Category: Male God is Chasing My Brother (Page 9 of 12)

Chapter 39 – Lin Rui confessed to me

In the evening, most of the crew stayed in the same hotel, and so did An Xumo. However, because he joined the crew earlier, his room was booked by Tang Tang. He didn’t bother the crew to arrange it.

Although it would have made sense to buy a room with the crew, An Xumo is a newcomer after all. Tang Tang thought it would be better to be cautious.

She hurriedly ran to prepare supper for An Xumo. On the way back, her phone ran out of battery, thus, she didn’t receive a call from An Xumo. After arriving at the hotel and asked her assistant Xiao Zhang, who was waiting for the crew, to help deliver two lunch boxes to the hotel. Tang Tang received An Xumo’s response from Xiao Zhang.

An Xumo said he’s full and not hungry.

“……”

Tang Tang looked at Xiao Zhang suspiciously, repeatedly sizing him up many times. After looking at everyone, she said in disbelief, “Is this really what Xiao Mo said?”

If it weren’t for the fact that it was so late, she would have wanted to go up by herself.

Xiao Zhang nodded vigorously and swore that he hadn’t misstated a single word.

Tang Tang was baffled.

She looked up in the direction of An Xumo’s room. The light in that room was on, but the curtains were drawn. She couldn’t see what was going on inside.

Tang Tang turned back to Xiao Zhang and asked uneasily, “Did he do anything special?”

“Special? ” Xiao Zhang wondered, “What do you mean by special?”

“He’s in a bad mood, toothache, or something. He’s not dizzy anymore, right? ” Tang Tang couldn’t help but start to wonder if the last major concussion hadn’t fully healed yet. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he be able to eat?

Xiao Zhang shook his head honestly, “None of them.”

Could it be that he ate too much at night? Wouldn’t that mean that everyone at the table knows how much he eats? The more Tang Tang thought about it, the more wrong it was. She even had a feeling that tomorrow, there would be a news story about a young idol who gave up on himself and took out his stress by overeating.

She was so worried that she simply stretched out her hand toward Xiao Zhang, “Lend me your phone, I’ll give him a call and ask.”

Xiao Zhang lowered his head to take the phone while saying, “But Xiao An may not be able to answer the phone. When I first came out, someone in his room went in.”

Tang Tang took the phone curiously and asked, “Who?”

Xiao Zhang said, “He’s an actor from the crew. He seems to be the protagonist. His name is……right, Zhou Jinchen.”

Tang Tang almost threw out Xiao Zhang’s phone.

“Why didn’t you say it earlier?!” If it wasn’t for her surroundings, Tang Tang would almost shout out. When she was looking for an assistant, she specifically said that she wanted honest outsiders. Anyway, just to help run errands, while she has to deal with other things. Being tight-lipped was the most important thing. As a result, Tang Tang did not expect that the other party could be so honest to the point of being slow.¹迟钝: slow in one’s reactions; sluggish [in movement or thought]

Xiao Zhang shrank his neck, a little hesitant, “No one asked me.”

Tang Tang couldn’t be bothered with him, “What does Brother Zhou want with Xiao Mo?”

Xiao Zhang shook his head, “I don’t know. After he came in, Xiao An said he didn’t need supper and asked me to bring it back. Then, Brother Zhou looked at me and made my back feel chilly, so I quickly came out.”

After hearing this, Tang Tang also felt her back getting cold. She remembered the time when Zhou Jinchen looked at her.

But when she thought about it, she felt that it was not right. Obviously, at noon, Brother Zhou even covered Xiao Mo’s food. Why did Xiao Mo dare not to eat at night when he saw him?

Tang Tang counted a lot, but she never thought that An Xumo was really full.

When Xiao Zhang knocked on the door, An Xumo was reading the script. He had already memorized Bai Qingchi’s lines, even the lines of the characters he was playing against. But thinking and doing are two different things, he still needs to work hard.

This time when An Xumo read the script, he didn’t look at his own part, but the scenes that were shot on the set during the day. As he read the script of those scenes, he recalled the performance of the actors, and slowly transformed the thin words on the paper into a three-dimensional interpretation of the scene in his mind.

As soon as An Xumo finished looking at the classroom scene between Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui, Xiao Zhang knocked on the door and entered. When he saw him, An Xumo knew that Tang Tang had arranged it, but he did have enough to eat in the evening. He planned to let Xiao Zhang take the things back.

Anyway, Tang Tang told him before that there was a special food expense in the money he earned. As long as he worked well, he didn’t need to worry about the food. Thus, An Xumo didn’t worry about how the supper would cost.

But An Xumo didn’t expect that before Xiao Zhang left, there was a knock on the door again.

Since it wasn’t the crew’s uniform arrangement, and the room was scarce, An Xumo was separated from most of the people’s rooms by a long hallway. Although it was on the same floor as most of the actors, it was a bit far away.

An Xumo was wondering who would come looking for him, but Xiao Zhang had already helped open the door. As soon as the person came in, An Xumo, who was holding a lunch box in his hand, was stunned.

When Zhou Jinchen came in from the door, he first looked at Xiao Zhang, who opened the door and then turned his attention to An Xumo, who was standing still in the room and saw the lunch box in the boy’s hand. Zhou Jinchen’s expression moved slightly, then quickly regained his composure.

His voice was faint and he couldn’t hear the emotions, “Didn’t have enough tonight?”

It’s not that An Xumo wasn’t full, he felt like he was going to eat a year’s worth of candy in one day. Braised prime rib, fatty beef in sour soup, caviar sushi, creamy muffins, and chocolate lava marshmallows.

High-calorie, high-sugar, warm and satisfying food, the ultimate happiness.

An Xumo hurriedly shook his head, “No, no, I’m full. This is the supper prepared by Tang Tang.”

“I tried to tell her during dinner that she didn’t have to……but she didn’t seem to be looking at her phone.”

Xiao Zhang on the other side added, “Tang Tang’s phone battery is dead.”

An Xumo returned the lunch box to Xiao Zhang, “Take it back and share it with Tang Tang and Brother Zhang. It’s hard to run back and forth at night.”

The driver Tang Tang found was also named Zhang. Xiao Zhang took the lunch box and soon left with his things.

An Xumo sent Xiao Zhang out and closed the door, only to be reminded of the nervousness afterward.

They were the only two people left in the room. The light on the roof was comfy, giving a warm glow to the pure white bed covers.

The man stood under the light. His pure black hair was lined with warm golden light, and his hair still had the hair wax used for styling during the day, but the edges were inexplicably illuminated by the light into a slightly fluffy look.

Zhou Jinchen looked at him, his voice was the usual deep and mellow, “Are you really full?”

An Xumo nodded, “Really.”

He looked back at the door behind him, making sure he had closed it before turning back and whispering, “Thank you brother for the dinner.”

Zhou Jinchen didn’t express his gratitude, but only said, “Since when have you been eating like this?”

An Xumo stiffened a bit and quickly said, “Probably after being a trainee.”

He added a very detailed and convincing reason, “The amount of training is relatively large, it’s easy to get hungry.”

As expected, Zhou Jinchen didn’t ask anymore. He looked at the table and turned, walking over.

An Xumo gently exhaled, relaxing his shoulders and neck. Only then did a slight soreness and warmth come over him.

He had lied.

It wasn’t from the trainee period, it was much earlier.

It was the housekeeper who forgot that he couldn’t eat at the table. The little boy was so hungry that he could not sleep. He snuck out in the middle of the night, but because he accidentally knocked off the porcelain, he was punished by not being allowed to eat for a day.

