Chapter 15: What About You?

Three days after the on-set live stream visit ended, the official Weibo account for the movie “Mountain Range Line” finally updated with a post:

“Who understands—the publicity worker for the crew thought they were dreaming when they saw a photo of our male lead on a bird-watching grandad’s Weibo!

@ShenXici_Actor as the Mute Youth.

‘Where did he go?’

‘He left here to find his mother and sister.’

He is the clear spring of the wilderness, the first brilliance beneath the morning sun.

[Image]”

“——Official Weibo, you’re too slow! You’ve been hiding such good stuff and only serving it up now!”

“——Who are you trying to kill with beauty! Official Weibo, you know how to post pictures!”

“——Aaaah, I’m screaming! I only regret not being in that tree for bird photography, and not being in the crew visit live stream! Wuwu, whose heart is lightly broken!”

“——@JiuJiuEarlyToBedEarlyToRise come and see! Is this the Son of the Mountain God you sent me that day!!”

Inside the RV, Xu Lingjia stared at the photo posted on the official Weibo on his phone, then, with a sullen face, dialed a number. After connecting, he forced a smile and whined, “Godmother, didn’t you say you were going to suppress Shen Xici’s buzz? Why did I see the official Weibo post something about him just now?”

Ye Mei’s slightly weary voice came through the receiver: “Jiajia, you know Cui Yunwei is always looking for fault with me. He thinks the two hot searches clearly prove that Shen Xici has the potential to be a hit. He’s been openly and secretly accusing me of poor judgment and inaction, and even mocking me for suppressing Shen Xici for your sake.”

Fingers digging into the leather seat cushion, upon hearing the words “potential to be a hit,” Xu Lingjia squeezed his fingers, but his tone of voice didn’t change: “But posting on Weibo is one thing, why did they spend money to specifically buy a hot search for Shen Xici?”

“Jiajia, Cui Yunwei made people buy that, not your godmother.” Ye Mei knew Xu Lingjia was unhappy and coaxed him as usual, “Didn’t you say the undercover role you’re playing now is great? When you make a splash and win an award with this role, your godmother will definitely arrange a proper promotion for you. Won’t you be able to get as many hot searches as you want, my Jiajia?”

Something flashed through Xu Lingjia’s mind, but then he thought of the dream, where the undercover character Azheng was praised even by official media, and he relaxed a little: “Then it’s settled, Godmother, you have to help me promote it properly then.”

“Of course,” Ye Mei didn’t have her own children; she had held Xu Lingjia since he was a month old and had always spoiled and protected him. She softened her tone, “It was very good of you to invite all those extras to dinner. One extra, who is a fan of yours, specially posted a Weibo praising you. Such positive news is very beneficial to you. Your godmother has already arranged a hot search. Focus on filming, and don’t worry about anything else.”

Xu Lingjia sweetly said: “Godmother, don’t overwork yourself either. That Cui Yunwei definitely can’t compare to you!”

After hanging up, #XuLingjiaInvitesExtrasToDinner# had already appeared on the hot search list. The girl whose face he couldn’t quite recall wrote a long essay, and the comments under the topic were all about “Jiajia has always been especially kind,” and “Jiajia cares for his fans.”

After reading it, Xu Lingjia felt much better. So what if Shen Xici had a hot search? He could get one with just a word.

Noticing his own thought process, he reminded himself not to get stuck in the future foretold by the dream, and not to always compare himself with a minor character like Shen Xici who was destined to have no future. It was beneath him.

However, his godmother was always saying this and that was impossible. It seemed that if he wanted to climb up, he would have to operate on his own.

Having made up his mind, Xu Lingjia made another call: “Did you find the thing I asked you to look for?”

---

Shen Xici got up and quickly took a shower. He emerged with his hair a mess. The financial news was on TV. Seeing Sheng Shaoyan holding his phone, he casually asked, “A’shao, are you looking at stocks again?”

Shen Xici’s head hurt just thinking about those K-line charts. In his previous life, he had glanced at the various financial statements and investment analyses on Sheng Shaoyan’s computer a few times. All he could say was that numbers really made him dizzy.

“Yes, the market just opened,” Sheng Shaoyan realized that Shen Xici seemed a little unhappy that he was always trading stocks and not chatting with him? After thinking for a moment, he added, “I made breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” Shen Xici’s first thought was, if he ate this breakfast, should he apply for sick leave from the crew in advance?

