Hearing Li Xingyu's statement, Fu Lianghui was momentarily stunned, feeling somewhat guilty.
He had assumed the woman across from him was just a temporary worker, at most an assistant, but to his surprise, Li Xingyu directly called her a director.
His face immediately began to sting with embarrassment.
But then another thought occurred to him—Li Xingyu was an actor from "The Last Wish," so who was this director he mentioned?
Of course, it must be the director of "The Last Wish"!
Through faulty reasoning, Fu Lianghui arrived at the correct conclusion, and with this realization, his resentment swelled like a pufferfish.
If not for their film stealing the spotlight from "Seeking the Path to Immortality," it wouldn't have suffered such a catastrophic failure in both reviews and box office!
And since they weren't members of the "Warmth for You" crew, what were they doing in the rest area? Obviously causing trouble!
Wasn't this even more problematic than being an "anti-fan causing trouble" as he'd thought before?
With this in mind, Fu Lianghui immediately turned to Li Qiaoqiao: "Director Li, these two people are clearly—"
"—Shut up!"
Fu Lianghui was shocked to be interrupted by Director Li Qiaoqiao before he could even finish speaking.
He was bewildered. With his good looks, dealing with young women like Li Qiaoqiao had always been effortless for him. He'd even felt confident that, with his deliberate flirtation, he'd nearly won over this assistant director.
When had this young woman ever rebuked him like this? And in front of the entire crew plus two outsiders from another production!
Fu Lianghui couldn't understand it and stood frozen in place.
But Li Qiaoqiao had no interest in explaining anything to Fu Lianghui. She hurriedly explained to Li Xingyu: "A misunderstanding, this is definitely all a misunderstanding—"
At this point, she looked around at the others in the rest area and quickly clarified: "The cinema is hosting two premieres today, and they are members of the other crew, also here to prepare!"
Upon hearing this, the rest of the crew finally understood.
The misunderstanding was partly Li Qiaoqiao's responsibility—after all, a first assistant director typically coordinates film matters. During filming, this means arranging shooting notices and summoning actors; and even after filming concludes, the coordination work continues. She should have informed the crew about "sharing a rest area with others," but since she was only attached to the crew to gain experience for her resume, she hadn't considered this issue.
But of course, Li Qiaoqiao wouldn't admit this was her fault. She scanned the rest area, and though she wasn't sure what had happened, she focused on Fu Lianghui: "Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, why don't both parties apologize and put this behind us? Lianghui! Say sorry to Actor Li and Director Shao, and this matter should be over..."
Toward the end, Li Qiaoqiao was speaking in an almost pleading tone. Normally, an assistant director shouldn't have to be so deferential, but given her awkward position as merely an attached member, in the absence of the official director, her authority was even less than that of the lead actors.
Sure enough, hearing her tone, Fu Lianghui immediately exploded.
What? She wanted him to apologize to them?
Who did he think he was? A trending celebrity! Even if his last film unexpectedly bombed, his popularity remained! Hadn't she seen the hundreds or thousands of replies every time he posted on Weibo?
And who were these two?
From what he knew, not to mention the director, even the actor, despite gaining some fame after that film, didn't even have a verified Weibo account! His fans from that small role had probably all left by now—how could he compete with Fu Lianghui?
With these thoughts, he opened his mouth to retort.
But before he could speak, Li Xingyu preempted him.
"I see that Actor Fu Lianghui doesn't seem particularly willing to apologize," he said, still standing in front of Shao Yichen, his tone gentle yet firm. "In that case, we don't need this gentleman to apologize insincerely."
He glanced at his watch, and a slight smile appeared on his usually expressionless face—but unlike a kind smile, this expression seemed to contain a hint of mockery: "It seems your premiere is about to begin—7 PM, wasn't it? Half an hour earlier than our film 'The Web'?"
"Since your actors seem ready, and even have time to cause trouble for another crew's director, why not wait backstage early? How about that?"
"From here to the backstage area, there shouldn't be much time left before your premiere starts."
"This way, out of sight is out of mind—you won't be annoyed, and we'll have some peace, without needing to engage in pointless arguments with people lacking manners."
Though Li Xingyu didn't explicitly target anyone with his words, each sentence was clearly aimed at stinging Fu Lianghui's heart.
His attitude was very clear—we don't need your apology; we refuse to accept it.
The only way to end this conflict is for you to leave this rest area and give the entire space to us!
Just as Fu Lianghui was about to speak again, Li Qiaoqiao agreed before he could: "Since it's almost time, our crew should indeed leave now."
After saying this, she frantically signaled to Fu Lianghui with her eyes, indicating he should calm down.
Fu Lianghui restrained himself repeatedly, finally snorting through his nose before turning to leave.
With the instigator gone, the rest of the crew had no quarrel with Shao Yichen and her team, so they left even more quickly.
Moments later, only Li Xingyu and Shao Yichen remained in the rest area.
Seeing that Fu Lianghui's entire crew had departed, Li Xingyu turned to Shao Yichen: "Director, what just happened?"
Shao Yichen looked at the suddenly empty rest area and stretched lazily: "Nothing much, that male actor's brain malfunctioned somehow, and he tried to go crazy on me... maybe he's having his period."
In fact, everything that had just happened seemed rather disconnected to her—she didn't recognize Fu Lianghui in person, and after her rebirth, she didn't know Li Qiaoqiao either, unaware of why she could call her "Director Shao" at their first meeting. She, at the center of the vortex, ironically knew the least among all these people.
