The sweetest in the entertainment industry

The costumes for this drama weren't very complicated. Filming started promptly at 8:00 AM, but Gu Lanxi arrived at the set at 7:30 AM, so she didn't have time to say much to anyone.

After a busy morning, filming wrapped up, and director Lan Xingzhi sat in front of the monitor watching the playback. Gu Lanxi quickly grabbed her straw cup and moved closer, gulping down water as she stood behind him and watched the video with him.

The movie is nearing its end, and today's scene is the last one filmed for the main characters.

Because the story takes place in an extremely hot place, the crew hasn't turned on the air conditioning for the past few days in order to achieve a more natural effect.

Not only did they not turn on the air conditioner, but they also had to wait until filming was over before turning on the fan, for fear that the noise would affect the sound recording.

Only a production with such rigorous standards could achieve this.

In low-budget period dramas that air 30 to 40 episodes a day, due to production pressure, even if a plane flies by, they have to hold their noses and shout "Cut!"

A group of people are terribly hot and are frantically posting water every day.

Fearing heatstroke, the crew smelled of Ten Drops Water and Tiger Balm everywhere they went.

As for the lead actors, they were basically served mung bean soup, herbal tea, and watermelon every day on a rotating basis.

Lan Xingzhi was getting on in years and didn't dare to blow too much air into the fan.

The large, black industrial fan spun back and forth, only reaching a tiny spot on him at its very end.

He couldn't bring himself to do something like a young man going shirtless. To keep cool, he wore a soft white tank top, paired with gray shorts, flip-flops, and a brown palm-leaf fan that had a patina and looked quite old.

I must say, this design has a vintage feel to it, and just looking at it makes you feel cool.

Gu Lanxi dislikes the feeling of clothes sticking to her body after being soaked with sweat, and she also dislikes wearing clothes that are too revealing and attract attention. When she is resting, she likes to wear light, breathable and inexpensive linen.

This way, people won't gossip and say she's showing off her wealth.

For example, right now, she's wearing a light green round-neck short-sleeved shirt paired with rust-red lantern pants, and when the fan turns on, she feels cool all over.

After reviewing the footage taken today, Lan Xingzhi repeatedly slowed down to examine the key parts closely.

Seeing that he had finished reading it and hadn't made any requests like "add a new one," Gu Lanxi breathed a sigh of relief.

It was too hot, and no one had any appetite, but the work was too tiring. They couldn't keep going without food, so the logistics team had to do everything they could to find a solution.

At first, everyone focused on a light and nutritious diet, but after a while, everyone except for people like Gu Lanxi who don't eat spicy food felt that it was too bland.

Then we started eating different kinds of cold noodles, cold rice noodles, and jelly.

Gu Lanxi brought her own cook to the set, and she ate meals prepared by the nutritionist every day. However, she would occasionally crave these novelties.

When she arrived in the morning, she saw the cafeteria staff washing gluten, saying they were going to make beef tendon noodles. Gu Lanxi had never eaten it before, so when it was time to go home for lunch, she stayed there instead of leaving.

After Lan Xingzhi finished reading, he turned around and saw that she hadn't gone back to the lounge, so he smiled and asked her, "Young man, you're very brave. You did a great job yesterday!"

Knowing what the old man was talking about, Gu Lanxi thought to herself, "These guys who usually call themselves old and can't do this or that, are full of energy surfing the internet." She waved her hand with a smile.

"Please don't say that, I'm about to be cursed to death."

Overnight, her rivals bought her at least twenty negative publicity campaigns.

Some criticize her for speaking Korean instead of Chinese abroad, saying it's a disgrace to the Chinese people; others accuse her of malicious intent to incite gender wars in other countries; still others label her a "feminist" and express their disappointment in her...

It's easy to spread rumors, but debunking them is incredibly difficult, especially with rumors that combine truth and falsehood. No matter how much she tries to clarify, the effect is not very good.

Sister Mei remained calm. Seeing that her rival was getting more and more aggressive, she released some dirt on her rival half an hour ago.

Lan Xingzhi chuckled and didn't continue the topic, instead asking her, "Did Lao Xu send you a notebook?"

Gu Lanxi sighed helplessly, then nodded: "Yes, Director Xu said there's a role that's perfect for me."

After all, she's a businesswoman. Gu Lanxi is always kind to people, and anyone who gets along with her basically has a conflict of interest with her.

The reason they're relentlessly attacking her this time is because of this new drama.

Gu Lanxi spoke conservatively. In fact, when the film crew first joined, she received an invitation from the director himself. After two or three months of negotiations, the role was basically confirmed. However, some people still harbored illusions, thinking that by ruining her reputation, they could steal her role.