Just as he was worried and about to advise Sheng Shaoyan that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and he shouldn’t force himself to do things he wasn’t good at, he saw three hard-boiled eggs and a glass of milk on the table, next to a bowl of sliced orange segments. Shen Xici’s words immediately changed to, “I actually get to eat breakfast made by A’shao! Thank you, A’shao!”

His tone was one of surprised joy, and even his eyes were brimming with smiles.

Shen Xici wore a simple white shirt. In the light from the ceiling lamp, his whole person seemed to be glowing. His slightly messy hair, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the silver stud in his earlobe—everything was pleasing to the eye.

Sheng Shaoyan couldn’t help but wonder how bad he must have been to Shen Xici before his memory loss, to make him so surprised by a simple breakfast.

The constantly inflating numbers in his account these past few days proved that he could easily achieve extremely high returns from the stock market, which just confirmed his understanding of prices and his habit of spending money lavishly.

He must have made a lot of money through stock trading before, which supported his vast expenses and luxurious life, but stock trading is like gambling. Even the most skilled person can have a losing day.

He was very clear that he was not a person content with the status quo, and plunging his entire fortune into it for greater profit was definitely something he would do.

The rest was easy to speculate.

All the money was lost in the stock market. He became dejected and disheartened. After being with Shen Xici, he became a gold-digger, didn’t work, and couldn’t shake his habit of being extravagant and having no financial discipline, causing Shen Xici to fall into huge debt.

He generally confirmed that his relationship with his family was not good; after he lost his money, those people would only avoid him even more.

Sheng Shaoyan felt a little contemptuous of his pre-amnesia self.

Regardless, he wouldn’t let Shen Xici struggle and earn money alone.

After breakfast, they opened the windows for ventilation before leaving. The two went downstairs one after the other.

Shen Xici stood by the downstairs security door, waiting. After a moment, Sheng Shaoyan rode over on his motorcycle.

In Sheng Shaoyan’s fresh look of a hooded sweatshirt paired with casual pants and sneakers, he actually had a hint of a recent university graduate.

Shaking his head, Shen Xici suppressed this ridiculous thought. A black-hearted capitalist like Sheng Shaoyan would only use an offer from Shenghe Group to make those top students from famous domestic and international universities willingly enslave themselves.

Long legs swung over the back seat. Sheng Shaoyan started the motorcycle and asked, “How many scenes do you have today?”

“Nothing important. They’re mostly shots for Teacher Zhong Yue and Teacher Wen, and I just need to stand on the side, do some movements and expressions, and be a good background.”

The motorcycle weaved through the gaps between the small buildings in the county town, startling sparrows feeding on the ground. Turning a corner, the blinding sunlight streamed down, and Shen Xici lazily squinted his eyes: “The weather is really nice.”

“What would you do on a day like this before?”

Glancing at Sheng Shaoyan’s back, Shen Xici felt that this person had a lot of questions today. He thought carefully. Before joining the crew, he should have been in his third year of university.

“Every day, besides classes, I would go to the lab for experiments, recording data, reading literature, and writing papers. It was monotonous, but also quite interesting. I could learn how the body works internally, what the different cells are for, and how each disease occurs. The more I learned, the better I could protect myself.”

Talking about this, Shen Xici suddenly felt a sense of having lived another life.

But he had lived another life, so much so that many things seemed covered in a thin layer of dust.

He recalled something from before: “I remember the first day I entered the lab—”

Unexpectedly, he was interrupted by Sheng Shaoyan right after starting.

“Get closer, I can’t hear you clearly.”

“Oh, okay.” The motorcycle engine was indeed loud. Shen Xici leaned forward, almost touching Sheng Shaoyan’s ear, and continued, “The first day I entered the lab, the professor I was following said that he could tell just by looking at me that I was excellent material for research, and he immediately used me, an undergraduate, like a graduate student.”

The breath of the person behind him was more palpable than the wind blowing past his ear. Sheng Shaoyan’s lips curved slightly. He had already anticipated the next development and asked, “And then?”

“Later, when the new first-year graduate student arrived to report to the lab, I accidentally overheard Professor Bai Qingyuan saying to the new student with a kind smile, ‘Xiao Shi, I can tell just by looking at you that you are excellent material for research!'”

