Chapter 22 — Time to Eat
The cast and crew for Qin Jiran's new project was forming. Of the two scripts he'd gotten, one was extremely satirical with a focus on the modern power struggle, and the other one was a xuanhuan set in the ancient times. The first one was titled ⟪The War for Power⟫, and the latter was ⟪Son of the Art⟫.
After some careful contemplation and several thorough comparisons, he chose to shoot ⟪The War for Power⟫ first.
The male protagonist was an unknown police officer. The story contained an element of suspense, but it placed more emphasis on humanity, rights, and the relationship between morality and official laws.
The scene of a car accident served as the premise. The driver involved in the accident came from a complicated background, and the righteous protagonist had to pay a heavy price in order to solve the case.
The story was actually not an appealing one, and it wasn't in line with the current trends either. However, Qin Jiran chose to work on it first because the plot was solid and universal.
Plus, ⟪Son of the Art⟫ called for a longer preparation period. Shooting ⟪The War for Power⟫ first while simultaneously preparing for ⟪Son of the Art⟫ would be the most effective arrangement. It was killing two hawks with one arrow.
Qin Jiran would naturally play the role of the protagonist. For the director, he sought out a man he had worked with twice before, an old partner named Guo Zekai. Guo Zekai was an upstart on the field of directing.
His strength laid in modern films; as the matter of fact, the film that won Qin Jiran the Starlight Film Emperor Award had been directed by Guo Zekai.
Upon receiving Qin Jiran's invitation, Guo Zekai immediately went to see him. After looking over the script, he readily agreed to take up the job. He also liked the plot a lot.
As for the investors, Su Yanyi contemplated between herself and her company. In the end, she chose herself. She believed in the script, and she believed in Qin Jiran.
Last but not least, the female lead and the rest of the cast had to be chosen. This was a task for Qin Jiran and Guo Zekai, and because of it, Qin Jiran soon found himself too busy to study cooking.
Not having time to study cooking was fine, but more importantly, he didn't have time to cook either! Breakfast was still delicious as before, but the lunch and dinner they'd agreed on were gone!
Su Yanyi was not happy about this. A cold personality didn't mean a good temper.
"Lil' Zero, where is he?" She activated the Pinpoint Location function for the first time.
【 Master, Mr. Master is in the studio. Downstairs, very close, you know? Are you going to go find him? 】001's soft voice carried obvious anticipation, almost as if she wanted to go find Qin Jiran more than Su Yanyi wanted to.
"Why is it that the voice I hear when I get points is different from yours?"
【 Because that's the System program's voice. It has no intelligence while I do, so of course we're different. 】
"Is it fun to play cute?" Su Yanyi didn't know why, but hearing the System's deliberately spoiled voice made her feel uncomfortable.
【Is Master criticizing me?】001 continued playing cute.
Su Yanyi didn't want to deal with 001 anymore, so she tidied up the documents on her desk and left the office.
…..
Qin Jiran was discussing the cast with Guo Zekai. Assistant Jiang Xiaobin was standing off to the side, throwing occasional glances at the two. He looked at Qin Jiran strangely when he noticed the cookbook in front of him.
So Brother Qin enjoyed reading cookbooks in his free time? If this were to get out, Jiang Xiaobin reckoned there would be a whole lot of fans squealing again. His Brother Qin was such an exemplary man.
Time flew, and it was soon time for lunch, but the trio showed no intentions of leaving. They were too busy to bother.
Right then, Su Yanyi pushed open the door and stepped in. The concept of knocking before entering was completely overlooked.
The three men looked up at the same time. Although their expressions varied, all three of them immediately shot up from their seats.
"President Su!" The same reaction and address made the other two look at Qin Jiran oddly.
He caught on instantly. If his relationship with Su Yanyi hadn't been disclosed, then referring to her as "President Su" wouldn't be out-of-the-ordinary. However, now that their relationship had been disclosed, referring to her as such would make them seem distant.
Just now, seeing that there were outsiders in the room, he'd habitually called out a formal address.
"Yanyi, you're here." He cleared his throat and tried to appear normal.
Su Yanyi's eyes swept the trio before finally landing on Qin Jiran's face. Then, she said calmly, "It's time to eat."
Instantly, he laughed!
Congratulations on accomplishing the task once!
+1 Point.
Progress: 5/10
Please continue working hard!
Ah? Again? At her expense? He would laugh while she was eating, and now just telling him it was time to eat made him laugh too? What exactly did this mean? Was he making fun of her for being a glutton?
Five points! They were genuine laughs/smiles, yes, but all of them were ridiculing ones! Suddenly, she wanted to drag the man out and teach him a lesson by giving him a good beating!
Her eyes twitched, and she turned around to leave. Fortunately, she managed to toss out a "Let's all eat together!" before disappearing from view.
Qin Jiran did notice that she seemed a bit angry, but he didn't have a chance to ask why. He could only call the other two to join him for the meal before following after Su Yanyi.
Although Su Yanyi wanted to eat Qin Jiran's home-cooked dishes, now was not the time for it, so the group of four found a nearby restaurant instead. The food they ordered came quickly, but the atmosphere was strange, to say the least. Nobody spoke.
Out of all of them, Jiang Xiaobin felt like he was the most invisible, but Guo Zekai wasn't doing any better. As a new and uprising director, Guo Zekai was also someone worth currying favor with, but in front of Su Yanyi, he was nothing.
After all, Su Yanyi was the current Entertainment Queen. Unless they wanted to end their career, very few people in the entertainment circle would dare to offend her.
Earlier when Guo Zekai saw Qin Jiran, the first thing he did wasn't to ask about the script, but to congratulation the actor. Guo Zekai's tone had been disbelieving, envious, and brimming with curiosity. It wasn't just him either.
After the press conference, everyone with even the slightest of relations with Qin Jiran had paid him a call. Each one had sounded more astonished than the last, and his hands had gotten numb from answering all of the calls.
"How did you court Queen Su?" was the most common question, but Qin Jiran had no way to respond. Who told him to still be in the process of cooking up a method to pursue her?
VIN: The last sentence is a deliberate pun on my part, lel. The pun doesn't work in Chinese, and the original text said "brewing," but I thought "why not use cooking?" kekeke.
RELEASE SCHEDULE: 5x a week. Why? Because chapter 65 begins the 8k (in raws) chapters, so I'll need time to stockpile those.