As Liam Liang said, a few hours later, he made the headlines as expected.
The first few hot search keywords on Weibo are all related to Liam Liang, which seems quite impressive at first glance.
"Liam Liang's darkest decision", "Liam Liang's reshoot", "Liam Liang's gratitude", "Liam Liang appears at the airport in the early morning", are supplemented by the actual video shot at the airport, shot in one shot without any cuts.
The editor who uploaded the video might be a fan of Liang Siche. The frame that was cut out and used as the video cover looks very much like a nostalgic old Hong Kong movie - under the dim street lights, Liang Siche lies sideways on the rolled-down car window, and the light and shadow of the night and the lights delicately outline the contour of his face.
Amid all the speculation about the "benefactor" Liam Liang mentioned, a comment that was completely unrelated was pushed to the front: "I suddenly remembered what Cao Xiuyuan said a few years ago, 'You see, the light and shadow are very gentle to him.'"
---"Is this considered a personal disclosure? Fans, don't get your hopes up. Since Actor Leung said it's about repaying a favor, it looks like he's almost certain to take on the film."
---"I'm curious about who Liam Liang is repaying? I looked up relevant information, but there's no news that this film has anything to do with Cao Xiuyuan..."
---"Liang Szhe's benefactors are definitely not just Cao Xiuyuan. When he won the Best Actor award at the age of 17, he thanked more than a dozen people on stage."
---"Supporting role + substitute, this kind of self-depreciation to repay a favor, the level of the benefactor must be at least as high as Cao Xiuyuan, right?"
The main topic of public opinion on that day revolved around what Liam Liang called "repaying a favor". Within two hours, a quick-handed entertainment blogger listed Liam Liang's benefactors in the circle over the years.
According to the size of the favor and the star rating, they are arranged from high to low. Cao Xiuyuan, as the mentor who helped Liam Liang win the title of Best Actor, deservedly ranks at the highest position. Xu Yunchu, who has accompanied Liam Liang through all the ups and downs over the years, is unsurprisingly ranked second. The rest include screenwriters, photographers, editors...all of them are big names in the mainland film industry.
However, compared with the behind-the-scenes lineup of "Darkest Choice", no one dares to assert who the benefactor Liam Liang mentioned is.
---
The place for dinner was in Suzhou - a private restaurant serving Suzhou cuisine.
At eight o'clock in the evening, a silver-brown sports car slowly stopped in front of a private restaurant near the outskirts of the city.
Ethan Cao got out of the car and threw the keys to the doorman who was jogging over.
Ian Lin was standing at the door chatting with the restaurant's proprietress Sue Su. When he saw Ethan Cao, he laughed: "At this time, can you drive 30 mph within the Sixth Ring Road? You must be having a blast driving this manual Aston Martin."
"Do you know what it feels like to be happier than dying?" Ethan Cao walked over, hooked his arm around Ian Lin's neck, and whispered in his ear, "It feels so good that I want to die."
Ian Lin laughed and handed him a cigarette. "Okay, okay, I guarantee that in Beijing, with a population of tens of millions, no one can be more creative than you. The city is congested right now, why don't you change a car and come here... Hey," he said before looking over Ethan Cao's shoulder, "Liam Liang is here."
Ethan Cao followed his gaze and looked back.
Liam Liang was just getting out of the driver's seat, dressed quite casually, holding a coat in his hand, and walking towards them.
"You two came one after the other with a difference of less than two minutes. What do you call this? It's fate," Ian Lin said with a smile, "Liam Liang, if you don't take this film, you'll be going against the will of heaven."
Liam Liang walked up and shook the hand that Ian Lin extended, smiled and said: "It's not that exaggerated, at most it's just that we are not destined to be together."
Sue Su also extended his hand to him: "Liam Liang, long time no see."
"Yes, Mr. Su." Liam Liang responded.
As usual, he was going to shake hands with Ethan Cao, after all, he was the main pitcher of "Darkest Choice", but Ethan Cao stood there leisurely with a cigarette in one hand and one hand in his pocket, with no intention of extending his hand to shake, as if tonight was not his home game and he just came here to watch.
"We are too familiar with each other, so there is no need to shake hands, right?" Liam Liang turned his gaze to him with a hint of joking in his eyes.
They were close in height, and their eyes were almost level with each other. After Liam Liang said this, Ethan Cao pulled his hand out of his pocket and made a handshake gesture, his tone was also casual and lazy: "A handshake always requires some opening remarks, and I haven't thought of what to say yet."
"Then..." Liam Liang gently held his hand, "Happy cooperation, Mr. Cao?"
"Okay." Ethan Cao said.
"Let's go in and talk. The private room has been booked." Ian Lin handed a cigarette to Liam Liang. Seeing Liam Liang waved his hand to refuse, he was a little surprised, "You don't smoke?"
