Chapter 43: System, What the Heck is This!

Zhou Le was stunned.

"You know me?"

Reizat signaled her fans to make a way and walked over.

"Of course I know you. You and Gulinazha made it to the trending searches, and since I know her too, I happened to keep an eye on things. I didn't expect to run into you here."

Dawning realization hit Zhou Le.

However, even though it was winter and the other person was wearing a down jacket, the problem was that the down jacket was wide open, and underneath she was only wearing a low-cut camisole.

From Zhou Le's perspective, he could practically see the very bottom of it.

Remembering that this was an airport with a crowd of people around, Zhou Le quickly pulled his gaze back and focused it on her face.

"Teacher Reizat, I'm a huge fan of yours. I really loved *Empresses in the Palace*." He didn't dare to mention everything, otherwise, if this conversation ended up posted online, all his previous remarks would be exposed.

"Haha, thank you. But meeting here must be fate. Shall we follow each other on Weibo?"

"Sure."

Right in front of the fans, the two of them mutually followed each other on Weibo.

Naturally, the fans wouldn't miss this opportunity and began snapping pictures frantically.

"As expected of Teacher Reizat, your fans are all so pretty." To avoid trouble, Zhou Le added another compliment.

"Yeah, they're all very cute."

Realizing that his time was running out, Zhou Le said goodbye to her and her fans, then hurried off to catch his flight.

However, after the plane landed, on the taxi ride back home,

Su Yingxia suddenly handed her phone to Zhou Le for him to look.

Just two short hours later, Zhou Le discovered he was trending once again.

The trending topic was [Reizat Recognized by a Peer at the Airport].

Zhou Le: "???"

"Seriously, can't you media people write a proper headline? Would it cost you money to include my name?"

Zhou Le was somewhat speechless.

How many times has this been now?

Is there really no end to this?

Once home, Zhou Le successively received messages from Nazha and Meng Ziyi.

Little Auntie: "So bored. Want to hang out?"

Meng Ziyi: "Teacher Zhou, I've discovered your fortune-telling is terrifyingly accurate. Another TV drama has come looking for me, and it's the female lead role! You're amazing. Can you fortune-tell something else for me next time?"

Zhou Le replied to them individually: "Little Auntie, I just got off a plane and want to rest for a bit. Let's hang out later."

Then he messaged Meng Ziyi: "Specific situations require specific analysis. What do you want to fortune-tell?"

Meng Ziyi: "Romance."

Zhou Le: "That depends on facial features."

Soon, Meng Ziyi sent over several photos.

Each one was prettier than the last.

Zhou Le casually saved them to his phone, then went online to find an online fortune-telling website.

He uploaded a photo and sent the generated result back to her.

"Eyebrows with an upward slant, fickle in relationships, fiery temperament, uncalculating, a giving type in love..."

Meng Ziyi: "Spot on, Teacher Zhou! So what kind of person do you think I should look for?"

Zhou Le thought about it: "Preferably someone tall and broad-shouldered. Someone like that can give you a sense of security. Their personality should be both gentle and humorous so they can have common topics with you. You could consider someone from within the industry."

Zhou Le was simply giving a response based on the fortune-telling website's output.

Upon seeing this, Meng Ziyi started pondering, running through every single single male artist she knew in the industry, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that Zhou Le matched these criteria the best.

"Teacher Zhou, are you sneaking in your own agenda?"

Zhou Le thought his cyber fortune-telling had been found out.

So he replied with:

"Believe it or not."

"Believe it or not," along with "I've said all there is to say" and "Those who understand, understand," are collectively known as the quotations of masters.

When Meng Ziyi saw this, she recalled Zhou Le's previous miraculous feats.

"I believe it, of course I believe it. But to thank the master, let me treat you to a meal next time we meet."

Zhou Le loved getting free meals, so naturally, he wouldn't refuse.

Meanwhile, Meng Ziyi's girlish heart began to flutter.

They say drinking alcohol can test a person's true appearance, but Zhou Le seemed quite handsome even when he was drunk.

However, it wasn't certain yet; she would observe him again next time.

Afterwards, Zhou Le slept the entire afternoon at home and began pondering the script after eating dinner.

Su Yingxia also went back to tidy up her place.

After all, having rented it only recently, many things still needed to be bought.

At night, looking at Xu Zheng's script, Zhou Le wrote over eight thousand words of character biographies.

Yet he still felt that playing this role would be extremely difficult.

He acted in front of the mirror for a long time, always feeling something was still lacking, and eventually decided to stop thinking about it altogether.

Some things are useless no matter how much you rack your brains.

It was better to reserve some inspiration for himself tomorrow.

Time for bed!

...

The next day, Zhou Le took Su Yingxia with him to Xu Zheng's place for the audition.

During the process, however, Su Yingxia had to wait outside.

Inside the room,

Wen Muye, Xu Zheng, and Ning Hao looked at Zhou Le.

After observing for a while, Wen Muye spoke up.

"Your image is indeed good, but our character is supposed to play a patient. You must be able to portray the look of a patient. Right now, you're too tall and too healthy."

"You mean someone skin and bones?" Zhou Le asked again.

"Yes, so your current physique definitely won't do, and it requires you to be able to endure a tremendous amount of hardship."

"Director, enduring hardship is nothing to me. I used to work in construction; opening my eyes every day meant hard labor. As soon as I finish filming my current project, I'll start losing weight."

Xu Zheng laughed heartily.

Zhou Le's background reminded him of a friend.

Wang Baoqiang also started as an extra and had a tough life before. Although he had studied martial arts at Shaolin, he only ever played stunt doubles or characters who got beaten up in film crews.

Still, for him,

As long as an actor is obedient, that's enough.

As long as they are obedient and possess a shred of talent, a director can mold them.

He trusted Wen Muye's ability.

Besides, even as the executive producer, he would be staying with the crew for a while anyway, coupled with Ning Hao—the new-generation director most skilled at using newcomers and comic foils—if they couldn't even teach an actor, they would probably be laughed out of the industry by their peers.

Furthermore, using a newcomer whom a top domestic agency was preparing to promote was far better than finding an actor who had just offended most people in the industry.

Right now, Zhou Le looked very obedient. Even if he had no prior foundation, the fact that he now possessed acting skills recognized by others proved he had good talent.

Afterward, the three of them chatted casually with Zhou Le for a while.

Since he was introduced by capital, they naturally had to show some extra courtesy.

Zhou Le responded fluently, speaking the truth when necessary and boasting when appropriate.

As for anything else, Zhou Le might not dare say much, but the skill of talking to humans as a human and ghosts as a ghost was something drilled into him firsthand by his former unit leaders, foremen, and project supervisors.

Just like that, unawares, a lottery began drawing automatically in his mind.

Taking a look, his experience value had just reached 5000.

[Folk Customs...]

Seeing this, Zhou Le's vision went dark for a moment.

Why is it like this again?

[Witchcraft...]

Seeing this, Zhou Le was shocked!

Is this even something that can be talked about?

Finally, the entry solidified.

[Summoning Deities]

Zhou Le: "System, I'm going to curse your entire ancestry!"