WAM CH13

It took only a few seconds for the call to connect. The person on the other end answered crisply and cleanly with a single word: “Hello.”

Shao Si had a habit when answering the phone; the pitch of his voice would drop when saying ‘hello’.

The first time Li Guangzong called him, he was genuinely intimidated. How could someone sound so punchable just answering the phone?

However, Gu Yanzhou was clearly much stronger than his useless manager.

Shao Si took the candy out of his mouth, twirling it between his fingers, and heard Gu Yanzhou tell him concisely: “Don’t act recklessly.”

Gu Yanzhou’s voice was universally recognized as a deep, resonant ‘subwoofer’. When filming, he basically never needed post-production dubbing for his lines; his vocal control was incredibly strong.

Except, when this man’s voice came through the phone, carried by the electric current and drilling into Shao Si’s ear with utmost clarity, it made him feel a little ticklish.

An itch in his heart.

He roughly understood what the legendary ‘subwoofer killer’ was all about.

“What do you mean act recklessly? I didn’t act recklessly.” The taste in his mouth fading, Shao Si popped the candy back in.

Gu Yanzhou ignored him. He was currently standing by his nanny van, letting the wind blow past him as he said straightforwardly: “Don’t get too close to him. If anything comes up, contact Officer Wang.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t accept anything he gives you, and avoid any dinners or social gatherings if you can.”

“Mhm.”

“Be careful yourself.”

Shao Si narrowed his eyes, rolled over in the backseat, and gave another ‘mhm’.

These few sentences by his ear were extremely cold, exactly identical to the Gu Yanzhou in his perception.

“Is there anything else?” Gu Yanzhou turned around, preparing to hang up. “If not, I’m hanging up.”

“Wait.”

Shao Si opened his mouth to stop him. Actually, he wanted to ask, ‘Do you hate me a lot?’ but the words took a detour at his lips and turned into: “…Have you had lunch?”

…

“I’ve eaten.”

After receiving those three words, Shao Si stared at the phone screen displaying ‘Call Ended’ for a long time.

[You really don’t know how to chat. Aren’t you usually pretty good at sweet-talking?] The system spoke casually without a care in the world. [Look at how cold his face is.]

[…You’re so annoying.]

[I’m just kindly giving you feedback on the recent situation. Starting with Yang Yinyin, you’ve been acting like a protagonist who lost his golden finger.]

[When have I ever had a golden finger? What is a golden finger? You? You half-cripple?]

[…]

The system, roasted as part of its daily routine, forcibly defended itself: [Although I only ever spout useless nonsense, my heart that loves you is true.]

Shao Si opened Honor of Kings, which he hadn’t played in a long time, looking completely apathetic.

[Actually, I’ve been thinking these past two days: did you offend Gu Yanzhou at some point?] The system usually kept disappearing just because its current internal configuration was simply too broken, so it was a rare occurrence for it to come online. [I looked up information on this person, and from what I gathered, he seems to be a massive ‘warm guy’.]

[I’ve thought about this question too, but thinking about it is useless.]

Shao Si massaged his brow and continued: […I’m face-blind. Before this, I didn’t remember his face at all.]

The twenty minutes passed quickly. Shao Si tidied himself up and went back to keep Liu Qi company in her endless NGs.

However, before doing so, Shao Si handed his phone to Li Guangzong. Before he even said what he wanted him to do, Li Guangzong looked reluctant: “No way, I can’t play your Honor of Kings.”

“…” Shao Si’s facial expression stiffened. “Who told you to play Honor of Kings? Take this and record a video for me later.”

“What do you want a video for?”

How could Shao Si possibly tell him this was a little tactic he prepared to get closer to Gu Yanzhou, just to make starting a random conversation a bit easier?

He ruffled his hair and walked toward the cameras, making up an excuse: “It’s the first time I’ve encountered acting this terrible, I want to keep a memento.”

Liu Qi truly lived up to expectations, getting NG after NG.

Even Li Guangzong, who was secretly recording for Shao Si with the phone, couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

…What on earth is this? Are you here to be a comedian?

Standing in front of the camera, Liu Qi exuded one word from head to toe: ‘awkward’. She recited her lines awkwardly, without a single inflection in her tone, let alone hoping for her facial expressions to move even slightly.

And it was one thing when she didn’t move; the moment she did, it was even more fatal, instantly turning ‘awkward’ into ‘exaggerated’.

“Cut.” The director took two deep breaths and squeezed two words out through his teeth. “Start over.”

Thus, Shao Si returned to his starting position, slowly walked to the center of the shot, and recited that shockingly thunderous line: “Huang Xiaocao, a person like you doesn’t even deserve to breathe the same air under the same sky as this Young Master. St. Peter’s Academy isn’t a place people like you can attend. I advise you to be smart and get the hell out early.”

Liu Qi, with her hair in two braids, stood stiffly at the school gate, craning her neck to express her anger: “Who are you? Why would you say such things?”

The assistant director held a megaphone on the sidelines to remind her: “Besides anger, you also need a bit of greenness. That feeling of a country bumpkin entering an aristocratic school for the first time, do you understand?”