"I'm trying to quit." Liam Liang said.
"No wonder," Ian Lin understood, "I said that the news about your smoking was on the entertainment headlines a few years ago," he turned to look at Sue Su, "Sue Su, do you remember that the Beijing Morning Post used half a page to report this incident, and the title alone took up a quarter of the page. The media at that time loved to make a fuss. We were still in school at that time, and we thought, wow, this guy is pretty cool."
Liam Liang still had shoulder-length hair at that time, tied behind his head. A strand of hair fell down in front of his forehead and was slightly curled. He squatted next to the grinning stone lion at the entrance of the theater, looking into the distance with a blank look in his eyes while smoking.
I don’t know if it was intentional by the paparazzi or if the angle of the shot was just right, but the young actor on the front page looked melancholy and rebellious, which was the media’s favorite look and the public was most curious about.
"Hey, actually," Liam Liang laughed, "I noticed it early on when they were secretly photographing me, so I deliberately posed like that for them to take the photo."
"Ah?" Ian Lin was stunned for a moment, "Is it true?"
"Really? Mainly, when I found out someone was secretly taking photos, they had already taken many photos. In that situation, since I couldn't snatch the camera away, I could only try to let them take better photos of me. So, what's so cool about that? They were all staged photos. Don't believe them."
"No, Liam Liang," Ian Lin was stunned, "You said that and fooled the paparazzi. It's even cooler than that photo."
Liam Liang turned to look at him and suddenly laughed: "Boss Lin, do you really believe it?"
Ian Lin suddenly realized that he was the one who was fooled. As the young master of Dongsheng Group, Ian Lin had never been fooled like this before. He was a little embarrassed for a moment. If it was someone else, he might have changed his expression, but facing Liam Liang at this time, he could only hold back his anger and smile: "Is it true?"
"Guess." Liam Liang looked at him and smiled.
Seeing Ian Lin's frustrated look, Ethan Cao, who was walking behind him, couldn't help but smile. Only Liam Liang could control Ian Lin's cunning character.
A dozen steps away from the private room, Ethan Cao's cell phone suddenly rang. He took it out and saw that it was Derek Cheng calling. Derek Cheng would not call casually, and when he did, it was usually for something important. He informed Ian Lin and walked to the window to answer the phone: "What's the matter?"
"Ethan Cao, are you and Liam Liang going to have dinner together tonight?"
"yes."
"It's like this. Xu Yunchu called me just now and started to scold me. He said that our company leaked the information. They hadn't decided whether to accept "Darkest Choice" yet, but we leaked the news so early. This is too unkind... But the key is that I didn't tell anyone about Liam Liang reading the script before, not even Adrian Xu. How could it be that our company leaked the news?"
Ethan Cao thought for a moment and said, "It's either Ian Lin or Zhao Chengdong. He Fangwen probably won't do that."
"I guess so. Last time we worked together, Ian Lin's company did this a lot... Ethan Cao, no matter what, I think you need to explain this to Liam Liang in person. It's better not to have this kind of misunderstanding. It won't be good for the company's reputation if it gets out."
"It's not us who should explain, it's Ian Lin."
"ah?"
Ethan Cao thought of the scene in the corridor just now and laughed: "I was wondering why he was picking on Ian Lin for no reason."
"What?"
Ethan Cao stopped laughing and said, "It's okay. You don't have to worry about Liam Liang. Just explain it to Xu Yunchu."
Derek Cheng was helpless: "I have sworn to death, but she, I guess she is in a bad mood..."
"Tell her that instead of investigating who spread the rumor, it is better to manage your own artist and ask him not to talk nonsense to the media in the future."
"This isn't a good idea," Derek Cheng said with a wry smile, "After all, Liam Liang helped us. If it weren't for him, Darkest Choice would probably have been silent by now, and there wouldn't be such a high level of discussion."
"Don't worry," Ethan Cao said, "I will thank him very much."
After hanging up the phone, Ethan Cao walked towards the private room.
As soon as the door was pushed open, Lin Yanzheng urged Liam Liang to drink: "Are you really going to quit? You just said you're going to quit smoking, and now you're going to quit drinking. I don't believe it. Liam Liang, I've figured out that you can't be taken seriously. It would be awkward to take you seriously, right?"
"I really quit drinking, you have to believe it," Liam Liang turned his hand towards Ian Lin seriously, "I took the disulfiram injection, and the needle hole is still there. If you drink it, it will be bad. Mr. Lin, it's okay for me, but it's related to the reshoot of the film, so it's better to be cautious."
"You are the best actor, Liam Liang. I am not sure which of your words should be believed and which should not be believed," Ian Lin looked up at Ethan Cao when he saw him push the door open. "Come on, Ethan Cao, it's a good time for you to come over. Liam Liang said he is trying to quit drinking. Do you think we should believe him?"
