Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 369 The Magnanimous Li Xiaoran
Seeing her like this, Wu Yuchen knew she was in a bad mood and could guess why. Wu Yuchen leaned over and hugged her, but Li Xiaoran swayed, showing resistance and anger.

However, Wu Yuchen still hugged her and asked, "What's wrong, Sister Ranran?"

Li Xiaoran snorted and said in an unfriendly tone:
"It's frustrating when you can't get past a level in a game!"
I couldn't win the role from anyone else, so sad!

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen appeared concerned, staring intently at her face for several moments before asking, "Where do you feel unwell? Are you short of breath or experiencing chest tightness?"

"Yes!" Li Xiaoran opened her eyes and looked at Wu Yuchen, thinking to herself, "Isn't it all because of you that I'm angry!"
Then Wu Yuchen chuckled and said, "Then I'll help you!"

After saying that, Wu Yuchen made his move. He reached out and covered Li Xiaoran's chest with his hand, then lowered his head and silenced her with a kiss.

Feeling tightness in your chest? Let me give you a good massage to relieve it. Shortness of breath? Then I'll give you artificial respiration!
Li Xiaoran's eyes widened. At first, she tried to fight back by hitting Wu Yuchen, but as Wu Yuchen's attacks intensified, she eventually took the initiative and clung to him tightly...

After Wu Yuchen's repeated counseling, Li Xiaoran's symptoms were relieved.

On the bed, Wu Yuchen leaned against the headboard, his hand still resting on Li Xiaoran's headboard, fiddling with it. Li Xiaoran, having recovered, slapped him, her voice still tinged with jealousy, and said, "You're so annoying~ Why don't you go find your new leading lady?"

“I just wanted to find you~” Wu Yuchen said, and then kissed Li Xiaoran again.

Li Xiaoran snorted: "You're so nice to me, giving the role to someone else after you've started a new show!"

Wu Yuchen whispered in her ear, "Sister Ranran, the female lead in 'Reign of Assassins' is working very hard this time. The action scenes are demanding, and she started training a long time in advance. I'm worried about tiring you out."

Li Xiaoran glanced at Wu Yuchen and pressed, "How long in advance? How much?"

"Uh, several years ago..." Wu Yuchen said vaguely.

"Several years ago? Why don't you say you started training from 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'!"

Li Xiaoran said irritably that when she was auditioning for the female lead in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," she had also interacted with Zeng Li during martial arts training, and Jiang Qinqin was also there at the time...

Thinking of this, Li Xiaoran's eyes widened, and she pressed, "Tell me, did you start hooking up with her back then?"

Wu Yuchen immediately shook his head: "No, no!"

Li Xiaoran glared at Wu Yuchen: "No! You're really something! Sending the three of us together!"

Then Li Xiaoran grabbed Wu Yuchen's sensitive spot and continued to ask, "How many little vixens are you keeping around?"

"No no!"

"Hmph! I'd be a fool to believe you!" With that, Li Xiaoran gave Wu Yuchen's waist a hard twist.

Wu Yuchen hissed and gasped, "It hurts! It hurts! Sis, be gentle!"

Li Xiaoran didn't let go; instead, she pinched it again: "When you were fooling around outside, why didn't you think about being gentler?"

Wu Yuchen forgot about the pain at that moment and quickly said, "Sister Ranran! Good sister! Good Ranran! You are the one I care about the most and the one I like the most!"

As he spoke, he hugged Li Xiaoran and kissed her on the face.

"All you do is sweet talk!" Although she said that, Li Xiaoran had already let go of her hand, clearly showing that women are susceptible to sweet talk.

She actually knew about Jiang Qinqin's existence from the beginning, and that she wasn't Wu Yuchen's only woman.

Having been in the entertainment industry for so long, Li Xiaoran was very aware of what it was like inside. She could easily imagine the temptations a talented, resourceful, and high-status Chinese director like Wu Yuchen would face. Given his current peak of desire and how he always seemed to overwhelm her, there were bound to be times when he couldn't control himself. Therefore, Li Xiaoran was mentally prepared; she was just a little angry this time and blurted things out.

Seeing this, Wu Yuchen quickly intensified his offensive, showering her with compliments: "Sister Ranran, you are the best woman in the world. You are beautiful, kind-hearted, and incredibly caring. You are truly magnanimous..."

After listening for a while, Li Xiaoran said impatiently, "Alright, alright, that's so cheesy!"

