My Landlord is an Idol Singer - Chapter 157

The movie filming continued steadily in the following days. The teamwork between Lai Jingming and Situ Hongwei was unexpectedly impressive, even catching Gu Zhinan by surprise.

As the main director, Gu Zhinan ended up doing nothing more than running errands. He followed the crew to set every day, helped a young assistant order lunchboxes, returned to write his script, sent a daily message to the landlord in hopes of being released from “prison,” and then eagerly waited for lunchtime.

“You see me coming back with food all messy, but now look at me enjoying my extra chicken leg, jealous, aren’t you? But don’t lose hope! As long as you work hard enough, someday you’ll earn the right to eat like me too!”

Lai Jingming stared longingly at the chicken leg in Gu Zhinan’s lunchbox. He didn’t even have the words to express his envy anymore. This guy got bonus meals every day with Situ Hongwei, while he, Lai Jingming, was stuck eating diet food!

He couldn’t even remember when the whole “diet plan” started. All he knew was that every time he went to pick up lunch, the assistant would hand him a bland meal and say, “Director Gu says this is for Director Lai.”

“You really should lose some weight. With all that fat, I bet even riding in a car costs extra,” Situ Hongwei said while biting into a chicken leg, grease all over his mouth.

“Damn it!” Lai Jingming muttered as he kept his head down and shoveled food into his mouth.

Before they knew it, it was already November 15th and the “Masked Singer” appearance he’d promised Lin Xi was just around the corner. Gu Zhinan had nearly forgotten about it until Lin Xi suddenly called that afternoon.

She told him to make time for one day of rehearsal, which meant he needed to check into the hotel arranged by Hangzhou TV on the 18th. After that, he couldn’t appear in public anymore.

Strict rules, indeed.

Gu Zhinan had only agreed to it after joking with Lai Jingming, not expecting to take it seriously. “Fatty, you still remember ‘Masked Singer’?”

During a break in filming, Gu Zhinan found Lai Jingming, who was discussing the upcoming shoot with Situ Hongwei.

“Masked Singer?” Situ Hongwei looked up, confused. “You like watching that singing show?”

“It’s like this,” Lai Jingming set down his papers and explained, “Back in Jingdu, Zhinan sang Blue and White Porcelain, and Lin Xi was there. She’s one of the producers for ‘Masked Singer’ on Zhejiang TV, and she invited him to perform.”

He paused, eyes lighting up at the thought of money.

“We’ve burned through a lot of budget in these two weeks. Zhinan gets 100,000 yuan per episode. If he advances, it’s an extra 50,000 per round! If he lasts two or three episodes, that’s several hundred thousand right there!”

“So much?” Situ Hongwei was shocked. 100k per episode? That was already star-tier pricing!

Has Gu Zhinan really reached that level?

But then again, he remembered that “Masked Singer” runs about 10 episodes a season, and not everyone appears every week. At most, Gu Zhinan might do five episodes total.

“You don’t know, Brother Situ. Zhinan’s got serious vocal skills. Lin Xi knew exactly what she was doing paying that price,” Lai Jingming said, waving it off.

Then he turned to Gu Zhinan. “So they called you?”

“Yeah. I’m supposed to check in at the Hangzhou TV station hotel on the afternoon of the 18th. On the 19th I get a full day in a studio to practice and pick my song. Then on the 20th, I perform for the first episode.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’ll head back to my apartment in Lin City and stay there for a couple of days. I can’t just take their money and go up there to mess around. Plus, First Love still needs a theme song, I’ll try to come up with something.”

“You’re writing the theme song yourself??”

Both Lai Jingming and Situ Hongwei stared at him in shock. Just yesterday they’d been stressing about this. A solid, catchy theme song could make a huge difference in a youth film like this, but the licensing fees for even average songs were enough to make them sweat.

Lai Jingming had even considered asking Xia An’ge to use Summer Wind, but that song had already been used as a theme before. It was a great track, but it didn’t have the “wow” factor anymore.

