Qu Yanting couldn't remember the last time someone had been so brotherly with him. He stopped what he was doing and turned back again, confirming, "What did you say?"

To show his sincerity, and even more so to reclaim some of the face he'd lost at the airport, Lu Wen said proactively, "There's no need to be secretive about being in the same crew, right? My name is Lu Wen. I'm playing the male lead."

Just as Qu Yanting was about to speak, his phone suddenly rang. The caller ID showed "Teacher Zeng Zhen." He glanced at it and frowned slightly.

Qu Yanting immediately swiped his card and opened the door, walking into the room.

"Hey," Lu Wen said, "you haven't answered me yet."

Bang. The door to room 6206 closed.

The end of Lu Wen's sentence was cut off, dissipating in the hallway. He stood there, stunned. The atmosphere and feeling were just like being left in the exhaust of the Porsche during the day.

"Are you kidding me," he said, finding a way to save face. "I'll find out at the script reading tomorrow anyway."

Inside the room, Qu Yanting didn't turn on the lights. The flickering light from his phone screen was glaring. He fumbled his way to the living room in the dark and sat down on the sofa, letting the phone continue to ring.

He timed it, dragging it out until the second before it would automatically hang up, then slid the answer key.

The surroundings were dark and quiet, making Zeng Zhen's voice from the phone exceptionally clear. His tone was rich and mellow, his manner gentle and affectionate. "Xiao Ting, it's Teacher. Why did it take you so long to answer? Were you already resting?"

Qu Yanting's back was pressed against the sofa. He held the phone in his left hand, while the fingertips of his right hand drew circles on the sofa's armrest. He said, "I'm sorry, Teacher. The phone was in the bedroom, I didn't hear it."

Zeng Zhen chuckled. "It's fine. I asked you to come over for dinner at the beginning of the month, but you never did. What have you been busy with lately?"

Qu Yanting replied, "I've been busy with a web series."

Zeng Zhen seemed to sigh helplessly. "You're just looking for trouble. You could clearly be doing films, but you insist on doing a web series. Once you make up your mind and get stubborn, you won't listen to anyone."

"Teacher, I've made you worry," Qu Yanting said. "Thank you for being willing to guide me, but I want to try more things."

Zeng Zhen asked, "Do you think Teacher is being too controlling? Are you getting tired of it?"

There was a rustling sound. Qu Yanting's circling speeded up, his fingertips growing hot from rubbing against the fabric. He explained, "Teacher, please don't overthink it. I was very tired writing this script, and it's not exactly ideal. Since I'm investing my own money, I'll bear the responsibility. Let's just say I'm dabbling."

Zeng Zhen laughed again. "Teacher is just teasing you. Whether you're dabbling or experimenting, I'll just nag a bit at most."

"Thank you, Teacher," Qu Yanting said.

Zeng Zhen said, "I was playing ball with Group Leader Zhang today, and he mentioned you were filming a web series. He also said you asked him to review the script."

Qu Yanting said, "Yes, some parts need to be changed, but it's not a big problem."

"I heard about it from him," Zeng Zhen said. "I figured you'd be joining the crew, so I called you to come back for a bit before you left."

Qu Yanting said, "I'm sorry, Teacher, I'm already in Chongqing."

"Really?" Zeng Zhen said. "Why were you in such a hurry?"

Qu Yanting replied, "Dealing with it as soon as possible will have less of an impact on the filming. We're starting in the next two days, so I decided to come over in advance."

There was a ten-second silence on the phone before Zeng Zhen said, "Then take care of yourself. Don't get too tired."

Qu Yanting's fingers finally settled down. Tingling, they slowly straightened until his palm lay flat. He replied, "You and Master should also take care of your health."

After hanging up, Qu Yanting sat in the darkness. He only stood up after a long while, his steps light and nimble, like an emotionless, nocturnal cat.

He undid his buttons as he walked, then his belt and zipper. Stepping into the bathroom, he tossed the clothes that smelled of hotpot into the laundry basket. He only turned on the lights after he had showered and come out.

