The sound of a big boy's even breathing and the faint noise from the set came from the phone. Yan Ting took the phone, pushed open the side door leading to the lounge, took off his coat and lay on it.
The bed was cold, but the breathing sound on the phone was warm.
In the silent room, his breathing blended with Li Zhao's, and his noisy brain finally got a moment of peace.
He gradually felt sleepy and his eyes were filled with whiteness, as if a fat lamb was jumping across. He seemed to see Li Zhao riding on the lamb's back with his teeth bared, jumping in front of him and jumping into his mind.
“Li Zhao, Li Zhao!” Song Yu searched half of the set before he found Li Zhao, who was curled up on a chair, sleeping soundly under his coat. He stretched out his leg and wanted to kick the chair, but halfway through, he retracted his leg and poked Li Zhao’s forehead with his hand expressionlessly: “Mr. Li, it’s your turn.”
In a daze, Li Zhao subconsciously covered the microphone of his mobile phone, not wanting the noise to disturb Yan Ting.
"Brother Song?" Li Zhao opened his eyes and shivered in the cold wind as soon as he stood up. He put his ear to the receiver and listened carefully, but only heard very faint breathing sounds. Tingting must have fallen asleep.
He hung up the phone and thanked Song Yu: "Thank you for waking me up, Brother Song."
"If I didn't have a scene with you later, who would bother with you?" Song Yu sneered and looked nonchalantly at Zhao Junnan who was chatting cordially with a few young actors in the distance: "Since he joined the crew, the crew has disrupted our filming schedule, and you have the most night scenes."
Who can stand shooting night scenes for three consecutive days until three or four in the morning?
"Does your team just collect salaries without doing any work? They don't negotiate with the crew about this?" Song Yu glanced at the dark circles under Li Zhao's eyes. "Or does your company want to wrong you for the sake of the show's interests?"
Li Zhao shook his head and said nothing.
When Song Yu saw him like this, he felt angry: "Forget it, I'm too lazy to talk to you, just be stupid!"
"Zhao Zhao, drink some hot tea to refresh yourself." Dake trotted over to bring hot tea to Li Zhao, and following him came the makeup artist from the crew.
"Dake, thank you for your hard work. Go back to the hotel and rest first. Just wake me up tomorrow morning." Li Zhao checked the time and said to Dake, "I don't have anything to do here. I can go back to sleep after filming."
"It's okay, I'll just lie down in the RV for a while." Dake said meaningfully, "The company heard that you've been shooting night scenes in a row these past two days, and they're worried that you can't handle it, so they specially arranged an RV for you. It will be more convenient for you to rest."
When the makeup artists heard this, they knew that Strawberry Entertainment was not satisfied with the crew's arrangements. One of them took advantage of everyone's inattention and turned around to tell the crew about it.
When the crew heard the news, they immediately realized that this was the investor's way of expressing dissatisfaction in a subtle way. It’s just that Director Yang has a relatively high status in the TV drama circle, and Strawberry Entertainment doesn’t want to make things too embarrassing, so they adopted this gentle method.
Although Zhao Junnan is popular now, compared with the main investors, it is nothing. There has never been a shortage of actors in the entertainment industry. This year there may be a Zhao Junnan, and next year there will be a Li Junnan or Zhang Junnan.
In this circle, it is both difficult and easy to become famous.
Once you understand what the investor means, things will become easier. That night, the crew re-planned the shooting schedule overnight and gave half a day off to several actors who were shooting night scenes, including Li Zhao.
"Brother Nan, this is the new shooting schedule set by the crew. You have two night scenes tonight." As soon as the assistant received the schedule sent by the crew coordinator, he found something wrong with the content.
They communicated with the crew a few days ago, saying that Brother Nan had some neurasthenia recently, and they tried not to arrange night scenes for him. The crew was also very understanding and quickly moved Li Zhao's filming time to the evening to try to allow Brother Nan to have more rest. I didn't expect that they would change their mind so quickly.
"What does the crew of "Tian Ge" mean?" Zhao Junnan's face darkened immediately after reading the filming schedule. His scenes were either scheduled early in the morning or during dinner time in the evening, and there were even night scenes. It takes several hours just to do the styling for a costume drama. According to this schedule, he needs to get up early in the morning to put on makeup, and then keep the makeup on until the evening.
Zhao Junnan slapped the schedule on the table, stood up and walked out.
