If You'll Have Me... (A Monthly Vote Would Be Nice)

"My good sir, you sure know how to work a room!"

Huang Qidao was observing the crew and the workings of the entertainment industry. At the same time, he was observing Shen Qi.

Wei Jianguo didn't think Shen Qi would make it in the entertainment industry.

To be honest, Huang Qidao hadn't thought so either.

Good looks alone weren't enough to get by in that world.

Look at the people doing well now—Lu Yi, Tong Dawei, Huang Xiaoming, Ren Quan, Liu Ye, and the rest. Which of them didn't have someone backing him?

The less family influence you had, the more you needed someone in your corner.

Even so, Huang Qidao admired someone like Shen Qi, who dared to go out and fight for a place.

Compared with Wei Jianguo, who had fallen apart at the first setback, Shen Qi was incredibly brave.

He was like a wild weed that stood firm through a torrential downpour.

Humble, yet thriving.

Now Huang Qidao was seeing another side of Shen Qi.

It was a side he'd never seen at school.

For most of his four years at university, Shen Qi had been either studying or working.

They'd mostly crossed paths in the dorm and the cafeteria.

The Shen Qi they remembered was handsome, gentle, and quiet.

Only now did Huang Qidao realize Shen Qi wasn't quiet at all.

He knew how to handle people.

On set, he fit in like a fish in water.

"Gotta make a living, man." Shen Qi took the cigarette Huang Qidao offered and sighed. "If you want to get by out here, you have to know how to deal with people. The moment we walked out of school, we had no choice but to adapt to society."

Adapt, but hold on to your principles.

Shen Qi had managed to stay himself while doing it.

Otherwise, he would have knelt before a rich woman long ago.

"I never saw it before. I thought you were the least sociable one in our dorm."

"Before?" Shen Qi thought back and laughed. "I worked outside every day. When I got back, all I wanted to do was sleep. Where would I have found the energy to socialize?"

"Out of everyone in our dorm, I think you'll do the best."

Huang Qidao felt more certain than ever that he wanted to follow Shen Qi.

If you'll have me...

"Who knows what'll happen? And you don't need to offer me cigarettes. I don't really smoke. I only light one and hold it when I need to."

Shen Qi handed the cigarette back to Huang Qidao.

Smoking was often more of a way to connect with people.

Plenty of people in the entertainment industry smoked like chimneys.

Offering a cigarette was a social courtesy.

If you made too much of a point of being different, you'd rub them the wrong way.

And that wasn't limited to the entertainment industry.

When a whole group stood around smoking, waving them off and saying you didn't smoke could make you seem like you didn't belong.

Even holding a cigarette without smoking it was a form of courtesy.

"It's all in the details. There really is something to learn about dealing with people everywhere you look."

Huang Qidao spoke with feeling.

Clearly, Shen Qi wasn't relying on his looks to make it in the entertainment industry.

The more Huang Qidao saw, the more pleased he became.

As the saying went, a bird that chose its tree found a good perch, and a man who chose his lord found a wise master. What more could Huang ask for in life?

"When are you heading back?"

Shen Qi didn't want to lead a graduate student astray.

He had no desire to have the man's parents come after him.

Over the past few days, he'd noticed that Huang Qidao was enjoying himself a little too much to want to leave.

"I don't want to go back."

Sure enough, Huang Qidao had already started thinking about staying.

He'd learned enough by now.

There was plenty of room to grow as an entertainment agent. Those at the very top could even become bosses themselves.

"Qidao, what can you do here? Apart from standing around staring all day, how can you help me? Fetch me tea? I'm not that delicate. I can do that myself."

Shen Qi felt a headache coming on.

"I've learned a lot these past few days."

Huang Qidao bristled.

It was like finally working up the courage to offer yourself to someone, only for them to turn up their nose at you.

"But you don't have to stay on set to learn. You can go back to school, attend classes, and find some books to study."

It wasn't that Shen Qi didn't want Huang Qidao as his agent.

For one thing, they knew each other inside and out.

Four years together was enough time to see what kind of person someone was.

If you still couldn't tell, another forty years wouldn't help.

That was a problem with your judgment, not the amount of time you'd had.

For another, Huang Qidao was capable.

He wasn't too proud to get his hands dirty, either.

From the director and producers down to the crew hands and support staff—even the local villagers—he could strike up a pleasant conversation with anyone.

And the information he gathered was both plentiful and useful.

Finally, he had ambition.

While others took their Teaching Certificates and settled into easy teaching jobs, or went to the gym to show off their muscles, he'd drilled vocabulary words relentlessly and successfully earned a place in a graduate program outside his original field.

