Tao Mu couldn't bear Li Xiaoheng's overbearing attitude like he had taken a stimulant, so he couldn't help but change the subject: "Actually, there are several good online shopping platforms on the market now….."
For example, , which was very popular in later years, had started Double Eleven activities this year. There was also , which had been competing with , and would also start 618 activities in June next year (TN: mid-year e-commerce shopping festival known as 618/June 18. It's the second-largest e-commerce shopping day in China—second only to Single's Day/November 11). This cat and dog war continued even ten years later. The plan that Tao Mu gave to Li Xiaoheng basically covered the various disturbances encountered by the two major online shopping platforms in the next ten years and how to deal with them. In truth, many times, the entrepreneurial team was not short of inspiration, but what was missing was the transformation of inspiration into something practical and maintaining the ability to move forward steadily.
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Tao Mu felt he didn't have that ability, of course, the main reason was that he didn't have the energy to take care of such a big business. His own was already taking up too much time, and moreover he also had his acting career. But Li Xiaoheng was different. He had Xiaoheng Capital, and the backing of the Li family. If Li Xiaoheng really intended to start an online shopping platform, at least he didn't need to worry about the two crucial aspects of capital and logistics. In addition, there was also no need to worry about how to deal with the website needing to communicate and negotiate with all aspects of the problems encountered in the actual operation.
Therefore, cooperating with Li Xiaoheng was the most time-saving and labor-saving way that Tao Mu could think of, and it could ensure the maximum benefit—other than for the troublesome fact that a certain someone who always wanted to eat the grass next to the nest, and harassing his business partner.
But Tao Mu believed that if Li Xiaoheng really intended to do this project, then, with the occupational disease that Li Xiaoheng possessed, being serious and responsible for his work, he would definitely devote all his energy to his work—at least in the early stages of the project.
At that time, Tao Mu could guarantee at least one or two years of respite. As for one or two years later, it was likely that Li Xiaoheng would have forgotten the initial interest he had for him. After all, the various impulses caused by hormones were the most unreliable things.
"If you are interested in doing this project, I can negotiate with major brands about entering the website. Nowadays the world is in an economic crisis, which will definitely affect the sales of major brands. So talking to them about this at this time might be easier than normal."
As for how to negotiate, Tao Mu would of course not use the normal business negotiation model. Anyway, he also had to discuss with major brands about sponsoring to film the idol drama. It was better to take this as an opportunity to engage in a large-scale publicity campaign. If the discussion went well, maybe at the beginning of the website's establishment, they could also collect a publicity and planning fee.
Tao Mu's abacus was sounding, and he had already begun to think about how to trick—bah, to convince those brand owners. When filming a TV series, how about designing a makeup look or style, or a classic first appearance scene for each brand?
Li Xiaoheng sat next to him, looking at the seriousness of his partner who threw himself into work after just a few words, and he couldn't help but smile.
He sat closer to Tao Mu and said, "If you want to convince those brands, then do you have to find a chance to visit their headquarters? Since it's for our website, I'll go with you. I happen to know the shareholders of some of these brands, maybe I can help out."
Tao Mu nodded casually and recorded this in his itinerary. In his original thinking, there was no need to go to such efforts. He just needed to communicate with the person in charge of these brands in China. But Li Xiaoheng's idea was not bad. To solve the problem from the source, maybe the price could even be discussed—although the price of luxury brands was basically unified globally. But there would definitely be more discounts negotiated with the headquarters than with the branch. At that time, the profit margin of the website would be greater. When hosting activities, it could also be larger.
Li Xiaoheng saw through Tao Mu's little calculations at a glance and couldn't help twitching the corners of his mouth upwards. However, in his heart, the amount of profit margins that could be negotiated came second, and the most important thing for him was the negotiation schedule, which required him and Tao Mu to act together.
Thinking about it in another perspective, it was basically a globetrotting trip for just the two of them.
It felt pretty good. He was really looking forward to it.
However, no matter what Li Xiaoheng was expecting in his heart. The days had to go by gradually and one at a time. What Tao Mu had to do now was to play the role of Su Dingbang seriously.
During this period, news came from Jinxi that the Boss Huang had done a lot of other illegal things besides opening the black coal kiln without licenses. For example, when the illegal operation of the black coal kiln caused the miner to be injured, not paying the employees' insurance, not being responsible for the medical expenses of the injured employees, and also injuring the family members of the employees who went to the coal kiln to ask for justice, etc…..
Relevant departments that received the report took it very seriously. An investigation team was immediately established to investigate the black coal kiln. Boss Huang, who originally stayed in H Town and wanted to invest in a different crew and sleep with some female stars on the side, immediately panicked when he heard the news. He had no choice but to hurry back to Jinxi.
However, it was only after Boss Huang returned to Jinxi that he realized that it was the eldest son of the Li family in the capital who reported him. And the one who helped to submit various materials and was in charge of the follow-up process was the Boss Wang who had warned him.
Now, Boss Huang finally knew that he had kicked the iron plate. But he still didn't understand how he had provoked the Li family? Of course he had heard of the reputation of the Li family and the Fengxing Group in the capital. If he had met such a person, he would definitely rush to ingratiate himself to him. How could he take the initiative to anger him instead? Everyone was thousands of miles apart and never knew each other, and it was not like the eldest son of the Li family suddenly developed a momentary sense of justice and reported him, right?
In the end, after some inquiries, Boss Huang finally knew the relationship between the eldest son of the Li family and Tao Mu, as well as the investment of the eldest son of the Li family in the production of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood"—
F**k, didn't they say that the investor Tao Mu had brought in was just a little shrimp with no background? For just a mere five million yuan, he even ignored the New Year's holiday and personally flew to H Town to visit the set. How the hell did he know that the eldest son of the Li family was so idle? If he knew earlier then even if he borrowed the courage, he still wouldn't dare to slap a tiger's butt!
But it was too late to say anything. At the beginning, Boss Huang relied on his own money and power, and he acted arrogantly and did all kinds of evil. Those who were oppressed by him dare not speak out. But now the relevant departments have received reports and started to investigate the bad guys, and the state now supported the victims. Naturally, these ordinary people would spill everything they knew of their grievances when the investigation team came to investigate. Due to the influence of Boss Huang, some people did not dare to say more, so they hesitantly took the investigation team to the home of the injured employee and let the victim himself speak to them in person…..
Until the day that Boss Huang stumbled into prison, he never dreamed that he would be thrown in for this reason. He didn't regret the things he had done that hurt the world, violated the law, and violated morality. Instead, he was annoyed that he shouldn't have offended Tao Mu and the eldest son of the Li family so casually. Even when he was interviewed by the media, he still complained that Tao Mu's methods were ruthless. He also said that his son and daughter were only in elementary school and junior high school, and they were very pitiful without a father.
Later, a reporter relayed the coal boss's remarks to Tao Mu. Tao Mu didn't even bother to evaluate this kind of brain circuit. If it was said that pitiful people sell their miserable stories to make everyone sympathize, then when the bad people sell their miserable stories it would only just make people feel happy and applaud. Tao Mu was not the type to sympathize with others casually. What was more, he didn't feel that Boss Huang's actions were worthy of sympathy.
On the contrary, after learning of Boss Huang's charges, Tao Mu also asked Lawyer Zhou to go to Jinxi, and in the name of Song Huai Foundation, he donated 100,000 yuan to the injured miner who was injured in the mine but did not receive timely treatment. Although for families who have lost their breadwinners, the 100,000 yuan was just a drop in the bucket. But Tao Mu would rather spend his sympathy on these innocent and affected ordinary people than sympathize with a rotten person with blood on his hands.
Although he didn't comment a word, Tao Mu's attitude still made a lot of media and melon-eaters talk enthusiastically about it.
But these were all afterwords.
On the second day of discussing new cooperation projects with Li Xiaoheng, the very busy CEO Li flew directly to the US by plane. In terms of action execution, Li Xiaoheng, who was able to create Xiaoheng Capital in his freshman year of college, was definitely no worse than Tao Mu. Since the two decided to start an online shopping platform, apart from the process that Tao Mu must participate in, the rest of the matter must be resolved by Li Xiaoheng within the deadline. There would definitely not be any delays.
