After The Vicious Cannon Fodder Was Reborn

Chapter 23: Childhood Friend

Chapter 23: Childhood Friend

What do you mean?

Long Tianao was particularly sensitive and realized that Cheng Baodong was talking about him. He sneered very unhappily, and was about to open his mouth to retort back when the group of newcomers next to him all stood up straight, greeting the bigwigs in the entertainment circle with a very well-behaved attitude.

Shen Yu, who completely had no consciousness of being a part of said circle, asked for a group photo with his mobile phone out: "..Brother Yuan, brother Yuan, let's take a picture with the two of us. I am your fan."

Wang Boyuan had never seen Shen Yu before now, but this did not prevent him from knowing that Shen Yu was the youngest son of the Shen Group. Speaking of, a certain luxury endorsement that Wang Boyuan just won at the beginning of the year was owned by the Shen Group. Just based on the face of his benefactor, Wang Boyuan would not refuse the young master of the Shen family.

With Shen Yu taking the lead, other people also rushed over to ask for a photo. The male and female protagonists of "Faraway Jianghu" were both domestic A-list superstars. Although the heroine, Guo Yaning, lost best actress awards several times, her box office performance was very eye-catching and had always been the target of cooperating on new films by the producers. Because of this, she was praised by the media as the uncrowned queen. The supporting actors and actresses in the crew were also well-known veteran actors and actresses in the circle. Out of respect for their predecessors, Shen Yu and the others also rushed over to ask for a group photo. The crew instantly became very lively.

Cheng Baodong originally hated the noisiness of the visitors who he felt would hinder the filming of the crew, but when he saw the joyous Shen Yu in the crowd, he didn't say anything. With a calm face, he told Tao Mu to enter the set.

When the crew started to work, Shen Yu and the others finally calmed down and stood by to wait obediently.

This scene was about the grassland khan falling in love at first sight with the princess who was disguised as a jianghu girl martial artist when he snuck into the Central Plains. Then the grassland khan captured the princess and took her back to the enemy camp where he tried to force the heroine to marry him. In order to prevent the heroine from escaping, he also gave the heroine a medicine to restrain her internal force. The male protagonist hid his identity and first entered the enemy camp as a musician. He then directly exposed his identity at the banquet and after a series of fights he successfully rescued the princess.

Because it was a comedy movie, there was another part of the plot in this episode where the dance troupe in which the male protagonist snuck into encountered a problem. Their main dancer had eloped with someone so the owner of the dance troupe forced the male protagonist to pretend to be the dancer and perform on stage in her place. Therefore, the protagonist performed a fan dance at the banquet, and then the grassland khan was so captivated by the dancer played by the protagonist that he directly detained the protagonist, forcing the protagonist and the princess to follow the example of Ehuang and Nuying to marry him together (TN: two sisters who married emperor Shun, a legendary leader of ancient China). As a result, Ehuang rescued Nuying and eloped, leaving only the grassland khan behind with a dazed and bewildered expression.

Although Tao Mu didnt know how the logic of this comedy script was polished, as the heros body double, he must dress up as a woman and dance with a fan, and then use the fan as a weapon to fight with the grassland khan. Later he must then change the weapon to a sword to PK the grassland soldiers. Due to the complexity of the scene, director Cheng planned to finish the filming of the scene in ten days. And today, Tao Mu was going to film the scene in which the hero was back in men's clothing and escaping with the heroine out of the enemy camp.

It was also the highlight of the whole movie with the largest number of fight scenes.

Director Cheng strived for perfection and even recruited more than one hundred extras to play the grassland soldiers. He also had the stunt coordinator arrange a battle formation based on the 8 divinatory trigrams in the Book of Changes for the group extras to coordinate with the male protagonist.

Unfortunately, the filming of this scene was not very smooth. It was not Tao Mu who had a problem here, but the group extras. For one thing, the martial arts actors who play against Tao Mu didn't cooperate well with him. The action was either too early or too late. Sometimes when Tao Mu hadn't even made a hitting motion they would have already fallen to the ground. It looked even more fake than people who fell in front of you on the streets in order to demand compensation. On the other hand, there were too many group extras that needed to be included in the lens. The assistant director in charge of this area wasn't able to do the overall arranging of the people. The result being hundreds of people looking like a turbulent mob, all their movements chaotic and disorderly. It completely did not reflect director Cheng's imagined effect of "the hero impressively breaking through the enemy army's battle formation and defeating everyone".

