This director is vindictive.

Chapter 228 A pretty face with high viewership, a stoic actor, and box office poison

The various parodies of nucleic acid testing by celebrities have also inspired netizens to join in.

Just as they were enjoying themselves, tragedy struck.

They quickly received news that several people tested positive for COVID-19 that day!
That's great, the entire hotel has become an isolation zone, especially for those who have already self-isolated for 14 days, their stays have been renewed for free.

However, in crowded places, especially here, there are celebrities, directors, and film crews.

These types of people are characterized by high mobility, which makes them quite troublesome. Chen Mo estimates that this wave will definitely not be enough in 14 days.

Fortunately, there were quite a few people here, such as Chen Mo and his friends. Since they had nothing else to do, they invited Liu Yifei and Hu Ge, and the four of them made up a mahjong table.

However, Liu Yifei truly embodies the phrase "both inexperienced and passionate." Initially, she genuinely didn't know how to play, but after learning, this newbie, just starting out, became completely addicted to the game.

Playing mahjong is indeed a way to easily promote relationships and bring people closer; as the saying goes, "there are no fathers and sons at the mahjong table."

For example, right now! The sound of shuffling tiles on the mahjong table was deafening. Liu Yifei angrily pushed her chips forward, her face flushed red: "I'm not playing anymore! You guys are definitely cheating!" She flipped over her pile of tiles, revealing a messy hand—three East Winds, two White Dragons, and a bunch of unrelated Bamboo and Character suits.

Chen Mo laughed so hard he slapped his thigh: "Hahaha! Your fans should really see this, this is the level of their fairy sister, your hand can't even make a decent hand!" He cheekily pushed over his pure suit, "Look, this is a real hand!"

Yang Mi, with a lollipop in her mouth, counted her money while adding insult to injury: "Yifei, you've lost eight rounds in a row. Why don't you switch to playing Dou Dizhu? It's easier." She deliberately piled up her chips high and shoved them in front of her with a clatter.

"No way! I'm going to win big today!" Liu Yifei was determined, rolling up her sleeves to reveal her slender wrists. "Again!"

She slammed the dice onto the table with a thud, but she used too much force, and the dice flew out and hit Hu Ge on the forehead.

"Ouch!" Hu Ge covered his forehead, but still smiled and said, "It's okay, it's okay, the dice are quite soft." He secretly picked up the dice, which still had some of his bangs stuck to them.

As the new round began, Liu Yifei was so nervous that sweat beaded on her nose. She stared intently at her cards, muttering to herself, "Three of a kind, five of bamboo, and the fortune," looking as if she were solving an advanced math problem.

"Bang!" Yang Mi suddenly shouted, startling Liu Yifei so much that her hand trembled and the card she had just touched fell to the ground.

"Ahhh, I haven't even seen it yet!" Liu Yifei stomped her feet in frustration. When she bent down to pick it up, her head hit the corner of the table with a "thud," making her eyes well up with tears.

Hu Ge couldn't stand it any longer and secretly tilted her cards toward Liu Yifei: "Yifei, look at my 70,000." Before she could finish speaking, Chen Mo coughed exaggeratedly.

"Old Hu! You've gone so far as to cause the Pacific Ocean to burst its banks!" Chen Mo teased, winking. "Why don't you just take the hit for her?"

Liu Yifei's eyes suddenly lit up: "Wait! I think... I think I'm going to win!" She shakily arranged the cards one by one, but when she got to the second to last card, her expression suddenly fell - it was another terrible hand that couldn't even be used to make a winning hand.

"Ugh," Liu Yifei buried her face in the pile of cards, muttering dejectedly, "Mahjong is definitely some kind of mystical art."

Yang Mi couldn't hold back her laughter any longer, and she spat out her lollipop: "My silly Yifei, with your level of humor, even the old ladies at the senior activity center would look down on you!"

Hu Ge silently pushed his tiles over—he had actually been close to winning for a long time, but he stubbornly held back. Seeing Liu Yifei's dejected look, he cautiously asked, "How about I teach you a few tricks?"

"No!" Liu Yifei suddenly looked up, puffing out her cheeks like a little pufferfish. "Even if I lose everything today, I, Liu Yifei, will still win by myself!" She then slammed her hand on the table, but the force of the slam caused several mahjong tiles to bounce up.