It was the collective ridicule by his classmates. The temperature and emotions were cold.²气温和情绪都是天寒地冰: this was really hard to phrase. Only when there is steaming lunch to eat, he can pretend that everyone around him was not watching.

It was the furious Zhou Yunlin who kicked him out, he had just peeked through the door, and the skinny brother was sleeping quietly in his bed, the rice porridge he had been fed was flowing out.

The only good thing was being able to eat.

It was only when the sound of turning pages came that An Xumo looked over a few beats late.

Zhou Jinchen was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a script he had just read.

The script was in a plastic folder, with a well-protected outer layer, but the inside was slightly yellowed. Some of the pages were a little soft and brittle, almost curling at the edges.

Although it had obviously been turned over many times, the script did not have many annotations. There was only an average of less than three words on each page, all of which were simple keywords. But in addition to the script, there was another A4-sized binder on the table. It was a printed transcript of An Xumo’s conversation with his acting teacher, telling his confusions after reading the script. After discussing with him, he sorted out and printed the chat records.

The script can’t be passed on, and An Xumo only asked questions that did not involve specific plots. Many of the questions might even seem naive to a veteran actor, but for An Xumo, they were knowledge worth documenting.

Zhou Jinchen remained silent. He read An Xumo’s script once and went to the bound book. There are many annotations on the A4 book, some of which have been revised repeatedly. Although An Xumo’s writing is beautiful, at first glance, the whole page seems a little messy.

After going through all of these, Zhou Jinchen put down the things in his hands and looked at An Xumo, who was standing beside him.

“Is acting stressful?”

“A little.”

An Xumo’s mood gradually eased, and there was nothing unusual on the outside. But he eagerly wanted to talk to his brother, just a few words to make sure that the other person was fine and that he was no longer in a nightmare.

Seeing that the man had no intention to speak anymore, An Xumo took the initiative to ask, “Brother Jinchen, did you come to see me for something?”

Zhou Jinchen looked at him and was about to open his mouth when the phone in his pocket rang.

An Xumo saw him narrow his expression and look at the phone screen that was taken out.

For some reason, Zhou Jinchen didn’t pick up the phone directly, but the ringing sounded a bit harsh in the quiet room.

An Xumo’s emotions had calmed down and he began to feel curious. He waited for Zhou Jinchen to pick up the phone or hang up, but the man suddenly turned his attention to him and said, “I’ll help you read the script.”

An Xumo was stunned and he saw Zhou Jinchen, who had said this, raise his hand to slide open the screen. The ringing stopped, the phone was connected, and a slightly distorted male voice came out, “Hello, Jinchen. Where are you?”

The background noise on the phone was slightly noisy, and it didn’t sound like there was only one person there. An Xumo reacted for a moment before remembering who this voice was.

Zhou Jinchen raised the phone, “What’s wrong?”

As soon as the man put the phone to his ear, An Xumo could not hear what was being said. He had no intention of eavesdropping, so he bent down and carefully picked up the two pamphlets in front of Zhou Jinchen. On the table, there were also carbon pens scattered around. An Xumo put the cap on the end of the blue pen, and the two books were stacked close together.

Things were neatly arranged and he also sat upright at the table with his pen in hand, looking like a student in the class.

Zhou Jinchen said a few more words before ending the call.

However, before hanging up, he gave An Xumo’s room number.

Seeing the man put down the phone, An Xumo asked, “Is there anyone else coming over?”

Zhou Jinchen said, “Lin Rui.”

Naturally, An Xumo wouldn’t think that Film Emperor Lin was looking for him, but he couldn’t quite understand why both actors came to his room tonight, “Brother Lin Rui, is he coming over for something?”

Zhou Jinchen said directly, “I don’t know.”

The room suddenly became quiet.

But the silence was much colder than the atmosphere when Zhou Jinchen was reading the script.

An Xumo rubbed the barrel of the pencil with his fingers. He could not open his mouth, he could only use this small action to ease his tension.

The man’s gaze seemed to fall over, and his heavy stare was substantial. After a while, An Xumo heard Zhou Jinchen say, “Bring the script.”

An Xumo put down the pen and reached out to pass the script. Zhou Jinchen took the script and suddenly said again, “After acting in 《The Scarecrow》, Lin Rui confessed to me.”

The uncovered blue pen rolled down to the floor with a soft “pop.”

An Xumo bent down to pick it up. The action gave him an opportunity to hide his expression. But as soon as he picked up the blue pen, Zhou Jinchen said something else.

“I turned him down.”

An Xumo looked up and saw the man sitting on the soft sofa, but there was no trace of laziness around him. His face was still expressionless, which was in stark contrast to the vivid and three-dimensional new movie star who could grasp all kinds of emotions in the camera.

Lin Rui likes…..brother?

This matter between the two of them……why did my brother tell it himself?

An Xumo could neither digest the news of Lin Rui’s confession, nor could he figure out why Zhou Jinchen would suddenly mention this to him.

If it weren’t for the fierce heart beating in his chest, An Xumo would even think he was dreaming, which was really unreasonable. In one day, he had seen Zhou Jinchen for more than ten hours. The barrier that existed between the two of them seemed to have been knocked open, and he was sure that the gap was not from his side.

An Xumo felt that his emotional load was a little too heavy for a moment.

He opened his mouth and was about to say something, but there was a knock on the door for the third time.

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The author has something to say:

Xiao Mo upgraded to acting, while his brother deals with emotional problems.

Chapter 38 – Feed my younger brother at night too

After mealtime, the crew resumed work.

The afternoon was still the run-in phase for the test shoot, but it was a lot faster than the morning, and Ma Lao was watching the whole thing. Although Ma Zechi never gave him the horn, it still didn’t stop him from giving instructions on the progress.

The arrangement of not filming directly on the first day was not only to give the actors a chance to get into the process but also to give Ma Lao himself a buffer. His health in recent years has not been good, but he still has the same strict requirements directing the movie, and the intensity is the same. Even if the trained actors can survive dozens of reshoots, he himself may not be able to take it.

However, according to the situation, the first day went quite smoothly. Even An Xumo, who was watching from the sidelines, gained a lot from it.

The things that the acting teacher handed over in class before, An Xumo could only memorize and didn’t know how to adapt. Now, after directly watching on the set, those things that were supposed to cast a shadow on An Xumo, have unknowingly played a new role.

In fact, at the very beginning, An Xumo was able to imitate some of the very natural emotions, otherwise, his acting teacher would not have thought that he had this talent. The teacher could see the potential in An Xumo that was necessary for an actor, that’s why he always wanted to help An Xumo unleash that potential.

That’s what the teacher thought, and in fact, he did. But because An Xumo was under too much pressure, that he was so determined not to behave badly in front of his brother, he ended up overloading himself with a heavy burden, which caused him to become more and more rigid in the class.

It wasn’t until he fainted in the ballet class and was accompanied by his brother in a dream that An Xumo’s mindset really changed. After letting go of the heavy pressure, he had a new outlook on acting. As a result, when he was able to observe the actual shooting on the set, the skills that had only been on the surface slowly took root.

The person who touched An Xumo and inspired him the most was his brother, Zhou Jinchen.

The character played by Zhou Jinchen is named Ling Sihang. Due to an old case with a new imitator, he was called to his hometown by Lin Cheng Police after being away for many years. In the process of solving the case, Ye Qisheng, Ling Sihang’s rival, also returned to Lin Cheng Police. In order to clear their suspicions, Ling Sihang and Ye Qisheng have to spend time with each other again. It was not until the case progresses, the public discovers that the two opponents who had vowed to never see each other again, were close friends who have grown up together and were once like brothers.

