Chapter 332

Wu Jing had always known that Bai Liang was bold, even bordering on reckless.

But honestly, he never expected him to be this bold.

Of course, climbing Zhufeng isn't particularly difficult anymore.

Isn't there a saying like this?

If you have enough money, you can have Sherpas carry you up Zhufeng.

This is obviously an exaggeration, but it illustrates how commercialized climbing Zhufeng has become.

In the last century, the fatality rate was thirty-seven percent; now it's in single digits, which seems much better.

But every year, five to ten people still die up there, and in some years, with special circumstances, even more perish.

Most importantly, Bai Liang's motivation for doing this was damn—how much did Red Bull actually pay him?!

Wu Jing really wanted to know what kind of astronomical sum could make Bai Liang act this insane.

"I just said it offhand—I haven't settled on any specific project yet. After all, you brought it up, and I thought it sounded pretty promising."

Promising?

Wu Jing thought about it—and damn, he was actually tempted!

Sometimes, you don't have an idea yourself, but you're afraid someone else will lead the way.

As the saying goes: when three people walk together, one must be a genius.

And Bai Liang is exactly the kind who leads others into reckless acts—he doesn't even need three people to start.

"My little son was just born this year."

"I remember I sent a red envelope," Bai Liang rubbed his chin, recalling.

He probably hadn't had time to visit the child, but he had indeed sent a red envelope via his phone.

"That's not what I meant," Wu Jing stared at him blankly. "I mean I want to live longer."

"A reasonable request," Bai Liang nodded. "I'm greedier—I want immortality."

Wu Jing swiftly changed the subject; he feared if they kept talking, he'd actually get tempted and end up following Bai Liang into danger.

This kid had too strong a destiny—he dared not follow.

But before the movie started filming, Wu Jing planned to go to Gangshika Snow Peak in Qinghai for extreme cold training, to test what climbing a snow mountain actually felt like.

Although the movie project seemed utterly unreliable to him, he insisted he had to be reliable—those War Wolf PTSD sufferers were still chasing him down.

Everyone else in the movie could slack off—he couldn't.

His main reason for coming here was to pass on his post-War Wolf 2 experiences of being targeted.

It was simple: give your all, do everything you can, and the audience will give a fair evaluation.

But Wu Jing wasn't sure whether this approach would work for Bai Liang.

After all, Bai Liang's weirdness was no secret anymore.

He'd assumed that after winning the Golden Eagle Best Actor award, he'd face serious backlash.

But what happened? Unexpected forces helped him breeze through this "crisis," astonishing many.

This is even possible?! Is he really Weibo's golden child?

If roles were reversed and he'd faced an incident of this scale, Wu Jing felt he'd definitely be shredded online.

His secondary purpose, however, was to ask whether Bai Liang was interested in joining him on The Climbers.

With only Wu Jing himself, though his status was high, he was still too isolated.

Bai Liang, meanwhile, had high status but little seniority.

Together, they might just sideline the director. Cough.

It wasn't that Wu Jing wanted to be a tyrant on set.

It was mainly—damn—the script had him falling in love with Zhang Ziyi while climbing Zhufeng.

At eight thousand meters altitude, at the critical moment of summiting, Wu Jing and Zhang Ziyi would use military radios to confess their love, staging a "doomed romance" right before reaching the peak of Zhufeng.

There'd even be scenes of bloodstained handkerchiefs, bloodstained snow—life-and-death romance tropes.

It'd be better to just make "War Wolf on Zhufeng."

"Hehehe~"

Bai Liang laughed uncontrollably, barely holding it together.

What the hell is The Climbers? Just rename it The Doomed Love on Zhufeng.

This movie project is based on true events.

The actual summit of Zhufeng was, in fact, a war over territorial sovereignty.

All because of one sentence: "If the Chinese have never climbed Qomolangma, how can you say Qomolangma belongs to China?"

So this wasn't a climbing film at all—it was a weighty historical film.

Falling in love in a movie like this… Hahaha~

"Do we really need a female lead?" Bai Liang asked curiously after laughing.

"Can we just kick Zhang Ziyi out?" Wu Jing snapped.

Bai Liang waved his hand as if with great authority: "If she doesn't listen, kick her—she's been spoiled enough."

"You're awesome," Wu Jing knew Bai Liang was just joking. "That's Zhang Ziyi."

"You're Wu Jing," Bai Liang, enjoying the chaos, stoked the fire.

"You didn't show me this much respect when you hit me."

Hearing this, Bai Liang looked utterly innocent. "You're still holding a grudge? Back then, you weren't even a 6.6-billion-yuan director."

