Chapter 25: The Battle Shifts to the Wulanbutong Grasslands

  It's him after all!

  Lin Xiao's brain quickly turned around, and he suddenly smiled. He understood why the other party wanted to get close to him. In this era, Huang Bo was still far from his glorious period. Since 06, after Crazy Stone became famous overnight, he finally walked on the right path, but now, he was still working part-time at Beijing Film Academy, and his life was even more miserable than some of his proud disciples.

  As Sun Lei and Cai Dekuan, as his students, naturally could not get any support from each other, except for a diploma from the Beijing Film Academy, they had nothing and could only start from scratch.

  "Are you still in touch with Huang Laoshi?" He asked casually, but this person was a typical example of "thick accumulation and thin release", his acting skills had been honed to perfection after ten years of ups and downs, the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor in 2009 was well-deserved.

  "Of course." The two men, hiccuping with laughter, replied "After all, he's our teacher."

  "I've heard of Teacher Huang before and I really want to get to know him."

  "No problem, I'll give you his phone number later." Cai Dechuan turned his eyes around and said with a sly tone, "However, Lin Ge, we didn't come here today to talk about this matter."

  "Is there anything else to say? Lin Xiao looked at them suspiciously and asked, "You're not trying to pull me into some faction, are you? I know it's inevitable for new actors to have these kinds of things happen, but I won't go along with it."

  "Of course not." Sun Lei burst out laughing "Who dares to pull Teacher Chen's people over there, we came today to give you a reminder."

  "The play on this side is almost finished. Director Chen will definitely give you more scenes, anyone with eyes can see that." Cai Dechuan poured a cup of wine and savored it slowly "However, in at most a month, we'll have to go to the Ulan Butong Grassland, which is the last 'location' outside of Hengdian. But I heard someone there doesn't take a liking to Lin Ge."

  Lin Xiao furrowed his brow and entered this line, destined to be low-key, but he didn't high-profile either. Who would look at him uncomfortably?

  "It's not your fault, actually." Sun Lei continued to explain, "This play, the investor brought in their own person. Named Li Rui. A graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, he's a newcomer that the investor is planning to promote. He plays a role with many scenes, Wei Dongting. Originally, they were going to let him show his face among a batch of new people, but then you came out."

  "When he heard the news from this side, he was already very dissatisfied. This person is arrogant and narrow-minded. I heard you also offended Zhao Qingya? Lin Ge, as the saying goes, it's easy to deal with Yama (the king of hell), but difficult to deal with the little devils. Li Ruijin, who is eager to take credit, probably already considers you a thorn in his side."

  Lin Xiao smiled bitterly, this circle is just like the rivers and lakes, where there is always a "ranking list", even if he is the "newcomer ranking list first" of the Kangxi drama group, someone will think of stepping on him to take his place. Not to mention that he now has the eyes of several veteran actors on him, once they step on him, their attention will naturally shift to others.

  Li Ruijin is just one of them, but now it seems that he may be a very troublesome opponent.

  "How is his relationship with investors?" This is what he is most concerned about now.

  "One of his distant relatives. His acting skills are quite good." Sun Lei looked at him with a hint of meaning, "Of course, not as good as yours."

  "Originally, no one in the crew thought anyone could have your acting skills. Li Ruijin, as a supporting actor with not a small amount of screen time, stands out among the younger generation naturally. One mountain can't accommodate two tigers."

  Lin Xiao didn't say anything, he just raised his drink and said "Thanks."

  "Nowhere, we are all brothers in the same crew. We'll tell you what we know, so that when you get to Ulan Bator, if someone sets a trap for you, you won't be caught off guard." The two men hastily raised their cups and downed their drinks in one gulp.

  Then the three of them never mentioned this topic again, but instead enthusiastically chatted about the gossip in this circle. It has to be said that sometimes artists are more professional than paparazzi, and their ability to catch wind and shadow is also a notch higher.

  With full wine and a full meal, the three of them left their phone numbers with each other and returned to the crew.

  Looking at the new number stored on his phone, Lin Xiao smiled. On this list, apart from Zhao Wei and Chen Kun, there were only two of them.

  As for Li Ruijin, he wasn't too worried. This kind of thing had happened too many times before - suppressing others was as common as business deals, and whoever had the biggest background would be able to stand in the front row; as for acting skills, unless you were a newcomer like him who could make the movie emperor applaud, they were basically useless.

  He thought of this and gave CAMI a call.

  As soon as the call was connected, CAMI asked in a bad mood, "What? The person poached by Director Chen Jialin still remembers our small Huaxia company?"

  "How did you find out so quickly?" Lin Xiao gritted his teeth "Sister CAMI, the news spread pretty fast. I didn't agree to it, did I?"

  "Will you still answer my calls? You have a bit of conscience." CAMI complained for two sentences, then said "It's not that I don't want to visit you, Li Hao has a lot on his plate, I really can't get away."

  "Camille has been thinking about it. How has she been lately?"

