āDirector He,ā Liu Yuāan calls out to the director when he seems less busy.
āComingā¦ā Then, when he sees that itās Liu Yuāan as he turns his head around, he immediately ask, āyou havenāt replied to Mrs. Jiang yet, have you?ā
ā⦠No,ā Liu Yuāan says, āI was planning to reply today.ā
āI see,ā then the director takes a look at the time, āthereās half an hour before the ceremony. You should tell her now.ā
Then, he murmurs, āshe doesnāt want to stress you out so she didnāt send any messages to you, and sent everything to me instead,ā to the point where I might suffer a mental breakdown.
Liu Yuāan feels slightly guilty, replying, āright, right.ā
Then he goes back to the nanny van before calling Mrs. Jiang.
Though itās early in the morning, but sheās awake already. She happily says, āIāve been waiting for your reply for days now.ā
āIām sorry,ā he says, āI was planning to reply yesterday , but something came up and it was late already. I thought you might have gone to sleep so I decided to call you today instead.ā
āThatās alright,ā she says, sounding cheerful.
āThen⦠Mrs. Jiang, do I have the honour of becoming your disciple?ā
āHahaha, whatās with that manner of speech,ā sheās been waiting for it, though, āsure, sure you can.ā
Then the other old farts wouldnāt be able to snatch him away.
āBut Iām at the studio right now so I wouldnāt be able to present tea . When Iām off work and youāre free some other day, Iāll hold the ceremony again in your honour. What do you think?ā
āSure, Iām free any time.ā She quickly adds.
Though she isnāt a stickler for tradition, like how she hasnāt had such ceremony for her previous disciples, but after hearing Liu Yuāan mention it, it might make the boy feel better to hold it.
If possible she should drag along the oldies from the theatre here to see. Have a good bragging session, ha.
Liu Yuāan canāt help but smile hearing how cheerful she was.
Heās pretty curious why she is so happy though. Is she the type that really really wants to pass on the arts to a talented youngster?
In any case, itās definitely not a bad thing sheās happy about this, he thinks.
That is when the ceremony is about to start, so director Heās assistant is here knocking, āMr. Liu, weāre about to begin. The director is sending for you.ā
So Liu Yuāan sends his regards to the elderly woman before hanging up. When he gets off his nanny van, he sees four other nanny vans, probably belonging to members of the cast as well.
When Liu Yuāan goes back, the main leads are also there. Since heāll be free for the first few days with only the photoshoot for the stylised character scheduled, he decides to look over news and information surrounding the actors and actresses heāll be working with for the next two months.
The male protagonist, Zhang Jiahe, is publically typecast as a beaming, sunny boy. Almost all the news about him are about how much of a sunshine and how active he is. Soon enough Liu Yuāan is too embarrassed to continue;
Then thereās the female protagonist, Hou Yueting, who is somehow even worse. She is publicly typecast as someone good at acting and a foodie. Her acting is⦠passable enough, despite being called the best actress among popular idols. The foodie though really⦠is too artificially constructed.
Liu Yuāan canāt be bothered to look at the news of the two anymore.
Meanwhile, the second male lead is the typical kind gentle older neighbourhood bro; the second female lead is a straight-talking girl who sometimes comes off as brash and unforgiving.
Thatās what the Internet says, anyway. But heāll be able to discern and adjust their personal profile as he interacts with them.
Or they can just keep up their public image and leave each other and them alone. Thatās fine too.
Though, clearly, that was just a fleeting wish.
The moment he shows up to greet them, the very straightforward second female lead is glaring at him like some kind of undesirable thing.
Liu Yuāan āā¦ā
He decides to ignore the glare.
The others are fine enough. Nothing overtly hostile like our dear second female lead over there, though theyāre all standing far away enough from him during the ceremony.
Liu Yuāan is happy that he gets left alone, though, in any case.