Chu An realized that Lu Mingze was quite an adorable person, but in the silly, endearing way.
Perhaps in Director Lu's mind, Tiandu Cultural would never trick him, and he had never considered that possibility. So, even though Chu An had almost laid everything out in clear words, Lu Mingze remained immersed in the joy of his sudden burst of inspiration.
But there was no need to rush. With the current mess of a script, Chu An was confident that as the filming went on, Director Lu would soon catch on and figure it out.
In the afternoon, the crew continued filming. Chu An didn't have any scenes, but stayed on set to help with the miscellaneous tasks.
Maybe it was because his mindset in this life was different from the last, but Chu An found himself increasingly enjoying staying here, doing whatever little tasks he could. Not only was he building rapport, but he was also finding pleasure in it.
Around 3 p.m., Lan Jie nudged Chu An from behind, signaling him to go downstairs—Director Jia was looking for him.
Chu An's heart skipped a beat. "What's going on? How does Director Jia know so much? Did he find out about the thing I mentioned to Director Lu during lunch?"
With a sense of uncertainty, he went downstairs and saw Director Jia standing under a tree with his hands behind his back.
"Grandpa Jia, you were looking for me?" Chu An quickly approached.
Director Jia, who was a senior employee at Tiandu Culture, smiled his signature smile. "Nothing important, just thought you were an interesting kid, so I thought I'd chat for a bit, and by the way..."
He handed Chu An a set of keys. "Yesterday, Lan Jie mentioned your shop rental situation to me. Just now, the logistics manager, Ma Guoyou, came to drop off the keys, so I took them."
Chu An's heart tightened. There were several key pieces of information hidden in Director Jia's words.
It wasn't surprising that Lan Jie had mentioned the rental situation to him—she was the casting director, and such things had to go through Director Jia.
But the rest of what Director Jia said was worth pondering.
First, he mentioned Ma Guoyou. Normally, that would be something he wouldn't bring up. It was like Lan Jie wouldn't mention the people she'd worked with to Chu An, as there was no need to.
But Director Jia specifically mentioned Ma Guoyou's name, which implied that he most likely knew about Chu An's relationship with Ma Guoyou.
How did he know?
It could be that he saw them arguing yesterday since it wasn't far from here.
But more likely, Ma Guoyou had gossiped to him.
Chu An leaned toward the second explanation.
Because, honestly, it wasn't normal that Ma Guoyou had brought the keys himself. Think about it—after the higher-ups gave the shop that was nearly promised to his uncle to the crew, it would be a major blow to Chu An's plans. It was extremely frustrating. And now, Ma Guoyou was personally handing over the keys.
If there weren't ulterior motives involved, Chu An couldn't buy the idea that it was just out of pure diligence.
In just a moment, Chu An had run through all possible scenarios in his mind. He calmly said, "Grandpa Jia, is there anything else you need me to do?"
Director Jia was momentarily stunned, and after a good look at Chu An, he said, "Lan Jie and Director Lu both value you. At first, I thought you might be someone who would handle things well. Now, I see that there's some talent there."
With his old age, Director Jia had a much sharper eye for talent than Lu Mingze and Lan Jie.
Chu An didn't bother with modesty. There was no need to pretend. Besides, when in doubt, one must be straightforward.
"You flatter me, Grandpa Jia," he said, subtly glancing at the set of keys.
Director Jia's smile deepened as he seemed to see right through Chu An, deciding he was a smart kid, much more perceptive than most adults.
He didn't beat around the bush. "Your family is going through some difficulties, and the crew will help as much as we can. Lan Jie mentioned your shop, and I fully support the idea of lending it to the crew."
Chu An replied, "With you saying that, I'm relieved! If our Chu family ever turns things around, we won't forget you."
"Turn things around?" Director Jia said with certainty, "With someone like you, your family won't go wrong."
Then his tone shifted. "But don't get too happy too soon. I haven't finished speaking."
Chu An thought to himself, As expected.
"You can go ahead. I'm listening."
Director Jia continued, "The crew fully supports the rental of the shop, but we have our own rules."