Was that true?

Wu Jing frowned suspiciously, then deliberately scowled: "I feel you don't respect me much now."

"Stop pretending to be the Godfather—it doesn't suit you."

Doesn't it?

Wu Jing: Fine, forget it~

As for how to "deal with" Zhang Ziyi, Bai Liang couldn't offer Wu Jing any serious advice.

After all, his advice might make Xie Nan furious—she just gave birth to Wu Jing's second child; you can't upset her.

As for him personally stepping in to help? Also not feasible—Zhang Niangniang is nearly forty.

A woman of forty, outside of some unorthodox methods, is still not easy to provoke by conventional means.

Even Wu Jing had no way to handle her.

In the end, after chatting for hours, the only thing they firmly decided was that Bai Liang would make a cameo.

After this was settled, something that left Wu Jing speechless came up.

Bai Liang began teaching him some mountaineering basics.

How to cope with high-altitude hypoxia, how to use an ice axe for ice climbing, how to chop steps into ice walls to climb snow slopes.

At first Wu Jing just listened for fun, but as he listened, he realized something was off—holy shit, this is professional?!

"You really know this?!"

"Just a little bit~"

For someone with strong luck, the reason to climb Zhufeng is simple.

Because Zhufeng is there!

The world's highest peak—how could Bai Liang possibly not go check it out?

Of course, he hasn't climbed it yet in this lifetime.

Watching this kid's smiling face, Wu Jing felt a twinge of regret—he should've forced Bai Liang to promise everything right then.

They could've been the dual male leads—this movie would've been perfect!

Now he could only sigh, slump onto the RV's sofa, and start revenge-eating Bai Liang's snacks, drinks, and fruits.

He had to make up for it somehow.

Besides, Wu Jing wasn't in a hurry to leave—he'd never been inside Bai Liang's big RV before; he might as well enjoy it.

Soon he'd be heading to the snow mountains to suffer.

Sometimes he envied actors like Bai Liang—natural talents who could play any role, picking everything up instantly.

Wu Jing admitted he couldn't—he was purely an action actor, always weaker in dramatic scenes.

Of course, that was relative; after so many years, even without formal training, experience had lifted him up.

But compared to those exceptional at dramatic roles or those who could effortlessly slip into character, he still felt inadequate. "Let's have a drink tonight, by the way, where are those two guys? You kicked them out—they've got things to discuss with you, right?"

Hearing this, Bai Liang remembered them—he'd nearly forgotten.

He opened the RV door and glanced outside, then chuckled.

The two Crown Princes were standing guard like door gods.

One on the left, one on the right, neither looking at the other.

Tsk, these two Crown Princes clearly don't get along.

But right now, Ashe had the upper hand—he was significantly taller than Xi Zi Ge, naturally exuding more presence.

Yet Xi Zi Ge's stubborn, unyielding expression made him seem especially defiant.

Bai Liang: Come on, come inside and fight—don't let others see.

Once inside, of course, no fighting broke out—with Wu Jing sitting there, the two Crown Princes sat as meek as quails.

Watching this, Wu Jing found it amusing.

!

Because he realized Bai Liang didn't look much older than these two Gen Z kids—their faces were all just as youthful.

As he stared, he suddenly caught on.

This kid's aura was surprisingly versatile—when Wu Jing jokingly called him "Liang Ge," he himself didn't even feel it was odd.

Because he'd unconsciously never thought of Bai Liang as a kid.

But now, standing with two real "kids," Wu Jing again felt—Bai Liang really did look young, and he blended in perfectly.

Suddenly, he understood!

This is what a genius actor is like? Can act mature, can also act young.

His aura is so versatile, as if he can perfectly blend into every "environment."

Tsk, envy!

Yet, upon hearing Bai Liang casually agree to Ashe's invitation—Chen Feiyu's—Wu Jing still slightly frowned.

He always felt someone like Bai Liang, slightly offbeat, might not mesh well with a director like Chen Kaige.

Put plainly, most Fifth Generation directors still prefer to maintain dignity—they don't do humor or self-mockery well.

If someone doesn't show respect, their face might drop to the ground.

Their way of expressing themselves and projecting outward tends to be lofty, exuding too much superiority and stubbornness.

And Bai Liang, who dares to "hit" the director upon joining a set, treats everyone as equals—how could he possibly fit with a director like Chen?

Don't end up offending the great director while filming.

—

Ashe stayed at Bai Liang's place for half a day.

"Persuading" Bai Liang to join his father's "team" didn't take long—the bulk of the time was spent competing with Xi Zi Ge at video games.

The two disliked each other, so Bai Liang gave them a more refined way to settle their rivalry.

