CH 8

Hype

Zhao Tong: “…”

He was always hardworking and conscientious!

“Understood, Hua ge. I won’t let any women near Yan ge from now on.” Zhao Tong stood up and said seriously, as if he was about to take an oath.

He Hua still seemed worried but didn’t say anything else. He turned to look at Xie Yan, who was still playing with his phone. He Hua frowned, “Didn’t you just say you wanted to catch up with the changing times? The young people nowadays are all online gaming, playing eSports. Why are you still playing Xiao Xiao Le*?”

Xiao Xiao Le (消消乐) – a game similar to Candy Crush.

In response, Zhao Tong almost couldn’t resist laughing.

Xie Yan: “The middle aged people nowadays are all public square dancing, why aren’t you going?”

Zhao Tong couldn’t help but laughed. Facing He Hua’s line of sight, he hurried out of the dressing room.

“I hope you can carefully consider Director Lin’s production as he seemed quite sincere about it. Besides, although this film is mainly about fighting and is male dominated, but there’s still romance in it. Also, aren’t there two kiss scenes too? What’s the difference between this and idol dramas?” He Hua seemed to want to use this to convince him.

In response, the latter frowned and pondered for a moment, “Go tell the Director to delete the kiss scenes.”

His words immediately made He Hua’s complexion turn green and white*. He had only heard of actresses not liking kiss scenes, but how was his da ye more unreasonable than a woman?!

complexion turning green and white (一阵青一阵白)* – describes the change in someone’s facial expression when they become surprised or angry

“How’d I tell the Director? It’s already written in the contract. If you don’t want to then it’s a breach of contract. It’s a small loss but you’ve already filmed this far. Isn’t it a waste of time for all your efforts then?” He Hua felt so angry that his stomach hurt, “If you find a girlfriend in the future, are you also going to refuse to kiss and do other intimate acts then?”

Xie Yan looked up slightly, “I only kiss my girlfriend.”

He Hua: “…”

It was not that Xie Yan didn’t want to be professional but there weren’t any kiss scenes when he first started acting so he was used to not having to do them. This time, he wanted to break out of his comfort zone so he did not object to the kiss scenes but once he thought of Fan Meng…

He’d rather indemnify.

“Fine fine, whatever you say. I’ll tell the Director about it when he has time. Oh right, as for you opening a Weibo account, you can’t post things so casually. It’d be best if you leave it to me to take care of, otherwise the consequences of posting something wrong will be worse than that of Fan Meng!” He Hua frowned and intently stared at his phone with a pitch-black screen.

“If I leave it to you then why should I open it in the first place?” Xie Yan glanced at him then opened the box again. He took out the last piece of pork pastry and said seriously, “I found that meat could be quite tasty.” 

……

After Su Shen got her makeup done, Wang Cheng rushed over after hearing that she had delicious food here, only to find that there were none left. He was so angered that he asked Su Shen to make some more tomorrow.

Su Shen lived at a hotel, there wasn’t a kitchen for her to make the pastries for him. So she told him she’ll make some for him to try next time to pacify him first. After hearing that, he then unhappily left.

After filming an eyeline* shot, Su Shen then had to wait for her night scene with only two lines. It couldn’t be helped, she wasn’t a major character so she couldn’t concentrate and film all of her scenes together.

eyeline – where an actor looks relative to camera. This may be adjusted on different camera setups to ensure the shots can be cut together smoothly. It is based on the premise that an audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing.

She was planning on playing games in the dressing room but found that the Internet had exploded again because Xie Yan had just opened a Weibo account.

Soon, the news was already trending at hot search number one. In less than an hour, he already had three million followers with comments reaching up to two hundred thousand. Some artists who had or hadn’t collaborated with him had already begun to follow him. But Xie Yan only followed his studio.

Netizen A: AHHHHH! Finally!

Netizen B: So does hubby have a selfie bonus*? [shy]

selfie bonus – posting a selfie for fans

Netizen C: Hubby must’ve found the studio to be too slow to deny rumors so he decided to do it himself!

Netizen D: Selfie! Selfie! I want a selfie!

Netizen E: I feel that I’m one step closer to hubby now [laugh]

Netizen F: If there’s a selfie today, I’ll live broadcast me peeling a durian with my hands, swallowing a raw crab, breaking a stone with my chest and walking on a tightrope with one foot!

Su Shen thought it must be quite exhausting to be a fan of Xie Yan. Their idol didn’t partake in variety shows, advertisements, magazines, or TV dramas. He could only be seen in films. But even so, his fans were usually as low-key as him. They couldn’t even see him on those power star rankings. Whenever he was met with negative comments or gossip, they would tear the other person apart and couldn’t be stopped. Fan Meng was a perfect example of this. She was a film empress with many fans yet she was backlashed so much to the point where she could only buy a water army to shift the public opinion.

Su Shen also followed Xie Yan. After all, she had followed Wang Cheng and Li Hao. Then, she posted a selfie after she noticed that she hadn’t posted anything in a while.

