6.3

Zheng Qi exited the elevator and hurriedly walked over to Qiao Chen. She had never met Qiao Chen before. The only communication they had was the two phone calls.

She was able to find him because Cai Hao, Sun Weiwei, and Sun Weiwei's agent were standing in the lobby. These were the people she knew, so it should have been the unfamiliar man in that group. However, she saw Qiao Chen's face and thought that he was very familiar. It took her a few moments, but she finally remembered who Qiao Chen was.

Zheng Qi looked around once more before he looked at Qiao Chen. She hesitantly asked, "Are you.. are you the person I have the appointment with?"

"Yes." Qiao Chen replied.

"Oh…. Were you really the one who wrote the script?" Zheng Qi asked. She was very surprised that Shu Qichen was capable of writing such an incredible script. Why didn't he write before if he had such ability? Why would someone wait until now to submit their writings?

Sun Weiwei sneered, "You'd better vet him thoroughly. If he plagiarized the script or even had a ghost writer, then he'd push Xingyu's reputation down the drain. The fault would lie in you- the one who pick up his script."

"Is this how you're working for our company, Zheng Qi? You didn't even check to see who had written the script, but still invited him over here to discuss it? Can you afford the consequences of damaging the company's reputation?" Cai Hao questioned Zheng Qi.

"I…." Zheng Qi regretted her shock. She had talked to Qiao Chen for a bit before she invited him to the company. She knew through her countless years' of experience in picking scripts that Qiao Chen was probably the person who wrote the script. Unfortunately, she didn't control herself and showed too much surprise at Shu Qichen being the writer.

Furthermore, the company had a rule that said they were able to sent the script directly to President Du if it was a particularly good one. Therefore, she immediately sent Qiao Chen's script to President Du the moment Qiao Chen's script caught her eye. Afterwards, it was President Du who ordered her to have Qiao Chen come to the company and discuss the script.

Qiao Chen waited while Zheng Qi was silent. Then, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a certain someone walking through the entrance. Qiao Chen said annoyed, "You're questioning whether or not I've written the script. Well, it should be quite simple for Xingyu Entertainment to find this out. However, I am the only one in possession of the other half of this script and this has become much too troublesome. Let's forget about this script. We can cooperate at another time."

"Wait a minute." Zheng Qi said. She tried to stop Qiao Chen from leaving and saw that Du Jingnan had already arrived. Zheng Qi immediately spoke to him, "President Du! This is Mr. Shu. He's the one with the appointment to discuss the screenplay with you."

Du Jingnan looked over and saw Qiao Chen. He raised his eyebrow in surprise and said, "Let's talk then."

"I'm sorry President Du. I won't be cooperating with your company for this script anymore. Let's meet in the future when we do decide to cooperate." Qiao Chen replied. He took a step towards the door, but Du Jingnan raised his arm up and stopped him. Qiao Chen looked at the man's hand and thought, 'Did he think I couldn't just push my way through?' Qiao Chen pushed Du Jingnan's arm out of the away, but it didn't budge.

"What's going on?" Du Jingnan looked at Zheng Qi and asked.

"Well…" Zheng Qi looked at Cai Hao and continued, "Team Leader Cai said that he wouldn't give Mr. Shu's script the green light. Then he accused Mr. Shu of having a ghost writer and asked him to return home."

Sun Weiwei and Cai Hao were shocked when they heard that Du Jingnan wanted to personally meet with Shu Qichen to discuss the script. Cai Hao was even more surprised when he heard Zheng Qi rat him out. He didn't think of any reasons to justify his behavior. Zheng Qi was calmly and truthfully retelling what had happened, so he couldn't even defend himself from her snitching. If she had exaggerated some parts, then he'd be able to discredit her, but, unfortunately for him, she didn't.

Zheng Qi was reporting everything to Du Jingnan without any embellishments. In fact, she hoped that Qiao Chen would get offended and turn this whole situation into a debacle. The more dirt he'd kick up, the better. She knew that Du Jingnan placed a great important on this script, so this was the best chance for her to push Cai Hao off of the team lead position.

Du Jingnan looked at Qiao Chen's expression while he listened to Zheng Qi. Qiao Chen looked very upset, like he had been bullied. However, Du Jingnan couldn't help but think about Qiao Chen's face when he had bullied Qiao Chen that night. He brought himself back to the situation at hand.

Du Jingnan turned to his assistant and said, "Deal with these people." Then he took Qiao Chen's hand and walked with him to the elevator.

Sun Weiwei and Cai Hao's faces immediately turned pale once they processed Du Jingnan's words. They both knew deep in their hearts how Du Jingnan 'dealt' people who had offended him.

"Follow me for the resignation process." Du Jingnan's assistant said to Cai Hao. Then he glanced at the pale-faced Sun Weiwei, memorized her face, and walked away.

Cai Hai knew that he had definitely been blacklisted. As long as Xinyu Ent. said something, then no one else in this industry would even look at him let alone work with him anymore.

Sun Weiwei regretted her actions deep within her very soul. Her stomach churned. She would never have even breathed in Shu Qichen's direction if she had known that he had already hooked up with Du Jingnan. To make matters worse, the current Shu Qichen wasn't as soft and easy for her to manipulate or plead with like before. I should have never looked for trouble for him. How could I have known? Even though Sun Weiwei wasn't a Xingyu artist, it would be extremely easy for Xingyu to blacklist a lower tier artist like her. It would be even easier if Du Jingnan himself ordered it… and he just did.

Qiao Chen really did want to leave. He wasn't worried that Du Jingnan wouldn't go looking for him afterwards. However, Du Jingnan was insanely strong. Qiao Chen couldn't pull his hand back, so he let Du Jingnan drag him up to the office.

Du Jingnan walked to the couch and sat down to begin negotiations.

