Chapter 0460: Chance Encounter

As the song ended, the entire bar suddenly fell silent.

It wasn't that the girl sang particularly well; in fact, she sang quite poorly.

Aside from the first few lines, which were rather impressive, the rest was off-key and out of tune, and she even forgot the lyrics in places.

"She's not a singer, is she?" Jiang Wen blinked and asked Yu Feihong.

Yu Feihong's eyes flickered; clearly, she and Jiang Wen were thinking the same thing.

Zhao Fusheng smiled from the side: "Come on, at worst she's, well, a soul singer, right?"

Soul singer...

Yu Feihong and Jiang Wen looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Zhao Fusheng's description was indeed apt—that girl was singing with her soul.

"Zhang Li must have tricked another female student from somewhere," Jiang Wen said with a cold snort after laughing.

Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng was stunned and looked at Jiang Wen in surprise.

Although he was well aware of how murky the entertainment industry could be, the fact that such things were happening as early as the year 2000 left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"What, feeling uncomfortable?" Jiang Wen asked, noticing Zhao Fusheng's reaction.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Honestly, I didn't expect this."

"Why wouldn't you expect it?" Jiang Wen glanced toward the table the girl was approaching, not minding Yu Feihong's presence: "See that table? The guy with glasses is Zhang Li. He relies on his connections in the Directors' Association to lure young girls from schools. Those female students, wanting to get roles in his films, play dumb and go along with it."

"Ah, the world is going downhill, and people's hearts are not what they used to be," Jiang Wen sighed.

Yu Feihong also smiled bitterly: "Exactly. In our day, we thought about honing our acting skills, enduring a few years after graduation until we could take on leading roles. Nowadays, kids just think about taking shortcuts..."

She didn't finish the sentence, but all three understood what the shortcut meant and what it cost.

"Alright, blisters come from walking; everyone chooses their own path. Why worry about others?" Zhao Fusheng suddenly laughed and said to Jiang Wen and Yu Feihong: "You two old hands, how come you're less clear-headed than me?"

Yu Feihong and Jiang Wen were taken aback, then laughed as well. As Zhao Fusheng said, everyone is responsible for their own life; there's no need to fret over others' affairs.

"By the way, Feihong, how's your foundation coming along?" Sitting there chatting, they eventually brought up the foundation. Jiang Wen asked Yu Feihong curiously: "Seems like it's helped a lot of people?"

Yu Feihong nodded and pointed at Zhao Fusheng: "He contributed part of the funds, I put in some myself, and the rest came from donations by a few foundation members."

According to Zhao Fusheng's plan, the foundation's initial funds were not raised from the public but donated by its founding members.

The reason for this was simply to protect the foundation's reputation, as personal donations differ from public ones.

"You?"

Jiang Wen looked at Zhao Fusheng in surprise. Honestly, he hadn't expected Zhao Fusheng to be one of the foundation's founders.

"I didn't think too much at the time; I just wanted to do something for those grandmothers," Zhao Fusheng explained the reason for establishing the foundation.

Originally, Yu Feihong had approached him on Jiang Wen's advice, and his trip from Qianxi to Beijing to visit Yu Feihong was also thanks to Jiang Wen's scheming. But even Jiang Wen probably hadn't anticipated what would happen afterward.

"Why didn't you contact me about this? I want to join," Jiang Wen said to Yu Feihong.

Yu Feihong looked helplessly at Zhao Fusheng, seeking his opinion.

Zhao Fusheng shrugged with a smile: "Feel free, just follow the standard procedure."

Earlier, he had helped Yu Feihong set up membership criteria and procedures. Currently, the foundation's club had eight members including Zhao Fusheng himself. For Jiang Wen to join, he would need recommendations from at least two members and pass an assessment.

"There's a procedure?"

Jiang Wen was dumbfounded. If Yu Feihong and Zhao Fusheng didn't seem like the joking type, he would have suspected he was in the wrong place.

"Here's how it works..."

Yu Feihong explained the standards Zhao Fusheng had set, along with the foundation's purpose and goals, and finally said to Jiang Wen: "If you think you can meet them, then join. Fusheng and I will be your sponsors."

After pondering for a while, Jiang Wen suddenly said: "Alright, I'm in."

He was never one to shy away from things, and he wanted to do some good. Since Zhao Fusheng and Yu Feihong's foundation operated discreetly, Jiang Wen didn't mind joining.

...

...

It had to be said, this bar was indeed a gathering place for insiders, as Jiang Wen had mentioned. At the very least, Zhao Fusheng spotted three or four waves of celebrities he recognized walking in.

Both men and women, though young, were all familiar names.

"What, know them?" Jiang Wen asked with a smile, noticing Zhao Fusheng sizing up a table of people. "Looks like they're from the Central Academy of Drama."

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: "No, they just look familiar."

Of course they looked familiar: Tao Hong, wife of Xu Zheng; director Gao Hu, who would later be arrested for drug use; acting fanatic Duan Yihong; and the unlucky Yin Xiaotian, a victim of the 'Stab-God Cult.'

These were faces that would frequently appear on screen in the future.

"If they just look familiar, forget it," Jiang Wen said with a shrug. He had thought Zhao Fusheng had his eye on some girl and was planning to use his senior status at the Central Academy of Drama to call them over. But since that wasn't the case, he dropped it.

"They should be recent graduates, not long out of school," Yu Feihong said flatly.

As a teacher at the Beijing Film Academy, she could tell at a glance whether someone was a student or not.

Zhao Fusheng recalled their ages and, as Yu Feihong said, they had probably graduated only a couple of years ago, either lying low or in a state of semi-obscurity.

It had to be said, the acting profession was sometimes hard to describe with words. A single drama could make the entire cast famous, while another actor might remain unknown for over a decade but suddenly become a sensation due to a few memes.

Life is always full of surprises. Even Zhao Fusheng didn't expect that what happened next would change many people's destinies.