Chapter 90

  After careful consideration, "Star Fire" was the first job that Jianran took on after waking up from his coma. Given that he was still in recovery and didn't want to take on high-intensity work, as well as wanting to focus on acting well in this drama, during the entire filming process, which lasted for four months, IM Company also considerately did not give him any messy jobs. This led to Jianran entering a period of unemployment after "Star Fire" finished filming.

  According to Fang Yu's words, he can also take this opportunity to rest and adjust his physical condition, and then wait for the response of "Star Fire" before deciding on a specific development path.

  After some thought, it seems to make sense. Can't always be in a state of not planning for the future and staying in the current situation forever. So after finishing filming "Star Fire", Jian Ran returned to his hometown the next day to rest for a while and accompany his family - Jian Ran's father had passed away early, and he was rarely at home, leaving only his mother and grandmother at home. When they heard that Jian Ran was coming back, Mrs. Yuan was also very happy. Before her son even boarded the plane, she had already made a list of things that needed to be fixed at home, and told Jian Ran to put it on the fridge before hanging up the phone, reminding him to fix them when he got back.

  She made a symbolic resistance to being treated as a repairman without family warmth, but finally Ms. Yuan Mei said: "I heard Fang Yu say that you don't have much work next, and even if you stay at home and eat and drink for free, you have to pay the price - after all, you are so idle."

  After all, you have nothing better to do.

  He wiped his face calmly and found himself unable to refute.

  As a result, this "very idle" person had just stepped off the plane and into his home, shouting "Mom, grandma, I'm back!", without even having time to take a sip of water, when he received a call from Teacher Li Rui. The latter chatted with the young man with black hair as usual for a while, and Jian Ran was wondering why they had just parted ways in H City yesterday and were now calling to chat again. Finally, when Jian Ran sat down on his own sofa, Li Rui vaguely stated his purpose...

  He mentioned that after National Day, Chuan Na has a film about the late anti-war period to be shot.

  “……”

  Kan Na's movie.

  The movies produced by the Propaganda Department are those legendary ones that, no matter how much they make at the box office, just need to be made and will have a guaranteed number of showings in cinemas, with various units and schools responsible for buying tickets and organizing viewings. Actors in these films basically don't have any pressure on their box office performance; it's purely a way to earn money and fame easily, an opportunity that is hard to come by, something that ordinary small-time actors wouldn't even dare dream of.

  Jian Ran suddenly perked up his ears and quickly grabbed his phone to listen to Li Rui's voice on the other end, who didn't give him a detailed invitation, but roughly told him about the script and emphasized the role of the male lead. It was about the young master of a big warlord, who was born with a rebellious nature and spent his days indulging in debauchery after returning from abroad, until the person he loved since childhood died at his own hands. After the pain, he changed overnight and led the entire warlord organization to join the party and devote himself to the anti-war cause, contributing greatly to the great undertaking of building the country...

  Living Tom Sue.

  Listening to Li Rui over there, he was talking and crying with tears streaming down his face, almost wanting to punch the sky - compared to the little devil officer Saito, this is what Yuan Jinyan wants most, just listening to the character setting can tell that such a flesh-and-blood positive role will be played out to attract fans!!!

  Jian Ran was also on the phone, cooperating with Li Rui's words and sighing "This script is very interesting" "The character setting is good", just short of shouting out a sentence "I want to act, let me act" - but since Li Rui didn't say it very directly, Jian Ran couldn't bear to say such things either, and could only express his intention to participate.

  At the end of the phone call, Li Rui also mentioned "Star Fire", casually telling Jinran about the merits of Saito's character. Connecting to the previous text, before hanging up the phone, Jinran also understood that Li Rui made this call for two reasons: first, to test his tone and see if he would have time to take on a movie project; second, to indirectly express that whether or not the movie project could be successful still depends on the reaction to "Star Fire" - not the entire TV series, but rather how people evaluate Saito's character.

  I'm worried that no one will seriously comment on an antagonist in a TV series, and if not, it's likely to make little splash - Moreover, the main channels for collecting evaluations of TV dramas and movies are still concentrated in offline surveys, feedback books, and phone calls, which are difficult to operate even if they really want to find water armies.

