“Literally what I said.”
Jiang Nian toyed with Zhang Linyu’s business card: “I met someone yesterday, a self-recommendation, wanting to be my agent. That person told me about this, but I’m not sure if it’s true, so I wanted to ask you.”
“Hold on.”
Yang Mi said.
Then she got out of bed, threw on a jacket, hurried to the office outside the door, opened VX, and started asking around.
In just a short while, looking at the reply on her computer,
Yang Mi’s expression immediately darkened.
“Liu Kai!”
She squeezed out these two words through clenched teeth, her chest heaving with uncontrollable rage.
Yang Mi never imagined that Liu Kai would dare to pull a stunt like this.
The key point was that she was only finding out about this today!
“Jiang Nian, you wait. I’m going to see him right now!”
Yang Mi stood up furiously, ready to go find Liu Kai and demand an explanation face to face.
After spending time together these past days, Jiang Nian had already occupied a very important place in her heart.
Especially since Jiang Nian’s acting skills were so superb.
Yang Mi had already made up her mind: after this movie, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, became a huge hit, she would sign Jiang Nian, promote him vigorously, and cultivate him to become the pillar of her agency.
Liu Kai pulling this right now was essentially digging at her foundation.
How could Yang Mi accept that? How could she tolerate it?!
But just then.
“Sit down.”
Jiang Nian said.
“Hmm?”
Yang Mi frowned: “What do you mean?”
“If I tell you to sit down, just sit down. Why so many questions?” Jiang Nian took a drag from his cigarette: “Tell me, what are you going to do by seeing him right now?”
“To ask him why he did this, of course!”
“And then?”
“What do you mean, ‘and then’?”
“After you ask him, what comes next? Mi Jie, have you ever considered this question: does Liu Kai already know about the relationship between us two?”
Jiang Nian said.
This wasn’t baseless talk or pure imagination.
It was a conclusion Jiang Nian had reached after thinking it over throughout yesterday and this morning.
So far, he had only met Liu Kai once.
And during that single meeting, Jiang Nian, without saying a word, had grabbed Liu Kai and beaten him up in front of a bunch of reporters.
A normal person could hardly accept being treated like that.
Let alone Liu Kai, who was a glorious big star.
He could accept it even less.
So Liu Kai sought revenge against Jiang Nian, directly blacklisting him within the industry, preventing any director from hiring him.
And here’s where the problem lies.
According to what Zhang Linyu said yesterday,
Liu Kai had already blacklisted Jiang Nian within the industry over a month ago.
But at that time, Jiang Nian had just received the script for Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and hadn’t even appeared on stage yet.
Most people didn’t know about Jiang Nian’s identity as an actor, but Liu Kai knew.
The only way he could do that was by investigating Jiang Nian.
And since he had done the investigation,
as long as Liu Kai had half a brain, he could guess that Jiang Nian was involved with Yang Mi.
“Well…”
Yang Mi was stunned. After Jiang Nian’s reminder, she also realized this, and asked, “Then what do we do?”
If she didn’t go talk to Liu Kai, then Jiang Nian’s problem wouldn’t be solved.
But if she did go, and if Liu Kai was holding leverage over her and Jiang Nian’s relationship, he could use it as blackmail, and then Yang Mi would be in a passive position.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Nian thought for a moment: “Let’s ignore it for now. We’ll wait until this movie of mine is released.”
This wasn’t Jiang Nian avoiding the issue.
It was simply that he had no other choice.
As a newcomer in the entertainment industry, he currently had neither fame nor notable roles.
Therefore, facing Liu Kai’s blacklist, he had zero ability to resist.
But once Flying Swords of Dragon Gate was released, relying on the role of ‘Yu Huatian’, he might just be able to find a way out.
Receiving his answer, Yang Mi understood: “Okay. If worst comes to worst, I’ll take you to do variety shows then. Don’t worry, I will definitely not give up on you!”
“Mm.”
Jiang Nian nodded, then hung up the phone, put out his cigarette, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
Actually, there was something else he didn’t say.
If even ‘Yu Huatian’ couldn’t help Jiang Nian turn things around and break through Liu Kai’s blacklist,
then he would have to invite the real ‘Yu Huatian’ himself to have a nice chat with Liu Kai.
Although it would be a bit crude, it might come to that.
Either acting skills or fighting skills – one of them had to be able to impress someone, right.
“You’d better pray that there’s another twist in this matter.”
Jiang Nian muttered to himself, then headed to the set to continue filming.
Time flew by, like startled wind passing through a bright sun.
Suddenly looking back,
“Wow, Jiang Nian, it’s snowing!”
At six in the morning, in their rented apartment, Zhang Yuxin crawled out of the warm blanket, bringing up wisps of heat, and looked in pleasant surprise at the white frost outside the window, exclaiming softly.
Hearing this, Jiang Nian walked over from the doorway holding a cup of hot tea, took a sip, and said, “Yeah, it’s snowing. Why are you up so early today?”
