Chapter 129: A Fragrant Encounter on the Plane

The director called cut; the audition was over.

But Fan Fan Binbing couldn't calm down for a while, her mood extremely agitated.

Although she had filmed quite a few movies and acted with quite a few big stars, that short, improvised performance just now seemed to be the first time she had enjoyed the pleasure of acting.

Even when filming *Cell Phone*, she hadn't been this fully immersed.

At the very beginning, when she entered the door and watched Chen Nuo walking slowly in front of her, step by step, she had a feeling.

Afterward, what truly made her forget herself was a detail.

This detail couldn't be seen by bystanders; only she knew.

In reality, when Chen Nuo was holding her hand and walking in front, he wasn't holding it tightly the whole time.

His fingers were sometimes tight and sometimes loose.

Loose when he felt danger, when stepping forward, when exploring.

Loose, because he could let go of her immediately, or even push her away, to keep her far from danger.

Tight when he felt safe, when he let her follow along.

Tight, so he could let her reach a safe place as soon as possible, so he could pull her close and protect her.

No matter what, Fan Fan Binbing was an actor who had debuted for nearly 10 years; when she realized the deep meaning of this action, she was immersed in the role immediately.

Because women are easily moved by details, let alone this kind of detail.

It was simply so gentle that it could melt every woman's heart into water.

From this action, Fan Fan Binbing felt the man's love for her with incomparable clarity.

At the same time, she felt with incomparable clarity that this man was her husband, spouse, lover.

So later, when the breast-groping action happened, it wasn't just because she had already been groped enough by him outside and had some immunity.

It was also because she had truly entered the role of the wife.

That was why she performed so naturally and smoothly.

Li Yu said admiringly: "Bingbing, your performance this time was truly brilliant."

Fan Fan Binbing said: "Thank you, Teacher Li."

As she spoke, she turned around and said to Chen Nuo with a complex look in her eyes: "Thank you too, Chen Nuo."

Sigh, this is why the acting profession easily produces scumbags.

In any other industry, it would be impossible to do that to a stranger's chest, and then have the person thank you afterward, right?

Chen Nuo smiled politely: "It's nothing."

Zhang Yi said very seriously: "Bingbing, you really acted very well. You were good because in the final part, you truly acted out the essence of the husband-wife relationship; that intimacy was really special."

Fan Fan Binbing said earnestly: "Director Zhang, actually it was all Chen Nuo leading well; I was just following him."

Li Xiaotian interjected: "If you didn't have the aptitude, no matter how well Chen Nuo acted, if you couldn't enter the role after half a day, it would be useless. So you were indeed good; no need to be humble."

The way Fan Fan Binbing said thank you made Chen Nuo feel like she was participating in some variety show from the future.

Zhang Yi added: "Bingbing, let's leave it at that for now; thank you for coming to audition. We will notify you of the final result within the day. No matter what, thank you very much for participating in my movie casting."

Fan Fan Binbing was very polite; before leaving, she not only bowed and thanked Zhang Yi and the others, but also said thank you to Chen Nuo again.

Once the audition room was quiet again, Zhang Yi turned to Chen Nuo and asked: "How about it? Do you think she's okay?"

Chen Nuo said: "How would I know? By the way, isn't there one more?"

The other one was scheduled for 2:00 PM.

At noon, Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian were treated to a meal by Zhang Yi and the others.

The cost of this meal alone was something the Joker wouldn't know how many years it would take to save up, even if he didn't eat or drink. However, Chen Nuo felt the taste of shark fin and abalone wasn't as good as the sweet and sour pork elbow Zhao Liying made before they parted.

In the afternoon, the other actress arrived.

This actor had a name similar to Fan Fan Binbing's, called Gao Yuanyuan.

When Chen Nuo heard earlier that Zhang Yi's final three candidates were these two plus Hao Lei, he knew Zhang Yi's casting style: fair-skinned, beautiful, slim figure, natural beauty, especially big eyes.

Although Chen Nuo hadn't read the script and didn't know why eyes needed to be big just to act as a blind person.

Gao Yuanyuan was two years older than Fan Fan Binbing, but her reputation wasn't prominent at this time; in a room full of art-house giants who had some international fame, she wasn't as open as Fan Fan Binbing.

