at 13th of December 2020 10:25:32 AM\nChapter 31.1
Editor: SleepyMango123
Proofreader: Lore
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The drama that Xia Rong was going to film at Shudian1Â was called ăWhen I Like Youă, a youth campus idol drama adapted from a best-selling novel . In actuality, it wasnât as if Xia Rong really hadnât made any progress at all but had just marched in place these past few years as Guan Lingqing had said2 . Aside from when he first entered the industry and could only film in some shoddy, low-cost domineering CEO dramas, later on, he had already deliberately chosen to work with strongly capable and high-quality crews that were within his range of options .
Although he was too green3Â when he entered the entertainment circleâ Just 18 years old, causing his image to be typecasted as either âoverbearing academic tyrant4â âoverbearing young master5â or âoverbearing young landlord6â and very few directors would think of casting him to act in other types of roles . However, in these recent years, quite a number of people have enthusiastically arrived at his door saying that they would be able to help Xia Rong have a âbreakthrough performanceâ or an âimage reversalâ . Still, when he actually opened the script, if it wasnât asking Xia Rong to make a fool of himself in death, then it wouldâve been something like âdesperately clown around to draw laughterâ . Obviously, they had only wanted to burn some of his popularity to draw in some attention . Offers similar to these, Shu Yi had already independently turned down countless of them without requiring Xia Rong to personally take a look .
Take Xia Rongâs current ăWhen I Like Youă as an example . It is considered a fine-quality idol drama with IP minimum-guarantee7, medium investment, an excellent production team, and a reliable director and screenwriter . Although it may not be a great success, the quality could definitely be assured .
It has always been said in the circle that to be slightly popular, one could rely on being supported or praised8, but to be truly popular, it depended on oneâs fate . After a TV series broadcasted, whether it would become popular or a flop may be affected by many factors, anything was possible . But as long as there was a guarantee on the quality, with a wave of online marketing, they could still expect to receive some praise for the work and wouldnât be ridiculed by the masses . Then if the quality was outstanding, or even if it just exceeded the expectations of the audience, there would also be âtap water9â who would spontaneously come to help market . So in the long run, a reputation would gradually be accumulated .
Starring with Xia Rong was Zhang Youying, a young actress who had just graduated from Bei Ying10Â this year and had been a hot topic amongst the production crew even before she had joined the group, coming from a professional acting background11, being so beautiful and pure, and could even star with a young actor of Xia Rongâs caliber . Her background definitely couldnât be simple, she was practically a winner at life . Â
Xia Rong, however, knew who she wasâ On the first day of her having formally joined the crew, she had stood in front of Xia Rong, saying with a smile, âRong-gege, my father wanted me to ask after Uncle Xia for him . âThe staff around roared in laughter .
Xia Rongâs family had money, it was something everyone in the circle knew . However, very few had a clear idea of how much exactly . This was due to the fact that while Xia Rong had almost never used the resources of his family, yet he was still able to develop quite well on his own, so no one had to come forward to help him due to his background relationships, opening him a back door . So, of course, there was no way anyone could âfollow the vine to the melon12â .
But this time this newcomer, Zhang Youying, just acted so generously and openly blatant, as if she intentionally wanted others to know they knew each other from before . Directly calling him âRong-gegeâ as soon as she opened her mouth, this immediately aroused the gossipy nature of quite a number of people . They watched the two of them with a smile as if ready to see a good play .
Perhaps the only person who wouldnât be able to laugh was Xia Rong . Zhang Youying was the youngest daughter of one of his fatherâs business partners . While they were not familiar with each other, they had met several times . In the beginning, it was still quite normal, but recently, who knows whether her father had instilled in her the idea of âmarriage of equals13â, but she had become more and more enthusiastic each time they met, such that he really felt quite overwhelmed .
