Chapter 31.1 – Usami-chan’s gaze became sharpened.jpg

Editor: SleepyMango123

Proofreader: Lore

The drama that Xia Rong was going to film at Shudian¹This references Hengdian World Studios, which is the largest filming studio, typically for historical/period settings. was called 《When I Like You》, a youth campus idol drama adapted from a best-selling novel. In actuality, it wasn’t as if Xia Rong really hadn’t made any progress at all but had just marched in place these past few years as Guan Lingqing had said²Throwback to Xia Rong’s break-up from chapter 1, in which the other accused that Xia Rong didn’t have any ambition/was planning to spend his whole career playing the role of tall, rich, and handsome.. 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 green³Raws: 轻 [qīng] I choose to use “green” because one of the possible translations is “make light of/belittle” when he entered the entertainment circle— Just 18 years old, causing his image to be typecasted as either “overbearing academic tyrant⁴Raws: 学霸 [xué bà] essentially a straight-A student, a student who’s really strong academically.” “overbearing young master⁵Raws: 少主 [shǎo zhǔ] Typically found in more traditional setting films/dramas where there is actually a “master”, i.e. young master from ancient/traditional settings.” or “overbearing young landlord⁶Raws: 少东家 [shào dōng jia] Can also be translated as young master, specifically: landlord’s son or young landlord given predecessor is still alive. So of course, technically used by “renters” of said land of housing.” 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 ‘breakthrough performance’ or an ‘image reversal’. Still, when he actually opened the script, if it wasn’t asking Xia Rong to make a fool of himself in death, then it would’ve been something like ‘desperately clown around to draw laughter’. 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 Rong’s current 《When I Like You》 as an example. It is considered a fine-quality idol drama with IP minimum-guarantee⁷Raws: IP保底 [IP bǎo dǐ] I’m assuming there’s a minimum guarantee on the reception/viewer rating due to it being adapted from a best-selling novel with a lot of fans? Edit: I found IP, it’s not uniquely Chinese. It stands for ‘intellectual property’ implying that the drama/film is related to some pre-existing property., 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 praised⁸This “praise/support” refers to hype and/or monetary support (such as buying popularity, bringing investment into a drama, standard entertainment plot devices). I.e. it’s easy to become somewhat popular through artificial means., but to be truly popular, it depended on one’s 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 wouldn’t 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 ‘tap water⁹Raws: 自来水 [zìláishuǐ] Can also be considered as ‘running water’, it references the ‘water army’ that is for hire to hype or spread certain viewpoints in the entertainment circle. The emphasis here is that tap/running water is “natural” but still supports their need.’ 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 Ying¹⁰Raws: 北影 [běi yǐng] Probably short for Beijing Film Institute or something, it’s just a school for those pursuing a career in films (including acting, directing, etc.). this year and had been a hot topic amongst the production crew even before she had joined the group, coming from a professional acting background¹¹Raws: 科班出身 [kē bān chū shēn] describes something who was professionally trained for something while doing something, in this case, she is currently acting in this drama having come from an acting school., being so beautiful and pure, and could even star with a young actor of Xia Rong’s caliber. Her background definitely couldn’t be simple, she was practically a winner at life. 

Xia Rong, however, knew who she was— On the first day of her having formally joined the crew, she had stood in front of Xia Rong, saying with a smile, “Rong-gege, my father wanted me to ask after Uncle Xia for him.”

The staff around roared in laughter.

Xia Rong’s 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 ‘follow the vine to the melon¹²Raws: 顺藤摸瓜 [shùn téng mō guā] tracking it down by following the clues.’.

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 ‘Rong-gege’ 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 wouldn’t be able to laugh was Xia Rong. Zhang Youying was the youngest daughter of one of his father’s 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 ‘marriage of equals¹³Raws: 强强联姻 [qiáng qiáng liányīn] marriage between two strong, powerful families to solidify and represent the relationship of the two families.’, 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 team’s 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. “Rong-gege, don’t sleep anymore. Let’s go go go, let’s head downstairs and eat breakfast.”

Xia Rong wanted to die from the headache.

Perhaps the only recent news that could save Xia Rong from this disaster was that “Su Chi will drop in to play a supporting role in 《When I Like You》”. The crew members were much more shocked than Xia Rong when they heard about this matter, wondering, wasn’t this equivalent to Su Chi taking the initiative to play support for Xia Rong!

