Everyone: …
The heroine, caught in confusion and agony, stared blankly with her eyes wide open. “...Huh?”
Su Ning had been extremely busy lately.
Incredibly busy—busy enough to go half mad. Every day, she worked from morning until night, never stopping for a moment. By the time she got home, she would collapse onto her bed and fall asleep. How could she possibly have the time to pay attention to this tiny “trivial matter” in the film industry?
It was only when the rewards for non-plot characters once again began skyrocketing abnormally that she finally took notice.
“Host, do you know what this means?” the system asked mysteriously.
Su Ning: … “A flower deliberately planted may fail to bloom, while a willow planted by accident may grow into a shade tree. Sometimes rewards arrive without warning, so one must keep a calm mind—neither arrogant nor impatient.”
“Aw, no, that’s not it, though it’s more or less along the same lines.” The system spoke solemnly.
“This proves that a genius’s casual stroke surpasses the painstaking efforts of an ordinary person. And you, Host, are a genius when it comes to enriching yourself through ruthless exploitation!”
Su Ning: …
What was she supposed to say?
Thank you for the compliment?
In any case, this latest wave of rewards was astonishingly generous. American actors had countless fans, and their fame was no longer limited to the local area. People elsewhere had heard the news as well.
So she had been telling the truth.
She had done absolutely nothing and yet gained so much money. Wasn’t the world practically revolving around her, trying every possible method and coming at her from every unbelievable angle just to send her money?
She couldn’t refuse it even if she wanted to.
Sigh.
Although the remark left her feeling rather conflicted, everyone present now understood Su Ning’s attitude.
The tension in the room eased.
Zhou Tian, however, was deeply conflicted. Finding Chinese actors to play the leads was a great idea—their fees were low, which would save money. But what about the box office?
He had plenty of confidence in himself.
Still, even the best horse could stumble. What if the audience failed to appreciate his superb filmmaking skills? When he imagined the consequences of a box-office flop, he couldn’t help shivering.
Then inspiration struck.
“Miss Su, I think those people have gone too far. You’re investing in this film, so you should be able to shoot it however you want. Choosing the lead actors is your right. Who are they to meddle? We have to teach them a lesson.”
“Oh? Go on.”
“Cut those actors’ fees!”
Zhou Tian looked at Su Ning and waved his hand excitedly.
“There’s another advantage to doing this. Famous actors like these tend to have big egos and complicated thoughts. The two leads don’t have as much experience as they do, and if their pay is lower as well, they won’t be able to keep those people under control. They might pull little stunts or try to steal the spotlight, which would affect both the filming and the schedule. So cutting their fees to put them in their place is the best option.”
After he finished, even Zhou Tian himself felt that he had performed exceptionally well.
What a considerate and professional director he was—always thinking of ways to ease the burden on his patron.
Hadn’t the Chinese actors’ gazes softened as they looked at him?
Zhou Tian thought smugly.
When making a film, the major expenses were nothing more than location and set design, film stock, and actors’ fees. The other two couldn’t be saved, nor should they be.
The actors’ fees, however, could be adjusted.
What? They might protest or refuse to work?
Ha.
The investor was Su Ning. What kind of fool would dare do that?
He was still cackling with delight when—
“No.”
Su Ning frowned and shook her head. “I’m here to make a film, not to play the part of a tyrant. How can I arbitrarily cut people’s pay? If word got out, my reputation would be ruined.”
Zhou Tian: …
Sorry, but he genuinely couldn’t imagine what room there was left for her reputation to be ruined.
He was just about to argue further when Su Ning waved her hand.
“Still, the issue you mentioned can’t be ignored. Let’s do this instead: raise the pay for all the Chinese roles. Raise it until it’s higher than theirs.”
“Isn’t that a good solution?”
The Chinese actors were delighted. Of course they were happy to receive more money!
Zhou Tian, meanwhile, looked as though he might burst into tears.
“Ding! The system has detected that the Host is enriching herself through ruthless exploitation…”
There was still more?
Su Ning glanced curiously at Zhou Tian and sighed. A mere third-level plot character, yet he was surprisingly easy to squeeze dry.
…………
Su Ning thought this solution achieved the best of both worlds. Only a generous, kind-hearted person like her would be willing to spend so lavishly.
But there were always people who didn’t know how to appreciate kindness.
Several actors jumped up and complained, chattering away about how allowing Chinese actors to earn more than them was an insult.
Su Ning: …?
“Ridiculous.”
“Then let’s show them what a real insult looks like.”
Those few actors who had made the biggest fuss had their pay cut across the board. Their roles were also rewritten into ridiculous, ugly comic-relief characters who suffered terribly, worked exhausting jobs, and barely appeared on screen.
Once the news got out, the outside world naturally erupted in another wave of condemnation. All the attention, praise, and admiration that had previously been directed at her transformed into hatred and loathing.
Su Ning: Thank you for the rewards.
After thinking it over, she turned around and added another one million dollars to the film’s investment.
Zhou Tian, who had just been celebrating the reduced actors’ fees, stared silently at the heavens.
The female lead asked curiously, “Director, aren’t you happy that Miss Su increased the investment?”
“Happy. I’m overjoyed.”
He lowered his head, and tears finally burst from his eyes.
“See? I’m so happy that I can’t stop crying.”
Zhou Tian was a tenacious man.
He didn’t lose heart. Instead, he racked his brains to reduce costs in every possible way. For instance, he chose cheaper Chinese laborers as extras. After all, he had already offended white audiences, so why not take things all the way?
A Chinese investor, a Chinese director, and Chinese lead actors.
Why shouldn’t the extras be Chinese as well?
There was absolutely nothing wrong with that!
The news swept through the Chinese neighborhoods like the wind. What made them even happier was the fact that the production needed a great many extras.
“If I didn’t know they were making a film, I’d think they were preparing for war,” one Chinese man joked.
“With wages this high, I’d even follow them into battle. At least I’d get a full meal before dying, and I could leave some money behind for my family.”
It was the middle of winter. The speaker’s clothes looked “bulky,” but on closer inspection, they turned out to consist of nothing more than old newspapers, straw, and layers upon layers of cloth smeared with unidentified grime. His exposed face was sallow, the skin sunken deeply around his cheeks and eyes.
Anyone could tell he had been suffering from long-term hunger.
The Great Depression.
Americans were complaining bitterly. They couldn’t find work and were barely able to survive.
But the Chinese immigrants were suffering even more.
The dirty, backbreaking jobs that had once been available to them were now being snatched up by desperate locals. Even when they tried to collect trash, groups of Americans would band together to drive them away. The social atmosphere was hostile, everyone was seething with resentment, and the Chinese had to be careful not to become convenient targets for other people’s anger.
But things were different now.
They stood in line.
As long as there was no problem with them, they would be hired. They discussed working hard, saving as much money as possible, and perhaps finding a chance to join Miss Su’s other businesses in the future.
It seemed they might actually make it through this winter.
They and their families might survive another year.
Outside, the world remained noisy and unsettled.
On the film set, however, everything continued moving forward in an orderly fashion.
After a night of heavy snowfall, the world was blanketed in frost-white silence.
Christmas had arrived.
Su Ning suddenly realized that she had been in the Republic of China for almost three years already.
