Chapter 60: Is He Being Underestimated?

Li Wenyu stayed in Shanghai until May 16th before returning to Beijing alongside Fan Bing. By the time they departed, Jiang Shuying had already signed her contract.

Old Li had asked Miao Pu, a senior from the Class of 98, to rent an apartment in the residential complex right next door to the Jiang family.

He adopted a long-term cultivation plan by paying Miao Pu a monthly salary of 3,000 RMB, with the arrangement that she would guide Jiang Shuying for two hours every night and one hour every morning.

Miao Pu was trained like a regular military academy instructor, receiving a rigorous solo-tutoring approach. As a fresh graduate, Senior Sister Miao was destined to carve out a niche for herself in the industry, and even now, various minor roles came her way.

This setup was quite simple: whenever Miao Pu received a casting offer, she would go off to shoot, which essentially served as a holiday for Jiang Shuying. Once filming wrapped up, she would return to resume her lessons. This routine would remain stable and consistent until young Jiang applied to the Beijing Film Academy two years later...

Prior to this, Li Wenyu had found her a private tutor directly from the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Upon returning to Beijing, Li Wenyu plunged into a whirlwind of activity.

Having spent over two months getting the Zhongguancun Time Weibo and the Time Media headquarters off the ground, he, as the big boss, had to make frequent rounds to inspect the fruits of their labor.

There were also the teachers who had offered their help on numerous occasions, meaning the banquets could not stop.

Following that, the four young actresses—Yang Mi, Liu Shishi, Zhang Jiani, and Reiza—would also follow Miao Pu's solo-tutoring model, with apartments being successively rented near each of the young girls' homes.

Senior sisters from the Beijing Film Academy were dispatched to provide individual coaching.

This was accounted for as a corporate expense, ensuring the bookkeeping remained crystal clear. Even if human hearts proved fickle and someone grew arrogant, refused to obey, and tried to run off in the future, these expenditures would stand as the resources invested and cultivated by the company!

Filing a lawsuit to claim massive damages would also make the authorities convinced.

Of course, what tempted senior sisters like Miao Pu was never the 3,000 RMB monthly salary!

It was the fact that Li Wenyu had already become a towering banner, one of the most formidable and fierce figures from the Beijing Film Academy, even though the academy still boasted senior alumni like Zhang Yimou and the poetic maestro Chen Kaige.

When it came to generating box office success with commercial blockbuster films, including arranging for people to enter major production crews, his capability and connections far surpassed those of Zhang Yimou and Director Chen.

The ancient costume blockbuster [Mice Fall in Love with Cats], co-invested by Media Asia and Andy Lau's company, had officially commenced filming. Dong Xuan from the Class of 00 and Yang Xue from the Class of 99 officially entered the crew as the female lead and second female lead.

There were no unwritten rules...

There were no messy, complicated shenanigans whatsoever. When they went to Hong Kong to shoot, they never faced discrimination for coming from the mainland; Andy Lau covered all bases comprehensively.

He hired dedicated personal assistants and translators for them, and if anyone dared to engage in discrimination, their assistants would confront them head-on.

Right now, among countless male and female students at the Beijing Film Academy, who wasn't green with envy?

Having Li Wenyu invite senior brothers and sisters out to work for him?? It was simply too sweet!

Even gradually rising stars like Yan Danchen, Zuo Xiaoging, and other senior sisters were dying to rush back and take on the role of these one-on-one private tutors.

They did it not for the money, but to mingle and build connections!

...

On the night of May 18th, Li Wenyu once again drank a whole group of teachers and their friends under the table. Looking refreshed and full of vigor, he stood in the private dining room and scanned the entire room.

Fan Bing walked over, utterly speechless. "How on earth does a guy like you get more freakish every single time? When we first drank together, your tiny alcohol tolerance made me hesitate to even laugh at you; you'd get dizzy after just three or four taels."

"Tonight, you must have downed more than three catties, right??"

He had consumed over three catties of Moutai baijiu, yet stood there looking completely clear-headed, without even a flush on his face.

Li Wenyu smiled with complete composure. "We still have to continue tomorrow, but you don't need to busy yourself with this anymore. The media group and the Weibo branch can develop steadily now, and the senior teachers in charge of finance and personnel have been a huge help."

A Good Deed a Day:

Host: Li Wenyu, 21 years old.
Fitness: (200/100).
Writing: (92/100).
English: (92/100).
Screenwriting: (87/100).
Directing: (86/100).
Driving: (90/100).
...
Acting: (80/100).
Cantonese: (83/100).
Piloting: (82/100).
Painting: (79/100).
Counter-tracking and Counter-reconnaissance: (83/100).
...

His fitness attribute had stacked up to 200 points through daily routines. The normal human limit was 100, and he had doubled it—which made sense, as he was about to travel to India.

