Chapter 265: This Is Magic!

On this day, Meng Jie finally realized just how intense the infighting around Bai Liang truly was.

Previously, she thought if she just avoided those two new Jiangnan "demons," she could sneakily eat her own leftovers in private.

After all, her little hedgehog belonged only to her~

Besides, no one else would ever call it that.

This time, she assumed it would be no different, especially with her best friend covering for her.

But she was wrong.

Higher-dimensional infighting was not something she could meddle in—step in, and you'd get shredded.

Yet even the lower-tier "battle" intensity was far from the harmonious, friendly atmosphere she'd imagined.

On the first day of shooting The Qing Dynasty Years, Li Xin radiated an icy, aloof aura that warned everyone to keep their distance—she wasn't targeting anyone. Well, she was targeting everyone.

What the hell, this set's got too many "fairies"~

She'd originally thought there was just Li Yitong.

Her situation? Not a big problem.

After all, they were half-sisters by different fathers and mothers; if they needed to promote each other later, a silent understanding on set wouldn't hurt.

But when she saw the trailer scene, she finally realized something was off—surrounded by wolves!

Bai Liang had truly become Tang Sengrou, and every female fairy wanted a bite, right?

Lucky for her, they were all at a level she could actually fight back against—so naturally, she'd show her stance and give them a taste of her temper.

Thus, this attitude of hers only surfaced when she was with Bai Liang, making every other girl afraid to approach.

But outsiders, unaware of the truth, thought she had some kind of conflict with the male lead, Bai Liang.

Because of this, the executive producer, Chen Yinjie, personally came to talk to her.

Under Li Xin's bewildered expression, the producer gave her a long, gentle pep talk, then finally said: "Don't let your mindset go off track—shoot the drama well, and don't let problems spill over from off-screen to on-screen, alright?"

Li Xin: "Producer Chen, why not be more explicit?"

Producer: "What's going on between you and Bai Liang? Are you two fighting? Look, you young people—bedroom fights, bedroom reconciliation—don't bring petty emotions into your work."

"Bedroom fights, bedroom reconciliation"—he'd outright assumed Li Xin and Bai Liang had an "improper" romantic relationship.

Or rather, everyone on set "knew" this already.

Before, Bai Liang had let Li Xin cling to him like this—even most couples wouldn't dare.

So it wasn't hard to deduce they had some deep, complicated connection.

Though she knew it was a misunderstanding, this whole exchange still left Li Xin slightly chilled.

They sounded like they were offering kind advice, but beneath the words lay another meaning: You're unhappy? Fine—but if Bai Liang becomes unhappy because of you…

Li Xin quickly insisted she and Bai Liang had an excellent relationship—no bedroom fights, no, they were utterly affectionate, it was all a misunderstanding; she was just protecting her food on set.

There was no choice—though blunt, the producer's words were terrifying enough.

Li Xin had no doubt that if she truly clashed with Bai Liang, the production team would unhesitatingly replace her as the female lead.

Put bluntly—even if Bai Liang was in the wrong, you still had to endure it!

What? He's bullying you? Then why not just posture properly and make it easier for him to bully you?

Of course, all this was Li Xin's own overactive imagination—girls, after all, tend to swing to extremes emotionally.

The producer's attitude certainly wasn't that vile, and the consequences weren't that severe.

But Li Xin insisted on thinking this way anyway.

And then… she found a reason to justify it to herself.

Often, people need just one seemingly noble excuse to convince themselves of anything.

Just like Lin Wan'er in The Qing Dynasty Years.

In truth, Li Xin's main worry before joining the cast had always been: how to find her own presence and standout moments in this male-led drama.

It was hard.

On one hand, her screen time was limited—she was billed as the female lead, but her scenes might not even match those of a few male supporting roles.

On the other hand, Lin Wan'er's so-called female lead archetype was a damn male-oriented harem novel trope!

The male lead's lawful wife—she was gentle, considerate, non-competitive, beautiful yet frail and perpetually ill, pouring her entire existence into the male lead.

Her thin characterization made it impossible to imagine what she did when she wasn't by the male lead's side.

