Fog Returns to the Capital

Chapter 17 Mr. Zhou, you've arrived.

Upon hearing Sister Xin mention the people she had invited, the joy in Li Wu's eyes gradually faded...

But just a few seconds later, she smiled and said to Sister Xin, "You can ask me for more high-paying jobs like this in the future."

As usual, Li Wu deposited most of her earnings into a fixed card. Only a small portion remained for her daily expenses.

the next day.

Li Wu received a notification that she had successfully passed the audition for the web series she had previously auditioned for.

It will be turned on in a week.

Because it's a low-budget, small-scale production, they opted to film and broadcast simultaneously. There aren't many episodes, and if filming goes smoothly, it should be completed in about a month.

Li Wu plays the supporting female character. She is the male lead's childhood sweetheart and the object of his affections, but she later passes away due to a heart attack.

The people in the crew were all very nice; they said what they meant, and there wasn't much backstabbing or infighting.

Sometimes, after filming, the crew would have a meal together.

It's not a high-end restaurant, just some roadside Chinese restaurants or barbecue places.

The male lead in the drama was essentially a part-time investor. When the director couldn't raise the funds to start filming, the male lead contributed some of the money.

this day.

After the crew finished their meal and were leaving the barbecue restaurant, the male lead offered to give Li Wu a ride home.

"When did Brother Lin move? How come we didn't know?"

Someone nearby made a joking remark.

"None of your business. I'll go wherever Li Wu goes."

The male lead replied with a smile.

But in his cautious gaze toward Li Wu, there was a hint of embarrassment, and his ears turned slightly red.

He's the kind of sunny and cheerful guy whose smile is clean and healing, giving you the feeling of being bathed in warm sunshine.

The male lead actually had a crush on Li Wu the moment he saw her. It was only after he accidentally learned that she was still single that he decided to pursue her.

"My car may not be the best, but it will definitely get you home safely."

The male lead stared intently at Li Wu.

Both his eyes and the tone of his voice conveyed utmost sincerity.

Li Wu was slightly taken aback.

See this.

The male lead lowered his voice, cautiously, with obvious nervousness and probing, "Li Wu, do you want to..."

But before he could finish speaking, a sharp, piercing horn blared out, as if cutting him off from the rest of his words.

Li Wu couldn't hear what the male lead was saying at all.

When she looked over instinctively, she only saw a familiar black sedan driving straight past her.

The entire car body was blended into the subtle light and shadow, giving it an inexplicably cold feel.

She could remember a license plate number with just one glance, but she couldn't forget it even if she wanted to.

"Are all rich people this arrogant and domineering these days?"

The male lead raised his hand, rubbed his ears which seemed to be ringing, and casually said something.

That understated yet prestigious black sedan was clearly custom-made, and its value was at least in the nine figures.

But the male actor has no time to think about anything else right now.

His gaze returned to Li Wu's face, attempting to continue the previous topic.

The boy's clear and upright voice carried a deep sense of unease, "Li Wu, I..."

Li Wu put aside her wandering thoughts that had been lingering ever since she saw the car, and met the male lead's sincere eyes.

Her voice held an apology, "I'm sorry, I already have someone I like."

"But they're not together yet, are they?"

The male lead tries to poach her, saying, "Why don't you try a few more times? Otherwise, how will you know you'll only like him?"

Li Wu was taken aback by his somewhat unrestrained remarks and laughed, "I don't want to now, and I don't have time to try. I still need to work hard and make money."

"Alright then, making money is indeed very important."

The male lead knew he would be rejected before he even spoke, and although he was disappointed, he quickly recovered.

only.

He paused for a moment, then said to Li Wu, "But if you ever want to try it out in the future, you can consider me."

"Putting everything else aside, if you ask me to listen to you, I will listen to you."

Li Wu smiled and shook her head.

"Don't believe it?"

The male lead glanced at her, his tone carrying a strange air of defiant arrogance, full of youthful charm, "You'll know when you're willing to try it someday."

After saying that, he added slowly, "Once this opportunity is gone, it'll be gone forever!"

Li Wu laughed out loud, but ultimately refused.

During the later filming, Li Wu thought that the male lead would feel uncomfortable being with her on set.

But actually, no.

He remained the same as before, treating her kindly and occasionally making a joke.

If there's any real difference, it's that they've gone from being colleagues who only focused on acting and filming to becoming friends who can chat casually in their daily lives.