Chen Mo laughed so hard he hiccuped, "Alright, alright, our fairy sister has ambition!" He wiped away tears of laughter, "But if you really lose everything, cough cough, Old Hu will probably be the first to object."

"Chen Mo!" Hu Ge and Liu Yifei shouted at the same time, one's face as red as a tomato, and the other's ears were bright red.

Yang Mi, always eager for drama, pulled out her phone and started recording: "Come on, I'm definitely posting this on my WeChat Moments! The title will be 'Shocking! A certain Liu, a celestial beauty, stakes her dignity on mahjong!'"

"Yang Mi, how dare you!" Liu Yifei lunged forward to snatch the phone, but tripped over her own slipper and fell headfirst into Hu Ge's arms. Mahjong tiles scattered all over the floor, and the scene instantly descended into chaos.

Taking advantage of the moment, Chen Mo stuffed the last piece of watermelon into his mouth and mumbled, "I declare! Today's mahjong tournament champion is—Liu Yifei's... uh, chair! At least it didn't fall over!"

"Hahahaha!" Everyone couldn't help but laugh.

However, as much as playing around and having fun is fun, for a newbie, if they keep losing, even if they are very interested, they will get tired of it.

Take Liu Yifei for example. Chen Mo, Hu Ge, or Yang Mi all secretly let her win, but she was just so bad that it was outrageous. What could they do?
"Ugh, this is so boring! I'm not playing anymore!" Liu Yifei finally accepted reality.

She really can't keep up!
"How about we call someone else over to make up a table?" Yang Mi suggested deliberately.

“I think it’s a good idea!” Chen Mo nodded in perfect agreement.

"Let's not fight anymore!" Hu Ge said quickly, seeing Liu Yifei's puffed-out cheeks.

"Hey, Director Chen, we're just killing time anyway. We have directors, actors, cinematographers, script supervisors, makeup artists, and even screenwriters in this hotel. Why don't you put together a project and we can make a movie?" Yang Mi said, nudging Chen Mo with her eyes darting around.

Hu Ge and Liu Yifei's eyes lit up.

Hu Ge said, "That's right! However, if we're going to film here, we probably can't film anything too complicated. It would be best if the scenes were simple, like '12 Angry Men,' a dialogue movie. I think that would be good."

Hu Ge, seemingly in professional mode, stroked his chin and analyzed, "The scene definitely needs to be simple: hotel rooms, corridors, a restaurant, maybe a rooftop." He suddenly snapped his fingers, "How about a suspense film? A serial murder case in a quarantine hotel!"

"Vulgar!" Yang Mi vetoed immediately. "If we're going to make a film, let's make one with depth!"

She suddenly leaned closer to Liu Yifei with a mischievous grin, "For example... a washed-up female celebrity falling in love with an ordinary programmer during quarantine?"

Liu Yifei immediately bristled: "Yang Mi, you're asking for it!" She grabbed a cushion and shoved it into Yang Mi's face. The two of them immediately started wrestling, their pajamas getting all messed up.

Hu Ge suddenly shouted, "Stop fooling around! I have an idea!"

He shoved the mahjong tiles off the coffee table, pulled out a marker, and started drawing on hotel notepads. “Let’s make a ‘Quarantine Game’—six complete strangers trapped in a hotel, who must complete an absurd task every day, or they’ll be eliminated!”

Yang Mi leaned over to look: "This setting sounds like Battle Royale!"

"Wrong!" Hu Ge exclaimed excitedly, spitting as he spoke. "In the end, it was revealed that all of this was a treatment experiment in a mental hospital!" He gestured wildly. "We can use handheld camerawork, a mockumentary style, and we can even save on makeup artists!"

Yang Mi suddenly interjected in a sinister tone, "How about letting Yifei play a psychopathic killer?" She nimbly dodged Liu Yifei's second pillow attack, "Look how suitable she is with that fierce look!"

“I suggest making it into a musical,” Liu Yifei suddenly raised her hand in a serious tone. “Hold concerts on the balcony every day and have the quarantined residents across the street as judges.” After saying that, she broke down in laughter and collapsed onto the sofa.

Chen Mo sat there silently.

