Chapter 158

Wu Jing asked Bai Liang for recommendations of female leads; the question sounded like mere politeness.

But since he'd asked, Bai Liang wasn't going to indulge him.

"Let me check~"

Saying this, he pulled out his phone, as if about to start "flipping through the list."

"There really is one!" Wu Jing's eyes lit up—he wasn't just being polite; if Bai Liang had a capable actress available as a replacement, he'd be delighted.

After all, filming for *Wolf Warrior 2* was just around the corner; such last-minute replacements were like firefighters rushing in, especially given the harsh shooting conditions.

Wu Jing himself was mentally scanning through old friends who might help—this kind of favor wasn't something you asked of anyone but a close friend!

At this point, you didn't get to pick—you grabbed whoever you could get.

"How's she?"

"I'll check if she's this pretty—can she handle the hardship, all delicate and dainty?" Wu Jing, a straight-up guy, jumped to conclusions.

"Don't rush—there are several others; we still need to check if they're available."

Bai Liang understood well—he picked out the least-known girls from his WeChat Moments.

After all, only the obscure ones might have open schedules.

Someone like Na Zha or Sister Reba—you could bet their schedules were booked clear into next year, impossible to free up.

The best candidate was naturally Meng Jie, because she was the most obscure, scraping by in the worst way.

Li Yitong wasn't much better; she'd complained to Bai Liang in past chats that she'd have to wait a long time before joining a new set.

She'd always thought it absurd that Bai Liang had landed so many roles before *Micro Love* made him famous.

Just as Bai Liang was about to call Meng Jie, his phone rang first.

Caller ID: Na Zha.

"Hey~ I saw on your Weibo you wrapped and left the set—where are you?"

As soon as he answered, Na Zha's eager voice came through, leaving Bai Liang slightly puzzled: "I'm eating—what's up?"

In the past, Na Zha would've chatted aimlessly for ages, but now she only wanted his exact location!

"Send me your location—I'm coming over right now, okay?"

Na Zha's voice on the other end was soft and sweet, tinged with unmistakable urgency.

"But I'm in Beijing~"

"I'm here too!"

What a coincidence?

"Let me ask the guy I'm drinking with."

"Sure, why not? If it's your friend, just bring him along," Wu Jing said generously.

So Bai Liang asked Na Zha if she minded others being there.

Na Zha paused, "Who are you eating with?"

"A poor unlucky guy."

"A poor unlucky guy?"

"Yeah—he's got to sleep with the director's wife just to land this movie, the project's full of nonsense, pays nothing—how unlucky is that?"

"Pfft~" Na Zha laughed on the other end, "That's kinda sad!"

Wu Jing:???

He wanted to curse—what did "sleep with the director's wife" even mean?! Like he'd sacrificed his looks!

But upon second thought, it wasn't really wrong.

Bai Liang didn't overthink it—he sent Na Zha his current location and told Sister Yanzi to pick her up when she arrived.

"Is this the female lead you're getting for me?" Wu Jing, eavesdropping for ages, finally caught on.

"Her? She's super famous! Can you even afford her fee?"

Bai Liang's offhand remark delivered a heavy blow to the "poor guy."

"You little brat!"

Provoked, Wu Jing grew defiant—even though he'd just kicked out the original female lead over a few hundred thousand yuan raise, he now couldn't admit he couldn't pay.

Money was secondary—he couldn't stand last-minute price hikes!

A man's pride couldn't tolerate being treated like a fool—last-minute hikes felt like disrespect—how could anyone take that?!

Someone like Bai Liang, who skyrocketed overnight and stayed on trending lists for ages—even Wu Jing's wife, Xie Nan, knew of him and had asked in surprise: "How much did you pay him for the second male lead?"

Back then, Wu Jing had worried Bai Liang would pull the same stunt—he knew the commercial value and price gap between before and after *Micro Love* was huge, even if the time gap was short.

But after half a month of worry, Bai Liang didn't even acknowledge him.

He'd only asked about the exact shooting schedule and role details before *Three Lives, Three Worlds* wrapped.

This made Wu Jing feel guilty—he thought Bai Liang had been seriously shortchanged, so he proactively offered a higher profit share.

Yeah, that's male pride.

"No matter how big a star you find, big brother's got it covered!"

"Should I contact Yang Mi or Zhao Liying?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, Xiao Bai, calm down!"

Even though Yang Mi and Xiao Zhao were now TV actresses, they certainly weren't cheap!

