Li Shan was one of the few veteran actors in the *Sleepless City* production crew. He perfectly met Wang Wucheng’s criteria for selecting seasoned actors: excellent acting skills, little fame, unremarkable facial features, and high malleability.
After reading the trial script, Li Shan had felt a desperate urge to be a part of this production. A good script always possessed a primal attraction for a good actor. However, most of the characters in the trial script were young; only two roles suited his age.
Both roles were characters seen only in a fleeting glimpse. One was an Executive Partner of a private equity fund whom the female lead encounters during her climb through the investment banking world. The other was the Male Lead’s Father. Both appeared for only a single brief scene in the first episode.
However, during his audition, the director had assured him that both characters would have significant screen time later on.
Between the two roles, he secretly preferred the former.
Since this drama was a solo growth story for the female lead, the character of the boyfriend’s father usually followed a predictable pattern. Conventionally, such a character would be “made stupid” by the plot, forced to take idiotic actions to suppress the female lead. Indeed, Li Shan was no old fogey; he kept up with the new slang used by young people. “Lowering the IQ”—that term was truly fitting.
So, while he auditioned for both, he had been blunt with the director about his preference.
When the audition results came out, he successfully landed the role of the Executive Partner. Despite being nearly forty, Li Shan had let out a shriek of excitement that startled his son.
The director mentioned that they were using a shoot-and-air model, so the filming followed the script’s timeline. Consequently, he barely had to visit the film set for the first episode.
Since production began, he had only worked two days: the first day and the day his scene was filmed.
After waiting for over half a month, the script for the second episode finally arrived.
Li Shan couldn’t wait to dive in. He rubbed his hands together, wondering exactly what kind of “significant screen time” the director had promised.
However, he soon completely forgot to check how many scenes his character had because he became utterly immersed in the script itself.
The beginning of the second episode was unexpected and striking. It overturned all the audience’s previous expectations, yet every twist had been foreshadowed in the earlier text. It was a perfect example of being “unexpected, yet within reason.”
Before he had even turned two pages, Li Shan forgot which character he was supposed to play. He simply followed Ling Yu’s perspective as she clashed with the “original male lead,” then with the original male lead’s father, then with her future boss, and finally with the new company’s CEO.
The plot was tightly knit, and the dialogue was so dense it left no room for a breather.
When the story reached its climax, Li Shan couldn’t help but slap his thigh and shout in admiration.
After finishing the entire script, he let out a long breath, followed by a wave of melancholy.
Coming back to his senses, a sudden pang of regret crawled into his heart.
“Wait! I should have chosen the other role!” he thought. The role he had assumed was just the “male lead’s father”!
He had initially thought Fang Ziyu was the female lead. He assumed that even if the male lead’s father was set as a company chairman, he would eventually have to do something that contradicted a chairman’s intelligence. Out of that concern, he had chosen the other role.
That other role had indeed been a fleeting glimpse in the first episode, and in the second, just as the director said, his screen time had grown significantly. He was, in fact, the boss of Ling Yu—the woman who now appeared to be the true protagonist.
The private equity fund Ling Yu intended to join was the very one where he served as the Executive Partner.
Thus, he did have plenty of scenes. He was the protagonist’s boss, after all.
However, the role of the male family patriarch—the one he had hesitated over and ultimately abandoned because he thought the character was destined to be “made stupid”—had suffered no loss of IQ for the sake of the plot. Upon his appearance, he turned the tide and placed justice above family, fully displaying the image of a chairman with strategy, vision, and boldness.
“Ah,” Li Shan sighed. Though he was mild-mannered in his daily life, as an actor, he loved playing such domineering characters!
And looking at the plot’s trajectory, he would likely have a direct confrontation with Ling Yu later on.
Now *that* was a good scene. He was already starting to look forward to it.
It was a pity… a single slip of the mind, and he had missed out on the role that suited his tastes better.
He had always liked such forceful characters. This was why, as soon as he got the script, he couldn’t help but forget he was an actor and simply followed Ling Yu’s perspective.
The character of Ling Yu suited his tastes perfectly. Who cared about a good reputation? To live is to reach the summit while being vilified by thousands—how exhilarating!
At this thought, his right hand, which was stroking the script, paused.
When reading the previous episode’s script, he, like other commoners, had assumed Ling Yu was just a “vase” character who would streak across the story like a meteor. Naturally, he hadn’t paid much attention to who was playing her.
Recalling it now…
Li Shan carefully thought back to the two times he had been on the film set. Finally, he dug the actor playing Ling Yu out of his memory.
It was an extremely beautiful young girl.
Her name was Qin You, or Qin something. That girl seemed to be mired in scandal recently. Although he didn’t go online much, he had heard people mentioning it, so he had a general impression.
Li Shan turned the script to the page featuring his scene with Ling Yu.
In this scene, Ling Yu comes for an interview. Her resume is stunning: graduated from Columbia University, previously worked at Sequoia Capital—her CV is laden with prestige. Although this industry never lacks beautiful resumes, one this impressive was rare. Coupled with her physical advantages, there was no reason not to recruit such talent.
But just as he shows a satisfied smile and prepares to discuss terms, Ling Yu smiles and makes an audacious demand. She isn’t there to apply for a VP position; she wants to be a Partner.
In the venture capital industry, “Partner” does not mean the same thing as it does in a typical corporate structure. The people called “partners” in this industry don’t actually own the company; they are more like senior executives. In VC firms that use a partnership hierarchy, the levels are generally Partner, Senior Partner, and Executive Partner.
The Executive Partner is equivalent to a CEO, with functions and power levels descending from there.
So, Ling Yu’s “audacious demand” wasn’t actually as extreme as it sounded.
However, the finance industry is a place of rigid hierarchy. One must eat one’s meal bite by bite and climb the ladder rung by rung. With her years of experience and resume, reaching VP was just right, but jumping from VP to Partner was a massive hurdle.
Ling Yu’s words were so flamboyant they bordered on arrogant.
The Executive Partner Li Shan was to play shows a faint flicker of dissatisfaction, while Ling Yu simply smiles, remaining unmoved.
A corresponding image already began to form in Li Shan’s mind.
The script described Ling Yu as “leaning back against the chair, hands placed on the armrests.” This movement should be relaxed, carrying a hint of laziness, which placed an even higher demand on the actor’s aura.
In this scene, these two characters had to possess evenly matched auras for the shot to look good.
Concern began to grow in Li Shan’s heart.
He wasn’t worried about the girl’s scandal; after twenty years in the entertainment industry, he had seen it all.
What he worried about was the girl’s acting skills. She looked too young… at that age, could she really portray the dominance required by the script?
He feared that when they actually filmed this scene, he would be asked to tone down his acting to accommodate the young actress.
He didn’t want that to happen. After finally finding a script he loved, to be unable to let loose and push his acting to the limit would be incredibly stifling.
And with a script this good, it would be a tragedy if the actors couldn’t carry it…
Driven by his worry, Li Shan began to search for what this girl had acted in before.