Chapter 43 Chapter 43 Tripped but misplaced

"We've been filming for so long, and the leading actress hasn't joined the crew yet. She really thinks she's such a big star." The morning shoot ended late, and they hadn't had lunch until now. The lunch boxes had already gone cold, but after all, they were just ordinary workers, unlike famous stars, so they had no reason to complain.

Taking advantage of the free time to eat, An Xi, a young actor from the same group, secretly gossiped with the people next to her: "Shuyi, do you know who the female lead of our play is?"

Cheng Shuyi ate her meal leisurely while listening to the conversations around her. It had been almost two weeks since she joined the film, and the film's leading lady hadn't appeared once. Not only had she not appeared, but it was unclear who would be playing the role. It was a complete mystery. However, she didn't really care about these big names; she just wanted to finish her scenes quickly and smoothly before going to play with Sister Jiang.

"I'm telling you, I heard something." An Xi leaned over and whispered, "It's said that the lead actor this time is Du Yisang, the resourceful actress who's become so popular recently. And she wasn't originally slated to be the female lead, but she used her connections to bring in money and snatched the role away before the contract was signed. Do you know who's behind her?"

Hearing Du Yisang, Cheng Shuyi's eyebrows moved slightly and he looked over.

An Xi kept it a secret. Seeing that she was interested, she knew that it would be fun to share the gossip she had heard with others. So, she said solemnly, "Cheng Shuze, the crown prince of the Cheng Group."

"Cough cough... cough." Cheng Shuyi choked on a mouthful of rice, which got stuck in his throat. "Who said that?"

"The recent rumors circulating in the industry have been confirmed. Du Yisang is about to join Yunyi Film and Television. Whose company is Yunyi? A subsidiary of the Cheng Group! And wasn't Yunyi investing a large sum of money in Du Yisang's popular drama, Return of the Contributor to Liu Yan?" An Xi curled her lips in disdain. "If she hadn't hooked up with the eldest son of the Cheng family, with her acting skills, would she have gotten the role by auditioning on the crew herself?"

Cheng Shuyi seemed to be hesitant to speak, his face a little distorted.

How come her brother's support for Du Yisang is now confirmed? Even these rumors are not as solid as the photos she took that night. A while ago, no one could figure out who the boss behind Du Yisang was, but now, just a few days later, they know it was her brother.

On the night when her brother deleted the photos at Wanting Hotel, her brother swore to her that he had nothing to do with Du Yisang and asked her not to talk nonsense everywhere, especially not to talk nonsense in front of Sister Jiang.

She wouldn't believe a word her brother said.

The next day, she asked someone to repair her phone and restored the photo, holding it tightly in her hand as a handle. Then she began to ask around in the circle for gossip about Du Yisang. For this purpose, she even opened a small account to follow the public accounts of various gossip paparazzi. After investigating for a long time, it seemed that no one had revealed the relationship between Du Yisang and Cheng. However, this does not mean anything. After all, if her brother really kept a female star, it would not be a big deal to suppress the news.

Du Yisang's approach proved impractical, so she turned around and began investigating her brother. Using her identity as the daughter of the Cheng Group chairman, she finally managed to coerce He Yue into revealing his schedule for the previous six months. After searching for a long time, she could only see that he was quite busy, but couldn't find anything else. It would be too much trouble to investigate whether he had any mistresses hidden in his properties, so she decided to simply interrogate He Yue directly.

With tears in her eyes, He Yue swore with her own annual salary that Mr. Cheng definitely did not support a female celebrity. However, Miss Du had been trying to harass Mr. Cheng every day recently. It was obvious that she had bad intentions towards Mr. Cheng. Only then did she reluctantly believe that her brother was now innocent.

However, she has bribed He Yue. If her brother dares to do anything wrong, he must report it to her immediately. She will pile up the evidence together with the previous photos and give it to her parents to see how her parents will deal with her brother.

He Yue hasn't even reported this to her yet, so how come people in the circle are already saying that Du Yisang is her brother's woman?

