Chapter 1384: A Masterstroke

"Do you wear glasses?"

Zhao Fusheng stood before Sun Honglei and suddenly asked.

Sun Honglei was taken aback, completely caught off guard by Zhao Fusheng's unexpected question.

Even the others sitting in the conference room were stunned.

Zhao Baogang and Yu Feihong exchanged bewildered glances, unsure what Zhao Fusheng meant.

Fan Baobao, on the other hand, furrowed her delicate brows, her watery eyes shifting from her husband to Sun Honglei. Based on her understanding of Zhao Fusheng, intuition told her he wouldn't say something like that without reason.

Sun Honglei, facing Zhao Fusheng, was momentarily dazed by the question, then shook his head: "I'm a bit nearsighted, but I don't usually wear glasses."

"Then wear them from now on."

Zhao Fusheng ignored his response and continued on his own: "Come on, try them now."

Left with no choice, Sun Honglei took the glasses Zhao Fusheng handed him and put them on.

He dared not refuse, because before coming, Zhao Baogang had spoken with him privately, bluntly telling him that this opportunity had been hard-won—the company had paid a great price to secure him the lead role. If he messed it up, Sun Honglei could forget about ever becoming famous.

Sun Honglei had no doubt about Zhao Baogang's words, knowing full well that as a top director in the TV drama circle, Zhao Baogang had the ability and connections to completely blacklist an actor—it wasn't difficult.

No one would want to offend a heavyweight like Zhao Baogang over an actor like him.

Harsh as it was, that was the reality.

Watching Sun Honglei put on the glasses, Zhao Fusheng turned to the others behind him and said with a smile: "Come on, take a look now. Doesn't he look like Yu Zecheng?"

Zhao Fusheng turned back, glanced at Sun Honglei, shook his head, and said: "Still not quite right..."

He was dissatisfied with his own "work," but the others in the conference room were dumbfounded. They could clearly see that Sun Honglei, who had seemed somewhat fierce and menacing, now gave off an entirely different impression with the glasses on.

"Is this... real?"

"What a huge change!"

"Wait, is this Sun Honglei?"

A buzz of discussion broke out. In their eyes, Sun Honglei now appeared so gentle and refined, especially with his small eyes hidden behind the frames, giving him a hint of an intellectual.

Zhao Baogang and Ye Jing exchanged glances, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes.

As directors themselves, they understood that drastically changing an actor's temperament was no easy task.

Yet Zhao Fusheng had done it so simply—the guy was truly a genius.

Yu Feihong and Fan Baobao were even more astonished. They were used to seeing Sun Honglei in his "Liu Huaqiang" persona, but now, with just a slight change in his appearance, his whole demeanor had shifted. Suddenly, everyone felt that Sun Honglei might indeed be suitable for the role of Yu Zecheng.

"I believe everyone has read the character sketch for Yu Zecheng," Zhao Fusheng said with a smile. "This character is a very interesting person..."

Most of the actors present had thoroughly read the novel "Lurk" and were familiar with what Zhao Fusheng was talking about.

In the novel, Yu Zecheng was originally an operative for the Chongqing Military Command Bureau. He later followed his superior Lü Zongfang, an underground Communist Party member, to the Wang Jingwei puppet government in Nanjing to assassinate the traitor Li Haifeng. After completing the mission alone, Yu Zecheng's identity was exposed, and he was hunted down. At a critical moment, the Communist Party rescued him. Learning that the head of the Military Command Bureau's secret service was supplying weapons to the Japanese in exchange for private property, Yu Zecheng lost faith in the Nationalist Party. Influenced by his fiancée Zuo Lan, he decided to secretly join the Communist Party and return to Chongqing to work undercover.

Yu Zecheng was awarded as a hero and assigned to the Military Command Bureau's Tianjin intelligence station (later renamed the Confidential Bureau). Through clever maneuvering and several narrow escapes, he eliminated the station's action team captain Ma Kui and intelligence division chief Lu Qiaoshan, among others, and was promoted to deputy station chief. On the eve of liberation, the station chief forcibly dragged him to Taiwan to continue his undercover work...

The plot was actually quite straightforward; the real challenge was how to convey Yu Zecheng's temperament.

The room was filled with amazement, but Zhao Fusheng stood there, looking at Sun Honglei, feeling something was off. He couldn't pinpoint it, but no matter how he looked, something felt wrong.

"What's wrong?"

Noticing Zhao Fusheng's strange state, Ye Jing stood up and walked over to him.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: "Don't you think he looks a bit odd now?"

Odd?

Ye Jing found it baffling. Following Zhao Fusheng's gaze to Sun Honglei, he didn't see anything amiss. Helpless, he said: "It's already pretty good. Don't you think his temperament fits our requirements?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "I know that..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but his eyes lit up as if an idea struck him. He said to Ye Jing: "Does the company have a Zhongshan suit?"

Zhongshan suit?

Ye Jing was taken aback, then nodded: "Yes, we do."

After all, it was a film and television company. Though they had few actors, such costumes were available.

"Take him to change into one," Zhao Fusheng instructed Ye Jing.

Though Ye Jing found it odd, he agreed and gestured for an assistant to take Sun Honglei away.

Everyone in the conference room was dumbfounded, watching Sun Honglei being put through his paces by Zhao Fusheng. They looked at Zhao Baogang, only to find that despite the confusion on his face, he didn't stand up to object.

Exchanging bewildered glances, the others wisely kept their mouths shut. If Sun Honglei's own boss wasn't objecting, no one else had the right to speak.

Through Zhao Baogang's reaction, many had already sensed that he and Future Film had likely reached some agreement. Otherwise, given his personality, how could he stand by and watch his own artist being pushed around? Even if it was Zhao Fusheng, Zhao Baogang wouldn't just sit idly by.

A moment later, when Sun Honglei walked into the conference room wearing a gray Zhongshan suit, the entire room fell silent instantly.