Chapter 707

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

Career just starting out, the female lead's biggest concern right now is her career — even the male lead has to yield.

Feng Chen: ……

Feng Chen didn't speak; he felt wronged inside. Why does Shi Wei despise him so much? In their previous life, they were clearly childhood sweethearts who grew up together without a shred of suspicion.

Shi Wei: ……

Nonsense. They clearly came together because they came from the same place. Later, her luck ran out and she perished directly; Feng Chen also went out and met with misfortune, dying in a Secret Realm.

The very first thing they did after meeting and recognizing each other was compare their past-life memories. In short, two insignificant nobodies from the Cultivation World reincarnated into Modern Society. Although their lifespans became shorter, they no longer needed to live in constant fear and trepidation, treading carefully like before.

"Alright, but your family matters," Shi Wei felt Feng Chen should go back no matter what he said. The two of them might have past-life memories, but other people don't know that.

Imagine: a son who has talent, looks, money, and fame suddenly goes crazy and finds an ordinary girlfriend who has no job and starts her own business farming. Any parents would find that unacceptable.

Shi Wei wasn't really trying to drive Feng Chen away; it's just that if the two of them want to make it work, they need the recognition and blessing of both sets of parents.

Feng Chen's current willfulness will only deepen the Feng parents' dislike of her. Shi Wei feels Feng Chen is more childish than in their past life — which also indirectly shows Modern Society is good, and the Feng parents truly dote on Feng Chen.

Feng Chen fell silent for a long while before replying that he had already booked a plane ticket back to Jing Shi. "Family matters I'll handle. Whether it's my parents or Eldest Young Master, none of them will become an obstacle to us being together."

Unlike Shi Wei, Feng Chen's past-life memories were never forgotten. From birth he knew he was different from others. Before meeting Shi Wei, Feng Chen's world was simple: besides filming, he just stayed home and never went out.

The Feng parents' opposition that Shi Wei worried about didn't exist at all in Feng Chen's view — because the Feng parents would love nothing more than for a girl to actually pull Feng Chen out of his reclusive environment. They even once worried what to do if Feng Chen ended up alone for life.

They can't let Eldest Young Master manage Younger Brother for a lifetime. It's fine for parents to be a little biased, but making the older brother biased toward the younger brother is too much. Even though Eldest Young Master himself doesn't think favoring his brother is wrong, in the future when he marries and has children, doing so would be unfair to his wife and kids.

Feng Chen feels he and Shi Wei still need to take it slow, mainly because he worries Shi Wei can't endure it. The Feng family matters can wait until later to be discussed slowly.

Soon, the bread van stopped at the mailing point. Shi Wei got out and communicated with the people inside for a moment, then courier-clad personnel moved the items from the van inside one by one, affixed labels, and sent them off.

Next came Shi Wei's procurement time. Although the Spiritual Field Space lacks for no fruit, vegetables, or fruit — there are no seasons and no obvious temperature changes there; one could say the items planted in the Spiritual Field Space will keep cycling and growing continuously.

But this matter still counts as a secret (probably — Shi Wei feels her family suspects something, but they haven't called it out). She can't just produce things out of thin air, so she also needs to go out and procure supplies from time to time for their family's daily life.

Feng Chen would also get out to help, but his identity is special and he's easily recognized. Shi Wei only calls on him to show his face briefly when she truly can't free up her hands; the rest of the time she relies entirely on herself.

"Tsk tsk tsk, so this is the female lead? Why does the story's development trend feel off?"

The System feels this isn't right. How did a sweet romance turn into a "true fragrance" career? Could this have something to do with the two of them?

Shen Yao: ……

"You're overthinking. We're currently this far from the female lead — how could we influence her? It's not like the extra fruits and vegetables we bought could do it."

This World: …… That's true. Even this approach has pushed the female lead's career to an even higher level.

However, the world's operation isn't influenced by a single person. Even if they are the Main Cast, this World still has its own rules.

This is also the main reason Shen Yao could transmigrate here. Once a storybook's story breaks free and becomes reality, it's no longer subject to any one party's influence — even the Main Cast can die.

Resting her chin in thought about the upcoming script casting, Shen Yao told the System to put its idle time to good use and thoroughly investigate these people's situations. "Jiang Han Zhou paid compensation, after all — take a man's money, eliminate his disasters."

