037
As for why I gave up writing—actually it can’t really count as that, I’m only giving myself an extended holiday.
…hang on, that’s not just a cuckoo excuse to leave people hanging, the writing pits that I dig are super good.
Proudly puffs up my mockingbird and cockerel chest!
In order to scrape by, I worked through the days and nights to finish crunching out my debut novel that almost reached a million words within a year, then entered the damned bottleneck period.
Even if I starve to death or jump to my death here, I, Mo Shuyao, as a qualified literary expert and a man of steel, will definitely not pad my word count with superfluous details to make more money!
Unless I get so broke that I can’t even afford a meal.
038
After it gets adapted for production, I should be able to earn quite a bit, right?
Minimally, it should be enough to turn in my rent for this year and return the money that I owe my friends.
Who made me so ambitious to drift north to Beijing, renting a place in the fourth ring of the imperial city.
At this thought, I once again laid my head down to sleep. And as expected, I had everything in my dreams.
039
I got awoken by a prank caller; when I checked the caller ID it even had a Beijing area code.
I hung up. But the other persistently called back again.
Are swindlers so aggressive nowadays? Or do I have the word ‘gullible’ written on my face?
After getting bothered half to death, I decided to take the call, engaging my intelligence in a battle of wits with the swindler.
“Hello, may I ask if this is Mr. Mo? This is Huiping Films…”
“Huh?” Not fully awake yet, I thought to myself that my own editor had actually so quickly handed my information over to the other party.
“We have received the resume that you previously submitted. We want to have a face-to-face interview with you to follow up on this.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
P rff, la aegcfv bea ab yf atlr. P atbeuta yjmx mjgfoeiis. P vlv rffw ab tjnf mjrejiis reywlaafv j ofk gfrewfr ijra wbcat ktfc P vlvc’a tjnf jcs wbcfs ab offv ws jrr.
P jqqilfv ab yf j rmgffckglafg ja Lelqlcu Mliwr. Ktja lr atf qgbofrrlbc atja P sfjgc obg atf wbra.
I no longer want to be unemployed, I want to report, for, duty, asap!
040
So I put on the one and only suit that I had, tidied myself up, and fished out my ratchety two-wheeled car.
Ah~! What an inspirational moment this is! Based on the many years of literary accomplishments under my belt, at this moment, I seem to be having a resonance of thoughts and a collision of souls with great philosophers!
As the saying goes—when heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first cuts off his livelihood, and traps him in his home. It employs all his competencies to toil for his next meal. By all these methods it stimulates his abilities, and gives him the omnipotence to fuck heaven and earth upside down.
Hey wait, why u be acting lyk this?
041
Then when I got to the company, I was gobsmacked.
The lady at the reception brought me to a humongous conference room.
The person seated inside wasn’t HR but Jiang Ran.
There were even several middle-aged men and a young man seated by him.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mo Shuyao.” Film Emperor Jiang was seated right smack in the middle, his back upright and his arms folded across his chest.
His voice was very nice to listen to. It was clean and magnetic; cool and pleasant to the ears.
He was immaculately dressed in a suit. There was a simple line-shaped lapel pin on his jacket lapel, with a small dark blue diamond inlaid in the middle.
He looked much more attractive in person than on the big screen.
I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.
042
Actually, Jiang Ran and I have a bit of an ill-fated history. But I’m sure that he no longer remembers it.
I had my humble beginnings in filmmaking. I would blindly make some script edits here, blindly direct something there, and occasionally even double as an extra on set.
In that drama, Jiang Ran was acting as the side antagonist and was missing a little underling. I didn’t know if the production was too poor or if the director had a thing for me, but this role was given to me.
According to the script, I should have survived through three episodes, but what ultimately happened was that after entering the scene for three minutes, I protected my senior officer out of loyalty, dying in Jiang Ran’s embrace.
Because I refused to change the script for the devil that was the second female lead, I was chased out of the production crew.
043
And there was another thing that left a deep impression on me.
In the split second that the director decided to cut the scene, a tear fell onto my face.
It was Jiang Ran’s.
He acted as a villain boss. Losing a little lackey, he cried until his eyes turned red.
Maybe he was too young. The child was easily moved when shown a little care.
If only making money could be that easy.
044
Having said that, I reflected on the timeline.
Three years ago, I was one year out of university, whereas Jiang Ran was still studying Chinese opera performance in acting school.
Which also meant to say that he is around two or three years younger than me.
045
Once it dawned on me that he was still a little rascally boy, I raised my head to meet his slightly lowered eyes.
His collar was neatly buttoned, wrapping around an alluring Adam’s apple.
In the cool light, the man had an upstanding face, and was damned stunningly beautiful.
But seeing the thermos on the table in front of him, I froze.
Have you already evolved into an ascetic old fogey at such a young age?
046
If you ask me whether or not I regretted losing my job back then from defending the script, all I can say is that it’s my self-cultivation as a screenwriter and I will never give in to evil!
Warsong, rise up!
Woops. Entered the wrong BGM.
I once thought that I could use a pen to write the extremities of human desolation across the northern and southern provinces of the Yangtze River. Never did I expect that the poisonous thrashing of society would be this brutal and real.
If I could turn back time and start all over again, I would definitely tell that abhorrent director:
No problem! Whatever you want, I’ll change it! Whether you want to make Jiang Ran wear a green hat of adultery, suffer from grievous injury, car accident, terminal illness—I’ll write all manner of deaths you want!
Just don’t frigging kick me out of the show.
Laozi still needs to eat!
047
One of the middle-aged men cut into my bitter recollection.
“Mr. Mo, we have seen your resume and we sincerely hope that you will sign with us…”
Hearing this, I felt that my life was complete. Seal off a cursed account, and welcome the second spring of my career!
When God closed the door on me, he finally didn’t forget to leave a window open to let the breeze in!
But in the next second, I was completely, thoroughly, utterly stupefied.
The man finished the latter half of his sentence, “…sign with us as an actor.”
Har?! I leapt up from my seat, “Where did you swindlers come from? Even kidnapping Jiang Ran to fool me?”
But speaking of kidnapping, I thought of something more important. I banged the table and roared to the sky, “But I’m broke-ass poor without a single penny to give!!!!”
Lmfao I seriously love this MC, so entertaining!
Thanks for the chapter € ^ *^)/// ~~ ♡♡♡♡♡
HAHAHAHA this is so funny i need more XD thanks for the update!
thanks for the chapter <3
Thought I wasn’t gonna like it, So I have been putting it off! But dam! Best few minutes of my life right here!
“…hang on, that’s not just a cuckoo excuse to leave people hanging, the writing pits that I dig are super good.” i can’t. I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT AUTHORS DOING THIS. i too, am broke. luckily that means i wont get robbed hehe
Thank you for the chapter 😂
Why is he so dumb?
I suppose my brain is going to rot reading this story.
Nevermind.
Thank you for the update ❤️
He’s not dumb, he’s jus funny
Don’t tell you really think he screamed that out loud…..
This MC is really too funny 🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
THIS IS HILARIOUS