49: Chinese Paladin

"Hahaha." Liu Yifei sat in the passenger seat, laughing non-stop.

"What are you laughing at? I thought you and Sister Yan were on good terms? How come you're here mocking her now that you see her getting frustrated?" Li Xiuwu said while driving, glancing over at her.

"Who says we're on good terms? Hmph!" Liu Yifei huffed.

She used to think Jiang Yiyan was quite nice, being the only one in class willing to be friends with her.

But ever since her feelings for Li Xiuwu had changed, she realized that Jiang Yiyan was always trying to get close to Li Xiuwu, and that becoming friends with her was just a way to get closer to him.

Looking past the filter, she realized that everything Jiang Yiyan did was calculated, which made her very unhappy.

"You should talk to her less from now on," Liu Yifei suddenly said to Li Xiuwu.

"You're even controlling that? You're overstepping your bounds."

"I'm going to control it. You are not allowed to talk to her."

The two of them bickered all the way back to the Courtyard House.

"Auntie, Liu Yifei is being unreasonable."

"I am not! You're the one being unreasonable."

Liu Xiaoli, who was watching TV, suddenly felt a headache coming on. The more familiar Li Xiuwu and Liu Yifei became, the more they bickered and fought like children.

Even the usually steady Li Xiuwu would bicker with Liu Yifei like a child once he got home.

"Xiuwu, don't take today's events to heart. Auntie will keep an eye out for scripts for you," Liu Xiaoli comforted Li Xiuwu again during dinner.

Liu Xiaoli was afraid he would be angry because the audition role had been pre-assigned.

"It's fine, Auntie. I'm not angry or upset." Li Xiuwu looked up; he really wasn't angry or sad. It was just a role; it wasn't enough to make him angry.

"From an actor's perspective, this role isn't actually that good."

"Hmm?" Liu Xiaoli and Liu Yifei looked at him in confusion.

"If you look at it from the perspective of an actor's career development, the scenes for Emperor Wu of Han are much more dramatic and engaging in the middle and later stages. Playing the young Emperor Wu of Han won't be as impressive as the later stages."

"Since playing this role won't be impressive, why did you try to get it?" Liu Yifei asked him, confused.

"I mainly just wanted to play Emperor Wu of Han," he said with a smile.

"The First Emperor of Qin, Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the Founding Emperor of Ming—to be able to fully portray such legendary emperors would be quite an achievement." Li Xiuwu's face held a look of yearning.

If I can't be a legendary emperor, playing one for the thrill of it is fine, right?

Liu Xiaoli and Liu Yifei exchanged glances; they couldn't understand it. But they did understand that Li Xiuwu really wasn't angry or sad about the role being pre-assigned.

"Good roles are watched by too many people," Liu Xiaoli sighed again.

Red Star House had been helping Liu Yifei pick roles, but they hadn't been able to find any good film or television projects.

In the entertainment industry, most of the time, as soon as a famous director starts a project, people are already recommending actors, and the roles are all pre-assigned by insiders. Red Star House had the funds, but their connections in the industry were too poor, so they rarely got opportunities.

"Then we'll invest and produce our own films and dramas." Li Xiuwu didn't care about these resources in the entertainment industry.

He had truly entered the entertainment industry just to play around; he was already financially free and had his retirement insurance sorted.

As long as he didn't touch his internet investments, he was guaranteed billions in assets in the future.

"It's not that easy," Liu Xiaoli shook her head. Each industry is like a mountain; it was hard enough for Liu Yifei to develop in the entertainment industry, let alone trying to do film and television production.

"Golden Culture is investing in a TV drama recently. Auntie, would you like Yifei to give it a try?"

"You... Golden Culture." Liu Xiaoli looked at Li Xiuwu. She really wanted to know what the relationship between Golden Culture and Li Xiuwu actually was.

Letting Li Xiuwu live in a Courtyard House worth tens of millions definitely wasn't as simple as him just being a signed artist.

"What kind of TV drama?" Liu Yifei was interested.

"An immortal heroes genre TV drama adapted from a game. I have the script on my computer." The script for the Immortal Sword drama had been adapted, and Xu Muyang had sent it to Li Xiuwu.

"Let me see." Liu Yifei ran to get Li Xiuwu's laptop to find and read the script.

Legend of Sword and Fairy.

As she read the script, she gradually became immersed in it.

The game's story was already excellent, and the script adaptation had strengthened the emotional aspects.

Liu Xiaoli read some of it and thought it was good, but she couldn't decide on her own, so she prepared to take it back for Liu Yonghui to look at.

"You have the script, but what are your plans for the director and the filming team?" Liu Xiaoli asked tentatively.

Film and television production wasn't just about having a script and money; the rules inside were too many and too complex.