  "He's been busy lately, there's an idol drama to be filmed. Don't thank me, I just think this raising game is fun."

  Lin Xiao remained silent for a moment before speaking up, "The show here is almost over, we'll be heading to the Ulan Butong Grassland soon, I have quite a few scenes there."

  "Got it, not far from Beijing, I'll come over when I have time."

  "Cami sister, I won't beat around the bush either, you know that Chen teacher and others have some intentions towards me."

  As sharp as CAMI, she immediately asked "Did you hear something?"

  "The investor has a distant relative named Li Ruijin, who plays Wei Dongting, and it is said that..."

  "I understand." CAMI let out a sigh "This matter isn't that easy to handle, Huaxia's current strength is insufficient. In this case, when we get to Ulan Bator, I'll personally come over and take care of the acting parts until they're finished."

  Lin Xiao slightly put down his heart, this road, if one is too strong, it's a dead end. Zhao Qingya was on the bow last time, and this time, he could avoid it if possible, if he really couldn't avoid it, then he would have to fight.

  "Now that you've called, there's something else I need to tell you." Just as he was about to hang up the phone, CAMI spoke up. "It's almost September, and I want you and me to go to Taiwan together. The Golden Horse Awards invitation has arrived, and Chu Boss pulled some strings to get a few tickets. I plan to bring some of our company's promising young people to broaden their horizons."

  Golden Horse Awards?! Lin Xiao's eyes suddenly lit up, in his past life he had only participated in the Golden Rooster Awards, and that was just to be used as a comparison, the experience wasn't pleasant. But this time, he could finally attend the most grand film awards ceremony in the country as an audience member!

  "When shall we start?" he asked impatiently.

  "This time it will be held on September 2nd. Let's go through the formalities first, and we may set off a few days before the end of August. You'll need to clear out those few days then."

  "No problem."

  He hung up the phone, and the little shadow brought by Li Ruijin suddenly cleared. He thought the road ahead was long, and there were still many stumbling blocks like this, Zhao Qingya stood in front of him like a mountain, so why care about another small stone like Li Ruijin?

  It was the Golden Horse Awards, this national film festival, a grand ceremony representing the ultimate achievement of the domestic film and television circle, that left him unable to calm down for a long time.

  "One day, my work will appear on the list of Golden Horse, Asia, and even Oscars!"

  A week later, his scenes indeed increased. Chen Jialin did not reduce his scenes due to Lin Xiao's refusal.

  One after another, envious and jealous glances shot from all directions, while his acting skills also gained recognition from the majority of people, with several scenes not having a single CUT.

  While others finally couldn't help but ask him questions, he answered them one by one. Gradually, the number of people who got along with him increased.

  He felt more and more like he was in his element.

  "Growing up so fast." Chen Jialin nodded more than once, making the new actors who saw this scene feel a bit uncomfortable.

  Sun Lei shook his head and stopped reading.

  "What's wrong? The director likes him, isn't that good?" Cai Dekuan said in puzzlement.

  "The more the director likes him, the harder Ulanbutong's days are. Those people over there are all brought in by investors. The venue is also connected to that side, it can be said to be Li Ruijin's stronghold. Now the other party is probably waiting with a belly full of fire on that side."

  Sun Lei shook his head and said, "We should contact our connections, don't easily get labeled as belonging to one faction. Otherwise, when the time comes, we won't have any good fruit to eat."

  The crew is working intensively, Lin Xiao's scenes have indeed increased, but more are those of other actors. According to the unwritten rules, good times in a day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening, are left for veteran actors. New actors' schedules are mostly at noon, when the sun is strongest, or even late at night, with many instances of being called up at 12:01 AM to rush filming.

  Lin Xiao had never applied for sick leave, and his past experiences told him that this was common. Behind the dazzling stars were repeated use of medication, repeated performances in scorching heat, and repeated injuries that left them bruised and battered. But all these hardships would vanish when they received a certain nomination.

  There were several times when he really felt uncomfortable, but considering that they were not emotionally intense scenes, he took some medicine and persisted in acting, so much so that after the performance, his back was drenched with sweat.

  It's now early August and the sun is starting to show its ferocity. After returning to his dormitory, he doesn't want to think about anything and just goes straight to sleep. The next day at 6 o'clock, if there are any scenes for him, he still has to get up and supplement them.

  Liu Songde was almost never in his dormitory, and every time he came back only after he had slept. In short, the two of them hardly ever saw each other anymore.

  At such a busy time, Lin Xiao almost cut off all interpersonal relationships, except for the daily communication on the set, and really couldn't squeeze out time to communicate with others. Only Qin Xin, Cai Dekuan, and Sun Lei, who had chatted a few times, had time to say a couple of words.

  August 15th, the last day of filming for the Imperial City Governor's Mansion. For several days in a row, everyone was exhausted. Many times when the director remembered that something needed to be added or there weren't enough extras, they would call an actor back and re-shoot. Of course, 99% were newcomers.