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“Premiere? What premiere?” Wenwen asked excitedly, “Is it that sci-fi movie?”
Fu Yunruo originally planned to surprise Wenwen on that day, but now that he knew, she didn’t hide it and smiled, “Yes.”
Wenwen jumped happily, his eyes shining as he looked at Fu Yunruo.
Yuan Xin obviously knew about this, too. “The filming location isn’t far from the premiere venue. You can take leave then,” said he.
Fu Yunruo hesitated a bit, “Is it appropriate?” Could they take a leave so soon after arriving?
“No problem, Wenwen doesn’t have many scenes. Just adjust the time a bit,” Yuan Xin said casually, adding, “I have already talked to the director.”
Wenwen’s screen time was around ten minutes at the most, so a week of filming would be more than sufficient. Yuan Xin had negotiated the schedule beforehand, so it wouldn’t be an issue to leave for a while.
Fu Yunruo no longer had objections. She gently touched her son’s head and said, “Let’s watch Baobao’s first movie together!”
Wenwen’s cheeks turned red, and he smiled so much that his eyes couldn’t be seen. “Okay!” He replied enthusiastically.
…
While Wenwen’s career was thriving and smooth sailing, Fang Xueruo was going through a tough time lately. The Xianxia drama she was part of encountered a problem. The male lead was exposed for having a secret marriage, which would not have been so bad on its own. However, it got worse as it was revealed that he had also cheated within the marriage with another female cast member, and was caught in the act by his wife.
Now, his wife was filing for divorce.
This male lead was a star popular among girls, and he had cultivated a persona of a ‘boyfriend idol.’ As a result of this scandal, he was now facing a massive backlash, and his social media was filled with people turning against him. Evidence of his wrongdoings was exposed, and even his dedicated fans were abandoning him en masse.
This caused an even greater uproar and had a significant impact on the drama he starred in as well, as the production was forced to a temporary halt.
The director was naturally furious. This scandal was too high profile and had too many stains that could not be washed away. If they insisted on keeping the current male lead, the TV drama would definitely be affected, and there might not even be a chance for it to be broadcasted.
But changing the male lead was not an easy decision either. The filming was almost finished, and replacing him would mean burning a lot of money, as they would practically have to start from scratch.
Naturally, Fang Xueruo’s face was far from pleasant. This drama was the best resource she had, but it ended up dragging her down like this.
After several days of discussions, the production team decided to replace the male lead without reshooting.
Firstly, there was not enough time, and secondly, they didn’t have enough funds to support a reshoot.
The biggest investors in the drama were Orange Entertainment and the Chang Group, but the latter was currently dealing with their own troubles and had no time to care for a small project such as theirs. It was evident that this drama was on the verge of being abandoned, and there was no chance of getting more investment.
Orange Entertainment was also facing its own share of difficulties, and it was worth mentioning that the male star involved in the incident was under Orange Entertainment’s management and was also an ace they heavily promoted.
At first, they wanted to save the situation to avoid wasting their investments. But no matter how many connections they used within the industry or how much money they spent to suppress the news and use other gossip to divert attention, it was all in vain.
Before this matter could even settle down, the company faced another problem: a group of budding stars they were nurturing collectively left, and another well-established veteran actress was poached by another company.
The artists of Orange Entertainment had long been discontent with the unfair allocation of company resources. Until a year ago, all the resources were heavily biased towards Fang Xueruo. Although others were dissatisfied, they could only put on a polite smile on the surface, as Fang Xueruo had a strong backing, and they could only suppress their objections.
This also led to female artists in the company who were eager to make a name for themselves and had acting abilities having to find their own ways. Otherwise, they could only fade into obscurity.
It was not until Fang Xueruo faced a scandal and her reputation plummeted that they saw a glimmer of hope to shine.
However, even though the company began to hint that it would support these other artists, in the end, they still had to make way for Fang Xueruo.
The lead role in the fantasy drama was already promised to a rising star in the company, and she saw this as her chance to finally make a big break. But just because of a single sentence from Fang Xueruo, she was forced to step back.
This left the other hopeful female artists disappointed once again. They realized that as long as Fang Xueruo was around, they would never have a chance to shine. So, when other entertainment companies came to poach them, offering attractive conditions and promising to pay the breach of contract fees on their behalf, they didn’t hesitate and immediately accepted the offers.
With all these issues piling up, the company’s top management was in a mess, too busy to handle Fang Xueruo’s troubled drama. Furthermore, they suddenly discovered that almost half of their talents, whether unknown or somewhat famous, had left, and a significant portion of them had simply let their contracts expire without renewing.
After inspecting their resumes, the management found that these artists were all talented, but lacked opportunities to make it big.
As these people left, the company was left with too few artists, causing significant damage to the company’s vitality. How could the top management not be furious? Even though the Chang family was a major shareholder in the company, they were also held accountable.
After all, the other shareholders knew that if it wasn’t for the Chang family’s young master occupying the company’s resources to promote his fiancée, the company wouldn’t be in such a situation.
When it came to their own interests, they were extremely clear-headed.
In the past, how could they have thought that Fang Xueruo could reach the heights of Si Yue and make Orange Entertainment a giant in the entertainment industry?
Unable to suppress all these troubles, with the drama production team suffering such a huge impact, there was no hope for it to recover, and the investment became a loss.
Therefore, it was only natural that the company decided to abandon this drama.
In the end, the director’s survival method was to terminate the contract with the male lead, stop reshooting, and chose to edit existing scenes to replace him with an unknown newcomer.
It was also a desperate move: actors who had made a bit of a name for themselves naturally cherished their reputation and refused to have anything to do with a troubled production.
In short, this drama was already finished. Fang Xueruo’s hope of using this drama to regain her position in the entertainment industry was simply impossible.
As of now, the company’s top management’s discontent with her had become even more evident, and she realized that she no longer has access to better resources.
She had been completely blacklisted!
This realization left Fang Xueruo feeling panicked and helpless. In the past, when she had the backing of both the Fu family and the Chang family, she could withstand any temporary resource limitations imposed on her with relative ease, knowing she wouldn’t end up in a desperate situation.
However, the situation has changed drastically. The recent damage to the Chang family’s reputation and the accountability demanded by the company’s other shareholders left them unable to offer her much support. To make matters worse, Fang Xueruo had become aware of subtle dissatisfaction from the elders of the Chang family…
After a moment of deep contemplation, Fang Xueruo made her decision and ordered her driver to take her back to the Fu family.
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Uugh. What is she plotting now? So despicable! I had already forgotten about her, to be honest…