novelraw Chapter 346: Poster for Reference Only—Please Refer to the Actual Product
Chapter 346: Poster for Reference Only—Please Refer to the Actual Product
Chapter 346: Poster for Reference Only—Please Refer to the Actual Product
With two films igniting the market one after another, the threshold of Spark Media was nearly trampled flat by capital from all directions.
A sea of variety show invitations piled up on Lin Wan's desk, with over a dozen being top-tier S+ grade productions.
Lin Wan couldn't even be bothered to lift an eyelid.
She stared at that comedy script titled 'King of Extras', glanced at the "Heartache for Jiang Ci" topic trending online, and made a decision.
The acting business would be paused for now.
Jiang Ci had to be physically isolated from the world of tragic roles.
So, she tossed a pile of variety show proposals in front of Jiang Ci.
At that moment, Jiang Ci was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, a notebook spread open on his knees,
writing a character profile for "Chen San", the protagonist of 'King of Extras'.
He felt this unlucky extra was also very real, very interesting.
Without looking up, he casually flipped through the proposals in front of him.
'Keep Running, Brother', a national-level competitive variety show.
On the poster, guests were sweating profusely.
Jiang Ci turned the page.
Too tiring.
'Escape Room', a brain-burning puzzle-solving variety show.
The cover was dense with mechanisms.
Jiang Ci flipped another page.
Too mentally taxing.
His fingers slid over stack after stack of proposals until his gaze settled on a poster with an unusually artistic style.
The proposal's name was very zen-like—'Days in the Clouds'.
There were no celebrities on the poster, only blue sky, white clouds, a small wooden cabin nestled among green trees, and a rocking chair under the front porch.
A blurry figure lay on the rocking chair, leisurely sunbathing.
A line of promotional text beside it struck Jiang Ci's soul with pinpoint accuracy:
"Return time to life."
Pointing at that rocking chair that looked perfect for sleeping, Jiang Ci's eyes lit up.
Lin Wan leaned over to look and hesitated.
This show was too slow, going against the mainstream market, and probably had little explosive potential.
But when she saw the look of almost yearning relaxation on Jiang Ci's face, all commercial calculations vanished into thin air.
Explosive potential was bullshit! His happiness was most important!
"This one it is!" Lin Wan immediately made the decision, picked up the phone, and contacted the program crew.
The night before departing for Guizhou province, Jiang Ci was packing.
The items were simple: a few windbreakers, toiletries.
Just as he was about to zip up the suitcase, his movements halted.
He opened the system panel, scrolled through the skill bar, and his gaze landed on that glittering golden suona horn icon.
[Instrument Proficiency: Suona Horn (Special Edition for Weddings and Funerals)]
Jiang Ci pondered for a moment.
Going to the countryside to experience life, bringing a musical instrument to cultivate one's sentiments, seemed perfectly reasonable.
So, three days later, under the horrified gaze of his assistant Sun Zhou,
he expressionlessly stuffed a rather old-fashioned suona horn into a hidden compartment of his suitcase.
The plane landed, followed by three hours of mountain roads.
When Jiang Ci arrived at the program's filming location—an ancient village not even found on maps—there was no red carpet, no screaming.
Only winding bluestone paths and the fresh air mixed with the scent of soil, grass, and cow dung.
Jiang Ci took off his mask and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
Satisfied, extremely satisfied.
Carrying his suitcase in one hand and two bags of freshly bought hot shaobing flatbreads in the other,
he walked while munching, heading towards the only newly renovated courtyard in the village.
At the courtyard gate.
The program's resident guest, host Teacher Yuan, and the new-generation idol Xiao Wu were eagerly looking out.
"Teacher Yuan, do you think Teacher Jiang Ci... is easy to get along with?" Xiao Wu nervously rubbed his hands. "Online, they all say he gets deeply into character, is very quiet and reserved. I'm afraid I'll say the wrong thing."
Teacher Yuan wasn't sure either. In his thirty-year career, Jiang Ci was the first to achieve god-like status with "Broken Feeling".
