Chapter 62 Can I Reach the Other Side?

Zhou Le and Lu Wei talked extensively at the company.

Mainly because he had joined the company for too short a time, his network and capital were not yet strong enough, which was why he was not included in the company's partner program.

Furthermore, Lu Wei himself was merely one of the senior executives of the company, so if Zhou Le wanted to develop further on his own, it would be better for him to branch out.

Zhou Le gave the matter serious thought.

He felt that what the other person said made sense.

After stepping out of the company with the signed agreement in hand, Zhou Le felt a sense of complete relief.

Actually, joining Daylight Entertainment did have its benefits. At least now, after completing those dramas, once they were released, Zhou Le would have works that genuinely proved his own strength.

After that, he would continue to cooperate with the promotions.

During one of the promotional stops, an audience member asked the leading actors why they had embarked on the path of acting. Da Peng handed the microphone to Na Zha first. Na Zha thought for a moment and said, "When I was little, I always thought TV dramas secretly filmed real people, so I was extremely well-behaved back then. I even pretended to greet the school heartthrobs just to look cute, hoping the audience would like me."

These words caused Na Zha's fans to scream in delight, immediately praising her as adorable.

Following that, Da Peng shared that he had originally studied engineering management, and that was precisely why he liked Zhou Le so much—because compared to him, Zhou Le was practically an academic genius.

However, the reason he entered this field was simply out of a love for creation.

Yet, during his speech, he made no mention of Sohu, clearly intending to make a clean break from them. As for the specific reasons, the people off stage might not have understood, but everyone on stage knew very well.

Next, it was Zhou Le's turn.

Zhou Le's response sounded much more high-sounding and grandiose.

He claimed that he had cherished a dream of becoming an actor since childhood, and later, after working for over half a year following graduation, he resolutely decided to start from the bottom as an extra.

As a result, Da Peng, Na Zha, and the others found something amiss with this statement.

"Didn't he say he became an actor because he liked me?"

"That's not right, wasn't it because of *Diors Man*?"

Right there on the stage, they voiced their confusion on the spot.

"Ah, haha, mostly I was afraid the two teachers would get jealous. After all, strictly speaking, they are both my enlightenment teachers..."

The content of this roadshow was quickly written into articles and posted across various platforms.

Consequently, the celebrities whom Zhou Le had mentioned in these remarks began reposting the articles one after another.

The first to repost was Han Han.

After all, Han Han had collaborated with Zhou Le and was a close friend of Da Peng, so he originally intended to show some support. That way, when his own film was released in the future, Da Peng could return the favor.

"That's not right. When we accidentally ran into each other in that restroom, you were standing right at the urinal next to mine, and you clearly told me you entered the entertainment industry because you watched my film *The Continent*."

Yu Qian also reposted: "My son, why did you tell me it was *Underground Traffic Station* back then?"

Deng Chao: "Brother, why did you tell me it was *Young Emperor*?"

Wu Jing: "My younger brother told me it was *Tai Chi Master*."

As more and more people reposted with their own captions, this incident quickly surged onto the trending searches once again.

It even briefly claimed the number one spot on the trending list.

[My enlightenment idols are everywhere.]

This time, even the specific celebrity's name was dropped from the headline.

Yet many people seeing this title now immediately guessed that it was Zhou Le.

"Hahaha, Zhou Le's move is too slick. A single trick works wonders everywhere. Isn't this just the mindset of us wage slaves?"

"I can practically see the resentment of the working class. Such an honest person, and yet you guys claimed he broke the law? I think the greatest crime he ever committed was almost laughing me to death on Weibo."

"Brother, the reason I came to the construction site to lug concrete is entirely because I was influenced by you."

Seeing this comment, Zhou Le replied to it.

"My estimate is that you'll definitely pack up your bucket and run away within three years."

Actually, Zhou Le originally wanted to say, "Then your life is pretty much ruined," but upon second thought, realizing that might offend big shots in the industry, he ultimately held his tongue and didn't type it out.

