On the West Street of the Film and Television City, there are a row of houses densely packed together. These houses were built by locals and are specially rented out to the actors who stay here all year round and do not have a fixed crew.
Lin Cheng and Lin Momo quickly found the door of No. 23 West Street of the Film and Television City as written on the note from the program crew.
This is a 4-storey self-built house. The house does not occupy a large area. It is closely adjacent to other houses on the left and right. The upstairs is the living place, and the downstairs is a restaurant. The sign on the door reads "Heping House Bistro". Under these words, there is a row of small words, which reads "Please come in for meals and accommodation. Reservation hotline..."
Perhaps because Lin Cheng and Lin Momo arrived too late, the small restaurant on the first floor was already closed.
Lin Momo ran forward and leaned on the roller door of the restaurant to listen for a while. She heard some noise from inside and then knocked on the door.
—
Inside the small restaurant.
As there was not much business in the evenings these few days, the boss, who is also the landlord, closed the shop early. At this moment, I was browsing on my phone in the shop when I heard a knock on the door. The landlord frowned.
"Who is it? So late at night..." the landlord muttered, stood up impatiently, and pulled the roller shutter door open a little.
When he saw that the person standing at the door was a cute little girl of a few years old, the unhappy expression on the landlord's face disappeared and became much gentler.
"Little boy, what's the matter?"
"Hello," Lin Momo said politely, and then explained her purpose: "We are here to check in."
As Lin Momo spoke, she handed the receipt to the landlord: "This is it."
The landlord took the receipt from Lin Momo, took a look at it, looked at Lin Momo, and then looked at Lin Cheng who was standing next to Lin Momo. It was obvious that he already knew the identities of the father and daughter.
—The landlord usually doesn’t watch any variety shows, but last week the crew of “Living with Dad” came to her store and rented a room upstairs, installed equipment in it, and told her that a celebrity father and daughter would be staying there this week.
Although the landlord did not recognize the so-called star in front of him, looking at these two people and then looking at the actors following and filming behind them, they must be these two people.
The landlord nodded, raised the shutter door again, and said to Lin Cheng and Lin Momo, "Come in."
Lin Cheng and Lin Momo followed the landlord into the restaurant and came to a small room next to the cash register of the restaurant.
"Give me your ID card." The boss asked Lin Cheng for his ID card to register, and then took out a set of keys from the cabinet and handed them to Lin Cheng.
"The big one is the key to the front door of Room 307, and the small one is the key to your room."
"Come with me."
The landlord walked in front, taking Lin Cheng and Lin Momo through the dining area of the restaurant and around to the back of the house.
There is a small staircase leading upstairs.
The three of them came to room 307 on the third floor.
When you push open the door, what comes into view is a not very big living room with simple furniture. Because the house has been rented for a long time, the furniture looks a bit old, but overall it is still clean.
There is a narrow balcony in front of the living room, which is now full of clothes hanging on the balcony.
On both sides of the living room are six separate rooms with room numbers posted on the doors.
Lin Momo looked around and found that their room was in the middle right corner.
Although he knew that the father and daughter were here to record a program, the landlord still habitually repeated the precautions here to the two after introducing the house.
"The small restaurant downstairs is also owned by me. It doesn't do late-night snack business and usually closes at 6:00 a.m. When it's open, you can come in from the restaurant. If it closes too late, you'll have to go around from the alley on the right side of the building next to it to the back here." The landlord stood on the balcony, pointed in the direction of the two buildings next to him and said to Lin Cheng and the others.
"You can use some electrical appliances in the public areas, but you cannot use high-power appliances in your room. If you want to cook, do it outside, never in your room."
"You can use the furniture and cabinets here if they are empty, but don't lock them."
"Another..."
As the landlord spoke, he wanted to give another reminder, 'The bedrooms here are separated by formwork and gypsum boards, so the sound insulation is poor. Parents should keep an eye on their children and not make any noise or disturb other tenants.' But when he looked down at Lin Momo, who was standing next to Lin Cheng, quietly and well-behaved, the landlord put away the reminder.
"Please clean up yourselves. If you have any problems, come and find me downstairs."
"Okay, thank you."
…
After the landlord left, Lin Cheng and Lin Momo were left standing in the house.
Lin Cheng put down his luggage and opened the door of Room 4. Lin Momo curiously poked her head in to look.
The room is not big, with white walls and simple furnishings: two small beds placed side by side, a simple detachable fabric wardrobe, a small table that fits neatly between the bed and the wardrobe, and some storage boxes left by previous tenants.
Looking at this room, Lin Momo nodded seriously with a satisfied look on her face.
