Chapter 46 - Movie
It was a night without dreams. Li Zhao opened the curtains and found the outside world had become covered with snow, like it was wrapped in silver. He pushed open the window and turned the snow on his balcony into a small snowman. He took out his phone and took a photo.
Li Zhao V: The new year’s great luck [photo].
Seeing that their baby had finally come out, the Li fans came out to praise and forward the post. A few more mischievous fans asked him how he felt about being on the news for the first time.
Li Zhao replied: I don’t have any feelings. I just saved the moving image and am prepared to brag for 50 years.
Li fans: Hahahahahahaha.
It was clear that their baby was happy to be an enthusiastic citizen on the news broadcast. As Li Zhao was interacting with his fans on Weibo, Yan Ting was sending a message to his circle of friends.
Ting Ting: The child at home actually gave me a red envelope. He is really willful [Photo]
On the morning of New Year’s day, the senior officials saw this and praised it, even if they knew that the boss’ ‘child’ wasn’t a real child. In any case, if the boss wanted to show off then he should show off. Other things didn’t matter.
After breakfast, Li Zhao leaned lazily against the sofa. He wondered if they should stay at home today or if he should take Yan Ting out to play. The mobile phone shook. He picked it up and found he had been pulled into a WeChat group.
It was the crew of Rising Storm. This movie was the first role Li Zhao played after joining Strawberry Entertainment. Although he was only an 18th tier actor, Strawberry Entertainment relied on being the investor to make him a special guest star in this movie.
After joining the crew, he only shot for a total of 10 days. The director group had politely called him Teacher Li but they hadn’t pulled him into the crew’s chat group. It had been a few months since filming. Why did the crew suddenly think about pulling him into the group?
“Welcome Teacher Li.”
“Welcome, welcome.”
There were around 20 people in the group and they welcomed Li Zhao enthusiastically, despite it being early in the morning.
“Thank you, teachers. Just call me Xiao Li.” Li Zhao noticed that Liu Fen and Zhao Yingnan, who had won movie awards, also came out to greet him.
He didn’t know why they were so enthusiastic but it was right to be modest.
“Teacher Li our movie was released in the early hours this morning and the crew intends to do an offline promotional event in Beijing. Do you have time tomorrow?”
Rising Storm had been doing publicity lately but Strawberry Entertainment wasn’t involved in this publicity. The crew hadn’t contacted Li Zhao for publicity matters so Li Zhao knew nothing about the promotion of the movie.
Zhao Zhao Has Good Luck: Congratulations, I wish for a big hit at the box office.
He glanced at the time. It had been released for eight hours and he didn’t know what the audience was saying about the movie.
Director: I pray your words are correct. The movie’s pre-sales is already over 100 million. As long as everyone works hard for promotion, the box office will be better.
Li Zhao didn’t know why the crew were suddenly looking for him to promote together and was considering how to respond to the director’s invitation when Liu Fen sent a message.
Liu Fen: Xiao Li is a contracted artist of my company and it isn’t good for him to arrange his own work. Director, you shouldn’t ask Xiao Li about this. You should ask his publicity agent.
Director: Hahaha, Teacher Liu is right.
People in the group could see that Liu Fen was protecting Li Zhao. Previously, they thought that Li Zhao wasn’t big enough so they hadn’t invited Li Zhao to promotional events.
The crew didn’t expect that eight hours after the release of Rising Storm, there was more and more discussion about Li Zhao on the Internet. Many movie critics said that when Li Zhao looked back at the end of the movie, the entire movie was sublimated artistically.
Some movie critics said that if Li Zhao’s expression was too forced or too lacking, he wouldn’t be able to reach the director’s desired effect. His eyes were just right. It was like eating a delicious meal and finding a surprise at the bottom of the bowl. A store who did this would give people a taste for the store.
If the full score was 10 points, without Li Zhao’s last look, this movie would only be scored 8 points. However, the director cleverly added his look and increased the audience’s imagination, making the movie worth 9 points.