Cheng Baodong got angry and called the assistant director over to scold him and ordered him to train the group extras up to standards within half an hour. He then gave Tao Mu a half-hour break.

The props team got Tao Mu out of his wire suit. The female body double standing in for the leading actress was held in his arms the whole time. The girl looked at Tao Mu with blushed cheeks and misty eyes, saying without concealing her admiration. "Tao Mu, you are amazing. After so many scenes, I'm already so tired but you are still so steady and stable. No wonder director Cheng and brother Yuan said you were born to eat this bowl of rice."

Tao Mu squeezed his sore arm that felt almost impossible to lift, and said with a warm smile, "Thanks to your thinness, it saves me a lot of energy."

He wasn't being completely truthful. Although the young female body double was light, Tao Mu must still pay attention to his actions during the filming such as not holding her too tightly. The whole time he had to control the strength of his arms so naturally, he was more tired than usual when they came down.

The female body double also knew this as well, and while others were not paying attention, she whispered: "Actually, you don't need to be like this. It's for filming after all so I can understand. You can hold me tighter while on the wire. You are already a gentleman."

Unlike some male actors or male extras who deliberately took advantage of girls and copped a feel when filming, their salty pig hand fumbling everywhere.

It must be said that the young female body double was also worried when she started filming with Tao Mu. Even if Tao Mu was handsome, she was not that kind of casual person. But this morning, not only did Tao Mu not touch her inappropriately, he also spent a lot of unnecessary strength in order to avoid any issues. People's hearts were all made of flesh and blood, and the young female body double also felt distressed about Tao Mu's arms so she took the initiative to bring it up instead so as to prevent Tao Mu's embarrassment.

Tao Mu lowered his head and chuckled, "Thank you for your understanding."

The daylight was warm and Tao Mu's smiling face under the sunlight caused her to blush, the only thought in her head being that Tao Mu was truly too handsome.

Seeing this, Ye Yao and the female N lead who ran over to strike up a conversation earlier both rushed over: "What are you talking about?"

The young female body double looked at Ye Yao and the female N lead: one was a recently popular idol, and the other was a new female rookie who could act a role in director Cheng's film just after graduating from university. Both their appearances and starting points were much higher than her own. In contrast, she was just a little body double who had no reputation or background. Even if Tao Mu wanted to date he would never consider someone like her.

Thinking about it this way, the young female body double couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed and inferior.

Ye Yao puffed out her chest proudly and said with smug: "Tao Mu, what time do you finish work tonight, how about we go karaoke?"

"Not interested." Because of the need to make progress, Tao Mu had to shoot at least ten hours a day. Almost all these ten hours were hung on wires and flew around. In the height of the summer, the heat in H Town could reach forty-eight or forty-nine degrees. Tao Mu practically felt like a roast duck in a spit oven. Finally, he could finish work early one day so of course he had to go home to watch the Olympics.

Ye Yao curled her lips: "You are really boring."

While talking, Da Mao and Xiao Pang, who had been waiting for a long time, squeezed over and said excitedly: "Brother Mu, brother Mu, our stocks have risen again, and both have reached their daily limit. You are too amazing!"

Before Tao Mu could react, Xiao Pang pretended to complain: "I said it before, brother Mu has a good eye, and the stocks you choose will definitely make money. But against reason you yourself are not at ease, the profit only doubled a few times before you forced us to withdraw the principal. As a result now it's less exciting to celebrate."

Da Mao also echoed: "Right! How much interest can you earn if you put the money in the bank. At the moment, the stocks are rising so well, if our money is still in the stock market, I don't know how many times it can be doubled. Unlike now, no matter how much we earned, it still feels like a loss."

Da Mao and Xiao Pang really felt regretful about the lost money so they were very sincere when speaking their thoughts. It was a pity that Tao Mu had been hanging out with these two since they were children so how could he not know what bad things they were up to. Immediately he frowned: "You two"

Before he finished speaking, he heard Wang Boyuan suddenly ask with a smile, "Tao Mu, you know how to play stocks?"

"Just making some pocket money by speculating." Tao Mu said with a humble smile. He didn't lie either. With his current capital, no matter how many brilliant moves he made in the stock market, he only made pocket money in the end. The real start-up capital will be from the Olympic Games.

