Chapter 60 - I’ve got this Celebrity’s back (20)
Chapter 60: I’ve got this Celebrity’s back (20)
That night, Gu Xi took his own contract selling himself into servitude and without a hitch, he abducted his little boss back to his home. After experiencing the clauses in the contract once through, he returned to the crew, brimming with satisfaction, the next morning.
Mu Jinchu had already completely tidied up the crew before he left and Li Renyi, from top to bottom, pouring earnest advice, pressured and supervised the crew. Everyone in the crew knew that the new investor was extremely conscientious. In order to thoroughly find out the situation of the crew, he had even hidden his identity and snuck in posing as a field crew member.
With new impetus, no one dared to be lazy anymore. They energetically busied and bustled about. This crew has obviously had half a month’s work flushed down the drain but the whole crew was even more flourishing than before.
They’d said that they were going to be interviewing actors for the vacancy today. Early that morning, Li Renyi stood guard at the door of the set. Seeing the two of them, his eyes brightened and he walked up quickly to meet them, “Mr. Gu! M-Mr. Lu…”
During these two days, Li Renyi has been tossed about quite a bit. Gu Xi smiled at him and nodded slightly to acknowledge him. “Director Li, you have worked hard.”
“No, no. It was my pleasure — to tell you the truth, these past couple of days have been the happiest for me.”
Li Renyi waved his hand repeatedly. The aura around his entire person was much better than before. With a clear smile on his face, he eagerly turned to Lu Qingzhou. “Please rest assured, Mr. Lu. You have full authority to guide and interfere with the crew. There will never again be any instance when we simply pay lip service. We’ll take the shooting slow so that we may be fortunate enough to produce a good work…”
No matter what, he was still a director. Even if his strength was mediocre and his character, cowardly, in his heart, Li Renyi still wanted to create a work that will allow him to prove himself.
A fast-paced atmosphere pervaded the entire industry now. It was filled with big and popular franchises. Scripts and actors were churned out like in an assembly line. As long you had popular traffic stars, you wouldn’t have to worry about ratings. There were voice-over actors and late stage substitute actors. A TV series can be released in just two or three months. It saved on both time and effort. This has almost become the norm for TV.
With these shortcuts, fewer and fewer people were willing to work hard and take the long way around.
Everyone was well aware of the drawbacks of such practices but too many people have no choice but to pinch their noses and surrender to the whims of capital. Being able to get this opportunity, Li Renyi was undoubtedly extremely content.
Lu Qingzhou looked back at Gu Xi and found hints of a warm smile in the latter’s eyes. He pursed his lips lightly and turned around, smiling at Li Renyi.
As long as you start, it wasn’t actually difficult to get along well with strangers; let alone with Gu Xi also behind him.
Lu Qingzhou looked up, feeling at ease. He met his gaze, smiled and said, “I don’t know much about shooting a film. I just followed to watch the excitement. I will still have to bother you to take care of these matters.”
A smile appeared in Gu Xi’s eyes. He subtly took a half step back, guarding steadily behind him.
The young president clearly had a sense of propriety when dealing with strangers. He didn’t know whether it was because he has always kept to himself since childhood but Lu Qingzhou’s aura though gentle, clearly revealed a sense of distance. To outsiders, he really did faintly display the majestic manner of a company president.
“Of course. It is no trouble at all. You can rest assured, the crew will be on their very best behavior and absolutely no vexing issues will arise.”
Worrying about the crew was originally the director’s job. Li Renyi was overwhelmed by favor from a superior and promised without hesitation. He then led the two of them into the set and asked carefully, “Will Mr. Lu be staying on set? We originally wanted to reserve a room for you, too but Mr. Mu said that he has arranged one for you&#k2026;”
Uncle hadn’t said anything about this before he left. Lu Qingzhou blinked, expressing some faint misgivings.
Li Renyi knew with a single glance that he probably knew nothing about it. He finally felt completely relieved. He carefully glanced at Gu Xi who was standing not far away. He took a deep breath and said, keeping his voice low, “Mr. Lu-please, may I have a word with you in private? I will give you the room key.”
He had already said it very clear but Lu Qingzhou couldn’t help feeling a bit startled. He instinctively looked towards Gu Xi but saw complete puzzlement in the other’s eyes as well. He obviously didn’t know what the hidden meaning in this was.
