Huayu: Starting from retirement, sweeping across the domestic entertainment industry

It was late at night, and only a dim bedside lamp was on in the master bedroom.

Li Ran leaned against the headboard, having just finished watching Tian Xiwei's energetic rock dance.

Xiaotian was wearing a loose nightgown, her hair was slightly messy, and her cheeks were flushed from her earlier movements.

She was standing with her arms crossed, looking down at him, her big, round eyes filled with scrutiny.

"What do you want to say to Zhang Ruonan today?" she asked, her tone carrying a hint of accusation.

Li Ran paused for a moment, then smiled.

He sat up, looked directly into her eyes, and gently kissed her cheek: "It's nothing, why are you asking?"

Tian Xiwei snorted coldly, pushed him back onto the bed, and said with certainty, "You still say there's nothing wrong!"

"You lied to me last time that the red string was a gift from your aunt, and now you're like this."

Li Ran looked puzzled and slowly asked, "What do I look like?"

Tian Xiwei glared at him and said, word by word, "When you first started lying, you liked to stare into people's eyes and then do things to distract them."

She paused, then added, "Last time, you fooled me because you kissed my cheek."

Li Ran smiled awkwardly. He didn't even know he had this problem, and he didn't expect Xiao Tian to see through it.

He tried to change the subject: "By the way, you haven't given me that safety rope yet."

Tian Xiwei sneered: "Stop changing the subject, let's talk about Zhang Ruonan now. Don't worry about the safety rope, I've kept it very safe."

Li Ran pursed her lips, knowing there was no way to avoid it.

"There's a movie script, and I feel she'd be perfect for the lead role..."

Tian Xiwei reached out and grabbed his "wrist" with just the right amount of force, enough to make him feel a little pressure.

"Are you sure you're not trying to pick her up?"

She paused, then slowly asked, "And what about Lu Yuxiao?"

Li Ran felt a slight pain; Xiao Tian's grip was quite strong.

It's quite comfortable though...

"How could that be?" he quickly protested, "It really suits me..."

Tian Xiwei looked at him, knowing he was lying, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She gave his wrist a gentle nudge and changed the subject, saying, "By the way, is Li Gengxi just going to let it go like that? She's got quite a background, isn't she?"

Li Ran reached out and grasped her chubby little hand, trying to get her to move, and slowly said, "Xu Jinglei probably told her about my background and also asked her to find a way to get close to me..."

Under his guidance, Tian Xiwei began to move her wrists. He comfortably put his hands back behind his head, looked at her, and added.

"She's smart; she knows that making a big fuss would be bad for everyone, so she simply made a request that I wouldn't refuse."

Tian Xiwei continued what she was doing, then looked up at Li Ran curiously and asked, "What are your requirements?"

"Act with me in a drama where we are the male and female leads."

Li Ran spoke casually, letting out a soft breath...

Tian Xiwei rolled her eyes at him, then thought for a moment and asked, "Did I buy or rent that apartment?"

Li Ran sat up, switched places with her, and reached out to hold her ankle...

He looked down at her and said softly, "I bought it! It has your name on it."

Tian Xiwei was stunned for a moment. She sat up and hugged him back. She had to admit that Xiao Tian was quite flexible...

She whispered in his ear, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Li Ran smiled and said, "You didn't ask, did you?"

……

The following evening, at a Zhejiang cuisine restaurant in Beijing.

The private room was elegantly decorated, with warm yellow lights shining on the wooden tables and chairs, and a bustling night view outside the window.

After ordering, Li Ran sat alone at the table, waiting quietly.

In the afternoon, he had already discussed the operation of the film project with Sun Zhonghuai of Tencent. Now he just needed to talk to the female lead he envisioned.

Shortly after, the door to the private room was pushed open.

Zhang Ruonan walked in, followed by another person, Zhang Jingyi.

Li Ran was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered. The two were good friends, and it was normal for Zhang Ruonan to bring Zhang Jingyi along when she came to see him.

Zhang Jingyi entered the private room, went straight to sit next to him, and asked bluntly, "Brother Li Ran, what do you want to talk to Ruonan about?"

Li Ran smiled and didn't hide anything.

"I have a script in hand, and I think she's quite suitable, so I came over to chat."

Zhang Ruonan sat down next to Zhang Jingyi, looking a little nervous.

When Li Ran said he wanted to talk to her yesterday, she didn't take it seriously at first, but when she saw Zhou Ye and the other man fighting with Li Gengxi, she became extremely nervous.

She spent the whole night thinking about how she should refuse if he really made that kind of request! Should she refuse at all?

After thinking it over and over but not coming to a conclusion, he could only drag Zhang Jingyi along.

But she didn't expect Li Ran to only talk about work...

I made her excited for nothing... she was nervous all night!

Zhang Ruonan relaxed and looked at Li Ran, curiously waiting for him to speak...

Li Ran took out the script from beside her and handed it to them.

"The movie is called 'Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight'."

Zhang Ruonan muttered under her breath, "A name! 'The Vanished Love'?"

Li Ran nodded and explained, "It is indeed a love story related to disappearance. If you think the title is too long, you can also call it 'Since This Love Has Disappeared'."

Zhang Jingyi had already opened the script and started reading. Seeing this, Zhang Ruonan ignored Li Ran and went over to read with her.

The waiter came in and started serving the dishes.

