49: Bai Ke: Could I have been scammed?

On this side.

After Chen Le arranged the script for Gang Zi, he had him set up a directing team and find actors.

Ostensibly, this was to train and exercise him.

In reality... Chen Le was simply being lazy.

Besides, the directing team didn't need to be very professional; the requirements for the show "unexpectedly" weren't high to begin with.

So Gang Zi just found a bunch of old classmates and put the team together in a few days.

As for the actors, Chen Le had Zhang Li look for Bai Ke for the male lead.

He didn't know if a person named Bai Ke existed in this world.

If they could find him, that would be best; if not, he would have to choose someone else.

However, to Chen Le's surprise...

Within a few days, Zhang Li actually found Bai Ke.

At this time, Bai Ke was at a low point in his career, working as a voice acting apprentice for a Film Crew in Yanjing.

When Zhang Li found him, he was still staying up late every day to learn voice acting.

When Zhang Li told him that Chenxing Film and Television wanted to sign him and that he had a chance to star in Director Chen Le's new project, Bai Ke was so excited he almost jumped.

He had specifically looked into Director Chen Le; the two movies he filmed last year, "nightclub" and "lost on journey," were classic examples of achieving great success with small budgets.

As an industry insider, he naturally knew this.

However, when Bai Ke arrived at the Film Crew, he was completely stunned.

The filming set was unbelievably crude—a few dilapidated factory buildings, some dim yellow lights, and a pile of miscellaneous props; that was their entire inventory.

Bai Ke looked around, his eyes filled with confusion.

Because this was far from the big production he had imagined.

Looking at this crude filming set, Bai Ke couldn't help but wonder if he had been scammed.

"This... this is Director Chen Le's new filming set?" Bai Ke looked at the scene before him, his heart full of doubt and unease.

Could it be that the genre required it?

Bai Ke comforted himself in his heart.

Of course, even if he wanted to regret it now, it was too late; he was already here and couldn't run away.

Not far away, Gang Zi saw Bai Ke and recognized him at a glance as the male lead for the web drama Chen Le had mentioned.

Looking at the somewhat expressionless but still handsome Bai Ke, Gang Zi's expression was a bit strange.

Because the male lead in the script was a diaosi character?

This... could he pull it off?

Gang Zi was a bit skeptical, but he quickly thought of Wang Baoqiang.

Back then, he had also doubted whether Wang Baoqiang could handle the lead role in "lost on journey," but in the end, that role seemed tailor-made for Wang Baoqiang; it was a perfect fit.

Therefore, Gang Zi felt that this Bai Ke must also have something special about him, it was just that he hadn't seen it yet.

Thinking of this, Gang Zi stepped forward.

"Hello, you must be Bai Ke?" Gang Zi looked at Bai Ke and greeted him.

"Ah? Hello, may I ask who you are?"

Bai Ke looked at him with some confusion.

"I am the director of the Film Crew, Director Xu Gang."

"Film Crew director? Isn't the director of this crew Director Chen?" Bai Ke had seen photos of Chen Le, and the person in front of him clearly wasn't him.

"I am the director of this web drama, but the script was written by Director Chen, and he will also come to guide us on how to shoot," Gang Zi explained.

Hearing Gang Zi's explanation, Bai Ke immediately understood.

Since the script was written by Chen Le, it didn't matter who the director was.

"Come, I'll take you to see Director Chen." With that, Gang Zi led Bai Ke to see Chen Le.

When Chen Le saw Bai Ke, he recognized him at a glance.

In his previous life, the Wang Dachui played by Bai Ke was known to every young person.

Moreover, before Bai Ke starred in "unexpectedly," he and his roommates had produced an anime that received over two million views in its first week; his own talent was quite good.

"Bai Ke, you're here," Chen Le greeted Bai Ke with a smile.

"Director Chen, it's an honor to meet you," Bai Ke replied with a respectful nod.

"Bai Ke, the reason I chose you is that I saw your potential. You and your roommates produced a good anime in college with many memes in it, and it just so happens that my new show is related to these things."

Hearing Chen Le's words, Bai Ke was a bit surprised that Chen Le actually knew about the meme-filled anime he had made for fun.

"We were just playing around; I didn't expect the view count to be so good." Bai Ke felt that his work wasn't much, after all, it hadn't stayed popular for very long.

"I won't say more. You guys look at the script and then act according to the requirements; this web drama doesn't have high requirements for acting skills."

"Gang Zi, you take a look too and get familiar with it."

Subsequently, Chen Le had Gang Zi hand the script for the first episode to Bai Ke.

This was the first episode of "unexpectedly." Bai Ke was the male lead, while Gang Zi was to play the villain, the character Jiaoshou.

The reason he had Gang Zi take the stage was that Chen Le wanted him to experience the filming of a web drama firsthand so he could better handle the filming later.

Another reason was to save money; after all, that's how it was done for "unexpectedly" in his previous life.

After Bai Ke finished reading the lines in the script, he was completely dazed.

The lines weren't very difficult, and he could remember them, but he didn't understand what they meant.

He recognized every word, but together, they left him confused.

"Have you memorized the lines?" Chen Le looked at Bai Ke and asked.

"Uh-huh!" Bai Ke nodded subconsciously.

"Since you've memorized them, let's start filming. We'll try it out first," Chen Le said.

Bai Ke arrived at the filming set with a dazed expression, ready to start.

Gang Zi was the same. The two of them looked at each other, both completely lost.

Then, they began preparing for the shoot.

There weren't many lines in this first episode. Neither Bai Ke nor Gang Zi knew how to film it, so they could only do their best.

"My name is Wang Dachui. I am an actor currently filming a low-budget wuxia drama..."

Bai Ke was reciting the lines expressionlessly, then looked speechlessly at the plastic tube sword prop in his hand.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do with this thing; he could only act according to what was written in the script.

He examined the sword in his hand and confirmed that this thing was just poorly made plastic trash.

At this moment, Gang Zi made his appearance.

He jumped out and recited the lines in an extremely awkward tone, "Hahaha! If you want to rescue the princess, then... then..."

Then, Gang Zi paused, appearing as if he had forgotten his lines, but he actually hadn't, because after the word "then" in the script, there was nothing; he was supposed to pause.

"Then cross over my dead body!"

Seeing such awkward acting, Bai Ke felt numb inside.

He felt that maybe he shouldn't be here.

Seeing Director Xu reciting the lines so awkwardly, Bai Ke didn't know how to act anymore and could only continue reciting his lines expressionlessly.