Chapter 41 Authentic Casting

It took a long time for Zhang Qianjun to finally convince her that this was simply a surprise. The apartment was secured, and the next step would be obtaining a Beijing *hukou*. Once they had both, they would officially be true Beijingers, wouldn't they?

"When a surprise is too big, it becomes a shock!"

Kan Qingzi expressed that while she was glad he was good to her, she was terrified by it being *too* good! Even if he had cheated on her, he didn't need to compensate her to this extent. If she had to buy this apartment herself, she wouldn't be able to afford it even after ten years.

"You're being too modest, my dear. You still don't understand the future," he thought. Even if it might be a bit of a stretch for her to buy it on her own in a decade, she could definitely afford it if she gritted her teeth.

The worries of youth always pass quickly. In the blink of an eye, Kan Qingzi had forgotten why she was crying and started asking what the apartment actually looked like.

Zhang Qianjun held up the floor plan and explained for a long time, but no matter what, he couldn't make her understand what the interior was like.

Their conversation went something like this:

Qing: "What does the living room look like?"
Jun: "The windows face east. It's quite large."
Qing: "Can you be more specific?"
Jun: "Light-colored marble floors, with a leather sofa."
Qing: "What kind of lights are there?"
Jun: "A chandelier."
Qing: "What kind of chandelier?"
Jun: "A pretty big chandelier."

After being questioned for a while, Zhang Qianjun grew thoroughly exasperated.

"Can't you just look for yourself when we move in the day after tomorrow?"
"Isn't that still the day after tomorrow?"

Kan Qingzi stared at the floor plan for a while longer.
"Do you have the keys?"
"I do."
"Let's go!"

Seeing that her determination was genuine, Zhang Qianjun complied.

Once they arrived, Kan Qingzi looked around eagerly, occasionally playing the interior designer—criticizing this and that, explaining how she would design it if it were hers, as if she were fully capable of drafting a complete renovation plan.

She had nothing better to do, but Zhang Qianjun had to attend the working group meeting for *So Young* the next day, and he had hundreds of pages of materials to review back home tonight. Tomorrow, he also needed to align the shooting timeline with locations and characters to finalize the actors' schedules.

After listening to his girlfriend's grandiose architectural theories a bit longer, he finally suggested that they head back for today and that she could slowly study the place at home later.

Though reluctant, the girlfriend obediently agreed, but she put forward a small request—

Before leaving, let's christen the house.

This was a request Zhang Qianjun simply couldn't refuse. So, after the fourth movement of the *Symphony in C minor*, the two of them tidied up briefly and headed home.

The next day, at the conference room of Solar System Pictures, perhaps due to the recent influx of talent fees, Zhang Qianjun increasingly felt that the company was a bit too small and wanted to upgrade to a larger space. However, buying a building with the cash currently in his pocket was entirely unrealistic, so he suppressed the thought and turned his attention back to work.

This meeting was of a very high level. Representatives from all three investment firms were present, alongside the core members of Solar System Pictures. Once everyone had arrived, Liu Chang turned on the projector and displayed the PowerPoint presentation for *So Young*.

First came the shooting locations, totaling four. Campus scenes would be filmed at several universities in Jinling; the hometown scenes for the female lead and second female lead would be shot in Anshun, Guizhou; post-graduation scenes would primarily take place in Modu; and the female lead's individual scenes would be filmed at Likeng, Wuyuan in Jiangxi.

The entire shooting schedule was estimated at 90 days, with post-production expected to take 40 days.

Upon hearing this introduction, President Li from Enlight Pictures was the first to raise a question.

"I have a question. Spanning four locations with such a long shooting schedule, will the production budget be enough?"

Executive Producer Li Kai took over the question.

"President Li, there are only two core shooting locations: Jinling and Anshun. We have already made prior contact with numerous universities in Jinling, which will provide venues free of charge. Meanwhile, the shooting time in Anshun is relatively short, allowing for intensive filming.

As for the scenes in Modu, most are indoor sets. Choosing Modu also took product placement considerations into account. As for Wuyuan, the scenes are very few and are expected to be completed by a single unit in two days. Generally speaking, the current budget should be sufficient. If unforeseen circumstances lead to a budget overrun at that time, Solar System Pictures can provide additional investment."

Earlier, President Li of Enlight had been nodding repeatedly, but the moment additional movie investment was mentioned, he immediately voiced his objection.

