This actor has something

Chapter 302 Old Tree Blossoms

"The monster's body must be able to curl up, its tail must be a bit long, and its size... it should be about the size of someone who can hide behind a bus. Its skin should be filthy, like hair you pulled out of a sewer, making people feel disgusted at first. Then, when it moves, it should give the feeling of its internal organs wriggling. The overall visual effect should make people's scalp tingle."

Bong Joon-ho is describing his ideas to the special effects team for the Bald Eagle, with a pile of drafts of various monsters next to him.

It's clear he hasn't made up his mind yet and isn't very satisfied with the content shown by the special effects team.

The filming process has stalled.

The reason for the jam was both laughable and absurd.

When filming the scene where the monster appears and everyone flees in panic, the director suddenly discovered a huge problem: the monster's size couldn't be determined, so the scene couldn't be filmed.

Even if the footage is filmed now, when adding special effects to the screen in post-production, because we don't have an accurate concept of the data and the distance and size are not precise, the special effects team may make the monster's special effects appear inconsistent in order to adapt to the visuals.

They've already hyped it up to the skies, advertising everywhere that this is South Korea's first big-budget special effects film, promising stunning visuals and a compelling plot.

If audiences see monsters of varying sizes in the final film, that's hardly rigor; they'll probably get a lot of flak for it.

He Daqi thought the crew was well-prepared yesterday, but then this happened today.

He leisurely picked up the monster sketches that the crew had prepared earlier and slowly began to look at them.

I must say, that's quite an imagination.

There must be hundreds of sketches here, featuring a wide variety of monsters, with a Cthulhu-esque, eye-catching theme.

A SsangYong luxury sedan sped into the film set, and as soon as it came to a stop, Executive Director Lee hurriedly got out of the car.

He must have been quite anxious, because his sullen eyes were now narrowed to slits. Although he maintained a steady posture, his hurried steps betrayed his inner turmoil.

He Daqi looked up when he heard footsteps and happened to meet Li Changli's gaze. He Daqi nodded with a smile, and Li Changli quickly returned the nod and smile.

Executive Director Lee's smile didn't last long; he withdrew it as soon as he reached Bong Joon-ho.

"What's going on?" Executive Director Li's voice was somewhat cold.

Bong Joon-ho quickly explained the problem, and the more he spoke, the deeper Lee Chang-sheng's brows furrowed.

After Bong Joon-ho finished explaining, Executive Director Lee took a deep breath, looked at the somewhat uneasy Bong Joon-ho, and simply patted him on the shoulder without criticizing him.

The atmosphere on set was a bit tense. The crew members who had been chatting and laughing a while ago were now very observant and starting to look for work to do.

He Daqi was quite surprised, not expecting that Executive Director Li, this ugly man with squinty eyes, would have such an imposing presence.

“How about I film the rest of the normal storyline first, and leave the scenes that require special effects for later? That way, if the special effects aren’t satisfactory, we can stop filming,” Bong Joon-ho suggested softly.

That's a great idea!

He Daqi looked at Executive Director Li with a smug smile, waiting for his reply to Feng Junhao.

If they really film it like that, then He Daqi will be very free. He can film and stop at will, and he won't have to stay in South Korea all the time. He can go back to Beijing to take care of his children when he has nothing to do.

Unfortunately, Executive Director Li refused without hesitation.

"Just shoot it like this. Don't worry about the cost of starting the production. Compared to the special effects, even if you shoot for a year, the cost will only be a drop in the bucket."

……

……

He Daqi returned to the rented villa at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Vivian Chow was standing smugly in front of the full-length mirror, turning around and checking her new long dress from all angles to see if it fit.

Seeing He Daqi return carrying a fruit basket, she asked somewhat curiously, "Why are you back so early? Don't you have any scenes to film today?"

"Just kidding, I'm the main character. Others might not get any screen time, but how could I not have any scenes? There was a problem with the crew today, and they're trying to figure out a solution."

"Huh? Are you going tomorrow or not? If not, let's go out and have some fun!"

"Go ahead, shoot other scenes tomorrow. The set wasn't finished today, so we had the actors wrap up early." He Daqi said, then sat down on the sofa, casually placing the fruit basket beside him.

When Zhou Huimin saw He Daqi put the fruit basket on the table, she happily came over to open it, but before she could even reach out, He Daqi slapped her.

“These are for giving away. Didn’t you keep saying last night that you wanted to visit Sun Yizhen’s house? I told her when I got back that we’d go and visit her this evening since we finished work early today.”