Wu Jing wasn't afraid of Bai Liang bluffing—he was terrified he'd actually do it. The embarrassment would be unbearable.

"No one? What about Da Bao Bei?" Bai Liang thought—his contacts still had this top-tier female star.

Wu Jing's expression turned comical—damn, he'd just tried to pull a free ride on Bai Liang, and now this kid was trying to bury him alive?

"Bro Bai! Bro Bai!"

Now he was truly panicked—he genuinely feared Bai Liang would pull out some great treasure like magic and scare him to death.

"Ah, no, I'm pregnant."

Bai Liang scrolled through his Moments and happened to see Dou Xiao Bai post a photo of her bare belly, prominently bulging.

"Really? Let me see~ I'm planning to have a second child with my wife soon too."

"Then you should pay attention to a few things—I'll tell you."

The two enthusiastically discussed for a long time about wives giving birth and having a second child.

At first Wu Jing didn't notice anything odd, until he looked at Bai Liang's overly youthful face.

Sss. How the hell do you know more about this than I do?!

His experience was so extensive, it was as if he'd fathered several children with his wife.

Although he'd heard of Bai Liang's reputation as a "treasure god" and "great immortal," he never imagined his knowledge extended to this level!

Now Wu Jing suspected Bai Liang had married young and fathered children in secret!

The reason he was so shocked was that China's entertainment industry hadn't yet evolved to the "suddenly appearing child" advanced version.

Everyone was still stuck on the old version: dating, marriage—that sort of thing.

He didn't pretend anymore and asked outright, even smiling sweetly: "Should I give your kid a Lunar New Year red envelope? How many should I prepare?"

"Why don't you give me a Lunar New Year red envelope instead? I don't have kids yet, but I myself am kind of a kid now."

Bai Liang thought this made sense—his grandmother had always treated him like a child, and she gave him huge red envelopes every year~

"Get lost, you just sounded like you've had kids before."

"I do have that idea, but no girl's willing to cooperate so far." Just then, a girl arrived~

Na Zha fully armed crept stealthily into the restaurant where Bai Liang and Wu Jing were dining.

And Sister Yanzi had already been waiting below for a long time.

She wasn't the least surprised to see Na Zha, because it was she who had given Bai Liang's whereabouts in Yanjing.

More precisely, Na Zha had specifically asked Sister Yanzi after seeing the wrap-up announcement.

Otherwise, even if Na Zha were a god, she couldn't have instantly teleported from Shanghai to Yanjing.

After greeting each other, Sister Yanzi curiously asked: "Sister Na Zha, why didn't you just ask me for the address? Didn't you say you wanted to surprise Xiao Bai Ge?"

"I changed my mind—I wanted to tell him directly that I'm coming to find him!"

Excellent! Very impressive!

Sister Yanzi compared Na Zha with Sister Reba and found it hard to judge who was better—each had advantages and disadvantages; this tough decision was left to her own Xiao Bai Ge.

"But don't you have any shoots lately? Weren't you super busy before?"

"My sister canceled all my shoots for the next three months! Even turned down a TV drama!" added the junior assistant, mainly worried her sister wouldn't dare say it herself.

Sss.

Sister Yanzi was impressed; a phrase suddenly popped into her mind: Brave people enjoy the world first.

!. Read

Na Zha is too fierce!

Her hometown friend Sister Reba will soon face a packed schedule; even seeing Bai Liang once may be a luxury.

Although Sister Reba is far ahead of Na Zha in her career, Na Zha's behavior is something she could never do.

"Director Wu Jing, hello, I'm Gu Li Na Zha, a friend of Bai Liang's."

Before entering, Na Zha's courage had been incredibly intimidating.

But after stepping into the private room, that aura vanished instantly.

Handsome for less than three seconds.

How to put it? A girl's inner world is always complicated.

When making sacrifices, she wants the other person to know how much she cares, yet fears her actions will burden them too much.

Freeing up her schedule was her own choice—she didn't want Bai Liang to feel guilty about it.

She politely greeted Wu Jing, then sat demurely beside Bai Liang and poured him wine.

Throughout this, she didn't glance at Wu Jing once—her big eyes seemed glued to Bai Liang.

Still, her ears were sharp; listening to their conversation, she began to sense something was off.

Huh?!

She cleared her schedule hoping to spend quality time with Bai Liang, but now this guy was being lured by this big-browed Wu Jing to Africa to shoot a movie?

Wu Jing:???

