enjoyebooks Chapter 593: Scrambling Bloody for It, All Sides Are Nothing but Clowns
Chapter 593: Scrambling Bloody for It, All Sides Are Nothing but Clowns
After Zhuo Jianhua wrapped, Xiao He went up the mountain the next day with the production team to film.The crew found a massive cave and built a moderately sized ice cave inside it, allowing Xiao He to perform and roll around during his fall scene.
The weather was decent that day, but the snowy mountain was still freezing cold, and Xiao He had to endure immense pressure to shoot the scene.
In the end, though, he nailed it beautifully.
The crew had originally prepared to spend a long time there, but Xiao He basically passed on the first take, with no need for repeated filming.
The most troublesome part of shooting in the snow was dealing with the snow marks and footprints. If an actor didn’t pass on the first take, the other crew members had to immediately restore the ground and the set to achieve the most realistic filming effect.
But Xiao He’s skilled and polished performance let everyone skip that step easily.
The main actor, Yue An, who was originally scheduled to go up the mountain in the afternoon, hurried up to coordinate with Xiao He for the shoot.
However, Xiao He could clearly tell that this household-name, long-established senior didn’t have a very favorable impression of him.
After a little asking around, oh, it turned out he used to have a good relationship with Yun Ziqi.
The fact that Yun Ziqi left so decisively probably meant he’d already planted plenty of landmines for Xiao He within the crew.
That morning, Xiao He even heard people saying that Jiang Junjie’s arrest and Yun Ziqi’s withdrawal from the group were all orchestrated by him behind the scenes.
As for these rumors, Xiao He couldn’t care less anymore.
Anyone with a clear head should be like Zhuo Jianhua, able to see right from wrong. As for those who couldn’t tell good from bad and followed every wind like it was rain, Xiao He wasn’t interested in befriending them either.
Fortunately, both of them had professional integrity.
When Xiao He was buried in the snow, pretending to be at death’s door, Yue An didn’t drag out the shooting schedule just because he disliked Xiao He. Instead, he still cooperated with Xiao He at a high standard of performance to complete the final “dying wishes entrusted” scene.
For that alone, Xiao He reluctantly held back his displeasure.
After all, filming in the snow was still freezing cold.
Even though the snow covering him was artificial fake snow, the surrounding temperature didn’t rise because of it. It was still bitterly cold.
If this male lead had let his animosity bleed into the shoot, Xiao He wouldn’t have been able to leave without lying there for an entire afternoon.
The fact that he didn’t do that at least showed he was an old senior who followed the filming process and took his work seriously.
Xiao He had always been clear-cut about things like this: one was one, two was two. So after the work was done, he still walked over proactively to shake Yue An’s hand and thank him.
Yue An was a bit surprised that Xiao He would come over even under his obvious cold demeanor, but he didn’t make things difficult for Xiao He. He just gave a slight nod, the chill on his face easing a little: “Congratulations on wrapping.”
“Thank you, Teacher Yue.”
After responding politely, Xiao He turned and walked toward Director Yang Li.
Director Yang Li was clearly very satisfied with Xiao He’s performance during this time with the crew. His attitude toward Xiao He could be described as genial, and he reminded him: “When you go down the mountain later, I have something to give you. Wait a moment.”
Xiao He’s brows twitched. “Alright, thank you, Director Yang.”
Could it be that recommendation slot?
…
After descending the mountain, Xiao He waited at the base for an entire afternoon before finally meeting Director Yang’s young assistant in the evening.
“Sorry, Teacher Xiao. Today’s shoot ran a bit late.”
The young assistant handed him the documents while bowing in apology.
Xiao He quickly shook his head. “No problem, no problem.”
“This is what Director Yang Li asked me to give you.”
The young assistant handed the folder to Xiao He, then without waiting for him to ask further questions, turned and hurried away.
Xiao He watched his retreating figure, leisurely opening the folder, only to find that it was indeed an invitation letter from the Rong City Official Tourism Collaboration.
The recommendation slot he’d guessed at wasn’t there.
