“Names?”

  The manager asked casually.

  The director, mid-sip, nearly choked on his water.

  “Not yet…” he wheezed.

  “We just finished the worldbuilding discussion.”

  “No names yet, and you want to cast people?”

  “What do we say—‘Hi, Miss Bunny, please read for Nameless Role #1’?”

  The screenwriter adjusted his glasses.

  “Alright. What kind of names are we going for?”

  “Poetic. With a sense of fate. Nothing too modern, but not completely out of place either.”

  The director tried to summarize.

  “…So you want a name that sounds like it belongs somewhere between the cosmos and a convenience store”

  The art lead raised her hand.

  “I have one.” She looked serious. Her voice, resolute.

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  “The bunny is—Yue Xiling.”

  The screenwriter went quiet for a moment.

  “You mean Yue like ‘moonlight’, Xi like ‘tides’, and Ling as in so cold it freezes your soul?”

  “She’s a spirit of reincarnation. She needs presence.”

  “That’s not ‘presence.’ That’s a name that needs two font sizes larger just so viewers can figure out how to pronounce it.”

  “Then you try. Give me something elegant.”

  “The human girl is—Lin Wan.”

  “…You want her to bring a thermos and do square dancing on the moon?”

  “Stop it.”

  The director raised a hand.

  The manager flipped through a name database.

  “Let’s check if either name’s in the top 100—we don’t want any awkward name clashes later.”

  The art lead added another. “Then what about Yun Cangyue for the bunny?”

  “Oh?”

  The screenwriter glanced up.

  “Yun, ephemeral like drifting clouds.

  Cang, for the sea and all it’s seen change.

  Yue, the legendary pearl of myth.”

  “She may seem fragile, but her memories are profound.”

  This time, the screenwriter didn’t shoot it down.

  He tapped a few keys and nodded.

  “For the human girl…”

  The director offered a thought.

  “Someone warm and unwavering. The kind who can reach into the dark and bring her back.”

  The screenwriter thought.

  “Liu Xiyu?”

  The art lead’s brows lifted. “Liu stands for softness, Xi for light, Yu for freedom.”

  “...That’s annoyingly beautiful,” the art lead admitted.

  The manager looked up at the whiteboard.

  “Bunny beastkin: Yun Cangyue. Remnants of a past life.”

  “Human girl: Liu Xiyu. Light of a new beginning. Yet to awaken.”

  The director nodded.

  “Note it down. Send it to casting.”

  He exhaled.

  “At last… we actually have a show to make.”