After all, according to current rules, works by artists who have violated moral standards will also be banned.

Putting aside personal feelings, filmmaking is essentially a business, and investors naturally wouldn't use risky artists to bring unnecessary trouble to themselves.

This kind of operation is common in the industry, but Gu Lanxi really has no scandals.

This time it was a coincidence that someone seized the opportunity and called everything, regardless of whether it was gray or white, black.

It's mentally exhausting.

Such baseless rumors are unlikely to be believed by anyone with a clear head, except for those mindless netizens who are easily swayed by hype.

Especially those who are going to invest real money in her. It's one thing for major brands to speak up for her and create a strong, independent woman persona for her, but her fans are also cheering her on, shaping her into a high-quality idol who is talented, thoughtful, and has very sound values.

If you can think positively, even black and red are still red.

"We're all begging for food from the same pot, Lanxi, you should be forgiving when you can."

Gu Lanxi raised an eyebrow: "Who has such great influence that they would entrust this matter to you?"

"It's hard to repay favors, I can't help it. But I'm just saying, you should do what you need to do."

Her rivals were just trying to smear her reputation and damage her image, but she went all out and planned to target the tax authorities. When her rivals received the message from their online trolls, they were terrified.

Not only did they delete the posts and run away as quickly as possible, but they also found a powerful figure to mediate.

After all, Gu Lanxi is truly exceptional in finance and taxation.

Not only does he have a strong network of connections, but he is also highly capable.

Even the Lu Group could be found to have problems by her, so it would be even easier for her to find fault with small companies or even artist studios if she wanted to.

This tactic might not work on others, but it works on Gu Lanxi.

She still follows the rules of the underworld when she does things.

If a conflict arises, as long as you pay a sufficient price and can get a respected figure to step in and "speak up," she will give you face.

Lan Xingzhi has taken good care of her these past few months and introduced her to many resources, even though she can't use most of them. But the film and television industry is in a downturn, and there are a lot of actors at Starlight Entertainment who are just sitting at home doing nothing. Opportunities that are useless to her are a great favor to others.

Putting everything else aside, her uncle Jiang Yan's expression is always incredibly pleasant whenever he sees her these days.

So even though Lan Xingzhi said not to consider his thoughts, Gu Lanxi would nod since he had spoken.

"Since you've already come to me with this, let's just let it go! Your face is more important to me than anything else!"

As the two were talking, the cafeteria had already started serving food.

Gu Lanxi waved her hand with a smile and led her people back to the lounge.

"What did the director say to you?"

We came back together last night. Sister Mei hadn't left yet. I noticed her smile was a bit stiff, so as soon as I entered the studio, I quietly asked her.

Lili went to the cafeteria to get her a small bowl of beef tendon noodles. Seeing that the two of them were about to talk, she took a stool and went to the door to eat.

Everyone else went back to their own places for lunch break and didn't bother to cause trouble here.

Gu Lanxi then recounted what had just happened.

"This kind of person is so annoying. They're shameless when they use dirty tricks, but when it comes to getting back at me, they're spineless. They want to take my things without even thinking twice!"

Although I agreed to give Lan Xingzhi face and let the matter drop, I still felt very uncomfortable being manipulated.

Shh! Don't say things like that.

Sister Mei quickly looked around, then leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Before, we only suspected her of having tax problems, but now, judging from her reaction, it seems there's more to it than meets the eye. I'll investigate further later, and if she continues to misbehave, we can take action later."

"They'll definitely conduct a thorough self-examination and then pay back the taxes as quickly as possible; there's no need to keep an eye on this anymore."

"Oh, what a missed opportunity."

"It's alright. Director Lan will definitely make it up to me later, and she won't have an easy time either."

I've asked so many people for help, I owe them a huge number of favors.

"I'm just worried because your male fans have all announced they're unfollowing you because of your feminist leanings. You need to find a way to salvage your reputation."

Gu Lanxi has a particularly high proportion of male fans.

Before she got married, she had many male admirers. After she got married, a lot of them left her. Fortunately, she had some fans who shipped her with her on-screen couple, so the impact wasn't too great. Now, if she loses more fans, most of them will be career-oriented fans, which will have a significant impact on her.

"Don't rush, there's always a way out. Let me think about it. Before you leave, let's discuss it again tonight."

"Three cobblers are as good as one Zhuge Liang. I'll call Zhang Mingyuan later; maybe he'll have a good idea."

"Row."

As she spoke, Gu Lanxi opened the lunchbox lid, picked up her chopsticks, and stirred the beef tendon noodles.

The noodles were topped with shredded cucumber, shredded carrot, and bean sprouts, with a few drops of vinegar and incredibly fragrant sesame paste!

She likes this. (End of Chapter)