2: Keep it up, Lao Chen!

Yang Mi left the cafe and walked to the roadside outside.

Before long, a black business van pulled up beside Yang Mi.

The door opened, and a woman stepped out from the back; it was Yang Mi's Agent, Zeng Jia.

"Mi Mi, where did you just go?" Zeng Jia asked.

"To meet a friend," Yang Mi said casually.

"A friend?" Zeng Jia raised an eyebrow. "A boyfriend, perhaps? Mi Mi?"

As she spoke, she broke into a smile.

She knew a little bit about Yang Mi having a boyfriend.

She remembered Yang Mi's boyfriend seemed to be named Chen Le. He had some fame within the industry, after all, being the top student in the Directing Department at the Beijing Film Academy; people in the circle paid him a fair amount of attention.

When the Rong Xinda signed Yang Mi previously, she had even recommended Chen Le to them.

Zeng Jia recalled that the two didn't seem to be boyfriend and girlfriend back then, but they weren't far from it.

At that time, Chen Le had rejected the invitation. His reason was that he had a wild nature and didn't like being restricted; he preferred freedom, whereas big companies imposed many limitations that would prevent him from filming the shows he liked.

Although the Rong Xinda found it a pity at the time, they didn't pay it too much mind.

After all, he was just a fresh college graduate. Even if he was the top student of his year in the Directing Department at the Beijing Film Academy, so what?

"Sister Zeng, let's go quickly. Didn't you say there was an urgent matter?" Yang Mi's face flushed slightly as she hurriedly urged Zeng Jia.

"Oh my, oh my, our Mi Mi can actually blush," Zeng Jia teased.

Fortunately, she didn't continue poking fun at Yang Mi after that, otherwise Yang Mi would have looked for a crack in the ground to crawl into.

"Is it really a boyfriend? What did you talk about? Tell sister about it?" Zeng Jia asked curiously.

"Nothing much, just catching up since we haven't met in so long," Yang Mi replied dismissively. She didn't mention anything about investing in Chen Le's new project.

"Alright, alright. Since you won't say, Mi Mi, I won't pry into the privacy of you two lovebirds." Seeing Yang Mi's reluctance, Zeng Jia simply assumed she was being shy.

She then took Yang Mi into the car and drove away... Meanwhile, Chen Le returned to his home.

This was a rented apartment, a simple two-bedroom unit with a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.

The apartment had good ventilation and faced south, with fairly complete surrounding facilities. Of course, it couldn't compare to his previous life, as that was an era over a decade into the future.

However, he didn't have high demands for living; as long as it wasn't too remote, being livable was enough.

He walked into the entryway and took off his shoes.

Chen Le went to the sofa in the living room and lay straight down on it.

Now that he had money, Chen Le could begin conceptualizing how to film this project and finalizing the cast.

The play Chen Le wanted to film was titled "nightclub," which he had carefully selected from the memories of his past life.

The reason for choosing this play was, firstly, because the production cost was low and it didn't require many actors—all the actors combined could be counted on ten fingers.

Secondly, the return on investment for this play was very high.

In his past life, it was considered a famous example of a small investment yielding big gains; with an investment of two million, it earned eleven million at the box office!

A return rate of over five times—aside from winning the lottery, Chen Le really couldn't think of anything with a higher return.

Of course, another reason was that he was quite familiar with this film; he had studied it when he was a director in his past life.

Opening the script, Chen Le began considering candidates for the roles.

Although there weren't many actors in this play, it was impossible for him to invite the entire original cast.

Because he had no connections and no network.

Setting aside whether he could even invite certain actors, even if he could, the cost would likely be substantial.

Rather than doing that, it was better to just step up himself.

First was the male store clerk in "nightclub"; Chen Le planned to play this role himself.

Next was the female store clerk. Chen Le felt he could let Yang Mi play it, which would save another chunk of money.

As for the other roles, Chen Le looked at the two-million-yuan budget and realized he could probably only afford to hire Wang Xun.

For the remaining roles, he could only invite some veteran character actors from the industry.

After all, his budget was limited. Being able to come up with this much was already the limit; he had to save where he could and make do for now.

Time quickly reached six in the evening.

Chen Le suddenly received a bank transfer notification.

"Your bank account has received a transfer of 1,000,000 yuan from Yang Mi. Remaining balance: 2,082,665.6 yuan."

Seeing the money arrive, Chen Le immediately sat up.

Following that, a QQ message suddenly popped up on his phone.

Yang Mi: "Old Chen, did you receive the money?"

Seeing this, Chen Le sent an 'OK' emoji to Yang Mi.

Yang Mi quickly replied with a few more messages.

"Old Chen, keep it up!"

"If you need anything later, you can come to me."

Seeing this, Chen Le felt a warmth in his heart. At the same time, he felt like he was being kept by her.

I never expected that one day I'd be able to live off a woman.

But this 'soft rice' really tastes great!

"Is 'that' kind of need okay too?" Chen Le suddenly replied mischievously.

As a result, a long time passed and Yang Mi did not reply to him.

Seeing this, Chen Le shook his head with a smile. "I've actually made that girl shy."

After receiving the money, the next step was to prepare to assemble a directing team.

At the thought of finding people, Chen Le remembered his dear classmates.

Especially his few roommates and the buddies he was close with.

Thinking of this, Chen Le immediately called to contact them.

When Chen Le's roommates and close buddies heard he was inviting them, they immediately stated that as long as food and lodging were provided, it was fine. As for wages, he could give whatever he saw fit, or even nothing at all.

"Haha, that's not necessary. Wages will still be paid, and it definitely won't be less than what you were getting before," Chen Le said with a smile.

Afterward, he hung up the phone and continued to contact other classmates in the class group chat.

Soon, his directing team began to take shape.

When the classmates heard that Chen Le was assembling a team to film a movie, most of them were willing to come over.

After all, this was a rare opportunity for practical experience, not to mention they would get paid.

Chen Le had his reasons for inviting classmates to form the directing team.

Although this team might be somewhat unreliable, luckily, "nightclub" was itself a small-budget film. It didn't have such high requirements for the crew, nor did it need location scouting or anything like that; the entire movie was filmed inside a small supermarket.

For filming this movie, this temporarily assembled directing team was sufficient.

After all, Chen Le still had to save on costs. He couldn't afford the expense of hiring a highly professional crew.

After assembling the directing team, Chen Le began to contact the actors needed for the shoot one by one, as well as look for a suitable filming location.