Chapter 7: Casting Bai Liang as Lu Bu? No Problem!

"Miss Zha, rest assured, the production schedule won't change, and it won't affect your availability."

Hearing this, Gu Li Naza nodded skeptically but didn't ask anything further.

Artists don't need to handle these kinds of disputes—when real scheduling conflicts arise, their agents will deal with them.

She just wanted to understand the situation a little.

Although they hadn't yet found a replacement for the role of Lu Bu, Sun Qiang didn't mind venting a bit in advance.

After this incident, the crew had been unsettled; whether or not they had a candidate, even if he had to step in himself, he couldn't let the shoot stall.

And besides… who said there wasn't a suitable candidate!

If this were a serious, authentic Three Kingdoms drama, the requirements for Lu Bu would certainly be high.

But "The Divine Warrior Zhao Zilong" isn't even similar to a serious drama—it's completely unrelated.

As Teacher Liu often says: adaptation isn't random fabrication, and dramatic liberty isn't nonsense.

"The Divine Warrior Zhao Zilong," however, leans into both random fabrication and nonsense.

So, the criteria for casting Lu Bu can be somewhat relaxed.

But height is a hard requirement.

The male lead, Lin Genxin, is simply too tall—if they cast a guy who's only 1.7 meters to play Lu Bu, would Lu Bu have to look up at Zhao Yun during scenes?

That would be too weird.

Yet in the industry, men of this height are the most common… anyway, every tall actor Sun Qiang could find had already turned him down.

At this moment, Sun Qiang was considering simply casting Bai Liang for the role.

He wasn't desperate enough to grab anyone available—he had his reasons for wanting Bai Liang.

First, Bai Liang is very handsome and tall.

He's not one of those skinny, frail male actors; he's not a massive brute, but he's definitely more muscular than Lin Genxin.

That's enough.

Second, he has connections.

The Ms. Yang who introduced Bai Liang to this production is Yang Xing, formerly Zhang Ziyi's agent, who later spent some time in the Hong Kong entertainment circle.

She has wide connections and financial backing, and rumors say Yang Xing will launch a major move no later than next year, shifting her focus from Xiangjiang to the mainland.

Oh, and one more important point: Yang Xing's philosophy for cultivating artists is to focus on a few high-quality talents.

In Sun Qiang's view, although Bai Liang is a newcomer, since Yang Xing picked him, his future prospects won't be too bad.

As a casting director, Sun Qiang admitted his eye for talent might not be exceptional, but he's practical.

If his own judgment isn't strong, he'll just copy the work of the experts.

When Yang Xing reached out, she said Bai Liang was a newcomer and just needed a small role.

Sun Qiang had indeed prepared a small role—but now things worked out perfectly.

He might as well give Yang Xing a favor!

The entertainment industry runs on relationships—having someone behind you really helps.

So… Sun Qiang didn't even ask Bai Liang any basic questions.

Like whether he graduated from a professional acting school or had acted before—he figured Yang Xing must have already "inspected the goods" for him.

The only issue now is… Bai Liang's demeanor doesn't quite fit.

That warm, sunny smile of his would surely attract girls' attention, but it's nothing like a traitorous servant.

Still, Sun Qiang, as a casting director, had his own skills—he knew how to "read people." "Come on, Xiao Bai, calm your smile, harden your face."

Bai Liang didn't fully understand audition procedures, but he respected professional expertise.

As he stiffened his expression, he unconsciously squinted his eyes.

His bone structure and facial features instantly reverted to their naturally cool, handsome style—and because of the squint, he even seemed to radiate a hint of lethal intent.

Wow! Not bad!

Sun Qiang inwardly marveled.

Yang Xing's eye for talent is truly sharp!

One moment he's a harmless, warm, sunny, handsome boy—the next, his face hardens and his entire persona shifts.

What does this prove? This kid has wide acting range and adaptable demeanor—he's got natural talent.

Actors like this can play many roles.

Lu Bu is certainly one of them—at least the Lu Bu in "The Divine Warrior Zhao Zilong."

Snap!

Sun Qiang clapped his hands. "Perfect! No problem! Sign the contract tomorrow. Should I send it to your agent first?"

Bai Liang shook his head—he didn't need that, thinking to himself he had no agent.

Still, even a tiny role with barely any lines was being handled so formally—he'd assumed the pay might be like modeling, daily settlement.