Lin Rui plays the role of another male protagonist, Ye Qisheng, and their personalities are similar to those of the real person. Ye Qisheng always kept a kind smile throughout the film, and he always smiled even in his teenage years. Zhou Jinchen as Ling Sihang is relatively cold and hard in terms of characters, and the script includes several scenes in which he is the protagonist.

The opening scene of the film was set ten years later in Lin Cheng, but the first day of filming was filled with scenes from his student days that appeared in his memories. At this time, both Ling Sihang and Ye Qisheng were still at their purest age and their emotional state was relatively simple. For Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui, it wasn’t difficult to portray the hearts of their characters in this part of the film. The hardest part was for them to truly act out the unique youthfulness of high school students.

An Xumo didn’t know much about Lin Rui before, so he didn’t feel too deeply about him. However, the difference between Zhou Jinchen’s role in the movie and his role outside of it was a good lesson for An Xumo.

In the classroom, Ye Qisheng, who had finished wiping the blackboard, patted his hands and raised them to blow the chalk dust off the back of his hands. He stepped down from the podium with two steps at a time and said with a long sigh, “Sihang, let’s go!”

“Okay.” Ling Sihang, who was standing at the end of the classroom tidying up the cleaning tools, placed the last broom and walked back to his seat.

Seeing that Ling Sihang was still tidying up, Ye Qisheng didn’t rush forward. He sat directly on the desk, his long leg on the other leg, the toe of his shoe almost touching the next table.

Ye Qisheng took out his lunch card from his uniform pocket, sitting on the desk with his leg raised, and looked at his hairstyle on the card’s reflective mirror. As he fiddled with his bangs on both sides of his forehead, he said, “Oh yeah, did you hear about the new game the next class is playing?”

Ling Sihang zipped up his schoolbag, raising his hand and put the long shoulder bag strap over one shoulder, and spoke in a somewhat careless tone, “What’s that, they’re playing immortal pen¹笔仙: Basically, it’s kind of a magic game in which the pen is used to communicate with a kind of energy in the body. At the same time, it’s also the name of a horror movie. It’s a game asking ghosts to summon spirits, which is easy to stimulate inner fear.again?”

Ye Qisheng stuffed his lunch card back into his pocket and jumped down from the table. He picked up the bag with one hand and put it on his shoulder. He reached out to Ling Sihang’s shoulder, “No, this time it’s different.” He said while touching the back of Ling Sihang’s head.

Ling Sihang had expectedly dodge forward, not letting him succeed, “Don’t mess up my hair.”

The two of them quarreled with a grin and made a mess. After the trouble, Ye Qisheng hooked Ling Sihang’s shoulders again: “Come, I’ll show you the new game.”

“Cut!”

With a command from Liu Longfei, this shot passed smoothly. The two inside the classroom set separated at the door. Lin Rui smiled and patted Zhou Jinchen’s back, “Jinchen is really tall, I can’t reach the shoulders any higher.”

When Liu Longfei heard this, he said jokingly, “Brother Lin, did you secretly tiptoe just now?”

Lin Rui’s face did not change and compared the camera beside him, “Did I? No, the footage wasn’t even shot.”

Liu Longfei is one of the assistant directors of the film. In addition to the casting work that he had led before, today’s unofficial shooting is also his responsibility. Ma Lao only speaks when he is picking up on a problem. This one passed, which is why Liu Longfei called for a pause.

Due to the misunderstanding during the last casting, An Xumo also went to Liu Longfei after entering the group, but it seems that Zhou Jinchen has already explained to him. Liu Longfei didn’t care, patting him on the shoulder and told him to perform well. Liu Longfei helped An Xumo find a spot on the set where he could observe the performance as closely as possible without interfering with the filming.

The difference between this kind of close observation and watching a movie through a screen is obvious. At least for An Xumo, he learned a lot. Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui both played teenage high school students, and each of them had their own unique way of acting.

Lin Rui designed a lot of detailed actions for his character, which is in line with his personal status. He had a slight disadvantage in terms of age. Movements like fiddling his bangs and sitting on the table complement the overall image well. When combined with the hair and make-up styled by the stylist specifically for him, the teenage schoolboy feel is very obvious.

Zhou Jinchen’s approach is different from Lin Rui’s.

An Xumo was thinking about it when a makeup artist walked over to him and went up to fix Zhou Jinchen’s makeup. Zhou Jinchen’s eyebrows and eyes have been deliberately softened that his original sharpness is visually weakened quite a bit. Yet, when the make-up artist stepped back and the man’s gaze swept over, An Xuemo still felt that the man in the school uniform not far in front of him was still an imposing twenty-two year old, Zhou Jinchen himself.

[T/N: I’m also surprised that ML is just 22 lmao. I thought he’d be at least in the late 20s.]

But when he was on camera, he was really the image of a seventeen-year-old high school student.

Lin Rui and Zhou Jinchen’s performances were almost evenly matched, with both of them familiar with their acting. The only difference is that An Xumo could see the skillfulness of Lin Rui’s performance, but he could hardly find any traces of it in Zhou Jinchen’s.

If you really want to describe it, Zhou Jinchen seems to have a switch on him. On the camera, you can tell that he is on duty by looking at the way he cleans the broom. Once he leaves the set, he gives the impression of an adult even in his oversized school uniform.

An Xumo couldn’t help but recall a word that his acting teacher would repeatedly mention to him: State.

He was definitely not able to transform as freely as Zhou Jinchen, but vaguely, An Xumo felt as if he had touched the edge a little.

The afternoon progressed smoothly. Except for An Xumo, a bystander who joined the group in advance, the rest of the actors were on camera. Before six o’clock, the whole day’s plan was complete.

There were no night scenes scheduled for the evening, and the rest of the time seems to be ampler. A few actors had a brief discussion, and hit it off in less than two minutes—off to dinner!

The people who were going to the dinner were all actors who were filming together today, a few more than at noon. After all the discussion, they thought of asking the crew. Ma Lao was old and knew that he would not have fun with them and he just asked Ma Zechi to go for him. The producer and other big heads didn’t say they were going to go. Finally, after a round of questions, only Liu Longfei and a few other crew leaders followed. A party of more than 20 people, went to the hotel next to the set.

When Tang Tang heard that An Xumo was going to a dinner party, her first reaction was to return and bring back supper. Although there were other hotels near the set, An Xumo still had to keep his body in shape and was limited in the kinds of food he could eat. When An Xumo didn’t look for a moment, Tang Tang was anxiously following the driver in a hurry.

An Xumo was a little helpless and had no choice but to follow the large group to the hotel first. The atmosphere at the banquet was quite active. An Xumo also met several other young artists. Everyone was eating and chatting, and it didn’t end until after eight o’clock.

Originally, the bill was AA system²AA system “Going Dutch” means to split the bill equally. but when they checked out, Zhou Jinchen asked his assistant to directly play for the entire meal, which was regarded as him inviting the crew for this meal.

The money for a meal is not too much, but this favor was impressive. Initially, there were two main characters in the original movie. After Lin Rui said that he would treat them when the film was finished, the bill for the dinner was even more logical. At the end of the banquet, several young artists went to say thank you to Zhou Jinchen. An Xumo thought about it and followed him to say thank you.

In the end, Zhou Jinchen, who had just been nodding his head in response, looked down at him.

The surroundings were a mess, everyone in the room was getting up to leave. The young actors who had finished speaking also went to find their coats, leaving An Xumo alone beside Zhou Jinchen.

When the man opened his mouth, although his voice was low, it clearly fell on An Xumo’s ears.

He said, “I’ll pay you back for the soup earlier.”

