Chapter 406: The Ceiling-Breaking

After watching Lu Han's livestream, Bai Liang felt Chen Duling was acting strange.

No sharp perception was needed, because her oddness was too obvious—her gaming skill had plummeted.

She could even miss Q.

This directly caused them to lose several consecutive duo matches and drop a large number of ranks.

"Is the movie's aftereffect really that strong? Does it even help with internet addiction?" Bai Liang couldn't help but sigh.

Who would've thought *The Shanghai Fortress* had such a positive side effect?

Chen Duling silently glanced at him, thinking inside: the aftereffect isn't from the movie.

She nervously took a sip of water, biting her lip as she looked at Bai Liang. "Senior, suppose you lost a bet—would you act like him?"

Bai Liang felt like he'd answered this question more than once.

Girls seemed to love asking it.

"A real man keeps his word. Otherwise, who'd ever bet with me again?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Duling nodded, but she didn't ask how Bai Liang would "keep his word."

Instead, she said: "Senior, do you like betting? Let's make a bet too!"

"Ah~" Bai Liang instantly perked up. "What do you want to bet on?"

Chen Duling said nothing, only placed her hand on Bai Liang's thigh.

Bai Liang couldn't help glancing down. For some reason, just seeing her hand made him feel the girl was nervous.

But when he looked up at Chen Duling's face, he nearly burst out laughing.

Utterly serious expression!

Her motion looked like seduction, yet her face seemed like she was solving a math problem.

After waiting about ten seconds, Bai Liang couldn't help asking: "And then?"

"Senior, why aren't you reacting at all?"

"Uh… what reaction should I have?" Bai Liang felt slightly embarrassed—he truly had no idea what the girl was trying to pull.

That's not right!

Chen Duling felt something was off.

During filming, when Bai Liang touched her thigh, just a light stroke made her entire body stiffen; a little higher, and her breathing would quicken.

She still remembered that feeling—the itch rising from deep inside, raising goosebumps all over her skin.

But this trick seemed utterly useless on Bai Liang himself.

Instead, it made Chen Duling feel the strength of his thigh muscles—powerful, solid.

A strange thought popped up: Could he kick me to death with this?

Driven by this odd thought, she grew less nervous, and her small hand slowly traced upward along the muscle lines of his thigh.

At this moment, Chen Duling's expression resembled a female medical student dissecting a white mouse with a scalpel.

Her gaze at Bai Liang seemed infused with scientific rigor.

Summer is a great season.

Because you wear less.

Intimate contact between men and women becomes much simpler.

If it were winter, Chen Duling wouldn't be facing Bai Liang's loose shorts now—she'd be dealing with thermal pants under wool pants, under more thermal pants.

Wool pants?

Bai Liang winced. "Dudu, you're pulling my leg hairs."

"Sorry!"

"Be gentler when you touch."

"Oh, okay~" Chen Duling replied obediently.

But after answering, she finally realized something was wrong—her face flushed crimson.

Only then did Bai Liang speak again: "Is this the bet you wanted to make with me?"

Reaction!

Chen Duling's hand clearly felt Bai Liang's thigh muscle twitch just now.

She couldn't help following that path further—by the time she realized she'd reached the machine gun, it was too late.

Coincidentally, Bai Liang asked the same question at that moment.

In his own mind, he thought: Is this girl that bold? Could she be betting she can make me come just with her hand?

If so, Bai Liang was certain he'd win!

With her hand? He wasn't even impressed.

Even a professional couldn't do it purely by hand—you'd need some weird "black tech."

Chen Duling didn't answer the question at all—the bet was just an excuse; she had no idea what to bet on with Bai Liang.

In fact, the moment she gripped it, she froze completely, her mind going blank.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

Bai Liang sighed. "Forget it. Let me teach you."

If she relied on her own fumbling, it would be the classic "take off but never land" scenario.

Fortunately, he was always a decent teacher—and luckily, Chen Duling was a top student with strong learning ability.

