FIMA Ch35: Night Raid

Xie Jinzhao tilted his head slightly and said his final sentence into the phone: “Mr. Qi, you are truly too wise, breaking up is great! Treating Qi Ran like that, I was truly guilty of a heinous crime. In the future, I’ll probably commit even more monstrous sins that are too numerous to record. That’s it, bye-bye!”

Qi Ran is a guy in his twenties weighing over a hundred catties, yet he goes around saying ‘Brother Siyuan, Brother Siyuan’ all day long?

Who is his brother?

After he hung up the phone majestically and proudly, he looked up only to find that Gu Siyuan was staring fixedly at him.

Xie Jinzhao was lost for words: “Wh… what?”

Gu Siyuan’s gaze was cold: “If I didn’t hear incorrectly just now, who were you breaking up with?”

“Yes… what about it?”

Hugging a throw pillow, Xie Jinzhao slowly retreated and shrank into the corner of the sofa. Who knows what kind of posture this was; he was clearly someone nearly 1.8 meters tall, yet he shrank himself into a ball like a little kitten. His body language, along with his voice, revealed incomparable guilt.

Gu Siyuan crossed his hands, resting them on his thighs. Staring at him, his expression was cold and stern: “You were in a relationship before, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Dating at such a young age shows you have no career ambition. If I had known this earlier…”

“Ah… don’t!” Xie Jinzhao hurriedly raised both hands to apologize.

“I’m sorry, I was wrong. I don’t even know what’s going on between me and Qi Run. I suspect my brain wasn’t my own back then. We haven’t had any contact for a long time. We only met a few times in half a year, and his younger brother was present every single time. To this day, we haven’t even held hands. Really, I’m still a pure and clean good man…”

As he kept speaking, Xie Jinzhao suddenly felt weird. Is this a guarantee from an artist to a manager?

Why does it feel like I was caught red-handed cheating?

Hehe…

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes.

Listening to this, Xie Jinzhao’s feelings for Qi Run completely didn’t seem as deep as what the system transmission had indicated.

His eyes were exceedingly cold: “Just this once. Do not let it happen again.”

“Okay, understood,” Xie Jinzhao repeatedly guaranteed.

However, less than a few seconds later, he raised his large, watery eyes and secretly peeked at Gu Siyuan: “Is it really… completely impossible to date anymore? Not with anyone?”

Saying this, he half-closed his left eye and lightly blinked at Gu Siyuan a few times.

If Gu Siyuan were a veteran driver (experienced in romance), he would know this action was called a wink.

But right now, he only coldly and ruthlessly scolded: “Why is your eye twitching? How old are you? You’re a star. Will you die if you don’t date? At least wait until you’re past thirty.”

Xie Jinzhao deflated.

So much so that later, for a long time when the two were in bed, he would suicidally tease a certain someone, saying he was already thirty years old and asking to be called “Gege” (older brother), only to end up being sorted out until he cried out for his parents.

“Right, how is your progress reading that script I mentioned?” Gu Siyuan quickly steered the topic back to business.

Xie Jinzhao nodded: “I finished reading it.”

This script was actually the suspense costume drama named Brocade Robes and Jade Capital (Jin Yi Yu Jing) that Gu Siyuan had him try acting out during his first private lesson at Xie Jinzhao’s house over a month ago.

Recently, Gu Siyuan somehow managed to get his hands on the scripts for the next ten episodes or so, letting him consider whether he wanted to participate in this drama next.

To be honest, the deduction of cases in the script of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital was quite solid, and the pacing of the plot was very tense and compact. After adaptation, the conceptual meaning of the lines had even been elevated. For a fictional historical suspense idol drama to reach this level was truly not easy.

Just looking at the script alone, it was much more reliable than those S+ mega-production TV dramas he had participated in before. He really wanted to act in it.

However, if only an actor could base everything solely on their own mood.

The production team and investment for this drama were too lacking. The director’s previous few dramas basically all had failing scores, and the screenwriter was the director’s regular collaborator. Most importantly, they had absolutely no experience filming ancient costume idol dramas.

He used to only act in S+ major dramas. Suddenly going to act in such a project—he was afraid his fans would go crazy with anger, audiences would think he had flopped and gone mad, and his commercial partners would think his status had completely plummeted.