Shen Yao considers herself highly professional. These candidates all look glamorous on the surface, with many awards, but who knows how many landmines are buried behind them? The "Tree House" script also contains her blood and sweat — she can't let it be ruined by certain people's private morality issues.

System: ……

Fine, digging up dirt — and Entertainment Industry secrets at that — this hits the System right in its sweet spot.

The System expresses that it will definitely go all out, striving to bring back the data and intelligence the Host wants at the fastest speed.

Shen Yao smiled and nodded, speaking many words of encouragement to the System. In a room with no one else but her, she suddenly started talking to herself out of the blue — it really was a bit creepy.

The System became exceptionally busy. On the personnel list Shen Yao and Jiang Han Zhou had finalized, many people weren't in Jing Shi but ran back and forth across the country or abroad. They were all long-famous Actor stars who receive countless scripts and endorsements daily and have a certain degree of choice.

"…… Truly hopeless. Family blissful on the surface, but the couple each play their own games. And there's an excessively massive debt problem. Gambling counts as a very serious issue, right?"

"This one has no debt, but his Company has evaded taxes year-round. I've already secretly reported the issue — these stars won't escape."

"This one swings both ways. Key point: he brings a friend into every production crew, and the crew practically becomes his household. No good — the paparazzi have too much inventory on him; if it breaks, he'll never recover."

"……"

The System rattled off the intelligence it had dug up to the Host.

How to put it? Even veteran actors praised outside for good temper and professional ethics still have all sorts of problems.

Inside the circle and outside the circle are like two completely different worlds. What the real situation is, nobody knows. Mm, can't put it that way either — insiders definitely know, but because of the tacit Unwritten Rules, no one dares speak out proactively.

As for outsiders, most just watch the spectacle. Wrapped in a thick layer of persona, who can see through appearance to essence? That layer of delicate false mask is precisely what they pursue.

Shen Yao raised a hand and flipped through the list, casually picked up a Signature Pen, and crossed out every single name on it. How to put it? Some problems can be packaged — like not knowing how to speak called straightforward, explosive temper called frank, empty-headed called innocently naive… at least these all have room for redemption.

But the people left are still too few. Worthy of an Entertainment Industry full of temptation and danger.

Shen Yao wrote down a few names one after another, having the System continue investigating. This is a backup list. Often at a film's project initiation, they'd draft the actors they most want to invite. But most-wanted doesn't equal definitely invited — all kinds of problems lie across the path. Because the final confirmed cast list often differs greatly from the initial one.

Shen Yao has no special favoritism toward these Actor stars. It's just because this drama contains her hard work that she wants to perfect it, striving so both she and Jiang Han Zhou can make money.

Found time to call Jiang Han Zhou. He was also pondering the actors. Hearing the accurate intelligence Shen Yao got from who-knows-where, Jiang Han Zhou very readily gave up on these seemingly glamorous but actually danger-laden personnel, then settled for the next best thing and chose other backups.

"Early prep work can be slower. Once the crew starts shooting it'll be very troublesome." Because at that point replacing people involves considering all parties' interests. Jiang Han Zhou hasn't become arrogant enough to invest in the entire crew — he's still the one with the largest share.

"Right. Send invitations in a few days. Then talk privately." If the talk goes well, sign the contract. If not, replace them.

The two are in sync on casting, so there aren't many opportunities for mutual wrangling.

Had the System busy for a few more days. Once the people on Shen Yao's list were locked in, it was the day the two sides would meet.

The Director was invited by Jiang Han Zhou. The whole crew were also old acquaintances he'd worked with before. When Shen Yao arrived at the hotel, Jiang Han Zhou was in the middle of toasting and cup-exchanging.

Seeing Shen Yao approach, Jiang Han Zhou yielded the seat beside him to her.

Shen Yao raised an eyebrow at the sight, turned her head and asked softly: Is everyone here?

Jiang Han Zhou gave a slight nod. "If everything goes smoothly, in a few more days the project will start filming in Jingzhou."

Realism subject matter — definitely no need to run to a Film and Television Base to shoot. There are quite a few rural life scenes. The location chosen is Jingzhou.

It's worth mentioning that Jingzhou isn't too far from Shen Yao's hometown Yun Cheng, and right next to it happens to be the female lead's hometown Tao Yuan County.