Then she tapped Wu Yuchen's head with her finger: "I really don't know what I owed you in my past life to spoil you like this! I've made up for everything I have with you!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen finally breathed a sigh of relief and gently bowed his head to Li Xiaoran, saying, "Sister, you're the best to me!"

"Hmph! Being nice to you is pointless. You didn't even tell me about your new movie! Are you afraid I'll steal your lover's role?"

"Sister, I was wrong. I'll definitely come to you first if there are any suitable roles for you in the future!" Wu Yuchen didn't argue at this point, but instead lowered his stance. He couldn't go against her now.

Li Xiaoran said arrogantly, "I don't care! I want to rest for a while!"

"Okay, okay, sis, from now on I'll let you choose first, and the rest can go to someone else. And that Zhang Ziyi, I'll never use her again!"

Hearing Wu Yuchen's words, Li Xiaoran didn't say anything, but she was somewhat satisfied.

Actually, the reason why Li Xiaoran was angry this time was not only because of the female lead of "Reign of Assassins" and Zeng Li, but also because of the female lead of "The Banquet" before.

Li Xiaoran and Feng Xiaogang have collaborated on several films and have a long-standing friendship. However, a few months ago, she lost the lead role in "The Banquet" to Zhang Ziyi. There are several reasons for this. First, Feng Xiaogang had his sights set on the overseas market with "The Banquet," and he also wanted to make a run for the Oscars next year. That's why he followed suit and adapted a foreign classic, creating a Chinese-language period drama version of "Hamlet."

Currently, for a film to be successful at the international box office, it naturally needs an actor who can make overseas film companies willing to spend money. Zhang Ziyi has an advantage in this regard because she has already starred in two martial arts films, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers," and she also starred in "Memoirs of a Geisha" last year, which made her even more famous in Hollywood.

In fact, Li Xiaoran has starred in the movie "Run Lola Run," which has a strong following abroad. She has also collaborated with Feng Xiaogang several times, and they have a good working relationship. Casting her as the female lead would be a good choice.

However, she's not with Huayi Brothers. If she were willing to sign with them, they would definitely offer her the lead role in "The Banquet." Unfortunately, Wu Yuchen is behind her, so they can't poach her!
In August of this year, Wang Jinghua led a group of her artists to leave Huayi Brothers, causing a major upheaval and nearly depleting the company's talent pool, severely damaging its vitality. Under these circumstances, Huayi Brothers naturally wants to sign some high-profile artists and stars to demonstrate their strength and stabilize the company's turbulent situation.

Currently, the Wang brothers of Huayi Brothers want to sign Zhang Ziyi as their top star and are actively pursuing her, so the leading role was given to the internationally renowned Zhang.

Feng Xiaogang even called Wu Yuchen to explain the matter, and Wu Yuchen didn't blame him. This involved the company's development and interests, and unless Wu Yuchen could bring greater benefits to the Wang brothers, it wouldn't be so easy to get the role just by making a verbal request.

Li Xiaoran then asked Wu Yuchen, "Is Zhang Ziyi really going to join Huayi Brothers?"

Wu Yuchen chuckled and shook his head: "Hehe, that's not necessarily true. She's a very shrewd and ambitious woman. Zhang Ziyi is quite arrogant now, and I doubt she even looks down on Huayi Brothers. I'm not bragging, but the only company she'd want to join in China is my Miracle Films, but I won't take her in!"

This isn't Wu Yuchen making things up; Zhang Ziyi is indeed quite ambitious right now.

In her career, she considers herself the most successful actress in China right now. Films like *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, *House of Flying Daggers*, *2046*, and *Memoirs of a Geisha* have brought her considerable international fame. On the other hand, in her personal life, she's currently involved with the second son of the Huo family, dating a wealthy heir, which makes her believe she'll marry into a wealthy family in the future, naturally leading to her high self-esteem!

"Huh? You mean she doesn't plan to join Huayi Brothers? Then why did she take on this role?" Li Xiaoran exclaimed in surprise.

"Hehe, they regret it afterward! Or they pretend they don't know anything and push all the blame onto their agent." Zhang Ziyi's current agent is her older brother, but the two parted ways a few years later due to financial reasons.

"That's possible! Doesn't that mean she completely fooled Huayi Brothers?"

"Even if Huayi Brothers got tricked, what can they do to her? Her main market now is overseas. She has a certain reputation in Hollywood, international appeal, and can sell overseas copyrights. Even if she returns to China and doesn't cooperate with Huayi Brothers in the future, other companies will be willing to hire her. It's just that the Wang brothers will definitely hold a grudge, and they might settle accounts with her later."