"Not bad." Lin Momo whispered to herself.
Hearing this, Lin Cheng's mouth twitched slightly: "..."
Even the comments on the live broadcast were filled with question marks and dots.
Is this room good? Xiao Momo seems to be quite satisfied.
Forgive my poor eyesight, I can't see what's good about this house.
Especially compared to the other groups...
In this episode, actor Gao Yuankai was drawn to be the owner of a piano store, and his residence is a large flat in the city center; Bai Yulin was drawn to be a voice actor, and although he does not live in the city center, it is at least a 120-square-meter commercial house; Duan Bei was drawn to be a reporter for a TV station, and he lives in a staff hotel arranged by the TV station, with good conditions.
In the end, not to mention Zheng Chengye's family, they directly moved into the presidential suite of a five-star hotel.
In comparison, the living conditions of Lin Cheng's group do seem too down-to-earth.
These conditions are only slightly better than where Lin's father and Momo lived in the previous episodes.
Maybe only Momo thinks this condition is good...
…
Lin Cheng was thinking the same thing at this time: Perhaps only his own daughter would be "pretty good" with such conditions.
Looking down at Lin Momo's satisfied expression, Lin Cheng rubbed the top of Lin Momo's head with some pain and helplessness.
"Come in."
The two entered the room.
Although this room is small, it is generally clean and there are not many things in it.
Compared to the places I stayed in before, the only advantage of this place is that they don’t have to clean up.
Lin Cheng sorted out some cabinets and storage boxes in the house, keeping the usable ones and piling the unused ones in a corner of the room, leaving some space for suitcases and for people to pass through.
Afterwards, Lin Cheng gave the room a brief clean and then checked the room carefully to make sure that the doors, windows, and electrical sockets were safe, and that Lin Momo had not bumped into anything in the room.
Lin Momo was packing her luggage on the side.
Lin Momo spread out the bed sheets and quilt covers she brought, then took out the clothes and other daily necessities she brought from her suitcase and sorted them out.
Afterwards, Lin Momo's eyes fell on Lin Cheng's box next to her.
"Dad." Lin Momo called out.
Lin Cheng, who was checking the room, heard Lin Momo calling him, stopped and answered: "What?"
"I can help you pack your luggage." Lin Momo said.
Hearing this, Lin Cheng originally wanted to say no, but when he thought that it was a girl who would help him clean up, Lin Cheng suddenly felt a little excited.
Finally, Lin Cheng nodded and said, "Okay."
"Be careful when moving the suitcase." Lin Cheng reminded.
"Okay, I'm the little one."
Lin Momo opened Lin Cheng's suitcase and began to pack Lin Cheng's clothes and luggage.
Although they were only staying here for a week, Lin Momo still carefully sorted out the small items such as tops, pants, sweatshirts and socks that she brought with her, and then hung them neatly in the simple wardrobe.
Other daily necessities were also neatly placed on the small table.
In the live broadcast, many viewers sighed as they watched the father and daughter carefully clean up the mess:
Every time I see Momo cleaning the house, I have the illusion that she will live here forever.
Haha, I feel the same way.
Dad too, seems to be living an increasingly mundane life.
This is indeed very different from the painting styles of other groups.
I learned how to clean and fold clothes from a parent-child variety show...
I thought I was watching a life documentary, hahaha. If it hadn't been mentioned at the beginning, I would have almost forgotten that this is a parent-child variety show.
It's so ordinary, yet so addictive.
…
Seeing this comment on the barrage, Zhou Qi and Wang Xi, who were sitting in front of the computer, nodded in agreement.
Obviously, their job was to keep an eye on the live broadcast, and if anything unexpected happened, they would contact the company or the production team immediately, or go on stage to give critical reviews. As a result, they both became loyal viewers of the live broadcast without realizing it.
"I think I know why those passers-by like to watch Cheng Ge and his friends' live broadcasts." Zhou Qi murmured.
Wang Xi, who was having a midnight snack nearby, nodded and agreed, "It's indeed very addictive." Not only is it addictive, but it also goes well with rice.
The number of online viewers of Lin Cheng and Lin Momo's live broadcast has reached 500,000. Although there is still a big gap compared to other popular groups, there is one thing that is different from other live broadcasts: the number of viewers of Lin Cheng's live broadcast is very stable, and there is not much fluctuation in traffic even in different time periods.
It is also unlike other live broadcasts, where the traffic is extremely high when there are designed "explosive points" in the program, and when fans vote in a unified manner, the traffic is extremely high, and the traffic drops sharply at other times.
