Against the Current Hong Kong 1979

One night passed.

Zhang Shuai'an woke up at six o'clock in the morning and started washing up.

He Jiatong woke up when she heard the noise. Seeing Zhang Shuai'an looking so energetic, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Brother An, you were so tired last night, how come you recovered after only five hours of sleep?"

Because of the "Eternal Vitality" buff, Zhang Shuai'an's stamina recovers faster than that of ordinary people.

"Get up too." After washing his face, Zhang Shuai'an said to He Jiatong, "Come with me to meet the producer and director later. I'll assign you some tasks, like playing minor roles, so you can earn some money and won't have to rely on Aunt He to support you anymore."

"Okay!" He Jiatong got out of bed and quickly finished washing up.

After changing their clothes, the two went downstairs. When they reached the fifth floor, Zhang Shuai'an even turned his head to look at the spot where the woman in white had appeared last night.

Unfortunately, the doors were tightly closed; I don't know if they hadn't gotten up yet or had already gone to film a movie.

"Brother An, what are you looking at?" He Jiatong saw Zhang Shuai'an pause for a moment, and couldn't help but reach out and pat him.

Zhang Shuai'an waved his hand: "It's nothing, let's go have breakfast first."

When they arrived at the restaurant, Zhang Shuai'an was initially worried that he might run into Zhang Aijia again.

I quickly came to terms with it; what's done is done, it doesn't matter anymore.

Zhang Shuai'an just felt that being love-struck was a bit troublesome. If Zhang Aijia insisted on coming to him, he wouldn't mind taking advantage of her and leaving her alone. After all, Zhang Aijia was a lucky female celebrity.

Moreover, once her romantic addiction wears off, she'll automatically find a reason to break up and leave, so he won't have to take any responsibility.

He can get a lot of star points and have a woman to play with for free, so why not?

However, nothing unexpected happened this time, and we finished our breakfast quietly.

Zhang Shuai'an led He Jiatong to the door of the agreed meeting room.

In the conference room, there was an elderly man around fifty years old, dressed in a suit, sitting at the conference table, looking at the documents in his hands.

Seeing someone enter, he slightly raised his eyes, adjusted his glasses, and said with some confusion, "This is the conference room; actor recruitment is downstairs."

Zhang Shuai'an bowed slightly and respectfully said to the old man, "My name is Zhang Shuai'an, and I am the screenwriter of 'Young Detective Bao Qingtian.' I'm here to attend the screenwriting seminar."

The old man's face lit up with a sudden realization: "Oh, you're the handsome young man Manager Fang mentioned, the one who's so arrogant it's unsettling, yet so dashing it's impossible to put up with?"

After saying that, he looked Zhang Shuai'an up and down for a few moments and couldn't help but marvel: "He is indeed handsome, and his bone structure and skin are perfectly matched. With such conditions, he is a natural actor, and he will not lose his looks even after forty or fifty years."

Zhang Shuai'an smiled and then asked, "Thank you for the compliment, sir. I still don't know your name?"

The old man in the suit smiled and said, "My name is Liu Fanggang. I am the deputy general manager of TVB's artist department and also the head teacher of the artist training class."

Zhang Shuai'an immediately understood that TVB's ability to continuously create stars relied on its artist training classes, and the old man in front of him was the mainstay that enabled these classes to continue operating.

Liu Fanggang then turned his gaze to He Jiatong and pointed, "And this one?"

"My name is He Jiatong!" He Jiatong stepped forward enthusiastically and shook Liu Fanggang's raised hand: "I am Anzai's assistant. I have long admired TVB and have heard of Teacher Liu's name. I have always wanted to apply for TVB's artist training class, but unfortunately I don't have much education and could not become Teacher Liu's disciple, which is a real pity."

Liu Fanggang was stunned by He Jiatong's series of quick moves and it took him a while to come to his senses.

He looked He Jiatong up and down, who was tall and thin, and suddenly asked, "How tall are you?"

He Jiatong didn't know what Liu Fanggang meant, so she could only turn to Zhang Shuai'an and ask him for help.

Zhang Shuai'an said, "Just answer Teacher Liu's questions truthfully."

"I'm 1.95 meters tall," He Jiatong answered the question immediately.

Liu Fanggang laughed and pointed at him, saying, "Your height and appearance are quite rare in the entertainment industry, maybe only one in thousands of years. You would be very funny playing big guys, big dummy guys, or simple-minded gangsters."

He Jiatong muttered to herself with a self-deprecating tone, "This is the only thing that's come out in thousands of years?"

