Chapter 12

"I just notified people to go and rescue you."

Ye Weimin saw Teacher Qi Hao coming over in a disheveled state under the escort of several bodyguards and barely managed to hold back his laughter.

He is the producer and co-director of "The Warlords."

"Too much, none of you waited for me, all of you left me behind and ran forward." Teacher Qi Hao pretended to be very angry.

"There were too many people." Li Lianjie turned his head.

"It shows your popularity is high, the chorus was very touching, 'Sunshine is always after the storm'..." Liu Dehua laughed without restraint.

"The Warlords" is a big production, and the relationships inside are intricate.

Everyone has been very tense when getting along, and Teacher Qi Hao often appeared in the crew as a joker.

On one hand, it's because he is young, almost two generations apart from the other leads and the director, with no conflicts of interest.

On the other hand, the crew really needed a joker.

Clearly, Teacher Qi Hao provided everyone with a perfect joke today.

"By the way, have you really left Zi Wen? Didn't you say last time there were still a few months left in the contract?" Ye Weimin asked curiously.

"Boss Ma is kind; knowing I had no intention of renewing, he let me go early."

Teacher Qi Hao hurriedly explained, saying he couldn't deepen the misunderstanding anymore, lest Zi Wen hire a killer to solve this "scourge" of himself.

He is like a manure-making machine here, throwing one pot after another.

Let alone Zi Wen, even Hua Yi wouldn't be able to bear it.

It's estimated that before long, no more management companies will want to invite him to join, fearing they will follow in Zi Wen's footsteps.

"Then why did he still arrange a spicy stick endorsement for you, and let you go to the bar to sing?"

Ye Weimin asked curiously, and others listened curiously.

The movie is about to be released, and the success or failure of this 270 million investment movie is related to the fate of many people; chatting about gossip can help people relax their nerves.

"The spicy stick was an accident. In fact, I think the Xiaofeigun spicy sticks are quite delicious. I'll have the manufacturer send some over for everyone to share next time. As for the bar, that's an old brother I've known for seven or eight years; it was purely to show support for a friend."

"So that's how it is. Then do you want to explain it to the fans?"

"I explained it, but they don't listen at all."

Teacher Qi Hao suspects there is a generation gap between him and his fans; both sides are completely talking past each other.

Anyway, the fans are convinced he was bullied.

They are desperate to give him a hug.

"Now that you've left Zi Wen, what are your plans for the future?" Ye Weimin put his arm around Teacher Qi Hao's shoulder and cared for him.

"I don't know, just drifting along." Teacher Qi Hao doesn't know what the other party wants to do.

He and Gao Yang have a preliminary intention for cooperation, but it's not even a start yet; currently, it still needs communication.

Moreover, even if he cooperates with Gao Yang, he won't get too close.

Gao Yang's background makes it necessary for him to keep a certain distance, and he won't let Gao Yang have a hand in his studio either.

Gao Yang clearly also understands the necessity of keeping a distance.

Therefore, when he learned yesterday that Teacher Qi Hao was going to establish his own company, he only wished Teacher Qi Hao's studio great success and didn't mention anything about injecting capital.

"Peter (Chen Kexin) and I are going to make a movie next year..." Ye Weimin said in a low voice.

"Could it be 'Bodyguards and Assassins'?" Teacher Qi Hao looked at the other party vigilantly.

"How did you know?" Ye Weimin was embarrassed, not expecting Teacher Qi Hao to be so sharp.

The concept of "Bodyguards and Assassins" was born in 1999, when Teacher Qi Hao was still playing small supporting roles.

At that time, there was a madman in the Hong Kong entertainment industry who wanted to build the most prosperous area of Hong Kong in 1906—Hong Kong Central—at a 1:1 ratio, and then film a movie inside.

For this, he asked major entertainment companies for quotes of 68 million, with at least 17 million used to build the Central city.

The highest-grossing movie at the time, "King of Comedy," only had a box office of 29.8 million; a movie made for 68 million would need at least 200 million to break even.

It was pure nonsense.

Everyone avoided this madman as if avoiding a plague, until the Vice President of Hong Kong Bank, Zeng Xianji, stood up to support him.

As a result, before Central was even built, SARS struck, and everything went down the drain.

Zeng Xianji went bankrupt and committed suicide.

The madman's mother became a vegetable, his sister was diagnosed with cancer, and the madman himself had a car accident.

This madman recovered from depression and came out, filmed a few movies with mediocre responses, and never mentioned "Bodyguards and Assassins" again.

But I heard he recently hooked up with Chen Kexin and intends to revive it.

"Jianghu rumors say our Director Chen is helping 'Bodyguards and Assassins' pull together a team. Does this movie have investors?"

"Bona is providing the money." Ye Weimin said.

"So that's it..."

Looking at Yu Dong talking to Chen Kexin and Han Sanping over there, Teacher Qi Hao finally understood.

"Consider it, how about that? Among the actors already confirmed are Liang Jiahui, Wang Xueqi, Donnie Yen, oh right, and Fan Xuexue too."

Ye Weimin winked at Teacher Qi Hao.

Teacher Qi Hao wants to kill him; now that he hears people say "oh oh oh," he feels numb.

"If you want a new flavor, we might invite Li Yuchun, and Zhou Yun, but let's forget about Zhou Yun, you can't beat Jiang Wen..." Ye Weimin is the producer of this movie and has considerable say.

"Big brother, jokes are jokes, but you can't talk nonsense. I am a clean and innocent person."

Teacher Qi Hao was a bit anxious.

He thought rumors stop with the wise, but why are there fewer and fewer wise people?

