Chapter 64: A New Co-Star
Lu Xu was reading a script when he noticed his manager staring at him with an expression that was a mix of hesitation and curiosity.
“If you have something to say, just say it,” Lu Xu said, glancing at him with a puzzled look.
“I’m just curious…” Xu Wen began, “Where did you learn to argue?”
It had become clear to him that Lu Xu never lost an argument, no matter who he was up against.
Whether the other person was being passive-aggressive or rallying fans to attack, Lu Xu always retaliated decisively and effectively, leaving no room for counterattacks.
In the past, if Feiyang Entertainment had signed a star as prone to causing storms as Lu Xu, the PR and marketing teams would have been swamped, working overtime to issue statements constantly. But with Lu Xu, he handled it all by himself.
Lu Xu only went after outsiders—he never caused trouble for his own team.
Having worked with Lu Xu for some time now, Xu Wen could confidently say that, apart from occasionally roasting people online, Lu Xu had no bad habits.
And besides… Lu Xu was never in the wrong.
Not to mention, Lu Xu had taken plenty of unprovoked criticism lately. Even his rarely-used personal Weibo account was suddenly flooded with comments from Zhang Che’s fans, demanding that he “control” Lu Xu.
Xu Wen: “…”
Please, just go to sleep at night.
Really, staying up late leads to hair loss, anxiety, irritability, and even makes you look worse.
If anyone needed to intervene, it was Ye Hai Entertainment. They should have told Zhang Che to stop pondering life in the middle of the night. Otherwise, he’d just spiral further into emo territory.
All in all, the more Xu Wen looked at Lu Xu, the more he appreciated him. He had long since categorized Lu Xu as one of “his people.”
As the saying goes, a person’s appearance reflects their character. Someone who looked as good as Lu Xu couldn’t possibly be a bad person.
*
Lu Xu had basically decided to take on Voice of the Dead. Although the title of the show sounded terrifying, the plot didn’t primarily focus on the supernatural. Instead, it centered on a meticulous process of unraveling clues to identify the culprit.
The protagonist, Jiang Lin, could supposedly “hear the voices of the dead,” but that was just a gimmick to attract viewers. The actual investigative process was quite hardcore.
Jiang Lin’s role had been confirmed for Lu Xu, while the character Su Yang was assigned to a second-tier young actor.
In the entertainment industry, the boundary between first-tier and second-tier wasn’t particularly clear, at least not as finely defined as it was for actresses.
Zhang Che, Wen Li, and Xie Linshen were obviously in the top echelon, while Lu Xu, at this point, seemed to be somewhere between the first and second tier. Although The Path of Bones had indeed catapulted him to fame, compared to other actors, Lu Xu’s body of work still lacked depth.
He had debuted as an actor relatively late and had appeared in only a handful of shows.
As a result, although Su Yang’s role attracted the interest of many male actors, it was impossible for top-tier actors to step in and support him.
Lu Xu wasn’t particularly interested in the casting choices for Voice of the Dead. However, the production team had turned down a few actors whom Lu Xu absolutely wouldn’t have worked with—Bai Yuyi and Rong Sheng from The Empress.
It was unclear what those two were thinking. The lawsuit between The Empress and The Path of Bones hadn’t even been resolved, yet they were already eyeing a collaboration with Lu Xu.
“Maybe they’re hoping to stir up a CP buzz?” the assistant director muttered.
Director Xu Yan gave him a look of disdain. “A CP buzz? This is pure socialist brotherhood.”
“Director Xu, you’re out of touch. These days, male actors stirring up CP buzz is even hotter than male-female leads doing it,” the assistant director replied. “But you can’t force it. A forced pairing won’t work. You have to let the audience discover the chemistry themselves. The production team can sprinkle in a little interaction to add some fun, but it can’t overdo it.”
Xu Yan sighed, “…You sure know a lot about this.”
However, to be honest, when Xu Yan took on the script for Voice of the Dead, he genuinely didn’t consider stirring up a CP buzz between Su Yang and Jiang Lin. The main reason was that the storyline of this drama was already rich enough and didn’t require any unnecessary elements to fill gaps.
