Chapter 150: Target, Desert Film and Television City!

Once everything was settled with Yang Kuan, Li Shixin felt much more at ease.

When Zhang Ying and Zhang Shuo returned, he called for a family meeting.

Fundamentally speaking, the promotional short film *Mobei* was an irregular operation by Yang Kuan, essentially piggybacking on the production crew of *Dumplings* and *Only You*.

Since they were shooting two commercial films back-to-back, Yang Kuan had applied for half a month of filming time.

After both commercials were completed, whatever time remained would be allocated to *Mobei*.

According to Li Shixin's plan, barring any unforeseen circumstances, *Mobei* would consist of only five acts and could be wrapped up in a little over a week.

Of course, to achieve this goal, all preparatory work had to be completed in advance so that shooting could begin the moment they arrived at the Desert Film and Television City.

With no other choice, he had to mobilize his adopted daughter and adopted son.

After handing the prepared prop list to Zhang Ying with a special instruction to put extra effort into the armor and prop weapons, Li Shixin turned his gaze to Zhang Shuo.

"Shuo, lad, care to stroll over to the Desert Film and Television City with your godfather?"

"Not going!" Zhang Shuo immediately turned his head away. "Why are you looking for me? Go find your third son! Heh, look at how great you are, old man! You go around collecting sons wherever you walk. If you ask me, why did you even come back? Wasn't Shanghai such a great place? And your third son is so capable—goodness, a top screenwriter and planner for Huaqi. Isn't he much more useful than me?"

Sitting on the sofa, Zhang Shuo crossed his arms, curled his lip, and ranted at length before turning his head away again. "Not going!"

"..."

"Pfft—" Watching his older brother's face brim with jealousy, Zhang Ying blinked at Li Shixin. "My, my, why is the whole house smelling of vinegar today?"

They say men get even more jealous than women when they throw a fit, and it's truly true!

Little bitch!

Let the old man show you how to handle this!

"Sigh—"

Seeing his number one adopted son's arrogant expression, Li Shixin shook his head.

"Well, if you're not going, then forget it. It's just such a pity..."

"Godfather, what's a pity?" Zhang Ying, seeing Li Shixin's helpless expression, tilted her head and asked.

"It's a pity for your godfather's well-intentioned efforts! When I was writing this commercial, I thought to myself: my boy Shuo has finally overcome his inner demons, learned to face the audience, and performs quite decently on the theater stage. Since my son Zhang Shuo possesses the makings of a superstar, how could I, as his godfather, not lend him a helping hand?"

"And then?" Zhang Ying blinked her eyes.

"So I went to painstaking lengths to build a good relationship with that kid Yang Kuan, and even reluctantly took him on as an adopted son. I wrote a script precisely so that the son who had lost a few years of time due to his inner demons and missed out on roles could finally play a leading man once! To my disappointment, sigh..."

Zhang Shuo, sitting on the sofa with pricked ears, listened to Li Shixin finish his sighing and muttered complaints, and his eyes lit up.

"Ahem, really?"

Seeing Zhang Shuo turn his head back, Li Shixin raised an eyebrow, took the script out of his room, and placed it right in front of Zhang Shuo.

"What do you think of this role, Lu Shiyi?"

Zhang Shuo lowered his arms, picked up the script, and looked at it, his expression beginning to bloom with uncontrollable delight.

According to the script of *Mobei*, although the character Lu Shiyi was technically a thematic supporting role, his scenes spanned from the very first act to the very last. There was absolutely nothing to complain about regarding his screen time!

Watching Zhang Shuo fail to suppress his joy, Li Shixin chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "Shuo, my boy, your godfather is old now. How many more years can I hop around? The future ultimately belongs to you young people!"

"Ahem, ahem," Zhang Shuo arched an eyebrow. "Well, all right then. I suppose I can reluctantly..."

Seeing the brat's arrogant posture, Li Shixin snatched the script right back. "Don't be so reluctant, your godfather won't force you. If you don't feel like going, I'll just go to the Desert Film and Television City and find an actor myself."

"Don't, don't! Godfather, it's not a reluctance at all, not a bit!"

Ha!

Seeing Zhang Shuo's fawning expression finally return to normal, Li Shixin let out a soft hum.

If he didn't put you in your place, you'd probably forget who you are!

...

To avoid wasting time, Li Shixin directly had Zhang Shuo set off for the Desert Film and Television City ahead of time.

Although Zhang Shuo started out as an extra background actor, after years of exposure to various production crews, he had long become a seasoned professional. All sorts of preliminary preparations required someone like him to handle them.

As for Li Shixin, over the next few days, he worked alongside Zhang Ying to accelerate prop production on one hand, while meeting with the film crew arriving from Shanghai on the other.

The director for the two commercials was a young man named Wu Peng, who had recently joined Huaqi.

