The more Xu Musen thought about it, the more he felt that this was a good idea.

First of all, of the reasons why the “Black and White” crew decided on Tao Mu to play the role of Zhou Yuanting. The biggest reason was the publicity channels in Tao Mu’s hands. That was to say, the promotion strategy of the film “Black and White” in the mainland largely relied on FlyNews.com. Secondly, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” produced by Tao Mu just made a big splash at the Lingxiao Awards ceremony and the honeymoon period with the organizer SARFT had not yet passed. If Tao Mu could come forward to discuss the review of the movie “Black and White” in the mainland, he believed that the big guys from SARFT would definitely not have this attitude.

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But most importantly, Tao Mu’s production and supervision ability was too great. While accurately getting the so-called “political correctness” required by the mainland, he could also take into account the ratings. This was exactly what Hong Kong producers couldn’t do.

In fact, a big reason why Xu Musen strongly opposed the rectification requirements of SARFT was that he didn’t know how to change the script at all. He didn’t know what the “political correctness” required by SARFT actually meant. And this was exactly what Tao Mu was best at.

Although Tao Mu had not produced a movie before, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” that Tao Mu had previously produced and “Soldier Elite” which was currently under preparation were mainstream military dramas. So Xu Musen was also desperately looking for a solution, and he could only grasp Tao Mu as a life-saving straw.

“…..The premiere of “Black and White” in Hong Kong is scheduled for Christmas Eve. The release time is in about one month to forty days. Our original plan was to release it in the mainland in February after the release in Hong Kong. But now that the SARFT review has not passed, we can’t negotiate with the mainland theaters about the schedule. If we delay it any longer, I’m afraid we won’t be able to catch the New Year holiday slot.”

In fact, it was a bit late to talk about the New Year schedule. If it wasn’t for the “Black and White” crew having gathered too many big names from both sides of the strait, and every one of them was a box office guarantee. The theater distributors were simply too lazy to talk to the “Black and White” crew about the schedule. Even so, the mainland theater chain also gave an ultimatum to the “Black and White” production team. Until December 24th at the latest, that was, before the premiere of “Black and White” in Hong Kong, if the “Black and White” crew still couldn’t pass the SARFT audit, the mainland theaters would hand over the New Year slot in February to other movies.

“The 24th?” Tao Mu was instantly shocked: “Today is the 13th, you know?”

“That’s why!” Xu Musen was so anxious that his hair was turning white: “I also know that time is very short. But we have no other way. Who knows how to change the script to satisfy those big guys? Besides, even if the script is changed, it also takes time to reshoot and edit. How can it be done in ten days?”

In fact, according to the efficiency of Hong Kong’s filming industry, it was not too late to rewrite the script and reshoot within ten days. But Xu Musen had always possessed the habits of some literary and art workers, believing that he was a professional in making movies. The “Black and White” film directed by him, both in terms of film connotation and character depth, was full of very complete and solid characterization. The characters could not be simply described and defined by one-sided words such as “good guy” or “villain”.

The protagonist could do bad things for the needs of the plot. And according to the role of the villain, of course, the villain could also have morals. Therefore, in Xu Musen’s view, the “political correctness” that SARFT required that “villains must be subdued by the law” was simply inexplicable. It was something that only a layman could say.

Therefore, Xu Musen complained a lot in front of Tao Mu, saying that this was too late, and that was too late. In fact, most of them were just excuses. To put it bluntly, Xu Musen just didn’t want to bow his head in front of SARFT. Of course, if we break it down carefully, there likely also involved the issue of arm-wrestling between Hong Kong filmmakers and mainland filmmakers. If put on another level, this was a question of whether “art serves politics” or “art had nothing to do with politics”. Such was a tacit tug o’ war that everyone was aware of.

However, the facts prove that the filmmakers of Hong Kong were definitely not as good as SARFT when it comes to arm wrestling. The more intense the resistance, the longer the stalemate, and in the end, only the “Black and White” crew would suffer. This was the relationship between supply and demand that determines everything——”Black and White” needed the mainland market to contribute to the box office, but the mainland market did not lack movies like “Black and White” to fill in theater slots.

Even without this butcher, we still wouldn’t eat pig meat that still has hair on it. This was the confidence that SARFT had to halt “Black and White”.

Unfortunately, Xu Musen understood this too late. The relationship between the two sides was now very rigid. If there was no competent person to mediate, it was likely that even if the Hong Kong producers bow their head and remade the film, SARFT would still not happily pass the review. At that time, just as Tao Mu said, “Black and White” would miss the best schedule for release in the mainland. In the end, only the producers of “Black and White” would suffer.

Taking this into consideration, Xu Musen must enlist Tao Mu’s help.

With the memory of his previous life, Tao Mu also knew that the “Black and White” crew had been halted by SARFT for a year, but in the end, they still had no choice but to bow their heads, admit their mistake and change the script. But as a result, because of missing the best release date, it resulted in the painful experience of only getting 8 million yuan box office after the release.

At that time, Tao Mu was being suppressed by Shen Yu’s admirers. And because Xu Musen supported Shen Yu’s decision to win the Golden Crow Award for Best Newcomer, his relationship with the “Black and White” crew was not good either. Knowing this, he couldn’t even wait to gloat over their misfortune, and of course would not feel any pity.

But in this life, the position had changed, and the angle of view of things would naturally change. Tao Mu really felt that it would be a pity if “Black and White” could not be released in the mainland.

But on the matter of changing the script——Tao Mu was not a professional screenwriter, of course he would not know how to change the script. After thinking about it, he could only give revision opinions based on many movie reviews he had seen in his previous life, combined with his own thoughts.

Speaking of which, the revised mainland re-screening version of “Black and White” in the previous life was really weird. Don’t know what Xu Musen was thinking, but he actually asked the screenwriter to change Zhou Yuanting into a white lotus flower——according to the requirements of SARFT, the villain must be subdued by justice. So in Xu Musen’s revised script, Zhou Yuanting found his conscience after seeing Yan Yu blocking the gunshot for him, and he took the initiative to turn himself in to the police. He also volunteered to be a double-agent for the police, and swindled the mafia boss. In the end, both of them went to jail.

One could imagine that when Tao Mu in his previous life received the adapted script, his inner feelings were more than just a “f**k”, it was literally thousands of “grass mud horses” whizzing past his head. Not to mention that the characters of Zhou Yuanting and the mafia boss have completely collapsed, and thus the whole script was completely untenable. Compared with the ending of the classic Hong Kong version, the modified mainland version could only be described as “idiotic”.

After the mainland version was reviewed and released, die-hard fans who had seen the pirated version of “Black and White” for a long time bought tickets to the cinema, and after watching it, they could only curse angrily. They felt that the mainland remake version of “Black and White” was simply a three thousand feet nose-dive from the original, and the final ending was simply poop. More and more netizens posted comments on the Internet complaining about the film. As a result, the crew of “Black and White” took advantage of the situation and pushed this black pot to SARFT. In fact, it could not be considered a black pot. After all, the “Black and White” crew did modify the script according to the requirements of SARFT and SARFT passed the review in the end. To review a classic work into a shoddy comedy story, this pot had to be carried by SARFT.

But SARFT didn’t want to take the blame. And they felt that the production team of “Black and White” was definitely doing this on purpose. Deliberately creating two works with such a huge disparity in quality in order to put SARFT in an embarrassing situation. This was definitely the display of a cheap person who could not be beaten into being upright.

So for a long time, SARFT did not like Xu Musen. Any film directed by Xu Musen was difficult to pass when it was reviewed in the mainland. And even if it was passed with difficulty, it was not possible to schedule a good slot. And this went on for several years. Up to the mainland film market developing, and the Hong Kong film market completely declining.

To be honest, Xu Musen changed the reworked script that way, partly because he was really angry. He wanted the guys at SARFT to see what the script revised according to their review requirements would be like. He wanted to slap face secretly. But other than that, Xu Musen didn’t understand the SARFT way at all, and he didn’t understand how the so-called political correctness was the root cause.