"Since the budget was established when the contract was signed, we must complete it within the budget framework. We cannot consider increasing the budget before filming even begins. Working with that mindset guarantees budget overruns. How would investment shares and standards be calculated then? Personally, I am strongly opposed to discussing budget increases during the early stages of the project."

President Chen of Wanda nodded repeatedly, expressing support for President Li's stance, while Department Head Wang of China Film Group remained expressionless, sitting like a statue without any reaction.

Next, everyone discussed and decided on various positions within the crew. Zhang Qianjun's core team would definitely handle cinematography, lighting, props, and makeup/styling. This formed the baseline for Han Qiming, Li Kai, and the newly joined styling designer Micky.

As for the executive director, China Film Group recommended someone: Zhang Bowen, who had previously served as the executive director for *The Message*. He was a veteran executive director within the circle and a well-known utility player across major domestic film crews.

With the crew members for various departments confirmed, Li Kai began his presentation on product placement: WeChat, Sina Weibo, Li-Ning, Converse, and ESPRIT. While they might feel slightly out of place, they generally fit the setting, given the story spanned over a decade. However, when Meters/bonwe appeared, Zhang Qianjun felt a slight hesitation.

"Will this company work?"

Li Kai looked blank, completely unaware of what Zhang Qianjun was getting at.

"I mean, does this company match college students in the 1990s within the movie?"

President Chen of Wanda, born in the 1970s, answered the question.

"Qianjun, you're young after all, and you think Meters/bonwe is some domestic off-brand. Actually, this brand originally came from Australia. When it first entered China, it was heavily promoted as an imported brand. Even after being acquired by a Hong Kong boss in the 1990s, its momentum didn't wane. Back then, Meters/bonwe jeans were wildly popular; college students and young people all bought them, much like Levi's in recent years—though Levi's prices were quite a bit higher.

A similar example is ESPRIT. Back in the day, after Brigitte Lin became their spokesperson, they were insanely popular, widely touted as a major American brand and so forth. Those years, they ruthlessly harvested the wallets of the post-70s and post-80s generations."

"Is that so? Then I have no objections. It's just that in my impression, both of these companies have been going downhill day by day."

Immediately afterward, he turned his head to look at Li Kai.

"We can't delay getting the money from these two companies. Once it's settled, make sure they wire the funds immediately."

Li Kai smiled bitterly and nodded, indicating he would keep a close eye on it.

After going through a few more procedures, they finally reached the most crucial casting preliminary stage.

Since the lead actor and actress had already been negotiated beforehand, the roles to be selected today were actually the remaining characters.

First and foremost was Ruan Guan. Department Head Wang, who had been playing a statue the whole time, finally moved, and his opening words instantly stunned Zhang Qianjun.

It turned out that the person Department Head Wang recommended was Ye Qing from China Film Group. The reasoning was quite thorough: born in 1988, young, pretty, with a youthful face, she had already accumulated a certain level of popularity by playing Yutan in the currently trending drama *Scarlet Heart*, and her salary demands were low, making her an extremely good fit for the crew's needs.

Was the Best Actress's close friend actually from China Film Group? Zhang Qianjun muttered inwardly. Aside from remembering her as being very "lush" in his past life's movie *Brotherhood of Blades*, his only other memory of Ye Qing was that ever since *Scarlet Heart*, the Best Actress brought her along whenever she acted, and internet rumors claimed the two were girlfriends.

The actual situation remained unknown, but the two were definitely close friends, because twelve years later in *A Journey to Love*, Ye Qing was still listed among the major cast members.

Zhang Qianjun casually flipped through the bound volume of candidate actors in his hand. The girl indeed looked very young and carried a strong resemblance to Taiwanese actress Jiang Zuping. Though not very tall, she made up for it by being slim, meaning height wouldn't be an issue during filming.

Just as Department Head Wang's voice trailed off, President Li of Enlight also nominated someone. He stated she was an undergraduate in the Acting Department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy's Class of 2004, a freshly graduated master's degree holder in Media Studies from the University of East Anglia in the UK this year, pretty, tall, and talented, and so on. Zhang Qianjun took a glance and, as expected, it was none other than Jing Boran—wait, no, it was Mai Xiaobing (Jiang Shuying).

So, Jiang Shuying had taken Enlight's route back then? As for the PR drafts claiming she and Yang Zishan were selected from massive open auditions among countless people, Zhang Qianjun didn't believe a single word of it.

You could still hype Yang Zishan as looking like Zhao Wei, but what about Jiang Shuying? Zhao Wei had publicly complained on more than one occasion that she looked old, a grudge Jiang Shuying later held onto. Under those circumstances, could she possibly be a female second lead chosen through open auditions?