Fortunately, the Olympic Games had already begun. He drew his funds in time before the opening ceremony and placed bets according to the medal ownership in his memory. In order to keep it confidential, Tao Mu started to make arrangements half a month in advance. He used proxy IP, registered accounts around the world to log in to the gambling platform, and began to inject the more than one million yuan earned from the stock market into major peripheral gambling platforms as the Olympics progressed. It was all carried out using several accounts and the money was also divided into smaller amounts.

Moreover, because different gambling platforms set different odds on different items. After rebirth Tao Mu could now accurately remember the ownership of most medals and the scores of a small number of athletes due to his improved memory. So he simply put his insufficient funds on the items with big odds.

Of course, in order not to attract the attention of the platform, each of Tao Mu's bet amounts would not be too high. Less than two million Chinese currency, converted into M dollars, euros and other currencies, spread across more than a dozen peripheral platforms, and bet on different items. As a result, the amount placed on each bet was only a few thousand, the highest no more than 20,000 M dollars. Tao Mu also deliberately bet wrong on some items with low odds. In short, his actions adhered to the beliefs that there must be sacrifices in order to gain anything and that being overly careful was better than not. He did not plan to give anyone an opportunity to develop doubts and then dig into his secrets.

Although this approach would make Tao Mu lose part of his profits. But in general, through this peripheral bet, Tao Mu alone could earn 2 million M dollars during the Olympics, which when exchanged was more than 10 million in Chinese currency.

Perhaps in the eyes of those wealthy groups and conglomerates, or even in the eyes of A-list giants such as Wang Boyuan and Guo Yaning, this ten million yuan was nothing. But for Tao Mu who "started from scratch", this was definitely a lucrative pot of gold.

After the money was received, Tao Mu planned to invest all of it in the futures market and sell it short. In terms of the status quo of the international financial market, after his money was in the futures market for half a year, it was likely that even a god would not be able to track all his trades and dealings in the financial market. At that time, he could then take out the money to build his entertainment empire.

More importantly, it could also create a reputation of being a financial genius for him.

Tao Mu believed that if he used the aura of "investment genius" to contact investors and bigwigs in the circle it would be easier for his career than if he was just a pure actor.

It was just that this matter involved the most important secret of Tao Mu's rebirth, and he couldn't let anyone know about it. Even in the face of Da Mao and Xiao Pang, he must be tight-lipped.

It was precisely for this reason that Da Mao and Xiao Pang only knew that Tao Mu suddenly drew out most of his capital and most of his own funds on the stock market. As for what Tao Mu was going to do, the two of them were completely unaware.

Although the two did not know Tao Mu's deliberate calculations and schemes, the two knew the truth that "money could shake one's will". The two of them had rehearsed in advance before they came to the crew of "Faraway Jianghu".

In response to Wang Boyuans seemingly curious question, the two of them practically lit up, and regardless of whether Tao Mu wanted it or not, they immediately began to brag in front of everyone: "..brother Wang, dont listen to our brother Mu being humble, our brother Mu is actually very amazing. He has a good eye and decisiveness. Just in half a month or so, our brother Mu has nearly earned enough money from the stock market to marry a wife, let alone pocket money."

Hearing these words, Shen Yu and the others all looked over together. Mu Huating, who had not said anything yet, sneered: "You are quite precocious that you are thinking about a wife at such a young age."

"What's it to you!" Da Mao glared at Mu Huating: "My dad bought my wedding house before I was born. It is just waiting for me to grow up and marry a wife. So what!"

The coal boss who had a mine at home was rich and could act willfully, so what's a young actor to do?

Mu Huating chuckled twice sarcastically and held a glaring contest with Da Mao and Xiao Pang. When the corner of his eye swept over the expressionless Tao Mu, he finally remembered that he still shouldered a heavy responsibility. In order to avoid being interrupted and vexed by Da Mao and Xiao Pang when he talked to Tao Mu later, Mu Huating restrained himself and said no more.

Ye Yao blinked her eyes and asked Tao Mu curiously: "They sound so mystical and mysterious. Just how much money did you make on the stock market?"

Without waiting for Tao Mu to answer, Da Mao and Xiao Pang, with their own wallets bulging, eagerly said the numbers, their pride and satisfaction practically visible to all.

"It's just that little! It's not even enough for me to endorse an ad." Ye Yao frowned in disappointment, her tone very unimpressed.

