This actor has something

Chapter 498 Shooting starts

There's always a saying: "The emperor isn't worried, but the eunuchs are."

For example, Zhou Huimin is quite anxious now. She looks at He Daqi, who is leading his two kids to tumble on the grass, and doesn't know whether to advise him to pay more attention to the project they are going to work on together, or to quietly enjoy the time he has with his children.

By the end of March, the large lawn in front of the manor villa had turned green again, which meant that the playground for the two mischievous kids had returned.

Even the big fat cat, having been lazy all winter, was willing to wriggle out and follow Vivian Chow out to lie on the grass and enjoy the sunshine.

It's a bit of a shame that the male pet owner and the two little pet owners were too noisy, especially ruining the peaceful, elegant, and breezy atmosphere. They were shouting and running around not far away, occasionally accompanied by screams and laughter.

At this moment, He Daqi was like a big monkey, chasing after the two children and scaring them. Whenever the two little ones tried to separate and run away, He Daqi would take a few big steps, pick one up and carry it on his shoulder to tickle it, and then continue to chase after and scare the other.

Then they would run for a while, put down the one they were carrying, pick up the other one, and carry it to tickle their itch. They would repeat this process. The two children became clever and, as long as they didn't run apart, He Daqi wouldn't chase after them to catch them.

However, He Daqi was good at scaring children. Every time, he would pretend to catch up with them as if he were really going to catch up, and lightly tug at the clothes of the two little ones, scaring them into screaming and laughing. Their short legs would speed up, trying to shake off He Daqi.

The three of them were having so much fun that Zhou Huimin, sitting on the grass, seemed too aloof and didn't quite blend into the joyful scene.

Finally, the two children seemed to have run themselves tired and remembered how to deal with He Daqi, who would pick them up and tickle them if they caught up with them. The two little ones made a turn, narrowly avoiding He Daqi's big hands, and ran towards Zhou Huimin.

Covered in sweat and mud, and with bits of grass clinging to them, Zhou Huimin didn't have time to push the two little gray babies away before they nestled against her, wanting her to stop He Daqi, the big devil.

Zhou Huimin was extremely disgusted.

Don't be fooled by her seemingly ordinary floral maxi dress; it's actually a height-limited style that's hard to find even if you want to buy it, and it's also difficult to wash.

Vivian Chow quite liked this outfit. It was just that the weather was nice today and perfect for a spring outing, so she wore it out to enjoy some leisure time. To avoid getting her clothes dirty, she even laid a blanket on the grass. Didn't you see that she didn't even hug the big fat cat?

Now covered in sweat, mud, and grass, the two little ones used their mother's clothes as towels, sticking close to Zhou Huimin to avoid He Daqi, which made Zhou Huimin both annoyed and amused.

Whose two little mud figures are these? They're so dirty! I don't want them anymore.

"Stop fooling around! You're covered in sweat, come back with me and take a shower!"

Zhou Huimin grabbed the two naughty boys by the ears and scolded them, then glared at He Daqi, who was still grinning foolishly, with her almond-shaped eyes, and pulled the two dirty little kids toward the villa.

The big fat cat meowed, lazily got up, and, round and chubby like a little gas cylinder, followed Zhou Huimin back to the villa.

He Daqi smacked his lips, went over to tidy up the blankets and other things, and also felt quite greasy from being covered in sweat. He happily and leisurely returned to the villa.

He washed up quickly, changed into his new clothes, and sat on the sofa for a while before Zhou Huimin led her two little ones, now clean and refreshed, out. The family of four lazily nestled on the sofa, with He Daqi once again becoming a human cushion. The two children lay on the sofa to his left, their feet draped over his legs, while Zhou Huimin rested her head on his shoulder to her right, leisurely playing on her phone.

"It's almost April, and you've been back and resting for so many days. When are you going to the company to check on the preparation progress of 'My Love from the Star'? Didn't you say before that you were just waiting to select the other actors? You've been auditioning for so long, and Ya Yue still hasn't finished?"

Zhou Huimin didn't want to rush him, but He Daqi was much more attentive to other projects than he is now. He would go to Asia Pacific every day to urge progress. Zhou Huimin didn't care about those projects, but now that Zhou Huimin cares about them, He Daqi has become indifferent again. How can this be?
When it comes to selecting people, He Daqi was in charge of other projects, and the decision was usually made in two or three days. Now it's been almost ten days and there's still no definite news. Zhou Huimin feels that she's already late in urging him today.

