Xu Qian thought his puppet wouldn't have much of an impact on his daily life until he received a WeChat message from Teacher Yao, asking if Qin You was his cousin, along with a photo of Qin You doing military training on the playground.

Seeing this, Xu Qian could only reply with "yes." Then the other person asked if his cousin was interested in participating in a program on Sanjiang TV, the "Weekend Talk Show" that airs on weekends. They wanted to do a program about the start of the new semester. At this time, the director saw Qin You, and coincidentally, Teacher Yao knew Qin You's cousin. So... that's how it happened.

Teacher Yao:

Let's just consider it an opportunity for him to have fun.

Xu Qian:

/laughing and crying: I'll ask him. He just finished military training and might not have time to go out and have fun.

Teacher Yao:

Great! The recording only takes one day, so it won't take up too much of his time, and it can also promote the school.

When Xu Qian saw the word "publicity," he thought of his major—wildlife conservation. Perhaps this was a good start, so he thought for a moment and replied.

Xu Qian:

Teacher Yao, when does the program start recording?

Teacher Yao:

Recording is done every Thursday, two episodes at a time, which only takes half a day.

Xu Qian:

Okay, how do we get in touch?

Teacher Yao:

Your cousin agreed, right? Then I'll have the production team contact his school.

Xu Qian:

OK

...

And so, on the first day of school, Qin You was called to the office by his homeroom teacher, who was talking about the program invitation.

"I know that, my brother told me." Qin You nodded.

"Your brother is Xu Qian, right?" Teacher Qin suddenly became interested. "Judging by their appearance, they really are a family."

Qin You smiled shyly and didn't say anything more.

"Alright, then I won't say any more. I've already approved your leave slip. Do your best, this is for the sake of our school's reputation."

Qin You continued to nod.

Teacher Qin picked up the textbook on the table, then remembered something else, "Oh right, please pass on the notice later that there will be a class meeting tonight."

"Is it the same classroom as before?" Qin You asked him.

“Yes,” Teacher Qin nodded, then pulled out their class’s attendance sheet. “The time and place are the same tonight. I have to go now. When you get to the classroom tonight, you can start taking attendance.”

"Oh, okay." Qin You, holding the work that had just been added to his schedule, didn't feel any particular emotional fluctuation. He had also been a freshman in college and knew the nature of these university professors well; they would never do the work themselves if they could just delegate it.

The scene shifts to the other side—

Xu Qian will be spending the whole day at the film studio today. The previous detective web series has already filmed up to the sixth episode. Xu Qian is here to film a small part of the fifth episode and one-third of the sixth episode.

While he was filming, Sheng Huai arrived at his film set with a bunch of gifts.

"Haha, aren't you surprised!" Sheng Huai was dressed very casually today, and he looked incredibly energetic, clearly having been relaxing for quite some time.

"When did you return to Weicheng? Didn't you say you were going to stay in your hometown for a few more days?" Xu Qian tugged at his tie, loosening it slightly.

"Hey, I just can't stand being idle. I'd be stuck somewhere anyway, so I might as well come back to work. I guess I'm just used to it." Sheng Huai shrugged, looking quite helpless.

"A life of toil." Xu Qian gave him an apt assessment.

Sheng Huai nodded in agreement, "You're right, I do have a busy life. I was planning to rest for a while, but I couldn't stand being idle."

After saying that, Sheng Huai remembered something else and asked him, "By the way, when are you done? I have tickets, do you want to go watch the game together?"

Xu Qian frowned. "It might be very late today. What time is the game?"

"Tomorrow at one o'clock in the afternoon."

"We'll have to see. We might not be able to finish filming it. It's currently stuck in a rut." Moreover, he has quite a lot of scenes in the sixth episode. However, if the other two actors have fewer cuts, there might still be a chance for him to have a role.

"Okay, then I won't bother you anymore, hurry up!" Sheng Huai himself is an actor, so he understands the 'pain' of being stuck during filming.

Soon, Xu Qian returned to the filming location. Sheng Huai didn't leave immediately either; instead, he borrowed a stool from a staff member and sat down.

With Sheng Huai's current status, he is arguably the most valuable person in the crew, even though he didn't actually act in the show.

The director was thinking of having Xu Qian ask Sheng Huai if he would like to make a cameo appearance. He was even willing to write a role for Sheng Huai on the spot, as long as Sheng Huai was willing!

However, the director and Xu Qian were not very familiar with each other. He was not a member of the "One Meter Sunshine" crew. Just as he was hesitating, producer Jiang from the crew returned from outside.

"Hey! Sheng Huai, you've come to visit the set?" Producer Jiang saw Sheng Huai squatting in front as soon as he arrived. He knew that Sheng Huai had a good relationship with Xu Qian from their company, and he guessed why Sheng Huai was there.

"Brother Jiang, I just came to take a look." Sheng Huai returned a smile, very polite and very restrained.

Producer Jiang approached and said, "Since you're already here, why not make a cameo appearance before you leave? This show will air at the end of the month, and it just so happens that you two are on good terms."

Sheng Huai smiled, "Since you've asked, I'll definitely agree. Look—" Sheng Huai gestured with his chin toward Xu Qian not far away, "Friendship."