Sure enough, Xia Rong had been severely pestered by her during the few days since filming started . And even her hotel room, which had been a part of the production teamâs responsibility, had been arranged to be on the same floor as him . Consistently, while Xia Rong was still asleep in the mornings, she would call over using the internal line, waking him up . âRong-gege, donât sleep anymore . Letâs go go go, letâs head downstairs and eat breakfast . âXia Rong wanted to die from the headache .
Perhaps the only recent news that could save Xia Rong from this disaster was that âSu Chi will drop in to play a supporting role in ăWhen I Like Youăâ . The crew members were much more shocked than Xia Rong when they heard about this matter, wondering, wasnât this equivalent to Su Chi taking the initiative to play support for Xia Rong!
The reason this âacting in a supporting roleâ could become the center of attention was due to the fact that the main point wasnât âit is a supporting roleâ but that both the two people in the âleadâ and âsupportingâ roles were Xia Rong and Su Chi .
In these recent years, the domestic entertainment circle of this newer generation had been heavily influenced by its neighboring countries Japan and South Korea (but especially Japan), attaching increasingly more importance to the competitions between fan groups regarding their positioning on promotional material . And these kinds of competitions were especially fierce among the male and female artists that relied heavily on their popularity .
Just like how some people would wonder why it was very rare for artists of comparable popularity, status-level, and acting skills to appear in the same TV series or film, but instead, many originally popular roles would be played by unknown actors . The reason was precisely that the contention between âleadâ and âsupportâ has become the common practice in the circle . Once a popularity-based fan team hears anything along the lines of âLet my familyâs play support for XX?â, they would all flatly reject it with a âNo way!â There was even a saying that went âIf you play too much as support, then you wonât be able to play the lead . â So many stars would prefer to take the role of the main lead in a crudely-made fan-oriented movie rather than serve as support for their competitors similar to their age . So even if there were the occasional âearth-shattering resource14â, a large IP production that everyone was optimistic about, and some popular new artists were willing to âcooperate and eat this cake togetherâ . It might have still been fine if the two leads were male and female respectively, but if the two were of the same gender and were also competitors, their fans were bound to tear into each other until both sides were battered and bleeding for their artistsâ role position and the order of their appearance in the promotional material .
An example would be Xia Rong and Su Chi, who have been recognized as âopposing camps15â by those both inside and outside the circle . Even when they participate in a variety show together, there would be excessive tearing just due to the order that the variety showâs official blog had pinged them, how they were positioned during publicity or even the contents of photos taken by nonofficial sources . So not to mention that this time, Su Chi had personally gone to a production that Xia Rong was acting as a lead to play a support role for the other . If this news were to be posted on Weibo, it was guaranteed that there would be few thousands of views in a matter of minutes, the question being just who would dare to be that warrior to spark and attract the flames of all the fans .
Though Xia Rong was happy that Su Chi helped divert the gossipy crewâs attention, he also couldnât help being curious and sent the other a message on WeChat: {{What were you thinking? If it was so we could cover for each other at any time, you couldâve just taken drama that was filming at Shudian and didnât need to be in the same production crew as me . [shocked . jpg]}}
Su Chi replied: {{[eating melon] Itâs fine . Iâm playing âLu Jueâ . }}
Xia Rong, who was already familiar with the script due to having gone over it so many times, recognized the character as soon as the other said âLu Jueâ . In the drama, Lu Jue was the younger half-brother of the female lead, sharing the same father . He grew up abroad, and when he incidentally came back to China, he ran into the male and female lead when the other two were together . He played a practical joke in order to test the male lead, leading the two leads to go through a bout of jealousyâquarrelâreconciliation, a very classic plotline . Afterward, he again went abroad in a naturally unrestrained manner . This personâs amount of scenes, if one added them all up on the script, it wouldnât even be two pages . It was an amount that could all be finished being filmed in three or four days at most, and so it could only have been considered a guest performance .
A âfriendly guest appearanceâ sounded much better than saying âplaying support for anotherâ . Moreover, they had few scenes together, so it wouldnât be easy to be pulled together for comparison, and their fan circles wouldnât be as likely to tear into each other again .