I became famous in the entertainment industry by burning incense

Now we know why Director Chu was so eager to have the actors start the reading session so early!

Jinli understood: "No wonder Director Chu was so nervous. He had the actors start the reading aloud early on, hoping that they could get into character sooner and make up for any shortcomings that could be corrected in the previous step."

A 20 billion yuan investment in a betting scheme—that's an enormous sum!
Jinli felt that figuring out how to effectively spend all the money was a challenge.

She earned hundreds of millions in dividends from launching a co-branded product with Ya Jun Watches, and already felt very rich.

It was only when faced with large-scale productions and investments that I realized how insignificant my own money was.

Sui Lingfang cautiously said on the phone, "This news can't be kept secret. Soon the media will spread it all over the internet, which will put a lot of pressure on you actors."

Given the media's tendency to sensationalize, they will definitely publicize the 20 billion investment figure extensively.

Especially you, Jinli, you are the second lead in Director Chu's film, which he announced a long time ago, so the pressure will be on you.

If you don't perform well in this show, viewers will blame you and think you've ruined the show.

The profession of actor may seem glamorous, but it also carries great risks.

The success of a TV series is the result of the mutual support and cooperation of the actors, the director, and the crew.

However, if a drama doesn't perform well, most netizens criticize the actors, saying they didn't act well, and rarely criticize the director.

At most, they'll criticize the screenwriter, saying the script is poorly written.

Jinli raised an eyebrow and asked, "Now that you've thought of this problem, do you already know how to solve it?"

Sui Lingfang smiled gently: "Yes, I've already come up with a solution."

The one who tied the knot must untie it. It wasn't you who forced Director Chu to sign the 20 billion yuan investment agreement. Once this news gets out, I demand that Director Chu come forward and draw the fire.

You've done your best to perform. If the show doesn't do well, the netizens' anger shouldn't be directed at you.

We've only signed a letter of intent yet; Dawn 2 hasn't officially started filming. I'm deliberately holding back the formal contract because I'm worried about unexpected problems arising before filming begins.

When Sui Lingfang mentioned this, she couldn't help but sigh that she was quite prescient.

Spending a lot of time with Jinli seems to have sharpened her business acumen.

When Director Chu handed her the contract, it wasn't just a normal actor's contract, but also a special contract for profit sharing based on box office revenue.

Director Chu's offer was very attractive; for such a large production, it's rare for actors to directly participate in box office revenue sharing.

This is because Director Chu has high hopes for Jinli and wants to keep her, so he allocated some of his profit-sharing quota.

She should have asked Jinli to sign it back then, but for some reason she felt uneasy, so she delayed signing it.

Well, now the hidden bomb has finally exploded.

Sui Lingfang continued, "Fortunately, we know that Director Chu signed a performance-based agreement. I will take your official contract to negotiate with Director Chu."

If Director Chu implicitly agrees that you will bear the blame for a box office failure without making any further statements, I will consider whether you should continue to join the cast.

Jinli, what do you think?

This drama was only accepted because of Jinli; Director Chu valued Jinli's popularity and acting skills.

Therefore, whether to continue the cooperation is entirely up to Jinli to decide; the company can only offer suggestions.

Jinli thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's negotiate according to your ideas. I have no objections."

When she first saw the initial draft of the script for "Dawn II", she felt that it was not yet perfect, so she gave her opinions to Director Chu.

Jinli finds the final draft of "Dawn II" quite interesting.

If Director Chu really follows the existing script strictly, she believes the box office results won't be too bad.

But an investment of 20 billion is indeed too large. It should be noted that the final box office of the first Dawn film was only 22 billion.

The investment in filming the second movie was about the same as the overall performance of the first movie. How can this not be worrying?

Moreover, this is a sequel to Dawn.

Many sequels to series don't actually perform as well at the box office as the first film. It's all too common for film series to decline in quality over time, which exacerbates investment risks.

Therefore, taking everything into consideration, if the box office really fails, there's a high probability that she'll be used as a scapegoat.

Although Jinli was optimistic about the company's strategy, she also agreed that the company should take countermeasures.

Jinli was unaware of what happened next in the negotiations between Chenxi Entertainment and Director Chu.

All she needs to know is the final result.

Meanwhile, after the Spring Festival, she also needs to start preparing for the start of the new school term.

She will have to go to school in 5 days. Because "Dawn II" is not yet fully prepared and the script of "The Invisible Secret" is not yet finalized, she should have a very leisurely second semester of her sophomore year.
-
On the very day Jinli enrolled in school, she received an urgent message.

