Chapter 139: Transmigrated as a Scumbag in a Boy Group Survival Show (21)
—You kid sure have sharp eyes.
A string of words instantly popped into Cen Yu’s mind.
Yet, devoid of even a sliver of embarrassment at having his lie seen through, he simply looked at Li Yanxiao with a matter-of-fact expression. “You saw that?”
Li Yanxiao reached out and poked Cen Yu’s cheek. “Yep.”
“So what if you saw it?” Cen Yu said with an unbothered air. “I did it on purpose.”
He didn’t explain his motive in the slightest; being seen by Li Yanxiao meant nothing to him—
Could a sharp mind like Li Yanxiao actually guess that he did it just to engineer an opportunity for Xie Jinshen?
No one would believe it even if he said it out loud.
Cen Yu’s reaction clearly exceeded Li Yanxiao’s expectations. After staring at him for a few moments, Li Yanxiao only released his grip on Cen Yu’s shoulder when He Ci threw him a threatening glare.
He didn’t ask Cen Yu why he had done it. At any rate, even if he asked, he would only get a half-hearted, perfunctory lie in response, so why bother with an extra, useless gesture?
On the other hand, right before returning to his seat, Zhan Kongqing stuffed an object into Cen Yu’s hand.
Stunned for a second, Cen Yu realized it was a self-heating heat pack.
“?” Cen Yu cast a glance at the heat pack, somewhat failing to grasp Zhan Kongqing’s intention.
Hesitating for a second, Zhan Kongqing remarked, “I noticed you kept running to the restroom.”
“…” Clutching the heat pack in his hand, Cen Yu didn’t know whether he should praise Zhan Kongqing for being kind-hearted and observant, or if he ought to explain that things weren’t as Zhan Kongqing imagined.
Unfortunately, Zhan Kongqing didn’t give him an opportunity to explain.
After handing over the heat pack, he returned straight to his seat, leaving Cen Yu no choice but to clutch the pack in his hand as he sat back down beside Gu Hanyin.
When he sat down, Gu Hanyin didn’t turn his head, remaining engaged in a conversation with Sister Yu about filming matters.
Seeing He Ci approach, Sister Yu offered a wave to greet him, mentioning that she would take her leave first.
Naturally, He Ci went off to see Sister Yu out.
Cen Yu looked at Gu Hanyin beside him until the man’s gaze finally shifted toward him.
“What are you looking at?” Gu Hanyin’s voice wasn’t particularly loud. The music echoing through the hall happened to cover his words—aside from Cen Yu sitting right beside him, it was unlikely anyone else would hear.
Calculating their departure time in his head, Cen Yu merely tilted his head toward Gu Hanyin in response to his question. “I was wondering if Director Gu has obsessive-compulsive disorder?”
He pointedly cast a glance down at his own button.
At this moment, Gu Hanyin’s expression relaxed slightly. Perhaps because he had successfully bid on his mentor’s painting, he was in a rather pleasant mood today, so faced with Cen Yu’s dull question, he uncharacteristically offered a response: “A little bit.”
He seemed as if he wanted to add something more, but unexpectedly, another person holding a wine glass strolled over.
Though Gu Hanyin felt impatient in his heart, his face maintained a serene, calm facade. However, his fingers instinctively tapped against the tabletop—a telltale motion of subtle irritation.
At this moment, Cen Yu remembered Mu Fengyin… Sweeping his gaze across the hall in a circle, he failed to spot the man who was supposed to be seated at the main table.
Strange, he thought to himself. Could he really have gone to call the police for an investigation?
That’s impossible. According to his understanding of Mu Fengyin’s character, the man shouldn’t want this matter to become news discussed in every alley and street. Besides, the mastermind behind the scene who could pull off such a stunt was exceedingly clear.
Perhaps because the gala was past its midpoint, attendees throughout the hall began making their exits one after another.
Cen Yu noticed that the occupants of the main table had essentially departed completely. After dealing with yet another person who approached with hidden motives for small talk, Gu Hanyin stood up, loosened his collar, and appeared ready to depart as well.
At this moment, yet another person approached.
Unlike the previous investors, managers, or actors, however, the person arriving this time was a true heavyweight figure.
The designated male lead for the film The Dog’s Journey.
Ji Hengyun, who had swept two Movie King awards during the previous awards season.
Ji Hengyun was 38 years old this year, carrying a gentle, reserved demeanor and handsome looks. In his daily life, he maintained a squeaky-clean reputation, devoid of a single scandal.
He was an old collaborator of Gu Hanyin’s as well; he had starred as the male lead in the director’s previous film that entered the main competition unit.
Spotting him, the expression on Gu Hanyin’s face visibly relaxed. “It’s you.”