An Xuemo remembered afterward that when he ordered the food earlier, everyone ordered two dishes because of the small amount of food in the hotel. Even An Xumo was told to choose two dishes.

Zhou Jinchen was the only one.

He didn’t even look up the menu until the very end, and only ordered a large portion of the rib soup.

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The author has something to say:

Uh, brother seems to be slowly melting…..

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited.

Hello, December! It’s the last month of the year and I wish everyone to have a happy 2020 ’till the end! Stay safe! ＼(≧▽≦)／

P.S. This is the last chapter I uploaded in my Wattpad.

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Chapter 37 – How to feed my younger brother

An Xumo was stunned for a while before he remembered to put his lunch box down. He hurriedly stood up from his chair, he was obviously someone who had already been on the stage for 5,000 people, but now he didn’t even know where to put his two hands, “Jin, Brother Jinchen.”

Zhou Jinchen looked at him and swept a glance at Tang Tang, who had already lowered her head and immediately closed the two lunch boxes she had taken out. The opaque lid was on top, making it impossible to see the contents.

To be frank, Tang Tang didn’t know why she wanted to hide, but Zhou Jinchen’s gaze was so stressful that she was like a student who was caught stealing snacks in class. Her first reaction was to hide the “evidence” by deceiving herself and the others.

Then, Tang Tang, along with An Xumo, waited with their head down for the Head Teacher Zhou’s lecture.

But when Zhou Jinchen opened his mouth, neither of them predicted what he said.

Zhou Jinchen retracted his gaze and asked An Xumo, “Is the lunch enough?”

An Xumo was stunned for a moment before responding, nodding his head, “Enough.”

Zhou Jinchen turned his head to look at Tang Tang, “If you have any takeaways in the future, you can go to the car after getting your lunch box.”

Tang Tang was also stunned, not knowing why Zhou Jinchen said this to her, but she subconsciously answered immediately, “Okay, I understand.”

She promised before she remembered to ask, “Then, it wouldn’t be nice to eat alone like this……”

An Xumo looked at Tang Tang in surprise. He didn’t quite understand why Tang Tang would say such a straightforward thing to Zhou Jinchen.

In the eyes of outsiders……he and his brother should still be in a state where they don’t know each other very well, right?

An Xumo didn’t know that Tang Tang had already guessed the relationship between the two people when Zhou Jinchen came to visit him after he fell into a coma. With Xin Zimai present, Zhou Jinchen had already found out the information exchanged by Tang Tang back then. When Zhou Jinchen left the ward that day, although he didn’t point it out clearly, Tang Tang listened to what he meant and was already admonishing her not to talk about the relationship between the two.

Therefore, even if her artist suddenly has such a big backer, Tang Tang can only pretend that she doesn’t know anything.

When An Xumo was still surprised, Zhou Jinchen had already replied to Tang Tang, “It’s okay to have a few times occasionally.”

But now, he turned back to An Xumo and said, “A few actors are eating together, do you want to come over?”

An Xumo was stunned again, “……will it bother you?”

Because of his special way of becoming popular, he himself has no connections within the circle. Except for the guests he met in the previous two variety shows, An Xumo didn’t even recognize all of the artists within Jin Dian. Although he also wanted to come in contact with other people after entering the cast, An Xumo hasn’t officially started filming yet, so it seems a bit early to get to know other people.

That’s why he was worried about whether he would leave a bad impression by rushing forward.

Zhou Jinchen directly said, “No.”

Except for him and Lin Rui, most of the actors in this drama are working together for the first time. They are just having lunch together. It makes no difference if there is one more or one less person.

Tang Tang also reminded An Xumo from behind, “Xiao Mo, go ahead.”

This is a good opportunity to get to know the rest of the crew. An Xumo was an idol before and lacked a lot in acting, so it might be good to get to know more people. Tang Tang originally planned to urge An Xumo to get acquainted with the crew earlier, but today is the first day, and she hasn’t found any good opportunity yet. She didn’t expect that it would be Zhou Jinchen who would send this opportunity to her.

Tang Tang thought, it seems Brother Zhou is still taking care of Xiao Mo.

An Xumo nodded his head and said yes. He bent down to pick up his lunch box to follow Zhou Jinchen, but he couldn’t help but pause again when he remembered the beef on top of his lunch box.

When Zhou Jinchen looked up at him, An Xumo said apologetically, “There are still some extra takeaways in the lunch box…..”

Zhou Jinchen directly extended his hand toward Tang Tang, “Bring the lunch box.”

Tang Tong was busy arranging the two lunch boxes on the table and handed them to Zhou Jinchen, then she took off her coat and started to take the sealed lunch boxes out from the two large inner pockets of her coat under the watchful eyes of An Xumo and Zhou Jinchen.

One, two, three……plus the two that were taken out in the beginning, Tang Tang actually brought over a total of six lunch boxes.

An Xumo: “…….”

He said how can Tang Tang looked so bloated in this coat.

Tang Tang also wore a waterproof jacket inside her coat to avoid contaminating between herself and the box. The lunch boxes are kept warm and fresh, and you can’t feel the temperature outside, but the soft-boiled eggs inside are still warm.

Zhou Jinchen looked at the four additional lunch boxes that Tang Tang was holding with both hands, and the expression on his face looked somewhat unreadable. However, he didn’t say much and just reached out his hand to take all six lunch boxes over.

An Xumo wanted to reach out and help, but Zhou Jinchen didn’t let anyone touch them. He raised his head and said to Tang Tang, “Look for Xin Zimai for the meal allowance.”¹餐补找辛子麦报。It was a bit confusing to translate QAQ

Tang Tang blinked, “This is part of Xiao Mo’s expense plan…….”

Zhou Jinchen said indifferently, “This one is on me.”

The man’s tone was so calm and logical that neither An Xumo nor Tang Tang, who were present, could think of any further objections. After taking the lunch box, An Xumo followed Zhou Jinchen with disposable chopsticks in hand and went with him to another rest area on the set.

Today’s filming took place indoors, and there was plenty of space in the studio. The rest area where several actors gathered was also indoors. There was a long table with several benches around it. When Zhou Jinchen and An Xumo entered, four or five people were already seated in the room, and they all looked up when they saw someone enter.

The closest one to the door was Lin Rui, also dressed as a teenager. The stylist put a small tail behind his head to make him look younger. Seeing Zhou Jinchen come in, Lin Rui smiled and said, “Jinchen is finally here. If you didn’t come back, we’re going to finish eating.”

After Lin Rui finished speaking, he saw the six lunch boxes in Zhou Jinchen’s arms and raised his eyebrows. Not only him, but also several other people in the room were surprised. Zhou Jinchen said he had to go out for a while, why did he bring back so many things after returning?

Zhou Jinchen nodded to Lin Rui and put the six lunch boxes in both hands on the long table together. Qian Lingyuan, who was on the other side of the table, asked curiously, “What’s this, Jinchen?”

Zhou Jinchen steps aside to make room for An Xumo to take the seat next to him. He took down the stacked insulated lunch boxes and reached out to open the lid of one of the lunch boxes.

The fresh and shiny salmon fillets were neatly stacked together, and the well-processed ingredients had a shimmering watery glow to them.

There were two other dipping sauces in the four slots on the side with the lid, and because the lunch box was scientifically designed, there was no sauce coming out of the dip at all, nor were they mixed together.

The few people in the room are also eating the crew’s lunch box. Seeing the box of fresh salmon fillets, they couldn’t help but brighten up, and even look at the newcomer An Xumo a few seconds late.

