In the blink of an eye, filming had been underway for nearly a week, and the production was more than halfway through its schedule. Qin You had already finished filming her only two scenes for this episode, but she continued to come to the film set every day to observe and learn.
After sending off another batch of extras, the film set entered a brief lunch break. At the same time, some of the actors finally received the scripts for the next episode.
Yang Qiu had just gone outside the film set to pick up a food delivery. When she returned, she found a stapled script waiting on her seat—*Sleepless City (Episode 2)*.
Her heart leaped with joy. The script for the second episode was finally here.
The first episode had ended on an infuriating note—the very scene she had filmed yesterday, where Fang Ziyu caught that scum couple walking intimately together.
While reading the script, she had complained to Zhao Anya more than once about why the ending stopped right there. It was simply too aggravating.
Zhao Anya always explained to her with a touch of helplessness that it was just a way to ensure the audience would return for the second episode.
She knew Zhao Anya was right, but the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She wished she could see the following plot immediately. She wanted to see Fang Ziyu rush up and slap both members of that scum couple—though she knew that was unlikely to happen. As a middle-aged man, Director Wang wrote workplace content that was logical and exciting, but his romance scenes were quite outdated, like an old fogey stuck twenty years in the past. It was the same old melodramatic cliché of a mistress and a misunderstanding. The subsequent plot would likely involve Fang Ziyu exposing Ling Yu’s mask, followed by her boyfriend repenting and reconciling with her. Well, that would suffice; she couldn’t wait to slap Qin You’s face in character and have her wrap up filming and leave.
Yang Qiu loathed Qin You.
She was practically a fan of Chen Ren. When Chen Ren first announced his relationship, many people followed the trend and called him a scumbag, which nearly made her die of anger. Qin You and Chen Ren were merely rumored boyfriend and girlfriend; those people only assumed they were together based on impressions. Thus, when they saw the news of Chen Ren announcing his relationship, they assumed he had abandoned Qin You. But in reality, there had never been any substantive evidence that the two were ever together. Qin You had actually gained a lot of fame and fans through this “romance,” transforming from a complete nobody into a female star that everyone generally recognized.
To Yang Qiu, this was clearly Qin You clinging for hype, and it was a publicity stunt with zero cost and infinite profit. If Chen Ren didn’t respond, she could use him to increase her popularity and attract a wave of CP fans. If Chen Ren did respond and said there was no relationship between them, she could still use it to “abuse” her fans and purify a wave of solo fans. Yang Qiu had followed entertainment industry gossip for so many years; she was all too familiar with this routine.
When Chen Ren announced his relationship, it turned out exactly as she had expected: everyone sympathized with Qin You. Yang Qiu felt a profound sense of “everyone else is drunk, only I am sober.”
However, even though she had known this would be the result, it didn’t stop her from being thoroughly disgusted by Qin You’s tactics.
Later, when Chen Ren released his chat records with Qin You, the direction of public opinion completely reversed. Only then did Yang Qiu finally feel vindicated, enjoying a pleasant sense of “See, I told you so.”
She just hadn’t expected to run into this detestable person in the production crew.
She impatiently flipped open the script, wanting to see how she would torment Qin You.
The film set was unusually quiet because most people were reading the script for the second episode; only the sound of turning pages could be heard.
Some had originally been eating their lunch boxes, but Director Wang’s script was so compelling that before long, even the sounds of poking at food and chewing disappeared.
After a while, some let out low gasps of amazement. Others, who read faster, couldn’t wait to start excitedly discussing the plot with people they knew. They had completely forgotten that this was a script they were supposed to act in, focusing entirely on the story itself.
Only Yang Qiu lifted her head, her face deathly pale.
How could the script for the second episode be like this?
Ling Yu had swindled an important metric of a contract their company was negotiating from Xie Chu, using it as a bargaining chip to join a private equity fund as a partner.
Xie Chu’s father flew into a rage, extremely disappointed in Xie Chu. Xie Chu returned to the same bar where he had first met Ling Yu to drown his sorrows.
Only this time, the person appearing under the dim lights of the bar wasn’t Ling Yu, but Fang Ziyu, who had originally intended to find Xie Chu to break up.
She looked at Xie Chu, who was drunk and slumped like a pile of mud, as her inner monologue played.
“I suddenly realized that at that cocktail party, the person I truly should have learned from was the one who turned a matchmaker’s meeting into an investment opportunity.”
Then, she walked toward Xie Chu.
That was Fang Ziyu’s only appearance in this episode.
Wasn’t she the Female Protagonist?
But why was the second episode filled entirely with that mistress’s scenes?!
