That same evening, Bailiang received his script.
Upon seeing the various scenes and lines for Lü Bu inside, he couldn't help freezing for a second.
Weren't they looking for an emperor?
How did he suddenly become a military general?!
However, with his "super brain," he naturally figured everything out almost instantly and accepted the turn of events without any fuss.
It was just that a stray thought popped into his head... The original actor for Lü Bu had nearly dropped dead, right? Surely that wasn't because of him?
If that were the case, Bailiang would genuinely feel a bit bad.
Yet he quickly dismissed the notion, figuring he had been in a pretty good mood lately, with no sudden outbursts, no one provoking him, and no particular dangers around.
So he definitely wasn't in an "I don't eat beef" kind of state; his luck shouldn't be fierce and dangerous enough for that.
Still, after asking for the original actor's name, Bailiang suddenly remembered.
Ah! It's you~
If he remembered correctly, that guy seemed to drop dead on some variety show over three years later... At least he got saved this time around. As the saying goes, a blessing in disguise—maybe going through this ordeal would help him dodge that future calamity.
After all, a man cannot step into the same river twice.
He wished the guy good health and a long life in the future.
With the script in hand, they had very kindly given him a full day to prepare.
Looking at the script, which was completely different in thickness from what he had imagined, and then catching the staff member's somewhat sympathetic gaze, Bailiang finally understood why they were looking at him like that.
Word had it that actors were supposed to memorize their entire scripts?
Was this kind of thing something a normal person could memorize in a single day?
"Thanks for bringing the script over so late. You should head back and get some rest early."
The young female staff member delivering the script felt a warm wave of care upon hearing those words.
Meeting Bailiang's gaze, her cheeks inexplicably flushed.
She thought to herself that his smile was truly good-looking...
Unable to help herself, she offered a reminder: "I'll bring over a shooting schedule tomorrow so you can focus on a specific part of the script first, just in case the director yells at you."
"You're so nice! Thank you."
Though Bailiang didn't actually need it, he didn't want to let down her kind intentions.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, the staff member's face grew even redder, and her smile blossomed further.
She left in quite a happy mood, completely devoid of the grievance that came with working overtime that night.
The night passed quietly.
Waking up the next morning, Guli Nazha looked at her faint dark circles with a sense of helplessness.
She hadn't slept well last night; on the one hand, she was worried about her co-star, and on the other hand, she had stayed up late texting someone.
Fortunately, her assistant brought her some great news bright and early.
The actor for Lü Bu had been found, and filming would proceed normally according to schedule tomorrow.
As she let out a sigh of relief, her eyes suddenly caught a familiar figure.
Wasn't this yesterday's "comrade in misery"?
"Morning~"
"Morning." Breaking a light sweat, Bailiang's eyes lit up when he saw Guli Nazha.
This girl was just as generous as yesterday!
Catching a glimpse of legs in the morning ensures smooth sailing all the way.
Though Bailiang's gaze was relatively polite and didn't carry that kind of uncomfortably leering expression, Guli Nazha still felt a little self-conscious.
It wasn't because she was being watched... mostly because she was still wearing the same pair of hot pants from yesterday without changing.
Did he notice?
There was a little rule of thumb here: you could always tell what impression a girl had of you by whether or not she washed her hair when meeting you.
Likewise, since Guli Nazha had a pretty good impression of Bailiang, she felt a slight flutter of worry that he might think she was a sloppy person.
So she hurriedly changed the subject. "Did you go out to exercise this morning?"
"Went for a light run. Want to grab breakfast together?" Bailiang naturally extended the invitation.
"Uh, sure."
Guli Nazha had originally wanted to refuse, having already eaten a little something in her room.
Logically speaking, she should have turned him down. As a rising female artist, it wasn't great for her to get too close to other single male artists... unless they were trying to manufacture some gossip.
Yet faced with Bailiang's invitation, she inexplicably nodded in agreement.
This left the assistant girl standing beside her inwardly startled.
Sis, take it easy, will you? Did you forget what the boss said?!
People don't fall in love on set this fast!
However, after glancing at Bailiang's face, the assistant girl figured it made sense.
Five minutes later, the assistant girl felt like she had probably misunderstood something.
What did treating everyone equally mean?
Looking at the hard-boiled egg Bailiang had handed over for her, the assistant girl was flattered.
"Brother, I can get it myself."
"I just grabbed it along the way. I won't peel it for you, though."
Eating a simple breakfast, Bailiang didn't pull any moves to flirt, and even during conversation, he didn't leave out the assistant girl—in fact, he spent more time talking to her.
Mostly because he wanted to fish for some information about the crew.
He was asking quite earnestly and wasn't trying to flirt or anything.
Besides, he wasn't big on flirting anyway. Across both of his lives, the great Bailiang had never once confessed his feelings to any girl.
He was far too used to being chased after.
Still, he did have a knack for making young ladies change their expressions with a single sentence.
For instance...
"By the way, please take care of me from now on. I'm playing Lü Bu."
"Okay... wait, WHAT?!"
One sentence made Guli Nazha's heart race, her face show an expression of disbelief, her mouth part slightly, and her eyes widen...
Bailiang sincerely gave her a mental thumbs-up. As expected of a pretty girl, she looked good no matter what expression she made.
After recovering from her shock, Guli Nazha pressed on, "Didn't you say yesterday that you were just auditioning for a small role?"
"Yeah," Bailiang nodded. "Got lucky."
Got lucky?
Guli Nazha didn't quite believe it; she felt there was definitely more to the story.
Subconsciously, labels like "has backing" and "powerful connections" were stamped onto Bailiang as she tried to make sense of it.
Yet she truly hadn't heard of such a person before; he was a total stranger.
In short, she overestimated him by more than a little bit.
Actually, she was quite happy about it. After all, the two of them got along really well, and when going out to shoot, everyone feared ending up with a difficult co-star.
"Happy cooperation~"
"I've never acted before, and since you're professionally trained with more practical experience, you'll have to teach me a lot," Bailiang said modestly.
"Leave it to me!" Guli Nazha patted her chest with confidence.
She had felt a bit lacking in confidence at first, but hearing that Bailiang had never acted before instantly boosted her self-assurance!
Truth be told, Bailiang was the first person to ever ask her how to act.
Her emotional value was completely maxed out!
The assistant girl sat quietly eating her egg on the side, unable to hold back a quiet internal scoff: One dares to ask for pointers, and the other actually dares to teach?!
What if these two "master strategists" both end up getting pinned down by the director and chewed out together?
After Bailiang provided her with that surge of emotional value, Guli Nazha's conversational floodgates noticeably burst open.
She even put down the phone that she usually kept in her hand throughout breakfast.
Though her phone screen lit up from time to time, Guli Nazha only occasionally picked it up to reply with a word or two.
Bailiang very carefully noticed one detail.
When Nazha's assistant girl discovered this situation, she looked as though a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
Bailiang: Huh?