Chapter 30: The Registration Fee Has Already Been Paid

Perhaps because Jiang Jinfu's lawsuit was still making a huge splash, *Chinese Paladin: Yun of Swords* didn't hold any grand opening ceremony or press conference.

It quietly and stealthily started principal photography.

The crew kept things pretty locked down, refusing all interview requests from reporters.

The main reason for doing this was to finish filming quickly and avoid any more unexpected complications.

After all, the male lead Han Dongjun was already under enough pressure — any media outlet looking for drama would, the moment they cornered him, inevitably compare him to Hu Ge, then "kindly" ask if he had any confidence.

Confidence in what, you nosy jerks!

So Han Dongjun went to set every day like a thief on the run — don't even think about spotting him out in public.

It also helped that the two Tang Ren focal figures weren't currently in Hengdian — one, Liu Shishi, was rumored to have already registered her marriage, and the other, Jiang Jinfu, had become a "traitorous ninja" — otherwise you couldn't imagine how chaotic it would be outside the crew.

But that's showbiz for you — every so often, some fresh new drama always pops up.

Just two days after filming began, a portal website broke the news that a hundred male stars had once hired prostitutes in Hengdian and left records on file, including quite a few A-listers.

Once this news dropped, netizens went into a frenzy, all guessing which male stars were involved.

Then a bunch of marketing accounts pointed the finger at Huo Jianhua, even dragging out the nickname "Hengdian Cannon King."

Of course, alongside him were three others, together known as the Four Great Cannon Kings.

This kind of gossip sounds a bit far-fetched — after all, there's no hard evidence to back it up — but it sure does quench one's thirst, that's for sure.

When their crew got together out of boredom, they had to bring it up at least a couple of times, always opening with "Did you know?! I heard..."

Bai Liang found this kind of gossip with no beginning or end a bit boring to chew on, and then couldn't help being curious... is the "delivery service" around Hengdian really that high-end? Or are they all "paratroopers" flown in from elsewhere?

Unfortunately, when it came to knowledge in this area, Nazha refused to educate him.

Push further? Push further and it's "what is a kid asking all this random stuff for?"

She just straight-up demoted him a generation — who could stand that!

The ethical relationship is all messed up~

So he very tactfully stopped pressing, but Nazha seemed to have discovered a new fun game, trying to get Bai Liang to call her "Sister."

"Call me 'Big Brother,' and I'll call you 'Sister,'" Bai Liang said, upholding the principle of equal exchange.

Nazha thought it over for a few seconds, then crisply chirped: "Big Brother~"

Now Bai Liang had no choice but to call her something, and he was straightforward, returning an upgraded version: "Dear Sister."

Nazha: Now I'm comfortable~

"You two flirting again?" Jin Cheng sidled up with a fake grin, opening her mouth with some wild words.

"No... we were just joking." Nazha hurriedly waved her hands, looking every bit like "two hundred taels of silver buried here — no one will steal it."

And Bai Liang looked at Jin Cheng, "You want to hear it too?"

"Big Brother, Big Sister is boring, I like Daddy and Mommy." Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow, indicating she could trash-talk even harder than Nazha, and go further in terms of vulgarity too.

Bai Liang briefly put himself in that scenario, found it a bit too stimulating — even writing it into a novel probably wouldn't pass censorship.

Before he could come up with some clever saucy comeback, a phone call suddenly came in.

It was that bastard Huang Jingyu's harassment call.

He casually hit speakerphone, and a "roar" came through:

"Your uncle's Bai Liang, where the hell did you lead my manager off to?!"

Now he's been upgraded to "uncle"?

"Say goodbye to your Yanzi, she's mine now~ I really like her."

"Get lost!"

"Too loud, apologize to my phone."

"......"

Sister Yanzi: Huh?! Am I really that in demand?

Two handsome guys "fighting over me" — isn't this straight out of a female-targeted romance novel?! Tonight I'll dream in exactly this format!

