Chapter 4

  "......" Looking at the determined Mr. Shaking Money Tree, Fang Yu showed a sympathetic expression, "Are you drunk? Give up this idea early, I didn't even have time to tell you, I've inquired about it, that Jiang Chuan is actually——"

  Jian Ran: "I don't care, I want to break the rules for him - if I can't even break the rules for a newcomer, what's the point of me climbing to this position?"

  Fang Yu: "......"

  Is this what you've been crawling for? Then when are you going to fall and die?…… Looking at the young man with black hair in front of him, Fang Yu took a deep breath, just about to say something, when suddenly the door behind them was opened by someone. Director Jiang Luocheng poked his head out and smiled upon seeing Jian standing outside: "Xiao Ran, you're here."

  Jiang Luocheng, a new generation director in his early thirties, has become increasingly popular in recent years. He has directed TV dramas and films, and occasionally directs stage plays, making him an all-around talent. His work "The Sound of the Years" has almost propelled him to the highest position in the domestic film industry, overnight, putting him on par with veteran directors.

  Jiang Luocheng used to be a child star himself, so he naturally has a good face. So going to bed with Director Shang and acting in Director Shang's plays almost became the new life goal for the young fresh meat in the circle.

  However, when he saw this person, his expression on his face was an unnatural pause.

  Then he put his hands in his pockets, slightly tilted his head, and responded with a bland tone - this lukewarm reaction was not common for someone like Jin Yan who liked to pretend to be kind... Turning his head to look at Jiang Luocheng whose face showed a hint of embarrassment, Fang Yu felt that he had sensed a somewhat abnormal atmosphere in the air.

  Jiang Luocheng walked out of the conference room, still holding the proposal for that xianxia TV series. Looking at the young man with black hair in front of him, he put a smile back on his face, which looked quite youthful due to good maintenance. This director, who was usually too strict for newcomers, spoke in a gentle tone: "What were you and your agent talking about just now that made you so happy?"

  He slightly turned his head back, and a hint of undisguised impatience flashed in his eyes as he slanted a glance at Jiang Luocheng: "What's it to you."

  Fang Yu: "......"

  Wow.

  Is it haunted?!

  He was rebuked with a stern expression, but Jiang Luocheng remained unperturbed, as if he had long known or was even accustomed to the young man's temperament. He continued his words calmly and unhurriedly: "Fang Yu said you've already read through the rough script and plan, so today we're here for a direct audition. Later, I'll trouble you to try out with a few newcomers - basically all of them are newbies, they'll definitely be a bit nervous when they see you, don't get impatient, just lead them along..."

  He slowly turned his head around, staring at Jiang Luocheng for a while, until Fang Yu, who was observing the two of them on the side, felt that the air around them was about to solidify. The black-haired young man finally nodded slowly, his thin lips opening slightly as he said coldly: "I'll try my best. Is there anything else?"

  "Was it, didn't I tell you about that last time..."

  "I said work."

  "No."

  "There's nothing more to say." Jian Ran paused for a moment before adding a subject to the sentence, "We."

  Then Jiang Luocheng was called away by the staff.

  After knocking on the studio staff for half an hour, Jian Yan and Fang Yu entered the dressing room to get their costumes. Along the way, the two were silent, and Jian Yan's face was gloomy, not mentioning the new person's rules again - although this guy often spoke harshly in private, it was rare to see him like this... Fang Yu endured and endured, until they returned to the empty dressing room, staring at Jian Yan who started to quietly change clothes, he finally couldn't bear it.

  Looking directly at him with disregard, the black-haired young man who was changing his clothes said: "Eh, this great god, may I ask what kind of moving story happened between you and Director Jiang without your agent and life assistant knowing?"

  Fang Yu was speaking when Jin Yan was leaning in front of the mirror, trying to pick out usable hair accessories from a pile. Upon hearing this, his movements paused, but he didn't turn around, only exchanging glances with the agent behind him through the mirror - for an instant, sparks flew. Just as Fang Yu thought that this guy would turn around and tear himself apart in the next second, unexpectedly, the other's gaze suddenly softened, and after a pause, he said lightly: "Nothing, just better."

  “……………………”

  Fang Yu sprang up suddenly.

  Raised an eyebrow.

  Fang Yu sat back down with a "thud".

  "You, you, you! - My god! My god! My god!" Fang Yu covered her chest, with a "beyond expectation and reason" expression on her face, pointing at the young black-haired man who was propping himself up against the dressing table with both hands, his face collapsing. "Such a big thing and you didn't even tell me!"

