Chapter 266: Shocking the Audience
Tan Mo was, without a doubt, from a rich family.
Director Liu took the microphone from the host and said, “To be honest, a lot of troubles occurred as we filmed this drama. I’m sure that people still remember the scandal about our scriptwriter and consultant, right? It caused our first sponsor to withdraw, and the drama almost got canceled. I can confirm now that the scandal was, in fact, true. But it was only a part of the truth. That is why I want to take this chance and give everyone a good explanation to prevent other people from using this as a method to target my team or the drama. The scandal wasn’t the first problem we really had to endure, but the second. Not many people know this, but I’m sure there are a few of you who know that our original scriptwriter was not Tan Mo. I’m not going to name names here, so we’ll just call the person the original scriptwriter.”
Whether the original scriptwriter had left on their own or was fired, Director Liu decided to let the public decide for themselves. It would at least show that he was generous enough not to expose the ident.i.ty of the original scriptwriter.
At the same time, those who knew who the original scriptwriter was were people in the same industry. After learning of the incident, some would most likely stop working with her in the future, while others wouldn’t care.
“Well, part of the incident was my responsibility as well. I didn’t know much about our own history and wanted to do a historical drama. That was why I didn’t see anything wrong with the first script and was ready to start filming. Fortunately, Tan Mo was introduced to my team as our history consultant.”
“Consultant? Are you saying that Tan Mo is the consultant as well?” the host exclaimed, not hiding his surprise. He’d completely forgotten that he was hosting a show.
Director Liu quickly explained with a smile, “That was another source of gossip. Didn’t people spread on the net that the scriptwriter was working as the consultant as well? Some even got angry and said that it was an unprofessional thing to do and the drama would be trash. I decided not to do any explaining at that time as it would sound like I was just making excuses. No one would have believed me then. The truth is, Tan Mo here is a student of Professor Zhao at Beijing University.”
“Professor Zhao?” The host’s jaw dropped. “B…but isn’t Tan Mo just 17?”
How could a 17-year-old girl, who’s supposed to be in high school, be Professor Zhao’s student?
The host could tell that Tan Mo’s dress was from a luxury brand and must have cost thousands. He could also tell that the dress was a real one and not some fake product.
It was proof that the little girl came from a prestigious family, and the host couldn’t help but think how influential her family must have been to make Professor Zhao accept her as his student.
Since Tan Mo was still young, that was the conclusion the host came to, just like everyone else probably had.
However, Director Liu proved them wrong the next instant. “Does everyone remember the high schooler who got a full score in the graduation exam from B City a few years ago?”
The director’s face was beaming with pride as if he was talking about his own daughter.
“Well, that was none other than Tan Mo. She was just 15 that year and got a full score in the high school graduation exam. She accepted Mr. Mu’s, the president of Beijing University, invitation to attend the university. From what I know, the presidents of five of the top six universities in the Hua Empire tried to get Tan Mo to enroll in their universities. However, she chose to attend Beijing University.”
“I have to apologize for judging a book by its cover,” the host said, embarra.s.sed. “I never thought I would be talking to a prodigy.”
“Tan Mo joined Beijing University as a student in the Finance Department, but Professor Guo and Professor Zhao noticed her knowledge and talent in ancient language and history,” Director Liu continued to explain. “They tried to invite her to change to their majors, but Tan Mo insisted on staying in her original major. However, she did join the two professors’ research teams and became their student. In her freshman year, she won the Ancient Text Compet.i.tion on her own against Ph.D. students from ten other universities. In her soph.o.m.ore year, she learned all of the Twenty-four Histories and was able to dominate an exchange between Beijing University and Tsinghua University.”
Everyone was utterly speechless now.
“If there’s anyone who doubts me, feel free to check Beijing University’s web site or ask around. These achievements are no secret, and I didn’t make them up,” Director Liu said.
No one was even doubting him as this wasn’t something that a person could fake easily as the results were all recorded.
The reporters and cameramen were all staring at Tan Mo speechlessly now and had completely forgotten their job was to interview the celebrities.
There were a few cameramen who reacted quickly and began to take photos of Tan Mo.
She was a prodigy and the student of two of the most famous scholars in the Hua Empire. She was also the winner of the Ancient Text Compet.i.tion and also the scriptwriter and consultant for “Legend of Wei and Jin”.
All of those t.i.tles were much more amazing and intriguing than the famous celebrities.
Even the host had completely forgotten about his job of interviewing the rest of the team.
The flow of the event was completely messed up now. In order for the schedule to proceed smoothly, the staff could only lead the celebrities into the venue right away and push the interviews until the event ended.
The celebrities who were still on the red carpet got the worst of it.
No camera was pointing at them now.
Even if they were standing in front of the cameramen, their cameras were all aimed at Tan Mo.
Some would take a couple of photos of the celebrities and s.h.i.+ft their attention back to the prodigy.
If the celebrities left, they would miss out on the chance of getting their photos taken. But if they stayed, they would have to wait in the cold while the line didn’t move.
It didn’t take long for the staff to start urging the celebrities to enter the venue.
“Oh, I apologize for straying from the main topic.” Director Liu laughed awkwardly. “I just wanted to say that even if Tan Mo is still young, I can vouch for her ability. Professor Zhao sent her to my team as soon as I mentioned that I needed a consultant.”
He didn’t even mention Shen Jingyi during the interview. He would gossip about her with his friends.
If he were to bring the incident with Shen Jingyi up, he would pull Professor Zhao down with her.
And that was unacceptable.
Another reason the director did not mention Shen Jingyi was so that she would not be able to spread lies about her being the history consultant for “Legend of Wei and Jin.”
If she were to say that, people would at least question her authenticity.
The only consultant that Director Liu had ever acknowledged was Tan Mo.
The director had calculated everything.
“The moment she read the script, she knew what was wrong with it,” Director Liu said. “The problem was that we were one week away from filming. If we were to use the old script, how were we supposed to explain it to the sponsors? If we were to produce a bad drama with such a huge sponsor, everyone would’ve been affected by it.”