Huayu: You were supposed to be a top star, but you've become capital?

7:40 PM, Palm Bay Apartments.

Yang Chaoyue was driven directly downstairs by the driver. She thanked the driver, picked up her bag, and swiped her card to enter the building.

The elevator goes up, and when you open the door, you'll find a spacious and bright entrance hallway.

Shen Ge bought this house early, and the location and layout are excellent. The security is also very tight. She has been living here for half a year and has already gotten used to it.

Enter the password to open the door. The room is quiet, with only a few ambient lights on.

Yang Chaoyue changed into his home clothes, lay on the sofa, checked Lin Shen's schedule for tomorrow, and then browsed the follow-up discussions on Weibo about the interview with Southern Metropolis Daily. The fans were still working hard to purify the public square and fight against the few haters.

Time seemed to pass slowly.

Yang Chaoyue remembered what Brother Shen had told him. After thinking about it, he decided to wait for Brother Shen's notes to be sent over, and then go to find Sister Mengyan after he had finished processing them, so as not to be interrupted in the middle.

Just a few minutes past eight o'clock, my phone vibrated.

It was a WeChat message from Brother Shen, two messages in a row.

The first item is a document titled "The First Note on Xiaohongshu".

The second rule is: "Use the set of photos I took a couple of days ago of me reading by the window, and select a few with good lighting."

Yang Chaoyue immediately replied, "Okay, Brother Shen, got it!"

She opened the document; the text inside wasn't long, but it was clearly carefully crafted, fitting the community tone of Xiaohongshu—personalized and with a touch of everyday life.

The copy was written like this:

"I've been getting asked a lot lately what I like to do outside of work. It's actually quite simple: I find a sunny corner, flip through old books, listen to old songs, and let time slow down."

Some things can only withstand the test of time and develop their own unique luster.

Like this white shirt I've worn for a long time, the collar is worn soft, but the shape is still crisp.

Familiarity and comfort make me feel more at ease than any new and luxurious item.

Sharing a quiet moment with you.

Yang Chaoyue read it twice and silently gave it a thumbs up.

Just as I was pondering this, Lin Shen sent another message:

"When you and Mengyan are going back after your late-night snack, please pick up a bowl of shrimp and scallop congee downstairs. I'll be back to rest later."

Yang Chaoyue quickly replied, "Okay, do you need me to arrange a driver to wait for you?"

After a while, Lin Shen replied, "No need, we have a car arranged here."

Yang Chaoyue replied "Okay," and after waiting for a while without receiving any further messages, he knew that Brother Shen was probably busy with social engagements.

She logged out of WeChat, logged into Lin Shen's Xiaohongshu account, copied the text that Brother Shen sent her, and then pulled up the photos that Brother Shen had taken a couple of days ago from her album.

These photos were taken to coincide with an interview for Esquire magazine. The lighting and composition are excellent. Lin Shen is wearing a simple white shirt, leaning against a sunlit window, looking down at a book. His profile is clear and his demeanor is clean.

Yang Chaoyue chose a photo with the softest lighting and the most tranquil atmosphere, uploaded it, added a caption, and checked the tags.

After editing the content and setting the publication time to 10 PM, Yang Chaoyue sent the preview link to the staff member in charge of liaison at Xiaohongshu. Only after confirming that everything was correct did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Done! Yang Chaoyue remembered his late-night snack appointment with Bai Mengyan, tidied up, picked up his phone and keys, and went out to Bai Mengyan's apartment in another building in the same community.

I rang the doorbell when I got to the door, and the door opened in a few seconds.

Bai Mengyan was wearing fluffy loungewear, her hair casually tied up. When she saw it was her, her eyes lit up:

"Chaoyue! Why are you back so early? I thought you were going to wait for Brother Shen until very late!"

"Brother Shen has a social engagement; the investors are treating him to dinner, and it'll probably be quite late, so he sent me back first," Yang Chaoyue said as he changed his shoes.

"Oh, okay," Bai Mengyan nodded, then asked curiously, "Don't you need to wait for Brother Shen? Shouldn't we be drinking in this kind of situation?"

"No need," Yang Chaoyue said naturally as he walked to the living room sofa and sat down. "Whenever it's a social event in Beijing, Brother Shen usually lets me come back first, unless he specifically instructs me to do so."

Bai Mengyan thought that Chao Yue was only sixteen years old, so it was no wonder that Brother Shen let her go first.

She peeled off the face mask, wiped her face, and leaned closer, looking both gossipy and worried.

"Then... Brother Shen won't suffer a loss by himself, will he?"

"Suffer a loss?" Yang Chaoyue blinked, then waved his hand. "No, Brother Shen has a high alcohol tolerance, and he knows his limits in these kinds of situations..."

Bai Mengyan hesitated, but what she really wanted to ask wasn't about being taken advantage of, but rather...

Will Brother Shen be taken advantage of by the wealthy and powerful women at the dinner party, or by investors with ulterior motives?

After all, Brother Shen's looks, physique, and temperament are truly divine; he's the center of attention wherever he goes.

If I were an investor, I'd definitely want to sit next to Brother Shen and chat a bit more, hehehe...

