By the time Xu Xinyuan got back to the dorm, it was already past two in the morning.
Her manager, too worried to leave, had been waiting in her bedroom the whole time.
She watched as Xu Xinyuan pushed the door open and walked in like a walking corpse—hair a mess, looking dazed and out of it.
Her manager’s face was full of concern as she asked, “Sis, what’s wrong? Was the wind too strong outside? Did you catch a chill?”
“Huh?” Xu Xinyuan blinked, snapping back to her senses. She turned to look at her manager. “Something like that, but I’m fine. I’m just a bit sleepy.”
“Really?”
Her manager could hardly believe it.
Because Xu Xinyuan’s current state was clearly off—she looked utterly exhausted, which made her very worried.
“Really. You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll take a shower and go to sleep. You should get some rest too.”
Xu Xinyuan brushed it off, and without waiting for her manager to respond, walked straight into the bathroom.
The sound of rushing water soon drifted out, steam rising.
Watching that blurry figure busying herself in the bathroom, her manager opened her mouth several times to speak, but ultimately held back.
In the end, she left the room and closed the door behind her.
At the same time.
Xu Xinyuan stepped into the bathtub.
Warm water trickled out gently, the water level rising, slowly wrapping around her body bit by bit.
Leaning against the tub, Xu Xinyuan let out a long breath.
Her mind couldn’t help but replay the events of tonight.
It had barely been twenty minutes, yet it felt like fifty years had passed—so surreal, so unreal.
Meanwhile, on Jiang Nian’s side.
He, on the other hand, wasn’t thinking that much about it.
Not just because he rarely lingered over women.
But more so because, to him, Xu Xinyuan was just a distraction he’d stumbled upon when he came down from the mountain—a bit of fun, nothing more.
Now that the fun was over, the matter naturally came to an end.
What, was he supposed to reluctantly track down Xu Xinyuan and tell her he didn’t want to part ways, that he wanted to play with her a little longer?
What a joke.
“Ah~~”
“Sleepy. Time to sleep, sleep!”
After a shower and a yawn, Jiang Nian climbed into bed, and before long, drifted off to dreamland.
Whether it was because he was too tired or had gone to bed too late—
This time, Jiang Nian actually slept in until eight in the morning, which was rare for him.
He slept like a log, snoring away.
But that threw off Zhang Linyu, who had been getting up early with him every day to exercise.
These past few days, Jiang Nian had been waking him up early every morning.
He’d trained him like one of Pavlov’s dogs.
Every day at six on the dot, he’d get up and stare at the door, waiting for Jiang Nian to come call him.
But now…
“It’s already eight. Why hasn’t Brother Jiang come to wake me up?”
“Did I set my phone’s time wrong?”
“Hiss, no, that’s not it either.”
“Something’s off here, isn’t it?!”
Zhang Linyu muttered to himself while staring at his phone, completely baffled.
Just as he was wondering whether he should go look for Jiang Nian—
“Ding dong—”
A crisp sound rang out, catching Zhang Linyu’s attention.
He looked over and saw that a production crew he’d contacted earlier had sent him a message.
They said they had a eunuch role suitable for Jiang Nian to make a guest appearance in, and wanted to know his thoughts. They also sent over the script.
To be honest, looking at this script that was only about a thousand words at most—
Zhang Linyu didn’t even have the desire to pass it on to Jiang Nian.
But Jiang Nian had specifically asked for a eunuch guest role days ago.
Even Yang Mi couldn’t talk him out of it.
Though Zhang Linyu didn’t want to, he had no choice but to take this script and go find Jiang Nian.
While he was at it, he could also check on what was going on with Jiang Nian today—why he hadn’t gotten up.
“Knock knock knock—”
“Knock knock knock—”
Hearing the dull knocking, Jiang Nian woke from his sleep. With a face full of resentment, he walked to the door and pulled it open.
Seeing that it was Zhang Linyu, his tone was a bit unfriendly: “What do you want, kid? Coming to bother me this early in the morning instead of sleeping—you’d better have a good explanation for me.”
Zhang Linyu’s mouth twitched. He quickly said, “Brother Jiang, there’s a gig! That extra role you were going on about—it’s here!”
Hearing that, the morning grumpiness on Jiang Nian’s face instantly vanished. He perked right up and immediately changed his tune: “Good brother, I knew I wasn’t wrong about you. Where’s the gig?”
“Right here!”
Zhang Linyu, as if presenting a treasure, quickly handed over his phone.
What appeared on the screen was the script sent by that unknown production crew for Jiang Nian.
It was only a scant few hundred words.
Of which, action descriptions took up more than half. There were only a few lines of dialogue.
Clearly, it was an insignificant minor role.
If this had been before—
Forget acting in it—he wouldn’t have even glanced at a small role like this.
But now, having realized that the other party might be able to help him quickly farm a large amount of Comprehension, Jiang Nian figured even a small role could have its merits. So he quietly waited.