“Brother Nan, Brother Nan!” Upon seeing this, several assistants hurriedly stopped him and said, “Brother Nan, if there is anything, we can slowly discuss it with the crew. Don’t be impulsive.”
The investors of the "Tian Ge" crew are all big companies in the circle, and it will not be good for Brother Nan if the matter gets out of hand.
"They specially invited me to participate in the show, and this is their attitude?" Zhao Junnan panted, pushed away the assistant who was blocking him, and barely calmed down his anger: "Go and find out Li Zhao's filming schedule."
After a while, the assistant came back and said hesitantly, "Brother Nan, the crew said that Li Zhao had been shooting for three nights in a row, so they asked him to go back to the hotel to rest today."
"Damn it, they're playing tricks on me!" Zhao Junnan kicked over the chair at his feet. "They're humiliating me for a new guy, so don't blame me for being rude."
When Yan Ting woke up again, it was already the next morning. It had been a long time since he had slept so peacefully. Looking at the sunlight coming in from the window, he didn't seem so disgusted anymore.
The phone had less than 10 percent battery left, and his call with Li Zhao had already ended. At five o'clock in the morning, Li Zhao sent him a message.
Zhao Zhao is lucky: I have a half-day off tomorrow, and I can finally get eight hours of sleep. I’m so happy!
His happiness almost danced out of these simple twenty words.
Putting down the phone, Yan Ting went to the bathroom to take a shower, changed into clean clothes, and made an internal call to ask them to bring in breakfast.
"Assistant Qin, the boss has been in the company for dozens of hours. Could he have not slept at all?" The new assistant has a sweet appearance and a warm and lovely personality. Not long after arriving in the assistant department, she quickly became familiar with her colleagues.
Assistant Qin carried breakfast on a tray and looked at the new employee with long black hair: "I heard that you had excellent grades in school?"
The assistant was modest and shy: "Maybe I'm lucky, so I can get good grades every time."
"Now that you have entered the assistant department, you must understand one thing: relying on luck is useless." The smile on Qin's face faded. When he was not smiling, he looked particularly serious: "When working in the assistant department, the first thing you must understand is not to discuss the boss's living habits in private."
"Or, you just joined the assistant department and you can't wait to replace me as the special assistant?"
The assistant turned pale and shook his head repeatedly, "Assistant Qin, I didn't mean that."
"If you don't mean that, just go to work." Qin Special Assistant raised his wrist to check the time and said coldly, "What's your name?"
The young assistant looked even more embarrassed. She didn't expect that she had been in the assistant department for nearly half a month and Special Assistant Qin didn't even know her name. She lowered her head, bit her lip and said, "My name is Wei Tian."
Special Assistant Qin glanced at her, said nothing more, and turned to walk towards the office. Wei Tian looked at his back, tears welling up in her eyes, but no one around dared to go up to comfort her.
The big boss rarely appears in front of his employees. Special Assistant Qin is the big boss's right-hand man. Even the senior executives of various departments will not offend Special Assistant Qin. The new colleague is really amazing. He can even make Special Assistant Qin frown.
It took a long time for Wei Tian to adjust her mood and force herself to continue working.
"Tiantian." The colleague sitting next to her whispered to her, "The big boss is worth a lot of money, and there are countless people who want to see him every day, so the big boss's schedule is a company secret, and only the secretariat and Qin Special Assistant know it. Don't make this kind of taboo in the workplace again in the future."
"Thank you." Wei Tian blushed and thanked him: "I just saw that the office lights were on, so I asked one more question. There is no other meaning."
The colleague next to her glanced at her and said nothing else. The office became quiet again, so quiet that it made people feel depressing.
In the next few days, Zhao Junnan worked very hard during the filming. He was an outstanding actor and did not have too many parts. After filming all the scenes, the crew held a wrap-up party for him in a restaurant in the film and television city.
At first, the atmosphere at the dinner table was good, until Zhao Junnan took the initiative to raise his glass to Li Zhao: "Come on, Xiao Zhao, Brother Nan toasts you. When you were in the crew of "Xia Jun", you were still a supporting actor with no lines. After one year, you have played an important role in Director Yang's drama. You are really young and promising. When you become more successful in the future, don't forget to help me."
Zhao Junnan's words sounded well-intentioned, but upon closer inspection, it seemed as if he was saying that Li Zhao's current role was not legitimate. Otherwise, how can a newcomer who made his fortune through online dramas have the ability to promote top-tier celebrities?
