Actresses

Chapter 41 Changes

"Wei Ning? What does she have to do with this?" He Yuran was covering her mouth with her hand and yawning, then stopped halfway through.

"Hmm...we don't have a dedicated producer, you know. Sis, don't forget, Wei Ning worked with Zhuang Pan before," Shi Jiahe said, racking her brains for an excuse. "And the script too—she's the one who discovered Zhao Cai. I think all these recent events actually prove that Wei Ning and our project are destined for each other, don't you think?"

"You think fate makes it so? I found Zhuang Pan. As for Zhao Cai, you found him through your own efforts. What does it have to do with her? I think that person is all talk and no action, no fun at all."

Seeing that the discussion was unlikely to continue, Shi Jiahe could only offer a few words of comfort and then let it go. He Yuran went to her bedroom to rest by herself. She closed the door and only breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the hallway.

This day was truly non-stop.

Now that her nerves have relaxed, she doesn't feel tired, but numb. All she wants to do right now is go home, throw herself into bed and sleep until dawn, and then figure out where to start resolving these messes tomorrow.

Dragging her weary body into the house, Shi Jiahe suddenly heard the clatter of a keyboard. She was startled, then realized that there was someone else living in the house. Looking closer, she saw that it was indeed Zhaocai, sitting at the dining table typing on the computer, his posture very unhealthy, his face almost touching the screen.

Shi Jiahe glanced at the time; it was already past 2 a.m.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Shi Jiahe asked as she changed her shoes.

Zhao Cai turned around when she heard voices. "Ah, Teacher Shi, you're back! The opening of the first episode is quite important, and I want to revise it in more detail so that we can improve efficiency later on. Will my typing disturb your sleep?"

"No, the soundproofing here is pretty good. As long as you're not dancing in the living room, the bedroom won't hear you."

"Then you should get some rest. You look really tired. You spent the whole day helping me move."

"I was about to go to sleep, but aren't you tired after a long day? Aren't you sleepy at all?" Shi Jiahe hung up her bag and looked at Zhao Cai in surprise.

"I'm used to staying up late."

Shi Jiahe sighed. She had no time for anything else now; she needed to take care of herself first. She quickly brushed her teeth, rubbed her face, and went back to her bedroom to sleep.

When there's nothing you can do to solve a problem, sleeping is the best solution.

When Shi Jiahe woke up, it took her a long time to remember everything that had happened the day before. The lingering trauma from the previous night slowly resurfaced, and her expectations for the day turned from anticipation to frustration.

She didn't want to face it, she didn't want to get out of bed. She cried out helplessly in her heart, but finally she turned over and sat up, forcibly dragging herself to open the door and walk to the living room.

She was stunned again.

Have I traveled through time? How come the person in front of me is still in the same spot as last night, still typing?

Zhao Cai reacted just like a machine, turning to look at her and saying, "Teacher Shi, you're awake!"

"Are you still awake?" Shi Jiahe asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I wrote until dawn, slept for a while, and then got up to write again."

Shi Jiahe glanced at her watch; it was a little past ten in the morning. That meant Zhao Cai had slept for about four hours at most, and probably hadn't eaten yet.

"You don't have to go to such lengths. It's okay if you give it to me a few days later."

"It's alright! I always keep my word and deliver on time." Zhao Cai smiled. "My teacher was initially willing to mentor me because I never missed a deadline."

Shi Jiahe thought to herself, making a screenwriter work under her nose to finish a draft—even Zhou Bapi couldn't be more ruthless. But she couldn't worry about making money now; she was in dire straits herself. A battle was raging in her mind: should she go find Wei Ning first, or go find Sister Ran?

However, looking at the fortune, Shi Jiahe suddenly had an idea.

She walked over and sat down in the seat diagonally opposite Zhao Cai. "May I bother you for a moment?"

Zhao Cai immediately looked up from the keyboard. "Ah, Teacher Shi, what are you saying!"

"Aside from exploiting you, what do you think of Wei Ning as a person?"

Zhao Cai was taken aback. "President Ning didn't exploit me. She's giving me a chance."

Shi Jiahe felt utterly helpless at that moment.

Can't these underprivileged kids be a little more deserving? She couldn't accept this kind of assessment, so she could only gently guide her: "It's like this, Ran-jie and I want to talk to President Ning about a collaboration, but I have some concerns. I'm afraid my judgment is just one side of the story, so I wanted to ask for your opinion. But please don't evaluate President Ning from the perspective of a struggling migrant worker in Beijing desperately needing work. I need some professional advice. Understand? Imagine you're a mature, professional screenwriter who has escaped poverty, and you re-examine all aspects of her work. For example, if the show you wrote the script for ended up airing quietly, how much responsibility would she, as the producer, bear? Let's look at President Ning from these perspectives, okay?"

"Uh..." Zhao Cai hesitated for a long time, probably afraid of saying the wrong thing. "The show didn't do well, which is related to the script... I think we screenwriters bear more responsibility."

Shi Jiahe was at a loss. She'd seen plenty of people in this industry who were busy shifting blame, but she'd rarely seen anyone so eager to take responsibility. If this Zhao Cai had worked for any company outside for even a few days, he probably wouldn't even know how he got himself killed.

Shi Jiahe calmed herself down and said again, word by word, "I believe that a person should bear as much responsibility as they are paid for a project. May I ask, how much did you receive in total for President Ning's film?"

Zhao Cai didn't answer immediately, but blinked very quickly. Because her eyes were very dry, they seemed to shrink with each blink.