“Who else?” Ji Hengyun offered a gentle smile, as warm as always.
Encountering such a major industry senior, the rest of the group members stood up almost instantly to pay their respects to Ji Hengyun.
Ji Hengyun smiled and waved his hand, gesturing for everyone to sit back down quickly. “It’s fine, go on with your conversation.” He clapped a hand on Gu Hanyin’s shoulder. “I just have a quick matter to discuss with Old Gu.”
Saying this, the two departed from the table together.
In addition to the main gala hall, the venue had arranged several private lounge rooms, and the place Ji Hengyun headed to was his own private lounge.
The moment they reached the lounge, he got straight to the point, asking Gu Hanyin directly, “Do you have a plan for the character of Qian Aige yet?”
Reaching out to pull back a chair and sit down, Gu Hanyin looked at Ji Hengyun. “Who asked you to pry?”
“Did you forget that I invested money too?” Ji Hengyun was quite familiar with Gu Hanyin, so he naturally spoke without reservation.
“If there’s no candidate…”
“There is one.”
Ji Hengyun looked at Gu Hanyin. “Don’t kid around with me.”
“There’s one,” Gu Hanyin looked at Ji Hengyun. “Do you still remember Qian Aige’s first appearance?”
Ji Hengyun didn’t understand why Gu Hanyin was suddenly testing his familiarity with the script out of nowhere. As a road crime film, neither of the two male leads in The Dog’s Journey carried particularly positive images, possessing a touch of black humor.
Qian Aige was a swindling, deceitful little hooligan.
His very first appearance was playing a badger game with someone inside a restroom.
Except this time, he ran straight into a tough nut—namely, Sun Biao, played by Ji Hengyun.
Qian Aige and his partner, Lin Meili, were pulling a badger game together. While hiding inside a restroom attempting blackmail, Sun Biao caught them red-handed and beat Qian Aige half to death—only for Lin Meili to smash Sun Biao over the head, leaving him lying unconscious on the floor.
As the situation escalated out of control, Lin Meili fled in a panic. Qian Aige discovered that Sun Biao was still alive, but had been turned into an idiot from the blow.
It just so happened that at this moment, someone posted a 500,000 bounty on Sun Biao’s head, but only accepted cash on delivery. Thus, money-hungry Qian Aige had no choice but to hit the road carrying the now-brained Sun Biao.
Recounting the plot once, Ji Hengyun looked at Gu Hanyin. “You said you wanted to find someone whose acting wasn’t greasy, without those calculated, deliberate traces of performance.”
“You aren’t genuinely planning to find a real little hooligan, are you?”
Paying no mind to Ji Hengyun’s words, Gu Hanyin simply pondered Qian Aige’s first appearance, before saying to Ji Hengyun, “I still need to observe a bit more first.”
“Observe what?”
“Observe whether he knows how to act.”
Ji Hengyun suspected Gu Hanyin had gone out of his mind. How could he decide this person was suitable to play Qian Aige without even confirming whether the guy could act or not?
“Did you run into your inspirational muse?” Ji Hengyun inquired.
“Very similar,” Gu Hanyin said. “It feels exceedingly similar.”
“…” Ji Hengyun felt somewhat unable to follow Gu Hanyin’s line of thought. Dragging a chair over, he sat down across from Gu Hanyin as well. “Then how do you plan to test him out?”
“Quite a few actors have been recommended to me,” Gu Hanyin replied. “Perfect timing to arrange an audition together.”
Cen Yu sat in his seat. Since they couldn’t leave just yet, he could only pull out his phone to stealthily play on it for a bit.
Opening the Weibo account the company had registered for him, Cen Yu suddenly discovered an explosive, skyrocketing surge in comments, likes, and follower counts alike.
Just as a faint flicker of confusion rose in his heart, he noticed an associated trending search term appearing in the search bar above—
#EXPLOSIVE: Mu Fengyin Followed TINONE-Cen Yu!
“…?” Cen Yu froze for a second.
At this moment, a teammate slacking off nearby let out a sharp “holy shit” upon seeing the hot search. He couldn’t resist clapping a hand onto Cen Yu’s shoulder—
“Mu Fengyin mutual-followed you?!”
“…Huh… ah?” Cen Yu hurriedly tapped open his Weibo, searched for Mu Fengyin, and sure enough, discovered his Weibo account status had transformed into “Mutual Following.”
God knew that his Weibo had followed Mu Fengyin only because the company had uniformly followed a batch of industry seniors outside of his teammates when setting up the account.
And inside his long-ignored Weibo private messages, a message from Mu Fengyin sat right there, sent merely two minutes ago—
[Mu Fengyin V: Since it’s inconvenient to give contact info, let’s keep in touch this way then ^^]
