Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 435 Withdrawal
Yang Mi could do nothing but complain a little in her group chat with her girlfriends about the temporary withdrawal of "Outcast".

Even though the payment has been settled, not being able to appear on screen after filming is still fatal for an actor, as it means missing out on an important opportunity for exposure.

Yang Mi certainly doesn't lack acting opportunities. She recently finished filming "The Third Way of Love" in Shanghai, and next month she will join the cast of "Cities in Love," a short film supported by the Shanghai International Film Festival's Young Directors Program and co-directed by multiple directors. She also has one or two TV series scheduled for filming next year.

However, Yang Mi was still not satisfied!

She could clearly feel that after she got married, she received fewer scripts.

She still has a large following, but the subsequent impact of "Gu Jian Qi Tan" is clearly not as great as that of "Palace".

After the ratings exploded for "Palace", Yang Mi received twenty or thirty scripts a week. She could film 11 dramas a year and film four dramas at the same time!

Although she said that filming was tiring and she wanted to rest, she really couldn't bear to stop.

Currently, she only has one movie and one TV series confirmed for filming, which she finds unbearable.

She gets very anxious if she doesn't have any opportunities.

Problems arose at work, and things weren't going well at home either.

The Liu family wants a child. Liu Kaiwei is 40 years old. No matter how much he takes care of himself, a man at 40 will still experience a decline in his physical abilities. However, she has not had a child. It's not that she doesn't want to have one; she also wants a child, but she can't give up her work.

She had more than one conflict with Liu Kaiwei and her in-laws over the issue of having children.

After filming wrapped on "The Third Way of Love" and before filming began on "Cities of Love," Yang Mi had a short 20-day break. Since Liu Kaiwei was still filming, she didn't go to Hong Kong but stayed at her home in Beijing. She didn't really want to go back to her in-laws' house; she didn't really want to live under the same roof as them.

Around 10 p.m., guessing that Liu Yifei should have finished work by then, she sent Liu Yifei a message. They started by chatting casually, and eventually the conversation naturally turned to having children.

Liu Yifei is now a married woman, so the two of them weren't shy about talking about this.

Liu Yifei told Yang Mi that she and Li Qiutang probably didn't plan to have children for the next three to five years because they were both too busy with work.

“We will definitely have a baby.” Liu Yifei was certain that she would become a mother. “Let’s wait until we finish up some work. We’re still young, so it’s okay if it’s a few years later.” Li Qiutang is only 3 years older than Liu Yifei, so they are technically the same age.

But these words touched Yang Mi's sensitive heart. Liu Kaiwei was a whole generation older than her! The two were from different generations.

"What are you grinning like an idiot while holding your phone?" Li Qiutang said as she returned from the crew's debriefing meeting.

"Don't pry into a woman's private conversations," Liu Yifei said.

“I want to hear your private conversations even more. You two don’t talk badly about your husbands behind their backs, do you?” Li Qiutang leaned closer to look at Liu Yifei’s phone, but Liu Yifei wouldn’t let him have his way. She pushed him away and said, “I didn’t see you bragging to those guys, and you’re not allowed to look at mine either.”

"How stingy! Who would want to read this?" Li Qiutang didn't get the better of him, so he didn't insist on reading it. He took a stack of manuscript paper, sat down to the side, and started revising things. His work had been going very smoothly lately, and he was in a good mood, which made him come up with a lot of ideas. He had to write them down quickly.

Liu Yifei and Yang Mi were still discussing having children. Yang Mi said that both her in-laws and her own family were urging her to have children, and she was under a lot of pressure.

Liu Yifei said, "I'm alright, my mom and my in-laws haven't pressured us to have children yet." Yang Mi said, "You two are still missing one last step. Once you're officially married, they'll start pressuring us too." What Yang Mi said might not be unreasonable, and Liu Yifei was actually mentally prepared for it.

Do all women complain about their husbands after getting married?

After discussing having children, Yang Mi complained to Liu Yifei about Liu Kaiwei. It wasn't that she was saying anything bad about her husband, but rather about some of his little habits and quirks, as well as some minor communication barriers between them. For example, "Sometimes when we argue, he likes to speak to me in Cantonese and English, which I can't understand. We've already calmed down after the argument, but when he speaks Cantonese and English that I can't understand, I get angry again."

Liu Yifei glanced at Li Qiutang, who was sitting a few steps away, scratching his head and revising his manuscript. She then looked down to reply to Yang Mi and complained to Yang Mi about her husband: "He hates shopping. Every time I ask him to go out with me, it's like asking him to die. Even if I buy him something, he won't go. When he does go, he's like a dead person, just sitting there playing on his phone."

"I've bought him so many things, but he actually uses less than half of them. Last month I bought him a men's skincare set, he used it for three days, and then secretly gave it to the photographer. I'm so angry!"

The two women talked about giving birth, complaining about their husbands, and then naturally drifted to work.

After finishing filming "Mojin: The Lost Legend" this year, Liu Yifei only has one other film, "Pacific Rim 2," starting filming at the end of next year. She will not take on any other acting roles and will focus on preparing for her wedding.

Yang Mi's schedule is much busier than Liu Yifei's, but she still complains that the roles she gets are not as good as before.

In the industry, resources often come from recommendations from friends, and sometimes these recommendations are more effective than actively auditioning.

"The Night Peacock" wasn't a project for Liu Yifei, but since she knew about it and couldn't act in it herself, she shared the information with her friends so that those who were interested could contact the production team themselves. It was a way for her to do a favor for them.

However, she hesitated to tell Yang Mi about "The Night Peacock," as Yang Mi had never acted in art films and seemed uninterested in them.

"I'm even thinking about having a baby after filming 'Cities in Love'," Yang Mi joked.

Only then did Liu Yifei decide not to tell Yang Mi about "The Night Peacock".

"husband."

Li Qiutang didn't look up, her eyes still fixed on the manuscript on the table. She wondered if the three-act structure was too rigid for the story she was conceiving. Would a cyclical narrative be more dramatic and fit the theme better? But such a story could also be very interesting using a Rashomon-like approach. It's so frustrating; you can't write a good script without a story and structure.

Hearing Liu Yifei call out, he responded with a "Hmm?"

"What kind of roles do you think Yang Mi would be suitable for?"

"Her? Leading roles in idol dramas like 'Palace' and 'Swords of Legends' are perfect for her. Why would she need to look for other types of roles? Idol dramas are enough for her."

"You're young now and can act in idol dramas, but what about later?"

"She can act in idol dramas for at least another ten years. When she runs out of roles in youth idol dramas, she can act in middle-aged idol dramas. There are plenty of scripts like 'Domineering CEO falls in love with me, a divorced woman with a child,' 'Middle-aged unmarried female director and male director of a rival company in a love-hate relationship,' or 'I, a divorced woman, meet a young heartthrob who keeps pursuing me.'" Li Qiutang said casually, "You're still worried that she won't have any roles to play."

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Liu Yifei had reason to suspect that he was talking nonsense. "Go to the convenience store and buy me a pack of wet wipes." She could have asked her assistant to buy them, but she wanted to bother Li Qiutang.

"Tsk, what a hassle," Li Qiutang muttered, but still put on his coat and went to buy things for his wife.

(End of this chapter)