The autumn sunlight poured out through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. The newly watered junzilan shook its emerald green leaves, and sparkling, glittering water droplets slowly slid down along the leaf blades, blooming into a splash.
Meng Fu, wearing a gray casual outfit, sat behind the desk. She held a silver fountain pen in her hand, carefully checking the report in front of her.
She was born in a poor and backward small mountain village. Her parents passed away when she was very young. She depended on her grandmother for survival and dropped out of school early to work. When Meng Fu was seventeen, she entered the city to buy medicine for her grandmother and was spotted at a glance by the then-famous director Zhou Liyang, who invited her to play the female lead in his new movie Snow Covered the Land [《雪满大地》].
With her outstanding performance in the film, she won that year’s Jinhe Award for Best Actress, and overnight became popular throughout the great rivers and south and north.
Afterward, she was continuously offered movie roles and successively starred in more than a dozen works, leaving behind many deeply memorable screen images.
But no one would have thought that at the age of twenty-three, when her career was like the sun at noon, Meng Fu would retreat from the rapids.
The outside world all spread that she married into a wealthy family, and her husband forbade her from acting anymore, but in fact, she merely switched from in front of the stage to behind the scenes, starting to pull projects and engage in investment.
Now, she was already a well-known producer in the industry.
Recently, she was planning a performance-competition-type variety show. The big framework for the variety show had already been set; only the hosts and judging guests remained to be finalized.
The assistant knocked on the door and came in from outside. She placed a stack of documents in front of Meng Fu and said to her, “Meng-jie, three out of the four judging directors have already been decided. Here are the remaining candidates for the last spot. Please take a look.”
Meng Fu responded with an “en,” lowered her head, and carefully flipped through the candidate profiles.
But the result was that none were very satisfactory: either their persona overlapped with the previous three, or they were just packaged straw bags [草包, meaning incompetent people disguised as capable].
The remaining one had a pile of “black material” on him.
She raised her head and asked the assistant: “Is there really no one else?”
“No more.” The assistant shook her head, “How about you lower the requirements a bit, Meng-jie?”
Meng Fu said nothing, dragging the fountain pen across the paper for a while, then raised her head and asked: “What about Li Yue? How is he?”
Li Yue was a rising director who had returned from overseas a few years ago, specializing in commercial films. None of the movies he produced so far had flopped. The general public’s recognition of him was quite high.
When the assistant heard this name, she hesitated and said: “Li Yue does have both strength and fame, but his temper…”
Li Yue’s bad temper was famously notorious in the circle.
But being a director, having some temper could be a good thing too.
Meng Fu smiled slightly and said: “I actually think if he went on the show, there might be a lot of explosive points.”
What Meng Fu said made sense. If that director really spoke openly and commented without reserve, their program might end up trending on the hot search every day.
The assistant nodded and said, “That’s true.”
She paused for a moment and added: “But before, quite a few people in the industry invited Li Yue to go on variety shows, and he refused them all.”
Li Yue was young and promising, handsome, completely different from the image people had of greasy, pot-bellied male directors.
His own popularity was even slightly higher than some third-tier little stars.
Many program groups thought that if he appeared, he wouldn’t need to do anything; just sitting there like a flower vase would already bring in a wave of traffic.
And many actors and producers who worked with Li Yue would sometimes rather he just be a decorative flower vase — to avoid the headache once he opened his mouth to scold them.
But even though Li Yue was extremely fierce on set — so much so that many actors would shudder just hearing his name — his movies were always hits, one after another.
Moreover, there were always rumors that he had very powerful financial backers behind him.
Thus, there were always countless actors wanting to enter his crew.
The assistant frowned slightly and said: “Director Li Yue probably won’t agree to come on our show, right?”
Meng Fu closed the planning booklet in her hand, stood up, and smiled at the assistant: “How would we know if we don’t ask? Isn’t there a director’s gathering tonight? I heard he’ll be there. I’ll go and meet him.”
At this time, Li Yue was sitting in the car with his eyes closed, resting.
Last night, he filmed until three in the morning. After sleeping less than two hours, he got up again to shoot a dawn scene. It wasn’t until noon that he finished work.
Assistant Gao Xi walked in from outside quietly holding a bottle of water.
