It had been many years since she last saw Luo Mingqing. Li Ling thought. The last time she saw him was at her father's funeral. That day, everything was white. The stark white lights, the white plaster walls, the snow-white cobwebs in the corners, the guests coming and going, their expressions pale and indifferent. Only Luo Mingqing stood out. He was a handsome, tall young man with sun-kissed skin, exuding youthful energy that clashed with the decay and death lingering in the mourning hall. Despite wearing white, his left ear was adorned with a bright, blood-red earring. "Your father borrowed a lot of money from my mom for his treatment," he said to her, the red earring gleaming, "When do you plan to pay it back?" Li Ling looked at him numbly, "I will pay it back." Luo Mingqing scrutinized her, then suddenly flashed a bright smile, "You look so ugly like this, why don't you try smiling?" Without warning, he raised a camera. The dark lens aimed at her face, greedy and malicious. She had heard that his new stepfather was very wealthy. Li Ling couldn't help but wonder if this expensive-looking camera was worth more than her father's debt. For many years, she couldn't understand why Luo Mingqing disliked her so much. She remembered him as a chubby little boy, not very noticeable, who liked to hide behind his mother and peek at her. His mother would say, "Isn't this sister pretty?" He would scream and throw his toy car at her face. For her father's sake, she had tried hard to please Luo Mingqing, to play the role of a good sister. She never succeeded. When she practiced ballet, he would loudly mock her and play chaotic music. When she tutored him, he would throw books at her back and poke her hands with a pen. She used her saved pocket money to buy him toys, only to find their broken remains at her door the next day. Why was it like this? Every time their parents fought, she would hold him in her arms and cover his ears. When his mother got drunk and tried to jump out of the window with him, it was she who blocked the door with her body, refusing to let them go. The next day, when no one took Luo Mingqing to school, it was she who knelt down to tie his shoelaces. He bent down and hugged her with his chubby white arms. She thought he had finally learned to say thank you. But he laughed "hehehe" in her ear, grabbed her neck, and yanked her hair hard. At that moment, the look in the chubby boy's eyes was eerily similar to the handsome young man standing in the mourning hall years later. Both were sharp, glaring, and blood-red. Like an indelible, bone-deep red from a horror fairy tale. She began to understand that some people might be born bad. Still standing in the pale mourning hall, Li Ling took a few steps forward and forcefully grabbed the camera from Luo Mingqing's hand. Although he was much taller than her now, he seemed caught off guard by her furious expression, even showing a hint of helplessness. She smashed the camera to the ground and told him to get lost. Later, she saved up money for a long time and transferred it all to his mother's account. After that, she heard he had also entered the entertainment industry. Unlike her, Luo Mingqing started at the top. Despite being in the same industry, they had never crossed paths all these years. Their worlds did not intersect. He was like the sun at the top of the pyramid, while she was the soul of a craftsman crushed at the bottom. However, parallel worlds eventually fold into each other. Li Ling showed just the right amount of surprise. Her tone might not have been entirely natural, but it shouldn't arouse suspicion. "Luo Mingqing is also going to act in this movie? Who is he playing?" she asked. Xiao Liu said gleefully, "Oh, you mean that bully character." Li Ling: "The one who beat the male lead half to death at the beginning and then got dismembered by the male lead later?" Xiao Liu nodded vigorously. Li Ling: ...Why do I suddenly feel a bit thrilled? "Isn't that a minor role?" another person said in surprise. "Luo Mingqing's company cares so much about his image, why would they let him take such an unlikable minor role?" "Could it be because of the director? Wanting to collaborate with Director Jin?" "No, no, no, that's not it." A more experienced staff member shook his head seriously. "Luo Mingqing and the director don't get along, it's well-known in the industry." Li Ling was a bit surprised. "They don't get along?" "Yes, the director and he have a long-standing grudge, they've been rivals for years." "Bah, bah, bah. 