Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Cheng Yan had originally been eagerly waiting for Yan Huai’s response. But in less than a second, there was a “beep,” and the other end hung up the phone.

Without any warning, it caught him completely off guard.

Cheng Yan glanced at the darkened phone screen, his interest instantly deflating, and turned his gaze back to the surveillance footage.

The recording was replaying at eight times speed. Aside from capturing the part where Song Zhenzhen sneakily held up her phone intending to photograph He Wei’s exposure, there was no substantive evidence at all.

The reason Cheng Yan called Yan Huai was merely to probe his reaction.

Yan Huai was famously uninterested in meddling in others’ affairs. The few seconds he blocked for He Wei today—no matter how Cheng Yan thought about it, he still felt the reason of “convenience” didn’t quite hold up.

He originally thought Yan Huai had developed some interest in He Wei, but after this phone call, he rejected that guess again.

Yan Huai hung up far too decisively, without even a second of hesitation.

This was also good.

If he really intervened, Song Zhenzhen might get eliminated.

Song Zhenzhen was a candidate pushed in by an investor. Coming to audition today was just going through the motions. If she were really eliminated like this, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to that investor.

Cheng Yan paused the footage, thought for a few seconds, and decided not to tell Cheng Nuo about this matter for now.

That girl had a bad temper. If she knew about this, who knew what kind of trouble she would cause.

Less trouble was better. Cheng Yan recalled the segment He Wei performed just now. She clearly had a pure, innocent little white rabbit face, yet she portrayed the supporting female character’s sinister ruthlessness. Combined with the makeup effect, she was practically the scheming virtuous consort from the drama.

Among today’s auditions, Cheng Yan was most satisfied with He Wei.

The feeling was like accidentally picking up a treasure. He sighed in satisfaction and sent Cheng Nuo a WeChat message:

【He Wei has a lot of spirit.】

【Nonsense, even letting our Weiwei play fourth female lead would be a waste of talent!】

Cheng Yan: 【When did she get together with Yan Chen?】

【A few days ago. I’m telling you, brother, don’t set your sights on her.】

【I know.】

【By the way, Weiwei wasn’t bullied when she went to audition today, right?】

Cheng Yan: “……”

He coughed, then extremely guiltily typed a single word back:

【No.】

He Wei hadn’t slept well the entire night before and had no energy.

After returning home from the set, she took a shower and crawled into bed. Tired from the day, she fell into a deep sleep as soon as she touched the bed.

She slept dreamlessly.

When He Wei opened her eyes again, she felt as if she had come back to life.

The curtains were drawn, and the room was dim. He Wei groped for her phone from the bedside, then turned it on.

Six in the morning.

It was still dark outside.

He Wei no longer felt sleepy, so she lay on the bed and opened WeChat to scroll through it.

Yan Chen’s Moments only showed updates from the past half year. He Wei scrolled down one by one, then found a photo of him with Song Zhenzhen during the last few days of the year.

He wasn’t part of the entertainment industry. His family was wealthy and he liked to have fun, so many of his Moments were photos with female celebrities.

This seemed to be one way these rich second-generation heirs showed off their wealth.

He Wei tapped the photo and enlarged it.

The two shameless lovers in the picture leaned against each other, smiling unusually brightly—no different from Yan Chen’s previous girlfriends.

He Wei saved the photo to her encrypted album, then got up to wash up.

She didn’t have anything to do in the morning, so she stayed at home and watched a highly rated film from the 80s–90s to study.

After two in the afternoon, her phone received a bank message.

The payment for shooting a cover for a campus magazine before the New Year had arrived—nearly eight thousand yuan. The corner of He Wei’s lips curved. She closed her laptop and sent Cheng Nuo a WeChat message:

【Nuo Nuo, are you free this afternoon? I’ll treat you to afternoon tea.】

Cheng Nuo immediately agreed.

After setting the time and place, He Wei went to the restroom to wash her face again, applied some primer, and went out.

Cheng Nuo happened to be nearby, so she arrived a few minutes earlier than her.

When He Wei sat down across from her, Cheng Nuo was flipping through the dessert menu. She only looked up when she heard the chair being pulled out. She smiled at He Wei, her two small tiger teeth playful and cute. “Weiwei, you’re here.”

“No need to pick the cheapest,” He Wei glanced at her with a smile. “I got paid.”

Cheng Nuo immediately stopped hesitating. She chose two mid-priced desserts, then handed the menu back to the server.

The two had known each other for quite a while.

