Chapter 42: The System Has Been Tamed? (Request Monthly Votes)

【Task 9 completed, reward: Acting +10, script “The Missing Gun”】

【Task completed, training opportunity granted】

【Choose one training NPC: Wang Zhiwen / Jiang Wen / Tian Zhuangzhuang】

【New task now being released】

【Task 10: Though you’ve only been in the industry a short time, your natural advantages make it appropriate to sacrifice a bit of your looks and film a tender scene with a female star! Task difficulty: 4 stars, deadline: 90 days】

【Task completion reward: Charm +10, script “Shaolin Soccer,” Scholar’s Glasses (System Version)】

Script “The Missing Gun”…

Qi Hao could only feel pain in his liver, spleen, lungs, and heart—such a great reward, too bad it was outdated.

Admittedly, if the system hadn’t taken ten years to load, its rewards were quite generous.

And the task difficulty wasn’t absurd either.

As long as you work hard enough, you can always pull it off.

What a pity.

Then came the training NPCs: Wang Zhiwen, Jiang Wen, Tian Zhuangzhuang.

Wang Zhiwen needs no introduction—his acting is superb, his line delivery divine, unquestionably the top choice.

In fact, Jiang Wen and Tian Zhuangzhuang are also excellent actors.

Jiang Wen is a two-time Hundred Flowers Best Actor, one-time Golden Eagle Best Actor, and one-time Hong Kong Film Award Best Supporting Actor—those awards still carried real weight over a decade ago.

Tian Zhuangzhuang also has solid acting ability.

But since Qi Hao had no interest in directing and was solely focused on achieving acting godhood, he chose Wang Zhiwen without hesitation.

Little Wang, from now on, you’re my line coach.

The new task is a tender scene.

And it specifically emphasized a tender scene with a female star, which slightly eased Qi Hao’s nerves.

If the Qi Hao from his first two years in the industry had taken this task, it wouldn’t have been impossible—but certainly not as effortless as it is now.

Fortunately, he and Tang Yan had plenty of tender scenes in “Immortal Love III.”

Since the main focus now is on Yang Mi’s scenes, the parts featuring him and Tang Yan haven’t started filming yet.

Then came Qi Hao’s most anticipated reward.

Charm +10—kind of useless.

Others crave boundless charm, but Qi Hao only wants to stay low-key, avoiding those female demons who keep coming to drain his essence.

Superstitious as it sounds, whenever a female demon spreads gossip with him, she becomes famous—how do we know she isn’t stealing his fortune?

Script “Shaolin Soccer”—as ridiculous as ever.

It felt like this damn system deliberately gave him excellent but outdated scripts, making his heart feel like it had been gnawed by a dog.

Utterly agonizing.

Scholar’s Glasses?

A pair of glasses?

Qi Hao never wore glasses.

His vision was excellent—he could spot a girl’s faint cleavage from far away.

Even if he wore glasses, they’d be the sunglasses stars commonly wore.

To play the aloof god.

The word “scholar” only made Qi Hao think of “scholarly scoundrel.”

Like when Li Ming told his men to beat up the Black Society members in “Infernal Affairs 3,” saying, “Be scholarly.”

Li Ming in that scene was devastatingly handsome.

Still, Qi Hao wasn’t disappointed by a mere pair of glasses.

Because there was a suffix—System Version. The last such reward had been the System Version Santana 2000.

After checking with the system, Qi Hao learned these glasses had actual metaphysical properties.

Photographic memory!

Holy shit, System Brother, you’re awesome!

Lying in bed, Qi Hao reached out and grabbed at the air, as if he wanted to snatch the glasses right now and put them on.

Reading was exhausting!

He’d read several books in this period, after all.

But he forgot them as soon as he finished—like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, nothing stuck in his mind.

He’d see an unfamiliar character, learn it, then forget its name the next time he saw it.

Some people have poor learning ability because they haven’t formed good habits.

But some are just born that way.

Qi Hao was one of those without natural academic talent—when he was in elementary school, with two teacher parents, he barely got by; by middle school, he started falling apart.

When the system appeared, he immediately quit studying and went into the entertainment circle.

Now, suddenly having a photographic memory glasses—while not solving everything—meant he no longer had to struggle so hard.

At least now, the characters I know will only keep increasing!

System Brother is so thoughtful.

“Woke up at dawn to collect manure, came home and found my woman gone—searched the east courtyard, then the west garden, searched the south courtyard, then the north—checked every house, still couldn’t find her, I can’t rest easy, sweat poured from my forehead…”

Humming a tune, Qi Hao planned to spend eight hours with Wang Zhiwen before he got married.

Just as he was about to enter the training space, he suddenly stopped.

Wait a minute!

Where’s the electricity?

Why is there no power?

Every time a task was issued, there was always “Task failure penalty: three electric shocks,” but this time the system didn’t mention it.

Qi Hao could check the task details in his mind.

He quickly pulled them up and checked.

Nothing.

Sure enough, gone.

This time, the system didn’t mention any task failure penalty, nor did it say “three electric shocks.”

