Chapter 218: A Blessing in Disguise A blessing in disguise, but who knows...
Since Zhuang Menghua had made such arrangements, Li Sishi, who hadn't intended to escalate the matter further, nodded in agreement: "I understand, Miss Zhuang."
Emerging from Zhuang Menghua's office, Lu Yiting looked at Li Sishi with concern and spoke again: "Ah May, although Miss Zhuang will arrange for me and others to handle this matter, you don't need to put on a brave face in front of us..."
"If you're unhappy about anything, don't keep it inside. Just let it out. Miss Zhuang and I will take care of everything." When Lu Yiting brought Li Sishi here, she could catch a glimpse of the occasional loneliness on her face. Therefore, compared to Zhuang Menghua, who was more focused on the "big picture," she was more concerned about Li Sishi's mental state at this moment.
"Sister Ting, I'm really fine." Li Sishi shook her head with a slight smile. "Actually, I quite like Miss Kong's movies. As things stand, her acting skills are indeed better than mine."
It's easy for disputes to arise when everything is almost identical, but Kong Wei's image is inconsistent with her usual persona most of the time. The reason why Kong Wei was suddenly replaced in this role is actually a transaction and game between the capital behind the scenes.
In addition, Kong Wei and Shang Lanyu can be considered her "future" in her acting career, and are the same kind of aspirational targets as her feelings for Pei Yansang. The confusion and dissatisfaction of being replaced at the last minute were relieved by her own adjustment and Zhuang Menghua's promise, so why was she "unhappy"?
Moreover, clearly expressing her likes and dislikes would only benefit the media that want to gather information and make a big fuss about it. If she wants to go further in the future, unless it is a matter of political stance, it is not worth getting so worked up and going to great lengths to cause trouble over a mere career conflict.
However, Li Sishi was also very grateful for Lu Yiting's care and concern—although Lu Yiting's thoughts were different from Li Sishi's, it was nothing more than her concern for her, and the self-preservation and counterattack mentality that came to mind as a professional agent after suffering a loss at home.
“Since you’ve thought things through so clearly, then I don’t need to worry about you every now and then during this period.” Lu Yiting sighed, her tone filled with immense relief but also a touch of disappointment. “Originally, I was thinking of letting you vent properly and then reminding you not to ‘hold a grudge,’ but I didn’t expect you to have already adjusted on your own.”
The artists she manages are young but already quite shrewd and perceptive, and most of the time they are obedient, well-behaved, and sensible. These "daughters," who are so easy to manage and require so little effort, actually make her, as their manager, feel a little...
I'm so used to it...
After all, since entering the industry, she has witnessed countless "difficult" artists who give managers endless headaches and leave them with a lot of messes to clean up.
She has also mentored many seemingly obedient but ultimately worthless "showpieces" who could ruin all her efforts if they made a mistake – it was because she was tired of these dirty and troublesome things that she planned to leave the industry after getting married.
It was Zhuang Menghua's earnest invitation for her to return, coupled with Li Sishi's stunning looks, that moved her to consider returning to the entertainment industry.
After she took over Li Sishi's job, things went smoothly for the past two years until recently when two major setbacks caught them off guard.
Fortunately, Li Sishi is really easy to manage and worry-free. She is even psychologically mature for a young girl who is not yet 20 years old. When faced with such an unexpected setback that is a huge blow to a popular young actress, she was able to win back the scene and the role by virtue of her own strength after failing the audition. She was also able to understand the true meaning of the temporary replacement in the role in time, which gave them a great advantage in the commercial negotiations that would be held around this matter in the future.
Especially since the other party is Rongsheng Film Company, which has a shady background, and the decision to replace the actor was made by Rongsheng's boss, Shang Sheng, if Li Sishi feels dissatisfied and wants to continue arguing, it will put them in a very difficult position.
Thinking of this, Lu Yiting felt even more care and pity for Li Sishi: "You need to avoid the limelight during this period, so take a good rest. Be careful of those reporters who are staking out the place day and night. I will make arrangements for other things and try my best to ensure that you can avoid the paparazzi and protect your career during this time."
After all, with major award ceremonies scheduled for next month, Li Sishi couldn't possibly avoid the limelight by not promoting herself in advance. She would definitely have to make up for the lost exposure later.
After Li Sishi nodded again and hugged Lu Yiting goodbye, even her assistant Zuo Lili, who always took care of all her daily affairs, was given a temporary leave.
Then Li Sishi made a phone call to have her family driver pick her up and take her directly back to the heavily guarded Li family mansion on the mountaintop, so she could have a good time with her family.
Incidentally, it also allows me to continue learning at home—now that my workload has lessened, in addition to my daily exercise and practice, it's a good time to learn from Li Jinhao's dad.
However, Li Sishi herself put aside these troubles, but others were particularly concerned about her two consecutive accidents. As soon as she returned home, Old Madam Li immediately hugged her with heartache and kept saying that her precious granddaughter had suffered a great injustice outside.
