Chapter 31

Still lighting candles for FZC

-Helli

“Hello?”Fu Zhe Chuan’s low and magnetic voice sounded out from the receiver.

Gu Yan’s brows were knitted into a light frown. He did not understand why Fu Zhe Chuan would suddenly call him. He changed the phone number of the original host since he came to the human world, and only people who have been in contact with him in recent times has his new number. But even so, those people would not ever call him unless they needed him. Even though phones were a necessity for a human being, it was not something he could not do without. The only reason he had kept it around was so that he would not appear so out of the norm.

“Hello? Gu Yan?”Seeing that the other party was not responding, Fu Zhe Chuan asked again,”Are you there?”

“It’s me.”Gu Yan was silent for a moment,”What do you need?”

Fu Zhe Chuan chuckled softly,”Can’t I give you a call without a reason?”

Since nobody has ever called him for nothing, and he himself did not have any hobbies of chatting with humans either, Gu Yan responded to him bluntly:”If there’s nothing, I’m going to rest.”

After a while, Fu Zhe Chuan’s helpless voice came,”I called just to congratulate you.”

“Congratulate?”Gu Yan was slightly surprised.

“……”Hearing his voice, there was no way Fu Zhe Chuan wouldn’t know that Gu Yan had no idea whatsoever what he had congratulated him for. He sighed:”You were able to impress Director Zou and landed the role, don’t you think that’s something worth congratulating?”

Gu Yan was silent……As expected, is there no way for him to understand the thoughts of humans?

“Since you were able to land a role in Director Zou’s movie despite being a newcomer, then that just means you have the ability for it. With a notable project under your hands, it will be very helpful for you in your future developments in the entertainment circle.”Fu Zhe Chuan explained to him and continued cheerfully:”I hope you have a bright future ahead of you.”

“Okay.”Gu Yan responded with a blank expression. Why would this be something worthy of congratulations? Might as well wish him quick progress in taking over the human world. But he still had some use for Fu Zhe Chuan right now, so he reluctantly played along with him:”Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”Fu Zhe Chuan seemed unaware of the lack of patience in Gu Yan’s voice, and he laughed,”Well, you should rest early. I’ll celebrate with you when I’m back in the country.”

Gu Yan wanted to say no need, but the other party had already hung up his phone, seemingly afraid to hear his refusal.

He stared at his phone. How mysterious.

…………………………

But truthfully, there were already several candidates for the role Gu Yan landed that have proceeded to the final stage before confirmation. Gu Yan had only gotten in through skipping the queue. Many people did not expect for him to actually land the role, and it came as a big surprise to them. There were even people who gossiped that Director Zou was finally descending into degeneracy, and would accept anyone for the sake of money.

And towards for such baseless gossips, Gu Yan turned a deaf ear to them.

The actions happening at Zhou Yu’s side were being carried out in an orderly manner. Taking advantage of Yuanlin’s real estate business, she had been collecting any information that may be related to any areas rich with demonic energy. Even though they had no results thus far, Gu Yan was not in a hurry.

Another length of time had passed, and the shooting finally began for the movie. With Xu Ming following him, Gu Yan went to the set.

The start-up ceremony was held the first day, and all the actors prayed to Guan Yu for the success of the movie.

All the actors came together at once so things were very lively for a moment. The starring actor was a famous star named Jiang Cheng who had always been very talented in acting. on the other side, the female lead was a pure jade girl from the 90s, Xu Qian. All the other important supporting roles were also casted with people with some fame. There were all very distinct actors both old veterans, and fresh meat. Standing within this group of people, Gu Yan actually stood out a little due to how unfamiliar he was to the rest of them.

After the ceremony was completed, the group all got together for a group photo, and Director Zou posted it up on his Weibo happily. In an instant, more than a thousand comments poured in.

As a meager assistant, Xu Ming was crouched obediently to the side, in awe at all the bigshot actors around him as he fiddled with his phone. He had been following Xu Qian since a long time ago, but he did not pay attention to Jiang Cheng before this. Now that he has seen him in real life, he decided he might as well follow him on Weibo. And Director Zou as well…….

Oh, Director Zou posted something new on Weibo, a photo! His company’s Gu Yan is so handsome! Xu Ming quickly liked the post, and clicked into the comments section.

