CH 14

After a few days, the leads and all the important roles had attended the Long River and Falling Moon’s boot ceremony. 

Le Yu, who was the male lead, became the best actor through a counter-narcotics movie, ‘Mountain Tea Garden’ two years ago. He had more than eighty million followers on weibo, and was named as the top popular star in the industry. He was also Jiang Group’s hit star. Whereas the female lead, Feng Yating’s popularity was not as high as Le Yu, but she was also one of the popular female celebrities currently. With only these two celebrities’ popularity, it could guarantee the drama’s views.  

Having high popularity meant people would go after them. Some people could be seen surrounding the two stars from time to time to make their faces familiar to them, especially those Z-list celebrities. 

After dealing with the Nth person who came and talked to Feng Yating, she used a small fan to cover her face, and the smile on her face dropped. She tilted her head and talked to Le Yu who was beside, “Le Yu, don’t you think these people won’t get tired? Greeting once is enough, there are even people who greeted repeatedly, my mouth is so numb from smiling.” 

Feng Yating was only 22 years old, she had a sweet look, could sing, dance and had good acting skills. She did not only have a lot of loyal fans, she also had audience appeal. She now had the highest ranking in popularity among the popular female stars. 

Le Yu was eleven years older than her. Both of them came from the same company so their relationship was not bad. When Feng Yating just entered, the company even allowed both of them to join a variety show to promote their coupling. 

As he heard her complaints, Le Yu smiled gently, “This is inevitable on the first day, it’ll be better after this.” 

Although he was talking to Feng Yating, his eyes stared at the person that was in the corner opposite him. 

Le Yu debuted early, he signed the contract at the age of eighteen. He had cooperated with Zhou Jin for a few times and knew how strict and how high his qualifications were in producing a drama. When he knew that a newbie was used for the Liu twin, it was impossible that he was not shocked. 

What’s so great about this person called Jiang Li?

Feng Yating noticed his vision, she followed it and saw Jiang Li sitting and chatting with a teen in his sixteen or seventeen. The teen was Producer Huang’s nephew, she had met him before, but it was the first time for her to meet Jiang Li. 

She was also curious like the others, she glanced at him a few times, “That person is Jiang Li who plays Baizhu Gege right?” 

In the drama, the female lead’s father is the male lead and Liu Baizhu’s master. Three of them grew up together so the female lead also had a lot of scenes with Liu Baizhu. 

Feng Yating also only knew the person playing when she saw the stage photos. Although she did not know Jiang Li, as a person who was a face-judger, it did not affect her admiring Jiang Li’s appearance. 

Since good-looking Xiao Gege were treasures in the world. 

Not everyone was there yet so the boot ceremony had not started. Feng Yating thought for a while and stood up from the chair, she asked Le Yu, “I’ll go and greet him, Brother Yu do you wanna go?” 

Greeting was fake, but meeting him to take a look at his face was real. 

Being able to pass Zhou Jin’s audition as a newbie, there must be something great about him. Le Yu had nothing to do, he then said, “Ok, let’s go….. Wait, he’s coming.” 

Before this, Feng Dong had reminded Jiang Li to greet Le Yu and the others. Although he did not know how strong his sugar daddy was, Jiang Li still had to be polite to the seniors as a newbie, especially seniors from the same company. 

To be frank, Jiang Li had the plan to do this even without him reminding. He would be playing Liu Baizhu so he had lots of scenes with Le Yu and Feng Yating. In order to have better communication in the future, he should go over and greet them. As there were too many people around both of them when Jiang Li arrived at the venue, he did not want to squeeze in the crowd. 

Now he noticed that there was nobody around both of them, so he stood up and walked towards Le Yu and Feng Yating. 

Feng Yating quickly adjusted her position of leaning on the chair lazily and sat with a good posture when she saw him walking towards her. She put up the standard smile of a goddess and asked her assistant beside softly, “Quickly look at my makeup, is it smudged? Did my lipstick fade? Is my hair messy?” 

The assistant was already used to her act and answered swiftly, “Your makeup is perfect, you’re the most beautiful in the world, Sister Ting please don’t be worried.” 

“Love ya!” Feng Yuting made a love sign for her assistant under her wide sleeves.

Le Yu who was beside laughed and shook his head, his vision fell on Jiang Li who was walking closer and closer towards them, 

The first scene to be shot after the boot ceremony was the scene where the male lead, Murong Jing and Liu Baizhu learn from each other by fighting in the forest, so Jiang Li was wearing Liu Baizhu’s costume. 

[T/N: Murong is the surname while Jing is the name, so Murong Jing]

He was dressed in white, his long black hair was tied up high with the same colour as his clothing and a jade pendant was hung at his waist. It swayed gently as Jiang Li walked. It was an outstanding look, his elegance was completely shown. 

As he walked nearer and his features of his face were clear to the others, Feng Yating could not resist and said, “He’s so fucking good-looking!” 

Le Yu “……”

Assistant “……”

Jiang Li came in front of the two, Feng Dong was following beside as well. He was also considered an experienced agent in the industry and had been working under Jiang Group. Although his reputation and resources were not as great as his previous years, his experience was still there. Le Yu was taken care of by him when he just entered the entertainment industry, he then called out proactively, “Brother Feng.” 

Feng Yating followed him and called out as well. 

Feng Dong lacked resources in these few years, the only advantage he had was his experiences. And now he was greeted proactively by two popular stars that earned money for the company, so he was flattered. He said, “Call me Lao Feng”, and introduced both sides to each other. 