In the script, the two characters were simply a pair of highly cooperative partners.
Xu Yan was quite satisfied with Lu Xu agreeing to take on the role of Jiang Lin. The primary reason was that Lu Xu had previously worked with directors like Lei Ai and Liu Chunfeng. When those directors mentioned Lu Xu, they were full of praise.
Xu Yan might not entirely trust his own judgment, but he absolutely trusted Lei Ai’s and Liu Chunfeng’s ability to pick talent.
Of course, Lu Xu’s performances in Son of Heaven and The Path of Bones were truly remarkable.
Although this year’s Stellar Awards hadn’t begun yet, historically speaking, the Stellar Awards didn’t favor dramas like The Path of Bones that lacked a strong positive message. However, if an actor’s performance was head and shoulders above the competition, the chances of a nomination were still high.
Xu Yan had a hunch that Lu Xu might be the exception.
For a Best Actor nomination at the Stellar Awards in previous years, the winning productions usually fell into one of two categories: either the entire cast delivered stellar performances, creating a fierce battle of acting skills that left audiences completely captivated, or one character single-handedly carried a show with a dazzling performance.
Both types were rare, and The Path of Bones fell into the latter category.
…
The actor playing Su Yang in Voice of the Dead was named Shao Yao, a contracted artist under Mingniao Entertainment.
Mingniao Entertainment had a relatively low presence in the industry, and Shao Yao was essentially the company’s top star—its leading man.
Shao Yao hadn’t started his career in historical romance dramas. Instead, he made his mark in serious dramas before gradually gaining his current level of fame.
However, compared to other actors, Shao Yao’s disadvantage was quite evident—he came from a small company, and his resources were far less abundant than those of his peers.
When Shao Yao first rose to fame, other management companies tried to poach him. However, he had signed with Mingniao Entertainment right after graduation. From the company president to his manager, everyone treated him exceptionally well, and he had never considered leaving.
Shao Yao had a rugged look, not the flower boy aesthetic popular at the time, and his personality was… rather straightforward. He interacted with others in a blunt and stiff manner. While this brought him decent popularity in the early years of his career, his momentum had noticeably declined over the past couple of years.
He had auditioned for the role of Su Yang before and thought he hadn’t landed it. Yet, after some back and forth, the production team eventually came back to him.
“When you join the crew, make sure you’re polite to the director and screenwriters. You don’t have to flatter them, but surely you can say a few kind words, right?” his manager nagged at him. “You’ll be working with Lu Xu this time. He’s at the peak of his popularity now, so don’t get into any arguments with him.”
Shao Yao peeked over his sunglasses. “Will he act like a big shot?”
Manager: “…”
This guy was over 1.8 meters tall.
He looked tall, and he looked fierce, but his personality was surprisingly soft. He was worried about someone acting like a big shot and b*llying him.
“I haven’t heard any rumors about Lu Xu acting like a big shot. The reason I told you not to argue with him is—well—you wouldn’t win.”
With Shao Yao’s clumsy and awkward way of speaking, he’d probably be knocked out in one round if he clashed with Lu Xu. The manager wasn’t trying to undermine his own artist, but the fact was Shao Yao just wasn’t cut out for verbal sparring.
Back when Shao Yao had first signed with Mingniao right out of college, the manager had figured he’d make it as a third-tier or lower-ranked star at best.
But through his relentless hard work and a bit of good luck with roles, he had somehow managed to climb to the second tier.
Of course, climbing any higher would be tough. Mingniao couldn’t provide the kind of resources that only big companies could. Luckily, Shao Yao wasn’t a greedy person. Shooting one or two projects a year, carefully selecting his roles, and taking occasional breaks had allowed him to steadily build his career to this point.
“Relax already.” Seeing Shao Yao’s stern expression, as if he were about to take the college entrance exams, his manager slapped him on the back in exasperation. “Just make sure to greet everyone properly.”
“What if he acts like a big shot?”
Even now, Shao Yao was still preoccupied with the possibility of Lu Xu acting out, which made the manager pinch his temples in frustration.
Forget it. Shao Yao’s personality was proof that fools could have their own kind of luck.