Wearing a set of silk pajamas, Qu Yanting slid into bed. He hadn't had any black coffee, yet he wasn't sleepy. He placed his laptop on his lap, opened it, and typed out the six words: "Script Revision Outline."

The sound of typing on the keyboard and the ticking of the clock were indistinguishable, neither one stopping.

There were five rooms in the suite. The bedroom curtains weren't drawn, and beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass window was the vast high sky and the surging Jialing River.

The night sky was like an ink wash painting in reverse, fading from pure black to a light gray. Dawn was breaking.

Qu Yanting's limbs, stiff from staying up all night, were sore and numb. He didn't even have the strength to stretch. He closed the laptop, placed it next to his pillow, and slid under the covers to sleep.

He was very evenly proportioned. He occupied half of the bed neatly, lying on his side with his chin also tucked into the covers.

In the hallway, Sun Xiaojian was frantically ringing the doorbell with a vigor that surpassed even a police raid. The door was yanked open, and Lu Wen, wrapped in a bathrobe, said, groggy and fierce, "It's only five-thirty. Are you going to People's Park to practice tai chi?"

Lu Wen was grumpy when he woke up. When it was mild, he'd complain; when it was severe, he'd throw a tantrum. The symptoms were already quite obvious in elementary school. The family nanny never dared to call him, so missing the first class was a common occurrence, which led to a poor academic foundation.

Sun Xiaojian entered the room with a straight face, wasted no words, rolled up his sleeves, and dragged the three suitcases into the walk-in closet.

After hanging up three bathrobes in a row, he couldn't help but poke his head out. "Superstar, including the one you're wearing, you brought four bathrobes?"

Lu Wen was lying on the bed, chanting, "The gray morning robe is for when I wake up, the black night robe is for the evening, the white bathrobe is for after showering, and the one I'm wearing is the sleeping robe."

"Truly a superstar," Sun Xiaojian said. "Something that can be solved with a single pair of shorts, you have to make it so complicated."

After finishing packing, Sun Xiaojian went into the bathroom to run the hot water and squeeze out toothpaste. The script was scattered on the bench at the foot of the bed. He walked over, tidied it up, and fanned it at Lu Wen's feet.

Lu Wen's script was full of signs of being flipped through. If you opened it, you would find—cartoon characters drawn in the blank spaces, the note "handsomest in the whole drama" added after the male lead's name, and on one page, all the periods were even colored in black.

Sun Xiaojian was worried. "It's the script reading today. It won't look good if the director sees this."

Lu Wen sat up, his robe slightly open, revealing the faint contours of his abs. He said, "I'll sit in the back then."

"I came to wake you up at five-thirty just for you to sit in the back?" Sun Xiaojian was like a mother trying to get her son into Tsinghua. "You're the rightful male lead. You need to show more of yourself, so that Director Ren will remember you for his next film, understand?"

Lu Wen let out a cold laugh. He hadn't seen his dad in two months, not even a single phone call. Even his own father couldn't remember him, so how could he expect a director to remember him?

He did, however, remember one thing. No longer sleepy, he said, "I ran into the guest from across the hall last night. Guess who it was?"

Sun Xiaojian guessed, "A great beauty."

Lu Wen rolled his eyes. "It was the person Director Liu picked up at the airport yesterday."

Sun Xiaojian was shocked. "What a coincidence!"

Lu Wen got up to wash. Sun Xiaojian followed him, asking, "What does he look like? Does he know who you are? What's his name, is he a star? Who does he play in the drama?"

It was like a major math problem, but Lu Wen only knew the answer to the first sub-question. He replied, "His looks... definitely not an ordinary person."

"That's it?" Sun Xiaojian asked. "You guys didn't say hello?"

Just mentioning this made Lu Wen angry. "I took the initiative to talk to him, but he pretended not to hear."

Sun Xiaojian asked again, "You didn't tell him you're the male lead?"

