Chapter 244: The Other Party's Condition Was Worse Than His

Children never understand the world of adults.

No matter how mature they are for their age, it's the same.

And yet, at the same time, they always long to grow up.

Just like when Zhao Jinmai watched Uncle Da leave, feeling both sad and happy—she seemed to understand a little, but couldn't fully grasp it.

At her current age, she was still in the phase where happy meant happy, unhappy meant unhappy.

Every emotion written right across her face.

But some things, you understand after living through them a few times.

See, Uncle Da had only just wrapped his scenes a few days ago, and now she had wrapped hers too.

Now it's your turn~

"Waa waa waa~"

Facing the sniffling little girl, Bai Liang's choice was to quickly snap a few ugly photos of her first.

The little girl didn't yet have a strong sense of managing her expressions, and she hadn't fully grown into her looks either—ugly when she cried, but with a certain odd charm.

Wait till she grows up, then take them out and tease her~ It's all black history!

After finishing his mischief, Bai Liang naturally had to take responsibility and coax the little girl back to a good mood.

No one else could do this job—it had to be him.

"Do you want a present?"

". Yes!"

Taken down in one move.

A little girl this age didn't really understand parting; at most she just felt reluctant to let go.

That sadness was pure, but equally easy to distract.

What little girl doesn't like receiving gifts?

Besides, Bai Liang hadn't been bluffing—he really had prepared one.

After that little crocodile got taken by Reba, he'd been thinking about getting another gift for Zhao Jinmai.

Now giving it to her as a wrap-and-parting gift worked out just right.

Looking at the eagerly expectant Zhao Jinmai, Bai Liang didn't keep her in suspense and handed over a small regular octagonal stone.

"What's this? Little Lamb?"

"Mm, a beautiful blessing, kind of like a peace charm." Bai Liang explained.

He didn't know whether this Gen-Z Zhao Jinmai had watched *Jackie Chan Adventures*.

"Earlier, Brother, you seemed to have given Grandpa Wu one too~" Zhao Jinmai suddenly recalled.

At the same time, her small hand clutched the Sheep Talisman ornament tightly—she seemed quite fond of it.

"Right, his was the Horse. A noble steed, it can remove all external forces from the body—mainly wishing him good health."

"What about mine?" Zhao Jinmai asked, a little expectantly.

Bai Liang patted her head. "A gentle sheep, to turn your dreams into reality~"

"Make a wish?"

"Well... that's not wrong either." Bai Liang actually thought it could indeed be used that way—to give her a boost for her middle school exams~

But then the little girl came out with, "Then I want to act alongside Brother when I grow up—can I?"

Looking at her expectant face with a touch of nervous anticipation, could Bai Liang possibly refuse?

"Then keep this safe, and bring it to me when the time comes... lose it and it won't count."

Those words made Zhao Jinmai immediately clutch the Sheep Talisman to her chest with both hands, solemnly swearing she absolutely wouldn't lose it.

Guo Fan, who had been sneaking peeks from the side for quite a while, gave an internal thumbs-up: Good lord, it's really become a wishing machine.

Although Bai Liang's words sounded exactly like the casual reassurances adults use to placate children, Guo Fan actually knew him pretty well by now.

A few years from now, even if Zhao Jinmai didn't keep the "token" perfectly safe, and even if she accidentally lost the thing, if she came to find Bai Liang, he'd probably still grant her that "little wish."

Actually, how every child star develops after growing up is hard to say.

Some are wildly popular as kids, then gradually fade into the crowd as adults.

Although Guo Fan felt this little girl Zhao Jinmai had quite a spark of talent, how far she could go on the path of acting in the future was equally unpredictable.

But right now, this little girl was too clever—she'd already set up an "insurance policy" for herself in advance.

Who was Bai Liang? He was a top-tier star, and in the future he'd almost certainly not stop at being top-tier.

How "terrifying" this guy was, Guo Fan knew firsthand—traffic, skill, looks... he lacked nothing, and his eye for talent was frighteningly good; otherwise he wouldn't have so "discerningly" come to the *The Wandering Earth* crew~

And a few years from now, unless something unexpected happened, he'd only be more popular—definitely no worse than now.

But what Guo Fan admired most about Bai Liang was that he really didn't seem to care all that much about his top-tier star status.