Sui Lingfang called her suddenly at one o'clock in the morning. Jinli was already resting at that time, so it was an emergency call.

Jinli took the document with sleepy eyes, but was quickly energized by the news it brought.

Qi Guan Mingzhu was living with Chen Lin abroad when paparazzi photographed them!

After receiving a call from the paparazzi, Chenxi Entertainment decided to buy the story and begin blocking it.

However, because the paparazzi had already leaked some information within the industry before contacting Chenxi Entertainment, the company was worried that other paparazzi would spread the news based on hearsay, so they decided to suppress it.

Jinli's expression was somewhat grave: "Can it be suppressed?"

Sui Lingfang: "It should be possible, because we have the real photos. Other paparazzi have only heard some rumors and don't have any pictures."

Jinli glanced at the time and asked, "You suddenly contacted me urgently because you wanted to use my information to suppress this?"

“Yes.” Sui Lingfang’s tone was weary. “We only received the news at the last minute. Around 10 p.m., we struggled with the paparazzi for a long time and just managed to get it over with.”

Jinli asked curiously, "What do you want me to do?"

Sui Lingfang smiled and said, "Since those paparazzi want to expose Pearl's relationship, then we'll take the initiative to release information about your relationship with Gu Cheng to suppress it."

Whether Pearl was dating or not had been reported by anyone else before, but the ambiguous relationship between you and Gu Cheng had been reported for a long time.

Jinli was stunned: "You want me to go public with Gu Cheng? I have no problem with that, but I don't think Guang-ge will agree."

"No, no, no." Sui Lingfang quickly explained, "We don't want you to go public with your relationship either. After all, you have many fans who are career-oriented and just want you to focus on your career. They don't like celebrities dating."

While going public with a relationship can open up new opportunities, it can also lead to a loss of market share.

For now, maintaining this unspoken but tacit understanding between you and Gu Cheng would be better, creating a balance.

Jinli was genuinely curious now. "Since you won't let us go public with our relationship, how do you plan to leak the news?"

Sui Lingfang said meaningfully, "This inspiration came from 'Desperate Counterattack,' where Gu Cheng is the male lead, and filming is still ongoing. When you joined the cast, becoming the white moonlight of Gu Cheng's character, there was a lot of discussion among netizens, who thought it was a tacit official announcement, and the whole internet was paying attention."

So we thought we could follow this example and generate buzz for "Dawn II". Before that, I had already called Director Chu and got his approval.

Director Chu always deliberately generates buzz before filming begins. We proactively offer him that kind of publicity, and he won't refuse.

Jinli had a sudden inspiration. "I understand. You want 'Dawn 2' to follow suit and invite Gu Cheng to join 'Dawn 2' and play the first love of my character, which can create a stand-in plot."

For example, the reason Ruan Ruanruan likes the male lead so much is because he looks remarkably like her deceased first love, leading viewers to mistakenly believe that the second season will feature a plot where her first love is resurrected?

Sui Lingfang agreed, saying, "Yes, that's right, but we've only thought of the first step you mentioned. As for the second step, that depends on how netizens fill in the blanks."

After all, this is just hype, not the actual script. The script for "Dawn II" is now finalized and doesn't include elements like the first love substitute trope. Director Chu probably won't make any further changes to the script.

Jinli thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "That's true. Hype is hype, and filming is filming."

Many productions will screen all the popular actors before filming begins, delaying the announcement of who got the role. This is also a form of publicity stunt.

Sui Lingfang asked tentatively, "So you're agreeing to release the information to suppress the buzz surrounding Qi Guanmingzhu?"

Jinli said, "I have no problem, but you need to consult Gu Cheng."

Also, does Pearl know about this? I think you should contact her first and see if she's willing to be exposed by the paparazzi.

Sui Lingfang sighed: "After receiving the paparazzi's tip, we urgently contacted Qi Guanmingzhu. She didn't expect to be photographed abroad and didn't know what to do, so she decided to leave it all to the company to handle."

I had an emergency discussion with Chen Lin's agent, Zhang Guang, and we felt that the two celebrities' relationship was still unstable, so we decided to keep it quiet for now.

She explained, "It's not that we don't want them to go public with their relationship; they will go public sooner or later. But Mingzhu and Chen Lin were both idols before, so fans have high expectations for their relationship."