Let alone breast-groping, even after Zhang Yi gave the prompt, when she and Chen Nuo were discussing, they didn't even leave the room.

Instead, they talked softly in the corner, calling him "Chen Laoshi" every other sentence.

Chen Nuo could only accept it.

Since his surname was also Chen, this form of address seemed unavoidable for the time being.

In acting, Gao Yuanyuan had many more ideas than Fan Fan Binbing.

The prompt Zhang Yi gave her was the same as Fan Fan Binbing's: act as a husband and wife with Chen Nuo, and walk a stretch of road.

"Chen Laoshi, could you please walk in front of me, and I'll put my hand on your shoulder, okay?"

Chen Nuo nodded, "Okay."

"Mm, I plan to arrange a plot where we are actually crossing the street, and at this moment, the light suddenly turns red, and there's a change in the movement between us. From me holding your shoulder to walk, to you supporting me. What do you think?"

"Okay."

Gao Yuanyuan looked at him, wanting to say something but stopping, and finally nodded: "Then that's it, thank you, Chen Laoshi."

In this performance process, Chen Nuo was almost entirely a tool. He didn't act as a blind person anymore; he just served as a cane in Gao Yuanyuan's hand, creating ample performance opportunities for her.

Finally, after the performance, Gao Yuanyuan was well-praised by Zhang Yi and the others, and then happily left the audition room.

After coming out, her agent heard her recount the audition process, and the expression on his face was particularly wonderful; he looked at her dumbfounded and asked: "You mean, you used Chen Nuo as a tool? Do you know who he is?"

Gao Yuanyuan naturally knew Chen Nuo; in a sense, she was his fan.

She was originally a somewhat artistic woman; she had seen the premiere of *The Mute's House* and cried for a full ninety minutes, crying from the very first shot, and her eyes were swollen after watching it. Moreover, she went to see it two more times, determined that she must film a work like this in her life.

She had also gone to the cinema to see *If You Are the One*. She watched it twice, the second time entirely to see those ten minutes of footage.

Recently, she had also been following *The Return of the Condor Heroes* every day.

A few days ago, while browsing NetEase Entertainment to see if there was any news about herself, she accidentally saw a poll with hundreds of thousands of participants.

The topic of the poll was a comparison of the '83, '95, and '06 versions of *The Return of the Condor Heroes*: who best fit the Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü in your heart?

In the voting for Xiaolongnü, the '83 version Chen Yulian had 11%, the '95 version Li Ruotong had 43%, and the '06 version Liu Yifei had 46%.

Except for the '83 version, which was too far in the past and lagged far behind, the Hong Kong Li Ruotong and Liu Yifei were basically tied.

But the voting for Yang Guo was completely different: the '83 version Liu Dehua had 15%, the '95 version Louis Koo had 16%, and the '06 version Chen Nuo had 69%.

It could be called a landslide.

She had truly felt a mix of emotions when she saw it at the time.

Liu Dehua, undoubtedly a heavenly king; Louis Koo, a superstar who had debuted for many years and whose popularity hadn't waned—yet in this selection, they had lost to Chen Nuo by so much.

This could only explain one problem: Chen Nuo's Yang Guo was acted deeply into people's hearts.

So deeply that even the netizens who loved nostalgia and archaeology the most had to admit that the new was better than the old.

Otherwise, the disparity in voting could never have been this large.

Gao Yuanyuan didn't know if she would ever receive this kind of recognition by the time she was 40. The key was that he didn't rely on hype.

Now, who in the circle didn't know that Chen Nuo had only one agent and one studio? Let alone hype—*The Return of the Condor Heroes* was so popular, yet this master had never shown his face.

Xiaolongnü Liu Yifei, even though she was far away in Japan, had been called over by Zhang Jizhong to participate in several events and do several promotions.

But what about Yang Guo, who was the most popular and had the highest heat?

He had been in seclusion for four months.

There were all kinds of rumors online, and the most widely circulated one, whose truth was unknown, was that Zhang Jizhong gave Chen Nuo too low a salary, leading to Chen Nuo having conflicts with the production side, and thus refusing to attend the promotion.

