Chapter 105
Director Tang did not linger outside the makeup room. Instead, he turned around and went back to the set.
Inside the room, Lin Mubai had no idea any of this had happened. He had trashed the makeup room completely, and it took him a long time to barely force his emotions back under control.
Fortunately, it was his private makeup room. No one else normally came in or out, so if he called in a cleaner later, the place could be tidied up and no one would know what had happened here.
By the time he returned to the filming site, Lin Mubai had already adjusted his expression.
Director Tang glanced at him and said nothing. Only after filming a few more scenes did he call Lin Mubai over and tell him to get ready.
Lin Mubai had already checked his buff panel, and that glaring sheet of red had left him with no confidence at all.
System, is there any way around this? he asked anxiously. Even a temporary emergency fix would do. I just need to get through this scene first!
There is, the Popularity System said slowly. There’s a temporary acting enhancement buff, but it only lasts three hours. It comes in beginner, intermediate, advanced, and award-winning levels, and each one has to be exchanged with favorability points.
Lin Mubai’s vision darkened. Favorability points again! Always favorability points!!!
Just hearing those three words gave him a headache now. But the situation was urgent, and he had no other choice. He could only siphon off some favorability points from his other long-term active buffs and temporarily exchange them for an intermediate acting buff.
The Popularity System reminded him, The intermediate buff is noticeably weaker than the one you had before. It would be better to exchange for the advanced buff.
But Lin Mubai did not take its advice.
The advanced and award-winning buffs required too many favorability points, and any points spent on temporary buffs could not be recovered. Lin Mubai did not want to waste that much on something short-term.
As long as it kept him from being unable to get into character like before, that was enough. If he could just bluff his way through today’s scene, then after taking two days off on the excuse that he was not feeling well, he could find a way to get more favorability points from his other targets and restore his buffs to their previous state.
Unfortunately, things did not go the way he wanted.
Another sharp, angry “Cut!” rang out. Director Tang stopped filming again. This time he did not erupt on the spot, but called Lin Mubai over to talk at the side.
“What exactly is going on with you?” Director Tang’s tone was severe. “Do not try to brush me off with an excuse like ‘I didn’t rest well.’ You used to pull three all-nighters in a row to keep up with the schedule and still get through difficult scenes in one take. You have never been like this before!”
Lin Mubai’s expression looked bad. After a long pause, he finally said, “I’m sorry, Director Tang. I… haven’t been in a very good state lately.”
He did not say why, but Director Tang paid attention to trending topics too, so he knew some of the context.
When he first saw the online news, Director Tang had instinctively sided with Lin Mubai and felt he was an innocent person who had just gotten dragged into a mess and been misunderstood.
But after what he had just seen outside the makeup room… he was no longer sure.
Director Tang did not continue criticizing him.
“I’ll give you five days. At most, one week. Get some proper rest,” he said. “I can move other people’s scenes forward and shoot those first, but you must get yourself back into shape.”
Joy rose in Lin Mubai’s heart. “I understand. Thank you, Director Tang.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” Director Tang shook his head. “When you come back to the set, if you’re still in this condition—”
He paused, staring straight into Lin Mubai’s eyes. “Then I’ll consider other options.”
The sentence was phrased vaguely, but Lin Mubai immediately understood the hidden meaning.
Those so-called other options meant replacing him.
Lin Mubai almost lost control of his expression. He took a deep breath and forced himself to smile. “Don’t worry, Director Tang. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Director Tang held his gaze for a long moment before looking away again. “You’d better.”
Although it lasted only a second, Director Tang, who had been watching Lin Mubai closely, had still caught that fleeting flash of distortion and viciousness on the handsome face before him.
Maybe, after all this time, he really had misjudged him.
Lin Mubai returned to the makeup room once more. The cleaners had already tidied up the mess completely.
The Popularity System reminded him, Host, Director Tang’s favorability is dropping rapidly. It has already fallen below thirty.
Lin Mubai was shocked. How could it have dropped that fast?!
The Popularity System analyzed calmly, Director Tang values work very highly. In his eyes, your poor performance today happened because private matters affected your work. It’s normal for his favorability toward you to fall.
At this point, it had no other solution.
Host, while your buffs haven’t completely failed yet, you really should start improving your own abilities, it tried again. There’s still time now. Don’t wait until—
Shut up! Lin Mubai cut it off. I know what I should do.
As he spoke, he opened the panels of several of his main targets and started calculating how to use these few rest days to gain the greatest amount of favorability points in the shortest time.
The Popularity System let out a silent sigh. It already understood the choice Lin Mubai had made.
But as Lin Mubai flipped through the panels, his face grew uglier and uglier.
The favorability of those targets had all fallen to varying degrees, and none of the drops were minor.
Only Song Chuan was an exception.
Seeing that Song Chuan’s favorability was still full, Lin Mubai immediately steadied down.
