After finishing makeup, Xiao He arrived at a scene constructed entirely with black fabric.
Zhuang Hongyi was directing a young assistant to adjust the lighting, and when he saw Xiao He, a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
"Not bad. I thought this white hair would make you look dark-skinned."
Then he instructed the young assistant to remove a floor light from the set: "Take that light away."
That lamp had been placed by Zhuang Hongyi to brighten Xiao He's complexion, preventing him from blending into the black background when shooting in shadows. Fortunately, since returning from Haishi, Xiao He had been pestered daily by Liu Rulan to undergo whitening treatments, finally restoring his skin to its previous condition.
Otherwise, paired with this white hair that easily makes people appear darker, Liu Rulan would have really needed to ask the makeup artist to apply more "plaster" on Xiao He.
After the young assistant removed the lamp, Zhuang Hongyi gestured for Xiao He to go sit down directly.
At first glance, this scene appeared quite simple, but the background was filled with many acrylic display stands containing various action figures and trendy toy dolls, most of which had been modified with cool-toned metallic color schemes. Everything arranged together created an inexplicable feeling of sci-fi combined with anime. Xiao He's gaze involuntarily drifted toward a metallic-textured robot placed on a nearby display stand, and he swallowed hard.
Holy crap, this mechanical assembly!
Holy crap, this icy metallic sheen!
Holy crap, this exceptional height and presence...
As the saying goes, Gundam is a man's speed bump, while mechas are the romance until death.
Xiao He felt he had finally found his life's ideal!
Ah~ it's so enchanting~
If only it could come home with me...
"Ahem, ahem—"
Liu Rulan lightly coughed nearby, reminding Xiao He.
This brat, wipe that perverted expression off your face!!!
Xiao He reluctantly shifted his gaze away from the Gundam.
The young assistant nearby covered her mouth while chuckling and explained to Xiao He: "These are all Director Zhuang's collections. You're quite lucky this time - since we temporarily returned to Beijing and could only clear space here for your shoot, Director Zhuang simply moved those models and figures over to serve as temporary background."
Xiao He let out a "Wow."
But looking at these extensive collections on display, Xiao He strongly suspected that Director Zhuang had actually been waiting for this day for a long time. Coming here to shoot wasn't for anything else but to show off his collections and make everyone in the country jealous.
—Xiao He felt he might have uncovered the truth.
Without looking at the collections anymore, Xiao He directly sat down on the computer chair.
The computer was running pre-downloaded hacker simulation software. Xiao He only needed to pretend to type for a bit. After Xiao He positioned himself according to Zhuang Hongyi's requirements, the formal shooting began—
Since Director Zhuang spoke little and hadn't provided detailed breakdowns for the character Xiao He was playing, Xiao He didn't know what kind of feeling he wanted, so he simply improvised on the spot, typing casually with a relaxed posture.
Fortunately, after a period of learning, Xiao He's acting methods had basically matured now. Even when improvising, he showed no stage fright at all. Drawing from his understanding of hacker characters in other film and television works for his performance was completely sufficient for such brief shots.
------------------------
In the camera frame, the white-haired young man chewed gum, his fingers nimbly tapping the keyboard, his gaze closely following the code data on the screen, with even the faint glow of code letters reflected in his eyes.
"Tap—"
As his fingertip pressed the enter key to input the final character, the phone beside his hand suddenly rang.
He casually glanced at the phone, and only when the ringtone sounded again did he leisurely answer the call. He deftly pushed the chair back, casually propping his legs up on the desk, rhythmically swaying them gently: "Hello?"
"Shi Ji and them? They've already infiltrated."
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them."
"Okay."
After hanging up, his gaze finally shifted away from the string of code to the surveillance footage nearby.
As if seeing something amusing, he chuckled lightly, put his legs down, and walked over to the screen displaying the surveillance footage—
"These two idiots, where exactly did the employer pick them up from?"