But on second thought, she figured that since she had already made one film and was standing with Li Xingyu, it was natural for people to guess her identity.
As she pondered this, the rest area door opened again, and a group of people entered with imposing energy.
Shao Yichen braced herself mentally, then looked up—the South Polar Bear twins had swaggered in with the cinematographer and art director. They—especially Nan Rongyu and Nan Rongzhou—were dressed flamboyantly and extravagantly, glittering from head to toe like peacocks covered in diamonds.
But this was understandable—it was their first and possibly last time attending a film premiere, so having a distinctive appearance made sense.
They surveyed the rest area, nodding with satisfaction: "This rest area is quite spacious, though the table is a bit messy, and there's water on the floor."
...These people truly had miraculous timing, Shao Yichen thought. If they had arrived ten minutes earlier, the situation might have been very different—given Nan Rongyu's temperament, the two crews might already be fighting.
With this in mind, Shao Yichen actually felt their late arrival was fortunate.
After all, films releasing alongside hers were allies in her journey to lose money! She wasn't worried about Nan Rongyu's background being unable to handle the situation; she was more concerned that these concurrent releases might be traumatized by Nan Rongyu and unable to help her share enough of the box office, which would be troubling.
Now these people knew nothing, foolishly rejoicing here with excited expressions, giving Shao Yichen a strange sense of reassurance as she watched them.
She turned to the rest of the crew: "Now that everyone's here—shall we walk the red carpet?"
"What, there's a red carpet to walk?!" Upon hearing this, Nan Rongyu jumped three feet high. "If I'd known about the red carpet, I would have dressed more carefully..."
Shao Yichen looked at his blindingly flashy decorations and barely managed to hold back from saying, "You're already extremely eye-catching."
She gave the lively group a preemptive warning: "The red carpet isn't anything special. Although I sent out many invitations, probably not many people will come. Keep your expectations reasonable, just walk casually—"
"How can we walk casually?!" Jiang Miaomiao was visibly excited. "I gave invitations to every employee at the photo studio except the manager! I want them all to know I've made something of myself!"
The homebody Qin Lu blanched.
Li Xingyu couldn't help but smile.
Shao Yichen: ...Whatever makes you happy.
She stood up: "Since everyone is ready, let's go!"
With that, she turned and walked toward the premiere stage.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Meanwhile, outside Theater 1 of Yuchen Cinema.
Reporter Xiao Fang and her mentor/colleague Old Chen squatted outside the door, feeling dejected.
"These security guards are too much," Old Chen sighed. "Just because we don't have invitations, how can they kick us out of the premiere ceremony after we've already entered?"
Xiao Fang was more rational, consoling her senior: "I heard that male supporting actor Fu Lianghui is quite popular, so maybe the production team is worried about potential issues."
"But we showed them our press credentials!" Old Chen was indignant. "Besides, look at us—an old fat man and a young girl, both carrying cameras and notebooks. Do we look like we could do anything dangerous?"
At this point, he sighed again: "It's not a big deal if we don't attend. It's just one article, and idol dramas are all similar—I know how to write it even without attending. As for photos, I'll swallow my pride and ask some colleagues I know, who can probably send me a couple that should be usable."
"The problem now is, having come all this way, we can't just go straight home, can we?" Old Chen looked around. "Plus, it's the evening rush hour now—we could watch an entire movie in the time it would take to wait for transportation."
Hearing this, Xiao Fang had a realization: "Speaking of which, Old Chen, I just remembered there's another premiere here tonight."
"Don't premieres all require invitations?" Old Chen shook his head. "I don't want to be thrown out again."
"This is a smaller production with minimal publicity," Xiao Fang recalled a game recommendation from a virtual streamer she followed, feeling intrigued. "I saw online that because they have no publicity, they're not turning anyone away—even photo studio employees could easily get invitations! With our credentials and cameras, we should have no problem attending!"
"Really? That sounds good for killing time." Old Chen nodded. "What's this film called?"
"'The Web.'" Xiao Fang took out her phone and showed Old Chen the synopsis. "Although there's not much publicity, the leads are quite handsome!"
Old Chen tilted his head to look: "Oh, I know this director—isn't she the one who directed 'The Last Wish'? She makes films so quickly; in just two and a half months, her second film is already premiering?"
Xiao Fang, newly employed, wasn't very familiar with the film industry: "I don't know either. If we're going, their ceremony is set for 8 PM and should be starting soon. We should hurry!"
Five minutes later.
The two crouched low, finding seats in the back row of the darkened theater.
The premiere's format was to walk the red carpet first, then screen the film, followed by interviews with the leads. By the time they arrived, the red carpet portion had concluded, the theater had darkened, and the film was about to begin.
Old Chen's corpulent body squeezed into the narrow cinema seat as he wiped his sweat and shared his knowledge with Xiao Fang: "This director's previous film had a decent script, but I don't know who the cinematographer was—they really dragged the film down. And the color grading! It was so dark at times it was practically a black screen..."
Before he could finish, the screen lit up.
—What greeted them was a scene of brilliant sunset.
And the film's male protagonist entered the audience's view as if treading upon this sunset glow.
In an instant, both Old Chen and Xiao Fang forgot to speak.
After a long moment, Xiao Fang heard Old Chen murmuring beside her.
"This cinematography, this color palette... it's actually quite good, isn't it?"