Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years
Chapter 69 - 0068 Regret Not at the Beginning (Adding three extra - s out of three for Annie going out without bear Alliance Leader)

Chapter 69: Chapter 0068 Regret Not at the Beginning (Adding three extra Chapters out of three for Annie going out without bear Alliance Leader)

Chen Delin didn’t immediately respond to Qi Hao, nor was he provoked by Qi Hao, instead he quietly pondered for a moment, then slowly said:

"I’m a Xiangjiang director, I don’t need to follow Mrs. Hua’s rules, and my film doesn’t have Mrs. Hua’s investment."

"Okay, I’ll help you get in touch and see if they’re willing to take the role."

Qi Hao looked at Chen Delin with newfound respect.

He didn’t like the people in the Xiangjiang entertainment circle, all of them thought they were superior, and their private lives were terribly chaotic; the mainland entertainment circle somewhat followed the "trends" of Xiangjiang’s.

But Chen Delin really resonated with Qi Hao.

Chen Delin has led a very tumultuous life; his father had three wives, making family relationships especially complicated.

Because his grandfather was once beaten for competing with someone over a celebrity, their family motto is "Actors are heartless, prostitutes are ungrateful."

His father opposed him entering the film industry with all sorts of obstacles and reprimand.

When someone asked him what he most didn’t want to do in this lifetime, he said, "I don’t want to attend my father’s funeral."

When his father passed away, he did not attend the funeral.

Later, every movie of his has an underlying theme of father-son relationship throughout.

When shooting "October Fortress," everyone thought he was crazy.

It was hard enough to find people willing to help him, the almost completed Central Ring City was abandoned after a land dispute, and an investor committed suicide after being cheated out of 1.6 billion!

Disaster followed disaster, his mother had a stroke and became a vegetable, his sister was diagnosed with cancer, the crew left a pile of accounts for him to handle, and he himself faced the possibility of legal trouble.

Happiness often seems fast-forwarded, while hardship feels like slow motion.

That year, he suffered from depression.

Later, the shadow of depression gradually faded.

He remained single, childless, believed in Buddhism, and volunteered at nursing homes, finding in caring for lonely elders a way to compensate for the filial love he couldn’t give.

But occasionally, he still thought of his father.

Talking to Qi Hao, he felt that Qi Hao was someone living in the past.

Chen Delin also learned from Qi Hao about his rebellious youth, which included clashing with his father.

He advised Qi Hao, one must live without regret.

For regret is the most useless thing in this world.

Qi Hao felt he shouldn’t have come straight to Shen City Songjiang Film and Television City; he should have returned to see his family first.

Every trip back home was rushed, leaving and returning quickly.

He hadn’t even thought to make a detour to visit his family.

But truly, he didn’t have the time to go home now; Qi Hao planned to handle An Feng’s matter first.

Tears of the elderly are particularly cheap, but being moved to tears is something we should always strive for, this time for the million disaster-stricken children helped.

Qi Hao didn’t arrange to meet An Feng.

Firstly, they were too far apart for a meeting, secondly, though An Feng fit the image of a leading actress, Qi Hao was offering her resources, which didn’t match the task description of the system.

A phone call would suffice.

When An Feng received the call, she was looking over a resignation application.

"Another one, and they haven’t owed her a penny, resigning at this time is clearly kicking us when we’re down!"

Ms. Liu said, exasperated.

"Yingying has been with us for over two years, Mom, you should give her six months’ salary."

An Feng abandoned the idea of persuading her team member who wanted to resign.

She also felt a bit disheartened.

Quite a lot had happened in the past half-month, a promising script fell apart, business negotiations went cold, and even one of the businesses that had previously begged to renew their contract announced they wouldn’t renew.

If they didn’t understand what was happening now, they really shouldn’t be in this industry.

It would be easier to just find someone to marry.

"I didn’t expect they’d be so ruthless, leaving no room for maneuver, it’s all my fault; I wasn’t professional enough."

Ms. Liu lamented her earlier decisions.

Refusing Mrs. Hua wasn’t the problem, but she shouldn’t have been so direct, so unkind.

She assumed such a large company wouldn’t care about minor matters.

The most important part was, they shouldn’t have been so ostentatious with the donation.

While various big-shots donated ten, twenty thousand, some even just three to five thousand, An Feng donated a million.

And it was publicly donated at a flood relief event hosted by the Huaxia Children’s Foundation.

"Mom, it was my decision to donate, don’t blame yourself."

An Feng lay her head on her arms on the table, speaking listlessly.

"I asked around, they suggest we lay low for a year or two, without any real dirt, they can’t ban us forever..."

Just then, An Feng’s phone rang.

"It’s Qi Hao!"

An Feng perked up; she didn’t expect Qi Hao would call to comfort her.

Earlier, he’d been silent, and she’d thought he was distancing himself from her like many others.

"Him... him, oh, take it then."

Ms. Liu thought it over, then left the room with the resignation application, giving her daughter some private space for the call.

This was almost impossible before.

"There’s a role in ’October Fortress’, not too many scenes, but you’ll be working with big stars, are you interested?"

Qi Hao didn’t bother with whether An Feng was banned.

In fact, he was completely unaware of An Feng’s ban; later, if someone mentioned it, he’d look genuinely clueless.

Emma! I haven’t heard anything about this!

Why hasn’t anyone told me? Is my network in the entertainment industry so poor?

"Ah, thank you... but..."

An Feng suddenly felt her throat dry up and quickly cleared her throat.

It was like walking hesitantly in the dark, suddenly having someone shine a little light ahead.

Qi Hao was the first in the past half-month to offer her a resource.

