Chapter 314: Arrival
Tang Yumeng being invited into the crew of Soaring and playing an important role was a completely unexpected situation. But thinking about it carefully, it wasn’t that unreasonable. Tang Yumeng had just won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her fame was at its peak. Plus, many viewers knew her. Inviting her into the crew was indeed a very good commercial move. Because Tang Yumeng’s acting was not bad, she could play any role well. And she was cheap now. It was very suitable to use her. As for the action scenes needed in the film, they could be completed by a stunt double.
Nangong Ying joined the crew, greeted the director, got to know the crew members, and then it was about time to start filming. Soaring tells the story of a female pilot. Nangong Ying was the undisputed female lead. Like the movies Nangong Ying had acted in before, there were a lot of action scenes. The story was also positioned as an entertainment film, with an investment of over 200 million, which could be said to be a large investment.
Among them, Tang Yumeng played an important role in the drama and would also have a lot of scenes with Nangong Ying. Nangong Ying played a serious and proper role, while Tang Yumeng was mainly responsible for comedy and embarrassment.
“I didn’t expect to have a chance to cooperate with you.”
Before filming started, Nangong Ying struck up a conversation with her. In any case, they were both in the same crew, seeing each other all the time. And when filming, they had a lot of scenes together, so they would inevitably have to act opposite each other. The relationship couldn’t be too stiff.
“Mmm, indeed, I didn’t expect it.”
Tang Yumeng smiled.
Actually, if possible, she didn’t really want to cooperate with her, but there was no choice. This was her agent’s arrangement. She just needed to separate her work and private life well. She was different from Nangong Ying. She didn’t get to the top by betraying others. She was discovered by Director Wang Weifan through her own efforts and was recognized by the audience.
They were different.
But speaking of Director Wang, ever since he had mentioned the initial draft of his Dream Life in his acceptance speech last time, he was still talking about it on Weibo. Many people had also started to go to Shenzhen to look for the park that Director Wang had mentioned. It could be seen how great the impact of this matter was.
Recently, Director Wang’s new movie Shadow had been set up and was looking for actors. It should start filming after the summer vacation. As for whether he would cooperate with Tang Yumeng again, that was not clear.
“Nangong, it’s your scene. Get ready to shoot.”
“Okay, Director.”
Nangong Ying replied, put down her script, and prepared to go in to film. Her first scene was a fight scene, so she had to rehearse in advance and be well-prepared.
“Big star, you look quite busy. Do you want to call a stunt double to help you complete that move?”
Tang Yumeng sat on a chair and said to her sarcastically. Nangong Ying ignored her. She knew very well why she was targeting her like this. It was nothing more than because of Yu Linna. She could understand that.
“I have a stunt double, but if there aren’t any particularly dangerous scenes, I usually don’t use one.”
“That’s right. If it’s not dangerous, you wouldn’t use one. you only ever put yourself in a safe position, without considering others’ feelings. You’re just that selfish.”
“Hehe.”
Nangong Ying didn’t refute, nor did she explain. She went to the filming location to film her own scenes, so she could finish her shots early. No matter what Tang Yumeng said about her, there was one thing she couldn’t deny: Nangong Ying was very popular now, a popular action female star. Although she was still a student at the Beijing Film Academy, she already had the ability to stand on her own. No one would doubt that she would take over the action film genre and become the new generation of action stars. What’s more, the movies she starred in now had very high box office. Whatever she filmed became a hit. Her total box office had even reached six billion. She was currently the number one female star in the domestic box office cumulative ranking.
At least, she was a big star. No one dared to deny that.
Tang Yumeng sat in her seat drinking milk tea, silently reading her script. This summer would be very lively. Hopefully, nothing unexpected would happen.
…
Zhou Shilan was quite annoyed recently. She had been trying hard to write lyrics, but just couldn’t. Before, she had managed to squeeze out an album, and it sold okay on the market. But she found that the fans were obviously not satisfied with her new album, complaining that it wasn’t up to her previous standard. This also gave Zhou Shilan a headache. There was nothing to be done. Her state was not there, so it was hard to create high-level songs. She had also thought about finding inspiration outside, but to be honest, inspiration was something you couldn’t just find when you wanted to.
To relax, she went to Shenzhen for a rest, and also to think about her new album. In the past, the songs she wrote were all about love. Last year, she had chosen to transform and wrote a song about friendship, which was an unexpected hit. Now she was still seeking a transformation. She didn’t want to be tied to her old image. Since everyone said she could take over the Mandopop scene, then she had to come up with some real stuff. But she was already 26. If she didn’t work a little harder, her family would start rushing her to get married again.
The milk tea in Shenzhen was still quite delicious. Every time she came here, she had to buy it to drink. As a girl, who could resist the temptation of milk tea? Everyone called milk tea “life-sustaining water.” Actually, it wasn’t without reason. Think about it, if you don’t drink a cup of milk tea, is that still called life?
