Chapter 51 - Flattery
It was one thing to do it himself. It was another thing to be secretly robbed of a resource he had been promised.
Lu Hao had worked steadily in the entertainment industry over the years and accumulated a lot of contacts. Even if he planned to terminate his contract with the current company, there wasn’t too much unhappiness.
If this had happened in the past, he wouldn’t be upset. However, this time it was different. The resource he prepared for someone else was stolen.
Fortunately, Li Zhao had just recommendation his recommendation for this variety show. If Li Zhao agreed but he couldn’t get the resource for Li Zhao, he wouldn’t be exchanging favours but offending people.
This was rushing to offend him.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. There were no secrets in the circle. How could he be regarded as a first-tier actor in the circle if he was beaten by a young boy like this? It was unknown how many people would laugh at him behind his back.
A few days ago, Zijia Entertainment was still actively approaching him, wanting to use a large investment movie to sign him to the company. He had originally planned to go to Zijia Entertainment if he couldn’t come to an agreement with Strawberry Entertainment. Now the situation…
A 38th-tier artist from Zijia could hit him in the face. He didn’t know what other disgusting things would be waiting for him if he signed with them.
“Reject Zijia Entertainment entertainment today.” Lu Hao thought far ahead. The more he thought about it, the more he felt he would be in a dangerous situation if he signed with Zijia Entertainment. “I won’t sign a contract with Zijia Entertainment even if I have to leave the circle and open a hot pot restaurant.”
As a gold medal artist on TV shows, he also had a temper. With this in mind, Lu Hao turned the matter of refusing Zijia Entertainment over to his agent.
Li Zhao saw Lu Hao go out with a somewhat bad expression and thought that Lu Hao was unhappy because Li Zhao rejected his good intentions. Thus, he acted as Lu Hao’s errand boy for the next two days in the crew.
Song Yu rolled his eyes at the sight. If there was a licking dog in the circle then Li Zhao was definitely the best one.
Lu Hao saw how polite Li Zhao was to him and became even politer to Li Zhao. he had his assistant send over a dozen things to Li Zhao and almost treated Li Zhao as a brother.
“Xiao Li, you can show a bit more restraint here.” Lu Hao saw that Li Zhao wasn’t from an acting school. When acting, Li Zhao relied on his understanding and lacked corresponding skills. This type of acting was enough to shoot a TV series but not to star in a TV series.
In the circle, being a good teacher was a taboo. Even if it was done with good intentions, it could be a show to skills to others. Lu Hao didn’t easily teach the younger generation but Li Zhao was a sincere child. A young actor who was able to clean up the boxed meals distributed by the crew didn’t have a bad heart.
“Like this?” Li Zhao restrained the expression on his face.
“Yes, the most important thing in this scene is your eyes.” Lu Hao nodded. “If there are other small movements in the face, it will look exaggerated in close-ups.”
“Real sadness isn’t facial twitches and tears. Instead, let the audience see your eyes and be infected with sad emotions.” Lu Hao rolled up the script in his hand. “Successful actors will immerse the audience and they will experience the stunning feeling of your performance.”
“Your eyes look good.” Lu Hao chatted and changed the topic. “Are you short-sighted.”
Li Zhao shook his head.
“It is better not to be short-sighted.” Lu Hao wanted to talk to Li Zhao about the benefits of not being short-sighted when he heard the director call for him and was forced to say, “I’ll talk to you later.”
Comrade Xiao Li was really a suitable person to chat with. Lu Hao had just left when Song Yu came over. “Li Zhao, have you heard of Xu Bei?”
“Who?” Li Zhao’s head was full of fog.
“A fool.” Song Yu saw that Li Zhao’s expression didn’t seem to be false. “You really don’t know him?”
“What is it?” Li Zhao noticed that Song Yu’s face wasn’t happy. “Are you fans quarrelling with his fans?”
“Who is fighting with my fan? It is all his fault.” Song Yu sneered. “I’m telling you that he isn’t a good thing and you should pay attention. I’m afraid he is stepping on you for hype.”
“Why does he want to use my hype?” Li Zhao asked. “Am I very popular?”