“You are an actor. You only need to care about the script and the performance.” Gu Siyuan reached out, pinched his chin, straightened his face, and stared into his eyes: “Communicating with the production crew and handling subsequent public opinion issues is the job of me, your manager.”

Xie Jinzhao froze slightly.

In the past, his manager had always advised him not to be willful, not to choose scripts based on his temper—saying this person or that person will mock you for the low investment, or your fans will be unhappy if your styling isn’t handsome or beautiful…

He slowly reached out, firmly grasping Gu Siyuan’s strong palm, his eyes shining with stars as he looked at him: “Okay, then I want to act in it.”

Gu Siyuan nodded, his eyes seemingly capable of containing heaven and earth: “Rest assured, this drama will not let you down.”

“Mn,” Xie Jinzhao nodded vigorously.

Gu Siyuan pinched his cheek: “Then I’ll go contact the director now. I hope we can start filming as soon as possible. Your gap period has been too long.”

Xie Jinzhao smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits: “Mn, go ahead. Thank you for your hard work, my great manager.”

Gu Siyuan quietly looked at him once, then looked at him again.

“What’s wrong?” Xie Jinzhao smiled cheerfully.

Gu Siyuan’s gaze fell on the pale, slender, slightly smaller hand holding his own, and he said coldly: “When do you plan on letting go?”

“…” Xie Jinzhao.

What a petty man… What’s wrong with a little touch?

On the other side, Director Wang stared blankly at the hung-up phone and rubbed his face vigorously.

But still somewhat in disbelief, he finally hardened his heart and reached up to pluck a few of the sparse hairs left on his head. Finding that he had actually plucked three hairs out, he couldn’t help but feel heartbroken and utterly devastated.

His expression was joyful one moment and sorrowful the next, looking like he was performing a face-changing act.

The director’s wife and regular screenwriter, Ms. Hu, walked out holding a plate of fruit. Seeing him like this, she hurriedly went up and patted him: “Old Wang, what’s wrong with you? Even if the crew has to disband, don’t go crazy. As long as we’re still here, we can always earn the money back!”

“Old Wang, don’t scare me…”

Snapping back to reality, Director Wang picked up a strawberry from the fruit plate and popped it into his mouth: “So sweet.”

Ms. Hu blinked: “You really went crazy. Didn’t you used to hate strawberries the most?”

Director Wang let out a loud laugh, winking at his wife: “I could eat a whole basket of strawberries right now! Haha, haha, my crew can smoothly start filming now.”

“Get out of here, strawberries are so expensive right now. Even if you wanted to eat a whole basket, I wouldn’t be willing to buy them!” Ms. Hu punched him lightly.

Then she froze, staring at him and said: “What did you say? You can start filming?”

“Mn,” Director Wang nodded proudly.

Director Wang’s company was a small workshop that perennially filmed low-budget, poorly produced spy dramas and rural melodramas aimed at middle-aged and elderly aunties. He himself served as both director and producer, while Ms. Hu was the screenwriter and finance manager. The actors they hired were mostly familiar faces who were practically unknown.

Over the past ten-plus years, although they couldn’t compare to those well-known large companies, selling to major satellite TV stations still allowed them to break even.

Unfortunately, in recent years, ordinary people’s entertainment activities had become abundant, and the TV turn-on rate had dropped significantly. TV stations basically weren’t making money anymore, so the purchasing prices for dramas were squeezed lower and lower.

Companies like Director Wang’s were the first to take the hit.

The dramas produced by his company solely targeted middle-aged and elderly audiences, only popular on TV. The young people on video websites basically never watched their dramas.

Therefore, major online platforms fundamentally didn’t buy his dramas.

If it were the past, when major TV stations had good profitability, they all scrambled to buy exclusive broadcast rights to gather viewers. But nowadays, facing consecutive years of losses, without an online platform to share the burden, a TV station simply couldn’t afford the full production cost alone.

Left with no choice, in order to feed the dozens of people in his company…

Starting last year, Director Wang began researching video websites and what young people nowadays liked.

