At this moment, Wu Man’s hair stood on end.

Last night, Zhui Ye really did see everything… but did he know what it meant to look no evil, speak no evil? She truly didn’t know how many people that recklessly blunt mouth of his had already offended.

Wu Man simply laid it out openly: “Afraid? Watch your wording. Not wanting to be caught flirting and not wanting to be discovered by the person you’re flirting with are two completely different things.” She smiled faintly at him. “But thank you for the jacket anyway.”

“So is he really…?”

Zhui Ye’s abrupt question caught Wu Man off guard.

“Haven’t you heard the rumors?”

“I have.” Zhui Ye looked directly into her eyes. “The rumors also say your acting is terrible, but I don’t think so. So why believe rumors? I want to hear you say it yourself.”

Wu Man suddenly felt a bit flustered and found it difficult to speak.

She deflected skillfully: “Hurry up and rehearse the scene!”

As the sun set, the sky looked like a bottle of spilled blueberry juice, thick twilight blue wrapping around the clouds, dimly revealing a few lingering threads of dying sunlight.

Wang Cheng slapped his thigh: “This is the light! Quick, quick, quick! Let’s try to get it in one take!”

The three of them had already arrived at the riverbank. Zhui Ye and Zhong Yueqing sat on small folding stools, each holding a fishing rod. Wu Man stood beside them, carrying an empty metal bucket in her hand.

The script supervisor rushed to the front of the camera to slate. Filming began.

Husband Xu Long had developed a hobby of fishing in the past couple of years. On weekends, he would come to the river to fish with a few friends, but he had never brought Deng Lizhi along. Therefore, this was Deng Lizhi’s first time observing her husband fish.

While fishing, Xu Long kept turning to look at her, asking gently: “Are you bored?”

Deng Lizhi shook her head.

“That’s good. I was worried you’d be bored before. I’ll bring you more often from now on.”

Chen Nan beside them remained silent, his hand gripping the fishing rod tightening slightly, his knuckles turning white.

Xu Long noticed and offered guidance: “Fishing is about maintaining a calm mindset. The more tense you are, the less the fish will bite. It’ll come when it’s ready to come. Relax.”

But Chen Nan countered: “If you don’t have a strong desire, the fish won’t sense it either. If you ignore it, even if it’s already under the hook, it’ll want to swim away.”

As he said this, his gaze swept over Deng Lizhi.

“Not necessarily—the fish is coming right now!”

The fishing rod in Xu Long’s hand trembled slightly. His expression lit up with delight as he began skillfully reeling in the line.

Just when victory seemed within grasp, the fish gave a sudden flip and escaped.

“Tsk, so close…” He stood up regretfully. “I’ll go get some more bait.”

Xu Long went to the car trunk to get backup bait, leaving only Deng Lizhi and Chen Nan on the riverbank.

The daylight grew darker and darker. The young man’s thin profile became softer in the dimness, all his sharp edges seemingly smoothed away by this gentleness, dissolving into a trace of sorrow.

With his back to Deng Lizhi, he asked softly: “Sister, do you love him?”

—”So is he really…?”

Zhui Ye’s question from before filming started overlapped perfectly with the line, crashing into Wu Man’s heart with a clang.

Wang Cheng in front of the director’s monitor was extremely nervous. He’d waited all day for this light. If this take didn’t work, the entire day’s effort would be wasted. And this scene had been adjusted at the last minute, which especially tested the actors.

He was most worried about Wu Man. Her emotional state in this scene was very difficult to grasp—that sudden impact of confronting one’s own heart directly had to be a tremor and daze that truly hammered into the depths of the soul, not a fake, pretentious surprise.

This was very difficult.

He stared intently at the monitor in the upper left corner, which showed a close-up of Wu Man’s expression.

He saw her lips tremble, her expression dazed, and beyond that, another emotion emerged: embarrassment.

She remained silent far longer than during rehearsal, and the camera kept tracking her expression, magnifying it again and again.

Wang Cheng bounced his leg excitedly—this was the emotion, exactly this emotion!

Wu Man slowly delivered her line: “At my age, what’s there to talk about love for?”

Zhui Ye turned around: “But at my age, I might not have anything else, but I have love I want to give you, so much of it.”

Wu Man’s eyes reddened slightly, tears welling up completely beyond her control.

This was sincere affection that neither Wu Man nor Deng Lizhi had ever heard before.

Who was crying? She couldn’t quite tell.

From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Xu Long walking over with the bait. She raised her head and sniffed hard. Chen Nan was about to throw down his fishing rod and come embrace her when his rod moved, and Xu Long also arrived.

“Quick—quick, reel it in!”

Xu Long shouted, pointing at him. Chen Nan stopped abruptly and was forced to pull up his fishing rod.

A lively black fish leaped out of the water.

