While taking publicity photos and confirming the makeup photos, other preparations for the crew were also underway.
Director Yuan required some actors to participate in a physical training program, spending over an hour every day at the gym with specialized coaches providing them physical training.
Some other actors were also required by Director Yuan to set aside three days on their own this week to come to the hotel conference room to read the script.
Director Yuan had adopted a very firm attitude during casting. Unless they were extras or guest roles, all actors must be familiar with the parts they were playing. If they did not know the answers to three basic questions about their role when asked on set, they would be asked to immediately withdraw from the production.
Landing a role was hard-earned so when signing the contracts, no actor had any intention to cut corners.
It just so happened that Qin Wei had morning classes two days this week. In the afternoons she had to shoot new commercials endorsed by her. Li Yao had successfully helped her land an endorsement deal with a major cosmetics brand. Other than shooting commercials this week, she could spend the rest of her time going to the hotel to read the script.
After the previous unpleasant experience, Qin Wei didn’t want to go to the hotel’s basement parking garage alone again. When she arrived at the hotel entrance, she had Li Liang park the car in one of the above ground parking spots and then walked into the hotel.
She arrived quite early. Thoughtfully, the crew had opened up a few rooms to serve as temporary break rooms. The times to go to the conference room to read the script were allotted in segments. They could move around freely in the rooms during breaks.
Qin Wei was in good spirits. Hugging Ji'an, she chatted and laughed with Li Liang as they got into the elevator and pressed the floor number. But then the elevator door closed and opened again.
"Oh! Hi Qin Wei, long time no see!"
Chen Xinya was standing at the elevator entrance with several assistants. Seeing Qin Wei only had one assistant with her, Chen Xinya thoughtfully let her own assistants take the next elevator. She only brought her personal assistant with her onto the elevator to ride up with Qin Wei before greeting her.
"Hello."
Qin Wei responded flatly, then turned her head slightly and softly asked her assistant about her schedule afterwards.
Chen Xinya's smile also faded.
Yes, today's Qin Wei was different than before.
Although she didn’t have resources as good as a few years ago, by playing the cute dumb card and with some luck, she had regained her reputation recently. Along with her ability to frequently make hot search lists, she had clawed her way back to moderate success. But that didn’t mean she could act arrogantly with everyone.
For example, towards Chen Xinya.
Although her position at Shengshi Entertainment was quite awkward in the past - much better off than a below C-list star but couldn't compare with a second or third-tier star at all, and her resources were unstable, fluctuating between good and bad, mainly depending on the mood of the company’s top star, Willow Heart.
She had to rely on hugging Willow Heart’s thigh tightly. Not only did she have to suck up to Willow Heart for work, she also had to humor Willow Heart in her personal life. Along with her own hard work, she finally carved out a place for herself at Shengshi Entertainment. But that was in the past.
After Willow Heart terminated her contract, the company’s resources had to be redistributed. Competition within the company was fierce and she fought for no small share for herself relying on her own efforts.
Shengshi Entertainment no longer had a clear top star, but the resources were indeed skewed towards Chen Xinya. As long as this movie helped build up some good reputation for her, without her even needing to say anything more, the high level executives would be clear in their minds about who the next top star of the company would be.
That was why she had spared no effort fighting for the role of Gong Lan at first. Knowing she didn’t stand a chance, she went after the role of Zhao Yu instead.
She had no complaints about Qiao Xiao laughing playing Gong Lan. But she really could not understand Tiny and Dainty Qin Wei playing the heroic Zhao Yu.
Even after witnessing the results of Qin Wei’s physical training not long ago, at the end of the day, acting was different than training. Just like lacking enough beauty to play a devastatingly gorgeous character - no matter how superb her acting was, the audience would not be convinced that she was devastatingly beautiful.
Qin Wei was the same way. Even if she exaggeratedly acted capable of killing someone barehanded, she would still look weak and easily bullied, completely incompatible with Zhao Yu’s image.