Cheng Shuyi was frowning, wondering what was going on. He wondered if Sister Jiang had heard the rumor during her recent filming when suddenly there was a commotion on the set.

An Xi turned around and took a look while holding the lunch box. Her expression changed, and her tone was filled with disdain and a hint of envy: "Look, the resource guy is here."

Cheng Shuyi turned around and slowly drove to a spacious RV in front of the crew's door and stopped. After the crew members gathered around and got in, they probably felt that the display was grand enough, so they opened the door from the inside. The female star, who was exquisite and fashionable from head to toe, wore black sunglasses and sat in the car with dignity, nodding to the people below as if she was inspecting the scene.

"Oh my God, doesn't she know that she is going to be filming a costume drama? Look at her hair." An Xi let out a small cry beside Cheng Shuyi.

From a distance, Du Yisang's perfectly wavy hair shone in the sunlight, looking even more exquisite than on the red carpet. It's beautiful, but when she styles it later, the stylist will probably cry.

Although Du Yisang usually takes advantage of her background to look down on others, she is also not shy when it comes to showing off. She is obviously just artificial traffic and not very popular yet, but she has the airs of a top-tier celebrity.

Sitting in the car and looking around, Du Yisang saw a face she had seen before in the distance, and her heart sank suddenly.

That woman, the one sitting on the stool over there eating her lunch box, isn't she the one who had been arguing with Mr. Cheng in the corridor of Wanting Hotel?

What’s going on? How come the other party is also in the circle and is playing a role in this crappy group?

That night, the woman took a photo of herself and Mr. Cheng and then turned and ran away. Mr. Cheng actually shook her off and chased after someone else. She will always remember this woman's face.

Du Yisang instantly remembered He Yue whom she met at the entrance of the film and television base, and the perfunctory answers she received when she tried to make an appointment with Mr. Cheng a few days ago.

Although the other person was wearing a simple and not too exquisite costume, sitting on a low chair and eating the uniform lunch box of the crew, and his every move was unrefined, but when he turned his head, his face was quite bright, the kind of beauty with a hint of arrogance.

It’s really beautiful, no wonder... no wonder it could attract Mr. Cheng.

However, the other person was an 18th-tier actress she didn't even know, and it seemed she only had a minor role in the show. Since she was the leading actress, she didn't think Mr. Cheng paid much attention to her. It wasn't too late for her to be on guard. Du Yisang suddenly felt that she had made the right decision to join this group and should have come earlier.

Du Yisang's inner vigilance and alertness reached the maximum, but she remained calm on the surface. Seeing that the other party was looking at her with his head tilted, he obviously recognized her. He curled the corners of his mouth at the other party under his sunglasses and smiled provocatively.

Her eyes swept across the set and saw the director. Du Yisang asked her assistant to push through the crowd for her and went straight to the director.

"Director Yan, you know, I'm currently interviewing for Yunyi. I just finished talking to Yunyi, and rushed to the set directly from the downstairs of Yunyi Film and Television Company without even a sip of water in between. Am I late?" Du Yisang's voice was soft and coquettish, making people feel as if hundreds of ants were crawling on their bodies. The director's face twitched.

To be honest, he really doesn't like Du Yisang.

What kind of person is this? She signed a contract to join the group, and then she's late, with no sense of time at all, and she doesn't think there's anything wrong with her. He'd seen clips from the play that made Du Yisang famous, and her acting was the worst in the entire show. He'd even heard Director Zhu complain about her behind her back, saying she couldn't even perform a single scene after being taught four times. But she had a powerful figure behind her, he'd heard. It was the CEO of Cheng Corporation, a company none of them could afford to offend. And she'd just told him she was going to Yunyi, a company owned by Cheng Corporation. If he didn't give her face at this point, wouldn't that be like giving face to the CEO behind her?

Considering that she brought money into the crew and has the support of the Cheng family's leaders, it will not be a problem for her to become a top-tier or even a top-tier star. My own small movie may have to rely on this sister to hire people to book out the theater to make some box office revenue. I'll just turn a blind eye to it. Who knows, if I want to cooperate with this sister in the future, I may have to fight for it and let her choose the script.

