Chapter 127: Leg Slam (Special Bonus for My Foster Fathers, Requesting Monthly Votes and Rewards)

"Fast Youth" was a low-budget film, and Fang Hong wasn't particularly concerned.

He was focused on films with budgets over thirty million, namely "The Big Man," which was shot by the core team.

The film included city street racing scenes—cars crashing into each other—perfect for the newly trained behind-the-scenes crew and the visual effects team, who had worked on Hollywood effects, to practice on, and also for Fang Hong to practice.

His skill wasn't that good!

Of course, he was assigned two assistant directors, Guo Fan and Wen Mu, two future masters lending him support.

Guo Fan had just entered the industry and co-directed a small flop film; he was still a junior.

He also belonged to the emerging younger generation, like Xu Guangtou, Chen Sicheng, and Wu Jing.

The lead actors of "The Big Man" were Zhang Songwen and Fang Hong.

Zhang Songwen played the hero, a police officer; Fang Hong played the villain, a rich second-generation playboy.

Actually, Fang Hong didn't really want to act, but after searching around, he found no young actor handsome enough to play a villain.

There was no professional villain actor!

If Zhou Zhaolong or Shan Li Wen were decades younger, they could've done it, but they were both old.

These young male actors in the domestic entertainment industry all had too much filter—they all looked extremely heroic, with pure good-guy personas, so very few were cast as professional villains.

So Fang Hong had to do it himself; after all, he had experienced wealthy life and wasn't a good person himself—he was essentially playing himself, so he felt no pressure.

Actually, this film was essentially meant to promote Zhang Songwen; Yutu Film needed its own leading actor to show the industry they could back talent.

That meant Yutu would simultaneously launch two productions, putting heavy financial pressure on them.

Total investment: 55 million yuan—15 million for "Fast Youth"; 40 million for "The Big Man."

"The Big Man" would be filmed in Shanghai, so the investment was huge!

The production scale was no longer like the old small crews of dozens; behind-the-scenes staff and extras numbered at least two hundred, even for low-budget films.

And it wasn't a favor price anymore—all behind-the-scenes staff earned at least double what they had on "Lost in Love 33 Days."

That meant costs were endlessly increasing.

But the reason costs weren't rising further was that Yutu saved on filming equipment—they no longer rented gear, and this expense was being compressed endlessly.

Also, actor salaries weren't high; multi-million-yuan fees were impossible.

The lead actor's fee could not exceed three million.

It wasn't that Yutu set this price—the industry set this price; it might be slightly higher, but not by much—film actor pay was generally lower than TV actor pay.

Yutu Film didn't use big-name actors anyway; there was no need to pay exorbitant salaries.

Film was about building prestige; TV was about milking fans.

This additional 55 million expenditure created massive financial pressure, and there was also the TV drama "Legend of Lu Zhen" needing approval, with an estimated production cost of 30 million.

That meant 85 million had to be spent; Yutu's finances were stretched tight.

They needed good cash flow—spend a little here, spend a little there, so they wouldn't collapse.

Because whether film or TV, money wasn't spent all at once; a film's months-long production cycle allowed investment to be spread across multiple installments.

So this timeline was endlessly extended.

However, "Legend of Lu Zhen" wasn't filmed by Yutu's own crew—it was outsourced to a local crew shooting in Hengdian.

The actors were Zhao Xiaodao and Chen Xiao.

Chen Xiao had just left Huayi; rumors said he quit abruptly, but it was only rumor—Fang Hong hadn't seen it himself.

But Fang Hong loved promoting young actors from Huayi!

The director of this drama was chosen by Chen Zhixi from several Hong Kong directors, including Liang Guoguan and Li Huizhu, both of whom had worked on "My Date with a Vampire" for ATV.

Film and TV shooting methods differ; TV dramas are too long and require strong storytelling, and whether the story works depends heavily on the screenwriter.

That's why TV dramas often have two or three directors, or even four or five directing teams shooting separately, then edited together without affecting narrative coherence.

The director's role is merely to coordinate—to shoot the story as required, without expressing personal ideas.

Even switching directors mid-production was possible!

TV was the screenwriter's art, not the director's art—if you didn't do it, someone else would.

Film was different: the same script, the same actors, but different directors produced completely different results.

That's why TV directors switching to film often failed.

Busy until afternoon, sunlight bright, Fang Hong carried a bag to Liu Tianxian's large villa.

Love and career both needed attention!

This was Fang Hong's first summer visit to Liu Tianxian's home; last time he came was winter, covered in snow, with no visible scenery.

This time, the villa was lush with greenery, flowers blooming, the view pleasant—but the weather was too hot.

