Excited for a moment, Gu Lan'an soon became worried again. Speaking of which, this was the first time Zhao Ye had seen him perform in his entire life, and he was afraid that he would be disappointed. Although his acting skills were widely recognized in his past life, he didn't know if he had regressed in this life, which made him a little uneasy.

From the moment Gu Lanan entered the scene, Zhao Ye's gaze fell lightly on him. After a slight surprise, he was about to avert his eyes when he noticed Gu Lanan's expression constantly changing as he looked at him. A barely visible smirk formed at the corner of Gu Lanan's mouth before he turned his gaze away, looking at the wall while Zhao Ye nervously stared at the script. Only when the assistant made a gesture indicating "begin your performance" did Zhao Ye refocus his gaze on Gu Lanan.

Hearing his assistant's words, Gu Lan'an sighed and closed his eyes, immersing himself in the emotions. However, he didn't throw away the script in his hand, not because he couldn't remember the lines, but because this scene he had to perform was about the character he was about to play — Zhan Wang (played by Zhao Ye), the strategist Ye Huan who woke up Su Huan from his battle-induced coma and investigated the enemy's situation as a spy. Ye Huan saw Su Huan's trusted ally reading the letter Su Huan wrote before he went to war, stating that Su Huan had been killed in battle. Ye Huan no longer needed to serve him and could protect himself, find a suitable opportunity to escape, and live a normal life as a commoner in the countryside, getting married and having children, without feeling the need to seek revenge for him. And this performance just happened to require a page of the script.

Gu Lan'an closed his eyes and fell silent for a while. Just as the director's assistant began to suspect that he was pretending to be asleep (don't think the assistant has a wild imagination, this has happened before when the rich second generation participated in acting), and was about to hasten him again, he opened his eyes. In his eyes, there were complex emotions, containing too many stories. With tear-filled eyes, though not obvious, his expression became melancholic. The corners of his mouth formed a mocking arc, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse and somewhat distorted. Even simple utterances could make people hear the tremors. "What is this?" Gu Lan'an lightly raised the thin page in his hand, as if he was asking Zhang Jiayi in front of him, but also not quite. When he said the second sentence, Gu Lan'an's voice was unusually gentle, but the third sentence came out as a roar, accompanied by a torn voice, with a hint of exhaustion. "Who wrote this? How can someone come up with such absurd words? Does someone like this deserve to be the leader of the Queen's Guards?" Ah?" After speaking, Gu Lan'an threw the page in his hand forward. Zhang Jiayi shrank back in fear involuntarily.

He glanced at it indifferently before suddenly picking it up in a panic and tearing it to pieces. He held the shredded paper, covered his head, and said sternly, "How could he possibly die on the battlefield? He's the formidable War King! How can he die? It's impossible!" His voice lost its strength towards the end, and the last sentence sounded almost like a sigh, "How could he die? It's impossible." As soon as he finished speaking, a bright smile that didn't match the expression on Gu Lan'an's face suddenly appeared. While talking about impossibilities, he collapsed towards Zhao Ye with a loud crash. Zhao Ye looked at him, thinking he would kneel on the ground, but he never expected him to fall completely to the ground. The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground made Zhao Ye stunned, and his eyes blinked slightly, "Well done."

From the moment Gu Lan'an opened his eyes until he dramatically collapsed, the people around him remained immersed in the atmosphere of sadness that he had created through his performance. It wasn't until Anna stood up and enthusiastically clapped her hands that they all snapped out of it. The applause was thunderous, and Gu Lan'an, lying on the ground with his face against the floor, smirked with satisfaction as he listened. However, he didn't get up. Earlier, he had deliberately walked over to Zhao Ye and collapsed, not only to achieve the desired performance effect but also to be helped up by him. Unexpectedly, Zhao Ye didn't play along and didn't extend a helping hand when he saw him fall. Gu Lan'an was angry. He wanted to be cuddled and raised up before getting up himself.

"Hey, Lan An, it's time for your performance." The applause ended, but Gu Lan An was still lying on the ground. Anna glanced at him, struggling to suppress the urge to beat him up. How could she not know what he was thinking? He's her own child! Yet, this foolish son of hers didn't even bother to see the situation or whether anyone had any intention of helping him up."

"Oh." It was already getting late, and Gu Lan'an couldn't stay crouched for too long. She stood up, glancing at Zhao Ye with an expression of a wronged daughter-in-law, pretending not to see his bewildered look. Pouting her lips and turning her head, she revealed a graceful smile, bowing 90 degrees towards the judges. "The performance is over. Thank you all for watching."

"Very well." Zhang Jiayi praised, not sure if he was referring to Gu Lan'an's attitude or his performance, or perhaps both. "Let's start scoring." As Zhang Jiayi's voice fell, the judges began to score. Seeing the performance has ended and the outcome is obvious, Zhaoye casually left, his hands in his pockets.

Gu Lan'an watched him walk away from behind, his eyes fixed on the direction he disappeared. After the judges announced the scoring results, he said to the judges, "Sorry, I have some urgent matters to attend to, so I have to leave first." Then he chased after him.

Anna called out, "Lan An, stop! The final result hasn't been determined yet. Can you have some manners?" But Lan An had already disappeared. Anna clenched her fist and turned to Zhang Jiayi, saying, "I'm sorry for the embarrassment. I'll make sure to teach him a lesson when I get home."

"It's fine, there's nothing to laugh or worry about. If he has urgent matters, just let him go, since the outcome has already been decided." Zhang Jiayi waved her hand nonchalantly, voicing her concern, "But for Lan An to leave in such a hurry, I hope nothing important has happened."

"There's nothing important going on. He's just mentally disabled," Anna sighed.

"Brain-dead?" Zhang Jiayi pondered for a moment and asked, "He is a devoted fan of Zhaoye, obsessed with him."

"Um, that's the kind of extreme idiocy."

"No wonder," Zhang Jiayi replied without much surprise. "Speaking of which, Zhao Ye is truly captivating. He has a huge fan base consisting of both female and male fans. Yesterday, during the casting for the male supporting role, one of the candidates even chased after him as soon as he left before the results were announced. However, that person was only able to behave so recklessly because his role was secured by the financial support of the investor, leaving no suspense about the outcome."

Male lead? Love rival?! Anna's eyes lit up, her gossip-loving heart soaring as she eagerly asked, "Who is it?"

"Um, I think he's called Fu Xi," Zhang Jiayi answered.

"What? So it was Fu Xi?" Anna's face was filled with astonishment, and a second later, she asked with confusion, "Who is he?"

"Why are you so surprised?" Zhang Jiayi said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. It seemed that ever since she met Anna, she couldn't take things seriously anymore. "But Anna, don't you know who that Fu Xi is? He participated in the Tomorrow's Rising Star competition with Lan An. Or maybe you didn't even watch your son's previous matches?"

How could I not have seen it? That's my son. Not only did I see it, but I also went to the scene to watch, but... I only watched him. The rest of the time, I was sleeping. In order to save face, Anna did not say the rest of her words.