One taught earnestly, one learned diligently—their progress naturally soared.

Bai Liang especially liked the expression on her face.

That intense focus—she didn't seem to be doing anything strange at all, but rather solving a math problem.

Her face was set tight, her gaze resolute.

Isn't this also a kind of contrast~

But there was one small problem—she had leaned in a little too close.

Washing her face, washing her hands. Washing her hair.

Chen Duling stayed in the RV's bathroom for a good half hour or more.

So long that Bai Liang couldn't help but go check twice, mainly worried she might have fainted in there.

But once she came out of the bathroom, she immediately bounced away like a little rabbit.

She darted out of the RV at top speed, vanishing in a flash.

Bai Liang: Sure enough, she only worries about takeoff, not landing.

The other party had taken too long washing up, so he had long since worked himself back up again.

But this little girl teased him and ran, completely disregarding his "fate."

However, the next day, when the two filmed another kissing scene, Chen Duling's performance once again amazed the director.

Not bad, that acting!

When filming that first intimate contact scene before, she had come across so awkward and scared.

At this point in the intimate scene, the feelings between the male and female leads were clearly better, and Chen Duling could actually adjust just right.

That state of having had some intimate and ambiguous contact, but not yet fully... you know, she nailed it perfectly!

He lavished her with praise!

So the question is, how did she do it? Was she really an acting genius no one had noticed before?

Chen Duling said nothing, only washing her hands thoroughly once more during lunch break.

This time she had improved even more, already able to catch that timing~ and dodge in time.

So all it took was washing her hands and she was done.

Speaking of which, in the shooting schedule, Bai Liang and Chen Duling actually had several kissing scenes and intimate scenes.

But how much of this stuff ends up making it into the final cut is hard to say.

The subject subject matter was already pretty sensitive, and the female lead was a Gao Zhongsheng, so it always felt like some of the intimate scenes might still be a bit too much.

But the director team didn't care about that—whether it passes censorship is a matter for later; for now, what needs to be filmed still has to be filmed first.

You two, get intimate for me!

——

Time came to August, and the filming progress of "Better Days" was already past the halfway mark.

And "Ne Zha," which had been dominating all opponents for several days after release, finally ran into a tough nut to crack.

"The Bravest," starring Huang Xiaoming.

This thing was a representative case of the subject matter outweighing the film itself; it had plenty of problems, but its box office performance was indeed not bad.

It actually managed to hold firm against "Ne Zha"'s high pressure, slashing out a first-day box office of over a hundred million yuan.

You have to understand, after Ne Zha's screenings ramped up and it fully exploded, other movies basically had to curl up and take a beating—it was almost replicating the grand spectacle of "Wolf Warrior 2" back then.

Huang Xiaoming really was amazing; it felt like he could always pull off a "forced fifty-fifty" with anyone.

His reputation swung up and down, but he could always hold his ground stubbornly.

Of course, facing a monster like "Ne Zha," Brother Xiaoming was also suffering inside~

Nowadays, main-melody films are the hottest trend of the moment, but why did he have to face a monster-like opponent the moment he arrived?

And which bastard was it that pinned a dubbed animated film onto Bai Liang's head?

Isn't this just harming people!

Originally this thing was already fierce enough, but then it got Bai Liang's boost added on—it felt like it had forcefully filled in the last missing piece: celebrity buzz.

And the absolute top-tier traffic star at that!

A player with Director Jiao Zi's personality clearly wasn't the type to do flashy stuff or create variety-show effects.

Up to now, there was only one Duan Zi about "Shen Shen Gongbao's special effects artist."

Unlike Guo Fan, who just with the title of "Cyber Succubus" alone made an enormous splash.

All kinds of behind-the-scenes filming stories, and how he "extorted" various contestants—everyone who came had to fork something over—plus the most important "getting Bai Liang for free with empty hands." All this behind-the-scenes stuff was enough to entertain the audience.