But Gao Yuanyuan felt it shouldn't be true:

Refusing to promote *The Return of the Condor Heroes* wouldn't go as far as asking for leave from the Film Academy, right?

The news she saw online said Chen Nuo hadn't attended a single class this semester.

He must have gone somewhere for special acting training; after all, that Warner movie was about to start filming!

Although Chen Nuo was much younger than her, Gao Yuanyuan really admired such an actor.

That was what she thought at the time. Then, on the NetEase poll, she lightly clicked the dot in front of Chen Nuo's name and submitted.

When she heard her agent ask her this, she felt particularly aggrieved and said: "I know."

"Know? You knew and still let him be a tool for you?" her agent said, hating that she wouldn't improve, "I just heard the news: when Fan Fan Binbing auditioned, she was locked in the tea room with Chen Nuo whispering for a long time, and Chen Nuo designed a full set of auditions for her, and the final effect was very, very good. Director Li Yu, such a strict person, couldn't stop praising her, let alone Director Zhang Yi and the others."

Gao Yuanyuan froze instantly and asked in disbelief: "It can be like that???"

She was suddenly very angry, and her voice rarely became louder: "This is unfair! How could she do this?"

Her agent sighed, looked at her, shook his head, and said: "Yuanyuan, you, you suffer because you're too honest. Forget it, things have reached this point; we can only leave it to fate."

After the audition, Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian left.

Chen Bicheng and Pan Chengrong had a 6:00 PM flight, and they had to go to the airport to pick them up. The two had discussed that the two families would have a meal together in the evening. After all, they were going abroad again soon, and they wouldn't be able to see anyone for several months.

Qi Yun and Li Er, although they had told Chen Bicheng and the others not to bother and let Chen Nuo suffer on his own, Chen Nuo had only been in Langfang for maybe 2 weeks before she started nagging. The reason Qi Yuntian came to pick him up a few days early was because Li Er was nagging incessantly.

However, when Chen Nuo called her to set up the meal today, Li Er's tone changed again, back to that indifferent manner, saying something like, "No need to gather, right? Actors are all like this; once they join a crew, it's for months, just get used to it."

But after not saying two sentences, she agreed, letting Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian host and treat the elders of both families to a good meal: Peking duck.

Although Zhang Yi asked Chen Nuo to help him finalize the casting, Chen Nuo would definitely not do such a thing.

He also had no friendship with Fan Fan Binbing and Gao Yuanyuan.

As for the breast-groping, that was all the Joker's doing; it had nothing to do with him.

Besides, he had already paid it back.

So Chen Nuo felt that his participation here was enough.

Any more, and it wouldn't be in the realm of friends; it would be crossing the line. No matter if it was a success or failure in the end, he might not get anything good out of it.

Having lived two lives, he had long seen these things clearly and thoroughly.

Chen Nuo patted his butt and left; Zhang Yi, Li Xiaotian, and Li Yu were truly in a bit of a dilemma sitting in the conference room.

Zhang Yi sighed and said: "Who do you think we should choose?"

Li Yu said immediately: "Fan Fan Binbing."

She didn't know what being polite meant.

When she filmed *This Summer* back then, she went to film in another place and ran out of money; all her money was invested in it, and in the end, she didn't even have the train fare to return to Jingcheng, so she had to stow away on the train.

It shows her personality and what she could do for a movie.

This time, since she agreed to be the producer of Zhang Yi's movie, Li Yu wanted to do it well.

Li Xiaotian's opinion was different; he hesitated and said: "I think Gao Yuanyuan."

Li Yu frowned: "In the two auditions just now, did Gao Yuanyuan act better than Fan Fan Binbing?"

Li Xiaotian said: "But that was also led by Chen Nuo; Fan Fan Binbing has too much negative news, and I'm afraid it will affect the film's box office in the end."

Li Yu said: "When filming a movie, do you want to film a good movie, or a movie with high box office?"

Li Xiaotian said: "Both."

Li Yu said disdainfully: "Heh, Zhang Yi, you say."

With his girlfriend and good friend arguing, Zhang Yi was even more unable to make up his mind on the side.

After a long time, and after smoking many cigarettes, he finally made up his mind.