Yang Qiu gripped the script so hard her knuckles turned white and trembled. She lifted her head, and what entered her field of vision was Qin You, who was casually greeting someone before leisurely sitting down, crossing her legs, and opening her script.
Her expression as she flipped through the pages was extremely calm, as if the direction of the story hadn’t surprised her in the least.
Director Wang walked over to her, stopped for a moment, and said something.
Qin You then looked up and gave Director Wang a smile before watching him walk away.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning seemed to strike Yang Qiu’s mind.
Qin You wasn’t surprised at all.
Right, of course she wouldn’t be surprised.
Yang Qiu stood up in a rage and marched toward Qin You’s position, her high heels making a firm, clicking sound.
How could Qin You be surprised?
What if she was the one who demanded the script be changed?
No wonder the script for the second episode took so long to be released. No wonder Qin You had been acting so fearless all this time. No wonder Director Wang had been so meticulous with her during filming, even watching over her while she was in the makeup room.
Disgusting.
She felt a wave of nausea.
But everything also started to seem perfectly logical.
Heh, isn’t this exactly what Qin You would do? What was there to be surprised about? Once a person starts, they don’t stop. If she would try to interfere with Chen Ren and Gu Tianbai to climb up, why would it be strange for her to seek unwritten rules now just to add scenes?
“Yang Qiu!”
A sharp shout came from her right. The owner of that voice was Zhao Anya.
Zhao Anya looked almost out of breath, having run all the way over.
She abruptly pulled Yang Qiu to the side.
Yang Qiu snapped, “What are you pulling me for?!”
Zhao Anya replied, “If I didn’t pull you, what were you planning to do?!”
Yang Qiu said, “Go and question Qin You on whether she’s the one behind this script, of course!”
Zhao Anya almost wanted to sigh at how well she knew Yang Qiu.
She hadn’t been by Yang Qiu’s side when she first got the script, but after glancing through a few pages, a sense of foreboding rose in her heart, and she hurried toward Yang Qiu’s location.
As a result, she saw Yang Qiu marching toward Qin You in a fury, so she had to grab her obviously irrational friend.
“She clearly made Director Wang change the script so she could rise to the top. She really plans to sleep her way to a career…”
“Shh—are you crazy?!”
Zhao Anya quickly reached out to cover Yang Qiu’s mouth. Although they were in a corner, there was no true privacy or silence on a film set. There were still scattered staff members around, and Yang Qiu had no intention of lowering her volume; anyone could have overheard her at any moment.
After seeing the first few pages of the script, Zhao Anya had immediately flipped to the end, and then she knew she had been wrong before.
Back during the auditions and the filming of the first episode, she, like most people, thought Fang Ziyu was the Female Protagonist of the drama. She thought the entire series would tell the story of her growth, whether in work, personal life, or romance.
That trope was actually quite clichéd—a naive female college student plunging into the most brutal workplace—but this script wrote that clichéd trope in a solid and exquisite way. it was dramatic yet realistic, balancing plot conflict and logic to the extreme.
Most importantly, it was an open audition, and their school was one of the audition sites.
It was the kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she had to seize it.
During the audition, she had aimed for the role of Fang Ziyu because, like most people who had read the script for the first episode, she judged Fang Ziyu to be the protagonist. Even if the character’s temperament didn’t quite match her own, no actor didn’t want to be the lead. So what if the lead didn’t fit her image? She would try for it first and then try for other roles if she didn’t get it.
After her audition ended, the middle-aged man sitting behind the small table remained silent for a while before asking her to try another scene.
And so, her role was decided. In contrast, the selection for the role of Fang Ziyu came even later.
She and Yang Qiu were close friends. Knowing that the role of Fang Ziyu had fallen to her, Zhao Anya was naturally happy.
Moreover, Yang Qiu had a simple and straightforward personality. If the protagonist was someone like her and most of the others were also newcomers, the production crew likely wouldn’t face much drama, and the filming process would probably be very smooth.
She hadn’t expected the role of Ling Yu to be played by Qin You.
When she saw this recently “infamous” star on the film set, her first reaction was joy. The crew was full of newcomers, even the director was a newcomer, and the script was original. Although the script quality was excellent, early promotion would inevitably suffer. But with Qin You joining, it would be different… even flame wars and controversy meant popularity. At least their drama wouldn’t be lost without a trace as soon as it launched. Furthermore, the role of Ling Yu wouldn’t carry the suspicion of trying to whitewash Qin You’s name; netizens who came to curse her would very likely stay to watch, and that’s when the script’s quality would take over and win people’s hearts.