"The contract for the shop can't be signed under your name for now; it has to be under the crew's name. After the filming is done, I'll take responsibility and transfer the contract to you."
Noticing Chu An might be overthinking, he added, "This is also for your own good. Is there some sort of conflict between your family and Ma Guoyou? If the contract is under the crew's name, he won't be able to cause trouble for you."
"Also, the crew has to follow proper procedures, so it'll save me from having to explain things to the company. Do you understand?"
Chu An's expression remained neutral, and he showed no sign of joy or disappointment. "As always, you think things through thoroughly. I'll follow your advice."
He then raised his head and asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"
Director Jia smiled as he walked back inside. "There are two things. The crew's filming tasks are heavy, and Director Lu is very driven when it comes to his creative desires..."
Chu An didn't wait for him to finish, "I understand. There needs to be some balance."
He paused, then gave Director Jia an apologetic bow. "I shouldn't have pushed Lan Jie to change the script."
Director Jia nodded in approval. "Good kid. If you need anything, come find me. I'll definitely help if I can."
The two of them walked amicably into the building.
However, how many times Chu An cursed internally, only he knew.
If before, Chu An had been making educated guesses about Tiandu Culture's tactics based on his experience, now, with the producer-director's complete lack of shame, there was nothing left to say.
Director Jia's message was clear: don't talk too much, just focus on filming! Perform well, and the rental contract will be given to you later.
Too bad that in his past life, even when a knife was to his throat and there was only the option of jumping off a building, he never bowed down. He would rather go down with everything than give in.
Now, in this new life, was he supposed to learn how to beg on his knees? Fat chance!
The afternoon and evening filming went smoothly, and the crew finished early.
Once they left, Chu Ning sneaked upstairs.
Well, now, returning to his own home felt like he was sneaking in.
As soon as he entered the house, he frowned. "Little brother, how about we wait until the crew is gone before opening the shop? Otherwise, if the contract isn't transferred, we'll be throwing our money away, right?"
This afternoon, Chu An had already made a call to Chu Ning's workplace and explained the situation, prompting her to rush home to discuss the next steps.
Chu An wasn't worried. "Just open the shop as usual. Don't worry, they won't do anything to us."
"Okay!" Chu Ning didn't push back much. Now, she trusted her younger brother completely.
"I'll go to the leaders tomorrow to see if I can sort out the procurement channels."
"Good, you make the decision then. Don't ask me. I'll be busy for the next few days."
"Mm!" Chu Ning agreed, thinking Chu An would be filming.
But once she left, Chu An immediately sat at his desk.
After thinking for a while, he wrote a title on the draft paper:Script: "The Best of Us"
A youth drama about past events related to Geng Geng and Huai.
There were countless times, in the middle of sleepless nights, when he wondered how he should've acted back then, when he was squeezed by capital. What could he have done to avoid the disaster?
Countless times, he regretted not being smarter, thinking maybe he could've avoided that catastrophe.
"All I can say is, life hasn't been too unfair to me!" Chu An thought, grateful for the second chance he'd been given.
He wanted to see if this seventeen-year-old body could carve a bloody path through the jaws of capital.
Of course, if he failed, it didn't matter. After all, Lu Mingze was the one who would be left holding the bag.
"Achoo!!" On the other side of the city, Director Lu sneezed loudly, as if he felt an ominous presence.
In Chu An's view, Lu Mingze only had two choices now:
First, to repent and stop the bleeding.
This meant crawling to Tiandu Culture and begging for forgiveness, calling them "father" so he could maybe get back his investment and go back to filming his safe, dull projects.
But knowing Director Lu's temperament, that was unlikely.
The other choice was to find a way to break away from Tiandu and create independently—take on the risk himself.
As for the current crappy script, it was beyond saving. It had to be scrapped and started from scratch.
Chu An thought Lu Mingze would most likely choose this route, and hoped that he would.
"Let's go for it! Whoever backs down is a coward!"
Even if they couldn't win, Chu An would never be the one to back down.
Ultimately, what Director Lu needed most was not just money, but a good script.
That was something Chu An could help with.