Chapter 4: Storyline

Among the idols that Lu Xu had singled out, Yao Yuan’s popularity was obviously the highest. The others immediately paid back the money without a word, but only Yao Yuan, with one statement after another, tried to garner sympathy. Up to now, he still hadn’t transferred a single penny to Lu Xu.

From the beginning to the end, Lu Xu’s only keyword was—“Pay back the money!”

Yao Yuan: “……”

Fine, I’ll pay it back.

Lu Xu was such an odd person, even making an issue of anniversaries. He was so afraid the debt wouldn’t be paid in time that he posted a so-called “769-day anniversary of the first loan” at midnight the next day.

Yao Yuan still had to continue his career in the entertainment industry. He really couldn’t afford to lose face.

But in his previous statements, he had always emphasized his difficulties. Transferring the money to Lu Xu early on wasn’t an option. Yao Yuan, after all, had a little plan in mind, intending to delay the payment until evening. After all, Lu Xu couldn’t possibly post on Weibo again that day.

The result—

When he checked the homepage, Yao Yuan nearly had a heart attack when he saw Lu Xu’s latest Weibo post.

[Today is the 768.5-day anniversary of Yao Yuan’s first loan.]

???

[Hahahahaha, I’ve been living off Lu Xu’s jokes all day.]

[In another hour, it’ll be the 768.542-day anniversary of Yao Yuan’s first loan.]

[Truly a timing genius.]

Yao Yuan no longer dared to hesitate and quickly transferred the money he owed to Lu Xu.

Yao Yuan had landed on negative trending searches for two days in a row, and even the production team of Fog Level—the show he was part of—was becoming displeased.

Yao Yuan had always presented a positive image. The Fog Level production team had hoped to attract more fans with his popularity, and now that the Yao Yuan and Xie Qingyang CP had gained some heat, Yao Yuan’s scandal forced the team to find new ways to grab attention.

“Why are you bothering with Lu Xu so much?” The program director was quite disdainful about Yao Yuan’s focus on Lu Xu. “What other options does Lu Xu have, anyway?”

Yao Yuan thought about it, and it made sense.

Although Lu Xu’s [Yao Yuan√] had irritated him once again, just thinking about how Lu Xu could only land a trashy web drama—one with a script he wouldn’t even look at—Yao Yuan couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction.

The other party was desperately trying to find a presence on Weibo, but it was just the desperate barking of a loser.

Right now, Lu Xu had no resources, no program teams willing to work with him. The money he earned during his time with Verse was probably all gone. Wouldn’t he have to find a way to make some money?

Back during his Verse days, Lu Xu wouldn’t have been this shameless.

If Lu Xu knew that Yao Yuan was so worried about his future, he might have been quite moved.

In fact, as Yao Yuan had said, Lu Xu truly had no resources at the moment.

Although he had made it onto trending for two days due to the “pay back” incident, during that time, there were indeed people who reached out for collaborations. However, those were either internet celebrities or oddball micro-business endorsements—none of which Lu Xu wanted to take on.

He didn’t care much for material desires. When he had acting gigs, he was on set; when he didn’t, he stayed at home.

In his previous life, Lu Xu’s acting career had indeed seen moments of stormy conflict, especially when two blockbuster dramas clashed. Fans of the dramas could argue endlessly for days, comparing everything from acting skills to results.

Even though he had reincarnated as an idol in this life, Lu Xu still wanted to find a way to carve out a path in acting.

After Verse disbanded, the members had mostly left the idol industry. Some focused on the fashion world, others on acting. Everyone had their own future, and Lu Xu didn’t feel guilty for abandoning the original owner’s path. If he had taken over the original owner’s body while still a Verse member, he would have been worrying about his dancing and singing skills instead.

Lu Xu was studying the script for My Baby Prince.

To be honest, he had never worked on such a difficult script—it was so illogical that he constantly doubted whether he might actually be a fool.

But he still didn’t have the money to pay the breach of contract fee.

After successfully settling his external debts, Lu Xu received a strange phone call—the two insurance policies the original owner had bought were now due for payment. Lu Xu suspected that the original owner had been scammed, but the insurance money still had to be paid.

So, he had no choice but to rack his brain and think about how he should play his role in My Baby Prince.

With only half a month before joining the set, Lu Xu spent three whole days analyzing the script and finally found something redeemable in the role of the second male lead, Yu Wei.

My Baby Prince told the story of the ordinary heroine, Zhong Baobei, who accidentally entered Ariel Academy and met the male lead—racing prodigy Pan Lingfeng, with whom she eventually fell in love.

Don’t ask why the male lead is called a “racing prodigy”—because that’s what the script says.

Race horses, pay up.

Normally, the male lead in an idol drama wouldn’t have the surname Pan.

Normally, the heroine’s name wouldn’t be “Baobei (Baby)”.

But the script was set, as the investors of the drama were all surnamed Pan.

There was, however, one main storyline—Zhong Baobei’s background.

After falling in love with Pan Lingfeng, Zhong Baobei discovered that he was her long-lost brother. Pan Lingfeng and she shared the same mother, but after a painful separation, Zhong Baobei turned to the second male lead, Yu Wei, for comfort. Love, however, defied all boundaries, and Pan Lingfeng ran to her, determined to be with her. In the end, both discovered that Yu Wei was actually Zhong Baobei’s real brother.