You ask a Hong Kong screenwriter who grew up in Hong Kong and studied in Hong Kong to revise a classic work that echoes the mainstream of the mainland. This difficulty factor was much higher than the difficulty coefficient of simply asking a Hong Kong screenwriter to create a classic work.

So Xu Musen was pissed off, but he also truly didn’t understand. In the end, it was not all Xu Musen and the screenwriter’s fault.

But Tao Mu was different. In the previous and present life, Tao Mu had seen so many classic works that echo the mainstream theme. To use a common saying to describe, even if you have never seen a pig run, you have eaten pork. After personally producing a Second Sino-Japanese war drama with the mainstream theme, and following a professional screenwriting team to enrich a military drama script with the mainstream theme, Tao Mu also had a little idea on how to revise the script of “Black and White”.

For the sake of the integrity of the script and the depth of the characters, Tao Mu felt that even if the villain was to be subdued in the end, it must not be a change that was difficult to digest, such as “being moved”. Instead, they could delve in on the male lead played by Yan Sheng and the plot point in which Zhou Yuanting slept with the mafia boss’s mistress.

“We can revise like this…..” Tao Mu was silent for a moment, organizing his thoughts, and said slowly: “Change it to after Yan Sheng realize that Zhou Yuanting had gone dark, in order to provoke the relationship between Zhou Yuanting and the boss, he deliberately revealed the news that Zhou Yuanting slept with his mistress. The boss had a grudge against Zhou Yuanting, but he relied heavily on Zhou Yuanting’s ability, so he did not make a move. But he secretly planned to put all the charges on Zhou Yuanting’s head when he escaped and have Zhou Yuanting be the scapegoat. Zhou Yuanting found out the boss’s plan but did not expose it. Instead, he also planned to secretly make use of the boss’s to kill the boss. As a result, due to this infighting, the police led by Yan Sheng profited and the two big villains were wiped out.”

Tao Mu paused and said, “I’m not a professional screenwriter either. I’m only giving a suggestion. How to change it depends on the screenwriter’s opinion. If Director Xu is worried, I can also ask people from my screenwriting team to take a look. It is the screenwriter who modified the script of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” before. Although the Second Sino-Japanese war genre is not the same as the cop vs. crook genre, some core aspects should be common. You can sit down together and discuss it slowly.”

As long as they decided on a solution, he could take the revised script to go to the SARFT review first. While waiting for the SARFT review, the “Black and White” crew could immediately prepare for shooting. They could also take advantage of the time difference, and bring the news of SARFT’s attutude to negotiate with the mainland theaters to finalize the film release schedule first.

Xu Musen was anxious and angry at being blocked by SARFT, and truly had no clue what to do. Hearing Tao Mu’s thoughtful suggestion, he was immediately overjoyed. He didn’t take advantage of Tao Mu, and said directly: “I listen to you. Come to Hong Kong as soon as possible, and we will first finalize the dividends you will have as the producer of the film in the mainland. The rest will be handled by you.”

Tao Mu said: “These are all easy to handle. But one thing is, when we bring the script to SARFT, we have to sit for a meal…..”

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Tao Mu didn’t speak further, but Xu Musen understood and immediately said, “I have to make amends with alcohol, right? Ai!”

Xu Musen sighed and said with a self-deprecating tone: “To tell you the truth, my buddy, I’m really struggling. As long as the review can be resolved as soon as possible and “Back and White” can be released in the mainland as scheduled. I am willing to drink until my stomach bleeds.”

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After Tao Mu won the Best Newcomer Award, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” won three major awards: Best Director, Best Actor and Best Feature TV Series. Living up to expectations and becoming the biggest winner at the awards ceremony.

The award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award had been broadcast live the whole time on the national channel, 7:30 to 10:30 in the evening, a total of three hours. The audience rating for the Best Newcomer Award soared to 10.2% after the opening, and then fell gradually until he Best Actor, Best Director Award and Best Feature Film Award were awarded to “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” when the ratings slightly picked up. Probably due to the influence of the awards ceremony, at ten o’clock in the evening, the audience rating of the 31st episode of “Fashion Storm”, which was broadcast on Mango Channel’s weekly slot, jumped to 11.2%, breaking the audience record of the same slot period again.

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When the award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award officially ended, it was also the climax of the thirty-second episode of the finale of “Fashion Storm”. The ratings soared to 13%, directly defeating many programs in the golden time slot of 8:00pm and became the runner-up in the ratings rankings in 2009——the champion was also produced by Tao Mu, the critically acclaimed and high ratings drama that also became the biggest winner in the Lingxiao Awards ceremony, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”.

After the news spread, Tao Mu’s fans were the first to go crazy. Like a flood, it swept across the entire FlyNews.com and even the entertainment section of other domestic social platforms. Under the FlyNews comment that Tao Mu uploaded to congratulate himself for winning the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, the fan comments broke 10 million in just one hour. This figure dumbfounded many media outlets and the number was also mentioned invariably when doing news reports. Indirectly doing a promotional advertisement for FlyNews.com.

However, who was even crazier than Tao Mu’s fans and many media outlets were the fans of various entertainers in the entertainment industry——everyone knew that the TV series that broke the ratings record one after another and ranked first and second in the annual ratings rankings were all produced and supervised by Tao Mu. And both dramas have aroused extensive social discussion in different subject areas. It could be said that it was two classic works with a double harvesting of ratings and word-of-mouth. At the same time, Tao Mu and the military were currently co-producing the special forces military drama “Soldier Elite”, which was also a good resource visible to the naked eye.

Whether it was a star or an actor, no matter how skillful the management team was in packaging and hyping, it was still difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. Therefore, if artists want to improve their commercial value and industry status, it ultimately relied on their works to speak.

Recently, Tao Mu was the most watched producer in the industry. The works produced by him were definitely classic works with double harvests in word-of-mouth and ratings. The most important thing was that the TV series produced by Tao Mu did not have the embarrassing situation of other productions in which “the work becomes a hit but the actors do not”. On the contrary, the TV series produced by Tao Mu would always be “the work becomes a hit and the actors are even more popular”.

The male lead Zhan Bin of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” was an A-list domestic actor before starring in “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. But his popularity was not even comparable to some B-list stars. When he acted in “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, his salary was only 50,000 per episode, which was not even comparable to the salary of some third-rate stars. However, after the broadcast of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, the popularity of Zhan Bin, who played the male lead in the drama, had soared, directly becoming the most popular actor in the country, and his salary likewise doubled. He even got the endorsement of the famous wine brand Wuliangye.

Coincidentally, before starring in this urban workplace idol drama, the male and female protagonists of “Fashion Storm” were just two young rookies who had just debuted on talent shows. Excluding the fame bonus of talent shows, there was simply no such thing as popularity and influence to their names. However, after starring as the male and female protagonists of “Fashion Storm”, they became popular overnight. Instantly squeezing up among the top B-list stars.

Especially Liu Yunshu, who played the heroine, and Liang Xiao, who played the second female lead, they were directly recognized by the domestic fashion industry because Tao Mu helped to design their makeup and image in the drama. And as aresult, also received two high-luxury cosmetics endorsements and one mobile phone brand endorsement. The smooth road of gaining endorsements simply makes everyone envious.

But the most important thing was that in addition to increasing the popularity of the leads in these two TV series, the important supporting actors who have played well in the dramas have also risen with the tide. In particular, several important supporting actors in “Fashion Storm”, after the TV series aired, because the salaries of the male and female protagonists skyrocketed so much, many idol dramas could not afford Bo Sensen and Liu Yunshu, so they lowered their standards and contacted the other supporting actors. Up to now, it seemed that the second male lead, third male lead, second female lead, and third female lead have all received new scripts. They were all newcomers who have just debuted but now could play the leading role in their second drama. Their resources simply did not seem like the resources of talent show stars at all, and it was estimated that even many actors who graduated from professional schools were not so lucky.

And these lucky halos were all brought by Tao Mu.

It was Tao Mu who was the driving force behind the scenes, the father of star making!

So without Tao Mu himself knowing about it, such a second year middle school nickname was added to the list. He was directly pushed up to the altar by the fans of various stars and actors, wanting nothing more than to burn three incense sticks for Tao Mu in one day, and hope that Tao Mu would favor their idol and make their idol popular overnight.

