Chen Shan was one of the major shareholder’s son, he was one of those kids who were born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His parents were old when they had him, so they doted on him even more. They sent him abroad since he was in high school, this rich kid lead a befuddled life for several years and came back to his parents with no true skill or genuine knowledge but fluent English ability.
Chen Shan’s father thought back and forth to himself and decided to send this son of his to Glory. ‘It’s good to let him go through arduous hardships in show business, the kid needs to grow up!’ thought Chen Shan’s father.
The manager of Film and Television Cooperation Department overtaxed himself on hearing that Chen Shan was going to work for him, he had no idea how to deal with this hot potato. As luck would have it, Director Chen mentioned Qi Le An’s name to him, the manager figured it might be a good idea to arrange for Chen Shan to work with this aspiring trainee who was going to audition for Director Chen’s movie.
On one hand, if the trainee was lucky and passed the audition, Chen Shan would have an auspicious start in his career. On the other hand, no one could blame the manager if the trainee failed the audition, he could find some other opportunity for Chen Shan by then.
Chen Shan strongly disapproved of the arrangement at the beginning for all he wanted was to be some dummy director in the office and have some affairs with some starlets. But he changed his mind when he met Qi Le An, he saw the resilience and determination from the young man’s eyes and he was appalled when he heard how Mr. Li treated Qi Le An, he believed Qi Le An had what took to became a star, so he decided to do his best to bring the best of the young man and himself.
This was the first time Chen Shan had been someone’s manager, but he was born confident, he told his father that he was going to make Qi Le An the biggest movie star in China.
With that being said, our proud Chen Shan was still learning to become the best manager. He bought a pile of books and read them around the clock, among which was The Best Manager in Hollywood, How to Thrive in Show Business, Marketing and Show Business... ...
It was destiny that had brought the two young men together, they worked together and supported each other to when Qi Le An had won his first Best Actor Award. Their stories had become an interesting story on every young manager’s lips years after Chen Shan left the circle and took over the family business from his parents.
The first challenge in front of them now was Better Days.
Qi Le An prepared a whole week for the audition, Chen Shan had been nervous for Qi Le An for a whole week as well. Chen Shan drove Qi Le An to Linda for hair and makeup early on Saturday morning for the audition in a studio in Hai City.
Director Chen placed great expectations on this movie, the Male Lead Xing was going to be starred by Wei Chang Feng while the Female Lead Susan was going to be starred by a Hong Kong actress Ya-Ting who was Qin Xing’s favorite movie star.
Ya-Ting was in her early thirties, but her physical charms would let everyone forget about her age.
This audition was mainly for three characters, Susan’s boyfriend, Xing’s younger male cousin Cheng and elder female cousin Hua.
Director Chen attached great importance to this audition, he had even invited Wei Chang Feng and Ya-Ting to watch this audition.
Qi Le An was so restless with anxiety in the car that Chen Shan kept giving him hints with the eyes, ‘boy, you need to calm down!’
The two showed the staff invitations and walked to the waiting area, three actors were here for Xing’s younger male cousin Cheng, Qi Le An, Li Zhe Yu, and Wu Ge.
Li Zhe Yu was also from Glory, he was a tri-circle star, an actor popular in film television, and song circles. He was doing just so-so in films, but he had a great fan base. While Wu Ge was from an unknown entertainment company, he was twenty-eight that year, he was a has-been in a drama years ago, but since then his career had been lukewarm.
While Qi Le An’s portfolio was much thinner than Li Zhe Yu and Wu Ge, but that was also an advantage. Qi Le An was like a piece of clean paper where Director Chen could sketch freely, more importantly, both Li Zhe Yu and Wu Ge were too mature for the part and Qi Le An was the same age as the part.
The more Chen Shan thought, the more confident he felt.
Li Zhe Yu hadn’t arrived yet, Wu Ge and his manager greeted Qi Le An and Chen Shan on seeing them walking in.
Qi Le An knew no matter how Wu Ge’s career had flopped, he was still a senior in this circle, so Qi Le An greeted Wu Ge with respect.