"What good thoughts are you having now? Why are you smiling so...smirkingly?" Yang Chaoyue waved his hand in front of Bai Mengyan, who had suddenly started daydreaming and had a suspicious smile on her lips.

"Huh? It's nothing, it's nothing!" Bai Mengyan suddenly came to her senses and quickly shook her head. Her face was a little hot, but luckily she had just finished applying a face mask so it wasn't noticeable.

She quickly changed the subject, "Um, have you eaten yet? I ordered barbecue, it'll be here soon!"

"Not yet, I'm just waiting for your meal!" Yang Chaoyue said with a smile.

The two chuckled and tidied up the coffee table, moving the snacks aside. Not long after, the takeout arrived, a large bag of grilled skewers, chicken wings, grilled eggplant, and other items laid out, emitting a wonderful aroma.

Bai Mengyan took two cans of drinks from the refrigerator, handed Yang Chaoyue a can of juice, and then boldly opened a bottle of beer for herself.

The heating was on full blast, making the room cozy. The two of them nestled between the sofa and the carpet, chatting and eating over the barbecue spread all over the coffee table.

"Come on, let's celebrate surviving my first official reading session today!" Bai Mengyan raised her beer.

"Celebrating Mengyan's first step towards becoming an actress!" Yang Chaoyue said with a smile, raising his juice bottle.

"It's still so comfortable like this," Bai Mengyan took a sip of beer and sighed contentedly, "much more comfortable than sitting upright in the conference room."

"That's right," Yang Chaoyue mumbled, munching on a chicken wing. "Were you extremely nervous in the conference room today?"

"Don't even mention it!" Bai Mengyan immediately perked up and began to pour out her grievances.

"I was so nervous, my palms were sweaty! If it weren't for Sister Rong next to me and Brother Shen giving me a look every now and then, I probably wouldn't have dared to say a word."

Yang Chaoyue chuckled: "I don't believe it. You'd be lucky if you could hold it in."

Bai Mengyan wasn't annoyed when she was exposed, and just chuckled, "Well, well, I had to pretend for a bit!"

The two chatted and laughed, and the conversation naturally turned to the people they had met at the reading session that day.

"Hey, Mr. Ma Dong, you seem quite different from how you appear on TV. You seem much more serious in person," Bai Mengyan recalled.

"The bigwigs of the platform are all the same." Yang Chaoyue has seen it all before.

"Teacher Zhang Zhiyao is quite handsome, with a refined and scholarly air," Bai Mengyan commented.

"Yeah, but he's still not as handsome as Brother Shen," Yang Chaoyue replied without hesitation.

"Of course!" Bai Mengyan said with pride, then talked about the reactions of the others.

"Teacher Liu Tianzuo is so funny, he has a really loud voice. He's the producer from Huanrui, and he always looks like he's not in a good mood..."

"They had a perfectly good project, and we took such a big slice of the pie. No wonder they're not happy." Yang Chaoyue understood the situation clearly.

"That's true..."

The two chatted back and forth, sharing the little details they had observed that day, chuckling from time to time.

Yang Chaoyue laughed and exposed her: "I knew you weren't being honest; you were just looking at other people."

"No way!" Bai Mengyan retorted, "It wasn't my turn yet, I was just observing the learning atmosphere!"

As they chatted, the topic inevitably turned to Tang Yan.

"Teacher Tang Yan," Yang Chaoyue thought for a moment and then expressed his feelings, "I feel like she's quite aloof."

"Right!" Bai Mengyan immediately nodded vigorously with an expression that said, "I knew it all along." "Chaoyue, believe me, she's definitely a special person in private."

Yang Chaoyue looked at her, completely bewildered: "You could tell that?"

Bai Mengyan chuckled, somewhat smugly: "Of course, this comes from a former colleague and a woman's keen intuition!"

I've seen similar models in photo studios; they're demanding, have high expectations, and love to put on airs. They act completely different in front of the camera, with a noticeable contrast.

Yang Chaoyue nodded as if she understood, but she relied more on her intuition, while Bai Mengyan, having worked in the modeling industry and seen all sorts of people, was probably more accurate in judging people.

"Anyway..." Bai Mengyan said while munching on corn, "Once you're on set, try not to mess with her, but don't be afraid of her either. We have Brother Shen."

"Yes!" Yang Chaoyue nodded vigorously.

While the two girls were gossiping and eating barbecue, a completely different scene was unfolding in another private room.

The private room was extremely large and luxuriously decorated, with a huge round table that could seat twenty people.

The table was now a mess of cups and plates, with bottles of liquor scattered everywhere, and the air was filled with the smells of cigarettes, alcohol, perfume, and food.

Aside from Ma Dong and Zhang Yuxin from Kiwifruit, and a vice president surnamed Zhang from Huanrui, the most eye-catching person present was Xu Lei.

Not many people may know this name, but everyone knows his pen name Nanpai Sanshu and the novel "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles".

The original author, who is also the person in charge of Nanpai Investment, didn't attend today's script reading. In his own words, it's because...

"After we bought the script, we changed it so much that even its own mother wouldn't recognize it. I couldn't be bothered to read it myself."

