I entered Huayu Entertainment in 2016.

A group of people, including those behind the scenes, gathered around the equipment, watching the video that had just been filmed.

Old Li opened the footage he had just shot several times, and the images scrolled by one frame at a time.

Zhou Ye stood next to Wang Zi'an, his hands on his knees, bent over and staring at the screen. Occasionally, when he saw himself on camera, he would cover his face with his hand in embarrassment.

Wang Zian stood beside her with his arms crossed, watching quietly, occasionally chuckling softly when he saw something amusing.

Old Li pulled out several key segments and zoomed in to examine them closely.

The first thing you see in the frame is a close-up of the potato chips, the moment of the counterattack, and the final powerful punch that was stopped in time.

Every expression was perfect, the rhythm was spot-on, and the chemistry between the two was much better than Lao Li had expected.

"Although these two segments were filmed separately, the emotions are connected. When they are edited together, the audience will not be able to tell that there is a gap in between."

Old Li straightened up, his face showing the satisfaction a director has when he sees good footage on the monitor.

"Just add a few more close-ups and straight shots. Mr. Wang, Mr. Zhou, let's do two more takes, making sure each one is perfect."

"Let's do it a few more times!" Old Li said.

"No problem!"

····

Wang Zian underestimated the difficulty of filming.

We shot it from the front, then from the side, and now we have to shoot it again from the close-up.

It also had problems from time to time, either the sound recording was faulty or the lighting was too dim.

It took a whole afternoon to film just this short scene.

The filming showed that Zhang Ruonan had already finished her business and returned, but they were still not done.

"Old Li~!" Wang Zian couldn't take it anymore. "We're shooting a short video, not a TV series. We don't have such high requirements. Just make it simple and easy to understand!"

Finally, before dinner, we finished filming this roughly twenty-second scene.

Everyone was exhausted after a long day. Wang Zian wasn't the kind of person who would cut corners on the budget. He straightened up, clapped his hands, and said, "Let's go eat. It's on me."

We found a casual restaurant next to the photography base, and a group of us quickly filled two tables.

Wang Zi'an ordered the dishes: boiled fish, sweet and sour pork, Kung Pao chicken, stir-fried green beans, braised pork, assorted platter, a large bowl of hot and sour soup, and several plates of dumplings.

Everyone enjoyed a lively meal.

Zhang Ruonan and Zhou Ye gradually became acquainted with the two makeup artists.

With the video going viral today, the four of them huddled together, watching the video and whispering to each other.

"Look at this comment, 'Is this girl's beauty even real?' Hahahaha~~!"

Zhou Ye laughed halfway through his reading, picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth, his cheeks puffed out.

Zhang Ruonan picked up her phone and scrolled down, reading an even more outrageous message: "Sister, do you need a girlfriend? I'll join the queue."

The four of them chattered excitedly about which comment was the most outrageous and which profile picture was the funniest, bursting into laughter every now and then.

Meanwhile, Wang Zian and Lao Li chatted about what they would be filming the next day. Wang Zian was responsible for proposing ideas, while Lao Li offered some advice based on his experience.

"The transformation video also requires special effects and complicated makeup. There's not enough time to shoot tomorrow, so let's shoot some simpler scenes instead."

"Have you contacted any special effects companies? I know a few good ones; I'll send you their contact information later."

"But even if we find the right people, we don't have enough staff for post-production; we'll need to hire more."

"I suggest we shoot some simpler scenes tomorrow, and have Xiao Yang and the others go to the costume room in advance to pick out the costumes they need for the costume change. Let's shoot the initial footage first."

"And Mr. Wang, to be honest, your script is very good. The story is short and fast-paced, and it has some funny moments."

But we don't have enough people. We only have Zhou Ye as a female actor right now, and Zhang Ruonan isn't filming, so the scenes with multiple characters in your script simply can't be carried.

"The male actors are in an even worse situation; you're the only one right now. We need at least two or three more people who can appear on screen."

Prince An also thought of this problem.

He could try to find three actresses; his mind was already scrolling through his contacts.

But the male actor leaned back in his chair, frowning as he thought for a long time.

All his male friends were either preparing to fill out college applications in Los Angeles or coding at ByteDance; none of them could act.

He couldn't exactly drag Lao Li and the others away from the spotlight to become actors.

Just as he was silent, a cell phone was suddenly thrust in front of his face, almost touching his nose.

"Wang Zian, look, my video already has over 900,000 likes."

Zhou Ye held up his phone, peeking out from behind it, his almond-shaped eyes narrowed into slits with a smile, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement.

"And look at my private messages, so many businesses are contacting me! There are clothing stores, cosmetics stores, and even snack stores!"

"Look at this, I've never even heard of this brand, but they said they want me to shoot a GG ad for them!"

"?"

Wang Zian's attention was instantly drawn to it.

He took the phone, glanced at the list of private messages, then scrolled down and clicked on a profile picture to examine it closely.

The account's profile picture was a product image with obviously low resolution, and the homepage was empty except for a few accounts that were clearly newly registered.

I initially thought it would be some knowledgeable verified manufacturer that had joined Douyin early, but it turns out to be a completely unregistered account.

He pursed his lips slightly and handed the phone back to Zhou Ye.

"It's fake, a scam."

"Really?"

"If you don't believe me, show it to Zhang Ruonan!"

Zhou Ye, skeptical, handed the phone to Zhang Ruonan, his voice tinged with grievance and resentment: "Sister Nan, look, is it really fake?"

Zhang Ruonan took the phone and quickly swiped her finger across the screen a few times.

She grew up helping her mother manage a Taobao store, so she's seen all sorts of customer service scripts and encountered all kinds of fake order accounts. These private message scams are as clear to her as a big-character poster.

She scrolled through a few messages, then looked up at Zhou Ye, sighed, and said truthfully, "They're all unregistered accounts, scammers. You can tell from the captions; legitimate brands wouldn't send private messages in this tone."

Zhou Ye slumped her shoulders slightly and placed her phone on the table.

"What?! I thought some guy had some sharp eye and I'd finally found my first boyfriend."

Her lips were downturned, and her voice carried a genuine, undisguised disappointment.

Seeing her like this, Zhang Ruonan reached out and put her arm around her shoulder, gently pulling her closer. Her tone changed from the shrewd and calm one before to a comforting older sister's voice:

"Don't rush, Coconut!"

"As someone who's been in this industry for a long time, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you'll definitely get a good guy!"

"You just posted your first video, and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet."

Wang Zian and Lao Li nodded in agreement.

"The data speaks for itself. Your face is so stylish," Old Li chimed in from the side. "I've been in this industry for almost twenty years, and someone with a naturally high-fashion face like yours is a rare find anywhere."

Just as the atmosphere had warmed up again, Zhang Ruonan took her hand off Zhou Ye's shoulder, picked up her lemonade glass, and suddenly changed the subject:

"Speaking of which, my family runs a clothing business on Taobao."

Coconut, your first boyfriend, do you want to take a picture of my house?

I'll send you product photos; you can choose any style you like. We have all kinds of clothes, and they're all very nice.

"!!!"

Wang Zian's chopsticks hovered in mid-air as he stared wide-eyed at Zhang Ruonan.

She held a glass of lemonade, the rim of which obscured the lower half of her face, but the light in her round almond-shaped eyes was clearly the rapid movement of an abacus bead.

He thought Sister Nan had a change of heart and wanted to sincerely encourage Zhou Ye, but it turned out that she had just laid the groundwork for so long, and in the end, she still focused on her own Taobao store.

His greedy nature was clearly exposed.