"I just notified someone to come to your rescue."
Ye Weimin saw Qi Hao looking quite disheveled as he was escorted over by a few bodyguards, and barely held back his laughter.
He was the producer and co-director of "Oath of Allegiance."
"This is too much. None of you waited for me, everyone just ran ahead," Qi Hao pretended to be very angry.
"There were too many people," Li Lianjie turned his head.
"It shows you're popular. The group singing was very moving, and the sun always shines after the storm..." Liu Dehua laughed unabashedly.
Oath of Allegiance is a big production with complex relationships.
Everyone got along rather tensely in everyday interactions, and Qi Hao often appeared as a comedian in the crew.
On the one hand, it's because he's young, almost a generation apart from the other main actors and the director, with no conflicts of interest.
On the other hand, the crew indeed needed a comedian.
Clearly, today Qi Hao provided everyone with perfect entertainment.
"By the way, did you really leave Ziwen? Didn't you say last time that your contract still had a few months left?" Ye Weimin curiously asked.
"Boss Ma is generous; he knew I had no intention of renewing and let me go early."
Qi Hao quickly explained, not wanting the misunderstanding to deepen, lest Ziwen hires a hitman to deal with him as a "troublemaker."
He acted like a dung-producing machine, blaming everything on them.
Not to mention Ziwen, even Mrs. Hua couldn't bear it.
Soon, no agency would want to invite him to join, fearing to follow in Ziwen's footsteps.
"Why did they still arrange a spicy snack endorsement and have you sing in a bar?"
Ye Weimin asked curiously, and the others listened curiously too.
With the movie about to be released, the success or failure of this 270 million-investment film concerned many people's fortunes; a bit of gossip could ease the nerves.
"The spicy snack was an accident. Actually, I think Little Flying Stick spicy snack is quite delicious. I'll have the factory send some next time for everyone to share. As for the bar, that was just supporting an old buddy I've known for seven or eight years."
"So that's it. Don't you want to explain to your fans?"
"I did explain, but they don't listen."
Qi Hao suspected there was a generation gap between him and his fans, completely like talking to chickens and ducks.
Anyway, the fans were determined that he was being bullied.
Desperately wanting to hug him.
"Now that you've left Ziwen, what are your plans for the future?" Ye Weimin put an arm around Qi Hao's shoulder, showing concern.
"I don't know, just go with the flow," Qi Hao had no idea what the other party had in mind.
He had a preliminary cooperation intention with Gao Yang, but nothing was certain yet and communication was still needed.
Moreover, even if cooperating with Gao Yang, they wouldn't get too close.
Gao Yang's background required him to keep a certain distance from him, and the studio wouldn't let Gao Yang get involved.
Gao Yang clearly understood the need for distance as well.
So, when he learned yesterday that Qi Hao was planning to start his own company, he simply wished Qi Hao's studio success without mentioning anything about investing.
"Peter (Chen Kexin) and I are planning a movie next year..." Ye Weimin said in a low voice.
"It wouldn't be 'October Wei City,' would it?" Qi Hao looked at him warily.
"How did you know?" Ye Weimin said sheepishly, not expecting Qi Hao to be so perceptive.
The concept of "October Wei City" was born in 1999 when Qi Hao was still playing minor roles and extras.
Back then, there was a madman in the Xiangjiang entertainment circle who wanted to build the most prosperous area of 1906 Xiangjiang—Xiangjiang Central—at a 1:1 scale, to shoot a movie.
For this, he approached major entertainment companies with a budget of 68 million, with at least 17 million for constructing Central Ring City.
At the time, the highest-grossing movie "King of Comedy" made only 29.8 million at the box office, and a 68 million production needed at least 200 million to recoup costs.
Pure nonsense.
Everyone avoided this madman like the plague until Xiangjiang Bank Vice President Zeng Xianji stood up to support him.
As a result, Central Ring City wasn't even half-built when SARS hit, and everything was a wash.
Zeng Xianji went bankrupt and committed suicide.
The madman's mother became a vegetative patient, his sister was diagnosed with cancer, and he himself had a car accident.
The madman recovered from depression and later made a few mediocre films, never mentioning "October Wei City" again.
However, rumor has it that recently he has teamed up with Chen Kexin, intent on revival.
"There are rumors that Director Chen is forming a team for 'October Wei City.' Is anyone investing in this film?"
"Bern is funding it," Ye Weimin said.
"I see..."
Looking at Yu Dong who was talking with Chen Kexin and Han Sanping over there, Qi Hao understood.
"Consider it, among the confirmed actors are Liang Jiahui, Wang Xueqi, Zhen Zidan, oh right, and Fan Xuexue." Ye Weimin winked at Qi Hao.
Qi Hao wanted to kill him; hearing people say "oh oh oh" made his head spin.
"If you want to try something new, we might invite Li Yuchun and Zhou Yun. Forget Zhou Yun, you can't beat Jiang Wen..." Ye Weimin, as the film's producer, had a considerable say.
"Bro, joking is fine, but don't talk nonsense. I'm a perfectly innocent person."
Qi Hao got a bit anxious.
He thought rumors would stop with wise people, but why were there fewer and fewer wise people?
