Chapter 678: The Promised Photo Shoot

PS: The author's tenosynovitis has flared up, and my typing speed is relatively slow. However, after taking medicine, it has improved a bit. I can maintain updates for now, but the speed will definitely be slower than before.

This situation will likely continue until the end of the year. The doctor says it will take this long to recover, and updates should return to normal after the new year.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused to my readers, and I ask for your understanding.

Main text:

"Sis, what do you think of my training?"

In the private gym on the second floor of the mansion, Li Ao was struggling with clean and jerks under the gaze of Mia and Luo Quan.

It had been half a year since he started working out consciously. Although he hadn't achieved the effect of having muscles as big as bricks like in the WWE, at least his chest and abdominal muscles were visible.

At first, he needed the guidance of a coach to work out, but now he could train alone, and the volume of his training was gradually increasing.

Of course, today he was purely showing off, so he lifted far more than usual. After a few reps, he felt a bit sore. To avoid injury, Li Ao carefully put down the barbell and left the gym bench.

"It's about this scale, but the abs need to be a bit more defined." Luo Quan commented on her younger brother as if looking at pork belly in a supermarket.

"By the way, you have less than a month left, so hurry up. Eat less barbecue and fried chicken if you can." As Luo Quan said this, she sat on another bench and added the same weight as Li Ao.

Li Ao was doing this for fitness, while she was purely curious.

Girls generally don't need such a large amount of exercise to stay fit; yoga, jump rope, etc., are enough. For girls, a good figure and muscles are sometimes completely contradictory.

Of course, according to the emerging concept of beauty, it's quite good for girls to have an "ab crack," but there's no need to use a barbell to train for it.

In Luo Quan's hands, the barbell began to rise and fall very lightly.

Li Ao looked at his sister's relaxed appearance and looked at the barbell beside him, doubting his life.

Is this strength for real?

"By the way, Luo Quan, Li Ao doesn't need to play ugly this time, right?" Mia sat beside her boyfriend, hugging his arm.

She knew her boyfriend wanted to win an Oscar, but she also knew that Oscar judges didn't like handsome guys, especially young handsome guys.

So if he wanted to win an award, besides slowly building up his credentials, he had to play ugly.

If he acted in movies like an idol, getting a Best Actor nomination on the back of *Titanic* would already be the limit.

The movie her sister let Li Ao act in this time, according to her, wouldn't be worse than *Titanic* and was a work with great potential for the Oscars, so Mia was also quite concerned about this.

"Of course not. The character Li Ao is going to play can be seen as the embodiment of the American Dream, so naturally, the more handsome, the better." Luo Quan put down the barbell and answered seriously.

"I can also become the embodiment of the American Dream?" Li Ao laughed out loud. "I always thought I was the embodiment of American teenage girls' wet dreams."

"What are you saying!" Mia slapped Li Ao, knowing he usually had a big mouth and spoke without restraint, but he should at least pay attention to control.

It would be fine to say it in private with family, as no one would spread it anyway.

But if there were outsiders around and he said something bad, the trouble would be huge.

It just so happened that Li Ao's anti-fans were at their peak, and even a tiny issue would be magnified infinitely.

"Haha, understood. I won't do it again." Scolded by his girlfriend, Li Ao immediately admitted his mistake and corrected it.

He was usually so mischievous; I didn't expect him to become so docile after falling in love. Is it true that people change?

After staying in the gym for an hour, Luo Quan walked out without shedding a single drop of sweat.

She had just contacted Kalan, saying she needed his help to prepare the filming locations and such.

Because the story tells of modern American history, many political landmarks definitely needed to be filmed.

But her identity was relatively sensitive, and it probably wouldn't work if she went to film directly, which is why she asked Kalan to arrange it in advance.

Although she didn't know what Kalan's true identity was, looking at his name—Kennedy and Roosevelt—she knew he definitely had some skills in politics.

The result didn't disappoint her. This time, she was allowed to enter some sensitive places for filming, but the number of people couldn't be too large, and the time couldn't be too long.

Another point was that this movie couldn't contain any "private goods."

