Chapter 1053 - You Look Rather Proper

With Hui Lin’s personality, it was only natural for her to burst out having undergone countless criticisms despite being in her twenties. After all, she was just a little Taoist nun who spent most of her life training in the mountains.

Thankfully, with Yang Chen’s presence, Hui Lin acted smartly. Her stare on Yang Chen was unwavering, her eyes blinked but she remained silent.

Yang Chen spared Zhang Kaiwei a glimpse before turning to face Yang Shuo. “Director Yu Shuo, my wife funded a good ninety percent for this film. I believe that you’ve informed everybody present, right?”

“Yes, Mister Yang. Our producers and relevant treasury members are all here.” Yu Shuo introduced the surrounding crew leaders in the process.

One of the person-in-charge frowned. “Sir, who exactly is his wife?”

Yu Shuo whispered back. “Director Yang’s wife is Yu Lei International’s CEO Lin, our main investor of this film.”

Shocked overcame the crowd, prompting them to cast odd glances to Yang Chen. They just couldn’t wrap their heads around this situation. How could an average-looking man be Lin Ruoxi’s husband?

It was even weirder that he was working for his wife as a director in one of Yu Lei’s sub-companies.

Yang Chen ignored them. “We’re the ones funding this film and the actor works under our company. You are free to do as you wish with the film but whatever Hui Lin isn’t comfortable doing, we will not do. If you’re adamant about breaching our prior agreement, you may quit. Someone else will fill your position.”

Hearing his words, someone mocked among the crowd. “Haha, so what if you’re filthy rich? With Director Yu Shuo’s fame, he could get any actor he wished for. If you’re going to retract our funds, another company will fund for us instead. Kaiwei’s schedule is full to the brim and if it wasn’t for his gratitude towards Director Yu Shuo, there was no way they could’ve gotten Kaiwei to act for a non-lead role.”

“Don’t make it sound like we belong to you. Stop trying to suppress us using your wealth, you know nothing about our work!”

At this moment, Zhang Kaiwei attempted to calm the crowd. With an honest expression, he said, “Everyone, please quiet down. Please do not make the situation worse. I’m sure this is the first time Mister Yang has ever gotten involved with a film crew. This is just a small matter, let’s not make it any more difficult for Director Yu Shuo.”

“Oh, Kaiwei, you’re too kind. However, today we must support you. It’s evident that Hui Lin is the one at fault this time. She’s here to ruin the film! She’s against going in herself and that indicates how much disrespect she has for cinematographic art! She has no respect for us whatsoever,” replied an assistant director.

Hui Lin started to get teary-eyed. She shook her head, “No… That’s not it…”

“Please don’t say that.” Zhang Kaiwei expressed his concern. “This is still Miss Hui Lin’s first time.”

Yu Shuo cast a thankful glance at Zhang Kaiwei. He gritted his teeth before facing Yang Chen. “Mister Yang, you’re probably unaware of a few things. Although I’m very grateful for the fundings your company has provided us with, the problem this movie faces is not the funds. For a good fantasy martial arts movie to be made, special effects and certain backdrops and action sequences are needed. We’ll require the best in this industry.

Especially for special effects during post-processing. Right now, we’re using Kaiwei’s contact with the investors of Industrial Light & Magic to land an agreement. It wasn’t for Kaiwei, it would’ve been impossible for our special effects processing to be done within the expected time frame. Brushing aside our subpar standards, even if it were to be handled by some other American company, our movie wouldn’t turn out as great.”

Zhang Kaiwei humbly waved his hand. “That’s too much flattery, sir. I was just doing what I should do. I’m willing to beg if it helps you and our Chinese film industry soar to greater heights.”

“Kaiwei is such a generous man…”

“Yeah, no matter how rich Yu Lei is, would ILM care about your wealth? They’re the best in the world! There was no way they’d accept this project if it wasn’t for contact. Not to mention, Director Yu Shuo is a cinematographer with boundless potential.” Someone chimed.

Yang Chen squinted, he turned to face Yu Min. “What does the ILM do?”

Yu Min awkwardly explained the company to him. “Industrial Light & Magic is the world’s top special effects post-processing company. They’ve worked on famous movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars. All their most significant works were part of the best-selling special effects movies in history.”

“Oh… I see.” Yang Chen nodded. He had watched those two movies before.

“Tsk, it’s clear he knows absolutely nothing about this industry. How could he now know what ILM is and dared to point fingers at us?” complained a producer.

Yang Chen’s eyes formed crescents as he smirked maliciously. “So based on what you’ve said, as long as we get ILM to stay on the project, it wouldn’t matter if Zhang Kaiwei was involved, right?”

