“Director He,” Liu Yu’an calls out to the director when he seems less busy.
“Coming…” Then, when he sees that it’s Liu Yu’an as he turns his head around, he immediately ask, “you haven’t replied to Mrs. Jiang yet, have you?”
“… No,” Liu Yu’an says, “I was planning to reply today.”
“I see,” then the director takes a look at the time, “there’s half an hour before the ceremony. You should tell her now.”
Then, he murmurs, “she doesn’t want to stress you out so she didn’t send any messages to you, and sent everything to me instead,” to the point where I might suffer a mental breakdown.
Liu Yu’an feels slightly guilty, replying, “right, right.”
Then he goes back to the nanny van before calling Mrs. Jiang.
Though it’s early in the morning, but she’s awake already. She happily says, “I’ve been waiting for your reply for days now.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, “I 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.”
“That’s alright,” she says, sounding cheerful.
“Then… Mrs. Jiang, do I have the honour of becoming your disciple?”
“Hahaha, what’s with that manner of speech,” she’s been waiting for it, though, “sure, sure you can.”
Then the other old farts wouldn’t be able to snatch him away.
“But I’m at the studio right now so I wouldn’t be able to present tea . When I’m off work and you’re free some other day, I’ll hold the ceremony again in your honour. What do you think?”
“Sure, I’m free any time.” She quickly adds.
Though she isn’t a stickler for tradition, like how she hasn’t had such ceremony for her previous disciples, but after hearing Liu Yu’an 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 Yu’an can’t help but smile hearing how cheerful she was.
He’s 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, it’s definitely not a bad thing she’s happy about this, he thinks.
That is when the ceremony is about to start, so director He’s assistant is here knocking, “Mr. Liu, we’re about to begin. The director is sending for you.”
So Liu Yu’an 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 Yu’an goes back, the main leads are also there. Since he’ll 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 he’ll 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 Yu’an is too embarrassed to continue;
Then there’s 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 Yu’an can’t 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.
That’s what the Internet says, anyway. But he’ll 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. That’s 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 Yu’an “…”
He decides to ignore the glare.
The others are fine enough. Nothing overtly hostile like our dear second female lead over there, though they’re all standing far away enough from him during the ceremony.
Liu Yu’an is happy that he gets left alone, though, in any case.