HuaYu: The most muscular director in history!

9 month 18 day.

Capital International Airport.

Attention travelers to Tokyo—

"Xiao Xiang, let's go, boarding."

"OK!"

Xiang Nan glanced one last time at the airport gate in the distance, then followed Chen Yaochuan and his group toward the ticket gate.

Half an hour later, on the passenger plane bound for Japan.

Xiang Nan sat by the window, and Chen Yaochuan sat next to him.

In his previous life, he had never been abroad. If he remembered correctly, before his rebirth, China was experiencing some unpleasantness with his family.

As a true-blue Chinese, he has some aversion to the country of "small life".

But it was 2002, and he was a nobody; he couldn't control anything.

Signing with Warner? Forget about it, isn't it the same situation? Modern music and movies are all imported, so it's normal that we can't compete with others for the time being.

The great man was right when he said: If you fall behind, you will be bullied.

Xiang Nan also has a saying: If you can't beat them, then use underhanded tactics! When you're weak, keep a low profile and lie low; when you succeed, fight back fiercely. That's his value system.

The world is bustling with activity, all for profit, and Xiang Nan is no exception. Although he is an ordinary person, he also has a different dream: at least within his power, to promote the film industry.

The trend is now emerging in China, with blockbuster films like "Hero" achieving considerable success, and the concept of commercial films beginning to take hold in the country...

"Xiao Xiang, Xiang Nan!"

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

Chen Yaochuan adjusted his glasses: "What are you thinking about? You've been spacing out since you boarded the plane. Tell me, have you communicated with them properly? When are you coming to record the song?"

"About two days before the music video recording? She was quite busy too."

Chen Yaocuan frowned: "Isn't that person a professional singer?"

"Well……"

Xiang Nan was speechless for a moment, and Chen Yaochuan, seeing this, guessed the truth.

"Is your singing ability okay?"

"..."

Xiang Nan remained silent, and Chen Yaochuan rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Xiang Nan, this is your first album! So many people at Sony are fawning over you, do you think they're just playing around with you?!"

Chen Yaochuan's tone was somewhat stern, and Xiang Nan twirled his fingers without saying a word.

"Don't be arrogant because of your talent; throughout history, countless examples have shown this..."

"Brother Chen, I can just add a few more roadshows."

Finally hearing what he wanted to hear, Chen Yaochuan's expression softened.

The record company can't restrict Xiang Nan too much with his record deal. But for an album, he can't skip any of the promotional activities, music shows, interviews, variety shows, autograph sessions, and radio chart performances. Some singers even spend two months on campus tours!

It's all for album sales, all for one word: money!

Xiang Nan's album will likely be officially released around New Year's Day next year. It was already quite rushed, so Sony naturally couldn't let him continue to languish.

In the past two months, he has been traveling all over Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and he also has to find time to produce music videos and CDs. It would be no problem to say that he will be extremely busy.

"Then it's settled. I'll add a Taiwanese variety show for you, and a concert in Hong Kong."

"Hong Kong?"

"What, you don't want to?"

"No, Brother Chen is doing this for my own good. He's not unwilling at all."

"Hmm...it's good that you understand."

The two fell silent.

Xiang Nan silently turned to look out the window, wondering whether this exchange was a loss or a gain.

His initial goal was to become a director, but due to time constraints, he could only enroll in the acting department. The album was also a way to accumulate initial capital.

But now, for some bizarre agreement, I'm going to waste more than ten days of my time?

So, the ancient saying that beauty can ruin a country is actually true?

Xiang Nan texted Liu Yifei a couple of days ago, and when she heard that the "Happy Worship" music video was a large-scale disco, she immediately agreed to participate.

In Xiang Nan's view, this was more of a childish mentality and did not contain any special meaning.

This is not what he wants. If things continue like this, will the two of them eventually develop into "good buddies" or "good brothers"?

Too much gentleness is not good!

At 5 p.m., the group arrived at Tokyo International Airport.

