Ch 6: This chapter was out of my control 

The intensive filming time flew by in a flash. Based on Lurk’s schedule, the filming was supposed to take around six months to complete, but the script was cleverly designed this time. Because the plot actually had two male protagonists, Shao Si lucked out and was able to wrap up his portion of filming in about 3 months.

The character that Shao Si played, in other words one of the two male protagonists, was killed in an explosion during a mission. The rest of the plot didn’t have much to do with him, but traces of him were imprinted like shadows, overwhelmingly present in the story.

Lurk was a story about persistence, self-awareness, and the constant struggle of meandering between good and evil while not forgetting one’s original intentions.

Shao Si’s character was extremely brash and temperamental. If it weren’t mentioned that he started out as a recruit from a policy academy, no one would be able to tell.

As he had a very attractive appearance, he posed as a frivolous bad boy while working undercover.

Sometimes even Li Guangzong couldn’t help but unconsciously swallow his saliva* while watching Shao Si shoot his scenes. On set, he wore loose and unbuttoned clothes, with a cigarette often dangling between his fingers. When he walked, he sauntered with swag and wore the facial expression of “Let’s f*ck”.

*TL/N: Apparently humans can produce more saliva when they see someone attractive? So it’s normal for fanboys and fangirls to drool over celebrities they love or be swallowing very hard and often lol

Though Shao Si came off as half asleep all the time, as soon as he had to act, and the cameras focused on him, he could get into character right away. For his last film, Anti-Drug, Shao Si had purposely trained to get abs, but his eight pack wasn’t excessively defined, and…who’s to say, once Shao Si got lazy again, he’d probably lose those abs.

Currently, Shao Si was filming a pick-up*. In this scene, he was leaning against the wall and flirting with an actress. 

*TL/N: Pick-up: scenes recorded after principal footage to augment what’s already shot or to redo parts/entire scenes.

Li Guangzong was standing on the side with a coat, waiting to cover Shao Si up after the shot. The temperature today had dropped, and the southern area they were currently in had unbelievably humid, cold weather.

After waiting a while, his eyes started drifting. His gaze travelled from Shao Si’s hand holding the cigarette, to Shao Si’s other hand, which was on the actress’ butt. 

……

As soon as they finished filming, Li Guangzong draped the coat over Shao Si and asked, ”If I didn’t see wrong, you gave her butt a rub, too?” 

Shao Si: “…Did you even read the script seriously? You’re talking nonsense.”

After speaking, Shao Si walked over to Director Wang to watch the replay. After confirming there were no issues, he bowed to Director Wang solemnly: “Director Wang, thank you for all your hard work, I’m not good with words, but these past three months I’ve really learned a lot, thank you so, so much. I hope that we’ll have the opportunity to work together again. 

Director Wang was feeling both melancholic and gratified. After Shao Si bowed and thanked the other staff, he got up and gave Shao Si a pat on the back: “In terms of acting, I’ve already taught you everything I can. As an elder, the final lesson I can leave you with is to never be arrogant. In this industry especially, when you’re popular everyone will praise you and put you on a pedestal…Once a person becomes greedy, their desires will never be satisfied. You have to understand why you first stepped foot into the industry, what your original intentions were… If you were to imagine yourself as a ship, then it’s important where your anchor is, because it can remind you of your values when you’re feeling lost or walking down the wrong path.” 

These words were absolutely spoken from the heart. 

Shao Si’s eyes seemed to have turned red, Li Guangzong was staring into the studio lighting so he couldn’t see clearly, and didn’t know if Shao Si was actually feeling moved, or if it was because of the cold. 

It was nighttime.

On the way home, Shao Si wasn’t sleeping for once.

Every time he finished a project, and was freed from a busy schedule, he would feel a little disoriented.

Li Guangzong was sitting in the front passenger seat, holding several pieces of paper and pen in hand, marking things down constantly and filling Shao Si in on his upcoming work: “I asked the company to let you take a few days off to rest.”

Shao Si was slumped in the backseat, and finished his game with a blank expression before raising his head to ask: “But the company wouldn’t easily give me a break?”

Li Guangzong: “I came up with the excuse that you twisted your ankle pretty badly while filming that last explosion scene, so don’t forget to limp around for the next few days.”