When agreeing to the little girl's request, he hadn't considered any factors like status or commercial value at all.

It was simply a big brother granting his little sister a wish—and being willing to help her make it come true.

Romanticism indeed~

Guo Fan: Buddy, you really are the same kind of person as me.

The more he thought about it, the more alike they seemed—especially when "begging for alms."

Oh right, at the final farewell, Bai Liang hadn't forgotten to give little Mai a piece of advice:

Generally speaking, he didn't really like giving people advice, but he felt Zhao Jinmai might genuinely need it.

"Stay away from guys who play at being hip-hop—at the very least, keep your guard up around them."

Zhao Jinmai didn't quite understand, but she remembered it.

She nodded seriously!

After Bai Liang sent Zhao Jinmai away, he looked at Guo Fan's grinning face and couldn't help saying, "Director Guo, still spacing out? Let me remind you—I've only left you one week of schedule."

"Huh?!"

"Huh what? I told you this ages ago."

Guo Fan scratched his head. Once filming got him pumped, who still cared about any of that?

Especially since he kept filming while mulling over adding a bit here, adding a bit there, and cutting some parts elsewhere. Time flew by like crazy.

Actually, the ground scenes had long been finished; only the space station scenes remained—but those were the hardest part.

Who told him and Guo Fan, along with the rest of the *The Wandering Earth* crew, to get together and start brainstorming?

Under normal circumstances, three men together will inevitably produce one idea king.

And when a whole bunch of men get together, as long as they're not chatting about anything risqué or keyboard politics, with all their attention focused on the film, the imagination that bursts out is genuinely a bit terrifying.

This led to wanting to try everything.

They had the money anyway.

Guo Fan started racking his brain, but obviously, it was the wrong kind of brain-racking.

One week, under certain circumstances, might just stretch into a month—he could always come up with some special method.

Besides, he felt he could handle Bai Liang.

However, Bai Liang was indeed "easy to deal with" in a certain sense, as long as no one harbored ill intentions toward him.

But Guo Fan couldn't get past Sister Yanzi.

"Are you crazy?! Dou Xiao Bai has to report to the *Great Ming Fenghua* crew on time—they're all waiting for him! Guo, just you wait!"

Sister Yanzi wasn't being polite with Guo Fan anymore—mainly because they'd gotten familiar.

Even though Guo Fan shamelessly started calling her "Sister Yanzi," she absolutely wouldn't fall for it.

She even called in reinforcements!

Miss Jing Tian, upon getting the news, came charging over directly.

Holding someone hostage? She'd like to see who dared hold someone hostage!

For these last few days, she said she'd just sit at the *The Wandering Earth* crew, and when the time came she'd take the person away—let's see who dared stop her?

The reason Miss Jing Tian had such momentum, like an assassin possessed by the spirit of *Scissor Seven*, was mainly because Sister Yanzi had exaggerated things quite a bit.

She was just short of letting her imagination run wild with a "brave warrior slays the dragon" plot~

She thought it was super exciting, came over happily, and once she arrived deliberately pretended to be fierce.

Of course, Miss Jing Tian pretending to be fierce couldn't intimidate anyone, but she was a girl—what could Guo Fan even do to her?

The main thing was, nobody expected that someone this famous could actually be this free—doing absolutely nothing, genuinely just sitting around at the *The Wandering Earth* crew.

It had a strangely stubborn contrarian spirit to it.

Miss Jing Tian: I'm slumping right now, you got a problem with that?

Guo Fan really had no way to deal with this type of player.

He wanted to sweet-talk her, but she said she couldn't understand. A dummy counters the expert.

In the end, with no other choice, he gritted his teeth.

Seven days it is, then!

Within seven days, take Shucheng!

His life had been like walking on thin ice; today, even if he had to doggy-paddle, he'd paddle to the other shore.

And believe it or not, sometimes you don't push yourself and never realize your efficiency could be that high.

The principle that one is born in sorrow and dies in ease—anyone who's read a book knows it.

Bai Liang felt he'd been feeding Guo Fan too well before; lately the man had been lacking a sense of urgency. Fortunately, Sister Yanzi's strong offensive this time brought that feeling back, and with Sister Tian Tian the Princess powerfully backing him up, the pressure was maxed out.