"Play it by ear later. Show more care, talk less," Teacher Yuan instructed.
The two stood ready, prepared to warmly welcome this "Melancholy Film Emperor".
Then, they saw a young man in a windbreaker, his mouth stuffed with shaobing, humming a little tune as he strolled over.
The pile of comforting words Xiao Wu had prepared got stuck in his throat.
Jiang Ci walked up to the two, swallowed the food in his mouth, and offered the other bag of still-warm shaobing.
"Teacher Yuan, Teacher Xiao Wu, bought these on the way. Have you eaten?"
Xiao Wu numbly took the shaobing, his mind a complete blank.
Teacher Yuan looked at Jiang Ci's overly clean face and those eyes completely devoid of gloom,
surprised to find that this newly crowned Film Emperor was not only not melancholic in private, but rather... a bit adorably clueless?
After simple greetings, the three arrived before the "Clouds' Courtyard".
Blue tiles, white walls, a wooden gate, simple and elegant.
Except a large brass padlock hung on the door.
A voice full of mischief came from a loudspeaker mounted on the courtyard wall.
"Welcome, all three teachers! To test everyone's survival skills, we've hidden the key somewhere in the village. Please complete tasks based on the mission card hints to obtain the key!"
Hearing that they still had to run around doing tasks, the retirement enthusiasm Jiang Ci had just ignited was instantly cut in half.
The rocking chair was right there in the courtyard, but he had to run all over the village under the sun?
He sighed, glanced at that not-very-complex padlock, and turned to ask the cameraman.
"Do we *have* to find the key?"
The cameraman was stunned.
"Opening it is enough, right?" Jiang Ci asked again.
Under everyone's puzzled gaze, Jiang Ci fumbled in his windbreaker pocket for a while and pulled out a straightened paperclip.
He walked to the door, crouched down, and activated that Golden Legend skill.
[The Melancholy Lockpick Master]
He inserted the thin metal wire into the lock's keyhole and gently fiddled with it.
The surroundings were extremely quiet.
Teacher Yuan and Xiao Wu looked at each other, not understanding what this Film Emperor was trying to do.
Had he acted so much that he taught himself lockpicking?
"Click."
A soft sound.
The lock, opened.
The moment the lock's bolt sprang open, the cameraman holding the camera beside them suddenly felt a pang in his heart.
Looking at that easily opened lock, he inexplicably thought of his own youth locked down by a thirty-year mortgage,
his wallet locked down by his child's tutoring classes, his dignity locked down by the endless demands of clients.
The cameraman's eyes reddened, and the shoulder carrying the equipment uncontrollably trembled twice.
The director behind the monitor nearly crushed the teacup in his hand.
Seeing the lock being opened through the lens, he actually felt a surge of inexplicable loss.
This lock was opened, but who would open the big locks of his life—the never-ending mortgage, the endless bills for his child's tutoring classes,
and the hair almost gone from being tormented by clients?
The director let out a long sigh. That sigh was highly contagious. Soon, the entire broadcast control room was permeated with a despondent "life isn't worth it" atmosphere.
Jiang Ci paid no attention to this group of people suddenly feeling emo behind him.
He pulled open the door bolt, pushed the gate open with an innocent expression, ready to rush towards the rocking chair of his dreams.
Jiang Ci's action of pushing the gate open was full of eagerness; he had even decided which angle to lie in to sunbathe first.
However, the scene behind the door froze the smile on his face.
In his line of sight, there was no rocking chair, no wooden cabin, not even a flat piece of ground to stand on.
Only a pile of firewood waiting to be split, stacked like a small hill,
a leaky roof in one corner barely covered with plastic sheeting, and... a large patch of wasteland overgrown with waist-high weeds.
Jiang Ci's gaze circled the courtyard once, then again,
finally landing despondently on the half-eaten shaobing in his hand.
The infuriating voice of the director's team sounded again from a hidden speaker in the courtyard.
"Friendly reminder: The poster is for reference only. A beautiful life needs to be created with diligent hands."
Jiang Ci felt he had been scammed.