Chapter 337: Are you just here to tell me this?

It was quite strange for Zhou Ping'an to suddenly ask him out for a meal.

Lu Yan He thought about it for a moment, and combining it with what Chen Ziyan had told him earlier, he hit upon a possibility.

Could it be that Ma Zhongquan wanted to have a chat with him?

Now that he had become a hot commodity, it felt like everyone wanted to take a few bites of "Tang Monk meat" from him.

Lu Yan He replied: I just got back from Hexi, and I have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on, so I don't have time.

Back then, you kicked me to the curb; today, I'm giving you the cold shoulder.

Lu Yan He felt a sense of vengeful pleasure in his heart—though he shouldn't have, it was, in a word, satisfying.

Zhou Ping'an helplessly said to Ma Zhongquan: "He won't come out. Director Ma, I told you long ago that he doesn't take me seriously at all now; how could I possibly get him to come out?"

Ma Zhongquan glared at him and said: "Then can't you think of a way?"

Zhou Ping'an looked sullen and said: "What kind of way could I possibly think of?"

"Didn't he say he wrote a movie script for Li Zhibai and Yan Liang? You are the agent for both of them; is it possible for them to act in a movie without going through you?" Ma Zhongquan wore an expression of "iron not becoming steel" as he glared at Zhou Ping'an, as if to say that he couldn't even think of or handle such a small matter.

Zhou Ping'an showed a look of sudden realization and said: "Fine, then I'll try asking him again."

As soon as he left Ma Zhongquan's office, the look of sudden realization on Zhou Ping'an's face vanished.

He cursed, "If you're so capable, you go do it!"

Of course, he had ways to get Lu Yan He to come out, but the difficulty of this matter wasn't in getting Lu Yan He to come out; it was in getting Lu Yan He to agree to what came after.

Zhou Ping'an had no solution for the subsequent matters, which was why he didn't even want to do the part of asking Lu Yan He out.

He had hoped Lu Yan He wouldn't agree to come out so he could just use that as an excuse to step down.

As it turned out, Ma Zhongquan still forced him to go find Lu Yan He.

Zhou Ping'an was also speechless.

After Lu Yan He returned to school for classes, besides attending lectures, he was also preparing for his next few films.

One was *Lost on Journey*; now that the funding was in place, all that was left was to build the crew.

Although Lu Yan He and Chen Ziyan's Linghe Production Company was one of the producers, they were mainly responsible for providing the script and had decision-making power over some key personnel choices.

Teacher Jia Long was the lead actor, but he didn't want to be the director, so they had to find one.

It was easy to find a director for a project with a mature script, a lead actor, and a production company, but it was very difficult to find a director with ability and talent.

Directors of the latter caliber usually get involved in a project before the script is even finished.

Regarding finding a director, Lu Yan He had already stated very directly that he would not participate.

He knew absolutely nothing about comedy films, and Teacher Jia Long was the expert; rather than pretending to understand and offering opinions, it was better to let Teacher Jia Long find one.

Besides *Lost on Journey*, there was also *Rouge*, which was to be directed by Director Wang Zhong and starred by Chen Bige; the investment was basically covered by the three of them, and Arctic Light would also be responsible for a portion.

It was mainly difficult to find investment for *Rouge* because it was an art-house film, but the fees for Wang Zhong, Chen Bige, and Lu Yan He were not low. If calculated that way, it would become a high-cost art-house film, which increased the risk because everyone's box office expectation for this film was only between 100 and 200 million.

Therefore, the three of them discussed it, and since the copyright was in Lu Yan He's hands, he wouldn't take a screenwriter's fee and would instead convert it directly into a share of the profits; Wang Zhong and Chen Bige also lowered their own fees and converted them into profit shares.

With this arrangement, the combined fees for the three of them were controlled to under ten million. Since they were all taking profit shares, no one was at a disadvantage; it was mainly to reduce the film's financial pressure. After all, besides Chen Bige, the film had three other leads.

For the other three leads, they couldn't use this same approach.

Finally, it was decided that apart from the role of Twelve Young Master, the other two lovers who accompany Ruhu to find Twelve Young Master would be played by actors with lower fees.

Wang Zhong directly recommended Chen Jiang and Sui Fangran, who had just worked with him on *Three Mountains*.

"Aren't they too young? After all, they are a couple who are already working; they both look like students who just graduated from high school," Chen Bige said directly.

Lu Yan He actually felt the same way.

Wang Zhong asked: "Then do you have any ideas?"

Lu Yan He said: "How about an open audition?"

In fact, in Lu Yan He's impression, the presence of this male and female supporting role in the film was really not strong.

The presence of Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui almost filled the entire film, leaving the audience completely unaware of anyone else.

Wang Zhong said: "For these two roles, an open audition... is it necessary? I personally feel that these two roles don't have much difficulty; slightly better actors could play them."

Wang Zhong spoke very directly.

Lu Yan He also laughed and scratched his head.

Wang Zhong: "However, an open audition is fine too; it just so happens we can audition for the other roles in the film as well, pick all the actors in one go, and start filming as soon as possible."

Lu Yan He said fine.

Chen Bige said: "I did a Republic-era look for myself not long ago to try it out; I like it very much, take a look."

She opened her phone and showed the photos she had taken to the two of them.

The moment he saw the photo, Lu Yan He felt as if he had been struck by lightning; his hair stood on end in an instant.

