When will I be the queen

Chapter 504 Reminder
Therefore, there's no such thing as being forced into something; it's mostly about prioritizing self-interest. Even in that feudal era, the women of the Cai family possessed inherent value and could translate that value into benefits for others, thus preventing them from wantonly violating human rights. Fortunately, in modern society, everyone has human rights.

Tang Jinyi continued, "Those lackeys chose women from the Cai family who were related to us by blood and sold them off. More than ten years later, the dynasty ended, and some of them were sent back alive. But their families, on the surface, did not accept them. It wasn't that they were dead, but that they had never existed. Cai Changyun was afraid that they would die mysteriously, so he brought them all back home, changed their names, and made them all members of the Cai family."

Tang Jinyi concluded, "Anyway, we all share the same ancestor. We were one family five hundred years ago." So, five hundred years from now, we can still be one family.

The immortal lord was somewhat puzzled, "Why isn't Xiao Jinling as famous as Cai Jiaoniang?"

"It's simple, because the men around Xiao Jinling aren't as famous as the men around Cai Jiaoniang." Cai Jiaoniang is suspected of having had dealings with the emperor, while the most famous men around Xiao Jinling are those traitors. "People are always more enthusiastic about figures of imperial power."

"Furthermore, it was also out of protection. Xiao Jinling was someone who had developed antisocial tendencies, and she had suffered very serious harm. What she did, setting aside national righteousness, was actually a crime in itself. She passed away less than two years after returning home." Tang Jinyi didn't hide anything from the Immortal Lord; in order for him to better help take care of Cai Cai, she still needed to tell him about some things in the family.

Even though Tang Jinyi's words were vague and simple, the Immortal Lord could guess that Xiao Jinling must have had a very difficult time in the last two years before her death.
"The fact that the name 'Xiao Jinling' is recorded in history is because that traitor was so famous." This is how the imprint of an era often falls on women; it's not because of the woman herself, but because of the man. For a woman to have her name and life etched into the annals of history, she must be more outstanding than a man—that's the foundation; she's faced countless near-death experiences—that's the norm; and the result is often accompanied by endless slander and prejudiced scrutiny.

There was another reason, which the Immortal Lord understood why Tang Jinyi hadn't mentioned. This reason was the Cai family's love and protection for Xiao Jinling. The number of people in this world who knew that Xiao Jinling was Cai Changyun of the Cai family was certainly very small. The Cai family would never be ashamed of Xiao Jinling; otherwise, they would have accepted Cai Jiaoniang as their daughter. They truly loved Cai Changyun and protected her reputation both in life and after death.

"The media might dig it up," Xianjun reminded Tang Jinyi, "Don't underestimate the capabilities and persistence of the media and fans. Especially the fans. Many fans satisfy their need for intimacy by digging into all of their idols' private lives. The more they know, the more detailed it seems, the more they believe they love their idol." Many people don't want to be famous, they dare not be famous, precisely because they don't want their personal and family privacy to be exposed.

Tang Jinyi said it was alright, “There’s nothing in our family that we can’t talk about. I’m telling you this so that you can help our daughter avoid any projects that reference the stories of the people mentioned. Our ancestors went through so much hardship so that we, their descendants, could have such a happy life. We, as their descendants, will never forget that, but we cannot use their suffering as a script or a gimmick to perform or promote it. Our daughter is a very fortunate child, and our ancestors would never want her to perform their suffering.”

This was Tang Jinyi emphasizing again. The Immortal Lord understood his insistence and solemnly promised, "Don't worry, there will absolutely be no accidents or oversights."

Tang Jinyi grabbed Cai Cai's hand and looked at Xianjun, "I'll tell you straight, if anything happens, Nannan will retire from the entertainment industry. We can afford to pay whatever it takes, no discussion, no leniency."

When Cai Cai was at home, her family had told her about this before. Because she was rehearsing the script herself, she hadn't mentioned it. Mei Zhang didn't know, and neither did the Immortal Lord. Now, letting the Immortal Lord know is the perfect time.