Women don't reason with him—when the time's up, they'll really drag Bai Liang away.

In fact, it didn't even take seven days. Six days later, Bai Liang successfully wrapped!

There was zero joy of wrapping—only Guo Fan's helpless old face.

"Feels like there's still more I could tinker with..."

"You really want to spend all the money? Wouldn't it be better to save more for post-production and promotion?"

"That budget is definitely set aside, and isn't it said that you're great at generating buzz for projects~" Guo Fan gazed at Bai Liang eagerly, his expression instantly turning "longing" again, his whole face practically spelling out the word "begging."

"How am I supposed to get you buzz? Do a space skydive? Seems like someone's actually done that..."

Bai Liang remembered—several years ago, there seemed to be an Austrian who jumped from 39,000 meters, hitting a top speed of 833.9 mph, breaking the sound barrier.

Obviously, that stunt was sponsored by Red Bull.

Red Bull's overseas business was absolutely wild; domestically they were pretty tame—but after encountering Bai Liang, the domestic Red Bull folks also started getting ideas for stunts.

No errors in any chapter, no missing content—read it all here!

If Guo Fan really wanted to play something this extreme, Bai Liang didn't mind betting his own fate to keep him company—should he contact Red Bull?

Guo Fan: Bro, I was kidding...

Seeing the spark of interest leaping in Bai Liang's eyes, Guo Fan was genuinely a bit scared.

Everyone said a director who made youth films coming to do sci-fi must be crazy.

But now how did he feel that Bai Liang's "condition" was far more severe than his own?

No wonder he couldn't see through Bai Liang—turns out the other's condition was above his.

Guo Fan was afraid his male lead, before the first film's success or the second even starting filming, would suddenly kick the bucket.

At the same time, Guo Fan was also afraid Sister Yanzi would go crazy and kill him.

This little manager girl was formidable—sweet-talk aside, even though Sister Yanzi already thought *The Wandering Earth* was a great project, it didn't stop her from roasting him on a whim, without the slightest hesitation.

Actually, quite a few people had shared Guo Fan's worry, but for now, Bai Liang was still alive and kicking.

The eight characters are rock-solid.

Since they hadn't come up with any clever promotional ideas for the moment, everyone decided to order first.

The wrap party still had to be done.

With Bai Liang's scenes wrapped, the filming of "The Wandering Earth" was basically over too—at most a few more days to tie up loose ends and patch some details.

After that, they'd have to throw themselves into the post-production work, which in some ways was even more important.

The bulk and the key of this film lay right here.

Even if Bai Liang gave an award-winning performance, if the special effects were subpar, it'd be carving flowers on shit—utterly useless.

Fortunately, Guo Fan was quite trustworthy in this regard—far more reliable than when he was sweet-talking people and drawing big pies for them.

But what Guo Fan hadn't expected was that someone as good at hoodwinking others as himself would one day be hoodwinked by someone else.

When Wu Jing suddenly came over and said he wanted to take Bai Liang along to attend the Golden Crane Awards, Guo Fan was dumbfounded.

"Huh? Isn't he supposed to be joining the cast to film?"

Sister Yanzi: "What's it got to do with you? Don't ask!"

Wu Jing: "What's going on here? I came at just the right time, caught you guys eating. What's the occasion for this meal?"

He didn't stand on ceremony either—he sat down, took a sip first, then nodded at Miss Jing Tian in greeting, instinctively assuming she had come to visit the set and the crew was hosting her.

But Guo Fan's face was full of bitterness: "This is the wrap party~"

"Huh?! It's already done filming?"

"Liang-ge's efficiency is very high."

"Then that's really quite a coincidence."

Coincidence? This was no coincidence—Sister Yanzi had planned it.

Bai Liang and Wu Jing would go to the Golden Crane Awards to pick up a trophy, then join the cast of "Great Ming Splendor"—the timing was perfect.

As for Miss Jing Tian... a pleasant collaboration.

Hearing this, Guo Fan scratched his head and said with a resentful look: "What's so good about the Golden Crane Awards? Isn't that thing just a tag-along of the Tokyo International Film Festival?"

"If he goes, he might snag Best Newcomer. Right now he doesn't have a single award to his name—believe it or not, his resume only lists the Weibo Night." Wu Jing couldn't hold back his laughter.