He had a strange, inexplicable feeling—had this "friend" of Bai Liang just glared at him?

The girl's pretty fierce.

Actually, since Na Zha entered, Wu Jing had stopped mentioning anything about recommending a female lead.

He wasn't an idiot—he wouldn't ask a young girl clearly close to Bai Liang to recommend other girls to him.

Especially since she was so "fierce"—what if his little brother got beaten up later?

After all, these days, domestic violence isn't just men beating women.

Bai Liang looked harmless, almost like the type who gets bullied at home by women.

But he didn't bring it up—yet Bai Liang brought it up himself: "Oh right, I still need to ask about the female lead. I'll make two calls to check."

"Little brother, no rush, no rush—we can talk about it later."

Wu Jing grabbed Bai Liang's hand as he reached for his phone, frantically signaling him.

"Female lead?" Na Zha blinked her eyes, suddenly interested in this topic.

So Bai Liang told her about the sudden pay raise for the female lead of Wolf Warrior 2.

"Are you acting together?" Na Zha asked, pursing her lips.

Wu Jing was about to answer—after all, as director and lead actor, this question was clearly his to handle.

But he realized Na Zha was staring straight at Bai Liang, completely ignoring him.

"Probably~"

"Can I act in it? I can audition right now," Na Zha pleaded.

She didn't even care what role the female lead was, because it didn't matter at all.

"Do you have availability?" Wu Jing became interested, but also asked the most important question.

"Yes!"

Na Zha's tone was especially firm.

An audition was obviously out of the question.

Who lets someone's "friend" perform a scene while everyone's drinking?

Wu Jing felt that would be slapping Bai Liang right in the face.

Like going to a friend's house and asking his wife to dance—would that be appropriate?

Besides, Na Zha was too straightforward! Wu Jing loved this kind of directness; he'd had a great time drinking tonight, and right there at the table, he made the decision on the spot.

Of course, it was only a verbal agreement—the specific contract details would still need further review.

Thanks to Bai Liang, Wu Jing could now actually afford to pay Na Zha's salary.

He said he could use Bai Liang's name to "scam" a bit more investment—these days, a celebrity's name still carried weight!

The salary would be at most a few million; the surplus could go toward increasing the production budget.

But when Na Zha learned Bai Liang was taking a percentage, she immediately said she had money too and could bring investment to the project.

Her reasoning was simple: this movie looked so underfunded—she didn't want the budget to run out and the final quality to tank, damaging Bai Liang's commercial value.

Wu Jing: Sometimes he really didn't understand love-struck people.

He didn't understand—but he was utterly stunned!

He didn't pay a single cent to get a fairly famous, high-flow actress—and she was paying him.

Wow wow wow~

At the same time, Bai Liang felt the way she looked at him seemed almost envious?

But there was a problem: Na Zha wasn't some unknown actor; even if she had availability, she couldn't stay on set the whole time.

Likewise, Bai Liang was currently so hot that Wu Jing couldn't reasonably keep him on set for long—especially since he had to join "Ride the Wind and Break the Waves" in October.

The shooting priority for both of them had to be moved to the very front.

That meant the shooting schedule needed to be adjusted to some extent.

That night, Wu Jing, drunk again as Bai Liang had predicted, went to sleep with the director of "Wolf Warrior 2"'s wife.

Before leaving, he made a bold declaration: Tonight, he'd be getting a second child!

He hoped he wouldn't be thrown off the bed by Xie Nan.

Meanwhile, Na Zha, "her wish fulfilled," grinned and propped her chin on her hand, staring at Bai Liang: "We'll be filming together again~"

"Won't your little savings be drained now?"

Bai Liang thought: What a fool with dumb luck—by the time "Wolf Warrior 2" releases next year, this little girl might be able to buy Tangchen Yipin outright.

"I've made a lot of money since last year! I'm really good!" Na Zha hurriedly said, thinking Bai Liang was worried she was broke.

"Then go pay the bill and show it—today's meal was my treat."

"Sure~"

Watching Na Zha scamper off to pay, Sister Yanzi was somewhat impressed.

You really are something, Xiao Bai—Na Zha was already dumb enough.

No way—I'll have to keep a close eye on "Wolf Warrior 2" now; it's not just Bai Liang's share anymore—it's Na Zha's money too!

If this damn movie doesn't hit a billion, Sister Yanzi thought, she might impulsively go online and hire trolls to trash Wu Jing.

—

Another chapter later.

(End of Chapter)