Director Kang Honglei (Please Vote)

"Get lost. Do you think everyone in show business is horny around the clock?"

Shen Qi tightened his grip on the script.

"Aren't they?" Huang Qidao said quietly. "I've been asking around these past couple of days. There's a lot going on behind the scenes in show business. Someone as good-looking as you isn't safe, even if you're a man!"

On the way here, Huang Qidao had sat with the other crew members.

While the actors worked in the fields today, he had kept digging for information.

A few dirty jokes had been enough to make him one of the gang.

A bunch of them had even made plans to get foot massages when they had time.

There was no distance a foot massage couldn't close. If one didn't do it, they could always go a few more times.

"You don't have to be quite that paranoid."

Shen Qi couldn't really argue.

Show business was messier than most places. People had more money, it took more to excite them, and their tastes naturally grew wilder.

But they were all respectable people.

Unless a male director already had a nasty reputation, he generally wouldn't make a move on a male actor in his crew out of the blue.

Kang Honglei wasn't Hai Yan.

"Better safe than sorry. If it really happened, you'd be finished. Would you jump off a building?"

Huang Qidao's entire worldview had been turned upside down.

Before coming here, he had been content to take things one step at a time about entering show business with Shen Qi.

Now that he knew more, his interest had grown considerably.

"You make a good point. Let's go."

Shen Qi opened the door and stepped out.

"But would you jump off a building?"

Huang Qidao was still asking. The answer seemed terribly important to him.

"Why the hell couldn't I... close my eyes and enjoy it?"

Shen Qi burst out laughing.

If he couldn't fight back, he might as well enjoy it.

If life couldn't kill him, he'd live the hell out of it!

"Boss, you're not that kind of person."

Huang Qidao shook his head.

"Why would I jump? Couldn't I throw the other guy off instead?"

Shen Qi was speechless.

"You have too much to lose. You'd never take someone down with you."

Huang Qidao knew Shen Qi's family situation.

"Bullshit. I fear no broken bones, as long as my honor stays intact!"

As they talked, the two reached the director's room.

The director wasn't alone. He was a busy man, with people coming and going so often that the room might as well have been an office.

"This is our producer, Li Ju. He wants to talk to you about the contract."

Kang Honglei introduced Shen Qi to the other man.

"Hello, Producer Li!"

Shen Qi didn't know whether Li Ju was the head producer or an ordinary one—an on-site producer, an executive producer, or something else. He was part of the production team either way.

"You auditioned with Brother Jizhong, right?"

There was no need to call Zhang Jizhong to confirm something so minor.

"Yes. I originally went to audition for The Return of The Condor Heroes..."

Shen Qi answered honestly.

"The Return of The Condor Heroes? Which role did you audition for?"

Kang Honglei looked surprised.

"Yin Zhiping."

Shen Qi didn't know what expression to make, so he kept his face blank.

Kang Honglei drew a sharp breath.

Even he was taken aback.

Clearly, he knew what that role entailed.

"Why would you do that to yourself?"

Executive producer Li Ju wondered if something was wrong with Shen Qi's head.

"I'm reasonably good-looking..." Shen Qi sighed.

Kang Honglei and Li Ju couldn't help nodding.

"Reasonably" didn't begin to cover it.

He was absurdly handsome.

They almost wanted to drag him to Nuwa and demand compensation.

"Actually, being good-looking can be tough. I won't get cast as the lead, and nobody thinks I fit the supporting roles. So I figured I should try something more down-to-earth!"

Shen Qi delivered the nonsense with a perfectly straight face.

"Down-to-earth? You're halfway to the underworld," Li Ju said, at a loss. "Never mind. Yin Zhiping it is. As for your contract... did Brother Jizhong say how much you'd be paid?"

"No, he didn't."

Shen Qi answered quietly.

From Zhang Jizhong's attitude, Shen Qi suspected he hadn't intended to pay him at all.

After all, The Return of The Condor Heroes had offered him two thousand yuan per episode.

He'd heard that even a female lead like An Xiaoqian got only eight thousand yuan per episode.

"Then... I'll use Liu Siyan's rate. You have quite a few scenes." Li Ju scribbled on a sheet of paper and soon reached a figure. "That comes to thirty-four hundred. Let's make it thirty-five hundred."

"Huh?"

Shen Qi didn't know what to say.

"Give him five thousand. And if anything comes up on set, have him help out too..."

When a crew filmed in the countryside, having someone who knew the ropes could save them a lot of trouble.