That was a big problem.

Gu Zhinan just nodded and grinned. “Might as well try. Can’t let Brother Situ spend his wife’s savings to fund us.”

Yesterday, Situ Hongwei had considered pitching in more personal savings if the crew’s budget really couldn’t cover the rest of the shoot. Gu Zhinan didn’t want that. He still had some tens of thousands saved, and if worse came to worst, he could always ask the landlord… it’d be another debt anyway.

“It’s a shame we can’t use Blue and White Porcelain as the theme!” Lai Jingming suddenly remembered the next big thing, Xia An’ge’s upcoming album. He got excited.

“Too bad the love song Zhinan wrote for Xia An’ge’s new album drops at midnight on the 17th. If they’d waited until next year, we could’ve used it as a theme and ridden the hype!”

“17th?” Gu Zhinan blinked. “That soon? I didn’t even know.”

“What? She didn’t tell you? Isn’t it your song? Xia An’ge posted on Weibo three days ago, it’s dropping the 17th at midnight!”

Lai Jingming was stunned. This guy was on his phone every day, either tapping away at his script or ogling girls from other production crews. And he didn’t know?

Gu Zhinan’s mouth twitched. Know my ass. I’m still on her blacklist!

As for Weibo, he honestly hadn’t checked it much lately. He’d been focused on writing. It definitely wasn’t because the neighboring crew had gorgeous actresses and he was too tired after admiring them all day. Definitely not.

Although, after all that looking, he still thought the landlord was the prettiest.

“Of course I knew. I was just testing if you were a real fan of hers,” Gu Zhinan said coolly, unfazed.

“….” Neither Lai Jingming nor Situ Hongwei believed him. The guy had clearly zoned out earlier, he obviously didn’t know.

“When are you heading back?” Lai Jingming asked, letting the lie slide. If Gu Zhinan wanted to go home, better that he rest properly than keep loafing around on set.

“Tomorrow morning. I’ll pack up after we wrap tonight.”

That evening, they went back to their usual hangout, a local diner in the outskirts of Hangzhou. It had basically become Natural Entertainment’s designated cafeteria.

Gu Zhinan told the crew he’d be heading back to Lin City for a bit.

What surprised him was how nobody objected. They all just encouraged him to focus on updating Legend of Sword and Fairy, saying things were fine with Director Lai and Situ holding the fort.

Apparently, he was that unnecessary. Unbelievable.

“Director Gu’s not just leaving to slack off,” Lai Jingming clarified. “He’s got a performance on the 20th. We can all watch it together, but keep it secret for now.”

After two weeks of working together, the crew had grown close. Situ Hongwei’s team was loyal, and even the new actors had come to see themselves as part of Natural Entertainment. So Lai Jingming didn’t keep it a secret.

“What show is it?” Yun Yinxue asked curiously. She was dressed casually, looking like the girl next door.

“Masked Singer. Singing competition.” Gu Zhinan smiled. “Just going onstage to earn money and buy you all meals!”

“Hahaha!” The whole crew laughed. They all knew Director Gu’s laid-back attitude he was more like a friend than a boss.

“Masked Singer? I love that show! So mysterious! And some of the singers are just as good as the professionals!” Zhuo Jing said excitedly.

“When we finish filming, we’ll totally support Director Gu on TV!”

“Yeah! We’ll all cheer for him!” Meng Xingye added, waving his arms enthusiastically. He really loved this crew, no egos, no disrespect. On set, everyone was a colleague; off-set, they were friends. Even Assistant Director Lai Jingming carried props without complaint.

“Let’s raise a glass of tea to Director Gu! Wishing him great success!” Chen Yuze lifted his drink. He wasn’t the shy boy he used to be. Lai Jingming’s “brainwashing” had really worked, just hopefully not too well, or he’d end up inheriting Lai’s pyramid-scheme personality!