'Rivals' is a term Luo's fans came up with themselves. He doesn't deserve it. Don't flatter him too much." "Anyway, my cousin casting him as the bully was spot on," Xiao Liu said with a mischievous grin, eager to stir up trouble. Li Ling poured him a drink and asked, "Why don't they get along?" Xiao Liu, quite pleased, said happily, "You know, my cousin never likes to cast big stars in his films. The only exception he made was for Luo Mingqing." "At that time, Luo Mingqing's career was on the rise. His company did everything they could to promote him, even getting a partner on my uncle's side to pull some strings. They managed to force him into the cast." "Who knew, less than half a month into filming, my cousin replaced him with a washed-up middle-aged child star. The film was finished and sent to a film festival, and the guy ended up winning Best Actor." "You can imagine how Luo Mingqing's fans were devastated, hating the director with a passion. They've held a grudge for years..." At this point, the skinny Xiao Liu let out a villainous laugh. "There's nothing they can do, your idol just doesn't have what it takes to be a Best Actor." Li Ling suddenly remembered that before joining the crew, she had indeed seen a video of a middle-aged child star winning Best Actor, tearfully thanking Director Jin at the award ceremony. She hadn't expected such a dramatic story behind the casting change. "But," Li Ling said, a bit puzzled, "aren't the appearances of these two actors too different? Can they play the same role?" "Originally, they couldn't. The male lead was supposed to be a young man," Xiao Liu said. "But my cousin stopped production for half a month and rewrote the script to make the character middle-aged." Li Ling, now the queen of schadenfreude, covered her mouth and pretended to be shocked. "What kind of grudge is this, to rewrite the entire script just to replace him..." "Luo Mingqing must have done something really outrageous." Another person said, "Maybe his acting was just too bad." "His work attitude wasn't serious." "The director has zero tolerance for any underhanded behavior." Li Ling declared confidently, "Luo Mingqing is just too ugly." Everyone looked at her in unison, some reproachfully saying, "That's going too far." Li Ling showed an innocent and sincere smile. "I really think he's not even a tenth as handsome as the director." Xiao Liu immediately lowered his head to send a WeChat message. "Cousin! Li Ling says you're handsome!" The other side quickly replied with a question mark. After a while, Li Ling finished eating and left the cafeteria, while the remaining people were still engrossed in their heated discussion. The production manager passed by with a teacup, saw them gossiping about Luo Mingqing, and gave a meaningful smile. "Are you talking about the actor switch back then? None of you guessed right." Everyone perked up, knowing the manager had some juicy information, and eagerly looked up.Xiao Liu was especially obsequious, going over to help massage the producer's shoulders for quite a while. The production manager, feeling pleased, sat down contentedly and said, "I heard this from someone, so I can't vouch for its authenticity." "No problem, no problem, please go on," Xiao Liu urged even more obsequiously. "It seems that the director was watching some show, and Luo Mingqing walked by and cursed, saying it was hideous." "The director was very unhappy and replaced him the next day." The cafeteria fell silent for three seconds. Xiao Liu: "—Huh?" He had thought he was finally getting some explosive news, but this version was even less reliable than all the previous ones combined. It took him a full minute to digest it before he stammered, "This, this can't be right. It would be more believable if you said it was because Luo Mingqing was ugly." Another person also expressed doubt, "What show was the director watching? I've never seen him interested in shows." "Would the director really go to such lengths over a show and offend a big star? That doesn't seem likely..." The production manager shrugged, "I don't know, I heard it from Luo Mingqing's agent. His sister-in-law's uncle is my dad's brother's neighbor." Xiao Liu: "…What a complicated relationship." - Back in her room, Li Ling took a deep breath and threw herself onto the bed. The soft mattress sank deeply, supporting her body like a thick, fleshy flower, and her heart sank with it. She wasn't as carefree as she appeared on the surface. She was still confused and worried, unsure of how to face Luo Mingqing, just as she didn't know how to face many people from her past. Unconsciously turning her head, Li Ling suddenly saw a dark jacket draped over the back of a chair. She blinked and hooked the jacket with her finger, pulling it over herself. The jacket was very clean, without any extraneous smells, evoking thoughts of a clear sky and endless valleys. Even though it had been in an empty room all day, untouched by anyone's warmth, it was still very warm. A strange, unfamiliar warmth that didn't belong to Li Ling enveloped her body. Li Ling suddenly felt she was no longer alone. She wasn't living in the past. She could create new memories. If only she had a Gypsy's crystal ball, Li Ling thought. Then she could store this moment inside it and relive it whenever she wanted. Li Ling couldn't help but open Weibo again and said to 9787532754335, "The director is really nice." "How can he be so nice?" On the other end of the phone, Jin Jingyao silently scrolled up through their chat history, finding countless similar praises starting with "the director." Not long ago, Xiao Liu had sent a message with some straightforward words. After thinking for a moment, he opened a certain AI dialogue model and very carefully typed: "I am a director. If an actress who filmed a kissing scene with me a few days ago keeps praising me for being nice and saying I'm handsome, what does this mean?" The AI brother replied very carefully: "As a director, interacting and collaborating with actors during filming is very common. When an actress praises you for being 