Chapter 28 Boot Up

  Liu Shishi became the first actor He Mu met in the crew. After He Mu dedicated nearly three-quarters of his snacks to her, he also gained Liu Shishi's favor. However, this girl always referred to herself as "Fourth Sister", which made He Mu very unhappy, and it seemed that she was still a bit younger than him.

  Although there were some grievances, "Liu Si Niang" and "Liu Shi Niang" became He Mu's unique nicknames for Liu Shi for a long time. As the smallest male actor and the smallest female actor (Yang Ba Mei Xiao Pi Hai is not counted) in the crew, both from the north, so they naturally had to be closer than others.

  The next day, Director Li Guoli had already led his team to the Xiaobailou, with Hu Ge and Yuan Hong, two big handsome guys, following behind him.

  He Mu and Liu Shi Ci made an appointment to meet the director together. On the way, He Mu found that Liu Shi Ci didn't have any assistants following her, so he raised his doubts. After she explained, He Mu only then knew that this little girl was still in school and hadn't formally signed with a brokerage firm. In recent years, she had filmed several TV dramas, basically relying on luck and friends' introductions to get the opportunities. Actually, her major was dance.

  No wonder she has such a good figure and temperament. He Mu asked her what she wanted to do in the future, if she wanted to mix with the entertainment circle, she couldn't always be alone.

  Indeed, in the entertainment industry, it's good to rely on a big tree for shade. For example, when filming "The Young Yang Family Generals", He Mu, a newcomer, had a per-episode salary of 4,000 yuan, while Liu Shi, who had already played leading roles in TV dramas and collaborated with big-name stars like He Jiajin and He Rundong, only had a per-episode salary of 3,000 yuan. Although there is an objective market issue where actresses' salaries are generally lower than actors', if she had a good agency, her salary would not have been lower than 4,000 yuan; it's just that the agency would take a cut.

  "Besides, I haven't graduated yet. Maybe by then I'll choose to be a dance teacher." Liu Shishi said casually, now she hasn't taken acting as her life pursuit.

  In Director Li's room, He Mu not only met Hu Ge and Yuan Hong, but also saw Tao Ze Yu, the two of them didn't hide their familiarity.

  Li Guoli as the general director, introduced them to each other. Except for Hu Ge who is nationally famous, the others such as He Mu, Liu Shishi and Yuan Hong are far less well-known. He Mu politely greeted Tang Yan's two big stars, Yuan Hong was okay, but Hu Ge didn't seem very enthusiastic, a bit perfunctory.

  He Mu thought that Da Ming Xing looked down on small actors, and didn't think much of it, nor would he resent the heavens for it. He just felt a slight headache for future collaborations. From the script's point of view, among those who had scenes with Yang Qilang, Yang Liulang was one of the most frequent. If the two people didn't get along, it would directly affect their performance later on. When the time came and they performed badly, people wouldn't say anything about Hu Ge, who was already famous, but rather He Mu would be more likely to be criticized.

  Let's just take things as they come for now and see what happens next.

  Later, people came to Director Li's room one after another. He Yumu saw Liu Xiaoji (playing Du Jinei/Xiaolin), Li Dongxue (playing Yang Dalang) whom he met during the audition, and Hong Kong and Taiwan artists Chen Xiwen and Weng Jiaming who played Cui Saohua and Yang Linggong respectively.

  The canteen is just at Xiaobailou, so everyone doesn't want to go too far. A crowd of people went straight down to the canteen to eat. Now people are not very familiar with each other, He Mu just pulled Liu Shishi and Tao Yumo together for dinner, and took the opportunity to introduce them to each other.

  "So you really know the assistant director, I thought you were just bragging earlier." Liu Shishi whispered in He Mu's ear.

  He Mu whispered: "I never brag, I just blow balloons."

  One sentence made Liu Shi burst out laughing, with a thousand charms and a hundred allurements, I see her even more lovely.

  Little did they know that their behavior just now was a bit ambiguous, in the eyes of outsiders it seemed like kissing ears, but the two parties involved didn't notice.

  Sitting opposite the two of them, Tao Qu couldn't help but give He Mu a thumbs up. His buddy was truly impressed - it had only been such a short time and he had already won over such a beautiful young woman! Indeed, he was a beast among beasts! Seeing their intimacy, Director Tao couldn't help but want to call Ni Ni that night to alleviate his longing.

  At night, He Mu called Da Tang in Beijing.

  Datang raised several hypothetical questions about He Mu at tomorrow's launch conference and came up with the most suitable answers for him. "Remember what I said, you can take care of yourself, you're still clever, I believe you won't make mistakes, besides..."

  "The Great Tang's tone suddenly changed: 'Now that you're just a little famous, being infatuated with love is really not a wise move. If you really want to fall in love, I won't stop you, but at least do it discreetly, don't make it public knowledge, and at the very least, be able to keep it from me.'"

  He Miao guessed the meaning of Da Tang's words, probably because he and Liu Shi had gotten too close, which had reached his ears and led to some speculation. As for who was tongue-tied, He Miao first thought of Mi Min, who usually kept silent.