Regardless, Zhang Qianjun was prepared to keep his mouth shut regarding role recommendations. Aside from having Liu Chang recommend Tan Jianci to audition for Xu Kaiyang, he didn't want to mention a single person within the top ten billed roles. For roles outside the top ten, Liu Chang could manage to squeeze someone into the movie on his own without needing Zhang Qianjun to speak up.

The two sides immediately clashed over the first role. Needless to say, let the two sides communicate and negotiate.

Next came the second male lead. He had no idea how these people ranked the billing, but they actually placed Lin Jing as the third-billed second male lead, ranking even higher than Ruan Guan. Despite not understanding it, Zhang Qianjun continued acting like a piece of wood, determined to keep his mouth shut. Little did he know that the very next second, President Li of Enlight would break his composure, because the person he recommended turned out to be Han Geng. Was this the convergence of worldlines?

President Li's reasoning was thorough, revolving around a single point: Han Geng was wildly popular. Although not quite as popular as when he had first returned to China, he remained the premier example of domestic export returning to the domestic market, offering a significant boost to the film's promotional impact. Most importantly, Yuehua Entertainment wanted to break into the mainstream film market and offered an extremely low quote for his movie salary—so low it didn't match his level of popularity at all.

Zhang Qianjun thought to himself that if this person's mouth could be kept in check so he wouldn't babble nonsense during the promotion and theatrical release periods, he could still be used, seeing as his popularity was still there.

After discussing a few more character candidates, Zhang Qianjun had minor objections regarding Zhang Yao, the candidate for Li Weijuan, because she was a bit too old. However, after Wanda's President Chen casually dropped that she was the girlfriend of President Chen at Poly Performing Arts, everything suddenly made crystal clear. Why even bother with auditions? Auditioning for a third or fourth female lead meant looking down on someone.

Once the main cast members were finalized, Zhang Qianjun sighed: sure enough, open auditions and tryouts for major productions were just meant to fool ghosts. Every single one of them was a connected background insider with heavy resources.

For the second female lead Ruan Guan, there were two candidates: one was China Film's own insider, and the other had connections to someone at Enlight. In the end, whatever agreement the two companies reached, Ruan Guan still went to Jiang Shuying, while Ye Qing was directly cast as the fifth female lead, Shi Jie, forming a secret parallel romance line with Han Geng.

Earlier, Ji Rujing had even called to demand a special guest appearance for Tiffany Tang, claiming otherwise it would hurt her billing status. How ironic it turned out to be—she was replaced without a shred of need for a reason, and so much for billing status.

Did Zhang Qianjun voice any opinions? Of course not. He had already grabbed the biggest piece of the pie for himself; speaking up again would be impolite. Besides, what did Tiffany Tang getting bumped have to do with him? He had already used up the spectacle-wearing brother's favor just by passing her recommendation along earlier; if she wanted anything else, she would have to pay extra.

The third female lead Zhu Xiaobei's candidate was Liu Xin, who also had connections through China Film, having played the female lead in low-budget projects by Changchun Film Studio and China Film, thus building a connection of mutual goodwill. Plus, she truly was a short-haired minor star, which fit the character well.
The fourth female lead, Li Weijuan, was directly given to a Poly-affiliated actress's wife.
The sixth female lead, Zeng Yu, candidate Wang Jiajia, recommended by China Film, graduated from Beijing Dance Academy before entering the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy, and was the young girlfriend of director He Ping—a male director born in 1957 and a female actress born in 1984. Artists really knew how to play wild; the woman called the man "my leader," and the man called the woman "Princess Watermelon." They even openly tagged each other on Weibo using their verified V-accounts. This just showed that only traffic idols were constantly hounded by fans over such matters; actors without fanbases didn't care about these things at all.

The candidate for the second male lead, Lin Jing, was Han Geng. Although his popularity was top-tier, Enlight's President Li also muttered to Zhang Qianjun that the husband of Yuehua's boss was the vice president of Gome and had some ties to China Media Capital in Modu.
The candidate for the third male lead, Lao Zhang, was Bao Bei'er, directly tied to Enlight's own artists, reportedly receiving high value within the company.
The fourth male lead, Xu Kaiyang, was originally going to be recommended by Liu Chang as Zhang Qianjun's classmate Tan Jianci, but China Film's Department Head Wang directly stated he hoped to cast Zheng Kai. Just as Zhang Qianjun was about to ask why bring Huayi Brothers into this, he caught Department Head Wang winking at him. During the break, old Wang pulled him aside and explained that this person had pulled strings through President Zhang, the newly appointed vice president of China Film Shares who came from Beijing Television and had lingering ties with Huayi Brothers from his TV station days. Since it was just a minor role, he went along with it.