“There’s no need to speak in private.”
Lu Qingzhou pursed the corners of his lips. He stopped his steps and turned serious. “If there is something the matter, might I ask you to please tell me here?”
The two were originally together and Gu Xi was allowed to know of any matter that concerned Lu Qingzhou.
Li Renyi was startled. He met the serious look in his eyes and his face couldn’t help revealing a look of embarrassment. His eyes kept turning back and forth between the two of them.
During these past two days, Li Renyi was so busy, his feet almost hit the back of his head. He had no idea about what had been happening outside. Even the matter about Ning Feiping running out of luck, he had only found out from hearing it from the deputy director. He didn’t see Film Emperor Gu’s live broadcast where he confessed to being involved in unspoken rules with the other. He thought the two only knew each other due to that heatstroke incident. Now, faced with this thing, he was needlessly scared to the point of being unable to make a decision.
“Seeing how Director Li is so embarrassed, looks like this matter concerns me.”
Seeing how he was practically struggling with embarrassment, Gu Xi chuckled quietly and said, helping him out of his predicament, “It’s okay. You can say what it is that you have to say. Don’t hold it back. You already don’t have a lot of hair left.”
It was probably a common mark of a director. The top of Li Renyi’s head was already originally sparse but now with his face wrinkled with worry, his hair appeared even more sparse. The few hairs he had seemed about to be tossed about by the wind.
He was going to have to talk about it sooner or later. Better to just get the pain over with than to prolong the agony. He might as well just talk to them both.
Li Renyi took a deep breath, not daring to look at Gu Xi’s expression. He buried his head and said in a quiet voice, “Mr. Mu also said that there are a lot of things the we need to spend money on, so to save a little bit, he had your room withdrawn…”
This kind of thing wasn’t often seen in the crew but it also wasn’t considered rare.
This was sometimes done to maliciously target a certain actor. But as was more often the case, having the room of a certain actor removed, so that he has no place to stay when not filming, implied a deeper meaning hidden under it.
Having Mu Jinchu talk about lacking money after spending several hundred million yuan on the crew, was simply unbelievable for anyone. Especially if you consider that Gu Xi has never done anything unfavorable to the crew. He had done nothing except get closer to Lu Qingzhou. He hadn’t had any of the other crew’s room withdrawn but had insisted on withdrawing his, it can only lead one to turn their speculations to a certain direction.
Li Renyi’s brows were furrowed tightly. Several times, it was as though he wanted to say something but stopped. Instead, he just became even more puzzled.
He originally thought that it was little Mr. Lu who gave his uncle this idea, wanting to engage Gu Xi in some unspoken rules…
But Gu Xi was the type who was open to persuasion but not to coercion. He was also more stubborn than the average person, more likely to break than bend. With his room removed, he may just decide to drive back home by himself every time. This might get him entangled with the ever-persistent paparazzi, brining in who knows how much amount of trouble. .
Li Renyi originally had a secret plan. He was thinking of separating the two and then using the power of the crew to secretly find a new room for Gu Xi. But he hadn’t expected that little President Lu would be completely clueless about this matter as well.
Or was Mu Jinchu…setting them up to engage in unspoken rules?
Director Li was in the middle of worriedly letting his imagination run away with him. Lu Qingzhou’s eyebrows were slightly furrowed. He pursed his lips and took a step forward, about to speak.
“Qingzhou.”
Gu Xi gave a light cough, and quickly pulled the person back. With one arm wrapped around his back, he leaned forward with a smile, lowering his voice and whispering into his ear, “What are you worrying about? This is uncle asking me to go to your room. …”
He had heard of this kind of hint a long time ago but he had never seen it for himself. He never expected that the first time he would run across something like this, that he would be asked to personally go up.
When Gu Xi’s warm breath hit his ear, Lu Qingzhou’s heart gave a jump. He instantly understood what was going on and his face couldn’t help going red. His eyes gradually brightened.
“Uncle arranged it for us. It must be a very good place. We have to enjoy his blessing. You have to keep the door open for me or I’ll have to climb in through your window in the middle of the night.”
