Actresses

Chapter 35 Inside Story

Around eight o'clock, the two of them came out of the house that Zhao Cai had previously rented. Zhao Cai followed closely behind Shi Jiahe like a little duckling following its mother.

"Sis! Thanks to you, otherwise it definitely wouldn't have gone so smoothly. He would have definitely deducted more money from my deposit," Zhao Cai said excitedly, but her voice was still very soft. "This is the second time I've rented a place. Last time, because the walls had some old stains and I didn't take photos when I moved in, I couldn't explain it when I handed over the apartment, and the landlord deducted half of my deposit. I thought I wouldn't get my deposit back this time either."

Shi Jiahe gets angry every time she hears such words.

Why didn't you fight for your deposit when it was withheld? But then you thought, "Who hasn't been young and vulnerable at some point?" People in their early twenties rarely have the mental fortitude to immediately fight back when faced with setbacks. You weren't like this overnight.

Shi Jiahe was still thinking to herself, "Never underestimate the time it takes to accomplish anything."

I thought it was just helping with the move, but I ended up having to help with unpacking, handing over the keys, and tearing up the deposit. The day is almost over, and I wonder if He Yuran is still at the company. Ninety percent of the time, she's probably not. What's Sister Stone doing?

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but exclaim "Oh dear!" and immediately checked WeChat. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Sister Stone had replied that afternoon, saying it was okay and they could meet up again later. After that, she forgot to reply.

Since that's the case, let's not look for Sister Stone today, and hurry up and take a taxi home.

Shi Jiahe turned to look at Zhao Cai, "You haven't even unpacked your things yet. Let's go back first, at least make the bed, otherwise how will you sleep tonight?"

Zhao Cai bowed his head and said okay.

The living room of the one-bedroom apartment that Shi Jiahe rented was previously filled with miscellaneous items. If she wanted to accommodate another person, she would have to clean up the living room to make room for a folding bed, which was no small task, especially since Zhao Cai had brought a lot of stuff with him when he moved in. Now the living room was completely unusable, as messy as if it had just been robbed.

Once inside, Zhao Cai blushed and didn't dare to sit down. "Teacher Shi, I really feel like I've gone to so much trouble for you..."

"Let's not talk about this now. Let's finish packing and get some rest. But if you're willing to talk, I still want to know what Wei Ning actually told you."

Seeing Zhao Cai's dawdling manner, Shi Jiahe became even more annoyed.

She didn't know why she was so angry today, yet she still insisted on helping. It would be a lie to say she wasn't upset. Living alone was fine, but then a grown woman and a bunch of luggage moved in. Shi Jiahe could only pretend to be calm as usual, roll up her sleeves, and start making room. It took more than an hour to get the living room back to some order. The folding bed was also made.

While Zhao Cai was helping out, he gradually developed a tacit understanding with Shi Jiahe, and his state was not as tense as before.

"Teacher Shi, if I tell you everything, could you please not tell anyone else? Because... President Ning is still very good to me."

Shi Jiahe was overjoyed, knowing that there was hope, and it seemed that her afternoon and evening of hard work had not been in vain.

"Don't worry, I'm a person who always keeps my word, and one of my professional principles is to keep secrets. Otherwise, artists wouldn't entrust me with so many private matters."

"President Ning... is worried about being laid off," Zhao Cai whispered. "There's been some internal turmoil at the platform lately. Several top projects have been postponed, and the studios working on mid-tier projects are in jeopardy. After internal evaluation, President Ning's studio was deemed to lack innovation and not quite in line with the future strategic development direction, so it might be one of the first studios to be eliminated. President Ning is very worried about this, so he wants to quickly find some newer projects, even if they don't pass the review process right away."

"So that's why you came to us?"

"Yeah, she told me not to worry about anything else and just to present the project as it was about to start filming. But actually, I had no idea what was going on, and I was just dragged here..."

"So how did you two meet? She didn't tell me a single word, but she told you everything?" Shi Jiahe felt more and more that Wei Ning was really not being fair. They've known each other for so many years, what couldn't they just say directly?

As if confessing to a criminal offense, Zhao Cai began to honestly and openly recount his past.

"I started working as an assistant to a screenwriter teacher in college, writing episode breakdowns for several years. Sometimes I'd accompany my teacher to meetings and take meeting minutes. That's how I met Ms. Ning. At the time, I only knew that her projects were quite large and demanding. My teacher had always struggled with Ms. Ning's projects, but the collaboration continued. Once, during a meeting, Ms. Ning suggested that my teacher stay on set for a while because the filming schedule was too tight, requiring streamlined scenes and dialogue, and additional reshoots of a few details. But my teacher absolutely refused to stay on set, and the other teachers on the team were also busy, so I was assigned there. Later, I found out that my job was as a fly-page screenwriter. But I felt I was still a newcomer, and this was a good opportunity to gain practical experience. After all, a script is essentially a shooting manual, written for filming, so I worked incredibly hard to adapt. Ms. Ning was the producer, and she was on set every day watching me." I couldn't sleep until I finished writing; it was common for me to write until dawn. So we gradually became familiar with each other. She even said I was a natural-born screenwriter, that my writing was ready to be used and the director could film it right away, which made me quite happy. During casual conversation, she asked if I had written anything else. I said I was writing some novels and original screenplays, but I didn't have time to polish them properly; I only had a very rough foundation. After leaving the film crew, we didn't keep in touch much, but a few days ago, Ms. Ning suddenly contacted me, saying she wanted to see my original screenplay and asked me to tidy it up. She needed it very urgently, but I had to finish my work with my teacher first, and I didn't have enough time. I had to tell her I couldn't write that quickly, and she said to tidy up five episodes first, at least to have something to show for me. I said okay, I'll try my best. Then yesterday, she suddenly asked me to come over immediately, saying there was a meeting. Actually, I was looking at houses at the time, but I had no choice but to rush over as she asked, and that's how I met Teacher Shi and you all.

