This director is so innocent.

Chapter 104 Overthinking and Acting Like a Drama Queen

Shichahai, a traditional courtyard house.

Su Jin watched Huo Wenxi's back as he swayed his hips and disappeared from sight, only then realizing she had been overthinking things.

What nonsense! They were just dropping Asa off; they didn't mean anything by it. Asa can't drive.

Asa said, "Mr. Su, Sister Mani is my boss's woman, and no one else will touch her. If you want that, you can go to Hong Kong Island later."

Su Jin smiled gently. Although that was true, as long as the benefits were big enough, anything was possible.

Huo Wenxi isn't Old Yang's wife, so why can't she share it?

"Go inside!"

Upon entering the courtyard house, Asa was filled with amazement and deep awe at the antique environment.

Compared to this house, the luxury homes on Hong Kong Island are only fit for Filipino maids.

Su Jin handed Asa a bottle of mineral water and asked, "You should be married now! Why would you be doing this?"

"How did you know I was married?" Asa stared wide-eyed at Su Jin in astonishment, forgetting even to use a respectful form of address.

She kept her marriage a secret very well; only a few close friends in the industry knew about it, and outsiders, especially people in mainland China, probably didn't know.

"I heard it from a friend," Su Jin replied casually.

Asa secretly registered her marriage with Prince Keane last year, but the marriage lasted for four years before they divorced.

The reason for the divorce was quite simple: Prince Kee still enjoyed partying after marriage, frequenting various entertainment venues and being photographed by the media countless times.

Then, Asa divorced Prince Ki.

Seeing that Asa remained silent and didn't want to answer why she was still out socializing, Su Jin didn't press the matter further.

After all, it's a sad story for the girl, so it's best not to embarrass her.

But he guessed Asa was thinking, "You can go out and have fun, but I can't?"

"I'm going to take a shower, do you want to come with me?"

Asa paused for a moment, forced a smile, nodded slightly, and remained silent.

She readily took off her dress without any hesitation, suggesting she frequently attends social events.

Asa has a great figure, with not an ounce of excess fat.

The only drawback is that it's too small; it's not even as big as Jiang Yiyan's.

So here's the question: both have youthful faces, so why is Sakura Mizuto's breasts so much bigger?

After a night of revelry, Su Jin overslept the next day, waking up at past eleven o'clock.

Asa is just too enthusiastic.

Each time they annihilated her without leaving a trace, but after a while, she would revive again—

What can he do?

You can't just kneel down and beg for mercy!

Where would that man put his pride?

And so it went, over and over again, and he conquered it five times, each time forty or fifty minutes—even a god couldn't stand it.

I got up and washed up, then took Asa out for lunch, and then we parted ways.

Su Jin returned to the company. It was lunch break, but he couldn't sleep, so he turned on his computer and started writing "The Maze Runner".

It was 2:30 PM.

Su Jin called Huang Jiaqiang, Wu Ershan, and Zhao Shan together for a small meeting.

He mentioned that Old Yang wanted to invest and help with the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Huang Jiaqiang and the other two were quite happy. With the addition of capital, they believed that the box office performance in Hong Kong should be good.

However, they had some doubts in their hearts: Yinghuang had sent someone, and it was a woman.

Apart from the four main characters, there isn't a single female character in "Painted Skin." Does this mean they rejected Yang Mi?

"Boss, how do we get the role of Asa from Yinghuang Sai? Didn't you promise to give the demon hunter role to Yang Mi?" Huang Jiaqiang asked.

Su Jin smiled slightly. He already had a solution for this, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to Old Yang's offer to send someone.

"Yang Mi's demon hunter character doesn't need to be changed. Later, you can talk to the scriptwriting department and ask them to change the lizard monster character into a female fox."

"Boss, the lizard monster character was willing to dig out his heart for Xiaowei because he liked her! If it were changed to a little fox—" Wuershan interjected.

"What's wrong with the little fox? Can't you change 'like' to 'loyal subordinate'? Yuri? You can't even fix this little thing, what use are they to me? I might as well just fire them all." Su Jin scolded.

Wuershan was scolded, but he wasn't embarrassed at all. He sighed inwardly. It wasn't that he couldn't think of it, but that he didn't want to change it.

This isn't just about turning a lizard monster into a female fox; it will trigger a whole series of reactions.

For example, all the previously drawn lizard monster concept art had to be scrapped, and the plot also needed to be slightly modified.

It's true what they say: the boss has a mouth, and the subordinates run themselves ragged.