Qi Hao wasn’t nostalgic for the electric shocks—he wasn’t a masochist wanting to be zapped.

He just…

How could it just disappear like that?

Something happening should have a reason, right?

Could it be… the damn system has been tamed?

Hahaha…

Of course, whether or not he did the task was entirely his own choice—he wasn’t afraid of electric shocks.

After returning, he’d tell the director: I’m going to devour a female star.

Of course, that was a joke—since “Immortal Love III” had already scheduled his tender scenes, and more than one, completing the task was inevitable.

And judging by the shooting schedule, he wouldn’t have to wait long.

So he just needed to wait.

To avoid making the director think he had designs on Tang Yan.

What designs could he possibly have on Tang Yan?

His interest in Tang Yan was less than his interest in the pickled vegetables her mother made.

Meanwhile, the female star Qi Hao planned to devour was lying on a hotel bed—not alone.

Three of them!

“It’s late at night—what are you girls talking about?”

Since the chairs were piled with clutter, Tang Yan had to let Yang Mi and Liu Shishi sit on her bed.

The southern weather was chilly, and she disliked air conditioning—it felt too dry.

So the three of them chose to chat under the covers.

“I don’t know either—Big Boobs dragged me over.” Liu Shishi looked bewildered.

She was just as curious about what Yang Mi wanted to discuss.

“Oh come on, let’s talk about adult topics…” Yang Mi seemed to have given up all pretense.

“Adult topics… what time do we start work tomorrow?”

Watching her expression, Tang Yan couldn’t help smiling.

“We’re arguing pointlessly—we’d be better off sitting down and discussing it.”

Yang Mi ignored her; among them, she was the most desperate.

One, she was the most superstitious; two, her time was running out.

The shoot had been going on for over a month, mostly her scenes—she’d nearly finished filming all her parts in Hengdian.

“Arguing about what? We don’t understand.” Tang Yan shook her head; Liu Shishi followed suit.

“It’s already this late—stop pretending. Do you even want to be famous?”

“Do you have any ideas?” Liu Shishi asked.

She had seen what real fame looked like for female stars; once you entered this circle, no star didn’t want to become famous.

And Cai Yinong brought it up constantly.

It might as well satisfy her boss’s wishes—it’s just gossip, after all, and she has nothing to lose.

“What are you planning?” Tang Yan asked warily.

Whether she spread rumors herself didn’t matter; even if she didn’t initiate them, the on-screen couple and the drama’s chemistry would almost certainly generate gossip once it aired.

“I’ll go first, then Shishi, and Tang Yan, you last—we’ll take turns.”

Take… turns?

Tang Yan and Liu Shishi both stared blankly.

You can do that?

“Why not? We’re just stirring up gossip—we’re not taking turns sleeping with him.”

Yang Mi spoke with perfect confidence.

“Yeah, after all, he’s got so many gossip partners—almost every drama he does spawns rumors. We… we can just treat him to a few more meals.”

Liu Shishi was tempted.

“I get it now—you don’t like him, you just want to sleep with him… you just want to ride his coattails.”

Tang Yan laughed.

For some reason, she suddenly felt a little sorry for Qi Hao.

This might just be a side effect of acting.

She and Qi Hao were playing lovers, and even though they hadn’t shot much yet, she’d already started automatically thinking of Qi Hao’s interests.

No, no—she really was a love-struck fool.

“Anyway… if he wants something real in return, I… I’m not against it.” Yang Mi straightened up.

“You’re dreaming!” Tang Yan delivered a crushing blow instantly.

“He definitely wouldn’t look at someone like us…” Liu Shishi propped her chin on her knee, looking utterly dejected.

“You’re not serious, are you?” Yang Mi was stunned.

This woman who was always sleepy—except when she was sleeping—had actually gone into heat?

“Qi Hao’s great—he’s got status, has been in the industry for ten years, has lots of friends; he’s rich enough to buy a Rolls-Royce Phantom; he’s good-looking too, universally recognized as one of the handsomest in the industry. Everyone says you can think Qi Hao isn’t shrewd, but you can’t deny he’s truly beautiful…”

Liu Shishi counted off on her fingers.

Hmm—these were all things Cai Yinong had implanted in her.

Cai Yinong even hoped she’d truly land Qi Hao, use the title of “Empress Dowager of the Film Industry” to tie him to her for promotion, act in a few more projects, and become a top rising star in a few years.

If Qi Hao found out, he’d be furious.

I’ve done nothing to you—why are you trying to get yourself registered under my household?

“Cough, cough—anyway, let’s not get sidetracked. First, let’s set the order for the gossip Chaozuo , and get the rumors going first.”

Yang Mi didn’t bother to criticize Liu Shishi.

A brain’s a good thing, but if you’re an idiot, you can get by without one.

But you’re not even that big an idiot—if Qi Hao’s so great, why would he even look at you?

He’s the one even An Feng couldn’t land.

Might as well grab what you can—get the gossip going first. Who knows? Maybe you’ll go viral.

You can think about men later.