Zhou Huimin pouted, probably grumbling that He Daqi had just hit her, and said in a low voice, "I want to eat fruit now too. I can just buy another one when we go later. Let's open this one first."

"what ever."

He Daqi chuckled softly.

They've been married for so long, how could he not know that Zhou Huimin was just making excuses to complain about him?

Just as I was about to open the fruit basket and ask Zhou Huimin what she wanted to eat so he could wash it, my phone rang.

Ning Hao called.

That's strange, why would he make a long-distance call for no reason? When he left, the Crazy Stone crew had already gone to Sichuan to scout locations, so Ning Hao should be busy right now.

"What's wrong, senior brother? You actually decided to make an international call to me today."

"Daqi, I can't get through to your uncle on his work phone. Could you help me ask if he can still come when the crew starts filming? If he can't, I can think of other candidates in advance."

He Daqi frowned slightly, not quite understanding what Ning Hao meant: "If you can't get through, you can't get through. Didn't we agree that my uncle would join the crew as soon as filming started? What? You want to replace him?"

"I'll change it my foot! I'm just worried your uncle won't be able to come! Your uncle's famous! He's probably getting a ton of offers for projects now."

Ok?
He Daqi was taken aback.

"My uncle is famous?"

"Yeah, never mind. You're abroad, it's normal that you don't know. You can call your uncle and ask him if he can join the crew normally."

"Okay, I see."

After hanging up the phone, He Daqi was about to call Liu Ying again when he remembered that Liu Ying had come to South Korea with him.

Thinking of this, He Daqi raised his head and looked at Zhou Huimin.

"Give Sister Wu a call, I have something to ask her."

He Daqi had put the call on speakerphone, so Zhou Huimin heard everything clearly. She was very curious, and after hearing He Daqi's instructions, Zhou Huimin immediately took out her phone and dialed.

"Xiao Wu, are you busy? Da Qi has something to ask you."

As she spoke, Zhou Huimin handed her phone to He Daqi.

"Sister Wu, Ning Hao just called me and said my uncle is in the news. What does that mean? Has his reputation collapsed? Is my uncle having an affair with a college student?"

Wu Nannan laughed and chuckled for a while before saying, "Daqi, can't you hope for something better? Your uncle's 'The Great Song Dynasty Forensic Examiner' is a huge hit. You should know what a 10% viewership rating means in China, right?"

He Daqi gasped.

Ten percent?

He knew all too well what that meant.

"Okay, I understand. Sister Wu, you can continue with your work."

After hanging up the phone, He Daqi and Zhou Huimin looked at each other in bewilderment.

After a long pause, Zhou Huimin asked strangely, "Is your family's ancestral graves emitting smoke? Or is your family just born for artistic creation?" "Get lost!"

He Daqi was too lazy to pay attention to her.

After thinking it over, He Daqi felt that Ning Hao's worries were not unfounded.

His uncle works at the Beijing People's Art Theatre. What if the theatre sees that he's become popular and arranges a job for him?
There's a real possibility that they might stand up the Crazy Stone production team, since He Bing, being He Daqi's uncle, only verbally agreed beforehand and didn't even sign a performance contract.

Thinking of this, He Daqi directly dialed He Bing's personal cell phone.

He Daqi dialed again after the first attempt failed.

"What's wrong, Daqi?"

It was a bit noisy on He Bing's side; judging from the sounds, there were probably quite a few people around.

"Uncle, I heard you've become famous?"

"Hahahaha, you already know about this in South Korea?"

"Uncle, don't laugh like that, it's kind of scary. I called you just to ask if you're still going when Crazy Stone starts filming. Ning Hao was worried you'd stand him up, so he tried calling your work phone but couldn't get through."

"Yes, definitely. We old Beijingers never go back on our promises."

"Okay, I understand." He Daqi didn't give He Bing a chance to gloat and hung up the phone quickly after hearing the answer.

He guessed that He Bing was probably cursing him on the other end of the phone, and He Daqi chuckled twice.

……

Dusk had not yet fallen.

The couple brought their things to the villa area where Sun Yizhen lived.

The single woman's large house smelled wonderful.

I don't know if it's because He Daqi is coming today, so Sun Yizhen specially sprayed air freshener, or if Sun Yizhen usually sprays perfume like crazy, making the house smell.