She had less than three million followers. Although there were seven to eight thousand comments every time, most of them were hate comments so Su Shen was already used to it.

At night, the Director was not satisfied with Wang Cheng’s performance for a scene. He got cut many times so the Director called him over to explain the scene to him one on one.

Su Shen sat on the soft couch and fanned herself with her script. As her clothes were too thick, she was about to develop miliaria* from the heat.

miliaria – a skin disease marked by small and itchy rashes due to sweat trapped under the skin by clogged sweat gland ducts

“Su jie, Liu jie just called to tell you to get up earlier tomorrow and that she’ll come over and pick you up to go to the recording studio.” Xiao Zhou came over and gave the phone to her.

After receiving the phone, Su Shen saw the call log from Liu jie as well as her message. She had to go record a variety show tomorrow. Although it was only a web variety show, it was still quite popular. The drama that the original Su Shen filmed was about to broadcast so she certainly did need to promote it.

It was super hot. Su Shen saw that there was a big fan over at Xie Yan’s side so she took her script and sat down on a chair a meter away from him.

Zhao Tong, who was in the middle of playing a game, immediately thought of He Hua’s words as he saw her coming over. He went over and stopped her in her tracks and said while laughing, “Su Shen, the pastries that you made today were so good! How’d you make it? Can you teach me?”

“You can’t even make noodles.” Xie Yan indifferently said.

Su Shen was startled and couldn’t refrain from looking at Xie Yan who was behind Zhao Tong. He was currently sitting in front of the big fan drinking his tea while reading the script. He was clad in armor attire with his hair on his back blowing from the breeze.

“I… I can’t cook noodles, but I might be talented in some other areas!” Zhao Tong was still standing between the two. 

“Then, let me see if you have any talent in brewing tea?” Xie Yan handed him the tea cup.

The latter twitched his lips and wanted to say something but he ultimately left with his tea cup.

After he left, Su Shen was finally able to experience the breeze. She immediately leaned against the chair and comfortably rested.

“What did you make today?”

Su Shen was startled, turned around and saw that it was Xie Yan talking. She then said, “Pork pastry.”

In the palace, it was called yun tou sui jin*.

yun tou sui jin – literally means cloud with sprinkled gold

Xie Yan didn’t speak afterwards and continued reading his script. The film crew was bustling about. Fan Meng felt embarrassed after what had happened online and ceased from finding Xie Yan to talk. 

Su Shen glanced at him then unconcernedly said while scrolling her phone, “If you think the taste isn’t bad, I can give you the recipe.”

“No need.” Xie Yan tilted his head and glanced at her, “I don’t know how to make it.”

Su Shen wanted to say that he could let others make it but she resisted. She pressed her lips and perfunctorily said, “I’ll make some more for you if I have time.”

Xie Yan: “Okay.”

Su Shen: “…”

She noticed that Xie Yan didn’t understand courtesy at all. Couldn’t he hear the courtesy in her words?

“What’re you going to make? I also want some! I heard Hao ge said it was super good!” At this moment, Wang Cheng ran back from the Director with sweat all over his head.

Just as Su Shen was about to say something, the Director shouted for filming to start. 

She could only swallow her words and went over to start filming.

“It’s so damn hot!” Wang Cheng fervently wiped the sweat off his forehead with his imperial robe.

There was only this scene left. After Wang Cheng was advised by the Director, he passed with just two takes. Su Shen quickly changed clothes and returned to the hotel while the others still had a little more to film.

There weren’t any of her scenes for the next few days so she could go and record the variety show tomorrow. Su Shen took a shower and was about to sleep but she suddenly noticed that Xie Yan had followed her on Weibo.

At this time, Xie Yan had amassed ten million followers. He had also followed a few people whom he had collaborated with such as Wang Cheng and them, all except for Fan Meng. This time, the netizens exerted all their brain cells and began to conjecture that they don’t get along. 

Su Shen went to sleep after looking at the trend and reactions of the public. The next morning, the doorbell rang so she went to open the door while in a daze.

As soon as the door opened, Liu jie walked in with her Hermès handbag and 8 cm heels while looking at her watch as if she was in a hurry.

“Quickly go and get ready. The makeup artist is waiting in the car and as for clothes, the show’s clothes team has it already prepared. Just dress casually and we set out.” Liu jie walked over to the sofa and sat down. Seeing that Su Shen was still in a daze, she frowned, “Also, the major characters for that drama are all there today. Qu Wen’s popularity has been rising recently, you can hype up a cp with him to increase the popularity of the drama.”

Su Shen was startled. After running her hand through her hair, she went over and leaned against the sofa: “I don’t want to hype up a cp.”

Qu Wen was the male lead of this drama. He debuted earlier than her and was super popular. But his popularity was only limited to the web drama scene. The most important thing was that this person was very fickle. He had pursued the original Su Shen before but she didn’t agree. While he was pestering her, he was also playing around with some internet celebritie