Those who could sit at this table to eat were all savvy people in the circle. They could hear that Zhao Junnan's tone was wrong, and even their laughter became lower.
"Brother Nan, you are kidding again." Li Zhao picked up the wine glass, raised his head and drank a large glass in front of the people at the table, and said with a smile: "On the road of filming, I am most familiar with playing supporting roles and being a stand-in. I am lucky to be able to play such an important role in Director Yang's crew."
Zhao Junnan frowned slightly when he heard the word "extras". He looked at the innocent smile on Li Zhao's young face and couldn't guess whether Li Zhao just said it casually or hinted at him intentionally.
"Hahaha." Zhao Junnan laughed, "You kid, you are still so serious and don't know how to joke." He picked up the wine glass and drank it all.
After the wrap party, Zhao Junnan was already tipsy. He put his hand on Li Zhao's shoulder and said, "Xiao Li, please take me to the car. My assistant has already gone down with the things."
"There's no need to trouble Xiao Li. Just let my assistant take you down." Director Yang said with a smile, "I see Xiao Li drank quite a bit tonight. I'm afraid that if the two of you pass out drunk in the elevator together and are seen, it will be a hot topic on all major search platforms tomorrow."
"That's great, and it can also help our crew save some publicity money." Zhao Junnan ignored Director Yang's attempts to stop him and looked at Li Zhao with a half-smile: "Xiao Li, don't you want to send me off?"
"Brother Nan, please be careful where you step." Li Zhao said to Director Yang with a smile, "Director Yang, I'll be back after I send Brother Nan off."
Director Yang hesitated to speak, and finally sighed: "Go early and come back early. Call me if you have anything."
Zhao Junnan dragged Li Zhao into the elevator, let go of his neck, leaned against the elevator expressionlessly, and looked at Li Zhao coldly: "Did you hear what I said in the lounge that day?"
Li Zhao blinked: "Brother Nan, what do you want to say?"
"Young man, it's not easy to become famous. Don't go down the wrong path and bury your future." Zhao Junnan lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth, slowly blowing out a puff of smoke towards Li Zhao: "You should know what to say and what not to say."
Li Zhao stared at the cigarette in Zhao Junnan's hand, and his expression became serious.
"Why, are you unhappy?" Zhao Junnan sneered: "Tell me, how much do you want me to pay for you to shut up?"
"Smoking is prohibited in the elevator." Li Zhao said with a stern face: "For the health of others, please observe public ethics."
Zhao Junnan paused with his cigarette in his hand, flicked the ash, and seemed to have heard a joke: "Gongde, are you a kid who hasn't been weaned from kindergarten? Don't change the subject, just name your price."
Just at this moment, the elevator door slowly opened, and outside the door stood Song Yu, his two assistants, and several other crew members.
"Teacher Zhao hasn't left yet?" Song Yu fanned his face with his hands and raised his voice, "Who is so shameless as to smoke in the elevator? Isn't that immoral?!"
The others silently glanced at Zhao Junnan's hand holding the cigarette, then looked away as if nothing had happened. The atmosphere became very awkward for a moment.
"Sorry, I forgot to press the floor button just now." Li Zhao showed an innocent smile and turned to look at Zhao Junnan: "I just drank some wine, and my mind is a little unclear. I'm sorry to make you laugh, Brother Nan."
After saying that, he reached out and pressed the floor button. The elevator slowly closed again. There was silence in the elevator. Zhao Junnan didn't say anything until the elevator door opened again.
Zhao Junnan walked out of the elevator with a gloomy face and turned to look at Li Zhao: "Just get in the car with me and talk."
Li Zhao looked at the RV in front of him and got in without hesitation.
"You are so brave to sit here like this." Zhao Junnan sneered, put his legs on the chair, and said sarcastically: "One million is enough to buy you to shut up?"
"The whole crew saw me escorting Brother Nan out. What could happen?" Li Zhao put his hands on his knees, like a well-behaved kid in kindergarten waiting for the teacher to come to class.
But in Zhao Junnan's eyes, Li Zhao was extremely ugly. He wished that Li Zhao would have an accident and disappear from this world tonight, because only the dead could not speak.
"Three million?"
Li Zhao still looked at him like a good boy.
"Five million?"
Li Zhao blinked and smiled innocently.