Everyone then stopped fooling around, and Yang Mi walked over and plopped down next to Chen Mo.

“We’ve all been fooling around here and forgotten that our great screenwriter and director are right here. Come on, Director Chen, this is a rare opportunity. We can even skip the publicity. Any ideas?” Yang Mi said, looking at Chen Mo with some anticipation.

Hu Ge and Liu Yifei stopped their playful fighting and looked at Chen Mo with a hint of anticipation.

As for Hu Ge's so-called "quarantine game," it's not as reliable as Liu Yifei's idea of ​​holding a concert on the balcony, with the quarantined residents across the street as judges.

However, Chen Mo did think of a movie, but the hotel wasn't a suitable location for filming; they'd have to find a different quarantine location. "I remember there are Western-style buildings from the Republican era in the film studio, right?" Chen Mo asked.

Hu Ge nodded and said, "Indeed, there are not only Western-style buildings, but also a street from the Republican era of Shanghai."

Chen Mo smiled and nodded, saying, "The movie is called 'Making a Name for Yourself.' On a dark and stormy night, a group of filmmakers are secretly gathered together, intending to remake a sensational murder case into a movie in order to make a name for themselves. Little do they know that they are at the crime scene and are getting deeper and deeper into a huge mystery, and the murderer is among them."

"A movie within a movie? Tsk tsk, no wonder he's a director with billions in earnings. This scene really does look a bit like what we're in right now!" Hu Ge said admiringly, her eyes lighting up.

Yang Mi's eyes were like a fan seeing her idol; she had completely become Chen Mo's little fangirl, making no attempt to hide her extreme adoration. It felt like her gaze was practically dripping with admiration.

Liu Yifei was also somewhat surprised as she looked at Chen Mo. She had heard of Chen Mo's reputation before, but they had never worked together.

Based on her interactions over the past few days, she realized that Chen Mo was nothing like the billion-dollar director and domineering CEO she had imagined; he was just a goofball.

And he's also cheeky, always joking about himself and Lao Hu.

Only now did she realize the true value of Chen Mo as a renowned director.

Although Chen Mo only gave a brief introduction, he quickly came up with the idea that, given their current situation of being isolated, they would come up with the idea of ​​making a movie—a gathering of filmmakers that would then play out a movie within a movie.

Putting everything else aside, the idea itself, along with the process of its creation, will immediately attract the attention of countless movie fans once it's publicized.

As for whether the plot is exciting or not, she has no doubts. After all, a director with billions in earnings has never made a mistake.

Seeing Liu Yifei's astonished look, Chen Mo touched his nose and said with a grin, "Doesn't it seem unreliable?"

Liu Yifei coughed lightly to cover her embarrassment and replied, "No, no, it's just that I was a little surprised, but it's really quite interesting."

Yang Mi suddenly frowned and said, "Then the roles in this movie must be very challenging. They know the murderer is around, and they have to act while investigating the case, and they also have to prevent being silenced by the murderer. Their psychology must be very complicated."

Chen Mo smiled and looked at her, saying, "You've really hit the nail on the head. That's the brilliance of this story—every character has their own secrets and purposes. Just like here in this room, everyone seems to be here to discuss cooperation, but who knows if anyone is hiding something else?"

The moment he said that, the atmosphere in the room became somewhat awkward. Yang Mi's eyes darted around, and she said coquettishly, "Don't scare us, there's no murderer here."

Hu Ge, however, said thoughtfully, "Director Chen is giving us a preview of the scene. I think if we can portray the feeling of mutual suspicion, of calm on the surface but undercurrents running deep, the movie will definitely be very exciting."

Chen Mo nodded approvingly: "Old Hu is right. Moreover, there are many plot twists in this movie, and the truth may not be what everyone initially thought. Just like in life, many things are not as simple as they seem on the surface."

Liu Yifei rested her chin on her hand and said slowly, "The ending of this movie will definitely be very unexpected. However, to express such a complex plot and emotions, the requirements for the actors are really high."

"Actually, it's not that exaggerated. Have you guys ever played murder mystery games?" Chen Mo asked again.

All three nodded.

"Actually, this story, or this movie, is a murder mystery game we're playing."