Xiao He looked at the invitation in his hand but wasn’t as disappointed as he might have imagined.
Maybe he’d already anticipated this outcome.
Way back during their second meeting to discuss the collaboration, Director Yang Li had never proactively brought up the historical drama project with them. Instead, he’d mentioned the cultural tourism collaboration project here in Rong City—even though as Director Qiu’s classmate, he already knew about the project and had a recommendation slot in hand at that time. Yet he never said a word to them.
Back then, they were still confused, not understanding the deeper meaning. Now Xiao He finally realized that he had been out of the game since then.
Director Yang Li had never intended to give him that recommendation slot.
Or rather, Director Yang Li did appreciate Xiao He, and he genuinely meant well by recommending good work resources for him. But when it came to the most critical, top-tier resources, he already had his own plans.
This was reality, and it was human nature.
As for Xiao He and the others, they had let the mess with Jingyou Entertainment mess with their heads and started hoping too much. But now that he thought about it, Director Yang Li had never made any promises. They had simply been overthinking it.
Besides, the man had already given them the official collaboration project with Rong City’s cultural tourism department, and that resource was pretty good in its own right…
Xiao He closed the folder in his hand, shook his head, and let out a rare laugh.
Did the others who were scrambling bloody for that slot even know that Director Yang Li had never planned to give the recommendation to any of them?
They wanted to use “Snow Ridge Red Journey” as a stepping stone, never realizing that all sides were just clowns.
Xiao Chen was still full of anticipation and fantasy: “Bro Xiao, is it that project?”
Xiao He didn’t answer. “Let’s head back to Rong City first.”
…
That evening, Xiao He’s group successfully met up with Liu Rulan in Rong City.
Xiao He’s expression was as usual, but Xiao Chen looked completely dejected. Liu Rulan only needed one glance to figure out the reason, then said with a smile: “Looks like the shoot wasn’t very enjoyable?”
“That’s not true.”
Xiao He shrugged. “But being on someone’s mind every single day doesn’t exactly make me happy either.”
“Hahaha—” Liu Rulan hugged her arms and chuckled. “Then you haven’t been on enough sets. You’ve been lucky before, running into good people all the time.”
Xiao He sighed. “Stop laughing. Director Yang really does appreciate my ability, but he didn’t give me the recommendation slot for that project.”
“So now, without the recommendation slot, forget fighting for the script—I don’t even have the entry qualification.”
He’d been so confident about going to compete with those people, only to find out in the end that he didn’t even have the chance to get through the door.
After all, a recommendation slot was essentially a personal introduction, a guarantee—a one-on-one referral system within the industry. They had to find someone with enough say to make the connection before they could cross that threshold. Otherwise, hard work alone was completely useless.
But besides Director Yang Li’s recommendation slot, where else could they get one?
It wasn’t like Xiao He could go hack someone and threaten them to snatch a slot, was it?
Just as Xiao He was hanging his head and racking his brain for a solution, Liu Rulan suddenly laughed.
“About the historical drama,” she said, “didn’t I tell you I’d handle it?”
She smoothed the loose strands of hair by her ear, her tone leisurely. “I told you a long time ago, you don’t have to take everything on yourself. Every single person in our company gets paid to do their job. You don’t need to feel any pressure. If you end up doing everything yourself, then what’s the point of us even existing?”
Xiao He froze, and then a yellow envelope appeared in front of him.
“Back when Director Yang was discussing the collaboration with us, his attitude was actually pretty obvious. But I figured you probably still didn’t know about his relationship with Director Qiu, so I didn’t tell you.”
If it weren’t for the Yun Ziqi and Jiang Junjie incident, Liu Rulan wouldn’t have told Xiao He about the connection between Yang Li and Qiu Zhenlong, to avoid getting his hopes up about Director Yang only to be disappointed later.
Xiao He stared at the envelope in shock. He took it, glanced at it, then looked back up at Liu Rulan, finally confirming—
Liu Rulan had already secured a recommendation slot without him even knowing!