Bai Lu got scammed, but I became a superstar through e-commerce.

Chapter 33 Bai Lu Refuses Contract for Boyfriend

The meeting place arranged by the witness was an internal members-only tea room in Chaoyang District, Beijing, not in the Huanyu office.

Bai Lu sat by the window, holding a cup of Longjing tea that he had barely drunk.

Through the window, Bai Lu could see Qing Xiao waiting outside.

He was more easygoing than Bai Lu had imagined.

He was wearing a dark gray Chinese-style jacket and gold-rimmed glasses. He spoke in a slow and deliberate voice with a slight Jiangzhe accent.

He really got into the conversation when the tea was being brewed for the second time.

"Bai Lu, I've looked at all the works I could find. You're in 80% of the short film 'Cat and Tree.' And that one, 'My Girlfriend is a Little Savage.'"

Yu Zheng held the purple clay cup, his gaze sweeping between Bai Lu and Qing Xiao.

"You have something that many young actors with formal training lack."

Bai Lu put down his teacup, his fingers unconsciously gripping the rim of the cup.

"What?"

"You're very genuine." Yu Zheng placed the cup on the tea tray.

"The character Lin Xiao is willful, capricious, and unreasonable. If someone else played her, the audience would hate her. But when you acted her, the audience could feel what was underpinned beneath each act of willfulness. That's called genuine emotion, something you can't learn through formal training. That's also called an actor's natural talent, one in a million. I think you'll definitely become a superstar."

Bai Lu's eyes reddened slightly; it had been two years.

Before she was summoned by Yu Zheng, all the compliments she received were "good-looking," "has a good figure," and "has a good sense of the camera."

No one ever told her that her most valuable asset wasn't her face, but the genuine emotions and feelings she couldn't hide.

Looking at her reddened eyes, Yu Zheng's tone softened: "I asked you to come here today not for an audition. I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to sign with our company."

Bai Lu's hand trembled, almost knocking over the teacup. Her voice trembled slightly: "Teacher Yu, you mean, signing a contract?"

"Sign the contract."

Yu Zheng picked up the teapot and poured Bai Lu another cup.

"After you sign the contract, we'll arrange for you to undergo intensive internal training, going through your physical form, lines, and acting from the beginning. Then, we'll wait for a suitable script, starting with supporting roles, and adjust the roles step by step based on your performance and audience appeal."

He paused for a moment.

"You may still be playing minor roles for a while, or even a few supporting roles, but as long as you stand in front of the camera, establish the character, and the market recognizes you, I dare to push you to the lead role."

Bai Lu listened intently to every word he spoke. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he was determined to seize it no matter what.

"Our company, Huanyu, operates on a project-driven talent incubation model." Yu Zheng leaned back in his chair, speaking at a measured pace, "If you have talent, we can give you room to try and fail. But whether you can ultimately reach the leading lady position depends on yourself."

Bai Lu's voice rolled out from deep in his throat: "Teacher Yu, I...I'm willing to sign a contract, I can sign it anytime."

"Alright." Yu Zheng nodded, his gaze shifting to Qing Xiao outside the window, then back to Bai Lu. "There's one more thing. Is the person who came with you your assistant, or your boyfriend?"

Bai Lu almost blurted out "boyfriend," but hesitated for a moment before the words left her mouth.

Because he never formally said he liked her.

He never held her hand, never confessed his feelings, and never said "let's be together."

He only helped her pay off her debts when she was scammed, and told her she couldn't film any more bad movies when she had an allergic reaction.

They never talked about love or romance.

But regarding their romantic relationship, it seems they've done everything together.

She suddenly realized that in her heart, he had long been her boyfriend.

It's not the kind of relationship where a boy and a girl confirm their relationship and then the boy becomes her boyfriend.

He's the kind of person she wants to see first when she opens her eyes, the first person she thinks of when anything happens, and the first person that pops into her mind when she thinks about the rest of her life.

She didn't need any confirmation; she had already decided on him in her heart.

"Boyfriend," Bai Lu said.

When she said those two words, she looked at Qingxiao, her ears turning slightly red, thinking to herself: Silly boy, I confessed to you, but unfortunately you didn't hear it.

Yu Zheng placed the teacup on the table and leaned back in his chair.

His gaze swept back and forth between Bai Lu and Qing Xiao before he spoke, his tone much more formal than before: "Bai Lu, if you want to sign with our company, you need to break up. And the two of you can't have any contact."