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One after another, exquisite Ou cuisine dishes were placed on the table, including Three-Shredded Fish, Garlic Fish Skin, Egg White Crab, and Brocade Fish Shreds... all of which are Wenzhou specialties.

But neither of them looked up, completely absorbed in the script, clearly engrossed in reading it.

Li Ran shook his head, picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks, and began to eat.

The script was a system reward.

When "A Little Red Flower" grossed over 1 billion yuan, the system reward was issued.

Moreover, on New Year's Eve, the system suddenly issued a strange task that perfectly matched the script.

[The system has detected that the host has established a connection with one of the four most popular female protagonists in melodramatic novels among the post-95 generation, triggering a hidden quest.]

[Task objective: Collaborate with four different individuals to create four bad ending (BE) films. Current progress: 0/40]

[Task Reward: A script tailor-made for a movie star]

After receiving the script, Li Ran thought for several days about who to collaborate with first.

Although Zhang Ruonan's "Your Wedding" is also a tragic ending, it has already been filmed and will be released soon.

Choosing her to collaborate on "Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight" is a perfect fit.

As for the others, Zhou Ye has "A Small Shop by the Clouds", Zhang Jingyi has "The One I Lost", and Liu Haocun has "Unforgettable Memories".

Even if the system doesn't provide bad ending scenarios in the future, these can still fill in.

As Li Ran was thinking, he was suddenly punched by Zhang Jingyi.

The force wasn't strong; it was more like a playful scolding.

He turned his head in surprise and found that Zhang Jingyi's eyes were red, and Zhang Ruonan next to her was not much better, with tears in her eyes and sniffling.

Zhang Jingyi looked at him, her voice slightly choked with emotion.

"Why is this script so hurtful? Who is the screenwriter? It's so pure and innocent in the beginning, but the ending is so cruel."

"Has he been dumped eighteen times? Otherwise, how could he write such a sad script?"

Li Ran pursed his lips.

This was a system reward; how would he know who the screenwriter was?

All I know is that the previous life was a 22-year-old Japanese film, and that's all I know.

"You want to send the screenwriter razor blades?" He pulled out a tissue and handed it to her, jokingly.

He then looked at Zhang Ruonan, handed her a tissue, and slowly asked, "Are you interested in acting in this?"

Zhang Ruonan took the tissue, glanced at Zhang Jingyi, and then nodded.

"Thank you, Li Ran. I really like this script, and I can act in it."

Zhang Jingyi looked at Zhang Ruonan, then at Li Ran, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't speak.

She really wanted to act in this script.

But Li Ran had already decided on Zhang Ruonan, and Zhang Ruonan had agreed. It would be impolite to speak up now.

She lowered her eyes and silently began to plan in her mind.

I need to bring Li Ran home tonight and have a good talk with him.

Li Ran smiled when he saw that Zhang Ruonan agreed.

"Alright, let's eat first! The food's getting cold. This Zhejiang restaurant is pretty good, Ruonan, see if it suits your taste."

Zhang Ruonan is from Wenzhou, and Li Ran specifically chose this Zhejiang restaurant, ordering mostly Ou cuisine.

Zhang Ruonan picked up a piece of shredded fish with three kinds of fillings, tasted it, and her eyes lit up: "It's very authentic!"

She paused, then suddenly remembered something, and looked at Li Ran: "Li Ran, I'm filming with you... Zhou Ye and the others won't cause me any trouble, will they?"

She still feels lingering fear when she recalls the scene of Zhou Ye and Hu Lianxin teaming up to beat Li Gengxi yesterday.

Zhang Jingyi also looked at Li Ran, wanting to see how he would explain.

If Zhang Ruonan refuses to act because she's afraid, then she can speak up; she's not afraid of Zhou Ye and his group.

Li Ran gave a wry smile.

It seems that yesterday's events left a deep impression on Zhang Ruonan.

Don't worry!

He shook his head slightly and explained, "They weren't that heartless. Yesterday was just an accident."

Zhang Ruonan was still a little worried, so she looked at Zhang Jingyi.

"Jingyi, if anything unexpected happens, you have to protect me!"

Zhang Jingyi smiled faintly.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine."

But in her heart she was thinking: If you're so scared, why don't you refuse Li Ran?

Zhang Ruonan actually wanted Li Ran to protect her.

But with Zhang Jingyi nearby, and being one of Li Ran's girlfriends, she was too embarrassed to say it aloud and could only settle for second best.

Li Ran chuckled and said, "Why are you afraid of them? They're not going to cause trouble for you on set. They're not even in this show."

Zhang Ruonan nodded.

Yes, she's being a bit of a worrywart! She can't be doxxed just because she acted in a drama with Li Ran!

But she always had a strange feeling that the others would cause her trouble because of Li Ran.

The more I thought about it, the stronger the thought became…

Zhang Jingyi looked at Li Ran, then suddenly changed the subject, asking, "By the way, who did Jiang Ni ultimately choose?"

Since they would find out sooner or later anyway, Li Ran didn't try to hide it from them.

"Lu Yuxiao".

Zhang Jingyi looked at him, frowned, and asked, "What about Li Gengxi?"

"She's not in the show."

Li Ran asked in return, "What's wrong?"

Zhang Jingyi's attitude towards Li Gengxi was noticeably different.

She shook her head and slowly explained, "It's nothing! I just don't really like her."

Li Ran was somewhat surprised.

What did Li Gengxi do to make Zhang Jingyi say "I don't like it"?

……