Chapter 81: Strike While the Iron is Hot! Retaking Promotional Stills

"Mr. Xu, I truly understand your feelings, but we must distinguish between the play and reality. It is quite normal for a newcomer actor to start from small roles."

Mr. Xu was well aware of what Lu Jinzhao said, but every time he saw the daughter he had raised in the lap of luxury playing such a subservient role, he couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.

After struggling for a long while, he finally said, "Then how about this, Mr. Lu? Talk to the director and try your best not to make her kneel."

Lu Jinzhao was speechless. How could a maid not kneel? If he was so heartbroken for his daughter, why let her become an actress in the first place?

But considering that the other party was an investor after all, Lu Jinzhao finally nodded. "I will discuss it with the director and screenwriter. We will avoid making her kneel unless absolutely necessary."

Mr. Xu finally smiled, but the smile remained slightly forced. It was clear he still didn't want his daughter to continue playing a maid, but he had no other choice.

Once the scene was wrapped, the staff swarmed forward to surround Shen Li and Song Anyu. The assistant director even prepared two bouquets of flowers to congratulate the two on their promotional stills successfully reaching the top of the trending searches.

"Ali, Anyu, you two were amazing!"

"Ali, this follower growth rate—it's about to break four million across all platforms in just a few hours!"

"Congratulations to you both! The buzz is still rising. It's estimated that the traffic will peak by noon!"

"It's already exploding now! The official Weibo comments have already broken forty thousand!"

Everyone was full of enthusiasm. Shen Li and Song Anyu could only nod and thank them repeatedly. Xu Zishan, on the periphery, saw this and her eyes turned red with jealousy, but what could she do?

Shen Li's rise to fame today was absolutely phenomenal; just one still photo had set the trending searches on fire.

Ren Jia was equally unhappy. She watched Shen Li, who was being held in high esteem by everyone on set, with cold eyes. In this crew, it was not Shen Li's turn as a newcomer to hog the limelight like this. Not to mention herself, even Song Yuner was almost being overshadowed.

But upon second thought, Ren Jia couldn't help but sneer. Being so eager to steal the spotlight, how could Song Yuner's fans possibly let her off?

Just wait to be besieged!

Just then, the publicity team suddenly arrived on set and dragged Shen Li and Song Anyu out of the chaos. "Shen Li, Song Anyu, you two hurry up and come with me to retake a set of promotional stills."

"Now?" Shen Li was a bit surprised. "I... I have another scene in a while."

Song Anyu nodded; they did indeed have another scene later.

"It doesn't matter, thirty minutes at most. Let's shoot quickly. Strike while the iron is hot today, and we'll release them tonight!"

It's no wonder the "Jin Xiao" publicity team was both professional and hardworking; they could even drag people away to retake a set of stills during such a tight gap.

Shen Li could only follow them in a daze, and Ren Jia, not far away, saw this and quickly chased after them.

Retaking stills?

She was the one who needed to retake them the most!

Because there was no professional studio on set, the publicity team planned to use the set itself as the background for this set of stills, focusing on a natural and vivid feel. The scene was chosen in a garden with rockeries and pavilions.

"Come on, girls, show a sense of satisfied happiness, look up at the sky slightly. Boys, wrap your hands around the girl's waist from behind, gently rest your chin on the girl's temples. You two, get closer, be sweeter, the fans love to see that."

"Great, great, one more set. Shen Li, run, let the gauze skirt fly..."

Having had the experience of shooting promotional stills once, Shen Li was more adept this time. She fed the publicity team to their heart's content, shooting three sets before they were willing to stop.

"Is that enough, teacher?" Shen Li asked, slightly out of breath.

The photographer flipped through the photos on the camera while giving an "OK" gesture with satisfaction. "More than enough. If everyone were as photogenic as you two, our publicity team would have it so easy."

Another person also smiled and echoed, "Exactly, no need to edit the photos, the raw output looks even better!"

Shen Li was still thinking about the next scene, so after hurriedly thanking the teachers from the publicity team, she left with Song Anyu.

Ren Jia saw this and rushed out, blocking the publicity team that was about to leave in one stride.

The few were stunned, and upon discovering it was Ren Jia, they subconsciously showed an evasive look.

The entire publicity team had received internal news that all subsequent publicity for "Destiny as Phoenix" could not release any materials related to Ren Jia. They didn't know why, but it was clear that Ren Jia was currently in a state of soft-banning. At the very least, before this drama aired, she could not participate in any publicity.

"Sister Jia, is something the matter? We're in a hurry."

After all, she was a popular actress. Although the publicity team didn't know the inside story, they still had to show respect on the surface.

Ren Jia looked at them, frowning and questioning, "In a hurry to shoot a second set of stills for a newcomer? No time to notify me to retake mine?"

The few smiled sheepishly upon hearing this. "Sister Jia, what are you saying? We are just following orders; it's all a task assigned by Brother Qi."

"Don't give me that nonsense." Ren Jia naturally didn't believe it, but she had to retake her stills. She immediately looked at the person carrying the camera and ordered, "Turn it on, I want to retake them now!"

"Sister Jia, don't make it difficult for us. Isn't this a waste of our publicity team's time?"

"Waste of time? Didn't you say that my set of stills was lost and the negatives were also lost? It's one thing that you didn't notify me to retake them, but now you're saying I'm wasting your time?" Ren Jia's tone rose in anger, almost cracking her voice.

The few looked at each other, helpless. In the end, the leader looked at their past friendship and revealed some information to Ren Jia: "Sister Jia, you're not a newcomer to the circle. You should be able to guess the current situation. We are just the ones doing the work below; the decisions are made by those above. We can only obey."

"It's useless for you to retake these stills; they'll just get lost again. You understand, right?"

This was already very obvious, telling Ren Jia that her stills couldn't be released—the people above wouldn't allow it!

Ren Jia did have suspicions, but at this moment, the other party's insinuation still shocked her quite a bit.

Why?

Why was it that only hers couldn't be released? Had she offended someone?

"Sigh, Sister Jia, why don't you go ask Mr. Lu? He happened to come to the set today. I feel that if Mr. Lu didn't give the word, Brother Qi wouldn't dare."

Ren Jia suddenly realized. That's right, only Mr. Lu could give the order. Otherwise, who else in the company would have such great power to trip her up so badly!

And at this moment, Lu Jinzhao was chatting with Shen Ci in an air-conditioned room, blowing cool air.

"In this weather, the actors are truly suffering. The two of us are sweating just from watching one scene."

Lu Jinzhao said, taking a bottle of iced fruit juice from the small refrigerator and handing it to Shen Ci.

Shen Ci reached out to take it, thanked him, and naturally asked, "That gentleman just now, is he Xu Zishan's father?" ===== CHAPTER 82 =====