Zhao Junnan's face darkened completely. "Do you still want another 10 million? Have you ever seen so much money in your life as a poor kid from a stinky mountain valley? Don't be so greedy! Li Zhao, a falling out won't do you any good."
"I've seen it." Li Zhao raised two fingers and smiled brightly: "My friend's family has two buildings, two!"
He bent his two fingers and looked very proud.
Zhao Junnan was irritated by the bent fingers: "What do these two buildings have to do with you? What do these two buildings have to do with you?!"
"You're not asking me if I've ever seen 10 million?" Li Zhao looked at Zhao Junnan with an expression that said "You're really unreasonable." "I'm just answering your question seriously."
"Don't act crazy or stupid in front of me." Zhao Junnan took a deep breath and said, "I want you to keep the fact that you were my stand-in a secret and never mention it again in your life. Even if someone asks you about it, you have to deny it. As long as you can do this, I can give you six million."
Li Zhao looked at Zhao Junnan with sympathy, as if he was caring for a fool: "There are so many people in the crew of "Xia Jun". There must be at least 50 people who know that I am your stand-in. Can you shut up everyone?"
"This has nothing to do with you, just shut up." Zhao Junnan had lost his patience, his expression gradually becoming ferocious: "It doesn't matter if you don't agree, now you will just lose endorsements and film and television resources. As for if anything happens in the future, just don't blame me."
Li Zhao was stunned. Was he... threatened?
He was just trying to earn some money as a stand-in, so why did he risk his own safety?
"Knock knock knock." Someone knocked on the car window.
Zhao Junnan looked back and saw a pale, handsome man in a suit standing by the window. The man was just looking into the car casually, but Zhao Junnan inexplicably felt that the man's eyes penetrated the car film and saw everything inside the car clearly.
The assistant who had been sitting in the front seat and had been silent opened the car door and said in a bad tone: "Sir, my artist does not accept any requests from sasaeng fans, you leave here immediately."
The man ignored him. His deep eyes looked into the car: "Zhao Zhao, get out."
"Tingting." Li Zhao pushed Zhao Junnan's legs off the chair, and Zhao Junnan almost fell to the ground.
Ignoring the embarrassed Zhao Junnan, Li Zhao jumped out of the car with a smile on his face and walked to Yan Ting: "Why are you here?"
"I'm on a business trip, so I came to see you." Yan Ting stretched out his hand and wrapped the scarf on his arm around Li Zhao: "Let's go."
"Wait." Zhao Junnan chased out of the car and said, "Li Zhao, please think carefully about what I just said. I need a reply before noon tomorrow."
Yan Ting stopped, turned around and looked at Zhao Junnan, his eyes as if he was looking at the rubble on the side of the road.
Li Zhao pulled his sleeve and said, "Tingting, let's go."
Seeing that Li Zhao didn't react at all, Zhao Junnan's face looked very ugly. As a popular star, no matter where he goes, there will be people secretly taking pictures of him with their mobile phones or asking for his autograph.
Being treated like a roadside weed was the first time he encountered this after becoming famous.
"What does he want to do to you?" Yan Ting walked neither fast nor slow, as if nothing could disrupt his rhythm.
"He wanted to get me to agree to something for six million." Li Zhao put his hands in his pockets. "When he saw that I didn't agree, he laughed at me and said that I had never seen so much money in my life. When I said that I had seen it, he got unhappy again. It's really a headache."
Yan Ting slowed down his pace: "His name is Zhao Junnan?"
"Yeah." Li Zhao nodded.
"I understand." Yan Ting drooped his eyelids slightly, hiding the darkness in his eyes.
"Let's not talk about this weird thing. When did you get here? Have you had dinner?" Li Zhao didn't want to let the mess in the entertainment industry affect his pure and well-behaved good friend. He hopped forward with Yan Ting: "Which hotel are you staying in? When will you be back?"
"No." Yan Ting looked at Li Zhao, who was smiling, and said, "You go back first. I can find a place to eat by myself."
"That won't do. We haven't seen each other for several days. How can I let you eat alone?" Li Zhao put his arm around Yan Ting's neck. "It just so happens that I wasn't full just now. Let's find a place to sit down and eat slowly."
"Okay." Yan Ting turned his head to look at the child hanging on him, smelled the faint smell of alcohol on him, and let him hang on him like a pendant.
"Are you still suffering from insomnia recently?" Before the dishes were served, Li Zhao poured Yan Ting a cup of hot milk.