But by that point, Yu Wei had already fallen so deeply in love with Zhong Baobei that he couldn’t extricate himself.

Faced with this reality, Yu Wei chose to go dark, shamelessly becoming the destroyer between Zhong Baobei and Pan Lingfeng…

Lu Xu: “……”

He had another question. No matter who was the heroine’s long-lost brother, why were all three of them the same age?

While Lu Xu was still trying to find the strengths of his character to figure out how to play him, Director Hua Zhu contacted him in advance.

In the director’s circle, Hua Zhu was always a no-name figure. He felt extremely lucky that anyone was willing to invest in My Baby Prince.

When it came to making this drama, Hua Zhu only had one thing on his mind: the investor’s surname was Pan, so no matter what, the character of Pan Lingfeng could not be ruined.

When the drama began its preparations, the male and female leads were both lesser-known actors, though they were still much more famous than Lu Xu.

The production team had chosen him for the role of the second male lead based on his popularity as a former member of Verse. Now, Hua Zhu vaguely hinted to Lu Xu that the male lead had recently been replaced after his role as the third male lead in another drama had gone viral, so he was now out of the project.

Since Lu Xu’s recent popularity was quite high, he was being considered to take on the role of the main lead, Pan Lingfeng.

Lu Xu: “…I refuse.”

Sorry, he just couldn’t act in a role like “racing prodigy” Pan Lingfeng without breaking character.

Was this how casually the casting process worked?

Though he had mentally prepared for how unreliable My Baby Prince’s production team might be, Lu Xu was still shocked.

He had thought about finding another path, but with the filming for Baby Prince so close, every other production team he had applied to, big roles or small, had rejected him.

Having any role to play wasn’t a bad thing, Lu Xu could only comfort himself this way.

Even for a character like Yu Wei, Lu Xu had already prepared a character breakdown and carefully analyzed the role.

In his previous life, Lu Xu had played many different types of roles. Some roles were subtle by nature, requiring little preparation from the actor, while others had minimal space for interpretation in the script, and with directors who were not particularly fond of providing guidance, the actors had to rely on their own intuition.

Though Lu Xu had never acted in such a terrible script before, My Baby Prince might kick off his acting career in a rather sloppy way. But right now, whether it was good or bad, he had no choice but to dive in headfirst.

It wasn’t a secret that Lu Xu had taken on a trashy web drama. Fans of Verse’s former members had mocked it across various platforms long ago.

However, when the name and cast of My Baby Prince were revealed, the fans of Verse’s former group members were still devastated.

[Can we just remove Lu Xu from Verse?]

[Yang Shu and Xia Xuewen as the leads, and Lu Xu as the second male lead?]

[…At least he was one of the members of Verse, this rate of decline is honestly shocking.]

[…What the hell, has Lu Xu lost his mind? Does he really have to ruin his career like this? Is he trying to make a quick buck in the entertainment industry and then disappear for good?]

Yang Shu and Xia Xuewen had almost no presence in the entertainment industry. In contrast, Verse had at least been genuinely popular for a time.

After Verse disbanded, Gu Sinian, another former member, also pursued an acting career. For idols, starting off with a leading role was clearly impossible, so Gu Sinian began by taking supporting roles. However, the projects Gu Sinian joined were the highest caliber that Lin Ge Entertainment could secure—big-name directors, well-known actors, and major platforms. Playing supporting roles didn’t hurt Gu Sinian’s popularity, and in fact, his fans were more excited about his potential rise as an actor.

However, no matter how devastated the fanbase was, the images shared by bystanders clearly showed that My Baby Prince had indeed officially begun filming.

This was the smallest production team Lu Xu had ever worked with.

With limited funding, the production cut every corner possible. There wasn’t even a scriptwriter on set because the director, Hua Zhu, was also the scriptwriter for this drama.

The male lead, Yang Shu, and the female lead, Xia Xuewen, had both graduated from film school not long ago. Some of their classmates had already made their mark in the entertainment industry early on, but these two had struggled to find decent roles for a long time.

As actors, who wouldn’t want to star in a big-budget production with a solid script?

But reality didn’t leave much room for choice. These days, simply not being unemployed right after graduation was already a blessing. The My Baby Prince production might not have been great, but at least it offered work.

Lu Xu’s participation as Yu Wei had already brought an unusual level of attention to My Baby Prince, something most ordinary web dramas could only dream of. Even if it was widespread ridicule, it was better than fading into obscurity without a sound.

Before filming began, the cast members went through their makeup trials.

The main characters were only a handful, while most of the extras were just background players. The first half of the story was set in a school environment, so half of the costumes were school uniforms, and the other half were cobbled together from random corners—courtesy of the production team.

According to Hua Zhu, he had initially tried to get sponsorships for the wardrobe, but not a single brand was willing to sponsor them.

Lu Xu: “…”

He suddenly remembered that he had plenty of unworn luxury-brand menswear at home.

It wasn’t out of kindness that Lu Xu considered offering some of his clothes to the production. It was just that, while the main character might have the nickname “Racing Prince,” he really couldn’t be wearing jockey attire all the time.

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2 thoughts on “Famous! Ch.4

  1. Hello Aris ! Thank you so much for translating this and introducing this novel! I’m looking forward to the future chapters, this novel seems very interesting 😃😃

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