Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years

Qi Hao spends most of his time smoking in the training space.

This way, no matter how much he practices, the smoke won't reach his lungs.

Moreover, different characters have different ways of smoking, and Qi Hao quickly grasped some of Mr. Tree's essence.

He also didn't forget to observe people from the lower classes.

Han Jie found a village for Qi Hao that's not close to the capital, belonging to Ji Province.

Although Ji Province surrounds two directly governed cities, there are still a lot of poor areas.

Qi Hao drove for more than two hours early in the morning to get there, and upon arrival, he first chatted with the village chief.

The village chief pointed out the person Qi Hao wanted to observe.

Qi Hao didn't go up to disturb, he wanted to see the most authentic side of this "Mr. Tree."

The village isn't big, and Mr. Tree's activity range is just a few places.

He either roams around the village or chats with other villagers under the big Chinese scholar tree at the village entrance, or watches people play cards and chess.

He greets everyone he meets; some respond to him, others ignore him.

He does indeed resemble the character in Han Jie's script.

In the ensuing days, Qi Hao, along with Tang Chuan and Feng Bufan, used the pretext of going to the countryside to collect sesame, observing "Mr. Tree" from a pickup truck.

There really is sesame in the truck bed.

However, since Tang Chuan's purchase price was too low, villagers initially asked a few times and then no longer paid attention to them.

Additionally, the windows were tinted, making Qi Hao's sneaky observations go unnoticed.

He even used a digital camera to secretly take many photos of Mr. Tree.

"Look at his hands..."

Qi Hao put down the digital camera and switched to a telescope, adjusting the angle for a clearer view.

Their actions, if they were from three to four decades ago, might have been considered spies and gotten arrested.

It can only be said that people are less vigilant now.

Of course, it also shows that our environment is getting better and better.

"There's nothing special about the hands, doesn't look like someone skilled with them."

Feng Bufan is blind in one eye, but his vision and experience are still unbelievably keen.

Anyone who crosses paths with him will be subject to a safety assessment.

The observation subject of Qi Hao, frankly, is an absolute worthless crumb, both in physique and temperament.

Would pose no harm to the employer.

However, the employer was not satisfied with this response and insisted, "Did you notice that his hands are always searching for a place?"

With Qi Hao's reminder, Feng Bufan understood.

But what could this signify?

Many people are like this, uncomfortable with their hands hanging down the sides, not comfortable with them in their pockets, or clasped together, always feeling there's no comfortable place to put them.

Especially when nervous, they wish they didn't have these hands at all.

"These restless small hands..."

Qi Hao murmured without intending to continue explaining to Feng Bufan, as it was no different from talking to a brick wall.

He tried mimicking it but felt it wasn't quite right.

Nonetheless, it didn't matter, as he had plenty of time to study it slowly.

During this period, aside from learning English from foreigners, he mostly came here to observe Mr. Tree.

Occasionally, he would also attend the promotion of "October Fortress," and go on a date with An Feng while doing so.

Life seemed tranquil and peaceful.

"October Fortress" is also about to be released, probably premiering on the 18th of next month.

As the release of "October Fortress" approaches, the promotional activities have started being densely scheduled.

Whenever Qi Hao and An Feng wanted to go on a date, they used "October Fortress" as an excuse.

The director, Chen Delin, was almost moved to tears.

He knows where the movie's box office draw lies, at least for the mainland, it's definitely not Wang Xueqi nor Zhen Zidan.

They're either too old or not attractive enough.

The box office had to rely on Qi Hao, An Feng, and Fan Xuexue, the hottest idols on the mainland.

As long as they fully commit to promoting the movie, there would be no box office worries.

However, a problem arose.

Qi Hao, An Feng, and Fan Xuexue, in the mainland idol circle, if not top three, at least rank in the top five.

This type of idol has been spoiled by fans and capital.

They would never obediently participate in movie promotions, they would only show up proudly in occasions where they could showcase their sultry and glamorous sides.

Especially Qi Hao, known for not attending promotions.

Yet, everyone catered to him, thinking that as long as Qi Hao starred, that was the best promotion.

Therefore, Chen Delin can only often make phone calls to say nice things.

Whether they'd come or not is another matter.

Fan Xuexue is extremely busy; she has attended very few events, but what Chen Delin didn't expect was that Qi Hao and An Feng were surprisingly diligent.

However, they were always very busy.

After each event, they would leave in a hurry, one after the other.

They even declined the invitations for celebratory dinners hosted by the film company.

Ms. Liu did not suspect anything at all.

Her daughter is still a TV celebrity; although her status is already quite high, compared to real film stars, she still has a long way to go.

Like Zhang Ziyi, if she hadn't been involved in various scandals lately, her endorsement deals could exceed ten million, being the only actress to reach such a level.

If her daughter could successfully elevate her status to a film star, then there would be nothing to worry about.

Thus, her daughter's frequent outings received her full support.

