Chapter 306 - Whose Fault Is It?
Chapter 306 Whose Fault Is It?
After she finished speaking, the six ladies looked at one another. One of them carefully looked at Su Yang, hesitated and said in a whisper, “Sister, it might not be what you think…”
Su Yang glanced at the girl. He didn’t feel anything when he glanced at her but she seemed rather pretty and looked pleasing to the eye if you took a closer look. She had this hint of a girl-next-door vibe that made her pleasing to look at.
To be more precise, she was eye-candy. She whispered, “I heard a few staff members whispering that some of the problems Chen Min mentioned were true. The director seems to be a bit of an amateur that directs blindly.”
Lin Jiali scratched Goldy’s chin as the little traitor enjoyed it with his eyes closed, looking like it was feeling extremely comfortable.
She didn’t expect what the girl said as she turned around to look at her. “Is that so? But he’s pointing out too many problems. It feels like he’s just not serious about filming at all.”
At that moment, another girl said, “Miss Lin, Mei Yue is right. I was there at the time and the cameraman told me as well. He was on a smoke break when he told us that he hasn’t seen such an amateur for a director in the ten years he’s been involved in filming.”
Then, she took a look around and whispered. “I also heard that this director is getting a little too close to another younger actor.”
At that moment, the conversation turned silent and after a moment, Mei Yue sighed. “Fortunately, the company will back us up…”
“Right.”
“Right.”
“Yeah…”
These things shouldn’t have been spoken of in front of Su Yang in the first place. However, since Lin Jiali didn’t let them leave, they ended up conversing to this point.
It was then that several of the interns began feeling like they had spoken too much before Su Yang. So, they took their leave and gave the excuse of having to be at the drama shoot’s set earlier so the director wouldn’t have a reason to scold them.
Lin Jiali didn’t keep them this time.
After they left, the atmosphere between the two of them became even more awkward.
In the end, it was Lin Jiali who was the first to change the subject. She held Goldy up and said to Su Yang, “Look at your little cat, it’s such a good girl! It’s motionless in my arms.”
Su Yang’s ears rang with the tender voice of Goldy. “She feels so comfortable, meow~.”
Su Yang was speechless.
‘Could it be uncomfortable? It seems rather soft, after all.’
Su Yang curiously asked in his head. ‘Why do you like her?’
Goldy sounded a little confused, “I don’t know. Anyway, once I saw her, I felt comfortable. Maybe it’s because… She’s pretty, right?”
Su Yang was speechless.
‘This cruel society judges people based on their appearances! Nice!’
Lin Jiali skillfully grazed her fingers on Goldy’s body, making it meow in comfort.
She looked at Su Yang and a heartfelt smile blossomed on her face. “Actually, I like cats so much that I’ve had one since I started working. An, um… domestic cat. Just one of those little kittens with no pedigree. “It’s the one that lets me feel a bit warmer in a strange city while running in a cruel circle. It’s such a good cat that meowed at me daily.
“If it hadn’t been there, maybe… I would have fallen victim as well.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Lin Jiali began looking a little distracted. Her eyes seemed unfocused and it was as if she was intentionally looking away or recalling something. “Y’know, this group seems bright and shiny, but there are many unwritten rules.
“Those in this circle wears extravagant robes that are actually dirty. They’re corrupted but enjoy the brightest limelights shining on them. Those who are already in will tell you it looks like heaven, but the journey here is like going through hell.
“Those on the inside want to get out but those on the outside, long to come in.”
At that, she shook her head as she touched Goldy and whispered, “It’s no fun at all… In fact, it’s boring…”
She wasn’t lying
Su Yang’s [Heaven’s Eye] allowed him to know that she was speaking from her heart. The two interns were telling the truth as well.
Then, he changed the topic. “So what happened to your cat?”
Lin Jiali’s hand suddenly stopped moving as she lowered her gaze. “It’s dead.”
Su Yang was surprised to see her lower her head. “While I was out on a shoot, it fell down the stairs and passed away.
Su Yang was speechless.
(Heaven’s Eye) hinted that Lin Jiali was lying but he didn’t want to push it any further.
‘Everyone has their secrets and it’s probably one of the last things you want others to ask about…’
Su Yang took the initiative to get up before saying, “Take care of the cat for me. I’m going to go to the bathroom.”
Lin Jiali nodded. “Yeah, alright.”