So she resonated with many netizens' disagreement with the director’s casting decisions.
She disagreed, but at this moment it was not appropriate to show dissent. Because Qin Wei was the female lead of this movie, it would be bad to damage their relationship:
"Qin Wei, I really like your Prada denim jacket. You have good taste."
"Thanks."
Qin Wei nodded slightly at her.
Chen Xinya asked again, "Why did you bring a teddy bear with you, Qin Wei? Is it an product endorsement or for taking pictures?"
"It's to accompany me during breaks."
Qin Wei gave a perfunctory response. She felt it meaningless to explain further to Chen Xinya. Luckily the floor they wanted arrived and the elevator doors opened.
Su Yang waved at Qin Wei as soon as the doors opened, smiling brightly and greeting her.
"Hi Qin Wei~ Hi little bear~ Can I call it that?"
"Hi Yangyang~”
Qin Wei was also very happy to see him. Holding Ji'an's hand she said,
"His name is Ji'an. Dou Ge gave him the name."
Listening to this, Su Yang understood the meaning behind the name in seconds. He humphed,
"Dou Ge is truly profoundly discreet and scheming. Knowing he's in preschool, worried that you would run off with someone else, he didn't hesitate to use family members to shackle you..."
Qin Wei was completely confused:
"I don no idea what you're talking about. Will you be coming these few days too?"
Su Yang nodded and reached out, trying to pick up Ji'an but got rejected.
"My baby smells like Big Tangerine cologne. If you hug him, his fur will be tainted with your Darjeeling tea scent. I still need to cuddle him when I sleep at night. I don't want to smell your cologne when I close my eyes."
Su Yang immediately withdrew his hand and took a step back:
"You're right, that would be inappropriate. I wonder if you can tell me what fragrance she has been using recently? I'd like to buy a bottle to keep."
Qin Wei knew whom he was talking about. She also knew they were both too busy to meet up these days, so telling him wouldn't hurt:
"She really liked sweet osmanthus and gardenia recently. Now she also likes citrus honey, the scent Ji'an has on currently. You can smell him."
Su Yang declined:
"No I shouldn't. That would seem inappropriate."
Behind them, Chen Xinya saw the two chatting and fooling around with laughter. Although she basically could not understand what they were saying, she could feel the casual happiness between them when they were together. So she asked her assistant:
"Isn't that Su Yang fellow quite popular recently? How did Qin Wei hook him? Impressive!"
The assistant replied:
"Sis, you've been busy shooting these months and probably didn't notice. The two of them have a currently airing drama that started slowly, with only 6.6 at opening. But it's been going up steadily these days, already at 7.8 now.
People online have been saying they fell in love because of the drama and have been secretly dating. But I think you know the drill already - mutually beneficial with plenty still shipping their CP, which the netizens call Weiyang Couple."
Chen Xinya walked towards her own room, casually instructing her assistant:
"I don't care for gossip news. But keep an eye on things like this for me. The most intolerable thing for idol fans is their brother dating. But it would never be their brother's fault when he dates. It must be the woman seducing and aggressively pursuing him...
I've given you the angle already. Use your imagination from here."
"Got it, sis."
The assistant took out his phone to show her - anticipating Chen Xinya sister's anticipation just now, he had secretly snapped a photo of Qin Wei and Su Yang.
In the administrative floor hallway of the hotel, both were dressed very low-key. Qin Wei was even holding a plush teddy bear, laughing and fooling around with Su Yang. What else could two artists with previous affair rumors be doing at a hotel?
But now was not the time to post it. He would release it in a few days after the script reading activity ended.
With how obsessed Su Yang’s solely fans were, the post could easily get Qin Wei flamed to the point of questioning life. And that was even before considering both sides’ sole fans starting fan wars. When the time came, he could pay some cyber navy to fan the flames on both sides.
Anyone who heard about this plan would be compelled to exclaim, perfect!
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