As long as Song Chuan’s favorability toward him did not change, he still had a fallback.
Just as he was thinking that, his phone rang. The caller ID showed Song Chuan.
Lin Mubai answered. “Brother Chuan?”
“Are you okay?” Song Chuan’s gentle, worried voice came through the receiver. “I saw what’s been going on online.”
Lin Mubai fell silent for a moment, then asked, “Then what do you think, Brother Chuan…?”
“I believe you,” the other side answered at once, without the slightest hesitation.
The reassurance comforted Lin Mubai deeply. The agitation and unease that had been weighing on him for days seemed to ease at last.
The two of them talked for a long time, as though they had endless things to say. Then Lin Mubai suddenly brought up another topic. “Brother Chuan, is everything all right on your company’s side lately?”
The line went quiet at once. After a long while, Song Chuan finally answered vaguely, “More or less… it’s fine.”
Which meant it was not fine at all.
So Lin Mubai said, “If there’s anything I can help with, you have to tell me.”
This time Song Chuan was silent even longer. Then he said hesitantly, “Mubai, are you financially comfortable right now? The company’s cash flow has run into a bit of trouble. Could you possibly…”
Lin Mubai answered readily, “Of course. How much do you need, Brother Chuan?”
Song Chuan named a number, and Lin Mubai froze as soon as he heard it.
The amount far exceeded what he had expected. It was almost the maximum sum he could move around at the moment.
Hearing his silence, Song Chuan added, “If you can’t do it, then forget it. I’ll think of something else.”
But Lin Mubai thought of Song Chuan’s future identity as the head of the Song family, and of his full and rock-steady favorability bar. He grit his teeth and said, “No problem.”
You couldn’t catch the wolf without sacrificing the bait. It was all for a better future later.
*
After a short break, the fifth season of Life began as scheduled.
This episode belonged to Jiang Qianqian.
Jiang Qianqian was a professional internet celebrity signed under an influencer company called Jiamei Media.
The company was quite famous in the industry. Many major influencers and livestreamers were signed with them, and rumor had it that the benefits there were excellent.
Jiang Qianqian personally confirmed this.
“They really are very good. Besides the standard five insurances and housing fund, the company also buys us additional private insurance. They’re never stingy with overtime pay. We get one annual health checkup, two overseas trips a year, very generous year-end bonuses, and all kinds of daily subsidies too.”
The moment she said that, everyone present—including the viewers in the livestream—was overwhelmed with envy.
“A rare capitalist with a conscience.”
“Who’s jealous? Definitely not me. Absolutely not.”
Jiang Qianqian was clearly in a good mood. “This time we’re collaborating with the WM brand. For the next week, we’ll be testing out their new products, filming promotional videos, and on the final day, we’ll do a special livestream.”
Pei Ning looked a little surprised. “WM?”
“Exactly, that WM.” Jiang Qianqian smiled brightly. “Thanks to Director Fang for securing such a huge collaboration for us.”
WM was a globally famous luxury brand. This time, the collaboration they received involved a brand-new cosmetics line from WM.
“So Life really has exploded in popularity if it can even land a WM collaboration.”
“Director Fang is incredible.”
Following Jiang Qianqian’s lead, the group took the elevator to the eighteenth floor.
“This floor is where I normally work,” Jiang Qianqian introduced. “That’s my workstation, though I’m not there most of the time.”
Pointing at the map by the elevator, she continued, “There are dedicated rooms for filming videos and livestreaming. We’ll be going there too.”
Just then, another elevator opened nearby, and a handsome young man stepped out.
Seeing him, Jiang Qianqian immediately straightened and greeted him. “Good morning, Brother Jian.”
The man’s gaze flicked over the camera at her side. “Recording a show?”
“Yes. It’s the variety show I’m on. We’ll be filming here for a week,” Jiang Qianqian replied.
The man nodded without saying much more, then hurried away.
Jiang Qianqian quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Lin Zhiqiao leaned toward her and asked, “Who was that? You looked kind of scared of him.”
“Not exactly scared…” Jiang Qianqian shook her head. “He’s the person in charge of our group. His name is Jian Yu.”
She lowered her voice so the camera could not catch it. “Don’t be fooled by how calm and polite he looks. He’s actually really petty. He’s always picking on us and deliberately making things difficult.”
Lin Zhiqiao gave a quiet “oh.”
Actually, he had already noticed. Before Jian Yu left, he had glanced over in Lin Zhiqiao’s direction.
It had been brief, but Lin Zhiqiao caught the disgust in his eyes.
Jian Yu disliked him.
There was no need to check—his favorability had to be negative.
“I know this one!” 888 eagerly raised its hand. “Jian Yu must be one of Lin Mubai’s little fans!”
Lin Zhiqiao clapped like a seal, generous with his praise. “Amazing, my little system. You’ve really become a mature, highly experienced system now!”