"Just kidding, consider it seriously. Although there are many big stars, your screen time won't be little. Haven't you always wanted to break through yourself?"

Ye Weimin pacified Teacher Qi Hao.

In fact, Teacher Qi Hao wouldn't get angry over such a joke.

The literary circle that ordinary people imagine at the dinner table might all be about art or national affairs, but the actual dinner table is all full of male thieves and female prostitutes.

Back and forth, it's just that little bit of nonsense.

Those jokes were much bigger than Ye Weimin's, and Teacher Qi Hao hasn't been joked about like that less.

If he really got anxious about everything, he wouldn't be able to survive.

"Fine, thanks to you looking up to me, brother, as long as I have the schedule, I definitely won't refuse." Teacher Qi Hao patted his chest and promised.

This is also just polite talk; whether he has the schedule or not is just a matter of his word.

As long as a formal acting contract isn't signed, neither side will take such promises seriously.

But at the very least, it's an intention, and Ye Weimin is already very satisfied.

The director of "The Warlords," Chen Kexin, saw them chatting so happily over there and knew Teacher Qi Hao had almost agreed.

Another Best Actor for "Bodyguards and Assassins."

In order to facilitate recruiting people to serve in his bed at night, Teacher Qi Hao didn't forget to get close to the veteran actors.

This movie features many veteran actors.

For example, Wang Kuirong and Wei Zongwan, who play the three lords, are both national first-class actors, and there is also Gu Baoming, who is a gold-medal supporting actor from Taiwan.

Teacher Qi Hao's focus is to conquer these three.

If these three are the candidates for the night, then no matter who is chosen, it won't be a loss.

However, someone just had to come and cause trouble.

The person who came was Xiang Zuo's brother, Xiang Zuo, who blocked the way between Teacher Qi Hao and the veteran actors.

"Haozai, you've won Best Actor!"

"Thank you, it was all luck!" If it weren't for the fact that I can't afford to offend your father, I would definitely beat you until your mother wouldn't recognize you.

You say you're just a small supporting actor, what are you doing attending a premiere?

If you appear in my candidates tonight, and I accidentally choose you... then let's not train, I'll beat you for a whole night and not let you fight back.

"My dad told me to ask you for advice more often in the future, so let's hang out more."

Xiang Zuo put his arm around Teacher Qi Hao to get close.

He is destined to be unable to get ahead on his own ability, and he wouldn't dare not listen to his father's words.

"Oh my, what do I have that's worth learning? Look, I debuted in 1997 and have been in this for ten years before getting a small Best Actor award, and that was by luck. If I had your talent, I would have won Best Actor years ago."

Teacher Qi Hao doesn't want to get too close to the Xiang family's young master.

This guy is not easy to get along with.

If Teacher Qi Hao were really just a small extra starting out, he would just swallow his anger, but unfortunately, he already has a decent status.

And he has also latched onto the coal boss's backer.

"Don't be humble. You're the local snake here in the capital; are there any good places to take me to play?"

This is probably Xiang Zuo's real purpose.

Even if this guy were married, it would be hard for him to settle down, let alone now as a single aristocrat; he has to play as hard as he can.

The three veteran actors heard this and all wanted to turn around and leave, and they didn't even want to bother with Teacher Qi Hao anymore.

Young people these days.

"Next time, next time, I have a date tonight." Teacher Qi Hao watched the veteran actors leave, hating them so much he gritted his teeth.

Xiang Zuo, you just wait for me.

Later, I'll have Brother Yang arrange for a few aunties to cycle through you.

"Teacher Qi Hao, come over to take a photo~" Chen Kexin shouted, successfully rescuing Teacher Qi Hao.

After a while, special guests started coming, such as Zhang Guoli and so on.

Teacher Qi Hao became even busier.

He had acted in "The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan," and his relationship with Zhang Guoli's wife, Deng Jie, was quite good; if Teacher Qi Hao had been thick-skinned at the time, he might have even recognized her as a godmother.

It's just that Teacher Qi Hao didn't do that.

Because he discovered Zhang Guoli was very concerned about Deng Jie chatting with him, seemingly worried about Deng Jie finding a pretty boy.

In a melon field or under a plum tree, Teacher Qi Hao avoided it as much as possible.

Now it doesn't matter; meeting in public, Zhang Guoli enthusiastically pulled Teacher Qi Hao to let the media take photos of them.

In addition, there were a hundred stars including Wu Junru, Fan Wei, Ma Mengniu, Guo Xiaodong, Huang Haibing, Wang Likun, etc., appearing on the red carpet together.

It took more than an hour to finish walking.

The premiere has a set design process; Teacher Qi Hao, as one of the three brothers, had to put five-colored soil into the tripod together, symbolizing prosperity, and also had to beat drums with Li Lianjie and Liu Dehua, etc.

At the interview stage, the three talked about brotherhood.

Unfortunately, Liu Dehua had his wife slept with and his life taken, and he expressed on the spot, "I used to value brotherhood, but I was deceived; now I won't believe in brotherhood like before."

Li Lianjie managed to hold back and didn't argue that he and his sister-in-law were true love.

Teacher Qi Hao focused on talking about his feelings of filming action movies with Li Lianjie.

Li Lianjie doesn't know if he is the best fighter in the Chinese film industry.

But he is definitely the best-looking fighter, and as for the control of force, only those who have acted with him understand.

If Teacher Qi Hao could meet Li Lianjie in the candidates today, it would actually be good to train action scenes.

Fighting with Li Lianjie for a night, he won't have to worry about action scenes in the future.