Some viewers even felt that due to Li Zhao’s last look, there were many points in the movie they hadn’t noticed and decided to watch it again.
After the movie was released, the crew always paid attention to the online movie reviews. They found many movie critics praising Li Zhao and thought of a new publicity point. It was just that they were embarrassed to directly tell Li Zhao. At first, they looked down on him and now that they found him useful, they wanted to take him to play. After much deliberately, the director cheekily pulled Li Zhao into the group.
The director thought that Li Zhao was young with thin skin. As long as the director put forward the suggestion, Li Zhao definitely wouldn’t refuse. He just hadn’t expected Liu Fen to stand up to protect Li Zhao.
Liu Fen and Li Zhao might both be artists under Strawberry Entertainment but one was a two-time movie award-winning actress and one was a newcomer. It didn’t seem like they had a lot of friendship. Liu Fen shouldn’t have come out at this time to protect Li Zhao.
Since Liu Fen came out to speak, Li Zhao took the opportunity to push this matter to his agent. After coping with the director’s enthusiasm, Li Zhao was preparing to quit WeChat when he received Liu Fen’s friend application. He didn’t want to refuse and accepted it.
Zhao Zhao Has Good Luck: Hello Teacher Liu.
Liu Fen: What teacher? This is too polite. We are both artists of the same company and you should call me sister.
Zhao Zhao Has Good Luck: Hello Sister Fenfen.
Liu Fen hadn’t always liked her name. She felt it was too tacky but the fortune teller said that with her life style, she must use this name to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry. For the sake of popularity, she put up with it.
It was just that every time someone called her Sister Liu or Sister Fen, there was the feeling that she was an auntie dancing in the street.
Previously, she and Li Zhao had only been polite to each other in the crew of Rising Storm. They hadn’t communicated in private and her impression of him wasn’t strong. She only knew this was a newcomer supported by Strawberry Entertainment who couldn’t be offended.
After attending Cang Huan’s annual meeting, her evaluation of Li Zhao changed from ‘can’t be offended’ to ‘have a good relationship with him.’ It wasn’t until she heard ‘Sister Fenfen’ that she finally developed substantial good feelings toward Li Zhao. Boys who knew how to talk were always likeable.
She was happy and spoke a few words to Li Zhao.
Liu Fen: Although Rising Storm has only been released for eight hours, the evaluation is very high. Many movie critics praised your acting skills and there are even audience members buying tickets because of your performance. That’s why the crew wants to bring you to the publicity event. You were a guest actor and doing publicity wasn’t within the scope of your contract. In this circle, being too nice will lead to bullying. If the crew needs your cooperation then tell them to talk to your agent and your agent should get the compensation.
Zhao Zhao Has Good Luck: Thank you Sister Fenfen. I understand.
Li Zhao’s team didn’t immediately agree after receiving the invitation from the crew and asked for Li Zhao’s opinion.
“Tomorrow at noon, I am going to your house to visit Auntie and Uncle. The one at night is okay.” Li Zhao glanced at Li Zhao working next to him and took the phone toward the balcony of the living room. “Today’s one won’t work. It is the first day of the new year and I want to stay home with my friend.”
“There is additional money?” Li Zhao gulped and looked back at Yan Ting, who just looked over at him.
“It isn’t good to add money.” Li Zhao was very firm. “I said I would accompany my friend and I can’t break my promise.”
“Li Zhaozhao, you are no longer the Li Zhaozhao who worked hard for money.” Zhang Xiaoyuan sighed. “Baby, Father is very disappointed in you.”
“Brother Xiaoyuan, I will tell Uncle and Auntie that you want to get married and have children. You can’t wait to be a father.”
Zhang Xiaoyuan, “……”
Okay, he wouldn’t say anything.
Li Zhao hung up and looked back to find that Yan Ting was still staring at him. He put away the phone and walked over. “What’s the matter?”
“Someone asked you to go out?”