"I don't know. I didn't ask. I let Lu Yang and Sister Hua decide for themselves. They can use whoever they think is suitable. Maybe some actors have scheduling conflicts, so there's been no news."

As He Daqi spoke, he tickled the two children's little feet, and the two little ones immediately started kicking and stomping on He Daqi's legs with glee.

"Then you should ask about the progress! It's almost April tomorrow. If it keeps dragging on, we'll be filming all summer! I don't want to be stuck on set in August. You should hurry up and urge them to finish filming as soon as possible."

That makes sense! If it drags on any longer, filming might not start until August!

He Daqi finally took it a little more seriously and felt he should urge them on.

He turned his head and looked over, then patted his precious son's little bottom: "Huanhuan, go to the bedroom and get my phone, the one with the transparent case."

"Okay!" My precious son, who was lying on the outside, jumped off the sofa and ran barefoot to the bedroom.

"I want to go too! I want to go too! I'll go get Dad's other phone!" The little girl whined and jumped off the sofa, following her brother into their parents' bedroom.

Soon, the two children came running back, each holding a cell phone and grinning. He Daqi patted their little heads one by one, then picked up his phone and made a call.

"Sister Liu, are you busy?"

"You want to ask about the preparation for the TV series, right?"

"Hmm, how did the actor auditions go?"

"There were too many candidates, and you weren't in a hurry, so you were pulling strings here and there, going back and forth for quite a while. But it's settled today. Even if you hadn't called me today, I would have called you tomorrow to come and take a look. If you think it's okay after you see it tomorrow, then let's start filming."

Liu Ying's message brought a smile to Zhou Huimin's face as she lay on top of He Daqi, while He Daqi clicked his tongue in disapproval, knowing that his brief period of leisure was over.

It turns out he was the only one who wasn't in a hurry; everyone else was quite anxious.

With so many roles and so many personal connections involved, the Asian and Vietnamese sides finalized everything in just about ten days. It seems they're all eager for the project to start filming as soon as possible.

……

……

The start of filming for the TV series "My Love from the Star" generated considerable buzz. After all, many people didn't expect that He Daqi and his wife would return to making TV dramas.

It's already quite incredible that someone of Ho Tai-kai's current status would be willing to act in a TV series, let alone add Vivian Chow to the mix.

The previous "Painted Skin" led many to believe it was Vivian Chow's retirement project, because that's exactly what she did.

After filming Painted Skin, she rarely appeared in public. The only exception was when she took her children and accompanied her husband to make a cameo appearance in Love Apartment. Apart from that, the most common thing Zhou Huimin was photographed doing was picking up and dropping off her children at school.

The media speculated that she was shifting her focus to spending time with her children and would no longer pay too much attention to the entertainment industry. It's just that He Daqi never retired from the industry, otherwise Zhou Huimin might not even want to show her face anymore.

After all, it's hard to guess her net worth now. The development of internet companies in the past two years has been too exaggerated. Currently, she is a shareholder in companies such as Yabo.com, Tencent, Yayue, and Tuhesecai.com, with varying amounts.

The smallest share she owns is five percent of Penguin's stock, which she has never touched. Even though Penguin has diluted its holdings several times, Zhou Huimin has increased her stake to maintain her share. Now that Penguin's market value is close to $60 billion, Zhou Huimin's Penguin shares are worth approximately $3 billion.

This is just Tencent's. Don't forget about Yabo.com, Yayue, and Tuhecai.com. Among these three, although Yayue and Tuhecai.com's market capitalization is not as exaggerated as Tencent's, Zhou Huimin's shareholding is higher. Moreover, Yabo.com's current market capitalization is not much lower than Tencent's.

Not to mention the other companies that spun off from Yabo.com, including live streaming platforms, ticketing platforms, short video platforms, and later, Penguin Video.

Although these companies did not disclose the specific amount of Zhou Huimin's shares, even if they are not a large number, they still add up to a considerable sum.

Vivian Chow is now a wealthy woman, but she suddenly announced that she would be filming another TV series with Ho Tai-kai, which shocked everyone.

A female billionaire with a net worth of at least tens of billions wants to make movies for ordinary people like us who only earn a few thousand a month. What kind of entertainment is this? Sharing joy with the people?

"My Love from the Star" became an instant hit as soon as filming began. Every day, paparazzi would swarm outside the set, snapping photos of every celebrity who came out. Even the staff members who were even slightly good-looking weren't spared. After taking their pictures, the reporters would go back and speculate and analyze who the actors in the show were.

