novelraw Chapter 363: Jiang Ci Picks a Bride, Everyone Tries to Dissuade Him
Chapter 363: Jiang Ci Picks a Bride, Everyone Tries to Dissuade Him
Chapter 363: Jiang Ci Picks a Bride, Everyone Tries to Dissuade Him
Jiang Ci took that bottle of water and drank a few sips, his slightly muddled mind clearing a little.
By the time he returned to Spark Media, the night outside the window was already deep and heavy.
Lin Wan, however, showed no sign of fatigue. One phone call dragged the head of the Public Relations Department out of bed and assembled an emergency meeting.
The whole department was brightly lit, the atmosphere solemn.
“Starting now, we split into two tracks.”
Lin Wan stood before the whiteboard, tapping the surface.
“First track, coordinate with CCTV. The Spring Festival Gala news—if the official side stays silent, we are not allowed to leak a single word.”
“All related personnel must sign the highest-level confidentiality agreement. Anyone who lets information slip will pack up and leave immediately.”
“Second track,” her voice dropped,
“closely monitor online public opinion about King of Extras.”
“Gu Huai’s investment won’t stay hidden for long, and with the Spring Festival rumor, we’ll soon be in the eye of the storm.”
“Remember, all negative comments about the film—do not delete posts, do not manipulate reviews, do not respond.”
The Public Relations Director looked stunned. “Sister Wan, are we just going to let them smear us?”
Lin Wan turned, her expression icy:
“Let them insult us. The uglier they scream, the better. When the movie premieres, all those insults will translate into the loudest box office achievements on the charts.”
The next day, the suburban film base outside Beijing.
That meeting, which had lasted until dawn, erected a public-opinion “bulletproof shield” around the battered ship that was King of Extras,
but Lin Wan knew the true hard fight wasn’t online; it was right in front of them.
This place had once been an abandoned factory area—broken walls and ruined pillars, exposed rebar.
After Gu Zhiyuan’s so-called “renovation,” it looked even more dilapidated.
Lin Wan wore a bespoke coat and seven-centimeter high heels. As soon as she stepped onto the set, the sole of her shoe felt soft.
She lifted her foot.
Half a steamed bun, already sprouting green fuzz, was stuck to the heel.
Lin Wan looked up at Gu Zhiyuan, who was directing workers to pile a heap of scrap even higher, and squeezed out a few words through her teeth: “Gu Zhiyuan, are you insane?”
Gu Zhiyuan turned at the sound, showing no guilt; instead he bounded over excitedly.
“Screenwriter Lin! Look! Texture! This is what I mean by texture!”
He pointed at the mountain of junk, eyes shining: “This is where the protagonist Chen San lives! I call it the real-life ‘cage-city’!
“Every corner reeks of life’s sour stench!”
Lin Wan rubbed her temple.
Jiang Ci, on the other hand, adapted quickly.
He skirted around Lin Wan, squatted beside a pile of suspicious-smelling debris, and pointed at a ripped sofa with filthy stuffing showing.
“This sofa’s good.”
Both Lin Wan and Gu Zhiyuan looked toward him.
Jiang Ci pressed the greasy armrest with his hand, feeling the protruding spring stub dig under his palm, and evaluated seriously: “This sofa’s good. If you sit on it, your lower back will be jarringly uncomfortable, you couldn’t sit up straight even if you tried.”
“Perfect, because Chen San is someone who can’t hold his back straight in life, but there’s still an inner grit pressing inside.”
“That feeling—it's right on the money.”
Gu Zhiyuan, delighted to find a kindred spirit, slapped his thigh loudly:
“Yes! It’s exactly this vibe! Jiang Ci, you get me!”
He looked around, then solemnly declared:
“I’ve decided on the casting for the female lead ‘Liu Piaopia o’—I’m giving you full authority!”
Lin Wan was taken aback. “Let him do it?”
Gu Zhiyuan pointed at Jiang Ci as if it were obvious:
“Yes! Only a pervert like him can truly understand that pain and beauty of struggling in the mire yet forcing a flower to bloom!”