  The assistant, while helping the artist with some trivial matters, also served as a supervisor for the broker to monitor the artist. This is normal, as the broker cannot be by the artist's side all the time and must find ways to understand the artist's situation in order to take targeted measures. He Mu didn't mean to blame anyone, it's just that this matter was really unjust to him.

  "Lao Tang, I really haven't been in a romantic relationship with anyone, there is a little girl from Beijing in the crew, we just have a good relationship, nothing actually happened, I am a person who cares about my career very much, now I just want to focus on acting." He Mu made a weak explanation.

  The Great Tang said with a smile: "No need to explain, even if there's truth to it, it doesn't matter. Same old saying, if you can fool me then you're successful."

  After hanging up the phone with Datang, He Mu did not conduct a profound self-examination and criticism, nor did he make a solemn vow to never speak to Liu Shishi again due to being tongue-tied. In his opinion, since he was in the right, he had nothing to fear from shadows. It was unnecessary to be overly concerned about something that didn't exist. He would continue to interact with Liu Si as usual, and at most, be more cautious around that little girl Xiaomizhi in the future, who was too cunning for her own good!

  December 8, He Rundong, Lin Jiayu and other Taiwanese actors joined the crew, all main creators basically arrived, "The Young Yang Family Generals" officially held a press conference at the Tang Ren Museum on the first floor.

  Because "The Young Yang Family Generals" itself is a big investment, and investors Tang Ren and Hua Ye are both big sharks in the film and television industry (at this time, Hu Ge was selectively ignored), and also have two popular idols Hu Ge and He Run Dong join forces, so naturally attracted a large number of media to flock.

  He Mu is still attending a TV drama's opening press conference for the first time, feeling very fresh. Because there are many main creators of this play, the meeting arranged to accept questions from reporters in batches.

  The first batch was the director and producer to answer questions. Tang Ren's boss Cai Yizhong came in person, but Hua Ye and Hu Li did not send big shots, which also showed respect for Tang Ren's dominance in filming.

  After reading the first batch of questions, He Mu's freshness was gone by more than half. This is meaningless, the questions are not sharp enough, and the answers are not clever enough, making people want to yawn.

  The second batch is the villain camp, including Ye Lu Xie, Pan Ren Mei and his son, as well as Emperor Song Taizong. There's nothing impressive about them, and even the reporters didn't have any desire to ask questions. The only one who has a bit of a topic is Tang Ren's newcomer Yuan Hong, but he doesn't have much of a role yet. He was the main character in an episode of "New Liao Zhai Zhi Yi", but that drama hasn't aired yet, so he's not well-known to the public.

  The third batch of female role players is the same, Liu Shishi, Liu Xiaojie, Lin Jiayu, Tong Xiang and several other little girls are basically all tender and new people who can pinch out water. The questions that reporters can ask are just "Which Lang do you think is the most handsome" and so on. How dare they say it out loud? You push me, I push her, and finally haha, nothing was said.

  The last batch of male lineup, this is the climax and highlight of the entire press conference. Hu Ge's popularity is booming, He Rundong and Chen Long are also popular idol actors, media friends finally found a place to show off their skills, with long guns and short cannons, they rushed towards the main characters.

  He Mu was relieved that people seemed to have forgotten about him, which was just as well. He thought to himself: You'd best take me for a passerby like Da Er San Lang, and I'll just sit back and watch with cold eyes as Si Liu Liu Lang deals with the media - it's all just a learning experience anyway.

  He Miao's thoughts were beautiful, but in the end, she still couldn't escape the eyes of those with ill intentions.

  A young reporter from the Nan Du Entertainment News was pointed to ask a question, he stood up and aimed at He Mu, who was not in conflict with the world, "Mr. He Mu, in the previous publicity of Tang Ren, Yang Qilang's candidate has always been Taiwan's small fresh meat Peng Yu Yan, but later Why did you change to you? Can you explain?"

  It's really embarrassing that someone actually asked such a question. He Mu took over the phone and calmly said, "The casting work has always been handled by Tang Ren Company, why this role fell on my head I think it should be answered by Director Cai."

  Dealing with the media's first move - Tai Chi push hands.

  Cai Yizhong smiled and replied, "As for who will play Yang Qilang, we just finalized it recently. As for what Peng Yu said earlier, that was just the media making assumptions and speculating on their own. We never did any publicity like that."

  "So what made Mr. Cai choose Mr. He to play this role, was it under pressure from other investors?" This reporter friend seems to know some inside information.

  "I get along very well with my co-stars and no one puts pressure on me, and I also believe that this crew will be a happy crew." Cai Yinan skillfully dodged the reporter's question.

  Just as the reporter wanted to ask He Mu more questions, Cai Zong prompted: "Please let the next media representative speak."

  Someone quickly snatched the microphone, and the question was thrown back at Hu Ge and others. Cai Yinan glanced at He Mu with an almost imperceptible gaze, but he still looked calm and unruffled, as if the previous question had not affected him in the slightest. The adoration of several young actors beside him also seemed to have failed to evoke a hint of envy from him.

  Is he pretending to be capable, or is it his natural noble demeanor?

  ……

  (PS: Is anyone interested in that reporter? This is a long-term extra role with a high appearance rate ~)