Because of this, in the comprehensive traffic ranking of live broadcasts, Lin Cheng and Lin Momo's live broadcasts seem to have no competitiveness, but in fact they are slowly catching up with the other groups.
—
Here, Lin Momo had already packed their luggage and started to worry about their livelihood.
Lin Momo took out the pile of flyers she had picked up earlier.
The words on the flyer were densely packed. Because the light in the room was too dim, in order to see the contents of the flyer clearly, Lin Momo had to carry the flyer to the living room and start studying it.
The information on these lists was varied, and Lin Momo didn't know which ones were true and which ones were false, so she spread out all the lists on the coffee table and began to compare them one by one.
Lin Momo checked the crew information that appeared on the list of each chapter, and put question marks on the crew and information that appeared rarely.
After the first round of screening, Lin Momo circled the names of the crews that appeared on the majority of the lists, and then drew five-pointed stars on the ones with the same information.
Yes, after another round of screening, Lin Momo checked a total of 17 crews, and drew stars for 36 of them.
Lin Momo copied the names of the crews, shooting progress, scenes, and number of extras needed one by one on the small notebook she brought with her.
Lin Momo didn't know what the first, second, third, A-level, and S-level people were, nor did she know who the leading stars were, so she could only divide them according to the region.
Among them, the names and addresses of some venues looked similar. Lin Momo guessed that they should be in the same place or very close to each other, so she grouped them together.
Afterwards, Lin Momo picked out some important keywords from the list and marked them in front of the crew name, such as: free food, many people, high income…
Lin Momo was watching intently.
At this moment, there was a sound of the door opening, and two young girls walked in, talking and laughing.
"This time, Sister Qin is very reliable and has a lot of information and resources. Let's go."
"As long as they are reliable, we'll see for a while and try to find someone who can join the team."
…
As they were talking, they were startled when they saw Lin Momo in the living room.
“Who is it?”
When they saw that Lin Momo was just a child, the two girls relaxed, but still looked at Lin Momo with confusion and asked, "Little boy, where are you from?"
"I came here with my father. We came here to film a TV show and just moved in tonight." Lin Momo explained to the others.
"Extras?" The two girls asked, looking at the colorful lists in front of Lin Momo.
"Yes!" Lin Momo nodded.
“Is that so…” The two girls stared at Lin Momo for a few more seconds.
Before this, Lin Cheng himself had no fame. Even though an episode of the show "Living with Dad" was broadcast, which gave Lin Cheng some exposure, it was still no match for Bai Yulin and Duan Bei.
In addition, people in the film and television city are busy all day long and rarely have time to watch variety shows. Therefore, at this time, the two girls did not recognize Lin Momo, nor did they know that they were recording a show.
I just thought: the people who come to the film and television city are all kinds of people, from children of a few years old to elderly people in their forties, and there are also some who bring their families with them, so I don’t find it strange.
Lin Momo was also looking at the two people.
—The landlord had introduced them to Lin Momo and the others when he brought them up here. Before she and Lin Cheng moved in, there were three rooms occupied in 307.
One of the tenants was lucky enough to follow the crew to shoot somewhere else last week, but his belongings are still here and have not been moved out.
The other family is a middle-aged couple who have been working in the film and television city for a long time. The wife works in some restaurants in the film and television city during the day, and when no one is watching her at night, she carries her lunch boxes and sells them to the crews shooting at night. The husband has been working as an extra. Although the crews at night have fewer shootings, the competition is small and the requirements are low, so he basically goes out to shoot at night and comes back during the day.
Another roommate is two college students who have just graduated.
Lin Momo guessed that these should be the two young men who lived in Room 2 mentioned by the landlord.
"My name is Momo." Lin Momo introduced herself to the two of them. After thinking for a while, she took out a handful of candy from her bag and handed it to the two of them, asking, "Sisters, do you want some candy? This is given to me by the landlady."
Perhaps because he saw how cute Lin Momo was, the landlord grabbed a handful of candies from the cash register of the small restaurant downstairs and gave them to her before going upstairs.
In Lin Momo's opinion, these two people are now her neighbors.
When Liu Cuifang and I lived in the old house, the way to maintain friendly relations between neighbors was very simple. You gave me two oranges and I would invite you to taste my family’s food.
Seeing the candy handed over by Lin Momo, the two girls waved their hands and declined, "No, you can eat it yourself."
However, in the face of Lin Momo's kindness, the two still smiled at Lin Momo friendly.
Lin Momo put away the candy. Seeing that the other party seemed to be planning to sit down and look at something on the sofa, she tidied up the lists on the coffee table, stood up from the sofa, and took a step back.