Of course, she wasn't really "done with" Huang Jingyu — mainly because that guy was tied down by the *Addicted* crew, having signed a contract with a bunch of obligations to fulfill, and there wasn't any other crew he could go to for the time being, so her going over there wouldn't be of much use.

That side was still a small production, tight on budget — couldn't compare to the *Chinese Paladin: Yun of Swords* side, where one more person for room and board was something they wouldn't even blink at.

On top of that, Tang Ren had the intention of signing Bai Liang, so Sister Yanzi felt she naturally had to stay on this side.

Not to mention how much help she could provide — at the critical moment of negotiating terms, as a manager she could at least coordinate with Bai Liang, one playing the good cop and one playing the bad cop.

Sometimes artists can't bring themselves to say things that might offend people, but a manager can.

Even getting into a fight is fine!

But if the artist themselves jumps into the fray personally, some things become impossible to take back.

Sister Yanzi's positioning for herself was... if it really came down to it, she'd play the suicide-truck card, bringing out the same energy she had squabbling with aunties at the vegetable market.

After Bai Liang finished the call, he looked up and found Nazha was already gone.

He gave a questioning look to Jin Cheng, who was sneakily eating his fruit. She had an orange stuffed in her mouth, and after struggling to swallow it, waved her hand and said: "The director called her away. We're filming in separate groups — did you really think you could be together every day so you two could date?"

"We haven't even started dating yet." Bai Liang seriously corrected her imprecise wording.

Jin Cheng rolled her eyes, "You're waiting for her to confess to you?"

"Yep~"

"Bah!"

That topic was immediately shut down — Bai Liang didn't really like chatting with one girl about another girl, especially when he knew both of them.

It was both impolite and not very respectful to Nazha.

Of course, when it came to complete strangers... Bai Liang was still very happy to get together and gossip about them.

For example, at the cast dinner last night, everyone had a good long discussion about the recent topic of Fan Bingbing and Da Heiniu's Weibo announcement of "Us."

Mainly they dug up the matter of Da Heiniu's heart-shaped stone and had a good laugh at his expense.

Time flew by. A week into joining the production, and Bai Liang hadn't filmed a single scene!

Because his part was relatively small, and considering the seamless entry into the production later on, they would let him wrap up together with Han Dongjun and Jin Cheng when the time came.

So compared to the male lead and the second female lead, he naturally had plenty of free time.

Especially Han Dongjun—that guy was busy every single day, practically running himself ragged!

At first he had even made plans with Bai Liang to hit the hotel gym, agreeing to be each other's workout buddy, but just two days later he said he really couldn't hack it anymore, that if he kept working out he might die......

If this were before, that would sound like a joke.

But after what happened with the last production, Bai Liang advised him to get at least ten hours of sleep every day.

Luckily, recently Jin Cheng had caught wind of it and started showing up at the gym, wearing yoga pants and a tight white tank top every day—practically serving as Bai Liang's spiritual pre-workout boost.

Besides that, during the day he didn't just laze around the hotel just because he had no scenes to film; instead, he reported to the set every single day.

That kind of professional attitude couldn't help but make everyone look at him with new respect.

And every day he was there "studying the script"—it was hard to tell what there was about his small part that needed daily research.

But even if he was just putting on a show, at least he could really sit still. That patience reached Cai Yi's ears, making her want him even more.

What a promising seedling, what a promising seedling!

In the eyes of the director and producer, he was a "promising seedling," but to Sister Yanzi, who followed Bai Liang around every day, it all seemed a bit strange.

"Bro, these books you're reading......"

"They're for exams. Oh right, do me a favor and tell the director for me—on the fifteenth and twentieth of this month, I'm afraid I'll need to take some time off. Tell him not to schedule any filming for me on those two days."

"Take time off? What for?"

"I told you already, exams!"

Bai Liang patted the cover of his study materials. "One is this year's Civil Service Exam, the other is the Judicial Examination. I already paid the registration fees, it'd be a waste not to go take them."

Sister Yanzi:???

There's another update tonight—three updates a day, as promised.

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