“It’s because today is the last day of filming! Get up early, get to the set early, right?”
Zhang Yuxin said cheerfully. But the next second, she thought of something, looked at Jiang Nian, and said somewhat dejectedly, “Teacher Jiang, after we finish filming, are you going to go back home?”
“Yep.”
Jiang Nian nodded, feeling that Zhang Yuxin’s question was kind of strange.
He was here to film a movie. After finishing the filming, if he didn’t leave, was he supposed to just stay here?
“But what if I don’t want you to leave?”
Zhang Yuxin nestled against Jiang Nian’s shoulder, her tone full of attachment.
These two months of living together had turned her, inside and out, into Jiang Nian’s shape.
Now that filming was about to end and they would part ways, she couldn’t help but feel a little reluctant.
Regarding this, Jiang Nian was much more open-minded.
Or rather, from beginning to end, he had never really placed much importance on it.
Because he knew very well what the relationship between him and Zhang Yuxin was.
To put it nicely, they were temporary partners, providing mutual comfort.
To put it bluntly, they were just two people having casual fun [*].
So faced with parting, Jiang Nian showed no discomfort at all. He simply patted Zhang Yuxin’s head: “It’s okay. We’ll see each other again.”
“Really?”
Zhang Yuxin blinked, looking at Jiang Nian with anticipation.
Jiang Nian nodded: “Really. Breakfast is ready. Go eat it quickly, or it’ll get cold.”
“Okay!”
Zhang Yuxin nodded, then got dressed, hopped over to the living room, picked up the egg pancake Jiang Nian had just made, and started eating.
Jiang Nian, meanwhile, sat across from her. On the surface, it looked like he was playing with his phone, but in reality, he had already opened the system interface.
[Film and Television Martial Emperor System 1.0]
[User: Jiang Nian]
[Comprehension: 1 → 2]
[Level: Second-rate Martial Artist]
[Skills: Sword-Breaking Art ‘Comprehensive’ (1497/1500), Shaolin Boy’s Kung Fu ‘Comprehensive’ (Cannot upgrade), Eight-Step Cicada-Chasing ‘Comprehensive’ (Cannot upgrade), Xingyi Quan ‘Competent’ (Cannot upgrade), Sword and Blade Mastery ‘Comprehensive’ (Cannot upgrade), Ultimate Martial Arts ‘Comprehensive’ (Cannot upgrade)]
[Public Attention: (90733 + 457209) = 547942]
[Currently Playable Role: Eunuch]
[Unlocked Roles: Du Gao (Completed), Yu Huatian (2/3)]
Compared to two months ago, Jiang Nian’s stats panel had changed dramatically.
The most striking thing was the incredibly luxurious and dazzling skill list.
Through the persistence of these two months, Jiang Nian was completely different from before.
Aside from the ‘Great Accomplishment’ level of the Sword-Breaking Art,
all his other skills had been maxed out and couldn’t be improved further.
Although in terms of level, he was still a Second-rate Martial Artist,
his internal energy was now as thick as two fists put together.
If he had to fight a First-rate Martial Artist, he wouldn’t be far behind.
Next was the Comprehension attribute.
After maxing out all the skills for the character ‘Du Gao’, Jiang Nian’s Comprehension finally increased from 1 to 2.
The most obvious change wasn’t that Jiang Nian suddenly felt his mind had cleared up, or that the difficult parts of martial arts now seemed incredibly simple.
It was that the proficiency gain from each training session had directly doubled, from 1 to 2!
This was the key reason why Jiang Nian could max out so many skills in just two months.
As for the Public Attention points,
they came from ‘Du Gao’.
Actually, they could have been higher, because the character ‘Du Gao’ had already broken out of its initial circle of audience.
But unfortunately, the production of that show, The Legend of Jianghu, was too mediocre, and the fact that ‘Du Gao’s’ death was already a foregone conclusion
meant it could only reach this level.
Jiang Nian didn’t really mind, though.
Because after finishing today’s filming, ‘Yu Huatian’ was about to hit the screen.
At that time, it would definitely bring Jiang Nian a massive amount of attention.
But before that,
“Still need to practice a bit first.”
“1497 now.”
“Just two more times to go until a breakthrough.”
“Getting Yu Huatian to perfection would make these two months perfect.”
Jiang Nian muttered to himself.
Then, after thinking it over, he simply started practicing right there in the room.
After all, doing the Sword-Breaking Art two times wouldn’t take too much time.
There was no need to wait until he got to the set to practice.
Besides, after he finished practicing, he would probably be covered in sweat.
Although, given Jiang Nian’s current physical condition, those wind chills and evil influences couldn’t really harm him much,
wearing cold, damp clothes to film was still not very comfortable.
Therefore, practicing at home, taking a shower afterwards, changing into clean clothes, and heading to the set feeling fresh and clean was undoubtedly a better choice.