Su Yang got up and left after turning a corner.
Before even taking more than two steps, he thought. ‘Seems like Lin Jiali’s flame has dimmed.
‘Although she was initially radiant, she was now like a weak firefly in the darkness as she hugged Goldy in an attempt to look for support.’ Su Yang couldn’t help but think about the system’s previous judgment of Lin Jialipre-depression.
‘Perhaps, she was on the brink of depression because of the death of her cat.
‘As far as Goldy liking her, it could be because she was pretty, but it could also be due to her heartfelt liking for cats.
‘Goldy has the power to speak to minds so it could definitely tell the difference between someone who liked it because of curiosity or if one liked it from the heart. That was why it acted like itself when it came to Qu Xiaomeng and could be as cute as it wanted in front of her.
‘After all, Lin Jiali was still much larger than an ordinary person despite not being as prideful as Qu Xiaomeng. That also happens to be the kind of people this little guy hated.’
While deep in thought, Su Yang arrived at the set of the shooting where Chen Min and the director was still arguing. Producer Zhao arrived shortly after as well/
Su Yang stood nearby as he quietly observed, wanting to see how Produced Zhao would handle the conflict between the lead actor and the director.
Then, he heard Producer Zhao saying to Chen Min. “Brother Chen, don’t be angry, I’ll communicate with Director Wang.”
After saying that, he pulled the director to the side and whispered, “Director Wang, why are you arguing again? How many times has it been?”
The director was innocent. “Producer Zhao, it’s not my fault. It’s Chen Min! He simply doesn’t act according to my direction and I’m embarrassed by it. How big-time can he be that a small-time director like me dares to offend him?”
It was a plea from a helpless director that showed how bitter he was when he faced a big-time star. Producer Zhao’s furrowed his brows as he heard this.
Then, he sighed and continued a moment later, “Alright. Give me some time and I’ll talk to Chen Min.”
Director Wang seemed very uncomfortable as he furrowed his brows as well. “Producer Zhao. If it doesn’t work, can you hire someone else? I really can’t do this, I’m just a junior and I can’t make someone like him listen.”
When Producer Zhao heard that, he said, “Don’t. It was hard for me to find you. Just wait a moment, I’ll talk to Brother Chen.”
With that, Producer Zhao went to find Chen Min who was resting on a recliner not far away.
Chen Min was wearing a pair of sunglasses and had just taken a towel and ice water from his assistant as he sat there drinking.
When he saw Producer Zhao coming, he didn’t get up and just sat there as he impatiently said, “Producer Zhao, don’t always come looking for me. I’ve told you a dozen times already. That director can’t make it!
“If he could, I wouldn’t have to be like this, would I? I’m the one who signed the drama contract, and it’s hard for me to extend it, isn’t it?”
He was rather condescending and his tone made him look like he was untouchable.
Producer Zhao was originally still raging but when he saw this attitude of Chen Min, his expression changed and finally softened. After all, the film still relied on Chen Min to carry the movie in the box office.
So he said in a soft tone, “Brother Chen, you also said that it isn’t good for everyone if it’s postponed. It’s just one week, can you afford to be more generous?” Chen Min’s expression was filled with anger was all anger, and he was a little loud, “How can I afford to do so?! Do you know what he’s doing?”
Chen Min suppressed his anger and continued, “For a scene that’s clearly an inner monologue should be using repressed calmness to act out the man’s reluctance and resentment! It’s what will usher in the explosion that follows. “However, he doesn’t think there’s a way to have that kind of visual impact with a lot of emotion and demanded I cry during the show!
“He said my nature as an actor was to respect the script even if I thought it was ridiculous. He also wanted me to use my abilities as a professional to rationalize the realism instead of having me change it if it’s unreasonable!
“I didn’t change the script! I’m just continuing the emotion of the plot!
“He’s the one changing the script! It’s him!”
As he said that, Chen Min took a few deep breaths and explained seriously, “I even suspect that he hasn’t studied the play much at all!”
He looked at Producer Zhao and continued, “Producer Zhao, seriously, I don’t need to be so concerned about it. However, I want to do justice to the audience as a veteran actor to be fair to my own professionalism.
“I really can’t accept this kind of amateurish direction from him.
“Even he knows how to adjust the lights or how to use the cameras for a scene, is he really a professional director?!”
Producer Zhao looked embarrassed.