However…
One minute.
Three minutes.
Holding the phone, Jiang Nian stood there like a statue for a full five minutes.
And nothing happened.
No system notification sounded. No interface popped up.
“?
Jiang Nian silently typed a question mark, feeling like something wasn’t right.
In the past, whenever he got a new role—
The system would have popped up right away, displaying that character’s information.
But today, after all this time, there was still no movement.
“Could it be that this role doesn’t meet the system’s criteria for inclusion?”
The thought flashed through Jiang Nian’s mind.
His mouth twitched. He figured it was entirely possible.
After all, although his system was a bit crude, overall it was still fairly comprehensive.
A blatant bug like this—it couldn’t possibly have missed it.
“Damn, I was too hasty.”
Jiang Nian cursed under his breath.
Fortunately, the role he’d accepted was just an extra—insignificant, and he could look at the script first.
Otherwise, if he’d signed a contract first and then found out this role couldn’t be unlocked, Jiang Nian would’ve absolutely lost it and blown a gasket on the spot.
“So, Brother Jiang, are you taking it?”
Watching Jiang Nian hand the phone back, Zhang Linyu—who had no idea about all these underlying complexities—simply asked.
Hearing that, Jiang Nian shook his head. “This script won’t work. It’s too simple. I’m not taking it.”
“Huh?”
At those words, Zhang Linyu was slightly stunned.
Then he looked at Jiang Nian with an expression that screamed “what the hell,” seriously wondering if Jiang Nian had been too bored lately and was just messing with him for fun.
No, seriously—do you even hear what you’re saying?
Extra. Extra.
The word itself already fully explains the situation with this role.
And yet you actively asked for an extra role, but after accepting it, you turn around and complain it’s too simple.
“I swear to God.”
If it weren’t for his fear of Jiang Nian’s sandbag-sized fists, Zhang Linyu would’ve gotten into a full-blown war of words with him today.
“So what do you want, then?” Zhang Linyu asked in a low voice.
Jiang Nian thought for a moment. “At the very least, it should be like that ‘Du Gao’ role I played before.”
As the first role he’d unlocked, and the one that had made his name known—
‘Du Gao’ occupied a crucial position in his career.
Because of that, Du Gao was Jiang Nian’s minimum standard.
Hearing this, Zhang Linyu’s mouth twitched.
He thought to himself, Du Gao is no damn extra—that guy’s already a minor villain.
But there was no help for it. One word from the boss, and the underling runs his legs off.
Jiang Nian had given his standard—what else could he do?
Keep at it, that’s what.
“I’ll keep looking.”
Zhang Linyu said sullenly. Then he glanced at his phone. “Oh right, Brother Jiang, I almost forgot to tell you—Producer Wu from the ‘Sword Rain’ crew came looking for you last night. He said you have scenes to shoot this afternoon. You were practicing martial arts at the time, so I didn’t get in touch with you. What do you think…?”
“No problem. Later, just help me give Director Huang from the ‘Sword Rain’ crew a heads-up.”
Jiang Nian said it was fine.
Hearing that, Zhang Linyu nodded, then picked up his phone and got in touch with Huang Junwen.
As for the matter, Huang Junwen said he had no objections.
And Jiang Nian—after giving it some thought—went straight to the “Sword Rain” production crew.
The reason was simple.
Whether it was the script’s design or Wang Qinian, who in the original trajectory had played the Wheel-Turning King—
The Wheel-Turning King was depicted as a weathered, ugly old eunuch.
Obviously, with Jiang Nian’s physical attributes, the Wheel-Turning King’s image didn’t match him at all.
Faced with this situation, there was only one option: bring out one of East Asia’s Four Great Dark Arts—makeup.
At the same time, the makeup couldn’t just be done randomly.
They had to keep Jiang Nian’s distinctive features intact while turning him into another person entirely.
Otherwise, if people couldn’t even recognize Jiang Nian—
Then the huge sum they’d paid to bring him in would’ve been a loss, not a gain.
High popularity, high buzz, and public appeal—these were the main reasons Jiang Nian, a complete newcomer, could command such a high fee!
On this point, not only did “Sword Rain” producer Wu Yusen understand it, Jiang Nian understood it just as well.
This was also why Jiang Nian had arrived at the crew so early.
Because making him look ugly was already hard enough, let alone doing it while preserving his personal characteristics.
This absolutely required a long time to refine.
If he’d only arrived in the afternoon, by the time the makeup was done, it would probably be dark, and everything would be too late—he wouldn’t be able to shoot more than a couple of scenes.
That way, the scenes he didn’t finish would have to be shot the next day, and they’d have to spend another hour or two on makeup.
From a long-term perspective, that wasn’t worth it.
So Jiang Nian was prepared to make a small sacrifice of today’s time—get the makeup done as early as possible, start filming as early as possible.
The more they shot today, the more free time Jiang Nian would have afterward.
The more free time he had, the higher his proficiency would climb.
Why not?