Ethan Cao didn't say whether he believed it or not. He walked over and pulled out a chair opposite Liam Liang, looked at him and said, "You've quit smoking and drinking, so you want to become a monk? Are you also giving up S3x?"
"Yes," Liam Liang said, "Can't you tell that I've been aloof from desires lately? To tell you the truth, after the video of me at the airport was released this morning, the crew of the new version of Journey to the West immediately sent me an invitation, strongly inviting me to play Tang Sanzang. What does this mean?"
Ethan Cao was amused by him: "It shows that you are good at making up stories. Which crew would link you to Tang Sanzang?"
"Don't disbelieve me, this is nothing," Liang Sze-che said seriously, "Last year, King Kong was going to be remade into a Chinese version, and when the producer saw me, he insisted that I play the role of King Kong."
No one would connect the giant chimpanzee with Liam Liang. Ethan Cao almost ignored him and laughed: "Just Bullsh!t."
Liam Liang held the wine glass, gently shaking the half-glass of red wine, and looked at Ethan Cao: "In the story of Beauty and the Beast, who do you think they want to cast as the heroine?"
Ethan Cao said nothing: "I'm not interested."
Instead, Ian Lin asked with great interest: "Who is it?"
Liam Liang put the goblet back on the table, pushed it in front of Ian Lin, and used his own method to fight back: "I will tell you after you drink this glass of wine."
Although Liam Liang knew that the Chinese version of King Kong was nonsense, he had the ability to keep people in suspense. Ian Lin picked up the half glass of wine he had just poured himself.
Liam Liang made a "please" gesture.
Ian Lin always drank with ease. He raised his glass and drank it all in one breath. He turned the glass towards Liam Liang and said, "Go ahead."
Liam Liang put his index finger in front of his lips in a mysterious way and lowered his voice: "Shh, it's Lin Huan."
When Ian Lin heard this, he burst into laughter.
Well, it turns out that this joke was aimed at Ethan Cao, and this glass of wine was worth drinking. Everyone in their small circle knew about the relationship between Lin Huan, Ethan Cao and Liam Liang. A few years ago, Ethan Cao pursued Lin Huan fiercely for a while, and when he was about to succeed, the media suddenly exposed photos of Liam Liang and Lin Huan K!ssing on the street.
If the matter was just that simple, it would be fine. The key point is that just two weeks before the incident of "Darkest Choice", Liam Liang and Lin Huan were rated as "the most regrettable entertainment industry CP TOP1" by a well-known magazine in the industry. Within a few days, Lin Huan was exposed to have stayed in a hotel late at night with a mysterious man. And that "mysterious man" was Ethan Cao.
The media outlet that leaked the video was not shy about exaggerating: "The man is tall and looks like a male model. From the back, he looks young and is a real 'young wolfdog'."
Although there was a lot of speculation on the Internet at the time, since Ethan Cao rarely appeared in the public eye, the suspect was never publicly pointed at him. But this matter was no secret among Ethan Cao's friends. For a while, several of his friends jokingly called him "little wolf dog", but Ethan Cao scolded them back with a black face "get out".
The joke was played on him, and Ethan Cao hit back at Liam Liang: "I don't care who plays the beautiful woman, I just want to know if you really want to climb to the top of the Empire State Building to masturbate."
He was talking about a classic scene from King Kong, and the double entendre made everyone present laugh knowingly.
Liam Liang also laughed, and after he had laughed enough, he slowly said: "This... Because they want to do a localized treatment, they plan to let me do it in one of Beijing's landmark buildings, the Luomeng Building. At that time, I would like to ask Mr. Cao to lend me the venue."
Ethan Cao smiled: "No problem."
Ian Lin was enjoying the fun, and smiled as he poured wine for Ethan Cao: "Liam Liang, you are really good at arguing with people. Ethan Cao is usually very good at talking, but it's unbelievable that he gets arguing like this. Come on, Ethan Cao, you finally meet your match today, let's have a drink."
"Others call me 'the king of confrontation'. What do you mean I've met a worthy opponent? Ian Lin, you think too highly of me." Ethan Cao said this, but still took the wine handed to him by Ian Lin and took a sip.
The ice water Liam Liang ordered was served at this time. He took a sip and said, "That's right. Speaking of which, I have to be considered Ethan Cao's teacher in this regard. When I first met him, he was very well behaved."
"Good?" Ian Lin glanced at Ethan Cao and thought this statement was quite fresh. "When has he ever been good?"
"Ten years ago?" Liam Liang looked at Ethan Cao, "Isn't it?"
"Maybe." Ethan Cao picked up some food and put it in his bowl, saying absentmindedly.
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