After the coordinator left, the previously somewhat dead reading session regained its vitality, and everyone began whispering to exchange information.
Liu Rulan also understood the situation and walked over to Xiao He, explaining in a low voice: "This Gao Zhenxia is considered the most senior here, now in her sixties, mainly teaching acting classes at several drama academies in Beijing, and rarely participates in film crews anymore. She came this time out of respect for Director Zhuang. If she's genuinely unavailable, I believe it, because she really is very busy."
This Gao Zhenxia plays Zhang Ziyue, the ordinary human friend of the female lead Yin Lan, and is currently the only ordinary person in the plot who knows about Yin Lan's special constitution.
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When she met Yin Lan, she was still a student, while Yin Lan was already an elderly woman in her twilight years. Zhang Ziyue initially thought Yin Lan was a lonely old woman without family or friends, so she would occasionally come to take care of her. It wasn't until an accident occurred later that Zhang Ziyue unintentionally discovered Yin Lan's special constitution.
However, being kind-hearted by nature, she didn't distance herself from Yin Lan because of this, nor did she plan to use this information for anything. Instead, she would visit Yin Lan periodically to listen to her share stories from the past.
Thus decades passed in the blink of an eye—Zhang Ziyue had transformed from a student into an elderly woman with unsteady steps, with a happy family and numerous descendants, while Yin Lan remained exactly as she was during their first meeting, with even the wrinkles on her face barely changing.
Despite this, Zhang Ziyue would still occasionally ask her son to bring her to visit Yin Lan, catching up with her while using her limited but exceptionally happy remaining years to accompany Yin Lan through her long yet empty periods of time.
In Yin Lan's heart, Zhang Ziyue held a very special place.
Even in the plot, when Yin Lan learned the true secret of immortality for their test subjects, she immediately thought of Zhang Ziyue.
At that time, Zhang Ziyue had already been hospitalized due to various age-related illnesses, with her life entering its final countdown.
Yin Lan decisively brought the stolen fragment to the hospital where Zhang Ziyue was staying, found her, and attempted to extend her life.
Zhang Ziyue lay in the hospital bed, her body already extremely weak, but when she saw Yin Lan appear, she couldn't suppress her excitement.
However, when Yin Lan proposed the immortality solution, Zhang Ziyue firmly shook her head in refusal.
"You've lived too bitterly, Yin Lan."
Zhang Ziyue's voice was weak and hoarse, muffled by the breathing mask.
"So I thought, let me use my limited time to briefly accompany a pitiful person—" Her gaze drifted to the window, "Sorry, Yin Lan, please forgive me for saying such harsh words, but I'm truly content with my life and everything I have now. Even if what comes next is death, I don't want to become the next you."
"Endless years are truly terrifying."
Zhang Ziyue said.
"I've already sent off my beloved—that kind of heart-wrenching pain I don't want to experience more times, then send off my children, my grandchildren, my grandchildren's descendants—"
Until finally only she remained drifting alone in this world, with no more attachments left.
"Forgive my selfishness, Yin Lan. If you've found the path you want to walk, then boldly try it. It's just that I really can't continue accompanying you anymore."
As she finished speaking, a tear slid down from the corner of Zhang Ziyue's eye. Yin Lan listened silently and didn't try to persuade further, merely bending down to affectionately stroke her wrinkled cheek, just like she used to stroke the little girl who had just returned from school: "I'm sorry, I understand."
Perhaps this would be their final meeting.
But "Zhang Ziyue" would always be her friend, always—
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The character Zhang Ziyue doesn't appear many times, but she's very important, especially for the female lead—she holds profound significance. Zhang Ziyue's subsequent death ultimately prompts the female lead to embark on the path of tracing immortality's origins and confronting the suffering of eternal life.
Since Zhang Ziyue's important scenes are mainly concentrated in her elderly stage, the production cast two people for this role—one for the younger version and one for the elderly version.