"Name the price you want for the script." Du Jingnan said straightaway. He wanted to read the script in its entirety.

Qiao Chen sat down opposite him, then he began discussing seriously, "I don't care about the price that much. I believe that a company like Xingyu Entertainment would be fair and offer a price that is suitable for both parties. What I really want is to be able to personally play a role in the screenplay."

"I am a perfectionist. It is impossible for an actor who cannot meet my requirements to appear in anything I've made." Du Jingnan didn't mind giving him more money. However, he would never allow a single character to be played poorly and destroy the entire movie. Even if Qiao Chen had caught his interest, he would never agree to it if he couldn't rise to the occasion.

"I have to appear in it. If President Du disagrees, then I will have to find another company that will. Although, I must admit that President Du would definitely be able to produce the film like no other director is capable of, I have absolute confidence with my script. Even if it cannot be produced to the level that you are capable of, I believe that it will still be able to sell well." Qiao Chen rebutted in a firm tone. He didn't only want to be the best writer. He also needed to fulfill his past life's dreams and become the best actor as well. There was not point of him even writing the script if he wasn't able to play a role in it. There were many other ways he could use to deal with Xu Mingjie and the others.

"So you want to play Jun Tianrui?" Du Jingnan asked. This was one of the most important roles in the drama. Shu Qichen had a somewhat similar temperament to this character. However, he felt that Shu Qichen didn't have the proper acting skills to portray this character.

"No." Qiao Chen shook his head and rejected. "I want to play Qiu Chen"

Du Jingnan looked at Qiao Chen, slightly taken back. Then he said, "Qiu Chen doesn't have that much screen time so far. Have you written him a more extensive role in the latter half of the script?"

"No, Qiu Chen shows up more in the first half than the second half of the script." Qiao Chen answered truthfully.

"Show me the complete script." Du Jingnan replied and then handed over his laptop.

Qiao Chen logged into his email and opened script saved in the drafts. Then he pushed the laptop back to Du Jingnan, so he could read the second half of the script.

Du Jingnan took some time to completely read over the second half of the script. The rest of it made him determined to obtain the production rights. "Qiu Chen doesn't have that many parts. However, this role tests the actor's skills. Are you sure you can perform it well?"

"President Du, why don't you give me the chance to try it first. That way, if I can't meet your requirements, then you can switch in an understudy. How does that sound?"

Du Jingnan raised his brow and replied, "It's good to be confident. However, blind confidence is a terrible thing to have. When the moment comes and you aren't able to follow through with this agreement, then you will find that I am not an easy person to talk to."

"If you still feel uneasy, then we can write this clause into the contract. If my acting is subpar, then I promise that I will step down immediately. Is that better, President Du?"

Du Jingnan looked at Qiao Chen has he somewhat haughtily raised his chin. He resisted the urge to walk up to Qiao Chen and kiss him. He put away the inappropriate thoughts for a different time and replied, "Alright. I'll have them draw up the contract today. We'll sign it tomorrow, so I can begin preparations."

Qiao Chen stood up, extended his hand out, and said, "I hope we'll be able to cooperate well."

Du Jingnan stood up and shook Qiao Chen's hand. Qiao Chen pulled his hand back after a bit, but failed. He tried to retrieve his hand a few more times, but couldn't. He stared at Du Jingnan with a frown. Du Jingnan looked back, but just chuckled. Finally let go of Qiao Chen's hand.

......…

Qiao Chen and Xingyu Entertainment signed both the writer's contract and the actor's contract the next day. Du Jingnan began the investment and preparation stages on his end.

Qiao Chen and Du Jingnan met at the Xinyu building several times while they waited for shooting to begin. They talked about the script's content and direction a few times. They also decided to read and act out some parts of the script the other times.

Finally everything was ready. Qiao Chen entered the cast as both the writer of the script and one of its actors. He followed the crew to the Xuan Zhen studio lot for shooting.

The news that Du Jingnan was going to produce and direct a new movie leaked out. All the major news and media immediately jumped to report on it. Fans and past audiences also talked about the new film fervently, so this created even more hype around it.

Eventually, the cast list was released. Everyone who saw Shu Qichen's name thought that there was a newcomer who just happened to have the same name as the Shu Qichen. However, Du Jingnan's fans and other stars' fans were in an uproar when the media confirmed that the Shu Qichen on the list was the one who had a bad acting reputation. The people came in droves. They all left messages on all of Xingyu's social media and official website that demanded Xingyu to kick Shu Qichen off the cast list. There were even casual fans who left messages in support of dropping Shu Qichen because they believed that his poor acting would destroy the entire movie. They all wished and prayed that Shu Qichen would be run out of the entertainment industry for good.

Xingyu's official statement was that they hoped that all the fans would trust and believe in Du Jingnan and how he strove for high quality films. They said that if Shu Qichen failed to meet the requirements, then they would immediately bring in the understudy or cut out his part.

The media wanted to know why Du Jingnan would ask Shu Qichen to play any role in the films he produced. However, Du Jingnan didn't accept any interviews nor did he reply to their questions. He only said one thing, "I'm a perfectionist. I won't let anyone destroy my work."

Du Jingnan had never allowed any photos or interviews while they were still filming. He never allowed any of the staff to leak anything about the plot or even their shooting process to anyone either. This meant that the fans and the media wouldn't know how the movie turned out until the release date. People were still upset, so they continued to scold Shu Qichen online all the way up to the movie's release date.

Qiao Chen was surprised to learn that Du Jingnan was going to personally play the leading role, Li Zhongxi. Du Jingnan had acted in a few of the movies he directed before. However, he hadn't done so in recent years. Qiao Chen heard that Du Jingnan wasn't able to find any actor suitable for his vision, so he resorted to playing the roles himself.