This was also an important reason why Tao Mu was sure that he could throw a good project at Li Xiaoheng, and Li Xiaoheng would devote his full attention to his work and would never have time to chase after him.
So Li Xiaoheng flew to the US this time because he wanted to negotiate the acquisition of a certain payment tool—thanks to this economic crisis caused by the subprime mortgage crisis in the US and gradually spreading to the world. All walks of life have been affected by this financial tsunami. Even those world-renowned manufacturers were struggling to survive, let alone some other industries that were heavily dependent on economic conditions. This also brought a lot of convenience to Li Xiaoheng's acquisition plans.
Directly acquiring a payment tool with mature technology, and then adding various functions on top of it. It was indeed easier than developing the technology yourself from scratch. Li Xiaoheng's method was especially good at this. By the way, the employees of the investment department who stayed at the headquarters in the US were also asked to focus on other projects worthy of investment and acquisition. Only then did he return to China with a payment tool named "Easy Pay" and a large number of technicians.
At that time, Tao Mu was still in H Town for filming. However, the internet had exploded.
February 14, 2009, the first month of the lunar calendar had not yet passed. Thanks to the concerted efforts of everyone, the highly anticipated registered users of finally exceeded 100 million.
Immediately, netizens posted screenshots on their FlyNews page, and drummed their bowl with chopsticks as they waited for Tao Mu to dance in women's clothes. A group of netizens who worked hard to eat melons and watch the fun have commented and forwarded them below. In just one hour, this FlyNews had more than one million comments and hundreds of thousands of retweets, and instantly topped the FlyNews hot search list.
The technical department that had been monitoring also noticed this comment, and helped to highlight it in hot red and push it up to the top. Meng Qi, who was still in charge of FlyMews Entertainment in Beijing, found that the phone in the office instantly began to ring constantly, all to urge Tao Mu to fulfill his promise.
Meng Qi also joined in the fun, calling Tao Mu's phone directly. Tao Mu was filming at that time, and Gou Rixin took the call. Hearing this news, Big Dog was also happy, and smiled honestly: "Mr. Meng, don't worry. I'll tell him when Tao Mu is free. I'll definitely have him film the video of him dancing in women's clothes as soon as possible."
After a pause, Gou Rixin asked with evil intentions, "Do you want to come and see the dance in person?"
"Why go through so much trouble?"
When Gou Rixin asked Tao Mu with anticipation if he needed the help of the camera crew to record the dancing video, Tao Mu said blankly: "I have already recorded the video before. Just waiting for 's registration data to exceed 100 million and then I can just upload the video directly."
Ever since he took the role of Su Dingbang, Tao Mu knew that his winter vacation would be very busy. had more than 99 million registered users. Tao Mu had always been a person who liked to plan ahead. Worried that when the data exceeded 100 million, he did not have extra time to record the dance video, so in the first few days of winter vacation, Tao Mu recorded the video in Beijing Film's dance studio. Everything was ready, and all he had to do was just wait for the east wind to arrive, and upload the video to the Internet.
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"What?" The crew members, who had been keeping their ears open to pay attention to the situation, looked at each other and couldn't help screaming in disappointment.
"When did you record the video?" Jiang Cheng, who once played Zhang Wuke in the end of terms finals performance and now played a progressive female student in "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", stood up from behind the prop box with great excitement: "Wasn't it agreed that the camera crew will help record the video, and you will dance on the set?"
"Who agreed?" Tao Mu was also confused. How come he didn't know? Also: "Jiang Cheng, why are you hiding behind the prop box and eavesdropping on us…..Your costume has become dirty."
"That's not important." Jiang Cheng looked at Tao Mu with disappointment: "How could you do this, Tao Mu, we have been looking forward to it for a long time."
Gou Rixin touched his nose in embarrassment: "We all thought you had not prepared it, so everyone discussed how to record the video with you. The reason why I didn't tell you was because I wanted to give you a surprise." They all wanted to join in the fun.
Director Zhou Hong also added with great disappointment: "I was also thinking, why don't we take a break from filming tonight and record the dancing video for you first."
The lighting and cameramen all nodded. They were also ready. Even the masters in charge of the set were discussing which venue Tao Mu could choose to dance in, and whether he needed help setting up the background or something.
Only to find out, Mr. Tao secretly prepared everything and recorded the video already. So disappointing.
Gou Rixin continued to add: "Also, brother Yao and brother Xiao Qi said they wanted to see the dance in person, and they even bought a plane ticket to rush here, and visit the set as well. If they knew you weren't going to dance, they would be very disappointed."
"That's right!" Several other female classmates of Beijing Film also echoed: "We were also saying, if Tao Mu needed back-up dancers, we could also help out in friendship."
Tao Mu: "….." I say, you guys have quite the happy daydreams together, why don't you know how to communicate with the person concerned (me)?
"I don't care! We want to watch the dance!" Seeing that the plan was about to fall apart, relying on their familiarity with Tao Mu, the three roommates in dormitory 301 took the lead in heckling. With the thick chopsticks made by the props maker, they drummed a big chipped bowl: "We want to watch the dance!"
"Crossdress as a woman!"
"Watch the dance!"
"Crossdress as a woman!"
Towards the end of the commotion, once the three roommates shouted to watch the dance, the entire crew would echo "crossdress as a woman". The chant was uttered with such a powerful aura, those who didn't know might think the crew was filming a demonstration!
—Even when they were actually filming, they were not in such high spirits and full of emotions.
The key was that Gou Rixin was still beating on the side and pretending to be pitiful: "I heard that brother Yao and brother Xiao Qi will also bring dean Tao and Mr. Song here together. In such a cold winter, going through so much trouble, if they can't watch the dance, they will be very disappointed!"
"Tao Mu, could it be that you think it's embarrassing for a grown man to dress up as a woman to dance?" Wen Bao winked at Tao Mu: "Actually, you don't need to have too much psychological burden. As actors, we need to play various roles. Acting as the opposite sex is also a part of acting. At most you are just experiencing it in advance. Besides, you have practiced for so long. Dance it for us. Let us all appreciate it. Either way, everyone will watch the video online. You are going to upload the video tonight, right?"
Tao Mu glared at Wen Bao with annoyance. He thought of what Gou Rixin said that all the family members had bought plane tickets to come to see the dance. There were also the puppy eyes of Wen Bao and the others who were eagerly waiting to join in the fun. He was always reluctant to let down the people around him who really cared about him. And it was the cold winter, it was not easy for the family to travel all the way here—
"But I never thought about dancing on the set. The costume I ordered is back in Beijing, and I didn't bring it over."
He finally agreed!
Wen Bao and the others' eyes lit up, and they immediately said, "That's easy to handle. What is this place, H Town! If nothing else, there are costumes of all kinds. You just tell us what you want, and we will rent it now."
"It won't necessarily fit!" Tao Mu frowned, especially for dancing. Tao Mu's outfit was customized for him. And including the hairpiece it cost him more than 100,000 yuan!
"Then let someone send you the outfit you left in Beijing!" Long Tianao, who hadn't spoken much, was also eager, his eyes so excited they practically gleamed: "Where did you put the costume. I'll give Summer Star's person a call and ask him to pick it up now."
It seemed they were really not afraid of the height of the stage when watching a play!
Tao Mu gave Long Tianao a speechless look, and simply called his old man and asked them to go to his apartment opposite Beijing Film before they rushed to the airport, and bring along the dance costume: "…..It's in the closet. You will see it when you open the door."
When everyone saw this, they immediately clapped their hands in anticipation. Zhou Hong was particularly interested: "What kind of background scenery do you think will be good, do you want an interior scene or an exterior scene? It doesn't matter what scene you want, even if you want a stage, we'll get it for you."
That was not necessary. Tao Mu looked back at the background scenery the crew was shooting today. The scene to be filmed today took place after the full-scale war broke out, the Japanese invaded Shanghai, and everywhere was gunpowder and scenes of war, but the Shanghai French Concession was still full of song and dance. The Su family had already hid in the Concession in advance, but the Japanese who got the tip captured Su Dingbang who hid in the Concession, and tortured him to force Su Dingbang to defect.
