Chapter 345: Shao Nan Also Knows How to Act?
Mu Jingzhe’s threat made the reporter’s expression change. The reason he had come in high spirits was because Mu Jingzhe’s sanitary pads were quite famous. This also proved that they sold well. How could the magazine afford to compensate them for their losses?
In spite of his indignation, the reporter could only retreat. Only Xiaocao’s mother was left at the door. Mu Jingzhe had a good talk with her and asked her not to keep running away and scolding her daughter. “After experiencing such a thing, I’m sure she feels awful. She has also been taught a lesson. Don’t force her to death.”
Although Xiaocao had come up with this foolish idea, Mu Jingzhe still wanted to solve the problem peacefully. She really didn’t want to see any more reports of people being pregnant with rats.
Xiaocao’s mother burst into tears on the spot. When she went back, she didn’t know how to broach the subject with Xiaocao. Later on, Xiaocao came clean with her mother and said that she had actually been bullied by someone she knew. However, she hadn’t dared say it, so she had deliberately lied.
Never mind how Xiaocao’s mother settled the score with that man and how they clarified things. In the end, Mu Jingzhe didn’t let the news implicate their brand.
However, she gave the newspaper agency a big gift—Green Bamboo’s toilet paper polluted the environment and was below standards.
Green Bamboo was considered the leader in the toilet paper market in the past few years. In the past, everyone had bought toilet paper from Green Bamboo. Both in terms of numbers and weight, their sales were much higher than their competitors’.
Since Mu Jingzhe had bought the paper manufacturing factory, their sanitary napkin production had had a huge impact on Green Bamboo, reducing their market share by nearly 50 percent. Instead of thinking of ways to become more competitive or improve their own quality, they had attacked Mu Jingzhe’s factory using underhanded methods in a bid to win back their market share.
However, it hadn’t occurred to them that even if Mu Jingzhe’s paper manufacturing factory hadn’t existed, other brands’ sanitary napkins would have occupied the market.
In the past few years, the economy had been recovering, especially in the past one or two years. As a result, there were many factories in coastal cities.
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Green Bamboo’s quality had remained stagnant all these years. In the past, when there had been no other competitors, everyone used to buy their products because they were used to them. Now that they had better quality ones to choose from, they didn’t buy as much from Green Bamboo as before. When they saw the news, they realized that the toilet paper Green Bamboo made was inferior and even polluted the environment. The factory had failed to properly deal with the wastewater and affected the water in several villages. After learning about this, everyone stopped buying from them.
Green Bamboo had tried to steal a chicken, only to end up losing the rice used to lure it. They had done themselves in. Mu Jingzhe publicized what Green Bamboo had done and asked everyone to be wary of them. After a while, Green Bamboo slowly went out of business and closed the factory’s doors.
Although Mu Jingzhe had encountered some trouble during her trip to the paper manufacturing factory, after she took care of it, it didn’t affect the factory much. It even made the employees in the factory feel more united.
Mu Jingzhe only left after she handled the advertisement matters.
Once the money was in place, Director Jiang gave his wife the money to settle down and started working. The movie “Nameless” officially entered the filming stage.
Mu Jingzhe was familiar with these early stages of work. As usual, she was in charge of fashion and styling. When the preparations were almost done, it was time for the casting.
By then, it was already December. The money spent during the early stages of filming was under control. Because there weren’t any particularly big money-burning scenes, Director Jiang felt that they could continue filming until the end. They wouldn’t run out of money halfway through filming.
In terms of saving money, Director Jiang said that he was very experienced.
The auditions then started. Although the industry had previously expressed that they weren’t optimistic about this movie, seeing that the movie seemed properly done, many well-informed people of suitable age were preparing to audition.
Director Jiang welcomed both children with acting experience and children without acting experience to the auditions. Because the protagonist was a child, he hoped to find someone with decent acting skills or a person who fit the role naturally so that the filming process would go smoothly.
After the audition started, it continued for two to three days. Other roles were cast first. The people chosen weren’t particularly famous because the budget was limited.
Finally, only the extremely important young male lead, Little Fish, and his father had yet to be cast. Director Jiang wasn’t quite satisfied with the actors who had auditioned for these two roles. On the fifth day, the father was cast, but Little Fish had yet to be cast.
Director Jiang decided to make use of the last two days to utilize his final connections and publicize this. He wanted everyone to give it a try and audition for this role.
When the teachers and parents of the art school students in the county city heard this, many of them were eager to sign their kids and students up. Even Shao Xi and Shao Dong’s classmates wanted their younger siblings to attend the audition after hearing about it.
Although Shao Xi had been belittled previously, he was now a small celebrity in the county city. When they heard that this was his movie, everyone enthusiastically participated. Many parents even stopped Shao Xi outside the school and asked him to see if their children could do it.
Shao Xi: “I’m not in charge of this. The director has the final say.”
When Director Jiang saw that so many people in the county had signed up for the audition, he decided to spare a day and come to the county city for the audition. He even specifically chose a Sunday, when there were no classes, so that everyone could come.
Because Shao Xi and Shao Dong were curious, they deliberately went to the venue to take a look. However, after watching for a while, they lost interest. Many of those who signed up didn’t know anything about acting. They couldn’t cry when asked to and they only knew how to grin foolishly. However, when you asked them to laugh, they would cry until the heavens shook. After half a day, Shao Xi felt like his ears were about to go deaf and started having a headache.
He believed that the director had wasted a trip there. “None of these people are like the Little Fish I created.”
In the end, Shao Xi and Shao Dong chose to go to the art school. The two of them left but didn’t notice a small figure hiding from them.
When the art school closed, Shao Xi wanted to know the casting results and went to the audition site to take a look. He saw Director Jiang’s face alight with joy. “We finally found him. Fantastic.”
Upon seeing Shao Xi, Director Jiang had a helpless look in his eyes. “Look at you guys. If your younger brother was planning to audition, why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t even know about it and was shocked when I suddenly saw him at the audition venue today. However, not only is your younger brother good at learning, but he’s also very good at acting. I’ve already decided to cast him.”
Shao Xi and Shao Dong didn’t quite understand. “Younger brother? Acting?”
“That younger brother of yours, Shao Nan, came to the audition in the afternoon. He’s very good. I’ve decided to use him. I didn’t want to film a family movie originally and make it all about your family, but he performed better than everyone else and is the most suitable candidate. I ultimately decided to prioritize the role and choose him.”
“Shao Nan? No way! He doesn’t know how to act at all.” Shao Xi and Shao Dong looked like they had seen a ghost.
“I didn’t expect it either, but he might not have been interested in it in the past. This time, he said that the script was written by his older brother, so he wants to act in the movie. He and Shao Bei are twins, so how can only one of them know how to act? The other one must be talented too. He’ll definitely make you look at him in a different light this time.” Director Jiang was very excited.
Shao Xi and Shao Dong, on the other hand, had strange expressions on their faces. They didn’t even know how they got home.