Chapter 14 - Life Is Like a Play




Chapter 14 – Life Is Like a Play
Li Jiaer couldn’t contact Ji Mian and had to call Xiao Tao’s phone. But Xiao Tao, who had been staying with her girlfriend, directly cut off the phone. Finally, she sent a text message telling Li Jiaer that she didn’t have to fight anymore, Ji Ge didn’t want to take care of her any longer.
Li Jiaer’s agent sat on the sofa frowning. “Were you not the one who promised and assured me that the relationship between you and Ji Mian is very good? So, what’s going on now? And also, what about our next promotion plan for you?” She said coldly.
“Why?” Li Jiaer was going crazy, and her teeth creaked as she gritted them, when she sent the message.
“I don’t know. You shouldn’t contact me anymore. If you let Ji Ge find out, he will dismiss me.” Xiao Tao said before hanging up and also put Li Jiaer in her blacklist.
Li Jiaer was helpless too and began fiddling with her phone. “Ou Jie, wait a moment, I will call someone to ask what happened. I really did have a good relationship with Ji Ge before. He also even went to the nursing home to visit my mother a while ago and the news also reported…” She explained and kept on babbling while constantly trying to call different people, but the friends she had in the circle were now ignoring her. As if they had all planned this out.
She and her agent had originally planned for things to go this way – after Li Jiaer’s signing with Aurora, they would contact Ji Mian and ask him to send a Weibo post congratulating her. If he took the lead, with his fame, more famous stars are bound to respond with congratulatory messages as well. Also, his huge fanbase is the best water army and they will further be able to create more hype. Everything had been carefully considered, and they were sure they had covered all bases but they did not expect Ji Mian to abruptly unfollow Li Jiaer and cause all this attention. Thus, all their planning for Li Jiaer’s next publicity actions were now consequently interrupted.
Ou Mei stared at the plan that had been scrapped and she felt nothing but bitterness in her heart. She ranted aggrievedly. “He previously pulled strings for you to get into a good entertainment company but you rejected it. Is it because of this that he now has some bad opinions on you? No matter which company you sign to, it’s your freedom. What does it have to do with him? Ji Mian is not as good as the rumours say he is, he is petty is a very narrow-minded person. Didn’t you say that you can get his understanding? What is the situation now? Can’t you be more reliable than this? The company is also preparing to earnestly promote you after signing the contract. Now it seems that it is no longer needed, we’ll just axe it. All the publicity promotions and interviews are now cancelled, and your information will be quietly updated on Aurora’s official website.”
“Ou Jie, can you hold on for a second? I’ve asked my mother to call Ji Ge.” Li Jiaer is sure that not incapable of getting Ji Mian’s sympathy, she just has to use other means because Ji Mian’s mother is also in poor health. She lives in a nursing home all year round. In order to take care of his mother, he suffered a lot in the early years of his career. Therefore, he should understand her situation best.
“Is he going to answer just because your mother called?” Ou Mei was so angry. Who is Ji Mian? Is he someone who just some nobody can call his cell phone? However, she knows she’s unmistaken about Ji Mian’s character. He had been really concerned about this Li Jiaer mother and daughter pair. He had personally visited the hospital several times and sent a lot of gifts. If it was Mother Li’s phone call, he would definitely pick it up. He would be afraid that there would be something wrong with the older woman in the hospital and Li Jiaer would not be able to take care of it.
But now the situation was different. Li Jiaer’s mother dialled several times and all the calls failed to go through. It seems that she had also been blacklisted. If there are no people watching, then the mother and daughter pair felt that it was really useless to put on a play because there would be no one to appreciate it, no matter how good it was. They could only admit defeat.
Ou Jie threw away the planning book and sneered. “The news that you were ready to sign Crown Studio is already all over the internet. His fans took you as their own family. Every day, they would be posting about you. Now you’ve suddenly changed your mind and signed to Aurora. If you don’t have Ji Mian to speak up for you, his fans will think that you are a traitor. They will see you as an ungrateful person who is too eager for quick success. If you don’t want to be bashed and hated on too much, stay low-key for a while and wait for the heat to die down. I have already cancelled your recent announcement. You should go to the company every day to learn more before you debut.”
Li Jiaer felt resentful. She had finally signed to an entertainment company with a strong background and she was preparing to debut, how would she be willing to let it all go. She quickly replied, “I didn’t betray him. He just gave up on signing me. Maybe we could use the speculation that he blocked me. Anyway, it’s the truth, I’m not afraid of netizens trying to verify the matter!”
Ou Jie could not help but see Li Jiaer in a new light after her unprincipled, amoral and shameless behaviour. She didn’t say anything though. Since this person has been handed over to her, she naturally has a way to make the other party obedient, not to mention, the company has helped her to eliminate her black history.
“You want us to go directly against Guanshi (Crown Age), Guanxi (Royal Crown), and Ruishui (Lucky Water)? What kind of onion are you? Is there that much value placed on you? Don’t even think about it any further. You are just a new person, not even really popular, even if you are popular for a day and a night, I still wouldn’t rush to challenge Ji Mian. His influence in the entertainment industry is not something you can imagine.” Ou Jie stood up and warned, “You stay at home and don’t make any more trouble. After this time, I will naturally arrange work for you. If you are not obedient, I will not lack artists to manage even if I discard you.”
Ou Jie is one of Aurora’s gold medal agents, the resources she provides are very good, Li Jiaer naturally does not dare to disobey her. She quickly nodded and escorted the person to the parking lot. When she got home, she showed a conniving expression. ‘I worked hard for so long, and I was going to be popular, but now I am back to zero. Ji Mian, Xiao Jiashu, just you wait!’