The director had a smile on his face, but he couldn't help but wonder in his heart.

What kind of vision does Mr. Cheng have? His last business marriage, a perfect match, ended in divorce, and now he's keeping someone who's not even a thousand times better, but at least not as good as the famous actress from the Jiang family. You say it's just for fun, but he seems quite serious about promoting her. Could it be that his previous marriage was too stressful, and he's looking for a female celebrity to relax.

Listening to this sister's coquettish voice, it is not impossible. After all, men are still susceptible to coquettishness and cuteness.

"It's okay. I understand. After all, uniformity is more important." The director silently took a few steps to the side, a little further away from Du Yisang. He felt a little uneasy when he heard her speak again, "You..."

Seeing Du Yisang dressed head to toe like she was going to Fashion Week, the director wanted to curse for the hundred and first time, but he managed to hold it back: "Go get your styling done. If you can, start with the first one right away."

"I know, Director Yan." She said that dealing with the director was quite easy. A staff member led Du Yisang to the dressing room reserved for her. Du Yisang turned around, her expression slightly colder, and beckoned for her assistant, "Go, see that woman over there? Ask her where she came from."

The assistant, who was so difficult to please like Du Yisang, was very observant. Seeing the girl who had withdrawn her gaze and looked uninterested but seemed very pretty, she nodded.

"Find out everything, no matter how big or small, including whether anyone came to see her today, and if there was anything suspicious. I want everything, do you understand?"

The assistant nodded vigorously.

"Can you be a little gentler? Can you do hair styling? If not, get someone else to do it and get out." Sitting in her own exclusive dressing room, Du Yisang was a little absent-minded and had a particularly bad temper towards the stylist who was doing her hair.

The stylist's expression twisted a little when he saw the girl getting a perm to play a costume role. But for the sake of his own job, he said nothing even when he was scolded and kept his hands down.

After a while, the door of the dressing room was pushed open, and the young assistant ran in hurriedly. Du Yisang sat up.

"How about it?"

"Hey, Teacher Du, don't move. I'm straightening your hair." The stylist miscalculated and the heated flat iron almost burned his hand.

"What are you pulling? Can you do it? Stop it and get out." Du Yisang was furious and waved his hand to drive him away.

The stylist bit her lip, endured it for a moment, and tried to remain calm: "Your hair needs to be straightened before you can start styling it for the period costume shoot. Your scene will start soon..."

"You don't understand what I'm saying, right? Didn't you hear me telling you to get out now?"

Having said that, she had done her best in her job. Whoever wanted to serve Du Yisang could do so. The stylist put away the flat iron and left without saying a word.

The young assistant watched the stylist leave with some sympathy, but soon she became nervous too.

Du Yisang's expression was quite ferocious: "Did you find out where that woman came from?"

"Sister Sangsang, I've found out everything. The woman's name is Shuyi. She's said to be a student at the Academy of Acting. She auditioned and got in. She plays a ninth role, the princess who jumps to her death after the city falls." The assistant poured out everything she'd found out in one breath. "She doesn't seem to have any background, and no one's said hello. She's pretty low-key. I asked around, and everyone said she performed well."

After asking around, she found out that the other person was just an ordinary college student from a performing arts academy who came to join a group. She didn't know what bad luck had happened to him, but he was targeted by Miss Du.

"No one usually comes to see her? Men?" Du Yisang asked.

"No, really not." The assistant shook his head.

The film set is such a small place, and the circle is a place where everyone knows about any movement. If there were any rumors that a big boss was supporting a female college student, the rumors would have been flying around the group a long time ago. She asked around and found that there was really no such rumor.

Du Yisang slowly leaned back in his chair.

She is still a college student, so young, but she has some skills. She can hook up with Mr. Cheng while still in school. But it seems that Mr. Cheng doesn't take her seriously.

After thinking about it, Du Yisang felt a little better and suddenly became energetic.

"Bring me the script."