“Not bad, Xiao Nan! You have a talent for fishing!” Xu Long clapped and cheered.

Chen Nan carefully placed the black fish into the metal bucket in Deng Lizhi’s hands, whispering behind Xu Long’s back: “Sister, this is the first fish I’ve caught. I’m giving it to you.”

Deng Lizhi said nothing, lowering her head to look at the black fish. It was violently striking the bucket walls.

“Bang—” “Bang—”

Just like her heartbeat, fierce and wild.

“That take was amazing!”

When filming ended, Wang Cheng leaped up like a child. He came over excitedly to embrace Wu Man, patting her shoulder and saying: “You’re becoming more and more like Deng Lizhi.”

This was praise she had dreamed of receiving, but Wu Man wasn’t enthusiastic about it. She set down the thrashing bucket and smiled reluctantly.

“Thank you, Director. I’m a bit tired.”

“Get some good rest tonight when you go back.”

She nodded and made her way through the crowd toward the van, but Zhui Ye intercepted her halfway.

He pressed relentlessly: “Now that filming is over, you should have time to answer, right?”

She couldn’t help but look startled, revealing a rare trace of panic.

“…I’ve discovered you’re quite the gossip. You really want to know about my private life?”

They were standing very close at this moment. Only now did Wu Man clearly see a mark on his neck that had been covered with concealer. Because of the passage of time, the makeup had worn off, revealing a dark red impression.

A strange emotion flashed through her heart. She smiled ambiguously and said: “When your own life is clearly more exciting than mine, isn’t it?”

The kiss mark had appeared after last night. Alcohol, a young woman—what had happened was obvious. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Zhong Yueqing, who had worked so hard all night only to end up making wedding clothes for someone else.

She withdrew her smile and got into the car expressionlessly, leaving Zhui Ye standing outside.

The car still carried traces of Yu Jiaze’s scent—the spicy woody cologne he habitually used. Breathing in this fragrance, she accepted the wet wipe Wei Wei handed her and slowly wiped away the tear tracks that had already dried around her eyes.

She was Wu Man. She was Wu Man.

She gave herself this silent reminder in her heart.

The first time she filmed, when she felt herself entering and becoming Deng Lizhi, her whole being trembled with excitement.

But when she repeatedly lost control involuntarily, going deeper than she had imagined, Wu Man felt fear. Fear of the unknown. Including just now when she saw the kiss mark on Zhui Ye’s neck, that strange emotion felt more like Deng Lizhi clamoring inside her body. She loved Chen Nan, which was why she suddenly developed an inappropriate possessiveness.

She felt it was necessary to pull herself out now, that she couldn’t continue falling deeper.

Wu Man opened her agent’s WeChat: “Brother Zhao, didn’t we turn down a pop-up shop appearance before? Contact them again—I’ll go.”

“Huh? Why leave to do that when you should be focused on filming Spring Night? That appearance doesn’t even pay much.”

“I can request leave here.” Wu Man answered indirectly. “After all, it’s a luxury brand pop-up event—best not to offend them.”

She requested two days off from the crew. Wang Cheng didn’t object, only adjusted the shooting order. When she returned, the first scene she faced was the “catching him in the act” scene.

The backstory in the script was that after Deng Lizhi’s heart wavered, in order to prevent herself from losing control, she decided to have a child with Xu Long.

She gathered courage to initiate intimacy, even specially changing into an outfit she normally found extremely embarrassing. But he tugged at her slip dress and said it was strange that she suddenly wore this.

Deng Lizhi finally broke down. Her inner suspicion that Xu Long was having an affair grew stronger and stronger. They say those who can’t eat meals have been snacking—otherwise, why couldn’t he feel desire for her?

So after yet another time when Xu Long said he had to work late, she checked his phone’s location. He was at a bathhouse.

With a look of frightened fury, Deng Lizhi rushed out the door. Chen Nan, worried about her, followed her the whole way.

However, when they arrived at the bathhouse, she didn’t dare confirm her suspicions.

Chen Nan wanted to pull her away directly, but she said calmly that since they were already there, she wanted to see what was so special about these women.

She ordered a foot massage service, her face showing not a trace of enjoyment. This scared the massage attendant, who thought she had pressed too hard and quickly asked if the pressure was unsuitable.

Deng Lizhi spoke viciously, saying their hand technique was inadequate—had they devoted all their energy to researching bedroom techniques instead?

The massage attendant was stunned, then nearly got into a physical fight with Deng Lizhi after processing what she’d said. Chen Nan blocked her, pushed her out of the room, and locked the door.

The earlier parts of filming went very smoothly, but the next scene got stuck.

Because next, the irrational Deng Lizhi walked up to Chen Nan. With her wet, bare feet, she stepped onto Chen Nan’s washed-out sneakers.

As revenge, she was going to seduce him.