was very formulaic. It was obvious that both of them were acting.

You test me and I will give you a reaction. Is this surprised expression enough to give you face?

“Mr. Huo, it’s pointless for you to be like this.” Ling Jin turned and looked at Huo Haoyan with an even sharper gaze.

It was like he wanted to cut him open, dig out the secrets inside piece by piece, and expose them to the sun.

But Huo Haoyan enjoyed Ling Jin’s gaze very much, and Luo Yu, who was under Huo Haoyan’s skin, also enjoyed Cheng Fei’s gaze.

Between actors, it was actually a competition whether overt or covert. Cheng Fei not only had good line skills, his eyes did not rely on staring to give him an aura of intimidation, the emotions conveyed by his eyes were truly layered.

“Captain Ling, it’s also pointless for you to be like this. Speaking in only halves, what do you want me to admit?” Huo Haoyan imitated Ling Jin’s sitting posture and leaned back, “Are you also a bluffer when playing mahjong?”

In a bright office, the two actors were just sitting, and they only exchanged lines with each other, but it made people feel an undercurrent.

Cheng Fei also became excited. He heard from his junior brother that Luo Yu’s image and aura fit the role of Huo Haoyan, so he was selected by the director. Because of what his junior brother said, Cheng Fei thought Luo Yu was just a pretty boy, but today he had a scene with this pretty boy and found that he actually had something to him!

“I don’t play mahjong, nor do I bluff.” Ling Jin stopped his half-joking tone, and his voice became sharp and sonorous, “June 12, 18.6 million, Hengyu Economic and Trade.”

“Please wait a moment.” Huo Haoyan also stopped the idle chit chat and his expression became serious. He looked at his computer, typed on the keyboard for a while, and then turned the screen to Ling Jin’s direction, “Captain Ling, take a look. This 18.6 million yuan is payment for goods, as evidenced by the contract. This amount is required by our partner Qingfeng Industrial to pay. And the so-called shell company Hengyu Economic and Trade you mentioned belongs to Qingfeng Industrial Subsidiary. If there is any doubt about this payment, I recommend you investigate Qingfeng Industrial. After all… we are just fulfilling the contract.”

The two looked at each other for less than a second. Ling Jin lowered his head and smiled, “Mr. Huo is really well prepared.”

This implied that Huo Haoyan had long been ready to throw the blame.

The line of Huo Haoyan’s lip curved, and he and Ling Jin switched places in this smile, and it was Huo Haoyan’s turn to begin examining Ling Jin. The moment he raised his eyes, although there was no intensity in his eyes to crucify his opponent, they still held a hook as if to pull out all the unwillingness Ling Jin had from his heart to his face.

“All transactions in our company follow the principle of three-level consensus. Accounts exceeding one million must be subject to layer-by-layer approval.” Huo Haoyan said.

“…Oh.” But Ling Jin still remained in the state of being examined by those eyes just now.

The whole space was quiet, and everyone’s eyes were focused on them, as if they were waiting for something.

Four or five seconds passed, and a “cut” sounded. Cheng Fei suddenly came back to his senses and realized that he had gotten stuck on his lines!

Just now he said that he would only allow one pass, but he didn’t expect that the one who got stuck was actually himself!

Cheng Fei’s face turned red at that moment, and he was embarrassed to look at Luo Yu.

Luo Yu, who was on the opposite side, approached him and lowered his voice: “Your company is indeed rigorous.”

“Huh?” Cheng Fei raised his head and realized that Luo Yu was reminding him of his lines.

He didn’t expect that Luo Yu not only memorized his own lines, but also his opposite actor’s lines.

Cheng Fei had to re-evaluate Luo Yu’s acting skills in his heart.

“Is there any problem in starting over? Just start again with what Huo Haoyan said, ‘all the accounts of our company’!” Director Xu said loudly.

Cheng Fei adjusted his breathing and replied, “No problem!”

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Then he looked at Luo Yu. After all, Luo Yu was very good in terms of lines and emotions just now. It was his own fault that ruined Luo Yu’s coherence.

Luo Yu also raised his hand and gestured, “I don’t have a problem either!”

When Cheng Fei raised his eyes, he found that Luo Yu’s expression changed faster than turning the pages of a book, and he immediately returned to Huo Haoyan’s state of mind.

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