The reason this ‘acting in a supporting role’ could become the center of attention was due to the fact that the main point wasn’t ‘it is a supporting role’ but that both the two people in the ‘lead’ and ‘supporting’ 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 ‘lead’ and ‘support’ has become the common practice in the circle. Once a popularity-based fan team hears anything along the lines of ‘Let my family’s play support for XX?’, they would all flatly reject it with a ‘No way!’ There was even a saying that went “If you play too much as support, then you won’t be able to play the lead.” 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 ‘earth-shattering resource¹⁴‘Resource’,  in this case, is the connections or opportunities an entertainment company, agent, or artist has access too. This isn’t ‘resource’ in the capital/money sense.’, a large IP production that everyone was optimistic about, and some popular new artists were willing to ‘cooperate and eat this cake together’. 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 artists’ 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 ‘opposing camps¹⁵Raws: 对家 [duì jiā] The funny (and what I’m sure was intended) thing is… This also translates to: ‘other party in a proposed marriage’ and ‘intended husband or wife’.’ 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 show’s 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 crew’s attention, he also couldn’t 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 could’ve just taken drama that was filming at Shudian and didn’t need to be in the same production crew as me. [shocked.jpg]}}

Su Chi replied: {{[eating melon] It’s fine. I’m playing ‘Lu Jue’.}}

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 ‘Lu Jue’. 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 jealousy→quarrel→reconciliation, a very classic plotline. Afterward, he again went abroad in a naturally unrestrained manner. This person’s amount of scenes, if one added them all up on the script, it wouldn’t 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 ‘friendly guest appearance’ sounded much better than saying ‘playing support for another’. Moreover, they had few scenes together, so it wouldn’t be easy to be pulled together for comparison, and their fan circles wouldn’t be as likely to tear into each other again.

• 1
  This references Hengdian World Studios, which is the largest filming studio, typically for historical/period settings.
• 2
  Throwback to Xia Rong’s break-up from chapter 1, in which the other accused that Xia Rong didn’t have any ambition/was planning to spend his whole career playing the role of tall, rich, and handsome.
• 3
  Raws: 轻 [qīng] I choose to use “green” because one of the possible translations is “make light of/belittle”
• 4
  Raws: 学霸 [xué bà] essentially a straight-A student, a student who’s really strong academically.
• 5
  Raws: 少主 [shǎo zhǔ] Typically found in more traditional setting films/dramas where there is actually a “master”, i.e. young master from ancient/traditional settings.
• 6
  Raws: 少东家 [shào dōng jia] Can also be translated as young master, specifically: landlord’s son or young landlord given predecessor is still alive. So of course, technically used by “renters” of said land of housing.
• 7
  Raws: IP保底 [IP bǎo dǐ] I’m assuming there’s a minimum guarantee on the reception/viewer rating due to it being adapted from a best-selling novel with a lot of fans? Edit: I found IP, it’s not uniquely Chinese. It stands for ‘intellectual property’ implying that the drama/film is related to some pre-existing property.
• 8
  This “praise/support” refers to hype and/or monetary support (such as buying popularity, bringing investment into a drama, standard entertainment plot devices). I.e. it’s easy to become somewhat popular through artificial means.
• 9
  Raws: 自来水 [zìláishuǐ] Can also be considered as ‘running water’, it references the ‘water army’ that is for hire to hype or spread certain viewpoints in the entertainment circle. The emphasis here is that tap/running water is “natural” but still supports their need.
• 10
  Raws: 北影 [běi yǐng] Probably short for Beijing Film Institute or something, it’s just a school for those pursuing a career in films (including acting, directing, etc.).
• 11
  Raws: 科班出身 [kē bān chū shēn] describes something who was professionally trained for something while doing something, in this case, she is currently acting in this drama having come from an acting school.
• 12
  Raws: 顺藤摸瓜 [shùn téng mō guā] tracking it down by following the clues.
• 13
  Raws: 强强联姻 [qiáng qiáng liányīn] marriage between two strong, powerful families to solidify and represent the relationship of the two families.
• 14
  ‘Resource’,  in this case, is the connections or opportunities an entertainment company, agent, or artist has access too. This isn’t ‘resource’ in the capital/money sense.
• 15
  Raws: 对家 [duì jiā] The funny (and what I’m sure was intended) thing is… This also translates to: ‘other party in a proposed marriage’ and ‘intended husband or wife’.