FV: Chapter 99 Part 1

Director Zhang was a bit surprised to see Ma Bozhong’s assistant appear at his door. “Is something wrong?”

“Teacher Ma asked you to go over there,” the assistant said.

Director Zhang nodded while feeling slightly puzzled. Why was Ma Bozhong looking for him at this time?

Then he thought about it again. Every time the crew came to him, they would personally come over, even Li Hanhai and Yao Momo. It was only Ma Bozhong who requested he go over there.

Since he believed he was a good actor and was specially invited by the crew, there was always a condescending arrogance about him.

He thought so and became a bit nervous. He didn’t say much, took his room card and went out.

Ma Bozhong was still watching the video. He had watched it five times and the more he watched, the angrier he became.

In the end, he was a professional in acting and was far more thorough than some netizens who thought that older people should act well or people who looked average acted better than people who looked good.

By the time Ma Bozhong watched it the third time, he reluctantly and unwillingly recognized that Lin Luoqing actually suppressed him in this scene.

This was why netizens expressed sentiments such as ‘he is so eye-catching in this scene’, ‘I can’t take my eyes off him’ and ‘I feel like he matched Teacher Ma’s acting’. His experience and former achievements were there and netizens subconsciously felt that his acting skills were good. They naturally wouldn’t think in the direction that Lin Luoqing’s acting skills were better. They could only say things like ‘I can’t take my eyes off him.’

Meanwhile, Ma Bozhong was an insider and had been in the industry. How could he not see that his acting was a bit too much and he couldn’t pull his emotions in? This made Lin Luoqing’s confidence from beginning to end particularly obvious.

It was too inappropriate, Ma Bozhong secretly thought to himself. How could he make such a mistake?

However, the filming of the scene had been finished and all the scenery set up had been withdrawn. It was basically impossible to ask for reshoots at this time.

It was only at this time that he realized how careless and indifferent he had been with Lin Luoqing. Lin Luoqing ran to the monitor again and again to watch the previous takes before re-shooting the scene. Meanwhile, he didn’t have Lin Luoqing in his eyes at all. Even if Director Zhang reminded him later to calm down his emotions, he felt that the director was just nitpicking at his problems and criticizing him rather than Lin Luoqing. This made him dissatisfied with the director.

Now it seemed Director Zhang was right.

He was thinking this when he heard a knock on the door. Ma Bozhong stood up and went to open the door. He saw Director Zhang, whom he had just been thinking about.

He realized that he underestimated Lin Luoqing and Director Zhang too much, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong with himself.

At the end of the day, nothing would happen as long as this video was removed.

Even if it was aired on TV, the video was only five minutes long and mixed in with over 30 episodes of television. No one would care at all. It was strange that the publicity team didn’t say anything to him and directly released the video, making this video gain a lot of attention.

“What’s wrong, Teacher Ma? Why did you ask me to come at night?” Director Zhang asked with a smile.

Ma Bozhong turned his head and walked back silently, obviously emotional.

Director Zhang had to follow him into the room.

Ma Bozhong threw his phone on the coffee table and asked him, “Who is in charge of Weibo? What is going on with the video posted today?”

Director Zhang looked down and saw the video of Ma Bozhong and Lin Luoqing acting against each other.

He had asked the leader of the publicity team to post this video and the effect was good. Not long after it was posted, there were many positive comments and forwards. Later, it was moved to the forum by book fans and received free publicity.

The official Weibo of the crew had gained many fans and netizens had a lot of expectations for the drama because of this video. They bluntly said that the quality of the drama must be good.

Director Zhang was satisfied with everyone’s praise and didn’t think there was anything wrong with this video.

“I asked this video to be posted,” he answered truthfully. “You and Luoqing acted very well in the scene today and it is the highest quality scene so far. Using it for publicity can attract the attention and expectations of netizens, so I asked Xiao Zhang to release it. It turns out that everyone likes it and feels very optimistic. This is a good thing.”

“A good thing?” Ma Bozhong sneered. “I don’t think it is a good thing.”

He stared at the person in front of him and said coldly, “Why didn’t I know about this before? I am also one of the protagonists of this video but you didn’t tell me in advance when posting this video. Did I agree to let you send it?”

Director Zhang, “……”

Director Zhang felt that he was thinking too much.

“This is the plot of the drama. The crew is using a plot in their own drama for publicity. We don’t need the actor’s consent, right?”

Why did they need to tell him in advance?

Ma Bozhong hadn’t expected him to say this. In his impression, Director Zhang was very polite to him, but this time the director obviously wasn’t so polite.

“Okay.” He nodded. “Forget it. Have Xiao Zhang delete the video now.”

Director Zhang wasn’t very willing. The response to this video was too good. Everyone felt that the crew was seriously filming after watching this video and the quality was guaranteed. If they deleted it at this time, it would inevitably cause criticism.

“I don’t think it is necessary,” Director Zhang said. “It is originally the content of the drama. It can not only arouse everyone’s expectations for the drama but also increase the discussion. No matter what aspect, it is better to keep the video.”

Ma Bozhong’s expression turned cold. “Director Zhang, I remember that the crew was very sincere when inviting me, right? Now the river hasn’t been crossed but you are ready to demolish the bridge?”

Director Zhang was a bit angry when he said this.