As a world-renowned director, the US had quite contradictory feelings about Luo Quan filming modern American history.

On one hand, they were quite expectant, looking forward to what kind of magnificent history she could film.

On the other hand, they were also a bit worried, worried that she would put some private goods into it and smear the US in front of people all over the world.

The reason for this worry was that they themselves did exactly that in the cultural battle. Judging others by themselves, they naturally feared that Luo Quan would use their own methods against them.

Luo Quan just chuckled after hearing the instructions conveyed by Kalan.

She wasn't so lacking in stature. Whatever the movie is, she just needs to replicate it.

She wouldn't hide the bad parts, nor would she cover up the good parts. Whatever it was like, she would film it that way, at most making some harmless artistic adjustments.

As for "private goods," she disdained doing such things to ruin her reputation and stature.

Moreover, this kind of childish revenge method had no substantial use.

After receiving the instructions, Luo Quan posted the promotional poster for *Forrest Gump* on Twitter.

In the photo, there was a tall back view of a person wearing a US military officer's uniform from the last century, saluting a pool.

The protagonist was a soldier, so the tone of the movie was set; it probably wouldn't be too relaxed.

Below the poster was a string of words:

What is the American Dream?

This was a question she hoped the public would discuss themselves before the movie aired.

Undoubtedly, what people think now is no longer the same as what people thought decades ago, and the dreams they want are not the same thing either.

Decades ago, many low-level workers could also own a two-story house and have many vacations and the economic strength to travel abroad every year.

As for now, I'm afraid we can no longer see such carefree low-level people.

Even, after the American Dream was thrown out, it was considered a relatively sharp, provocative question, belonging to those with bad intentions, and many people launched criticisms because of it.

It can be seen to what extent social contradictions have developed.

In fact, a long time ago, Luo Quan had already sung about the current situation in the US with *This Is America*, which also caused a huge sensation.

But it was just a sensation. After singing, everything remained the same.

And now, everything is just accumulating, lacking a real fuse.

Of course, for now, it's still relatively peaceful, so *Forrest Gump*, starring Li Ao, is still quite anticipated by netizens.

The only pity is that Luo Quan is only the director of this movie and won't appear on screen.

Originally, everyone thought Luo Quan and her brother could have some rival scenes or something, but it was missed after all.

It is worth mentioning that the female lead this time is played by Kalilian.

The two had just finished working together on *Titanic* not long ago, and now they were playing the male and female leads in a movie again. Isn't this sending material to the CP party?

At the same time, the two working together again raised another question: Will Mia be jealous?

After falling in love, Li Ao and Mia didn't do much to cover up when shopping, and paparazzi often captured intimate shots of the two on the street.

Not long after, the omnipotent netizens also found out Mia's identity—she was the granddaughter of the God of Stocks. The two could be considered a talented couple, well-matched in social status, and it wasn't anyone else's place to object.

But would such a young lady from a famous family really not be jealous seeing her boyfriend in the heat of passion acting as a couple with another beautiful woman?

Netizens obviously didn't believe it. Many female fans even happily thought that this movie was laying the groundwork for the two to break up, cheering for it one after another.

Previously, the passionate scenes between Li Ao and Kalilian had been sprayed by many of Li Ao's fans, jealous to the point that their eyes were spitting fire.

And now, these fans only hoped that Luo Quan would film the scenes between the two with as large a scale as possible, as long as it could drive the original partner away, then everything would be fine, and Li Ao could belong to them again.

Such thoughts can be said to be quite dark and selfish. There are many "NTR" fans in this world, but it's rare to see people "NTR" themselves like this.

"Tell me, will you be jealous?"

On the living room sofa, Li Ao read these comments from fans to Mia.

Mia shrugged indifferently: "What do I have to be jealous of? My happiness is something they can't even imagine."

This was because Mia had already deactivated her social media account; otherwise, she would have posted a mocking update now to show her sovereignty over Li Ao.

There is a saying: a man is like a kite; as long as the string is in your hand, no matter how high he flies, he will never escape.

