After lunch, Cheng Che got into the nanny van.
When Zhao Gang heard him say "go home," he started the car.
Qin Lie sat beside him, his face flushed and the corners of his mouth constantly turned up, as if he had just won the lottery.
Chen Wei sat in the back, holding a stack of documents in her arms, and was flipping through them with her head down.
The car drove out of the hotel parking lot and onto the main road.
February in Capital City is very cold; the trees along the roadside are bare, and pedestrians hurry by wrapped in thick coats.
"You should get some rest now," Qin Lie said. "The report meeting is over, the hype has died down, we can take a break."
Cheng Che waved his hand. "No need. There must be a lot going on lately, I should make more money while I'm still young."
Qin Lie chuckled, "The way you're talking makes you sound like a little money-grubber."
"That's true." Cheng Che leaned back in his chair and said with a smile, "I'm not the kind of actor who can live off one role for a lifetime. If I don't make money when I can, I won't be able to make it when I'm past my prime."
Qin Lie glanced at him but did not refute him.
He took the stack of documents from Chen Wei and turned to the first page.
"You're right, it's ridiculously many." He spread out the files. "Variety shows, seventeen offers. Movies, nine. TV series, twenty-three. Offline events, over thirty. And some magazine shoots and brand collaborations, adding up to over forty."
Cheng Che glanced at the stack of documents; they were filled with densely packed entries, each line representing a project.
"So many?" He frowned.
"Your current popularity speaks for itself," Qin Lie said. "Endorsements with four top luxury brands, Australian Open Champion, author for a top mathematics journal, student of Peking University. Each of these labels alone could support a project, let alone the fact that you have them all. But—"
He flipped to the next few pages and pulled out an evaluation report.
"Our studio's professional evaluation team has screened them all. Most of them aren't good enough and don't match your current status. With endorsements from four top luxury brands, you can't take on projects that lower your standards. Being a top star is both a status symbol and a limitation."
He handed the shortlisted projects to Cheng Che.
"Let me see."
Cheng Che took it and turned the pages one by one.
The first is period dramas.
The project is called " The Realm and Old Friends," adapted from a wildly popular online novel with over 50 million fans.
Tengda's S-level project has an investment scale five times that of " The Youth Here ".
The story tells the story of a young man who traveled to ancient times and became the hostage of a small country. He endured humiliation and heavy burdens in a foreign country, climbed up from the bottom step by step, and eventually stirred up the world.
The male protagonist appears to be a playboy, but in reality he is cunning and scheming, skilled in both martial arts and strategy.
It features political intrigue, action scenes, martial arts world, and imperial court.
He debated with scholars in the imperial court and defeated enemies with a single sword in the martial world.
From hostage to powerful minister, and from powerful minister to the master of the world.
Directed by Director Zhou, the main creative team is the same as that of " The Youth Here ".
Tengda only invited Cheng Che to play the male lead, saying, "This role can only be played by you."
"This..." Cheng Che turned to the first page of the script, "The male lead is a time traveler who pretends to be stupid but is actually capable of everything. There are a lot of action scenes and also a lot of political intrigue."
Qin Lie nodded:
"Moreover, Tengda said that if you take the role, a portion of your compensation can be factored into the project's equity. Tengda estimates the project's returns to be very high, and equity is more worthwhile than a fixed salary."
Cheng Che flipped through the script and came to a scene depicting the imperial court.
The male protagonist stood in the center of the hall, facing the impeachment from the court officials, remaining neither humble nor arrogant, and refuting each point one by one.
The dialogue is very well written; every word is piercing.
"Okay," he said. "I'll take this one."
He has the talent of Martial Arts Prodigy and has long wanted to try his hand at action scenes.
When he was a child, he would get incredibly excited watching action scenes on TV shows, and now that he can experience it for himself, he wants to try it too.
The second one is a romance movie.
The project is called " Easter Egg " and is directed by young director Chen Yu.
Chen Yu had previously directed two art-house films, both of which won awards at international film festivals. This is his first commercial production.
The script tells the story of a game designer and an illustrator.
Cheng Che turned to the last page and saw Chen Yu's handwritten annotation. "It's said that enemies are destined to meet. But the real story begins after enemies meet."
"This," Cheng Che said with some interest, "Is a romantic comedy. I'm quite interested."