The Chen Bige in the photo had a resemblance to Anita Mui's Ruhu that was almost overlapping, and because of this resemblance, Lu Yan He felt a sense of irreversible destiny.

"What's wrong? Yan He?" Chen Bige noticed Lu Yan He's pale complexion and asked.

Lu Yan He came back to his senses and said: "It's great, Sister Bige. I'm stunned; this look is almost exactly the same as the one that appeared in my mind when I was writing the script."

Chen Bige widened her eyes in surprise and asked, "Really?"

Wang Zhong: "It's really good, especially these eyes. Did you already enter the role of Ruhu when you took this photo? Full of resentment and longing."

Chen Bige nodded, "I had a photo shoot not long ago, and I happened to see that they had Republic-era looks prepared, so I asked them to dress me up and take a set of photos for me; I wanted to see what the effect would be."

The Chen Bige in the photo wore no lipstick and had washed away the modern makeup, using only the simplest adornments. In the photo, she instead had a sense of plainness that had washed away the lead, which complemented the loneliness and sorrow the film gave at the end. Lu Yan He was bewildered and at a loss.

At this moment, his brain was buzzing.

Why was there such a coincidence?

Lu Yan He got out of the car, ready to return to school.

Cars were not allowed to drive into the campus.

He said to Zou Dong: "Brother Dong, I won't be leaving school today. You go back and rest; you don't need to wait for me on the side."

Zou Dong nodded, watched Lu Yan He enter the school, and then drove away.

"What are you spacing out for?" Wang Xiao, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly appeared from behind and patted him on the shoulder.

Lu Yan He suddenly came back to his senses and called out "Senior."

"It just so happens I have something to ask you; shall we go sit in the coffee shop?" Wang Xiao asked.

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "Okay."

Wang Xiao asked Lu Yan He if he had been busy lately.

Lu Yan He said it was alright.

"Busy is busy, but unlike filming before where people are stuck on set, I can coordinate my own time."

Wang Xiao said: "That works. The school leaders asked us to arrange a lecture, and the keynote speaker is a big professor from the Film Academy; it's said he has a very big background, so I wanted to ask if you could be the guest host."

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "Tell me the time in advance, and I'll clear my schedule."

Seeing Lu Yan He agree readily, Wang Xiao patted him on the shoulder, "Awesome."

After chatting with Wang Xiao, Lu Yan He walked toward the dormitory.

What Lu Yan He didn't expect was to run into Zhou Ping'an downstairs at his dormitory building.

He almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Zhou Ping'an was standing downstairs in a suit, looking like a human but acting like a dog, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding students, completely out of place.

Lu Yan He looked at him, and for a moment, he wanted to turn around and leave.

He held back.

Zhou Ping'an smiled brilliantly, making Lu Yan He feel a chill in his heart.

"Why did Brother Ping'an suddenly have time to come here to find me?" Lu Yan He heard himself speaking in a sarcastic tone.

Zhou Ping'an said: "It's not that I wanted to meet you before, but you said you were very busy, so I came to your school to find you."

Lu Yan He looked at the coffee in his hand; he hadn't finished drinking it, so he wouldn't take Zhou Ping'an to the coffee shop.

He said: "Let's go sit in the cafeteria next door."

The cafeteria was only a place to eat during meal times; at other times, it was used by students for group discussions and club exchanges.

Lu Yan He took Zhou Ping'an to find a seat in the cafeteria and sat down.

Zhou Ping'an looked at the surrounding crowd.

The noisy environment made the corners of Zhou Ping'an's mouth twitch twice.

Lu Yan He: "Brother Ping'an, if you have anything you want to say, just say it."

Only then did Zhou Ping'an let himself "calm down."

"Before you said you wrote a movie script for Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, right?"

Lu Yan He nodded, "That's right."

Zhou Ping'an said: "But I haven't seen the script yet."

"It's not finished yet."

Zhou Ping'an sighed, "You doing this puts us in a very difficult position. After all, none of us have seen this script, and there isn't even a shadow of it yet, but you went and announced it to the outside world. Doesn't that put us in a bind?"

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "Li Zhibai and Yan Liang both said they were willing to act in it. If you are unwilling to let them act, that's fine too; then we'll just wait until their contract with the company expires to film it. I'm not in a hurry."

Zhou Ping'an almost couldn't catch his breath.

What the hell?!

This was a response Zhou Ping'an had never expected.

Originally, Zhou Ping'an had thought that no matter how you looked at it, Lu Yan He was in the wrong for not communicating with the company in advance before announcing such a project.

Li Zhibai and Yan Liang didn't have the autonomy to accept roles, so in this situation, he could actually stand up and slap Lu Yan He in the face.

Of course, Zhou Ping'an wouldn't do that either. He just wanted to remind Lu Yan He about this matter—

Lu Yan He, on the other hand, directly said, "If you are unwilling to let them act, that's fine too; then we'll just wait until their contract with the company expires to film it. I'm not in a hurry."

Then what else could he say?!

Zhou Ping'an looked at Lu Yan He, his mouth twitching for a long time without being able to recover.

"Hehe, hehe." Finally, Zhou Ping'an just laughed awkwardly like that.

Lu Yan He said to Zhou Ping'an: "Brother Ping'an, are you just here to tell me this?"