Chapter 151: Self-Inflicted Misfortune
Chang Fengyuan vaguely guessed the reason why the Chang Group was being targeted, but he did not dare to tell the Chairman of the Chang Group.
How could he say it was because of himself?
He had worked so hard to establish an image of exceptional competence in front of the company and his father, overshadowing that good-for-nothing Chang Yue, who only knew how to chase women and men in the entertainment industry. If his father found out that he had provoked Yin Chengjue over some trivial request from a little lover, he would surely be furious enough to chop him up.
Actually, just angering Yin Chengjue alone wasn't a big deal. Chang Fengyuan hadn't thought much of Yin Chengjue before; in his view, Yin Chengjue was just as useless as Chang Yue, a wastrel who only knew how to loaf around in the entertainment industry. A random shot from an entertainment paparazzi's camera would often catch Yin Chengjue in the frame—how could someone like that be reliable?
He never expected that over a kidnapping incident, Yin Chengjue would go this far for that little artist who was kidnapped, directly picking a fight with their Chang Group.
Chang Fengyuan felt regret in his heart, but it was already too late.
Chairman Chang was no fool. With a little investigation, he found out the reason and was so angry that he gave Chang Fengyuan a severe scolding. He ordered him to go back and reflect properly, and for the time being, his company duties would be handed over to others to manage.
This decision seemed like a reprimand against Chang Fengyuan, but wasn't it also a way to protect him?
This matter concerned the company's interests. The upper management of the Chang Group would certainly be dissatisfied with Chang Fengyuan. It was better to throw this mess for someone else to handle.
Watching the Chang Group running around like a headless chicken, Yin Chengjue was in a good mood. Coincidentally, Sally also sent good news: she had already contacted a director skilled at shooting horror-style films, and the next step was to proceed with casting.
Sally: "There's another piece of news. 'The Chase' has already finished casting and has started filming. If we don't move quickly, we probably won't be able to release at the same time as them."
If they wanted to compete with "The Chase" at the box office, they had to finish shooting before "The Chase" did. Because "Ghost Traces" is a supernatural film, it needs post-production enhancement to achieve that ghostly, illusory feeling.
Sally acted quickly. It also happened that the director had free time. The involved parties set a time, met at a hotel, quickly discussed the matter, and finally unanimously decided to set the audition time for three days later.
When Rong Yu learned that "Ghost Traces" was starting auditions, his first reaction was: "Brother, you promised me before that the role of the protagonist's friend would be given to Ming Qian."
Yin Chengjue pretended not to know: "Huh? Was there such a thing?"
Rong Yu smiled: "Yes, there was. Brother, are you going back on your word?"
Yin Chengjue: "Alright, as you wish."
Thus, Yin Chengjue had to inform Sally and Director Mo that the role of the male lead's friend had already been assigned to Ming Qian.
Sally, hearing this news for the first time: "..."
Sally: "Is there something wrong with my ears?"
Yin Chengjue: "If you heard the words 'Ming Qian,' then your ears are fine, no need to go to the hospital."
Sally was very puzzled: "Is this author perhaps a 'Rong Guang Huan Fa' CP fan?"
[容光煥發 (róng guāng huàn fā): lit. face glowing with health, a CP name combining "容" from Rong Yu (容瑜) and "煥," which sounds like "奐" from Ming Qian (明奐)]
Yin Chengjue: "Please do not make conjectures that cause me psychological discomfort, thank you."
Sally: "But the whole internet knows they don't get along. Having them appear in the same series, I hardly dare imagine what their fans might do."
Yin Chengjue pondered for a moment, then said: "That's not necessarily true..."
Sally: "Huh?"
Yin Chengjue: "Anyway, let's settle it like this for now. Speed up the casting process. We plan to start filming next week."
The auditions for "Ghost Traces" began quickly. Since there weren't many characters, casting wasn't too difficult. With Rong Yu and Ming Qian already set to play the male lead and his friend respectively, the other main roles only required finding actors for the psychologist and the bus driver.
Originally, Yin Chengjue had been hoping that Ming Qian wouldn't have room in his schedule, so he couldn't take this series. Unexpectedly, after Na Haolin read the script and heard that Ming Qian was invited to play the male lead's friend, he actually went ahead and cleared Ming Qian's schedule.
Because they prioritized artists from Huansheng Entertainment, the actors who came to audition for the other roles were all familiar faces.
Li Qiao also brought those five talented young men. They had clearly worked hard—although they had only received the script three days prior, they quickly memorized the lines for the roles they wanted to audition for and successfully passed Director Mo's review.
Yin Chengjue was busy with affairs of his new company and didn't have time to participate in the auditions, so the task fell to Director Mo. Director Mo was quite happy about it. Since he was going to direct personally, it was best to have the casting power in his own hands.
Just as the casting for "Ghost Traces" was completed, "Blood Mist" was also airing its first season finale—the most shocking and suffocating Case Five: "The Crime of Lies."
