Sun Tiantian stopped tapping on her phone keyboard and turned to say to her:
"No, I saw your final test scores. Your written test scores were pretty good, but you didn't participate in many physical test events. Anyway, you didn't impress me."
Qin Wei admitted this point:
"But right after that, we had a battle exercise in the woods that was really interesting. It felt a bit like playing PUBG, you know that game right, the team gunfight style game, Shen Qingqing was the spokesperson after shooting a movie...
That's when pretending to be lame came in handy. At first, no one wanted to target me since I was injured. That gave me some time to search around the area for equipment I needed. With my superior skills at assembling a pistol in 30 seconds and my 100% accuracy, hehe...I won first place."
There was a bit of boasting in this, but the ending wasn't a lie, she did actually come in first.
Qiao Sixiao looked completely calm:
"What benefits did coming in first give? Was it worth taping up your leg and wearing bandages in this hot weather?"
Not only was Sun Tiantian curious, but even Li Yao slightly turned his head to listen closely.
"Exemption from PE class for a semester, and...uh...that's it."
"Just that?"
"Just that?"
"Just that?"
Qin Wei nodded and told them some things she had found out:
"The curriculum hasn't been arranged yet, but if I don't take elective classes on Fridays when school starts, I'll only have one PE class on Fridays. That means I'll have at least three...mmhmm..."
She didn't finish speaking before Qiao Sixiao covered her mouth.
Qiao Sixiao gestured for her not to let Li Yao overhear.
But it was already too late, Li Yao was grinning from ear to ear.
Qiao Sixiao deliberately changed the subject:
"Oh right, Li Yao, I heard recently that preparations have begun for a new military-themed film, and many companies are watching the casting process closely since there is a lot of competition but limited spots. You should pay attention too."
Li Yao reined in his smile and said "Mm, will do," before not saying anything else. After all, they had already reached an agreement with the producer about using their own actresses for the female leads in this movie. He wouldn't tell anyone before casting was fully complete, otherwise with the fierce competition in the industry, he couldn't guarantee the consequences.
When profits were big enough, competition would stop at nothing.
...
When they arrived in the city center, Sun Tiantian got off. She had just gone along in the morning when she was free, but now that break was over and she had to return to her own crew in the afternoon to film. After saying goodbye to Sun Tiantian, she thought they would be going home, but that wasn’t the case.
The end of military training came with the start of work.
“There’s still some time before filming starts for this drama, so we’ll go to the studio today to shoot costume and makeup test photos, and also a set of posters for promotional use later on. Our crews from both sides have already gone ahead, so things should be just about ready now based on the time. Sorry to trouble you, we might not have time to eat, just grab a quick bite of bread, and once we’re done I’ll treat you to whatever you want for dinner.”
As Qiao Sixiao spoke, she took some bread out of her bag and handed it to Qin Wei.
Qin Wei took a bite of the bread. She didn’t have any complaints about this, whereas in the past she definitely would have refused or gotten angrily frustrated for a bit. But after the “inhuman treatment” of the past month, even if Qiao Sixiao now told her to compete in the Olympics, she could probably run another 5km.
Whether or not she could win was another matter, but this past month had truly increased her physical strength and endurance.
...
While the two celebrities were away, the crews from both sides and relevant drama personnel had not been idle. Since they each brought their own hair and makeup teams, early on there had been discussions about hairstyle and makeup looks. By the time the actresses arrived, preparation was nearly complete.
Due to various practical considerations, separate makeup areas had been prepared on-site for each of the ladies, but it was a bit excessive. Qin Wei was chatting with Qiao Sixiao the whole way and just followed her into the room.
But it was no bother if the principals involved didn’t mind.
While makeup artist Xiaoyan worked on Qin Wei's makeup, Qin Wei kept her eyes glued to her phone, occasionally revealing a smile.
Xiaoyan was quite familiar with her by now. As she applied Qin Wei’s makeup, she said to her, “What are you looking at that’s making you smile like that? Do you know you and Teacher Qiao were trending on hot search today?”
Trending was nothing special, plus she didn’t even need to check to know it must be about Qiao Sixiao specially going to pick her up earlier. At first when she saw the super busy celebrity take time out to come get her, she had been a bit confused. But when she saw that Qiao Sixiao had come fully prepared with those little gifts, she realized it was a publicity move.