Even many artists themslves and their management teams couldn’t sit still. Through various channels, people from all walks of life congratulated Tao Mu, and then slip into the conversation, expressing their desire to cooperate with Tao Mu in filming.

Catching up with this wave of popularity, Xu Musen, the director of “Black and White”, also made a phone call. Post-production on “Black and White” had all been completed. The release schedule had also been selected, and without surprise, it was to be released around the New Year holidays. The premiere was on Christmas Eve, December 24th. According to the contract requirements, all the main actors must cooperate with the crew during the promotion period. However, Zhou Yuanting, played by Tao Mu, had only a dozen minutes of appearance in the movie and was not the main actor. Moreover, before Tao Mu played the role of Zhou Yuanting, he was just a pure rookie who did not have a single work to his name that was broadcasted, and had no fame in Hong Kong. Therefore, in the original contract, Tao Mu did not need to participate in the promotional activities in Hong Kong. Only when “Black and White” was released in the mainland did he have to cooperate with the crew to promote it. Then there was FlyNews.com which was required to cooperate with the promotional activities of the crew. But this piece was not free. The specific price needed to be negotiated between the “Black and White” crew and the public relations department of FlyNews.com.

However, what everyone did not expect was that Tao Mu’s acting skills were so good. Especially when playing against many big names, not only was their chemistry they complemented each other, even able to act against each other without restraint. So much so that director Xu Musen was reluctant to delete Tao Mu’s clips when he was doing post-editing. So adding more and more, Tao Mu’s scene was cut to about 20 minutes. For a movie with a duration of around 110 minutes, it could be said to be an important supporting role.

Generally, a big director of Xu Musen’s age and position liked to support newcomers. What was more, Tao Mu himself had a high EQ, and he maintained a very good relationship with the big names during the shooting. And after the shooting, he did not forget to maintain these personal relationships. Tao Mu himself had a notepad, which was full of the schedules of all his friends in the industry. When everyone had a new work on the market or a new endorsement was released, Tao Mu would log in to his FlyNews account to help promote it. With FlyNews.com’s strong publicity capabilities and strong user resources, those bigwigs could clearly feel the rise in popularity and attention.

Therefore, Xu Musen was even more willing to befriend a young man like Tao Mu, mainly because when he planned to make films in the future, he could also use Tao Mu as an investor and producer. One must know that Tao Mu’s strong production ability had been recognized by the industry. Capable people were respected everywhere. Even Hong Kong, which faces the mainland across the sea, was no exception.

Therefore, under various factors, Xu Musen simply signed up Tao Mu for the Golden Crow Award for Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor nominations in the name of the crew. So in this situation, Tao Mu himself needed to follow the crew to do promotion and appropriatly do public relations with the jury.

“…..With your acting skills, connections, and capital operation, I’m not worried. But I need to remind you that Shen Yu is now under the management of the Lin family. The Lin family’s network background is very deep in Hong Kong and the Lin family nominated Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award. If the Lin family throw in all efforts to compete for this award, it is estimated that your chances of winning are not large. So I suggest you focus more on the award of Best Supporting Actor. Firstly, the Golden Crow Awards have always had a tradition of dividing pork, and would not allow the same nominees win too many awards. This is very different from the Lingxiao Award. Secondly, the weight of the Best Supporting Actor is greater than that of the Best Newcomer Award.”

Tao Mu hadn’t heard of Shen Yu for some time. At this moment, he was a little surprised to hear Director Xu mention that Shen Yu actually signed with the Lin family’s brokerage company. However, Tao Mu had too many things going on recently, so he didn’t pay much attention to it. He just thanked Director Xu for his kind cultivation and thoughtful suggestions. And also expressed that if there was need of him or FlyNews.com, to just directly let him know.

Director Xu sighed and said, “Originally, it is not easy for our kind of Hong Kong police vs. crook films to pass the review in the mainland, but now Shen Yu is banned in the mainland. I plan to reduce Shen Yu’s role and remake the relevant plot scenes with someone else so that it could be released in the mainland. Yan Sheng will also come back from the US in two days to help with the promotion. I will discuss this matter with him. If we really decide to remake it, since the two of you have the most scenes with the character Yan Yu. At that time we will have to trouble you to help make up the scenes.”

Tao Mu’s heart jumped. In fact, before Director Xu made this call, Tao Mu never thought that Xu Musen would cut his scene to 20 minutes, and even signed him up for the Golden Crow Award for Best Supporting Actor. After all, in his last life, Xu Musen’s perception of him was not very good. Later, when he competed with Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award, Xu Musen also stood on Shen Yu’s side. With the crew coming forward to run for Shen Yu, adding to the fact that his network background in Hong Kong was lacking and the Shen family did not support him, of course he lost in the end.

After being reborn, Tao Mu was now considered to have a small success in his career. The most important thing was that he had both a good family and lover. So a lot of grievances from the previous life have slowly dissipated.

So when he felt Xu Musen’s kindness, Tao Mu didn’t want to let Xu Musen’s hard work die because of failing SARFT’s review, getting stuck in limbo for a year and then finally, due to the helpless reasons of the proliferation of piracy, the box office only reached eight million after release. Although it could not be a complete loss but it also really didn’t make much money.

Tao Mu pondered for a moment, quickly organized his thoughts, and asked, “Where is the review process of the movie up to?”

When Director Xu heard Tao Mu’s question, he sighed again, with a particular headache: “SARFT said that the ending of the movie is not good. It does not show goodness and beauty. The villain escaped justice, but the decent characters died or became casualties. They insist on changing the ending. Isn’t that ridiculous? The reason why I made the movie this way was of course because I had my own thinking. This is an artistic creation. How could those officials in the mainland know how to make a movie? If I follow their instructions, the meaning of the whole movie would be completely changed. How could I change it? Besides, there is also the problem of Shen Yu being banned…..”

All in all, it was deadlocked now. SARFT asked them to change the ending and delete all of Shen Yu’s scenes. The producers were of course unwilling to compromise. And to be honest, after the development of Hong King film for so many years, such big directors as Xu Musen really did looked down on the production quality of mainland filmmakers. They didn’t even think that mainland filmmakers know how to make movies, they just didn’t want to miss out on the huge mainland movie market.

Xu Musen complained to Tao Mu, and the main idea of the complaints was that the SARFT masters don’t know anything and just pretend to understand, completely not knowing how to make movies at all. Yet they sit there directing the country and uttering nonsense. He felt that the reason why mainland movies couldn’t develop was because there were too many laymen who like to do the instructing.

Tao Mu listened quietly for a while, then pointed to the core of the matter: “But if you don’t change the ending, the movie will definitely not be reviewed. The rules in the mainland are like this. If the SARFT review fails, there is no way for your movie to be released in the mainland. “Black and White” is going to premiere in Hong Kong on December 24th, and pirated dealers are rampant now. Have you ever thought that if you halt here for too long, pirated discs will flow into the mainland. By then, mainland audiences would have already watched the pirated discs, so even if you compromise in the end, how long would it take to change the script? How long would it take to re-shoot? How long would it take to schedule the release date? And you have also offended SARFT, what if they schedule a bad time slot for you?”

Xu Musen fell silent. After a long while, he asked huffily, “Then what do you say?”

“Change the ending.” Tao Mu said decisively, “Hurry and change it. Take advantage of this reshoot of Yan Yu’s scene, change the ending directly and get it to SARFT for review.”

Xu Musen was a little afraid of the style and habit of those big masters of SARFT: “What if they still don’t agree after changing it?”

“We can do the script first and hand it over to SARFT for review.” Tao Mu had two experiences as a producer. Combined with his knowledge of the review process of later years, he suggested: “After obtaining the approval of SARFT, we will then do the re-shoot. As long as the operation on our side is faster, it will not delay much time.”

Xu Musen smiled bitterly. The key was that they couldn’t operate fast here. Before, the two sides had already argued to the point of stiffness because of the filming concept. Now SARFT simply didn’t want to pay attention to them at all. Procrastinating as long as they can, clearly planning on halting them in place.