He retracted his earlier assessment that this production was a shoddy operation.

Better to be professional—avoid ending up like Huang Jingyu, getting cheated out of wages.

He felt a little excitement inside—he was going to be Emperor!

Ms. Yang had introduced him as the Emperor, which sounded impressive, but in this drama, the role had almost no presence.

He was just a background prop, with very few lines.

Bai Liang didn't mind—it'd be fun to experience being Emperor!

Before coming, he'd done some research, briefly checking Liu Bian's biography from the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

After studying, he found nothing worth studying.

Ascended the throne at seventeen, dead by eighteen.

He also understood why Sun Qiang had told him to keep a straight face — after all, he was the Emperor; how could he greet everyone with a warm, smiling expression?

Bai Liang figured there was nothing wrong with that!

"Welcome to our crew. Have your assistant go to the front desk to register, and we'll arrange a room for you......."

Assistant?

Bai Liang was completely baffled — he had neither a manager nor an assistant...... Could it be that this was standard equipment in the entertainment circle?

Everyone had one?

And when Sun Qiang said this, his eyes had actually glanced at a certain older brother standing not far away.

The crew staff member who had taken two packs of cigarettes from Bai Liang and led him to the hotel lobby to wait.

Sun Qiang clearly didn't recognize this employee of his own crew; when he arrived and saw the man keeping Bai Liang company, he naturally slotted him into the role of an assistant or driver.

Very reasonable.

At this point, Bai Liang's image in Sun Qiang's mind was already quite complete.

A promising handsome guy hand-picked by a well-known manager with a keen eye, extremely malleable, and already assigned an assistant before even acting — more than enough to show how much Yang Xing valued him.

Young man, the future is limitless!

Casting him as Lu Bu — no problem there!

This was still a role with one of the top billing spots; using the company's and crew's resources while pulling his own connections — no way to lose either way.

In a daze, the audition ended. Bai Liang's first-ever actor's audition across two lifetimes had ended just like that.

To be polite, he sent a text message thanking her and telling Yang Xing that he had passed the audition.

At the same time, he didn't forget to show off a bit to Huang Jingyu, casually asking, "What about you?"

Huang Jingyu replied with a middle-finger emoji and then went silent.

Meanwhile, Yang Xing, who was currently in Shanghai, glanced at her phone and smiled.

The famous in-circle producer Zhang Jiazhen, who was eating with her, asked curiously, "Some good news?"

"Oh, it's just a pretty interesting young fellow I ran into before — great image and temperament, so I recommended him to a crew."

"Someone you fancy? Signed him yet?"

"He's not professionally trained and has never acted before. Let him hone himself first — a crew is a big melting pot, and actors from the wild path don't have it easy breaking through."

"What if he's a good seedling and someone else snaps him up first?"

"It's not that easy to break through. His role is tiny — tiny as can be. Originally the crew was just going to find a bit player on the spot. It was a casual move to begin with. If he really has talent, he'll end up in my hands eventually — the kid's very sharp."

Based on Bai Liang's little tip-off operation at the business KTV, Yang Xing was confident that if he really wanted to make a name in the entertainment circle, he definitely wouldn't overlook her, his "Bole."

Besides, this was only his first role. Next year, the company she was setting up with Zhang Jiazhen would officially launch, with her as executive director.

Before that, whenever Bai Liang contacted Yang Xing, she would help him out a little, introducing him to some minor roles on the fringes.

The weight of subsequent roles would gradually increase, but not by too much.

Yang Xing mainly wanted to leave Bai Liang with one impression: whatever scraps fall from big sister's hand are more than enough for you, kid.

Overfeeding him definitely wouldn't work — when you bait a fishing hole too heavily, you end up raising the fish's appetite, and you're guaranteed to come back empty-handed.

Once this impression took hold, if Bai Liang really proved himself and wanted to sign with a company to develop properly, he would definitely come to her.

Having that past favor would also make it easier for Yang Xing to "control" him.

It wasn't that she had any weird quirks — this was simply how the relationship between a manager and an artist had to be.

Those managers or behind-the-scenes teams who couldn't keep their artists in line could often only stand by helplessly and watch their own artists do stupid things that made people want to crack their heads open on the spot.

In an entertainment circle where the average person is barely literate, such things were hardly rare.