An Xumo stood next to him under Zhou Jinchen’s gesture and Lin Rui, who was diagonally across him. While Zhou Jinchen opened the six lunch boxes one by one, he said, “Zimai sent this for everyone’s extra meal.”

Xin Zimai can be considered a legendary figure in the industry. When it comes to the reason for Zhou Jinchen’s popularity, Xin Zimai is definitely the agent. That’s why when Zhou Jinchen mentioned him, the others also knew Xin Zimai’s identity.

After explaining, Zhou Jinchen gestured towards An Xumo again and said, “This is An Xumo, the one who plays Bai Qingchi. We’ve been on a variety show together before.”

An Xumo bowed and said, “Greetings, seniors.”

The people greeted him one after the other. Although the atmosphere was not warm, it was still harmonious. Lin Rui also smiled and said to him, “Come, sit down, don’t be nervous.”

An Xumo said, “Thank you, Teacher Lin.”

Lin Rui waved his hand and said, “You’re welcome. You are younger than Jinchen, right? Just call me Brother Rui.”

An Xumo called out “Brother Rui” again, and Lin Rui responded with a smile.

Zhou Jinchen, who was on the other side, opened all six lunch boxes and looked at them again. Then he closed one of the lunch boxes filled with fragrant soup and handed it to An Xumo, “Send this papaya rib soup to Ma Lao. He is in the room on the second row to the right.”

An Xumo took the lunch box, gesturing to the actors in the room, and left first. Zhou Jinchen put the remaining five lunchboxes in the middle of the long table for the others to eat together.

Tang Tang’s preparation was more than enough for one person. Even An Xumo couldn’t eat so much at one meal. Tang Tang was worried that he was under pressure on the set and wanted to bring more delicious food to comfort him, which is why she brought so much. Thus, when Zhou Jinchen said that Xin Zimai sent this to share with everyone, no one was suspicious.

Unfortunately, because Zhou Jinchen had just left for a long time, a few people’s lunch boxes had basically been wiped out. Although today’s lunch time was very abundant, but letting a few people here continue to taste the delicious delicacies brought, they are also a little more than willing but not strong enough. Even if their eyes are still hungry, their stomachs are already full.

In the end, a few of them just tasted it. Each of them took a little bit, thanking Zhou Jinchen for his kindness. Although the food was really delicious, they couldn’t eat much of it.

When An Xumo came back, the five lunch boxes on the table seemed as if they had not been touched, except for the one with the soft-boiled eggs, which was obviously half gone, leaving the last two on the bottom of the lunch box.

When An Xumo sat back down at the table, Zhou Jinchen said, “Have you sent it?”

“En,” An Xumo nodded.

His expression was clearly still somewhat reserved. Zhou Jinchen glanced at him and asked, “What did Ma Lao say?”

An Xumo thought about it and said, “He said the soup was delicious and he likes it.”

Lin Rui on the other side, laughed and said, “Ma Lao’s exact words must have been more straightforward than this.”

He looked at An Xumo with a smile, “Did he ask you how the soup was made, and let Ma Lao learn it?”

An Xumo was surprised, “How did Brother Rui know……that’s what Ma Lao said.”

Lin Rui smiled and looked at Zhou Jinchen, “Xiao Ma might be talking about you behind his back right now.”

Zhou Jinchen didn’t pay much attention, “Is he still chasing that one with a bad stomach?”

“Yes,” Lin Rui propped up his side face with the palm of his hand. “Ge Ming has not yet been successful, and the road ahead is long. Ma Lao is heartbroken every time he mentions it.”

Zhou Jinchen looked at An Xumo, “Did Ma Zechi chase after you and asked?”

“There was no chasing…..” An Xumo said, “That is, he asked me to tell him that he wanted to ask Brother Jinchen for the recipe of this soup.”

In fact, An Xumo did not expect that he would be able to impress both the father and son of the Ma family with just one delivery of soup and have them chase after him so enthusiastically to ask him.

Zhou Jinchen hooked the corner of his lips and didn’t ask any more questions. He said to An Xumo, “Let’s eat.”

“Yes, hurry up and eat, the food will be cold later.” Qian Lingyuan, who was chatting on the side, turned his head and looked at the lunch box with some regret, “It’s not good to waste such good things. You two are eating late, hurry up and finish them.”

As he spoke, together with another actor, Wang Xianming, moved the five lunch boxes over and placed them not far in front of Zhou Jinchen and An Xumo.

“Thank you, teacher.” An Xumo thanked him and re-opened his lunch box. The soft-boiled egg was still warm, he stuffed half of the egg in his mouth, with the soft yolk leaving a tender taste on the tip of his tongue.

As soon as An Xumo finished the remaining half of the egg, he saw Zhou Jinchen take a fried egg out of the lunch box in front of him and put it on his lunch box.

The full, smooth, and tender fried egg was placed on the lunch box purchased by the crew, which reminded An Xumo of the half eaten egg that was placed on the lunch box when he was caught by his brother.

An Xumo bit his chopsticks and blinked. When he saw that Zhou Jinchen had no intention of speaking, he withdrew his gaze and quietly ate.

Zhou Jinchen said he brought the food, but he didn’t actually eat much of it himself. The others had also stopped their chopsticks long ago and sat down at the table to chat. Although An Xumo kept eating, someone will ask him questions from time to time. After the meal, it invisibly brought the people closer together.

Even though it was just a meal, it was a good start for a good relationship. When they met again, it would be easier to open a conversation.

In the end, almost everything in the five lunch boxes was wiped out by An Xumo, but because Zhou Jinchen was with him, he ate a lot less than usual, and there was still a lot of stuff left in each lunch box.

Zhou Jinchen, who was eating with him, didn’t eat anything else except for the fried egg. Since no one paid attention to him when he finally finished his lunch, others only thought that the two of them had eaten a lot together, and no one was suspicious of An Xumo’s appetite.

After lunch, there was still half an hour before the afternoon work started. Several people started to pack up their things on the table, preparing to go down and read the script and the like. An Xumo helped Zhou Jinchen pack up a few lunch boxes, and Zhou Jinchen called in an assistant to help put the lunch boxes away.

At the end of the day, when no one else was paying attention, An Xumo suddenly heard the words.

“The soup will be returned to you next time.”

When he looked up, he saw that the man had already packed up his things and was wiping his hands with wet wipes. When he saw An Xumo looking over, Zhou Jinchen seemed as if the person who had just spoken was not him at all, and he didn’t even give any explanation for that sentence.

The man just said, “It’s time to go.”

An Xumo hurriedly threw the lunchbox in the trash bin.

There was no need to return it, he thought, as he was now more satisfied than drinking a whole box of hot papaya rib soup alone.

When An Xumo turned around, Zhou Jinchen was standing there talking to Lin Rui, the corner of his eyes swept over, and raised his chin, motioning him.

“Hurry up.”

“Coming!” An Xumo responded and followed quickly.

•·················•·················•

The author has something to say:

Let’s carve it with one arrow, five, six, seven, or eight. Not only let everything into his younger brother’s stomach but also did not let everyone doubt his appetite. Gave his younger brother earn the goodwill of the Ma father and son, but also helped the actors get to know his younger brother…..

Older brother’s condition is still in the same state. When he really has feelings and plans to chase Xiao Mo…..hehe.

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

This chapter was a bit dizzying to translate. I apologize in advance for any errors and confusing parts (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Unedited.

•·················•·················•

Chapter 36 – Caught eating at the scene¹RAW: 偷吃现场被捕捉。WELP. Not sure.

An Xumo’s injury is nothing serious, but because of the frequent nausea and dizziness, he still needs to take his time to heal. Fortunately, there are no extra activities these days, and it’s rare for An Xumo to have free time to take a break.

