Chapter 398: The box office is going crazy! But he's agonizing over the fatty meat in his lunchbox?
Gu Zhiyuan didn’t move.
He was still sitting on the small folding stool behind the monitor, a cigarette held between his fingers, unlit.
Gu Zhiyuan’s hand was trembling.
For a director, the happiest and also the most painful thing,
is encountering an actor who can take that vague inspiration in your mind and give it concrete form.
“Too damn… that.”
Gu Zhiyuan struggled for a long time but couldn’t find the right adjective.
In the end, he could only stuff the cigarette into his mouth irritably and take a fierce drag.
Just then, the sound of high heels tapping the floor approached.
Lin Wan, wearing that signature black trench coat,
was striding through the crowd, a phone clutched tightly in her hand.
Her expression was strange.
She walked straight over to Jiang Ci, who was in a corner scrounging water from a set assistant.
“Boss, what’s wrong?” Jiang Ci unscrewed the lid of his thermos cup,
“Who’s made you angry this time? If it’s Director Gu, I suggest directly docking his salary.”
Lin Wan didn’t pick up on his banter.
She held her phone screen up in front of Jiang Ci.
“Look.”
On the screen was a bold, red industry news flash, the font so large it practically wanted to burst out of the screen and blind people—
[Earthquake in Cinematic History! ‘The Lurker’ Final Box Office Stops at 1.908 Billion! Shen Qingyuan Becomes the Year’s Most Tear-Jerking Symbol!]
[If I had never seen the light, I could have endured the darkness—Salute to every nameless hero!]
The picture below was precisely Jiang Ci’s classic still from ‘The Lurker’:
His figure in the corner of the church, clutching that half-old theater ticket, turning and disappearing into the darkness.
The few set assistants and background actors who had gathered around to see the commotion nearly had their eyeballs pop out.
“Holy… shit?!”
The guy holding the reflector board trembled, and the board smashed right onto the lighting technician’s foot.
“How much?! 1.9 billion?!”
The entire nightclub hall exploded into an uproar.
Most of these background actors and crew members were “old hands” who had been around the bottom rungs of the film and television city.
They had seen celebrities and big productions,
but that legendary “billion-dollar box office club” was too far removed from their world.
In their eyes, although Jiang Ci was a Film Emperor, during this time he had been eating boxed lunches with them, squatting by the roadside,
with absolutely no airs about him, even looking more like a migrant worker than they did.
Everyone had almost forgotten he was actually a big star.
It wasn’t until this moment that they were brutally awakened.
And the male lead who had created this miracle,
was currently wearing a dirty suit, holding a thermos cup, looking at the phone with a bewildered expression.
“1.9 billion…”
The head hostess dropped all the melon seeds in her hand. She looked at Jiang Ci,
her gaze shifting from casual curiosity to awe, even carrying a hint of fear.
This was a real god!
A big shot of this caliber was actually holed up in their crappy place that didn’t even have air conditioning,
playing a cannon fodder extra who couldn’t even afford a meal?
Is this the world of artists?
Don’t understand it, really don’t understand it.
“Oh.”
Jiang Ci blinked, his reaction flat.
He took another sip of his goji berry water, smacking his lips:
“That’s good then, Boss Lin. When the dividends come in later, can we change to a better boxed lunch supplier for the crew?”
“This supplier’s braised pork is all fatty fat, it’s greasy and disgusting.”
Lin Wan: ”…”
Her surging, excited mood was choked back by this guy’s single sentence.
“Aren’t you excited?” Lin Wan said through gritted teeth, “This is a cinematic history record! You’ve become a box office myth! This means your acting fees are going to double!”
“I am excited.” Jiang Ci nodded perfunctorily, pointing at his own chest. “Look, my heart just skipped a beat.”
Lin Wan rolled her eyes, too lazy to bother with him.
But what she didn’t know was that Jiang Ci really was excited.
It’s just that the thing he was excited about was completely different from everyone else.
Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was still stunned and hadn’t snapped out of it,
Jiang Ci silently found a dark corner to squat in and summoned the system panel.
[Ding!]
[Detecting massive emotional fluctuations… Data settling…]
[Settlement complete!]
[Heartbreak Value +1999!]
[Heartbreak Value +2088!]
[Heartbreak Value +5555!]
…
Jiang Ci looked at the account balance, which finally settled on a number that made his breath catch—
[Current Remaining Heartbreak Value: Approximately 36,800 points]
[Current Remaining Lifespan: 22 years, 03 months, 14 days]
Jiang Ci leaned against the wall and slowly closed his eyes.
Strangely enough.
There was no wild joy.
Instead, his heart felt empty.
He reached into his chest and felt for that copy of ‘Actor’s Self-cultivation’ he had thumbed through so much the edges were curled.
His fingertips touched the rough paper.
That tangible sensation made something that had been floating in his heart slowly settle down.
When he was playing the corpse earlier.
At that final moment, when he was controlling his breathing, it could have been a little more feeble.
The tremor of his eyelids when his pupils dilated that last second was a bit too large, maybe by 0.1 millimeters.
If he hadn’t trembled that bit, the texture of death would have been more like a stone, not a corpse.
This was life.
“Hah.”
Jiang Ci chuckled softly, tucking that worn-out book back into his chest, placing it right against his heart.
“What are you all standing around for?!”
A furious roar interrupted Jiang Ci’s thoughts and jolted the entire crew awake from their “1.9 billion” dream.
Gu Zhiyuan had stood up at some point.
He was holding that peeling, paint-chipped megaphone, his face flushed red, the veins on his neck bulging out.
“What’s so great about 1.9 billion? That belongs to ‘The Lurker’! What the hell does it have to do with our crew?”
Gu Zhiyuan waved his arms like a madman, spittle flying:
“Look at your useless selves! Your eyeballs are practically falling out!”
“Jiang Ci being awesome is Jiang Ci’s business! Right now, he’s not some 1.9-billion Film Emperor, he’s just Chen San, who can’t even afford rent!”
“And you all!”
Gu Zhiyuan pointed at every single person present, his voice fanatical:
“Do you want to ride on the coattails of this 1.9 billion and be lazy, good-for-nothing slackers?”
“Or do you want to follow me and Jiang Ci and create another myth that belongs to us?!”
“Tell me!!”
The entire set fell dead silent.
A moment later.
“Let’s shoot!”
Old Zhang, the set assistant whose “worldview had been reshaped” by Jiang Ci using scallions earlier,
slammed the reflector board he was holding onto the ground and was the first to roar out.
His neck was thick, his face flushed crimson:
“The Director is right! The 1.9 billion is Teacher Jiang’s skill. Our own skill, we still have to earn it ourselves in front of the camera!”
His shout was like lighting a fuse.
“Right! Let’s shoot! What’s so great about 1.9 billion! We’ll shoot one that makes 2 billion!”
The entire crew was injected with a shot of adrenaline.
They settled down from their earlier restlessness and erupted with passionate fervor.
Jiang Ci watched this scene and smiled.
He stood up from the corner, brushing the dust off his clothes.
He was still that King of Extras, Chen San, who would fight someone for fifty bucks.