The Immortal Lord then brought up the Tang family's side, mentioning, "Mr. Tang Minglong's family relationships before his death." For example, who was this person before them, and who was his mother? Hong Kong media have written about this for years, speculating on countless candidates, all of whom have been denied by the Tang family, yet Tang Jinyi's background has never been publicly revealed. Even the background of Cai Jinzhi, the second son of the Tang family, has been the subject of much fabricated speculation.
The Immortal Lord knew about Tang Jinyi's background because he knew Feng Shilan. Many others knew as much as he did, but only one or two spoke of it. However, because there were too many suspects and no concrete evidence, Feng Shilan remained hidden among the many false speculations. Even when someone brought it up, it was quickly glossed over. The Immortal Lord truly didn't believe the Tang family wasn't involved. However, this wasn't exactly a scandal. The Tang family, in truth, had no scandals. Everyone in the family died of old age; none died in accidents—a truly unique occurrence among wealthy families.

It's said that after the marriage of the Tang and Cai families, the families seemed to be blessed, experiencing extraordinary good fortune. Many wealthy families wanted to form a marriage alliance with the Tang family, not only because they had ulterior motives, but also because they coveted the Cai family's genes. Now that Cai Cai's background has been revealed, it remains to be seen what will happen next.
Tang Jinyi stated directly, "This kind of gossip doesn't matter. Even if you ask Nannan, it's fine. Don't you celebrities have prepared interview scripts? You can practice with Nannan beforehand. Anyway, Cai Cai won't lie. Even if we teach her to make up lies, it won't work."

The Immortal Lord was merely offering a reminder; he wasn't genuinely curious about Cai Jinzhi's background. Now that he knew the Tang family had taken action, he didn't concern himself with it anymore. "Contact for drafting is definitely necessary." The main issue was that the Tang family had far too many celebrities and gossip; they simply couldn't prepare for everything.
Cai Cai herself is not worried. "I will just say that I am Cai Cai and ask Cai Guinian about the Tang family."

"." Okay, you're good at being a scoundrel.

Finally, and most importantly, the Immortal Lord addressed the adoption, saying, "The documents are genuine. You need to figure out how to explain this, otherwise, people will always have doubts about Cai Cai's background."

Tang Jinyi is no longer worried about this. "We've been prepared for this for a long time. Ever since Nannan decided to become an actress, the family has been ready."

"How should we prepare?" Cai Cai asked curiously.

Tang Jinyi didn't tell her, "You'll find out when your uncle holds the press conference. I'm not telling you now so you won't be exposed by his facial expressions."

Ah, Cai Cai got nervous as soon as she heard that. Her background was really hard to explain, even quantum mechanics couldn't explain it. What was her family going to say? How many lies did they make up? She was bound to be exposed, right?

Seeing that Cai Cai was starting to get nervous, scared, and worried, Tang Jinyi hugged her and said, "It's okay, it's okay, baby, it's okay, don't worry. The family will definitely give you an explanation that won't make things difficult for you. It's okay, it's okay."

Cai Cai was reassured. Okay, trust your family.

The immortal lord was actually quite worried, but he didn't know what to say. Now that Cai Cai was so worried and even a little scared, he dared not say anything at all.

Turning to the topic of Princess Nine's project, "Cheng Ji has already signed a contract to co-star with the master, and he has also signed with the company. For your next domestic project, you will give him a leading or supporting role." Actually, "I approached him earlier when it was about Sheji, but at that time he was obsessed with filming detective dramas and didn't want to take on mindless dramas, so I didn't try to persuade him."

Cai Cai's thoughts immediately turned to work, "Is his acting really that good?" It makes the Immortal Lord so reluctant to let go.

“He’s a very reliable actor. I mean reliable because no matter how bad the script, the other actors, or even the director is, he can still play his role well. There are quite a few actors like that in the industry, but when you really need them, there aren’t enough. Our company doesn’t have any, so I’ve always wanted to sign him.” Xianjun explained, while holding up his phone to find a clip of Cheng Jihe’s performance stored in his cloud drive and playing it for Cai Cai.

Tang Jinyi also came over to watch together.

The clip is very short, less than ten minutes. It's a performance clip of Cheng Jihe in a fantasy drama series, and it seems to be his entire performance time.

In less than a minute, even Tang Jinyi could tell what Cheng Jihe was acting.

