I am a historical film director in the entertainment industry.

During the meal, Cheng Sheng formally brought up the work arrangements: "Scarlett, I plan to hire Sister Hong and Sister Xu as co-producers of 'Juno' to oversee the film's logistics and external liaison. Do you have any objections?"

“I completely agree.” Scarlett nodded without hesitation. “With the help of my two older sisters, the production will run more smoothly, and we can get together more often in our free time.”

Cheng Sheng then explained their housing needs: "In addition, they plan to stay in Hollywood long-term and don't want to disturb our private lives. They hope to rent a private and secure place near the resort. Do you have any reliable real estate agents or acquaintances to recommend?"

Scarlett looked puzzled: "There are enough spare rooms in the villa, we can just stay here, why rent an extra room?"

Chen Hong calmly offered a reasonable explanation: "Thank you for your kind offer, but we both have families in China, and family members may need to visit us in the US temporarily. It would be more convenient for us to travel between our homes and avoid disturbing each other."

After hearing this explanation, Scarlett stopped trying to persuade her and readily agreed: "No problem, I'll contact my personal real estate agent this afternoon, prioritize the most private properties, and finalize the deal within three days."

The four of them quickly finished their dinner.

The group strolled around the courtyard and living room of the detached villa to digest their food. Not long after, Scarlett took Chen Hong and Xu Fan to the Hollywood district for sightseeing.

Cheng Sheng, however, chose to stay at the villa and did not accompany them.

Previously, it was just a candid photo of him and Scarlett Johansson that sparked widespread discussion on foreign websites and domestic entertainment forums, with various marketing accounts taking turns to interpret it, causing a great uproar in public opinion.

If he were to be photographed by the ever-present Hollywood paparazzi at this moment, shopping with Scarlett Johansson and two other Chinese people, the subsequent public opinion would inevitably spiral out of control, leading to a deluge of speculation.

Besides that, he had more important things to deal with.

On his phone lay a long message from Zhang Meng sent a few hours earlier, pleading for his help in dealing with Wan Qian's current industry predicament.

Cheng Sheng ran his fingertips along the edge of his phone, intending to calmly analyze the details of each message and assess the feasibility of the matter. As long as it didn't cross any lines and was within his power, he planned to grant Zhang Meng's request.

In this parallel world, Cheng Sheng knows very little about Wan Qian's public resume, and there are very few reports about her in the entertainment industry, mostly just gossip.

But the fragments of memories from the original world in her mind were incredibly clear, completely recording the actress's entire past twenty years of ups and downs.

Every time he thinks back, Cheng Sheng feels genuine admiration.

Wan Qian comes from a small, unknown city. Without financial backing or connections in the industry, she plunges headlong into the chaotic entertainment circle.

For the next two decades, she remained on the fringes of the industry, enduring the cold stares and exclusion from her peers and the deliberate suppression from capital. She struggled repeatedly in the low points of having no roles to play and a lack of resources, but never bowed her head or compromised.

It wasn't until she was 43 that she broke through with her outstanding acting skills, stood on the highest podium at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and received top recognition in the industry.

This is a woman whose very being is ingrained with a spirit of never giving up and never bowing to unspoken rules.

Her father was an active-duty soldier, and she grew up in a family with strict rules, where her words, actions, and bottom-line principles were strictly regulated.

This kind of family education, which has been deeply ingrained in her from childhood, has directly shaped her character into one that is sharp-edged, principled, and inflexible.

There is an unwritten consensus among industry professionals: people who are too rigid in their upbringing and are used to strictly adhering to rules will find it difficult to establish themselves in the entertainment industry.

The survival logic at the bottom of the entertainment industry has never been about obeying the law or having excellent professional skills, but rather about personal relationships, exchanging benefits, and compromising without any bottom line. Only by knowing how to bow your head and be flexible can you get good resources and quickly rise to the top by taking shortcuts in the industry.

But Wan Qian is an anomaly in the industry.

She was admitted to the Shanghai Theatre Academy with the highest score in the performance major during the college entrance examination for arts students.

As one of the top performing arts schools in China, the Shanghai Theatre Academy sees tens of thousands of applicants vying for just over a hundred spots each year. Her top score means that she was far ahead in all four subjects: diction, physical expression, acting, and theory. It was definitely not because she relied on her appearance to win over the examiners.

Judging from her starting point in the industry, her professional talent far surpassed that of most newcomers from the very beginning.

During her time at school, her professional skills remained among the best in her grade, and she won two highly competitive overseas performance opportunities.

In her sophomore year, she traveled to Romania with the school's official theater troupe to participate in the classic ancient Greek tragedy "Antigone," performing the entire show in accordance with the orthodox European theatrical style. In her junior year, she went to the United States to perform in Brecht's classic realist play "The Good Person of Szechwan."

Among the students of the same period at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, fewer than five people have had two international stage experiences.

These two experiences allowed her to transcend the narrow aesthetics of domestic campus performances, thoroughly understand the cinematic language, stage direction, and emotional expression logic of international theater, and her performance vision, judging standards, and on-the-spot adaptability all showed a visible gap compared to ordinary graduates.

In 2002, Wan Qian, who had just graduated from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, directly starred in the classic adaptation of "The Golden Lock", thus officially entering the entertainment industry as an actress.

At that time, she had a cool and lively face, a natural temperament that was aloof and sophisticated, coupled with her stable acting skills honed through professional training and her excellent delivery of lines. After watching her audition clips, a group of producers and assistant directors in the industry were all optimistic about her and determined that she could quickly rise to the ranks of second-tier actresses.

However, when people in the industry say "there will be opportunities in the future," they never simply mean film and television scripts.

At that time, the mainland film and television industry was growing wildly, with unspoken rules and undercurrents everywhere. Many directors and investors who held power would make private, non-work-related demands on newcomers who were good-looking and professionally outstanding.

Comply and cooperate, and you'll get lead roles and top supporting roles; refuse, and you'll be blacklisted from the industry.

Faced with such ambiguous demands, Wan Qian remained resolute from beginning to end: she would never cooperate.

According to anonymous revelations from industry insiders, in the first three years of her career, she refused private invitations from different directors and investors on seven separate occasions.

Newcomers in the industry often face significant resource suppression for refusing even once, but to stand up to industry leaders seven times in a row is tantamount to openly challenging the industry's unspoken rules.

The consequences came quickly.

She was secretly sidelined by industry insiders.

It wasn't that people in the industry didn't know she was an outstanding actress; rather, all the major film and television production teams and casting groups received tacit instructions to directly remove her from all the shortlist of potential actors.

Even if the production company intends to use them, the investors will likely veto it.

In just two years, she completely disappeared from the screen, becoming an unemployed actress with no roles to play. (End of Chapter)