Huayu: This top star doesn't play by the rules.

Before Chen Chao could reply to Li Yitong's message, Meng Ziyi's message followed immediately. She first sent a picture of a table full of snacks, then a voice message: "Chen Chao, are you hungry tonight? I bought a lot of food, should I bring some over?"

After listening to Meng Ziyi's message, Chen Chao did not refuse and replied directly, "Okay, thank you." Then he began to reply to Li Yitong's message.

About two or three minutes later, there was a gentle knock on the door. As soon as Chen Chao opened the door, he saw Meng Ziyi standing at his door, holding a large bag of snacks in her arms, her cheeks flushed for some reason.

Before Chen Chao could say anything, she quickly shoved the things into his arms and said in a rapid voice, "There are walnuts in here, they're good for your brain. Eat some when you're tired from reading the script. There's also a bottle of hot milk, drink it while it's hot! Good luck, you'll definitely have no problem with the audition!"

After saying what she wanted to say, she turned and ran away. However, after running a few steps, she seemed to remember something, turned back and waved to Chen Chao before turning into the corridor.

Looking down at the bag of snacks in his arms, Chen Chao noticed that besides the snacks, there was also a note with round, chubby hand that read, "Wishing future superstar Chen Chao a successful audition!" At the end of the sentence, there was also a cute smiley face emoji.

He chuckled and shook his head, then closed the door again. After placing the bag of snacks on the table, he sat back down at his computer, reading the e-book of "Princess Agents" while watching his ever-growing number of followers on Weibo and the time notification from Weibo Music...

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Early the next morning, Chen Chao's door was knocked on, waking him from his sleep as he had chosen to rest at the hotel since he had no scenes to film that day.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Chen Chao opened the door and found a crew member carrying a cardboard box. The crew member said that Chen Xingxu had asked him to bring the package to Chen Chao.

After thanking the staff member and watching him leave, Chen Chao had just returned to his room with the cardboard box when his WeChat buzzed. It was a message from his good friend Chen Xingxu: "Did you receive the book?"

"Just arrived, thanks bro," Chen Chao replied, then opened the package, took a picture of the three books, and sent it over.

"No problem, I don't have any scenes to film this afternoon. If you need someone to rehearse with, you can call me anytime." Chen Xingxu's reply came quickly.

After smiling and replying with an "okay," Chen Chao felt even more strongly that he had made the right friend, Chen Xingxu. Although Chen Xingxu was a bit socially awkward and didn't like to talk much, he was very reliable. The only downside was that he liked to promote his coffee too much.

As a Chaoshan native, Chen Chao prefers tea to coffee, as it is a habit he has developed since childhood.

Chen Chao took out the first book, tore off the plastic wrap, and began to read it. Although he had watched the TV series "Princess Agents" in his previous life, he had only watched snippets of the content and had not watched the entire series.

However, he still has a strong impression of Yan Xun, a character he often sees in clips. After all, he is the most well-developed and most popular character in the entire series. In the early stages, he is a bright and cheerful young man, but after the Nine Nether Platform incident, he completely turns to the dark side and becomes a sinister and ruthless tyrant. The contrast between the character before and after is huge.

However, after turning to the original text and reading it word by word, Chen Chao gained a deeper understanding of the character—Yan Xun was never just a simple playboy.

As the son of the King of Xiliang, he was a hostage in Chang'an from a young age. He seemed carefree, but in reality, he was walking on the edge of danger, dancing on the edge of imperial power. He had long since developed the ability to conceal his true abilities.

His radiance is real, his gentleness is real, but his underlying forbearance and ambition are also real.

The upheaval at Jiuyoutai didn't change him; rather, it brought out the ruthlessness hidden deep within him. His family was destroyed, his entire clan was executed, and the young man of yesteryear died in a pool of blood at Jiuyoutai. The only survivor was the Prince of Yanbei, who was consumed by revenge.

And so, Chen Chao sat quietly at his desk reading, losing track of time and completely absorbed in the story, until the sudden ringing of his cell phone pulled him out of his immersive state.

Glancing at his phone screen, Chen Chao saw that it was the phone number left by the Weibo Music operations staff yesterday. He cleared his throat and answered the phone: "Hello, this is Chen Chao."

"Hello Mr. Chen Chao, this is Zhang Wei, the Weibo Music strategy operations manager who contacted you yesterday!" The girl on the other end of the phone sounded very enthusiastic. "We really like the song 'Exchange of Lifetimes.' The lyrics and music are so well-written, and your singing is very moving. We at Weibo Music would like to promote this song and establish a long-term cooperation with you."

The music operator named Zhang Wei spoke very frankly, explaining the cooperation plan in detail: Weibo Music would give "Exchange of Life" a full-site banner recommendation, a fixed position on the music charts, a special zone for the first release of the new song, and support for trending topics across the entire Weibo platform.

Chen Chao only needs to use Weibo as the exclusive platform for song promotion and release, and do an exclusive interview. Subsequent new songs will also be released first on Weibo Music.

This offer is undoubtedly a windfall for a newcomer like Chen Chao. You know, even popular singers have to put in a lot of effort to get these recommendation slots on Weibo Music, but now they're being given to a newcomer like Chen Chao for free.

However, Chen Chao was also very clear about this. What they valued was not only the quality of the song "Exchange of Life," but also the explosive potential of the song to become a hit without much promotion or packaging.

In addition, there is another new factor: a couple of days ago, director Jiang Jiajun forwarded the link to the song "Exchange of the Rest of Our Lives" on Weibo, and added the caption "Our crew's treasure actor can sing so well too," which can be considered as giving him another boost.

Although director Jiang Jiajun works in the film and television industry, not the music industry, his status in the industry is undeniable. After he reposted it, many actors who had worked with him before also reposted it.

After considering this, Chen Chao didn't hesitate much and immediately agreed to the collaboration: "No problem, Zhang, it'll be a pleasure working together. You can decide the interview time; I'm available anytime except next Thursday. As for the location, I'm filming recently, so it can only be at the Xiangshan Film and Television Base."

"No problem, Mr. Chen Chao!" Zhang Lin exclaimed excitedly on the other end of the phone. "Then let's set it for the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. We'll just ask a few simple questions, it won't take up too much of your time or interfere with your filming! We'll arrange the follow-up publicity resources for you today!"