A real killer playing a villain; the guy surnamed Zhen in Detective, run!

He walked up to Lu Yuan and extended his hand.

Lu Yuan looked down at his hand.

I only glanced at it.

Qiao Chen then withdrew her hand.

"I don't think it's necessary to take the gun." He gave the camera a dry laugh. "This boss seems easy to talk to, right?"

Lu Yuan smiled in agreement.

That smile remained fresh in Qiao Chen's memory.

So much so that years later, in an interview, he said something that had been edited into a famous scene: "The gentler his smile, the more I wanted to call the police."

After the last line was spoken, the director yelled "Cut!"

Lu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, unscrewed his thermos, took a big gulp, and casually waved to the nearest photographer: "Thanks for your hard work, bro."

The photographer was stunned for a moment, and reflexively replied, "You've worked hard too." Then he realized that this person, who was a ruthless bandit who could kill with his eyes just a second ago, was now greeting him like a neighbor who was just dropping by.

This sense of disconnect made him very uncomfortable.

Behind the monitor, Su Qinghan finally put down her coffee cup.

She's acted in war films, crime films, and suspense films, and has worked with some of the best actors in China. She's an method actor; to prepare for her role as an assassin, she learned Israeli martial arts three months in advance, and was completely at ease with the character after filming. She's also a method actor; once she's immersed in a role, she can't shake off the character for two weeks after filming wrapped. She's seen it all.

But she had never seen anything like it before.

This young man wasn't acting like a ruthless bandit. He was even trying to act normal.

But that inherent coldness, that stillness, that sense of danger cannot be taught by any performance system.

In his fifteen years in this industry, this was the first time Su Qinghan had seen something like this on a minor character.

"Old Zhou," she called to the director.

"Um?"

"Is there anything else he'll be filming?"

The director flipped through the script: "There's a gambling scene where an NPC deals a very short card. Why?"

"It's nothing." Su Qinghan leaned back in her chair. "I just want to take a look."

Jiang Yan, who was standing next to her, silently took out her phone and took a picture using the monitor screen.

On the screen, Lu Yuan was carrying a thermos and walking out. As he passed the dressing room, he glanced down at his phone and saw a bank card notification: 53.7 yuan in balance.

He sighed and put his phone back in his pocket.

He just needs to get by in the next scene, hand it in, and get paid. Two hundred yuan for being an extra is enough for him to eat instant noodles for two weeks.

He walked into the rest area, slumped into a plastic chair, and placed his thermos on the table.

A stagehand jogged over and handed him a deck of cards: "Brother Lu, for the next gambling scene, the director wants you to practice dealing the cards first."

Lu Yuan took the card and casually placed his thumb on the surface.

His pupils contracted the instant his fingertip touched the card.

He flipped the deck of cards over, then flipped it back over, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

The air conditioner in the rest area was broken, and it was humming hot air.

Several extras were squatting against the wall scrolling through their phones, oblivious to the young man in the corner, holding a thermos and lost in thought. Lu Yuan held the deck of cards in his hand, not having practiced dealing, just holding it there, his thumb idly rubbing the edge of the cards.

He is in control of himself.

This body is only twenty-four years old; the bones and muscles are all new, but some things came with the soul: memories, instincts, and conditioned reflexes.

The pressure in the warehouse just now wasn't enough to hold it down.

The moment the door opens and footsteps sound, the body automatically enters combat mode.

We can't afford to risk it anymore.

It's just dealing cards, be normal, get it over with and leave.

"Attention all departments, prepare the gambling scene!"

The stage manager is calling out.

Lu Yuan stood up, tightened the lid of his thermos and stuffed it into his canvas bag, then followed the staff into the underground casino scene that had been set up next door.

Neon lights cast an ambiguous red glow over an oval gambling table in the center, with chips and ashtrays laid out on a green cloth. His position was the dealer's seat; his task was simple: when guests came in to ask questions, he would deal the cards and answer them simultaneously.

Three lines of dialogue.

The director instructed Lu Yuan through his in-ear monitor: "Lu Yuan, just shuffle and deal the cards normally. Don't be too fancy, and don't be too stiff, just be natural."

Be natural.

it is good.

Lu Yuan sat down in the dealer's seat, opened the new deck of cards, removed the Jokers, and gathered the fifty-two cards in his hand.

He took a deep breath and shuffled the cards as usual. Normal.

Holding the cards in his right hand, he flicked them down one by one with his left thumb, the cards falling into a stack with a "clatter".

The cards have been shuffled; now it's time to arrange them.

When his fingers touched the side of the deck, the fifty-two cards automatically returned to their original order in his palm.

It wasn't his intention to do it. His fingers did it on their own. The touch, the thickness, the tiny printing errors of the playing cards—these pieces of information were encoded in his brain the instant they passed through his fingertips.

The basics of playing cards are essential; you'll learn something from just touching the cards.

Lu Yuan realized something was wrong and paused for a moment.

But it was too late.

The next subconscious action was to gently tap the entire stack of cards onto the table, aligning the edges, and then cut the cards with one hand.

With one hand, he cut the fifty-two cards into three stacks, which spun and intertwined in the air like three gears meshing, before finally landing perfectly back in his palm.

The whole process took less than two seconds.

The core of true cheating techniques boils down to one word: speed. So fast that the opponent's eyes can't even keep up with the speed.

The photographer across the gambling table was the first to react. He looked up from behind the viewfinder, thinking he was seeing things.

"Wait a minute... he just now..."

The director jumped up from behind the monitor: "Play back! Play back that part!"

The video rewinds. Playing in slow motion.

Su Qinghan leaned closer to take a look.

In slow motion, Lu Yuan's fingers defied the laws of physiology to complete the three-card cut. The trajectory of each card was extremely precise, without a single millimeter of deviation.

What made Su Qinghan's scalp tingle even more was that Lu Yuan didn't even look at the cards when he made this gesture.

He was staring at the ceiling. He was daydreaming.

This level of skill is something that can be done casually when one's mind wanders.

"Fuck!" the director of photography cursed.

The director swallowed hard and pressed the in-ear monitor: "Lu... Lu Yuan, you continue washing, um... the guest will be coming in soon."

Lu Yuan then realized that he had developed a rash.

He lowered his eyes, rearranged the cards into a single stack, and obediently shuffled them twice using the most basic, interactive shuffling method. His movements were deliberately slow and clumsy, like a novice playing cards for the first time.

However, the angle at which his left thumb rested on the card remained at 15 degrees.

This angle is the standard card-holding position in card games, with the thumb controlling the face and the index finger pressing the bottom. Any card can be silently drawn or placed into a specific position within 0.2 seconds.

The guests have arrived.

This time, it wasn't He Rihuo leading the way, but another group: Xu Mingzhe and Zhang Jianing, a stand-up comedian and a young actress. When they pushed open the door and saw someone sitting behind the gambling table, they were both visibly taken aback.

Someone had given them advance warning. "That NPC is a bit scary."

But Xu Mingzhe didn't believe it. He came from a stand-up comedy background, was quick-witted, and had no fear of awkward silences.