"Of course I did," Lu Wen said. "And then he went straight back to his room."

Sun Xiaojian had exceptionally strong empathy. He said indignantly, "Ignore him. He's probably some connected person with a bit of a background. People who bring their own funding into the production tend to get cocky. You're the male lead, who's afraid of who?"

Lu Wen, with a toothbrush in his mouth, said worriedly, "He's not going to add scenes for himself, is he?"

"Don't worry," Sun Xiaojian said. "The head screenwriter is the biggest investor. He won't allow him to add scenes."

Lu Wen breathed a sigh of relief. "The head screenwriter is so nice."

The script reading was held in a room the production had booked at the hotel. Lu Wen left early. When he arrived, the other actors hadn't shown up yet. Only the production crew was in the conference room, setting up name cards and bottles of mineral water.

The reading wasn't a one-time thing; it might happen multiple times during filming. Sometimes they would read the entire script from beginning to end, and other times they would read a single major scene. It was all up to the director's arrangement.

Lu Wen's seat was very close to the director's. In school, he always sat at the back and could slouch whenever he wanted, but now he could only sit there properly.

The actors arrived one after another, exchanging simple greetings. There would be plenty of opportunities to chat at the commencement banquet anyway. Several directors and the cinematography team also arrived. The conference room filled up, with Ren Shu presiding at the front.

Lu Wen's gaze swept over everyone, three times in total, confirming that the fellow from 6206 was not present. Barring force majeure, the crew required attendance. It was impossible that the other person was sleeping in the hotel.

Unless the other person's role was too minor to require participation.

'So he brought funding just to play a bit part?' Lu Wen thought.

Ren Shu spoke up, "Let's hurry up and get started."

Lu Wen retracted his gaze and lowered his head to open the script—the title was "The First Night."

In the drama, he played a dual role, portraying a pair of twin brothers with vastly different personalities. The older brother was Ye Shan, calm and introverted. The younger brother was Ye Xiaowu, reckless and mischievous. The two brothers, one active and one quiet, were contradictory yet complementary.

After their father's death, their mother brought Ye Shan and Ye Xiaowu to live in Chongqing. Although life wasn't easy, the mother and her two sons relied on each other for support. The story began in their last year of high school and extended into university.

Lu Wen was a slacker student, restless and impatient, yet he read the script in one sitting.

He felt that he and Ye Xiaowu were very similar, including their personalities, behaviors, and even dreams.

Lu Wen remembered the day of his audition. There were two scenes: one was Ye Xiaowu getting caught skipping school and giving a long speech of fallacious reasoning, testing his line delivery; the other was Ye Shan looking at his father's photograph without a single line, testing pure acting.

The first scene was basically him playing himself. For the second scene, he held a blank piece of paper, pretending to look at a photo, and thought of his own deceased mother. He muddled his way through Ye Shan's part.

The script reading went on for the entire day. Everyone gradually grew tired. Lu Wen, reading two sets of lines, lost his voice before noon.

During a break, Lu Wen closed the script and rested his head on it, his eyes lowered, his gaze falling on the script's cover. Below the title "The First Night" was the head screenwriter's name—Qu Yanting. At first glance, one only noticed that the name had many strokes.

Swallows landing all over a courtyard, the name painted a picture when read.

Lu Wen couldn't resist. He drew a small swallow after the name "Qu Yanting."

In the bedroom of suite 6206, a phone had been ringing continuously. Qu Yanting, woken by the noise, slowly turned over. He opened his eyes and first saw a sliver of dim light outside the window.

The ringing was incessant. He frowned in resistance again and fumbled for the phone by his pillow.

The caller ID showed only a single character: Ruan.

Upon seeing it clearly, Qu Yanting's expression relaxed. He propped himself up against the headboard and answered the call, and when he heard the voice from the phone, the corners of his lips curved into a gentle smile.

He waited for the person on the phone to finish chattering.

He responded, "I miss you too. See you tomorrow."