Chapter 228: Two Shades Darker
When Tao Mu, the troops leader, and a group of screenwriters arrived at the training ground, Gu Yuzhang was already on his knees——literally. Down on one knee and vomiting.
Comrade Soldier Elite stood by the side stupidly, slightly at a loss. He didn't expect that he would have a competition with someone, just flipping on the horizontal bar, and actually cause the other to vomit.
Seeing the death glare from the company commander, Comrade Soldier Elite touched his nose in embarrassment, and explained in a low voice, "I didn't expect….." This guy was actually so stubborn.
Tao Mu looked at Gu Yuzhang, who was kneeling there and vomiting his guts out, and walked forward with a particularly speechless expression, patting him on the shoulder: "Are you all right?"
Gu Yuzhang shook his head dazedly, and didn't forget to explain to himself: "I'm fine. I just don't have a developed cerebellum, and my balance was not good. I usually get dizzy in the car."
Then why were you still competing on the horizontal bars with others!
Tao Mu was even more speechless. He felt that it was not because Gu Yuzhang had an underdeveloped cerebellum, it was more likely because his brain hadn't developed well.
When the company commander saw this, he quickly sent Gu Yuzhang to the medical room on a stretcher. He pointed to the pool of vomit on the ground and said to the elite soldier, "You caused this. You clean it up yourself."
Comrade Soldier Elite looked up at the sky innocently, with an expression of "Who did I provoke, who did I offend?" But he didn't say anything, he just obeyed. When the elite soldiers selected by their company went to participate in the special forces assessment, they even had to squat in the septic tank for training. So this was nothing to him.
On the contrary, Tao Mu felt a little sheepish, and insisted on not letting Comrade Soldier Elite clean it up. Instead, he pressed the other actors in the cast to clean up the area. Some actors were not convinced and shouted why. Tao Mu sneered and said directly: "I saw you were all very engaged in watching from the side. You are already so immersed in the film even before the official shooting. If I don't arrange some scenes for you, won't I disappoint your sense of participation?"
Seeing that Tao Mu, the lead actor, producer and the largest investor in the crew was really angry, all the actors suddenly woke up. Several Yan Film students who passed the interview with Gu Yuzhang explained: "It's not that we are causing trouble on purpose. After we passed the audition, we went back to school to ask for leave. Some other students said that we were traitors, the words they used were quite nasty." They were also full of anger. As a result, when they first came to the army and heard that the soldiers looked down on them, Gu Yuzhang exploded.
Hearing this explanation, Tao Mu said nothing. He had already warned these Yan Film students during the audition. They all knew what they would face after passing the audition. Everyone here were grown ups and able to bear the consequences for the choices they made. It was not like you could always want an opportunity and at the same time refuse to bear criticism. And even take your anger out on others.
A teacher from the screenwriting team chuckled and said, "If this was put in a TV series, it's a typical face-slapping routine!"
It was a pity that a certain someone didn't have the hero's life, so the road ahead was bumpy and he vomited directly!
If this was put in the online novel, it would be that kind of most down-to-earth male protagonist who was "handsome for less than three seconds". The eyes of several screenwriters who were online writers brightened and winked at each other secretly.
After resolving the commotion at the training ground, Tao Mu and the troops leader went to the infirmary to visit Gu Yuzhang.
The doctor gave Gu Yuzhang medicine, and Gu Yuzhang was already better. He was currently laying in bed with his eyes closed. Seeing Tao Mu and the troops leader who came to visit him, he felt a little embarrassed.
"I've caused everyone trouble." Gu Yuzhang said apologetically, "I am willing to admit defeat. I will definitely fulfill the bet."
"No need, no need." The troops leader waved his hand and said, "You are here to experience life. How could you wash clothes for the soldiers."
Gu Yuzhang was an actor after all, and he came to the army for filming. He was not one of their soldiers. The troops leader was worried that Gu Yuzhang would talk nonsense during the interview with reporters. When it came to the image of the army, the troops leader did not dare to neglect any munor detail.
Tao Mu felt that this was not a big deal: "He is willing to admit defeat. He is also an adult, and it's not like he can afford to make a bet but can't afford to lose. Leader, you don't have to stop him. And don't worry, if this matter is handled well, we can even put it in the promotional footage."
After a pause, Tao Mu smiled: "The promo footage will definitely be handed over to the military for review before uploading it to BulletScreen.com."
Hearing Tao Mu say this, the troops leader immediately felt relieved. The company had a lot of things to do, and the troops leader spoke a few words of condolences to Gu Yuzhang, then got up and left.
Only Tao Mu and Gu Yuzhang were left in the infirmary. Tao Mu looked at Gu Yuzhang's sullen and pale expression, and asked, "What did the doctor say, can you train normally tomorrow?"