A while ago, under Ms. Hu’s suggestion, he bought Brocade Robes and Jade Capital—an internet IP novel that, while not a massive hit, had some fans and was relatively suitable for drama adaptation. He also negotiated subsequent investment and broadcast scheduling with the folks at Green Fruit Video.

The actors were also quickly finalized; all were B-listers in the entertainment circle. Among them, the male lead Yi Chi was a new young actor heavily promoted by Green Fruit Video recently. The female lead Lu Ruowen was an actress Director Wang had worked with before; she once had a massive hit work, but her subsequent projects failed, causing her status to drop again.

Unfortunately, just a month ago, on the eve of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital starting production, Yi Chi’s manager pulled some strings to get him the opportunity to play the second male lead in the major production Chronicles of Snowing the Wronged (Zhao Xue Lu).

The male and female leads of Chronicles of Snowing the Wronged were the most currently popular stars. The male lead was Qi Run, who excelled in both film and television with countless fans. The female lead was Xia Yu, a young actress at the height of her popularity who had two explosive hit dramas in a row over three years. Just sorting out their billing order had caused the producers a massive headache.

Coincidentally, the genre was also similar to their small, low-budget web drama—both were ancient costume suspense investigations, and there was a high probability they would air concurrently in the first half of next year.

In Yi Chi’s mind, their Brocade Robes and Jade Capital was no different from cannon fodder. Therefore, he unhesitatingly resigned right before filming began.

Being the second male lead in a major production like Chronicles of Snowing the Wronged, even if he got scolded, he could still drum up some presence. It was much better than filming a “three-nothings” (no money, no stars, no hype) web drama like Brocade Robes and Jade Capital.

Actors’ schedules were generally fixed several months or even half a year in advance. Trying to find a male actor with a similar status who also had a good relationship with the video platform at this juncture was simply too difficult.

It looked like this drama wasn’t going to get off the ground.

Left with no choice, Director Wang could only treat a dead horse as a living doctor, sending invitation emails to almost half the male actors in the entertainment circle.

He never expected that he would actually get a reply—a sudden turn of events.

Ms. Hu surprisingly pushed her husband aside and sat down on the sofa herself: “What happened? Did that Yi Chi come back?”

Director Wang curled his lips: “Of course not, we found a new actor.”

Ms. Hu nodded, then hesitated: “Can the platform accept him?”

“If they don’t even accept this, do they think this is some three or four hundred million massive investment?” Director Wang curled his lips, showing a bit of the arrogance of a daughter-in-law who had finally become a mother-in-law.

He looked at his wife, smiling until his eyes narrowed: “Just now, Xie Jinzhao’s manager called me, saying he wants to play the male lead.”

“Xie Jinzhao? That incredibly popular traffic star? The one whose ads are everywhere on the streets?” Ms. Hu couldn’t quite believe it.

Director Wang nodded floatily: “That’s him.”

Ms. Hu pinched her husband’s chubby face: “If Xie Jinzhao acts in it, the project can definitely start. But with your investment amount, after paying his salary, the crew would have to shut down before filming even halfway… Moreover, with his status, doesn’t the female lead also need to be replaced? Will this work?”

Director Wang shook his head: “His manager said whatever price and treatment we had scheduled for the previous male lead is fine for him too, and the female lead doesn’t need to be replaced either.”

“Real or fake? Old Wang, how did a meat pie fall from the sky onto your lap while you were just walking nicely on the road?” Ms. Hu was overjoyed.

Speaking of this, Director Wang gave his wife a tight hug: “This is all thanks to you! His manager said it was because he read your script and thought it was very good that he wanted to act in it. He even specifically requested that absolutely no ‘flying pages’ (last-minute script rewrites) or casual scene alterations occur during filming.”

Ms. Hu couldn’t help but cross her legs, waving her hand: “That’s a given. When has our company ever done such a thing? The scripts are all written well in advance.”

Director Wang added secretively: “His manager sounds very young, but his eye is truly top-notch. He even praised me! He said after watching my dramas, he found the cinematography and editing to be extremely excellent, but unfortunately, due to the limitations of the subjects I filmed before, it went unnoticed.”

