I am a Big Player
Chapter 669 - 660, unique _1

Chapter 669: 660, unique _1

However, contrary to what most people might imagine, there aren’t actually many girls serving as background actors next to the film studio; the roles here mostly involve soldiers and "devils," so what would they need women for...

Yet in Ningxia’s North Fort, women who stand out even just a little are in high demand, mainly because most girls aspiring to be actresses wouldn’t come to this place...

It’s tough for men here too. Those under 175 cm are standard extras, with limited roles and wages as low as 40-80 a day. Essentially, their tasks involve donning Chinese military uniforms to run behind a group or lie on the ground wearing a "devil’s" uniform pretending to be dead.

Isn’t this just what domestic anti-Japanese dramas are like?

Males over 175 cm are called "stunt men," with more roles available and daily wages ranging from 80-200.

Beyond these, there are the martial artists, usually people who practice martial arts and perform high difficulty action scenes, with wages above 500.

A notch higher, there are "minor roles," generally reserved for those who stick with the crew, have lines, and put their acting abilities to the test. Their wages are very high, placing them in a privileged tier. Reaching this level in the entire Ningxia film studio only accounts for less than 0.1%.

When Ren He and Yang Xi arrived here, it was already evening. As soon as they entered the town, they heard a young man saying to another middle-aged man holding a notebook, "Director, look how spirited I am. Wouldn’t I make a good portrayal of one of our own peasant soldiers..."

"No," the man addressed as the director, who was in fact a set manager, immediately rejected him.

For them, selecting qualified background actors is their duty. If they chose the wrong person, not only would they have to face scolding from the real director, but a major mistake could also mean being unable to mix in the circle anymore.

North Fort in Ningxia, a place reputed to have enough "devils" die in a year to circle the Earth eight times.

Originally, Ren He was worried that Yang Xi might have trouble adjusting to this place, but after arriving, he realized that Yang Xi found the diversity of life here quite interesting.

Some say that the diversity of life in this world is like a mirror; you polish the mirror in your heart every time you experience it, helping you to better understand the world and yourself.

Yang Xi has never been pretentious. She chuckled and said, "No wonder you wanted to come here to experience life. I haven’t been here long, and I already want to try being an extra."

Neither of them are pretentious. Ren He’s net worth is now over a hundred billion, and he’s even been called a ’quasi-trillionaire’, but he can still endure hardships and stay in the desert for a week straight. Yang Xi is no less capable.

That’s what Ren He likes most about Yang Xi; this girl has been free of vices since she was young. Now, her biggest problem is just being prone to jealousy and overly checking in, but could those even be considered faults for a girl?

Now that Yang Xi says she wants to be an extra, Ren He knows she really means it.

"Don’t be silly, you’re different from me," Ren He said with a chuckle. "If you don’t wear this cap, you’ll probably be recognized immediately!"

What kind of fame does Yang Xi have now? It’s fortunate that she’s not heavily promoted online, which allows her to maintain a certain degree of low profile; otherwise, even with a cap and a mask, she might still be recognized by someone observant.

Speaking of which, if a vote on "the most unfamiliar superstar" were held among Chinese netizens, Ren He guesses that Yang Xi would top the list, and perhaps even surpass other contenders by several hundred times in votes.

After hearing Ren He’s words, Yang Xi pouted. She understood that Ren He didn’t want to be a celebrity, which is why he hadn’t tried to land roles at Qinghe Film and Television but instead came here to experience the life of a background actor.

In Qinghe Film and Television, you might become famous for just about any role, but it’s not the same as being an extra. The extras here might not even be remembered by the audience within a year.

It’s funny when you think about it, some people hustle for years just to be remembered, while Ren He is terrified of being recognized.

Ren He led Yang Xi towards the small town. Along the streets, there were plenty of restaurants—Sichuan hotpot, Shaanxi-style dumplings, Huyan buns, Lao Ge’s offal soup, you name it. The entire street was filled with the smell of cooking oil and mutton.

They entered a Sichuan restaurant where even the menu items were named after movies, a very characteristic feature of the villages near the film city...

Actually, these are things that extras would never eat; they’re purely to swindle tourists. There were no prices on the menu, and Ren He had to ask for the price of each dish before ordering.

The waiter, seeing the way Ren He inquired about the prices, knew he couldn’t be easily fooled. He had the look of someone who would stand up and leave if the prices were too high. When dealing with such customers, they would offer dishes at a fair price, though still slightly expensive.

After the waiter left, Ren He laughed and said, "You have no idea how much I was duped by the rip-off joints in No Man’s Land. Although everyone says it’s notorious there, I don’t think that’s the case. Look around here; this is the real rip-off—no prices listed means they wait for you to finish eating before they scam you, and if you refuse to pay, the chef comes out with a knife from the back..."

Yang Xi rested her chin on her hands as she observed Ren He, feeling that time spent with him was always interesting. This young man always seemed to live a life that was slightly different from others.

After eating, they went to rent a house. They were going to stay here for two months, so renting was more cost-effective. They compared the value for money and really put themselves in the shoes of the extras, spending quite some time consulting together over a one-bedroom flat with a bathroom.

It was just a difference of 50 yuan in monthly rent, but both of them seemed to truly enjoy the negotiation, which left the landlord somewhat baffled. If these two came for tourism, why would they rent for so long?

But if you say they’re extras, the man doesn’t look like the average person. Ren He’s +3 charm attributes are genuinely impressive, and he is well aware of how miraculous the Divine Punishment System is.

The woman’s face was obscured by the low brim of her baseball cap, but there’s something about her aura that’s difficult to describe. It mainly depends on the environment someone lives in, an inexplicable presence, much like how IT professionals and engineers have easily distinguishable auras.

The landlord always felt that these two were not ordinary people, yet they bargained as if they were impoverished extras with just a few hundred yuan to their names, trying to make it in the film city.

In the end, they settled for 540 yuan a month, originally 590. Yang Xi argued with the landlord that the discounted rate was auspicious, and the landlord was utterly bewildered at the time.

Once they got into the house, they rolled up their sleeves and began a thorough cleaning. Yang Xi didn’t complain about the dirt or the fatigue at all; the place felt like a new home for the two of them.

The Courtyard House in Capital might be beautiful and comfortable, but it lacked the process of building a home with Ren He from scratch. That’s why, initially, it didn’t feel warm. It was only later that they became accustomed to it. When the two of them lived there, the courtyard was their home, and the world outside belonged to others.

Now it was different. The two started over, and as Yang Xi, smeared with dirt, looked at the clean room, she suddenly felt quite content. The idea of living here sounded pretty good—like a young couple struggling together for a better life.

The moment Yang Xi fell for Ren He wasn’t due to his wealth or capabilities, but it was love at first sight ever since that moment he leaped over the Teaching Building. It was something she had not mentioned to Ren He even now.

She liked him, this person who possessed a charm unlike anyone else’s. She didn’t fall for the Knight, not the chairman of Qinghe Club, not the president of Qinghe Film and Television, not the young professor, nor that infamous ’Big Player’ on the international scene.

From the beginning, it was the person Ren He that she liked, and so Ren He was destined to be deeply and uniquely devoted to her from the start.

But that was not the most important thing. After all, home is wherever Ren He is.