The director introduced the rebellion of the seigniors against the Han Dynasty through a nobody and a palace concubine. The difference was that the officers had predicted the national chaos, while Qin Guan had just spotted an opportunity for his sister and nephew.
What kind of opportunity? An opportunity to get closer to the throne.
They were just talking about the throne of a feudatory king at the time. There might be an even higher position available later. Who knew that those two nobodies would turn out to be a hidden tiger and a crouching dragon?
"Listen to me, sister. Fortune always changes. The future of the emperor will be yours one day. You should never make mistakes during a chess game. Why did Prince Liang enter the capital?"
While they were talking about Prince Liang seriously, Chir interrupted them. His face was covered in ink as he walked into the room with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked like a little duck.
The two of them felt funny, as they were both concerned about the naughty boy's future. The siblings exchanged a helpless glance. Their expression made everyone smile meaningfully.
Who said that there were no interesting highlights in the long river of history? Pure children had been the shining point of that depressing palace.
Finally, Qin Guan was allowed to have a break to eat and take off his costume. In that big temporary family, more people meant both more trouble and more fun.
Dinner was more delicious when people gathered around the same table to eat.
This was a good chance for Chinese people to get to know each other during formal banquets and ordinary dinners. All the members of the crew, including superstars and common figurants, had the same meal. The China Film Group was a generous host, so their lunch boxes were pretty good.
Qin Guan used his audacity to try to join the group of senior actors. Shen Baoping, Jiao Huang and Ma Shaohua were all official representatives of the entertainment circle. They were either senior actors of the Beijing People's Art Theater or civil servants of the National Performing Arts Center. Qin Guan wanted to learn from them during the break.
There were actually also plenty of younger actors cast in the film, but as the story progressed, the actors of the early age of Emperor Han Wu would replace them. They were all jealous of Qin Guan, whom they considered their peer. That lucky dog would get to join the circle of the older actors.
The actor who would be portraying the emperor as a child was not very brave. He was only a 10-year-old boy after all, but Du Chun, the actor who would be portraying the teenage emperor, was really angry about this.
During the past few years, most rising stars experienced the same problem during the early stages of their careers. They were all inordinately proud of their abilities. Their dream of becoming famous made them jump head-first into that vanity fair. The final winners weren't the strongest actors though.
Take Du Chun as an example. He had graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, which was one of the top three drama schools in China, and had become famous for his handsome looks at college. Before Qin Guan had returned to China, he and Huang Xiaoming had been considered wonder boys. Even Deng Chao and Tong Dawei, who were upperclassmen, couldn't outshadow him.
If it weren't for the countless chances presented to him, the historical show producers would never have cast a recent drama school graduate.
He had good reason to be proud, yet he couldn't help but compare himself to the actor that was more renowned than him and notice the gap between them both in the quantity of scripts they received and their fame at home and abroad.
How can there be such a big gap between two people?
When he saw Qin Guan sitting with the senior actors, he suddenly understood.
"He has won many awards, including a Golden Globe. He seems to be sucking up to everyone! That's why he gets all these good scripts. I would never be this shameless..." he murmured to his agent, who stopped him, afraid that someone else would hear them.
His agent looked around. "I wish you were as shameless as he is. Do you think that anyone could please those actors? You have to possess a certain talent! They see Qin Guan as a good young man and a younger actor they can talk to on equal terms. I watched his performance. If you sat next to those actors one day, I would be smiling even in my sleep!"
"Qin Guan will be shooting another scene later. Watch him carefully! Acting can only be improved by studying, not by being jealous! He is a real actor, who has learned a lot from older actors. Be careful! Don't become a joke for others to laugh at!"
Du Chun was shocked by his rebuke. He had just been complaining randomly.