Francois, Francoide Grand Theatre.
"Okay, I understand."
Han Zaiyu hung up the phone, and the door to his lounge was pushed open.
Seeing Han Zaiyu still sitting on the sofa, An Yuanshan felt a headache coming on and jogged over to remind him, "The performance is about to start, aren't you going to get ready?"
"It's just a formality, there's no need to be so nervous."
Han Zaiyu played with his phone, his tone indifferent.
An Yuanshan, however, noticed a familiar Chinese face flash across the screen of his phone as he swiped his finger.
Thinking about recent events, she looked worried: "Actually, we don't need to perform in the stage play anymore. We already have the script, so even if the dean really appreciates someone, it won't change anything."
"Heh, but I'm still very unhappy." Han Zaiyu sneered, "We approached them about the movie script for 'The Twelve Evils,' and they went ahead to put it on stage. We marketed the sons of tycoons overseas, and they marketed the sons of gangsters. What exactly does this mean? Are they trying to piggyback on my success?"
Within their own country, they certainly wouldn't dare to openly promote themselves as chaebols, but it's different overseas. It's just a persona, a marketing ploy to gain attention.
But before their marketing efforts had even begun to take off, an even more aggressive persona marketing campaign suddenly emerged, claiming to be a "gangster prince." Coupled with the fact that he also had an Asian face, all the attention went to him, and their campaign was completely ignored.
When Han Zaiyu found out about this, he was furious.
Upon further inquiry, wow, it's the same Chinese actor!
He, a legitimate descendant of a true gangster turned tycoon, hasn't said anything yet, so how come someone else has such a big face?
If both sides weren't abroad, Han Zaiyu would have liked to find a few people to show the loading crew what real gangsters are like.
An Yuanshan chuckled awkwardly, not daring to voice his thoughts.
Although all of this seems to be a coincidence based on various circumstances, the saying goes that competitors are enemies. Their overseas marketing strategies and development paths highly overlap with Han Zaiyu's, so it's hard to say that they won't become a major rival in the future.
Starting to take precautions now is a good option.
Just then, the door to the lounge was pushed open again.
Director Annie of the Francoide Theatre and Manager El of the American Shield Screen Films walked in.
After glancing at the two people in the room, Dean Annie coughed lightly and got straight to the point: "As a stage play, 'The Twelve Mirrors' is quite difficult to perform. I hope Mr. Han Zaiyu will give me enough persuasiveness in his performance and not tarnish our opera house."
"Don't worry," Manager El assured him earnestly, "Giving us the script for 'The Twelve Evils' is definitely Dean Annie's wisest choice."
Few people know that the stage play script for "The Twelve Mirrors" was adapted by Dean Annie's father.
The original author of *The Twelve Surnames* was actually Dean Ani's maternal grandfather. He immigrated to the United States in his early years and achieved great success writing books there. Later, through various twists and turns, Dean Ani's family inherited all of the original author's assets—naturally including the copyright of *The Twelve Surnames*.
Of course, it now belongs to Screen Shield, one of the major American film companies, and has nothing to do with Dean Annie or the Flanders Grand Theatre.
Dean Annie gave a stiff smile, then turned and left.
After Dean Annie left, Manager El, who had been all smiles, composed himself, looked at Han Zaiyu, and said condescendingly, "Give it your best in the stage play. We went to great lengths to get you this opportunity to record a video live, so you must cherish it."
"Please rest assured, Han Zaiyu will definitely perform well."
An Yuanshan nodded, then seemed to remember something and asked hesitantly and tactfully, "The Chinese actor recommended by Dean Anni—"
"Heh, don't worry about it, our company won't work with Chinese actors."
Manager El gave a disdainful smirk.
Thinking about Shield Screen Pictures' international focus over the years, An Yuanshan breathed a sigh of relief and smiled ingratiatingly at Manager El.
Han Zaiyu also visibly relaxed.
...
With the festival activities in Glass over, Xiao He's filming on the set of "The Phantom Thieves 2" went very smoothly.
As a shady character and behind-the-scenes mastermind, the white-haired hacker's role in the story is actually quite small.
The final highlight of the plot is that after the white-haired hacker successfully obtained the "Black Mary" perfume formula from Lu Xiaokong, he actually managed to recreate the perfume in just two days and fooled his employer.
Of course, it turned out that the employers never wanted "Black Mary" in the first place, and the entire employment deal was a setup from the beginning. However, this key plot point of replacing the real thing with a fake still gave the hacker an opportunity to showcase his superb counterfeiting skills, and he once again successfully proved himself to be the world's third-best thief.
In the end, Lu Xiaokong deduced that since the hacker was able to replicate the "Black Mary" perfume and pass the employer's test, the "Black Mary" that never appeared from beginning to end must really exist, but it had already been replaced and stolen by the hacker. This time, they were not only set up by the employer, but the employer was also tricked by the hacker.
And that was indeed the case. The hacker not only swapped out the genuine product, but also sold the formula to his employer's rival, who then mass-produced a large batch and made a fortune from it.
But none of this has anything to do with Lu Xiaokong anymore.
Because Lu Xiaokong tricked the hacker before leaving, taking Shi Ji with him and making a dashing escape by plane with all the hacker's cash and electronic devices.
The hacker was relentlessly hunted down by the gangsters hired by his employer, cursing Lu Xiaokong and Shi Ji as he ran.
Thus, the feud was rekindled.
After this long stretch of storyline ends, Xiao He's scenes will be almost finished being filmed.
Actually, it was Director Zhuang who took care of Xiao He. Knowing that Xiao He would be flying to the set of "Ford v Ferrari 7" next door, he tried to concentrate the filming as much as possible, completing ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) all of Xiao He's storylines first, and then filming the others.
However, this efficiency is indeed quite high—
The official start date for "Ford v Ferrari 7" was early April, while "The Thieves 2" had already finished filming in mid-March. This meant that Xiao He suddenly had a break of about half a month.
Liu Rulan originally planned to arrange for Xiao He to return to China, but Ou De'en, with his keen sense of smell, came running as soon as he heard that Xiao He was free. He rushed to the film set to invite Xiao He to participate in the racing competition at the end of the month.
Accompanying O'Dean was the young nobleman who had previously tried to recruit Xiao He into his own caravan to fulfill his own dream.
As soon as the young master arrived, he started throwing money around without saying a word.
Before Xiao He could even express his opinion, he was already stunned by the money.
Upon seeing the money, Liu Rulan also chose to remain silent.
Great, let's get going!
So Xiao He decisively abandoned his job and followed Ou De'en to Canada to win a championship, finally making up for the young master's regret of not winning the championship last time.
Before he could even warm up the championship trophy, Xiao He was stunned by the new news brought by Liu Rulan.
"Get ready, 'No Bait' has been selected for Cannes."
On the phone, Liu Rulan's tone revealed an undisguised excitement.
Xiao He was stunned for a moment, and before he could react, Liu Rulan urged him immediately: "Quickly, go back to the country right away!"
