Chapter 54
Chapter 54
The biggest feature of family dramas is the large number of characters, their intricate relationships, and the stories filled with everyday family matters. Actors of all ages are needed to fill these roles, and each character has their own unique experiences of hardship and emotion.
If the performance is outstanding enough, even a small role can generate huge discussion.
Fu Xiachuan is rich and powerful, but his money and power have not reached into the entertainment industry.
Therefore, Fu Xiachuan was able to get Jiang Mingyue into the audition through investment, but he couldn't help Jiang Mingyue get more information about the production team before the audition.
On the contrary, Miao Ziyu, whose acting skills are far less refined and talented than Jiang Mingyue's, obtained the entire script early on thanks to her connections in the industry and knew exactly who the main characters were.
Miao Ziyu returned to the interview site, and Director Li smiled as soon as he saw her.
She beckoned the person over, pointed to another character in the script, and said, "The role of the female lead's classmate. Go back and think about it carefully. Put some effort into it. Filming starts in two months. Make sure you understand the script thoroughly."
Miao Ziyu blushed and whispered, "Director Li, I understand. I'll wait for you to send the contract."
*
With the support of the Fu family's wealth, Jiang Mingyue, whose acting skills were not a problem, successfully won the role of "Qiao Xin".
After signing her name on the contract, Jiang Mingyue thought for a moment, pressed her hand down on the project name, found a good angle to take a picture, and posted the news on Weibo.
[Successfully landed my dream role; a lucky day.]
She just opened her Weibo account yesterday. Starry Sky Films, which has been monitoring Jiang Mingyue's actions, verified her identity immediately. Now, her name is displayed as an artist under Starry Sky Films.
Although this account quickly attracted some attention, none of them were fans of Jiang Mingyue.
One group consists of Lan Xu's fans who followed Jiang Mingyue because of Lan Xu's change of agency, hoping to find out about Lan Xu from her. Of course, some were also nervous about the relationship between Jiang Mingyue and Lan Xu. The second group consists of passersby who simply wanted to watch the drama unfold. The last group consists of movie and TV viewers who followed Jiang Mingyue after reading entertainment news and finding her quite pretty.
As soon as Jiang Mingyue posted the message, Lan Xudi's fans were the first to ask questions.
[Congratulations to Jiang Meimei on signing a new film contract! Is our Lan Xu in it?]
This was followed by curious questions from passersby: "What new movie is it? How much is the salary?"
Jiang Mingyue's hand paused on the question, she hesitated for about ten seconds. Instead of making a decision on her own, she turned to Gu Yifan and asked directly, "Brother Gu, when would be a better time to clarify my relationship with Lan Xu?"
Gu Yifan glanced at Jiang Mingyue's phone screen. "Are Lan Xu's fans harassing you?"
Jiang Mingyue answered honestly, "It wouldn't be considered harassment; it's just normal interest in one's idol."
"Ignore their questions for now, answer the passersby and tell them that you were taken by Director Liu of 'Seven Stars Alignment' to play the role of the female lead in the younger version of 'The Silver Bottle'," Gu Yifan ordered directly.
“Okay.” Jiang Mingyue obediently skipped the questions from Lan Xu’s fans and answered Gu Yifan’s questions from passersby who were asking her about her career.
After replying, Jiang Mingyue refreshed Weibo again, and instantly, thousands of messages popped up in the message bar.
Um?
When did she become so popular?
Even if they ignored Lan Xu's fans, they shouldn't have been attacked like this in an instant.
...There must be something else that involves me. What could it be?
Curious, she opened the message notifications and first adjusted the notification mode to "only accept @/replies from people I follow." The message bar immediately became empty, leaving only a few messages. Then she looked at the messages again and let out a soft "Ah."
It turns out that the release date of "Seven Stars Align" has been announced, and the TV series has finally released its character photos and promotional video.
The male and female leads each have two solo promotional photos, plus a group photo. The second male and female leads each have one promotional photo, plus individual photos with the male lead and a group photo of the three of them. When it comes to Jiang Mingyue, the third female lead, the style suddenly changes from the others.
It was a dynamic snapshot, showing Jiang Mingyue dancing gracefully in a gorgeous gown, her clothes fluttering in the wind. Several large, fluffy tails spread out behind her, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had revealed her demonic identity; but she was actually shrouded in a huge fox demon shadow, the shadow obscuring half of Jiang Mingyue's face, as if she might leap out of the screen at any moment and tear the audience apart.
If this solo photo can be described as remarkably expressive, then the photo of her with the female lead is even stranger.
Standing in front, Yin Manman exuded righteousness and fearlessly spread her arms to protect Jiang Mingyue behind her. Jiang Mingyue leaned on Yin Manman's shoulder, pressed close to her ear, completely relying on Yin Manman. She looked weak and helpless, her large, watery eyes filled with tears, as if she were terrified and might cry at any moment, but her gaze clearly defied those outside the frame.
Jiang Mingyue: ?
Isn't this promotional photo a bit too much of a lesbian advertisement?