Mimicking Professor Bai Qingyuan’s tone perfectly, Shen Xici laughed before he finished: “That’s when I realized, what good material? We are all just research consumables!”

Most of Sheng Shaoyan’s mind was not on the road conditions ahead. He accelerated and decelerated almost entirely based on his memory from driving the past few days.

Looking at the person sitting behind him through the rear-view mirror, Sheng Shaoyan’s attention was drawn to Shen Xici’s porcelain-white fingers. When he spoke, that finger would tap against his cheek repeatedly. His mouth was half-covered by his hand, the exposed part of his lips refined and very beautiful.

Shen Xici’s voice was also pleasant to listen to. His articulation was clear, and his pitch rose and fell when he spoke. The light in his eyes was bright, making it easy for people to become immersed.

---

The motorcycle stopped at the usual spot. Shen Xici got his makeup done and went to the filming location.

An hour later.

“Stop. Take it again.”

Wen Yage’s smile was about to break. She stood still, letting the makeup artist touch up her makeup, and asked Xu Lingjia, who was acting with her, “I remember you study at Ningcheng Drama Academy?”

Male actors didn’t need as much touch-up as female actors. Xu Lingjia took the water cup handed to him by his assistant: “Yes, I’m from Ningxi.”

His art exam and enrollment were reported by the media throughout, including whether his dorm environment was good, who his roommates were, and what their personalities were like, which generated a lot of buzz. So, he wasn’t surprised that Wen Yage knew which school he attended.

“Is your acting teacher Professor Sun?”

“It is Professor Sun,” Xu Lingjia laughed, “Teacher Wen, do you know him?”

This scene only had a few lines of dialogue, and they had already filmed it nearly ten times. Wen Yage’s patience was wearing thin: “I remember Professor Sun teaches quite well, so why are you acting so poorly?”

The innocent smile on Xu Lingjia’s face froze.

“Cut,” Director Wan’s voice came from behind the monitor, “Xu Lingjia, what’s wrong with you? The close-up shot is focused on your face, and you’re there eating a biscuit. Don’t you know where the camera is? Again!”

Two minutes later, Director Wan’s voice came again: “Xu Lingjia, you’re an undercover agent. Your superficial identity right now is a bad guy, part of the criminals. When they’re discussing how the criminals treat the hostage, you don’t need a look of sympathy. You need to restrain your expression, restrain it, understand?”

Xu Lingjia stood up and apologized: “I’m sorry, I’ve wasted everyone’s time again, but Director, I really did restrain it.”

“You looked like you were about to cry! Where did you restrain it?” Director Wan sighed, guiding his acting, “You can’t weep as if your lover has died just because a bird has died in front of you, understand?”

Xu Lingjia nodded: “I understand.”

“Alright, everyone, thank you for your hard work, one more time!”

---

Returning to the makeup room, Shen Xici didn’t expect being a background prop to be so exhausting. Just as he sat down in the chair, Wen Yage pushed the door open and walked in, followed by her makeup artist and an assistant.

Shen Xici quickly stood up and greeted her with a smile: “Teacher Wen, why did you come over?”

Filming deep in the mountains had limited conditions, but the contracts for the male and female leads in the crew both stipulated that they must be provided with separate makeup rooms and would not share a room with them.

Wen Yage had a typical bold and striking look, with a grand and alluring face. She unceremoniously sat in the empty seat next to him: “The light on my mirror over there is broken, I can’t see clearly, so I came over to use yours.”

“Why didn’t you go to Teacher Zhong Yue’s place? The environment there is much better than here.”

“You think I didn’t go? As soon as I stepped through the door, I saw Xu Lingjia sitting next to Zhong Yue, apologizing to Zhong Yue in a tearful voice for wasting his time. Just seeing him made my eyelids twitch.”

Wen Yage rolled her eyes unapologetically, “He even brought up acting skills. Didn’t he realize that after filming ten takes and failing ten times, Director Wan had already lowered the standard for his acting? Otherwise, how did he pass the last take?”

The makeup room fell silent, with only the faint “tap” sound of the makeup artist putting down her brush.

Wen Yage could say these things, but Shen Xici couldn’t agree. He changed the subject: “The Golden Leaf Awards ceremony is about to start. Did you get leave from the director, Teacher Wen?”