……

……

"Got dumped?"

Wang Zonglei was just preparing to get off work, thinking about calling which female artist to come and accompany him for dinner.

His trusted subordinate, also the manager of the artist management department, Tian Zewun, came in and said that five minutes ago, news came from Zhang Yi's side: Fan Fan Binbing ultimately didn't get her wish, and the other side still chose Gao Yuanyuan.

Wang Zonglei was both surprised and happy and asked: "Really?"

"Little President Wang, that's right. What do you think we should do now?"

Wang Zonglei suppressed his impatient mood and asked: "What did Fan Fan Binbing's side say?"

Tian Zewun said: "I just asked Little Liu; she said she went home after hearing the news, and seemed very devastated."

Wang Zonglei laughed: "Can she not be devastated? She was counting on this film to turn things around; now it seems she can't turn things around. Zewun, if I go find her now, what do you think she will say?"

Tian Zewun was silent for a while and said: "Little President Wang, I think she might not be able to turn that corner for a while; should we let her cool off for a bit?"

"Fuck, she's slept with so many people, yet she knows how to act like a chaste maiden in front of me. Let's see how I deal with her later."

Wang Zonglei knew the other party was right; he felt a burst of irritation, cursed for a while, thought for a moment, and said thoughtfully: "Do you think, how about we give her another push?"

"Little President Wang, what do you mean?"

Wang Zonglei thought it was more and more wonderful the more he thought about it, couldn't help but laugh, and said: "The matter of her breaking up with Wang Xuebin, I see the heat has died down recently. I'm thinking, how about we take advantage of this audition opportunity to stir up a big scandal for her?"

Tian Zewun hesitated and said: "Little President Wang, what do you mean?"

"How about stirring up rumors about her and Chen Nuo? Didn't she just audition with Chen Nuo this time? Can we find a way to stir it up? What do you think?"

Tian Zewun hesitated: "Will Chen Nuo be repulsed?"

Wang Zonglei laughed: "What's there to be repulsed about? He might even be begging for it. You have to know, although he's popular now, who doesn't want to be more popular?"

Tian Zewun nodded thoughtfully: "That's true. In matters of such scandals, the male side usually gets more popular the more it's stirred, while the female side is the one getting scolded."

Wang Zonglei said: "That's right. Besides, how can he be sure we are the ones behind the scenes? Just tell those media outlets to keep their mouths shut, right? Can his little studio with a few cats and kittens find us? Just say it's the media stirring it up randomly; what can he do to us?"

Tian Zewun laughed: "Little President Wang, what you say is really not bad. Since Chen Nuo's debut, there have been very few scandals. Liu Yifei counts as one, but everyone knows that was stirred up for the show; now that the show is over, no one mentions it at all. Hong Kong did stir it up for a while a while ago, saying he had some young model girlfriend there, but it's obviously impossible."

Wang Zonglei laughed: "That's right. He's been debuted for over a year and doesn't even have a proper scandal girlfriend. Now that his momentum is so strong, whoever can be the first to score with him will definitely take off directly. Just this point alone is worth us doing it. If Fan Fan Binbing gets popular, our company will also benefit."

Tian Zewun clapped his hands in admiration: "The key is, everyone knows that since Fan Fan Binbing's debut, scandals have been constant. She just broke up with Wang Xuebin and is now rumored to be with Chen Nuo. If she doesn't want to be scolded out of the entertainment industry, she can only rely on the company, rely on you, Little President Wang, to help her calm the storm."

Wang Zonglei chuckled and took a sip of tea: "That's the logic."

Tian Zewun laughed again: "In this way, although she might become more famous, besides earning money for the company through commercial appearances, she can't actually do anything else, because her reputation is already stinking... Heh, Little President Wang, you are truly amazing; I think those people in the planning department aren't even fit to carry your shoes compared to you."

Wang Zonglei was also somewhat satisfied with himself and asked: "However, how to operate specifically, from what aspect to stir it up, you still have to put some heart into it when you go down, and carefully consider it. It can't be brainless; it's best to have some real evidence."

Tian Zewun laughed: "Little President Wang, actually I happen to have a piece of news..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 130 =====