Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Traffic Surge

To ensure he got picked, Li Younan washed his hair at Xie Lin’s strong suggestion. He slept well yesterday, and although he woke up early, he felt refreshed now. His slightly long hair looked clean and sleek, and he casually brushed aside a strand that blocked his view.

Xie Lin quickly pointed at Li Younan, drawing the attention of the man he called Brother Zhou, whose eyes immediately lit up. He approached and sized him up: ”Great, great, let’s get inside quickly.”

Xie Lin chuckled: ”Brother Zhou, I wasn’t lying to you, was I?”

Brother Zhou didn’t have time to deal with Xie Lin, he merely nodded.

Li Younan followed them inside, feeling a bit nervous. A group of extras exited, looking somewhat lackluster, but not exactly dejected. Being criticized by the director for their looks and not being selected as foreground actors seemed discouraging, but they were used to it.

As Li Younan walked in, he immediately caught the casting director’s attention, who shouted at Zhou Rui next to him through a megaphone: ”Zhou Rui, is the person beside you the one you called?”

Zhou Rui hastily responded: ”Director Sun, my guy! My guy!”

Everyone seemed busy, and Director Sun didn’t linger on Li Younan: ”Alright, alright, get him to the styling area quickly.”

Li Younan walked in bewildered and stepped out bewildered.

For the veterans, it’s clear what needs to be done; but Li Younan, being a newcomer, was still a bit unclear despite getting a briefing from Xie Lin yesterday. Xie Lin had a job today and couldn’t accompany him throughout, so he had to rely on himself for the rest.

Overall, things weren’t too complicated.

He followed Zhou Rui, who led him to the styling area.

Li Younan wisely refrained from asking questions, already sensing the general vibe. Extras are essentially a disorganized group, and each film crew must quickly organize these drifters to complete various preliminary tasks and on-set arrangements.

Anyone who’s organized events knows it’s not easy; to be smooth, every detail must be planned ahead, hence the busy atmosphere.

Li Younan followed Zhou Rui into a basement, where Zhou Rui briefly explained what to do next, leaving Younan to wait on his own.

While waiting, Li Younan pulled out his phone, taking random pictures. He found being an extra an interesting experience, a part of his life journey worth documenting.

Xie Lin had mentioned that being an extra involves little actual filming, with most of the time spent waiting.

Now Li Younan understood what he meant. He queued for an hour before it was his turn for styling, which was quicker than he expected since extras don’t wear makeup, only costumes. In a costume drama, a simple ancient-style hair accessory does the trick.

The stylist was a woman in her thirties, working nimbly, and commented with a smile as she looked at Younan in the mirror: ”You’re the handsomest I’ve styled today, I even thought the leading man had arrived.”

Compliments always lift one’s mood, but it’s important to discern whether it’s sincere or a reflection of high emotional intelligence.

He looked at himself in the mirror; now adorned with an ancient hairpiece, his naturally abundant hair and side-swept bangs gave him the look of a suave scholar from antiquity.

Li Younan thought it was an honest assessment.

He replied humbly, ”It’s mainly because you’re skilled at styling, sis.”

The stylist laughed and patted his shoulder: ”All done.”

More waiting followed.

Li Younan got a firsthand experience of an extra’s job: styling first, then waiting for the crew, actors, directors, coordinators — endless waiting.

Bored, he continued taking random pictures and naturally started browsing short videos. Upon opening his app, he saw the 99+ notification icons and remembered the video he posted yesterday, feeling a surge of excitement.

Opening the notifications, most were from that video; several ”xx and hundreds of others liked this video,” along with a pile of comments.

Li Younan opened his video directly. Unexpectedly, overnight it received over 2000 likes. In the comments section, most people had come because of a popular streamer.

The most notable was a comment from the big streamer who replied with a smiling face and text, ”legs are all you need.” This comment received more than 2000 likes, even more than his video. The streamer seemed smart, magnanimous, and open-minded.

Likes continued to increase; clearly, his video had been recommended to a wider audience by the algorithms.

Besides focusing on the big comment, most attention centered around the video’s start, where he handed his phone to a somewhat cute girl asking, ”Could you help me shoot a video?” She accidentally switched to the front camera, showing a cute, bewildered expression.

Some comments said: ”This guy definitely did that on purpose.”

”That girl is so cute!”

Some had even turned her bewildered expression into memes shared in the comments, captioned, ”What just happened?”

His video post also gained him over 1000 followers, all genuine active ones. Li Younan was undeniably excited, eagerly reading each comment.

Of course, some odd comments existed, like: ”Show-off!”

”Did you get the girl’s permission to include her in the video?”

Li Younan could only smile at these remarks.

Amidst the comments was an unobtrusive one: ”Hey, this guy seems familiar, like I’ve seen him in some video.”

Li Younan skipped over it, planning to continue browsing.

Just then, a technician called out: ”Those foreground actors, come with me!”

Seeing others with similar styling move, Li Younan remembered he was part of the foreground crowd and quietly followed along.

Arriving at the set, he overheard the main director angrily shouting.

In the crowd, he casually asked a guy, ”What’s going on?”

The guy, responsible for production lighting, said helplessly: ”The leading actor isn’t coming today. These young heartthrobs...”

Li Younan felt instantly unlucky, thinking it might be a wasted day.

Unexpectedly, the guy continued: ”Today’s not a loss; we’ve got shooting schedules, and organizing this many people and locations costs money. The assistant director figured a way — adjusting cameras to shoot some distant and side/back dynamic shots with stand-ins, with close-ups filmed later. It’s tough finding stand-ins now, so they called in the foreground and specialized extras to see if anyone fits.”