Bai Lu's chopsticks hovered in mid-air. She stood there stunned for several seconds before putting them down and turning to look at Yu Zheng.

Why?

"Because you're a newcomer. Newcomers are strictly managed by the company." Yu Zheng looked into her eyes. "If a rising actress gets photographed with her boyfriend visiting the set while filming a movie, or if the two of them are photographed together while filming another movie, netizens will assume she's not single. Then what romantic roles can you play? Whoever you act as a couple with, the audience will think you have someone else in your heart. How can you create a CP (couple pairing)? How can you build audience appeal? Before your public image has even taken shape, a relationship is a ticking time bomb."

He paused.

"The cost of celebrities dating is too high. Investors dare not bet on an actor whose private life could be exposed at any time. You should know the rules in the industry. For ordinary actors, dating affects their resources. For rising stars that companies are promoting, once it is exposed, it will cause a chain reaction."

Yu Zheng picked up the purple clay teapot and poured a round of tea, his gaze returning to Bai Lu's somewhat pale face.

"It's not just Huanyu Entertainment; this is an unspoken clause when you sign with any legitimate entertainment agency. We're just communicating with you openly about it."

Bai Lu didn't speak; she looked down at the teacup in her hand.

The tea has gone cold.

Her dream of becoming a star, a dream that had been ingrained in her bones since she could remember, had never been so close to her.

This dream prevented her from crying while hanging boards in Sijiqing, prevented her from collapsing while sleeping on the bus, and allowed her to get up and continue taking orders the next day after being scammed out of 50,000 yuan.

Now, Yu Zheng extends his hand to her.

This is probably the closest I've ever come to realizing my dream of becoming a star.

But if she holds this hand, she'll have to let Qingxiao go.

Let go of Qingxiao, who has been by her side since the 50,000 yuan, let go of Qingxiao, who worked hard carrying woven bags, let go of Qingxiao, who bumped fists with her in the KTV and said "it's a deal".

Yu Zheng was saying something to the other side, basically saying that the opportunity was rare, and people were lining up to sign with Huanyu, and that she should think it over carefully.

She knew she should nod, should seize the opportunity, and should sign it without hesitation, just like she had in her past life.

The entire tea room was exceptionally quiet.

A breeze was blowing outside the window, making the withered branches sway.

Bai Lu lowered his head, his fingers tracing the rim of the cup.

She remembered that a year ago, she fell asleep on the bus while eating a Yongkang meat pie, and Qingxiao squatted in the rented room to fix her shoes.

Qingxiao's high heels scratched his heels, and he somehow learned a way to improve them.

She recalled the time when she pushed him into the water while filming the short film.

The river water was freezing cold in early winter. He stood in the river, soaked to the bone and his lips were white with cold. When he looked up at her, he didn't say "You really pushed," but "That's right."

Qingxiao was willing to make any effort to establish a persona for himself in his short film.

Everything that Yu Zheng just said makes perfect sense.

Newcomers shouldn't be distracted; a romantic relationship can hinder their career, and keeping a secret relationship will only put them in a more passive position if it gets caught on camera.

If you want to go further down this path, you can't tie yourself to another person.

As she rises higher and higher, the potential pitfall of a romantic relationship can have a fatal impact on an artist.

But Bai Lu didn't want to cut that line.

She doesn't want much in this world.

She wanted to stand in the light, to be seen, and to prove that the girl who came from the old streets of Changzhou was more than just a Taobao model.

But if the price of this light is losing the person who stuck insoles on her shoes on the floor of the rented apartment, then she would rather not have this light.

"Teacher Yu."

Bai Lu lowered his head and sighed deeply.

"Forget it."

Yu Zheng paused, his hand holding the purple clay teapot still.

"You said that if I sign the contract, I have to cut off all contact with him." Bai Lu's voice was soft but steady. "His name is Qing Xiao. To help me pay off my debts, he carried woven bags from the fifth floor to the first floor of Sijiqing Market by himself, trip after trip, day after day, his hands scraped and covered with band-aids as he continued to deliver goods. He wrote a script to pave the way for me, using his own e-commerce profits to subsidize it, just to introduce me to you and to more film and television companies."

Her tears fell, but she didn't wipe them away.

Bai Lu didn't understand why she was crying. Was she about to lose her dream of becoming a star?

"I do have a dream, to play the lead role in a major production. But it's already part of my dream. If I can't become a star, then I'll be a Taobao model and make short films."

"I'm sorry, Professor Yu Zheng."

After speaking, Bai Lu stood up and bowed slightly.

Then she turned and walked out.