“Mm...”
Qin Wei had no interest in that and gave a perfunctory response before continuing to busy herself flipping through things on her phone.
“Don’t bother talking to her, she doesn’t have time to listen to us now. On the way here she was looking at manga the whole time, only stopping when she felt carsick and nauseous...”
Seeing Xiaoyan’s puzzled look, Qiao Sixiao explained what was going on.
“What manga are you looking at that’s making you smile so much?”
“I’m not telling you...”
The manga Han Zhou recommended was really good! Yay!
...
After shooting costume and makeup test photos, they proceeded to shoot promotional posters. By the end of the day everything was taken care of.
In the meantime, the photographer also took into account the actresses’ opinions and finally chose several satisfactory shots for the designer to work on for the posters.
The designer happened to be on-site and quickly threw together a poster draft during the down time when the ladies were changing outfits and removing their makeup. He called out to stop them as they were getting ready to leave:
“Teachers, come take a look at the effect! I can revise it if it’s no good.”
The poster background featured Damu Imperial City architecture. The left side mainly used red tones while the right side used white, corresponding to the two female characters portrayed by the actresses in the drama. So far it looked pretty good, but the final effect remained to be seen.
“Mm, looks great, thanks for your hard work.”
Qin Wei briefly glanced at it. She was mainly preoccupied with feeling hungry, so she urged Qiao Sixiao:
“You said you were treating me to dinner, I’m starving.”
Qiao Sixiao nodded, also indicating she didn’t have any particular opinions, and told him to go ahead as he saw fit. They were just about to leave when the designer called out to them again:
“The crew mentioned that you two are the leads, so there’s an issue with how we should arrange the names...”
As the designer spoke, he pointed with his finger to the empty space at the bottom of the poster, “Since you both have the same initial Q, should we go by stroke order? Would that work for you? If so I can just mark it down for now...there’s been a lot of drama lately in the industry about billing orders...”
That’s interesting trivia I didn’t know before.
Qin Wei didn’t care too much. Her only concern at the moment was deciding how well-done she wanted her steak.
The designer had asked the crew but their response was ambiguous, clearly intending to just offer up the designer as a scapegoat if fans later fought over the billing order.
But the designer wasn’t stupid either. Not wanting to take the fall for this, it was better to take the opportunity to directly hand over the decision to the talent themselves. That way, he could just say later that they had agreed:
“The order definitely risks triggering fights amongst fans, so how about top and bottom billing instead, styled as handwritten characters in the center to look nicer visually...”
Qin Wei had already walked to the door but came back when she heard his suggestion:
“Order doesn’t matter, but for top and bottom billing there still needs to be a distinction. I read the script for this drama, and my role has more scenes - I’m unambiguously the female lead, so my name needs to go on top.”
With her cartoon image being smaller than the other party’s to begin with, having her name underneath too was unacceptable. Absolutely not happening.
Qiao Sixiao, standing by the doorway, gave a cold laugh:
“The importance of my role in the storyline is crystal clear to the director and screenwriter, plus my agency is one of the primary investors in this drama. Putting me above her billing isn’t excessive at all.”
The other party was the financial backer of this show, but Qin Wei refused to back down one bit:
“Hilarious, some people were crying and begging me to take this role, repeatedly emphasizing that I was the female lead. Oh but now capital is being used to suppress people? It’s just investment money, can our company not also invest more? If it’s not a losing investment I’m sure President Xu would be happy to toss in another 18 million, right!”
Qiao Sixiao was stunned for a moment before responding:
“Don’t speak recklessly. Who was crying and begging you? I gave you an opportunity, it’s up to you if you want to take the role or not. You were calling me ‘Teacher’ so politely before, but now that you’ve crossed the river you want to tear down the bridge, worried you’ll drown, you unfilial thing.”
Qin Wei pointed at her:
“Don’t deny it, that night in the southwest, late at night, you were leaning on my shoulder half-asleep, mumbling to me that you...”
The designer covered his ears:
“Esteemed teachers, it’s getting late! Go home and fight it out...I’ll definitely resolve the poster issue...knowing too much in this industry isn’t good for one’s future...”