Da Mao could not allow anyone to say that Tao Mu was not good. He immediately became anxious: "Don't you understand anything? On this kind of thing you can't just look at how much we earn. You have to calculate how much it cost us, and then divide the total by the cost. And then look at the rate of return! For example, our brother Mu has doubled the principal by seven or eight times in just half a month. This return rate of nearly seven to eight hundred percent is comparable to those of large domestic investment companies and much better than those so-called well-known stock brokers, okay?"

Ye Yao suddenly realized and she giggled stupidly, "Ohhh, so it seems to be like this." As she said this, she couldn't help but glance at Tao Mu again. The more she looked at him, the more she felt Tao Mu deserved to be the man she liked. Sure enough, he was both handsome and talented.

When Wang Boyuan heard this rate of return, he was also taken aback: "That's really amazing. To be honest, I also like to trade stocks occasionally. It's just that the market has been sluggish recently, and the stocks I bought are basically trapped in the stock market. So I can only work hard and sell myself to pay off the debt."

In fact, it was not just Wang Boyuan himself. Over the past six months, the domestic stock market had been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, and the market had plummeted. Don't know how many people and financial institutions became trapped in the stock market. Bankruptcy was happening everywhere.

After Wang Boyuan said that, he became more sad: "The way I see it, this stock market is really not affordable for normal people. The gains in the first half of the year were quite good, and the Shanghai index even exceeded 6,000 points. But I did not expect it to fall like this in the second half of the year. I almost got an arrhythmia over the loss."

Attracted by the conversation everyone was having, Guo Yaning, who had not spoken much, also echoed: Isnt it? Clearly the stocks were going up very well, but then it plummeted without any warning, not even giving us any time to prepare psychologically.

Several other old veteran actors also nodded, full of grief. It could be seen that they all had their stocks trapped in the stock market.

Tao Mu only discovered that at some point, everyone had gathered around him.

Da Mao and Xiao Pang were very extroverted people. Seeing so many people join in the more proud and excited they felt: "So our brother Mu is very amazing! So many people have lost money, but our brother Mu made a lot of money. A guaranteed seven to eight hundred percent return. Even in normal times, those large financial institutions and investment advisors can't do it, right?"

Tao Mu slapped Da Mao's head and smiled humbly: "My classmate likes to exaggerate. In truth, the pocket money we earn is nothing really. It can't even compare to the pay you all get for a single movie."

Several old veteran actors with superb acting skills but low pricing heard these words and laughed out loud: "You are talking about the A-list superstars such as Boyuan and Yaning. We old bones don't make so much."

Wang Boyuan and Guo Yaning also smiled and shook their heads: "You can't count it like that. But I really didn't expect that Xiao Mu, you are not only handsome and have good martial arts skills, you are also proficient in financial stocks."

Wan Meihong finally saw an opportunity and said with emotion: "That's right. There are also many highly educated actors in the circle. However, it is really rare to be talented in financial stocks like Tao Mu. I think that if Tao Mu continues like this you will be a real life domineering CEO."

Da Mao and Xiao Pang deeply agreed: "That's right. Our brother Mu is made for being a domineering CEO. You don't know how handsome he is when he is trading in stocks! Now with the market situation so bad, we never expected that brother Mu could make money. When we first saw brother Mu open an account, we were actually worried that he would lose everything! But the result turned out to be Tao Mu earning to the extent that we even feel a bit jealous."

Xiao Pang also followed up: "Actually, the two of us don't know how to trade stocks. We just saw brother Mu making money, so we handed him our pocket money and let him invest for us. I really didn't expect brother Mu to be so good."

Da Mao sighed: "When I handed the money to brother Mu, my dad also warned me that the stock market is risky, so I should invest with restraint. If I lose too much, he will cut my pocket money in the second half of the year. But who knew that not only didnt I lose, I made so much. This soaring rate of return even made my dad jealous. He calls me every night to inquire about the stock market. I estimate that soon he will be handing over his private money to brother Mu and have brother Mu be his investment advisor."

Da Mao and Xiao Pang's intentions were practically visible to all. Listening to this, Tao Mu frowned and returned to the previous topic calmly: "Actually, I am also very worried. So after making enough I asked them to withdraw their principal. As for the remaining money, If it can make a profit then that's great, but if not I wont be too distressed. Just take as paying tuition."

Wang Boyuan smiled bitterly: "Your thinking is very rational." If he could be so rational, he would be able to sit back and relax now after having sold the stocks when the market was still good in the first half of the year.

Xiao Pang was not convinced: "What rational! Our brother Mu just has a knack for making money. The way I see it, brother Mu, you have this talent so why still be an actor! Just help people make money in stocks, and be your own boss."

