Darkstone Code

Chapter 408: 0406 Helping others is the foundation of happiness


Lynch is the top choice for most young girls who want to become famous. Firstly, he's young enough not to make some girls, who still have some moral boundaries, feel disgusted during intimacy.

It truly can be disgusting when that... those hairy, stubbly chins rub against a young girl's skin, it can give you goosebumps and make you want to vomit.

But Lynch is different; he's handsome, the kind that could definitely be the leading movie idol.

Secondly, he's wealthy and influential in elite circles. People scramble to get a glimpse of the scenery there, some never breaking through their whole lives, but now, just by having some connection with Lynch, they could see it.

His attributes meet almost every woman's fantasy of a perfect lover. Coupled with what people have learned from various sources about his humor and some anecdotes, girls don't mind a brief romantic encounter with Lynch.

Even if it's just an encounter, not eternal, it's enough to significantly increase some girls' worth.

This is a very realistic society, everyone has their price. What's more cruel is that sometimes a brand-new item isn't as valuable as a second-hand one, like the ones Lynch has used.

Some people go with the flow, clinging to certain things, and as time fades, their price keeps dropping. But some dare to change boldly; maybe their price won't improve, but it won't drop too fast either.

On the street, under the sun, there's the busy traffic, people coming and going. Amidst this dynamic environment, there are two people as if frozen in place.

Lynch is looking at the girl, the girl holding the brim of her sunhat, looking back at Lynch. She knows she should thank Lynch, but for some reason, she feels angrily itchy in her teeth.

"Can you be my boyfriend for a while?" In the end, she spoke out, not so reserved after all. Actually, this sentence doesn't have any hard-to-say attributes in social interactions.

Compared to those girls screaming "come and take me on," simply requesting a relationship is nothing, but she still felt somewhat... suffocated.

In her past interactions with the opposite sex, she was always in the proactive position, whether it was those same-aged young boys in their hormonal phase, or older middle-aged men, or elderly like her parents, she always firmly held the initiative.

Only in front of Lynch did she feel that her looks, her figure, her personality, or anything else that could add points, lost their effect.

She looked at Lynch angrily, Lynch nodded slightly, "An honor indeed..."

"Penny!" The girl shouted, frustrated.

"An honor indeed, Miss Penny!" Lynch laughed heartily, his mood as bright as the weather today.

In the hotel not far away, the girl's broker was anxiously pacing. The film producer had invested 450,000, with almost half used for the actors and staff's expenses, and only a little over ten thousand on shooting.

But even so, it's an undeniable big production.

In this era, there are no special effects and post-production, at most just some prop special effects. The money invested here was mainly spent on venue rentals, prop production, and the most costly film material.

Simple shooting, especially storyline filming with few props, demands high from the actors. Audiences will focus their attention entirely on these frequently appearing actors.

Any slight flaw in performance will be picked out by keen-eyed critics and severely criticized.

Conversely, if there are no issues with the acting, the film and the actors will be accepted by the audience and the market.

Every top actor is the cream of the crop emerging from a "mountain of corpses and sea of blood," though this might be a bit exaggerated, it's true. Because in this era, besides the storyline and people being watchable, there's nothing else to attract audiences.

This also led to a unique phenomenon: top actors not only have superb acting skills but also a terrifying fan base and unparalleled market appeal.

Now, with massive capital flowing into the film industry from other places, this phenomenon has accelerated into extremity.

Compared to the ubiquitous screenwriters, directors who can be hired with some money, good actors are hard to find. As a result, many production companies are waving checks worldwide to find suitable actors to cooperate with. A top male actor with box office dominance can sometimes rank higher than the director in the crew, second only to the financier.

This film's male lead has starred in "The Last Blood 1," "The Last Blood 2," "The Last Blood 3," and various tough guy films, becoming a generational memory and one of the Federation's most successful screen tough guys, Sloan.

Hiring this male lead alone cost half of the total investment. This is partly why they set the filming in York State.