His face darkened in an instant.

“Who’s that little twink in the centre? Anyone know him? 【disgust】”117 likes.

“Never seen him, how dare he stand next to our Uncle Jiang, scram! 【anger】”533 likes.

“Looks pretty good, seems his background ain’t that simple either.”10 likes.

“Heh, don’t you know? He’s that guy with all the scandals a while back, the idiots can go google it yourselves.”

“What, this kinda guy works too? Is Director Zou throwing away his integrity?”356 likes.

And these were the better ones too, there were also all sorts of insulting and malicious comments and speculations mixed in.

The more he looked at them, the angrier Xu Ming got, and couldn’t resist leaving his own comment as well:”If you guys don’t know, then don’t talk trash, Gu Yan got this role with his own abilities!”

A string of replied sprang up below: Idiot, idiot, idiot……Scram, retard fan.

Xu Ming was beside himself with anger, and he turned to look at Gu Yan.

With a straight posture, Gu Yan was just standing by silently like a stick of bamboo. His appearance was sharp and handsome, exceptionally dazzling. Even though he was standing in such a large group of stars, his style was still not the least bit covered by them, it even felt like he was a phoenix standing amongst a crowd of chickens.

Those blind bastards, all they knew was how to follow the herd. Xu Ming shut off his phone angrily.

When Gu Yan walked over, he saw that angry look on Xu Ming’s face, and his eyes were looking at him with a look of mystery and sympathy. His temples twitched, what’s up with this dumb piece of work now? Normally, he would be too lazy to care.

But unfortunately, this persisted until the night. Xu Ming heart was elsewhere the entire time while he was doing work.

Gu Yan could finally stand it no more, and sighed,”Something you want to say?”

“Nothing much……”Xu Ming seemed very down.

“Go on.”Gu Yan looked at him coldly. You clearly have something to say, it’s almost written on your face.

Xu Ming hesitated for a moment, but he could only tell him:”When Director Zou posted on Weibo today, a lot of people were insulting you.”

Gu Yan raised a brow.

“They said you had no skills and relied on your backer, selling your body to get up in the world……and what not. They’ve gone overboard!”Xu Ming finally said it out, and could finally restrain his anger no longer,”That’s clearly not how it was, this is slander! How could they say that about you if they don’t know anything?!”

That’s the reason?

Gu Yan took a deep breath and suddenly came in front of him. He came close to Xu Ming with his head down with a cold glow in his eyes,”Does what they say bother you so much?”

Xu Ming shivered, and responded to him in a stutter:”That’s clearly not the type of person you are, but they were scolding you like that, of course I’d get angry……”

“Why?”Gu Yan narrowed his eyes. There was not a single trace of warmth within his eyes.

“Cause we’re friends.”Xu Ming told him seriously,”Even though you seem a bit hard to get close to on the surface, you’re actually a really nice person beneath all that. You’re a friend to me, so of course I’d be angry for your sake when these things happen.”

He actually said he was a nice person? That’s not a funny joke at all.

“I don’t need you to get angry for my sake.”Gu Yan’s tone was icy,”Because I’m not angry at all.”

“But……”There were things Xu Ming still wanted to say.

“Take note of our duties instead, no need to waste your time on these unimportant matters. If not……”Gu Yan suddenly scoffed,”You’ll find that I’m not actually a nice person at all.”

“……”

Gu Yan left the dumbfounded Xu Ming, and closed the door to rest.

A nice person? Is he really aware of what he just said? Once he sees his true face, can he still say these words without hesitation? How ignorant and fearless.

Gu Yan suddenly started to consider it seriously. Should he keep someone different around him instead? It really was getting harder and harder to endure this fine piece of work. Friends? Care?……Who would need such a thing? Who would need to hear such words?

He felt so troubled that he was only able to sleep very late into the night.

Within his dreams, a hazy group of people came close to him, their bodies drenched in blood. He couldn’t see their faces, but they were all jumping towards him ravenously……Countless voices screamed into his ears.

“I was never your friend, you demon!”

“Who’s your brother? Your brother’s dead.”

“Why did you have to drag us down? Why don’t you just die by yourself, you alone should have died!”

“Don’t think that we’ll thank you just because you saved us!”

