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

This teapot has no base mark. Xu Changlin never mentions its origin to outsiders. No more than two people in the entire film crew know it's a fine teapot. Zero people know it belongs to Shao Daheng.

"Do you recognize this pot?"

"Ah..." Lu Yuan's expression began to change. "I once chatted with a prop master in Hengdian about Zisha pottery."

Xu Changlin's eyes lit up.

He put down the wooden tweezers, picked up the aroma cup from the tea tray, and with a flick of his wrist, pushed it to the edge of the table.

"Brother Lu, since you're knowledgeable, could you help me taste this tea—how's it today?"

Two little voices started fighting in Lu Yuan's head. One said to put down the cup and leave, while the other said the matter of the teapot hadn't been settled yet. Xu Changlin's expression was one of curiosity, not anger. If he said a few words to smooth things over, the matter of Lao Liu's trouble would be over.

He chose the second path.

He tucked the sixth brother under his arm and used his right hand to pick up the aroma cup.

The temperature of the cup wall was just right—Xu Changlin's water temperature control for brewing tea was not the problem; it was just that he was a second too late in boiling the water.

Lu Yuan held the aroma cup two centimeters below his nose, allowing the volatile aromatic molecules of the tea to naturally rise to the level of his nasal cavity. This was a habit he developed in his previous life while accompanying a Southeast Asian arms tycoon to enjoy tea, purely to get closer to him and secure orders.

"Wuyi Star's Niulankeng Cinnamon".

The aroma cup was set down.

"The roasting is thorough, and the aroma of the tea leaves is excellent. However, when Teacher Xu poured the tea from a high position, his wrist was slightly off-center, causing the water to hit the side of the teapot instead of the tea leaves. This resulted in a loss of about 5% of the aroma's complexity."

Xiao Zhong took a step back.

He had followed Xu Changlin for nine years and witnessed Xu Changlin drinking tea with the country's top tea connoisseurs. Those people wore cotton and linen meditation robes, and their bracelets were adorned with six-figure sums of agarwood. Not a single one dared to point out any problems with Xu Changlin's tea-brewing techniques to his face.

Old Zhou had given up trying to understand the world and walked away carrying his wrench.

Xu Changlin placed the wooden tweezers on the tea tray.

Then he burst out laughing, a hearty laugh that came from deep within his chest.

"An expert! An expert! An expert!"

He personally picked up the teapot, poured the tea from the fairness cup into the tasting cup, and held it with both hands, pushing it in front of Lu Yuan.

"Have a cup. After you finish this, brew another pot. This time, I'll show you whether your wrist is straight or not."

Lu Yuan looked at the cup of Niulankeng Rougui.

He glanced at Lao Liu again. Lao Liu was tucked under his arm, his head tilted to the side, still savoring the powdered sugar on the corner of his mouth.

"Teacher Xu." He freed the hand that was holding the thermos and unscrewed the lid.

"This tea is too strong. My stomach isn't good for it, I'm not used to it."

He raised his thermos.

"This one suits me best. It's 19.9 yuan, with free shipping on Pinduoduo."

Xu Changlin held the cup in mid-air. Being refused tea was an extremely rare event in his life experience.

He stared at Lu Yuan for a few seconds, his gaze sweeping back and forth twice, from the chipped thermos to the cat under his arm, from the cat to the canvas shoes, and from the canvas shoes to the orange cat hair on the collar of the hoodie.

Xu Changlin drank the tea himself.

"OK."

He reached into the porcelain dish, picked up a piece of mung bean cake, and broke it into four pieces.

"If you won't drink the tea, the cat should at least compensate me for my emotional distress."

The sixth cat was placed on a stool next to the tea tray. Four pieces of ice cream were placed in front of it. The little orange cat lowered its head to sniff, then pressed down on the largest piece with its front paws and began to gnaw on it.

A gurgling sound came from his throat.

Xu Changlin looked at the cat.

"Brother, you've got a pretty picky tongue."

"It eats everything, it's not picky."

