How Could You Not Know?

"I'll take you to the director. He's already on the bus."

Fan Ming was being a good sport.

In truth, the director intimidated him a little too.

The director had approached him about Migrant Workers.

On the day they officially met, Fan Ming had worn designer clothes, a designer hat, and designer leather shoes.

Designer labels from head to toe!

For an actor, that was a way of showing he took an audition seriously.

Shen Qi was simply too broke for that. Otherwise, he would have put together an outfit that showed what he was worth.

Instead, the director had told Fan Ming to take off all his designer clothes on the spot.

The memory still made him shudder.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and led Shen Qi onto a bus.

Shen Qi followed Fan Ming aboard, looked up, and spotted another familiar face.

Well, wasn't that a coincidence?

Zhang Yi saw Shen Qi too. His narrow eyes went round.

But he quickly held back his excitement.

The bus was full of the main cast and crew of Migrant Workers. A newcomer like him had no business making a fuss.

And interrupting Shen Qi would be even worse.

Their eyes met, and they gave each other a nod.

"Director, this is Shen Qi. He's here to report in today..." Fan Ming tugged Shen Qi forward and introduced the man. "This is our director, Mr. Kang Honglei!"

"Hello, Director Kang. Mr. Zhang Jizhong told me to report in."

Shen Qi couldn't exactly ask what role he was playing.

He would find out sooner or later.

"Oh, it's you. Good timing. We're about to leave. This bus is going ahead first."

Kang Honglei looked Shen Qi over without saying much, then sent him off to find a seat.

Shen Qi sat in the back row with Huang Qidao.

Kang Honglei was talking quietly with someone, and no one else dared disturb him.

A little later, another group boarded.

Once the bus was full, it pulled away.

The mood on board relaxed after that.

People began chatting in low voices.

Zhang Yi came over and asked Huang Qidao to take his seat so he could sit with Shen Qi.

The two brothers in misfortune finally had a chance to talk.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You gave me a shock when I saw you."

"My theater troupe arranged a role for me. You're doing pretty well, huh? You landed My Own Swordsman, and now you've got Migrant Workers too."

"I'm doing all right. I'm not picky about roles. Good or bad, as long as it doesn't cross a line and they pay me, I'll take it."

Shen Qi didn't know much about Zhang Yi's family finances.

But they were definitely better than his.

After all, Zhang Yi could afford to pay his own way through theater training.

"I'm playing Guo Zhendong. Who are you playing?"

Zhang Yi couldn't help asking.

He meant nothing by it. He was just curious.

"I don't know."

Shen Qi lowered his voice as he answered.

"Holy crap. How can you not know?"

Was that even possible?

"Today's the first time I've met the director. I get the feeling he doesn't like me much."

Shen Qi kept his voice low too.

Everything Shen Qi knew about Kang Honglei as a director came from Years of Passion.

He seemed harder to deal with than Shen Qi had imagined.

He was neither warm nor cold.

He just ignored you!

"Relax. If he let you on the bus, he's not going to kick you off now..."

Zhang Yi offered him some reassurance.

They caught each other up on what they had been doing lately.

"Being good-looking really does give you an edge..."

When Zhang Yi learned that Shen Qi had acted in several TV dramas and even shot a music video for a female singer, he was so jealous he was practically drooling.

You hated to see your brother suffer, but you hated it even more when he started driving a luxury SUV!

He had gone all the way from the capital to Hengdian and come back without landing a single part.

In the end, the political commissar had taken pity on him and recommended him to Kang Honglei.

"It has its downsides too. You have no idea what I go through!"

Shen Qi sighed.

"What's so hard about it? If I could look like you, I'd do anything!"

Zhang Yi's shoulders slumped in bitter envy.

"A wealthy woman in her fifties or sixties, weighing over two hundred pounds, promises to keep you rich for life. Would you do it?"

Shen Qi was curious how other people saw it.

"Over two hundred pounds... in her fifties or sixties..."

Zhang Yi shuddered.

With his scrawny build, if she got on top of him, would his head even stick out?

"Maybe one day I'll run into someone like that in the entertainment industry. She'll demand I sleep with her, or she'll use her connections to blacklist me... Still jealous?"

Shen Qi patted his thigh.

