The opening ceremony of Wind and Cloud was a bustling and lively affair.
With nothing better to do, Li Boda wandered over to the site of the ceremony. Naturally, as an actor playing a mere bit part, the production crew didn't care about him one way or the other; whether he showed up meant nothing to them.
The only reason Li Boda came was to see how many beauties were in the cast. After all, since he had a minor supporting role rather than a background extra, triggering his Golden Finger would allow him to enter the world of Wind and Cloud in his dreams. Of course, because he was only playing a minor role, even if he turned the world of Wind and Cloud upside down in a dream, it wouldn't bring any substantial feedback to his Golden Finger.
Still, checking out the beauties in the cast ahead of time couldn't hurt—who knows, maybe he could liven up his dreams a little. As far as Li Boda was concerned, it was just dreaming anyway. Since when was having a wet dream a crime? Nobody could stop a man from having a wet dream!
Sure enough, at the opening ceremony, Li Boda spotted several beauties.
The most stunning among them was Jiang Qinqin. The styling from back when she filmed The Bride with White Hair still left Li Boda dazzled to this day. Especially the scene in The Bride with White Hair where Jiang Qinqin leaped out of a pool of water—though most of her body was covered, those fair, tender thighs remained deeply etched in his mind. The moment he laid eyes on Jiang Qinqin, Li Boda's eyes involuntarily lit up.
Jiang Qinqin, who was walking through the ceremony proceedings, suddenly felt a strange sensation. Involuntarily turning her head, she locked eyes with a pair of burning, almost naked gazes staring right at her.
Caught off guard when she suddenly turned around, Li Boda gave a start and hurriedly averted his gaze.
Next, Li Boda spotted a beauty from Taiwan named Jiang Zuping, whose features were sweet and quite pretty. As for the rest of the actresses in the crew, they weren't bad by any means, but compared to those two, their looks were clearly a tier lower.
However, the moment Li Boda saw the actress playing Kongci, he instantly sobered up.
A few years prior, when Li Boda watched the movie The Storm Riders, the role of Kongci was played by a Hong Kong actress named Yang Gongru. She was quite pretty, making it feel entirely normal for Wind and Cloud to have a falling out with Xiongba over her.
But this Kongci right in front of him—
Li Boda was at a loss for words. He looked at the heavily built actor playing Bu Jingyun, then at the actor playing Nie Feng, and finally at the small-eyed actor playing Qin Shuang. To throw their lives away for a Kongci like this—their taste in women was truly questionable.
Of course, actors were actors, and roles were roles. But Li Boda still couldn't understand why they couldn't find someone truly beautiful to play Kongci, seeing as her character essentially served the same narrative function as Diaochan from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He simply couldn't fathom the casting choice.
There was one actress, however, whose casting Li Boda felt was spot-on: Nie Feng's mother, Yan Ying.
To be fair, it was impossible to say that Tian Li, the actress playing Yan Ying, possessed earth-shattering, peerless beauty. But Tian Li exuded a certain—well, hard-to-describe aura, as if she were overflowing with sultry charm and seductiveness to her very bones. Standing right there, she gave off a completely unique vibe. So when people called her the number one beauty of the jianghu back in the day, virtually no one would object.
Additionally, Li Boda spotted a pair of twins in the crew playing the doll assassins of the Twelve Killers of Tianchi. Li Boda's verdict was that their looks were average, but their figures were quite tall. After a single glance, he lost interest.
In the end, Li Boda's gaze settled back on the three women: Jiang Qinqin, Jiang Zuping, and Tian Li.
Naturally, Li Boda wasn't the only one; most of the men in the crew reacted much the same way he did.
***
"This young brother looks awfully young!" Zhao Wenzhuo said with a smile as he approached Li Boda.
"Hello, Brother Zhuo. I've been acting for a little over a year."
"Oh? Do you know kung fu?"
"A little. I practiced Tai Chi for a few years."
"Is that so? Why don't the two of us spar a bit?"
Before filming The Storm Riders began, actors like Zhao Wenzhuo would go through a period of martial arts boot camp. Naturally, minor players like Li Boda were not qualified to take part. Now that filming had officially started, this was Li Boda's very first formal meeting with Zhao Wenzhuo.
Because he and Zhao Wenzhuo shared an upcoming action scene, Zhao Wenzhuo had sought Li Boda out to get acquainted.
And while Li Boda was a role too small to matter in Zhao Wenzhuo's eyes, Zhao Wenzhuo's attitude towards him remained remarkably amiable—at least, he kept a smile on his face while talking to him. Even so, kind as Zhao Wenzhuo tried to be, the gap in their status meant Li Boda could still faintly feel an invisible barrier between them. A gap in status could not be erased by a friendly attitude alone.
Right in front of Zhao Wenzhuo, Li Boda ran through a set of Tai Chi to showcase his skills.
Seeing Li Boda execute the Tai Chi forms as smoothly as flowing water, Zhao Wenzhuo's eyes lit up.
"Little brother, your Tai Chi is no joke! That's not just for show!" Zhao Wenzhuo said, pleasantly surprised.
"You flatter me, Brother Zhuo."
"Little brother—by the way, I still don't know your name."
"Li Boda. My name is Li Boda."
"Little Brother Li, where did you learn that Tai Chi? Which school does it belong to? I couldn't quite tell..."
"I'm not really clear on the schools myself. I'm from a rural village; when I was a kid living in the countryside, I learned it from an old gentleman in our village."
"Is that so? Truly, masters are hidden among the common folk!"
Because of Li Boda's impressive Tai Chi, Zhao Wenzhuo found common ground with him. As the conversation naturally drifted to martial arts, Zhao Wenzhuo discovered that Li Boda knew quite a lot of kung fu—not just Tai Chi, but sword techniques, saber techniques, palm strikes, and more. His repertoire was varied and eclectic, and what's more, his execution was actually quite good.
"It's a real shame you didn't go to a sports school," Zhao Wenzhuo said with genuine regret. "You should have gone to a sports school. Once there, you could have entered more martial arts competitions and probably won a few championships. You've got a good look and handsome features, too. Breaking into the entertainment industry later on would have been much easier for you."
After all, Jet Li, Wu Jing, and Zhao Wenzhuo himself all came from sports schools. Only after competing in numerous martial arts tournaments and winning championship titles did they get the opportunity to be discovered, star in films and television, and eventually rise to fame. In Zhao Wenzhuo's eyes, with Li Boda's martial arts foundation, had he followed their path, he likely would have made a small name for himself by now.