Of course, the Migrant Workers crew had hired a local guide.

But it was hard to tell where a guide's loyalties lay.

There was no telling when they might take someone else's side.

"Thank you, Director! I'll work hard!"

Shen Qi wanted to slap himself.

Director Kang was a good man!

Why had Shen Qi mistaken his reserve for coldness and thought he was being ignored?

The man just had a cool exterior and a warm heart.

Shen Qi had thought he would be working for this crew for free.

Five thousand yuan!

That was one warm heart!

With five thousand yuan behind him, Shen Qi immediately took on a second role around the set.

He taught the actors farmwork, helped the crew build sets, and went into the county town to buy supplies.

Migrant Workers officially began filming on August 20.

The production was split into A and B units.

Both units worked at the same time, with plans to finish filming in about a month and a half.

It was a rural drama with a limited budget. They couldn't afford to drag things out.

Kang Honglei had already gone as far as he could for the show's quality by setting aside the first week for the actors to experience village life, learn their lines, and rehearse their scenes.

Shen Qi was the second male lead, but he actually had about as many scenes as the first male lead, Fan Ming.

Most of his scenes were filmed by Unit A.

That meant Kang Honglei personally oversaw them.

Zhang Yi was with Unit B.

His character was a supporting role in the truest sense, a foil to Shen Qi's character.

Shen Qi's first scene showed the Ju Family celebrating the old man's birthday.

A tableful of dishes had been laid out on the heated brick bed.

There weren't that many, but there was plenty of fish and meat.

A plate of longevity peaches sat in the middle.

The camera crew had set up three cameras: the main camera for a fixed wide shot, camera B for medium shots and reverse angles, and camera C for close-ups.

The lighting crew added a little natural-looking light indoors.

Holding a megaphone, Kang Honglei called out himself:

"Quiet, quiet! Silence on set! Cameras rolling. Slate ready. Three, two, one, action!"

The actors all slipped into character.

Shen Qi played Ju Shuangyuan, who had failed the college entrance exam again. The whole family was disappointed, especially his father, Ju Guangda, who was furious that his son hadn't lived up to his potential.

Shen Qi didn't need the Magic Book for this scene.

He knew this situation all too well.

Back then, his father's illness had drained the family's savings and cost them an important breadwinner.

Shen Qi had decided to quit school.

It was much like the situation he faced in this scene.

Even while ill, his father remained the head of the household. Shen Qi had spent a long time working up his nerve, but when he faced his father, he still couldn't look him in the eye.

He kept his eyes lowered and fiddled with the chopsticks in his hand.

Yet when he said he wouldn't go back to school, his voice was firm.

Ju Guangda and Ju Shuangyuan each had their own position and their own reasons.

From Ju Guangda's perspective, he had spent half his life suffering for his lack of education and had placed enormous hopes on his son. Hearing his son say he was quitting school was more than he could accept.

Ju Shuangyuan, meanwhile, had taken the exam for several years without passing.

He had come to hate studying.

Young and fearless, he didn't believe education was the only path forward.

That left them with a conflict that was hard to resolve.

His grandparents and mother could only fret over the two of them.

Fortunately, his grandfather told a story about his "foolish" younger brother.

He told it with such humor that it eased the tension between Ju Guangda and Ju Shuangyuan.

Zhang Hongjie, who played the grandfather, was a seasoned actor with formidable skill.

Fan Yanhua, who played the grandmother, had won the Flying Apsaras Best Actress award and was vice president of the Hebei Provincial Drama Theatre.

Wang Yajun, who played the mother, was an actress with the National Theatre of China.

The rural drama might have had a small budget, but its casting offered excellent value.

Every actor was more than capable.

At that table today, Shen Qi was undoubtedly the weakest performer.

"You grew up in the countryside. You've probably lived through a lot of this. But your performance still doesn't measure up to Fan Ming's or Zhang Hongjie's. Have you thought about why?"

As Kang Honglei spoke, he watched Shen Qi's expression.

In truth, Shen Qi had already done well enough, certainly well enough for this show.

Kang Honglei didn't need to go to the extra trouble.

But Shen Qi's claim that he was playing Yin Zhiping to take on a more down-to-earth role had struck a chord with him.

Whether it was true or not could wait.

At least Shen Qi had said it—he was an actor who wanted to act.

That alone made Kang Honglei willing to offer him a few pointers.

But if Shen Qi showed impatience or merely pretended to agree, Kang Honglei would stop there and never bring up anything like it again.