  After being troubled, Jian Yan carefully gave Fang Yu a call. At that time, the latter was still in H city accompanying Jiang Chuan to film, and he was also very happy when he heard the news. He comforted Jian Yan and told him not to worry, after all, he had been struggling under the camera for so many years and had some real skills. Jian Yan had heard these words many times before, but at critical moments, they still had a certain comforting effect. After chatting with Fang Yu for a while, he suddenly heard Fang Yu say: "By the way, it seems that your schedule is empty before National Day. I just received the second invitation letter from the crew of 'Mysterious Seeds' this morning. It seems that the original Asian role's part hasn't been filmed yet. Do you want to go and film it?"

  He was taken aback by the news, and couldn't believe it had been so long since he last heard from them. He thought to himself, "How could they still be dragging their feet?!" So he quickly went online to search for updates and only then did he discover that the lead actor of the show had gotten into a bike accident and was hospitalized for treatment, causing the entire shooting schedule to be delayed by several months... This coincidence was like a godsend. He also felt a bit embarrassed, thinking "If we're not going to shoot it, why not just take half a month to film a Hollywood blockbuster and get a free trip out of it? What's not to love?" So he simply called Fang Yu and agreed to do it, asking them to send over the script.

  After hanging up the phone, two good news came one after another as soon as he entered the house, making Jian Ran somewhat ecstatic.

  Thought for a moment and took out the phone to send a text message to Jiang Chuan, asking him what he was doing - although it was clear that he was filming and couldn't be doing anything else, still couldn't help but ask... Then, not knowing if it was break time or not, soon after sending the text message, his phone "buzzed" and he quickly grabbed it to look, and saw Jiang Chuan's reply.

  Three shots today, still busy, how?

  Just asking casually.

  【……】

  Staring at the six helpless dots on the phone screen, he felt like he was going to die from cuteness... Putting down his phone, he picked up his water cup and took a sip to calm himself down. At this moment, the old lady sitting next to him on the sofa, knitting a sweater, looked up: "Ran, what are you laughing at? Why are you smiling so happily?"

  He slowly raised his hand to touch his face, and found that his muscles were indeed wrinkled together as if he was smiling very happily and foolishly. Before he could respond, he heard the old lady ask again: "Is it because you have a girlfriend?"

  "......" He stared blankly, "Looks like what?"

  "Grandma, I was young too," the old lady put down her work, raised her head and pushed up her golden-rimmed glasses to look at her grandson. "When your grandfather was fighting in the war, every time I received a letter from him, I would smile like this - Ah, those were hard times, but even seeing his dirty fingerprints on the envelope could make me laugh for a long time... thinking that this man who could fight and protect our country was still so lovable..."

  Silently and quietly rubbed his knees.

  The old lady picked up the half-knitted sweater again, compared it to her shoulders, and seemed satisfied with it. She put it down, thought for a moment, and asked: "Is he one of your colleagues?"

  He stood up straight with a somewhat awkward look around him, then nodded slightly with a "hmm".

  "Ah, fellow traveler, it's great to have someone to talk to. Your grandfather used to write me letters about the war front, which army corps did what, and how they advanced... I was just a nurse, I didn't understand any of that, my job was just to patch up those wounded soldiers...". The old lady chattered on, then suddenly seemed to remember her late husband, let out a long sigh, turned around, and used her wrinkled hands to hold the young man's face, examining it carefully. "Come see Grandma - oh, you've lost weight! You must have had a tough time recently? Last time I saw you when you just woke up at home, you didn't look as thin as this..."

  "It's nothing, you're just exaggerating." He smiled modestly.

  "Your partner is your colleague, don't take advantage of it..."

  "Ah," he said with an embarrassed expression, "I haven't actually told anyone yet..."

  "Are you thinking of him alone?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "What's wrong with saying that?" The old lady scolded, "You're not young anymore, are you planning to spend the rest of your life alone? You should have someone to accompany you—"

  "There are differences in profession, and some things aren't suitable for public disclosure. Look at those actors on TV, who would openly talk about their relationships every day? Aren't they all announcing their marriages hastily when they're 30 or 40 years old? Announcing too early affects one's career, and if it affects your career, you can't make money."

  "With so much money, can you take it with you when you're in a coffin?" The old lady gently slapped the young man's back. "I'm saying, at your age, how can you still not distinguish between right and wrong? You earn money just to live a carefree life, isn't that what you want? Who do you think will inherit all your money? Isn't it still your loved ones, your children?"

  She smiled dryly, thinking to herself that the old lady must have been watching some TV drama lately, spouting all this nonsense about the grand truth and chicken soup for the soul. She touched her nose tip, and suddenly, Jiang Chuan's face flashed in her mind, and somehow, she thought of the keyword "a lifetime" again. For a moment, her chest was filled with both sadness and sweetness. The young woman with black hair suddenly revealed a serious expression and said, "I'm not afraid of anything else, I'm just afraid he'll reject me."

