Chapter 53: The Beauty Brainwashes Herself! Emptiness or Kidney Deficiency?

"What do you mean?" Guli Nazha felt there was more to Zhang Yang's words than met the eye.

"Just giving you a heads-up." Zhang Yang looked into Guli Nazha's exquisite face, his gaze earnest. "Sister K loves to market certain labels and personas for her agency's artists to grab attention and eyeballs."

"Take Sister Shishi for example. Chinese Entertainment bought articles everywhere to hype her up as the 'Junior Liu Yifei' or Liu Yifei's cousin. Or take me—after Old Hu became a breakout star, they tried to hype me up as 'Junior Brother Hu' and claimed Old Hu and I were cousins."

"This kind of persona is a double-edged sword. If you are optimistic about your own future, you shouldn't accept such arrangements. At the very least, learn from Sister Shishi and refuse to play along yourself."

Zhang Yang remembered it crystal clear: during an interview, Guli Nazha once claimed that Stephen Chow had seen her photo in a newspaper and invited her to star in *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*, but she turned it down because she wanted to focus on her studies. At the time, many people said she had picked up a sesame seed only to lose a watermelon.

That interview was full of loopholes and she was slapped in the face by reality later on, but back then, the entire internet was hyping up Guli Nazha's beauty. As for the discussions surrounding *Xuan-Yuan Sword*, to put it bluntly, Chinese Entertainment used Guli Nazha to step on *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons* in order to promote *Xuan-Yuan Sword*—standard operating procedure for them.

"Oh, I understand." Guli Nazha's smile blossomed like a flower, sweetness flooding the tip of her heart.

Zhang Yang was definitely worried that she would be naively deceived by Chinese Entertainment and Sister K, which was why he brought up this topic to guide her.

If he wanted to care about her, he could just care directly; why beat around the bush like this?

A hint of coy reproach crept into Guli Nazha's eyes.

Zhang Yang: "..."

You'd better actually understand.

More than half an hour later, Zhang Yang and Guli Nazha took a three-wheeled pedicab and arrived at the Zhuhai Fishing Village in Hengdian.

After paying the fare, he immediately contacted the casting director of *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*. The other party arranged for someone to pick him up, guiding him all the way to the core area of the set.

It was currently the lunch break right after mealtime. Stephen Chow, Huang Bo, Wen Zhang, Shu Qi, and other leading actors were sitting together, chatting away in heavily accented Cantonese.

Zhang Yang stood on the sidelines without speaking, listening quietly.

About ten minutes later, Stephen Chow stopped talking. After hearing Huang Bo say a few words, he turned his head to look at Zhang Yang, his gaze severe yet filled with a probing curiosity.

A few seconds later, he nodded slightly, picked up a folder from beside him, pulled out a few sheets of paper, and handed them to Zhang Yang with an extended arm. "You're Yangzai, right? Get familiar with the lines. We'll audition in five minutes."

Zhang Yang reached out to take the papers and asked, "Star, can I put on makeup?"

Whoa!

A look of astonishment surfaced in the eyes of Huang Bo and the others.

This kid actually called Stephen Chow "Star"? Was he serious?

Even more surprising to them, however, was that Stephen Chow showed no displeasure whatsoever. Instead, he smiled and said, "You can. Figure out how you want it done with the makeup artist yourself. The audition starts in two minutes."

To translate: design your own makeup look for the makeup artist to execute, and the audition will begin in ten minutes—he had essentially granted him an extra ten minutes.

"Five minutes is plenty!" Zhang Yang replied in standard Cantonese.

Stephen Chow said nothing more and simply instructed someone to lead Zhang Yang to the dressing room.

***

After they left, Huang Bo asked out of curiosity, "That kid is so disrespectful and lacks manners. Aren't you angry, Director Chow?"

Wen Zhang and Shu Qi were similarly curious, secretly wondering in their hearts if Zhang Yang had some formidable backing.

"Ha." Stephen Chow didn't answer and instead countered with a question, "Am I not a handsome guy?"

Huang Bo: "..."

Is that what Zhang Yang meant by calling him "Star"?

Five minutes later, Zhang Yang returned wearing an ancient scholar's outfit and a cap. His face was made up to be deathly pale, complete with dark, prominent circles under his eyes that could practically rival a panda.

Looking at his appearance, a wave of pleasant surprise washed over Stephen Chow. "The character I'm looking for is Prince Important, but what's your idea behind this makeup and styling?"

