Isn’t money good?

Chapter 37

Ji Yunnian’s final scene was an additional confrontation between him and Yan Shiqiu that director Chen Hangsheng had suddenly been inspired to add.

The location was still on the city tower.

But unlike the previous scene, this time it was at dawn, with An Mo bringing Chu Yuexuan to watch the sunrise.

The script had just been rushed out by Xu Ling and handed to Ji Yunnian and Yan Shiqiu. The papers still carried the warmth of being fresh from the printer, and up close, you could smell the ink.

Since Ji Yunnian had to leave before noon tomorrow, this scene could only be filmed during the two mornings of today and tomorrow. Since sunrise only lasted a few minutes and missing it would mean waiting another day, the demands on the actors were very high, so there wasn’t room for many NGs.

To film this scene well, Chen Hangsheng had prepared for a long time, with the entire A-team crew working busily through the night until dawn.

Of course, Ji Yunnian and Yan Shiqiu had barely slept either.

Yan Shiqiu had filmed night scenes until 2 AM, and this sunrise scene needed to start filming at 5 AM, leaving hardly any time to sleep. He hadn’t even removed his wig, just curled up in his trailer for a little over an hour, then got up again at 4 AM for makeup and styling.

Ji Yunnian was the same. He had been doing reshoots of some scenes until very late, so he simply stayed with the crew and waited for the morning scene.

At 5 AM, before dawn, the sky was like spilled ink, the darkness extremely heavy.

Yan Shiqiu and Ji Yunnian were already blocking out their positions. Chen Hangsheng sat nearby with his chin propped up, giving direction. Whenever he found something unsatisfactory, he would point it out, and the three of them would continuously make adjustments.

At 5:10 AM, Chen Hangsheng returned behind the monitors, picked up his megaphone, and the set instantly became quiet.

The script supervisor clapped the slate: “Action——”

Chu Yuexuan followed An Mo up to the city tower. All he could see was the vast night, and he asked in confusion: “What are we doing here?”

The wind was strong on the tower, and the night dew was heavy. An Mo carefully adjusted his cloak for him, then said gently upon hearing the question: “To answer the question you asked me yesterday.”

“?” Chu Yuexuan was stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant, but was still somewhat puzzled. “But I asked you why you became an official. I can see that you prefer returning to pastoral life, that you don’t like the scheming and intrigue of court life. You’re not happy.”

“Besides, why do we need to come here specifically to give the answer?”

An Mo’s eyes were gentle. “Be patient and wait.”

Chu Yuexuan looked at him, then after a moment nodded: “Alright.”

After a while, the sky began to break.

The earth was first a hazy gray, then white light began to spread outward bit by bit from the horizon.

Suddenly, a fiery red sun leaped above the treetops. Ten thousand rays of morning light shone down from the clouds, and the distant layers of mountains and forests were covered with golden light. The darkness retreated, and the sky became completely bright.

Chu Yuexuan was transfixed, staring unblinkingly at the sunrise. His eyes reflected the full glow of dawn. An Mo turned his head to gaze at his profile, then asked slowly: “Is the scenery before you beautiful?”

Chu Yuexuan nodded, murmuring softly: “So beautiful.”

“This is my answer.” An Mo clasped his hands behind his back, his gaze directed toward the distant road, where people who had traveled through the thick night to enter the city could already be seen.

As the sky grew bright, even the patches on their clothes were clearly visible.

“Yuexuan, a peaceful and prosperous world where the people live and work in contentment. This is my life’s goal and aspiration.”

…

Chen Hangsheng sat in front of the monitors, watching the playback twice with focused attention, then called Xu Ling over to watch it once more together. Finally, he stood up and announced with a smile: “An Mo, Ji Yunnian, that’s a wrap——”

The set erupted in orderly applause.

When Ji Yunnian went to remove his makeup and change out of his costume, Chen Hangsheng handed the bouquet he had prepared for Ji Yunnian to Yan Shiqiu, patting his shoulder and saying matter-of-factly: “You present it to him later. You two had the most scenes together and have the best relationship.”

After saying this, without waiting for Yan Shiqiu to respond, he left with his assistant to handle other matters.

Yan Shiqiu: “…”

Yan Shiqiu looked down glumly at the beautiful bouquet of roses in his arms, their petals still bearing droplets of water.

He counted them. It was 13 roses.

He couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Good thing.

Otherwise, it would be bad if Ji Yunnian misunderstood.

Soon after, Ji Yunnian came out of the makeup room, already changed back into his regular clothes. Yan Shiqiu walked over with the flowers and handed them to him with a smile: “Congratulations on wrapping.”

Ji Yunnian looked up: “You’re giving me roses?”