Tao Mu looked at the filming scene, and was suddenly inspired: "No need to change. Just this scene. By the way, let's also make a promotion for our crew."
Having said that, Director Zhou Hong still directed the lighting team and camera team to set up the background with great interest. Just one street away, the war was raging outside, but here there was wine, feasting and dancing. A dim yellow street lamp stood quietly beside the street, emitting a dark golden light.
When Liu Yao and company arrived at H Town with Tao Mu's costume, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening. There was no flight at this point. They were on the Li family's private plane—yes, Li Xiaoheng, who saw the news on the Internet, also flew over.
When they arrived on the set, it just started to snow. The fluttering snowflakes, like goose feathers, soon covered the ground with a layer of pure white.
Tao Mu changed into his deep crimson costume dress, his face was painted like that of a Peking Opera actress, and the emeralds and diamonds on his hairpiece swayed with his steps. Just walking quietly under the dim yellow light, the dark golden light sprinkling from overhead, splitting the whole picture into two parts. And behind him, one half was war raging, and the other half was singing and dancing. Light and dark were alternately intersecting, just as life and death blended into each other. In an instant, that kind of inexplicable but shocking feeling overcame everyone seeing this.
The studio, which was still a little noisy and turbulent, suddenly quieted down. The lights and cameras were all doing their due diligence. Director Zhou Hong couldn't help but pick up the loudspeaker and shout "Action" in person.
There was a lingering and meandering sound of the pipa, which was as gentle as jade beads falling into a golden bowl. The first thing that appeared in front of the camera were two crimson sleeves that hung side by side. The arms moved slightly, and the sleeves were hooked, revealing ten slender fingers. The white fingers reflected the layered flowing sleeves, which looked particularly beautiful under the light. Immediately after the index fingers exerted force, tossing the two flowing sleeves upwards. The figure turned around, flipping the flowing sleeves, one flowing sleeve was thrown forward and the other flowing sleeve was thrown backward, and at the same time, the figure turned over and stretched out his arms, the flowing sleeves stretching out to their full length of seven feet. And the crimson flowing sleeves bloomed like a red wave in an instant.
The music paused slightly at this time, allowing Tao Mu the time to freeze in a pose. The lingering sound of the pipa sounded again, Tao Mu neatly rolled in his sleeves, and then threw them into the air again, turning his body at the same time, and throwing both flowing sleeves to each side at the same time, instantly producing billowing red waves that bloomed unbridled against the dark backdrop.
Flecks of snowflakes floated down one after another, the black night, the dark golden streetlights, the crimson dress and the white snow, all painting a devastatingly beautiful picture.
Tao Mu retracted his sleeves and turned around, his whole body gathered strength, and then followed with another side flip. At the same time, his arms swayed, two red sleeves rippling and flying in the flying snow. With the sound of the pipa, Tao Mu leaped into the air, jumping out and touching the golden crown on his head with the back of a foot, the two red sleeves were like arrows flying from the string in an instant, flying up and across the floating white snow, as if Tao Mu was also flying. Immediately following was another big turn, the pipa was gently hooked and the notes slowly trembled like the song of a warbler, and Tao Mu made all kinds of gentle and graceful movements such as lifting, coiling, and raising sleeves in accordance with the music, just like a boudoir young lady with the appearance of a sleeping begonia, innocent and charming.
However, soon, along with the ups and downs of the situation, the current political situation worsened. The lingering sound of the pipa also melted into a slight killing intent at this time. The pipa sounded harshly, like the metallic clanging of weapons and iron-hoofed steeds, and Tao Mu's dance also changed from the previous soft and graceful to heroic and valiant. The original gestures such as hooking, flirting, twisting, and raising have been reduced. Sleeves were flicked, thrown, with big throws and swings, followed by side flips, back flips, and other moves. Tao Mu was originally a martial artist, and he danced more explosively than if he were a true girl. Before, he specially learned the water sleeve dance and whip method for acting. At this moment, many martial arts movements and whip techniques were integrated into this water sleeve dance. From a distance, the originally gentle and flirtatious water sleeve dance actually gained a warrior-like appearance, permeated with an imposing danger.
The dark moon follows the shadow of the sleeves, and the sword brushes away the frost flowers.
Everyone listened to the murderous sound of the pipa in their ears, and felt cold to the bones. If the graceful dance before only made people feel the elegance and beauty were unparalleled and charming, then the warrior-like dance now with wide and open moves filled with male strength made people unable to bear even blinking their eyes. It was as if their entire soul had been taken away by that dazzling figure, the heart beat violently, and the mouth went dry.
Accompanied by the sound of a gunshot, the fast-spinning figure under the streetlamp suddenly fell to lay down in a classical Peking opera posture, freezing in that graceful pose on the snowy ground. The night was dark, the lights were dim, white snow and crimson dress, and two long flowing sleeves winded through the snow around the crimson figure. The camera looked down from above, giving an aerial view to the crimson sleeves which looked like two meandering bloodstains that stood out shockingly against the white snow and dark sky.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh….."
"I can't, I can't, I'm going to die….."
"Wuwuwuwu, I announce that I am Mu Mu's boyfriend fan starting today….."
"So beautiful, I really want to marry him home….."
"I feel like he is prettier than those female stars in the entertainment industry….."
In fact, after Tao Mu finished dancing, the whole studio was silent for a while. There were hundreds of people in the huge studio, but except for the sound of machines running and snowflakes falling, there was no sound at all. Even Director Zhou Hong forgot to call out 'Cut'. It wasn't until a few seconds later, or a few minutes later, as the red figure got up under the street light, did everyone seem to have been awakened by the person in the painting who had broken the spell.
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Then the silent studio was instantly filled with uproarious noise. With applause, screams, and shouts of confession, everyone rushed to Tao Mu's side to ask for photos and hugs. Previously, the class beauty, who had clamored to be Tao Mu's bankroller after becoming successful, hugged Tao Mu and didn't let go, crying loudly that she wanted to stop being a woman, and that she was an embarrassment to women. And the boys who were on friendly terms with Tao Mu all knelt down and called Tao Mu Goddess. Even the cast and crew couldn't help but crowd around, asking Tao Mu how long it took him to practice such a beautiful and difficult dance.
Zhan Baoli, the heroine of the crew who especially loved classical dance and Peking Opera, was also a well-known opera actress in China and even she couldn't help but praise Tao Mu's dancing skills. She said that such a beautiful dance was rarely seen in real life, even in film and television dramas. Especially in the second half of Tao Mu's dance, with all kinds of flipping and aerial martial arts, most girls couldn't jump with such strength at all. Even male dancers with stronger physical strength were rarely able to jump with such smoothness in coordination with the water sleeves. In particular, Tao Mu's dance also incorporated a lot of martial arts movements, Peking Opera elements and whipping techniques. It looked heroic and valiant, and it gave people goosebumps.
"It was truly beautiful." Zhan Baoli sighed for the 108th time: "Who choreographed the dance moves for you?"
Of course it was himself.
Tao Mu had been filming since his last life, and he had also met many martial arts instructors and dance teachers, and had filmed many fighting scenes, so his vision and knowledge were definitely not worse than others. Coupled with the fact that he had entered Beijing Film to study professionally in this life, he had to practice all kinds of modern dance, ballet, folk dance and opera postures. So improvising or something, he wasn't afraid at all.
But Tao Mu didn't expect himself to dance so successfully. He originally planned to dance a few more times as he did not expect it to pass in just one try.
As he was talking, he felt a weight on his shoulders suddenly and his body warmed up instantly. When Tao Mu turned around, he saw that Li Xiaoheng had walked up to him at some point and draped a down jacket on him.
"Aren't you cold when you wear so little?" Li Xiaoheng said, squatting down and zipping Tao Mu's down jacket. The long black special down jacket covered Tao Mu from head to toe, causing his body to immediately warm up.
Only the thin layered red silk dance shoes still on his feet could be seen, and as they stepped on the snow, it looked very cold indeed.