His little paparazzo was so sensible. In every matter, he always only thought about his sake. Before he could worry about him, Gu Xi already opened his mouth and blocked what he was about to say. He obstructed Li Renyi from the side. He didn’t do anything too intimate. He only slightly held the other and leaned in. Avoiding the sight of other people, his lips, intentionally or unintentionally, brushed lightly against his earlobe. “Uncle took great pains to arrange this for us. I’ll accept it for you, okay?”
His arms were held down securely. Lu Qingzhou couldn’t hide. His heart began to run faster. His previously clean and clear eyes began to reveal a bit of a dazzled look. Looking up at him for a long while, he finally pursed the corners of his lips and nodded silently.
The soft look stole over his face, making Gu Xi’s heart turn hot. He smiled and pinched his warm earlobe. He held his hand out to Li Renyi. “Director Li, please hand the room card to me. I’ll take it for our president.”
It was not the first time that he half-jokingly called Lu Qingzhou, ‘President’. It was obviously a word of civility that they weren’t accustomed to, but when he said it, it was soaked in warmth and affection, as though he had long become accustomed to laying his heart bare. However, it had actually just poured out from his heart just recently thawed with warmth.
The card key clattered to the ground. They were going to have to explain everything clearly from the top.
Li Renyi was dumbfounded. After being dazed for a good long while, he hesitantly handed over the room card.
*
The room card was so beautiful.
Gu Xi accompanied Lu Qingzhou to interview a group of actors. Gu Xi dutifully faced the stage but his left hand was playing with the exquisite black frosted card in his pocket.
They had lost track of time last night fooling with the contract. They tossed around until it was already quite late and they had to get up early today. The interview looked interesting, but it became boring as time dragged on. Watching these same scenes over and over again, Lu Qingzhou could hardly muster up any enthusiasm. But in order to pay respects to the actors who came for the interview, he still tried his best to watch each one seriously.
Interviews for both the morning and afternoon had already been fixed but there will always some unexpected incidents and it’s always the case with these things that he will go over time. According to how things were going, they probably won’t be finished with the morning interviews even at past one o’clock.
Gu Xi turned the card around his fingertips and looked at the little president who was sureptitiously rubbing his eyes for the fourth time. He about to find a chance to coax Lu Qingzhou to head back or at least take a nap before resuming.
Lu Qingzhou had no idea what he was thinking. He was looking down and flipping through the list of applicants in his hand. Gu Xi guessed what he was looking for. He lowered his voice and leaned closer: “Chu Heng is the last one for this morning. At the rate we’re going, he won’t be called up until another three hours.”
Lu Qingzhou mentioned Chu Heng to him last night. He said that his family had a friendship with Shengxing Entertainment. He asked him to help take care of him, find some way to reject him.
The request was wasn’t any trouble and Gu Xi readily agreed. He arranged for Chu Heng to appear at the end in order to be unobtrusive, but he did not expect that the interviews would drag on so long.
Lu Qingzhou blinked his eyes. He was so tired that it took him a moment before he heard him clearly. He nodded lightly. He sat up straight and was about to call in the next one, when Gu Xi grabbed his hand under the table. “Go back and sleep first. If I meet him, I will ask him to wait for you in the lounge, okay?”
The voice in his ear was soft and gentle. Lu Qingzhou yawned softly. He raised up his spirit and met his gaze.
Gu Xi smiled and gently wiped for him the tired tears that had escapes from the corner of his eye. He rubbed the top of his head and coaxed warmly, “There’s actually only a few candidates left. Barring any incidents, the rest will be much the same. You can leave it to me and Director Li. We probably won’t have time to eat lunch and I wanted to eat black bean noodles too…”
“I’ll make some for you.”
Hearing what he said, Lu Qingzhou immediately cheered up and sat up straight again. “Would you like anything sweet?”
“Sweet or salty are both fine. Go back and get a some sleep and then make something for me.”
Knowing that this trick would work well on the little paparazzo, Gu Xi couldn’t help but smile. He tapped lightly against the other’s forehead and pushed his back. “You have to go sleep first. You never know. I might check in on you.”
Only after sleeping well can he cook well. Lu Qingzhou nodded, he took the black key card he handed over and got up. Immediately, a crew member came up to lead the way.
Gu Xi smiled and nodded at him. He watched the figure of his little boss turning around every few steps as he exited through the door. He then happily sat up straight and met Li Renyi’s bitter gaze. “Next one, please come in. — Director Li, is there anything the matter?”