A producer sandwiched between a big name lead actor and director was the hardest job. It was especially more so when he was in charge of a huge short-term crew which had the most pressure and complicated tasks to accomplish. After all, they had a tight schedule and a lot of work.
It was also his first time producing a movie, and Producer Zhao was a bit at a loss as to how he could handle this.
Just as he was in a dilemma, a hand was placed on his shoulder.
The last few days of preparation along with the conflict between the lead actor and director made Producer Zhao extremely irritable. As the ’emperor’ of the studio, he didn’t need to take the director seriously even if it was a director. This was because he wasn’t a famous director.
The sudden tap on his shoulder angered him as he turned around to curse. “Why you little…”
He was about to say the last word-sh*twhen he realized the man before him was his boss, Su Yang
He attempted to squeeze out a smile, but the angry expression he had prevented the muscles on his face to move at that moment. It ended up with him having a peculiar expression on his face as he attempted to put two and two together, making it look like he was neither smiling nor crying as he whispered, “S-su. Mr. Su! Why are you here?!”
As the owner, Su Yang had executive decision powers that Producer Zhao couldn’t match.
When he was watching from afar, he realized that Director Wang, although sincere, looked like he didn’t have the heart to continue and wanted to resign from his position. However, [Heaven’s Eye) prompted him that it was all a ruse.
As for the Chen Min, although his tone as the lead actor was poor and his temper was far from being desirable, he was true to his heart, revealing nothing but the truth.
This was because (Heaven’s Eye) could tell if the other party was lying. Su Yang was afraid that Chen Min’s preconceived opinion of the director would lead to his inner belief that the director was unprofessional. To avoid this situation, Su Yang specifically went to the production crew to find out more about the situation.
‘It’s a good idea to have a good idea of what you’re doing.’
The advantage of hanging around without his identity being revealed was that Su Yang could see if the other party was telling the truth or not.
“Hello, is our director unprofessional?”
“No! Very professional!”
‘Well, they lied. Guess the director is really unprofessional.’
It’s a rather logical judgment.
After doing some investigating, Su Yang found discovered something. Although the staff wasn’t satisfied with Chen Min acting like a bigwig, they were even more dissatisfied with the director’s professionalism. He even suspected that the director was a sham.
Su Yang asked Little Deeny to look up the director’s information, and found out that he was the assistant director of a hit TV series last year…. ‘An assistant director.’
Then, he was poached by Producer Zhao to be the director for this shoot.
It was normal for an assistant director to become a director. After all, many directors got to where they were taking step after step. Not many newcomers had the chance to become a director on their first shoot.
However, Su Yang realized that the director might have possibly falsified his documents from the information Little Deeny looked up!
He actually was a crewmember of the hit TV show but he was only an assistant. Then, he found some connections to change the cast and crew listings of his on Baidu, Wikipedia, and Maoyan.
Since the TV series had been on air for more than a year, nobody realized the change. Then, Su Yang saw the director calling over an intern girl from his company before proceeding to chat with her for more than half a day while on set.
The girl was clearly a little scared judging by the look on her face.
It was at that moment that he saw the director’s face changing as he looked left and right. After realizing nobody was paying attention, he seemed to be whispering a threat to her.
Backed up against a wall, the girl seemed so afraid that tears were on the brink of falling.
Su Yang was livid as he watched all these things unfold.
To be honest, he wasn’t a decent man with a strong sense of morality. He was just a commoner but he also knew the entertainment industry along with the rights and wrongs of the entertainment industry.
If both sides had consent, he wouldn’t have bothered to say anything. After all, every community had its own unique rules.
However, this was clearly coercion, and it made him sick!
That made it even worse. This scumbag of a director was cheating him out of his money. It was his movie that was going to suck and his girl the director was playing with.
That earned him a death sentence. Su Yang now suspected that the reason Little Hus sniffed something off with this project was because of this director.
He was the one who stunk up my project with rat sh*t! Else, my movie might’ve been even better! He’s the cause of it all!
Thinking about all these things made his actions intolerable to Su Yang.
He could neither stand by and watch a girl from his company go into the mouth of a sheep or a fake tiger, nor could he watch anything go wrong with the project he had invested 5 million in!
After all, it was his Silver Mission at stake!
It’s about enhancing his strength!
That’s why there he patted Producer Zhao on the shoulders.