Gu Yuzhang nodded and apologized again. Profoundly reflecting on his behavior: "I shouldn't bring bad emotions into my work. I shouldn't be angry with that comrade sergeant."
"It's good that you know." Tao Mu didn't comfort Gu Yuzhang, but analyzed rationally: "If you want to be an actor, if you want to go a long way in this circle, you must do a good job of emotional management. Honesty and straightforwardness is not a problem. But you have to be honest and straightforward in the right place. Just imagine, if you can't manage your own emotions well, how can the producer choose an actor who doesn't have enough control over their emotions to play an important role? It's also impossible for the talent agency to support an extremely emotional star."
Considering Gu Yuzhang's future star road, Tao Mu was indeed a little overly alarmist.
But at this stage, Gu Yuzhang really listened to this advice. After a long silence, Gu Yuzhang said firmly: "I will change."
Tao Mu patted Gu Yuzhang on the shoulder: "Just do well. Starting tomorrow, the production team of "Soldier Elite" will also enter the army. Although they will not participate in the training, they will always follow your training, and will also take some pictures and videos during the period. The video material of large-scale training will be placed in the post-editing process. If valuable video materials are recorded during the shooting process, we will also put them in the promotional footage. Moreover, the screenwriting team will also improve the script details and character settings based on your performance. So, if you really want to be popular, you should try your best to show your best self. When you become popular in the future, you will know that those who speak nasty things in front of you are not worth mentioning at all."
Give a slap and then a sweet date was Tao Mu's favorite effective method. When heard by Gu Yuzhang he felt that Tao Mu, this college freshman boss, could actually trust him and speak such sincere things with him, it truly moved him to tears. He wanted nothing more than to sign with Tao Mu's film and television company immediately.
But Gu Yuzhang knew what kind of situation he was now. He was just a freshman in Yan Film. He hadn't made a single TV series, and he didn't have any commercial value. If he now propose to sign a contract with Tao Mu's film and television company, it was like begging Tao Mu for charity.
So Gu Yuzhang quietly made up his mind that he must perform well during the shooting. When he became popular with this role, he would talk to Tao Mu about signing a contract.
He wanted everyone to know that Gu Yuzhang was not an ungrateful person!
Because there was Gu Yuzhang's brief interlude——although there was some trouble, but like the old saying, having a fight can facilitate a relationship. After cleaning up the vomit on the training ground together, the relationship between the crew and the soldiers became closer.
From the second day onwards, the cast and crew went through tough training with the soldiers——it was truly tough indeed. The training intensity was 100,000 times harder than military training in college. Even Tao Mu, who was a martial arts body double and had good physical fitness, as well as had participated in the Hong Kong police training not long ago, almost knelt there on the first day of training. And then couldn't get up from the bed. When he woke up on the third morning, his arms and legs were so sore that it could almost squeeze out lemon juice. (TN: ‘sore' and ‘sour' in Chinese uses the same word)
Tao Mu was already like this, not to mention the other actors in the crew. There were several people who couldn't take it any longer that day and left immediately. Tao Mu didn't stop them, and even sent a car to take them to the train station. It wad like this for more than half a month, and every day there were actors who couldn't keep up and left halfway. In the end, only seventeen of the fifty-two actors were selected, including eleven actors, six actresses, which include several amateur actors selected by the art troupe.
At this time, these actors were finally considered to have completed their recruit training. The next step was to send them to different companies to learn different knowledge according to different roles. Among them, the male protagonist played by Tao Mu was directly assigned to the communication company because he was a college student majoring in communication engineering.
Chu Sui'an, Du Kang, Wen Bao, Gu Yuzhang and several other supporting roles also entered each of their respective company as an intern. After a month of internship, because there was a scene in which recruits were to be selected into the special forces later in the plot, these main supporting characters had to go to the special forces to experience life. But at that time there was no need to train with the special forces because their physical fitness simply couldn't keep up even if they asked for it. Therefore, it was only required that their appearance and posture was similar and could be performed believingly in front of the camera.
But even so, it was foreseeable that the later training would become heavier and more difficult. Therefore, those who couldn't hold on and left early only felt lucky. As for whether their happiness could be kept when the TV series was released, who knows.
In the outside world, through the word of mouth of the actors who left halfway, the difficulties encountered by the "Soldier Elite" crew during the training of the troops also became more demonized in the mouths of these quitters. More and more media and audiences were beginning to wonder what this drama would be like. Among them, Tao Mu, the most popular, was even more distressed by all fans and media. And this kind of distress for their idol after half a month, Tao Mu, who was claimed to not be able to tan no matter what——appeared two shades darker on the front pages of major entertainment weekly magazines, reached its peak in an instant.
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