Shi Jiahe nodded. So that's how it is. No wonder Wei Ning could order Zhao Cai around so easily; it turns out the crew had a past connection and he'd already witnessed her professional abilities.

Did she make any promises to you? For example, how much money would she pay you for the script? Or how much credit would she give you?

"President Ning hasn't said anything yet, and I haven't asked, because I feel that having even one opportunity is already quite good. Other big producers basically wouldn't talk to a small screenwriter like me."

Shi Jiahe couldn't help but sigh. When a person's self-awareness and sense of worth are too low, they may not even know how to ask very normal questions. They won't even consider their own rights, but will first think, "Have I overstepped my bounds? Have I offended others?" Their first instinct is always to look for their own faults.

"So when did you write this script? I'd really like to see it. I've read the outline and I'm very interested, but Wei Ning doesn't have any more material. To be honest, I haven't decided whether to work with her, but what's annoying is that she won't let me add you on WeChat, but I want to talk to you directly." Shi Jiahe got straight to the point.

"Well... there's a reason for that." Zhao Cai hesitated for a moment, then continued, "President Ning told me that in this industry, it's not necessary to get too close to the artists' teams, because it's impossible for screenwriters and artists' teams to form a healthy partnership. The artists' teams will only give screenwriters some ridiculous tasks, such as helping artists read scripts and write character biographies, helping artists rehearse their lines on set, and revising the artists' lines before returning them to the production team. These things are actually a major taboo in the screenwriting industry; it's like betraying your own job. Unless you're desperate, most screenwriters won't take on these kinds of jobs. So I agreed to her request. I noticed that you wanted to add me on WeChat, but it's not a good idea for me to bring this up."

"Sigh, these kinds of messy things definitely happened a lot when the industry was doing well, but things are different now. It's already hard enough to get a role, so how could any actor possibly dare to change the script without permission!"

"Teacher Shi, this kind of thing has always happened," Zhao Cai said calmly. "When I was writing fly pages for a film crew, I helped an actor revise his script. Sometimes, because the actor gave me feedback, even if the fly page had already been approved by the director and producer, I would still have to revise it again, because I knew that the actor would eventually come to me."

Which play are you talking about?

The drama title that Zhao Cai mentioned was the one starring Zhuang Pan, which was also the source of the rumors of discord between Wei Ning and Zhuang Pan.

"After all that, the show flopped, and it's all thanks to the two of you." Shi Jiahe chuckled.

"That show... the male and female leads didn't get along, they argued every day on set, not to mention the interaction in the show. The director eventually just stopped caring about it, saying, 'Just give me the final fly page, don't bother me with anything else.'"

"No wonder the film can't be shot well..."

Shi Jiahe thought, if that's the case, Zhuang Pan doesn't seem like a very good person. It's best not to cooperate with her.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Cai continued, "But I actually understand Zhuang Pan, because her character in the original script was really problematic. Although she was the female lead, she lacked charm and initiative; she was just a beautiful paper doll. If you look further back, the script was riddled with problems." At this point, Zhao Cai's introverted demeanor seemed to disappear, and her expression became much more lively. "I've read the original novel, and the script changes were quite significant. All the controversial points were removed, but so were the character conflicts. After Zhuang Pan joined the crew, she discovered that there were almost no scenes involving the female lead. She asked on set why the female lead had so many minor scenes. They could all be cut, and there wasn't a single memorable line."

"Didn't she read the script in the first place? If so, why did she accept the role...?"

"I've seen it, but the script keeps getting revised, and no one has a final version. By the time filming started, it was already very different from the version that was first sent to the actors. So Zhuang Pan demanded that her lines be rewritten. She then directly pulled me onto the set to do this, because I was the scriptwriter for Fei Ye, so Zhuang Pan felt that I would have a better understanding of the character. She also discussed her ideas with me. I think what she suggested was good, but in the context of the whole show, balancing the screen time of the male and female leads was something I simply couldn't do, so President Ning was also having a lot of trouble at that time."

"Did the male lead request any changes to the script?"

"The male lead's request was not to make any changes because he didn't need to. Although the male lead also had many minor scenes, he also had many important scenes. The national and revenge storylines were all on his side, and he only had a romantic storyline with the female lead. If the female lead made any changes, it would squeeze out some of her interactions with the male lead, and the basic logic of that storyline would be destroyed. The male lead's team was very opposed to this, so they didn't cooperate."

"Sigh... Now I feel that no matter how much the fans criticize this show, they're right. It's not just that it has a lot of problems..." Shi Jiahe couldn't help but complain. "It shouldn't even have been made in the first place."