The young man used to direct music videos, and he was quite excited to take on commercial films this time.

With Li Shixin cooperating on his end, the production of the two commercials, *Only You* and *Dumplings*, was completed in just three days.

Two and a half days of that were spent on set design; once actual filming began, the dozen-or-so-seconds of footage took less than a day to wrap up entirely.

Even then, that was only because the final scene of *Only You* required the cooperation of a water sprinkler truck; if they hadn't had to wait for that, they could have finished everything in two days.

On the fourth day, Li Shixin and the film crew booked high-speed rail tickets to Linxia, where the Desert Film and Television City was located.

At the high-speed rail station:

Assisted by Zhang Ying, Li Shixin found a seat and sat down.

Looking at the bustling crowd waiting for their trains, he couldn't help sighing softly.

Damn it all, he had just returned from Shanghai, and now he was off to Linxia.

Being an actor, especially an elderly actor, and most especially a renowned veteran actor... life really was full of constant journeys!

Without hesitation, Li Shixin took out his phone, snapped a selfie with himself and the young crew members, and posted it to his fan group.

"Brother Shixin, where are you off to now?!"

"Eh? Isn't that our Rongcheng high-speed rail station? Shixin just came back a few days ago, and he's leaving already?!"

Facing the inquiries from Elder Liu Feng and another veteran fan in the group, Li Shixin laughed heartily.

He had been too busy these past two days, focusing entirely on filming, and hadn't found the time to inform the group of old fans about his upcoming project *Mobei*.

Seeing everyone asking, he typed out a message and sent it.

"Starting a new project. Heading over to Linxia this time, and I estimate it will take a little over a week to get back."

As soon as Li Shixin sent the message about his new project, An Xiaoxiao popped up in the group.

"Teacher! Are you going to Linxia?"

Before Li Shixin even had time to reply, a video call from An Xiaoxiao came through.

"Teacher! Why didn't you tell me you were going to Linxia?!"

Faced with An Xiaoxiao's questioning, Li Shixin felt a surge of irritation.

The very night he returned to Rongcheng, he had told this young girl that he was already home, but Wu Ming happened to make squirrel-shaped mandarin fish that evening, and this silly girl hadn't even bothered to come back and see him.

Over the next two days, it was Chen Boshi's birthday, and this creature had happily freeloaded on food and drinks, forgetting her way home entirely.

Li Shixin had already entertained thoughts of cutting ties with her as his student.

"Why should I tell you? I'm going to Linxia to film, there's no good food there."

"I'm going to attend the Hanfu Festival held in Linxia! If you had told me earlier we were going to Linxia, we could have traveled together!"

"Traditional Chinese attire?"

Li Shixin frowned. "How come all of a sudden you've taken a liking to this sort of thing?"

"Hehehehe—"

In the video, An Xiaoxiao stood with her hands on her hips, looking quite pleased. She pulled the video frame sideways to reveal Chen Boshi standing right beside her.

"Teacher, look! This is my temporary manager. The two of us have formulated a foolproof scheme for a cute girl to achieve instant fame! Of course, the plan was primarily devised by my temporary manager, little sister Chen Boshi."

"So, what does that have to do with you wearing traditional costumes?"

"The Douyin short video platform is currently holding a short video popularity contest! The top five winners will even get promotional traffic pushed directly by Douyin's official team! Wahahaha, with my, An Xiaoxiao's, peerless beauty and talent, securing a top five spot should be an absolute breeze, right? Just wait, Teacher—once I, An Xiaoxiao, hit it big, I'll definitely take good care of you!"

Looking at An Xiaoxiao's inflated and arrogant demeanor in the video, Li Shixin raised an eyebrow, immediately hung up the video call, downloaded Douyin, and registered an account in one smooth motion.

Seeing the short video grand prix notification sent by the official Douyin platform after successful registration, Li Shixin chuckled softly.

He could already see massive waves of applause points beckoning to him.

After thinking for a moment, Li Shixin picked up his phone and called An Xiaoxiao back via video chat.

"Hey, Teacher, why did you hang up on me just now?"

"Xiaoxiao, get down to the station right now. You and I are teaming up, and I'm taking you to Linxia. Let's see if there's a chance for your teacher to lend you a helping hand and get you into the top five of this Douyin event."

"But Boshi and I originally planned to leave the day after tomorrow! My luggage hasn't even been packed yet!"

"Hehehehe, Xiaoxiao, we're arriving in Linxia tonight, and we're planning to buy a whole sheep to roast in the desert as an opening ceremony celebration. Your Brother Shuo is already over there in Linxia; the sheep has been slaughtered, the cumin and seasonings are all mixed, and they're just waiting for us to arrive tonight to fire up the barbecue grill. Tsk tsk... that sheep is so plump and fat."

"Wait for me, Teacher! I'm calling a cab right now, you absolutely must wait for me, ahhhhh!"