But he always attends the dinner parties, simply because he enjoys good wine and the atmosphere of being fawned over and listening to others chat.

In addition, there were several executives from secondary investors, such as representatives from Huace Film Industry and investment managers from Gravity Pictures. Lin Shen recognized them all, but they were not close friends.

The event brought together producers, platforms, copyright holders, and investors, making it a small-scale power struggle within the industry.

Lin Shen sat next to Zhang Yuxin, a polite smile on his face, holding a wine glass in his hand, occasionally clinking glasses with others and saying polite words.

For Lin Shen, he had been to this kind of event too many times, and it had long lost its novelty.

It's nothing more than bragging, drinking, and building connections.

Ma Dong was eloquent, and Xu Lei, after drinking, talked about all sorts of things. The bosses of several film and television companies were also full of江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry), and their raunchy jokes and boasts, mixed with cigarette smoke, filled the private room.

Lin Shen showed little interest in this.

It wasn't that he was aloof or indifferent to women; there were indeed several pretty young girls with exquisite makeup sitting next to him. They were probably arranged by Kiwi or some company to liven up the atmosphere, responsible for pouring drinks, offering cigarettes, and keeping him company.

But Lin Shen maintained a polite but distant distance from them.

This is someone else's property. Who knows if there are hidden cameras in any corner?

If something were recorded, it could become leverage against him in the future. He has always walked on thin ice, and he would never make such a basic mistake.

Furthermore, this situation is always shrouded in mystery.

Apart from a few women and senior executives from the platform, most of the people present were heavy smokers.

Xu Lei was always smoking, puffing out clouds of smoke while chatting, making the private room smoky and stuffy. Lin Shen felt his throat go dry just from inhaling secondhand smoke, and naturally found it even more boring.

Lin Shen glanced at Tang Yan, who was sitting not far from him.

She seemed quite composed, holding her wine glass and sipping it slowly.

A slender woman held a cigarette between her delicate fingers, occasionally taking a puff and slowly exhaling a smoke ring, listening attentively to the eloquent speech of a CEO next to her, all while maintaining a sweet smile on her face.

Lin Shen thought to herself that this was probably not her first time at such a situation, and she handled it with ease.

However, based on his understanding of the rumors surrounding this disgrace of the Central Academy of Drama, this woman probably prefers to go to nightclubs and bars to party rather than stay here with a group of middle-aged men smoking and listening to them brag.

Thinking of this, Lin Shen couldn't help but mentally complain about the kiwi.

While internet companies may be financially powerful, they are rather unsophisticated when it comes to organizing and enjoying themselves.

They just found a hotel private room and started drinking. The atmosphere was completely unoriginal. If it weren't for Ma Dong, even the girls pouring drinks would probably be a step below in terms of quality.

In this respect, they can't compare to the bosses of traditional film and television companies.

They either have their own private clubs or book an entire floor of a secluded place. That's what real enjoyment is—private, safe, and carefree.

In such a place, Lin Shen was able to relax a little and not have to be constantly on high alert.

You can complain in your heart, but you still have to put on a show.

Lin Shen wiped his mouth, picked up his wine glass, and toasted Ma Dong and Xu Lei again, saying a few polite words such as "Looking forward to cooperation" and "Thank you for your hard work, Uncle San".

The core of this kind of gathering is drinking and bragging.

Don't be fooled by the respectable appearance of these CEOs and executives. After a few drinks, they become incredibly sweary and boastful.

Lin Shen would rather chat with the pretty young girls around him and enjoy their admiring glances, whether genuine or feigned, than listen to these greasy middle-aged men boasting.

Lin Shen had just finished dealing with everyone and was about to catch his breath when he saw Tang Yan across from him tap her own phone screen on the table with her finger, then her gaze seemed to casually sweep over him.

Lin Shen understood immediately, and without making a sound, picked up his phone from the table and glanced at it.

An unread message from Tang Yan.

The message was simple: "Want to go out and have some fun after this?"

Lin Shen knew without a doubt that the other side probably also found this game too boring, and that Xu Lei and Ma Dong were too boastful, so they wanted to find a more exciting game to suit their tastes.

He tapped the screen twice with his finger and replied, "Where?"

Soon, Tang Yan replied: "My friend's place is very safe."

Lin Shen looked at the words "it's safe," his eyes darkening slightly. After a moment's thought, he replied with two words: "We'll see."

He looked up and met Tang Yan's gaze.

Her lips curved into a smile, and her eyes, hidden behind the hazy lights and smoke in the private room, seemed to hold a deeper meaning.

Lin Shen's smile remained unchanged. He picked up his wine glass and walked towards Xu Lei, who was in the middle of a lively conversation and gesturing wildly.

"Teacher Xu, I respect you. I hope the final product will satisfy you and all the book fans to some extent."

Xu Lei was chatting happily when he saw Lin Shen coming over. He laughed heartily and raised his glass:

"Lin Shen! I believe in you! You have the drive! Come on, bottoms up! The script... sigh, let's not talk about it, just make sure it's filmed well!"

The two wine glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound, and the noise in the private room seemed to rise even higher.