He plays Feng Yuxiu, and his girlfriend is a fairy-like beauty.

After that day, Liu Yifei didn't come to the apartment again for a week.

Liu's mother kept a closer eye on her than airport security, even knocking on the door and asking, "What are you doing in there?" if Liu was in the bathroom for more than five minutes.

The two could only video chat for a few minutes late at night.

Liu Yifei spoke in a low voice, covered by the blanket.

The screen was completely black, and nothing could be seen except for her breathy voice echoing around the pillow.

Ye Mo hung up the phone, turned over, and stared at the unlit light on the ceiling.

Then came the premiere.

The premiere of "Brotherhood of Blades" did not have a red carpet, autograph wall, or fan support activities.

That's just Lu Yang's style—he spends all his money on post-production, and saves as much on marketing and promotion as possible.

The location was a giant screen theater in a cinema in Yanjing.

The production crew booked the entire venue, more than a dozen media outlets attended, and the back rows were filled with audience members who had been recruited in advance.

When Ye Mo arrived, Nie Yuan was standing in the corridor chatting with Wang Qianyuan.

The two men each held a cup of coffee, the paper cups printed with the logo of "Brotherhood of Blades"—a broken sword in an ink-wash style.

"Ye Mo!" Nie Yuan saw him and waved him over.

Wang Qianyuan turned around, looked Ye Mo up and down, and laughed: "You're really popular now. When I came in just now, there were a few audience members holding up your banner at the entrance—Feng Yuxiu, not Ding Xiu. I said, 'Did you come to the wrong set?' They said no, they came to see Ye Mo."

"Brother Qianyuan, don't tease me." Ye Mo walked over.

"I'm not kidding you. My wife watched the episode of Running Man where you were on. She pointed at you and said, 'Isn't this the guy you acted with? He's got such a great sense of variety.'" Wang Qianyuan took a sip of coffee. "She even made me ask you if you really carried Wang Zulan through the mud."

"He's really tough, Brother Zulan isn't heavy."

"That's for you," Nie Yuan interjected from the side. "You can even beat Feng Yuxiu, so what's a little carrying someone?"

As they were talking, Li Dongxue walked over from the back row.

He and Ye Mo exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously.

When filming "Brotherhood of Blades," Li Dongxue treated him with indifference—not hostility, but scrutiny.

A newcomer was parachuted in and immediately played Ding Xiu, with all of Jin Yichuan's scenes opposite him—anyone would have to check his quality first.

After filming the scene where "more money is needed," Li Dongxue offered Ye Mo a cigarette after work. Ye Mo took it, put it in his mouth without lighting it, and the two squatted on the grassland for half an hour chatting about their roles.

From then on, Li Dongxue never scrutinized him again when they met.

"Dong Xue-ge," Ye Mo spoke first.

"Hmm." Li Dongxue was a man of few words, but after nodding, he added, "I watched Feng Yuxiu's match. When he actually fought that match, the comments were all about you. I used to think you were a natural talent, but now I think you're a daredevil."

"Both are true," Nie Yuan answered for him.

Everyone laughed.

Li Dongxue, holding his coffee cup, paused for a moment on Ye Mo: "What have you been busy with lately? Running Man is finished filming, and Sha Po Lang has wrapped up filming too. What's next?"

"Yeah, the popularity of Running Man is still going strong," Nie Yuan chimed in. "You didn't know, did you? Now someone on Weibo has paired you and Deng Chao up as a couple called Chao Ye. The line Deng Chao shouted at you on the show, 'Feng Yuxiu, don't come any closer,' has been turned into a meme, and its views are almost as high as your action scene compilations."

Ye Mo shook his head helplessly: "Brother Chao himself even retweeted it."

"Hahaha, really?"

"Seriously, the caption he shared was—'Ye Mo is a good actor, but he's not human when it comes to tearing off name tags.'"

Wang Qianyuan almost spat out his coffee.

Before the laughter subsided, Ye Mo cleared his throat: "Actually, I recently auditioned for a role."

"What play?" Li Dongxue asked.

"Director Liu Weiqiang's new film."

The corridor fell silent for a moment.

It wasn't an awkward silence; it was a silence where everyone was processing the weight of those three words.

Wang Qianyuan's coffee cup stopped at his lips.

Li Dongxue's brow twitched.