Shao Si: “……”

“A few days later, we’ll have to make a trip to New York for Louis’ spring fashion show.” Li Guangzong flipped the page, “Louis specifically requested for you to attend, and wants you to walk at the end of the show as a special guest……Daddy, why are you making that expression? Louis is super famous, a few years ago it was my idol that he invited. Don’t give me that dead look, this is your first step toward becoming an international star. It’s not like a plane trip is gonna kill you or something.”

Shao Si didn’t say anything. After a slight pause, he said something entirely irrelevant: “Son, why’d you become a talent manager?”

The topic of conversation jumped so drastically, Li Guangzong was thrown off for a second: “Huh?”

“Well, it was just happenstance, I guess. Since I couldn’t become a celebrity, becoming a talent manager is cool, too. To be honest, if you were to ask me why I joined this industry, I don’t know either. But I figured, since I had the chance to walk this path, then I have to try my best and do a good job.” Shao Si rarely discussed these types of things with Li Guangzong, so the more he spoke, the more he started to get addicted, “How about you, I heard you were a straight A student, why’d you decide to do this line of work?”

But when he finished speaking, he realized Shao Si had his eyes closed, and was already asleep: “……”

[……I heard all of that, it’s pointless to pretend to be asleep, you’re on vacation for the next few days.] The system’s resentful voice rang out, [can we have a good chat?]

[Chat about what? I don’t have any new findings about Yang Yinyin. She took a month off, but now she’s back to being super busy. Her company made an announcement that she was just suffering from a bad cold.]

[That’s it?]

[There are a few other little things here and there. She’s got a personal assistant, whose behaviour and movements have been abnormal.]

[Oh.]

[I’ll give her a visit on set sometime these next couple of days, I just so happen to know one of the leads in that production she’s part of.]

[……Add Oil!* I’ll mentally encourage and support you!]

*TL/N: Add oil: “Jiayou”, used as a phrase of encouragement and support to a person

The following day, Shao Si limped his way to the set of Story of Concubine Fei to pay a friendly visit. 

For this, he had reached out to his lil’ protagonist friend ahead of time: “I’m gonna visit you tomorrow.”

And then his Wechat was bombarded with messages from the lil’ protagonist. 

Chi Zijuan: “????”

Chi Zijuan: “bruh, are you ok?” .jpg

Chi Zijuan: “I’m only playing one of the emperor’s eunuchs… I won’t have more than three lines in tomorrow’s scenes, you want to visit me?

Chi Zijuan’s Wechat profile picture was a huge pot, which contained broth and a lot of different, but unidentifiable, skewers.

This guy debuted around the same time as Shao Si, but kind of sucked at acting. He was also the poor child whom Qi Ming boozed up and tried to send to a benefactor’s bed. 

Which is what led to Shao Si beating Qi Ming up on his behalf.

Afterwards, Chi Zijuan almost had to leave the industry because of the incident. He switched to selling Malatang*, and every so often took on a minor role here and there. 

*TL/N: Malatang, popular type of street food, skewered meat and vegetables cooked in spicy (rarely non-spicy, but I’ve seen it, too) broth

…Like the character he was playing this time – an inconspicuous eunuch standing by the emperor’s side.

Shao Si: “I was showering, wait for me, I’m gonna head over soon…what’s wrong with being a little eunuch, don’t look down on little eunuchs.”

“Yes*”

*TL/N: The chinese character Zijuan uses here to say yes is the yes that eunuchs used to respond to the emperor.

But by the time Shao Si arrived on set, Yang Yinyin had already left. 

“The leading actress isn’t here?” Shao Si was squatting beside a flower bed, fully armed with a hat, mask, and sunglasses. The huge black sweater he was wearing made him look even thinner than usual. He glanced carefully around the set again, and there was indeed no trace of Yang Yinyin.

Chi Zijuan was dressed in a Qing palace eunuch’s uniform, his facial features delicate and beautiful. He also squatted on the ground next to Shao Si, their heads resting against each other: “You said Yang Yinyin?” 

Shao Si replied dully: “Yeah.”

Chi Zijuan glanced left and right, ensuring there was no one around, before lowering his voice and saying: “She had a nervous breakdown in the middle of a shot today. Her manager asked to stop filming, and they went back for the day.”

“Nervous breakdown?” Shao Si took off his glasses, revealing his unique, iconic pair of eyes – cold and inquisitive. 

“Ge*, you’ve gotta be more careful, cover yourself up! Entertainment Live Room’s crew is here today to do interviews because of Yang Yinyin’s incident…you’ll be in trouble if you get caught on camera.” Chi Zijuan hurriedly helped him put his sunglasses back on. He hesitated a little before continuing, “At first she was just paler than usual, sweating, and kept needing her make-up touched up. Then a few hours later….she started throwing up, so her manager and assistant called a stop on everything right away and took her home.” 