Seeing the tense atmosphere, Huang Jiaqiang was reluctant to report on the next task, but to his surprise, Su Jin called on him directly.

"Old Huang, how's the process of inviting the lead actors going?"

"Boss, um—um, things aren't going a bit smoothly."

"What happened?"

"Yu Guangzhao said that Zhou Xun was not keen on taking on the role of the fox demon, Zhao Wei went to film 'Red Cliff,' which is said to take half a year to film, but Chen Kun has taken care of it, no problem."

Such a good thing?

Upon hearing this, Wu'ershan was overjoyed, and the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned up.

He was not very satisfied when he learned that Zhou Xun was to be cast as the fox demon, feeling that Zhou Xun was not alluring enough.

He had wanted to voice his opinion for a long time, but he didn't dare, fearing he would be criticized.

After all, it's a big production costing 80 million, not 8 million. If it goes wrong, all the hard work of the past few years will be wasted.

Now it's all over, they don't want to act anymore.

Fortunately, he didn't voice any objections, otherwise Su Jin would have scolded him so badly that he couldn't take care of himself.

A production costing 80 million can't be changed haphazardly.

Besides, Zhou Xun has already proven in the original timeline that others can play fox demons well, and in an excellent way. If we don't cast her, who are we going to cast?

Huang Jiaqiang looked at Wu Ershan sitting opposite him with a smirk on his face and frowned slightly. Was Wu Zi secretly mocking his lack of ability?

Before he could figure it out, he heard Su Jin say, "Why doesn't Zhou Xun want to take on the role of the fox demon?"

He was utterly baffled. She didn't even want to act in a big production costing 80 million—no, 20 million US dollars. Did she want to fly to the moon?

The current claim that "Painted Skin" made $2000 million is being touted.

"They said Zhou Xun used to act in a drama called 'The Haunted Tomb,' and now she doesn't really want to play that kind of role anymore, saying it's not challenging enough," Huang Jiaqiang explained.

What kind of play is "The Haunted Tomb"? I've never heard of it.

"Boss, is Zhou Xun the only choice for the role of the fox demon?" Zhao Shan suddenly interjected.

"Yes, it has to be her." Su Jin nodded.

"In that case, I do have a solution. We can send Li Lianhua an audition invitation and then leak the news to Zhou Xun and the others."

"This method works." Huang Jiaqiang was a sensible man, and he quickly understood what Zhao Shan meant.

"Why did Zhou Xun agree to the invitation when it was sent to Li Lianhua?" Wuershan asked curiously.

Huang Jiaqiang gave him a disdainful look. People who make pornographic films are just that—people who make pornographic films. They don't even understand this basic principle, yet they dare to laugh at him.

"The two of them are now fighting tooth and nail for the title of Huayi's number one female singer. If you send a message to Li Lianhua, Zhou Xun will definitely not let Li Lianhua succeed."

There's a saying, what's it again? "Good meat should be kept in your own pot."

"What if Li Lianhua agrees?"

"If you agree, you won't shift the blame to the investors! You'll just say they disagree."

"Let's do it Zhao Shan's way." Su Jin made the final decision, and then said to Huang Jiaqiang, "Old Huang, send an invitation to Li Lianhua later, then leak the news to the media, and talk to Chen Kun and ask him to help persuade her."

"Okay, boss. What about Zhao Wei?"

"Let's not invite her. Let's see if Zhang Ziyi is interested. If not, let's invite Fan Bingbing."

"Boss, I think it would be better to invite Fan Bingbing directly. Zhang Ziyi is too assertive and might be unhappy with the dual female lead setup, forcing more scenes on her," Huang Jiaqiang suggested.

After thinking for a moment, Su Jin felt that inviting Zhang Ziyi was a bit inappropriate. Zhang Ziyi was very powerful; she even dared to add scenes to the star-studded film "Hero," let alone him, a director who had only recently started out.

What? You mean the Cannes Jury Prize?

It's no use. Unless it's the Palme d'Or, Zhang Ziyi won't care much. She was a judge at Cannes last year!

"Okay, let's do it your way!"

"Boss, what about the character Pang Yong?"

"Let's find Huang Xiaoming!"

Huang Xiaoming is very popular. His new TV series "Shanghai Bund" premiered at the beginning of the year. Although many people criticized it, he still became incredibly popular.

The ratings soared, peaking at 13% and averaging 9%.

Many TV stations also broadcast two endings: one in which Xu Wenqiang and Feng Jingyao die together, and the other in which Xu Wenqiang spares Feng Jingyao's life.

Actually, he had a little ulterior motive when he first invited Huang Xiaoming.