"This film is directed by Chen Delin from Xiangjiang," Qi Hao interrupted her directly, emphasizing Xiangjiang, then added, "The producer is Ye Weimin, the production company is Bern..."

He knew what An Feng wanted to say but didn’t want to listen.

In the past, he pretended to understand nothing; now, he pretends to know nothing.

Once some things are spoken out loud, Qi Hao won’t be able to help her anymore.

Frankly speaking, Qi Hao is willing to help because An Feng donated a million, but he won’t oppose Mrs. Hua and the entire capital circle just to help An Feng.

Their friendship is only worth so much.

"Oh, it’s in Xiangjiang." An Feng somewhat reacted.

"Chen Delin asked me to ask you, if you’re willing to play the role, then come to Songjiang Film City the day after tomorrow."

Qi Hao quickly finished talking and then hung up the phone.

He didn’t mention a word about An Feng being blacklisted.

Mrs. Hua didn’t even say it publicly, so why should he bring it up?

This kind of thing can’t be publicly acknowledged by Mrs. Hua, they’re about to go public, after all.

If someone really asks Mrs. Hua, they will sternly deny it.

There’s no blacklist, we are a legitimate company and about to go public.

An Feng looked at her phone strangely; today’s Qi Hao felt too unfamiliar to her.

Why on earth is he helping her?

Because of those rumors?

Impossible, there are too many rumors about him.

Forget it, if some things don’t make sense now, think about it in a few days, because maybe by then, it’ll be forgotten.

"What did Qi Hao call for?" Ms. Liu came in and asked.

"He seemed to introduce a job to me, a role in ’October Fortress,’ directed by someone from Xiangjiang, funded by Bern."

An Feng briefly explained, with an evident lightness in her tone.

"A Xiangjiang director funded by Bern, then it should be alright, no matter what the role is, better go and take a look first."

Ms. Liu quickly urged her daughter.

In fact, she neglected one thing: whether it’s Mrs. Hua or Bern, the reason they could unite to form a blacklist was because of An Feng’s million-dollar donation, which embarrassed all the bigwigs.

Ms. Liu took her daughter to the ’October Fortress’ crew the next day.

Ye Weimin, after hearing the news, felt a bit of a headache too.

However, just as Chen Delin didn’t take Mrs. Hua’s blacklist seriously, he didn’t think he needed to bow to it either.

"Qi Hao, you owe me a favor!"

"What does that have to do with me..." Qi Hao mumbled as he sat in a newly built big house in Central Ring City.

The industrial fans brought a bit of... hot air to the scene.

The summer in Shen City is really too hot.

"What a pity, your romantic pairing is Zhou Yun..." Ye Weimin chuckled as he spoke.

"Don’t say that, Zhou Yun is my sister-in-law!"

Qi Hao glared at him, they were just acquaintances and this guy was joking about someone else’s wife.

I need a word more aggressive than beast now.

"Your scenes with her are quite important, don’t worry about Jiang Wen, you need to act well." Ye Weimin reminded Qi Hao.

"Rest assured, oh by the way, how is Mr. Chen Kexin?"

Qi Hao was somewhat pleased that Chen Kexin had surgery; he wasn’t a particularly easy person to get along with.

Such a pretentious guy!

Qi Hao didn’t like people who were more pretentious than him.

On the day before filming began, An Feng signed a formal contract and became the actor for Fang Hong.

The arriving actors reacted differently upon hearing the news.

Hu Jun didn’t show any unusual reaction when he found out.

As if he never privately spoke with Qi Hao about An Feng being blacklisted, he even chatted with An Feng for a bit upon seeing her.

As for Mrs. Hua’s side, they didn’t react at all.

In fact, they couldn’t really reach the ’October Fortress’ crew, and even if they could, what could they do?

They had envisioned An Feng’s career path.

Which was basically participating in projects from Xiangjiang capital or Taiwan capital.

They just didn’t expect the connection to be made so quickly.

As for An Feng being invited by Qi Hao, no one really knew.

This matter was known only by Hu Jun, Zhou Yun, Chen Delin, and Qi Hao—four people in total.

The most likely person to spread it was Hu Jun, but he didn’t.

As for Chen Delin, he would at most sync with Ye Weimin to unify their positions.

Qi Hao didn’t ignore An Feng; the two stood and chatted for a while.

However, observant people noticed that the time Qi Hao spent chatting with An Feng was even less than the time he chatted with Fan Xuexue.

It seemed he didn’t have any particular intentions towards either of these rumor targets.

Since this movie had a huge cast.

Everyone started on makeup and costumes from the day before the shooting began.

"You look a bit like Mr. Ji Chunhua!" Qi Hao saw Hu Jun’s style and joked with a laugh.

"You don’t look good either." Hu Jun smiled wryly.

Both of them were performing with a make-up style that ruined their appearances.

Hu Jun had completed his Yan Xiaoguo look, while Qi Hao was being surrounded and prepped.

He was required to shave his head and stick on a fake braid.

This was an anti-Qing film, so Qi Hao took the role without any psychological burden.

Maybe it was precisely because the film was filled with anti-Qing elements that it wasn’t favored in the capital circle, allowing An Feng to smoothly participate in the shooting.

In the 1980s, an Italian director came to China to film ’The Last Emperor,’ supported by a large number of Manchu descendants from the "capital circle," who played extras in the film,

portraying the ruinous Last Emperor as an "essentially kind-hearted, powerless, fate-like-a-floating-weed, but unable to change his fate" artistic image.

Significantly changing the public’s view of him.

Of course, not all Manchu descendants miss the Great Qing.

At least Wu Jing sent over a million worth of supplies, and when Qi Hao returned, he was still there helping out.

Well, Hu Jun is also of Manchu descent, making it a fitting role for him.