Overnight Hit: Vicious Stepmother and Genius Son-Chapter 304
After breakfast, Ye Zhenzhen thought about the script reading she had to attend tomorrow and decided not to go anywhere today, just to nest on the sofa in the sunroom and soak up the sun.
With Xiao Chen and the man not at home, she had the place to herself in peace and comfort.
Watermelon hadn’t seen her for several days and was very clingy, walking back and forth next to the sofa and rubbing its fluffy little head against her legs.
Ye Zhenzhen closed her eyes to rest, letting the little guy play around beside her.
Around 11 AM, she received a WeChat message from Liu Rui on her phone.
[Liu Rui]: Zhenzhen, the production team for "Selflessness" has still decided to cast you as the female supporting lead. Would you consider it?
Ye Zhenzhen looked at the text from Liu Rui and fell into thought.
They had finished costume fitting and taken photos a week ago, then suddenly switched to Han Jiangxue, and now they were suddenly deciding to cast her as the female supporting lead again.
Heh~~!
Is this some kind of joke?
She didn’t choose to reply to Liu Rui immediately but opened Weibo to check the latest trending searches instead.
Ye Zhenzhen had a habit of turning off app notifications on her phone, except for work; she didn’t want to see those trending topics.
Had she not looked, she would not have known, but the discovery was indeed surprising.
On Weibo, the hottest topic right now was Han Jiangxue, things like "Han Jiangxue the evil stepmother," "Han Jiangxue beating her stepson," and "Han Jiangxue getting beaten up by Little Yibo’s real mother in the street?"
Even more outrageous were claims that Han Jiangxue had mental issues and was secretly seeing a psychologist.
After reading these, Ye Zhenzhen realized why the "Selflessness" production team wanted her back as the female supporting lead.
Ye Zhenzhen thought it over and replied to Liu Rui on WeChat: Not considering it.
Her message hadn’t been out for a few minutes when Ye Zhenzhen received a call from an unknown number on her phone. She glanced at it and answered;
"Hello, who is this?"
"Zhenzhen, hi, hi, I’m Producer Qi, do you have a moment? I’d like to have a chat with you."
Ye Zhenzhen’s eyebrows raised slightly, "Producer Qi? Who?"
"I’m Qi Tao, the producer of Lemon Channel’s ’Selflessness.’ We met half a month ago when you auditioned at Lemon Channel," Qi Tao explained patiently on the other end of the line.
A mocking smile curved on Ye Zhenzhen’s lips, "Oh, Producer Qi, it’s you. I apologize, I apologize. There are so many scammers these days, I’m very cautious with unknown calls. Also, it’s my fault for being so out of the loop in this industry; I just couldn’t imagine a big-time producer would call me."
Producer Qi was stunned for a few seconds. The things Ye Zhenzhen said sounded odd, yet he couldn’t quite find fault with them.
"Hey! Zhenzhen, you mustn’t talk like that, with your current popularity, if you call yourself washed up, then what about the other artists..."
Ye Zhenzhen also guessed his purpose the moment he spoke his first sentence, "Producer Qi thinks too highly of me, I can’t accept such praise. Producer Qi said I was popular, but didn’t I still get rejected on the day of the costume fitting because of scheduling conflicts?"
Producer Qi chuckled dryly on the other end of the phone.
"Zhenzhen, the reason I called you today is to apologize. Last time’s incident was all a misunderstanding, and that’s my fault. Later on, Director Yang even gave me a good scolding, and Qing Qing too. We all unanimously hope you can come back to play the role of the female supporting lead Yang Huilan. Can we pretend that the previous incident never happened?"
He had his assistant ask Liu Rui just now, who said that Ye Zhenzhen was hesitant, so he decided to make the call to Ye Zhenzhen himself after some thought.
It’s all because Han Jiangxue is so unreliable; not only did she finance her way into the cast, but her acting was worse than Ye Zhenzhen’s on the day of the audition, and now she’s embroiled in all these scandals, each one more damaging to her image than the last.
If they really let Han Jiangxue join the crew now, any solid new scandal that comes out later could taint their entire Lemon Channel’s production team.
No one wanted to bear that risk.
With the crew facing pre-production work before the start of shooting, Qing Qing called him and Director Yang early in the morning, even throwing a temper tantrum about replacing Han Jiangxue with Ye Zhenzhen. After weighing the pros and cons, Director Yang also thought Ye Zhenzhen was more suitable.
As a result, this pressure ended up on his shoulders, Producer Qi Tao.
As one of Lemon Channel’s main producers, making a personal call to a minor actress like Ye Zhenzhen was undoubtedly giving her a lot of face.
Yet, Ye Zhenzhen seemed to hardly care about this phone call, both in what she said and what she implied.
Ye Zhenzhen said with a slight smile, "Producer Qi talks as if things can be undone, but since they’ve happened, they naturally can’t be undone. Besides, the Weibo post is already out there—scheduling conflicts!"
When saying "scheduling conflicts," Ye Zhenzhen deliberately emphasized these words, then added:
"Of course, as a minor actress, I’m quite flattered that Producer Qi would condescend to call me personally. You also know that after being rejected by you that day, I signed with Baisheng Media for a new movie. I’m playing the lead female role in ’Selflessness,’ and the contract has already been signed."
Producer Qi scoffed jokingly, Ye Zhenzhen had refused quite clearly. She hadn’t lost any politeness nor left out anything she wanted to say.
"Zhenzhen, we were all quite impressed with you during the audition. Wouldn’t you consider doing both films at the same time? We can even offer you a raise for your performance fee," he said.
If it were solely about acting skills, the production team actually had many options.
What they were really interested in was Ye Zhenzhen’s commercial value and popularity, as well as the charitable acts she did on the children’s variety show, like donating schools and sending clothes to impoverished children. After the first episode aired, everyone simply thought Ye Zhenzhen had become popular, but after recording the second season, she became even more popular than before.
Moreover, with the positive energy and the buzz she naturally generated, these were all things their production team needed.
Furthermore, the channel had now started to value their children’s variety show project and was planning to shoot a more innovative third and fourth season. As long as Ye Zhenzhen was involved, whether it was variety shows or drama productions, they would not worry about topical heat.
Sometimes one wrong step leads to many, and it was their fault that he and Director Yang were initially deceived by Han Jiangxue’s money and sweet talk. Now they had to go to such lengths to find Ye Zhenzhen.
Ye Zhenzhen didn’t even think before refusing, "Maybe next time, Producer Qi. I’m afraid my energy is limited if I have to shuttle between two productions and then fail to meet your expectations on set. I’ve already signed with Baisheng, and I ought to live up to the name I’ve signed under. If there’s an opportunity in the future, I hope you’ll still think highly of me and consider working with me."
People or production teams that break their word are what she dislikes the most. Not to mention that she wasn’t short on money now, even if she were, she wouldn’t go back. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
Producer Qi Tao sighed helplessly, "Alright then, let’s hope to work together in the future. When I call you next time, you better not reject me, okay?"
"Sure, with such a big favor from Producer Qi, I’d be eager to curry favor with you—I wouldn’t dare to refuse. You also know this time, it’s really a scheduling issue..."
