CH 15

March 6, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 15: The New Crew

Translated by KChandra

“My performance is over, thank you all.” Gongxi Qiao gave a slight smile to the several producers, but his eyes were extraordinarily cold. He had performed well, which was his talent, but that didn’t mean he didn’t notice that someone was deliberately making things difficult for him in this audition.

The script was sent by their crew. Now that he was here, they were still playing this game. Did they feel accomplished by bullying a newcomer?

In fact, several of the other co-producers were a little embarrassed. They knew that Director Yang was temperamental, but they didn’t expect him to play such a game. If that person knew he was being treated differently, it would be too embarrassing. This newcomer was different from other newcomers. He wasn’t short of money and entered the entertainment industry for fun, so how could he stand this kind of attitude?

Director Yang struggled for so many years and had a very good position in the film and television industry, so gradually he did not take small artists seriously. In his opinion, today’s little tactic was just a test for the artist.

“You performed very well,” Director Yang remembered that he once said in front of the producer that he didn’t like Gongxi Qiao. In order to save face, he turned his words around, “but some emotions are still not so well handled. You go home now, we will contact your agent for follow-up work.”

Although these words were said in a less polite manner, it was implied that the crew had the intention to continue working with him. Several of the other co-producers also put their minds at ease. Luckily, Gongxi Qiao’s performance made Director Yang change his mind.

“Thank you, Director Yang, for your guidance.” Gongxi Qiao politely smiled at the people present and turned around to leave the audition room.

“Qiao Shao, I didn’t expect it to be like this,” Chen Ke saw Gongxi Qiao looking as usual, and couldn’t guess what he was thinking. Guiltily, he said, “If I had known that their crew had such an attitude, I wouldn’t have arranged for you to audition.”

“Brother Chen, this has nothing to do with you,” Gongxi Qiao smiled carelessly, “the crew will probably call you in the next few days and ask us to sign the contract. Please decline it for me.”

“It’s good to decline it,” Chen Ke nodded, “This opportunity is rare, but if this kind of thing starts, everyone in the circle will think you’re soft and easy to ignore in the future. It’s better to make your position clear early on to avoid more trouble in the future.”

Two days later, the ‘Young Minister’ crew was dumbfounded when they received feedback from Senhe’s agency.

“Gongxi Qiao’s schedule can’t be changed?” The producer looked at the crew in surprise, “When I contacted Chen Ke last week, didn’t he still say he was available?”

The producer was also very helpless. Originally, everyone was united in their opinions and felt that Gongxi Qiao would be a good lead actor, but it turned out that the target they were looking at wasn’t available, which was too heartbreaking. He looked at the producers as well as the director who were staring at him in the room, and spoke with some hesitation: “Agent Chen said that last time when Qiao Shao came to audition, the director wasn’t particularly satisfied with Qiao Shao’s performance. They thought there was little hope of participating, so they signed a contract with another drama group.”

This lie…did it have any artistry at all?

The crowd silently looked at Director Yang sitting in the corner. So it was because Director Yang deliberately made things difficult for him before, right?

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If someone only came to the audition and they deliberately made things difficult, then when they participated in the shooting, wouldn’t they keep making things difficult? No wonder Gongxi Qiao was unwilling to come. He was a powerful young master. Only someone brain dead would come asking for trouble for himself

When everyone reacted to what was going on, the room was filled with a faint embarrassment. The producer coughed dryly and then took out his phone and pretended to go out and make a call.

Director Yang was a little upset with Gongxi Qiao. He was so arrogant at such a young age, did he really think the entertainment industry was his own home?

The crew contacted Chen Ke twice more, and after getting the same answer each time, they gave up and finally had to change the lead actor.

However, because of this, the conflict between the producer and the director grew bigger and bigger. Although it didn’t reach the point of having a falling-out, internally it was a tiresome situation.

In fact, Chen Ke wasn’t lying. Gongxi Qiao did accept a script for a TV series, which was adapted from a novel about immortal cultivation[1], with four main roles. The crew originally invited him to play the most important role of the first male lead, who was an immortal monarch reincarnated as a rustic boy and eventually became an immortal monarch again through various lucky breaks.

But Gongxi Qiao was attracted to another male protagonist. This male protagonist was aloof and reticent, burdened with a blood feud, and finally died by self-destruction together with the leader of the demon sect.

This setup was dog blooded enough to attract fans. Although there wasn’t as much drama as the other male lead, it wasn’t inferior to the primary protagonist.

His popularity was only gained from a third male lead. This kind of popularity came and went quickly. Now, with ‘Immortal Mountain Courtyard’ to solidify his popularity again, it would be easier to pick scripts in the future. At least he wouldn’t be in the same situation as when he auditioned for ‘Young Minister’.

Since the movie studio had to wait two to three months before filming could begin, while the ”Immortal Mountain Courtyard” crew was already ready to start filming, he went to the ”Immortal Mountain Courtyard” crew with a bulging wallet.

“Why is it him again?!” Zhao Yikun almost dropped the cup in his hand when he saw Gongxi Qiao appear on the set. He turned his head to look at Sun Xiang, “You didn’t tell me that he was also going to be in this drama.”

Sun Xiang coughed dryly and said, “It was only decided the afternoon before yesterday, so I only just found out.”

Zhao Yikun frowned, “What role is he playing?”

“Your senior brother,” Sun Xiang turned his head to the other side, not looking at Zhao Yikun’s ugly face, “Male lead B.”

Thinking that he was only a male number three, Zhao Yikun grunted and discontentedly put his cup down heavily on the table. He turned around and went in the direction of the dressing room.