He had to trust his artist’s fortune. Maybe he’d even end up fitting in perfectly with the Voice of the Dead cast.
The manager led Shao Yao to meet the director and the other cast members.
It was early April, and the weather in City C was already starting to feel warm. The set was hot, too.
Director Xu Yan was polite as he listened to the manager’s introduction. Although Shao Yao had been confirmed to play Su Yang, he wasn’t familiar with the director or the other key members of the production team, as they hadn’t worked together before.
As for Lu Xu…
On set, his look wasn’t as striking as it was when attending public events. He seemed calm and quiet, his personality far more reserved than the manager had expected. He wasn’t overly enthusiastic, but neither was he cold and aloof.
This put the manager at ease. Shao Yao struggled to interact with overly warm and outgoing people he’d just met.
At least Lu Xu seemed normal. The manager stole a cautious glance his way.
Over the next half-day, the manager remained on set, primarily to smooth things over for Shao Yao and build connections with the crew. He made sure to ask the other members of the team to look after his artist. However, his attention kept drifting back to Lu Xu, unable to resist glancing in his direction now and then.
After observing for a long time, the manager came to a few conclusions.
First, Lu Xu didn’t seem like the type to flaunt his status or act like a big shot.
On the first day, Lu Xu’s manager had also come to the set, but he didn’t stay long and only brought one assistant to handle miscellaneous tasks for him.
With such a modest setup, it didn’t look like there was much room for big shot behavior anyway.
Second, Lu Xu carried his script everywhere he went.
While the public often labeled Lu Xu as a naturally gifted actor, the manager began to doubt that assumption.
He watched Lu Xu for an entire afternoon and noticed that whenever Lu Xu was within his line of sight, he was always studying his script—sitting and reading it, lying down and reading it, and even mumbling lines to himself.
In short, Lu Xu seemed like a completely normal person.
He and Shao Yao probably wouldn’t clash… right?
Noticing that Shao Yao had also picked up his script and started reading, the manager finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In the previous production, Shao Yao had clashed badly with one of the main cast members, which led to constant tension on set and sabotaged opportunities for him. His stubborn temper had been the primary cause.
When his co-star had used numbers instead of lines during rehearsals, neither the director nor the screenwriter had said anything. But Shao Yao, with his blunt personality, had immediately criticized the behavior.
When the co-star claimed he couldn’t memorize the lines, Shao Yao retorted that he should at least try. Instead of counting “one, two, three, four, five,” the co-star switched to reciting “up the mountain to catch a tiger.” The co-star didn’t seem to care, but Shao Yao grew increasingly frustrated day by day.
Unfortunately, the co-star was more popular and backed by a major entertainment company, one of the most influential in the industry. With Shao Yao showing no respect, the co-star naturally retaliated in kind.
On that set, the co-star even bought milk tea for the entire crew but deliberately left Shao Yao out.
No matter how much Shao Yao later tried to hint that the co-star should memorize their lines, it was useless. The co-star continued deliberately using “one, two, three, four, five” instead of the actual dialogue. With their higher popularity and better resources, they had no reason to care about Shao Yao’s opinions.
Shao Yao only kept up appearances for a while. After that collaboration ended, he didn’t dare take on another acting project for a long time. Though he wasn’t very vocal about his feelings, his manager could tell he was deeply hurt.
That was the downside of having a blunt mouth and a straightforward personality. However, because working with Shao Yao didn’t require navigating any hidden agendas, his thoughts were always easy to understand, which made things feel simpler for the manager.
This time, as they joined the Voice of the Dead cast, the manager sincerely hoped Shao Yao would get along well with Lu Xu.
If Lu Xu treated Shao Yao the same way he had reportedly clashed with Zhang Che, Shao Yao would probably already be crying on the inside.
**TN
The “1,2,3,4” – It’s common in C-dramas to hire voice actors and use dub instead of the actor’s voice.
CP – couple pairing, a ship
Ahh~ Reminds me of my favorite “bromance” series Guardian, Under the Skin, and Hannibal. XD
Is MC gonna make a friend?! That would be nice. 🥺