Nie Yuan's reaction was the most exaggerated—he turned around directly, his shoulder knocking over the popcorn bucket on the armrest of the chair, scattering popcorn all over the floor, without even looking down.

"Liu Weiqiang?" Nie Yuan's voice rose a half-octave. "The famous Hong Kong director, the Liu Weiqiang from 'Young and Dangerous'?"

"Um."

"Did you try it?"

"I got it."

"What role?"

"Male lead."

The corridor fell silent again.

This time it took longer than before.

"Holy crap, holy crap..." Everyone couldn't help but exclaim.

Wang Qianyuan was the first to react. He slammed his coffee cup on the back of the chair next to him and slapped Ye Mo's shoulder hard: "You brat—do you know what level Liu Weiqiang's film is? That's the highest level of resources in Hong Kong cinema right now. You're a newcomer who's only been around for less than a year, and you've already got the male lead?"

"I was lucky," Ye Mo said.

"It wasn't luck," Li Dongxue said.

He looked at Ye Mo, his tone was calm, but every word was sincere, "Feng Yuxiu was lucky, Ding Xiu was lucky too. Liu Weiqiang won't give you the male lead just because you're lucky. You have to prove yourself."

Nie Yuan kicked the popcorn off the ground and shook his head with a complicated expression: "I've also tried for roles in Hong Kong films, supporting roles, not the male lead. I tried three times, and in the end, the role was given to someone else. Ye Mo, tell me the truth—were you nervous when you auditioned?"

"nervous."

"So how did you act it out?"

Ye Mo thought for a moment.

"They didn't consider themselves newcomers."

Nie Yuan was silent for two seconds, then sighed in an acquiescent tone: "You're right."

Wang Qianyuan added from the side: "Do you guys remember—when we were filming Brotherhood of Blades, Director Lu said something like, 'Ye Mo will definitely go further than any of us.' At the time, I thought it was just encouragement for newcomers, but now I believe it."

Just as Ye Mo was about to say something, he caught a glimpse of a figure walking past from the back row.

Liu Sishi.

She wore a plain-colored long dress, her hair was styled in an updo, revealing her slender neck.

As she passed by them, she didn't stop, but simply turned her head slightly and said to Ye Mo, "Long time no see."

Not a single word was superfluous.

His tone was indifferent, and his expression was indifferent, exactly the same as when he first spoke to him on the grassland.

But after she walked over, she paused at the end of the corridor.

It was a very brief moment, as if he wanted to turn back, or as if he was waiting for something.

She then continued walking forward and sat down in the first row, near the aisle.

That was her seat as the female lead.

Ye Mo turned around and found Wang Qianyuan looking at him.

That look wasn't gossipy—it was the unspoken understanding between men: "I saw it, but I won't ask."

"Where's Director Lu?" Ye Mo changed the subject.

"Where are the investors?" Wang Qianyuan pointed to the corner in the front row.

Lu Yang was sitting between two men in suits, holding a document in his hand, explaining something with a serious expression.

His gaze occasionally swept across the stage before quickly returning to its original direction.

"He's very nervous," Nie Yuan said in a low voice. "This film cost over 30 million yuan, which is a significant sum for Director Lu."

"You can make a movie like this with 30 million?" Li Dongxue said. "The production quality looks like it cost 50 million or more."

"The money was all spent where it was needed," Ye Mo added, recalling Lu Yang's 50,000 yuan bonus that he paid out of his own pocket for on the grassland—not a lot of money.

But the fact that he invested his own money in the work shows that he treated "Brotherhood of Blades" as his life's work.

The group chatted for a while longer in the hallway.

The conversation ranged from Liu Weiqiang's new drama to whether he might become a regular cast member in the second season of Running Man, and then to their respective schedules.

As the conversation drew to a close, the media began to enter, the screens of the audience's phones in the back rows gradually dimmed, and the lights in the giant screen theater were turned off.

The opening credits of "Brotherhood of Blades" begin to play.

A broken knife sank into the water, and three words were reflected on its blade.

Ye Mo found his seat and sat down.

Liu Sishi sat down across the aisle, three seats away.

Wang Qianyuan and Li Dongxue were between the two, but the moment the giant screen hall went dark, Ye Mo felt a gaze fall on him from the other side of the aisle.

He didn't turn his head.

The giant screen lit up.

......