Plus, the new team members are all very professional, so she continued to focus on trading stocks with peace of mind.

In these past ten or so days, she's lost quite a bit.

Especially when Mrs. Hua just went public; she sold stock at a loss and bought over two million yuan of Mrs. Hua's shares.

She got them at an average price of over eighty yuan; when it rose to 109, she was quite happy, but that was merely the beginning of a nightmare.

How come Qi Hao wasn't any good either?

Wasn't it said that whatever stocks Qi Hao bought would go up?

Poor Ms. Liu, she didn't even know that Qi Hao had already unloaded all his Mrs. Hua shares.

On this day, Qi Hao and An Feng attended an event and left directly afterward.

It wasn't too conspicuous, as there were quite a few people who didn't stay for the meal.

In broad daylight, many people needed to rush to their appointments.

Qi Hao and An Feng pretended to be strangers, separating, but they soon met up again.

"Get in my car."

Qi Hao drove his newly picked-up Santana, which was definitely very low-key.

"You all go have fun yourselves; if my mom asks, just say I'm out shopping with Gao Fei."

An Feng told the people around her and swiftly got into Qi Hao's car.

It was incredibly practiced, as if she had done it countless times.

Watching the car slowly drive away, An Feng's two assistants, Xiaomin and Tiantian, sighed in unison.

Their timing was strikingly synchronized.

"Where are we going?"

Xiaomin is the assistant-cum-driver, and Tiantian is the assistant-cum-makeup artist.

Initially, Tiantian also doubled as a stylist.

However, An Feng was very particular; she insisted that the clothes she picked herself were very nice and must align with her own wishes.

Therefore, Tiantian stopped doing styling work.

As for the attire and styling for events, they were handled by professional stylists.

"Anywhere."

Tiantian replied weakly; it wasn't that she wanted to work tirelessly; it was just that the employer was exhausting.

"Then let's go shopping; I'm planning to buy a bag. My bag was snatched last time, and although I beat the person down, the bag got ripped too."

Xiaomin was carefree and eagerly started planning this delightful afternoon.

No need to serve the employer, yet they could drive the employer's luxury car—where else could you find such a sweet deal?

"Xiaominzi, haven't you thought about what we'd do if Old Buddha found out? Qianqian is her own daughter; she might just scold her, but us two? Do you think she'll let us off easily?"

Tiantian's face was filled with distress.

Thinking of how they've been deceiving Ms. Liu recently, it felt like their career might have reached its end.

"Uh..."

Can we still have fun now? Xiaominzi clenched her fists.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her; she grabbed Tiantian's hand and excitedly asked, "Who do you think we belong to?"

"What do you mean 'who'? Of course, we're Qianqian's people."

Both Tiantian and Xiaomin were hired later by An Feng; An Feng hired people differently than her mom, focusing less on work experience and more on the ability to perform the job.

That's why the pay was high, and the career prospects were tempting.

They soon found their place, being utterly loyal to Qianqian and superficially compliant to Ms. Liu.

"If we looked only at Old Buddha and Qi Hao, which side would we lean towards?" Xiaominzi rubbed her hands; without waiting for Tiantian's answer, she continued on her own, "Of course, we'd lean towards Qi Hao; we're helping cover for him and Qianqian, so if Old Buddha kicks us out, we'd just go run to Qi Hao."

Logical perfection!

"Can it be like this?"

Tiantian's worldview was shattered by her.

Weren't we supposed to be so loyal to Qianqian that we'd follow her even in death?

Sis, where's our loyalty?

They haven't even gotten to their first base yet, and we're defecting this quickly—won't it look bad?

"Oh, who cares; once they're married, we'll be part of the joint property."

Xiaominzi was lazy to think about problems that complex.

With her limited brain capacity, she barely came up with such a perfect plan, so why bother with the details?

Qi Hao and An Feng went over to the courtyard house area.

Currently, the endorsement fee Qi Hao recently secured was mainly spent on renovating the courtyard house.

That place was a money pit.

Although the primary structure was intact, many areas required repairs and refinishing; otherwise, they'd just run into issues while living there.

Old Tian hired a professional company.

They have university professors as consultants; as long as the money is in place, they can get you whatever you want.

In recent days, the repairs and refinishing were basically completed.

It needed a few days to sit before proceeding to the next stage, so the courtyard house area was unoccupied.

At first, Qi Hao wasn't too invested in the courtyard house.

He felt it was just a system reward; keeping it or selling it made little difference.

The reason he didn't sell it was because of the drop in property prices caused by the economic crisis.

Plus, Qi Hao wasn't short on money.

Since he didn't sell it, he thought he might as well renovate it.

Now, as the courtyard house got better and better looking, that classical beauty slowly unfolding, Qi Hao was gradually becoming more attentive.

Today, he intended to bring An Feng to take a look at the courtyard house and discuss how to proceed with the next stage of renovation.

As for the previous plan...

As the primary client, especially being a wealthy one, who would directly use the first version anyway?