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Afraid that her words might dampen her son's enthusiasm, Ruan Cuimei hurriedly added, "But it's still wonderful that you have this ambition. Mom supports you entering the competition too. At the very least, you'll get to exchange ideas with designers of international caliber. Even if you lose, you'll learn where you stand compared to those top design masters."

"Mom, could you stop boosting other people's morale and crushing your own son's? What if? What if I beat everyone and win the championship?" Jiang Shangyun stamped his feet in irritation at his mother's discouraging words. Then, remembering something, he eagerly suggested, "Right, Mom, I remember you really like designing jewelry. Why don't you sign up for that jewelry design competition too? The organizers never said contestants had to be professionals. You can enter too."

Ruan Cuimei froze at her son's words.

Jiang Fu, who had been gloomy until then, could not help letting out an honest laugh. "Our son is right. You love designing jewelry so much—you really should sign up and give it a try. If some jewelry company takes a liking to one of your designs, they might even approach you for a collaboration. Then you could turn your sketches into real jewelry."

Listening to the encouragement from her husband and son, Ruan Cuimei's heart stirred.

At the same time, at Edinburgh College of Art in Y Country

"Gu, did you see the news about the jewelry design competition published in this issue of ELLE? It's being held in your home country, Hua Country. The judges include chief designers from several major luxury brands, as well as your idol, Victor Pamilang. Are you going to enter?"

Gu Qing, seated at his desk drawing design sketches, paused slightly. He took the magazine his roommate handed him and carefully read through the information. His gaze stopped on the name of one of the judges. After pondering for a moment, he casually copied down the competition registration email address. "Of course I am."

Half a month later, the production team of Beggar Prince officially began filming at Hengzhou Film and Television City.

This was Ye Mingzhao's first time attending a production's opening ceremony. As a newcomer with no acting experience, his legendary rise to beating out a crowd of popular idols and accomplished actors for the two important roles of male lead and second male lead had spread throughout the entertainment industry during the month of preparations before filming began.

The media reporters invited to the opening ceremony were all extremely curious about this male lead, who should have been completely unknown yet had effortlessly stirred up the global fashion world with a jewelry design competition and a fashion design competition.

It was their first time seeing someone ruthless enough to personally organize two fashion design competitions just to film an idol drama.

Compared to Ye Mingzhao's outrageous moves in real life, the domineering CEOs in idol dramas were practically children playing house, utterly unconvincing.

Was this the dimensionality-reduction strike of having a real CEO play a domineering CEO?

Not only were the invited media reporters curious about Ye Mingzhao, but the other actors in Beggar Prince were as well.

During the earlier script read-throughs, Ye Mingzhao had always been humble, low-key, diligent, and eager to learn. Aside from his excessively handsome face and his outstanding air of refined upbringing, Ye Mingzhao was gentle and harmless, like a pure white jasmine raised in a greenhouse. Untouched by storms and ignorant of worldly affairs, he gave no sign of the shrewd sophistication with which he had strategized and laid out a global scheme during the jewelry and fashion design competitions.

Yet the more low-key and reserved Ye Mingzhao acted, the less anyone dared underestimate him. Those who had seen it all knew that young people who were brash and arrogant because of their talent were never truly frightening. They had seen plenty of idols who became famous overnight and top stars propelled to instant fame by a single drama, but such young people rarely lasted long.

Only operators like Ye Mingzhao—people who appeared mild and inoffensive, without any sharp edges, yet could casually stir the situation with a wave of their hand—were truly intimidating.

Not to mention the formidable connections and capital for assembling projects that Ye Mingzhao had inadvertently displayed while organizing the jewelry and fashion design competitions, which had made countless entertainment industry artists flock to him.

Before joining the production, many actors had been instructed by their agents to make sure they built a good relationship with Ye Mingzhao. It would be even better if they could secure luxury brand endorsements or cover shoots for the five major fashion magazines through him.