The overall process went very fast. Basically, a role was decided every few minutes. Talk of "I'll knock on your door tonight" or "You arrange my role tomorrow" was all nonsense; the unspoken rules had already concluded before the meeting even began. Whatever auditioning and casting remained was just performed to shoot promotional documentaries for fans and audiences to see.

Zhang Qianjun originally wanted to lament to his brothers about how human hearts were no longer what they used to be, but then he thought that he was doing the exact same thing—didn't he immediately pull strings for his own girlfriend the moment he got a bit of power? Neither side had any room to look down on the other; they were all cut from the exact same cloth.

And this was only with three production companies backing it. If funds fell short and more investment shares were sold to co-producers, all sorts of monsters and demons would probably crawl out of the woodwork even for roles ranked past the tenth billing.

Thinking of this, Zhang Qianjun once again realized the importance of connections and hurriedly called President La to report on his work while asking him for a favor.

Beep... beep... beep...

"Hello, President La. How has your health been lately? I haven't seen you in a long time, and you didn't even come to the 300 million box office celebration banquet for *Brotherhood of Blades*. I've really missed you. Ever since you taught me how to be a producer last time, I have constantly kept your teachings in mind, diligently learning how to be a qualified producer to contribute bricks and tiles to the national film industry."

"You brat, talking so much nonsense so uncharacteristically—did you cause some trouble? I heard that you ran back to Qiantang overnight after meeting with little Wang from Huayi. Did he take a fancy to you or something, scaring you like this?"

"No, President Wang and I just had slightly misaligned philosophies resulting in some ideological friction, but overall it was relatively friendly."

After a brief pause, Zhang Qianjun slightly altered his tone.
"President La, today Department Head Wang told me that a President Zhang has joined China Film Shares from Beijing Television, and it will be officially announced in November. Isn't this person here to compete with you for the succession?"

The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly carried a trace of suppression.
"Who told you that?"
"I'm just guessing wildly. For someone who does television to suddenly mix in with a bunch of filmmakers, his style doesn't match at all. Aside from someone pulling rank for a leap-frog promotion, I can't think of any other reason."

President La's tone returned to its usual composure.
"Stop guessing wildly about those kinds of things. Focus on making solid achievements with the movie in your hands; that's what truly matters."

"That's for sure. Performance metrics are the foundation of one's career, and the higher-ups love seeing those."
"Cut the crap. Isn't it ridiculously naive of you to say that?"

As if just remembering something, Zhang Qianjun continued,
"President La, I'm actually calling you mainly about two things. You didn't come to the celebration banquet for *Brotherhood of Blades*, so surely you won't skip the celebration banquet for *So Young* later on, right?
There's another matter a friend asked me to inquire about. Let's say, hypothetically, that he had a conflict with a well-known industry tycoon—is there any possibility he might get kidnapped and brought before the tycoon, or have officers suddenly burst in while he's hanging out with his girlfriend at home, claiming to bust a prostitution case?"

"Under the shining national emblem, ghosts and monsters have nowhere to hide. As for being with your girlfriend, first of all, the female party must consent that she is your girlfriend; as long as it's legal and compliant, naturally nothing will happen. As long as you don't commit wrongdoing, no one can do anything to you."

"The problem is, even someone who obeys the law and follows rules can still be framed for wrongdoing. People always have oversights."

"Then have your friend make a bigger display with more people around him. When there are more people, naturally you can patch any loopholes.
As for the celebration banquet for *Brotherhood of Blades*, I am not a producer, so it's inconvenient for me to take the stage. However, if *So Young* achieves outstanding results next year, I might drop by midway to show my face."

A confident smile appeared on Zhang Qianjun's face.
"Rest assured, it will definitely be outstanding. I ranked in the top three of my grade back in eighth grade. I won't disturb you any longer; take care of your health. By the way, your hair has gotten so gray—have you considered getting it dyed?"

"You brat really like sticking your nose into everything, even telling me to dye my hair. Whatever, hanging up."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Qianjun pondered for a moment before dialing Zhou Chongshan.

"Brother Zhou, didn't you say there were still over a dozen candidates last time? Pick four more, and make sure they're big and tall—the kind that immediately stand out the moment they step onto the street."