When Zhou Xun, Zhao Wei, Chen Kun, and Huang Xiaoming get together, what's your first impression?

Best friend? Female confidante? Male confidante?

No, it's a love quadrangle!

Simply hyping up the romances of the four of them could save ten million in advertising costs.

If we continue to hype up their billing order, we can save at least 20 million yuan in advertising costs.

"By the way, Lao Huang, when you sign the actor contracts with them, remember to sign the contracts for the sequels, part two and three, as well."

"Boss, are we going to film a sequel?"

"Just in case, if the box office is good, we'll start making a sequel."

OK.

The meeting lasted until after 4 p.m.

Afterwards, Su Jin went to the "Painted Skin" project team to look at the character concept art, scenes, costumes, props, and so on.

Everything was prepared well, so he didn't need to worry about anything.

After dinner, I started writing again.

The next day, in the morning.

Su Jin drove Xiao Ying to the Olympic Building.

The Olympic Building, completed in 06, is the office location of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. It is located in Haiding District, North Fourth Ring Road, and houses the offices of 22 of its subordinate departments.

He came here because of the song "Welcome to Beijing," and the leaders of the song solicitation office wanted to talk to him.

We agreed to meet at 10 o'clock, but we arrived here around 9:20.

After waiting for seven or eight minutes, Zhong Lilao arrived. Zhong Lilao explained a series of precautions to Su Jin, and the three of them entered the building.

They found a young man who said the leaders were in a meeting.

The leader was the person in charge of the song solicitation office. Su Jin didn't know how high his rank was, but Zhong Li waited patiently, so he naturally waited along with her.

The wait lasted for over forty minutes, until around 10:20 PM, before the leader finally ended the meeting.

.

The leaders apologized profusely upon meeting, and Su Jin and the others naturally returned the courtesy with polite words like "it's alright."

Then came another round of mutual flattery before getting down to business.

"Director Su, I've listened to the song 'Welcome to Beijing,' and I've also consulted with professionals. They all say it's excellent and perfectly matches the theme of next year's Olympics: 'One World, One Dream.'"

See, a leader is a leader; the way they speak makes all the difference. They don't call him "Little Su" or "Su Jin," they call him "Director Su."

Neither arrogant nor impolite.

"I heard from President Zhong that you plan to invite seventy or eighty celebrities to sing this song. What are your thoughts on that?" The leader looked at Su Jin with a smile, waiting for his next answer.

Actually, there was one more thing he didn't say: they had already decided to use "Welcome to Beijing" as the theme song for next year's Olympics.

As for why he didn't say it?

Of course, we should assess the quality of the young people. If possible, offering them a helping hand is not a problem.

Conversely, take the song and get out.

Su Jin, unaware of his convoluted thoughts, sorted out her ideas and said, "Leader, this is how I see it: the Olympics is a grand event for our country, a stage to face the world, and an opportunity for us to showcase our country to the world."

Songs are a form of cultural expression that can convey a country's emotions and values.

By inviting many well-known singers to sing this song together, more people can understand and appreciate the cultural heritage and artistic charm of our country.

At the same time, these stars each have their own unique influence, and through their performances, they can better promote this song to a wider audience, thereby enhancing the popularity and influence of the Olympics.

Furthermore, choosing a constellation of stars to perform together helps create an atmosphere of unity, cooperation, and positivity—precisely the spirit advocated by the Olympic Games.

Chung Lai-lao listened in disbelief. How did he manage to turn something that could be resolved in a sentence or two into a long speech?

The leader was getting a little tired of listening; the young man wasn't telling the truth and was just spouting official platitudes.

"Director Su, let's talk this out behind closed doors. Don't hold back. Why do you want to invite seventy or eighty celebrities to perform?"

"To show how awesome I am."

The leader was stunned; this was truly quite open and straightforward.

However, he quite liked the young man, which showed that the man was honest.

"So, you're saying these seventy or eighty celebrities must be big names? How do you plan to invite them?"

"Of course, I'll have to trouble you, boss, to issue a notice. I'm just a small-time director; nobody will pay any attention to me!"

"What will you do if I don't agree?"

"If you don't agree, I'll invite some celebrities I know, and then spend some money to invite a few big names."

The leader smiled helplessly; the young man was indeed quite cunning.

"Okay! We'll cooperate with you to invite big-name celebrities, but you'll have to direct the music video for this song."

"Boss, this won't do. How could a small director like me be qualified to take on such a big responsibility? I can't handle it. I'll just be a contestant."

