This scene follows right after the previous kissing scene. After locking the theater door, Zhou Jing secretly brought A-Ling onto the stage and even played the piano for her. This was a serious violation of the rules and was quickly discovered. The person who discovered him was none other than Luo Mingqing and his small group. The character played by Luo Mingqing was named Yang Yuanyuan, a pampered young master within the troupe. He had good looks, a good family background, and a high status. The only regret was his lack of talent and poor acting skills. Because of this, he spared no effort in suppressing everyone better than him, especially Zhou Jing. Compared to others, Zhou Jing's family background was the most ordinary, making him the easiest to bully. Hurting him came at no cost. This time, Yang Yuanyuan finally caught this small actor's mistake and was so pleased that his tail was practically wagging. He threatened Zhou Jing, saying he would report him to the leaders, using this to force him to become his lackey. But Zhou Jing was stubborn and refused to admit anything. So Yang Yuanyuan had him beaten first. The tone of this scene was supposed to be very tragic, but now that the role of the abuser was played by Li Ling, it felt a bit strange. The script stated that Yang Yuanyuan was to slap Zhou Jing's face in a very humiliating manner. Li Ling, unable to bend down, continued to step on him with her shoe. From his throat down to his shoulder, the tip of her shoe pried open the collar of his shirt. Jin Jingyao stared straight at her. His breathing was chaotic, and his gaze was like a suppressed, damp firewood, slowly igniting. The sound of burning hissed in her ears. Li Ling was momentarily stunned. His aura was so strong that even though she was the abuser, she felt suppressed. "I hate your eyes," she said, her expression somewhat coquettish as she tilted her face up, her tone a kind of innocent cruelty, complaining to the people around her, "Shall we dig them out?" This line wasn't in the script, and the extra on the left didn't catch her cue, freezing for a moment. The person on the right reacted faster, lowering his head and saying, "That, that might be too much, Young Master Yang. We agreed to just beat him up a bit..." Li Ling didn't improvise further, pulling the lines back to the original script: "Who said anything about venting? I'm punishing him on behalf of Uncle Troupe Leader! The theater stage, such a sacred place—Zhou Jing, who allowed you to defile it?" She signaled to the people on both sides, and they finally understood, lifting Jin Jingyao like a dead fish and pressing his shoulders to kneel in front of her. Li Ling leaned in, wanting to slap his face but found him too dirty and held back. "Look at yourself, Zhou Jing," she said. "Look in the mirror. You want to be the leading man? Do you deserve it?" Luo Mingqing had recited this line many times, each time with great force, enunciating heavily. He wanted to create a sense of ruthlessness, but it came off as pretentious. Li Ling, on the other hand, spoke each word lightly, carelessly. Precisely because it was effortless, every word, every micro-expression, was a near-naked humiliation. She found him laughable, foolish. She found him dirty, unwilling to touch his face. She smelled the blood on him, wrinkling her nose slightly, stepping back. She always remembered her identity. She was a pampered young master, every gesture full of grace and delicacy. Zhou Jing's filth and inferiority sullied her eyes, an affront to her. Her disdain for him was ingrained in her bones. Jin Jingyao knelt there, staring at her. His gaze was like a dagger. He was a stubborn stone, a blood-soaked ice block. No matter what she did, she could never truly hurt him. At this moment, compared to indifference and apathy, the young man's restrained attitude seemed to harbor something darker and more dangerous. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and then he actually smiled. Li Ling said strangely, "Are you laughing at me?" Jin Jingyao continued to smile. He was looking at her, yet it seemed like he wasn't. Through her face, he was intently gazing at someone else. He laughed harder. The laughter echoed in the room, growing louder and louder, turning into a sharp whistle. His chest trembled, and the muscles on his face were close to contorting. On anyone else, such an expression would look ugly, but on Jin Jingyao's face, it transformed into a kind of captivating handsomeness. He laughed because he thought of A-Ling, and he saw A-Ling. He felt that taking a beating in exchange for her chance to dance was worth it. No one would understand what he had sacrificed for her. And he didn't need anyone to understand. This was his secret. Because of this exaggerated laughter, Zhou Jing's wound split open, and blood seeped into his skin like an ugly tattoo, making his smile even more ghastly. "What on earth is he laughing at?" "How can someone laugh after being beaten?" "Madman, he's a real madman!" The people around them said in shock and uncertainty. They were all scared, instinctively wanting to retreat. Only Li Ling sneered, pushing her wheelchair forward without hesitation, and kicked Jin Jingyao hard in the chest, knocking him to the ground. With a thud, dust flew everywhere. Bright red blood mixed with dirty