After Transmigrated as a Black-Hearted Entertainment Boss [Transmigration] - Chapter 15
At noon, Gu Nan carried the lunchbox Zhang Ling had prepared the night previous and walked up to the third floor with a light step. Just as he entered the meeting room, he saw Tao Zui handing a box of white rice to Su Jiqiu. Before them sat very familiar lunchboxes, filled with dishes that smelled of home.
Gu Nan: “…” Didn’t he say he was too busy to cook?
Tao Zui glanced at him and pointed to the seat next to Su Jiqiu. “Sit down now that you’re here. We’ll talk while we eat.”
Gu Nan: “…Oh.”
Suppressing a wave of inexplicable irritation, Gu Nan sat down beside Su Jiqiu. He glanced at the other’s lunchbox before lowering his eyes to open his own.
Su Jiqiu had been confused by the sudden summons to the office, and feeling the low-pressure aura radiating from Gu Nan made him even more bewildered. He stole a cautious glance at Gu Nan over his lunchbox.
Is Brother Nan angry again? Why? His emotions have been so volatile lately… Did something happen? Su Jiqiu looked worriedly toward Tao Zui.
Luckily, Young CEO Tao is here too… If anything is wrong, he’ll definitely help! Having made up his mind, Su Jiqiu was about to speak when he heard Tao Zui’s voice.
“Gu Nan, didn’t you heat your food?”
Gu Nan looked at the lunchbox, which didn’t have a speck of steam. He finally realized that in his rush to get to the third floor, he had forgotten to heat his meal.
“I forgot.”
“…How do you forget that?” Tao Zui said, somewhat speechless. He pointed to the pantry next door. “Go heat it up quickly. You can’t eat things straight from the fridge; it’s bad for your stomach.”
“Oh.” Gu Nan obediently stood up with the lunchbox. Five minutes later, he returned with three steaming hot containers.
When he sat back down, Su Jiqiu sensitively noticed that Brother Nan wasn’t angry anymore! In fact, he actually seemed a little… happy?!
Why?! Brother Nan, your mood swings are too bizarre! You weren’t like this before! Is this still the same cold, unapproachable Brother Nan?!
“Let’s eat. We’ll talk as we go.”
Su Jiqiu’s baffled thoughts were interrupted by Tao Zui, and he hurriedly picked up his lunchbox.
Seeing them start eating, Tao Zui shoveled a couple of bites of rice, swallowed, and said: “I called you two here for this lunch meeting because I’ve picked three projects and want to hear your opinions… Don’t just stare at me, eat. It’s a lunch meeting—that means we chat while eating, understand?”
After a few more bites, Tao Zui slowly began to detail the specifics of the three projects.
“…As it stands, Criminal Litigation is the safest and the most advanced in progress. They are currently finalizing the leads. If things go smoothly, the crew will start filming in mid-June. The Afterlife has the most uncertainties; it could pioneer a new genre in China, but it could also bury an actor’s career. Choosing it is undoubtedly a huge gamble. The Case Files of Dali Temple hasn’t been greenlit yet, but Fangyuan Culture is a well-known production company in the industry. Once it’s approved, things move quickly. I estimate it could start filming two or three months after approval.”
At this point, Tao Zui gave the two a moment to digest the news. He ate a bit more before continuing: “I know these aren’t top-tier resources, but given the company’s current strength and your own experience, these are the best and most suitable resources I could find. After lunch, take the materials and think carefully about which one you want to audition for. Give me an answer by the time you clock out today.”
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he tapped his finger on the table. “By the way, you can choose all three. But because the schedules for two of them are uncertain, you might move from one set to another seamlessly if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, there will be a schedule conflict, forcing you to ‘split’ your time between sets (jiao xi). That is a major offense to production crews in this industry, so think it through.”
As Su Jiqiu listened, he felt something was off. He looked at Gu Nan, then back to Tao Zui. Swallowing his food, he said hesitantly: “Young CEO Tao… have you considered… that maybe… we might not get chosen at all?”
“How is that possible!” Tao Zui retorted without a second thought. “You entered the Beijing Film Academy with the highest art exam score and have been top of your class for two years. So many experts at Beiying have affirmed your talent, yet you don’t believe in yourself? As for Gu Nan, I accompanied him to the Day and Night audition. Anyone who saw his performance must admit his strength. If you two can’t pass an audition, no one can.”
“As for factors outside of talent, the company’s current situation is what it is. We don’t have other resources to snatch things for you, so we have to rely on skill. If once doesn’t work, try twice. If twice doesn’t work, try three times. At least you’re young; you have plenty of time for trial and error. Besides, the company will soon have a large injection of capital. If things really come to it, we’ll put up the money and film it ourselves. It’s not like we haven’t done that before.”
The luxury flat in the 2nd Ring already had an interested buyer. If all went well, 100 million yuan would be in the account by the end of May. While the villa in the suburbs had few inquiries, it wasn’t completely silent; it would sell eventually given time. That would be another 100 million or more. Together, those two and a half “small goals” (250 million) were more than enough to custom-tailor film and TV projects!
With the acting skills of Gu Nan and Su Jiqiu, they would eventually become the top-tier Movie Star and TV King from the novel anyway!
“Young CEO Tao…” There were faint tears shimmering in Su Jiqiu’s eyes. He suddenly ducked his head to shovel two bites of rice, and after suppressing the soreness in his eyes, he looked up at Tao Zui. “Young CHEO Tao… I will definitely work hard!”