"Tell me, are you so rich you can't keep your mouth shut?"

Zhao Cai swallowed hard. "Hmm, I got 15,000 in total."

"How many months did you stay on set?"

"Three months."

Shi Jiahe was utterly speechless. "Did your teacher give you this money, or did Wei Ning give it to you?"

"Mr. Ning and I only handle the specific work; my salary comes from my teacher. My teacher told me not to talk about money with others on set. It's not good, it's too sensitive."

Shi Jiahe sighed. "Your teacher really knows how to manipulate you. What else can she bring up besides money? Do you think you can make a living on air? Fifteen thousand for three months, do you know what that means? In a film crew like this, there's no rest. You've been working non-stop for three months, from the moment you arrive until the day is over. Is that all you're paid for?"

"I don't think we can calculate it that way..."

"How else can we calculate it? When you submit your script, do they even look at the word count? If you only submit a thousand words per episode, will the script even be approved? Why is there a word count limit for the scripts you submit, but you don't care about how much money they pay you? The amount of money they give you represents your value in their eyes. Forgive me for being blunt, but you, as their teacher, aren't exactly a good person either."

After Shi Jiahe finished speaking, she saw that Zhao Cai's already ashen face became even more unsightly.

She then realized that, after all, that screenwriter was someone who had brought Zhao Cai into the industry, and it didn't seem right for her to criticize him so harshly.

"Never mind, let's talk about President Ning instead."

"Professor Shi, I... I am not qualified to make a judgment."

Shi Jiahe nodded. She shouldn't force herself on others; as long as Zhao Cai could come up with the script, that was enough. Ultimately, she had to face her own problems.

Now that things have come to this, the priorities of the tasks are quite clear, so let's go find Wei Ning first.

"Then let me ask you another question. Has President Ning contacted you since yesterday?"

"Yes. She asked me if I had resolved it, and I said I was relieved." Zhao Cai said, showing Shi Jiahe his WeChat chat history with Wei Ning on his phone.

Shi Jiahe glanced at it; there was no mention of anyone living in her house.

"Okay. There's an extra key to the door, remember to take one with you when you go out. Order takeout at the address I gave you. Let me know if you need anything else at home," Shi Jiahe said, getting up.

"Teacher Shi, I think... the poor quality of that show really isn't the producer's fault..." Zhao Cai finally spoke again. But you could tell from her expression that she was having a hard time saying this.

"How so?" Shi Jiahe sat down again.

"Actually, the project was initially at risk of not being able to start. But despite the pressure, Director Ning still managed to get it approved. I don't know what methods she used, but in short, she found the best fit for every aspect, from the actors and director to even the post-production team."

"Then you spend a lot of money to make a mess that nobody watches... I'm sorry, I know you were involved in the script, but what I said is true."

"I know. I know the quality of the script myself, and I was on set doing the fly pages, so I'm very clear about the actual problems, but we don't have time to make adjustments. The actors' schedules are very tight; we can't coordinate even one extra day. At that time, the platform's vice president, Zhou Chun, visited the set, and I was there too. That day, my teacher asked me to go with President Ning to have drinks with Zhou Chun. What I overheard them discussing was that the show itself had to be downgraded. If we couldn't edit out a trailer that passed internal review, it would be downgraded from S to A."

"What does your teacher think about this?"

"If the rating is downgraded, my teacher won't be able to get the next few payments, so she's very anxious. I remember they talked for a long time that night, and after much persuasion from President Zhou, they finally agreed to revise the trailer again. Then, for those two days, my teacher was on-site supervising me as I wrote the fly pages, while President Ning was in the editing room with me. It seems like they didn't sleep for three days and three nights to rush out a new trailer."

Shi Jiahe remained silent this time, listening quietly.

"Then President Ning immediately flew to Beijing with the trailer, reported to President Zhou Chun that same day, and flew back to the film crew that night. I've actually been to several film crews and dealt with producers, but I've never seen anyone as responsible and hardworking as President Ning."

Upon hearing this, Shi Jiahe suddenly remembered that the reason she and Wei Ning had become good friends when they worked together was indeed because they were both very serious about their work. It seems that Wei Ning has not only learned to be glib in front of artists, but some of his traits haven't changed either.

"Hmm. And then?"

"Later I heard that the project rating was saved, and about a week later, my teacher also returned to Beijing. Director Ning continued to oversee the production herself, and no matter which actor took leave or left the set, she never left."

"Oh. This show was probably just released at the wrong time. If it had been released a couple of years earlier, it might have been better. By then, audiences had become a bit tired of the same type of show."

"I think so too. At the time, in order to meet the deadline, we used a lot of clichés and plot devices in the story. I didn't have any say in it, but I had a vague feeling that something was wrong. But that was all we could do, because there was no time to gather the screenwriters to work on the script and discuss the details."

"Then why were you in such a rush to start filming? Was it just to accommodate the actors' schedules?"

"As Ms. Ning mentioned, it was right between Q4 of that year and Q1 of the following year, and it involved the issue of investment funds. The production company wanted the money to be received by the end of the year, so she took into account various factors and rushed to start filming in Q4."

"It seems she's had a tough time too," Shi Jiahe said casually.

At this moment, the wariness she had felt towards Wei Ning, which she didn't know when it had arisen, suddenly faded considerably. She began to wonder when she had started to feel that the relationship between the two of them had changed so much.

Is it possible that, in fact, no one has changed much?