“To be precise, they’re from the crew. 13 roses.” After thinking about it, Yan Shiqiu added: “The flower language is everlasting friendship.”

Ji Yunnian’s expression was blank: “…Do you think I would misunderstand something?”

Yan Shiqiu didn’t answer directly, but said meaningfully: “I really treasure you as a friend.”

His gaze lingered on his face for a few seconds, then Ji Yunnian took the flowers and suddenly opened his arms, leaning down to give him a light hug: “I look forward to our next collaboration.”

Caught off guard by the hug, though it was brief, Yan Shiqiu still caught a whiff of the light mint scent on Ji Yunnian’s body. It smelled very nice.

Stunned for a moment, he looked up to meet Ji Yunnian’s smiling gaze, then suddenly smiled too.

He said: “I look forward to it too.”

Holding the flowers, Ji Yunnian said: “How about a photo together?”

Yan Shiqiu’s eyes curved into crescents as he agreed: “Sure.”

He walked to Ji Yunnian’s side.

Lin Yang received the photography assignment and opened his phone camera. Seeing Yan Shiqiu standing properly with more than ten centimeters between him and Ji Yunnian, as if there was a clear dividing line drawn between them, he couldn’t help but say to Yan Shiqiu: “Could you move a little closer to Teacher Ji?”

After hearing this, Yan Shiqiu took two small steps closer.

The next second, Ji Yunnian’s free hand landed on his shoulder, using a bit of force to pull him closer. The distance instantly became zero, then he nodded to Lin Yang: “Go ahead and shoot.”

Yan Shiqiu hadn’t reacted yet when “click”, the photo was already captured.

Yan Shiqiu: “…”

Ji Yunnian released him. Just as he was about to speak, Ji Yutong and Zhang Youxu ran over. Ji Yutong held her phone, wanting to take a photo with Ji Yunnian, while Zhang Youxu held an autograph board asking for a signature.

Seeing this, Yan Shiqiu didn’t speak again. He just smiled at Ji Yunnian, then turned to go touch up his makeup in preparation for the next scene.

After filming two more consecutive scenes, Chen Hangsheng saw that he had stayed up too long, and since there weren’t many remaining scenes for Chu Yuexuan in the script with plenty of time to spare, he didn’t schedule any more scenes for him in the afternoon and sent him back to catch up on sleep.

After removing his makeup and changing out of his costume, Yan Shiqiu returned to the hotel and happened to run into Ji Yunnian dragging his suitcase out of the elevator.

“Weren’t you leaving tomorrow?” Yan Shiqiu asked.

Ji Yunnian said: “Originally, if we couldn’t finish filming today, I would leave tomorrow. But now that we’re done, I can go earlier and have a day to rest.”

“I see. Well then, goodbye.”

“Oh, by the way.” Ji Yunnian walked a few steps then returned to his side, leaning down to whisper in his ear: “Remember, wherever you go, don’t go alone. It’s safer to always bring Liu Xi with you.”

Understanding his concern, Yan Shiqiu nodded and said seriously: “I know.”

The corners of his mouth turned up as he added: “Be careful on the road.”

Ji Yunnian looked down at him for a while, then suddenly raised his hand and patted the top of his head: “Goodbye.”

Why did he pat his head again!

…Never mind.

Yan Shiqiu stood in place, watching Ji Yunnian leave through the hotel’s main entrance before entering the elevator.

Back in his suite, he immediately put down his things and took a shower. Just as he finished blow-drying his hair, his phone rang.

It was Fang Yuhua.

Putting on his Bluetooth earpiece, he answered the call: “Brother Fang, what’s up?”

Fang Yuhua first asked about his recent situation, then got to the main point: “Do you know Qiao Yu?”

Who was that?

Yan Shiqiu answered honestly: “I don’t know him.”

“What’s wrong?”

“His agent contacted me today, wanting to invite you to appear in the MV for his new album’s title track.”

Yan Shiqiu remained calm: “But there’s a catch?”

“Right.” Fang Yuhua said. “This song depicts a same-sex relationship, and the MV will feature two male leads. Will you take it?”

He grabbed the tablet nearby and searched for Qiao Yu’s name while asking: “What’s the specific level of intimacy?”

“There are kissing scenes, but they can use camera angles to fake it.”

The webpage pulled up Qiao Yu’s biographical profile. He clicked in to quickly read through it, then switched out to search entertainment news, finding no major scandals and no particular controversies. He told Fang Yuhua: “Yes, I’ll take it.”

Fang Yuhua asked hesitantly: “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I know what you’re worried about, but I’ve already come out publicly. Making a fuss about my sexual orientation again would be meaningless, unless Qiao Yu wants to use me for publicity.

But I just roughly went through the reports about him, and there are no signs of deliberate publicity stunts. He seems quite low-key.”