The producers were eager to get some funding subsidies from the state government. If there's a funding gap in the later stages of shooting, they wouldn't need to reapply for the budget.

The girl's agency made numerous personal favors to secure this female lead role—marking a significant advancement for the girl in the film industry.

She's the primary female lead in such a large-scale production for the first time. As long as she doesn't receive too much negative criticism, it means she can dominate secondary female roles in upcoming films, greatly benefiting her future development.

The only flaw in this is Sloan.

Not just Penny, but her broker and agency are dealing with Sloan, this first-time encounter with a top, dominating male actor. Their previous knowledge of him was only through his work and some reports.

Only when truly in contact with the man did they realize how speechless he could render people, even making them find it absurdly laughable.

He's afraid of bugs, mice, injuries, and it's rumored he almost cried over tearing his knee while ordering props recently.

Besides these 'girlish' aspects, he's very lustful. He's already fifty-one, yet he proactively suggested that he create a scandal with the just-eighteen-year-old Penny, a scandal full of romantic undertones.

This kind of thing... actually, most of the time, everyone knows the drill—what scandal creation? It's usually for a role or certain benefits; entertainment companies or broker firms send their artists to the other side to spend some time 'sleeping.'

But this 'sending' is voluntary, not coerced, let alone Sloan's age being triple that of Penny's.

Fickle, timid, effeminate, these are the impressions people got during this period when interacting with this 'tough guy'.

Just now, despite others' objections, Sloan directly informed the girl's broker that he had called several reporters he was close with to 'secretly photograph' him and the girl, right near the hotel terrace pool.

He instructed the broker to notify his scandal co-star to don a sexy swimsuit. They should showcase their affection for entertainment reporters by the pool.

The girl found out about this and ran away, not returning yet.

The broker reported the situation to the company, which didn't have a better solution. They're not producers but a broker firm cultivating actors, and they don't have any top-tier actors either.

Perhaps they have some connections and contacts in this circle, but compared to Sloan, who already has a significant fan base, they still fall short.

Ultimately, the company's suggestion was to cooperate as much as possible with his 'performance,' pretending only, not falling out until the last step, and take care to protect yourself.

At this time, several reporters have swaggered upstairs, and the girl still hasn't returned. If Sloan loses his temper—an effeminate yet extremely lustful elder—who knows if he'd get angry and humiliated?

If he loses his temper and threatens to block Penny, he could indeed render the girl's years of effort into nothing. After all, his fame and status are indisputable; as long as he has enormous commercial value and box office appeal, production companies won't risk offending such a dominating male actor for a relatively unknown young actress.

"If only I hadn't taken this role!" The broker gritted her teeth with immense regret, but who could have thought a person could have such a drastic contrast?

"If worse comes to worst... should I take the hit?" She pinched her waist, looking down at her own figure; besides being straight-to-the-point, it seems there aren't any major flaws?

Just as she was considering whether to strip bare or just wear a T-shirt to meet Sloan, the girl returned.

She hurried over, ready to start explaining something, but then immediately saw the girl's hand, held in another hand.

Seeing the owner of that hand, the broker suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she felt it would be better for Lynch to trash her rather than be approached by Sloan; at least the latter looked good.

"Let me introduce, my boyfriend..." The girl smiled broadly and subtly winked at her broker.

The broker laughed and cried, but soon composed herself and slightly bowed, "Mr. Lynch, thank you for your assistance..."

She clearly knew, Penny must have found some way to convince Lynch to pretend to be her boyfriend. How very fortunate! While the girl was largely exceptional in the broker's eyes, she was still quite far from being Lynch's official girlfriend.

The higher the status, the stricter the requirements for the woman.

Currently, there's no one from the entertainment circle among the Federation's elite wives.

Besides, if Lynch were interested in Penny, he would've made a move during previous encounters, why wait until today?

In essence, Mr. Lynch is indeed a very kind person, able to understand the girl's troubles and willingly lend a hand—truly moving!

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