Chapter 23 Turns out to be a spare tire
…
After a while, Xu Li came back.
Xu Kai introduced Xu Li as his younger brother.
Dong Ni and Pan Xiaowei didn't care why Xu Kai's surname was Yu and Xu Li's surname was Xu, because this was very common in the entertainment industry.
Moreover, Xu Kai only said that Xu Li was his younger brother, but he did not say that Xu Li was his biological brother. Wouldn't cousin be okay?
The key point was that Dong Ni and Pan Xiaowei's attention was not on the fact that Xu Kai and Xu Li were brothers - Dong Ni and Pan Xiaowei could not believe that Xu Kai, who looked only in his twenties, was actually older than Xu Li, who looked at least thirty-five.
It was not until Xu Kai said that he was 31 and Xu Li was only 29 that Dong Ni and Pan Xiaowei began to doubt.
"Are you also in this group?" Xu Kai asked Dong Ni and Pan Xiaowei.
"I play Yu Lianying's mistress."
Dong Ni asked Xu Kai: "What about you?"
"I'm your man." Xu Kai said with a smile.
"Hate it! Don't take advantage of me." Dong Ni glared at Xu Kai.
"My elder brother is not taking advantage of you. He plays Yu Lianying and I play Police Officer Liang." Xu Li said.
"Uh...you really are my man." Dong Ni said in surprise.
Pan Xiaowei found the conversation between Xu Kai and the other two irritating, so he interrupted and said, "I will play Pan Tingwei, the second male lead. I will have scenes with both of you brothers, so you must take care of me when the time comes."
"Let's take care of each other."
Not wanting to offend anyone, Xu Kai said something Pan Xiaowei liked to hear: "Are you Dong Shishi's boyfriend?"
Before Pan Xiaowei could be happy, Dong Ni said with some disdain: "I've already said it, he's just my classmate, not my boyfriend."
"It's only a matter of time."
Then Pan Xiaowei said to Xu Kai and Xu Li with a playful smile: "I am still in the probation period. When Shishi was in the second year of high school, she said that she would observe me for three years. If I performed well in these three years, she would make me a regular employee. Now I have survived two years. There is one year left. No, there are 298 days left. She will be my girlfriend."
"It turned out to be a spare tire."
Xu Kai instantly understood the relationship between the two.
…
Xu Kai and Xu Li arrived on time, but they still arrived early.
Not only did the male lead Ji Zhaode, the female lead Zhang Zhiwei, the producer Wang Bin and the director Lin Da not show up, but even the second female lead Hu Man and the third female lead Ren Lili did not show up.
This was somewhat beyond Xu Kai's expectations.
It would be fine for others, but Linda is a drama fanatic. How could he be late? This is totally unlike Linda's style.
After waiting for more than half an hour, Ji Zhaode finally arrived.
Unlike Xu Kai and the others who knew nothing, Ji Zhaode looked around as soon as he arrived, then asked with a smile: "Are they still arguing?"
Seeing that Ji Zhaode seemed to know something, Pan Xiaowei immediately came forward to ask: "Brother Zhaode, what happened? Can we still take the promotional photos today?"
Pan Xiaowei's great-grandfather opened a theater in Shanghai during the Republic of China period. Longxing Theater, one of the top 10 theaters in Shanghai at that time, was his family's ancestral property.
Later, as movies became popular, Longxing Theater became Longxing Cinema, and was passed down to Pan Xiaowei's father, Pan Xulong.
Ten years ago, Pan Xulong sold all his property and mortgaged the Longxing Cinema to buy three other cinemas. He then joined forces with a number of cinemas to establish the Longxing Times Film Company and started the cinema business.
With the development over the past decade, Longxing Times Film Company has become a small to medium-sized cinema chain with nearly a hundred screens.
Moreover, in recent years, Pan Xulong has been seeking diversified development and has extended the tentacles of Longxing Times Film Company to the fields of production and distribution.
Although the stake is not large, Longxing Times Film Company is also one of the producers of "Escape".
This is also the reason why Pan Xiaowei, a freshman at the Central Academy of Drama, can become the second male lead in "Escape".
Although Longxingshidai Film Company cannot be compared with those large film and television companies, it is one of the cinema chains that controls 30% of the screens in Shanghai.
Lian Cinema Chain, together with several other powerful cinema chains, formed the Jiuzhou Film Distribution Alliance, becoming one of the domestic distribution giants.
With such a background, even Ji Zhaode, the popular kung fu star, was unwilling to offend Pan Xiaowei, so as not to bring himself unnecessary trouble.
So, seeing that there were no reporters around, Ji Zhaode said bluntly to Pan Xiaowei: "There are four main female characters in this play, you know?"
"Female lead Zhang Zhiwei plays your girlfriend, female lead Hu Man plays my girlfriend, female lead Ren Lili plays your ex-wife, and female lead Shishi plays Yu Ge's lover. Everyone knows this, but what does this have to do with this matter?"
"It's a big deal."
"Well... to be precise, the problem lies with Zhang Zhiwei and Ren Lili."
"I don't know what Ren Lili did to offend Zhang Zhiwei."
"But I know that when Zhang Zhiwei was discussing the script with Linda this morning, she hinted to Linda that Ren Lili's role was too large and would slow down the overall pace of the film."
