By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 41 Traffic Surge
To ensure his selection, Li Younan washed his hair at Xie Lin's strong suggestion. He had slept very well the night before, and although he woke up early, he felt refreshed. His slightly long hair flowed smoothly and cleanly, and Li Younan casually brushed aside a strand that was obstructing his vision.

Xie Lin quickly pointed at Li Younan, and the man he called Brother Zhou looked over. His eyes lit up, and he stepped forward, looking Li Younan up and down. "Okay, okay, let's go in quickly."

Xie Lin chuckled: "Brother Zhou, I wasn't lying to you, was I?"

Brother Zhou didn't have time to pay attention to Xie Lin at the moment, he just nodded.

Li Younan followed them inside, still a little nervous. A group of extras emerged, their faces lacking luster, though not exactly dejected. Being criticized for their looks by the director and not being chosen for the foreground seemed discouraging, but it was something they were already used to.

When Li Younan walked in, he immediately caught the attention of the casting director. Seeing Zhou Ge next to him, the casting director grabbed a megaphone and shouted at them, "Zhou Rui, is the person next to you the one you called?"

Zhou Rui quickly replied, "Director Sun, he's mine! He's mine!"

Everyone looked very busy, and Director Sun's gaze did not linger on Li Younan for long: "Alright, alright, let's hurry up and take her over to get her styled."

Li Younan went in looking completely bewildered, and came out looking just as bewildered.

For an experienced cook like Li Younan, the task at hand was already clear, but he was still a novice. He had learned some important points from Xie Lin yesterday, but there were still some things he wasn't entirely clear about. And since Xie Lin was going to work today and couldn't be with him the whole time, he would have to rely on himself from now on.

Overall, it wasn't too complicated.

He followed behind Zhou Rui, who was leading him to a place to get his hair and makeup done.

Li Younan wisely refrained from asking unnecessary questions; he had already grasped the overall atmosphere here. Extras, to put it bluntly, are a group of unorganized people, and each film crew needs to quickly bring these scattered individuals together to complete various pre-production tasks and manage the on-site operations.

Anyone who has organized an event knows that it is not an easy task. To ensure a smooth process, every step must be planned in advance, which makes it a very busy process.

Li Younan followed Zhou Rui to a basement. Zhou Rui briefly explained to Li Younan what to do next, and then Li Younan had to wait alone.

While waiting, Li Younan took out his phone and started taking pictures of everything around him. He felt that being an extra was an interesting experience and naturally part of the trip, so it was worth recording no matter what.

Sherlin once told Li Younan that when you're an extra, you actually spend very little time filming; most of the time is spent waiting.

Li Younan understood the meaning of those words by now. He queued for a full hour before it was his turn to get his hair and makeup done. However, the time was shorter than he had expected, because extras like them didn't get makeup done, only styling. It was a period drama, after all, so a set of ancient hair ornaments was all it took.

The makeup artist who did Li Younan's styling was a woman in her early thirties. She worked quickly and efficiently, and looking at Li Younan in the mirror, she smiled and said, "You're the most handsome person I've ever styled today. I thought the male lead had arrived."

Being praised always makes people feel good. However, when faced with praise, one must be clear-headed enough to judge whether it is a reflection of high emotional intelligence or a factual statement.

He saw himself in the mirror, now sporting an ancient hairstyle. His hair was already quite thick, with two dragon-whisker-like bangs flowing down, giving him the air of a refined scholar from ancient times.

Li Younan thought, "It seems to be a factual statement."

He said modestly, "It's mainly because you did a great job with the makeup, sister."

The makeup artist smiled and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "All done."

What followed was another long wait.

Li Younan also gained a direct experience of the work of an extra. After getting his makeup done, it was all about waiting for the crew, waiting for the actors, waiting for the director, waiting for the scheduler, and so on. When he was bored, he would still take out his phone and shoot pictures here and there, and naturally scroll through short videos. He opened a short video app, saw the 99+ message icon, and suddenly remembered the video he posted yesterday, and suddenly felt a little excited.

When I opened the messages, sure enough, most of them were from that video, with several "hundreds of people, including xx, liked the video" and a bunch of comments.

Li Younan simply clicked on his video. To his surprise, it already had over 2000 likes in just one night. Looking at the comments section, the vast majority of people had come from the previous streamer.

What caught everyone's attention was a smiley face reply in the comments section from the popular streamer, accompanied by the caption, "It really is true that having feet is enough." This comment garnered over 2000 likes, even more than the number of likes on his video itself. It's clear that the streamer is quite intelligent, generous, and has a broad perspective.

The number of likes continues to rise, clearly indicating that his video has been recommended to a larger traffic pool by the system algorithm.

In the comments section, besides focusing on the explosive point of his response, many people paid more attention to the beginning of the video. He handed his phone to the somewhat cute girl and said, "Could you please take a video for me?" and then the girl accidentally switched to the front camera, revealing a bewildered yet adorable expression.

One commenter said, "This guy definitely did it on purpose."

"This girl is so cute!"

In the comments section, someone even turned the little girl's bewildered expression into a meme and posted it with the caption, "What just happened?"

This time, Li Younan's video post garnered him over 1000 followers, all of whom are real, active fans. It's impossible for Li Younan not to be excited; he even wanted to read every single comment.

But undoubtedly, there were also some bizarre comments. For example, some people might say, "Show-off!"

"Did you ask for the girl's consent before putting her in the video?"

Li Younan could only laugh off these comments.

Among the comments, there was one inconspicuous comment: "Hey, I think I've seen this guy in that video before."

Li Younan skipped over the comment; he intended to continue browsing.

Just then, a stagehand came over and called out, "Those background actors, come with me for a moment!"

After several people with similar makeup and styling walked past, Li Younan realized that she seemed to be in the foreground, so she quietly followed the crowd.

When he arrived at the film set, he heard the big director in front of him throwing a tantrum and cursing.

Li Younan sidled into the crowd and randomly asked one of the guys, "What happened?"

The guy in charge of lighting said with a hint of helplessness, "It seems the male lead can't make it today. Sigh, these young heartthrobs..."

Li Younan immediately felt terrible. Did that mean he had come all this way for nothing?

Unexpectedly, the guy then said, "We can't afford to delay today. Putting aside the filming schedule, managing so many people and so many scenes costs money. The assistant director came up with a solution: adjust the camera angles and use stand-ins to shoot some long shots and dynamic shots from the side and back, and then reshoot the close-ups later. But it's not easy to find stand-ins right now, so we called over the foreground actors and extras to see if there were any suitable ones."

(End of this chapter)