"You cleaned up well. Not looking too shabby at all."
Shen Jianghan sized Lu Ze up for a moment. The entertainment circle and the fashion circle could never be separated. As an old veteran of the entertainment industry, Shen Jinghan recognized that Lu Ze's swept-back hairstyle gave off a warm vibe.
"Then, was my previous style that bad…?"
Lu Ze pulled down the sunscreen pads and checked himself out in the mirror. He still couldn't see that big of a difference. After all, he hadn't done a simulation course for a member of the fashion industry. He merely felt that the swept-back hairstyle looked a bit cleaner.
"Is there a problem with your eyes? Game a bit less. Sigh, you need to be assigned a stylist."
Lu Ze didn't care. He extended the length of the leg space, making his legs comfortable as he leaned back and closed his eyes. It was just a Maserati, and it was not like he had never sat in one before.
"How is the preparation of your script going?"
"I've written down around 80,000 to 90,000 words about the character's profile, and I've already familiarized myself with the character's basic temperament. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard."
Shen Jinghan no longer asked any more questions. After all, she knew that Lu Ze had obtained the highest score in the acting section during the interview. Although she had not seen it personally, she was not worried, thus she easily changed the topic.
"How's your alcohol capacity? How much will you be able to hold?"
"Not bad. Even if I drink too much, I've got pretty good control."
Lu Ze didn't fear drinking too much since he didn't behave badly after getting drunk. At most, he would close his eyes and rest or directly pass out on the wine table. At the very least, he would not blabber or create a ruckus.
This was very important. If your capacity was low, you'd be mocked at most. It was no big deal. If your drunk behavior involved pulling shenanigans, you'd become a joke, and even that was passable. However, if by any chance, you let your tongue loose and offend the counterparty, that would be the greatest blunder one could make.
The peak hours in the evening in Shanghai was expected. There was traffic jam after traffic jam. The two didn't talk much in the car. There was occasionally one or two sentences exchanged, then there was silence.
Lu Ze was tapping on his phone, sending a WeChat message to his little sister. She was still holding a grudge against being hung up on her face without a warning.
After getting out of the traffic, they reached the restaurant in nearly an hour although it was supposed to be a fifteen-minute journey. When the two got out of the car, it was already half-past six.
The doorman greeted the two, and they made their way into the lounge. Shen Jinghan handed her purse over to Lu Ze.
"I'm going to the washroom. Wait for me here."
As she went to the bathroom, Lu Ze began checking the restaurant out out of boredom. The hall was not randomly filled with bright and shiny furnishings. Instead, the majority of it was stable-looking woody tones of brown with only the edges having connected metal plates, giving the lounge a low-key lavish look.
The hall was fragrant with the scent of wood without any incense. It gave one a sense of peace upon smelling it without the discomfort of the soot produced from burning incense.
On both sides were display racks where porcelain wares and fake bronze wares were displayed. On the walls were archaic landscape paintings. The whole model and layout were quite to Lu Ze's liking.
Even the seats for visitors to sit in the lobby were antique. They had soft, black leather cushions on them for comfort, but the tea set placed on the table was unused.
He raised his head and looked at the ceiling. The ceiling was quite high and had murals on it, but although the floral lanterns hanging from the ceiling seemed quite beautiful, they felt a bit too exaggerated. If they had used the three-layered wooden bright yellow lamps, they would not have ruined the lighting, and in addition to that, they would have matched with the rest of the hall.
As Lu Ze looked at the furnishing and picked out a whole series of merits and demerits, his thoughts suddenly paused, and a somewhat complex expression appeared on his face.
"Alright, let's go."
Shen Jinghan came back from the washroom and took her purse from Lu Ze's hand. Lu Ze nodded and the two entered the elevator. Lu Ze's expression was normal, but she didn't see his slightly trembling hand.
They told the server the room number, and the latter then led them to a door. Upon entering, Lu Ze saw six people sitting inside. There were only cold dishes on the table, and the chopsticks had yet to be touched.
"Big Brother Cheng, I'm so sorry. There was a bit of traffic on the road, causing a bit of delay. Don't take offense, okay?"
"How can I? Your words make you sound like you treat me as an outsider, Jinghan. We've been friends for so many years. I don't want to hear these things from you. Come have a seat. We were just waiting for you."