The original female lead wasn’t very good at managing relationships, so she didn’t have many friends in the book. But He Wei was different. She basically didn’t trust the characters in the book, so even after reading through ten resets, she only made one female friend—Cheng Nuo.

Fortunately, this time only the subsequent plot had been reset. By this point, she and Cheng Nuo had already become good friends.

The corners of He Wei’s lips lifted, and the ends of her eyes curved slightly as well. After chatting casually with Cheng Nuo for a few sentences, she suddenly remembered the important matter. She dragged her chair closer to Cheng Nuo and lowered her voice. “Nuo Nuo, do you know Song Zhenzhen?”

“Song Zhenzhen…”

Cheng Nuo thought for a few seconds, then nodded. “I was in charge of styling for the campus drama she filmed recently.”

Since it was Cheng Nuo—the person He Wei trusted most in this world—she didn’t beat around the bush. She simply moved from across the table to sit beside her. “Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Seems like she does, but it hasn’t been made public.”

In their circle, there was no such thing as secrets that stayed hidden.

Whether someone had a boyfriend—after enough time, people in the industry basically all knew.

Cheng Nuo looked at her in confusion. “Why are you asking about her?”

He Wei twisted her fingers.

Since last night’s incident involved Cheng Yan, it wasn’t convenient for her to say it directly. After thinking for a few seconds, she frowned and leaned onto Cheng Nuo’s shoulder, whispering, “I think she and Yan Chen aren’t normal.”

Cheng Nuo’s eyes widened, then she quickly reacted.

As expected.

Yan Chen had a face that looked like an unreliable playboy. Cheng Nuo’s expression twisted slightly. “What exactly do you see in him?”

He Wei lowered her eyes and brows and didn’t speak.

Cheng Nuo thought she had touched a sore spot. Seeing He Wei’s expression, she increasingly felt that she loved Yan Chen to the point of being unable to extricate herself, so she could even accept that he had women everywhere before. Cheng Nuo sighed. “I’ll ask around with my friends later. You should also pay attention yourself, Weiwei…”

He Wei looked up at her.

“You still shouldn’t be too… toward Yan Chen…”

Too invested.

Halfway through the sentence, Cheng Nuo felt that matters of the heart couldn’t be forced. She swallowed the remaining words and switched to another sentence. “If you really like Yan Chen, you have to make him unable to leave you…”

The server placed the cake on the table. Cheng Nuo paused, then continued after she left, “You have to figure out what kind he likes. It’s best if you can make him obsessed with you. Even without sleeping with him, he can still provide you with good resources…”

“The young master of the Yan family doesn’t lack money… This way, even if he likes someone else later and breaks up with you, you won’t be at a loss. Right?”

He Wei nodded, feeling that Cheng Nuo’s words made quite a bit of sense.

She ran through the photos in Yan Chen’s Moments in her mind, then turned to Cheng Nuo and said word by word, “He likes pure little white flowers.”

Including Song Zhenzhen and the original female lead herself—both appeared in public as innocent little white flowers without scheming.

Cheng Nuo looked her up and down. “Are you talking about yourself?”

“……”

She couldn’t refute it.

No way—the author had given the female lead a harmless, pure face.

“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore,” Cheng Nuo didn’t even bother eating dessert. She pulled her bag over. “I’ll do your makeup. Go see Yan Chen like this tonight—you’ll absolutely make him dizzy.”

Cheng Nuo was full of confidence. She spent more than half an hour giving He Wei a subtle makeup look that was both scheming and innocent.

At 5:45 in the afternoon, He Wei left the café. Just as she flagged down a taxi, the car behind honked. The man leaned his head out from the driver’s window. “Hehe, get in.”

He Wei looked at Yan Chen, who had appeared out of nowhere. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. She froze for a moment, then apologized to the taxi driver, opened the Ferrari’s door, and got in.

The car door closed, and He Wei cleared her throat lightly. “Were you just passing by?”

“Waiting for you.”

He Wei lifted her eyelashes and glanced sideways at him.

This time, Yan Chen clearly saw her face.

Cheng Nuo was specifically in charge of styling for the crew and magazines. Although her skills weren’t yet supreme, compared to ordinary makeup artists, she was significantly better. She had made He Wei’s makeup extremely cunning—so cunning that Yan Chen couldn’t tell she was wearing any.

Yet it was indeed different from her usual look.

Yan Chen’s eyes brightened. He leaned over and fastened her seatbelt. “Cheng Nuo just told me.”

No wonder.

She hadn’t mentioned that she would meet Yan Chen tonight, yet Cheng Nuo had done her makeup ahead of time.

