Chapter 73: Spring Festival and the Start of Filming

This year's Spring Festival came a bit early; on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Wei Jin took Jing Tian and flew back to his hometown from Beijing.

Jing Tian very much enjoyed the time spent alone with Wei Jin; even on the plane, she held onto Wei Jin's hand.

Wei Jin discovered that ever since the girl recorded her single, she had become very clingy toward him, and would come to the company to find him from time to time.

Looking at Jing Tian's smooth forehead resting on his shoulder, Wei Jin couldn't help but give it a kiss.

"What's wrong, Brother Wei Jin?"

Regarding Wei Jin's intimate gesture, Jing Tian didn't feel anything was amiss, just a bit puzzled.

"Nothing, just feeling a bit sentimental that you are about to become my junior schoolmate."

Some time ago, Jing Tian had already passed the arts exam for Beijing Film Academy; for her, coming from a dance background, this was not difficult, not to mention that Jing Tian had always remembered Wei Jin's instructions and had been taking acting classes the whole time.

"But you'll be graduating before I even enroll."

Jing Tian pouted her little mouth, a bit unhappy; she had been looking forward to walking hand-in-hand with Wei Jin on campus.

"It's fine, the school has already notified me that I've been recommended for postgraduate studies, so I'll be there to welcome you when you enroll."

As early as the second half of last year, Zhang Jiandong had given the postgraduate recommendation qualification to Wei Jin; after some thought, Wei Jin accepted the school's goodwill.

"Great, you better not lie to me. By the way, Brother Wei Jin, I've been so bored lately, studying in class every day, and Lu Shu won't let me go out for commercial performances. Can you let me go to the film crew to play around?"

After that incident with Zhang Yadong, Lu Zheng had become somewhat overprotective of Jing Tian. In fact, after "Little Luck" became a hit, many merchants contacted them hoping Jing Tian would attend events, but he had rejected them all.

"Sure, you can come for a cameo, and while you're at it, learn about blocking, camera angles, and such."

Wei Jin naturally went with the flow; in any case, he estimated he would be on set for the next three months, and it wouldn't hurt to have the girl around to relieve some boredom.

"By the way, how is your English?"

"It's okay, general communication is no problem. Why?"

"Nothing, just curious."

"By the way, Brother Wei Jin, I read in the newspaper that you have many girlfriends. Is that true?"

"Haha, you believe gossip? It's all hype. By the way, why are you asking this?"

"Nothing, just curious."

As the two chatted and laughed along the way, the plane soon landed. Hitching a ride in the car that came to pick up Jing Tian, Wei Jin also returned home.

"Who is that girl? Are you two dating? What does her family do?"

Wei Xingbang looked at his son and asked with some curiosity.

"A girl I met at Uncle's house last year; she's only seventeen."

A university professor suddenly transformed into a gossip expert; Wei Jin found it a bit much to handle.

Seeing that he couldn't get any concrete answers, Wei Xingbang shifted the topic to Wei Jin's safety.

"I've already found a bodyguard for you. Go meet him tomorrow. Take him with you when you go back. You can't be so reckless in the future; safety comes first in everything."

The previous incident still left Wei Xingbang with lingering fears.

Wei Jin immediately promised that he would never act rashly again and would protect himself well.

The next day, Wei Jin met his driver and bodyguard, Zhu Wei, a retired soldier in his thirties, about 175 centimeters tall, with a well-proportioned build and a pair of sharp, spirited eyes; it was said he was a former scout.

After a brief exchange, Wei Jin found that Zhu Wei was a man of few words, which at the very least made him well-suited to be a driver. Very satisfied, he finalized the arrangement on the spot.

After exchanging contact information, Wei Jin took his leave.

Afterward, he went to visit the local education department leaders to discuss donating to primary schools; Wei Jin planned to donate to two Hope Primary Schools every year.

An ancient saying goes, "When successful, help the world; when unsuccessful, cultivate one's own character." Wei Jin's ideological awareness certainly wasn't that high, but that didn't stop him from doing things to build his reputation—it was truly a case of "a tall tree catches the wind."

After enjoying a few days of fatherly love and visiting his uncle, Wei Jin felt that staying in his hometown was truly boring, so he bid his father farewell.

On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Wei Jin returned to Beijing with Zhu Wei. "Painted Skin" had already finished its theatrical run, with the box office locked at 378 million; it was unknown how long this record would hold.

Jing Tian was still at home celebrating the New Year, saying she wouldn't return until after the Lantern Festival. Ceng Li did not go home this year, but was instead building a rapport with the chosen child actor, Wu Lei.

For the project "Room," the child actor was particularly important, so in early January, the company began screening for a child actor who met the criteria and ultimately selected Wu Lei.