By the later rounds they couldn't even be bothered to be annoyed at each other anymore, and started calling each other noobs.

Arthur: Honestly, the game is really fun! That RV was amazing! A guy's happy place~

But the real happiness wasn't playing games.

It was Bai Liang grinning as he said to him something like: "Young man, I can see you've got extraordinary talent and a jaw-dropping bone structure — one look and I know you're prime material for getting with older ladies."

Arthur, a bit shy: "Older ladies and all that… not really… that's not my thing."

Bai Liang: "I have a special way of getting along with older ladies. Want to learn?"

Arthur: "Really, godfather!"

After he scampered back, his old man asked: "So what did Bai Liang say?"

Arthur, looking blank: "Huh? Say what? Older ladies?"

Looking at his own dumb kid, Chen Kaige furrowed his brow, thinking to himself, so my own face doesn't count? These young people nowadays—

"Arthur, please sit down. Talk properly."

"He agreed!"

Once seated, Arthur's IQ climbed back to the high ground, and he hurriedly added an explanation.

"The specifics?" Chen Kaige looked at his son, who seemed a bit unreliable, and said with some dissatisfaction.

Arthur quickly straightened his posture and explained that the moment Bai Liang heard the name of the great director Chen Kaige, he got excited and agreed on the spot, saying it was an honor to work with Director Chen, that he'd long wanted to come learn from him, and so on.

"Really?"

"Really! He even told me he especially likes one of your films."

Hearing this, Chen Kaige wasn't that impressed — *Farewell My Concubine*, obviously. What other film could it be? Everyone says the same thing; he's heard it till his ears have calluses.

After all, if Bai Liang had said *The Promise*, that'd be stirring up trouble.

But then Arthur said, "He likes your *Legend of the Demon Cat*, and he said that for a film he's joining next year, a lot of the performance in it referenced the content and feel of *Legend of the Demon Cat*."

Oh!

Chen Kaige sat up a bit straighter at that.

Being flattered by a young artist wasn't worth getting happy over, but when the country's first ten-billion-box-office Best Actor says it, that genuinely gives face — especially saying it in front of his own son.

Come, let's chat more.

Arthur's scalp went numb.

Bai Liang had indeed mentioned *Legend of the Demon Cat*, but only that little bit — the rest was all made up by Arthur himself.

Hmm. Should probably call it artistic embellishment.

Anyway, the result was that Bai Liang agreed, right? The specific details were up to Arthur to freely improvise.

After all, as the son of the great Director Chen, he knew exactly what his old man liked to hear.

Meanwhile, Arthur declared: I just want to get better!

In this situation, naturally he had to find a way to make his old man happy first.

Sure enough, the son knows the father best. After this round of artistic embellishment by Arthur, Bai Liang's favorability with the great Director Chen shot straight up.

After all, as mentioned before, Bai Liang is no ordinary young actor — he's the industry's first ten-billion-box-office Best Actor!

The young people nowadays — not only are their professional skills impressive, their taste is pretty good too!

And this was all relayed by his own son — how could it be wrong?

Chen Kaige was very pleased, feeling that Bai Liang really knew how to play the game, worthy of the top spot among the younger generation!

"By the way, that Star-Sea Young Actor Plan the movie channel is running — Director Tian Zhuangzhuang is your recommender."

"Dad? Why don't you just be my recommender?"

"Where have you ever seen a father recommend his own son? Doesn't look right."

After bringing this up, Chen Kaige suddenly asked: "Oh, was Bai Liang nominated?"

"Seems like… no~"

"He doesn't have a recommender?" Chen Kaige frowned, feeling that didn't seem right.

Bai Liang's film achievements were so good — how could an event like this not include him?

Such a "progressive" event—

Arthur: Dad, is there any chance that, in everyone's eyes, he's already almost outgrown the 'young actor' category.

This event is somewhat meant to encourage "newbies," though of course there are benefits — some mainstream resources and exposure get tilted your way.

So there are also some fairly well-known young artists in it.

But it really feels like if Bai Liang got mixed up in it, it'd be like a top-tier boss accidentally wandering into a newbie village.

Does that make sense?

This guy is already a goddamn ten-billion-box-office Best Actor.

Arthur grumbled inside, but couldn't stop his old man from having a flash of brilliance.

"Let me recommend him — who knows, it might become a nice story~"

Clearly, the great Director Chen thought his idea was brilliant.

Arthur:???

Hiss… now he suspected his artistic embellishment had been a bit over the top!

——

Monthly votes are about to expire next month, bros, hurry up and vote.

(End of chapter)