  "Nonsense, with a grandson as handsome and capable of making money as you are, who could possibly reject you?"

  "He used to be quite poor, but now he's not poor anymore, and... he's more handsome than me."

  "Nonsense."

  Jianran chuckled and said something to his grandmother while holding her hand, boasting that he would be on TV during the National Day celebrations. His grandmother pouted and said "I don't watch those things you young people do", which was exactly what Jianran was waiting for. He quickly perked up and said this time it's different, this time they're performing a war drama. The old lady's eyes widened in surprise, repeatedly saying "good" and even saying she would show off to the neighbors when the time comes... Just like that, simply sitting at home listening to his grandmother's praise, Jianran felt more satisfied than hearing countless praises outside: suddenly feeling that all the hardships he endured during filming were worth it.

  As soon as I stepped into the house, all my worries were left outside the door. The living room was quiet again, and I lazily lay on the sofa by the window, soaking up the sun, squinting at my phone, thinking for a moment, then sent another text to Jiang Chuan: What are you doing?

  This time Jiang Chuan replied: Pa——

  Done, just got back to the room.

  Isn't there anyone else around?

  Nothing, what?

  I want to tell you something, I found that I still like you, no matter how far apart we are, for example, even if we are separated by half of China now, when I think of you, I can still jump out of the window and run three laps in the yard.

  He sent the somewhat lengthy text message, thinking he would be on edge, but in reality, after completing this feat, he found himself surprisingly calm, as if he had just finished a mundane task like drinking water or eating. He put down his phone and was about to go find a book to pass the pleasant afternoon when his phone started vibrating again. He picked it up to see that Jiang Chuan was calling him directly. He answered the call, narrowing his eyes slightly, "Hello?" On the other end of the line was the sound of running water, probably from Jiang Chuan's bathroom. After a moment, he heard a low, slightly husky voice on the phone: "What do you mean by this? Are you inviting me to come out with you?"

  "...Under the sunlight, a young black-haired man chuckled and said with a pair of beautiful eyes curved like crescent moons, "Not at all, this kind of thing would definitely be rejected - I just casually asked you not to have any psychological pressure, if it were true, would you reject me?"

  "I understand now."

  An expected response, though it's not quite clear why he said "now" instead of just a simple "will". He fell silent for a moment, quietly listening to the gurgling water on the other end. A moment later, however, I heard Jiang Chuan say: "When you stop asking me this question one day, we can consider it."

  He was taken aback for a moment.

  But this time before he could speak again, the other end had already hung up the phone.

  ……

  On September 10th, Jinyan's brokerage firm signed a cooperation contract with Claire Vision Group, the production company of "Mysterious Seeds".

  On September 11th, he received a script from the production company of "Mysterious Seeds". After reading the script, it was indeed as he had thought before that it was a role with not much screen time. However, surprisingly, this character's presence in the drama was not small at all, and it was somewhat similar to the role of the wolf tribe prince played by Xi De in "Eternal Red Beauty".

  It's that kind of existence where he rarely shows his face from start to finish, yet all the main characters are willing to fight to the death for him.

  "Mysterious Seed" is a planned sci-fi epic film series, in the upcoming first installment, it tells the story of when the Earth enters doomsday mode, humans accidentally acquire special powers to save the apocalypse from fully arriving, and the catalyst that allows humans to obtain this power is something scientists call "Mysterious Seed", also known as "God's Redemption", which is humanity's only hope for survival and defense of the Earth.

  From another perspective, whoever controls the "mysterious seeds" may be able to grasp the fate of the earth's future.

  The main characters, in order to find the source of the "Mysterious Seed" before the villainous character, embark on a journey. The calm part is at the very end of the play, when the main characters finally found the possible location of the source of the "Mysterious Seed", a desolate lake, they surprisingly discovered that the carrier of the "Mysterious Seed" was not the high-tech carrier they imagined, nor was it a special product after radiation, but a humanoid biological body.

  The last glimpse of him was at the very end, when he emerged from the blue lake and splashed water for a few seconds.

  The setting is also not feasible.

  This is much better than the "even if deleted, it's okay" type of role that was initially thought to be a dispensable character - until now he finally realized that the previous statement about the play being tailored to the actor and selecting the lines accordingly wasn't because this character's lines had no impact on the script even if they were deleted, but because this character didn't appear much in the first part, so it has great plasticity.