"Then, I'll stop acting like an outsider. President Gao, Director Feng, Mister Zhang, you're here too! Let me introduce you all. This is the new artist under me, Lu Ze."
Cheng Yuan hugged Shen Jinghan lightly for a moment. Apparently, the two had a pretty good relationship. Lu Ze hurriedly stepped forward and shook hands with everybody while greeting them. As for what they all did? He didn't ask, and nobody would have told him anyway.
Lu Ze took the initiative to sit, not needing anybody to remind him. Shen Jinghan sat by his side. She put her bag down, held the small wine glass on the table, and stood up.
"I'd like to make this toast to everybody. I'm really sorry for coming late. As a woman, I don't have much capacity for alcohol. Please don't take offense."
After saying that, she brought the glass to her lips and downed it in one go. She showed the empty glass to everybody before sitting down again.
Lu Ze didn't say anything. Shen Jinghan could easily say that but not Lu Ze. He directly showed his attitude. He poured white wine into a 175 ml wine glass. Holding the glass's body with his left hand while supporting the stem with his right index finger and middle finger, he downed the wine one breath, then pointed the glass downwards and gave it a swirl. Setting it on the table again, he nodded at everybody with a faint smile.
"Hey, Jinghan, you shouldn't have done that. Lu Ze, right? You young people shouldn't be so impulsive. You'll know how bad it is after you reach my age. You'll need to take a breather if you eat even a little quicker."
Those were clearly empty words that merely sounded good since no one stood up to stop Shen Jinghan and Lu Ze before they downed the wine. However, after this, the atmosphere became much livelier.
At this point, the main course began to arrive as well. Once all the dishes had arrived, with President Gao in the lead, everybody raised their glasses together. Everybody was using goblets while Lu Ze was using a wine glass, but nobody stopped him. The difference in status could be clearly seen.
In the white-collar simulation course, Lu Ze had seen such drinking scenarios way too much. He'd repeated this scenario almost every single day, so he didn't feel any resentment in his heart. After all, the status mattered. And even without looking at status, all of the people were twice his age.
As they ate and drank, Shen Jinghan chatted on a lot of topics with them. It could be seen that she lent some weight to their opinions.
Lu Ze paid attention to one detail: they all seemed well-acquainted with each other. They began talking about the affairs of their family and kids. This was the primary topic of conversation during a drinking session among middle-aged people.
Somebody was dissatisfied with their daughter's boyfriend. Somebody's daughter was going through puppy love, somebody's daughter-in-law was what recently up to, and so on.
Shen Jinghan also participated in these topics, discussing her daughter. However, interestingly, nobody mentioned her husband as if they deliberately took a detour around his name.
The topic also focused on Lu Ze occasionally. They compared their own sons to him, praising his steadiness while grumbling about how their sons only liked to have fun outside and were not even willing to share a meal with them, and so on.
Lu Ze could only smile faintly in response and then say some good words about these never-seen-before 'sons', representing the mentality of the current younger generation. In any case, it was what everybody liked to hear.
In short, when this bunch of people switched off their work halos, they were no different from normal people, just a bit more elegant.
"Oh, right, Big Brother Cheng. When will the shooting of your new work start?"
Eventually, the topic changed to the objective of Lu Ze's visit today. Lu Ze remained calm and collected. He was softly rotating the lazy Susan, serving the dishes everybody wanted while pricking up his ears.
"Right now...thanks to President Gao, the funding aspect is already done. We're now recruiting actors and assembling the crew. I guess we'll start in March or April."
Cheng Yuan already knew Shen Jinghan's purpose of coming today. With a young man by her side, the others could naturally understand as well. President Gao joined in the conversation with a single sentence, but it didn't contain any hints. This allowed everybody to chat about Cheng Yuan's new drama.
Shen Jinghan let out a sigh of relief. She knew that the production team had already recommended a few people from their side, but she still didn't dare be certain that the position of second male lead was truly vacant.
If President Gao hadn't spoken, Cheng Yuan wouldn't have dared to discuss it either. However, since President Gao had joined the topic and hadn't implied any hidden meaning, it meant that this matter could be discussed.