No Choice

As if it felt the anger and resentment currently emanating from its host, Round Ball nervously floated a few steps away from Su Yu. With a guilty conscience, it explained, "Master host is angry, but the main task is selected by the system after extremely careful calculations based on the background and plot of the mission world. The resulting task is definitely the best choice there is!"

"Oh, is it?" Su Yu gave the little ball a cold glance, causing it to quiver and back away a little further.

Luckily for Round Ball, Su Yu wasn't actually serious about going after it and just sighed before reluctantly saying, "It looks like I, the President, must take on two jobs."

"Master host is so powerful, you will definitely perform very well!" Round Ball praised Su Yu with a guilty conscience.

Su Yu gave the little ball another glance and then reached for the phone nearby to call his assistant. "Come inside."

Three days later, the entire entertainment circle exploded.

The President of Zhao Entertainment was actually going to enter the entertainment circle! This news took less than a day to spread to every corner of the entertainment industry.

#Zhao Entertainment is first-hand barging into the entertainment circle, is this true love, or is this just playing around? #

#The leading company is now competing with us for resources, ​​Zhao Entertainment please think of us normal artists. #

#Money, power, influence, he has it all. Predicting that Zhao Entertainment's President will enter into the top-tier within a year! #

...

Su Yu quirked his lips as he looked at the news headlines in the entertainment section and quietly praised himself. Since it is necessary to enter into the entertainment circle, then he must enter boldly and proudly, only this would be befitting of his personality.

Liu Tianyuan, who was newly promoted to Su Yu's agent, walked in with a stack of screenplays and stood expressionlessly in front of his boss, "President, I have selected some scripts for movies and TV shows. Both the directors and the scripts themselves are of high quality, President can freely choose from them."

Su Yu put down his tablet and without even looking at the scripts, said, "I've chosen already. There's a palace drama to be filmed soon, right? I want to participate in that."

Su Yu had checked the timeline right before and the plot just happened to be at when the female protagonist came back in time, so the screenplay most relevant to the male protagonist is that palace drama.

Liu Tianyuan couldn't help frowning a bit, "President, the drama is headed by our company. As of half a month ago, all the roles had already been confirmed. Perhaps you could pick another one?"

"Nope. I only want this one." The authoritarian dictator Su Yu refused the other party's advice with a cold face. He even added unreasonably, "You go discuss with the director and screenwriter of the drama to arrange a role for me."

The implication being that the crew is expected to add a new character into the drama just for him.

Liu Tianyuan's mouth twitched even harder. If the other party was an ordinary artist under his command, he would have already slapped them to high heaven. But unfortunately, the other party is the big boss. Even if he were a gold-tier agent within the company, he didn't dare lose his temper in front of his boss.

Liu Tianyuan laboriously took a deep breath and tried his hardest to persuade Su Yu, "President, generally, there aren't many male characters in palace dramas, and there are even fewer good male roles. With the President's appearance and prowess, why would you bother with such a drama?? "

In actuality, this palace fighting drama was very promising and carried high expectations; otherwise, Zhao Entertainment wouldn't have spared no costs to hire the best professionals for the casting actors, props, and costume designs. Lots of resources had been carefully invested into this drama.

In the original plot, this palace drama did indeed become very hot, earning a large sum of money and letting the male and female protagonists' reputations soar into the next level. It also allowed quite a few newcomers to become popular within the entertainment circles.

But at this time, Liu Tianyuan's purpose was to convince his President to give up on the drama, so of course he couldn't say anything positive about it.

However, the President who has money and power and influence very resolutely swivelled in his seat, leaving his agent with only a view of his handsome back of the head, and said,"Nope, not changing. Also, my role must have ten interactions with the lead male. No more, no less, just ten. Each interaction should have a maximum of two lines of conversation, and don't bother arranging for me to speak with any other characters. Yup, these are my only requests. After the new script comes out, send it to me directly."

Liu Tianyuan used his very itchy left hand to tightly restrain his equally itchy and wanting-to-deliver-a-beating right hand. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to control the violent impulses of the two hands. At the same time, he also deeply wanted to rush forward and deliver a few tens of slaps to his President's head. Then he gritted out, "I understand."

Three days later, under the commands of the shameless and vexatious President, the physically and mentally drained Liu Tianyuan walked into the President's office with a black face, holding a new play. "President, the script you wanted. "

Su Yu put down the file he was holding and picked up the script. He scanned it briefly and then displayed a strange look. "This is the new script?"

Liu Tianyuan, who had already seen the script, felt a flash of unease but his face was serious as he nodded. "This is the new script that the writer rushed to amend. It is absolutely in line with all the requirements made by the President."

Su Yu sighed in his heart. This new character really did meet the requirements he had set out, but the role itself is a bit difficult to accept.

Zhao Gonggong [1]: The household manager of the inner palace, a character with potential for many scenes with the emperor.

As man with many interactions with the lead male indeed, this character definitely fit that role. But… that is… inner palace managers should all be eunuchs right??