Tao Mu was speechless. It just so happened that a silly big nephew with a lot of money also followed along and said: "I think it makes sense! How about I give you my pocket money, Tao Mu, and you also help me invest it?"

One after another, were they doing a comedy routine!

Under the amused eyes of the crowd of bigwigs Tao Mu practically wanted to roll his own eyes up to the heavens.

This level of shame was no less than public humiliation.

Tao Mu said with irritation: "I have to shoot every day until 2am, where the hell do I have the M country time to help you trade stocks!"

Da Mao and Xiao Pang seemed to realize that Tao Mu's repeated humility was not because of shyness.

The two looked at each other, rubbed their noses and grinned sheepishly, "..We just think you are very amazing, brother Mu."

Shen Yu, who had been watching, looked at Tao Mu with admiration: "I feel the same way. Tao Tao, you are really amazing. I thought my brother was good. But his foresight is still not as accurate as yours. I think if you both are together there will definitely be a lot to talk about."

Tao Mu didn't respond. He felt from the bottom of his heart that he had absolutely nothing to talk about with the Shen family in this life.

"It's almost time, right?" Tao Mu turned to look at Cheng Baodong: "Director Cheng, when shall we shoot?"

"Aw no, this conversation is just getting interesting, what are you in a hurry for!" Cheng Baodong sneered, playing with the script in his hand. He raised his eyebrows and asked: "You should tell us which stocks you bought that are so amazing and let us all broaden our horizons as well."

As soon as he said this, everyone heard the strangeness underlying the words. No matter how stupid Da Mao and Xiao Pang were, they also realized that they seemed to have caused trouble for Tao Mu. Instantly, they looked over at Tao Mu, feeling at a loss.

Tao Mu smiled reassuringly at the two and casually said the names of a few stocks, and patiently explained: "But since the market is unstable, we are all short-term speculation."

"Yes, yes, yes," Da Mao and Xiao Pang quickly echoed: "The market is really unstable. In the past two months, we have changed several stocks already. But brother Mu has a precise eye and can usually sell the stock before the stock price drops."

After finishing talking, the two looked at Tao Mu together, trembling like two large dogs who knew they were in trouble but didn't know how to please their owner and needed their owner to pet their fur in comfort.

"..Tao Mu, are we friends?" Ye Yao who stood on the side suddenly piped up. The young girl blinked and looked at Tao Mu with big shiny eyes: "Since everyone is a friend, why don't you help me trade some stocks?"

"I don't have much time recently, so let's talk about it later if I have a chance." Tao Mu said absentmindedly.

It must be said that Da Mao and Xiao Pang's approach completely disrupted Tao Mu's plan. It was estimated that in the eyes of these experienced and slick people, Tao Mu's label of being someone with deep scheming and tendency to seek instant benefits could not be removed. Of course Tao Mu didn't care about the opinions of these people. He only felt annoyed that Da Mao and Xiao Pang took the liberty without asking him as it would place him in a passive position in certain future layouts.

In Tao Mu's original plan, his talent for investment could be revealed in a more natural way. Towards these bigwigs he could also use profit to tempt them in a more subtle way. But Tao Mu could also understand Da Mao and Xiao Pang. The two children must have been scared after the incident in "The Legend of Heroes". That was why they wanted to praise him more in front of the bigwigs in "Faraway Jianghu" and improve his value in the hopes that Tao Mu would receive more attention and stand in front of everyone with a more equal status.

Unfortunately, how could two children who had just graduated from high school be able to play against these experienced and slick people who had seen ups and downs for many years. It was likely that as soon as Da Mao and Xiao Pang spoke, this group of people already knew what they wanted to say and what they wanted to do. As for whether they would think that the two of them were instigated by Tao Mu, Tao Mu didn't know. Of course he didn't care too much either. After all, the adult world was never completely white or black, right or wrong. Tao Mu was confident that so long as he could bring more benefits to everyone, no matter how clumsy Da Mao and Xiao Pangs methods were, how simple their words were, and how transparent their intentions were, these people would all be considerate and give the most perfect and fitting ladder that would let Tao Mu walk down it comfortably.

Therefore, the most urgent thing at the moment was for Tao Mu to find a quieter place and quickly comfort the two who were so embarrassed by the atmosphere that they were practically about to burst into tears.

TN: 4 bonus chapters coming up!

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