*TL/N: Ge: older brother, other than using this for relatives, it’s also a way to address older male friends/colleagues. I would usually reserve this for people I’m closer with.

Sweating and vomiting?

Was it purely because she’s sick, or…because she’s pregnant.

System: [Pregnant……could it be rape?]

Shao Si: [……]

The system gasped: [Entertainment circle dark secret – a film queen gang rape incident. I think I already know the truth.]

Shao Si: [……You don’t know a thing! Last time with that Chen Dongxu dude, you said it was gang rape, and it turned out that it was just hemorrhoids. Why’re you so dirty-minded. ]

While Chi Zijuan happily started blabbering about other things, Shao Si discreetly sent the private investigator a text, basically asking about where Yang Yinyin currently was. 

Chi Zijuan’s lively and cheerful personality was reflected through his cute eye smile: “Ge, my Malatang is selling super well, there are a lot of people that line up every day to buy my nourishing bone broth! I’m not far from becoming rich. These days, I’ve been thinking about opening a city centre location, what do you think?”

“Mn, go for it.”

Shao Si had his head down as he responded casually. 

With his head lowered, his hat covered most of his face. His thin, long fingers tapped the screen rapidly. After the message was sent, he turned off the phone screen and looked up at Chi Zijuan, saying belatedly: “…All this talk about food is making me a little hungry now.”

　　 Chi Zijuan was silent for a moment: “Actually, I’ve managed to make myself feel hungry, too.”

　　 Shao Si put his phone in his pocket and stood up. From Chi Zijuan’s perspective, Shao Si’s legs were so unbelievably long that their existence was a defiance against nature. Shao Si frowned and asked, “How many more scenes do you have left?”

Upon hearing this, Chi Zijuan was ecstatic: “Yang Yinyin’s not here, so I don’t have much left to shoot, I should be able to get off work in about half an hour! Wait for me, I’ll treat you to Malatang! I’ll kick everyone out and just keep the restaurant open for us!”

After being in the industry for so many years, Chi Zijuan was the purest person Shao Si had ever seen, so pure and naive that his emotional intelligence was alarmingly lacking.

Including what he just said about having Shao Si wait for him, he said it candidly, without thinking twice that it might be improper for him to tell an A-List celebrity to stand there and wait half an hour for him. 

But Shao Si didn’t mind. He felt that interacting in the way any normal friends should was to his liking – the supposed gap and difference in status between a ‘celebrity’ and ‘nobody’ was non-existent in their friendship.

While waiting for Chi Zijuan to finish work, Shao Si didn’t stay idle either. He heard from the private investigator that Yang Yinyin had returned to the company.

　　…Why’d she go back to the company?

　　 Not to the hospital or home. 

Shao Si couldn’t figure out why, and only vaguely felt that this matter was not so simple.

　　 As he sat on the flower bed and pondered, his eyes were drawn to Chi Zijuan.

　　 Shao Si observed him for a while, and couldn’t help but rub his chin and sigh, his acting skills are as always…sucky.

Back in the day, they joined the company at around the same time, and were both managed by Qi Ming. This one time, everyone managed by Qi Ming was called to the conference room to be assigned their personas. After the profiles were distributed and explained, everyone dispersed.

After the meeting, Shao Si went to the washroom to wash his hands. Just as he finished drying his hands and was on his way out, a young guy he didn’t know rushed over and grabbed his arm.

Chi Zijuan: “Hello, classmate, I want to ask, what did Qi Ge say just now? I didn’t understand…what is ooc? Also, it says on my chart, “Zhao hei ti zhi*” What does that mean?”

*TL/N: Zhao hei ti zhi (招黑体质:) Literally translated it’s ‘drawing black physique’. But basically, Zijuan was supposed to take on a personality/character that attracts negative attention, hate, and anti-fans. AKA, the principle is that being trash-talked or getting negative news coverage is still attention.

Shao Si had to admit that he initially became friends with Chi Zijuan, purely because Chi Zijuan’s persona looked even more stupid than his ‘ice and snow youth’ persona.

TL Lumi:

Zijuan gets the best friend award from me – he’s cute, caring, sincere. Also he knows the importance of food and feeding his friends. Any friend that feeds other friends is an A+ friend