"Why don't you go back and change your clothes first?" Li Xiaoheng frowned, disapproving of Tao Mu wearing so little and chatting with everyone in the snow. It was not good for the body if he caught a cold.
Everyone was slightly taken aback. And for some reason felt that the atmosphere in front of them was a bit weird. Long Tianao blinked his eyes blankly, and laughed carefreely: "CEO Li is worthy of being the most valued partner of CEO Tao, caring about CEO Tao's physical condition this much. You see, we were all only paying attention to CEO Tao's beautiful appearance, only CEO Li cared about whether Tao Mu was cold or not."
As soon as these words came out, everyone felt even more weird.
The originally noisy and boiling set was quiet for a moment. Tao Mu coughed lightly and said, "It's really cold. I'll go back and change my clothes first."
Class beauty Jiang Cheng raised her paw and asked, "Tao Mu, can I borrow that costume of yours? I want to take some pictures wearing it."
As soon as these words came out, many girls echoed in agreement. Even the female No. 2 and No. 3 in the crew couldn't help making this request. There was no other reason, it was because Tao Mu danced so beautifully just now in it.
Tao Mu sneezed, and glanced at the three roommates who were hiding in the crowd while smirking: "Okay. But the three of them will go first. After they are dressed they can do a dance, just take it as promoting our crew."
"Why us?" The three roommates wailed. As if they were relaying 'baby won't do it, baby will make trouble': "We are men, we don't wear women's clothes."
Tao Mu looked at the three roommates, let out a hehe, and repeated without a smile, "Bao'er, could it be you think it's too embarrassing for a grown man to dress up as a woman and dance? Actually, don't put too much psychological burden on yourself. As an actor, you need to play all kinds of roles. Acting the opposite sex is also part of acting. At most you will just be experiencing it in advance."
Wen Bao: "….." What do you call digging a hole and burying yourself? This.
"That doesn't work! You look at your height of 1.82 meters, and I'm only 1.75 meters tall. I can't wear those clothes." Wen Bao was still struggling to the death. Du Kang who had been heckling particularly loudly earlier also echoed: "I'm 1.89 meters tall, and I can't wear these clothes. Xiao Anzi is about the same height as you though. He can wear it."
Chu Sui'an, who was standing on the side quietly was dragged out by his roommate, an innocent stumbling across a crossfire: "….." Meow Meow Meow?
"No!" Before Chu Sui'an could speak, several female classmates in Beijing Film were already screaming in protest: "You can't let a bunch of stinky men wear such a beautiful costume."
Jiang Cheng hugged Tao Mu's costume tightly, and hugged Tao Mu who was wearing said costume along the way: "This is for us girls to borrow. Let them change to other women's clothes. Anyway, this is H Town. There are all kinds of costumes. If it doesn't work, we can lend them our Republic of China female student uniforms."
These words inspired many classmates: "By the way, didn't Wen Bao dance yangge at the end of the term finals performance play? Let him put on a student uniform and wear a big red silk scarf to dance yangge."
After being reminded by his classmates, Wen Bao suddenly realized. That's right, his own crossdress show had long been offered up already. Then this wasn't the first time for him at all, so why was he acting like a shy virgin girl?
The dark devious eyes swept over Tao Mu without a trace. Wen Bao knew in his heart that Tao Mu's performance was too good just now, which made everyone feel a little psychological pressure.
But how could one say it, being able to live in the same dorm with a black-bellied guy like Tao Mu and get along very well, the three roommates were also quite thick skinned fellows themselves. Hearing these words, he no longer shied away, and squeezed into the girls' changing room like a silly roe deer, looking for girls' school uniforms from the Republic of China everywhere—he really was ready to dance it seemed.
And it was not only them who would crossdress, but also the entire cast of actors were also dragged down the pit with them—bah, dance with them. Except for Zhan Bin and other veteran teachers who they did not dare to approach, the others were all harassed by Wen Bao and the others. Not even Director Zhou Hong and Screenwriter Fan could escape their clutches.
Tao Mu went back to the dressing room to remove his makeup and costume. When he came out again, all the actors in the crew were wearing cheongsams or schoolgirl outfits that was a sight enough to blind the eyes. A large group of people were standing on the set, contemplating what dance to do—Tao Mu's ultra-difficult dance definitely didn't need to be considered. It was best to keep it simple and easy to use. Some even suggested radio calisthenics.
The large group of people stood on the set, and Tao Mu had a flash of inspiration. He remembered a dance move that was very popular in later years. He gathered everyone in the middle of the set, clapped his hands and said, "Dance with me. Come, get ready, one, two, three, four….."
Everyone looked at Tao Mu in unison, seeing Tao Mu's upper body remaining still and only his feet sometimes kicking forward, sometimes sideways, the movement was simple and smooth, there was basically no difficulty, but it looked quite cool.
Everyone present, most of them had attended professional training schools. Even Director Zhou Hong and Screenwriter Fan practiced voice, stage presence, posture and appearance when they were in college. Such a simple action certainly couldn't beat them. So under the leadership of Tao Mu, the large group of people quickly began dancing.
Soon after getting high from the dance, Tao Mu even pulled his Yao Dad and Xiao Qi Dad in. It wasn't until the crew's post-production came over to say that the video of Tao Mu's dancing had been edited did everyone stop.
Tao Mu said that he wanted to promote the crew, and his way of publicity was also very simple and crude. He directly titled the video "Dancing at the Filming Site of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", uploaded it directly to 's official account, shared it by himself, and then "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" official FlyNews account.
Zhou Hong indicated that the staff in charge of managing the official FlyNews account of the crew also shared it.
The netizens who have been waiting to be fed on the Internet have finally waited for this video and couldn't wait to click it. Then—
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh….."
"So beautiful!"
"The posture is also too good!"
"Are you sure it's not a stand-in? Wasn't it filmed and edited? Isn't there a hanging wire? I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I don't believe this dance was done in one go!"
"The one who asked if it was a stand-in, are you blind? Except for a few fixed-frame top-down angles, this video was shot with a long camera. Yet someone is asking if it's a stand-in if it was edited or not? Go see a doctor if your eyes are bad!"
"The water sleeves are thrown with so much strength and power!"
"The last pose was so beautiful, I cried at how beautiful it was."
"I don't know why, our Mu danced so beautifully, but I cried after watching the dance."
"I cried too."
"Cry +1"
"Water sleeves, Peking Opera postures, a few martial arts moves and the nine-tail whipping technique, wow, our Mu knows a lot of things."
"Am I the only one who thinks the background music is particularly good? Especially the last gunshot, and then the twirl and fixed opera pose at the end, wasn't it amazing? Got goosebumps in an instant."
"The people upstairs talk a lot. I just want to ohhhhhhhh….."
"I announce that I will be Tao Mu's boyfriend fan from now on."
"My motivation for work is to make money and marry Tao Mu home!"
"Upstairs, that is a bit difficult. I don't fully agree, our Mu is now a rich daddy worth billions. And that's in US dollars!"
"…..The idol I fan is not only handsome, good at acting, but also rich, what should I do?"
"What else can you do, of course, to continue loving him!"
Most of the netizens who only knew how to lick at good looks only cared about licking the screen after seeing the video, ohhhh woof woof ahhhhh. After seeing this dance, professional dancers and artists began to analyze this dance in terms of technical difficulty and emotional rendering. Some people noticed that the title of Tao Mu's dancing video was "Filmed on the set of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", and then followed the title to find the "Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" crew's FlyNews account, searched for the synopsis, and some people even bought the original novel.
After reading the synopsis, they immediately understood what Tao Mu was trying to express in this dance. So they switched back to their own FlyNews account, and analyzed from the background of the times during the Anti-Japanese War to the reason why Tao Mu danced this dance. The country was in danger of being destroyed, the motherland was at stake, and the nation's people were faced with the matter of survival. The innocent girl in the boudoir would finally put on combat uniforms and pick up guns to fight on the battlefield. Even if she ended up sacrificing herself to the revolution in the end, it was also necessary to use flesh and blood to form the Great Wall to keep the invaders out of the country.