He Wei subtly frowned. When Yan Chen leaned closer, she pressed herself against the door, letting out an “oh” and diverted her gaze.

Yan Chen ran his fingers through her long hair. “Dinner at my place tonight?”

Before He Wei could respond, he added, “I had Aunt Yun make the dishes you like.”

It had to be admitted: Yan Chen was flirtatious, but also meticulous. While pursuing her, he had carefully learned her preferences—and even after they were together, he remembered them all.

He Wei had originally wanted to refuse, but thinking of Song Zhenzhen, she endured it and smiled at him, her lips curving slightly. “Alright.”

Before going home, Yan Chen took He Wei to a luxury boutique.

When they came out, a necklace now rested along He Wei’s collarbone.

It would be shameful not to take advantage of a gift.

He Wei accepted it naturally. Watching Yan Chen’s favorability level rise to 66 above his head, she followed behind him and asked the system, “Tiantian, at what favorability level can I break up with him?”

The system floated excitedly: “Eighty. Once it reaches eighty, after the male lead falls in love with the host, the favorability won’t drop to zero even if you break up.”

Fourteen points to go.

He Wei decided that after going home tonight, she would check Zhihu for how to make a man love her wholeheartedly.

By the time they arrived at the Yan residence, it was a little past seven in the evening.

Aunt Yun, the Yan family’s housekeeper, only had the chef start cooking after they returned. Yan Chen poured a cup of hot water for He Wei. “Drink some hot water to warm your stomach first. I’ll go upstairs to change.”

He Wei gratefully accepted.

Yan Chen quickly went upstairs. Once the kitchen door closed, the crackling sounds disappeared entirely. He Wei, feeling bored, decided to get a head start on Zhihu, searching for answers on how to make a man fall utterly in love.

The top-voted answer offered many practical tips: for example, when interacting with the man, one should give a slight push-and-pull; also, when alone, selectively lower the collar a bit.

The air conditioner was on in the living room. As soon as He Wei entered, she removed her coat. She looked down at her sweater: off-white, neckline neither high nor low. Pulling it slightly down wouldn’t cause a wardrobe malfunction.

Just as she was about to try it out early, the sound of the front door opening came from the entryway, followed by Aunt Yun’s concerned voice: “Young master is back… Eh, drank again tonight?”

He Wei reflexively turned to look.

Yan Chen furrowed his brows slightly, tugged at his tie with one hand, glanced at He Wei, then said something to Aunt Yun before heading upstairs.

He didn’t look back, not even once.

Only after Yan Huai’s figure disappeared from view did He Wei exhale.

As expected, with the storyline reset, Yan Huai had no interest in her whatsoever now.

He Wei withdrew her gaze and planned to watch a video to pass the time.

Half an hour later, Yan Chen still hadn’t come down, but a phone rang nearby. He Wei turned her head, listening for half a minute before realizing it was coming from the pocket of Yan Chen’s coat.

Aunt Yun also looked over, her face kind and gentle despite being over fifty. “Miss He, that must be the young master’s phone?”

He Wei nodded. “I’ll go get it.”

They’d been upstairs for half an hour already; anything that could be done should be done by now.

Aunt Yun didn’t think much of it. “The room at the far south end.”

She meant Yan Chen’s room.

He Wei nodded, carrying Yan Chen’s clothes along with his phone upstairs. Reaching the second floor, she turned left and pulled out the phone.

The call had long since been disconnected, but the screen showed a vaguely suggestive WeChat message—

【Young Master Chen, are you free for dinner on Saturday?】

He Wei tugged at her lips, paused, then raised her hand to knock.

One knock, two knocks… by the third knock, the door opened from the inside.

He Wei hurriedly put the phone back into Yan Chen’s pocket, lifted her chin, and lowered her collar slightly.

Then she looked up—and froze.

She had clearly underestimated just how terrible her sense of direction was.

She had knocked on the wrong door.

The man inside didn’t look pleased. His brows drew slightly together, and when he saw He Wei, he was clearly taken aback. He raised an eyebrow, then watched silently as He Wei slowly restrained the smile on her face, and quietly said, “Um… Aunt Yun sent me to call you for dinner.”

She lied without even needing to think it through.

Yan Huai lowered his gaze to glare at her. His expression was calm, but his eyes gradually darkened.

When he came back, he had already told Aunt Yun he wouldn’t be eating dinner. So what was He Wei doing coming up here now?

And when he had opened the door earlier, the woman seemed to have even lowered her collar slightly.

What was she doing?

Trying to seduce him?