"That's perfect. Bring them over after work from now on, I'll bring two extra popsicles every day."

Lu Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to refuse.

The sixth brother raised his head, his tongue still covered in mung bean paste, and meowed at him, the meaning clear—you dare to refuse?

Lu Yuan swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

"...Thank you, Professor Xu."

---

Behind the equipment cabinet opposite the security monitoring area.

Jiang Yan squatted in the shadows, her surveying notebook spread out on her knees.

She was watching the whole thing.

From the moment Lao Liu leaped onto the tea table, to Lu Yuan rushing over to retrieve the cat, to his fluent and precise identification of the Zisha teapot and Wuyi rock tea.

Shao Daheng. Dezhong. Original ore purple clay. Water content slightly reduced. Wrist tilted by half a degree. Five percent loss of texture.

What kind of person should possess this knowledge?

Antique collector? Tea master? Top figure who frequents high-end auction houses and private clubs?

"The profiling presents a structural contradiction. A reassessment is needed: can an individual's extreme skills and extreme poverty coexist within the same personality structure?"

......

The next day, the scene changed from the abandoned factory to a steel plant on the outskirts of the city that had been shut down for three years. The steel beams crisscrossed, reaching a height of fifteen meters from the ground to the top.

The props team spent two days transforming this place into the underground arms depot in the show—the rusted steel frame was reinforced and built into a multi-layered maze, with lights shining in through the gaps, creating a striking contrast of light and shadow, and maximizing the industrial feel.

Su Qinghan stood next to camera position A, looking up at the welded steel mesh walkway on the ten-meter-high platform, holding a walkie-talkie to check the camera movement trajectory with the director of photography.

Today's scene involves Chu Tianxing tracking clues deep into an arms depot, a high-altitude chase from the bottom to the top. There are few lines; it all relies on movement and physical comedy.

Hsu Chang-lin's assistant, Hsiao Chung, unloaded an aluminum lunchbox from the van and walked to the pile of cardboard boxes in the corner of the shed.

The lunchbox was opened, revealing three mung bean shaved ice cakes neatly arranged on parchment paper. Next to them, in a separate small compartment, was a serving of boiled chicken breast, shredded into thin strips.

The sixth brother squatted on the cardboard box, and the moment he saw the lunchbox, his ears turned forward ninety degrees.

Xiao Zhong placed the lunchbox on the cardboard box lid, took a step back, and bowed slightly: "Sixth Brother, please."

Two young men from the lighting crew walked by, but their steps froze.

The personal assistant of a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning actor used a custom-made lunchbox from Jingdezhen to deliver food to an orange cat.

The sixth brother bent down, picked up a chicken breast, and chewed it with a loud smacking sound.

Lu Yuan squatted down beside him and flicked the back of Lao Liu's head with his finger.

"Eat your food, but don't poop on someone else's tea tray."

The sixth dog flicked its tail and ignored him.

In the shadows behind the equipment area, Jiang Yan pulled her baseball cap brim down further.

Her gaze shifted from the lunchbox to Lu Yuan's face, and then to the cat that was being fed by the three-time Golden Horse Award winner.

---

Ten meter high platform.

Xu Changlin put on the wire harness, tugged at the buckle, and tightened it twice.

Lin Yue, craning his neck, shouted from below, "Teacher Xu, the stunt double is in position, for the high-altitude choreography scene—"

"Need not."

Lin Yue's words were cut off halfway.

Xu Changlin locked the last buckle on the strap, patted the steel buckle on his chest, and glanced back at the entire length of the steel walkway.

At fifty-two, I took on the role myself.

Lu Yuan isn't in this scene; he'll have to wait until the next one. He's resting now.

He picked up his thermos, strolled to the safe zone outside camera position A, and found a piece of abandoned I-beam to sit on. Old Liu followed and squatted down, lying on his shoe, his front paws on the toes, still munching on the last piece of popsicle.

The thermos was unscrewed, and the aroma of goji berries wafted out.

Lu Yuan blew on the goji berries on the water's surface and watched the spectacle.