[T/N: Lao is a way to call someone you respect with affection/for close friends. Lao means old.] 

Jiang Li’s position in the entertainment industry in his previous life was much higher than Le Yu’s current position, but it was already in the past. Now as a newbie, he greeted both of them very politely. 

“Brother Yu, Sister Ting, I’m Jiang Li, playing the roles Liu Baizhu and Liu Chuandeng, it’s a real honor and pleasure working with both of you.” 

His attitude was humble and courteous without appearing flattery. His unassuming attitude placed himself in a very proper position. This made people feel that he was decent and was then favoured by them. 

Le Yu looked at Jiang Li from his head to his toes. 

When he saw the stage photos, he was not only shocked by the fact that a newbie was used in the drama, but also how spot on his appearance was. The shape of his face, his eyebrows, eyes, nose and other facial features were just right, a little more would be cumbersome, and a little less would be inadequate. 

There were a lot of largely edited pictures so he initially thought Jiang Li was also depending   on the edits. He only understood that there were people who were more good-looking in real life than in photos after meeting Jiang Li. 

Even if the photo was beautiful, how could it be compared to the real person who was spiritual and stunning? When he saw him walking leisurely towards them, he was as if the Liu Baizhu in the drama, who was gentle, had appeared in front of him. 

Le Yu smiled gently and stretched out his hand towards Jiang Li. 

“Hi, I’m Le Yu, it’s an honour to work with you.”

When they were talking, Zhou Jin, who was late due to some sudden affairs, had also arrived. Everyone went forward and greeted him respectively. 

Jiang Li was also one of them. He did not know if it was his illusion, but he felt that the middle-aged man standing beside Zhou Jin was looking at him with a weird expression. The vision had a sense of interrogation, the meaning of the vision was unclear. Jiang Li felt really uncomfortable, it was as if he was glared at by someone and the vision was glued onto him. Everytime he looked towards the middle-aged man, he averted his gaze from Jiang Li. 

Jiang Li was sure that he did not recognize the man, there was no impression in the original host’s memory as well. Just when he was perplexed about it, he suddenly heard the person beside the man calling him, “Vice-director Jiang.” 

“……”

After Jiang Li realized that, he looked speechlessly at the greasy, middle-aged man’s receding hairline and beer belly. He suddenly understood the reason why Jiang Zhan’s expression was so weird when he knew that Jiang Li’s original trade partner was the vice-director. He was probably thinking that Jiang Li was blind at that time. 

Jiang Li looked at the man who was fat and had a wretched appearance, he had a lingering fear in his heart. Luckily the person he slept with was Jiang Zhan, if he really slept with the vice-director, he would have trauma for a whole life. 

As he thought of this, Jiang Li had the impulse of hugging President Jiang and kissing him a few times to show how touched he was. 

It was not only Jiang Li who was shocked, vice-director Jiang who was standing on the other side was restless as well! 

He felt unbelievable after he looked at Jiang Li’s stage photos. He had seen Jiang Li’s photos before, as Zhang Ziyang had sent to him before. He agreed to Zhang Ziyang’s request for a role in exchange for a romantic night after he took a look at the picture.

As Jiang Li’s appearance was really favorable and his entire person suited his preferences, he did not only want to play a pretty person like this for a night, he even had the intention to keep him. He thought of telling him after the trade, he could also increase his benefits if Jiang Li wanted, he thought that he would not possibly reject him. 

He imagined everything perfectly, but he did not think that Jiang Li did not even come! 

He initially thought that Zhang Ziyang was pulling a leg on him, but when he called and questioned Zhang Ziyang, he found out that he did not know about that and promised that he would bring Jiang Li to his place. 

Normally, he would not care about this anymore. However, Jiang Li was not only pretty but he had that clean and pure temperament that was rare in this filthy entertainment industry. His heart itched when he only looked at the picture, so he was not willing to give up on the meat that was nearly in his mouth, he then agreed to give Zhang Ziyang another chance. 

Who knew that Zhang Ziyang would break his promise the second time. He was so angry that he hinted his subordinates to forbid him from entering the drama in any way. He also used his connections and made Zhang Ziyang suffer in the drama that he was joining in. 

His anger was vented out, but his intention of obtaining Jiang Li could not be suppressed in his heart. Just when he was thinking about another way to make it happen, he saw the stage photos that were posted by the drama crew. Even though Jiang Li had make-up on and was wearing an ancient costume, he still recognized him in the first eye! 

He was still a plaything that was used by others as an exchange not a while ago, how did he suddenly turn into the drama’s actor?!  And he even passed Zhou Jin’s audition. 

This change made him feel shocked and strange, he was not there during the audition and only knew that Ji Shu was the one who brought Jiang Li to the audition after asking the others!  

Who’s Ji Shu? He was the secretary of the entertainment industry’s mogul, Jiang Zhan. His direct boss was Jiang Zhan. 

The power and influence Jiang Group had in the industry was large, it was not exaggerating to say that half of the great quality resources were in their hands. Being able to be sent by Ji Shu to the audition, the person behind Jiang Li was obvious, 

Vice-director Jiang was unclear if Jiang Li was connected to Jiang Zhan or the other higher ups, but no matter which one it was, Jiang Li was not someone that he could own. 

Especially if the person behind Jiang Li knew he almost had a filthy trade with Jiang Li, the person might vent his anger on him. 

As he thought of this, vice-director Jiang’s hatred towards Zhang Ziyang increased again.