Song Yu, “……”
It had to be said that Li Zhao was very popular recently. Rising Storm continued to rise at the box office. The highest single-day box office was nearly 300 million and it almost drained the box office of other movies released in the same period.
Although the Spring Festival holiday was over, the box office of Rising Storm still exceeded 100 million in a single day and it had entered the top 20 total box office for the nation. At this point, it wasn’t impossible to get into the top five.
Strawberry Entertainment had made a lot of money and Li Zhao’s performance in this movie was remarkable, raising the good feelings of passersby toward him. Although the box office performance wasn’t on Li Zhao’s head, his acting in the movie meant it would be easier to enter the movie market in the future compared to ordinary traffic actors.
Fate, it was all fate!
Song Yu looked at Li Zhao with a complicated expression and suddenly stood up. “No, I can’t look at your face with now.”
As long as he saw Li Zhao, he would think of the injustice of fate.
Li Zhao, “……”
This child’s brain wasn’t good. Shouldn’t he have a beating?
At the end of the day’s shoot, Li Zhao returned to the hotel and opened his phone to see himself on the hot search.
#The director of My Immortal Girlfriend said that Li Zhao was invited to participate in the filming but Xu Bei is more suitable#
#Xu Bei, the best in the pink fan’s heart#
#Xu Bei Li Zhao#
What’s going on with this crew? So willing to spend money? It seemed that he was really popular. There were crews willing to spend money to step on him.
For a time, Li Zhao didn’t if the crew was hostile to him or helping him. They took a third-tier star like him who couldn’t afford the main role in a star drama to the hot search. What type of spirit was this? The spirit of fearlessness and giving oneself up for others!
Li Zhao’s work team was also very good. Were the brains of the My Immortal Girlfriend crew flooded with water? There were so many actors in the circle. Why step on their family’s Zhao Zhao for publicity. Their family’s Zhao Zhao… wasn’t that popular yet?
“So we shouldn’t care about the hot search?” The team’s staff had the desire to laugh. What was wrong with this?
“It doesn’t matter what they do.” Luo Rong sneered. “They can hype it up as much as they want. By the way, that Xu Bei is a new person signed to Zijia Entertainment?”
“Yes, I heard that his relationship with the chief direction is… extra intimate.”
“No wonder why he dares to buy so many articles. It turns out he has enough publicity expenses to go around the world without worrying.” Regular artists of entertainment companies had promotional budges. if the artists exceeded this budget, they would have to pay for it themselves if they wanted to buy an article.
Luo Rong was recently helping Li Zhao talk about a foreign drama. The script of this drama was very good and it had been planned for two years. The male lead became free not long ago. After hearing the news, Luo Rong actively contacted the director group.
However, he couldn’t decide this matter without authorization. It was only after Li Zhao communicated with the director that it could be decided.
After receiving the news from Luo Rong, Li Zhao took the initiative to add Director Shen’s WeChat. The two people had barely spoken a few sentences when the director directly initiated a video call. He seemed to be anxious.
“Mr Li, I’m sorry to have delayed your time.” Director Shen’s beard was unshaven and he was wearing a grey jacket on his body. His hair was a mess and it looked like he hadn’t taken a bath in a few days.”
“You can call me Xiao Li.” Li Zhao noticed that Director Shen had a bookshelf behind him and the books were neatly arranged.
“Xiao Li, we were very happy after your agent contacted us.’ Director Shen scratched his head and looked a bit embarrassed. “However, our crew now… won’t be able to pay you for a while. Can I pay you in instalments? I can give you an IOU.”
Li Zhao, “……”
For the first time in his life, he had received an IOU?
“I read the script today. The movie’s worldview is very ambitious. Whether it is the plot or the characters set up, it is great but…”
If he was too poor to pay the actor then would he have enough money for the post-work? This type of film had high requirements in the later stages. If they did well in the post then the movie would be half successful. If it wasn’t done well then the actor’s acting skills were useless. It would only make people think that this was a children’s comedy.
Director Shen’s expression became more awkward and he spoke carefully. “Then, can you spare some time? Three months… no, two movies. If this movie doesn’t work in two months then you can go do other dramas. Okay?”