“Teacher Ma, your words aren’t right. The crew has always been sincere with you. Haven’t we been accommodating? You became sick and we didn’t rush you. After you were discharged from the hospital, I allowed you to rest for a few more days. I usually say that I hope you will put in more time and effort. You agreed but you didn’t do anything in the end. I didn’t dare say much about you. Isn’t that enough?”

“Today, I asked people to take out the plot that will be aired on TV in the future. It is a promotional video that is similar to a trailer. Yet you think I didn’t tell you about it and asked me to delete it? Which crew will send a message one by one to each of the main cast when using their footage for the movie? Is this a joke?”

“You took money to film so all your filming content can be used by the crew. Do I need to discuss it with you? I am hearing this for the first time. Teacher Ma, do you film movies like this? Will you also ask Director Li or others why they didn’t notify you in advance when using your shots? Will you ask them to delete it afterward?”

Ma Bozhong was speechless due to his words. He became a bit angry due to this and said angrily, “What are you talking about? Director Zhang, you seem to have a problem with me?”

Director Zhang definitely had an opinion about him.

In the beginning, among this group of actors, he undoubtedly liked Ma Bozhong the most. It was because he had a good reputation and good acting skills. This meant he would perform very well in the drama. The rest were young actors and their acting skills weren’t very good. It took time and effort to take care of them.

One job was easy and the other was difficult. People liked easy jobs.

Then after filming, he found that the young actors in the crew were very serious. They listened obediently, didn’t throw a tantrum and didn’t feel that they were popular just because they were traffic stars. Meanwhile, Ma Bozhong was perfunctory at all times except when acting with Lin Luoqing. It was as if he wanted to leave work quickly.

For this reason, he tactfully communicated with Ma Bozhong several times. He knew that Ma Bozhong didn’t like the other actors in the crew, so he advised Ma Bozhong that the young actors were good. They were humble and studious children. The director hoped that he would act against them more often.

However, Ma Bozhong only talked in a perfunctory manner and didn’t take any actual actions.

The other actors weren’t stupid. They could naturally feel his contempt. However, everyone had a good temper and respected him as a senior, so they didn’t show it.

Who knew he would suddenly go crazy today and start to target Lin Luoqing?

Director Zhang really couldn’t understand it. Wasn’t Lin Luoqing good enough? He was serious and helpful when it came to acting. He didn’t care when he was targeted and just wanted to practice his acting skills. This made Director Zhang want to help Lin Luoqing and he released this video to let everyone know that there was a young actor called Lin Luoqing with such acting skills.

The result was better than he thought. Lin Luoqing and the crew were in a win-win situation. In addition, no one scolded Ma Bozhong. Didn’t they also praise his acting skills?

What was he not satisfied with?

He could even say such things as releasing the video without consent.

In the future, trailers would need to be made of the drama. Did this need to be reviewed by him first? If he wasn’t satisfied with the footage, he wanted them to re-edit it. Was he joking?

In other words, it was because he was a drama director that Ma Bozhong disregarded him. Did he dare do such things in award-winning Director Li’s movies?

Director Li deleted eight minutes of his footage in the past, but didn’t he thank Director Li and feel that Director Li was the best director? He didn’t dare say anything to Director Li about lacking consent.

“Teacher Ma, I do have opinions of you. The reason is very simple. You don’t respect this drama or this crew. I know you are a movie star with strong skills, but I also hope you understand that when you signed the contract, you took our money and should work hard. If you didn’t like it, you didn’t have to sign it. The producer didn’t make you sign it. However, you did sign it so please cooperate with the crew’s promotion. If the crew’s improper publicity caused your loss then the crew will naturally delete it. This isn’t the case. The public is complimenting you and there are no losses. I don’t think there is a need to delete it.”

“Director Zhang, if you have this attitude then I really won’t cooperate.” Ma Bozhong looked at him.

Director Zhang was surprised. “Teacher Ma, how do you not want to cooperate? Are you refusing to film the later scenes?”

“That’s fine.” Director Zhang didn’t fear him at all. “The actor who plays your bodyguard is still here. Let him do it in the future. We can take it as him carrying out Sun Huo’s orders and the plot will be smooth.”

Ma Bozhong, “!!!”

Ma Bozhong had thought about using this as a threat. He hadn’t expected Director Zhang to be so tough and stubborn while also thinking of a solution.

He looked at Director Zhang and gritted his teeth.

The assistant saw that the tension between the two of them was increasing and quickly sent a WeChat message asking the agent to come over.

Soon, the agent came. He saw the current situation and immediately started to mediate between them.

Ma Bozhong had already filmed most of the scenes. If he refused to film at this time, he would have to pay the breach of contract penalty and it wasn’t known how the crew would explain this matter in the future. If they told the truth then this wasn’t good for Ma Bozhong’s reputation.

Therefore, the agent immediately said, “How can he not act? Of course, he will continue to act. Director, stop joking.”

He finished speaking and added, “Teacher Ma has been in poor health recently and is a bit irritable emotionally. He said something that shouldn’t be said, but this isn’t a big deal. We are all in the same crew and everything can be discussed.”

Director Zhang nodded. “Yes, I can understand that Teacher Ma is in a bad mood because he isn’t in good health. I hope that Teacher Ma can also understand the crew. Since Teacher Ma isn’t in good health, I will let him rest for two days and he can come to work when his health is better. This is good for him and for me.”

He stood up after he finished speaking and walked out.

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Proofreader: Jesse