Chapter 297: The Emperor’s Order (Ch 297)

“What’s wrong, Eiko?”

Qi Jia picked up the phone, flipped through the script with one hand and asked,

Zhou Ye’s voice came from the other end of the phone.

“Brother Qi, the director wants to ask if you can spare five days during this period to come over and finish filming Xiao Xingchen’s scenes? He called you but no one answered.”

“The filming schedule for The Untamed has changed?”

Qi Jia asked, according to the original filming plan, he only joined the crew on November 14th.

As he was talking, he took out his cell phone and looked at it, and found that there were indeed several missed calls that he had not noticed.

“Well, the weather in Duyun will be very bad in the middle of the month, and the director is worried that it will affect the outdoor shooting, so he asked me to ask if you can spare some time to come over and shoot in advance.”

After Zhou Ye finished explaining, Qi Jia vaguely heard someone on the other end of the phone telling her to get ready to go on camera, so she said,

“You go to shoot first. I’ll give you a reply later. Also, please tell the director to apologize for me. I was just reading the script and didn’t notice that he called me.”

“Okay, Brother Qi.” Zhou Ye must be very busy, so he said hurriedly and hung up the phone.

I returned the phone to my assistant and asked her to check my upcoming schedule. After confirming that she had no other schedules except for filming “I Don’t Want to Be Your Friend”,

He sent a message to director Zheng Wewen, telling him that he would join the crew in two days.

Qi Jia didn’t have many scenes in Xiangnan, so two days was enough to finish filming.

On November 9, after finishing the filming that morning, Qi Jia and his assistant flew directly to Lincheng, and then took the high-speed rail to Qinhan Film and Television City, the filming location of The Untamed.

At 8 o’clock in the evening, the two arrived at the hotel where the crew was staying. After working non-stop for a month or two, the assistant was almost exhausted.

I was half asleep in the car, and when I got off, I tripped and fell to my knees in front of the cleaning man at the door.

The old man thought that the young man was trying to blackmail him, so he quickly jumped three meters away and turned on the video on his mobile phone when he landed.

“Stand up! The Qing dynasty has fallen. Why are you still bowing your head?”

Qi Jia helped her up, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and made a joke.

“I’m fine bro”

Fearing that Qi Jia would worry, the assistant stood up and said something, patted his knees, and turned to get the suitcase.

“Let me do it. Don’t let me rescue you if you and your suitcase fall into the waterway.”

Qi Jia picked her up casually, put her on the suitcase, and dragged her into the hotel like a child.

The staff and driver who were in charge of picking me up at the airport were amazed.

“I’ve only seen assistants take care of artists before, but this is the first time I’ve seen an artist take care of an assistant.”

“Qi Jia is really good to those around him. Being able to be his assistant is really a great honor.”

Just finished checking in here.

Zhou Ye came to the door and told Qi Jia,

Director Zheng welcomed him in the box and introduced him to the other leading actors in the crew.

The two hadn’t seen each other for a while. On the way, Qi Jia casually asked Zhou Ye about his feelings on the crew.

“It’s OK. It’s definitely not as easy as filming with you, but we’re all newcomers, so we can learn from each other.”

Zhou Ye seemed to be in a particularly good mood, walking in front with his hands behind his back, his steps brisk and cheerful. When he heard Qi Jia’s question, he thought for a moment and said,

“I talked to director Zhang Jiajia before, and he said he wanted you to play Cheng Shuang. What do you think?”

Qi Jia only talked to Zhang Jiajia about the film and television adaptation of the store, and did not tell Zhou Ye. Seeing her so open-minded now, she was simply the chosen Cheng Shuang, and could not help but ask,

Zhou Ye paused, turned around in surprise, and looked at Qi Jia.

“Really? I do! When does it start?”

“Um, why do you like Cheng Shuang so much?”

Qi Jia was a little surprised. He didn’t expect Zhou Ye to react so strongly.

“Because I look a lot like her,” Zhou Ye answered without hesitation.

This is simply the best answer, which reminds Qi Jia of the casting of the old versions of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Dream of Red Mansions”.

Regardless of popularity and fame, the first requirement is to look like the character.

That’s why we later had Mr. Lu Shuming’s righteous Guan Erye, and Mr. Chen Xiaoxu’s Lin Daiyu, who was more beautiful than flowers and exhausted the gentleness of Northeastern girls for 800 years.

“Next year, I will definitely let you play Cheng Shuang then.”

Qi Jia came to his senses, made a promise to Zhou Ye, and decided to find time to have a good talk with Zhang Jia’s family.

I pushed open the door of the box and entered.

Director Zheng Weiwen stood up, shook Qi Jia’s hand, and apologized repeatedly.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Qi Jia, for causing you trouble.”

“Director, you are being too polite. I don’t know how much trouble my Zhou Ye has caused you on the set. I just joined the set a few days early. It’s nothing.”

Qi Jia said something politely, and Zhou Ye interrupted with dissatisfaction,

“Brother Qi, please don’t wrongly accuse me. I’m very hardworking in the crew, okay?”

Zheng Weiwen laughed twice, nodded and said,

“That’s right. Zhou Ye is indeed very hardworking. He has never caused me any trouble since he joined the crew. Your studio has signed a good actor.”

Humph~ Zhou Ye raised his chin proudly towards Qi Jia, the meaning was very clear, look, even the director said so, why don’t you praise me!

“Brother Qi, I didn’t expect that we would meet again so soon.”

Meng Ziyi stood up and took the initiative to greet Qi Jia.

“Indeed,” Qi Jia smiled and nodded at her.

The two have worked together on variety shows before, and Meng Ziyi plays the role of Wen family doctor Wen Qing in The Untamed.

“Hello, Teacher Qi Jia, I am actor Xiao Zhan, and this time I play Wei Wuxian in The Untamed”

“Hello, Mr. Qi Jia, I am actor Wang Yibai, and I play Lan Wangji in The Untamed.”

“…”

Next, all the leading actors introduced themselves to Qi Jia one by one.

As expected, just as Zheng Wewen said before, due to funding issues, some newcomers in the film and television industry were selected.

After the introduction, everyone took their seats and the waiter started serving the dishes.

After eating for a while, Zheng Weiwen happily told Qi Jia a piece of news that surprised him.

“Actually, the reason why you were asked to join the crew earlier this time was only due to the weather. The main reason was that Penguin urged us to speed up the process and finish the filming before New Year’s Day.”

“Why is that?” Qi Jia was a little surprised.

“Going to sea”

“Going to sea?”

Zheng Weiwen took a bite of the food, nodded, and continued,

“Have you seen Eternal Love?”

Qi Jia shook his head: “My mother has seen it, but I haven’t.”

Zheng Weiwen was stunned. He obviously didn’t expect that there were still people who hadn’t watched “Eternal Love”.

“Forget it, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen it. Do you know how popular it is overseas?”

Without waiting for Qi Jia to reply, he gave the answer.

“From its release in 2017 to now, the total number of views has exceeded 28 billion, with an average of over 480 million views per episode!

Moreover, it was selected as the world’s most popular TV series at the Cannes TV Festival in France.

This is the first time that a Chinese drama has won this award. You heard it right, it is a Chinese drama, not a domestic drama. You can imagine how valuable it is.”

Qi Jia felt a little shocked. He never expected that the domestic fairy-tale drama would be so popular overseas.

“So, the reason why Penguin urged you to finish filming as soon as possible is that they want to replicate the success of Three Lives, Three Worlds?”

“Almost.” Zheng Weiwen nodded, then pointed his index finger at the ceiling and said mysteriously,

“However, this is also a requirement from above.”