As soon as He Daqi entered the room, he took two deep sniffs, which prompted Zhou Huimin to punch him hard in the lower back from behind.

Contrary to expectations, Sun Yizhen's house was unexpectedly large.

When He Daqi first heard her say that she lived alone, he thought it was a two-story villa, maybe 200 square meters at most.

When they arrived, they found out it was a genuine three-story villa, a detached house, probably more than 500 square meters.

"Doesn't Nuna usually get tired of cleaning by herself?"

When Sun Yizhen led the couple on a tour of the villa, He Daqi asked a question with a cheerful smile.

“There’s a service called housekeeping,” Sun Yizhen replied with a smile.

"I didn't realize that Noona was such a rich man."

"I can't compare to you at all. I bought this house with a loan. I was reading a financial magazine the other day, and it said that your wife's net worth from just one company is nearly 400 billion won."

He Daqi smiled upon hearing this but did not respond.

The numbers are quite impressive: 400 billion.

Unfortunately, it's in Korean won.

He Daqi knew which company Sun Yizhen was referring to. The company that had been through thick and thin together was indeed quite eye-catching, after all, a group of people were vying to invest in it.

Fortunately, Wang Rui was resilient enough to ignore everyone and focus solely on bringing the valuation back to roughly the same level as Tencent's pre-IPO valuation.

Having dreams is a good thing after all.

At this moment, Zhou Huimin was like a landlord inspecting a house, not letting any nook or cranny slip by.

With that serious look on his face, anyone who didn't know better would think he was choosing a place to settle down for the rest of his life.

The three of them wandered around the villa.

Unlike real estate agents, Sun Yizhen only pointed out the negative aspects of the renovation when explaining things to the couple. She told them in detail about many mistakes they had made during the renovation and their dissatisfaction with the design.

She probably thought the advantages of this house were obvious and didn't need further explanation.

After wandering around for a while, the three of them returned to the living room.

Vivian Chow sat right next to Ho Tai-kai and said happily, "That's great!"

Seeing that He Daqi didn't respond, she continued, "It feels much better than the one we looked at by the roadside last time. It's much better to live in a residential area like this. It's more reassuring. Your concerns before were valid. Those villas that are right next to the road are indeed not very safe, since it's too easy for outsiders to get in."

"As long as you like it."

Sun Yizhen placed the washed fruit on the table and said with a smile, "I haven't been able to afford fruit for a long time because I'm paying off my loan."

"How much is your house, Nuna?"

“I bought it the year before last. Back then, housing prices weren’t as outrageous as they are now. It only cost me less than 4 billion won. Now, I estimate it would cost at least 6 billion won.”

"Wow! You just got two billion for free!" He Daqi said with a smile.

Sun Yizhen sighed with a troubled expression: "The problem is that I still have to pay off the loan. Even if the house appreciates in value, the pressure of paying off the loan is still very high for me. The income of female stars here is not high. Last year I took on a lot of advertisements and endorsements, which made things a little easier this year."

Compared to Sun Yizhen, He Daqi now has a better understanding of how fast he makes money. Fortunately, buying a house worth tens of millions a year is not a problem, and he can make a living.

night.

A variety show was playing on TV.

He Daqi sat imposingly in the middle of the sofa.

Zhou Huimin and Sun Yizhen were busy in the kitchen, preparing a pot of chicken knife-cut noodles that He Daqi had ordered on his way here.

I'd never had this before. After asking the shop owner, I found it very convenient, so I ordered one and arranged for it to be delivered that evening.

It's really convenient. The stewed chicken and chicken soup are delivered separately, so you can just heat them up at home when you want to eat them, and add noodles along with them.

This is especially suitable when guests come over but you don't want to cook; the host can use this to get by.

However, this time it wasn't arranged by the host, Sun Yizhen, but by He Daqi, who was a guest.

The two women came out of the kitchen and burst out laughing when they saw He Daqi lounging lazily on the sofa like an old man.

The delicious aroma of the chicken soup whetted He Daqi's appetite. Sun Yizhen put down the large casserole, and Zhou Huimin had just ladled a bowl for He Daqi when he couldn't wait to slurp it up.

"This soup looks so white, but I didn't expect it to taste so good," He Daqi exclaimed.

"You haven't tried it before the Great Qi Dynasty?"

"No."

"I thought you knew this was delicious and ordered it specifically."

Sun Yizhen smiled and took a bite of chicken. It was stewed to perfection; the meat practically fell off the bone with just a touch.

(End of this chapter)