The third promotional photo was even stranger; it was a screenshot of Jiang Mingyue dancing and seducing the male lead. In the side-view shot, Jiang Mingyue's dance costume had slipped down, revealing a section of her shoulder. She sat sideways on the male lead's lap, one hand on Sang Zhuo's shoulder for stability, the other hand slipping under her clothes to caress the man's abs. Sang Zhuo's expression was serious, his muscles taut, and even the veins on his forehead were bulging.
The scene clearly shows the male protagonist being seduced and tested by a fox demon, but Sang Zhuo's eyes...
Jiang Mingyue shook her head inwardly.
The male protagonist's eyes should certainly show some wavering, because "food and sex are human nature." As long as human instincts exist, it is absolutely impossible to resist the temptation of sex. However, although Sang Zhuo kept a straight face, there was too much wavering and too little determination in his eyes!
If his expression betrays his true feelings, unless the plot suggests he's been bewitched by a fox spirit, he'll definitely be criticized by the audience.
Releasing these stills now will definitely arouse the audience's suspicion, thereby attracting them to watch the show and see what's going on in the plot.
If the male protagonist is indeed bewitched by the fox demon, the audience will feel a sense of self-affirmation, thinking, "I'm so smart, I even guessed this detail." However, if the audience discovers that this plot point doesn't actually exist, and that Sang Tuo's acting is simply too poor to portray the male protagonist's struggle between reason and desire, the audience will definitely react with even greater outrage and criticize Sang Tuo's acting.
Thus, Jiang Mingyue, with her outstanding acting skills, will ruthlessly capture the attention of TV drama viewers and become the ultimate winner.
From the moment Director Liu accepted Fu Xiachuan's offer, Jiang Mingyue knew that Director Liu planned to get rid of Sang Zhuo and Yin Manman to pave the way for himself, but she really didn't expect that Director Liu would start planting seeds of trouble for the male and female leads from the very beginning of the promotional photos.
Jiang Mingyue clicked on the comment section below the post, and sure enough, the comment section was in complete chaos.
[Can someone explain the romantic storylines in this drama? The stills make the pairings look so messy!]
[The orange trend is really good. I've been looking forward to it for ages.]
[The male and female leads are in a pure love story, the male lead has a suitor and a good friend, but they're also fighting over a vixen? How exciting! This is really testing me!]
[Don't you guys think there's something off about Sang Zhuo's photo with the third female lead? He looks so smitten, like he's drooling over her. Is he really devoted to the female lead?]
[I also feel something's off; that still image looks really strange.]
Jiang Mingyue scrolled down the screen and saw that many people were starting to express their dissatisfaction with Sang Zhuo's expression. Some fans of the original work even jumped out and shouted that Sang Zhuo had ruined the male lead, and that the male lead was not the kind of person who would be tempted by a beautiful woman.
Jiang Mingyue's account had already been following the production team. After forwarding all the messages that needed to be promoted, she decisively closed her Weibo account.
That's how the entertainment industry is—it's all about backstabbing and tearing each other apart. When there's a conflict of interest, anyone would make the same choice: stepping on their colleagues to get ahead. Jiang Mingyue certainly wouldn't feel sorry for Sang Zhuo and Yin Manman because of this.
"Not watching anymore?"
"Uh!" Gu Yifan suddenly spoke up, startling Jiang Mingyue. She turned her head sharply, her eyes wide, and took a breath before answering, "There's nothing to see. The promotion for 'Seven Stars Align' has begun."
Gu Yifan praised him, saying, "Maintain your current indifference towards the internet. Never get into online flame wars, because you only have one mouth and two hands, and you can't deal with so many people. When you encounter problems, it's best to handle them calmly. Of course, even better is what I told you from the beginning: minimize your public statements and maintain the mystery between you and your audience."
Jiang Mingyue simply tossed her new phone to Gu Yifan, demonstrating with her actions that she had no interest in browsing Weibo.
She proactively changed the subject: "Brother Gu, when will the filming of 'The Silver Bottle' begin? If it's delayed any longer, it might clash with the newly signed project 'Children Are Raised'."
Gu Yifan opened his PDA to check the time. "Director Liu plans to continue using the original crew of 'Seven Stars Alignment.' All the staff will remain the same. The missing extras will be selected directly from several companies that specialize in providing extras. He said he can finish 'Seven Stars Alignment' by next Thursday. Director Zhang will let you all go to the set to read the script on Thursday."
That means she has nearly ten days off.
That's enough for her to solve some problems.
Jiang Mingyue leaned forward and patted the driver: "Brother, go to the hospital. My mom is being discharged today after completing the first phase of her treatment. I'm picking her up to take her home."
The driver turned around, and Jiang Mingyue took out her old phone from her bag again and called Han Rong: "Mr. Han, I'm about to become famous. Please resolve the question of the blood relationship between your adopted daughter and my mother. Otherwise, I will publicly demand that you expedite the investigation."
She gave Han Rong no room to bargain: "See you at the Provincial Hospital at 10 a.m. tomorrow. If you don't bring Han Jialan with you, I will take pictures on the spot and post them on Weibo, using the bloodline issue to create a scandal and make people laugh at the Han family."
She hung up the phone immediately after speaking and switched to silent mode.
The question of whether Han Jialan is Liang Shuanglan's daughter should also be answered.
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