In this regard, Director Jiao Zi's gap with Guo Fan was still fairly large; fortunately, Bai Liang filled in these tasks for him.

So, today Huang Xiaoming was out there doing roadshows, brimming with confidence, ready to roll up his sleeves and have a proper clash with "Ne Zha."

But just as the roadshow ended, his assistant silently handed over a phone.

"What's up?" Huang Xiaoming said, puzzled.

"The story behind 'Ne Zha.'"

Hearing this, his heart skipped a beat, and he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Sure enough, on the trending search at that moment was the full story of how Director Jiao Zi had hoodwinked Bai Liang's mom.

This wasn't deliberate hype; it was an accidental slip of the tongue.

Bai Liang's mom had originally been happily following Director Jiao Zi around doing roadshows, but she wasn't some seasoned entertainment industry veteran—she just answered whatever the reporters asked her.

At first, the media actually hadn't thought to dig into the investment angle.

They wanted to learn more about her son from Bai Liang's mom, preferably about his love life.

Prying open Bai Liang's mouth was tough, but if they could coax his mom into a good mood, maybe the big sister would happily blurt out who the "daughter-in-law" was~

However, they didn't get the "daughter-in-law" out of her, but they accidentally dug up an even more explosive topic.

After someone noticed something was off, they immediately dug deeper in that direction.

"Wow, case finally solved. I was wondering why the Great Immortal was promoting 'Ne Zha' so hard—here's the reason."

"The projects and companies my mom invested in? As her son, I really should support them wholeheartedly—I thought he was just doing charity over there~"

"This Director Jiao Zi guy isn't any better than Guo Fan. Guo Fan at least directly fooled Bai Liang himself; this guy is even worse—he went and tricked the mother first, taking such a roundabout route. Truly clever."

"Alright, alright, after the cyber succubus, now the animated succubus shows up."

"White Mom's made a fortune this time—Cat Eye predicts Ne Zha's box office will hit nearly five billion. Pure profit!"

"It's me, Grandma—I'm a very traditional girl, happy to be the concubine."

"Let me tell you a horror story: Ne Zha's box office is definitely going to hit five billion now—that's third all-time in domestic film history. Add in Wolf Warrior 2 and The Wandering Earth—damn, are all three of the top-grossing films in domestic history giving Big Immortal a cut?!"

"Holy shit! These three movies together must be worth close to eighteen or nineteen billion? How much cash is Big Immortal actually getting?!"

"Ne Zha has nothing to do with Big Immortal—it's his mom who made the money."

"Fun fact: Big Immortal is his mother's biological son, and he's her only child. So what's the difference between him making the money and her making it?!"

"."

The exposure of this matter had an impact even greater than Bai Liang's previous bet with Lu Han.

Because it also hitched onto the hype of Wolf Warrior 2 and The Wandering Earth—Ne Zha's box office was merely projected to reach that level, but it hadn't even hit two billion yet, yet it was already being treated like a film with fifty or sixty billion in revenue.

It was like an early loan.

The attention surrounding such a super-phenomenal film was insane.

Sure enough, while filming on set, Bai Liang felt an inexplicable heat radiating from everywhere.

It wasn't the girls looking at him with longing eyes—it was a strange gaze, coming from all directions.

At first he felt something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Until Zhou Ye, the girl, ran over with her phone, eyes wide, "Brother, how much money do you have?"

The question was bizarre, but Bai Liang answered honestly: "I've got a thousand or so in cash, about a hundred thousand in WeChat balance, and my linked bank card has—"

"You don't need to be that detailed."

Chen Duling quickly interrupted Bai Liang's "full financial disclosure."

Meanwhile, Zhou Ye waved her hands frantically, "I just saw online people saying you're making billions from three movies. Is that true?!"

"Huh? Really?" Bai Liang said, surprised.

His reaction left the two girls speechless—how did it become them answering him?