For every artist in the entertainment industry, these were top-tier resources.

And now, these resources—or rather, the channels to obtain them—were in Ye Mingzhao's hands.

Thus, throughout the script read-throughs, every actor who interacted with Ye Mingzhao was exceptionally friendly.

The first and second female leads, who had many scenes opposite Ye Mingzhao, were two of the most popular young actresses of the past two years. Yu Mingze had repeatedly warned Ye Mingzhao beforehand that the management teams behind these two actresses were particularly difficult to deal with, telling him to stay alert and not let himself be taken advantage of.

Yet as soon as filming began, the two youthful and beautiful stars displayed an overwhelming enthusiasm toward Ye Mingzhao.

Not only did they take the initiative to add him as a friend, they also separately reposted Ye Mingzhao's costume photos on Weibo using their personal accounts. During the script read-throughs, they often brought him soups and drinks, claiming that reading scripts strained the throat and that he needed sweet drinks to replenish himself.

The young actor who had originally been cast as the second male lead, Fu Shen, but had been forced to step back and play the third male lead because Ye Mingzhao was playing two roles, showed no hostility over having his role taken away when he met Ye Mingzhao. He even took the initiative to praise Ye Mingzhao for being capable and handsome, saying that playing the male lead was practically a perfect fit for him.

Several veteran actors playing Ye Mingzhao's parents in the drama also taught him many acting techniques through both words and example. They even used the script read-throughs as opportunities to perform scenes with him personally, drawing Ye Mingzhao into the role with their superb acting.

More than that, during repeated read-throughs, they tirelessly interpreted the same scenes in a variety of ways, allowing Ye Mingzhao to personally experience the differences between the industry's most respected Method acting, experiential acting, and presentational acting.

It had to be said that the attentive and professional guidance from his fellow cast members benefited Ye Mingzhao immensely. Combined with the tailored, careful instruction from his two acting teachers, Ye Mingzhao's acting improved at a rapid pace.

By the time filming officially began, in the assessment of several veteran actors, as well as director Li Zhengzheng and screenwriter Yu Mingze, Ye Mingzhao's acting was already sufficient for him to take on the lead role in an idol drama.

At the opening ceremony for Beggar Prince, the harmonious and highly coordinated interactions among the main cast and crew also drew repeated praise from the invited media reporters.

No matter how powerful Ye Mingzhao's background was, in the acting industry he was still a newcomer with no acting experience. When many media reporters learned that director Li Zhengzheng and screenwriter-producer Yu Mingze had overruled all objections to boldly cast such a complete novice in two roles, the first thing they thought of was the wealth of topics they could hype up over the coming months.

After all, the Beggar Prince production not only had its female lead Luo Lingling, who had been plagued by scandals and negative rumors since her debut; the gorgeous actress Bai Ruowei, who "outshone" the female lead in every drama; veteran actor Yu Dehai, who had blasted traffic actors for being unprofessional; and rising traffic star Zhang Pinglan, who had been robbed of the second male lead role and had no choice but to swallow the humiliation of playing the third male lead.

With such a nest of drama queens gathered together, not only the chaos-loving media reporters but even many industry insiders were waiting to watch the spectacle.

In their industry's terms, Ye Mingzhao was unquestionably a resource-backed celebrity. The sight of a resource-backed celebrity parachuting into a production to play the male lead was nothing new, but whether the male lead in the drama could hold down the "veteran actors" offscreen depended on his own ability.

No one thought highly of Ye Mingzhao. After all, without the aura of Ye Group, he was merely an ordinary person in his early twenties with no experience. How could he possibly keep so many demons and monsters under control? It was not until the two design competitions sponsored by the Beggar Prince production suddenly emerged that everyone had no choice but to take Ye Mingzhao's foundation and connections seriously.

Anyone with eyes could tell that Ye Mingzhao was showing off his influence.

Ye Mingzhao likewise knew his own strengths and weaknesses.