Those few that have already been confirmed have been getting a lot of attention these past few days.

When people in the entertainment industry saw this, they immediately got excited and found all sorts of excuses to visit the set. They didn't dare to disturb the filming, they just strolled around and made a brief appearance, and then they could get a trending topic on social media.

The most ridiculous thing is that this show was only filmed for a few days when a bunch of TV stations came to Asia and Vietnam to offer prices. They couldn't even buy the exclusive premiere rights and could only buy the joint premiere rights.

The April evening breeze blew gently as we worked overtime to film a night scene, a rare occurrence for us today.

Under the streetlights, Ho Ta-chi, who had just finished filming a scene, held a financial report and his lips twitched.

"So... our show isn't even finished filming yet, and it's already profitable? Are you sure? I really did ask for 300 million to be allocated to this project."

"Although it sounds ridiculous, it's true. The costumes, props, and sets that you mentioned had a significant investment share have all been taken care of by the sponsors. In fact, several companies, represented by Red Crab Mobile, are even asking for more money to have us film more product shots. There are also copyright fees. The joint premiere price is not low, and with Tencent Video's buyout of the copyright fees in ten-year installments, these three things combined have already recouped your initial investment of 300 million."

Liu Ying made this trip specifically for it, and she also found it quite absurd.

If Liu Ying didn't know that He Daqi and Zhou Huimin would most likely not film any more TV dramas, and that her opinions didn't really matter since He Daqi and Zhou Huimin wouldn't listen to her, she would really like to have the couple collaborate on a TV drama every year if possible.

The joy of getting money for free is simply amazing.

Why bother with financial statement analysis? If they could produce one show like this every year, and just post the return on investment, Asia Pacific's stock would take off.

He Daqi scratched his head, shook his head speechlessly, handed the documents back to Liu Ying, and said with a smile, "Let's leave it at that for now. It's all just for show, all the fuss and excitement. The show hasn't even been filmed for a few days, and the substance hasn't been polished yet. We can't just focus on how good the surface looks."

As expected, He Daqi still didn't care about profits. Liu Ying could only shrug and silently accept the financial report without revealing her future plans.

Even He Daqi doesn't care, let alone Zhou Huimin, so they should think about other projects. Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai have been working hard lately, which is a good gimmick.

Just as Liu Ying turned her attention to Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai, He Daqi coincidentally asked, "By the way, Sister Liu, what are Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai busy with these days? I haven't seen you arrange for them to come over for a stroll."

He Daqi was referring to the fact that Ya Yue had been arranging for artists to visit the set recently, and almost all of them had come, but only a few had not shown up.

This is indeed quite interesting. He Daqi may not have a deep impression of who came, but he always thinks about who didn't come, especially the two handsome young men he recruited. Although they are on the right track now, He Daqi doesn't need to pay much attention to them anymore, but he still has to ask about them.

Liu Ying's expression suddenly turned strange. She suppressed a laugh and said, "They are much more hardworking than you. Your song 'Gangnam Style' is so suitable for commercial performances. Others can't hire you, so they can only hire them. You have no idea how much they made in half a month. Wang Jinghua has even started to advise them to take a break."

"what?"

He Daqi was taken aback. What was going on? Why were they suddenly making money like crazy? Shouldn't they be taking advantage of the hype to grab more resources?

Before He Daqi could figure it out, Zhou Huimin's white van drove into the film set.

As soon as she got out of the car, Vivian Chow went straight to the dressing room, eager to finish her makeup and film her night shoot quickly so she could go home early.

It's amazing! The filming schedule doesn't stop her from picking up and dropping off her child every day. She takes her child to kindergarten in the morning before leisurely arriving at the film set, and she finishes work early in the afternoon to go back and pick up her child from school.

It was only because there was a night shoot today that Zhou Huimin stayed home to have dinner with her children before returning to the film set. Otherwise, she would not spend more than five hours a day on the film set.

The reason why Vivian Chow dared to play like this was entirely because He Daqi gave her special instruction.

Relying on He Daqi's use of the simulation training space to impart acting experience to her remotely, she could basically get every scene right in one take. Except for the occasional time when He Daqi would deliberately play dirty tricks and unleash his acting skills to beat up the smug Zhou Huimin and make her film more takes, Zhou Huimin was never at a disadvantage against anyone else, and could even crush them.

Upon seeing Zhou Huimin arrive, He Daqi lost interest in chatting and happily headed towards the dressing room, wanting to ask if the two children had been naughty after he picked them up from school today.

(End of this chapter)