Zhang Shuai'an quickly grasped the meaning behind Liu Fanggang's words: this was exactly the path Xu Jingjiang would later take!

At this moment, Xu Jingjiang is still studying painting in Guangzhou, while He Jiatong can occupy this niche ahead of time.

Overall, Liu Fanggang truly adheres to the principle of "education for all" when recruiting students. As long as someone has some merit, he will accept them and teach them to see how it goes.

For example, in the original timeline, he made an exception to admit Liu Jialing, whose Cantonese was not standard, and also made an exception to admit Zhou Xingchi on the recommendation of Qi Meizhen, etc.

Liu Fanggang said with a smile, "If you want to be an actor, it doesn't matter if you don't get into the training class; you can come and audit the classes."

"Thank you for reminding me, Teacher Liu. I will definitely go." He Jiatong nodded repeatedly, looking like a well-behaved student.

Wang Pangzi just pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing He Jiatong holding Liu Fanggang's hand, he asked with some surprise, "Hey, Uncle Fang, what's this all about? Did you two know each other before?"

"It's our first meeting, but we hit it off immediately," Liu Fanggang replied with a smile. "I think they are all very promising young people."

Fatty Wang laughed and pointed at Zhang Shuai'an, saying, "Just look at his face, you can tell he's not just promising, he's bursting with potential. He's also talented; he wrote this script. More importantly, he's got guts. He dared to negotiate with Mr. Shao, offering to play the male lead even without payment!"

Liu Fanggang quipped, "Mr. Shao must have agreed when he heard it was free."

Fatty Wang was immediately amused, but then became a little scared: "Hahaha. Uncle Fang, please don't let anyone hear Mr. Shao's ears. He's a very vengeful old man."

The group exchanged a few more pleasantries and meaningless pleasantries.

Before long, Zhao Zhenqiang and the others arrived one after another.

Zhao Zhenqiang first asked Liu Fanggang, "Uncle Fang, I faxed you the character designs for the main roles last night. How are your arrangements going?"

"What do you mean last night? It was clearly 2:30 in the morning." Liu Fanggang looked speechless. "I'm an old man, and I don't sleep well to begin with. I was woken up by your phone call and listened to your nonsense for half an hour. I was about to fax some documents, couldn't you have just written them down?"

"Faxes are so expensive," Zhao Zhenqiang said with a sneer. "Alright, enough chit-chat, when are the rest of the main characters arriving?"

Liu Fanggang replied, "I called them this morning, they should be here soon."

"I'm sorry I'm late."

At that moment, a soft and elegant voice came from behind.

Zhang Shuai'an was sitting by the door and casually opened it.

"Oh, thank you."

Just as Zhao Yazhi was about to push the door open, she saw it open automatically, and what greeted her was an incredibly handsome face, which made her involuntarily freeze for half a second.

She covered her mouth, slowly walked into the conference room, and said to Zhao Zhenqiang beside her, "Director Zhao, this handsome young man is...?"

"The screenwriter and male lead of this play have a lot of scenes with you, so you can get to know them first."

Zhao Zhenqiang replied.

Zhao Yazhi immediately bowed slightly and extended her hand to Zhang Shuai'an: "Hello, my name is Zhao Yazhi. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope the screenwriter will take good care of me in the future."

"My name is Zhang Shuai'an, Sister Zhi, you're too kind." Zhang Shuai'an immediately grasped Zhao Yazhi's hand, his first impression of it being soft and boneless, extremely tender.

The next second, a series of messages flashed through his mind:

"【Name: Zhao Yazhi】"

"[Date of Birth: September 15, 1953]"

"[Debut Date: 4th place in Miss Hong Kong 1973, starred in her first TV series "Riding the Waves" in 1975]"

"[Representative works: The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (1978), The God of Blades (1979), The Madman (1979)...]"

"【Star Rating: Three and a Half Stars (Increase by One Star)】"

"[Star Potential: Near Peak Period (1)]"

"..."

"A slight contact with Zhao Yazhi grants 120 Star Points, unlocking the legendary script 'Shanghai Bund'!"

What the hell!

Zhang Shuai'an never expected that Zhao Yazi would be so terrifying!

Just shaking hands earns you 120 star points, and you're even given the script for "Shanghai Bund".

She's only nearing her peak right now; her true peak will come after the huge success of "Chu Liuxiang" and "Shanghai Bund."

If I get to have close contact with her, what incredible things will happen?

Moreover, this woman's peak period wasn't just once; she reached another peak later with "The Legend of the White Snake." Even in 2025, she appeared on the Spring Festival Gala with Ye Tong, reaching another peak in her later years, and also participated in numerous variety shows.