After one scene wrapped up, Officer Li left with mixed feelings, while Xiao He successfully stayed in the crew by relying on his outstanding "acting skills," which impressed the director.
Meng Lulu also calmed down and solemnly apologized to Xiao He: "I'm sorry, Xiao. Your acting is really amazing. It's my lack of skill that almost affected your performance."
Xiao He shrugged nonchalantly. "No problem."
As the "murderer," being suspected was his fate.
Meng Lulu blinked and carefully examined the young man before her before saying, "You don't seem fierce at all, Xiao. It's just that your aura and gaze are too sharp, making it hard for people to approach you. If you're interested in acting, I suggest trying to adjust that in the future."
Xiao He gave a bitter laugh. "Alright, thanks for the advice, Director Meng."
Meng Lulu had actually been very tactful. It wasn't just sharp—it was downright brutal!
Xiao He also wanted to change his intimidating aura and gaze, but the results were minimal. He could only try to conceal his current "criminal demeanor" by wearing sunglasses and a mask.
Otherwise, he might get reported to the police just for walking down the street—he was genuinely afraid of being "arrested" again!
Seizing the opportunity, Xiao He chatted with Meng Lulu for a while and learned about the crew's basic situation.
The director, surnamed Wang and named Wang Xingyuan, specialized in idol dramas. He had over twenty works under his name, but none made much of a splash. He was the type of assembly-line idol drama director that industry insiders looked down on the most.
What was an assembly-line idol drama? It meant producing idol dramas like factory products, following fixed templates and formulas. Most of these dramas had clichéd plots, cookie-cutter character designs, and themes that deliberately catered to popular trends—basically, they chased whatever was hot at the moment, lacking any real innovation.
The current production, *Heart of Embers*, was only made because the market had recently seen a wave of crime dramas. So, Director Wang jumped on the bandwagon and made this show—wrapped in a crime drama shell, but still just an idol drama about the male and female leads falling in love.
For example, the serial killer Xiao He played—the fifth male lead—was already the biggest villain in this idol drama.
The more important roles ahead were basically paired up into couples to satisfy the shippers' craving for romance. Xiao He: "...So, only *he* was seriously stirring up trouble?"
But in reality, the crew simply didn't have the budget to add another romantic subplot.
Otherwise, did they think villains didn't fall in love?
Wrong! Villains were just love-struck characters who had gone dark!
An idol drama couldn't exist without romance!
…
The fifth male lead didn't have many scenes, so Xiao He finished filming in just two days.
Although the male and female leads were both terrified by his chainsaw-wielding performance, at least no one called the police on him this time.
Otherwise, Xiao He might have actually called the police himself.
In the final scene, the serial killer Xiao He played raised his chainsaw to swing at the female lead, only to be shot dead by the male lead.
Amidst the female lead's screams and the gunshot echoing through the woods, the killer slowly knelt before her. His hand holding the chainsaw went limp, and the buzzing of the chainsaw, like his life, gradually faded into silence.
Tears streaked the female lead's face as she looked up at the killer, her pupils still filled with lingering fear. But the killer only smirked mockingly, his gaze full of sarcasm as he stared at her—along with deep regret.
Ah, what a beautiful masterpiece.What a shame… that he wouldn't get to see it again.
The killer's lips moved slightly, but no words came out. Blood gushed from his chest, quickly soaking his dust-covered white jacket. The young man lowered his head slightly, his gold-rimmed glasses still perched on his face as if he had merely fallen asleep, kneeling there peacefully.
A breeze rustled through the woods, leaving nothing behind—only the female lead's stifled sobs and the male lead's hushed reassurances…
—
After confirming Xiao He's death—*ahem*, his wrap-up—the entire crew breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Especially the male lead, Zhao Shuyu, who couldn't hide his joy.
There was no helping it! Xiao He was just too terrifying—handsome yet convincingly evil. Whenever Zhao Shuyu had to face him in confrontation scenes, the contrast was downright brutal—
The supposed leader of the criminal investigation team would tremble while talking to the criminal, his eyes darting around nervously, his presence weaker than the villain's. Watching the playback later, Zhao Shuyu wanted to gouge his own eyes out.
Thankfully, the shots were filmed separately, and the lines were dubbed in post-production. Otherwise, his shaky voice would've been broadcast for everyone to laugh at.
So now, Zhao Shuyu was the one most eager for Xiao He to leave.
Xiao He, of course, had no idea what others thought of him. He was just happy to see the ten points added to his system.
Combined with what he'd earned from his earlier extra roles, he now had a total of twenty points!
Ignoring the others, Xiao He opened his system panel.His panel was extremely basic, with only a lottery interface—so barebones that he doubted even a college student would design something this shabby.
The lottery interface had three tiers: 100 points, 10,000 points, and 1,000,000 points.
Looking at the point requirements on the buttons and then at his hard-earned twenty points, Xiao He sighed deeply, his earlier joy vanishing instantly.
Damn it, after all his hard work, he didn't even have half the points needed for a single draw. Was there anyone worse off than him?
Was this a cheat system? No! This was a wage slave system!
"System, let's make a deal. Give me a beginner's ten-draw, okay? Even games have starter packs. You can't be this stingy—otherwise, how am I supposed to get my criminal career off the ground? If I get caught, won't that mess up your future operations?"
Xiao He tried one last bargaining attempt.
But his words were met with silence from the system.
Xiao He shrugged.
If he could, he'd leave this thing a one-star review!
Trash system! Screw you!
Just as Xiao He was about to give up, the lottery button in front of him suddenly lit up!
His heart leaped with excitement as he hurriedly checked it—and saw that a "Beginner's Draw" had appeared in front of the 100-point button. Now, he could draw once for just ten points! But there was a time limit: it would only last for one minute.Meaning he could draw twice now!
Xiao He instantly changed his tune, mentally praising the system like crazy before decisively pressing the button.
"Come on! Golden legendary!"
But when the button was pressed, the system didn't display any flashy special effects—just a few lines of text:
[Congratulations on obtaining "Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique"—automatically learned.]
[Congratulations on obtaining "Lifespan +30 Days"—automatically redeemed.]
[Bone-Cleaving Knife Technique Details: One of the higher arts of slaughter, allowing you to swiftly reduce a living person to bare bones. Useful for disposing of corpses, creating bloody art, provoking the police, instilling fear, etc. Also enhances your understanding of human anatomy.]