Everyone had their own troubles.

"I'd do it if she were eighty!"

Zhang Yi suddenly blurted out.

"Why?"

Holy crap. Your tastes run that extreme?

"She'd die sooner, and I could inherit her money sooner!"

Zhang Yi was quite serious about this possible plan for his life.

"You... are something else!"

That hadn't occurred to Shen Qi at all.

But would an eighty-year-old really still be out looking for a young man?

"You two... are hilarious!"

Someone in the row ahead had apparently overheard them and started giggling.

Shen Qi and Zhang Yi shut up at once.

Two young women sat in front of them.

Both were very young and fairly pretty.

Shen Qi recognized one of them, Pan Yuchen. She had already appeared in quite a few TV dramas and had made something of a name for herself.

"I'm Zhang Yi!"

"Shen Qi."

"Pan Yuchen."

"I'm Liu Siyan. Nice to meet you!"

The four of them introduced themselves in hushed voices.

Shen Qi discovered that they all knew what roles they were playing, though none of them had received a script.

He was the only one who didn't know.

"You're probably playing Ju Shuangyuan. When I auditioned, I read opposite Ju Shuangyuan. The director read the part with me himself. Anyway, our characters are a couple."

Pan Yuchen offered her guess about Shen Qi's role.

"If Mr. Fan Ming is the male lead, then you're... the second male lead!"

Liu Siyan looked at Shen Qi enviously.

They were both newcomers, but Shen Qi was already playing the second male lead. That was what happened when you came recommended by Zhang Jizhong.

"Shen Qi, don't forget our oath!"

Zhang Yi was green with envy.

His character, Guo Zhendong, didn't stand out in the drama. He was a dispensable role, there to set off the others more than anything.

Guo Zhendong had neither Ju Shuangyuan's tangled emotions nor Ju Guangda's stamp of the times.

Even that supporting role had only come his way because the political commissar had taken pity on him and fought for it.

And now Shen Qi was playing the second male lead.

What had happened to their promise that if one of them made it big...

"Woof, woof, woof!"

Shen Qi gave him three quiet barks.

He could bark a few more times if necessary.

See? He hadn't forgotten their oath.

"Holy crap!!!"

Zhang Yi had no words for him.

"Relax, relax. If I get the chance, I won't forget you."

Shen Qi hurried to reassure him.

After all, he owed his part in My Own Swordsman to the information sheet Zhang Yi had given him.

"All right, you all seem wide awake. Since no one wants to rest, let's use this time to read the script."

Kang Honglei signaled for his assistant to hand out the scripts.

Shen Qi got one too.

They were complete scripts for everyone.

Some big productions handed out individual scripts to prevent leaks, containing only each actor's scenes or lines.

Some crews even used last-minute script pages.

Actors might not receive the scenes they were shooting tomorrow until the night before, or might even be handed new lines to memorize on set.

Of course, Migrant Workers had no need for that kind of secrecy.

"Director, I... which role am I playing again?"

Shen Qi raised his hand, a little embarrassed. He had flipped through the script he'd been given, but nothing in it indicated his role.

"..."

Kang Honglei was speechless too.

Had no one told Shen Qi what he was here to play?

That old Zhang Jizhong was getting less reliable by the day.

"You're playing Ju Shuangyuan. You and Mr. Fan Ming are playing father and son."

The assistant spoke up, quick on the uptake.

No one knew what sort of background the man Zhang Jizhong had sent might have. Better not embarrass him too badly.

"Thanks!"

Shen Qi said nothing more and bent his head to study the script.

He read the whole thing through.

Whenever he came to one of Ju Shuangyuan's lines, though, he silently read it again, trying to get a feel for it.

It was a method he had worked out after recording other actors' performances and using them.

Kang Honglei didn't know Shen Qi's background either, so he had no intention of making things difficult for him. Once all the scripts had been handed out, he spoke at an unhurried pace.

"We won't start filming as soon as we get there. I'll arrange for everyone to experience rural life first."

"Sigh."

Everyone looked glum, but they had known what they were signing up for when they took this job. There was no point protesting now.

Wait, experience rural life?

Me?

I grew up in the countryside. I've harvested wheat, planted rice seedlings, picked corn, built houses...

What part of rural life do you want me to experience?!