Wu Yuchen knew that Zhang Ziyi had indeed tricked the Wang brothers, and after filming "The Banquet," she didn't sign with Huayi Brothers at all. Later, Liu Qianqian followed suit. Huayi Brothers wanted to sign her, so they offered her the female lead role in "The Forbidden Kingdom," and even let her mother, Liu Xiaoli, have a taste of acting as well. But after filming "The Forbidden Kingdom," nothing came of it, and the contract fell through.

Later, both Zhang Ziyi and Liu Qianqian had a lot of negative press. As for whether Huayi Brothers did it, Wu Yuchen can't say for sure; everyone can speculate.

"This is so unhygienic!" Li Xiaoran muttered to herself.

Wu Yuchen chuckled and said, "You're just too particular. If you had hinted that you were interested in joining before, the role would definitely be yours. After filming is finished, with me backing you up, Huayi Brothers wouldn't dare to do anything to you."

Li Xiaoran immediately shook her head: "I can't do that. It's a matter of principle. I'd rather not act at all! It's boring!"

Wu Yuchen smiled as he held Li Xiaoran's delicate body. Although he didn't particularly like the Wang brothers' ways and how they had corrupted the industry, he felt that using someone's resources and then leaving was indeed unethical.

He said, "It's boring. 'The Banquet' is just so-so. It's completely the same formula as 'Hamlet,' nothing interesting. There's nothing good to act in this movie."

The movie "The Banquet" is indeed too mediocre. It lacks any of Feng Xiaogang's distinctive style and was made entirely to cater to the overseas market. To put it bluntly, even "The Promise" left a more lasting impression than this movie.

Li Xiaoran snorted: "Then give me something extraordinary! If you let me act in 'Reign of Assassins,' I can immediately slap Zhang Ziyi in the face after the movie is released."

Hearing that the topic had circled back to itself, Wu Yuchen quickly assured her again, "Um, don't worry, Sister Ranran, you'll definitely get good roles in the future!"

……

For the movie "Reign of Assassins", Wu Yuchen did release a lot of roles to outsiders, but there are also a few roles that he plans to invite directly. Now Wu Yuchen is inviting another actress to play the female lead.

That's right, it's the female lead. The female lead, Xi Yu, in "Reign of Assassins" was originally an assassin. After assassinating a loyal official, she was enlightened by the highly skilled monk Lu Zhu, who sacrificed his life to persuade her to lay down her weapons, undergo plastic surgery, and retire from the martial arts world.

Zeng Li will play Zeng Jing, the female lead after undergoing plastic surgery and face transplant, while the female lead before the surgery, the assassin Xi Yu, will be played by another actress. Although the roles are not many, they are still very important because the opening scenes set the tone for the entire movie.

The character Xiyu is an assassin, and a ruthless female assassin at that, which dictates that her temperament must be cold, and her appearance must also follow this principle.

Meanwhile, according to the movie, Xi Yu was extremely beautiful. After she had plastic surgery, she became the ordinary Zeng Jing. In other words, this actress had to be more beautiful and better looking than Zeng Li on screen.

When Wu Yuchen was writing the script, he had already thought of a female actress who would be very suitable to play the role.

"Director Wu, you want me to play this female assassin?"

"Yes, I think you're perfect for the role, Senior Sister Yu! You're the only one for this part!" Wu Yuchen said with a smile, looking at Yu Feihong sitting opposite him who had just finished reading the script.

Although Yu Feihong is over thirty, time seems to have left no trace on her face; she looks like she's at the peak of her beauty. It's worth noting that Yu Feihong is hailed as an ageless beauty; even in candid street photos taken after she turned fifty, she looks like she's in her thirties.

Yu Feihong is indeed a great beauty. She doesn't fit the traditional beauty standards like Chen Hong or Jiang Qinqin; she has a larger face, high cheekbones, thin lips, and a strong, defined cupid's bow. When she's not smiling, her facial features are somewhat sharp, but together they create a striking and elegant beauty.

Moreover, Yu Feihong possesses a natural heroic spirit that many men lack, and her temperament is also on the cooler side. In an interview, she mentioned that she felt she looked very tough when she was young, but her appearance softened as she got older and her mindset changed.

She's beautiful, with a somewhat masculine look, and was known as an "ice queen" when she was young. When she's cold and aloof, she's absolutely perfect for playing the female assassin, Xi Yu!

(End of this chapter)