Even her characterization paled next to Fan Ruoruo, her younger sister.

A beautiful, polished, thoughtless doll.

She wasn't the only one troubled by this—the director was too.

How to shoot it?

Hiding under the incense altar eating a chicken leg, discovered by the male lead—they fall in love at first sight.

But Li Xin gave the director a bizarre answer: she didn't act sweet, innocent, or pure—instead, she unconsciously used her most famous acting style from before.

Beautiful, strong, tragic.

Of course, "strong" might be dropped—but she amplified the "tragic" aspect immensely.

That heartbreaking, pitiful aura—when filmed, the footage was absolutely perfect!

You immediately felt this girl was pitiful—she just wanted to eat a chicken leg, what had she done wrong?

Li Xin, though heavily praised by the director, wasn't particularly happy.

No way—Jin Cheng and the others kept hovering around her; how could she be happy?

But precisely because of those annoying figures, she gained a slight breakthrough in her acting—she now had a clear grasp of how to portray Lin Wan'er.

Since her screen time was limited, she'd perfect one single trait to its extreme!

"What's wrong? You've got a weird expression~" Bai Liang asked casually.

Li Xin rolled her eyes at him. "I'm going to write the word 'miserable' on your leg!"

"Don't mess around, I'm wearing white~"

"Mm, especially handsome!" Li Xin said very sincerely.

Men like looking at beauties, and women like looking at handsome guys too—mood can get so much better~

"As long as Wan'er likes it~"

Hey~ so now you're getting into character too, huh!

But Li Xin rested her chin on her hand and thought: although the script had been adapted and wasn't as exaggerated as a male-protagonist harem novel, in the drama there were actually quite a lot of women connected to Fan Xian—flirtations, scandals. From Si Lili to Haitang Duoduo, and even a Zhan Doudou~

And outside the drama it was even more outrageous. Inside the drama at most there was just a little flirtation, but outside the drama these girls were truly eyeing him hungrily.

At this point, who can even tell the difference between in-drama and out-of-drama~

So... she really is going to play Lin Wan'er?

Bai Liang: "Only for the filming period of this drama, otherwise it really wouldn't be your turn, miss."

Lies don't hurt people; the truth is the sharp blade.

When she glanced sideways at Bai Liang again, Li Xin's eyes seemed to hold some entanglement and helplessness.

To be honest, she felt that if she asked Bai Liang questions like "do you like me" or "do you love me," he would definitely give her a very beautiful answer.

But the question was whether it was real or fake?

But sometimes, true feelings change in an instant, while pretense lasts longer.

Li Xin's gaze gradually softened. She gave Bai Liang a light hum: "Did you bring champagne?"

"Huh? Don't, you still have to film. What if you suddenly can't get out of bed later?"

"That kind from last time was a limited edition—do you really think I'm that perverted?!"

"My bad, I prepared a whole case." Bai Liang hurriedly apologized.

Good, good, good—words of concern plus apology on the lips, but behind the scenes he'd long since prepared everything. Men!

But speaking of last time, Li Xin's heart skipped a beat too, and she instinctively turned her head to glance at Li Yitong not far away.

The other party seemed to sense it and tossed her gaze back over—a pair of curved smiling eyes, so endearing it was beyond words.

But Li Xin thought rather "darkly": if they got stacked together, could she still smile this brightly?

Of course, not stacking would be best, but she felt she probably couldn't refuse...

A few days after filming began, the cast had a group dinner.

Guo Qilin buried his head and ate ravenously, as if his eyes only held the table full of food.

At this stage, the actors who had joined the set were all young, so logically speaking everyone shouldn't have much of a generation gap and could get along very pleasantly.

That was indeed the case.

The biggest name, Bai Liang, didn't put on airs. Since he was like this, naturally none of the others dared to throw their weight around—the overall atmosphere of the entire "Joy of Life" crew was quite good.

But then again, unlike the others, Guo Qilin had always been very observant and had long noticed something was off.

Looking at those few girls beside Bai Liang, he truly admired the top-tier celebrity his master had introduced.

Absolutely amazing in every way!

