In the end, Roy was still sent back to Laila's room.
Along the way, he kept his lips tightly sealed and didn't say a word. Even after seeing Laila, he remained silent.
"What's wrong?" she quickly noticed that something was off.
Roy rubbed his face hard with both hands, trying to shake off the gloom and not let her worry, but he found he simply couldn't.
Even after what Flander had said earlier, his heart was still overwhelmed with guilt.
"I'm fine, darling. I'm just a little tired."
Laila looked at him worriedly, knowing he was hiding something.
"Do you remember? I'm a director — and a pretty good one. If you tried acting like this in one of my films, you'd get CUT."
Roy chuckled faintly and reached out to hold her hand.
"Sorry. I'll work hard to improve my acting."
Laila frowned slightly. She guessed something must have happened during his absence, but if he insisted on not talking about it, she couldn't force him.
"By the way, I haven't told you about the treasure I found here!"
She broke free of his hand, happily grabbing a rather old notebook from a chair nearby.
"I think it must have been God's plan for me to come here — otherwise, I would have missed this discovery!"
The genuine joy on her face was unmistakable. Roy couldn't imagine anything that could make her think being kidnapped was part of "God's arrangement."
"What is it?" he asked as he took the notebook.
Opening it, he realized it was a script.
"Whose script is this?"
He was very familiar with Laila's handwriting, and the rough notes weren't hers.
Laila sat across from him, her eyes sparkling.
"You probably already know that Martin wants me to make a movie for him, right?"
Roy's expression darkened, and he nodded silently.
Laila frowned slightly but quickly pretended not to notice and spread the script out before him.
"Believe me, it's a really good story. The beginning is a bit dull, but with some tweaks to the setting, it could shine."
Roy noticed the slight shift in her behavior.
He realized she had sensed his mood and was trying to distract him by showing him the script.
But once he started reading, he found he couldn't stop.
Just like she said, the script indeed had brilliant points. Some parts even made his eyes light up — and for Laila, who could practically "see the finished movie" just from a script, it must have been even more thrilling.
The author had proposed some fascinating ideas that stirred new thoughts in his mind — something rarely seen even in Hollywood.
He believed if this script were filmed, it could resonate with many people.
Laila sat next to him, explaining the story as he read.
"I'm planning to delete the initial love triangle between two men and a woman. A movie doesn't necessarily need a female lead. I think the bond between the two male leads could be very powerful, like in Infernal Affairs."
Roy found his attention genuinely diverted, following her thoughts back to the script.
"Infernal Affairs still had a female doctor character," he pointed out.
"If it's just two men, wouldn't the film feel overly masculine? Even action movies often have a standout female character to add softness — a partner, a wife, or a daughter."
Laila thought for a moment and agreed.
The most famous example was probably the James Bond series and its Bond girls.
Even though they often served as little more than eye candy or foils for Bond, without them, the films wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining.
"The beauty of this script lies in the 'love and rivalry' between the two men," Laila said, a little troubled.
"Adding a female character might water down that intensity."
Roy, however, was shocked by her words.
"You saw the rivalry, sure — but you think there's love too? Depicting a same-sex relationship isn't easy and could stir up unexpected backlash.
Remember Brokeback Mountain?"
Laila, realizing she had slipped and exposed her inner "fangirl," quickly coughed awkwardly.
"I didn't mean romantic love. I meant — um, a brotherly bond, a deep emotional connection between men."
She didn't know how else to explain it.
How could she admit that in her previous life, a group of young actors had dragged her into the world of BL fandom?
Even though she only dipped a toe into it, what she saw left a deep impression, and since then, she could never view male friendships in movies or TV shows quite the same way again.
In later years, shows often blatantly catered to fangirls — like that wildly popular British series where "Sherlock" and his partner shared that kind of ambiguous bond.
Roy seemed half-understanding, half-confused.
"So you want the whole movie to focus on two men in love and rivalry?"
He still found the idea bizarre no matter how he phrased it.
"No," Laila said after thinking it over.
"You made a good point earlier — the flower needs the green leaves to shine. Adding a female character would benefit the story too."
She thought a bit longer.
"What about adding a baby?"
Roy was stunned by her wild imagination.
Just now they were talking about female characters — and now a baby?
Besides...
"How are you going to fit a baby into an adventure between two men trapped in an abyss?" Roy asked, baffled.
"If I'm not mistaken, these two have to fight for survival in extreme conditions. Where's the baby supposed to come from?"
"A child raised by wolves?" Laila suggested, her mind spinning even bigger ideas.
Roy surrendered:
"Why don't you just say an angel falls from the sky and turns into the female lead?"
He had meant it as a joke, but Laila's eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers:
"Exactly! If it's an angel, it could come to save them from their tragic fate and naturally transform into a beautiful woman to accompany them. That way, the female character would have a legitimate reason to exist!"
"Are you serious?"
Roy stared at her, wide-eyed.
"I don't think I'd watch such a ridiculous movie. This script isn't supposed to be a comedy, is it?"
With her plan, the script's original meaning would be completely distorted!
"Why do you even like this script? Do you think changing it like that would preserve what you liked about it?"
Maybe those who love absurd comedies would hail it as a masterpiece, but most people would probably call it a "trash film."