Li Zhen glanced at the stage along Lu Yanming's hand.
The actors on stage were fully invested, their backs drenched in summer sweat, but they seemed oblivious, completely immersed in their roles.
Such was the charm of performance.
Li Zhen took a deep breath and withdrew her gaze from the stage. "Mr. Lu, I want to try."
"Alright, let's try."
In the afternoon on the twelfth floor, after Li Zhen finished shooting, she sat in a corner of the studio looking at her phone intently.
Zhang Xiya took a break from shooting halfway and squatted next to her with a cup of water.
"The Actor's Self-Cultivation?"
Hearing the voice, Li Zhen quickly put away her phone. "Don't peek."
"The child is grown up now, having secrets now." Zhang Xiya pretended to feel emotional.
Li Zhen rolled her eyes at her and laughed. "Then you tell me first, who was the person that called you out to eat the other day?"
"You're so narrow-minded!" Zhang Xiya grumbled unhappily, then whispered, "The impact of yesterday's incident was quite big. Jiang Kening's matter has already spread throughout the company."
"That's normal, there are no secrets in our company." Li Zhen was not surprised at all.
Zhang Xiya went on, "Yesterday when Jiang Kening was taken away, she kept shouting Jiang Keyan. I heard Jiang Keyan didn't come to work today. She's probably trying to find a way to help her."
Even without Zhang Xiya's words, Li Zhen could guess that the sisters Jiang Keyan and Jiang Kening have always been very close. Jiang Keyan would definitely not sit idly by.
After work, Li Zhen got into Lu Yanming's car in the garage.
Fei Zhao followed the navigation to the Jincheng Grand Theater.
Li Zhen kept looking at various performing arts books on her phone.
Lu Yanming placed his hand over her phone screen, blocking her view. "Don't be nervous."
"I'm not nervous, Mr. Lu," Li Zhen retorted, glancing at him.
"Your hands are shaking when holding the phone." Lu Yanming said softly, with a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.
Li Zhen's face was awkward.
She was a little nervous.
After not touching acting for three years, now being asked to immediately take on a heavyweight drama,
she felt both expectant and worried, and if she had to compare the two, she was more worried.
"Let's find a place to eat first." Lu Yanming instructed Fei Zhao in the front row.
Before Fei Zhao could speak, Li Zhen quickly said, "Could you please take me to the theater first, and then you guys go eat? I won't go."
"Miss Li, that won't do. You'll be tired after rehearsing later, so have something to eat first." Fei Zhao slowly persuaded.
Fei Zhao didn't actually care about Li Zhen.
If she didn't eat, the young master would definitely be distressed.
Feeling pressed for time, Li Zhen worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up and just wanted to hurry over. She felt that eating would be a waste of time.
Lu Yanming's light eyes looked at the nervous Li Zhen. He said lightly, "Let's go, go directly to the theater."
Fei Zhao: ...You just cater to her every wish, for better or worse.
"Deputy Director You, take Li Zhen to meet everyone and brief her on the script." Meng Changsheng called over a middle-aged woman.
Deputy Director You came over, looked Li Zhen up and down, and said, "You're Li Zhen, right? Come with me."
Li Zhen felt a little apprehensive as she followed Deputy Director You and took a few steps. She looked back at Lu Yanming.
Lu Yanming's gaze was calm and unhurried. His eyes lightly met hers.
Li Zhen smiled slightly, her mood suddenly relaxing a little, and she turned to follow Deputy Director You.
Seeing the two walk away, Meng Changsheng sat in the audience below the stage and patted the seat next to him. "Come, Yanming, sit."
"Director Meng." Lu Yanming readily took a seat next to him.
"Yanming... it's about the national tour we talked about last time..." Meng Changsheng hesitated.
Lu Yanming knew what he was thinking. "Director Meng, don't worry. Since I made the commitment, I will fulfill it."
With these words from him, Meng Changsheng felt half-reassured.
He sighed lightly. "As you know, it's difficult for theater now. I'm considered decent, getting acclaim but not attracting big audiences. To realize a national tour, I guess the upfront cost will be no less than 20-30 million."
Meng Changsheng was probing further.
When he saw Li Zhen at the mall, Meng Changsheng was amazed and satisfied, but on closer inspection, she hadn't been on stage for three years.
He declined Lu Yanming's offer.
Unexpectedly, Lu Yanming took the initiative to arrange a national tour for him.
Theater had already exited the mainstream stage, only insiders loved to watch it.
Most of the time, the proceeds from ticket sales could barely support this large troupe.
A national tour to bring his theater across the country could only be wishful thinking.
Yet Lu Yanming hit his sore spot, making him want to try even if he didn't believe it could happen.
But he was afraid this young man was an outsider who didn't know how hugely expensive it was to tour theater that didn't sell well.
He knew the 100 million this young man offered was for the sake of the woman just now.
Meng Changsheng's eyes were wet with tears. His voice hoarse, he said, "Yanming, don't worry. I'll leave Li Zhen to me. Whether it's this performance or future tours, she will be the female lead."
Lu Yanming smiled lightly, his gaze falling on Li Zhen in the corner of the stage listening to Deputy Director You explain the script.
"No need, Director Meng. Zhenzhen doesn't need to participate in future tours, just this once will do."
This was just a starting point for her.
Her future was striding through the clouds, rising straight to the ninth heaven.
He would pave a highway to heaven for her.
Deputy Director You brought Li Zhen up to speed very quickly.
Not only did she carefully explain the script to her twice, she also had Li Zhen walk through the full rehearsal with the script the entire time.
Towards the end of this first rehearsal, someone finally couldn't stand it. They threw down the prop hat in their hand with a "snap", "Director Meng, are we really going to mess around like this? She's a newcomer coming in to play the female lead? Isn't this a joke?"
The speaker was Zhu Yuting.
The second female lead in this play.
She originally thought the first female lead was ill, such an important role would definitely go to her. But a newcomer with no experience suddenly jumped in halfway.
In this troupe full of theatrical veterans, Li Zhen was under tremendous pressure. Usually when people doubted her, she would fight back, but here...
She didn't have the competence for the role, so she had to humble herself when humility was needed.
Deputy Director You always listened to Meng Changsheng, but she also felt this was improper. She echoed, "Director Meng, Li Zhen is not bad, but to say she can handle the female lead... "
Deputy Director You looked at Li Zhen with indistinct eyes.
Shi Tianya, the male lead, had been holding himself back for a long time and didn't want to endure any longer either. "We're about to go on stage in a few days, and she's following us around reading the script the whole time! Is this reasonable?"
As Shi Tianya spoke, he pointed at the two men sitting below the stage. "You see, she even came with two men accompanying her the whole time down there! Director Meng, if you're blatantly stuffing someone in for money, I'm not rehearsing!" This shit is disgusting!"