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With a flash of inspiration, Xu Musen suddenly remembered that Tao Mu had just won the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, and “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” drama he produced was the biggest winner at the Lingxiao Awards. In addition, the entertainment media in the mainland also reported that Tao Mu was now working with the military to shoot a mainstream promotional drama. Then he must have some speaking power in the mainland.

Xu Musen suddenly had a thought: “Would you like to be the producer of the mainland version of “Black and White”?”

Tao Mu: “…..Ah?”

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Cheng Baodong snorted again, and said with a half-smile, “Oh, not really. Compared with Mr. Tao, it really is the case of the back waves of the Yangtze River pushing the front waves, and the front waves dying on the shore.”

Tao Mu smiled and said, “Director Cheng really likes to joke.”

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The production team of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” noticed Tao Mu as early as when Tao Mu entered the hall. Only that there were too many people chatting around Tao Mu, so they didn’t come over. Hearing Cheng Baodong’s remarks, Director Zhou Hong immediately laughed: “Director Cheng made one movie and one TV series last year. The box office of the movie exceeded 700 million yuan, and the TV series was also successfully shortlisted for the Lingxiao Award for Best Director and Best Feature TV Series. If the front waves died on the shore, how could anyone else live?”

As soon as these words came out, the people around immediately burst out laughing. They all teased Cheng Baodong for deliberately saying these words to sour others.

Cheng Baodong was flattered by everyone, and his expression instantly softened. He waved his hand with a smile, and said very reservedly: “No, really. Compared with CEO Tao’s momentum, I could only be regarded as struggling with a lingering breath, just trying my best to maintain.”

Before he finished speaking, he heard someone behind him say, “Young people today are indeed really amazing.”

Everyone turned around and saw the SARFT leader and several judges of the jury standing not far away. The crowd greeted each other.

The leader from SARFT nodded and continued: “There has always been a voice in our Chinese entertainment circle, that SARFT does not encourage young people, does not encourage creation, and imposes too many restrictions on everyone. Some people joke that creating film and television dramas in China is just like dancing with shackles. There are too many rules and regulations, making it impossible for everyone to give full play to their talents and abilities. We at SARFT listen to all voices. Therefore, this time, the Lingxiao Award would be reformed and the award for the best newcomer was launched. This is to encourage more young people, so that they can put more energy on the work itself. At the same time, it also encourages entertainment practitioners to focus on the works themselves. Just like the shortlisted “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” this time, even if the Second Sino-Japanese War is an old theme, as long as you spend your time on the script, you can make a unique classic. Rather than always thinking about grandstanding and shooting some cutting-edge themes to please the international film festival. In a word, although we SARFT do not encourage old wine filling new bottles, but the use of old bottles holding new wines is definitely encouraged.”

After this long talk, don’t know how many people have been slapped in the face. Cheng Baodong’s expression also changed slightly. Because he had complained in previous interviews that SARFT limited the subject matter of shooting. Just because another director sent an unreviewed film to a foreign film festival for exhibition without the permission of SARFT. SARFT did not allow the award-winning film to be released in China. And the director of the film was also given a severe punishment of being banned from directing films.

Cheng Baodong sympathized with the other’s plight and he couldn’t help complaining a few words during an interview. But he didn’t expect that at this moment, someone would use such a way to respond back.

Tao Mu, who was standing on the side, did not speak. In fact, this situation involving the power struggle between the two sides was not something that he, a young rookie who had debuted for less than two years, could get involved.

Zhou Hong, the director of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, was also an old veteran of the circle, well-informed and experienced. For fear that Tao Mu was young and impetuous, getting a big head after being praised by the leaders. Not knowing the severity, unable to distinguish the situation, and then say something rashly to offend people who shouldn’t be offended. He quickly changed the topic with a smile: “Speaking of which, Tao Mu, you have endured hardship in the army this time. Look at this darkened skin and lpss of weight, those fans of yours must feeling quite distressed?”

“Old Zhou, you say this because you don’t understand those little girls at all.” Zhan Bin, the hero of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”, said with a smile: “You didn’t see those little girls shouting from both sides when he walked the red carpet, I nearly went deaf.”

“It’s called sex appeal now! Handsome!” Zhan Bin patted Tao Mu on the shoulder. Feeling Tao Mu’s tight muscles, he couldn’t help squeezing: “You trained well.”

Tao Mu smiled awkwardly, which fit the image of a fresh face 20-year-old young man, and said reservedly: “It’s okay. Compared with those special forces, it’s far worse.”

The crowd laughed when they heard the words. The chairman of the jury of the Lingxiao Award pointed at Tao Mu and said with a smile: “The young man has high ambitions. What’s the matter, do you really want to compare with our special forces?”

Tao Mu said: “All our crew members are experiencing life in the army. The last month is to train with the soldiers of the special forces. Although our physical fitness is limited, and we are definitely not comparable to the professional special forces. But we will try our best to persevere, at least be able to display the spirit of the special forces.”

The leader from SARFT also patted Tao Mu on the shoulder and said with a smile: “If our actors can prepare to this level before filming, I believe we will be able to shoot more classic works.”

The topic then turned to the current atmosphere of the entertainment industry. Most of the directors and actors who could be shortlisted for the Lingxiao Award were ptofessional actors with ability and background. Otherwise, it was impossible or them to be able to participate in mainstream TV series. For these actors, the right way was to be low-key as a person and high-profile when acting roles. Therefore, they all couldn’t get used to some newcomers who don’t polish their acting skills when they were filming, and instead keep buying articles and hyping themselves outside the film set, which caused the atmosphere of the entertainment circle to be smoggy. Later, the subject turned to the hype route of some gossip stars. Criticizing some management teams for being too willing to kill chickens to get the eggs, shortsightedly, draining the value of their artists. Some stars were also thick-skinned, they didn’t even have a single work to their name, yet they could even blow rainbow farts at themselves into international superstars through the articles they buy online. In the end, they even felt that marketing hype was not desirable.

As the founder of FlyNews.com and a well-known publicist in the industry, Tao Mu, who was reborn from the later years, did not reject publicity and hype. It could even be said that one of the reason “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” and “Fashion Storm” could break the ratings records one after another and create social hot spots was because of FlyNews.com’s publicity and hype credit.

However, at such a time, Tao Mu would obviously not dampen the mood and disagree with everyone. He had no choice but to keep silent and maintain his image as a low-key little rookie to the end. In fact, Tao Mu felt that the directors and actors who agreed with SARFT did not necessarily agree with this opinion in their hearts. It was just that in this kind of social situation, everyone upheld the truth that more was worse than less and didn’t bother to argue with the leaders.

Although it was very popular for the protagonist, in order to show his uniqueness, utter nonsense in front of the leader in TV series. But in real life, such tactless and low EQ young people were obviously not welcome.

Cheng Baodong disliked Tao Mu’s fakeness. In his opinion, young people should speak freely and dare to stand up for their own opinions. Now that was called being young and lively. It was a pity that Tao Mu had never had this kind of vigor. This dude was more like an old fritter than an old fritter, and an older fox than an old fox. He was just so socially smooth and ease that people were unaccustomed to it.

If it was said that the world hated people who “got advantages and then say some cute words”. Then in Cheng Baodong’s eyes, Tao Mu was a typical person who “pretend to be cute to take advantage and then doesn’t bother saying any cute words afterwards”. His scheming shrewdness was even more annoying than cheap-cute people.

Fortunately, the awards show started soon after. Everyone took their places, and Tao Mu sat with “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” crew.

The hosts of the Lingxiao Award were two famous hosts of the National Channel, who often host the Spring Festival Gala. After the usual opening remarks, the first award given out was the Best Newcomer Award.

The guest of honor was a nearly 70-year-old actor named Tian Xingjian. At the same time, he was also the only grand slam actor in the country. He had just received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lingxiao Award last year. That the Lingxiao Award invited this old artist to award the Best Newcomer Award just launched this year also had a kind of passing on the torch meaning.