Now that he knew staying at the university would be difficult, he had started actively planning another path.

"Tell me, if I'm going into the entertainment industry, what use will a Master's Degree in Psychology be?"

Huang Qidao thought it would be a waste of time.

"You should finish what you start. Besides, you'll be more useful to me in the capital than here. I need you to gather information on productions and help me sort through it. I'll also need you to help maintain my contacts..."

After a long, earnest talk, Shen Qi finally persuaded Huang Qidao.

"So we're working together from now on."

Huang Qidao needed to make sure.

You don't have to pay me, but you do have to give me a proper place at your side.

"Yes, yes, we're working together!" Shen Qi had no choice but to say it outright. "You know my situation. I can't pay you much. We have to put on our socks before our shoes, play the underlings before we can be bosses. All I can promise you is that things will be better later."

"Haha! Underlings before bosses? Then one day everyone will have to call me Lord Qidao!"

Huang Qidao was delighted.

"If you'll let me get your help for free, I'll call you Lord Qidao right now!"

Shen Qi didn't care in the slightest.

Whatever scholarly pride he'd once had had been worn away by the jobs he'd worked as a student and the setbacks he'd faced after graduation.

"We're brothers, and you're my boss. How could I put on airs with you? Don't worry about the pay for now," Huang Qidao said earnestly. "Actually, if you're short on money, I can lend you some. My family's fairly well-off."

They were in the same boat now. Sharing what they had was only natural.

"No need. I'm earning money now." Shen Qi paused, then said, "Until you graduate, I'll pay you five hundred yuan a month. Don't turn it down. Think of it as money for work expenses."

However shameless Shen Qi might be, he couldn't ask Huang Qidao to work for nothing.

"What a generous boss!"

Huang Qidao didn't argue further. Shen Qi knew him, and he knew Shen Qi just as well.

"By the way, when you get back, gather information on the major talent agencies. Once something I'm in airs, I expect some of them will contact us."

Shen Qi was already getting supporting roles.

As he built up more credits, improved his acting, and expanded his network, the major talent agencies were bound to notice him.

"Got it!"

If he hadn't come on this trip with Shen Qi, Huang Qidao might have naively asked why they needed to join a talent agency at all. Couldn't they just work on their own?

Now he knew that wouldn't work.

Hardly anyone in the entertainment industry went it alone. You either joined a talent agency or the National Theater Troupe.

Without someone to rely on, you'd be bullied mercilessly.

Even so, Shen Qi hadn't decided whether to join a talent agency.

He'd heard that some talent agencies did more than exploit their artists. They even forced them to drink with people and sleep with them.

Fuck. How was that any different from raising livestock?

When Zhang Yi came over to find Shen Qi, Shen Qi asked him about it.

"Zhang Yi, are you with a talent agency?"

Shen Qi didn't have many scenes with Zhang Yi.

They had only one scene together, chatting by the fields.

They belonged to different filming units, so they generally saw each other only after wrapping for the day.

"No. I'm with a theater troupe."

Zhang Yi shook his head.

These days, actors couldn't belong to both a theater troupe and a talent agency.

"Isn't your troupe about to lose its official status?"

Shen Qi had heard about it.

"I'll deal with that when it happens. I'm not as handsome as you. No talent agency wants me."

Zhang Yi looked at Shen Qi, then at himself.

They were both dressed as country boys.

But Shen Qi had some indefinable presence.

"I don't have an agency either. If one signs me because I'm handsome, it might be because they want to send me out to drink and sleep with people."

That was what Shen Qi feared most.

"Oh, come on. Not everything's some sleazy casting-couch scheme. Look on the bright side: maybe they just want to date you for one night..."

Zhang Yi grinned.

"You... I need a word more insulting than 'beast' to describe you."

Shen Qi badly wanted to hit someone.

"Seriously, as long as we have the ability, we can succeed without getting mixed up in that mess."

Zhang Yi's expression turned sober.

He often made dirty jokes, but his years in the military had left a deep mark on him.

"The key is having the ability. I don't even know how good an actor you are yet."

Shen Qi had never seen Zhang Yi act.

"I'm curious too. Our scene's coming up. Let's see how we stack up."

Zhang Yi seemed to carry an aura of destruction; the people and things around him all felt its effects.

Yet Shen Qi was still thriving.

He must have had real ability.

"Sure. How do you want to do it? What's at stake?"

Shen Qi wasn't afraid of a challenge.

"Five yuan. Whoever causes a retake pays up."

Zhang Yi was eager to begin.

He'd been annoyed by that handsome bastard for ages.

It was time to teach him a lesson.