  He had a certain friendship with director Chris in the previous email exchanges, and after reading the script, he immediately sent an email to Chris expressing his surprise and said that he did not expect this role to be such an important existence in the end.

  The foreigner's personality is always more straightforward, so in the returned email, after a burst of "hahaha" laughter, he told Jianran in a rather casual tone that "once you start with the first part, it's like stepping into a big pit, and then there's the second, third, fourth part all the way to the end of life". After chatting about this and that for a while, he finally told Jianran in a more serious tone that they plan to make a series out of this movie. Since there is no original work, they can't have a large fan base like "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, so they are very cautious in choosing the plot and characters, and it's impossible for them to simply add a mysterious character to affect the pace of the movie just for the sake of Asian box office and popularity.

  Only then did he realize that he had almost missed a big opportunity, and now he had picked up another big bargain.

  ……

  The filming location was chosen at Loch Ness in the northern part of the Scottish Highlands.

  He took a look at the script and didn't even have any lines, so he just went ahead and killed it - Clare Visuals is indeed a world-class film group, very generous with their actors' treatment. A round-trip business class ticket was standard issue, and they had scheduled a shooting time of half a month for Jian Ran. In reality, the actual shooting schedule only took up one day, so Jian Ran spent his days wearing swim trunks and jumping into the water to practice scuba diving with an instructor under the guise of "getting familiar with the environment". The rest of his time was spent sunbathing, making friends with international superstars, and searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

  When Jianran was chatting with Fang Yu on his phone one day, reporting that he had officially become good buddies with Tom Johnson, and the other party had already talked to him about what kind of wife he wanted to marry, while he himself was in a situation where he was juggling multiple relationships. The agent, who was stuck in the domestic furnace-like city H, watching the same scenery as a movie set every day, finally went ballistic on that phone call and roared: "Fang Ming that little turtle egg is really lucky!!!!!!"

  Oh, Fang Ming, Fang Yu's younger brother, is usually the one who takes care of things when Fang Yu is busy. Normally a humble and unassuming personal assistant, he is now sitting with his legs crossed, looking pleased with himself as "Yuan Jingran's agent", using his university-level English skills to flirt with foreign girls.

  It wasn't until I arrived on set that I discovered my appearance was actually quite popular among foreigners.

  The day he showed his face, he became the darling of the crew. Director Chris, who had already "known" him for a long time, naturally didn't need to be mentioned, and everyone in the entire crew was extremely kind. When filming the scene where "the carrier of the mysterious seed splashes out of the lake surface" according to the script, the camera gave him a close-up shot.

  At this time, the lake water was emerald green and blue, and the sunlight on the young black-haired person's head surrounded a faint halo. Because of the splashing water, a rainbow actually appeared in the air.

  Under the lens, the young man with black hair has a cold expression. His black hair is tightly attached to his cheek due to the wet water. When he slightly opens his lips to breathe, the picture that seems ordinary at first glance suddenly bursts out with a breathtaking beauty that makes one's heart skip a beat!

  Chris yelled "Cut!" and was helped out of the chilly lake water by staff who rowed over to greet him, shivering slightly as he wrapped himself in a large towel. As he poked his head out to look at the footage they'd just shot, Chris repeated in his ear at least eight times, "Choosing you was absolutely the right choice - only someone like you could pull off that scene."

  Although I knew that foreigners tend to exaggerate a bit and be blunt, because the other person repeated it so many times and was so sincere, in the end, I felt a little embarrassed: I almost couldn't help but take out a mirror to admire myself, wondering if I had really become more handsome recently...

  After the shoot, Jian Ran successfully gained a large following by simply brushing his face against the camera lens. Those international superstar girls rushed over to take photos with him and post them on Twitter and Instagram. In the photos, Jian Ran was smiling very charmingly. As a result, that night he received a rare message from Jiang Chuan, who asked: "Don't you need to come out of the closet anymore?"

  Basking in praise all day, already ecstatic, now even his tail is about to reach the sky. He grabbed his phone and shamelessly replied: "Jealous?"

  Jiang Chuan then gave him a string of six dots "......", and with these six dots, he carefully maintained the joy of the day until the entire shooting was completed and he boarded the plane back to his country.

  September 28th, returned home safely.

  The first text message he received after getting off the plane was from Ms. Yuan Mei, asking if he had arrived safely. The second text message was from Director Li Rui, who informed him to go to Chuan Na Company on October 1st in the afternoon, where they would be waiting for the premiere day data of "Star Fire".