Acting and all that aside—universally acknowledged as excellent, with a stellar reputation in the industry.

Just the fact that, in order to compensate for the harem's disappearance caused by the script adaptation, he ended up starting a harem right on set—that alone was enough for Guo Qilin to admire him for a lifetime.

The most crucial thing was, not a single one of these young ladies caused any trouble.

Or rather, they did cause trouble, but Bai Liang "suppressed" it with extremely strong tactics and ability.

Bai Liang: Huh? There's such a thing?

He actually felt that the young ladies got along quite pleasantly with each other.

Jin Cheng actually wasn't that much of a troublemaker—she was very smart. Even when she "fought and provoked" to someone's face, she could make up for it afterward.

That time on Mango TV when she went at Nazha's face—simply genius!

As for Li Yitong, the evil little kitty had always been very good at hiding herself. She seemed to put most of her thoughts into studying her character, looking like she treasured this opportunity. Both on and off set she was cute and adorable all day, as harmless as a milk kitten.

Li Xin needed no further explanation—she had found a reason on her own and achieved self-consistency.

As for Meng Jie? Her thought process had always been rather strange, and she was a "regretting-the-breakup" type. After figuring out her stance, she actually felt a sense of relief.

She even felt a bit of gratitude—thank goodness her current identity wasn't Bai Liang's girlfriend.

Otherwise god knows how much pressure there would be. With all those "monsters and demons," her small frame couldn't possibly handle it.

So young, not tough enough in her methods, not ruthless enough at heart, not dark enough in the tricks she came up with, unable to throw away her face and throw a tantrum...

What she was facing now was only post-90s young ladies; if she really ran into those "seductive sluts," she'd probably be in trouble immediately.

Of course, others might classify her into that "seductive slut" bad-woman category—after all, her looks were rather alluring.

But looking like this wasn't her fault~

So... Meng Jie really wanted to say to Li Xin: sis, please stop staring at me like that, I'm a little scared.

Li Xin: I don't care, I just feel like you look exactly like the gorgeous villainous female second lead in a TV drama—your methods and scheming are vicious.

Jin Cheng, that crazy woman, only does abstract nonsense, but Meng Ziyi always gave her the feeling that she'd quietly cook up some big news and then smile wickedly at her.

Although last time at the Weibo Night Gala she had overheard Meng Ziyi chatting with Chen Yao, and it didn't sound like the scheming bad-woman type.

No errors, no duplicates, no missing content—read it all here!

But subconsciously, that face of hers just felt like a huge threat.

However, the current calm was actually only superficial—any of these girls could start causing trouble at any moment.

A girl's mind is like the sea—sometimes it changes in an instant.

So, after dinner, naturally the choice was karaoke.

Actively proposed by Meng Jie.

The others didn't think anything was wrong, but only Bai Liang and Li Yitong's expressions changed.

Bai Liang: So this is how Meng Jie punishes him? How vicious. I'll arrange for her to play mahjong with Chen Daoming later!

Though the funny thing was, once the other young male actors in the troupe arrived at the place, they each quickly found an excuse to slip away.

Not a single one was a fool.

"I'm going out to use the restroom."

"I'm going out to use the restroom too!"

Just as Bai Liang stood up, Li Yitong followed right behind him.

Which drew suspicious looks from Li Xin and Jin Cheng.

That fool Jin Cheng came right out with: "Are you two going off to sneak a kiss?"

But Li Yitong wasn't flustered at all, and even smiled at the two of them: "You'll find out soon enough."

Li Xin:???

This little kitten who'd been a bit timid since joining the troupe—how did she suddenly perk up? Dropping the act?

Honestly, based on Li Yitong's behavior in the troupe, she was almost starting to suspect the girl had nothing to do with Bai Liang after all.

And at this moment, Meng Jie, who had long since picked up her microphone and was ready, opened her mouth!

Within just a few lines of lyrics, Jin Cheng and Li Xin understood why those two had "run off."

See, who'd be that brazen about sneaking off for some intimacy?

Turns out they were "dodging disaster," weren't they?

Despicable!