'nice' and 'handsome' a few days after filming a kissing scene, this can usually be interpreted from several angles..." The rest of the content was very lengthy, filled with the kind of verbose literature AI excels at. The central idea was that although the actress gave you positive feedback, please adhere to ethics, keep things in perspective, and don't overinterpret. Jin Jingyao absentmindedly finished reading. He planned to exit the page, but the AI reluctantly said to him: "You can still ask me: Does she have feelings for me?" Jin Jingyao: ? When he came to his senses, he found himself back on the private message page with Li Ling, where he had neatly typed: 'Do you have feelings for him?' His brain must have been invaded by the AI for three seconds. Fortunately, he didn't hit send. Rationally, he deleted every word and changed it to: "Shouldn't you be more mindful of boundaries?" Li Ling immediately replied: "Boundaries? What boundaries? I've never had any boundaries." She then sent a piece of writing, seemingly copied from somewhere, titled "Director is Good." "Director is Good" The director is really very good, good good good, good good good good good good good good good... The screen was filled with the word "good," making it seem overly eloquent. Jin Jingyao was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, so he said: "If you think he's so good, why not tell him in person?" Li Ling said: "Maybe this is what they call love that cannot be expressed." The word "love" was particularly glaring. It must have been too glaring, which is why he stared at it for a long time. - After her routine nonsense with 9787532754335, Li Ling felt relaxed and relieved. She was increasingly falling in love with this feeling. Thank you, 9787532754335. At that moment, she vaguely heard a knocking sound. Knock, knock. The sound was very light and rhythmic. It was late at night. Li Ling hesitantly walked to the door and asked, "Who is it?" If it were a crew member, they would have loudly announced their name and purpose by now. But it remained quiet outside. In the old house in the mountain village, there was no peephole on the door. Li Ling waited for a while, then instinctively pressed her ear against the door. She heard a "click," like a door closing across the hall. She waited a bit longer, then cautiously opened the door a crack. The hallway was silent, with no one in sight. A beautifully crafted birthday cake was placed outside her door. The cake was very well packaged, the ribbon glistening in the dim light, with a few ice packs neatly placed beside it. Li Ling recognized the brand and knew it was outrageously expensive, something she could never afford. She closed the door and called Xiao Liu: "Is Luo Mingqing joining the crew tomorrow?" The other person yawned and said: "His flight was moved up; he seems to be arriving tonight." "Where is he staying?" "Wait a moment, I'll ask for you..." There was a lot of noise on the other end, then suddenly it went dead silent. "Whoa." Xiao Liu said in shock, "He's staying right across from you. My condolences." Li Ling wasn't surprised by this answer. She calmly asked: "What's the room number?" Xiao Liu: "Why do you need to know?" "No reason, I just want to get his autograph." Li Ling smiled. She carried the cake to the door across from hers, stomped on it a few times, then turned back to her room and slammed the door shut. - Due to the tight schedule and limited availability of the big star, the director's team temporarily adjusted the schedule, moving Luo Mingqing's scenes forward. The good news was that this meant Li Ling had nothing on her schedule, so she could sleep in peace. Unfortunately, she forgot to turn on Do Not Disturb and was woken up by Xiao Liu's frantic calls in the morning. He urgently said: "Come quickly!!! Luo Mingqing is an hour late, it's terrifying!!!" Li Ling: ? Luo Mingqing was clearly prepared, giving Director Jin a hard time on his first day. Everyone knew that the director had obsessive-compulsive disorder and hated it when people were late. It's often said that when men engage in power struggles, it's truly a spectacle. The atmosphere on set was as cold as an ice cellar, so tense that no one dared to breathe. Xiao Liu had a sudden inspiration, guessing the director's intentions, and called Li Ling to come to the rescue. As luck would have it, she and Luo Mingqing arrived almost simultaneously. Just as Xiao Liu pushed her into the studio, a gentle and refined voice came from behind, "I'm terribly sorry for wasting everyone's time. I apologize to you all." After many years, the Luo Mingqing in Li Ling's memory only emitted the shrill cries of a little boy. As an adult, his tone was unexpectedly gentle, his words slow and deliberate, carrying an elegant rhythm. With her back to him, she heard him approach and casually ask, "Who is this?" Before she could react, Xiao Liu, startled, trembled, causing the wheelchair to wobble. Li Ling had come in a hurry, changing her clothes but forgetting to change her shoes. A deep red strawberry bear plush slipper rolled out from under her skirt. Li Ling: "..." Xiao Liu: "..." Luo Mingqing seemed to chuckle softly. Director Jin remained calm, expressionless as he said, "If you want to apologize, start by picking up the leading lady's shoe.""