“The organizer asked me to be the presenter. I am very pleased. At the same time, I am grateful for the jury’s recognition of me.” The 70-year-old artist, with white hair like frost, stood on the stage and said slowly: “I am a person who is useless at everything else except for acting. But my life is rich and colorful because of this profession. I hope that young people who have just entered the profession can also appreciate the charm of being an actor. Feel and live more kinds of life, and at the same time also bring more and more exciting works to the audience.”

Mr. Tian didn’t say much. After saying this, he gestured everyone to watch the screen. Video clips of the five nominees appeared one after another on the big screen. The final shot of Su Dingbang, played by Tao Mu, was of him committing suicide by swallowing opium.

The other four nominees shortlisted were also newcomers who have just debuted for a year or two. But for various reasons, whether it was popularity or acting skills, they were obviously incomparable to Tao Mu, a rebirth person who charged out from the siege with his acting skills and even won a best actor award in his previous life. When the Lingxiao Award launched the Best Newcomer Award, it also showed the organizer’s favor for Tao Mu himself.

So the end result was predictable.

Mr. Tian didn’t tease like the other presenters. He opened the envelope and announced directly: “…..The winner of the Best Newcomer Award is Su Dingbang, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. Congratulations to Tao Mu who played Su Dingbang.”

The camera in the studio hall turned to Tao Mu at the same time, and a close-up of Tao Mu also appeared on the big screen. Tao Mu stood up and hugged the director and actors of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” then went to the stage.

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Tao Mu reached out and took the trophy that Tian Xingjian gave him, and bowed to Mr. Tian with the trophy. Then he stood in front of the microphone and delivered his acceptance speech.

“I would like to thank the Lingxiao Award for its encouragement to newcomers and the jury for their recognition of me. At the same time, I would also like to thank all the members of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. It was the joint efforts of all of us that made this work. I hope this award is just the beginning. In the future, we will try our best to create more and better works.”

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According to some novels, that like to judge shou vs. gong by skin color, Tao Mu, who had been darkened by two shades, was very gong-like indeed, his aura soaring from the original 2.8 meters to 28 meters in an instant.

After the Ceramics (Tao Mu’s fan club name) who were waiting to pick up the plane at the airport saw Tao Mu who was two shades darker, their hearts were practically about to fly into the air and burst directly, and then shatter into pieces of heart-shaped petals. The screams that were so excited that it broke through the roof and went straight up to the clouds in an instant. The media reporters who were also among the fans were also so excited that they kept pressing the shutter. Accompanying the sound of clicking, the photos of Tao Mu’s sexy new image spread all over the major online platforms in an instant.

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——Many netizens expressed in amazement after seeing the photos that Tao Mu, who had been darkened by two shades, looked more delicious than a white Mu Mu. Especially the straight male fans of Tao Mu, they were so excited that they almost took screenshots and printed them out as posters to be hung on the bedside.

So Tao Mu’s face fan faction split into two factions, one was the black Mu Mu fans, and the other was the white Mu Mu fans. In view of the homophony of these two words were not considered all that good, the face fans, who were a large number but exist at the bottom of the food chain, were once again ridiculed and beaten by the other fan factions. They could only cry and heal themselves by licking the screen. And as a result, was dubbed “dog licking” by the other fan factions——a star-chasing dog who could only lick the screen.

Now this slightly reached the level of a personal attack. Because of this, some face fans got angry on the Internet, and said indignantly: “If you have the ability to scold me dog licking, then you should have the ability to not ask me for pictures!”

As soon as these words came out, the photography fans in Tao Mu’s technical fan camp were unable to keep silent anymore. One must know that when they usually practice PS retouching, they used the original images provided by the face fans. So from a certain point of view, Tao Mu’s photography fans and face fans were also in the same camp. Seeing their allies being dissed, the photography fans must stand forward to help condemn them out of morality, and it must be a fierce condemnation.

Tao Mu’s face fans were the largest number, and because ofbthe skills of photography fans they have the strongest favorability among the entire fan factions. So much that Tao Mu’s acting fans and other camps also came forward to condemn the scolding fans who first caused the scolding war.

Of course, the scolding fans had the most explosive fighting power and couldn’t lie down and die. So they ridiculed them by saying that the weak chickens teaming up were still weak chickens. They also said that face fans were the most unskilled fans, and then also expressed contemptuously that technical fans couldn’t do anything except retouch pictures. And as a side note, they also dissed acting fans as having the least actual performance. Anyway, by the end of the scolding list, us scolding fans had the biggest credit. With a wave of our ten-meter-long sword, thousands of troops are swept away, establishing a illustrious reputation for Tao Mu’s road to fame.

This kind of argument that just belittle others to elevate oneself directly provoked public anger. The other fan factions who were just casually condemning them out of morality instantly rage quit. Joining together to denounce and criticize the scolding fans as actually being the most useless and too eager to make accomplishments. Because every time there was a scolding war on the Internet, in the end, it was Tao Mu himself who came forward to use his crowd ridicule skills to win the day.

This was actually true. However, when it came to verbal cannon skills, other fans couldn’t compare at all to scolding fans. So under the unreasonable sophistry of the scolding fans, other fans who clearly have pictures and truth on their side still managed to lose to the scolding fans. There was a lot of uproar on the Internet because of this, and even the entertainment media and other melon-eating people who were always paying attention to the trend of the Internet were unable to understand it. Dont know why Tao Mu’s fans began pinching each other again. And pinching so fiercely!

However, Tao Mu’s fans often infight, and the melon eaters saw too much of it already so it barely roused their attention. After all, Tao Mu was the man who often “stirred up a bloody storm” in the entertainment industry.

Putting aside the smoke of gunpowder on the Internet, Li Xiaoheng, who was waiting in the parking lot, couldn’t help but come over to get a kiss in delight after seeing the freshly baked Tao Mu. After the kiss, he commented with a smile: “Today’s Xiao Mu is chocolate flavored.”

——What chocolate flavor!

Tao Mu looked at Li Xiaoheng helplessly and asked, “Is the suit ready?”

Li Xiaoheng nodded: “It’s done. Are you going to try it out at home?”

A whole body shiver ran through Tao Mu, and he said quickly, “No need. You can bring it here for me.” The last time he went to the Li family house it left a huge psychological shadow. In a short time, Tao Mu didn’t want to visit again.

Looking at Tao Mu, who still had lingering fears, Li Xiaoheng chuckled lightly: “I have already sent it to your apartment.”

Tao Mu looked at Li Xiaoheng, who was smiling mischievously, and snorted.

The Lingxiao Award ceremony was scheduled for December 12, starting on time at 7:30 pm.

At around 6:30, Tao Mu appeared on the red carpet on time wearing a hand-made black dress suit.

According to Tao Mu’s plan, he originally wanted to walk the red carpet with the production team of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. But the organizer arranged a separate red carpet time for Tao Mu out of various considerations. For such a trivial matter, Tao Mu was too lazy to ask the organizer. However, he had no plans to find a red carpet female partner. He was just going to walk on the red carpet alone and shining.

This was also Tao Mu’s first red carpet show since his debut. Like most male stars, Tao Mu also chose the most classic, most common and least error-prone three-piece black suit. However, compared to the styles of other male stars, Tao Mu’s black suit was more slim, and the exquisite tailoring outlined his wide shoulders, narrow back, slender waist, long legs and pert butt. Because he had been training in the army for more than half a month, when he walked, his back was straight and his head was held high, like green pines and cypresses, vigor and strength in every gesture. To use a cliche phrase to describe it, he was simply walking hormones. Against the background of the two shades darker skin color, his whole person looked more and more masculine and handsome, and actually gave people a visually stunning image of a person completely reborn.

Tao Mu’s fans stood on both sides of the red carpet, holding up signboards and screaming. With an old mother and girlfriend fan mentality, they only felt that their family’s Mu Mu had really grown up. Was a real man. Huhu.

Even the host standing at the end of the red carpet couldn’t hold up against the rush of male hormones that swept over, and jokingly said, “Tao Mu has become more and more handsome since he entered the army for training!”

Tao Mu smiled and said, “Because all handsome guys have to be handed over to the state.”

One sentence once again caused the fans to howl with excitement. Tao Mu took the pen and signed his autograph in the signature area, and then strode into the evening venue.

