Chapter 153 - The Leading Female Role Doesn’t Work, Get Someone Else!

After studying for two months at the Department of Public Relations, Shangguan Ning was assigned to the Department of Media by Lu Qing.

She was Jing Yichen’s assistant, the “minister close to the emperor”. Therefore, everyone was treating her very nicely and kept teaching her whatever they could, so she learnt very fast.

Department of Media was a newly established department that was responsible for the administration of Star Media.

They had invested into a movie recently and the casting work was still not finished.

Every other role was more or less settled, except for the leading female role, who had not yet been decided.

It was the second round of auditions of the candidates for the leading female role today, so Shangguan Ning went to the audition site with Xu Feng, the Director of the Department of Media so that they could decide upon the leading actress at one go.

As the directors at high level of the enterprise, Shangguan Ning and Xu Feng were warmly welcomed by the entire crew and were assigned the main seats.

The staff gave the script and the list of the candidates as well as all the actors to Shangguan Ning, who leafed through the list as she was watching the audition at the studio.

Suddenly, a familiar name greeted her eyes, surprising her.

Shangguan Rouxue!

Wasn’t she pregnant? Shouldn’t she stay at home and rest? Why was she still in the candidate list?

She had never been in any big movies or tv-series yet she became a candidate for the leading female role. She must have pulled a trick.

She was not sure as to what methods had Shangguan Rouxue used to have influenced this professional and experienced director.

Xu Feng, who was sitting next to Shangguan Ning, had been associated with shooting and production of many movies and tv-series. He used to be a famous script writer once but was now too old to follow the crew around. Thus he had taken up the role of Director of the Department of Media at Jingsheng Enterprise.

Xu Feng also frowned at the sight of the candidate list.

There were several new actresses in the list and Shangguan Rouxue was undoubtedly the one that attracted most attention.

She was the sweet hostess of A City, but she had never worked in any movies before. Her acting experience was almost next to zero.

It would be of great risk if a new actress was used for movies and tv-series. A top-notch director needed to keep a strict criteria for selection of a new actress, else the box office result would not be at par with the movies which were done by famous actors.

Although Shangguan Rouxue was not unknown in the hosting field, yet her reputation was only limited in A City. She was not even as domestically famous as those deputy directors of Jingsheng Enterprise who often showed up in front of the media.

There were five actresses at the audition. All of them looked very nervous, probably because they lacked experience. But they all acted well.

Shangguan Rouxue was the last one on audition. She was very beautifully dressed and her dressing style was different from how she was usually dressed. After all, the leading female role in the script was a capable lawyer rather than a sweet, silly young girl.

Although she didn’t have any experience of acting, yet because of her experience of standing in front of a camera all year round, she had a good presence. Her exquisite face looked composed and she seemed to be sufficiently prepared so that she spoke the lines smoothly and even added some extra lines for herself.

For one instant, the other four candidates paled in front of her, and everyone thought that she was going to get the leading female role.

After watching the audition, Shangguan Ning finally understood why the candidates were all new actresses.

Was this the trick Shangguan Rouxue had used?

By standing in a circle of inferiority, she could look outstanding.

But what Shangguan Ning hadn’t expected was that she was capable enough to influence the director who found four new actresses just to put her into the spotlight!

Xu Feng, who had been dissatisfied with the previous performances, became quite content at the moment.

He didn’t expect that Shangguan Rouxue could act so well by releasing and restraining her emotions at free will and that she could look so good in front of cameras. For some reason, he kind of approved this actress for the leading female role.

When the other actresses were waiting for the result behind the stage, Shangguan Rouxue came to the judge area and chatted with the director and the scriptwriter happily.

They exchanged a couple of words before the director took the scriptwriter and Shangguan Rouxue to Shangguan Ning.

The director was famous nationwide, and also an old friend of Xu Feng. He greeted Xue Feng proficiently and then turned to Shangguan Ning who was in a higher position than Xu Feng.

Shangguan Rouxue who was following behind the director, was surprised to see Shangguan Ning here.

She felt uncomfortable, but still showed an expression of gentleness and kindness, pretending as if she didn’t know Shangguan Ning.

Xu Feng was a smart person. His director, Deputy-President Liang had many more years of experience than him at the Enterprise. Liang was a capable person yet he still addressed Shangguan Ning as someone of the same level. He would even ask Shangguan Ning for advice on many business affairs in the department. Therefore, he would turn to Shangguan Ning for advice first before he made any decision, subconsciously treating her as the leader.

Shangguan Ning was the assistant to the President, and many things were reported to the President through her. Therefore, she couldn’t be regarded as an ordinary assistant who could be ordered around. The previous President’s assistant, Lu Qing, was still respected by everyone at the enterprise although he was still an assistant. Even the deputy presidents treated him very nicely.

Seeing the director turning to Shangguan Ning, Xue Feng smiled and said. “Director Zheng, this is Shangguan Ning, the President’s assistant of our enterprise, the main person responsible for the production of our movie.It is her responsibility to report everything to the enterprise in the aspect of fund.”

He put it very clearly – it was Shangguan Ning who controlled the investment of the movie.

The director understood exactly what Xu Feng meant. He hadn’t expected that the production company would have entrusted such a young woman to look over the tasks.

But however young she was, she was in control of the fund, meaning that she had a powerful background and ought not to be ignored.

The director’s attitude changed instantly. He smiled and shook hands with Shangguan Ning courteously before saying, “We plan to start shooting next month. Hope that we can have a happy collaboration with Ms. Shangguan!”

Shangguan Ning smiled and said softly. “We believe that our collaboration will be successful, since Director Zheng is indeed an experienced director!”

After exchanging some words with her, the director presented the scriptwriter and Shangguan Rouxue to her.

“This is the female whom we have selected for the leading role. Shangguan Rouxue is a famous hostess of A City. She is popular and should be able to bring a great deal of box office revenue.”

As producers, Jingsheng Enterprise had invested 200 million yuan in the movie and what they cared about most of all, was the revenue. They would instantly recall the investment if the estimated revenue was projected to be unviable.

When Shangguan Ning was transferred to the Department of Media, Lu Qing had planned to allow her to do some practice so that she would get familiar with the affairs and then handle the development of media business at the Enterprise later.

She certainly treated this 200-million investment very cautiously. But apart from the potential revenue, she also cared about her own mood.

She threw a look at Shangguan Rouxue and said, “Director Zheng, I don’t think that Shangguan Rouxue fits the leading female role well. Please get someone else instead!”