“I did. Although Director Wan doesn’t allow actors to take on multiple projects simultaneously, he is generous when it comes to actors going to receive awards.” Wen Yage looked at herself in the mirror and suddenly asked, “Shen Xici, do you think I will win this time?” She then emphasized, “Don’t just say polite words.”

“In last year’s movies, the female leads of Heart Lock, Spring of the Grassland, and Falling into the Abyss are all very strong. These three actresses will definitely compete with you for the Best Actress award.” Shen Xici spoke sincerely, “But your acting in Lost Time is genuinely excellent. In my personal opinion, I think you’ll have no problem winning.”

Wen Yage debuted ten years ago, had endorsements from top luxury brands, and was always a highlight on the red carpet, but her luck with awards had always been poor. She only had one Best Actress trophy to date. Lost Time was an art film, made specifically to compete for awards.

In the previous life, Wen Yage did indeed win her second Best Actress trophy with this role.

Wen Yage was currently turned sideways, having the scar special effects makeup applied to her cheekbone. She was a little surprised to hear Shen Xici’s words. His assessment of acting was very accurate; the three actresses he listed completely overlapped with her own judgment.

“Then I’ll take your auspicious words,” Wen Yage looked at the scar makeup being drawn on her face, feeling annoyed, “Jiarui Media is really something, letting Ye Mei mess around. I heard they are planning to use Director Wan’s movie as a stepping stone for Xu Lingjia, and he’ll be acting as the second male lead in the next one. Tsk,” she clicked her tongue lightly and slowly said, “I’m not afraid of nepotism when the ‘ugly child’ has bad acting; it’s really hard on my eyes.”

As she spoke, Wen Yage suddenly thought: “Have you signed with a company?”

Shen Xici changed his makeup and was putting on an earring. He answered truthfully: “Not yet.”

“If a company contacts you in the future, you can consider signing with one. Without resources, someone to promote you, or opportunities, no matter how talented you are, it’s hard to climb up. The cake in this circle is only so big, but there are too many people who want a slice. Everyone wants to soar.”

As she spoke, she noticed the handsome man in the mask who was tinkering with his phone nearby looking over. Wen Yage raised an eyebrow—so alert?

Since entering the makeup room, she had noticed that the handsome man in the mask was very wary of her and protected Shen Xici closely. Sure enough, with just a slight disturbance, he immediately reacted. The powerful aura about him was so intimidating that people instinctively wanted to avoid him.

Suddenly wanting to tease the two of them, Wen Yage changed her tone: “Shen Xici, you should know that I sought out this handsome man in the mask before, and he rejected me.”

She rolled her eyes, adopting a coquettish and alluring tone: “He’s unwilling, what about you? I really like people like you who are good at acting, serious about their craft, and handsome.”

Shen Xici was stunned, feeling a little exasperated. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Sheng Shaoyan suddenly stand up and walk over, standing in front of him, radiating a low-pressure atmosphere.

“He won’t—”

Sheng Shaoyan wanted to say that he wouldn’t, that he already had him.

But another thought popped up.

Is Shen Xici truly unwilling? He wasn’t good to him before. He spent his money, forcing him to work hard in the entertainment industry, getting his roles changed, being targeted, and having his buzz suppressed.

But he couldn’t help with anything.

If Shen Xici agreed to Wen Yage, it would be perfectly normal, and at least his life would be much easier in the future, without being dragged down by him and having to work so hard.

Although he thought this, an extreme irritability welled up in Sheng Shaoyan’s heart, making him want to say something to Shen Xici, regardless of the consequences.

Shen Xici saw Sheng Shaoyan silently turn around. He wasn’t wearing a baseball cap. The black mask was across the bridge of his nose, revealing only a pair of dark eyes. It looked like he had something to say but didn’t say it.

Sensing the overwhelming irritation emanating from the person in front of him, like a lion whose fur had been ruffled, Shen Xici didn’t have time to explore the reason. He reassuringly grasped Sheng Shaoyan’s wrist and stepped in front of him.

Knowing that Wen Yage was probably just joking out of mischief, Shen Xici didn’t take it seriously. He smiled and replied, “Sister, I’m still young. I want to work hard and strive for a few more years.”

Behind him, Sheng Shaoyan, who had been like a lion whose territory was being spied upon, lowered his eyes to look at Shen Xici’s hand gripping his wrist and calmed down.