—Now the bright peaceful lands of China was washed clean with blood by these revolutionary ancestors.
A eloquent long essay was typed out, which directly made many people cry. Netizens who were easily moved watched Tao Mu's dance video over and over again, while they searched for the crew of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" over and over again, and even bought the original novel to read. Before everyone knew it, "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", which was originally filmed in a low-key manner, had become well known on the Internet.
Tao Mu pinpointed the time, and asked the "Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" crew to upload the infectious step dance video of all the crew members dancing together to the crew's official FlyNews account. Adding an especially sentimental voiceover at the beginning of the video that spoke: "The ancestors of the revolution made up the Great Wall with flesh and blood and fought the invaders with all their might, so that their descendants could live like this"—then the video started and one could see a group of dudes wearing female student uniforms of the Republic of China or the cheongsam of concubines, appearing so 'beautiful' it blinded the eyes. And dudettes in the red army uniform, with hair done in two big braids, appearing valiant and heroic. All standing in front of the camera and dancing the shuffle.
—The netizens who were quite emotionally moved and on the verge of crying, bursted into laughter when they saw such a group of demons and handsome girls dancing together in a group dance that also appeared particularly cool and handsome.
"This is too funny!"
"Why are the guys made to look so ugly, and the girls are so handsome and beautiful. By the way, our Mu Mu is indeed worthy of being known as a girl's best friend, all the girls under his lens are very beautiful and handsome!"
"Who the hell came up with this kind of dance, it seems so strange. But after watching it a few times, damn it looks really cool."
"Really cool +1. And it's very simple, I can dance it too."
As some netizens chatted, they even opened their FlyNews accounts and uploaded a video of themselves dancing the shuffle. Netizens were the kind of special existence where someone takes the lead and someone follows suit. So soon, netizens in different job positions, different occupations and different outfits uploaded videos of themselves dancing the shuffle with their friends. The shuffle dance, together with the crew of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", which was the "originator", suddenly shot up the hot search headlines.
Of course, as photos of many female classmates changing into Tao Mu's dance costume came out, many people also started uploading videos of them dancing Tao Mu's dance. However, the technical difficulty of Tao Mu's dance was too great, and most netizens tragically pitted themselves. The only few survivors were all professional dancers who were among the best in the industry.
This time, what was recognized by the public faster than Tao Mu's acting skills, in addition to his net worth and business talent, turned out to be his dancing skills. So Tao Mu was once again crowned "the most unprofessional actor".
For a while, the entire Internet was discussing Tao Mu's two dances and the war drama "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood". Due to the significant improvement in national popularity, what was different from the previous life was that before the crew of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" had even finished filming, many TV stations had already come to them to buy the broadcast rights of this TV series.
In comparison, Guo Yaning, who also released an album on Valentine's Day, felt bad—after her album was released, it was swept away by the tsunami that was Tao Mu's dance video, and no one cared at all.
Guo Yaning, who was really unwilling to see this, called Tao Mu directly to complain, crying and wanting Tao Mu to compensate her for a hot search. Tao Mu had no choice but to say, "In order to fulfill the hundred million users promise, I actually made another dance video earlier. How about you take the video and talk to the people working on your album to match it with a song? "
He remembered that in Guo Yaning's new album, there seemed to be a song similar to Suzhou opera. If it was paired with the dance video, it should be fine too.
Guo Yaning's eyes lit up, and she stretched out a hand in seconds: "Where is the video, gimme!"
AN: Skit
Li Xiao Gong: I'm clearly trying to find a sense of existence, but my Mu Mu always ignores me ╥﹏╥
Tao Xiao Mu: When I get busy, I forget about the CP, what is love, can I eat it _(:з"∠)_
Tao Mu forwarded the video he had shot to Guo Yaning. As for how Guo Yaning's studio planmed to use this video to rub off on his popularity, that was out of Tao Mu's control.
However, what surprised Tao Mu was that after his dance video was uploaded, Long Tianao found him again, saying that "The Legend of Heroes" wanted to rub off on his popularity with a pre-release promotion. Naturally, the publicity plan was to edit the video when Tao Mu was acting as a stand-in as a behind the scenes sneak peek—
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"Zhao Xin was too embarrassed to call you to tell you about this, so he asked me to beg you. You won't object, right?" As Long Tianao spoke, before Tao Mu could answer, he suddenly sneered: "Is there an old saying? Clever people may be victims of their own cleverness. You say, that Zhao Xin is such a scheming guy, back then he already promised to let you join the crew as an actor, but just to have the money to film his shoddy movie, he followed along Zhao Keping's instigations and turned you from an actor into a stand-in, and also have to agree to signing various unequal contracts with Summer Star Entertainment. Now you have transformed into a big boss with money who can bring investment funds to the crew yourself. Just to shoot a TV series, you could casually bring in a 14 million yuan investment. A perfectly good act of kindness turned into this, and he had to ask me to relay even just a word. He missed out on such a potential investor who is generous and amiable. Do you think he regrets it?"
There was also that idiot Zhao Keping, who thought that he had deep scheming and skill, but only found himself to be bitten in the ass by his own cleverness. He went directly from Tao Mu's reserve agent to someone who offended a capital bigwig.
"These two brothers in distress are also destined for each other. But what kind of friendship do we have? If you can't get over that thing, I can help you vent any anger." Long Tianao threw an arm over Tao Mu's shoulders and sighed in a brotherly manner.
Tao Mu looked at the gloating Long Tianao speechlessly: "Who was the biggest beneficiary of that incident at the time? Could you please not show off after taking undeserved gains?"
"The biggest beneficiary was indeed me." Long Tianao was frank, speaking as if he had put honey in his mouth: "If it wasn't for this incident, how could I have known you. If it wasn't for you it would have been impossible for me to change from a hedonistic rich second generation who everybody looked down on to a program planner with high expectations from the company. So, let us brothers be honest. Tell me directly, if you really can't swallow that anger, your buddy here will help you teach that blind fool a lesson."
"Oh, stop!" Tao Mu pushed away classmate Long Aotian, and said, "Everything is business. Don't always show your second year junior high temper. Everyone is just trying to make a livelihood. It's not easy for anyone. There is no conflict of interest at all, so why offend that person?"
Tao Mu's behavior had always adhered to acting when there was profit to be made. Likely only the idle rich second generation like Long Tianao would go out of the way to teach someone a lesson for the sake of face.
Long Tianao smiled and said: "Why is there no benefit? I'm trying to please you here. You are now our most honored business partner of Summer Star Entertainment. Our company employee have offended you before, and as I am the boss, it's impossible for me to pretend nothing wrong has happened, right?"
"But I also know that with your temper, you'll definitely not be happy about me making trouble in the name of venting the anger for you. But I'm a stupid person, so I can't come up with the best of both worlds. So I will just ask your opinion. What do you think? I will follow your lead. Aren't I a good buddy?"
"Simply put, it's just to coax me?" Tao Mu gave Long Tianao a knuckle rap on the head. This kind of cheating and tricking thoughts had to be said so openly, did he not mind losing face?
Just as they were talking, Gou Rixin came over with Tao Mu's cell phone: "Director Chen Yiqian's phone call."
Chen Yiqian, wasn't that the director of "Purple Clouds"?
Tao Mu paused for a moment and then answered the phone: "Hello Director Chen, calling at this time, is there anything you need me for?"
Although the two of them didn't communicate much, Tao Mu still thought about the kindness of Chen Yiqian recommending him to audition for the cast of "The Legend of Heroes" and spoke good words for him in front of Cheng Baodong. Although Tao Mu's role in "The Legend of Heroes" was soon replaced by Long Tianao, and his relationship with Cheng Baodong only stayed on a mutually beneficial level. But Tao Mu was still grateful for Chen Yiqian's willingness to lend a helping hand when he had yet to make it big. At that time, Tao Mu had not yet established , let alone established a relationship with Xiaoheng Capital. The reason why Chen Yiqian helped him was that he simply thought he was a newcomer who deserved more chances.