Seeing the sadness in Producer Zhao’s change so quickly because of him, Su Yang patted him once more. “Don’t be nervous. I’m just here to have a look.”
After saying that, he whispered to Producer Zhao, “Let me handle the rest.”
Producer Zhao’s first reaction after returning to his senses was one of confusion. ‘Let you handle it? What are you going to do about it?’
He was hesitant because he knew that Su Yang had never made a movie before, and had even less knowledge of the problems that went wrong during the filming process of a movie.
Although he was a first-time filmmaker, he had at the very least been a producer for a long time. This gave him some experience in handling the relationship between a director and an actor.
‘If I can’t handle it, can Su Yang handle it? Don’t make things more complicated than they already are!
With that in mind, he wanted to discourage Su Yang at first. What he didn’t expect was that Su Yang didn’t give him a chance at all. Instead, he stepped over his hand and extended his hand to Chen Min as he said politely, “Mr. Chen Min, right? Hello, I’m the onsite producer of our drama team.” Chen Min didn’t shake hands so casually with Su Yang but looked toward Producer Zhao instead.
Producer Zhao was speechless.
‘Okay. If you say you’re an onsite producer, then you’re an onsite producer. No one cares even if you call yourself the production director, who let you be the boss?’
Su Yang nodded slightly at Chen Min.
Chen Min stretched out his hand to shake hands with Su Yang. Then, he heard Su Yang say, “Is Mr. Chen Min not too happy with the director?”
When it came to this topic, Chen Min became a bit indignant and even spoke more, “Yes! I’ve really never seen such an unprofessional director! What’s all this nonsense that he’s directing!”
Su Yang laughed and said, “Then let’s replace him, okay?”
Hearing Su Yang saying those words, Chen Min was surprised but hesitant. He wasn’t sure who or what Su Yang has to be able to change directors like that. ‘Does a onsite producer have that kind of power?’
This was especially more so since a director was the soul of a crew. Changing directors wasn’t as simple a task as he suggested, especially since they’ve already begun shooting. Changing directors would most likely cause the work of the entire crew to grind to a halt.
Because of this, he no longer dared to think about changing directors although he was still rather unhappy. All he wanted was to be able to act according to how he saw the script playing out without listening to that bullsh*t director.
When he saw how ‘arrogant’ Su Yang was, he couldn’t help but glance at Producer Zhao.
Producer Zhao was clearly anxious as well as he leaned into Su Yang’s ear and said urgently, “Mr. Su, that’s the director I had a hard time looking to hire. He’s the assistant director of a well-known TV series and has a successful track record!”
Su Yang didn’t say anything. Instead, he took out his phone from his pocket and handed it to him. The screen showed Director Wang’s real resume and the evidence of his falsification.
Producer Zhao took the phone and looked at it for a few seconds. Then, his expression became incomparably ugly, but he still held back his emotions and continued scrolling down. Seeing that Producer Zhao no longer objected, Su Yang looked at Chen Min once again and asked, “If we change directors, will you be able to cooperate properly with the film crew?” Although he couldn’t figure out what kind of drugs Su Yang and Producer Zhao were selling, Chen Min felt as if the young man in front of him had a lot of power in the crew. After all, Producer Zhao seemed to value his opinion.
So Chen Min patted his chest and replied, “For sure! As long as it’s a professional director, I’ll be all right with it no matter who it is!”
As they were talking, a somewhat harsh voice was heard a short distance away, “Who’s changing what?”
When Su Yang turned his head, he saw Director Wang walking menacingly toward them.
When he arrived in front of Su Yang, he first nodded towards Producer Zhao, looked at Chen Min, then looked gloomily at Su Yang. “Why haven’t I seen you on set?”
Director Wang falsified his resume by himself and gained the trust of Producer Zhao, so he was obviously not a fool. Although he had just overheard Su Yang saying that he was going to ask for a change in directors, he didn’t act rashly and asked about Su Yang’s identity despite being anxious and angry.
Su Yang maintained what he had just mentioned. “I’m the onsite producer.”
“Onsite… Producer?” Director Wang’s heart dropped as he laughed. “Does the onsite producer have that much power? Can you even ask for a change in directors?”
He pointed at Su Yang and said with an angry face, “You’re a onsite producer. A onsite producer is being kind to you. You’re just handling odd jobs. Can you even replace me?”