soil. The laughter finally stopped. Zhou Jing propped himself up on the floor, coughing softly. "So dirty, you got my shoes dirty," Li Ling complained softly. She disdainfully kicked off her shoes, standing barefoot on the wheelchair, and nodded to the people beside her, "You guys, clean him up a bit." "Oh, and take off his clothes and throw them away," she said, resting her face on her hand with a very interested smile, "Doesn't our troupe need someone to do a striptease?" The extras laughed along, but when they looked back at the man on the ground, their laughter abruptly stopped. It wasn't an act; they were genuinely scared. Jin Jingyao lay on the ground, looking up at her back, not caring at all about what she said. His gaze grew sharp teeth, filled with contradictory and mad greed, as if he wanted to devour every piece of her flesh. He was mad. - Originally, they had agreed to perform just a short segment as a demonstration, but unexpectedly, the two of them got more and more into it, and before they knew it, they had finished the entire scene. Everyone on set was stunned. It was so brilliant. Li Ling could play A-Ling, and she brought Yang Yuanyuan to life. No matter who she played, her scenes with Jin Jingyao were always explosive. It was as if only she could awaken him, and only she could provoke him. Li Ling's portrayal of Yang Yuanyuan seemed completely different from the script, yet it was perfectly fitting. She was very bad, but unaware of her own wickedness. Vicious, yet bright, lively, and attention-grabbing. She tried hard to pretend to be noble, humiliating Zhou Jing from a high position. Some subtle eye movements and unnatural finger twitches revealed her true thoughts. She was still afraid of Zhou Jing, no different from anyone else. Afraid, hateful, and jealous. Fearing him while stepping on him. It made people want to tear off her mask even more. Xiao Liu was greatly shocked, "No, just a few minutes of acting, and you can analyze so much?" The assistant director said, "That's what makes a good actor, every part of them is acting, every detail is worth savoring." Xiao Liu: "You keep boasting, even if you write ten thousand words, Li Ling won't have the money to give you a red envelope."The person next to him said softly, "Teacher Li might not, but the director will..." Xiao Liu: ?? The assistant director grinned and showed Xiao Liu his WeChat group. Their core team had a small editing group. Initially, the atmosphere was quite serious, with everyone focused on their tasks and only discussing work. Director Jin, who never seemed to sleep, often sent edited videos at three or four in the morning. The next day, everyone would wake up and leave a comment with a "1." One day, after watching a video, the assistant director casually praised, "Teacher Li's performance is really good." Member Xiao A from the editing team chimed in with agreement. Ten minutes later, the director silently patted them on the back and sent two full red envelopes. From that moment, the nature of the work group changed. Xiao Liu stared in shock at the lengthy essays in the group chat. "No wonder you guys were so fluent and articulate earlier, you've been practicing for a while..." "Hehe," the assistant director said modestly, "It's all from the heart." Xiao Liu was silent for a moment: "...Can you add me to the group?" Without a word, the assistant director immediately did so. The two of them discussed how to distribute the gold coins while continuing to watch the monitor. Xiao Liu shivered as he watched Jin Jingyao's predatory gaze on the screen: "But don't you think it's a bit strange?" The assistant director looked up in confusion: "What's strange?" Xiao Liu said, "Cousin's reaction. He's acting opposite a minor character, is it really necessary to be so... intense?" The assistant director thought for a moment and suddenly realized: "You're right!" "Zhou Jing isn't looking at Yang Yuanyuan, he's looking through him at A-Ling... I get it now, no wonder their scenes together are so powerful..." Another person from the director's team agreed enthusiastically: "Exactly, the director wants to show that Zhou Jing doesn't care about anyone else, his eyes are always on A-Ling, A-Ling is his whole world..." They frantically took notes. Xiao Liu silently swallowed the words "Cousin's acting fell apart," not daring to say it out loud for fear of being beaten. However, acting opposite Li Ling might indeed have given Director Jin a lot of inspiration. As soon as the scene was over, the director disappeared. He left behind a single sentence, "I need to rewrite the script," and walked off. Luo Mingqing's agent was stunned and instinctively chased after him, saying, "Director, what about Mingqing's scenes..." Jin Jingyao suddenly stopped and turned around. He hadn't fully come out of the scene yet. His makeup was still on, with fresh red blood on his face, and his eyes were sharp and terrifying. The agent was so scared he almost hiccuped, forgetting what he was going to say. Jin Jingyao fiercely shoved the slippers in his hand at him: "Give these to Li Ling." Then he turned and left. The agent: ??? The agent looked down at the strawberry bear slippers in a daze. Wait, who is Li Ling? He had arrived on set much later than Mingqing and didn't know what had happened earlier. He had watched