"Prince Important? Isn't it Prince Impotent?" Zhang Yang retorted.

Stephen Chow's eyes flashed. He shifted his posture and said, "Right, you are Prince Impotent, not Prince Important."

Zhang Yang's expression instantly shifted. He widened his eyes in astonishment and issued a slightly flustered, desperate warning, "You listen to me carefully: you can eat whatever you want, but you can't just run your mouth like that~"

"Can't you pronounce these two words? I'll teach you. This is pronounced *impotent*—uh."

Abruptly realizing he had slipped up, Zhang Yang spoke at lightning speed: "No, no, no."

In less than half a second, he corrected himself: "It's *important*~~!"

"I am Prince Impotent—no, no, no, I'm not Prince Impotent, I'm Prince Important, uh..."

Zhang Yang was driving himself to a breakdown.

"Good." Stephen Chow smiled and bluntly stated, "You are Prince Impotent!"

"It's Important!" Zhang Yang corrected him with a look of utter despair.

"Whatever you say," Stephen Chow said. "The role is yours. If you have no problems with it, let's sign the contract."

The Prince Impotent portrayed by Zhang Yang, both in appearance and delivery, completely matched his inner vision. He couldn't possibly be more satisfied.

"I'll immediately contact my manager to come over and discuss it." Zhang Yang snapped out of his character state and smiled.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Cai Yino's number.

Meanwhile, Cai Yino was visiting the cast and crew of *Experts on the Job*.

Zhang Yang and Guli Nazha had given her a pleasant surprise earlier, making her feel that she hadn't invested enough care in her agency's artists. Thus, she had come to the set to show some concern and hear Hu Ge's evaluation of Jiang Jinfu, as well as how the latter was performing.

Despite her morning-long observations, she found Jiang Jinfu's performance to be mediocre, completely incomparable to Zhang Yang.

This made her even more eager to renew Zhang Yang's contract, and she was already pondering what perks she should offer him.

*"Have Hu Ge take on external dramas and let Zhang Yang play the second male lead? The leverage is too low, and external scripts are bound to be good."*

*"Cast him as the male lead in Refresh 3+7 and have Hu Ge play a supporting role? No, Hu Ge is still the pillar of the company."*

*"Then I should keep an eye out for external resources and trade them to win him over."*

"..."

Just as Cai Yino was calculating, she received a call from Zhang Yang.

This time, she answered on the very first ring, her tone exceptionally warm. "A-yang, is there something you need?"

Hu Ge and Jiang Jinfu: ?

Sister K must have been possessed.

If Cai Yino knew what the two of them were thinking, she would have let out a dry "heh" and thought: *If you two could find your own resources—especially big-budget movie resources that Chinese Entertainment can't even touch—I'd gladly call you my big brothers.*

"What?!" Cai Yino's voice shot up by several octaves.

Tang Yan and the others all cast puzzled glances her way.

On the other end, Zhang Yang held the phone a bit further away, dug his ear, and repeated, "I just passed the audition for the third male lead in Director Stephen Chow's new movie. Sister K, send Sister Xu over here to sign the contract so we can avoid any complications from dragging things out."

Prince Impotent had relatively few scenes overall, but every scene was crucial. In terms of positioning, he was definitely a third male lead worthy of appearing on the promotional posters.

"Are you kidding me?" Cai Yino found it hard to believe.

She had heard that Stephen Chow's new movie had already started filming and that he had been casting an important supporting role recently.

However, Chinese Entertainment hadn't managed to get their hands on the script, so she hadn't arranged for any of the company's male actors to audition. Moreover, her established priority for the agency's artists was the idol route.

"How could I possibly joke about something like this? Or do you need the production crew to call you and verify?" Zhang Yang asked back.

"No need!" Cai Yino was simply too shocked, not stupid. "I'm coming over right now. Just stay put at the set."

Hanging up the phone, Cai Yino prepared to leave immediately.

Seeing this, Hu Ge stepped forward and asked, "Sister K, did something happen with A-yang?"

"It's good news." Cai Yino didn't want to elaborate.

But suddenly thinking of something, she added, "He successfully auditioned for the third male lead in Director Stephen Chow's new film. I'm going over to negotiate the contract."

Hu Ge: ?

The actresses of Chinese Entertainment: ??

Jiang Jinfu: ???