Tao Mu debuted for more than a year and had only officially participated in the shooting of one movie and one TV series so far. But Tao Mu’s contacts in the industry could be regarded as quite a wide range. Because of the previous co-production of “Fashion Storm” with Summer Star Entertainment and Longteng Entertainment, Tao Mu had met many big names in the industry. Both front and behind the scenes. Considering the identity of Tao Mu as the founder of FlyNews.com, these big names were also willing to maintain a friendly relationship with Tao Mu. This caused Tao Mu to be surrounded by a group of people as soon as he entered the hall.

A large group of people gathered around Tao Mu with greetings and compliments, wishing Tao Mu the best newcomer award in advance. Others firmly concluded that “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” would definitely become the biggest winner of this year’s Lingxiao Awards. After all, “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” had been setting new ratings since its broadcast. At the end, the national ratings had broken 20%, which directly pushed this Second Sino-Japanese War drama to the top. Moreover, the social impact and popularity of this war drama were beyond doubt. According to rumors, even the highest country leaders praised this drama well when watching it.

Up to now, it had become a fact that “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” would definitely win awards. The only suspense was probably how many awards “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” could win, and whether other shortlisted works would eventually become escorts. After all, with the annoying habit of the Lingxiao Award jury——those guys from SARFT never like to divide pork. They just like to push model works and build their own sons.

Now it seemed that “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” would definitely be the biological son of this year’s awards ceremony. After all, Tao Mu, the producer of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” and the largest investor, was also co-producing a conscription promotion drama with the military. SARFT even took the initiative to reform the Lingxiao Award and launch the so-called best newcomer award for Tao Mu. All the signs show that the official side would definitely push Tao Mu.

That was why after Tao Mu entered the hall, the crowd of celebrities gathered around with smiles on their faces, taking the initiative to make good friends with Tao Mu. There was no lack of cooperation intentions underlying their words. After all, after “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood” and “Fashion Storm”, Tao Mu had already proved to the industry his production ability and acting skills.

Of course, there were some people who didn’t like how Tao Mu was so proud and successive at such a young age. The most jealous of them should be Tao Mu’s old friend, Cheng Baodong, who used to be the biological son of SARFT.

Cheng Baodong also did not expect that this mere little martial arts stand-in, who was looked down on as an extra in his own crew back then, could climb to such a position in just one to two years. Not only was he bright and shining in front of the stage, but also behind the scenes. Seeing that group of big names in the industry flanking Tao Mu and making pretentious greetings, Cheng Baodong felt a bit uncomfortable. He couldn’t help but snort coldly, and said to another director next to him, “When Tao Mu was in my crew back then, when he was acting as a substitute for Bo Yuan, I could already see that this kid had a lot of scheming methods, and was definitely not a mere fish in the pool.”

Cheng Baodong was invited to the awards ceremony this time due to one of his drama being shortlisted for best director, best actor and best feature-length TV series. But looking at the current momentum, he was afraid that he would become an escort of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. In less than two years, the world had changed to such an extent that it was no wonder that Cheng Baodong was dissatisfied. He kept feeling that Tao Mu was blocking his way.

The director standing beside Cheng Baodong looked sideways and said with a smile, “Director Cheng’s words are a bit sour.”

Cheng Baodong sneered: “What do I have to sour of? It’s not like I hadn’t won the Lingxiao Award for Best Director before. It’s you, old Zhang, who has been filming for more than 20 years yet every time you are shortlisted you end up being an escort. Why doesn’t the Lingxiao Award just give you a Best Supporting Actor!”

“Oh that mouth of yours!” Director Zhang shook his head, too lazy to pay attention to Cheng Baodong. This guy was a dog, biting whoever he catches.

Cheng Baodong needled Director Zhang, but still felt unhappy. Stepping up to Tao Mu, he raised his voice and laughed: “After a year, Mr. Tao has become more and more successful.”

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Tao Mu turned to look at Cheng Baodong. Naturally, he did not miss the envy and jealous anger on his face. For a while he couldn’t help but be emotional. After all, just a year ago, Tao Mu was still thinking about how to hug the other’s thigh just to be able to play a leading role in Cheng Baodong’s movie. Who would have thought that in just one and a half years, Tao Mu would become a well-known producer in the industry. And he even planned to grab this piece of fat meat from Cheng Baodong’s hands.

Thinking of this, Tao Mu smiled brighter and nodded at Cheng Baodong: “I haven’t seen you in a year, but Director Cheng still looks good as ever.”

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When Tao Mu, the troops leader, and a group of screenwriters arrived at the training ground, Gu Yuzhang was already on his knees——literally. Down on one knee and vomiting.

Comrade Soldier Elite stood by the side stupidly, slightly at a loss. He didn’t expect that he would have a competition with someone, just flipping on the horizontal bar, and actually cause the other to vomit.

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Seeing the death glare from the company commander, Comrade Soldier Elite touched his nose in embarrassment, and explained in a low voice, “I didn’t expect…..” This guy was actually so stubborn.

Tao Mu looked at Gu Yuzhang, who was kneeling there and vomiting his guts out, and walked forward with a particularly speechless expression, patting him on the shoulder: “Are you all right?”

Gu Yuzhang shook his head dazedly, and didn’t forget to explain to himself: “I’m fine. I just don’t have a developed cerebellum, and my balance was not good. I usually get dizzy in the car.”

Then why were you still competing on the horizontal bars with others!

Tao Mu was even more speechless. He felt that it was not because Gu Yuzhang had an underdeveloped cerebellum, it was more likely because his brain hadn’t developed well.

When the company commander saw this, he quickly sent Gu Yuzhang to the medical room on a stretcher. He pointed to the pool of vomit on the ground and said to the elite soldier, “You caused this. You clean it up yourself.”

Comrade Soldier Elite looked up at the sky innocently, with an expression of “Who did I provoke, who did I offend?” But he didn’t say anything, he just obeyed. When the elite soldiers selected by their company went to participate in the special forces assessment, they even had to squat in the septic tank for training. So this was nothing to him.

On the contrary, Tao Mu felt a little sheepish, and insisted on not letting Comrade Soldier Elite clean it up. Instead, he pressed the other actors in the cast to clean up the area. Some actors were not convinced and shouted why. Tao Mu sneered and said directly: “I saw you were all very engaged in watching from the side. You are already so immersed in the film even before the official shooting. If I don’t arrange some scenes for you, won’t I disappoint your sense of participation?”

Seeing that Tao Mu, the lead actor, producer and the largest investor in the crew was really angry, all the actors suddenly woke up. Several Yan Film students who passed the interview with Gu Yuzhang explained: “It’s not that we are causing trouble on purpose. After we passed the audition, we went back to school to ask for leave. Some other students said that we were traitors, the words they used were quite nasty.” They were also full of anger. As a result, when they first came to the army and heard that the soldiers looked down on them, Gu Yuzhang exploded.

Hearing this explanation, Tao Mu said nothing. He had already warned these Yan Film students during the audition. They all knew what they would face after passing the audition. Everyone here were grown ups and able to bear the consequences for the choices they made. It was not like you could always want an opportunity and at the same time refuse to bear criticism. And even take your anger out on others.

A teacher from the screenwriting team chuckled and said, “If this was put in a TV series, it’s a typical face-slapping routine!”

It was a pity that a certain someone didn’t have the hero’s life, so the road ahead was bumpy and he vomited directly!

If this was put in the online novel, it would be that kind of most down-to-earth male protagonist who was “handsome for less than three seconds”. The eyes of several screenwriters who were online writers brightened and winked at each other secretly.

After resolving the commotion at the training ground, Tao Mu and the troops leader went to the infirmary to visit Gu Yuzhang.

The doctor gave Gu Yuzhang medicine, and Gu Yuzhang was already better. He was currently laying in bed with his eyes closed. Seeing Tao Mu and the troops leader who came to visit him, he felt a little embarrassed.

“I’ve caused everyone trouble.” Gu Yuzhang said apologetically, “I am willing to admit defeat. I will definitely fulfill the bet.”

“No need, no need.” The troops leader waved his hand and said, “You are here to experience life. How could you wash clothes for the soldiers.”