At that moment, Chen Duling glanced at Zhou Ye's phone and understood what she was asking about; she couldn't help covering her mouth and gasping.

Her gaze when she turned back to Bai Liang had changed.

Money!

This thing really did have some power.

Bai Liang truly didn't care about it—he just knew he never lacked spending cash.

But there was no doubt that this thing could directly boost a person's "charm value."

Otherwise, during the years when Ma Yun was most beloved, why did so many people say he was handsome?

When this boost was applied to Bai Liang—who was already a top-tier hunk—the most direct effect was: if charm had a numerical value, his normal level, already nearly maxed out, surged again.

It directly broke the upper limit!

He already had many auras; now add one more layer~

Golden, glowing, saturated with the fragrance of money.

The three stared at each other for a moment, watching Bai Liang, who seemed just as confused and curious as they were; the two girls were at a loss.

What's going on here?

Bai Liang: Yeah, what's going on?

Chen Duling, with her sharper mind, gathered her thoughts and asked: "Senior, you're getting a cut from all three films, right?"

"No." Bai Liang shook his head firmly. "Ne Zha has nothing to do with me—I worked for free."

"Online says your mom invested."

Bai Liang grinned. "I stopped asking my mom for money when I was nine."

"Really? How'd you manage that?" Zhou Ye couldn't help veering off-topic.

But the moment she spoke, Chen Duling slapped her—this isn't important, we'll talk about it later.

"So is everything online true?"

"Let me check."

Bai Liang took Zhou Ye's phone—and his hand trembled, somehow opening the photo album.

He looked closely—oh dear, it was all selfies.

A few were especially revealing—seemed like swimsuit photos.

"Ah! Don't look!"

"Sorry~"

Bai Liang swiftly switched to Weibo and started reading what they were talking about.

But his super brain was already multitasking—reading while mentally replaying those few photos.

His memory was too good—he remembered everything after one glance, and could savor it slowly in his mind.

"Hmm, about half true, half false. There's no way it's thirty or forty billion—it makes it sound like all the movie profits went to me. Even with my mom's share, it's not that extreme."

Honest Capybara, online debunking.

"If it's not that much, then how much is it?"

"Should be at least ten digits, I'm guessing. But movie box office splits and merch royalties are paid out very slowly—The Wandering Earth's share hasn't even started yet, and Wolf Warrior 2's might not even be fully paid out."

Ten digits!

Zhou Ye was already preparing to count on her fingers—she couldn't quite grasp how much ten digits actually meant.

Fortunately, Chen Duling sat beside them and immediately gave the answer: "At least one billion."

"Whoa, that's a lot of money!" Zhou Ye exclaimed in shock.

Even for celebrities with high incomes, such an exaggerated sum was truly astonishing.

She didn't ask for the exact number again—she wasn't some clueless fool without boundaries; asking so precisely would only make people dislike her.

"Money doesn't really matter—I'm not interested in it at all," Bai Liang said offhandedly, quoting Jack Ma.

But both girls believed him, since Bai Liang certainly didn't act like someone extremely wealthy.

He ate the cheap Shancheng snacks more eagerly than anyone else.

Zhou Ye's mind, however, turned quickly and hit upon a clever angle: "Hey, the money your movies earn could already cover Fan Fan Bingbing's fine."

Bai Liang gave her a thumbs-up. "Nice thinking~ But she hasn't borrowed money from me, so I probably don't need to help with that."

"Don't say things like that lightly—it won't look good if others hear," Chen Duling warned.

Zhou Ye looked innocent. "I'd never tell anyone else."

At that moment, the two girls exchanged glances and suddenly remembered something else.

This is just the money from three movies—even the movie Super Time Travelers hasn't been counted yet.

And Bai Liang isn't just earning from movies!

This sudden surge of "Bai Liang's net worth" clearly affected more than just these two girls on the set.

The ceiling-shattering "charm value" was now officially showing its power!

(End of Chapter)