Seeing Li Yue resting, he originally did not want to disturb him, but Li Yue opened his eyes himself, took the mineral water from Gao Xi’s hand, drank down more than half the bottle in one gulp, and asked: “Is the male lead’s makeup done? Once it’s ready, let’s shoot the next scene.”
“Not yet, it’ll take another half an hour. You can rest a bit more,” Gao Xi turned to get out of the car, but then suddenly remembered another thing and reminded Li Yue: “By the way, tonight there’s a drinking party at Van Erlan Palace. Director Li, don’t forget.”
Li Yue tossed aside the half-empty water bottle in his hand, his face stinky, and said: “I’m not going.”
Gao Xi turned his head and said: “Just go to one, Director Li, you promised Director Wang a long time ago.”
“Was it me who promised?”
Li Yue lifted his eyelids and gave Gao Xi a glance, “You want to trick me into drinking with the producer again?”
Gao Xi said obsequiously: “It is indeed drinking with the producer, but how can you say it’s tricking!”
Li Yue coldly snorted and said: “Then what about last time?”
Gao Xi’s expression became even more sincere. He said: “Last time was just an accident, didn’t it also end up not happening?”
Li Yue got even angrier, sat up straight, and said: “Her behavior already seriously offended me. She almost touched me. One after another, all these people who look decent on the outside, inside they’re filthy and rotten. Really opened my eyes!”
That time, the female producer was a bit older than Li Yue.
Although her looks could not be counted as a great beauty, she was still considered delicate and pretty.
She first drew a big pie for Li Yue.
Li Yue didn’t hear it out, still thinking she was genuinely going to invest so much, and was about to call someone over to sign the contract. As a result, the female producer directly sat over next to him and wanted to get handsy with Li Yue.
Li Yue was greatly shocked.
He had heard about directors unspoken-ruling actors, but he hadn’t expected there to be producers who wanted to unspoken-rule directors. Was this damned entertainment circle still salvageable?!
Thinking of this vexing matter, Li Yue couldn’t help but curse lowly, saying: “One day sooner or later I’m going to switch professions and go work for the Discipline Inspection Commission! Kick all of them into the detention center one by one!”
Gao Xi: “……”
Although that being said, the Discipline Inspection Commission couldn’t control the entertainment industry!
That female producer too, what was she thinking, had to go provoke their Director Li.
Their Director Li was famously “not close to women,” of course, also “not close to men,” having even left behind the great words of truth: “A person living fine alone, why get confused and fall into dating.”
The more Li Yue thought about it, the angrier he became, sitting there cursing and grumbling. Gao Xi was already used to it, silently sighing in his heart — luckily Director Li didn’t go be a star back then.
Otherwise, just with this temper of his, he would be on hot search every single day.
Even without being a celebrity, Director Li was a frequent guest on hot search.
Not long ago, a reporter asked him his opinion about a currently popular xiaosheng [小生, young male star].
Coincidentally, Li Yue had directed a drama that xiaosheng starred in before.
That xiaosheng was someone the investors forcefully stuffed into the crew, in the crew behaving like some big young master, with acting skills basically at a negative value — the biggest facial expression he could make was rolling his eyeballs.
Li Yue scolded him for half a month, not only did he not wake up, he even started deliberately going against Li Yue.
In a fit of anger, Li Yue kicked him out of the crew. As a result, that xiaosheng posted on Weibo, insinuating and being sarcastic about Li Yue.
When Gao Xi heard the reporter ask that question, his heart “thudded” — he felt that in the next moment, Director Li might not be able to hold back and would start spraying [slang for harshly criticizing] right in front of the camera.
Contrary to his expectations, Li Yue nodded and said: “Pretty good.”
Gao Xi let out a long breath, he even almost couldn’t believe that such a good word could come out of Director Li’s mouth — could it be that behind his back, he secretly ate some “Wisdom Star”, that’s why his emotional intelligence improved so much all of a sudden?
But then he realized he had gotten happy too early.
Li Yue continued, saying: “After all, it’s an AI robot. Making the outer appearance so human-like is already not easy. We should be more tolerant, don’t be too harsh on him.”