The elderly version naturally is played by Gao Zhenxia.
The name Gao Zhenxia might not sound particularly famous, but if you listed all the roles she played over the years, the comment section would probably be flooded with "Who in the world doesn't know you?"
Throughout her many years in the entertainment industry, her reputation has always been excellent, and she has taught many promising students, with no rumors of diva behavior ever emerging. So for this heavyweight actor to be absent, Liu Rulan believes she genuinely couldn't make it, not that she was being deliberately difficult.
As for the other two...
"Yuan Sitong, an artist under Yunheng Entertainment, which is owned by Banana Video. She has participated in multiple major production projects. Although her skills are lacking, with platform support behind her and her pretty face, she still has quite a few fans." Liu Rulan evaluated, "This one is no ordinary diva—there have been multiple rumors of her throwing tantrums on sets before, and even engaging in on-set bullying. I truly didn't expect her to be so brainless as to cause trouble in Director Zhuang's production."
Though of course, it's possible she thought Director Zhuang was merely lending his name and wouldn't personally come to the set today.
"Yuan Sitong..."
Xiao He felt this name was quite familiar. After thinking carefully, he vaguely recalled that one of his former classmates really liked this female celebrity.
Her face was indeed very beautiful—the kind of god-level sculpted face that many netizens rave about these days.
Thinking this, Xiao He's gaze unconsciously swept around the room, and he belatedly noticed something—it seemed like almost none of the main cast actors present were unattractive!
Even the slightly older supporting actors were absolutely handsome back in their youth.
Looking around this venue, it was filled with nothing but handsome men and beautiful women!
Xiao He rubbed his temples.
Could this be considered the production team's greatest respect for the manga adaptation?
Forget acting skills for now, set aside abilities temporarily—just based on this exceptionally high average appearance level, passersby would definitely take a second look.
Following performance anxiety, Xiao He felt he was developing some appearance anxiety too.
Meanwhile, Liu Rulan continued introducing the final male artist to Xiao He: "Finally, this Lu Yuxi is similar to the previous Su Shengxi—both started as idols. But he originally debuted in the neighboring country, struggled for a long time without making any headway, then slunk back to China in disgrace. Later he participated in a domestic talent show and barely made the debut cut, gaining some fame with his debut boy group at the time."
"There's not much to say about him. During his years abroad, he didn't improve at all, but he did learn that country's seniority hierarchy system perfectly. The only commendable thing about him is his high-level subtly enhanced face, and he still has a group of devoted fans following him, inflating his ego to unreasonable levels."
Actually, looking at it currently, the senior-junior relationships in the domestic entertainment industry are relatively healthy—whoever can make money gets priority, without too many rigid rules. But in the neighboring country, it's quite different.
Whether in the entertainment industry or workplace, senior-junior relationships must be clearly defined, with an inherent pyramid structure pressing down layer by layer, unchangeable. Sometimes, if someone gets labeled as "disrespectful to seniors," they might face condemnation from the entire entertainment industry.
When Lu Yuxi was in the neighboring country's entertainment scene, he was at the very bottom of this pyramid, himself a victim of this hierarchy. But the funny thing is, when he returned to China and achieved some success, he actually started endorsing this same hierarchical system, publicly belittling and mocking newcomers while shamelessly cozying up to famous seniors.
Truly turning the natural order upside down.
Xiao He sneered: "At least others pretend a bit and make excuses, but he doesn't even bother acting."
Liu Rulan shrugged: "The entertainment industry is full of minor celebrities with major attitude problems. He's just unlucky to have run into trouble this time."
That they hadn't encountered such people before only meant the production teams had good atmospheres, not that they didn't exist.
And now—
After hearing Liu Rulan's introductions, Xiao He suddenly felt a headache coming on.
What kind of bizarre characters has this production team gathered!
Especially thinking of Yan Shaohan, whose face practically screams "I'm unreliable," Xiao He felt genuinely concerned.