Tao Zui: “…I know you’re excited, but don’t talk while you’re chewing.”
Su Jiqiu: “Oh…”
While they spoke, Gu Nan lowered his eyelids, hiding a heart that was even more turbulent than Su Jiqiu’s.
He had never been trusted and affirmed so unconditionally.
His gambler father would complain about him spending too much money on “worthless books” even when winning. His mother would call him useless for missing out on a first-class scholarship. School teachers liked anyone with good grades, especially since student performance was tied to their bonuses.
He had been un-awaited since birth, and for nineteen years, he had been wandering in the dark. At this moment, he suddenly had a goal.
He wanted to become the brightest star in the domestic industry—no, the world. And then… and then… then what?
The emotions surging in Gu Nan’s heart suddenly stalled. Something seemed to be brewing beneath the surface of the water, but he couldn’t see it clearly.
Before Gu Nan could decipher his own heart, he heard Tao Zui say: “Don’t worry about picking the same thing. Fair competition is something every actor has to face. Don’t hesitate because the other person is your friend; that would be doing yourself a disservice and disrespecting your opponent. Actually, to prevent you from colluding, Su Jiqiu, go to my office to do your homework after lunch. I remember you don’t have classes this afternoon, right?”
Su Jiqiu had food in his mouth. Hearing Tao Zui’s words, he looked hesitant but quickly nodded in agreement. He stole a glance at Gu Nan and sensitively discovered… he was angry again!
Why? WHY? Doushite?!
After lunch, Gu Nan watched Tao Zui take Su Jiqiu away. To prevent private communication, Tao Zui even took their phones.
He couldn’t describe the feeling in his heart. He just felt frustrated, yet he couldn’t find a reason for it. After thinking it over, there seemed to be only one: Tao Zui actually distrusted them that much!
Was he the type of person who would hand over what he wanted on a silver platter?
He wasn’t a child!
On the other hand, Su Jiqiu was likely to act on emotion. This guy was only a month younger than him, but in Gu Nan’s eyes, he wasn’t much more mature than Diwu Zou. If Su Jiqiu found out their choices conflicted, he would definitely step down without a word.
But Gu Nan wasn’t an idiot! He would have definitely sussed out which resource Su Jiqiu wanted first before making his own plans! Tao Zui actually didn’t trust him! He thought he was as silly as Su Jiqiu!
With a stony face, Gu Nan returned to the first-floor meeting room. He spread the three project proposals out on the table, staring at them as if they were his lifelong enemies.
After a long while, he picked up the proposal for Criminal Litigation, studying the casting call inside. Since it was still in the preparation stage, there was no script, only a story summary and a list of the main creators.
Gu Nan stared at the summary for a bit, then suddenly put it down, picked up his tablet, and began searching.
The tablet was provided by the company to facilitate their film analysis; all the video site apps were installed with active memberships. Following the lists he found, Gu Nan blazed through several domestic and foreign legal films at an extremely fast pace.
He soon discovered a fact: there were very few domestic legal films, and the quality was generally inferior to foreign ones. The root cause was that China follows a Civil Law system, while foreign countries use Common Law. This led to fundamental differences in everything from court proceedings to lawyers, procedures, and sentencing methods.
Civil Law follows legal statutes to judge cases, emphasizing written evidence with less debate. This caused domestic legal films to easily turn into stories about investigating cases while they were being tried. However, judges and prosecutors investigating cases always lacked the sense of crisis and urgency found with police. The interspersed courtroom scenes would break the atmosphere built during the investigation, making the film’s rhythm erratic and making it hard to build the tension required for a confrontation.
Foreign legal films were the exact opposite. Common Law refers to previous precedents, emphasizing debate and witnesses, with the final verdict decided by a jury. The courtroom phase alone was a spectacle. Lawyers engaged in a battle of wits, pressuring witnesses to break their psychological defenses and using silver-tongued rhetoric to persuade the jury—these were the highlights of foreign legal films.
If the rhythm of the script isn’t controlled well, it’s very easy for a legal film to turn into a mystery thriller… Gu Nan picked up Criminal Litigation, thought carefully, and set it aside. Adding too many elements made it easy to become a hodgepodge; moreover, the possibility of the script collapsing from this kind of unintentional deviation was too high.
Having eliminated the legal film, Gu Nan’s gaze fell upon the fantasy film The Afterlife and the web drama The Case Files of Dali Temple.
In truth, neither of these was a “premium” choice.
Gu Nan’s acting teacher didn’t just teach how to act; there were also courses on script adaptation and film appreciation. Domestic fantasy films were often used as negative examples, hauled out by the teacher to be “flogged” repeatedly as warnings.
Everything from the story’s intent to the costumes and even the monster designs was criticized mercilessly. The teacher even went so far as to claim that China simply couldn’t make a good fantasy film!
Gu Nan, who had been forced by the teacher to watch several fantasy films, had to admit this was true.
As for The Case Files of Dali Temple, as Tao Zui said, this web drama hadn’t even been greenlit. Whether the crew could even be assembled was a question mark. Furthermore, the promotion and costumes for an A-rank drama were usually just average; it relied purely on the script to break through. There were too many uncertain factors.
After thinking for a long time, Gu Nan looked up more information on his tablet. Finally, he stacked the two project proposals together and set them aside.
Then, he took out his notebook, started a movie, and began the film analysis assignment left by his teacher.
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YoshiK
Lovely for them, I can see their path going far!