《美滋滋》Ch51 - Flattery
Advertisement
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.”
Advertisement
“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 your fans quarrelling with his fans?"
"Who is fighting with my fans? It is all his fault." Song Yu sneered. "I'm telling 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?
Advertisement
“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.
Advertisement
- In Serial106 Chapters
Dungeon Core Chat Room.
This is a slower-paced "experiment and dungeon building" web novel that tries to use the idea of peer-to-peer communication with Dungeon Cores instead of Dungeon to slave monster communication to break up the detailed dungeon building. Rank 1 description: (minimum met for system initialization...detailed description as follows) Each race was given a system by the gods to make up for their shortcomings and balance their place in this world. Humans: Abysmally bad at understanding and using magic unable to use more than the lowest of magic were given the "Skill System" magic in the form of premade skills with use, study, and mastery tied to experience. Elves: Intuitively understand magic and have long lives leading to vast knowledge and skill in their chosen fields. However, as a species, they have nearly zero sex drive and less than low fertility, so they were gifted the "World Tree System" with experience gained through the care of natural areas – gifting the chance of children to increase their numbers without dirty copulation. All “natural” or “wild” monsters are given an "Evolution system" designed around killing and consuming as many creatures as possible, slowly increasing strength and, at thresholds, allowing mutations to alter them multiple times. Dungeon cores are different. Unlike humans, they can see, manipulate and live off mana. Unlike Elves, they naturally crystallize after extended periods of time in high mana level areas. However, they cannot easily move or communicate and typically go insane without companionship. As a species other than the odd eccentric they are unimaginative. Brute forcing solutions without the drive to truly innovate. Thus they have been gifted with the "Dungeon Connection System" a magical version of the internet accessible by their peers that allows them to barter and sell: bait, traps, monsters, and knowledge, as well as entertain each other with “adventure streams” using exciting recorded battles and humorous reels of arrogant chumps biting off more than they can chew to often fatal effects. This is the casual story of a dungeon unluckily spawned far from potential adventurers forced to innovate beyond its peers to find its place in this world. Rank 2 Description: Justification. I've been on a dungeon core kick for months and while I love the genre – it's sparse with entries. Often the forced conflict gets repetitive and frantic solving of threats "power levels" the protagonist to god levels to progress the plot – taking away the nice steady progression fantasy I'm looking for. (Progression in this story is linked to how strong of monsters/traps/whatever he can create not his "level"...this is demonstrated by some of his newer monsters beating his older monsters not with discrete "this monster has 10 attack this one has 40") Additionally, the focus on 3rd parties with their drama takes away from the reason I’m reading dungeon core novels in the first place – I'm looking for magical crafting, experimentation and kingdom building – not defence from higher and higher levelled enemies looking to steal/destroy/control the MC. This novel is kind of just me writing the story I wish I could read. I like thinking about the experimentation that can be done in fantasy settings using 'mana' as an excuse to make up rules and try to keep them internally consistent. IE once I define how a rule works, I'm going to commit to keeping it – no breaking hard truths I've given when it's convenient, even if it backs me into a corner. Hopefully, that should make the story interesting to read even if it's SOL and less action-oriented. There will be problems to solve and a clear progression in strength (of created monsters and knowledge) however due to not wanting to force conflict for the sake of conflict the general theme will be closer to slice of life with few action sequences and no overarching goal so please keep that in mind when picking this up as the genre is not for everyone. Finally, I have a clear goal of what I want from this story (not an endless romp but a series of arcs and then a conclusion that's a couple of dozen medium-sized chapters long) I want to commit to finishing it or at least bringing it to a point of rest. I hate all the engaging stories that stop with a “hiatus” indefinitely so in the event I lose motivation I'll work to end this even if the ending becomes rushed/unsatisfying just to give a sense of closure. I’m planning on including several polls in terms of direction and taking feedback heavily into account if I get enough readers (but may choose to ignore it if it deviates too far from the direction I want to take this as in feedback like: “The MC needs a cartoonishly evil arch-enemy that wants to enslave him and force the mc to pump out magic items” or “the MC needs to make a body and learn teleportation then live with humans” will get shot down without consideration.)
8 258 - In Serial44 Chapters
Resurrect Nobody
Dreams are concepts that should guide you through life on a path towards a better future. For Colt West, his dream brought his life to a complete standstill. One day, as he is making his way through the halls of his university, he crosses paths with the one thing he wants to destroy: Death. This incident ends his life as he knows it, leading him down a spiral of madness and insanity. Having been given a second chance at life, will he be able to capitalize on it to seize his dream of resurrecting the dead?
8 86 - In Serial11 Chapters
The Descarrian Abyss: Level One
[2/6/20 : Major rewrites and restrucuring for Chapters 1-4]Framed for the murder of his landlady, sixteen year old Arahn Keys has been sentenced to death. A last minute reprieve comes in the form of the slightly mad cartographer Calan’dal, who hires him and four other death row inmates as bodyguards for his dangerous expedition into the bowls of a labyrinthine dungeon known as the Descarrian Abyss. Should they succeed in helping the deranged elf reach his goal, the legendary Heart of the Abyss, Arahn and his fellow criminals will be free to go. Alongside his new elven master Arahn is joined by Morvar: a half-troll brute, Cathran: a young herbalist’s apprentice who professes her innocence, and Evan and Lem: a pair of thieving goblin twins. Together they descend into the Abyss, knowing they will have to work together or else perish in the bowels of the dark labyrinth, becoming victims of the deadly traps and ferocious creature’s legend to reside within. [This is an early draft. Looking for feedback on characters/story as I work on my ideas.]
8 167 - In Serial206 Chapters
BadLifeguard
December 31st 2021. An 18-year-old boy in rural Ireland realises that he has super powers. The basics of which are easy to grasp, the complexities not so much. After a life time of consuming all forms of super hero media, wanting to be a hero his entire life, you'd think he'd be thrilled.Well, yeah, it's fun sometimes, but if he stumbled upon super powers, then what's to stop a 'twat' from getting them? He's well aware of the depths of human depravity, so with no money, no friends, no plans for the future, and the ever looming question as to where these fantastic abilities came from:How is an idiot in the middle of nowhere going to stop super villains from conquering the world?That's a trick question.Because they already have.BadLifeguard
8 126 - In Serial58 Chapters
Dragon Princess
Shina, a little four years old girl witness the end of her world and awake in another body. She is the daughter of the two gods who made countless world, they are forced to send her in another world where she will make friend and enemy. Follow her story as she grow up in a world full of prejudice.
8 705 - In Serial105 Chapters
Y'all loved the first one, the hits keep coming! All your HXH boys in absurd situations. Warning: I don't do boring! Enjoy!
8 160