It was precisely because of this goodwill that Tao Mu showed great respect for Chen Yiqian. Now Chen Yiqian seemed to have something to ask of him, and so long as it was not too much, Tao Mu would never refuse.
Sure enough, Chen Yiqian was also a very measured person. His thoughts were actually similar to Zhao Xin. They both want to promote their own TV series using Tao Mu's name—one must know that before "The Legend of Heroes", Tao Mu was on the crew of "Purple Clouds" and acted as a stand-in for Shen Yu.
"Now the video of Mr. Tao dancing is all over the Internet. So we also edited a version of Mr. Tao's on-set footage of "Purple Clouds", and we plan to post it on the Internet for a wave of publicity." But after all, Tao Mu's role in the crew was just Shen Yu's stand-in, and Tao Mu's relationship with Shen Yu was also a bit awkward. Chen Yiqian couldn't figure out what Tao Mu was thinking and whether or not he was willing to let the crew promote the TV series using his name?
—After all, after this version of the promotional footage was broadcast, someone would certainly compare Tao Mu and Shen Yu. Especially as one of the two was a self-made business wizard, and the other was a son of a wealthy family. Moreover, both the Shen family and Tao Mu hold shares in Sheng'an Group. Before Yao Sheng'an made a big scandal at the Song family's ancestral tomb at the beginning of the new year, and before the relevant video came out, it was said that Shen Yu had a lot of criticism about this matter in private, thinking that Tao Mu was too ruthless and did not leave room for forgiving the elderly. And it was only because he was stopped by the Shen family, so he didn't dare to say anything inappropriate on the social platform.
But even so, Shen Yu's fans also hate Tao Mu very much. If the "Purple Clouds" crew really used Tao Mu as a stunt double for Shen Yu as a publicity stunt. It was foreseeable that the fans on both sides would definitely tear into each other because of this incident. Chen Yiqian was also worried that Tao Mu would alo take his anger out on the entire crew because of this, so he called Tao Mu in advance to get a hint on Tao Mu's attitude.
Tao Mu frowned slightly. It was not that he didn't agree with the way the crew of "Purple Clouds" wanted to rub off on his popularity. In fact, when he became Shen Yu's stunt double, he expected such a day to come. He was already paid, so how could he still prevent others from normal publicity work? What was more, even if the "Purple Clouds" crew didn't mention this, Shen Yu's fans would not forget it when Shen Yu sent so many Weibo posts. When the TV series was released, Shen Yu's fans would revisit the old story.
So Tao Mu didn't plan to stop the "Purple Clouds" crew from using this as a gimmick, and didn't even feel as embarrassed as Chen Yiqian thought. This was just normal work.
"That's good. That's good." Originally it was also written when the contract was signed that Tao Mu would cooperate with the crew to promote it when necessary. However, because of Tao Mu's status change in just half a year, especially after the number of registered users on quickly surpassed the 100 million mark, Chen Yiqian actually felt a little flattered by the other's willingness to perform the contract.
The two chatted a few more words before Chen Yiqian hung up the phone.
Long Tianao was listening the whole time, and couldn't help frowning and sneering: "I thought this Director Chen was a good man. I didn't expect him to be so shameless."
"How is that a way to talk?" Tao Mu squinted at Long Tianao. The appearance of a certain someone shooting off his mouth was really a headache: "I can let the "Legend of Heroes" crew do publicity using my name. Why can't I agree to the request of the "Purple Clouds" crew? You can't favor one over the other, right?"
"How can it be the same?" Long Tianao was immediately dissatisfied: "What is the relationship between us? What is the relationship between you and Shen Yu? That Chen Yiqian knew that the two of you were not on good terms, yet he had the cheek to talk to you about this. I can already imagine what will happen to the fans of you two after the promotional footage of the "Purple Clouds" crew is broadcast."
Tao Mu raised his eyebrows: "Wiil I be afraid?"
"Of course not." Long Tianao, who had been eating melons on the Internet, clearly knew what attributes Tao Mu's fans were—apart from that group of airheads who could only go "aaah", there were also quite a few combat fans. Those were all scolding masters who focus on all kinds of online fights. Besides, Tao Mu's own combat power was also at the level of being able to fight against Buddha.
If it really turned into a war, it was estimated that the brainless fans of Shen Yu were not enough for Tao Mu to even KO in one round.
Thinking of this, Long Tianao suddenly felt relieved. This was the advantage of your friend possessing combat effectiveness—it sure gave a sense of security, no need at all to feel overly anxious.
When Long Tianao came back to his senses, he found Tao Mu looking at him strangely.
"What's wrong?" Long Tianao touched his face, puzzled.
"Don't you have a good relationship with Shen Yu?" Tao Mu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He could remember clearly that Long Tianao played very well with Shen Yu at the time. The two often chat privately on the phone.
"Oh, yeah!" Long Tianao was stunned for a moment, and then said: "I thought Shen Yu was very pleasing to the eye at first. I felt like he was different from ordinary children of rich families. He was very naive, very kind, and very lively, and he got the most imaginative ideas, and spoke very differently than others."
However, don't know since when, the two basically have no communication?
Long Tianao recalled carefully, and found that it was after he and CEO Tao got close. The several companies jointly held a talent show, and Long Tianao began to get involved in company affairs, and he had to attend gatherings with friends from the capital. Over time, he didn't have the energy to contact Shen Yu and the relationship gradually faded. Especially after the incident of the Yao family coming out, Long Tianao really couldn't figure out why such a kind and innocent person would speak for Yao Shengan. Under these feelings of disappointment, he no longer felt the same heart throbbing from before.
Tao Mu understood, and patted Long Tianao on the shoulder: "Cherish your IQ, don't go to Shanghai City."
Long Tianao: "….." What do you mean?
"Brother Mu, it's time for your scene!" In the distance, a crew worker called Tao Mu to film.
Tao Mu, who had been standing in the corner waiting for his scene, responded and hurried into the set.
He was going to shoot a scene in which Su Dingbang was tortured and imprisoned, and witness his comrade-in-arms being tortured by the Japanese with his own eyes. Upon seeing the bloody corpses of his comrades who were still alive the day before, Su Dingbang clearly realized that he could not resist such torture, so he defected.
At the shooting venue, the set designer had already set up the scene background. The spooky and airtight prison had only a dim incandescent lamp swaying above. Chen Jianguo, who played a member of the underground party, was tied to a rack, covered and dripping with blood. The makeup teacher also stood by to touch up his makeup.
Teacher Shao Ming, who played the Japanese military officer, was standing a meter away in a Japanese military uniform, and was also getting his makeup touched up. In addition, there were several special actors in charge of carrying out the torture. Tao Mu, who was wearing a white suit, walked to his place, and everyone got into the right mindframe of emotions. The clapper loader in charge of the clapperboard shouted "Action".
"Su-san, I really didn't expect that a noble young master like you, who should enjoy the riches and glory of the world, would be bewitched by these traitors and participate in these violent dealings." The Japanese military officer walked up to Su Dingbang and said regretfully in very stiff Chinese.
Forced by the intimidating aura of the Japanese military officer, Su Dingbang played by Tao Mu couldn't help but take a small step back, and inadvertently showed an obvious tremble.
Keenly noticing this, the Japanese military officer hooked the corner of his mouth upwards in amusement. Instead of putting pressure on Su Dingbang, he walked up to the underground party member bound on a rack and slowly picked up a red-hot soldering iron from the charcoal basin.
"Under normal circumstances, when we formally entertain guests, we need to order appetizers." The Japanese military officer said, crooked his neck in a mentally unstable way, and slowly pressed the soldering iron on the chest of the underground party member.
"Ahhhhhhh—" Chen Jianguo, who played the underground party member, shouted loudly. The red-hot iron made a sizzling sound when it came into contact with the flesh, and a pungent smell of burnt flesh permeated the dark underground torture cell. The piercing pain made him struggle subconsciously. He was sweating profusely and his face twisted frightfully, and as the camera moved forward, his whole person appeared to convulse.
Su Dingbang jumped violently, leaning against the wall with a pale face, his body trembling slightly as he looked at the underground party member being put under torture.
