IPCFS: Chapter 4

Ji Li returned to his residence according to the route he remembered.

Dream Media had arranged dormitories for its trainees, one for four. However, the original owner’s personality was boring and introverted. He was isolated from the beginning and had no roommates.

Ji Li looked at his exclusive bedroom space and raised an eyebrow with satisfaction.

His dirty clothes were taken off in time. Ji Li finished washing and planned to find clean clothes. He opened his closet only to be completely dumbfounded.

In the originally small closet, only a few short-sleeved shirts were stacked. At first glance, they had been worn many times. The original fabric color had faded from many washes.

Ji Li rubbed his temple. He had a headache.

He was accustomed to the gorgeous life of a movie emperor and Ji Li always had high demands for daily expenses. AS a result, his living standards fell in a straight line like the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The words ‘really miserable’ were almost engraved onto his head.

Ji Li casually pulled out some clothes and used his mobile phone to check the original owner’s account. Then once he checked it, he felt his chest becoming even tighter. The balance of his wallet and bank card was less than 500.

What was suffering in the world? This was.

It was no wonder why the original owner had to stay in the company despite being bullied by Lin Qiao’s group. In addition to the huge cancellation fee, he wanted to save some money since the company covered food and accommodation.

There was no money to compensate for the cancellation damages and Ji Li couldn’t leave even if he wanted to.

In that case, why not use this ‘new identity’ to make a good start? After all, acting was the easier job for him and everything was novel in this unknown entertainment circle.

Ji Li made up his mind and opened the mobile web page, typing in ‘Dream Media.’ Since he had replaced the original owner of the body, it was necessary to understand his current situation.

Soon, the information popped up.

Dream Media made its fortune through ‘music production.’ It used to be one of the best entertainment companies in the Chinese music scene and had many famous singers.

In recent years, the Chinese music scene was invaded by the trend of overseas idols and it gradually declined. Upon seeing this, the company’s boss, Meng Zihuai allowed people to open up the film and television section, intending to gradually shift the focus of the company.

After all, it was a change halfway through. Dream Media’s qualifications in this area weren’t as good as other film and television companies.

Therefore, Meng Zihuia took a different approach and developed a trainee model to create film and television ‘idols.’ Their acting skills weren’t enough but their appearance was worthy. They would be used to make a wave of quick money in the fast-changing entertainment circle.

The original owner had been selected and signed as a trainee due to his good appearance. Later, the company abandoned him because his value had been exhausted.

Ji Li understood the general situation and made up his mind.

Even if Dream Media had film and television resources, there was a high probability that these resources tended toward the ‘idol’ works. It obviously wasn’t suitable for the long-term development of artists who truly took the road of acting.

If an actor really wanted to get a foothold in the film and television industry, they had to rely on their hard work and strength to speak.

Just then, his mobile phone vibrated. It was a notification message from the company. All trainees should go to the company tomorrow afternoon to report. At that time, they would be assigned film and television roles for test shooting.

Ji Li stared at the screen, his eyes glowing.

This was good. He couldn’t leave for the time being so he might as well take advantage of these job opportunities to get to know the people in the circle as much as possible. Maybe he could get the resources he wanted on his own

Time passed and it was 11 o’clock. He didn’t have to get up early tomorrow so Ji Li simply recalled the contents of the book while his head was still sober.

The protagonist of the book was called Yi Yunqi and he was a rich young master who grew up loved not only by his parents but also his older brother and older sister, who were twins.

However, Ji Yunqi wasn’t interested in the family business. He was determined to enter the entertainment circle. His second sister was a well-known screenwriter in the film and television circle and she had a lot of connections. After gaining permission, the protagonist entered the circle.

In the book, Ji Yunqi was described as a talented actor. He might not have formal training but he had a strong ability to understand roles. His arrogant and bright looks and his rare aristocratic temperament in the entertainment industry caused him to gain a lot of popularity.

He had the protection of the big bosses in the circle and the backing of his family outside the circle, so Ji Yunqi’s star journey took the cool mode from the beginning.

The few interactions between the original owner and Ji Yunqi were at that ‘special party.’ The family was instigated by his agent while the latter was cheated by someone.

In a critical moment, Ji Yunqi was protected by his older brother who rushed over but the original owner had his face cut by a glass bottle in the chaos. He completely lost his only advantage in the entertainment industry.

According to the time calculation, the protagonist currently hadn’t made his debut so there was no pressure on ‘Ji Li’ as the cannon fodder.

After understanding this, Ji Li simply left everything in the book behind for the time being.

***

The next day, Ji Li woke up naturally and headed to the company in the afternoon according to the notice.

In the daily training room, only one man stood with his back to the door, a lit cigarette between his fingers.

Knock knock.

Ji Li knocked on the door calmly and actively said, “Hello.”

The man turned around. The moment his eyes fell on Ji Li, the impatience in them froze slightly. He was stunned for half a second before exhaling some smoke from his mouth. “Ji Li?”

“Yes.” Ji Li remembered this person. He was the leader of the newcomer group, Wang Qiuhui.

Wang Qiuhu approached him, looking him up and down while humming. “I haven’t seen you in a few days. Has your face changed?”

The original owner’s clothes were too old to see and Ji Li couldn’t resist going to buy a set of clothes. The white-sleeved shirt and black sweatpants weren’t expensive. The matching was simple and stylish.

His hair, which had been too long and covered his face, was smoothed toward the back of his head and tied with a hair tie to make a small ponytail. He changed his clothes and the entire person naturally looked different.

