Chapter 322: Extra Money Required

Chen Hao, who had long known Jiang Wen was part of the crew, saw his face darken instantly like a soot-blackened pot, and with a flick of her eyes, she understood a little—she gave a helpless glance at the man beside her, strutting like a proud rooster.

Judging by this posture, the gun in Jiang Wen's hand was just a prop, specially made by the props team, otherwise it would've been jammed straight against Zhou Yi's forehead.

How old are you now…

Chen Hao wasn't worried about anything else—after all, if Jiang Wen truly flipped out, he wouldn't be sitting here.

It's just a music video—even expanded into a 70–90-minute musical film—it's something Jiang Wen wouldn't even glance at in his daily life; frankly, his appearance in the cast was the oddity.

At least that's what she originally thought, until Zhou Yi mocked her—Jiang Wen has his share of bad films too; when connections are right, everything's possible; no need to mythologize him.

"From now on, call him that when we start shooting—set an example for someone."

After feeling satisfied, Zhou Yi stopped being sarcastic and went straight to the point: "We graduated from the same school, yet I can't understand why the quality gap is so huge. Look at you—elegant lady; contrast that with someone—crude and vulgar."

Jiang Wen lifted his gaze, raised his hand, and pointed toward Zhou Yi's direction: "Hey hey, who are you calling vulgar? Who the hell is vulgar? Huh? I'm not like that."

As he spoke, as if to prove his point, Jiang Wen raised his right thumb toward the sky behind him: "You've heard of Farewell My Concubine, right? That super famous movie."

"I'll tell you, Zhou, don't you dare doubt it—in my prime, I could've played Cheng Dieyi. Where the hell is that vulgar?"

Chen Hao: "…"

Ning Hao: "…"

"…"

Brother, you're hilarious. You're so funny.

"If you were cast as Cheng Dieyi, it would've truly destroyed the role."

Zhou Yi sneered: "You really think no one knows about your Cheng Dieyi makeup test photo? I'll have someone dig it up, copy it into giant posters, and plaster them all over the set."

"What? What do you mean? Who says Yu Ji can't have piercing eyes and a murderous aura? Is it wrong for the woman of the Western Chu Overlord to be powerful?"

Jiang Wen's pain was now clearly exposed: "This is artistic deconstruction—do you understand? Forget it, you wouldn't understand. All you law students are cold-blooded at heart; you know nothing about art."

Never having played Cheng Dieyi in Farewell My Concubine remained a major regret in Jiang Wen's self-perception.

"Cough, let's get back to discussing the current scene."

Chen Hao coughed to interrupt the two, who were on the verge of another clash, and instinctively glanced around: "Where's the director?"

"Over there—Director Ning Hao."

Zhou Yi pointed, and Chen Hao, finally seeing the person, felt an absurd sensation—

Isn't that the script supervisor?

How can you, a director, be acting as a script supervisor? What's going on?

"Cough, today's shoot is fairly freeform—we mainly want to observe how both of you perform in front of the camera. If you do well, we'll directly include it in the final cut."

Finally feeling useful and justified by Warner's high salary, Director Ning Hao stood up and began explaining the specifics.

In Zhou Yi's music video, a young Zhou Yi appears, featured in the first track of the Lianshan album's Side A, "Can You Feel My World," to highlight the dysfunction of his upbringing;

Meanwhile, in the song "Dad and Mom," a young version of "Zhou Yi" will flash briefly to create resonance.

Most importantly, Jiang Wen needs to assess the compatibility between Chen Hao and Zhou Yi.

If, from his perspective, Chen Hao fails to meet standards, he will seriously consider having Zhou Yi fire her.

…………………………………………

That night, Warner (China) Building, Zhou Jianhui's office.

Zhou Jianhui, reviewing the budget proposal for Wang Feng's new album "Love Is a Happy Bullet" under Warner China, was deep in thought when suddenly a phone ring jolted him awake—

The caller ID showed: Jiang Wen.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Mr. Zhou, I'd like to ask how your company views musical film projects."

"I don't mean stitching together individual music videos—I mean expanding the narrative of an entire album or a single song into a 70–90-minute film."

"Musical film? Mr. Jiang, if you have something to say, why not just say it outright?"

As Warner Asia's current decision-maker, Zhou Jianhui understood this genre well—such musical films are usually money-losers; some people stitch together modified music videos to reach feature-length;

Others, using their skill, condense the themes of a single song or entire album into a DVD exclusively for fans—never released in theaters, ensuring fans can only obtain it by purchasing the corresponding album version.

"We need to increase the shooting budget."

Jiang Wen on the other end delivered this blunt conclusion, and the single sentence nearly stunned Zhou Jianhui.

More money?

Still short on cash?

Wait, you've already been given so much—how could you be out of money already after just this long?

"No, not that—after watching my performance today, Jiang Wen was utterly awestruck, knelt at my feet, and begged me to expand 'In the Name of the Father' into a 90-minute DVD version. The other music videos will still be released as planned…"

At Chen Hao's home.

Zhou Yi, having received Zhou Jianhui's call, clearly had no sense of his own limits—he boasted to Chen Hao, who shared extensive scenes with him.

Musical films were rare in the Chinese music scene, as few were willing to try this approach.

In Zhou Yi's memory, the only famous one from the 2000s was Cai Yi's "Agent J"—

Although Zhou Yi thought the plot of "Agent J" was exceptionally weak, barely better than a large-scale music video compilation, and even that was a stretch.

But he was different.

He had Jiang Wen.

And based on Jiang Wen's newfound persuasion, he planned to use "In the Name of the Father" as the blueprint, blending the plots of "Can You Feel My World," "Ghost," and "Killer" into one single musical film, while keeping the other three MVs unchanged.

This meant Warner's originally approved shooting budget would inevitably rise.

If anyone else—say, Wang Feng, another Warner rocker preparing a new album—had spoken like this, Zhou Jianhui would've knocked his head crooked.

But this was Zhou Yi.

The capricious Zhou Yi—the one who personally declared his budget had no upper limit.

"Given."

Zhou Yi, having hung up the phone, calmly spoke two words. Returning home, he found himself cold and desolate once more, so he followed the scent of food to Chen Hao's house and put on a magnificent show before her.

In the entire Chinese music industry, someone who could literally expand a twenty-minute or so MV micro-film into a music film visible only to fans like Zhou Yi... such a person has truly never existed.

"As long as money is added, nothing is a problem."

"Impressive."

Chen Hao, having picked up a piece of spare rib, set down her chopsticks. Dressed in casual home clothes, she smiled, raised her hand to smooth the stray hairs on her forehead, and gently clapped to show encouragement.

"That praise feels a bit perfunctory, like coaxing a child." Zhou Yi gave it a bad review.

"Then you'll have to add money."

Chen Hao smiled and repeated Jiang Wen's words to Zhou Jianhui, while tapping the chopsticks Zhou Yi had carelessly stuck into the rice in his bowl: "Don't stick them like that; it's like burning incense, not at all auspicious."

"Don't engage in feudal superstition; it's the 21st century now."

"Then who was it who was overjoyed the last time their left eyelid twitched, spending the whole day expecting money to fall from the sky?"

"That's different; a twitching left eye means wealth."

"If you believe in that, you can wear more often the Guanyin jade I gave you last time."

Chen Hao glanced at the empty space around Zhou Yi's neck and, as if not caring, said, "That was obtained from a temple; they say it's very effective."

"Wealth?"

"Of course."

Chen Hao, having taken a bite of the spare rib, smiled like a flower: "Wear it, and people will add money for you every day."

(End of this chapter)