  "I wanted to tell you," Jian Yan turned around, expressionless, looking at his agent and said, "but before I could say it, we broke up."

  "When does it start?"

  "A week after 'The Sound of Years' went into production."

  "When will it end?"

  "Last time, a celebratory feast." Zhen Ran revealed a mocking expression, "Oh, just like the time you said 'Yuan Zhen Ran and Jiang Luo Cheng were hugging each other tightly, as if they wanted to jump off a building together'."

  “……”

  "Have you gone to bed?"

  "Not in time."

  "'The Sound of Years' has been filming for half a year... You two are quite patient, aren't you? — Then how did you two say goodbye?"

  "He couldn't hold it in anymore."

  "Huh?"

  "Split legs."

  Fang Yu slapped his thigh and thought to himself, "You also have times when you're at a loss for words." It's really true that heaven spares no one - he couldn't hide the gossip on his face, and asked again: "With who?"

  Xu Qianqian.

  Xu Qianqian, the heroine of "The Sound of Years", was previously a small flower dan in TV dramas. She finally squeezed into the film industry with this movie last year. A 90s kid, young, beautiful, and articulate - compared to Jian's deadpan face, this little girl is indeed... Fang Yu nodded in understanding of Director Jiang's choice. After some thought, he seemed to recall something that didn't feel right. His expression suddenly changed as he grabbed the backup plan from his back pocket and flipped through it quickly. When he reached a certain page, he looked like he was searching for something and gazed at a corner before falling silent.

  A moment later, he felt the air around him was a bit chilly.

  He looked up to see Jian Yan standing not far away, staring at him coldly with his arms crossed. He shuddered and was about to adjust the expression on his face, which had almost revealed too much information - but it was already too late. Jian Yan quickly walked over, snatched the script book out of his hand, flipped through it, and directly turned to the actor list. When he saw the three big words "Xu Qianqian" in the column for the actress playing the unlucky female lead, he cursed and then tore up the script book.

  This is also too bloody ridiculous.

  Fang Yu thought about the new and old hatreds in this dog-blooded story, and after careful consideration, it's hard to say how many storms of wind and rain there would be - if Xu Qianqian, Jiang Luocheng or Jin Ran couldn't conceal their emotions well enough and were discovered by the crew members, it would be another high-rise building.

  When the time comes, it will be clear that Jianran is a gay man...

  That scene is too beautiful.

  As the agent who might have to rush to the front line as a scapegoat, Fang Yu felt uneasy first - although he wasn't too worried about his own acting skills, but Xu Qianqian was just a little girl, if she made a mistake and implicated Jian Ran, it would be unpredictable... After thinking for a while, Fang Yu still looked up at Jian Ran: "How about we don't act after all?"

  "What's going on?"

  At this moment, Jian Yan was busy at the other end of the house, putting his torn proposal book into the paper shredder.

  "Come on, why don't you perform."

  "Na Jiang Luo Cheng and Xu Qianqian——"

  "There are many people I dislike," Jian Ran glanced at the agent with a slanted gaze, "If we all ask to avoid them, we can directly retire from the circle. Is this your first day as an agent?"

  “……”

  "This is so not cool."

  “……”

  During the conversation, Jing Yan had already changed into his costume - that set of intricately embroidered silk Tang suit made him look like a person who just walked out of a painting, and the strong flavor of the era hit him in the face. Jing Yan seemed to be quite satisfied with his appearance after checking himself out in the mirror, so he left his agent, who was still standing there trying to process all the information, and went next door to find the makeup artist to get made up.

  And his complexion looked normal.

  It's as if the conversation between the two of them had never existed at all.

  When Fang Yu finally came to, she slipped into the adjacent dressing room with a sullen face. There, she saw her own cash cow, DaDa, chatting and laughing with the young makeup artist, exchanging words in a lively conversation. Compared to his ferocious appearance earlier when he was tearing up scripts with his bare hands next door, this young man with black hair now looked approachable and wore a warm smile on his face. As Fang Yu walked in, he was speaking in a low, pleasant voice, saying: "Your drama team's lunchboxes have too little meat? That's because Director Jiang is too stingy! I'll scold him for you later and get him to add more meat to your lunchboxes."

  The little makeup artist giggled and laughed so hard her flowers shook.

  Fang Yu stood at the door, his lips twitching, when he heard someone behind him say "excuse me" - subconsciously turning around, the first thing that caught his eye was a person's long neck. The newcomer was too tall, Fang Yu was too short, and Mr. Jingji was slightly taken aback, lifting his head to look up, his gaze passing through various perfectly sculpted facial features before meeting a pair of azure eyes.