He wouldn't do it if it was mentally and physically exhausting and didn't pay!

"Director Su, don't underestimate yourself. I believe in you. You're young! You need to practice more to grow."

"lead----"

"Hmm?" The leader's face was grim.

Seeing this, Su Jin smiled and said, "Boss, I mean, I guarantee I'll complete the task."

"That's right! Why should young people be like old people, so lifeless? They should be full of energy, going out to explore and see the world."

"The leader is right; I was too naive."

Seeing that Su Jin had agreed, the leader was in a good mood and picked up his cigarette case, asking, "Want a smoke?"

"I don't smoke. Smoking is harmful to your health. I suggest you smoke less in the future, boss," Su Jin said shamelessly.

"I'm getting old, and this is what I like." The leader took out a cigarette, lit it himself, and didn't ask Su Jin and the others if they minded.

"I heard from Mr. Zhong that you can handle the performance fees for those seventy or eighty big-name celebrities?"

"It wasn't me who handled it; it was them who contributed their share to the great cause of the motherland, without asking for any money."

"What if they don't perform if there's no performance fee?"

"Then he is not Chinese, his stance is problematic."

"That's an overstatement. For comrades like this, we should focus on education."

What kind of education is this? It's probably just a combination of harsh words and sweet treats.

"The leader is right, I was being a bit extreme."

"You, you—" The leader was both amused and exasperated, unsure of what to say.

"Boss, let me state my position first: I'm willing to accept one yuan as payment for directing the music video, 'Welcome to Beijing'."

"I'm giving this to my country for free, without charging a single penny," Su Jin said sincerely.

The leader looked at Su Jin with admiration in his eyes. He was growing to like this young man more and more; he was truly enlightened.

Whether it's genuine or feigned, having the intention is what matters, but many people don't even have that intention.

His secretary glanced at the time, walked over to her boss and whispered a few words. The boss then said, "Su Jin, when you get back, make a plan and a list of celebrities to invite. Give it to Xiao Wang. If there are no problems, proceed with the plan."

Xiao Wang is the young man from earlier, the leader's secretary.

"Okay, I'll go back and write it." Su Jin was perceptive enough to notice that her boss had other things to do.

"Sir, if there's nothing else, we'll head back now."

"Okay, go ahead!"

"By the way, I have some good news for you. If all goes well, 'Welcome to Beijing' will be the theme song for next year's Olympics."

"Thank you, sir." Su Jin nodded slightly in thanks, stood up, and said, "Sir, we'll head back now."

"Okay, go ahead! Drive carefully on the road."

"OK."

Outside the building, Su Jin took out a cigarette and lit it, just as she heard Zhong Lilao's teasing voice.

"Who just said smoking is harmful to health?"

Ignoring her teasing, Su Jin asked, "Sister Fang, who was that leader just now? You were so respectful to him."

"From the Ministry of Culture, in charge of propaganda."

"Can this be regulated by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television?"

"No, the General Administration is an independent unit, directly under the higher authorities."

"and you----"

"Although you can't control others, you can control them through connections! Building a good relationship with him will be very beneficial for you in the future."

"Um.

""

As they were talking, the two assistants drove up in the car.

"After you write down the plan, let me see it first, and I'll give it my feedback," Zhong Lilao said.

"it is good."

Back at the company, Su Jin called Yang Qing and Wu Ershan into her office and talked to them about "Welcome to Beijing".

"The higher-ups value me highly and insisted that I serve as the chief director of the 'Welcome to Beijing' music video. For your glorious future, I proposed to the leaders that the two of you be the co-directors, and the leaders agreed."

Wuershan and Yang Qing exchanged a glance, both seeing the excitement in each other's eyes. They didn't feel that Su Jin was trying to trick them at all; on the contrary, they felt honored to participate in such a national event.

As the director of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and as the directors of the Olympic theme song, they are practically also Olympic Games directors.

"Thank you, boss," the two said in unison.

"No need to be so polite with me. I told you I would definitely make you great directors in the country. 'Welcome to Beijing' is just a small taste of success." Su Jin smiled as she saw their excitement.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. Get the MV shooting schedule and the list of celebrities ready within a week. Write down a hundred people on the list, and I'll see which ones to cut later."

"Should we only write about domestic matters? Should we also write about international matters?" Wuershan asked.

"This is 'Welcome to Beijing,' why write about foreigners? It should be all about domestic people."

"The content of the music video should incorporate the characteristics of Beijing, such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, intangible cultural heritage, etc. In short, it should showcase our national characteristics."

"Okay, boss."