"Sigh, can I really reach the other shore? I feel like I'm walking on thin ice now."

Zhou Le sighed.

Finally, after finishing the promotional duties for *The Sewing Machine Band*, Zhou Le returned to the crew of *Dying to Survive*.

Filming here had already reached its final stages.

The character "Yellow Hair" had been killed in a car crash, and Lü Shouyi, the character he played, had also died.

During an exterior scene set on a rainy night, Cheng Yong was also arrested, and all the medications were confiscated.

With this, the film approached its conclusion.

However, even so, Zhou Le and Zhang Yu still had one final scene to shoot before wrapping up their roles.

"This employs an abstract technique, having characters who are already dead appear within the frame. It represents a beautiful vision and aspiration."

On the final day, director Wen Muye was explaining the scene to them.

Zhou Le nodded. "So basically we used resurrection coins to buy ourselves an extra scene of life."

"Pretty much."

Zhou Le thought to himself that this was actually quite nice. Initially, he had simply felt that such a setup would allow him to leave a deep and lasting impression on the audience right at the very end.

Yet during these final days, having watched through some of the previously filmed footage once more, Zhou Le noticed that the little Easter eggs embedded within it were indeed quite fascinating.

For instance, the truck that ran over Yellow Hair bore the logo of an authorized, legitimate pharmaceutical company.

Furthermore, Zhou Le learned that foreign legitimate drug manufacturers hadn't really cracked down too harshly on generic pirated drugs initially; the real crackdown only began after agency rights were liberalized and certain domestic pharmaceutical companies secured the official copyrights.

Regarding this, even Zhou Le could only admit that no one was truly in the wrong.

If Zhou Le himself were truly in Lü Shouyi's shoes, he would undoubtedly buy the generic pirated medicine as well.

Yet if he were a police officer with no sick family members at home and orders to follow from above, he would have no choice but to make arrests, even against his own conscience.

"Still, Brother Zheng, wasn't there talk earlier about there being a real-life prototype? Our movie belongs to artistic processing, but should we perhaps have a word with the actual prototype? After all, the person himself is a patient, yet now he's been turned into an erectile dysfunction oil shop owner."

However, Xu Ning and Ning Hao's view was that they had purchased the copyright, making their actions entirely legal.

Moreover, the original agreement already included provisions for adaptation.

So why make a redundant move?

Yet Zhou Le still felt it was somewhat improper. Having played the role himself, he sensed that this film was bound to become a massive hit, and by then it would inevitably be exploited and attacked by individuals with ulterior motives.

Rather than spending money on public relations later on, it would be better to talk with the prototype in advance.

After some thought, Xu Ning and Ning Hao finally agreed with Zhou Le.

Consequently, they went to speak with Cheng Yong's real-life prototype. Sure enough, upon learning that he had been rewritten as a sexual wellness oil shop owner, the man refused adamantly no matter what.

After all, he had never made a profit back when he was selling the medicine, which was why people called him the "Medicine Hero."

In the end, Zhou Le volunteered to take charge. Armed with the footage of the scenes he had performed, he appealed to both reason and emotion, finally persuading the man.

At the same time, however, Zhou Le discovered that while the man had indeed sold the copyright back then, the screenwriter had sold it to Xu Ning without going through him.

"Sigh, could this be stepping right into a trap?"

Reminiscing, back when Zhou Le first went into construction and a village's land was slated for demolition, Zhou Le used to visit an elderly grandmother's home every day during that period.

Although conflicts ultimately broke out anyway as expected, when the fighting started, the grandmother kept shouting at the top of her lungs not to hit that young man.

Upon hearing this, the villagers immediately grabbed their shovels to fight the others, leaving Zhou Le completely untouched.

Therefore, Zhou Le figured that although the prototype big brother might have suffered quite a bit of unfair treatment, he still paid a certain price to finally convince the man and win his complete acceptance.