He plays a compassionate immortal who leads the celestial beings in practicing divine skills. Sometimes he descends to the mortal realm to help mortals and spirits, slaying demons and monsters. His eldest disciple falls in love with a mortal woman, marries, and has a child. When the celestial court discovers this, they hunt him down, accidentally killing his daughter and abducting his wife to the demons. The eldest disciple is brought back to the celestial court to be punished. Cheng Jihe volunteers to be the executioner, whipping the disciple and demanding to know his mistake. The disciple, believing his wife is also dead, is heartbroken, coughing up blood, silent and refusing to admit his wrongdoing. Then, it is discovered that his wife is a princess reincarnated from the demon race. She believes the eldest disciple deliberately killed their child and her, and driven by hatred, she leads an army to war against the celestial court. Cheng Jihe and his disciple lead the army to meet the attack. During the fierce battle, the disciple and the princess talk as they fight, finally clearing up their misunderstanding. Overwhelmed with emotion, they embrace. At this moment, a person from the Celestial Court who was at odds with the eldest disciple attacked the princess. The eldest disciple embraced the princess and used his back to shield her from the fatal blow.

The eldest disciple was dying, spitting blood. He was supposed to say many heartfelt words to the princess, but that part is missing. Anyway, the eldest disciple tilted his head and died. The princess looked up to the sky and howled, also spitting blood. Her demonic power surged, and she was about to destroy the world. Cheng Jihe used his own life to save the eldest disciple and resurrected him. Before dying, he blessed the eldest disciple so that he could get what he wanted, and then his soul was scattered and vanished into nothingness.

Tang Jinyi was speechless after reading it.

"This eldest disciple and his wife, are they the male and female protagonists?" Only the protagonists can hug each other on the battlefield. Supporting characters and extras are not worth making such a big scene for them to be the background for their love affairs.

To be fair, Cai Cai said, "If you can tell that these two are the male and female leads, then regardless of their acting skills, the director's filming and post-production editing were very successful."

Tang Jinyi was even more speechless. "The moment the camera hits these two, they become blurry. Is this soft focus? And they always shoot their heads, with all sorts of close-ups. If I can't tell that these two are the main characters, I must be blind."

Cai Cai replied, "So, the director is quite capable. The soft focus and stuff was probably overdone in post-production; it might not have been the production team's request. Sometimes the actors themselves make those requests." She handed the tablet back to Xianjun, adding, "When an actor's acting is poor, and their facial features and body language are uncoordinated, shooting close-ups is the safest approach."

"Lack of physical coordination?" Tang Jinyi really felt that this was like entering a completely different world; how could filming require physical coordination?

Cai Cai explained, "For example, when someone vomits blood, some people will subconsciously lower their head and hunch their shoulders, which looks very fake. The way a character vomits blood should be performed according to the plot and the character's setting. For example, in comedy performances, there is a kind of performance where the character vomits blood by tilting their head back and spraying it everywhere, which is actually somewhat similar to some vomiting blood performances in traditional opera. Also, the way a strong person vomits blood is different from the way a weak person vomits blood. The way a strong-willed person vomits blood is even more different from the way a weak-willed person vomits blood."

Tang Jinyi sighed, "It's so complicated. I've never really paid attention to how people vomit blood in movies and TV shows, but I still have a deep impression of the way people vomit blood like they're spraying a water bottle when they tilt their heads back in comedies."

"That's a successful performance."

As for what the Immortal Lord said about Cheng Jihe being very stable, Cai Cai understood it, and Tang Jinyi also understood it.

"This person seems like a truly compassionate, kind, and serious immortal, unlike the others. Especially compared to the male and female leads, it seems like he's the only one seriously being an immortal, while the male and female leads are just having a blast," Tang Jinyi commented.

Cai Cai laughed, "That's the difference in acting skills. Both are expressing shock, but Cheng Jihe can portray the effect of trembling pupils, while the male lead just stares wide-eyed and opens his mouth. Cheng Jihe's performance has layers; no matter how his co-stars act, he stays within the rhythm of his own character."

Well, how should I put it? "The director probably cut a lot of his scenes; the ones that were kept are the ones that really couldn't be cut."