“Even if you die, a person like you would definitely go to hell.”

“That’s right, we’re afraid of you, so afraid that we couldn’t wait for you to be dead.”

Intolerable, intolerable. For this world you were so attached to, and tried so hard to protect to hate you this so, do you hate it……?

Gu Yan’s eyes opened abruptly. His body was drenched in cold sweat.

He actually ended up dreaming again.

He was a demonic being born within the abyss of the demon world, spending his whole life killing. For him, a dream was a luxury, because demons never dreamt. The only things a demon had were their instincts to kill and slaughter. They were born in despair, and would eventually walk towards destruction in the end.

But after he came to the human world, this was the second dream he had.

Gu Yan got up and splashed his face with cold water. He raised his head to look at the mirror. Within the mirror, a man appeared with ashen face, his eyes cold, and within his black pupils, the only thing you could find was cold ruthlessness.

Slowly, a cold smile curled up on his lips.

Dreams? What are those? He had never had them, and would never need them.

Nothing can shake him.

Nothing can stop him from destroying it all.

…………………………

A lot of people were missing on the second day. Since most of them were A-list actors, their schedules were very full so they were only required to be present when their scenes came up. Compared to the others, Gu Yan was the most free out of the lot. Besides this movie, he currently had no other arrangements. Besides that, he had a very scene-heavy role, so he decided to just hang around in the set.

Another one who stayed was Jiang Cheng. As the male protagonist, he had to be there. And in order to fit his schedule, Director Zou decided to shoot his scenes first.

Gu Yan was watching right at the side. Even though he didn’t care much about these things, and also cared little for what others thought of him. Regardless, it was his habit to do things properly if he was going to do them. He could learn a considerable amount just by watching since these were all things lacking from the original host’s brain. Perhaps one day he might find a use for this.

At this stage of his plans, he still needed to be a qualifying actor.

After Jiang Cheng was done with his face and hair, the once handsome middle-aged man had now transformed into a gruff policeman. And as expected of a person known for his abilities, he was able to get into his role very quickly. Not only were his facial expressions on point, even the emotions in his eyes could change freely to fit the scene. The way he could change his demeanour was simply superb.

But Director Zou was a very strict person. Even if Jiang Cheng’s performance had been very good, they still had to NG quite a few times for each scene.

During the intermission, Jiang Cheng came up to Gu Yan and smiled:”This is the first time you’re working under Director Zou, right?”

“Yeah.”Gu Yan replied.

“This is my third time collaborating with Director Zou, you’ll find out in the near future that Director Zou is quite a strict perfectionist. But you could learn a lot working under him.”Said Jiang Cheng, speaking to him with a gentle expression like a kind senior,”Young man, it’s good to have a serious and modest character, and it’s fine even if you were criticized. I’ve been insulted a lot in the past too, it’s nothing big.”

Gu Yan looked thoughtfully at him.

After being in the entertainment circle for so many years, Jiang Cheng was very open-minded. He smiled calmly:”I’m an old friend of Director Fu now.”

Gu Yan’s eyes turned cold. Even though he did not care about what those ants wanted to say behind his back, it did not mean that he enjoyed listening to them.

“Don’t think too much about it, I’ve known Director Fu for a really long time and I trust him a lot, he’s not a reckless person.”Jiang Cheng was sincere,”So I don’t believe those words on the internet one bit. You’ll have to face these gossips if you’re in the entertainment circle. You know, some people? You can never really understand why they like making wild guesses like that. Since you’re someone Director Fu cares for, and I’m quite a few years your senior, I hope you don’t mind me nagging you a little.”

Gu Yan was stunned for a moment,”Not at all.”

While chatting, a loud bustle suddenly came from the front. Gu Yan looked towards where the noise came from, and instantly, his face turned cold. He got up and walked over.

Notes:

Guan Yu – Kwan Kung is a historical figure/deity commonly worshipped by taoist/buddhist businesses, police, and even triad members(they have their variant of Kwan Kung where he holds his halberd on the left hand compared to the right for the righteous Kwan Kung). Commonly worshipped for wealth, war, and protection(My grandma worships him for the protection of her home).

google it yourselves – google it yourself (google is like chinese google if anyone doesn’t know)