Su Yu absolutely did not look down upon eunuchs, but when all's said and done, he is still the President of a major entertainment company. He has money, fame, and fortune… and yet his acting debut would be that of a household manager eunuch? Isn't the discrepancy a little too big??

Looking at the complicated expression on his President's face, Liu Tianyuan finally felt some of the grievances he'd accumulated over the last few days from being yelled at by all parties start to dissipate. "President, if the new script is fine, then let's consider this matter done."

Su Yu had some feelings he wanted to express, but after consideration, it was he who first messed with the other parties and now that they've retaliated like this, it wasn't entirely unforeseeable. Although stubborn, Su Yu is not entirely unreasonable and so in the end, he just nodded. "Alright, let's go with this."

Isn't it just acting as a household manager eunuch? For actors, there are theoretically no good or bad roles; only one's diligence matters.

Liu Tianyuan, who had thought that his President would never agree to the new script, let out a breath of relief after hearing this. It looks like his President wasn't entirely unreasonable.

After the new script was confirmed, it was quickly sent out to each of the actors. Qi Chen glanced at the part of his newly added "inner palace manager" and raised his eyebrows.

Regarding the news that Zhao Entertainment's President had entered into the entertainment industry, he had also heard of it, but he didn't pay it much attention because he too felt the other party was doing this just to play around. He had assumed that there would be no interactions with the President and therefore hadn't paid it any mind.

Unexpectedly, the other party's debut happened to be helping him manage his harem… this feeling was a little strange.

However, Qi Chen didn't suspect at all that the President chose this role just to act with him, and therefore, after the initial bewilderment, he firmly put the matter out of mind. Nevertheless, he did make a note to pay more attention when filming so as to not offend this important person.

Although he had not signed with Zhao Entertainment, the identity and status of the other party was still there. This person is not one he could afford to offend.

A month later, the palace drama <Jian Jia of the Inner Palace> officially started filming.

<Jian Jia of the Inner Palace> tells the tale of a commoner woman named Jian Jia who met and fell in love with the king of a country.

Although the heroine is a commoner, the main portion of this drama takes place after she had entered into the inner palace. Starting out with an innocent and naive heart, she was plotted against maliciously, losing even her unborn child, and more disastrously, the emperor's love and trust. Afterwards, she gradually blackened and used many different manipulations and means to win back her status, eventually even becoming Empress Dowager of the country.

However, these plots had nothing to do with Su Yu. He only had ten scenes with the emperor. As for scenes with other actors, they would directly use a stunt double since he wouldn't need to speak anyways.

Yes, the Su Yu who has money fame and fortune is this willful. The task is to have ten interactions with the lead male, and so there will only be ten scenes. No more and no less.

The first scene:

The emperor sat at his imperial desk, managing paperwork for some governmental affairs. Su Yu, in an eunuch costume, stands to the side. When the emperor tiredly raises his hand to massage his temples, Su Yu hesitantly approaches and asks, "The Emperor must be tired, why don't your grace take a rest?"

The emperor gives him a harsh stare and so Su Yu spinelessly retreats and continues to stand silently.

The second scene:

The emperor stands in the royal garden, enjoying the flowers. A cold wind blows by and Su Yu approaches with a dragon-embroidered long cloak, timidly saying, "The days are getting colder, the Emperor should take care not to fall ill."

The emperor gives him a harsh stare and so Su Yu spinelessly retreats and continues to stand silently.

The third scene:

The emperor sits in the palace, sadly drinking by himself and gradually getting more drunk.

Su Yu, standing by on the sidelines, timidly approaches and says, "Liquor is harmful when consumed in excess, the Emperor should take care of his dragon body."

The emperor gives him a harsh stare and so Su Yu spinelessly retreats and continues to stand silently.

The fourth scene:

...

A total of ten scenes, Su Yu's lines add up to no more than twenty sentences. This big household governor, sigh, is really just in name and not a reality. Not only did he not accomplish anything, he also went and bought soy sauce [2].

After reading all of Su Yu's scenes, Qi Chen was also speechless. He had initially thought that Zhao Entertainment's President entered the circle to experience the warm water [3]. Now though, it seems that the other just wanted to stand on the shores to admire the water scenery, not even exerting the effort to wade in.

The rich are self-entitled – Qi Chen now firmly believes in this saying.

Even more self-entitled was the fact that the President only has ten scenes, each with no more than two lines and adding nothing to the overall drama, and yet the director stated they must film these ten scenes first.

If it were just that, it would be okay, but the fact is that all ten scenes of Zhao Qingsong included him… this meant that he the lead actor, before filming any scenes with his fellow lead heroine, had to first act with this little no-name side character who had no actual importance to the overarching plot.

Thinking of this, Qi Chen let out a wry smile and put down the script, his lips twitching.

[1] – 公公, "Gong gong" – a title for a man. In this case, Zhao Gonggong would be 'Household manager Zhao" for example, though it's very flexible.

[2] – 打酱油, "buy soy sauce" – when something is none of one's business.

[3] – 趟水, "bathe in steaming water / go to sauna" – to take part in the hubbub/excitement.