Chapter 92 - Moral Degeneration

“Not your biological child?” When the parent heard that, he sized Ji Buwang up with a strange gaze. Was he a cuckold?

Ji Buwang sensed that something was amiss and quickly explained, “No, Brother, it’s not what you think. I’m talking about being a stepfather.”

“Stepfather? Are you going to be a stepfather? And the stepfather of five children to boot?” The parent’s gaze became even stranger, as though he was staring at a pretty-looking gigolo.

Ji Buwang looked around and hurriedly reassured this agitated parent. He couldn’t let the children hear this.

“Brother, I was just asking. Don’t take it seriously. Sorry to trouble you.”

The parent couldn’t not take it seriously. Even as he left the school, he continued grumbling. ‘What is that young man thinking?’ Later on, he went on to mumble about how the moral degeneration of the world was getting worse day by day.

After sending that parent away, Ji Buwang felt that he had been too rash. He shouldn’t have asked questions so aimlessly. He had to be more cautious.

Maybe he could try interacting with those children again.

Ji Buwang felt that he could try interacting with Little Bei first, as the little girl had a good personality and had the best relationship with Mu Jingzhe.

However, he didn’t have the chance because Little Bei had some good news again.

True to his word, that director had really recommended Little Bei to his friend. That friend was a movie director whose surname was Lu.

Due to the high praise of his old friend and the fact that he had seen Little Bei perform and cry, Director Lu had decided to come and see Little Bei himself.

He didn’t inform the school. He came straight over to look for Little Bei.

How could Little Bei know that this was the director? She saw that he kept staring at her. At first, she asked if something was wrong, but later on, she realized that he seemed abnormal. One moment, he asked her to cry, and the next moment, he asked her to laugh. She thought she had met a lunatic.

Thus, she found an opportunity to look for the teacher, who in turn brought a few male teachers over warily. Only then did Director Lu realize what Little Bei thought of him.

He laughed out loud and said that Little Bei was smart before he revealed his identity. Then, he asked Little Bei to audition.

After taking a look, Director Lu immediately decided on Little Bei. “It’s you. You are the Xiao Jiu I’ve been looking for!”

Just like that, Little Bei was chosen as the female lead.

When Mu Jingzhe came to pick up Little Bei and found out about this, her first reaction was to think that the man was a fraud. After all, the audition process was weird.

Facing Mu Jingzhe’s wary gaze, Director Lu gave her a simple, innocent smile.

“Hello, Little Bei’s mother. I’m Lu Chenglin. I’m a director…”

After Director Lu’s introduction, Mu Jingzhe became less vigilant, but there was a hint of confusion.

From the sound of it, she suspected that this Director Lu was the one with the discerning eye in Little Bei’s previous life who had poached Little Bei to make her the main lead. In the end, this role had allowed Little Bei to become the youngest movie queen.

But wasn’t this something that would happen three or four years later? Why was he looking for her now?

It was only after hearing Director Lu’s explanation that she understood what was going on.

Lu Chenglin hadn’t started out as a director. He actually used to be a writer in the past. Later on, he changed careers and became a screenwriter. He also learned by himself how to be a cameraman. Later on, he worked as a cameraman and also wrote a script.

Recently, he had written a script, but the director he worked with wasn’t willing to film it. Thus, he wanted to pull in investments and film it himself.

He had been lucky enough to get some funding. Although it wasn’t a lot, he would be able to produce the movie if he persisted and kept an eye on the budget. However, the casting was a problem.

This was because his script was relatively special. The female lead was a young child, and the supporting role was also a young child. The female lead was a patient with a hearing disorder. There were high expectations for the young actress, as she had to portray someone who couldn’t hear or speak. She even had to know how to cry.

This was because the little actress was a pitiful girl. Her ears couldn’t hear due to a high fever, and the cause of that fever was her stepmother and negligent biological father.

In the end, she bravely embarked on an adventure to find her father. This was a story about her finally finding her father after going through a lot with the help of many people.

Based on the storyline, it seemed like it was completely tailored to Little Bei’s previous life.

“I’m telling you the general story because I want to reassure the parents about what kind of work we’re doing. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to find an actress, but it’s fine now.”

Mu Jingzhe guessed that in his previous life, the director hadn’t managed to find a suitable actor. In the end, by the time he’d finally found Little Bei and cast her in the movie, she had gotten older, so the director had to change the age of the main character. Now that Little Bei had been found ahead of time, there was no need to change it, right?

Little Bei was very willing to act, and Director Lu was very sincere. The teacher also said that there was nothing wrong with his identity, so they quickly signed the contract.

At six years old, she was chosen to be the female lead in this movie. Little Bei had been discovered ahead of time.

Unlike Little Nezha’s part, although Little Bei had been chosen, a lot of preparations were needed to start filming. Director Lu went to prepare in high spirits and said that he would be waiting for Little Bei to join the production team.

During this period, Little Bei could also try to grasp the state and feel of a deaf and mute person. Little Bei nodded seriously. She did just that and changed her talking habits. Later on, she even wanted to learn sign language.

It was uncertain if they would need sign language in the movie. Director Lu hadn’t said so either, but Little Bei wanted to learn it. Besides, learning sign language was pretty good, so Mu Jingzhe supported it.

They hadn’t found anyone who knew sign language yet, but after Ji Buwang learned this, he gave Mu Jingzhe the latest edition of a sign language book.

“This was created after a discussion and the formulation of more than 600 new words and gestures. It’s considered the latest book in the country. If nothing goes wrong, it will become the standard in the future. You can rest assured and have her learn from it.”

“Okay, that’s great. Thank you so much.”

Little Bei was as serious as if she had found a precious treasure. Mu Jingzhe also learned a little alongside her. The boys weren’t picky and learned whatever they came across.

Within two days, since Little Bei was unwilling to speak and only communicated in sign language with them, they replied back in sign language. Even Xiao Wu seemed to be doing a fine job conversing in it. The only exception was Mu Jingzhe, who was a poor student in comparison to the kids.

Her learning ability was average, and she couldn’t learn that quickly. Besides, she was also busy.

Mu Jingzhe: “You won’t use this opportunity to badmouth me in front of me, right?”

Little Bei laughed. “No way, Mommy. We love you the most.”

Actually, Mu Jingzhe had also learned some sign language in her previous life. This was because it was inevitable that some children in the orphanage would have physical disabilities. There were also some who couldn’t speak or hear, but she had only learned it for a short time and hadn’t mastered it. She was still a dabbler now.

“I’ll learn it when I have the time.” Mu Jingzhe made up her mind.

In the end, she didn’t get to learn it properly because the capable children kept creating surprises for her.

Shao Xi also gave her one.

A few days after she took Little Bei to film, Shao Xi saw a notice at the county cultural center. It was about a literature competition for young children in the city.

This was the third time they were holding the competition, and it was open to all elementary, middle, and high school students in the entire city. Shao Xi had submitted his entry before the deadline. He hadn’t expected to receive a notice to attend the award ceremony.

The invitation didn’t say what award Shao Xi had won, but according to tradition, anyone who was invited would usually receive an award.

“I’ll definitely get the award. I wrote the most words, a total of 5,000.”

The competition was mainly for short- to medium-length essays, with a word count requirement between 2,000 words to no more than 30,000 words. The number of words Shao Xi had written fell within that range.

He had previously written relatively short essays, so 5,000 words were indeed a lot.