"Just teasing, but seriously consider it. Although there are many big names, your screen time won't be lacking. You've always wanted to break through yourself, right?"
Ye Weimin comforted Qi Hao.
Actually, Qi Hao wouldn't really get upset over this kind of joke.
Ordinary people think that at entertainment industry banquets, the topics are probably art or national affairs, but in reality, it's all a damn mess of debauchery.
It's the same tiny matters going back and forth.
The jokes here are much harsher than what Ye Weimin said, and Qi Hao has been teased like this many times.
If he were to get upset over everything, how could he survive in this industry?
"Alright, since you value me so much, as long as I have the time, I definitely won't refuse," Qi Hao promised, patting his chest.
This is just a polite commitment; whether he has the time or not is up to him to say.
As long as no formal performance contract is signed, neither party takes such promises seriously.
But at least it's an intention, and Ye Weimin was already very satisfied.
Director Chen Kexin of "Oath of Allegiance" saw them chatting so happily and understood that Qi Hao had almost agreed.
The best actor from "October Wei City" adds another one.
For the convenience of finding someone to spend the night with, Qi Hao didn't forget to cozy up to the veteran actors.
This movie features many veteran actors.
For instance, Wang Kuirong and Wei Zongwan, who played the Three Dukes, are both national first-class actors, and then there's Gu Baoming, a top supporting actor from Taiwan.
Qi Hao's main focus was to win over these three.
If, in the evening, any of these three are options, choosing anyone would be worth it.
However, someone just had to come over and stir things up.
The person who came was Xiang You's brother, Xiang Zuo, who directly stood between Qi Hao and the veteran actors.
"Haozi, won the best actor award, eh!"
"Thank you, it was just luck!" If it weren't for the fact that I can't afford to offend your dad, I would definitely beat you until even your mother wouldn't recognize you.
Why is a minor supporting role like you even attending a premiere?
If you show up among my evening options, and I accidentally pick you... then let's not train anymore; I'll beat you up all night and not let you fight back.
"My dad told me to learn more from you in the future, so let's hang out more often." Xiang Zuo put his arm around Qi Hao, trying to make friends.
He's destined not to succeed through his own efforts, and he doesn't dare not heed his dad's words.
"Oh, I don't have anything worth learning. Look, I debuted in 1997, and it's taken me ten years to win a little best actor award, purely by chance. If I had your talent, I would have won it years ago."
Qi Hao didn't want to get too close to the Xiang family.
This guy is not easy to get along with.
If Qi Hao was still a newcomer, he might swallow his pride, but now he already has a decent standing.
And he has the backing of the Coal Boss.
"Oh, don't be so modest; you're the big shot here in the capital. Do you know any good places to take me out for fun?"
This was likely Xiang Zuo's real intention.
Even if this guy gets married, it would probably be hard for him to settle down, not to mention being a single nobleman now, so he must play around as much as he can.
The three veteran actors, having heard this, all wanted to leave, not wanting to bother with Qi Hao and his company.
Ah, the youth these days.
"Next time, next time, I have a date tonight." Qi Hao gritted his teeth in anger as he watched the veteran actors leave.
Xiang Zuo, just you wait.
Later, I'll have Brother Yang arrange a few grannies to sort you out.
"Qi Hao, come take a photo~" Chen Kexin shouted, successfully rescuing Qi Hao.
After a while, some special guests started coming over, like Zhang Guoli and others.
Qi Hao got even busier.
He had acted in "Records of Kangxi's Incognito Inspection" and had a pretty good relationship with Zhang Guoli's wife, Deng Jie. If Qi Hao was thick-skinned at that time, he might have acknowledged her as his godmother.
But Qi Hao didn't do that.
Because he noticed that Zhang Guoli was very mindful of Deng Jie chatting with him, seemingly worried she might seek a pretty boy.
In such a situation, Qi Hao avoided it like the plague.
Now it didn't matter; when they met in public, Zhang Guoli warmly pulled Qi Hao over for a photo with the media.
Additionally, there were Wu Junru, Fan Wei, Ma Mengniu, Guo Xiaodong, Huang Haibing, Wang Likun, and dozens of other stars all appearing on the red carpet.
It took more than an hour to walk through.
The premiere had a set schedule. As one of the three brothers, Qi Hao had to put five-colored soil into the urn, symbolizing prosperity, and beat the drum with Li Lianjie and Liu Dehua, among other things.
During the interview phase, the three spoke at length about brotherhood.
Unfortunately, Liu Dehua had his wife taken and his life threatened, expressing on the scene, "I used to value brotherhood, but I was deceived, and now I won't trust in brotherhood like before."
Li Lianjie, fortunately, held back and didn't argue that he and his younger brother's wife were truly in love.
Qi Hao mainly talked about the experience of filming action scenes with Li Lianjie.
Whether or not Li Lianjie is the most capable in martial arts in Chinese cinema is unknown.
But he definitely looks the best when fighting, and his control over power and other nuances can only be understood when you've acted with him.
If Qi Hao could run into Li Lianjie among the evening options today, actually practicing the action scenes would be nice.
Fighting with Li Lianjie all night would free him from worries about future action scenes.