Ms. Hu nodded: “Mn, then this Xie Jinzhao’s team is indeed quite good. Sigh, speaking of which, I actually watched the drama he aired a couple of months ago. Although the drama was scolded to death, his acting in it was actually okay, his skills aren’t bad.”

Director Wang frowned: “Really? Don’t just speak against your conscience because he saved us.”

Ms. Hu swatted him and rolled her eyes: “Would I lie to you? His acting is really good. He was the only normal person in that drama.”

Director Wang also frowned: “Then why was he scolded the worst?”

Ms. Hu gave a cold snort: “Don’t you know the virtues of some people in our circle nowadays? When they were young, they were also scolded until blood poured over their heads. Now that they’re older and considered ‘veteran actors’, they criticize this and criticize that all day long. Coupled with those young fans and anti-fans who just love to join in the fun and cause a ruckus.”

Director Wang nodded in half-understanding, then added: “Then that’s even better. I need to hurry up and confirm this, striving to get the drama started early. If we don’t start soon, the company is going to be dragged down.”

…

Director Wang’s side was anxious to start filming, and Gu Siyuan was a person with exceptionally high efficiency.

Quickly, all issues were discussed and settled, with an agreement for the few of them to meet directly at the film studio city in three days.

Director Wang was probably extremely satisfied with Gu Siyuan’s work. Two days prior, he even generously sent over the complete script for all episodes of Brocade Robes and Jade Capital, enthusiastically asking Gu Siyuan if there were any areas he was unsatisfied with and needed changing.

After a quick read, Gu Siyuan did indeed propose a few minor modification suggestions.

Upon receiving them, Director Wang and Screenwriter Hu were not only completely unbothered, but rather praised him even more incessantly. They felt he was the person with the best taste and judgment in the world; being a manager was truly a waste of his talents, and they almost tried to poach him from Xie Jinzhao.

Meanwhile, Xie Jinzhao, who usually kept a close eye on Gu Siyuan all day, couldn’t manage to do so this time because he suddenly developed a stress reaction to joining the crew for filming.

That night, after routinely browsing the financial stock market as usual, Gu Siyuan turned off the lights to sleep.

After Xie Jinzhao moved to his new house, there was enough room, and it was close to the Film Academy. If necessary, Gu Siyuan would directly stay overnight here.

Tonight, shortly after lying down, he noticed the bedroom door being pushed open, followed by a black shadow drifting in.

He narrowed his eyes and made no sound.

After the shadow entered, its purpose was very clear: it headed straight for his bed, then sat down leaning against the headboard.

After an unknown amount of time, the black shadow suddenly let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

Gu Siyuan did not intend to continue tolerating this. He reached out and turned on the bedside lamp with a click.

“Ah…”

Xie Jinzhao was startled by the sudden sound and light.

After jumping up like a sky-rocket firecracker, he found that Gu Siyuan on the bed was staring straight at him with dark, shiny eyes. His pupils were incredibly profound, like the sky before a storm.

Gu Siyuan propped himself up slightly on the mattress with one hand, sat up neatly, and said coldly: “What’s going on? Why are you coming to my room at this hour?”

Meeting this gaze, Xie Jinzhao initially felt somewhat guilty and evasive.

For some reason, he then changed his attitude, blinking frivolously: “I just broke up a few days ago, and my heart feels lonely and desolate. Having discovered that my manager is actually a supreme beauty, I just wanted to launch a night raid. I didn’t expect… I’d be exposed before I even had the chance.”

Playing the hooligan with him?

Gu Siyuan scoffed.

Hearing the sound, Xie Jinzhao only thought Gu Siyuan was going to mock him ruthlessly, then grab him by the collar and throw him out.

The next moment, Gu Siyuan’s cold, piercing gaze swept over his exquisite face and pale, slender neck, then gradually moved down towards his collarbones.

Undoubtedly, Xie Jinzhao was a great beauty. Especially right now, wearing loose pajamas, he displayed this beauty in a hazy, seductive manner.

Xie Jinzhao felt as if the person in front of him wanted to strip him naked with his gaze.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, reflexively reaching up, wanting to tighten the collar of his pajamas.

The next moment, heaven and earth flipped upside down.

A warm, powerful large palm on his waist exerted slight force, directly flipping him onto the bed.

…

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