"Think about it, a group of filmmakers are gathered together, ostensibly to discuss a case and adapt it into a movie. Even the investors who gathered everyone here have invited the known murderers to come and dissect the case step by step. You see, this is actually a murder mystery game!" Chen Mo continued with a smile.

"And that's where the fun begins. Imagine, the murderer is right there at the scene. Isn't that incredibly exciting?"

The more Chen Mo talked, the more he felt that the film "Making a Name for Oneself" was really suitable for this time and the current situation.

You see, this inspiration comes from the isolated Chen Mo, Hu Ge, Yang Mi, and Liu Yifei. While "Fame and Fortune" is said to be a murder mystery movie, it is also another kind of isolation.
In terms of publicity, it was quite dramatic.

The key point is that it's highly feasible!
The scenarios are readily available, and given their status, it wouldn't be difficult for them to request a change of quarantine location.

Anyway, there aren't many people in the film studio right now.

They used to film while in quarantine, which Chen Mo found particularly interesting.

Then he looked at the other three and smiled. "Look at us, the four of us, quarantined in this run-down hotel." He counted on his fingers, "One director, one pretty face with no substance, one expressionless actor, and one box office poison."

Yang Mi grabbed a cushion and threw it at him: "Who are you calling a pretty face with no substance?!"

Chen Mo nimbly dodged, continuing his spittle-flecked speech: "Isn't this exactly like in the story? A group of frustrated filmmakers, trapped in a confined space."

Hu Ge suddenly sat up straight: "Wait, what do you mean by 'unsuccessful'? I'm a Golden Eagle Award winner and a Magnolia Award winner, you know! How can I be unsuccessful?"

Once they were more familiar with each other, Chen Mo didn't hold back at all, saying directly, "Heh, that's right, Best Actor, but your movies were...heh!"

Hu Ge was immediately shoved directly in the face by Chen Mo.

"Why are you speaking such blunt truths? Can't you give me some face?" Hu Ge said, somewhat annoyed.

"Hahaha!" Yang Mi couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Chen Mo glared at her irritably: "You're the same. Do you really think it's nonsense to say you're just a pretty face with no substance? Why don't you go ask netizens what they think of Yang Mi's acting skills and see what they say?"

Yang Mi was immediately put in a bind, because what Chen Mo said made perfect sense. If she dared to ask netizens, they would make her feel depressed in no time.

Moreover, compared to Hu Ge, Yang Mi's film works may be slightly better, but there are really not many!
As for movies like "Far Cry," "The Shallows," "Tiny Times," and "L.O.R.D.," there's no need to even mention them. Chen Mo had an expression that said, "Don't you have any self-awareness?" which made Yang Mi so angry that she wanted to bite him.

That bastard, why did he suddenly grow a mouth?
Liu Yifei herself was also a little annoyed, but when she saw that Hu Ge and Yang Mi had been shoved against the wall by Chen Mo, she immediately lost her spirits.

Moreover, Chen Mo's claim that she's box office poison isn't just empty talk!

Although she has made many movies since she entered the film industry, her influence and reputation are not high, and as for her acting skills, those who know, know!
"That's not the point. Haven't you noticed? Our current situation is strikingly similar to a murder mystery game!"

Chen Mo deliberately teased them, and he deliberately brought up the topics they didn't want to discuss, directly hitting them in the face. It wasn't really reckless; it was entirely because he wanted them to find that feeling!
To some extent, you see, these three women, while not exactly a group of losers, do indeed have their share of "disappointments."

Moreover, if they were to be cast in "Make a Name for Yourself," they could start getting into character now.

Because in the movie, several characters have unknown pasts and less-than-ideal current situations.

Liu Yifei timidly raised her hand: "Um... I don't even understand how to play Werewolf."

"I'm not really letting you guys play!" Chen Mo was somewhat speechless.

"I'm talking about the atmosphere! The setting! What I said just now, well, it wasn't very pleasant to hear. How did you feel when you heard it? What I want is for you to remember this feeling!" Chen Mo explained again.

Hu Ge glanced at Chen Mo in surprise. As expected of a renowned director with billions in revenue, he had already begun training the actors.

Moreover, he had to admit that what Chen Mo had just said really made him feel quite upset.

And just like Chen Mo said, it's okay to feel uncomfortable!
(End of this chapter)