Our idea is to delay it for as many years as possible, until they are really old enough to get married, and then we can announce it publicly.

That's true; many of Qi Guan Mingzhu's and Chen Lin's fans have been around since their idol days.

Neither of them transitioned to acting, nor are they particularly skilled at singing. They both rely on the stage to make their voices heard, and the stage is often associated with idols and singers.

They are gradually transitioning and can move towards variety shows, but they haven't completely made the transition yet.

Unless they really don't want to be celebrities anymore, then it doesn't matter if their relationship is made public.

Even Gu Cheng and Jin Li, celebrities who can gain a foothold in the entertainment industry without relying on fans, have not made their relationship public.

If Chen Lin and Qi Guan Mingzhu were to go public with their relationship, it would be far too hasty.

After hanging up the phone, Jinli quickly fell asleep again, as she had to get up at 2 a.m. the next day.

When she finished her morning class and opened her blog, there was still no news.

Around noon, when Jinli went to the cafeteria for lunch, many news reports about Qi Guanmingzhu's relationship surfaced.

The paparazzi didn't manage to take any photos; they only knew she was in a relationship, but they didn't know who her boyfriend was. So, the paparazzi and netizens turned into Conan, speculating wildly.

[Breaking News! A young actress is suspected of having a new romance, having built a love nest with her lover abroad. Her boyfriend is a certain idol actor, C!]

[Breaking News! Qi Guanmingzhu was photographed in a relationship abroad; her boyfriend is idol Z!]

[Breaking news: Popular actress and actor are dating; the four-character actor is dating someone surnamed L!]

The popular young actress was easy to guess; everyone guessed it was Qi Guan Mingzhu, and some paparazzi even used her name directly.

However, opinions vary on who this popular young actor or idol star is.

After Jinli posted a message, some netizens guessed that it was Chen Lin.

The main reason is that when watching "Leisurely Slow Life", I always felt that Chen Lin was quite clingy to Qi Guan Mingzhu, and the director often filmed loving scenes between the two to create a sense of couple chemistry.

However, many netizens also know that it was just for the sake of the show, and the two may not actually have anything going on in real life.

Furthermore, the paparazzi released several surnames, so netizens listed all the male idols in the industry whose first letters were these surnames.

Male celebrities aged 20-30 were not spared, and people even guessed about those aged 30-40.

It's easy to imagine how enthusiastically netizens were about following the gossip.

In addition, due to the sudden revelation, many netizens began to doubt its authenticity.

In addition, shortly after the paparazzi broke the news, Morning Entertainment, a gossip site, quickly responded.

V Morning Light Entertainment: [This matter is completely fabricated. Qi Guan Mingzhu went abroad for recuperation due to health reasons. If this continues, we reserve the right to take legal action!]

[This is the first time I've seen a company issue a denial so quickly. Did they just happen to see it online?]

I don't really believe the company's denial, but the speed of their clarification suggests it's true, otherwise they would be a little guilty.

Pearl isn't getting any younger; I'd wish her all the best if she could find a partner.

I actually hope Pearl can fall in love. She's in the prime of her life, it's such a shame she doesn't find a man to have some fun with!

……

Shortly after Morning Light Entertainment responded, another wave of paparazzi came out to reveal gossip about Gu Cheng and Jin Li.

The paparazzi claim that the script for "Dawn II" has been polished, and the actors have gathered together for a reading. Director Chu may invite Gu Cheng to join the cast.

This news did not receive a response or explanation from Director Chu or other celebrities, but because the paparazzi's report was so clear, some netizens actually believed it.

This is like dating on company money! (doge)

[Another wave of handsome men and beautiful women to see! Am I the only one looking forward to Gu Cheng playing a villain this time, so he and Jin Li can fight each other? (doge)]

This comment received many likes from netizens and was even featured as the top "divine reply" on the homepage.

In real life, the two are very sweet together, feeding netizens so much "dog food" (a Chinese slang term for public displays of affection) that they're almost stuffed.

Netizens say that to see two people in a love-hate relationship in a movie or TV series, it would be best if they killed each other and the story ended tragically!

Needless to say, the greatest love stories are always tragedies; let's cut it hard.

[I'm raising my hand to call for Gu Cheng to join the cast as the biggest villain!]

[If Director Chu really casts Gu Cheng as the villain, dragging Jin Li down, I'll definitely give him a wedding gift!]

Jinli: ...

She happened to come across this comment.

Netizens are truly devilish! (End of Chapter)