That show became popular halfway through its run.

It started with some clips from the show, which were shared and spread on a certain video app. Some people thought the plot and characters were quite interesting, so they clicked on them directly.

The number of clicks skyrocketed.

Seeing that it was becoming a huge hit, a platform offered a high price and bought out the rest of their shares.

Therefore, Li Wu's final payment was twice as much as originally agreed.

Zhou Jinghuai learned about that drama half a month later.

He had just returned from a business trip to Haishi and was attending a meeting at the group headquarters in the afternoon.

When walking into the hall.

Three or four young female employees were excitedly talking about something in front of them, and their words contained the sounds of "childhood sweethearts," "what a pity," and "Li Wu."

Upon hearing the name "Li Wu," Zhou Jinghuai's eyes flickered slightly.

At this time.

The person in front glanced back casually, and when they saw who was behind them, they were instantly terrified and stammered, "President Zhou... President Zhou!"

Upon hearing her voice, the people accompanying her instinctively looked back. They were immediately startled and stammered, "Hello, Ms. Zhou!"

"Hello, Mr. Zhou!"

"Hello, Mr. Zhou!"

……

The voices that greeted him in succession all trembled slightly.

Zhou Jinghuai looked at them, nodded, and said calmly, "Don't be nervous, it's rest time now."

He then casually asked a couple of questions, naturally leading to the question of what they had just been talking about.

Several talented individuals had only been with the group for a year, and the last time they saw Zhou Jinghuai was at the year-end summary meeting, sitting in the audience and looking at him from afar.

Seeing his easygoing, gentle, and polite attitude, they felt a slight relaxation of their tension.

He answered all the questions asked, "We were just talking about a web series called 'Blooming.' It's a super popular show online right now, it's gone viral on all sorts of platforms."

"The supporting actress played by Li Wu is so pitiful. She had a crush on someone for ten years but couldn't get him, and in the end, she died of illness."

"Yeah, I heard that she left the show too early, and some people are even crying and begging the writers to bring her back..."

"..."

Zhou Jinghuai understood and didn't ask any more questions.

When he returned to his office, he took off his suit jacket and casually hung it on the back of his chair.

His secretary brought him a cup of tea and confirmed the exact time of the afternoon meeting.

Behind his desk, Zhou Jinghuai calmly looked at the documents neatly arranged on the table that required his signature.

I glanced at it briefly for a few seconds.

Zhou Jinghuai took out his phone and typed "Blooming" into the search bar. The automatically selected profile pictures only featured the male and female protagonists.

There was no dawn.

But Zhou Jinghuai's calm gaze fell on the male actor's face.

Ignore the accompanying description.

Zhou Jinghuai recognized him at first glance.

That's the person who blushed last time, seemingly confessing to Li Wu.

Zhou Jinghuai's gentle and refined features remained calm and composed. However, there was a subtle hint of coolness in his eyes.

……

Because of the show's popularity, Li Wu's account gained two to three hundred thousand followers even before the show finished airing.

Xin Jie helped her register the account.

When she first joined the company, she didn't understand these things.

free time.

Li Wu glanced through the comments and found that most of them were quite positive.

If I had such a gentle and beautiful childhood sweetheart, I would definitely cherish and pamper her from a young age.

[I'm totally captivated by her looks, she's practically the epitome of beauty! I wonder what other films she's been in? Could someone please tell me...?]

[Heartbreaking! He passed away when she loved him most; it's impossible to say whose regret this is...]

……

However, some people also criticized her.

[Why are you pretending to be pitiful! Knowing you're sick and will die, couldn't you find a quiet place and die quietly by yourself? Why did you have to die in the male lead's arms!]

[Exactly, the male and female leads are a match made in heaven...]

……

……

Li Wu didn't read the comments after that.

She didn't really care what people said about her, as long as she could make money.

Li Wu went back and casually refreshed the page. The next second, she saw the news appear at the top of the trending searches.

Her gaze suddenly stopped.

Without even having time to think, Li Wu logged out of Weibo and hurriedly dialed her agent's number.

……

Xin Jie initially wanted to tell Li Wu about the change of actors in "The World's Ups and Downs". However, seeing that Li Wu was filming at the time, she was afraid of affecting her performance, so she didn't tell her.

Later, it was because I needed to help Ye Fei negotiate the lead role for Director Shen. I was busy making connections and pulling strings, and I completely forgot about it.

