After Sha Ye sat down, the atmosphere at the table was not awkward. Everyone was a master of conversation at the dinner table, especially the two top agents, who never let anyone else's words fall flat.

Xiao He sometimes felt a pang of regret, thinking that the two of them should have become radio hosts. If they were willing to put in the time, they would definitely be important pillars of the radio station...

Everyone enjoyed the meal very much, completely forgetting about the audition.

It's all in the past now, and worrying won't change anything, so it's better to just keep doing your own thing.

So after dinner, Xiao He and Sha Ye had a brief chat about the software. After confirming the bugs and vulnerabilities that had appeared in the software so far, Xiao He promised that he would go back that night to update and optimize it.

This can be considered a disguised way of using Sha Ye and his team for software testing.

...

Meanwhile, Qiu Zhenlong, who had already finished his ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ audition, was still somewhat undecided.

He stared at the three documents in front of him, looking at them over and over again.

The first document contained information on Yang Heng, who was also Yang Heng's preferred candidate for the young Emperor Chen.

The second document was about Chen Yingdi. He was the oldest among the candidates, and naturally, he was also the one with the most consistent performance. His portrayal of Emperor Chen in the later stages of the series was impeccable.

Although the prototype of Emperor Chen did indeed die young, the time span between his portrayal and the interpretation of the character is extremely large. In the early stages, he was a young general, and in the later stages, he was a composed emperor. Young people cannot portray the loneliness and desolation he experienced in his later years, while older actors cannot portray his arrogance and swagger when he first entered the world.

This is the shackle of age, and also the gap between different age groups.

Therefore, Qiu Zhenlong has never revealed how many people will play the role of Emperor Chen, or whether there will be a distinction between young and adult actors, with actors of different ages portraying the character.

Of the two candidates: Yang Heng looks too young and has mostly played the young Emperor Chen in theaters, so Qiu Zhenlong did not intend to let Yang Heng play the later Emperor Chen. On the other hand, Chen Yingdi is indeed older, and it would be extremely risky for him to play the young Emperor, so Qiu Zhenlong did not intend to let him pretend to be young.

In summary, having the two of them collaborate on the filming is the most convenient and effortless approach.

Although changing actors midway through the series inevitably leads to some discomfort, it can perfectly shape the character of Emperor Chen. After all, "The Emperor's Ambition" is never about promoting anyone or giving anyone more screen time, but about shaping the character of Emperor Chen, and more importantly, Emperor Chen himself.

Whether it's portrayed by one actor or two actors, it doesn't actually affect the development of Emperor Chen's story.

However, there was one exception in this plan—

Qiu Zhenlong placed Xiao He's information in the center and stared at the photo in front of him with a bitter and resentful expression.

Today he gave the audition scene a rather difficult dramatic scene, which was definitely intentionally designed to make things difficult for the other person.

Unexpectedly, the answers were surprisingly satisfactory.

Moreover, Xiao He has one advantage: his age is easier to portray than the other two.

This doesn't mean that Xiao He looks younger or older than the other two, but rather that his facial features are more adaptable to the age requirements of different situations. With just a little makeup, he won't look greasy like he's trying to look young, nor will he look childish like he's trying to look mature. This is an advantage that his natural bone structure gives him.

Several award-winning actors have had this problem: their faces seem to have frozen in time. Even when they are in their fifties or sixties, their faces still make people feel as if they have never aged.

Therefore, if Xiao He were to play Emperor Chen, there would be no need for actors of other ages; Qiu Zhenlong felt that he alone would be more than enough.

However, this might put a lot of pressure on Xiao He, and it would also be a significant challenge for their production team. Qiu Zhenlong still hadn't made up his mind.

On one side, there's one person acting, and on the other, there are two people acting. The advantages and disadvantages of both sides are basically laid out on paper, but if it were up to him to make the choice, Qiu Zhenlong would hesitate.

Can he really lead "The Empire" to create the same legend as before?

Is Xiao He really capable of shouldering this heavy responsibility?

A jumble of thoughts flooded his mind; Qiu Zhenlong knew that the pressure he was under this time would far exceed anything he had ever experienced before.

He let out a long breath and prepared to take out his phone to notify the audition results.

As soon as Qiu Zhenlong turned on his phone, he saw a notification pop up with messages related to Xiao He.

Qiu Zhenlong: "...Tsk."

So he still doesn't really like these kinds of popular actors.

Especially after learning the secrets and truths behind these traffic pushes, Qiu Zhenlong finds it difficult to feel any goodwill towards certain actors who love marketing.

Since he had already seen it, Qiu Zhenlong simply clicked in to check the situation.

Soon the phone automatically redirected to an app—Voice of V.T.

【Ren Yibai and Xiao He's "Mistaken Identity" will be released on the Lantern Festival! The final trailer is here!】

Oh? Is it Xiao He's new movie?

Qiu Zhenlong immediately became interested and clicked on the video.

I don't know if it's because directly jumping to the app like this slows down the software's operation, but in the center of the black screen video, the circle spun for a long time before the image finally appeared.

The scene was somewhat dim, and Qiu Zhenlong could tell that it was the edge of a rooftop. Apart from the somewhat desolate rooftop, there was only the setting sun in the distance.

The setting sun dyed the entire sky red, making it look even more eerie and dangerous.

Just as the camera gradually zoomed in, and the visual focus shifted from the fiery red sky to the edge of the rooftop, a pair of hands suddenly grabbed the edge of the rooftop. At the same time, a deliberately suppressed background sound struck heavily, sending a chill down the spines of the viewers.

The fingers of those hands were long and slender, but stained with blood, and the backs of the hands were somewhat pale. But in the blink of an eye, those hands disappeared again.

Instead, a loud crashing sound came from downstairs—

"Sizzle—Bang!"

The camera pans up again, but the light becomes even dimmer, faintly carrying the warm glow of the surrounding streetlights. Clearly, time and space have changed; the sun has completely set, the sky has turned to night, and the location has changed as well.

When people reappear on screen, they are two people lying in a pool of blood.

The young man was dressed in smart sportswear and wore a stylish sports watch on his wrist, while the old-fashioned office worker next to him was wearing a drab gray suit and clutching a briefcase tightly in his hand.

They seemed to belong to two different worlds, yet both were stained with the same crimson background by the blood on the ground—

The screen suddenly went dark...

"Beep beep beep..."

The beeping of the hospital came through his ears, but the young man was standing outside the ward, staring wide-eyed at the person inside.

"He, he... I, I—how did things turn out like this?"

The young man clutched his head in despair, frantically pulling at his hair. Then, he paused, lowered his hands, looked at the hair in his hands, and muttered incredulously, "Wow, not only is he healthier than me, but he also has more hair!"

The next moment, he looked up and the background behind him had suddenly changed, from a hospital corridor to a luxurious villa lobby.

The young man looked up, gazing in awe at the opulent interior design, and swallowed hard.

"My goodness, how much will this cost...?"

"And... these are all mine now?"

He stood in the center of the living room, looking at the mountain of banknotes, took a deep breath, and solemnly opened a bottle of 1982 Lafite.

"I feel very sorry for that brother... but it seems that this is the only option—"

"Make the best of a bad situation—"

As he said this, the large, blood-red characters of "Making a Mistake" appeared in the center of the screen, as if foreshadowing the danger behind this event—

The next moment, a hand pulled back the hidden curtains, revealing a huge whiteboard outlining the killer's plan.

"Bang--"

The wine glass fell to the ground along with the glass.