The current situation is that the string of Li Ao, this kite, is firmly held in Mia's hand, and she is quite clingy; he can't shake her off.

Facing these provocations on the internet, Mia naturally wouldn't fall for it.

It's also good that *Forrest Gump* doesn't focus mainly on love like *Titanic*, so there won't be too many kiss scenes and bed scenes arranged for the male and female leads.

Li Ao had told Mia about this from the beginning.

As an actor, some things are unavoidable.

Mia was also quite generous, saying she could accept it.

After all, it's the US; the thinking in this regard is slightly more open.

And Luo Quan didn't intend to increase the difficulty of her brother's love life. For kiss scenes, she would use camera angles if possible, and for bed scenes, she would make them slightly more plain, with more stream of consciousness. Anyway, she just needed the intent to be there.

Of course, it didn't exclude the possibility that after filming it this way, Luo Quan would look at the final cut and feel dissatisfied, making them reshoot.

Different filming methods and scales result in different final presentations of the movie, so everything has to be seen after filming.

In the evening, Luo Quan's Twitter trended in China.

Now everyone knows she is going to film the American Dream. Needless to say, just hearing the name, one knows it's something relatively positive.

It's also about the changing of the times; why is *Farewell My Concubine* so heavy?

Regarding such malicious questions, Luo Quan answered directly: "Because I respect history."

Once these words were out, it directly blocked everyone's mouths.

In the evening, Luo Quan started a livestream, and quite a lot of "check-in" comments appeared in the chat.

This was naturally not the "check-in" of "No L in March, No L in April," but the fans' records of practicing martial arts.

After being told by Luo Quan last time, many fans made up their minds to use martial arts to temper their will and flesh.

Most people were quite afraid of suffering, but there were also a few who were willing to be ruthless and wanted to practice the Baji Quan taught by Luo Quan.

Luo Quan was naturally happy that someone was willing to learn. Under the suggestion of the chat, she livestreamed again to demonstrate to everyone what "Xun Qi" (snorting) was.

Seeing her snort at the microphone, the fans felt as if someone had hit a drum hard beside their ears; the sound was terrifyingly loud.

As a world-class high-pitched singer, coupled with her iron lungs, there is no need to elaborate on how loud her volume was.

And the snorting sound made with a special method was dull like a hammer, and even through the screen, one felt as if their chest had been hit by a hammer.

That feeling was similar to listening to explosive DJ music in a bar; the heartbeat no longer belonged to oneself, but to the rhythm of the music.

With this snort from Luo Quan, everyone felt their heart skip a beat.

"This sound, twenty years of skill, can you handle it?" After demonstrating, Luo Quan looked at the screen full of "my headphones exploded" comments and asked proudly.

"I really can't handle it, but it would be better if you snorted a bit more gently."

"Damn, this is martial arts; don't start driving (making dirty jokes) without a word."

"Besides snorting, I still want to see the action analysis of the 'Ding Xin Zhou' (Heart-Piercing Elbow); I feel that move is really practical."

"It is indeed practical. I imitated it on my roommate yesterday, and almost sent him to the ICU."

"Damn, you young people are really bold; you dare to imitate the Heart-Piercing Elbow casually?"

"It's fortunate you haven't mastered it; otherwise, after this hit, your roommate wouldn't be in the ICU, but sent directly to the morgue."

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Nonsense, the elbow is one of the hardest parts of the human body. It will hurt no matter where you hit someone, let alone hitting the heart; that's a fatal part!"

…………

Seeing the chat discussing it in such detail, Luo Quan nodded in agreement: "So remember, everyone must not use any martial arts learned from my livestream on people around you in the name of experimentation."

"No matter if the technique is proper or not, if there is even a tiny mistake, it will cause big problems, or even cost lives."

"Especially Baji Quan; this set of boxing is known as 'must injure people when striking.' Unless it's a last resort, even I won't use it."

"It can be seen how anxious those thugs made Luo Quan that day. She didn't stop using Baji Quan and Xinyiba; it was simply too violent."

In the chat, a fan made a joke. ===== CHAPTER 679 =====