  At this moment, the latter was looking down at him with no extra emotions in his eyes.

  Jian Fang Yu was stunned on the spot, a hint of dissatisfaction flashed in his eyes, and he slightly furrowed his brow, repeating: "Let go."

  The newcomer was indeed Jiang Chuan.

  At this moment, he had already finished his makeup and should have forgotten something in the dressing room, so he came back to pick it up. Seeing Jiang Chuan's face, Fang Yu finally understood why Jin Yan had that expression earlier when he saw the sausage, like a dog seeing fire. With a blank face, he made way for him, watching as he walked into the dressing room wearing his costume and brushed past Jin Yan who was getting her eyebrows drawn by the makeup artist.

  Actually, there were several alternative casting choices for the role of the little Taoist priest - but when Fang Yu saw Jian Ran and Jiang Chuan appear together in front of the dressing mirror at the same time, he knew that if Jiang Luocheng's brain or eyes weren't malfunctioning, then the two male leads of this drama had already been decided.

  On this side, Jian Ran smiled and greeted Jiang Chuan with a smile - the latter heard someone calling his name, first slightly stunned, turned his head to stare at the black-haired young man for a while, and then said with a straight face: "It's you."

  Everyone: "......"

  Never had a newcomer seen a big star so calm - and so for the time being, the atmosphere in the dressing room was somewhat frozen.

  The smile on his face remained unchanged, and he nodded: "It was me."

  "What were you just running for?" Jiang Chuan picked up his phone and car keys from the sofa, stuffing them into his pocket, "Afraid of me?"

  Everyone: "......"

  Jian Ran: "What?"

  Jiang Chuan stood behind Kenan, glancing at the young man with black hair sitting in the chair through the mirror. His gaze lingered on the other's hooked lips for a moment before suddenly asking: "Do you still remember the story I told earlier?"

  "Huh?"

  "Why force yourself to smile when you're not happy? A fake smile is actually quite ugly," Jiang Chuan said expressionlessly, "Dragon King."

  Jian Ran: "............"

  The smile on his face twisted downward, almost falling off.

  Then the mobile phone in Jiang Chuan's pocket rang, he took it out, looked at the incoming call display and frowned, then went out to answer the phone - his voice was not high or low, very pleasant to listen to, especially when he spoke German with the person on the other end of the phone... He understood a little German, and heard that Jiang Chuan was asking what the other person was doing, and replied that he was busy - the tone and words were quite impolite.

  Then Jiang Chuan casually closed the door and whatever he said afterwards was unheard.

  After Jiang Chuan left, the people in the dressing room had not reacted yet. It was the little girl who broke the deadlock first and told Jin Yan that Jiang Chuan was a Sino-German hybrid, his grandmother was Russian, and he had just returned from abroad recently... The implication was already very clear. Although Jin Yan also has some reputation abroad, it's not as famous as Bruce Lee, so it's normal for people to occasionally not recognize him.

  He heard it calmly and didn't show any concern about it, just laughed it off.

  The awkward atmosphere in the dressing room finally relaxed under his guidance.

  After the harmonious makeup time, the crew came to inform Yan that due to some unexpected circumstances, the shooting time was temporarily delayed for half an hour. So Yan took his agent to the next room and closed the door for a small meeting - in simple terms, it was actually Mr. Yuan Yan's unilateral secret escape time.

  "Damn it! A young newcomer, what a joke! Actually dares to mock and ridicule me, not knowing the height of heaven and earth! You're the one who's ugly, I'm majestic and intimidating! You're the one who's pretending to smile but actually seething inside! You're the one who's unhappy! It's as if you've eaten a tiger's heart and become fearless - no way, I must let him see my prowess!"

  "What does 'Dragon King' even mean?" Fang Yu looked at the young man with black hair who was holding onto a cushion and running wildly, and said disdainfully, "Are you crazy?"

  "Overpower him, rape him, make him cry under me and beg me to fulfill him and not abandon him—"

  “……”

  "Ahhhhhhh!"

  "What's there to be excited about? What kind of newcomer is this, anyway? Ah, it's their first day in the entertainment industry!"

  “……”

  "This is so not cool."

  "Roar!"

  "That's not what we call it."

  "Shut up!"

  The author has something to say: Chirp chirp (textual), chirp chirp (gentle attack), chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp (is my family's kind of gentle attack).

  You guys, really don't think too much.