the entire scene just now, so he knew whose slippers they were. Politely holding the slippers, the agent walked over to Li Ling. Li Ling: "..." She forced a smile, thanked him, and stuffed the slippers under her wheelchair. But the agent continued to look at her with great interest: "Miss Li, right? Your performance just now was excellent." Li Ling: "Uh, thank you for the compliment." "Could you possibly become an acting coach for our Mingqing?" Li Ling: ? She looked utterly shocked. The agent smiled gracefully and said, "It's okay, don't misunderstand. Ming Qing is very generous and wouldn't mind you helping him with a scene. I genuinely think you acted well, which is why I wanted to ask you to help Ming Qing with his performance. How do you know his character so well? Are you a fan of Ming Qing? Which role are you playing?" Li Ling: "..." Who is whose fan? However, what slightly comforted her was that the other party's misunderstanding indicated they had no idea about their private relationship. It's better if they don't know. She was brewing her emotions, ready to make a move, when Xiao Liu came over. He waved his hand dismissively, his tone full of disdain, "Go, go, go, this is our leading actress. Dream on about her being your teacher." This straightforward remark shocked the agent, and his gaze towards Li Ling immediately changed, "Ah, so this is the leading actress? I'm so sorry, I didn't recognize you... I thought..." The agent's tone had just the right amount of surprise and a hint of implication. Xiao Liu said, "What are you hinting at? Ignorance isn't an excuse. Go back and use Baidu more." Such strong combativeness. The agent was hit again and directly defeated. Li Ling silently gave Xiao Liu a thumbs up. And Luo Ming Qing? From the moment Li Ling stepped on stage, he hadn't moved. He sat there, staring at her with a complex expression. His fingers had even torn the leather of the chair back. But she hadn't looked at him once. - The director left, leaving the assistant director to hold on alone, flipping through the script and tactfully shooting a few solo scenes of Yang Yuanyuan. It didn't help much. As soon as the scene was over, Luo Ming Qing left the set with a sullen face, not saying a word. On the contrary, his agent was very accommodating, apologizing to everyone, saying it was Ming Qing's first day of filming and he didn't know better, causing trouble for everyone. He even treated the whole crew to a meal and gave everyone an expensive gift. The gift was a huge gift box, exquisitely packaged, covered in a golden logo, clearly very expensive and could fetch a high price on Xianyu. "Is this from the top luxury brand that Mr. Luo is endorsing?" someone asked in surprise. "Yes, yes, the Asia-Pacific spokesperson. Limited edition gift box, you can't buy it even if you have the money," one of his assistants explained enthusiastically. Xiao Liu scoffed, "This? I'll use it to press my instant noodles." The assistant's smile froze, pretending not to hear. Li Ling silently took out her phone, already drafting a Xianyu listing, only to find that after the gifts were distributed, she was still empty-handed. Targeting her? The assistant wasn't embarrassed, confidently explaining to her, "Ms. Li, you are the leading actress. We have prepared a special, very large gift for you. It's too big to carry, so we left it at your room door." Li Ling didn't have high expectations for the so-called big gift, but when she saw a nearly half-human-sized box at her door, she was still a bit shocked. It was indeed very big. She stood at the door and violently tore open the box. Inside was a pile of Luo Ming Qing's merchandise: signed posters, newly released magazines, colorful support items, even a huge standee and a body pillow... Li Ling: ? She picked up the box, ready to throw it into the trash immediately. In her haste, the body pillow fell out and landed right at the door of the next room. The door suddenly opened. Jin Jingyao looked terrifying.He still hadn't removed his makeup or washed his face, but he had put on his glasses, giving him a scholarly yet gloomy look, like a very careless serial killer. With his head lowered, through the thin lenses, he quietly stared at the perfect smile of Luo Mingqing's eight teeth on the throw pillow. The young director fell into deep thought. Li Ling was so scared she stuttered, "D-Director, have you finished revising the script?" "Not yet." "Oh, sorry to bother you." She hugged the box and immediately planned to leave, but was stopped by him stepping forward. "What's this?" he asked her. "This, this... this is..." Li Ling racked her brains, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and asked, "Director, why are you here? I remember you live upstairs?" Jin Jingyao pushed his glasses expressionlessly and said calmly, "You remembered wrong." Li Ling looked at him skeptically, "Really?" Impossible, she had been to his room for a meeting before, it definitely wasn't on this floor. Forget it, it didn't matter. She had a sudden idea and directly threw the unlucky box into Director Jin's arms. "Oh, I see, Director. I accidentally opened the wrong package earlier, it must be that they got the room number wrong." She said confidently, "This is a gift from Luo Mingqing for you, please accept it!" Caught off guard, Jin Jingyao: ?