Gao Xi’s mouth twitched, forcing out a stiff “hehe” laugh — indeed, the “Wisdom Star” or whatever was all his own imagination.
Once this interview clip was released, Li Yue’s black fans, pink fans and that xiaosheng’s fans instantly tore each other apart — tearing so fiercely that it was like the sky went dark and the sun and moon lost their light.
Having recalled the past, it was time to stand on the present and look toward the future.
Gao Xi pleaded: “Go, go, go, Director Li, you already promised.”
After entering this circle, Li Yue rarely participated in this kind of drinking gathering. He had his own fixed network of connections. Director Wang had invited him for a very long time before he agreed to go.
He picked up his clothes, covered his face with them, and said: “So annoying, I want to sleep.”
Hearing him say this, Gao Xi knew that he had agreed to attend tonight’s gathering. He jumped off the car and gently closed the car door.
Until evening, Li Yue was still pulling a long face, looking very much like Squidward disturbed by SpongeBob. Gao Xi said beside him: “Be happy, Director Li, there should be quite a few producers and directors at the banquet later.”
Li Yue, hearing this, couldn’t get happy at all. He coldly laughed and said: “If I encounter another one trying to unspoken-rule me, I don’t care whether it’s a man or a woman, I’ll break their hand.”
Gao Xi, like a little eunuch beside an emperor, nodded continuously and said: “Of course, of course.”
Li Yue spoke with righteous indignation: “Such unhealthy tendencies must be severely cracked down upon!”
Gao Xi echoed: “Yes, yes, yes, crack down, crack down.”
The more Li Yue spoke, the more excited he became: “And those who engage in crooked ways and try to pengci [‘bump-and-scam’ scheme, faking accidents to extort money], they should also be cracked down on together!”
Gao Xi felt that their Director Li hadn’t even drunk yet but was already drunk, but still, at this moment, he dutifully transformed into a comedic sidekick, saying: “Director Li, what you said is really too right!”
As a result — who knows which one of the two of them was the crow’s mouth — while going up the steps, a lady wearing a long skirt was accidentally stepped on by someone behind her, and fell straight toward Li Yue’s side.
Just after talking about pengci, a pengci came.
Li Yue naturally would not let a lady in front of him fall so embarrassingly. Moreover, the steps had very sharp edges; if she really fell, not only would it be humiliating, but she would also get injured. He instinctively reached out to catch her. Only his face was so dark that it was about to blend into the night in the distance. And in a corner nearby, there were paparazzi secretly taking photos.
Gao Xi, seeing this scene, just wished he could lift up two claws to cover his eyes — it’s over, it’s over, a bad start to the mission. Tonight, someone’s hand might really get broken. Their Director Li might become the first director in the entertainment circle to enter the station because of intentional injury.
When Meng Fu realized that her skirt was stepped on, she immediately turned her body and fell toward the side where there was someone. That person was not bad — he caught her, and his embrace was very warm.
Meng Fu composed herself, stood up from his arms, and raised her head, saying: “Thank you.”
When she lifted her head, everyone present, including Meng Fu herself, was stunned. She had come to this drinking gathering today precisely to look for Li Yue. She hadn’t thought that with just a random bump, she would bump into him.
Gao Xi also hadn’t thought that this person would be the once top-tier domestic actress Meng Fu.
Hadn’t she already retired from the circle?
How could she appear here?
But these were not important.
What was important was that their Director Li always didn’t give anyone face — would he think that the other party was deliberately pengci-ing, and say something that shouldn’t be said?
Seeing that Li Yue hadn’t opened his mouth for a long time, Gao Xi knew things were bad. He hurried forward to help smooth things over, saying to Meng Fu: “Ms. Meng, you weren’t scared, right? Our Director Li hasn’t slept these past two days, his mood’s a bit bad, he looks at everyone and —”
“Don’t listen to his nonsense.”
Before Gao Xi could finish, he was interrupted by Li Yue.
Gao Xi: “?”
Where did I talk nonsense?
He turned his head, and then just stared wide-eyed as he watched — the Director Li who was just now wearing an extremely unwilling expression — his expression had already softened, and he gently asked Meng Fu: “Um, you didn’t get hurt, right? Can you walk on your own?”
Amazing.
What kind of master-level face-changing was this?