“No, there’s a job on the company side but I pushed it away.” Li Zhao’s eyes fell on Yan Ting’s hair. It was very dark and looked touchable. However, he just thought about it and didn’t actually do it. The two people stayed at home for a day. After eating, Li Zhao really didn’t want to waste their precious vacation time. “Ting Ting, shall we go to the movies?”
“Okay.” Yan Ting put down his laptop. “What do you want to see? I’ll arrange it.”
“Whatever you want. Just pick today’s box office winner.” Li Zhao spent all his time in the crew and didn’t know what movies were being shown during the Spring Festival.
Yan Ting nodded slightly and handed over the tickets booking to Special Assistant Qin.
A movie? The boss was going to the movies with someone? The always calm Special Assistant Qin was so excited that he couldn’t wait to push up his glasses and call the cinema under Cang Huan to arrange a VIP room for Yan Ting.
The cinema soon offered many options to Qin Xiao. Considering that Yan Ting didn’t like a crowded environment, he chose… a couple’s box. Boxes were things that couples called a couple’s box, families called a family box and friends called a friendship box.
Li Zhao and Yan Ting took the car to the movie theatre only for Li Zhao to find that Yan Ting’s tickets were for Rising Storm. Li Zhao secretly watched Yan Ting. This person probably didn’t know that Li Zhao also appeared in this movie.
The move was about to start. Li Zhao found that he and Ting Ting were taken to a small room by the staff. This room had drinks, snacks and comfortable lounge chairs. He stared blankly at all of it. He had never seen the world before. Did movie theatres originally have such VIP rooms?
“Don’t think about it.” Yan Ting sat down on the sofa, his posture elegant even on this chair. “I have money.”
Li Zhao, “……”
Yes, he had two houses with dozens of stores. Li Zhao put on his 3D glasses and sat next to Yan Ting with a bucket of popcorn in his arms, waiting for the movie to start.
The director of Rising Storm was a very successful commercial director. The moment the movie started, the scenes were so dazzling that the audience focused all their attention on the movie.
In the movie, there were many handsome men and beautiful women. The plots intertwined together. Humorous places should be humorous while sensational places were sensational. The rhythm was well controlled. Even Li Zhao, who had seen the script, was caught up in the plot.
He played the beautiful son who appeared halfway after the movie started. The white and red clothes shone on the moon, so beautiful that he was like the immortal king of the mon palace. However, once he tripped on the grass, he became a laughing matter. Until the end of the movie, Li Zhao’s role was like a vase character. All his actions were to show the hero’s greatness.
At the end of the movie, the male and female protagonists were riding side by side on horses. The wind blew through spring flowers and everything seemed like the beginning of a beautiful dream that heralded the start of a beautiful future for the male and female protagonists.
Then Li Zhao’s character reached for a falling flower and slowly turned back. He smiled. It was clearly spring where flowers were in full bloom but his smile penetrated the audience. The camera moved down and the man released his hand, letting the flower in his palm fall into the mud. The entire screen plunged into darkness.
The movie was over. From beginning to end, Yan Ting’s expression never changed.
“This is what the story needs.” Li Zhao saw that Yan Ting didn’t speak and thought Yan Ting was scared by the movie. He handed the bucket of popcorn to Yan Ting. “Eat some popcorn to relieve the shock.”
“It is a good performance.” Yan Ting turned to Li Zhao. “You are a great actor.”
Li Zhao blushed. “In fact, I didn’t feel so powerful when acting it out. The atmosphere was rendered very well in the later editing period.”
“You’re the highlight of this movie.” Yan Ting was so certain that it couldn’t be refuted.
Having said that, he pulled out his phone and prepared to send something to his circle of friends. His family’s child was so good that he must boast.
The author has something to say:
Teacher: Kids, who do you think is the best baby in class?
Baby Ting Ting raised his hand: Zhao Zhao! Only Zhao Zhao!
After that, he glared at the other children, not allowing any rebuttals.