But it was also because she had gone to a milk tea shop to buy a drink at night that she had unexpectedly run into Yu Linna, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time. Yu Linna was holding hands with Ye Zhiyun, entering the milk tea shop to buy a drink. Zhou Shilan caught them and rushed up.
“Hey, girl, still remember me?”
Zhou Shilan went up to greet them.
Ye Zhiyun was quite wary of this woman who was wearing sunglasses and a mask, and a long-sleeved shirt on a hot day. She protected Yu Linna behind her, took out her phone, ready to call the police at any time.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t take me for a bad person! It’s me. Have you forgotten me? I’m Great God Zhou.”
“Ah?… Oh, Sister Zhou.”
Yu Linna recognized her. Before she went to university, she had accidentally met this big star on the street, helped her hide from her fans, and took her home. Later, Zhou Shilan had even said she would write an album with her as the prototype, and then there were “Thank You” and “The Times You’ve Forgotten.”
She really hadn’t expected to meet her here. Because they hadn’t added each other as friends before, nor had they left contact information, they could only learn about each other’s affairs through the news. Yu Linna did know that Zhou Shilan hadn’t had a new album for a long time, and had recently been criticized for having her talent run out, for no longer having the ability to write songs. Zhou Shilan also learned through Weibo that the popularity of this person, Shion-sensei, had declined, and she had gradually lost her identity as Wenqing’s number one author.
It had been a long time since they had seen each other. They sat down to drink milk tea and chat about each other’s affairs.
“To be honest, I can’t write an album recently. I’m extremely short of material. Coincidentally, I ran into you. I wanted to get some material from you or something. In any case, I have to write a new album as soon as possible.”
Zhou Shilan was also helpless and sought Yu Linna’s help, hoping to write an album with her as the prototype. She even said she could pay her a fee. For a lyricist, and a singer, not having good inspiration was indeed a painful thing. Plus, Zhou Shilan was an extremely serious person when it came to work. A few years ago, not long after she had debuted, when she was performing on stage, the organizer had asked her to sing a cover of a popular internet song. That song was a cover sung by a netizen, and the lyrics were completely different from the original, but it was just popular, but the content was completely unrecognizable. Zhou Shilan had gotten angry on the spot and thrown her microphone, refusing to sing such a stupid song, saying it was an insult to music.
She had done this kind of thing before. For her to be perfunctory with her work was really an impossible thing.
Yu Linna could also understand, because she was also the type who was extremely serious about her work.
“Um, excuse me, Great God Zhou, right? I hear you’re looking for material?”
Ye Zhiyun inserted herself into the topic, interrupting them.
“Yes, I’ve been looking for usable material. To be honest, I’ve been stuck for a long time.”
“Since you’re looking for material, then you don’t have to specifically look for Nana. I can also do it. I also have a lot of material that can be used as a reference.”
Zhou Shilan stared at her. This little girl had a good plan. She actually wanted to use her to get famous. So cunning.
But it wasn’t impossible, provided that her story could move her. Only then would she be willing to write a song and sing it.
“It depends on my mood. What story do you want to tell? I can listen.”
“Do you want to hear the story of my startup?”
“…What’s there to talk about?”
Zhou Shilan was a little disappointed. She didn’t really want to listen. If this kind of thing were put on the market, probably no one would buy it. To want to listen to her tell a story was also foolish.
“You can’t say that. The story of a struggle will never be outdated. After all, everyone likes to listen to inspirational chicken soup for the soul, right? Just like your past struggle story, if you told it to others, they would still listen, right?”
“…I guess so.”
“Sister Zhou, actually, I can also talk about my story. For example, my struggle story can be talked about for a long time.”
At this time, Yu Linna also joined in.
Zhou Shilan took out a notebook and started to take notes. A great musician, now reduced to listening to others tell stories. But she was enjoying it. From Ye Zhiyun and Yu Linna, she heard many stories of struggle. Although it might not be realistic to sell them on the market, she was also considering whether to process and transform them. To write a song about dreams, about effort and tears. If that were the case, perhaps it would still have a selling point. After all, many people in this world like to listen to positive energy stories.
“By the way, Sister Zhou, weren’t you invited by a Hollywood film company to film a movie?”
Yu Linna suddenly brought up the topic of the movie.
“You mean this? I just finished filming. They said I could sing a Chinese song during the global promotion, so I agreed. But my English is not good. I’ve been working hard to learn English recently. I hired a private English teacher to teach me. By the way, I might be filming a movie in Taiwan soon. Don’t look at me as if I can only sing. Actually, I also want to develop in a diversified way. We haven’t added each other as friends yet. Let’s add each other first. I’ll invite you over for the movie premiere.”
Zhou Shilan said with a smile. Looking at her, she seemed to be quite happy. She must have found material to solve her writer’s block. As for how she would write it, that would depend on her album.
The news that Zhou Shilan was going to enter the film market had been around for a long time, but it had never been confirmed. When Zhou Shilan took the initiative to admit it, Yu Linna couldn’t help but be surprised.
