Amidst the varied thoughts of everyone waiting, Teacher Gao Zhenxia was the first to arrive.
"Sorry, sorry, I've kept everyone waiting."
Gao Zhenxia had a straightforward personality—her voice arrived before she did.
Xiao He followed the sound and saw an elderly lady dressed in a light gray suit walking steadily into the hall from outside.
The elderly lady was quite fashionable, wearing a pair of red half-rimmed glasses, with short, permed curly hair. The cloth bag hanging from her arm even had a recently popular small doll attached. Overall, she looked like the kind of trendy grandma who could easily find common topics with young people.
"Sorry, sorry. The school suddenly adjusted their assessments today, and I got delayed dealing with students."
While earnestly explaining, Gao Zhenxia looked toward director Yan Shaohan and apologized again with sincere tone: "Director Yan, I'm very sorry for delaying everyone's time."
Yan Shaohan quickly waved his hands, then smiled and scratched his head: "It's fine, it's fine. Actually, you weren't that late, just a few minutes."
Then he directed the staff nearby to pull out a chair for Gao Zhenxia so she could sit and rest.
One could only say that Gao Zhenxia truly lived up to being a veteran in the domestic entertainment industry for many years. She had rich experience dealing with such situations—she didn't try to shift blame from the start, and when apologizing, she made Yan Shaohan her primary target, showing that she recognized Yan Shaohan as the director and actively expressed her position.
By doing this, she both defused Zhuang Hongyi's anger and successfully moved past her lateness—it was truly a move showing high emotional intelligence.
Sure enough, although Zhuang Hongyi didn't speak, he just glanced briefly at Gao Zhenxia as she sat down, but he essentially accepted her goodwill gesture and didn't pursue her issue further.
After Gao Zhenxia sat down, everyone waited about five more minutes. When the remaining two still hadn't shown up, Zhuang Hongyi said directly: "Let's not wait for them. Everyone can start first."
Yan Shaohan also nodded: "Then let's start directly."
He looked at Guo Xinya: "Sister Xinya, shall we start with you?"
Guo Xinya nodded: "Okay."
Thus the script reading session officially began—
About twenty-some minutes passed before Yuan Sitong and her manager arrived exactly on time.
As soon as they entered the hall, the manager rushed to Zhuang Hongyi's side, showing an apologetic expression as she apologized to him: "Sorry, sorry Director Zhuang. Our Sitong really had a scheduling conflict that overlapped a bit. Very sorry for delaying everyone and your work."
Zhuang Hongyi remained silent, still looking down at the script in his hands, not giving any reaction to this manager.
The previously somewhat noisy scene became quiet again.
Many people's gazes were intentionally or unintentionally sweeping toward that area.
Yuan Sitong was dressed quite casually, with no makeup on her face, wearing both a hat and mask neatly. However, the section of hair visible beneath her hat brim looked messy and unkempt, as if it hadn't been washed or combed. This appearance didn't look like someone who had just rushed over from another appointment.
It looked more like someone who had just gotten out of bed and hurried to work.
Zhuang Hongyi's silence also filled the manager's face with embarrassment.
In this awkward situation, it was the actual director of the "Yu Ye" crew who looked up, glanced at his phone, and said with an emotional tone: "You're only twenty-nine minutes late! Impressive! You actually arrived exactly on time, that's great! Quickly find any seat and sit down, it's fine, you can continue participating in the reading."
However, Yan Shaohan's words didn't have any effect. Or rather, to the manager and Yuan Sitong, it sounded more like intentional sarcasm toward them, and their facial expressions became even more complicated.
The manager also didn't acknowledge Yan Shaohan's words, still nervously watching Zhuang Hongyi to see what his reaction would be.
Zhuang Hongyi showed no reaction, still looking at the script in his hands, his hand resting on the table occasionally tapping the tabletop intermittently.
Even Xiao He could tell what Zhuang Hongyi meant by now, shaking his head somewhat helplessly in his heart.
These people still haven't figured out their position.
Even though the staff had already set up chairs, Yuan Sitong didn't dare to sit down.
She looked to her manager for help.
Facing so many eyes in the room, manager Tang Wenjuan forced a smile and continued speaking to Zhuang Hongyi with an ingratiating expression: "Director Zhuang, we really weren't overtime. We came directly after receiving the call, pushing aside our other appointment. You see—"
"Hmm?"
Zhuang Hongyi finally made a sound, but this time when he looked up at the manager and Yuan Sitong, his eyes were full of confusion: "Are you speaking to me?"
Tang Wenjuan: "...Haha, Director Zhuang, you're so funny. Of course we're speaking to you—"
"Snap—"
Before she could finish speaking, Zhuang Hongyi suddenly closed the script in his hands, his expression instantly darkening.
"First of all, I am not this crew's director."
His gaze swept over everyone, carrying a warning.
"In this place, your director is Yan Shaohan—the person who can directly decide all plot directions and coordinate all crew matters."
"In short, all crew matters should be directed to Director Yan, not me. Understand?"
Hearing Zhuang Hongyi's words, Tang Wenjuan's heart trembled, only now realizing what a stupid thing she had done!
She had been so focused on pleasing Director Zhuang that she had ignored the actual director's words earlier...
"Sorry, Director Yan. This was our mistake. We guarantee it won't happen again. Please forgive us."
This time Yuan Sitong reacted faster, immediately apologizing to Yan Shaohan.
"It's fine, it's fine—" Yan Shaohan waved his hand while also pointing to the already arranged seats, "So are you going to sit or not?"
"We'll sit, we'll sit. Thank you, Director Yan."
Tang Wenjuan quickly signaled Yuan Sitong to go sit down, while also repeatedly thanking Yan Shaohan.
"It's fine, it's fine."
Although Yan Shaohan didn't particularly like these two people, he didn't give them strong criticism either. Plus, Zhuang Hongyi had indeed established the countdown rule earlier—those who arrived within the time limit wouldn't be pursued—so he didn't make things difficult for them and directly let them sit down.
After Yuan Sitong sat down nervously, Zhuang Hongyi checked the time and summoned the coordinator to ask: "Has the time limit been exceeded?"
The coordinator nodded somewhat awkwardly: "We just managed to contact Lu Yuxi's team, but they're still on their way here now."
"On their way? That's fine too. When they arrive, have them directly sign the termination contract."
Zhuang Hongyi said in a firm tone.
"Ah?" The coordinator hadn't expected Zhuang Hongyi to be so decisive. Lu Yuxi wasn't some minor character from a small company—this wasn't something you could just casually drop!
"What? Do you have objections?"
Zhuang Hongyi glanced sideways at the coordinator.
The coordinator quickly shook his head: "I, I don't."
Zhuang Hongyi then looked at Yan Shaohan: "Director Yan, what do you think?"
Yan Shaohan nodded, casually roasting without restraint: "Switching is fine too. Actually, I'm not really into his looks—feels a bit fake, lowering our average appearance level."
Everyone: "..."
Wow, is that something you can just say?
Director Yan, you really dare to say that directly? Amazing!
Liu Rulan wiped her cold sweat and leaned close to Xiao He's ear, whispering a reminder: "Try to avoid offending Director Yan in the future—this guy dares to say anything!"
The kind without any emotional intelligence!
It's really terrifying!
Xiao He: "..."
Actually, you don't need to tell me, Sister Liu.
Anyone can see that!