Yan Ting looked at the glass of milk without moving.
"Drinking milk is good for sleep. Besides me, no one will see it." Li Zhao poured himself a glass as well: "At worst, I can drink with you. Let's not think that the other is not manly enough."
His cheeks were slightly flushed, and the alcohol had not yet completely worn off.
Yan Ting took a sip of the milk, the fishy smell spread in his mouth: "I can't sleep."
Li Zhao held the cup of milk and drank most of it in one breath. When he heard Yan Ting said he still couldn't sleep, he looked up at him and asked, "Counting sheep is useless?"
Yan Ting shook his head slightly.
"Some people say that counting sheep does not conform to the language habits of our country. It is more useful to count dumplings when you can't sleep." Li Zhao put down the milk cup, touched his chin and said thoughtfully: "How about you count dumplings, but I am worried that the more you count, the hungrier you will get."
Yan Ting looked at Li Zhao and suddenly said, "You counted sheep for me that night, which was very useful."
"Really?" Li Zhao perked up: "I also think I have a good line delivery and am particularly charming. Tingting, you are indeed my good buddy and you know how to appreciate me."
He was very excited. Although Yan Ting never praised his lines from beginning to end, this did not prevent Li Zhao from perfecting Yan Ting's meaning in his mind: "Wait, I'll record you an audio clip of counting sheep and dumplings. If you can't sleep at night, listen to it. It might be of some use."
"Okay." Yan Ting agreed without hesitation, as if he had been expecting Li Zhao to say this.
After they finished their meal, Li Zhao squatted in Yan Ting's car, counting the lambs and dumplings before saying goodbye to Yan Ting: "Tingting, if you have time tomorrow, you can come to the crew to play."
Yan Ting: "Okay."
"One dumpling falls into the bowl, two dumplings fall into the bowl... After eating all 100 dumplings, Tingting goes to sleep obediently. I say good night to you."
The boy's voice was clear and clean. Yan Ting stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, listening to the dumplings falling into the bowl one by one. He reached out to turn on the bedside lamp and moved the audio progress bar forward.
"Tingting, go to sleep obediently. I'll say good night to you..."
"Tingting, go to sleep obediently. I'll say good night to you..."
The bedside lamp went out and the room fell into darkness again.
"good evening."
At four o'clock in the morning, when everyone was sleeping soundly, Zhao Junnan's work team was hit hard by a piece of bad news.
They have already negotiated with a world-renowned luxury brand to have Jun Nan be the Asian spokesperson for the season's new products, and will also be putting up promotional photos in major plazas.
Faced with the envious eyes of other competitors, Zhao Junnan's team was very proud and even told the news to some big fans in advance, and asked them to reveal the news to other fans to strengthen their support for the artist.
But just when the official announcement was about to be made, the brand suddenly called and said that Zhao Junnan's image was not suitable for their products and that the cooperation would be discussed later.
Later, what is there to talk about later?
It was clear that they were stood up by the brand. The team was anxious and angry, but they couldn't afford to offend the big brand, so they had to hold an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.
In order to raise Zhao Junnan's value, they began to arrange for Internet users to hype up Zhao Junnan's upcoming cooperation with luxury brands on major forums and public platforms a few days ago. Zhao Junnan also forwarded a Weibo post from the brand yesterday.
Now that the brand has suddenly gone back on its word, they have instantly become a laughing stock in the eyes of other competitors in the industry. But they didn't dare to fall out with the brand, so they could only hold an emergency meeting to find ways to minimize the losses.
Just as they were discussing a solution, two brands that were about to reach a cooperation agreement called and canceled their cooperation plan.
"It can be considered a coincidence that one brand canceled the cooperation plan, but overnight, three brands canceled the cooperation plan. Someone must be obstructing it." Zhao Junnan's agency held an emergency meeting overnight to discuss the response strategy: "Now we have to figure out which brand is making things difficult for us."
Luxury goods endorsements have a significant impact on the value of first-tier and super first-tier artists, and their fans are also proud of it. Now that the endorsements that were about to come to them have slipped away, the agencies are naturally anxious.
After Zhao Junnan became popular again, she blocked the path of many first-line male artists. In the eyes of the agency, every male artist who had competed with Zhao Junnan was suspicious.
But who has such great ability?
The author has something to say: One Zhao Zhao jumped over, another Zhao Zhao jumped over, and Tingting put them all in his pocket.
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