Rest and recuperate, but the preparation that needs to be done cannot be left behind. For his role as a ballet dancer, An Xumo has been doing dance training and body control for quite some time. Even though he was recovering from an injury, he couldn’t give up on these things.

Tang Tang asked for a new recipe from the company’s nutritionist to help An Xumo, who couldn’t do strenuous exercise, to keep his body in shape. Because of what the doctor said about An Xumo’s poor absorption, Tang Tang no longer worried about her artist gaining weight and he had to take his time to control his appetite. As for now, An Xumo is still living a good life with enough to eat and drink.

After returning from the hospital, An Xumo’s daily schedule is limited to three things: yoga, food, and movies.

The person in charge of yoga training is also a teacher of Jin Dian. She looks at least thirty years old, and her temperament is very gentle, and she looks at these young artists as if she’s looking at her own junior. Because of his young age, good attitude, and strong flexibility, An Xumo is particularly liked by the yoga teacher, who would often let the boy try new moves to help him continue to improve his flexibility. It was that the moves were too difficult which made An Xumo respect her and want to avoid her. If it weren’t for the injury at the back of his head, he wouldn’t have been able to be relaxed as he is now.

With yoga to keep his body in shape, An Xumo is not restricted in eating. However, to Tang Tang’s surprise, after coming back from the hospital, An Xumo’s appetite decreased significantly. Although each meal still needs to be prepared according to the nutritionist’s recommended package of two to three servings but compared to the horrible amount of food before, Tang Tang has begun to chase An Xumo every day to ask if he has eaten enough.

Tang Tang thought it was the aftermath of a mild concussion that had affected the boy’s appetite. But An Xumo himself knew that this was not the cause of the illness.

When he was sick in the past, An Xumo was not taken care of. The patient’s emotions are also very vulnerable. On a few occasions when he recuperated, An Xumo had eaten more than usual. But this time it was different. This time he was sick……An Xumo dreamt of his brother.

A very satisfying dream, enough to fill the hunger for a good period of time.

As for the rest of the movie watching, An Xumo also slowly adjusted his attitude. After taking the pressure off his shoulders for a short period of time, this kind of watching and learning gradually made new progress. Later on, An Xumo even sent a WeChat message to his acting teacher, trying to ask him what he had learned over the past few days.

Although An Xumo’s performance in the acting class was not very good, the teacher could feel his serious attitude. No teacher would dislike a student who is serious and diligent, and the acting teacher was quick to reply, giving An Xumo instructions and explanations by voice.

The peaceful life slipped by like running water. Half a month later, the new film, 《Different Roads》 directed by the famous domestic director Ma Mingcheng was officially launched. After he singlehandedly cultivated five film emperors, he was originally a gold-lettered signboard.²金字招牌: a good analogy of reputation. When the two lead actors of the film were announced, it set off a heated discussion inside and outside the entertainment circle.

For no other reason, Ma Lao chose a movie that uses a rare double male lead theme. The two leading actors are none other than Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui, who had just became acquainted with 《The Scarecrow》.

As soon as the official news came out, the movie, which has yet to start shooting, immediately appeared on the hot topic list.

Who are Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui? One is the new movie star at the Wutong Awards and the other is the best male lead at the White Birch Awards, which alone can carry the male lead. As a result, at this time, they are actually together in the same movie! If the previous discussion of 《The Scarecrow》 is more related to each of them individually, then this 《Different Roads》 share of the two film emperors has become the biggest attraction. This is a double film emperor package, one movie ticket is worth two movie tickets.

What’s more interesting is that the director of 《The Scarecrow》, Ma Zechi is the son of the great director Ma Mingcheng, who is said to have recommended the two lead actors to his father. Although these tidbits³花边信息: it’s actually lace information which generally refers to news that seduces reader’s curiosity. It can also be called ‘entertainment news’ or ‘gossip news’ though. I also saw that it also means ‘tidbits’ and I think it suits in this context? If not, let me know~ of information have nothing to do with the movie itself, there will be heat if there’s a topic. These interesting details have increased people’s expectations for the film 《Different Roads》.

Unlike the first announcement of the two protagonists, the official Weibo of the film’s 《Different Roads》 started with the supporting characters when it released make-up photos and official posters. The addition of several veteran actors and actresses will give passersby a better impression of the film. The Royal Guards,⁴Jinchen’s fandom name in case you forgot~ who have been waiting for the main character to show up for a long time have also left comments on the official Weibo post.

Different Roads Movie V: If you go on different roads, who will go back with you? Countdown to the tenth day of production of the movie 《Different Roads》. Uncle Qian @ActorQianLingyuan_ single poster released! 【Celebration】 【Cheers】 【Looking forward】 【Picture Link】

In the comments:

Mr. Zhou’s Bowl: #Different Roads Movie #10 days countdown to the start of the production of 《Different Roads》. Looking forward to Uncle Qian’s role, wishing the new film a big fire⁵big hit 【Heart】

I’m Eating Less and Watch You Clean The Bowl: Wow, Uncle Qian is actually there. I’m looking forward to the movie even more! Hurry up and start filming! 【Looking forward】 【Looking forward】 【Looking forward】

Did You Peel The Shrimp Today: Ah ah ah ah ah can’t wait! Cheers to Uncle Qian! Add fire to the movie! Call Mr. Protagonist who hasn’t shown up yet! #Different Roads Movie# #Different Roads Zhou Jinchen

Zhou Jinchen’s fans have always been well-organized. Even if they leave comments for movies starring Zhou Jinchen, they also know how to keep balance and will not steal the limelight of the supporting actors. There is a big fan control field, and the comments are harmonious. Although the comment users are wearing a portrait of Zhou Jinchen, at a glance, they are also cheering for the actors posted in the posters.

The main person hasn’t shown up yet, and the fans are already helping him with all kinds of movie-related data.

The other actor, Lin Rui, is a little less attractive than Zhou Jinchen, who is a natural beauty. However, if you look at the entertainment industry, there are also a few male artists who can compete with Zhou Jinchen head-on with their looks. Bringing out Lin Rui alone, in fact, he also has a gentle and charming appearance. He was only one year older than Zhou Jinchen when he was a film emperor. Over the years, he has accumulated a number of long-term fans and the favor of many passersby.

Although the double male lead is always inevitable from the controversy that the two leads are compared, the uniqueness of the movie 《Different Roads》 is that its biggest signature is Ma Mingcheng, rather than the invited big-named actors. In this way, it is unlikely that the two leads will be singled out to carry the box office. Both Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui’s fans willingly took a back seat, hoping that their own male idol will have a good performance in the film and deal well with Ma Lao outside of the film.

And although Lin Rui looks good, he has always followed an orthodox actor route, and he is different from Zhou Jinchen in terms of the direction of development. The two do not have a problem with being compared directly. Coupled with their previous collaboration in 《The Scarecrow》, in the midst of the fierce rivalry for the title, Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui’s fans actually formed a kind of short-term peace.

A week after the Royal Guards added comments to the content of the official Weibo of 《Different Roads》, the third day before the opening ceremony, the data skyrocketed in a new Weibo posted by @Different Roads Movie. Only two hours after the Weibo was released, the average number of comments on the official Weibo exceeded 10,000 and the number of likes soared to 40,000 because of the announcement—that the newest actor is An Xumo, who is only seventeen years old.

The casting of the new film by Ma Mingcheng has always been followed by many media before. However, Ma Mingcheng has always had his own ideas, and with his current status, there are very few factors that can really threaten him anymore. According to Ma Mingcheng’s own personality, no one would be surprised if he changes the lead role a week before the filming started—because Ma Mingcheng has done it before, and he even single-handedly trained the temporary newcomer to win the Best Newcomer Award at the two major film festivals.