"Alright, the appetizers are over." The Japanese military officer put down the soldering iron, looked back at Su Dingbang, who was too frightened to speak, and smiled slightly: "Now, the main course begins."
"Cut!" Zhou Hong shouted. Sitting in front of the monitor and watching for a while, he reached out and beckoned Tao Mu: "Come here."
Zhou Hong motioned to Tao Mu to look at the monitor by himself. In the video playback, he saw that on the small screen, the two veteran actors who played the underground party member and the Japanese military officer were playing off on each other. The interaction between the two and even every micro-expression made the atmosphere more and more tense. In the end, when Teacher Chen Jianguo performed the scene where he struggled painfully from being tortured, it was even more shocking and painful to watch.
Their performance was especially brilliant.
Tao Mu's expression changed slightly.
The performances of the two teachers were particularly brilliant. In the whole picture, Su Dingbang was originally the third "protagonist". But even if he watched the video himself, he didn't notice such a character at all.
Originally, he was supposed to be the main character of this scene, but the result was that Su Dingbang's existence became just like the other special characters, becoming dispensable and fading into the scenery. The only few close-ups, compared with the two veteran actors who played with ease and fierceness, came off slightly jerky and deliberate. Looking very much out of place.
His acting was suppressed.
The two veteran actors who were still on the set looked at Tao Mu, who was standing in front of the monitor, frowning, and smiled at each other involuntarily.
In real life, Tao Mu was an investor who brought capital into the crew and was a big boss. It was not wrong that everyone treated him respectfully. But if it was in the scene, well, it was each according to his ability.
At the same time, they also wanted to observe Tao Mu's reaction—this child was fine everywhere. He was pure-hearted, generous, and could handle things, but they didn't know what his temperament was like.
According to the reaction of the students from Beijing Film, this child was quite burdened by idol baggage. The so-called idol baggage, in the eyes of these old fellows, was just basically having thin skin and placing importance on keeping face.
Then they have to see, when this little guy with a particularly heavy idol baggage was suppressed by old senior actors, could he take back his stage presence with his own skills, or rely on his identity as an investor to have these veteran actors hold back for his sake.
This was just the first scene, and the major scene that followed had not yet even come. Everyone was just curious and wanted to know which path Tao Mu would choose.
Zhan Bin and Zhan Baoli, who both had no part in this scene, also quietly walked to the corner of the studio.
Tao Mu didn't notice everyone's reaction. He just watched the video thoughtfully for a while, then asked the director to take one more shot, two more, three more…..so immersed in the shooting Tao Mu didn't know that, just when he was concentrating on honing his acting skills, the sky was overturned outside because of the promotional behind the scenes released by the "Purple Clouds" crew.
"Ahhhhhhhhh—"
In the dark torture prison, the underground party member who was tortured to extract a confession had completely turned into a blood-soaked scarecrow.
The barbed leather whip was dipped in salt water, and slapped at the flesh rhythmically. When the shadow of the whip flew, one could even see the splattering of blood drops.
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Bind the person's legs to a bench and stuff bricks under their feet. As the bricks were piled up, the bound knees were subjected to pressure and force, and eventually couldn't hold up anymore and break directly. But because there was no external injury, there would be no fatal crisis such as infection.
"…..But these legs are as good as crippled." The Japanese military officer shook his head regretfully. Looking down condescendingly at Su Dingbang who was so frightened that he went limp and collapsed on the ground.
"Su-san!" The Japanese military officer leaned down slightly and looked at the person in front of him with pity, one who had used to be a handsome and noble young master, but now was like a pool of mud paralyzed at his feet.
He had said before, the violent business of war and fighting, killing and bloodshed were not suitable for these rich children who only knew how to enjoy luxury and have never suffered.
The Japanese military officer leisurely picked up Su Dingbang's hand, the originally slender and fair palm was covered in sweat and some dirty bloodstains: "I heard that Su-san likes to play the piano. We have a punishment here, which is to fiercely insert sharpened bamboo sticks under the nails. I wonder if these hands will be able to play the piano then?"
The hand caught by the Japanese military officer shook suddenly and clenched tightly into a fist. As if hiding the fingers in the palm of the hand could avoid those terrible things.
A look of contempt flashed in the Japanese military officer's eyes, oh, weak and cowardly Chinese!
He stood up and walked in front of the underground party member in an unhurried manner: "This gentleman, I admire your will. Our great empire of Japan appreciates a talent like you. As long as you agree to surrender. I swear, you will enjoy the best medical treatment immediately. Prosperity and wealth, or high official status, they are all within easy reach."
"But if you continue to remain stubborn, then we will be subjected to electrocution next." The Japanese military officer glanced at the bloody underground party member: "In your current state, if you sit in the electric chair, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to survive. However, before you die, you will endure the most unbearable pain in the world."
The pain would be so painful that every time he took a breath, the underground party member would convulse involuntarily. He knew that he couldn't hold on anymore, and he would definitely not be able to survive the electrocution. His eyes were dulled, and he moved them slightly to look at Su Dingbang, who had been paralyzed on the side even before he was tortured.
This one would definitely defect.
The underground party member's lips twitched.
"What?" The Japanese military officer moved closer to the underground party member.
"I surrender….." A faint voice sounded.
There was a hint of disappointment in the Japanese military officer's eyes. He had wondered just how hard the bones of this Chinese man could be. Turned out to be nothing more than that.
He stood up straight, took the towel his subordinate handed him to wipe his hands, and asked casually, "Name?"
The underground party member did not answer. He was just twitching all over, crying and sobbing, and his lower lip kept trembling. But there was no sound.
He was just too ashamed of his own betrayal.
The Japanese military officer didn't speak, but waited patiently for the underground party member to calm down and asked again, "Name."
"…..I…..need…..treatment." The underground party member swallowed hard, barely breathing.
When the Japanese military officer saw this, he was also afraid that the underground party member would not be able to survive. So he had to order his subordinates to take him to treatment, anyway, it was not like he could escape.
The freed underground party member allowed the Japanese to support him out of the torture room. When passing by the Japanese military officer, everyone was wary that he would suddenly attack, but the underground party member only obediently allowed himself to be taken away. Everyone subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, and it seemed that he was really going to defect.
No one would have thought that when the Japanese was passing by Su Dingbang while carrying the underground party member, the underground party member who had been obedient the whole time suddenly erupted into an attack. After breaking free, he directly threw himself on Su Dingbang's body, clasping Su Dingbang's neck with both hands.
"Pull him off!"
However, the strength of the underground party member was too great, and his obsession much deeper. He actually wanted to kill the Japanese more, but he couldn't let Su Dingbang live. This person's temperament was too weak, he would definitely betray them. At that time the organization would be at risk.
"Useless trash!" Seeing the group of people kicking and punching, yet still couldn't pull away the underground party member from Su Dingbang, and Su Dingbang being suffocated to the point of rolling his eyes into the back of his head. The Japanese military officer raised his gun angrily and fired two shots at the underground party member.
The underground party member lying on Su Dingbang's body froze, and his hands slipped away. Before dying, he looked at Su Dingbang with regret in his eyes, his lips twitchinh. It was a silent apology.
He knew that Su Dingbang was innocent. But when the nation was in danger, he couldn't allow the survival of an innocent person that would lead to the risk of the organization being exposed.
But he was powerless.
Su Dingbang, who finally escaped death, scrambled to put distance between himself and the underground party member, clutching his throat and coughing violently, sweat and tears streaming down his face. He looked at his comrade-in-arms with horror.
The Japanese military officer put down his gun with special regret: "What an admirable enemy. Send the body to the mass grave to feed the dogs."
The Japanese military officer took out his handkerchief and wiped his right hand. He walked in front of Su Dingbang with a polite but hideous smile: "Now, it's your turn."
"Cut!" The camera fixed on the tense and sinister smile of the Japanese military officer. Zhou Hong shouted 'cut' with satisfaction, and the dead underground party member jumped up first, rubbing his hands and legs and putting on his military coat. He couldn't help it, it was too cold. The ground was cold and damp, and his old bones couldn't take it.