"Zhang Zhiwei also used the classic Hollywood movie "The Legend of Zu" as an example, meaning to give Ren Lili a set of shots of being killed by Yu Qingyun, and then I only need to recall it once, there is no need to create another character."
Pan Xiaowei was stunned and said, "Then Ren Lili's scenes are almost all cut, right?"
"Who said it wasn't?"
"But Lin Dazhen was persuaded by Zhang Zhiwei, and Ren Lili's scene was temporarily deleted, leaving only one scene."
Pan Xiaowei's eyes widened. "Ren Lili's lover...friend is Fu Jieyang, the general manager of Flying Eagle, and Flying Eagle is also one of the producers and co-distributors of "Escape". Isn't Lin Da afraid that Flying Eagle will withdraw its investment and put obstacles in the distribution of "Escape"?"
Seeing that Pan Xiaowei understood the complicated relationship, Ji Zhaode became even more unscrupulous: "You are right. After Ren Lili heard the news, she immediately quit. She found Wang Bin and asked the crew to give her an explanation. Otherwise, she would ask her lover to withdraw the investment and sue the crew."
"After hearing this, Wang Bin got angry and took Ren Lili to find Lin Da, hoping that Lin Da would give up this ridiculous decision."
Ji Zhaode said with some gloating, "I heard on the way here that Wang Bin, Lin Da, Zhang Zhiwei, and Ren Lili had a fierce quarrel. Even the usually good-tempered Wang Bin cursed. It is said that the whole process was more exciting than a movie. I really envy Hu Man for being able to watch this drama live."
Xu Kai, who had been in the entertainment industry for more than 20 years in his previous life, was no longer surprised by such things.
Xu Kai could guess with his toes that it must be Ren Lili who took advantage of her background to occupy or snatched away Zhang Zhiwei's role. Zhang Zhiwei was even more ruthless. She wanted to use Lin Da's obsessive personality towards the work to directly kick Ren Lili out. This time, Lin Da undoubtedly touched Wang Bin's bottom line, which made Wang Bin no longer tolerate Lin Da.
There is no clear logic to this kind of thing. All we can talk about is the means, background, and ability. In the end, the winner will be the king and the loser will be the bandit. There is no right or wrong.
Xu Li, on the other hand, found it hard to believe: "We're about to take promotional photos, how could something this big happen?"
"You are Xiao Yu, right? I heard that you are quite fierce. You dare to jump where I dare not jump."
As he spoke, Ji Zhaode walked towards Xu Kai.
"Sure enough, the crew is always like this. Zhang Zhiwei attacked Ren Lili, and Ji Zhaode is also going to cause trouble for me."
It was clear in his mind that he had done what Ji Zhaode dared not do, which caused Ji Zhaode to lose his reputation and face. Ji Zhaode would definitely not give up easily.
So Xu Kai didn't bother to pretend: "It's me."
Giving Xu Li a look that said don't worry, Xu Kai said, "I don't have Wei Shao's family background, nor do I have a reputation and connections like you, Brother Ji, who have been working in the entertainment industry for more than ten years. If I want to stand out, I have to work hard."
Xu Kai's attitude of not fearing death in order to climb up really frightened Ji Zhaode a little.
Unlike Xu Kai who is penniless, Ji Zhaode has a fortune of over 100 million. What's more, Ji Zhaode is only in his early 40s and has a bright future. How could he be as single as Xu Kai?
Moreover, Ji Zhaode, who also climbed up step by step from the bottom, knew very well that people like Xu Kai who dared to gamble even with his life must not be pushed into a corner, otherwise he would really dare to risk his life with you.
His eyes moved, and Ji Zhaode took back his words: "It's a good thing for young people to work hard, but they can't be too impulsive. After all, you only have one life, and if you lose it, you will lose everything."
"I would rather die on the road to success than live an ordinary life." Xu Kai continued to act reckless.
Seeing that Xu Kaizhen was the kind of person who would give up anything for fame and fortune, Ji Zhaode didn't dare to confront Xu Kai anymore.
Everyone waited for a while in boredom.
Ji Zhaode suddenly suggested: "How about we play some cards, how about Landlord?"
When Dong Ni heard about the game of Landlord, she immediately agreed, "Fighting Landlord is great, count me in."
"Little girl, we're betting on a base of 10,000, are you sure you want to play?" Ji Zhaode said with a smile.
Hearing that the fight was so fierce, Dong Ni stuck out her tongue in fear: "Then I won't play anymore."
Seeing Ji Zhaode threatening Dong Ni, Pan Xiaowei was unhappy: "The base is 10,000, and it will definitely stop at 1 million. Shishi, if you play with them, the loss is mine, and the win is yours."
Although Dong Ni is a little bit of a money-grubber and would usually ask Pan Xiaowei for water, food, gifts, etc., she would never do anything that would cost Pan Xiaowei a lot of money. She doesn't want Pan Xiaowei to go from being her pursuer to her patron.
"If you want to play, play by yourself. I won't play."
Seeing that Dong Ni didn't even take advantage of such a big advantage, Pan Xiaowei liked Dong Ni even more.
How could Pan Xiaowei back down in front of the person he liked? So Pan Xiaowei puffed out his chest and said, "I'll play if I want to."
Seeing Pan Xiaowei joining the battle, Ji Zhaode turned his head to Xu Kai and said, "Xiao Yu, can you come and help too?"
…
(End of this chapter)
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