"Sister, please sit down."
Seeing this, the two girls quickly waved their hands and said indifferently: "It's okay, the sofa is so wide, sit together."
Lin Momo nodded, moved to the sofa and sat down, continuing to organize the information on her list.
—
After the two girls sat down, they took out the materials in their bags and started discussing.
"I asked a senior sister to help me find out about this information, and it's basically accurate."
"These are the ones that have just started filming and those that are about to start filming!"
"That's right, so this is a good opportunity."
…
As the two discussed, Lin Momo sat aside and tried to remain quiet so as not to disturb the other party.
However, Lin Momo still subconsciously listened to their conversation.
Here, seeing Lin Momo standing aside, looking at them with a confused expression, the two girls smiled and jokingly said, "Little friend, can you understand what we are saying?"
Lin Momo shook her head and nodded slightly.
"Are you talking about the crew information?" Lin Momo picked up her stack of lists and asked the other party.
"Similar, but not quite the same." said one of the tall girls.
Lin Momo had orders for selling temporary extras in her hands. Some retail investors who had just arrived or had limited connections and could not rely on group leaders would rely on the information above to try their luck in various crews.
The two girls had in their hands some information about casting for supporting roles, actor recruitment information, and registration forms. If they passed the interview and were noticed by a certain crew, they could join the crew to film.
Lin Momo didn't quite understand the other party's explanation and looked confused.
The girl pointed at her order and reminded her, "Besides, Xiao Momo, all these orders are expired."
"Well, I know, I'll just take a look." Lin Momo said in a low voice.
—What can a little kid watch seriously
Therefore, the two girls just thought that Lin Momo was playing with the adults' list and did not take it too seriously. They continued the discussion with their own information.
After another hour, Lin Cheng, who had tidied the room, opened the door and walked out.
"Momo, it's time for you to go to bed." Lin Cheng said.
Hearing this, Lin Momo obediently said "OK", and then introduced him to the two girls: "This is my dad."
"Mo Mo, don't disturb other people's work." Lin Cheng reminded.
"Oh," Lin Momo responded, got up from the sofa, picked up her list, and said to the two girls, "Good night, Sister Xiaomai and Sister Chen," and then returned to Lin Cheng.
After sitting here and chatting for a while, Lin Momo already knew the names of the two people. The tall girl was called Shu Mai, and the shorter one was called Chen Manman.
After calling Lin Momo back, Lin Cheng said to the two girls, "Sorry to bother you."
Hearing this, the two girls quickly waved their hands and said, "No, no, Xiao Momo is very well behaved."
It was not until they saw Lin Cheng bringing Lin Momo back to the room that the two girls looked at each other and started discussing in a low voice:
"That was Momo's dad? So handsome!"
"I think so too. When she said she and her father came here to be extras, I thought her father must be quite old and average looking. I didn't expect him to be so handsome and still look quite young."
"Just considering his looks, not his acting skills, I think he's good enough to be the male lead..."
Both of them were a little confused about this.
However, they did not pay much attention to this matter.
After gossiping for a while, the two girls once again turned their focus back to the documents in front of them.
"How about this movie 'Retrograde'? It just happens to be casting for supporting roles. Why don't we give it a try?"
"You can give it a try, but the audition requirements for this show aren't that strict. Also, I heard the cast of leading actors is very strong, with many from the 'family'. We may not be chosen if we go."
"Let's try it."
"That's fine."
"What about this one? 'The Moon Hides in the West River at Night'."
"I know this. It seems to be a big IP, right?"
"Yes, yes. It is also invested by Xingshi Entertainment. It is said that it has been scheduled for the first time and they are currently recruiting supporting actors."
"Is this fake? Hasn't the show already started filming for over a week? Why are they still looking for supporting roles? Besides, there are so many young artists under Starstone Entertainment, some of whom have yet to debut. There's no need to hold a casting call at the film and television city."
"Maybe it's to stir up the hype," Chen Manman said, paused, and then said, "But there is also a little rumor."
"What news?"
"I heard that Xingshi Entertainment's original plan after acquiring this IP was to promote Sun Yimeng, and they even arranged for his senior Le Bai to play a supporting role for the newcomer. But the two of them seemed to have a quarrel over roles and rankings. They were both popular under the same agent, and the agent couldn't favor one over the other, so in the end, the show was changed to a dual male lead drama."
"Unfortunately, a few male and female supporting actors became scapegoats and were fired by the crew, so they are recruiting actors again now."
"So that's how it is. No wonder. I heard online that Le Bai's agent seems to be quite powerful and seems to have shares in Xingshi Entertainment."