“You can rest assured about that. Qiao Yu is an artist being promoted by Huansheng, an entertainment company under Fu Corporation. Huansheng currently has no history of maliciously creating scandals.”

Fang Yuhua said: “I’m just thinking of you, wondering if you would mind.”

Yan Shiqiu felt warm inside and smiled: “I don’t mind.”

Thinking of something, he added: “Remember to negotiate a higher performance fee for me.”

Fang Yuhua was speechless for a while, his tone helpless: “Are you completely focused on money now?”

“I’m making reasonable demands.” Yan Shiqiu yawned, feeling sleepy. He kept his eyes open with effort, his tone lazy: “Besides, who would complain about having too much money? Would you?”

Fang Yuhua’s laughter came through the earpiece: “That’s true.”

After laughing enough, he said: “I’ll go negotiate the MV tomorrow and send you the script afterward. Look it over when you have time, there’s no rush. Focus on finishing ‘Rivers and Mountains in Turmoil’ first.”

Yan Shiqiu replied: “Okay.”

After hanging up, Yan Shiqiu placed his phone on the bedside table, turned up the air conditioning temperature, pulled back the covers and lay down on the bed.

The room was quiet, the bedding soft and comfortable. He closed his eyes and rubbed against the pillow, found a comfortable position, and soon fell asleep.

—

After Ji Yunnian wrapped, a new actor to play the Sixth Prince joined the crew. Yan Shiqiu happened to know him. It was Xia Linqiu, who he had worked with before in “Each Grain is Hard-earned.”

After Chen Hangsheng led Xia Linqiu around to greet everyone, he happily ran over to Yan Shiqiu, grabbing his arm: “Brother Yan, please help me catch up!”

His eyes were bright and very sincere.

Yan Shiqiu had just finished his scene. Hearing this, he looked at him and joked: “Sure, but I’m very strict. You need to be mentally prepared.”

Xia Linqiu patted his chest: “No problem.”

“Anyway, you definitely can’t be scarier than our homeroom teacher.” He wrinkled his face and complained: “Brother Yan, let me tell you, our homeroom teacher always has this grim reaper expression, stern and fierce all the time, and he appears out of nowhere. Last time…”

Fu Baiqing happened to walk by and caught part of this, immediately joining in like he’d found his tribe, chattering with Xia Linqiu: “My high school homeroom teacher was scary too. He’d call on me several times every day, but he couldn’t do anything about me, hahaha—”

Xia Linqiu was shocked, then asked with a “teach me your ways” expression: “Why?”

Fu Baiqing was smug, his tail practically reaching the sky: “Because I had good grades.”

Xia Linqiu: “…”

No more love. Goodbye!

Xia Linqiu had joined the crew late and needed to catch up quickly. After only talking with Yan Shiqiu for a few minutes, he was led away by the director’s assistant to get into makeup and shoot his costume test photos.

After that, he had to come back to film.

Three consecutive scenes from afternoon to evening.

Yan Shiqiu had no night scenes today. At 6:30, after finishing his last scene, he left the set.

Walking out the main gate, just as he was about to head to the parking lot, he suddenly saw six young girls gathered together, craning their necks to peer inside the gate.

They were fans waiting outside.

Fans waiting outside the set like this were very common. There were some every day. Previously there had been even more people; not even the blazing sun could stop them. But since Ji Yunnian wrapped, the numbers had decreased.

He withdrew his gaze and planned to leave, but the girls saw him and all showed expressions of pleasant surprise.

One of the girls quickly walked toward him: “Excuse me, are you Yan Shiqiu?”

Yan Shiqiu smiled politely: “You know me?”

The girl immediately beamed with joy, excitedly saying: “Yes, yes! We really like you, we’re your fans!”

Another girl ran over and continued: “We came together during summer vacation to see you. Yan Yan, you’re even better looking in person!”

Not expecting that they were waiting for him, Yan Shiqiu was astonished, his eyes widening in disbelief as he asked again: “You’re my fans?”

The two girls giggled and said in unison: “Yan Yan, you’re so cute!”

The other four girls laughed along too.

Yan Shiqiu was rarely embarrassed, his ears turning slightly red.

He was just… very surprised.

At the same time, he was extremely happy inside.

Even though he’d had many fans in his previous life, he was still very pleased now. These girls were the first batch of fans he’d encountered since crossing over to this world.

In their eyes as they looked at him was unreserved adoration.

The girls all took out autograph boards from their backpacks and handed them to him: “Yan Yan, could you sign these for us?”

Yan Shiqiu took them and signed his name.

After getting his autographs, the girls hugged their signed boards contentedly and said to him: “Yan Yan, keep going! We’ll always support you.”

“Thank you.” His eyes were smiling as he said this seriously.