Chapter 461

Their own professional capabilities were already top-tier, and during the filming of "Sword of Justice," they had formed sufficient chemistry with Su Meng.

This time, the filming went even more smoothly than "Sword of Justice."

And the cast for this production consisted entirely of veteran actors.

The casting basically followed the choices from the previous life.

The only exception was Su Meng.

For a divine drama destined to explode in popularity, not racking up a huge amount of popularity points would be a complete waste.

So Su Meng naturally took on the role of the protagonist, Hou Liangping.

In the original drama of the previous life, this role was actually not particularly outstanding.

Especially the lead actor, Lu Yi; among his peers, his acting was considered quite good, but compared to true veteran actors, he still fell short by quite a bit.

When acting opposite others, he was unconsciously crushed by the veteran actors in every way.

But this time, with Su Meng acting personally, it was completely different.

His acting skills were god-tier!

Compared to the group of veteran actors, he was not only equal but even superior.

With Su Meng deliberately holding back, exchanging scenes with the veteran actors, he made them exclaim with sheer delight.

Plus, with the buff of his "famous director" status, was there any doubt about the filming progress of this drama?

Basically, every take was perfect on the first try, and the filming progress was incredibly fast.

The other actor different from the previous life was Liu Tianxian.

Mixed in among this group of veteran actors, she was like a husky among a pack of wolves.

Acting? In front of these people, do you even dare to mention the word "acting"?

Fortunately, Su Meng took care of her, assigning her a small supporting role as Hou Liangping's wife, Zhong Xiaoyi.

This role had few camera shots and didn't require much display of acting skill, which happened to be just right for Liu Tianxian's situation.

If it were an ordinary drama, for Liu Tianxian's star status to play a small supporting role would be nothing short of an insult.

But playing a supporting role in this drama, Liu Tianxian was absolutely thrilled about it.

At least she wouldn't get scolded... right?

"Cut! That's a wrap!"

Behind the monitor, Su Meng took a careful look and announced loudly.

"I hereby declare!"

"'In the Name of the People' is officially wrapped!"

What? His words were met not with applause, but with a sea of confusion.

A grand drama of 55 episodes, and you wrapped it up like that?

How long did it take in total?

Counting everything, it was only a little over half a month, right?

And it's already wrapped?

"Alright, stop standing there stunned!" Su Meng waved his hand and shouted.

"Old Duan, is the wrap-up banquet arranged?"

"Ah?... Ah, yes, yes!" Duan Jiangping also wore a look of disbelief.

Last time, the 30-episode "Sword of Justice," you at least filmed for over a month.

This time it's 55 episodes, and you've already finished filming?

Actually, for Su Meng, wasn't this quite normal?

"Sword of Justice" had a large number of war scenes; preparation and coordinating extras took a lot of time.

But for this small-scale production... do you think my god-tier director skills are just for show?

Su Meng cupped his hands and bowed to the group of veteran actors around him.

"Respected teachers, the recent filming has been quite intense; thank you all for your hard work."

"No hard work at all, no hard work at all." Everyone laughed in response.

"This scene was truly exhilarating to film!"

"Director Su, if there's another good drama like this in the future, you must think of us."

"Now this is what you call acting!"

Su Meng cupped his hands and said with a smile.

"Definitely, definitely!"

"By the way, the editing for this drama should be completed in about a week."

"The scheduling is roughly half a month from now, and it will air on CCTV-1."

"At that time, please help us with the promotion."

"That goes without saying." Everyone readily agreed.

Now, they all liked Su Meng immensely, so such a reasonable small request naturally wouldn't be opposed.

Su Meng looked at the few veteran actors again and smiled.

"Teacher Wu, Teacher Zhang, Teacher Li, you three can only rest for three or five days before you have to join the crew again..."

What? The other veteran actors immediately perked up.

"Director Su, what do you mean by that? Do those three have more scenes?"

Wu Gang, who played Secretary Dakang, chuckled with a look of pride on his face.

"Of course."

"This time, Director Su has been shooting two dramas back-to-back."

"And both are major dramas set to air on Yangshi Channel One!"

"Holy shit!" A group immediately grew unhappy, surrounding Su Meng and complaining loudly.

"Director Su, you're not being fair—you just said you'd take us along to shoot, and now you're ditching us?"

"Yeah, you've been hiding this way too well!"

"Why only them and not us? Is our acting worse than theirs?"

Su Meng was overwhelmed by the noise and quickly explained.

"Dear colleagues, please let me explain."

"It's not that you're not good—you're too good! Your character portrayals are too successful!"

"If you were in the second drama too, the audience would switch channels!"

Oh? Secretary Dakang raised an eyebrow and spoke calmly.

"You mean to say they're too good?"

Secretary Yuliang snorted coldly.

"You mean to say we three are bad?"

Prosecutor Ji Changming smiled coldly.

"You mean to say our three characters are poorly developed?"

Slowly, slowly, Su Meng began to cry…

…

During this time, Su Meng was busy shooting and stayed quiet online; the online buzz finally died down.

This left many netizens wondering: where had this oddball superstar disappeared to?

At that moment, Yangshi's Weibo suddenly posted a message.

"Su Meng's work!"

"The annual anti-corruption epic 'The People's Name'—airing on Yangshi Channel One next Monday. Don't miss it!"

What?

Upon seeing this message, nearly every netizen was stunned.

When did Su Meng release a new work?

But… an anti-corruption drama? What's so interesting about that?

At that moment, Su Meng's Weibo retweeted the message and added a comment.

"The most daring anti-corruption drama in history! The Han Dong Men's Troupe debuts in the center position!"