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Xiao Jiashu is lying on his bed and scrolling through Weibo while smiling and laughing occasionally, he seems very proud. Xue Miao walked into the room and pulled down the t-shirt that had rolled up his belly. She smiled and asked, “Xiaoshu, what are you looking at?”
“Ji Mian unfollowed Li Jiaer. Mum, look.” Xiao Jiashu turned the screen of his phone to show his mother. “Aurora just updated their artist database and quietly put Li Jiaer’s photo on it. The result is that it was discovered by netizens. Everyone is now flooding into Li Jiaer’s Weibo, and they’re calling her a traitor and all sorts of things. She is the number one most hated person now. Her followers are increasing by hundreds and thousands but they are all people who hate her. They only followed her so that they could show their disapproval of her. After they finished, they immediately unfollowed her. The original amount of attention of millions of people is now only one million left. It’s really decreased rapidly.”
“Really? Let me take a look at it.” Xue Miao took the phone and scrolled through the posts carefully, and then after looked at her son for a while before opening a new topic. “Xiaoshu, do you want to act? I have a script here. Do you want to take a look?”
“I don’t want to act.” Xiao Jiashu said with a small smile.
“Why, are you afraid of what your grandfather and father would say? You’re afraid that you will be driven out of the house and not be able to inherit the family property?” Xue Miao asked the most logical questions pertaining to the situation.
Xiao Jiashu really took the time to ponder it for a bit before he straightforwardly denied, “I am not afraid! I am a graduate of Wharton School of Business, even if I don’t rely on my family, I will not starve. I can make money to support myself.”
“Then go do acting. Being an actor is also a legitimate profession, don’t look down on it it.” Xue Miao persuaded. “This time you wanted to block Li Jiaer. As a result, she is everywhere now. But look how Ji Mian handled it, he didn’t say anything, just simply unfollowed her. She has no choice but to be honest now, this is the influence of the big shots. I was much more beautiful than Ji Mian, if not your father, I would also be a big star right now. After all those Awards…” When she mentioned the past, she couldn’t help but have a sparkle in her eyes, which gave off a rare, dazzling brilliance.
Xiao Jiashu stared at her and suddenly felt a bit sad. The reason why his mother wants him to enter the entertainment circle is to continue her unfinished dreams? It was a huge mistake to marry Xiao Qijie. Not only did she lost her dream, but she also lost her freedom. The only thing that can comfort her is probably himself?
Thinking this way, he couldn’t help but hug mother and kiss her cheek infinitely. “Mum, say no more, I will go to film.” In front of his mother, he never rebelled. He is willing to help her achieve all her wishes.
Xue Miao was very happy, and immediately took out the script that had already been prepared. “This is the script for ‘Apostle’, jointly produced by Guanshi (Crown Age) and Guanxi (Royal Crown), director Luo Zhangwei and screenwriter Zhou Dandan. There is a role that is especially suitable for you, that is the brother of the villain called Feng. Feng also graduated from an international prestigious school and returned to China to take over the family business. You should take a good look at the script first, I will teach you how to read the lines in the coming days. This role is very similar to you, it is not difficult to play and if you don’t understand something, your mother is a ‘veteran’ in the film circle and can teach you. Let’s try it first. If you don’t like acting, then you can do something else later, mother will never force you.”
Xiao Jiashu looked at the script, thought it over, and could not help but pick it up.
Xue Mian handed it over and told her son to try to figure out the character, before she went out of his room. Back in her bedroom, she immediately called Xiu Changyu. “Changyu, Ling Feng, the role is assigned to Xiaoshu, right? I have already read the script, basically, Xiaoshu can handle it as long as it is portraying the character but for those few emotion-heavy scenes, he can privately be taught so that he doesn’t drag the crew back.”
Xiu Changyu did not refuse her request, and then promised without saying anything, even the audition is also not needed because he trusts her judgement.
At the same time, Xiao Jiashu is feeling guilty after he took the script. He didn’t know how to act. Suddenly letting him accept such a special job was a bit difficult, but he couldn’t say anything when he thought of his mother’s eyes full of hope.
Ah, it’s so annoying! He made a few rolls in the bed and wailed a few times. Then he got up to check the information. As he looked through the script, he suddenly thought of how his father and grandfather would be surprised if they saw him on the TV screen. How angry would they get and how loud they would scream. He laughed loudly as he thought about it.
He is reluctant to hurt his mother’s heart, but it seems very interesting if he can make Grandpa and Dad violently face up to his existence. After living for twenty years, he has finally entered the rebellious period, and this rebellion seems to only target Xiao Fu (his father) and Xiao Xiaozi (his grandfather).
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Ji Mian has been discharged for several days already, only recently he took two scripts, one is ‘Clear Sky’ the second one is ‘Apostle’, but he is not the protagonist of either films. When he entered the circle, he once told his fans that whether he is red (popular) or not, he will fade out of the entertainment circle after he is 35 years old. He was not kidding when he said that, he really meant it. ‘Ming Kong’ is just a guest appearance and in the ‘Apostle’ he will be the male No. 2, the biggest villain. This role is very deep and requires careful consideration of the character’s psychology.
Just as he began to read the script and started to become fascinated, a young man with a handsome appearance, a sunny disposition directly inserted the password to unlock the front door, and walked in with a heavy travel bag, and asked loudly, “Ji Ge, why didn’t you tell me that you had a car accident?!”