"Even if you act well, your scenes will be cut?" Tang Jinyi didn't understand.

"Because he doesn't fit in with the other actors' style. He doesn't stand out at first glance, but he actually stands out a lot. Considering the series as a whole, Cheng Jihe is the one who doesn't fit in and is very abrupt. In order not to affect the whole series, his scenes will definitely be cut."

Cai Cai thinks that the TV series Cheng Jihe mentioned in his self-introduction must be this one.

Xianjun gave an affirmative answer, "It is indeed this one. He filmed for a full three months. He was signed as the third male lead, but in the final broadcast, he was listed as an extra, with the least screen time among the main male supporting actors. The director personally went to drink with him to explain. The director had no choice but to insist on putting Cheng Jihe's name first among the supporting characters. Consider it compensation from the director to Cheng Jihe; it's the only thing he could do as a director. If it were according to the male lead's censorship requirements, any scene where Cheng Jihe and the male lead are in the same frame would have to be cut."

"The impact of this incident on Cheng Jihe was that he learned to control his acting style and to cooperate with his co-stars' acting to make his performance as natural as possible. However, he found acting very painful. In his words, it was like having to pull up his pants halfway through using the toilet. As a result, he simply stopped taking on many jobs."

"." What a subtle and painful metaphor.

Cai Cai understood why Cheng Jihe had specifically mentioned those two movies and TV series; they had both had a huge impact on his career and ideals.

“His appearance and temperament are the kind Jarvis would like; he could have romantic scenes with all the male and female characters in a movie. I plan to recommend him to Jarvis,” Cai Cai discussed with Xianjun. “What do you think?”

The Immortal Lord didn't answer directly, but instead asked, "Does Jarvis really lack the kind of actors you're talking about?" Surely he could? He has so many actors, big and small, in Hollywood; he can pick and choose as he pleases. Putting aside the abilities and influence of the "god-maker," Jarvis himself is someone many actors would want to work with. Because he's one of the few directors and producers in Hollywood without any peculiar tastes or scandals. It's not that nothing's been exposed; there simply aren't any.

Therefore, Cai Cai and Jarvis have a good relationship and there are no negative rumors about them. Cai Cai's age is one reason, but Jarvis's excellent character is also a major reason.

A director of this caliber would never lack actors; he simply couldn't keep up with the demand.

“I’m Chinese, so naturally I should recommend my fellow countrymen. The artists’ association over there keeps sending me emails with all sorts of resumes. Xiaomei told me to reject them, but I thought, what if there are suitable people? Turns out, even the photos aren’t good enough.” How to put it… “They’ve basically lost all their Chinese characteristics. From their eyes to their demeanor and even their makeup, it’s all Western aesthetics. It’s not that they’re unattractive, but to put it bluntly, they’re fake Westerners. There are so many real Westerners over there; are they going to use fakes instead?”

Cai Cai said she wouldn't even consider them, let alone Jarvis. "I know it's not easy for them working hard over there, but I really can't recommend them. So, I might as well recommend them directly from China."

“I know Xiaomei has been under a lot of pressure because of this. Outsiders think I only care about acting and don't understand these things, that Xiaomei makes all the decisions, so they all criticize him for being a traitor to his country. But clearly, I make all the decisions about my career myself. I've said that, but no one believes me. Xiaomei thinks it's fine this way, but I feel like he's being wronged.”

The Immortal Lord wanted to say that the outside world hadn't misunderstood. It's normal that no one believed him, because you've authorized Mei Zhang to handle everything. He's absolutely capable of representing you in many matters. You really are only focused on performing; Mei Zhang can indeed decide everything else. To put it bluntly, Mei Zhang could simply take everything from Cai Cai, leaving her with nothing, even debt. Of course, that's assuming Mei Zhang goes insane, is possessed, and that the Tang family's legal team is also possessed.
"So you know about these things? Did those people send someone to pass on a message to you?" Mei Zhang couldn't possibly have failed to stop them; it could only be that someone used other means, finding someone Mei Zhang couldn't stop, and then contacted Cai Cai. The entertainment industry is connected to many other industries and many people, especially those who consider themselves to have status and position.