Gongxi Qiao entered the set and greeted the people in charge, and then was taken by the staff to try out makeup. Because of the character setting, his clothes were mostly light colors except for a red groom’s outfit and the black clothes he wore after he fell into the demonic path.

Apparently the crew also wanted to use this role to attract female fans, so they put a lot of effort into the costumes, resulting in more costumes for his character than for male lead A.

Perhaps because of the subject matter, the opening ceremony of ‘Immortal Mountain Courtyard’ was extraordinarily grand. Not only was there a particular abundance of things on the offering table, but even the artists who offered incense were all dressed in costumes to show their solemnity.

The director of this drama was surnamed Zhu. She had a good relationship with the director of ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’, and was able to invite Gongxi Qiao to participate in the drama because of Director Zhang’s connection. Therefore, after repeated consideration, she started the first scene shooting the two male leads in an attempt to get some good luck.

The actor who played the male lead A was a famous hard working man in the circle, Zheng Lei. His acting skills were good, his work was prolific, his looks were good, and his pay wasn’t high. However, it was heard that the actor’s family conditions were average, and his parents’ health was bad. They had to be hospitalized twice in three days, so it was no wonder that Zheng Lei was so desperate to make money.

Zheng Lei was a dedicated actor, so whatever the director arranged, he would do. After pulling on his somewhat torn clothes, he stood in position and waited for the director to shout to start.

In front of him there was a section of stone steps. This was a scene of the entrance examination. After post-production, this would look like a stairway to the heavens, but in the eyes of the actors, this was just a stone stairway of a dozen steps.

But actors, even lying flat on a rock could act out being in imminent danger of falling off a cliff, not to mention such a small action as climbing stairs.

“Hey, are you also here to participate in the immortal sect selection?” With a weed in his mouth, Chen Liu’an looked at the silent young man next to him, “My name is Chen Liu’an, how about we help each other out together later?”

The young man in white looked at him without saying anything.

“Young man, don’t be so indifferent.” Chen Liu’an wanted to continue to go forward to speak.

Who knew that the young man in white would draw his long sword with a swish and put it at his throat: “Shut up and scram!”

“Hero, let’s talk properly. Swords have no eyes[2]. It’s not good to see blood,” Chen Liu’an looked at the silver glittering sword in front of him and covered his mouth with a look of not daring to speak again.

Seemingly satisfied that the man knew how to behave, the white-clothed youth simply inserted the sword back into the scabbard, and then walked forward without looking back, as if his feet stepped not on the ten thousand steps of heaven, but on flat earth.

“Damn, did he really sheath his sword in one move like that?!” Zhao Yikun, sitting next to him, looked at the sword in Gongxi Qiao’s hand with wide eyes and almost stared his eyes out.

“Okay, this scene passed,” Director Zhu was good at everything, just superstitious about good omens and such things. Now that the first scene passed smoothly, she was full of smiles and praised the two male lead actors, and then turned to Zhao Yikun and said, “Xiao Zhao, ah, the next scene is you and Xiao Qiao’s. Shoot it well.”

Zhao Yikun nodded haphazardly, then turned to Sun Xiang and said, “How good can his acting skills be if he’s a newcomer?”

Sun Xiang looked at him with a very strong look. Silently in the bottom of his heart, he lit a row of candles for him.[3]

It seems… As your agent, you shouldn’t gloat so much, right?

Then he watched as Zhao Yikun rushed forward with confidence, and then… Was ruthlessly crushed by Gongxi Qiao’s aura, finding no presence at all in the entire shot.

He silently wiped his face and smiled bitterly at Chen Ke, who was standing on the other side.

Chen Ke pretended not to be able to read Sun Xiang’s expression and returned a polite smile towards him.

“Xiao Zhao, why did you forget all the lines?” Director Zhu was a bit helpless. Zhao Yikun was a person stuffed in by the producer. She had long been used to this kind of stuffing at least, but how could he forget such simple lines? How would he be able to shoot future scenes?

“I’m sorry director. I didn’t get my emotions right just now and it affected Brother Zhao’s performance,” Gongxi Qiao smiled apologetically at the director.

When Director Zhu saw Zhao Yikun’s ugly face, she knew that Gongxi Qiao was saying such a thing to ease the atmosphere, and her face was much milder: “Then let’s shoot again. Xiao Zhao, pay attention to your emotions.”

Zhao Yikun squinted at Gongxi Qiao. F*** you[4], you innocent black lotus![5]

Gongxi Qiao seemed to sense what he was thinking, turned his head and gave him a brilliant smile.

Zhao Yikun inexplicably shuddered. The chaotic thoughts in his head immediately flew to the sky and he just wanted to finish the scene immediately and stay away from Gongxi Qiao.

Just one look was annoying!

T/N:

1. Immortal cultivation: An eastern fantasy genre where martial artists can cultivate their qi in order to gain great powers and potentially ascend to immortality

2. Swords have no eyes: Idiom, meaning it’s easy to get hurt accidentally when blades are drawn.

3. Lit a row of candles: In china, you light candles for the dead, so figuratively lighting candles means you’re expecting something bad to happen to that person.

4. F*** you: What he actually says is “Go to your sister” which is a censored way to say “F your sister”. Family members are often used in Chinese curse words, he’s not talking about a literal sister. Since Gongxi Qiao doesn’t have a sister, I thought translating it literally as “F your sister” would be confusing.

5. Black lotus: The term “white lotus” refers to a character who seems super pure, kind, and innocent but is devious on the inside. I assume that calling him a “black lotus” is just to emphasize his deviousness.