Although the little guy had just turned six, he had already filmed many commercials and, last year, played the role of young Nezha in "The Legend and the Hero," which was quite in line with Wei Jin's requirements.

And coincidentally, Wu Lei was also from Shudi, which gave Wei Jin a natural sense of affinity.

Ceng Li was busy studying the script and building a rapport with the little guy, so Wei Jin didn't disturb them too much.

He took the opportunity to visit Dean Zhang at the school and several teachers. Of course, he didn't forget Director Tong from the Film Bureau and President Han from China Film Group; these social exchanges during the Spring Festival were necessary.

After spending a few days with Ceng Li, Wei Jin arrived at Yanjiao Manor, where Gao Yuanyuan had been waiting expectantly.

"Yuan Yuanjie, how is your understanding of the script? We start filming next week."

"Are you doubting my acting skills? This role isn't that complicated."

Gao Yuanyuan's feigned anger was adorable, and Wei Jin couldn't help but hug her and give her a kiss.

"How could I? Our Yuan Yuanjie is a powerhouse actress who has attended the Cannes Film Festival; your acting is naturally beyond reproach."

"Hmph, that's more like it."

Gao Yuanyuan was, of course, not actually angry; she had discovered that Wei Jin seemed to prefer girls who were a bit coquettish.

"Then Yuan Yuanjie, now this director will test your acting skills. You play Zhou Zhiruo, and I'll be Song Qingshu."

With a mischievous look on his face, Wei Jin slowly extended his claws toward Gao Yuanyuan; role-playing was so much fun.

"... It's still broad daylight!"

"Wrong, Zhou Zhiruo doesn't have that line. Let's go again."

"Mmm..."

Before long, the Emei swordswoman Zhou Zhiruo was ultimately defeated by the Wudang degenerate Song Qingshu. On February 15, Wei Jin took the main creative team to Shanghai, where the crew had already prepared the sets in advance.

Due to the shift in the timeline, Wei Jin made some adaptations to this version of the film. The era was set as a space-time intersection between 2012 and 1999, which would make it easier for Lei Jiaian to play an older version of himself. Additionally, the tech products in the film would be easier to realize—though, of course, these would still need to be coordinated with special effects.

With the entire crew, Wei Jin held a simple startup ceremony and accepted interviews from the reporters on site.

"Director Wei, may I ask, now that you are the box office record holder, why did you think of filming such a low-budget movie?"

"This reporter, I don't know how you determined that a project with a 20 million investment is a low-budget film."

The investment for this film reached 20 million, so it is not an exaggeration to call it a medium-budget production; one must know that low-budget films usually refer to films with production costs below 5 million.

But in reality, among the costs of Time-Space Cohabitation, Wei Jin's salary as director and screenwriter alone was 10 million, the actors' salaries reached 2 million, of which Gao Yuanyuan took 1.5 million, and the rest of the roles added up to no more than 500,000; in fact, the true production cost was only 8 million.

"Director Wei, hello, may I ask where the creative inspiration for this script came from?"

"In fact, the element of space-time entanglement is not rare; I simply combined it with a man and a woman living together."

Wei Jin could hardly say that this script was just better at highlighting a woman and suitable for Gao Yuanyuan; one must know that Gao Yuanyuan specifically coordinated her filming time for Baby Project to clear her schedule.

"Director Wei, may I ask if you are dating Gao Yuanyuan?"

A reporter from an entertainment tabloid had the light of gossip shining in their eyes.

"This reporter friend, today is the film's launch press conference, please do not ask questions unrelated to the film, thank you."

"."

After dismissing the crowd of reporters, Wei Jin still gathered several actors for a script reading; this was his habit.

Regarding the main cast, Gao Yuanyuan plays Gu Xiaojiao, and Lei Jiayin plays Lu Ming and Lu Shiyi.

Regarding the supporting roles, after reading the script, Liu Yan ultimately chose the role of the female shop manager; Huang Bai made a guest appearance as the doctor, and for the role of Lu Ming's boss, Lei Jiayin brought in his close friend, Guo Jinfei, and Wei Jin did not refuse.

At this time, Guo Jinfei was still unknown, and upon hearing that he could act in Wei Jin's film, he was incredibly excited.

Wei Jin had no choice but to arrange for Jing Tian to play the role of Xiao Ya, but the young lady had not yet returned and proposed a request over the phone: the role of Xiao Ya's husband should be played by Wei Jin; since it was only a matter of one or two scenes, Wei Jin agreed.

Little did he know, it was this decision that would leave him nearly spending the next month alone in an empty room. Three chapters delivered, the new book is on the shelves, I earnestly request all readers to reward me with subscriptions and bookmarks, thank you everyone! (End of this chapter)