Following that joy was worry, because she knew Yang Qiu too well.
The world in Yang Qiu’s eyes was quite black and white; Zhao Anya knew exactly how she would react to Qin You.
In truth, it was common in the entertainment industry to praise the high and step on the low. For someone like Qin You, who had already hit rock bottom, Yang Qiu openly showing disgust or even causing her a bit of trouble could be considered going with the flow.
But the entertainment industry also had its ups and downs. Who knew if someone who hit rock bottom might climb back up?
Furthermore, this drama held completely different weight for Qin You than it did for the two of them. She and Yang Qiu were unknown and desperately needed this drama to stand out. She didn’t know why Qin You would take the role of Ling Yu, but if Qin You became unhappy, she could leave at any time. If that happened, the drama would lose a major highlight. Therefore, Zhao Anya had been carefully watching Yang Qiu’s actions.
But seeing the script for the second episode today, she finally understood why Qin You had taken this role.
The character of Ling Yu had a low moral bottom line but possessed great boldness, giving her a unique charm. It was perfectly suited for her current predicament. It would be difficult for Qin You to clear her name, but it was feasible to use a controversial role to dilute her “offenses.”
When Zhao Anya flipped directly to the last page of the script, she even felt a bit of admiration for Qin You. To be able to find the optimal solution in such a short time, she also admired how Qin You had previously played the “naive, sweet, and innocent” persona so perfectly. She really would do anything to be famous. Perhaps she wouldn’t stay at rock bottom for very long.
“Anya, don’t stop me. I must get a clear answer today! I know you’re afraid of me offending people. Fine, I won’t go ask Qin You, okay? I’ll go ask Director Wang for a clear answer!”
Yang Qiu’s voice rang out clearly. Zhao Anya felt a surge of suffocation and quickly held her back.
Yang Qiu was just being influenced by preconceived notions, not stupid. Zhao Anya had only glanced through a few pages of the script and already knew that this seemingly 180-degree turn in the plot was actually completely logical. The last page and the first page of the first episode formed a nearly perfect echo.
This couldn’t be the result of a last-minute script change; it could only be that Director Wang had written it this way from the start.
In fact, having someone like Ling Yu as the protagonist was more in line with the impression Director Wang gave people.
She had come back to stop Yang Qiu because she knew Yang Qiu’s resentment stemmed from her mistakenly taking her role for the Female Protagonist, rather than the other way around—that her role had been demoted from lead to supporting.
But she hadn’t expected Yang Qiu’s naivety to once again exceed her imagination. She actually wanted to ask Director Wang if he had changed the scenes for Qin You—that would be even worse than her causing a scene with Qin You!
A person like Director Wang was the most troublesome.
She had done some investigation recently and finally found out about Director Wang’s past. It wasn’t surprising that he would use someone like Ling Yu as the true protagonist, because coldness and reality had already become internalized into his very bones.
But the fact that he would leave the financial world to write scripts and become a director… showed that his coldness and reality weren’t innate. Instead, they were more like the caustic and mean attitude formed after the shattering of idealism.
And such people were the most troublesome of all. They used the most vile and cold language to hide their former innocence and ideals, and used the most ruthless words to decorate their suits. They wanted others to think they were cold and ruthless, with no morality, but at the same time, they yearned for someone to see through their cynical nature. Therefore, it was also impossible for them to truly accept anyone thinking they were actually morally corrupt.
Though if someone truly tried to communicate with him in an idealistic way, they would surely be cursed as an idiot.
What a contradiction.
In contrast, Qin You was more pure—pure utility and ambition. Once she understood why Qin You took this script, the previously confusing and self-contradictory image of Qin You in her heart finally became clear.
She was now quite certain that Qin You wouldn’t care about Yang Qiu’s attitude.
Even if Yang Qiu told her to her face that she relied on flattering Director Wang and unwritten rules to rise, even if Yang Qiu spread such rumors all over the film set, she likely wouldn’t have a major reaction. But Director Wang would definitely fly into a rage because of it. She had no doubt that even though an entire episode had been filmed, Director Wang would replace Yang Qiu without hesitation. During these days on set, no one had failed to appreciate Director Wang’s tyrannical style.
Zhao Anya shifted her gaze and looked at Qin You in the distance. She sat where she was, slowly flipping through the script. Someone gave her a cup of milk tea with a smile, even though that person hadn’t spoken to Qin You for the past two weeks.
Zhao Anya withdrew her gaze.
There was no need to build a good relationship with her. Even if she was destined to become famous, she would never remember your face, let alone your name.
She took a deep breath and began to meticulously explain the script to Yang Qiu.