The director quietly patted the assistant director: “Why are you telling her so much… She doesn’t even have anger. I’d thank the heavens and the earth if we just had anger, and we could just make do and pass this take… Look at her craning her neck like that, does she think she’s a goose?”

Liu Qi thus lowered her eyes and twiddled her two fingers around, as if this alone perfectly interpreted the word ‘greenness’.

Li Guangzong put away the phone, completely unable to continue recording.

After this take resulted in yet another NG, Shao Si stood on the sidelines for a while, who knows what he was thinking about.

But looking at this grand master’s expression, Li Guangzong knew it wasn’t good.

Sure enough, Shao Si looked up, walked toward Liu Qi, and gestured to the director and the others, asking if he could speak with Miss Liu alone for a moment.

Naturally, no one stopped him; they knew this meant Shao Si was going to give the newcomer some acting guidance.

“Is it your first time facing the camera, so you’re not quite used to it?”

Shao Si and Liu Qi were walking in the garden of ‘St. Peter’s’ Academy, stopping when they reached a spot with nice scenery.

It’s hard for any girl not to have a favorable impression of a highly attractive boy, and Liu Qi was no exception.

She initially thought Shao Si was as cold as his exterior, but the tone of this sentence was very gentle. Especially with Shao Si looking at her so attentively, it made Liu Qi’s heart flutter.

Perhaps the sunlight was too bright, and this person in front of her was even more dazzling than the sun.

Liu Qi stated her problem without evasion: “Yeah, I… It’s my first time acting, with so many staff members surrounding me, I don’t know why, but I just don’t dare to move.”

“Have you done magazine cover shoots before?”

“Yes, and I’ve shot commercials too, but I did pretty well back then. It was never like this.”

No one knew what the two chatted about, but a few minutes later, they looped back to the school gate. The makeup artist touched up their makeup, and they resumed shooting the frequently NG’d scene.

This time, Liu Qi had a qualitative leap. Although it was still terrible, at least it was watchable…

After the day’s shoot ended, on the way back, Li Guangzong couldn’t help but ask: “What did you say to her? It was so magical.”

“Nothing much,” Shao Si rolled up the window; the wind outside was too strong and gave him a headache. “Just chatted.”

Li Guangzong shot him a sideways glance: “Really? You were flirting, weren’t you?”

Shao Si kicked the back of his seat: “…Flirting my ass. Did you record the video I told you to?”

“Recorded, recorded,” Li Guangzong handed the phone back over his shoulder. “Send me a copy when you get home. This can completely fulfill my quota of laughs for the entire year.”

Shao Si took it and sent a copy straight to Gu Yanzhou.

[Your Son Shao]: Do you know what ‘awkward acting’ is?[Your Son Shao]: [/Video]

After sending it, Shao Si consciously exited WeChat without waiting for a reply. He knew that in all likelihood, he wouldn’t get one right away.

For Grand Master Gu to reply, it would take an hour at the fastest.

However, five minutes later, Shao Si surprisingly received a message notification.

[Gu Yanzhou]: Liu Qi?[Your Son Shao]: Mhm.[Your Son Shao]: Just this segment, NG’d sixteen times.[Gu Yanzhou]: Before the police come up with a strategy, don’t alert the snake in the grass.

…

Shao Si thought to himself: Why is the dynamic between the two of us acting like underground spies now?

“I’m really so curious, what exactly did you say to her?” Li Guangzong rested for a bit and turned his head around again. “Dad, tell me.”

Shao Si propped up his head, flipping the phone back and forth in his palm a couple of times. “What’s there to say? Just chatted casually. It’s her first time acting, she’s not familiar with her partner, of course she’s going to be constrained… I also explained a few basic common-sense issues, like how to find the camera angle…”

After listening, Li Guangzong reached a conclusion: “Invisible flirting is the most fatal.”

Shao Si scoffed in disdain.

Work ended relatively early today; they secretly guessed it might be because the director couldn’t bear to continue shooting either.

However, one thing Gu Yanzhou guessed right: Lu Jiahui really did organize a dinner party, inviting the entire cast and crew to eat.

Except, by the time Lu Jiahui mentioned it, Shao Si had long since left.

Leaving early was the one thing he and his manager were exceptionally unified on.

The earlier the better; going home early to rest was more important than anything else.

So when Lu Jiahui called, Li Guangzong was incredibly awkward. He turned on the speakerphone and nudged Shao Si, signaling him not to speak out of turn. “Ah… we had some matters to attend to so we left early. We’re really sorry we didn’t say goodbye to you all.”

Lu Jiahui replied on the other end: “It’s fine. I just wanted to say we should all have a meal together, since Qiqi caused you all enough trouble today.”

Listening to this, Shao Si lowered his head and sent Gu Yanzhou another WeChat message.

[Your Son Shao]: Senior Brother Gu, Lu Jiahui is treating everyone to dinner.

This time, Gu Yanzhou replied almost instantaneously.

[Gu Yanzhou]: Don’t go.

Shao Si hooked the corners of his lips and tapped the screen nonchalantly.

[Your Son Shao]: Mhm, I’m brushing him off right now.

…This feeling of being an underground spy was getting stronger and stronger.

As Shao Si listened to Lu Jiahui babbling on the phone, he thought to himself, What kind of mess is this.