He had only learned this after looking up Bai Liang's Baidu Baike page himself. In the awards section, Bai Liang's resume was so clean it was laughable.

Truth be told, his acting was quite good, and many directors spoke highly of him, but because of the genres he filmed, let alone winning awards, he hadn't even gotten a proper nomination.

"Not even a TV drama award?!" Guo Fan said, somewhat incredulous.

Bai Liang spread his hands: "Really none~"

"That shouldn't be... Some random minor awards—don't you just show up and get one?"

Guo Fan had done youth films before, so he had some understanding of certain things.

There were quite a few awards both domestic and abroad that sounded impressive but had almost no real substance—perfect for trophy-grabbing.

Some awards, as long as you were an artist with a bit of standing, they'd just hand one over if you showed up.

If you were shameless enough, grabbing a whole pile wasn't impossible—it just made you easy to mock.

Today's netizens are "out to get you"—whether you have the goods or deserve it, they'll dig it all up thoroughly for you.

Back in May this year, Yang Mi went to accept some Houston International Best Actress award.

What use was it?

Netizens dug up that the backdrop at the ceremony wasn't even pulled taut—and oh right, the award-giving big screen was a giant PowerPoint.

Even though our Mi-jie showed up in a printed gown, flashing her fragrant shoulders and collarbones, dressed to the nines, every inch the beauty—

—she still couldn't hold a candle to the other guests beside her, who just showed up in jeans.

Some fans simply said: "Like a promotional event at our mall."

Some Weibo users also revealed: 99% of the guests who came were unrecognizable;

Other netizens claimed "a micro-film from their own school won an award."

Bai Liang: I didn't know about that before either.

Sister Yanzi: I didn't know either.

This was one of the downsides of a startup team—Sister Yanzi genuinely hadn't thought to help Bai Liang snag some awards or whatever.

At the start, she really hadn't realized this point.

Awards aren't the absolute standard for judging an actor's achievements, but to some extent they represent the film industry's recognition of an actor.

Then here's the problem: the current mainstream domestic film circle—even Wu Jing doesn't really want their recognition.

As for Bai Liang, a young newcomer who had just popped up, no matter how loud his voice was, if they didn't want to acknowledge him, there was nothing he could do about it.

So the two cheerfully decided to go after something else first.

Sister Yanzi also felt that the gap in awards for her own Little White-ge was indeed a bit too big—regardless of whether they had any real substance, let's first achieve that breakthrough from zero to one.

As for TV dramas... they could look forward to next year's Golden Eagle Awards.

Other awards with insufficient substance—participating selectively could also somewhat fill the gap in that area.

Wu Jing did mention that next year's Hundred Flowers Awards and Huabiao Awards still had some hope—with "Wolf Warrior 2"'s 6.6 billion box office right there, even if a lot of people weren't happy about it, the thing was right there, impossible to get around.

The entertainment circle could collectively fall silent, but "Wolf Warrior 2"'s box office reaching that level was no longer just a matter of a single film.

To put it bluntly, for certain people, this already counted as a political achievement.

Really dare to give him nothing? Bullshit!

When the time came, they'd probably have to pinch their noses and drape a garland on Wu Jing.

Thinking about it is kind of thrilling—just love the look on certain people's faces when they can't stand him but can't take him down either~

Bai Liang himself didn't really care about awards or whatever—trophies as decorative pieces in the studio looked pretty nice. Winning awards was great, but not having them was fine too.

However, Sister Yanzi told him: You yourself might not care about awards, might not need them to prove anything, but fans really do need this stuff to tear into rival fandoms. Since we're going to be a hexagonal warrior, we can't leave too big a gap.

Crass words, but not bad logic!

Oh right, this trip to the Golden Crane Awards, I might run into some familiar faces too.

*Eternal Love*, *WuKong* seem to be going to join in the fun as well.

Actually, it's less about winning an award and more about selling the film. As a spinoff "peripheral" of the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Golden Crane Awards were originally selected from the films in the festival lineup.

Rather than saying Bai Liang went to accept an award, it'd be more blunt to say he went to help Wu Jing hold the stage and hawk his film.

Tsk tsk, Wu Jing actually wants to push *Wolf Warrior 2* overseas?

The Japanese market?

Bai Liang nearly laughed himself to death.

(End of chapter)