At this moment, Li Wu asked.

Sister Xin paused for a moment before speaking, "Chu Xuan has her eye on your role. She contacted Director Jiang herself, offering to act in it for free, and promised that she could accompany the crew to every promotional event."

Chu Xuan.

A top actress at Huanying Entertainment.

In terms of influence and the capital behind them, anyone with eyes can tell who to choose.

"But my scenes in this movie have already been filmed..."

Li Wu murmured somewhat bewilderedly, "Back then, most of my scenes were completed in one take. Director Jiang even praised me for being quite talented and said that we should definitely work together again if there's a chance..."

It quieted down.

Seemingly finding it a bit cruel, Sister Xin softened her tone, "However, Director Jiang said he will pay you double the original contract fee..."

"I don't want the pay, I want the role!" Li Wu's voice was filled with stubbornness.

"Dawn!"

Sister Xin's tone became a bit harsher, "Before it's officially broadcast, this doesn't count as your role!"

"These things are very common in the industry! It's just that you haven't been in the industry long enough to experience this before. You should know better than anyone who Chu Xuan is and who's behind her!"

"Besides, you're still young, you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future..."

"Do I still have a chance?" Li Wu asked softly.

When she auditioned for various film and television productions, the directors who interviewed her were quite satisfied and told her to just go home and wait for news.

They then informed her, for various reasons, that she hadn't passed.

Actually, she had always had a suspicion in her heart, but she refused to believe it until the facts were presented to her.

The eldest daughter of the Gu family wants to subtly blacklist her.

Few people in the industry would dare to risk offending Huanying Entertainment by using her.

not to mention.

There's no need to use her.

Sister Xin was aware of this, which is why she was initially very enthusiastic about getting Li Wu roles and auditions. After several unsuccessful attempts, she let Li Wu develop her career on her own.

"Li Wu, listen to me..."

"Sister Xin, I have something to do, so I'll hang up now."

Before Sister Xin could finish speaking, Li Wu hung up the phone.

She gripped her phone tightly in her hand.

After a few minutes.

Li Wu asked someone for Director Jiang's address, wanting to go see him in person and try to persuade him again.

That role, in terms of character design, plot, production team, and director, was the best she had encountered since entering the industry.

She couldn't just give up like that.

After asking around, someone said that Director Jiang flew over a few days ago to attend a celebration and said he would stay for two days, so he should be meeting up with friends right now.

But he wasn't sure if Li Wu could get into that club.

Li Wu said it was okay and asked him to send the address first.

When Li Wu saw the address that person sent, she vaguely felt that it was somewhat familiar.

It wasn't until she arrived that Li Wu realized where this sense of familiarity came from.

It's the same club that her guzheng teacher took her to last time.

After Li Wu arrived.

"Excuse me, miss, we require an invitation to enter."

A receptionist dressed in a white cheongsam stopped Li Wu at the outside, saying that she needed an invitation to enter.

Li Wu recalled that last time, the guzheng teacher seemed to have presented a black invitation with gold foil before these people let them in.

"I have something urgent to attend to. I'll just go in and talk to someone for a few minutes, then I'll leave..."

Li Wu looked at the two people blocking her way, her words carrying a hint of pleading.

"I'm sorry, miss, you really need an invitation to enter." The two men looked at the beautiful and innocent-looking Li Wu, but still refused her entry.

There was a hint of anxiety in Li Wu's eyes; she didn't know what to do now.

She glanced at the two people blocking her way, then at the security guards standing straight three meters apart, and stepped back to the side.

Thinking to herself that since she couldn't go in, she would just wait outside.

After meeting his friends, Director Jiang always has to come out of there.

This is also the time.

A black Rolls-Royce Phantom drove in from the hazy light and shadow in the distance and slowly came to a stop at the entrance of the club.

The car windows were fitted with privacy film, making it impossible to see who was sitting inside.

The club's dim lighting flowed across the gleaming black car, exuding a sense of prestige and understated elegance, yet subtly creating a feeling of oppression.

The two staff members who had been blocking Li Wu from entering the car seemed to know who was inside when they saw it.

He hurriedly walked to the car door.

With a perfectly made-up face, she smiled politely, bowed slightly, and respectfully opened the car door with both hands.

"Mr. Zhou, you've arrived."

(End of this chapter)