Chapter 227: Deleting Your Lines
“Is she the scriptwriter or the consultant?” an actress asked as she looked at Tan Mo suspiciously.
Tan Mo had a vague memory of this woman. Her name was Xu Miaotong. She was an actress who was known to have a high level of s.e.xual chemistry.
She was very well known to the public, and anyone who paid just a little bit of attention to the entertainment industry would know her name.
Her acting skills were decent, but she could be hired for less than popular A-list actresses.
Director Liu was a little embarra.s.sed to tell Tan Mo about this, but Xu Miaotong had been brought in with the recommendation of the sponsors and managers.
Since there was already a strong cast, whether or not she performed well wouldn’t be that important. That was the only reason why Director Liu had agreed to cast her.
Not everyone in the older and experienced generation was indifferent to fame and fortune.
Many already had their own connections, and those connections behind the scenes could account for more than their public reputations.
Those who wanted to surpa.s.s them by being pushed by the managers and sponsors would have a hard time trying to do so.
But Xu Miaotong could also rely on her own connections behind the scenes.
She couldn’t afford to stir up any trouble with the big shots. Would she even be afraid of Tan Mo?
“Director Liu, it’s not that I’m shallow and looking down on those who are younger than I am. We can all admit that the older generation has better acting skills than we do. But with someone as young as Tan Mo being both the scriptwriter and consultant…is she really reliable?”
A child that young being her teacher? It was a bit odd.
And nervy too..
Director Liu wasn’t angry.
He hadn’t publicly stated Tan Mo’s age either, just to try and prevent tension.
“Don’t look down on her. She knows a lot more than you think. The industry has become so specialized now,” Director Liu explained. “Tan Mo is from Beijing University. She’s a student of both Professor Zhao in the History Department and Professor Guo in the Chinese Department. Both professors have personally told me just how accomplished she is. It was only by a stroke of luck that we are able to have her here.
“Even Headmaster Mu from Beijing University called me and said the same things, and he even requested that I take good care of her.” Director Liu smiled. “With three seniors telling us this about Tan Mo’s true potential and skills, do we really still need to doubt her?
“Miaotong, you should learn to be a bit more polite and kinder to other people. If you don’t, what will happen if you drive the little girl away? That would be a huge loss for us. We might even have to halt production entirely. Don’t think that Tan Mo’s only working hard for money. She’s here to save the day. Without her, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
If Tan Mo really were to leave, there wouldn’t even be any issues of contract to discuss.
With Wei Zhiqian around, Tan Mo had no reason to be afraid.
Director Liu didn’t dare to bring Wei Zhiqian up.
He was worried that once he did so, then everyone would really be scared of insulting Tan Mo and instead would try to mess with her in more subtle ways.
With the experienced ones working for him, Director Liu had learned to be careful about the different situations he encountered.
Anyone who worked in this industry had to struggle through h*ll. There was no such thing as bluffing your way through. Everyone knew that.
Xu Miaotong stopped complaining after hearing what Director Liu had said.
She looked at Tan Mo again and saw that she was laughing at her.
This laughter left a mark on Xu Miaotong’s heart.
Then she noticed that this young lady seemed to have an expression that showed a liking for her. Her smile was wide, but also very careful.
And when Xu Miaotong looked over, she even waved at her.
Xu Miaotong’s heart softened up a bit then.
How could she be so well behaved at such a young age?
As Tan Mo waved, she said, “I’m quite young, so I’m not really brave or suitable enough to be your teacher. Professionally, I can only help out a little. Professor Zhao entrusted this job to me and said that I could do as I saw fit. Ms. Xu need not worry. I won’t be making any trouble for the team.
“Regarding the mannerisms, there’s nothing much for me to teach or say. I’ll just act it out once, and I’m sure everyone will get it in one go.” Tan Mo smiled sweetly, and Xu Miaotong smiled right back at her.
Director Liu didn’t say anything.
He hadn’t expected Tan Mo to be so diplomatic. She really knew her way with words.
He’d initially thought that she was the one who was being spoiled at home, especially by Wei Zhiqian. At school too, with Headmaster Mu, Professor Zhao, and Professor Guo.
Tan Mo had only stayed to write the script.
With the three phone calls he’d received, it became obvious that, even if she didn’t act spoiled, she’d at least have to have some form of a temper.
But little did he know, Tan Mo wasn’t like that at all. She even knew how to flatter and appease the others.
Now Xu Miaotong had already been convinced to the point where she was practically lying on Tan Mo’s shoulder.
Just like that, Tan Mo had already secured her spot in delivering her knowledge to the cast.
On the third day, a new actress joined the cast.
Tan Mo heard that she was called Ding Mengfei from Director Liu’s a.s.sistant.
She didn’t turn out to be as easy to persuade as Xu Miaotong.
Xu Miaotong was a blunt, easygoing person, whose personality was actually quite fun to be around.
As long as you said something that she liked to hear and acted humbly, she was easy to interact with.
But this wasn’t the case with Ding Mengfei.
She presented herself as an easygoing, humorous person, but she was in reality a hard, serious worker behind the scenes.
On her first day, she didn’t cut Tan Jinqi any slack.
She started telling him to do this and that.
And when Tan Jinqi relayed instructions from Director Liu, Ding Mengfei wouldn’t cooperate.
She even started a little trouble with Xu Miaotong. “Did Xu Miaotong agree to this?”
“Xu Miaotong isn’t doing it, so why should I?”
“That’s a bit too high. I’m scared. Let my subst.i.tute do it.”
Even though Tan Mo would never directly interfere with Tan Jinqi’s work, she paid attention to Ding Mengfei’s att.i.tude.
Hee, hee, hee!
After she’d sat down at her computer, she started cutting Ding Mengfei’s lines in the script.
If I let you keep all these scenes, that will be a loss… Tan Mo thought to herself as she kept on deleting the lines.
No other scriptwriter would dare to do so, but she could.
If Ding Mengfei wanted to complain, she should just go directly to Director Liu.
As long as Ding Mengfei had fewer lines, the faster the script would be finished. The time she spent with the team would decrease too.
And naturally, she wouldn’t have to annoy Tan Jinqi any longer.
Perfect!
At last, Tan Mo was going to head back to school.
At this point, she’d already written 24 episodes.
And Ding Mengfei’s time in the script had become very short.
Tan Jinqi asked for leave to take Tan Mo to the airport.
Director Liu had to stay behind shooting the series, so he was unable to go to the airport.
And that turned out to be great timing too. Tan Jinqi and Tan Mo could finally have some sibling time together.
“I’ve realized that Ding Mengfei’s lines have been cut down a lot,” Tan Jinqi said.
“So big brother did notice?” Tan Mo didn’t hide it from him.
Tan Jinqi knew that it had been Tan Mo’s doing.
“How could I not? She’s already almost stopped annoying me at this point.” He laughed.
“That’s what I like to hear. That’s the main reason why I wrote her fewer lines,” Tan Mo admitted.
“There’s no issue with that, then? Just make sure this doesn’t affect the quality of the script.” Tan Jinqi didn’t mind this at all. “When you’re out at work, things like this are bound to happen.”
“But I’ve realized that if you can reduce such troubles, try to do so. But I’m sure there are other times I don’t realize what’s going on so it’s fine,” Tan Mo said.