Wang Qiuhui’s eyes continued to focus on Ji Li’s face. “No wonder why President Meng and Song Lan both wanted to sign you at the beginning. If you were packaged for debut then you could indeed become a scourge in the circle.

Ji Li’s lips curled up and he didn’t hate this ‘exaggerated’ praise at all.

The bone structure of the original owner was good and he had clean and cold white skin. Most notably there was a light brown mole on his high nose that added a bit of s*xiness and fanaticism to this pure, soft face.

Ji Li had sighed when he discovered this last night. It truly wasn’t too much to call this a ‘divine’ face. He had been living on strength for nearly 20 years. Now he could suddenly live on beauty… it was exciting thinking about it.

Ji Li suppressed the true thoughts in his heart and asked seriously, “Team Leader Wang, what about the others? Didn’t you say you would assign us small roles to shoot?”

“You are too honest. I told you to come in the afternoon but you really came so late.” Wang Qiuhui was amused. He completely lost his previous impatience due to this person’s face.

He picked up a thin document on the table and handed it over. “Only this character outline is left. The other characters have been selected early.”

Ji Li wasn’t in a hurry to answer. He looked down at the three key words on the paper: refugee beggar, ugly acting, five scenes.

It was obviously a character with few scenes and a lot of hardships.

It was the first chance for newcomers to test the waters before they officially entered the entertainment industry and everyone’s performance was unknown. Therefore, the company wouldn’t arrange any roles that were too heavy in the beginning.

Wang Qiuhui’s people had searched for nearly two months before finding these small characters suitable for shooting in the near future.

For the sake of fairness, all characters only had three keywords. After the trainees selected it on their own, the content of the script would be transmitted through an electronic file.

For this beggar character, none of the trainees even looked at it.

Wang Qiuhui smoked a cigarette and stared at Ji Li’s expression, trying to find the slightest reluctance from the other person. “This is the only one left. You don’t have a choice if you don’t like it.”

Unexpectedly, the other person responded quickly. “No, I like it very much. This role is good for me.”

Ji Li had been in the entertainment industry for so many years and he had never played the role of a ‘beggar.’ Since he was determined to develop his career as an actor, he naturally wanted to challenge the versatility of this role.

Moreover, according to his past experience, many seemingly inconspicuous characters would end up being the most attractive one.

Wang Qiuhui saw that the interest in Ji Li’s eyes didn’t seem to be fake and smiled emotionally. “Okay, this should really be ‘fortune favors fools’.”

Ji Li didn’t understand and looked up.

Wang Qiuhui extinguished the smoke and said bluntly, “To tell you the truth, this is a big production movie with an investment of nearly 300 million yuan. The actor originally scheduled to play it had an accident. Our company has a bit of friendship with the director so we could temporarily pick up the leak. It might be a small character with feel scenes but the one playing against you is a big name…”

Ji Li heard this and interest filled his eyes.

A big move with bigshots? There was no loss.

“I’ll have someone send you the electronic script later,” Wang Qiuhui said.

He wasn’t sure how much Ji Li’s acting had improved and was inevitably worried. “Study hard these two days and don’t procrastinate. If you can’t keep this role then I can’t save  you. At 6 a.m. the day after tomorrow, the company will send a car to take you to the film and television shooting base in Hengcheng next door.”

“Yes.”

***

Two days later, the Hengcheng film and television base.

Qin Yue stepped down from the TV. He aimed at the director’s figure in the crowd and walked straight over.

“Teacher Qin.”

“Brother Qin, good morning.”

The staff members passing by saw him and greeted him eagerly. Qin Yue didn’t have the arrogance of a movie emperor and he nodded, responding to them one by one.

The movie’s director, Zheng Anxing saw him and was surprised. “Why did you come so early today? Aren’t all of today’s scenes quite late?”

“I couldn’t sleep so I came to the set early.” Qin Yue looked around and took Zheng Anxing to sit down. “By the way, I have something to ask you.”

“Oh?”

“I hope that Song Zhao’s role was changed? It is an idol with no acting experience?” Qin Yue couldn’t help frowning as he asked this.

He had always been strict about his work, not to mention that he had several scenes with Song Zhao’s character. If an idol who couldn’t act was stuffed in and they couldn’t catch his acting, it would only affect the overall effect.

Zheng Anxing saw the other person’s expression and hurriedly explained, “Qin Yue, don’t worry about this. You were absent on leave for the last two days so I didn’t have time to talk to you about it.”

Qin Yue was one of those who invested in the movie. It was true that a temporary change of actors had to be explained to him.

“Yue Mingsheng had a stomach perforation a few days ago and there is a recovery period after the surgery. He can’t act for a short time and we can’t afford to wait.”

“Dream Media heard about the situation and recommended a newcomer from their film and television department. He is trained and not an idol focused on traffic.”

Zheng Anxing paused and spoke in a low voice, “You know that when I was filming the Chang’a Trip, I encountered a situation where I lost investment. It was made up by Dream Media in time. Now they have taken the initiative to mention this favor and it is hard for me to refuse.”

Qin Yue’s brow didn’t relax. He obviously still had some concerns.

“Qin Yue, I won’t ruin my work for the sake of a favor.” Zheng Anxing’s requirements were the same as Qin Yue’s when it came to work.

He patted the man on the shoulder in reassurance. “If the newcomer doesn’t perform well, I will definitely replace him.”

It was like this and Qin Yue still had to give the other person some face. “Okay, just do it according to your words. Have the casting director find alternatives in advance and change the person immediately if it doesn’t work.”

Qin Yue got up and stated his attitude, “Even if he is a newcomer, I won’t relax my requirements for him.”