His arthritic legs had made themselves noticed. So just now he was really feeling pain. All the sweat was real.
Makeup artists and assistants hurriedly entered the set to touch up makeup and send over hot water bottles. Gou Rixin helped Tao Mu get up and put on a military coat for him. But he saw Tao Mu thoughtfully walking to the monitor, watching the playback over and over again.
His expression was not very good.
Even if he had won a best actor award, he could only say that his acting skills were just above the standard. If he were to really talk about impressive acting skills, he might not be able to outperform veteran actors who perform all year round and could often create classic characters. They could even be included in Beijing Film textbooks, but they were just too lazy to publicize all kinds of awards.
Tao Mu's current situation was similar. His acting skills were indeed above the standard, but that was about it. Even Wen Bao, who was talented and just entered the freshman year, could overwhelm him when he was in his best form, not to mention the veteran actors who have integrated their acting skills down into their bone marrows long ago.
And the most criticized thing about Tao Mu's acting was that he was too poised. As the saying went, it was too deliberate and too forceful. If this kind of acting was up against an average actor or script, then it was more than enough. But if he came across a cast like "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", which had a rating of 1.0 even ten years later, and was known as the most classic Anti-Japanese War drama, a legendary drama that was a milestone in the Anti-Japanese War drama genre, then it was definitely not enough at all.
What was more, the addition of Tao Mu allowed the crew to no longer have the pressure on filming funds. Since there was no worries, some incompetent actors who have been put in by the investors have all been fired. The ones who remained were basically veteran actors who were in the habit of perfecting their skills even when it was already outstanding.
Under such circumstances, Tao Mu's deliberate acting was like a public execution under a magnifying glass. It was horrible when compared to the acting of the veteran actors. Simply just coming across as awkward and unnatural. Handsome in a very greasy way.
Tao Mu squatted by the monitor and watched the playback repeatedly, Zhou Hong sat next to him with legs crossed, and asked with a smile, "Another take?"
Tao Mu pondered for a moment, then said, "Wait for me for a while."
Then, Tao Mu walked out of the studio quietly. Zhou Hong thought that Tao Mu just wanted to go to the restroom and didn't care.
Only Gou Rixin followed. Seeing that Tao Mu was going further and further, actually running to a place where no one was around, took off his military coat, and only stood in the shirt and trousers from the filming out in the winter cold.
"Tao Mu!" Gou Rixin ran over with disapproval and was about to put the coat back on Tao Mu.
"Shh!" Tao Mu motioned to Gou Rixin not to alert others: "Go get me a bottle of mineral water that's cold."
"You're going to die!" Gou Rixin frowned fiercely.
"I'm young and full of energy, I won't die." Tao Mu urged Gou Rixin to get a bottle of mineral water and then poured it on his head. When the northwest wind blew by, even his brains hurt from the freezing cold. Tao Mu stood outside for more than half an hour before walking back to the studio with a pale face and trembling limbs.
If the acting skills were not enough, then the physical state must be up to par. To a certain extent, Tao Mu was inspired by Teacher Chen Jianguo, who played the underground party member.
When Tao Mu came in from the outside wrapped in a cold air, the entire studio fell silent. Basically, anyone with eyes could see what Tao Mu wanted to do.
Ruthless!
Several veteran actors looked at each other in dismay but said nothing. The lights and cameras also quickly took their places, and Zhou Hong directly signaled to start shooting.
The same plot, the same scene, this time Tao Mu's state was perfect, and he was no longer fading into the background.
He looked at the underground party member who had been tortured to the point of being washed in blood. He was so frightened that he didn't even dare to look, but he still trembled when he heard the screams of his comrade. His face was ashen, which was due to the fear that began to tremble from the bottom of his heart.
When threatened by the Japanese military officer who had a grip on his right hand, he tried his best to retract it, so harshly he tugged that he almost broke away from the Japanese military officer's restraint. The blue veins of the right hand that had clenched into a fist popped visibly, and even if just from the frequency of the constant shaking, one could see the fear in this person.
The scene of being strangled by the underground party member was even more classic. Teacher Chen Jianguo used his hands to squeeze Su Dingbang's neck tightly. Tao Mu held Teacher Chen Jianguo's hand with both hands, and seemed to be trying to pull them off hard, but in fact, he was secretly pressing his thumb to a position on his throat, and he really rolled his eyes from real suffocation. Frightening Teacher Chen Jianguo into trying to use his little finger as a padding. As the two struggled and interacted, one was sweating from anxiety while the other was suffocated blue, both adding to that kind of tension-inducing tug o' war between life and death.
Finally, after the underground party member was shot and killed, Su Dingbang clutched his neck and crawled out from under the underground party member's corpse, covering his neck with his hands, kneeling on the ground and coughing violently, and because the indoor temperature on the set was much higher than that outside, and there was an electric hot air conditioner in a place that the camera couldn't see to keep everyone warm. Tao Mu actually wanted to sneeze under the alternation of hot and cold temperatures. But he couldn't. So he opened his mouth wide and sniffed fiercely, his eyes were crimson red, the white of eyes bloodshot, tears were rushing out from the corners of his eyes, and even snot was about to come out. He was gasping for breath, trembling uncontrollably all over his body, staring straight at the dead underground party member, retching and speechless.
Zhou Hong really didn't expect Tao Mu to go out on for awhile, then come back and be able to perform in such a way, as if he had broken the bottleneck in cultivation and was reborn into Nirvana. He could barely hold back his shout of amazement during the filming, taking close-up after close-up, from the close-up of the face to the close-up of the hands, to the close-up of the whole body, and even the curled up heels when hunched over added to the overall explosive feeling of the scene.
Simply wow!
It was as refreshing as drinking a glass of cold beer on a high summer day at noon and as comfortable as eating hotpot on a deep winter night.
When Zhou Hong slapped his thigh and shouted 'cut', the entire crew couldn't help applauding. Tao Mu finally couldn't hold it in and sneezed seven or eight times in succession. Gou Rixin rushed into the studio holding tissues and a military coat. When Tao Mu blew his nose, he was still shivering from the cold in his bones, and the hand holding the tissues really looked like he had Parkinson's disease.
He still couldn't help coughing either.
Teacher Shao Ming, who played the role of the Japanese military officer, quickly came over with his own thermos cup filled with a large helping of indigo woad root, and had Tao Mu take some sips.
"You must have caught a cold." Teacher Shao Ming reached out and touched Tao Mu's forehead, it was cold and sweaty.
"It's alright." Tao Mu blew his nose without any care for his image, and said with a stuffed nose: "I'll go back and drink a cup of liquid medicine, I'll sweat it out with the blanket, and I'll be fine tomorrow morning."
But the result was that Tao Mu was not well at all the next morning. Due to a fever of 39.3 degrees celsius, Zhou Hong wanted to give Tao Mu a day off for him to rest. But it was Tao Mu who disagreed.
Insisting that he was in a very good condition now, especially suitable for the scene of being shot to death by the male protagonist.
When wrapped in a military coat to wait for the scene, Tao Mu, who was still blowing his nose constantly, his nose even becoming visibly red, tried to find the silver lining: "I think my current state is very suitable for playing a opium addict. Ai, you say, if noble young master Su Dingbang becomes big drug addict Su Dingbang, and is then shot by the male lead later. Wouldn't it be particularly dramatic?"
Tao Mu was just talking casually, but Screenwriter Fan, who was passing by, heard it and fell into thought. Immediately, he made a phone call to the original author. After some communication, it was actually decided that yes, they would change the script—
Su Dingbang, who finally defected to the enemy under torture from the Japanese, almost didn't survive his injuries. During the treatment, he became addicted to morphine. On the one hand, it was to endure the pain, on the other hand, because he couldn't get over his guilt, so he started smoking opium to paralyze his senses.
Later, when he was used as bait to lure the male protagonist to appear, Su Dingbang cooperated very willingly under the temptation of opium. However, in the end, the ending where he should have died under the gun of the male protagonist turned into Su Dingbang commiting suicide by swallowing a large quantity of opium after hearing the news that the Su family had been destroyed from the male protagonist.