This clumsy stealth technique really doesn't treat surveillance as surveillance!
"Tch."
Considering the upcoming mission, he still clicked his tongue impatiently, fingers tapping the keyboard. The surveillance footage that should have been recording normally suddenly all disappeared.
Then the white-haired young man indifferently pushed the chair away and returned to his previous position, continuing to type code.
In the dim room, only his slightly pale face was illuminated by the computer light, making it appear even more ghostly white.
Then came a series of keyboard tapping sounds—
------------------
Although they had come in the morning, by the time shooting ended, the sky had already darkened. Unknowingly, they had been busy here all day.
Zhuang Hongyi invited Xiao He and Liu Rulan to stay for dinner.
Driven by curiosity about what delicacies wealthy people could eat, Xiao He and Liu Rulan stayed.
Thus seizing this opportunity, Xiao He heard about "official mansion cuisine" for the first time.
Official mansion cuisine, also known as scholar cuisine, as the name suggests, were delicacies that only official families could enjoy during ancient society times. It symbolized status, belonging to the dietary privileges of the powerful class, representing the superiority of identity and food scarcity, containing the three major characteristics of "nobility, elegance, and extravagance" that ordinary commoners couldn't possess.
But honestly speaking, Xiao He felt he might be somewhat like a country bumpkin unable to appreciate fine food. Things like shark fin, bird's nest, and abalone - he only tasted their flavors. If you said they weren't delicious, that definitely wouldn't be true - the flavors were indeed complete in color, aroma, and taste. But if you said they were delicious, he felt they were somewhat bland in his mouth.
Of course, this was definitely his problem! Such expensive ingredients must be the best!
The meal proceeded quite quietly. Considering that wealthy people here might emphasize dining etiquette, Xiao He and Liu Rulan didn't dare make any sounds, just quietly buried their heads in eating, not daring to speak randomly.
After finishing the meal, Zhuang Hongyi took a light sip of red wine from his glass before saying to Xiao He and Liu Rulan: "I was actually quite surprised to see Xiao He this time. His real-life demeanor seems much more restrained compared to his original photos."
Xiao He mentally snorted.
Of course, before coming this time, Liu Rulan had specifically reminded him to modify his usual demeanor, leaving a different impression on the director so that if the director had roles with other images in the future, they could also suit Xiao He.
See, Director Zhuang definitely took the bait.
Liu Rulan also instantly entered professional mode: "Thank you for your favor, Director Zhuang. It's our honor that Xiao He can participate in your work this time. Actually, Xiao He himself can accept more diverse character development and is willing to explore different roles' potential. If Director Zhuang has more opportunities, I'd very much hope to help Xiao He pursue some."
Liu Rulan's words weren't circuitous but very direct, decisively climbing up along Director Zhuang's words.
Zhuang Hongyi stared at Xiao He, thought for a moment, then suddenly said: "Smile for me?"
Xiao He: ?
Liu Rulan quickly elbowed Xiao He: "Smile."
Xiao He: ...
Xiao He knew Zhuang Hongyi was testing him, and there was likely a role waiting for him. But his brain was also working rapidly, not immediately making an expression.
Based on Director Zhuang's earlier words, he originally thought Xiao He would appear very fierce and unsuitable for other roles—so by reverse deduction, the role Director Zhuang had in hand definitely had nothing to do with fierceness or villainy.
That meant gentle, kind, approachable, friendly?
Xiao He mentally repeated these character tags several times. When he looked up again, he had deliberately softened his gaze, slightly curved his eyebrows, with fragmented laughter in his eyes. He tilted his head slightly while looking at Director Zhuang, the corners of his mouth also lifting:
"Like this?"
Zhuang Hongyi stared at Xiao He for a long while, finally shifting his gaze away: "Alright, stop smiling like a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Xiao He: ...
Xiao He was shocked, Xiao He was defeated.
—He had tried very hard to be friendly!