The media has also learned to remember that when Ma Mingcheng is directing a movie, it is enough to stir up some irrelevant information, but it’s better not to touch the important actors. Otherwise, the official news will be released at the end of the film and they will be slapped on the face one by one.

This time, not only An Xumo’s fans were surprised by his new movie, but also the media didn’t get any news about it. In fact, even if the news did come out, most of the media are unlikely to report it—Ma Mingcheng is a tough master to persuade. Who would have thought that he would use a young idol with no acting experience in his new movie?

Although An Xumo’s role is not the main character, the official release of 《Different Roads》 is obviously in order of the number of roles, and both male protagonists are still waiting for the finale. The role of An Xumo was only released on the third day of the last day. In any case, the supporting role will definitely be a part of the main line, and this role will be given to a young idol who only knows how to dance…..

The majority of the media are not very optimistic about An Xumo.

Unlike the media who were worried beforehand, the fans of An Xumo received a real surprise. Their own idol unexpectedly quietly got a big director resource. Although the identity and the role of the character are still unknown, the name “Ma Mingcheng” is an absolute guarantee.

This kind of surprise is like watching their kitten suddenly bring back a big whale, made An Xumo’s fans go into the early Chinese New Year Eve’s mode of beating the drums and gong. The related content is full of mother fans and cloud raising Mo, who are happy to draw a lucky draw and took the opportunity to sell him. There are also two well-edited gifs sent out by the big fans, which were directly transferred out of the circle, and together with today’s publicity, they gave An Xumo a new wave of fans.

The promotion of the movie is going steadily and the official team knows how to keep people in suspense. At 12 o’clock at noon on the last countdown day, the official Weibo released two single posters with completely different background colors on time. The half-body photos of Zhou Jinchen and Li Rui standing symmetrically, one with a frosty face and the other with a gentle smile. The direct and sharp contrast was shocking. In less than an hour, the number of reposts on the official Weibo exceeded 30,000.

In the series of single posters released by the official 《Different Roads》, each person’s upper left and lower right corners are respectively printed with four words as a border. The upper left is “Different Roads” and the lower right is “who will go back with you.” Interestingly, in the last two posters of the main actor, Lin Rui, who is in the second position, has printed these two words on the upper right and lower right respectively. In this way, when the official website released the posters, the half-body photos of Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui became two axisymmetric posters.

After all the single posters were released, at 6 pm on the same day, @Movie Different Roads also released a movie promotional poster. In the poster, a double exposure photo shows the side faces of the two main characters in a side profile. Not to mention the consistent genius and creativity of Ma Mingcheng’s co-poster designer, Lin Huangjun, even an ordinary person who knows nothing about the aesthetic rules of graphic design can see the bond between the two main characters at a glance.

In order to balance the Weibo posted at noon, the new content sent out at 6 pm in the evening, the official blog featured Lin Rui first. Moreover, in the posters, Lin Rui’s face is on the upper left, and Zhou Jinchen’s side face is on the lower right. In this way, the official directly revealed the meaning of not tearing up the position. Some who attempted to provoke the two main character’s fans failed to find the official’s mistakes and after a while, they were directly suppressed.

When the countdown was over, it was time for the movie to start. At the Songguo Film and Television base, not far from S City, the 《Different Roads》 crew set up a simple scene in the shooting area. Ma Mingcheng brought the main cast and crew to participate in the opening ceremony. In the cool autumn breeze, witnessed by more than a dozen media, Ma Mingcheng, the two lead actors, and the producer slowly cut the piece of pork head meat wrapped in a large red silk flower.

The movie 《Different Roads》 was officially launched.

—

On the day of the opening ceremony, An Xumo was also on the scene. However, Tang Tang told him to keep a low profile as much as possible, so as to not be caught by the media taking the opportunity to stir up topics and make Ma Lao unhappy. An Xumo stood quietly at the back of the crowd, reducing his presence the whole time. This is his strong point so that when the report finally came out, almost none of the dozen or so media outlets were able to get a good shot of his face.

Regardless of the outside concern, this was An Xumo’s first experience in filmmaking. Moreover, he stayed with the crew for the longest time except for the two lead actors. An Xumo began following the camera and watch it on the scene since the first day of shooting.

《Different Roads》 is a commercial film. The main story is about two boys who grew up together and eventually became bitter enemies. The main age group to be filmed is between sixteen and forty-five years old. Although the film will not be shot in a strict chronological order, on the first day of filming, the two lead actors were indeed dressed as teenagers.

Fortunately, Zhou Jinchen said that he is only twenty-two years old this year. On the other hand, Lin Rui’s make-up artist had to put in a lot of work. But the end result looked good, paired with Lin Rui’s own acting skills, the two protagonists standing on the set really turned into teenage boys.

An Xumo stood outside of the camera and watched, but he felt that he couldn’t get back to his senses.

Standing in front of the camera, Zhou Jinchen…..looks too much like his own memories. It was as if the seventeen years old brother was standing in front of him again.

The morning was just a trial show and no formal shooting started. The recorded video tapes will only be made into scrap film, not cut into the main film. The two lead actors are both movie stars. After two scenes, even the spare tape prepared for the NG was not used. Ma Lao, who had always been picky, didn’t say anything and released them on time.

The atmosphere on the set was peaceful, but An Xumo was a little annoyed with himself for not concentrating. He felt that he needed to work harder to learn emotional control, or else he would be affected by the time he had spent with Zhou Jinchen.

An Xumo really didn’t want to leave any bad impression on his brother. And he had promised long ago that he would try his best.

Even though that was in a dream, An Xumo didn’t want to break his promise to his brother.

During the lunch break, the crew started distributing lunch boxes. Worrying that her artist would not have enough to eat, Tang Tang also prepared another lunch for An Xumo. However, the crew still has to receive the lunch box. She has already greeted Sister Liu, and the crew has prepared one for An Xumo in advance. Otherwise, if he refuses to eat a small lunch box on the set where Ma Lao eats with him, An Xumo would have made headlines the next day.

After receiving the warm lunch box from the crew, An Xumo thanked them softly before turning back to the chair in the corner of the set. Tang Tang, wrapped in a large windbreaker, was standing there with a serious face. When she saw An Xumo approaching, Tang Tang slowly moved over and quietly took out an opaque lunch box from the inside of her slightly overstuffed coat.

The studio does not prepare meals for supporting actor’s agents and assistants, so Tang Tang can eat what she brings with her, but her purpose was clearly not to eat by herself. After sitting next to An Xumo at a small round table, Tang Tang began to observe the surrounding situation. When An Xumo opened the lunch box and took a bite of the beans, Tang Tang quickly and neatly put a chopstick filled with five or six thinly sliced beef into An Xumo’s lunch box.

“……..”

An Xumo was a little dumbfounded, but he also understood the truth of people have many mouths to feed⁶人多嘴杂: too many people complicate matters; Secrecy is difficult if too many people share it. ⁶idiom] and with his idol status, it was inevitable that he would attract controversy. Tang Tang was also thinking of him, she was cautious to the point of being a little suspicious.

“Tang Tang, you eat too.” An Xumo said.

“Okay.” Tang Tang nodded in a very obvious perfunctory manner, then took out another lunch box from the inner pocket of her windbreaker and continued to give An Xumo tender fish fillets in the lunch box when no one was looking.

They can eat at any time. Besides, these chopsticks are for An Xumo, it won’t be good if they touch them.