Gu Yuzhang was an actor after all, and he came to the army for filming. He was not one of their soldiers. The troops leader was worried that Gu Yuzhang would talk nonsense during the interview with reporters. When it came to the image of the army, the troops leader did not dare to neglect any munor detail.

Tao Mu felt that this was not a big deal: “He is willing to admit defeat. He is also an adult, and it’s not like he can afford to make a bet but can’t afford to lose. Leader, you don’t have to stop him. And don’t worry, if this matter is handled well, we can even put it in the promotional footage.”

After a pause, Tao Mu smiled: “The promo footage will definitely be handed over to the military for review before uploading it to BulletScreen.com.”

Hearing Tao Mu say this, the troops leader immediately felt relieved. The company had a lot of things to do, and the troops leader spoke a few words of condolences to Gu Yuzhang, then got up and left.

Only Tao Mu and Gu Yuzhang were left in the infirmary. Tao Mu looked at Gu Yuzhang’s sullen and pale expression, and asked, “What did the doctor say, can you train normally tomorrow?”

Gu Yuzhang nodded and apologized again. Profoundly reflecting on his behavior: “I shouldn’t bring bad emotions into my work. I shouldn’t be angry with that comrade sergeant.”

“It’s good that you know.” Tao Mu didn’t comfort Gu Yuzhang, but analyzed rationally: “If you want to be an actor, if you want to go a long way in this circle, you must do a good job of emotional management. Honesty and straightforwardness is not a problem. But you have to be honest and straightforward in the right place. Just imagine, if you can’t manage your own emotions well, how can the producer choose an actor who doesn’t have enough control over their emotions to play an important role? It’s also impossible for the talent agency to support an extremely emotional star.”

Considering Gu Yuzhang’s future star road, Tao Mu was indeed a little overly alarmist.

But at this stage, Gu Yuzhang really listened to this advice. After a long silence, Gu Yuzhang said firmly: “I will change.”

Tao Mu patted Gu Yuzhang on the shoulder: “Just do well. Starting tomorrow, the production team of “Soldier Elite” will also enter the army. Although they will not participate in the training, they will always follow your training, and will also take some pictures and videos during the period. The video material of large-scale training will be placed in the post-editing process. If valuable video materials are recorded during the shooting process, we will also put them in the promotional footage. Moreover, the screenwriting team will also improve the script details and character settings based on your performance. So, if you really want to be popular, you should try your best to show your best self. When you become popular in the future, you will know that those who speak nasty things in front of you are not worth mentioning at all.”

Give a slap and then a sweet date was Tao Mu’s favorite effective method. When heard by Gu Yuzhang he felt that Tao Mu, this college freshman boss, could actually trust him and speak such sincere things with him, it truly moved him to tears. He wanted nothing more than to sign with Tao Mu’s film and television company immediately.

But Gu Yuzhang knew what kind of situation he was now. He was just a freshman in Yan Film. He hadn’t made a single TV series, and he didn’t have any commercial value. If he now propose to sign a contract with Tao Mu’s film and television company, it was like begging Tao Mu for charity.

So Gu Yuzhang quietly made up his mind that he must perform well during the shooting. When he became popular with this role, he would talk to Tao Mu about signing a contract.

He wanted everyone to know that Gu Yuzhang was not an ungrateful person!

Because there was Gu Yuzhang’s brief interlude——although there was some trouble, but like the old saying, having a fight can facilitate a relationship. After cleaning up the vomit on the training ground together, the relationship between the crew and the soldiers became closer.

From the second day onwards, the cast and crew went through tough training with the soldiers——it was truly tough indeed. The training intensity was 100,000 times harder than military training in college. Even Tao Mu, who was a martial arts body double and had good physical fitness, as well as had participated in the Hong Kong police training not long ago, almost knelt there on the first day of training. And then couldn’t get up from the bed. When he woke up on the third morning, his arms and legs were so sore that it could almost squeeze out lemon juice. (TN: ‘sore’ and ‘sour’ in Chinese uses the same word)

Tao Mu was already like this, not to mention the other actors in the crew. There were several people who couldn’t take it any longer that day and left immediately. Tao Mu didn’t stop them, and even sent a car to take them to the train station. It wad like this for more than half a month, and every day there were actors who couldn’t keep up and left halfway. In the end, only seventeen of the fifty-two actors were selected, including eleven actors, six actresses, which include several amateur actors selected by the art troupe.

At this time, these actors were finally considered to have completed their recruit training. The next step was to send them to different companies to learn different knowledge according to different roles. Among them, the male protagonist played by Tao Mu was directly assigned to the communication company because he was a college student majoring in communication engineering.

Chu Sui’an, Du Kang, Wen Bao, Gu Yuzhang and several other supporting roles also entered each of their respective company as an intern. After a month of internship, because there was a scene in which recruits were to be selected into the special forces later in the plot, these main supporting characters had to go to the special forces to experience life. But at that time there was no need to train with the special forces because their physical fitness simply couldn’t keep up even if they asked for it. Therefore, it was only required that their appearance and posture was similar and could be performed believingly in front of the camera.

But even so, it was foreseeable that the later training would become heavier and more difficult. Therefore, those who couldn’t hold on and left early only felt lucky. As for whether their happiness could be kept when the TV series was released, who knows.

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In the outside world, through the word of mouth of the actors who left halfway, the difficulties encountered by the “Soldier Elite” crew during the training of the troops also became more demonized in the mouths of these quitters. More and more media and audiences were beginning to wonder what this drama would be like. Among them, Tao Mu, the most popular, was even more distressed by all fans and media. And this kind of distress for their idol after half a month, Tao Mu, who was claimed to not be able to tan no matter what——appeared two shades darker on the front pages of major entertainment weekly magazines, reached its peak in an instant.

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The military recruitment promotion drama with Tao Mu as the protagonist had a very simple and crude tentative name, directly called “Soldier Elite”. After naming the drama, Tao Mu began to prepare for the audition. There were two scopes for auditions, one was for the entertainment industry, and the other was for the military art troupe. Tao Mu vaguely remembered that when he watched similar military dramas in his previous life, a large number of actors who performed brilliantly were selected from the art troupes. Although Tao Mu couldn’t remember the names and specific art troupes of those actors, Tao Mu still remembered those faces. Therefore, during the audition, Tao Mu paid special attention to the photos, and if there were familiar ones, he would choose them directly.

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But what Tao Mu didn’t expect was that after the news of the “Soldier Elite” audition spread, there were actually many Yan Film and Shanghai Theatre Academy students who came to audition. The latter was understandable, but wasn’t Yan Film also preparing a drama about Qing dynasty history recently? Yan Film’s students did not audition for their own production crew, but went to “Soldiers Elite” to audition instead. This made Tao Mu feel incredulous.

What was even more surprising was that among the Yan Film students who came to audition, there was actually Gu Yuzhang——Yan Sheng left China to spread his career in the US in his previous life, and after focusing on Hollywood, Yan Film began to support Gu Yuzhang in his place. And Gu Yuzhang lived up to expectations, in just a few years, he had gone from a recently debuted rookie to an A-list star. At the peak of popularity, he even surpassed Yan Sheng faintly. It was a pity that he didn’t have the halo of the male protagonist. When Yan Sheng returned to the domestic entertainment circle again and defended his box office legend, Gu Yuzhang’s upward momentum was immediately suppressed. Later, because of his low emotional intelligence, his popularity plummeted.

The reason why Tao Mu had a deep impression of Gu Yuzhang was because after Yan Sheng announced his marriage at the Oscars, he knew that his homosexual image was likely to affect his development in front of the screen. So Yan Sheng began to switch to behind the scenes. And Gu Yuzhang was the first artist Yan Sheng signed to his film and television company. Shen Yu also threw jealous tantrums with Yan Sheng several times because of this. It was not until the two officially announced their marriage that they anger turned into joy.

After Gu Yuzhang performed his audition according to the requirements of the crew, Tao Mu couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Why did you come to audition for “Soldier Elite”?”

“Because I am optimistic about Mr. Tao’s production ability.” Gu Yuzhang said calmly.