Soon Li Zhe Yu had arrived with great fanfare, he was escorted by at least five people. The room soon became claimant, the way Li Zhe Yu put on airs and looked down on other people in the room was disgusting, he walked to the table and took the seat in the middle without making any eye contact with anyone.
Li Zhe Yu shot one of his assistants a look and looked away, the assistant walked to Qi Le An and Chen Shan, “You, get up!”
Chen Shan ignored him and continued his conversation with Qi Le An, “As I told you, you’ve got this, no need to worry.”
The assistant raised his volume, “I’m talking to you, are you deaf or blind? Can’t you see Li Zhe Yu is here and he demands your seat as well!”
The volume had attracted Wu Ge and his manager’s attention.
Qi Le An looked at Li Zhe Yu with a frown, well, Li Zhe Yu was seated already and there were two vacant seats near himself, he didn’t need one more seat, even though he did, he could always grab the vacant one near Wu Ge.
Obviously Li Zhe Yu was finding fault with Qi Le An. Well, times were different now, Chen Shan wasn’t a pushover.
“What, even three seats can’t fit your bosss’s fat ass?” Chen Shan raised his head and shot a warning look at Li Zhe Yu.
Wu Ge’s manager burst into laughter and Li Zhe Yu turned pale and red in turns in an agony of embarrassment, his assistant wished to knock Chen Shan over and kick him on the shin.
Chen Shan noticed the assistant’s provoking look, he rose to his feet and grabbed the assistant shoulder, “Do you have something to say to me?”
The assistant grimaced, then he stepped back in pain.
Qi Le An didn’t know his Chen Ge was a good fighter.
Li Zhe Yu turned livid, his team had been trying to contact Director Chen for this part for about half a year now and he had convinced the management in Glory to create hype for him as well, he didn’t want to lose this part to Qi Le An who emerged from nowhere!
Li Zhe Yu loathed Qi Le An from the bottom of his heart, ‘a trainee, trying to compete with me, keep dreaming!’ But he panicked when he heard it was Director Chen who contacted Film and Television Cooperation Department and mentioned Qi Le An, so he tried to deal Qi Le An a head-on blow at the first encounter.
“Zhe Yu, I have a vacant seat here, please use this one.” Wu Ge tried to lighten the atmosphere.
Wu Ge’s manager carried the seat to Li Zhe Yu.
Li Zhe Yu’s manager forced a smile and said, “Thank you so much, Mr. Wu.”
The farce concluded with a sigh from Li Zhe Yu.
Qi Le An had never worked with Li Zhe Yu in his last life, but he had heard a lot about this arrogant star. He always acted willfully for he had a large fan base, one of the scandals about Li Zhe Yu was the one where he assaulted a reporter in the airport because he didn’t want to answer the question.
But Qi Le An didn’t have the time and energy for this Li Zhe Yu, he needed to get ready for the audition.
Wu Ge was the first one whose name was called. Qi Le An got more and more nervous, this wasn’t his first audition, but this audition was crucial to him.
It was Li Zhe Yu’s turn after Wu Ge, Wu Ge came back to the waiting room with such great poise that it was impossible to tell how the audition went.
Li Zhe Yu straightened his collar and cast Qi Le An a glare before he went to the audition room. Qi Le An was so confused, ‘That’s so unnecessary, man!’
Li Zhe Yu’s audition was so much longer than Wu Ge’s, Chen Shan started to pace back and forth when Li Zhe Yu came back to the waiting room.
Well, Li Zhe Yu’s facial expression had given him away, he looked utterly discomfited and he glared at Qi Le An again when he walked past Qi Le An.
Chen Shan and Qi Le An exchanged a look, “An, you’ve got this!”
Qi Le An nodded.
“Good luck!” Chen Shan patted Qi Le An on the shoulder like a soccer mom, “I will take you to the hot pot after this, all right?”
Qi Le An grinned at Chen Shan and left the waiting room.