In the end, the expression on his face was almost a request. This movie previously had a few leading actors who finally resigned due to the crew’s financial problems. An actor with some fame coming to find them was an unexpected delight for the crew.
“Okay.” Li Zhao nodded. “I’ll wait for you for two months.”
For Sky Song, he still had around half a month of shooting. Then for the remaining one and a half months, he could concentrate on learning lines, acting and manners at the company. It could also be regarded as recharging himself.
A thought flashed through his head but he soon crushed it down.
“Thank you, thank you.” Director Shen thanked him several times, eyes slightly red. Then he was embarrassed to show this to Li Zhao and hurriedly hung up.
Early the next morning, Song Yu smashed on Li Zhao’s door. “Li Zhao, open the door!”
“Brother Song…” Li Zhao opened the door. “It is early in the morning. What are you doing?”
“You took the movie Shadow of the Sky?”
“Yes.” Li Zhao licked his teeth. “I saw that the script was quite good and the director is very serious about the movie so I took it.”
“You take a fart! Do you know that this movie….” Song Yu stopped and took two deep breaths. “Pig brain!”
Li Zhao, “……”
Knocking on his door so early in the morning just to attack him? If it wasn’t for the late night snacks, he wouldn’t be able to bear it. Forget it, the world was big and food was the biggest thing. This wasn’t unbearable.
After accepting My Immortal Girlfriend, Xu Bei had been inquiring about Li Zhao. He couldn’t wait to snatch Li Zhao’s opportunities and even wanted to trample this person on the ground until he was no longer popular.”
“What did you say? Li Zhao took the movie Shadow of the Sky?” Hearing the news, Xu Bei couldn’t hide the joy in his heart. “Really?”
“Really.” The agent replied. “Many people are laughing at Strawberry Entertainment for giving their artist a movie where they are destined to be mocked. However, Li Zhao’s current position means it is difficult for him to enter the mainstream movie circle. This must be in order to test the water.”
However, making a science fiction movie destined to be a bad movie as soon as he entered the movie circle was simply the best choice for death.
Xu Bei didn’t speak. In fact, this movie didn’t have an opportunity to become a bad movie. Once it was filmed halfway, it was stopped due to insufficient funds.
Later, the situation became noisier. The director jumped and committed suicide. The actor who condemned the director was scolded by netizens to leave the circle and finally, things related to this crew were forgotten by the melon eating netizens.
Li Zhao taking this movie was simply digging his own grave. Xu Bei had exhausted all his means recently to prevent Li Zhao’s popularity from bursting out but he hadn’t expected Li Zhao to die on his own.
“By the way, I had an artist guessing that your surname is Xu and you share a surname with the boss of Cang Huan. Are you relatives?” The agent poured a cup of healthy tea for Xu Bei.
He didn’t know why since his artist was young but Xu Bei was obsessed with health tea.
“How could it be? No, no.” Xu Bei quickly denied it but his expression changed.
In fact, if he went back three generations then his family did indeed share an ancestor with Xu Yanting but he didn’t dare acknowledge this. People outside didn’t know but as a distant branch of the Xu family, he knew that Xu Yanting hated the Xu family name very much and was especially indifferent to the Xu family.
Before Xu Yanting’s death, he was afraid to raise speculation using the Xu last name. However, it was coming soon.
If he remembered correctly, Xu Yanting would die next spring, his cause of death unknown. Some people suspected he had committed suicide while some people say it was a sudden illness and no one discovered it. No matter the reason, the shadow hanging over the Xu family would be gone next year.
At this moment, a senior management of Cang Huan’s headquarters was becoming interviewed by a financial program for TV. When the reporter asked him about his usual pastimes, he mentioned fitness, watching movies, travelling, etc.
Speaking of movies, the senior management paused before saying, “Recently, my whole family went to see Rising Storm. My wife and children were very fond of a young actor in it. I think he was called Li, Li Zhao?
The reporter inwardly thought, ‘No, big person. This is a financial show, not a star chasing show! You are the senior management at Cang Huan’s headquarters, not a star chaser!’
The senior managed looked back at the reporter with a smile.
He was absolutely professional when it came to secretly flattering the big boss.
The author has something to say:
Senior management: Self-training in flattering the boss.