The crowd was perplexed. What was Yang Chen trying to say?

“Huh? Don’t tell me Director Yang has contact with the ILM authorities too.” Someone laughed.

Naturally, no one would’ve thought so. The man didn’t even know what the ILM was. The crowd started to laugh mockingly.

Everyone present on set was the backbone of the crew. They were all well-known in the Chinese film industry and with Yu Shuo’s soaring fame, switching to another investor shouldn’t be an issue.

With that being said, the request for Hui Lin to act out the kiss scene personally was not the intention of Zhang Kaiwei alone.

She was one of the current most popular Chinese goddess-like singers. If she had given her first on-screen kiss to Zhang Kaiwei, it would help boost his popularity.

With that, the film crew could milk their fame for more profit. After all, Hui Lin was a singer. Her chances of landing another acting role would be rare. It would be best to extract maximum value from this experience.

Those intentions were clear to the veterans despite not being voiced out. Yu Min, who had considerable experience in the industry understood what they were after while Yang Chen, could guess most of it.

Deciding she could no longer take how the crowd insulted Yang Chen, some red appeared on Hui Lin’s cheek. She lifted her head to face Yang Chen. “Brother Yang, how about we pull ourselves out of this film and have the sister retract the funds?”

Yang Chen was a little taken aback, he stared at Hui Lin. “Really? Are you sure?”

Zhang Kaiwei, who was standing aside quickly spoke up. “Miss Hui Lin, it’s best to not act so brash. Everyone has signed a contract, a breach of agreement will result in a large sum of penalties and reputation damage.”

“I…” Hui Lin bit her lip. She returned her gaze onto Yang Chen. “Brother Yang, would we need to pay them a lot?”

Yang Chen nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be quite a large sum. The money channeled into this film is no small amount. It’ll probably require at least a few billion to solve this out.”

“Then… we should go talk to my sister about this. It’s obvious they’re trying to humiliate you.” Hui Lin sounded pressed.

Yang Chen was stunned. The girl wasn’t feeling wronged about the situation but instead, she was worried that he was getting bullied by them all.

Was she just trying to protect him all along?

Yang Chen didn’t know if he wanted to cry or laugh at her innocence. Why had he not experienced this childish and genuine intention before? How could this girl be so stupid when faced with such a situation? He could’ve easily hired a ten-person expert team to service her alone, let alone a mere Industrial Light & Magic company.

But still, he had to appreciate the fact that Hui Lin was adamant about saving him some face.

Her feelings were genuine and deep. There was no way he could refuse such a noble act.

Yang Chen thought to himself for a bit, before he took out his phone to dial for someone.

The call was finally accepted after a while.

“Fucking Hades, don’t you know that its already ungodly hours over here in America? Women need their beauty sleep for good skin! Don’t you know I hate getting woken up by phone calls?”

Christen’s shrill screams could be heard from the device. It wasn’t difficult to picture an enraged blonde beauty hitting the life out of her bed.

If she wasn’t so overwhelmed with anger, she would’ve referred to him as Yang Chen as per usual.

Yang Chen grinned. “That’s alright, you still look great without much sleep.”

“That’s more like it.” Christen yawned loudly. “Spill the beans, what do you need from me? Make it fast because I need my sleep or I’ll age faster.”

Though Gods were powerful beings, their mortal reincarnations were given life through the normal human process. That was also why the gods had descendants after thousands and millions of reincarnations, despite their offspring being mere mortals.

Therefore, without special training, it was close to impossible for them to appear powerful. For the appearance-obsessed Christen, skincare was still very important to her.

Of course, it was a totally different case for those who chose to reincarnate as the blood race like Hermes.

There was no need for Yang Chen to be so formal with someone who had lived many lives. It was essentially pointless.

“Do you know anyone from Industrial Light & Magic?” asked Yang Chen.

The crowd’s attention was immediately on Yang Chen. They looked at one another, curious to who was on the other side of Yang Chen’s call. Thankfully, everyone could understand English to a certain extent, no one was completely lost.

Yu Shuo had some general understanding of who Yang Chen was. He still remembered that Yu Lei had the ability to invite Christen, an internationally famed diva. He couldn’t help but let his mind make some guesses. Hope glimmered in his eyes.

Christen mumbled incoherently. “Of course I do. George Lucas owns that company. I’ve got two movies that were sent to post-production at his place. The man looks proper but he’s a true pervert in private. He’s still a pretty nice person. What’s the matter with that company? Did they offend you?”