"As for the director, I plan to invite Zhou Xiaowen. Although Teacher Zhou can be a bit stubborn, he is serious and responsible in his work and has very high standards for his projects. As for the filming team, I'll just let Teacher Zhou recruit them."

With Beijing Film Academy right there, how could they be short of people? If he went to the gate of Beijing Film Academy right now and shouted that he needed cinematographers and art directors, the teachers there would carry him inside and fuss over him.

In this era, coal bosses hadn't started flexing their muscles yet, and there weren't that many investments in film and television projects. Many cinematographers, art directors, and directors from Beijing Film Academy couldn't find places to intern after graduating.

"Hmm." Liu Xiaoli nodded, but in her heart, she had already come to a realization: Golden Culture listened to Li Xiuwu.

She was startled by this thought herself, but the reality was that Li Xiuwu could easily decide on the director and investment funds for the script.

She reined in her thoughts; she had already investigated Li Xiuwu's family background.

"Can I take the script to show Manager Liu?" She asked Li Xiuwu. This wasn't just about helping Liu Yifei choose a script.

Liu Xiaoli treated Li Xiuwu like her own child, so she wanted to find someone to help vet the script for him. If the script was too poor, she would advise Li Xiuwu to give it up.

"Sure, just don't spread it around." Li Xiuwu didn't mind too much.

...

Early the next morning, Li Xiuwu got up early to practice his swordsmanship and saw Xiao Hui resting on the crabapple tree.

Xiao Hui was back. He went to the study and found the miniature camera on the table. He took out the SD card, connected it to his laptop with a card reader, and saw some photos taken through a window. The angles were very strange, but there was no helping it; even though he had taught it, Xiao Hui couldn't act like a human. Just being able to capture people was already pretty good.

He finished looking through all the photos. There weren't any of the two people together, but there were many of others on the phone, looking sycophantic, and he even saw photos of him bowing while holding a phone. But these were useless.

Xiao Hui was useful, but to deal with Wang Guohui, he would have to think of other ways.

He closed the laptop and went to the backyard, where he saw Liu Yifei looking weary, her eyes still red.

"You didn't sleep all night?"

"Yeah, I stayed up all night to finish reading the script." Liu Yifei nodded and went to wash up, looking a bit listless.

During breakfast, Liu Yifei bit her chopsticks and suddenly said, "Ling'er is too miserable. Can the ending of the script be changed?"

"I don't have the final say; it's decided by the company and the screenwriters." Li Xiuwu saw the emotional look in Liu Yifei's eyes and didn't intend to argue with her about this.

"Eat your breakfast first. You have class later. You didn't sleep all night; I don't know how you're going to face your teachers." Liu Xiaoli came out of the kitchen, a bit angry that Liu Yifei had stayed up all night.

Liu Yifei stuck out her tongue and stopped talking.

After eating, Li Xiuwu and Liu Yifei went to school, and Liu Xiaoli took the printed script to meet with Liu Yonghui, the manager of Red Star House.

"Manager Liu, take a look at this script and tell me what you think."

Liu Yonghui took the script. He had been helping Liu Yifei choose scripts, but there hadn't been any good ones, and since Liu Yifei was in school, they weren't in a huge rush.

An immortal heroes genre game adaptation—he frowned slightly.

In this era, there were martial arts and mythological films and dramas, but the immortal heroes genre only existed in novels and games.

He was knowledgeable and had seen "The Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu," so he understood the sword hero genre, but he had never seen a TV drama of this type.

Liu Yonghui became interested and flipped open the script.

The plot started with Li Xiaoyao waking up at the inn and unfolded quickly. Because his aunt was poisoned, Li Xiaoyao went to Fairy Island, met Ling'er, and got married.

As he read the script with its ups and downs, his expression gradually became serious.

Halfway through, he looked up and looked at Liu Xiaoli with a serious expression: "This script is excellent. Which company is investing in it? The female lead hasn't been cast yet, right?"

"It's invested by Golden Culture. The script was just finalized, and the production team hasn't been assembled yet."

"Golden Culture." Liu Yonghui felt it sounded familiar. He thought for a moment: "Is that the company that had a conflict with a company a while back?"

As an industry insider, Liu Yonghui had also noticed the news about Golden Culture throwing money around and snatching several projects from a company.

"That happened?" Liu Xiaoli was surprised; she hadn't paid attention to what was happening behind the scenes of film and television companies.

Liu Yonghui explained what happened between Golden Culture and the other company, letting Liu Xiaoli understand the situation.

"The competition between them has nothing to do with us. We need to fight for this female lead role, Zhao Ling'er. The character design for this role is excellent." Liu Yonghui made this decision after reading only half the script.

"How did you get the script? Give me a phone number; I'll contact them to negotiate," Liu Yonghui looked at Liu Xiaoli.

"I don't think that's necessary." Liu Xiaoli thought about Li Xiuwu's position within Golden Culture.