In a glass room, Liu Tianxian had her hair loosely pinned up, no makeup, wearing an ugly, flower-patterned granny shirt—Fang Hong wondered if she was wearing her mother's clothes.

She squatted on the ground, surrounded by many kittens meowing.

Fang Hong walked over and knocked "Dong Dongdong" on the glass.

Liu Tianxian looked up, saw who it was, pointed to the door over there, signaling him to come in.

Fang Hong searched and finally found a door leading into the glass room—it was temperature-controlled, neither cold nor hot, and connected directly to the villa.

Money was good: keeping cats in a villa with air conditioning.

"What's this you're carrying? My mom isn't home," Liu Tianxian said, hugging a kitten, thinking it was a gift.

"This isn't for your mom—it's for you. You got hurt, right? I brought some medicine," Fang Hong crouched down, genuinely concerned.

Liu Tianxian felt annoyed—why did he still remember?

She should've just told him she was fine back then.

Now this man cared for her, and she couldn't refuse, yet couldn't accept either.

She didn't know Fang Hong feared future sexual positions might become too difficult—that would be a problem.

"I'm fine now, it's already healed," she said.

She had to dispel this man's worry, otherwise he'd keep thinking she'd pulled something.

"Really?"

Fang Hong looked her over from the waist down, his face full of suspicion.

Liu Tianxian, seeing him like that, stood up and stamped her feet a few times: "See, I'm fine."

She was wearing ripped jeans, which looked quite stylish.

Fang Hong had noticed Liu Tianxian really liked wearing jeans — almost every time they met, she was wearing jeans.

"I don't believe it. Do a split for me."

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you!" Liu Tianxian gave him an unhappy look.

"I'm not. You need to prove you're fine before I can relax, otherwise my mind keeps dwelling on it." Fang Hong said it with perfect seriousness.

Liu Tianxian casually tossed the kitten in her hands away; the kitten leapt once and landed steadily on the ground.

Then she shoved Fang Hong against the glass wall, raised her leg high into a split, and placed it on the glass above his shoulder — a one-legged horse split-pinning him against the wall.

She pressed her leg closer, her expression stern: "Do you believe me now?"

Fang Hong admired the pose from top to bottom — she really was a trained one, very vigorous — and without realizing it, he was already hard.

Liu Tianxian, seeing him say nothing, was about to lower her leg when Fang Hong wrapped an arm around her waist and the two drew close again.

"What are you doing?" Liu Tianxian looked at him.

"I just wanted to see how long you could hold it." Fang Hong said shamelessly.

"Get lost!"

Liu Tianxian immediately lowered her leg — she wasn't going to listen to his nonsense.

Fang Hong, somewhat deflated: "Then what about this medicine? I already bought it."

"Give it to me."

Liu Tianxian took it — she shouldn't let it go to waste after all.

She took the medicine out of the bag and looked it over; it was all painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicine — at least he'd put some thought into it.

Setting the medicine on the cabinet beside her, Liu Tianxian picked up a grey kitten: "Do you like kittens?"

"Like and also don't like!" Fang Hong was beside her.

"What do you mean?" Liu Tianxian turned her head to look at him.

"If I had to face one every day and clean up after it, I wouldn't like it — I can't even take care of myself, let alone take care of it. But if I just saw one once in a while, petted it, played with it a bit, I'd quite like it." Fang Hong said.

Just like with kids — occasional play is quite nice and cute, but long-term and it gets annoying.

"Then you really have no patience." Liu Tianxian said.

"All my patience has been used up on you — I can't spare any for others." Sweet words just rolled off Fang Hong's tongue.

Liu Tianxian, holding the kitten in both arms, suddenly moved toward his mouth.

Fang Hong dodged instinctively — he almost ended up kissing the cat.

"Hahaha, it's not dirty."

Liu Tianxian, acting like a lunatic, even kissed the kitten mouth-to-mouth herself, then nuzzled it with her cheek.

The kitten let out a protesting "Meow!"

"Even if it's not dirty, there are still germs!" Fang Hong said.

"No there aren't, it's been disinfected."

Liu Tianxian held the kitten up to his face: "It's very clean."

Fang Hong said nothing — in any case, he wasn't really into kissing animals so intimately.

But he wasn't about to get jealous of a cat either.

He took the kitten and roughly smoothed its fur, kneading at its skin and flesh.

The kitten let out a pained "meow," its body squirming nonstop.

"Can you be a little gentler? Your hands are so heavy." Liu Tianxian swatted him and told him to put the kitten down.

"I thought it liked it that way." Fang Hong said shamelessly.

The two of them just stayed like that, petting the cat and chatting on one side; by evening, Fang Hong left.

After all, he couldn't stay forever — feelings needed time to grow.

(End of Chapter)