Seeing this, Qin Lie said:
" Chen Yu specifically requested you. He said he watched your final scene at the high-speed rail station in ' The Youth Here ' and felt that you could portray the restraint of 'wanting to get close but not daring to,' as well as the awkwardness of 'not admitting it but already accepting it in your heart.' The pay isn't low, and Chen Yu's films have always been award-winning."
Win an award?
Cheng Che was happy to hear about winning an award, so he agreed.
"Then it's settled." Cheng Che closed the document.
Finally, there were two guest appearances on variety shows.
One is Tengda's S-level food variety show " Let's Eat," with Huang Xiaochu as the main host. Each episode takes place in a different city to find local delicacies, Cheng Che appears as a guest star for one episode.
Another one is Blue TV TV's popular variety show " Keep Running, Youth," where Cheng Che will be a special guest for one episode.
The timeframes were all short, totaling less than a week.
"Just these three," Cheng Che said, closing the file. "TV series, movie, and two guest appearances on variety shows. Turn down everything else."
Qin Lie nodded and took the document back.
Then he turned to another page, which showed Cheng Che's competition schedule for the next few months.
"After the Australian Open, the North America hard court season begins. The Indian Wells and Miami Master tournaments are both in March. Your current ranking is high enough to qualify directly for the main draw."
Cheng Che nodded.
"Then comes the Europe clay court season," Qin Lie continued. " Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome —three Master 1000 tournaments on clay, all in April and May. The French Open starts at the end of May, so these tournaments are crucial for adapting to clay. After that comes the grass court season, with Wimbledon in early July. Grass and clay are completely different; the ball speed is faster and the bounce is lower. You'll need to play one or two warm-up tournaments in Halle or Queen's Club Championships."
He paused for a moment, then looked at Cheng Che.
"With your current ranking and skill level, you don't need to play in smaller tournaments to rack up points. Just go straight to the Master main draw and use those tournaments as practice. But you haven't played clay or grass before, so you'll need time to adapt. Allocate at least three weeks to practice clay before the French Open and at least two weeks to practice grass before Wimbledon."
Cheng Che thought for a moment, "What about the two stops in North America?"
"You don't need to adapt to hard courts, just play normally. But if you feel the schedule is too tight, you can skip one tournament and save your energy for the clay court season. After all, the French Open is the only Grand Slam venue you haven't played yet."
Cheng Che nodded. "Okay. Let's start with the two North America tournaments, and then see how we adjust our form before the clay court season."
"There's one more thing. LV, Nike, Rolex, and Gucci all want to upgrade your status."
Cheng Che looked at him.
"LV wants to promote you to global brand ambassador, but since your current global ambassador contract hasn't expired, they plan to wait until the second half of the year to make a move. Nike wants to promote you from Greater China ambassador to global brand ambassador. Rolex wants to add you to their global advertising campaign. Gucci wants to promote you from brand ambassador to global brand ambassador."
He paused for a moment, his voice tinged with excitement.
"If all four companies upgrade, your annual endorsement fee would be approximately 150 million yuan before tax."
Cheng Che's heart skipped a beat.
150 million.
His face remained expressionless, but his mind was already racing.
However, he quickly calmed down. He had only recently signed the contract, and discussing an upgrade now was unrealistic.
It will take at least until the second half of the year for brands to see its continued value before the upgrade will be convincing.
"No rush," he said. "We'll talk about it in the second half of the year."
Qin Lie nodded, agreeing with that.
The car stopped in the underground parking garage of the residential complex.
Cheng Che went upstairs, changed into his pajamas, and sat on the sofa.
Qin Lie and Chen Wei did not follow, saying they needed to go to the studio to handle subsequent invitations.
Zhao Gang went back too. The house was quiet, except for the humming of the refrigerator.
He leaned back on the sofa and took out his phone.
A message popped up on the screen; it was from the director of the " Walking the Flower Road Together " program.
" Teacher Cheng, the filming schedule for the Europe segment is finalized. We're departing in four days, with Paris as our first stop. The trip will last about two weeks, including stops in Nice and Provence. Does that schedule suit you?"
Cheng Che replied with a single word, "Okay."
The director replied immediately, "Great! We'll confirm the schedule right away."
Four days have passed in the blink of an eye.
Cheng Che and his team arrived at Magic City Hongqiao Airport to meet up with the " Walking the Flower Road Together " program crew.
Upon arrival, I saw several companions I hadn't seen for a long time.
And a new female guest who caught him completely off guard.
Looking at Yan Ruanning's smiling face and then at the excited production crew, Cheng Che thought to himself with a wry smile, "Oh no, I've been tricked."