“Okay, okay,” Producer Jiang smiled broadly, then called over the director who was squatting nearby, “Come on, make the arrangements, and remember to have them write a ‘guest appearance’ for Teacher Sheng in post-production.”

In this way, Sheng Huai not only brought gifts, but also "contributed" himself, which truly showed his sincerity.

Everything's going great on set. Having a big name make a cameo appearance is a wonderful thing. I won't say much else, but the impact it has is extraordinary, especially since it's a 'friendly' cameo! (Free)

Xu Qian was the only one who was worried. Unlike him, Sheng Huai was signed with an agency, and he needed the company's approval to participate in any project.

Thinking of this, Xu Qian couldn't hold back any longer and went directly to Sheng Huai to tell him what had happened.

Sheng Huai smiled after hearing this. He was somewhat happy because only true friends would care about the price he paid, instead of only caring about personal gain.

"It's alright, I've already signed a new contract, they can't do anything about it," Sheng Huai said with a reassuring smile.

"Well, that's good." Xu Qian had heard about Sheng Huai's alteration of the contract, and seeing how confident he was now, he believed him.

With Sheng Huai joining the cast, the scenes in the sixth episode became much more substantial, and the filming progressed rapidly.

In the drama, Sheng Huai plays Xu Qian's good friend, just like the two in real life. He even becomes one of the people behind Ueno Kawazo.

The sense that "if you're the villain, then I'm the villain too" couldn't be stronger.

Seeing this, the editor could hardly contain her inner fangirl—ah, 'Promise You a Prosperous Era' is truly a feast for the eyes!

Around 8 p.m., dinner for the two of them was finally served. It was a very ordinary meal with one meat dish and two vegetable dishes, including braised pork. However, the pork was a bit too oily and the taste was rather ordinary.

Adhering to the principle of not wasting food, Xu Qian basically finished the whole box of food, while Sheng Huai barely touched his chopsticks, saying that he didn't have much of an appetite and felt too hot.

Thinking of this, Xu Qian remembered that he had brought mung bean soup with him, so he quickly called Yan Lang to go to the car to get it, which he had been keeping frozen in the small refrigerator.

"Did you cook this yourself?" Sheng Huai asked as he drank the soup. He didn't know if it was because he hadn't had a good appetite lately, but he felt much better after drinking the mung bean soup.

"Yes, this is good for cooling down in the summer, but your stomach is a bit sensitive, so you can only drink one bowl." With that, Xu Qian put the rest back to Yan Lang.

As Sheng Huai watched the mung bean soup gradually disappear into the distance, he felt that the soup in his bowl was even more precious. "Sigh, I wonder who will be so lucky in the future to marry you. You're elegant in public and skilled in the kitchen."

Xu Qian raised an eyebrow, finding his words rather strange.

“By the way,” Sheng Huai put down his bowl, “Isn’t everyone online saying you have a girlfriend? I’ve never seen her.”

Xu Qian paused for a moment, then explained, "She's in her hometown."

"My God, you two are in a long-distance relationship? How can you manage that?" Sheng Huai was a staunch opponent of long-distance relationships, always feeling that prolonged distance greatly affected the relationship.

"It's alright." He hadn't gotten it anyway. Xu Qian thought calmly.

"A warrior! A true warrior!" Without further ado, let's drink to that! Sheng Huai raised his mung bean soup and downed it in one gulp. It was icy cold and refreshing!

"That's about it, I'll go take a look." Xu Qian didn't really want to bring up the topic again.

"Wait for me, let me finish this sip—" Sheng Huai gulped down the rest of the mung bean soup.

...

We finally finished work at 10:30 pm.

Sheng Huai said he wanted to get some late-night snacks, and Xu Qian was also a bit hungry, so the three of them, along with Yan Lang, went to Sanxian Di'er outside the film studio. Their roasted chicken legs are a late-night snack that you never get tired of.

While waiting for the food to be served, Sheng Huai started watching videos on iStation. Surprisingly, Sheng Huai was actually a long-time iStation user.

At that moment, Sheng Huai came across a video titled "As long as you live long enough, you'll find any kind of couple." He clicked on it and found that the first thing he saw was Xu Qian standing in front of him—

That was a video of Xu Qian being paired up with a very popular crosstalk performer. The gist of the video was: the storyteller is a character in the story.

In other words, it is "be".

Less than half a minute later, the song changed again, this time it was still Xu Qian's, but the person he was paired with became a professional actress in the entertainment industry who specializes in playing fairies. The story was a tragic love between a master and disciple, and it ended with the scene of the master (Yu Shi) dying.

And so, it's "be" again.

The third and fourth stories both feature Xu Qian as the main character, and the outcome is, unsurprisingly, a tragic ending.

Even Sheng Huai was a little confused. Were these people fans of Xu Qian or haters of Xu Qian? Why were they all predicting a bad ending? Why?

At this time, Sheng Huai did not understand a new term—"beautiful, strong, and tragic".

If you love him, you have to see him cry.

While Sheng Huai was watching his CP-themed videos, Xu Qian drifted off into a daze. When he finally had some free time, he remembered the time Sheng Huai had been cheated on—by that female ghost. Later, he investigated the house and discovered there was actually a story behind it. He didn't know if it was true or not, but he'd just treat it as a story…

Author's Note: I'll update more chapters on Saturday and Sunday, if I'm not too busy...

***