Chapter 49: Crowd Cinema

The day after Liu Yi left, Chen Nuo also boarded a flight to Shanghai. Chen Bi saw him off at the airport. Because Chen Nuo had only been home for less than a week before leaving again, Pan Chengrong had strong opinions about it; she wasn't as interested in the "celebrity mom" business as she once was.

Chen Bi didn't say much about it, but he did demand that once Chen Nuo had a bit of fame, he should hold himself to stricter standards: "Don't go around acting recklessly like you used to."

Chen Nuo retorted, "You shouldn't act like you used to either, getting fleeced like a pig just by signing up for a training class." This angered Chen Bi so much he nearly told him to go hail his own taxi.

Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian met up after landing at Shanghai Airport. As soon as they met, Chen Nuo was too shocked to speak. The colorful international beauty was gone, replaced by a quasi-normal man with black hair, eyeshadow, a limp wrist, and pink fingernails.

"You!?" Chen Nuo pointed at his fingernails, too stunned to speak.

Qi Yuntian walked over, gave his head a sharp toss in front of him, swept his fingers through his hair, and struck a "glancing back at the moon" pose. "Don't be too disappointed. Although I'm no longer quite so dazzling, my beautiful essence remains unchanged~"

"What's wrong with you? Are you trying to go straight?"

"Pfft, you're the one going straight~ I'm doing this for the image of our studio."

"Studio?"

"That's right. I've decided to establish a studio."

"Oh?"

"Aren't you going to ask what it's called?"

"What's it called?"

"Chen Nuo Film Studio."

"……Did you decide to establish it, or did I?"

Qi Yuntian chuckled. "You did. Do you know why you decided to do this? Because your commercial value will only grow, and your fame will likely increase. You can't just keep cutting corners forever... right? Plus, there will definitely be many scripts coming our way in the future. If we rely solely on you and me to read them, can we even keep up? So, establishing a studio is, in my dad's words, the only path if we want to grow big and strong. Of course, we have another choice: seek refuge with a large talent agency, but then many things might not be as free. You said it yourself: for the next few years, academics come first."

Chen Nuo thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright, I'll register it when I go back to Jingcheng for school. You still take a twenty percent stake."

Qi Yuntian beamed like a flower. "I knew you wouldn't leave your sister behind. Don't worry, when you go to school, I'll definitely manage the studio well for you. Oh, speaking of university, my mom told me to tell you that you must review your academic subjects well. Don't end up scoring only 200-something points; that would really make national headlines. The headline would be: 'Berlin Best Actor is actually a poor student, Gaokao score of only 200 surpasses human imagination!'"

"Bullshit! Don't look down on me! 200 points? Absolutely impossible!"

The two left the airport and got into a taxi. Qi Yuntian saw Chen Nuo actually pull a high school math workbook out of his bag and start reading it.

Qi Yuntian exclaimed, "No way, you're serious?"

Chen Nuo rolled his eyes at him. When it came to studying, he never faked it. This time, he hadn't just brought math and English workbooks; he had also brought a set of mock exams for politics, history, and geography.

Li Er had told him before that while the Beijing Film Academy's requirements for academic scores were low, they weren't non-existent. He needed to work hard and strive for around 400 points to be safe. So, Chen Nuo had set a goal for himself: 80 in Chinese, 80 in English, 60 in Math, and 180 in the liberal arts composite. Not a point more, not a point less, exactly 400. Looking at this grand goal he had set, Chen Nuo's gaze was firm, his heart filled with soaring ambition. As the saying goes, with high aspirations and a daunting task, he would persist and courageously scale the heights.

"Then you might as well look at this." Qi Yuntian tossed a magazine over.

Chen Nuo picked it up and looked. It was a magazine called *Crowd Cinema*.

The cover was black and white, featuring a long-haired man in a suit and leather shoes, looking quite dapper as he sat in a chair. It was none other than Zhang Yi.

His hair had never been seen so neatly combed, draped over his shoulders like Chen Kexin's. He wore a shoe on only one foot, while the other foot wore a red sock. The shod foot was on the ground, the other rested casually on the chair seat. His expression was incredibly relaxed, a faint smile on his face, angled 45 degrees away from the camera. A beam of light shone from above, perfectly framing his face in a halo.

The cover featured a fairly large headline: *The Dawn Light of Chinese Art Cinema*.

"Pretty badass, right?" Qi Yuntian said from the side. "It just came out today, the latest issue. I bought it before getting on the plane. A cover feature in a national-level film magazine—everything from the headline to the content is positive reporting."

Chen Nuo opened the magazine and saw that Zhang Yi's exclusive interview and photos took up a full six or seven pages. There were photos of him grinning, him jumping with his legs spread while holding the Silver Bear trophy, and him with his arms around Li Xiaotian. Judging by the background, the photos were all taken in Germany.

It was one thing for Zhang Yi to be thick-skinned, but didn't the photographer know the award was for the actor? Why was a director hugging the trophy and kissing it?

"Zhang Yi, that guy, he really kept his mouth shut," Chen Nuo couldn't help but say.

The day before yesterday, Zhang Yi had called Chen Nuo. Throughout the entire call, he only said the film was selling quite well, that the rights had been sold to many countries, and that not only had they recouped the costs, but they had also made a tidy profit. He was planning to give Chen Nuo another red envelope when he returned. He hadn't mentioned a single word about the interview.

Qi Yuntian said, "I guess the magazine brought people over to do the interview the day he won the award. But nobody knew if the interview would actually make it to print, so of course he didn't dare say anything. As it turns out, it did. I suppose it's because there have been few major international awards for our domestic films in recent years. Now that the wind from above has signaled the direction, the people below know what to do."

Chen Nuo glanced at him. "You're an ABC, yet you understand the national situation pretty well? Did your dad teach you?"

Qi Yuntian sneered, unzipped his backpack, and flipped it open toward Chen Nuo. "Take a look. You think you're the only one studying?"

Chen Nuo took a peek. *Brand Management and Communication*, *Public Relations Media and Management*, *Artist Management: From Beginner to Master*, *Entertainment Legal Handbook*, *Artist Management and Packaging*—a stack of books of varying thickness filled half the bag.

"Carrying this pile of stuff on and off planes, my shoulders are chafed red, okay?" Qi Yuntian said triumphantly.

"How come they're so new? The book covers are still on. You haven't even flipped through them, have you?"

Hearing Qi Yuntian expression froze. "What are you talking about! Crazy, I'm not letting you see them anymore." With that, he pulled his bag back, huffed, turned to face the window, and sat there sulking in silence.

Chen Nuo couldn't help but find it amusing.

He was certain that Qi Yuntian had bought this half-bag of books specifically to show off in front of him.

However, objectively speaking, Qi Yuntian had indeed been working very hard during this time. If nothing else, just seeing him willing to dye his hair black and repaint his beloved colorful nails back to pink, Chen Nuo knew he was passionate about the job of being an agent and was truly trying to do it well.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 50 =====