If he didn't boost his stats a bit more before heading to India, his heart wouldn't feel at ease.

The changes brought by this doubled enhancement were growing increasingly massive.

Ordinary skills like driving, Cantonese, and even acting easily surpassed the threshold of 80 through casual study, while screenwriting and directing abilities—which he hadn't added points to in a long time—were also slowly improving.

Now, if he were to pick up a new skill, learning it would be even more efficient.

His painting skill had soared all the way up while he was sketching storyboard frames, designing trendier clothing, and guiding architectural layout blueprints.

Even so, he still had 20 accumulated free attribute points left unspent!

With that, he grabbed his phone and made a call, summoning male classmates like Cui Peng, Zhou Yiwei, and Zhang Songwen—who were also the leaders of the online opinion armies—along with the teachers to disperse the gathering.

Three hours later.

Li Wenyu plunged Fan Bing back into a deep sleep. This was their newly decorated four-bedroom, two-living-room home purchased in the Third Ring Road North. The newly installed furniture was still sparse, and formaldehyde pollution was still present.

However, sleeping there occasionally posed no major issues.

It was 11:00 PM, and just as he wanted to sit down and do some writing, he heard the notification chime of a text message on his phone. It was from Michelle Lee: "I've arrived in Beijing. The usual spicy hotpot spot?"

With 200 points in the fitness attribute, Li Wenyu could now go without sleep for three days and nights while remaining consistently energized at his peak state. If he felt tired, a brief nap of one or two hours would fully restore him to 100% health.

His physical prowess was akin to that of a minor superhero, operating 24 hours a day...

His work efficiency for a single day matched that of a normal person over five, six, or even more than a week.

Sister Xin had made a surprise descent again!!

...

At a little past 5:00 AM, just as Li Wenyu was about to head out for a run and some exercise, Michelle Lee took a sip of water and complained, "I've had the script for over four months, and you don't even plan to test my acting skills?"

A few days ago, Wong Jing had called to ask Li Wenyu for a favor, and she had received a call as well.

Michelle Lee had turned it down; she wasn't short on small change!

In the original timeline, she had taken on a few films around this period, but it wasn't for the money—she took them simply because she had time to spare and wanted to play around, waiting until she encountered her next wealthy target.

If she could now ride the wave of a major blockbuster comparable to [Meteor Garden] or [Autumn in My Heart], exploding in popularity across Asia through a major idol drama,

then she would automatically attract a batch of first-generation or second-generation tycoons to pursue her on the small screen.

The most beautiful Miss Hong Kong turning into a big-pot wife was rather pitiful, but at the worst, she could just do more workouts and body shaping.

Li Wenyu looked slightly startled.

Target Check: Michelle Lee
Acting: (72/100).
Emotional Intelligence: (81/100).
Health: (81/100).

A quick glance later, he smiled and said, "It seems you're quite confident in yourself?"

When he first checked Michelle Lee, her acting was at 68!

Fan Bing had been boosted past the 70 threshold all the way to 90 using attribute points, but Michelle Lee had genuinely improved in private over the past four months!

He had never added any attribute points for her.

Of course, when it came to truly tutoring and guiding her acting, he had also done a great deal.

Michelle Lee stood up, eager to try. "How about I perform a scene for you, and you give me some feedback?"

Li Wenyu nodded, waiting to watch her performance. Across from him, she quickly brewed her emotions, clutching her stomach with a pained expression, pretending to make a phone call...

This was from episode three of [My Love from the Star], where the superstar female lead suffers a sudden attack of appendicitis late at night. In excruciating pain, she calls her manager, but the manager is out of town, leaving her with no choice but to brace herself and go to the hospital alone.

To maintain her celebrity image, even though the pain made her want to roll on the floor, she still had to put on makeup, change her clothes, and pick out shoes.

After performing a scene that lasted several minutes, she looked at Li Wenyu with eager anticipation, waiting to be praised.

Li Wenyu smiled and applauded. "Truly not bad. If this were a major feature film, there would still be a bit of a gap..."

"For handling the small screen of a television series, this performance is of a very fine standard. Keep up this state, Sister Xin, and once filming starts, our shoot will go very smoothly."

Michelle Lee beamed from ear to ear. "Where in the Hong Kong film industry do productions spend over half a year preparing for a single project? I certainly couldn't be that bad. Ah Yu, shall we celebrate some more?"

Li Wenyu couldn't help but fall into silence. Was Sister Xin, who had barely rested for a week, underestimating him?

By a conservative estimate, it had been a year since his rebirth. At this exact time a year ago, he was still pondering how to make his very first pot of gold.

It seemed he had no choice but to channel a few more buckets of hot money into Michelle Lee.