Li Sishi spent no money
It took a lot of effort to explain the ins and outs of this matter and the hidden capital games behind it to Madam Li. However, Madam Li, who was already heartbroken over her beloved granddaughter's injustice, had already entered super protective mode. If she hadn't still had a shred of rationality, she probably would have mobilized her network of connections again to give her precious granddaughter a strong back.
“Grandma, I believe it. Every cloud has a silver lining. Look, this time I’ve actually turned misfortune into blessing, and now I have time to come back and spend some quality time with you,” Li Sishi comforted her with a smile.
"You're such a smooth talker!" Old Madam Li hugged Li Sishi affectionately again before sighing somewhat reluctantly, "Since you've said so, when has Grandma ever failed to go along with your wishes?"
From the moment Li Sishi insisted on staying in the entertainment industry, Madam Li's bottom line for her had already been lowered to almost the absolute minimum. Now, seeing that although she encountered unexpected events and setbacks, she was not discouraged but instead became more courageous in the face of adversity, Madam Li's heart, which had wanted to support her, was finally at ease.
Well then, children and grandchildren have their own destinies. Let my precious granddaughter do whatever she wants.
If things really get out of control, she and her son are still around, and they can definitely step in to provide support and strength for their beloved granddaughter.
After calming down Madam Li, and then together with her mother Zhou Jiaxian, Li Jinhao was calmed down in the evening. After dinner, Li Sishi relieved all the fatigue that had accumulated over the past period, took a shower, and then happily collapsed onto the soft, large bed in her room, comfortably enjoying her rare vacation.
While drying her hair, she also read newspapers and magazines to catch up on the latest news reports.
Because they couldn't find her in person, and Kong Wei and Zhou Shengyi were being taken care of by the Shang family behind Rong Sheng, there wasn't much concrete information in the latest newspapers and magazines today; it was mostly just speculation and rumors.
Even if these newspapers and magazines intend to stir up trouble, when neither party cooperates and both companies try their best to cover things up in public, no matter how many paparazzi they mobilize to stake out the place, it will not be of much use. At most, it will just be a waste of a lot of manpower and resources to continue to chase rumors.
If you really want to benefit from this information, you have to wait until the two companies have negotiated the terms.
With the contract in place and Rong Sheng breaching it voluntarily, given Zhuang Menghua's personality and methods, even if Rong Sheng is backed by the Shang family with shady connections, he will inevitably suffer some losses.
Li Sishi is not interested in the power struggles between the bigwigs behind the scenes, but she will keep an eye on them.
It's simply to see things more comprehensively and make it easier to take appropriate measures in advance.
She was quite satisfied with the current situation, where things seemed calm on the surface but everyone was secretly speculating about the outcome of the power struggle between the two companies: at least the paparazzi were focused on the companies' rivalry, giving her a brief respite.
That's what I thought. "It's quite leisurely... Apart from the 'sweet annoyance' of the constant calls of concern, it really is quite leisurely most of the time."
From close friends and ordinary friends in the port city to Shang Hanyou and others who are far away—especially those who have gone to other places, I don't know how they got the news so quickly and called back from across thousands of miles.
After hanging up another call from someone trying to inquire about her situation and offer comfort, Li Sishi's ears hadn't even had a chance to rest for two seconds before another call came in immediately.
"May, I just finished recording and then I heard Quan talking about you. Are you... alright?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded tired but very concerned.
His tone was so cautious that Li Sishi could vaguely imagine his worry and fear of touching her wound, and his uneasy, tentative expression.
"I'm really fine. This kind of thing happens all the time. It's not like it's the first time. Don't worry about me too much..." Li Sishi lay on the bed holding her cell phone, speaking with such sincerity that she was almost trying to comfort him...
While dealing with concerned phone calls from relatives and friends, Li Sishi continued studying. Several days later, she finally received another work-related call from Lu Yiting.
"Sister Ting, yes, I'm listening. I'm quite calm right now, please don't worry." Li Sishi listened and nodded repeatedly. "You've almost finished talking with Rong Sheng, right? Oh, okay, as long as it's not a very strange way of handling things, I can basically accept it..."
Upon hearing Lu Yiting mention that the company has many resources available for deal, but currently there are no suitable big-budget productions for her, the initial proposed solutions are twofold: one is to readjust the schedule originally reserved for filming "The New Three Smiles Romance" and arrange other work unrelated to filming for Li Sishi; the other is to accept a portion of the compensation offered by the company in advance, temporarily replacing her with the female lead in another low-budget youth idol film to fill the gap in her schedule before the end of the year, with other arrangements to be made gradually as needed.
"It's a low-budget teen idol movie, a bit cult, but the character design is good. The comic book author even said that the character was specially designed based on me... The more Li Sishi listened to the script, the more familiar it seemed. After hearing that the male lead actor was her senior, Cheng Erjian, she was already seven or eight parts confident."
However, one thing is that the character Lu Yiting described had more screen time than the female lead she remembered.
"Excuse me, Sister Ting."
Thinking of this, Li Sishi interrupted Lu Yiting's description and asked a question to verify her idea, "Can I ask, that low-budget movie... has it been named yet?"
"Oh, it shares the same name as the original comic, it's simply called 'A Man in the Jianghu' -- ah."
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