In this fifth case, a serial killer appeared, specifically targeting young children. Each time, the killer first cut out the child's tongue before cruelly torturing and killing them.
The killer's vicious actions incited anger, but when people heard the killer's monologue, they were shocked by his tragic past.
The source of the tragedy was those very lies—the lies spoken from the mouths of children. Those innocent, seemingly harmless lies became a catastrophic disaster, completely shattering a once happy and perfect family, leaving it broken and fragmented.
Hatred grew amidst the ruined wreckage, eventually becoming a terrifying vicious cycle.
The actor playing the tragic, misfortune-stricken killer was Lu Muyang, also known as Qi Yuan.
Qi Yuan was Lu Muyang's stage name. According to Fei Zhengqi, back then, the Fei family only provided financial aid to Lu Muyang and had no intention of adopting him. So, Lu Muyang continued to use the name found on the cloth wrapped around him when he was abandoned. Later, when he entered the entertainment industry, he created a new stage name, which he used until now.
This was also one of the reasons why Yin Chengjue didn't immediately realize who Lu Muyang was when Zhengqi first mentioned him.
Lu Muyang played the antagonist role in the final case. The complex character successfully attracted the attention of the series' fans, and his Weibo follower count rapidly increased.
Soon, people dug up Lu Muyang's past and learned that he had debuted in a boy band before. If one really had to compare, Lu Muyang could be considered a senior among the actors in the "Blood Mist" crew, given his early debut.
However, that the boy band Lu Muyang was in didn't last long before disbanding. The members went their separate ways, developing individually, and were never seen together again. The fanbase from back then had probably mostly dispersed. This time, being recognized by netizens was largely thanks to the marketing accounts.
Without the "guidance" from these marketing accounts, probably not many people would remember this.
Just as everyone started discussing Lu Muyang (Qi Yuan) following the topics raised by the marketing accounts, another exposé was released, revealing the reason for their boy band's disbandment back then.
It turned out that after Lu Muyang gained some popularity, he became ambitious. Amidst the fans' praise, he lost his head, believing that solo development would be better than team development, and decisively announced his departure.
At that time, the boy band was indeed largely supported by Lu Muyang. His looks, singing, dancing, and talent firmly secured him the center position in the boy band scene back then, which was also one of the reasons for his arrogance and desire to fly solo.
Unexpectedly, Lu Muyang's first drama after going solo was banned for regulatory violations. To maintain exposure, he had to immediately join another production without a break. Due to extreme exhaustion, he lost focus while evading a required explosion special effect during filming, stumbled, failed to escape the blast radius in time, and was struck in the face by shrapnel from the explosion, tragically leaving him disfigured.
For artists who relied on their looks to attract fans, their face was their fortune. Without a handsome face, the money stopped flowing.
The disfigured Lu Muyang had no choice but to temporarily withdraw from the entertainment industry, only returning now.
So the question arose: since Lu Muyang disappeared back then because he was disfigured, now that he's returned with a fine face, doesn't that mean he had plastic surgery?
Even though he had it restored to his original appearance, it would still lose him some points in the minds of netizens.
Reality is just that cruel.
The passers-by who had initially felt sorry for Lu Muyang, wondering why someone who debuted so long ago, with decent looks and acting skills, hadn't become popular earlier, instantly lost their sympathy after seeing this expose.
There was no reason to feel sorry for him. The boy band's disbandment was his own fault, so he couldn't blame anyone else. His subsequent streak of bad luck with his acting roles simply proved that he had reaped what he sowed.
Looking at the swirling public opinion online, Yin Chengjue could guess with his little toe that the subsequent expose was Fei Zhengqi's doing.
Yin Chengjue's methods to undermine the Chang Group forced Chairman Chang to temporarily remove Chang Fengyuan from the core management of the Chang Group and send him home to reflect behind closed doors. Consequently, Lu Muyang temporarily lost his protector, making it convenient for Fei Zhengqi to strike.
Otherwise, there was no telling if Chang Fengyuan would have discovered and deleted the news Fei Zhengqi paid to have released.
"Boss, the proposal documents have been collected. Do you want to look at them now?" A voice broke Yin Chengjue's train of thought. Yin Chengjue moved his gaze away from the computer and tapped the space to his left: "Put them here for now. I'll try to finish reading them before the afternoon. We can discuss them in detail at the 3 PM meeting."
"Okay, Boss." After a pause, the voice seemed somewhat hesitant: "Boss, there are so many proposal documents here. If you have to finish reading them by the afternoon, won't you be unable to rest? It's easy to ruin your health from exhaustion like this."
Yin Chengjue had already held his palm out, waiting for the assistant to place the documents in his hand so he could start reviewing them immediately. After waiting a couple of seconds, he got this remark instead. He thought: If you said less, I'd already be reviewing them by now. If you're really worried about me not getting rest, you'd better give them to me sooner.
So, without looking up, Yin Chengjue rapped on the desk, urging: "Put them in my hand. You can go prepare the materials needed for the afternoon meeting now."
"...Okay."
No comments:
Post a Comment