Chapter 579: Intern Gets MVP!

These people are serious.

When Bai Liang sat in the airport lounge, reading online comments about the short film he'd "directed," he couldn't help but feel that luck, after all, made no sense.

He'd finally experienced, from this angle, how others saw him.

This is insane!

He hadn't really understood the short film—maybe his artistic taste hadn't fully caught up yet; it felt vaguely interesting, but not quite in the way it was meant to be, so he'd probably need to watch it a few more times.

Besides, he clearly remembered none of his assistant directors were named Jiang Wen.

Why did it suddenly feel so… off?

Could someone in the writing team have once hung out with Jiang Wen?

And online, the reviews of that short film were overwhelmingly positive!

The craziest part? Liu Cixin had even stepped in to post a Weibo supporting it. Bai Liang was certain he hadn't even asked him to endorse it.

When he directly asked, the reply came: I genuinely think it's great!

I can't tell—I just can't tell!

Now Bai Liang was beginning to understand how Huang Jiaozhu must have felt, floating on air.

Something you yourself can't judge at all, yet everything around you insists: it's amazing!

Even if you know your own limits, your mind still struggles not to go numb.

Of course, Bai Liang didn't rely entirely on this—he was confused mainly because he couldn't tell whether the short film had accidentally turned out genuinely excellent, or whether he'd somehow benefited from some lucky break and everyone was just lying together.

Not only that, but quite a few well-known film critics had surfaced, each one praising it as if they'd been paid off by Bai Liang.

As if China's cinematic future depended entirely on Bai Liang to save it.

Someone who didn't know might think he'd made Farewell My Concubine~

The stench of paid trolls is too strong!

But Bai Liang had already asked Sister Yanzi about this, and she swore firmly: We absolutely did not deploy any trolls to manipulate this.

Sister Yanzi was busy handling those ridiculous storytelling marketing accounts for Meng Jie, plus she still had promotional work to do for Awakening of the Age—she genuinely had no spare time to mess with this.

After all, Bai Liang had already firmly declared he had zero interest in directing.

If he truly wanted to be like Wu Jing or Deng Chao—unsatisfied with just acting and wanting to snatch directing duties too—that'd be another matter entirely.

But with his chaotic, slapdash approach—even letting an intern handle post-production—it was obvious he had no intention of pursuing directing as a career, so everyone just let it be.

At this moment, Sister Yanzi, who was handling those marketing accounts, took a moment to check in on the Ultimate Ceremony's status.

"Boss Yan, the online reception of Brother Liang's short film is… weird," a subordinate reported.

Sister Yanzi didn't look up. "If the score's too low, nudge it up a bit—don't make it too high, just keep it above passing."

Too low would be embarrassing; nudging it up slightly would spare Little Bai from acquiring some strange black mark—what if he ended up sitting at the same table as Bi Dao?

Too high would be fake, and then it'd become a black mark too.

"It's not too low—it's too high!"

"What?"

Sister Yanzi finally turned her head, but her expression showed little surprise—she'd seen too much by now.

So a hastily thrown-together short film, shot by multiple assistant directors, with post-production handled by an intern—a messy patchwork—and it accidentally became a "classic"?

After glancing at the overall situation with a "watching a show" mindset, Sister Yanzi genuinely laughed.

She called in the intern who'd handled Bai Liang's post-production, chatted with him briefly, and discovered that while he wasn't a formally trained film school graduate, he wasn't entirely untrained either.

He had understanding!

He talked about cinema like he had a whole system.

During university, he'd worked on post-production for several online influencers' teams; as for why he came to Bai Liang's company after graduation—the reason was simple: highest salary in the industry!

Sister Yanzi didn't press further, but the fact that this kid could turn Bai Liang's raw footage into something this clever meant he definitely had something.

Conclusion:

The intern got MVP!

"Give this intern a permanent position, raise his salary, then observe whether he truly has talent for directing. First assign him to two commercial shoots, then slip him into one of our invested productions."

Sister Yanzi found nothing strange about the boss slacking off, grabbing an intern to do work, and accidentally discovering a genius.

Anything could happen to Little Bai.

—

"What are you looking at? Let me see too~"

As Bai Liang was still enjoying the flood of praise online for his "directed" short film, a head squeezed in beside him, and a faint floral scent drifted into his nose.

The only person who'd do something like this was Sister Tian Tian.

Today, she was pouting, clearly in a mood to ignore Bai Liang.

This was because, before leaving for the airport, she'd seen Bai Liang talking to Dili Reba and the two of them hugging.

Bold!

Sister Tian Tian felt this behavior was disrespectful to her—she had to teach this brat a lesson.

So on the way to the airport, she'd stayed silent, pretending to be aloof and ignoring him.

But after pretending for so long, Bai Liang just kept staring at his phone, never coming over to talk to her. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got—and in a fit of pique, she took the initiative and came over to cuddle.

Sister Tian Tian didn't think this meant she was weak-willed—this was courtesy before force.

If this cold war dragged on forever, nothing would be resolved; she'd make her move first—if Bai Liang still didn't realize his mistake, he'd regret it!

"I'm reading the online comments about my short film," Bai Liang said without hiding anything, showing her his phone screen.

"So many people are praising you! Wow! So you're also this good at directing?!"

Sister Tian Tian's tone was slightly exaggerated—but not intentionally; that was just her usual style.

Really good at giving compliments! Providing emotional value~

"Director?" Bai Liang scratched his head. "I honestly didn't do anything, you believe that?"

"Didn't have to lift a finger, and you're already at a height no one else can reach? You rascal, Bai."

Bai Liang couldn't help but chuckle. "Sister Tian Tian, you're getting cuter and cuter~"

Hearing this, Big Sister Tian Tian was delighted at first, but then immediately knit her brows, hands on her hips: "How dare you! Calling me Sister — you're getting more and more impolite!"

Time keeps running, and many people are changing, but with Big Sister Tian Tian it seemed as if it hadn't moved at all.

A few years ago she had pestered Bai Liang to call her Sister, and she was still the same now.

Even her tone hadn't changed.

Coincidentally, this fellow Bai Liang was also a contestant who didn't change with time.

"What's the benefit of calling you Sister?"

"You still want benefits? I'm already older than you to begin with~ Calling me Sister is only right, isn't it!"

"How old are you?"

"Thirty-two!"

Damn, she actually seemed quite proud of it.

Speaking of which, although they're all contestants on the ditzy-beauty track, when you break it down they're actually quite different.

Take Big Sister Tian Tian — she blurted out her real age like a fool, while Naza would carefully subtract things like nominal age and whatnot, basically using every method to make her age look smaller, and when pushed into a corner she'd just say she's eighteen every year.

But if it were Meng Jie, she'd first say she's sixteen, and after being exposed and laughed at, she'd change her tune and say she's eighteen.

But Big Sister Tian Tian quickly caught on and hurriedly said: "But I'm the kind who gets younger the more I live! Age doesn't mean anything, you better not—"

Too late!