If memory serves, at this time the male lead is still staying in Tao Yuan Village.

"That's right, but in a few more days he has to return to Jing Shi," the system chimed in, indicating the male lead temporarily has no drama offers; if they could invite the male lead to film, who knows, they might make a big profit.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao told the system not to make up random scenarios — the male lead requires an investment for every film he shoots, and he has huge say during filming; Jiang Han Zhou is not an easy person to deal with, putting these two together, is it because they think their days are too carefree?

"Besides, too much contact with the male lead brings no benefit; the male lead has blocked too many people's paths in the circle, his positioning differs from Jiang Han Zhou's — Jiang Han Zhou just invests to make money, staying behind the scenes offstage, but Feng Chen stands onstage making money, and even his fans are aggressive; only because the Feng Family is strong enough to suppress things, otherwise with Feng Chen's early years' behavior, black history would keep emerging endlessly."

System:...

The system indicated it already understood; since they cannot contact the male lead, it needn't pay excessive attention to the male and female leads' affairs in the future either.

"Right, there's so much entertainment in the entertainment industry, including plenty right at the scene," why pay attention to the male and female leads? It'll just do its own thing.

Directly across from Shen Yao sat an investor, gripping a pair of hands and not letting go, unrelated to the crew — this was a minor star the investor brought himself, and also a connection that needed to be stuffed into the crew.

Jiang Han Zhou's side also had some unimportant roles that could be given to the investor as a favor — all roles with only a few minutes of screen time, and even if cut entirely in post-production wouldn't affect the overall plot unfolding.

Everyone else pretended not to see this pair who looked completely mismatched by appearance; even the male and female leads discussed their character portrayals with the director without changing expression — clearly the entertainment industry's bottom line is that there isn't one.

Besides Jiang Han Zhou, at Shen Yao's side was also a screenwriter responsible for script control; the two had brief contact during the novel adaptation — this is a person of considerable principles and bottom lines, so among screenwriters she isn't famous, because most people are too principled.

This time too — just like the design of certain minor characters, all originated from Shen Yao's suggestions; if swapped for this screenwriter, they'd be useless background boards.

Per Jiang Han Zhou's meaning, the investor's face still had to be given — so the role could be small but not too marginal, otherwise it's disadvantageous for the next cooperation negotiation.

Shen Yao even asked Jiang Han Zhou about this — there's a next time with this kind of investor?

Jiang Han Zhou's answer: this type of person is easier to handle, because they don't interfere with crew operations; as long as surface face is given fully, it actually puts Jiang Han Zhou more at ease.

Shen Yao couldn't know how many demons and monsters Jiang Han Zhou had encountered in his years in the industry; otherwise she would surely marvel that big shots who make it in the entertainment industry all possess powerful hearts.

This gathering had excellent results — everyone got what they wanted.

Investors agreed to additional investment; male and female leads were satisfied with their character positioning and screen time; Jiang Han Zhou and the director gained more autonomy; except for some who disliked their roles being too small and wanted to strive for more — pity they're precisely the ones with the least say.

Leaving the hotel, Shen Yao hailed an outside taxi and returned to the residence.

Messages popped up in the group chat joined long ago — the crew's confirmed start date; everyone in the group chat congratulated one another — only when the crew formally operates do they have a place to use their skills.

Before departing for the crew, aside from updating her own novel, Shen Yao's other time was spent discussing script issues with the screenwriter.

As expected, the male and female leads both tactfully raised suggestions on whether the script could be modified — the two of them felt it could be optimized on this basis.

Mm

In other words, this also counts as adding scenes — just not as obviously as TV dramas add them; veteran actors still care more about face.

"They're afraid of provoking your displeasure and getting directly replaced — before, the contract wasn't signed so it wasn't good to bring up; now the crew is about to start so they speak up."

The system hmphed twice, indicating this is testing the waters — once successful, they'll definitely be pointing fingers at the finalized script in the crew later on.

"Didn't you know they had this small problem before signing the contract?"

Fortunately aside from this small problem there are no other major issues — Shen Yao had long since sent her prepared new version of the script to both sides respectively, indicating their requests could all be accommodated — anyway post-production can still edit.

Like acting? Then act more — perfect for releasing as behind-the-scenes footage; everyone has a bright future~