Li Xin and Jin Cheng also really wanted to dodge, but Meng Jie was singing with such feeling, and the two of them felt that if everyone left, it really wouldn't look great.

So they could only tough it out and sit there listening to the "jade-voice broadcast."

As they listened, Jin Cheng couldn't help pulling up the original singer, and instantly discovered that this song's original tune was actually like this~

But something even scarier happened.

Even with the original playing, it didn't affect Meng Jie's own rhythm at all.

Because of this, neither of the two noticed that the time those two had been out seemed to be a bit longer.

"Oh no, my stockings tore, what do I do?!"

"Don't worry, just take them off."

"I came out wearing stockings, and when I go back the stockings are gone—Meng Jie will definitely notice!"

"Don't be afraid, I have a way~"

An encrypted conversation from the KTV restroom.

After Li Yitong and Bai Liang came back, Li Xin glanced over, feeling something seemed off, but couldn't pinpoint exactly what.

By comparison, Jin Cheng spotted the flaw at a glance!

"Tongtong, you—"

"Shut it!" Li Yitong bared her teeth and threatened in a low voice.

At this moment, the evil little kitten finally seemed to show her "fangs."

Jin Cheng:... scared, scared~

But that didn't stop her from giving Li Yitong a thumbs-up—girl, you really do big things without a peep, your guts are way bigger than she imagined.

"Just singing is boring, come on, let me do some magic for you~"

Bai Liang's words immediately drew the girls' attention.

"You know magic too?!"

"Know a little~ During the Spring Festival Gala rehearsal, I chatted with a few magicians and picked up a few tricks. Come on, hand me a deck of cards! Then pick a card."

The magic Bai Liang performed certainly wasn't anything fancy—it really was just a few tricks he'd picked up on the spot from the magicians at the Spring Festival Gala.

But fooling these few girls was more than enough.

Because these tricks were originally the kind of sleight-of-hand card techniques perfect for picking up girls at bars.

"Wow! How did you do that?!" Mencius's eyes went wide, looking utterly unable to comprehend no matter how she thought about it.

"There's something even better coming."

Seeing the buildup was about right, Bai Liang began preparing his "big move."

"Watch closely, I'm throwing this whole hand of cards away."

With a flutter, flowers scattered from heaven.

The girls stared intently at the hand he was spreading the cards from, seemingly wanting to see what he'd produce.

Then at that moment, Bai Liang extended his other hand: "A pair of stockings... whose stockings have gone missing?"

"For real?!"

Meng Jie hurriedly looked down at herself—oh~ she was wearing pants, but the other three were all wearing skirts.

Li Xin also widened her eyes, looking at Li Yitong's bare legs: "I remember you came wearing stockings, didn't you?"

Li Yitong froze for a beat, then nodded vigorously: "Right! Those are really my stockings?! Oh my, give them back quick..."

She snatched the stockings straight from Bai Liang's hand, then "accidentally" "tore" them in the process.

Mencius and Li Xin were genuinely dumbfounded, clapping hard for Bai Liang.

This is even more amazing than Liu Qian!

He actually made the stockings off someone's legs disappear—amazing!

Bai Liang's long-standing treasure-boy image finally played a huge role at this moment.

These two girls thought it was perfectly reasonable that his magic was so good!

Meng Jie even clung to Bai Liang, trying to get him to reveal the magic trick.

Bai Liang's answer was, naturally: "It won't work if I tell you~"

Jin Cheng, who knew everything:. WTF? That works too?

Li Yitong gave her a look—fierce as hell.

It scared her into a shiver, and she hurriedly joined in the applause, then hollered, "Great immortal, if you've got the skill, make my panties disappear!"

"I can tell with my ass you definitely didn't wear any today—don't even think about setting that trap on me."

That one sentence shifted Meng Jie and Li Xin's attention back onto Jin Cheng again.

They figured this crazy woman Jin Cheng—could she really not have worn any? And how did Bai Liang know?

Cornered and helpless, Jin Cheng could only pull the move of lifting her own skirt again to prove her innocence.

Bai Liang: A little trick for lifting girls' skirts—now THAT'S magic! —

Third watch done, begging for monthly tickets!

(End of chapter)