Sony assigned Xiang Nan an assistant named Feng Man, a petite girl who was 1.6 meters tall.

Although she is described as a young girl, she is actually 23 years old and fluent in five languages. She also serves as Xiang Nan's Japanese teacher.

"Xiang Nan, Hakimi Masde means nice to meet you."

At the airport exit, Xiang Nan shook hands with Yoshida across the street.

"Me too, Hakimi! Thank you!"

"Pfft—giggle giggle..."

Feng Man laughed hysterically, while Yoshida across from her looked completely bewildered.

"Alright, Xiaoman, tell him we'll have a welcome dinner when he gets to his accommodation."

"Okay, Mr. Chen."

After a brief translation, the group boarded the van arranged by Sony.

The airport is actually quite lively at night, but it's all the liveliness that belongs to other people.

Looking at the bare convoy, Xiang Nan thought to himself that next time he came, he would definitely have a huge crowd of fans and banners everywhere.

At 6 p.m., the group checked into the house prepared by Sony.

Perhaps knowing that Xiang Nan didn't like small wooden houses, Sony thoughtfully prepared a two-story villa for him.

It looks no different from what you'd find in China from the outside, but once you step inside, it's a completely different story.

Xiang Nan lived with Feng Man and the photographer. Feng Man was an essential companion on their trip and also served as their translation teacher.

The photographer is responsible for the daily vlogs, which are the materials used in Japanese variety shows.

The camera was on at this point, and the script had already been written.

Xiang Nan glanced at the photographer without saying anything, then pointed to the wall cabinet in front of him: "This is quite novel, a drawer embedded in the wall."

"These are also available in China. Shall we change our shoes?"

Feng Man brought him shoes, and after Xiang Nan changed into them, Feng Man, who used to be up to his shoulder, was now below his shoulder.

"Wow, that's so high!"

"Eat more, grow faster."

"Nonsense!" Feng Man gave him a disdainful look. "If I eat too much, all the fat goes up to my belly!"

"Then why aren't you exercising?"

As they spoke, Xiang Nan arrived at the second-floor bedroom. The room was no longer furnished with the modern decor of downstairs. He pointed to the glass table in the center of the room and asked, "What's this?"

"A low coffee table."

"Where's the sofa? Where's the bed?"

Feng Man walked barefoot to the wall, gave it a hard push, and a bedroom within a bedroom appeared.

"Sleep here!"

Xiang Nan walked into the inner room, lay down directly on the bed, and stomped his feet, making the wooden bedside table bang loudly.

"puff……"

"This isn't long enough!"

He went to the coffee table in the living room, sat down with his legs crossed, and the coffee table... wasn't even as high as his knees!

"this……"

"Pfft, hahaha..."

Feng Man and the photographer laughed so hard they bent over.

Two minutes later, the red light on the camera went out, and the cameraman stepped forward, bowed to Xiang Nan, and chattered away.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Xiang Nansang. Arigato."

Xiang Nan looked at Feng Man, who remained silent. He could only clasp his hands together and nod slightly, saying, "Arigato."

Feng Man then stepped forward and said, "In Japan, you must return the favor after receiving thanks. The gesture you just made was acceptable. When returning the favor, you would usually say 'Please take care of me' or 'Thank you for your hard work.'"

"Is it that complicated?"

The vlog I just did was quite tiring, I didn't expect that a simple thank you would cause so much trouble!

"Japan is all about etiquette, that's normal..."

The group started to go downstairs. They had just put their things down and taken some photos of their daily life to use in the variety show.

Seeing the photographer walking ahead, Feng Man took the opportunity to step back two steps from Xiang Nan and whispered in his ear as she stepped up the stairs:

"What talk of etiquette? It's just pretentious. They follow the ancient Chinese etiquette system, so it's a bit rigid. You can just pretend to be polite."

"I see."

Xiang Nan sighed deeply.

Being an artist is not as easy as it seems on the surface.

This simple vlog is scripted, and people even have to pretend to be polite.

"How much of what celebrities say is actually true?"