“I trust his eye!”
That afternoon, Spark Media’s official account released a casting announcement.
The King of Extras crew publicly recruited for the female lead “Liu Piaopia o.”
Although the film had been dismissed across the internet since its inception,
the names “Gu Huai fully funding” and “starring Jiang Ci” still dropped a heavy bomb into the industry.
Countless talent agencies turned their gaze to that ruined factory in the suburbs.
On audition day, the bumpy dirt road outside the film base was completely clogged with entourage vans and luxury cars of every kind.
A group of glamorous young actresses, each followed by three to five assistants, pinched their noses and gingerly stepped across the patch of ground mixed with mud and unknown stains,
entering that odor-filled “cage-city.”
When they saw the makeshift audition area, their faces were full of disdain.
Jiang Ci sat on the judges’ bench.
The so-called judges’ bench was a platform temporarily made from a few empty beer crates.
Gu Zhiyuan and Lin Wan sat beside him.
The first actress to audition walked in.
She was a currently trending young star, wearing a designer, expensive pair of deliberately “ripped” jeans and an expertly applied “no-makeup” makeup look.
The moment she entered, she covered her nose and, in an affected voice, began:
“Oh my, it’s so dirty here. I’m so unfortunate to have to come to a place like this…”
She pinched her voice, trying to perform Liu Piaopia o’s misery.
Jiang Ci watched her without expression, and before she could continue, he cut in.
“Are you here to play a dancer, or a disguised princess visiting the poor to experience hardship?”
The young star’s smile froze.
Jiang Ci: “Next.”
The agent behind her changed expression,
about to speak, then was cowed by Jiang Ci’s cold stare.
The next two hours became Jiang Ci’s torture.
More than twenty actresses came one after another.
They either turned the low-tier club girl into a nightclub queen, eyes full of “I’m the most beautiful in the world” arrogance,
or made the role into a fragile, innocent little white flower, squirting eye drops for the camera and lamenting life’s injustice,
as if a domineering CEO would descend at any second to rescue her.
Then another current hot young star, Li Feifei, came in. Her agent, Sister Wang, had clout in the industry.
Li Feifei performed a scene where a customer had been forcing her to drink; she acted pitifully,
a tear slipping from her eye, posture delicate.
Jiang Ci didn’t even wait for her to finish and knocked on the table: “Next.”
Sister Wang immediately stepped forward, her practiced smile carrying pressure:
“Teacher Jiang Ci, Feifei is sincere for this role. You’re not even giving any concrete direction, isn’t that a bit—”
Jiang Ci didn’t look at her. His gaze fell on Li Feifei’s hands, which had just had a French manicure, and he asked slowly: “If Liu Piaopia o washed cups in a nightclub for three years, what would her hands look like?”
Li Feifei froze and instinctively hid her hands behind her back.
Jiang Ci looked up at Sister Wang, his tone calm:
“Sincerity isn’t just words; it’s hidden in the gaps between nails. Your sincerity is too clean. Our crew is poor.”
“Not acceptable. Next.”
Sister Wang’s face instantly flushed a dark purplish color.
After that small clash, the set’s atmosphere grew heavier.
Jiang Ci looked at the remaining actresses, now even more nervous, and finally leaned back in his chair and said the line:
“You don’t understand what poverty is, what struggle is…”
His words pierced the actresses’ façades.
Several actresses who had been scolded turned ashen,
and in the end all left angrily, flanked by their agents.
Night deepened.
The auditioned actresses were gone, yet the female lead role remained unfilled.
Gu Zhiyuan tore at his hair and wailed.
“It’s over! All over! Is there no one poor left in entertainment? How can there not be a single person who can act poor?!”
Lin Wan rubbed her brow, exhausted.
Just then,
a commotion broke out toward the set entrance.
“Get away! Don’t touch me!”
“Oh no! Could it be… did those actresses who got cut call their fans to make trouble?”