Tao Mu nodded and continued to ask, “I mean, Yan Film is also preparing for a TV series. As a student of Yan Film, instead of auditioning for your own school’s drama, you came to “Soldier Elite” to audition. Can I ask why?”

“Yan Film has many senior brothers and sisters. And they are all well-known big stars in the circle. I am just a freshman who has just entered college. There won’t be much difference with or without me in the crew. It is also impossible for the school to value a newcomer who has never acted before.” Gu Yuzhang explained bluntly: “But “Soldier Elite” is different. I have noticed the casting requirements of “Soldier Elite”. In addition to Mr. Tao, the male protagonist, there are many veteran actors who were from the original cast of “The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood”. As for the recruits who joined the army at the same time as the male protagonist, most of them are regular people with no acting experience. So I deduced that to increase the sense of immersion, Mr. Tao definitely want to choose some fresh faces to play the roles.”

Gu Yuzhang had never acted before, but he felt that his acting talent was okay. So he came to audition rashly, just wanting to take a chance.

When Tao Mu heard Gu Yuzhang’s words, he thought to himself that it was no wonder that this kid was so bullied by antis in the previous life. This way of speaking was simply full of holes just inviting a good smearing. However, this kid’s talent and acting skills were not bad. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have acted in his first film in the previous life and became an instant hit.

Tao Mu thought for a while, then said: “If you pass the audition, you will have to follow the crew into the army to experience life for three months. After that, there will be secluded filming for nearly three months. That is to say, a total of six months of filming time, can you take it?”

Gu Yuzhang nodded: “No problem. My family owns a boxing gym. I have been learning martial arts from my dad since I was a child. I can endure hardships.”

In Gu Yuzhang’s view, when these actors go to the army for training, at most it was the level of college military training. Gu Yuzhang felt that college military training was not even as hard as his usual boxing training!

Seeing that Gu Yuzhang was so sure, Tao Mu didn’t ask any more questions. He waved his hand and said, “Go back and wait for the notice.”

Overseeing the audition with Tao Mu also included representatives from the military, the production crew and two teachers from Beijing Film. After Gu Yuzhang went out, Beijing Film’s teacher said with appreciation, “He’s a good seedling.”

Another said with emotion: “It’s just that his temper is too upright and straightforward. His character is not suitable for this circle.”

“If just as a pure professional actor or actor in stage plays then he’ll be alright.” Unfortunately, none of the students who applied for Yan Film were aiming to act in plays.

Tao Mu put a check mark on Gu Yuzhang’s resume and said with a smile: “Each person has their own personal fate. If he encounters a good management team and carefully packaged his character as an honest and simple old cadre, maybe he might be even more likeable.”

As soon as these words fell, the other examiners sitting in the room were instantly dumbfounded: What do you mean by honest and simple old cadre?

Tao Mu smiled and did not speak but continued to call the next one.

All auditions for “Soldier Elite” were held for a week. It was just more than half a month before the Lingxiao Awards ceremony. Tao Mu, who had already taken leave from Beijing Film, brought the writing team of “Soldier Elite” and all the actors who passed the audition into the army to experience life.

In order to facilitate the filming, the troops the crew entered happened to be the troops that would be the ones they would often be filming in the future. The higher-ups had already notified the soldiers before the crew entered, and directly announced that all the crew members would train with them for three months, during which time they would be living with the soldiers. When the official shooting arrived, many soldiers would also appear in front of the camera together. If there were individual soldiers who perform well, they may even become special actors.

People from the military publicity department specially emphasized that this was a recruitment promotion drama. The troops were required to try their best to cooperate with the filming of the crew. At the same time, it was also necessary to ensure that all training was never leaked, and all actors were required to at least meet the standard and quality requirements of ordinary soldiers. And this condition was also proposed by Tao Mu himself. He had always been one to either try his best either do it or not to do it at all.

And this conscription promotion drama was also related to the reputation of Tao Mu’s film and television company, and it was even related to the big film that the military would cooperate with Beijing Film to produce a year later. Tao Mu’s ambition was to win and not to lose.

But what Tao Mu didn’t expect was that the entire crew would get involved in a conflict with the soldiers on the first day they entered the army.

When the leader of the troops came over, Tao Mu was in the conference room, discussing with the screenwriter team about the material. Tao Mu had already drawn up the plot outline when he met with the military representative. But the details still need to be filled in slowly. In order to reflect the style of the army more realistically, Tao Mu decided to have the screenwriter team immerse deep amongst the soldiers to draw on plot materials. To put it more simply and crudely, it was to interview the soldiers and officers at all levels who have been in the army for a different number of years, and ask them what these soldiers think was “the most awesome thing about being a soldier”. Then combined with the feel good genre and face slap routines, these things would then be added when writing the plot.

But they had barely started discussing when the troop leader came over. With an embarrassed face, he told Tao Mu that the actors brought by the crew got into a confrontation with the soldiers. When Tao Mu heard this, his first reaction was that there were squeamish actors who didn’t listen to the command and wanted special treatment but then the troop leader quickly explained the situation. It turned out that after the cast members were stationed in the troops, according to the regulations, they had to be broken up and inserted into each squad. Almost like an audit student, they would train alongside the soldiers of their squad. Because there were indicators, the assessment results of these actors would also be linked to the squad overall results.

Most of the soldiers have never seen the filming of TV dramas, and they have not been in contact with actors in the entertainment industry, so they felt that this was quite a novel experience. Moreover, it was a task assigned by the above, and it was also linked to the recruitment promotion next year, so they were quite willing to cooperate. But there were also a small group of soldiers who were not happy. They felt that this group of actors were just here to grandstand. How could an actor stand the hard work of being a soldier. If they couldn’t keep up with the training, it would also drag down the grades of the squad. Most of the soldiers have a sense of collective honor, and they couldn’t help complaining a word or two because they were worried that their squad or even their company would be dragged down.

Under normal circumstances, those who could be an actor, putting aside acting skills, one must have a little intelligence when dealing with people. Otherwise, there was no way to survive in this circle where all words and deeds were magnified by the camera. But there were also newborn calves who were not afraid of tigers. Such as Gu Yuzhang.

He was very unconvinced that this group of soldiers questioned that they would definitely not be able to keep up with the training, and they would definitely drag down the company’s grade. He even more disliked that the soldiers called them out for grandstanding, insulting them to be soft eggs, not real men (soldier: I didn’t say that).

Then, Gu Yuzhang, who was young and unwilling to bow his head, challenged the soldier! He requested the soldier to do various exercises with him. If he lost, he would not say a word, even if he was exhausted, he would grit his teeth and keep up with the training. And also be responsible for washing the dirty laundry of the soldiers. If he won, the soldiers must apologize to them.

This very dramatic challenge was immediately supported by both sides. But the key was that the soldier challenged by Gu Yuzhang was the elite soldier selected by the company for three consecutive years. The troops leader praised Gu Yuzhang, a young man with great courage and daring, but of course he did not believe that Gu Yuzhang could defeat the elite soldier. He was worried that Gu Yuzhang, who had never undergone systematic training, would be exhausted badly, so he hurried over to find Tao Mu, the person in charge of the crew and let Tao Mu stop Gu Yuzhang. And also considerately expressed that Gu Yuzhang was not a soldier, and there was no chance of winning against the elite soldier, so there was no need to wash clothes for the elite soldier.

Hearing these words, Tao Mu was a bit speechless. But the screenwriters of the screenwriting team were suddenly excited: “This is a good plot entry point. Who is this Gu Yuzhang? The young man knows how to add scenes for himself!”

Tao Mu sighed and hurriedly followed the troops leader to the training ground. Putting aside adding scenes or not, if he didn’t rush over to stop Gu Yuzhang, it was estimated that this rash fool could really abuse himself to the point of being half-crippled.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

At that time, the news that the cast of “Soldier Elite” abused and maimed the actors would really make headlines. How could they still shoot this conscription promotion drama then?

Tao Mu couldn’t understand Gu Yuzhang’s brain circuit! On the first day of entering the army, he dared to challenge the real life elite soldier, why didn’t he just take a rocket to the sky!

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