An Xumo touched his nose, he had no way to persuade the other party, and he could only bury his head in the food, leaving Tang Tang time to eat.

However, when Tang Tang went to get the beef slice for the second time, she suddenly paused midair.

An Xumo hurriedly picked up the sliced beef to keep it from falling. He looked up afterward only to find a slender, tall man was already standing beside him.

The set was built for the shoot covered a wide area, and outside the studio was a crisp, sunny autumn day. The autumn sunlight fell on the open space of the set, and the clear light cast a light edge over the visitor’s body.

Accordingly, the blocked sunlight also puts the man’s front face in a deep shadow.

Zhou Jinchen stood in the dark, looking down at An Xumo who is holding a lunch box in his hand. The boy was holding a lunch box with a layer of something that was not part of the regular lunch box. The standard set meal had already been covered by a large piece of thin and shiny freshly sliced beef and on top of the large beef was a round golden fried egg.

Zhou Jinchen took a look at the fried egg, the stunned An Xumo also followed the man’s gaze and looked over and saw that there was a small arc shape gap on the side of the full and attractive fried egg.

The fried egg was tender and delicious, and it was sweet inside. The gap was exactly the part that An Xumo just bit down on, and even his teeth marks were clearly exposed.

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. So there will be some typos and grammatical errors. Bear with me QAQ

•·················•·················•

Chapter 35 – Keep Sending Sweets

After Tang Tang left, Zhou Jinchen returned to the hospital room alone.

The atmosphere of the hospital is not a stranger to Zhou Jinchen. Even though he did not return to the mountains as an adult, he had never missed a visit to the hospital. It was just that he was a public figure and every time he comes, he had to put in a lot of effort to cover up, let alone would come to the hospital to take care of other people.

This time, An Xumo’s incident was purely an accident.

The small bedside lamp was dimly lit. Zhou Jinchen stood by the bed, less than a step away from him. The thin boy is sleeping sideways, his previously stretched eyebrows furrowed again.

The other party didn’t look like he was sleeping comfortably. His figure was a little too thin, his body curled up in a ball. He probably wouldn’t have been able to hold much height if he hadn’t been lying on his side, sleeping under the covers.

In a trance, the side profile that had gradually emerged and the milk dumpling in memory overlapped. An Xumo was too skinny. Although all artists who relied on their faces for a living were much thinner than average due to the need to be on camera, An Xumo was still the thinnest type of artist Zhou Jinchen had ever seen.

The way he curls up and shrinks into a ball, looking like a child, as if he was suddenly taken away after more than ten years. An Xumo turned back into that thin, little kitten following behind his older brother and calling him. He even held the edge of Zhou Jinchen’s clothes carefully, but when he held it, he can be happy for a long time, and you don’t even have to bother to coax him.

An Xumo is an example. No one else’s family has such a well-behaved younger brother.

Before the accident back then, Zhou Jinchen still had the willingness to make friends with others. Most of the people who play together are peers from similar families, which can be regarded as opening up social circles in advance. In a family like theirs basically have several brothers and sisters. The daily routine of peers getting along is like chicken flying and dogs jumping,¹鸡飞狗跳: Frighten chickens to fly and scare dogs to jump everywhere which describes panic and chaos. and quarrel to the point of no return. Some are the more they quarrel, the deeper the feelings, while some grow up with bad feelings. However, Zhou Jinchen has looked around and he has never been able to find another child like An Xumo, who is quiet and well-behaved.

Zhou Jinchen looked at the boy on the bed in silence. Only after a while did he extend his hand over, as he gently pressed his fingertips to An Xumo’s brow. The tightly wrinkled part under his fingers came in contact with the outside temperature and slowly became flat.

It wasn’t long before Zhou Jinchen felt his other fingers hanging to one side, lightly touch.

When Zhou Jinchen withdrew his hand, he saw An Xumo opened his eyes. Those black eyes still had moisture in them. The boy blinked with difficulty and softly called out again, “Brother.”

Zhou Jinchen felt that he could vaguely smell the scent of milk again.

Although he didn’t get much of a response, the boy on the bed seemed to have expected this reaction. He raised his eyes to look at Zhou Jinchen and buried his chin a little more under the covers.

An Xumo’s lips opened and closed a few times, but the sound was very soft. It took Zhou Jinchen a moment to realize what the other was saying. He looked at the person and turned to the nearby water dispenser to get warm water.

There was a disposable straw on the bedside table. Zhou Jinchen inserted the straw into the glass of water and passed it over. An Xumo lifted his chin from the blanket and opened his mouth and held the straw.

The movement of him sucking and drinking water was also very small, and together with the silent Zhou Jinchen, there was still no sound in the room despite the presence of two people in the ward. When An Xumo finished drinking, Zhou Jinchen took away the glass of water and heard someone behind him whispering, “Thank you for coming.”

Zhou Jinchen paused in his movements and put down the water cup before turning back to look at the person on the bed.

An Xumo had already closed his eyes, his fever seemed to have gone down a little, and his entire face became paler. Under the gentle light, it seemed so transparent that he could see the veins directly under the skin.

The boy whispered, his soft voice that sounded like a murmur, “Brother, I haven’t dreamt of you for a long time.”

Zhou Jinchen lightly raised his eyebrows.

An Xumo, however, couldn’t see the man’s expression, he was still keeping his eyes closed, “I’ve been studying acting lately, and I’ve been so bad at it that I don’t dare to see you in my dreams…..”

“But this time, thank you for coming……I feel much better.”

Zhou Jinchen still had the intention to interrupt him before but slowly dispelled the thought. An Xumo’s condition was not really good, and the concussion would still have a very unpleasant aftermath. Zhou Jinchen felt there was no need to irritate him any further, so he just continued to listen to the other party’s whisper.

“After I wake up, I will continue to work hard.”

Zhou Jinchen thought for a while, wondering if talking would scare people awake. After considering, he remained silent. The man walked back to stand beside the bed, then stretched out his right hand.

As if An Xumo sensed his approach, he slowly opened his eyes again. His gaze went back and forth between Zhou Jinchen’s face and hands. Although his gaze was still scattered, his eyes slightly bent.

Zhou Jinchen lent out his right hand and watched as the boy touch his palm and rubbed it slightly. He looked cautious like he would scare himself away if he moved a little too much as if it wasn’t An Xumo himself in the dream but Zhou Jinchen.

The side of An Xumo’s face was pressed against his palm, but he was careful not to put all his strength on the pillow until Zhou Jinchen felt a heaviness in his hand. He looked down again to make sure the other party had fallen back to sleep.

After waiting for a while, Zhou Jinchen slowly pulled his hand once An Xumo had fallen asleep. The temperature on An Xumo’s body was still a bit on the high, and as soon as he pulled out his palm, the constant temperature air even makes people feel a little cold.

Zhou Jinchen glanced at his right hand and lowered his eyes again to look at the sleeping boy on the bed.

A long, long time ago, he wasn’t prejudiced against this brother. However, by mistake, they were torn apart for ten years.

Ten years had passed. Zhou Jinchen’s initial shock and anger had gradually evolved into a cold indifference afterward. He has the same attitude towards everyone, and An Xumo was no exception. Reason has become the first standard instead of emotion, and getting along with each other became one of the ways to transform interests to achieve goals. Even for Zhou family, Zhou Jinchen has always been the principle of mutual benefit and non-interference.

Until Xin Zimai brought back the news that the person who had been regarded as a murderer had actually jumped to his death a long time ago. The long-standing illusion of calm was finally revealed. The physically and mentally exhausted Zhou Jinchen looked back, only to see the younger brother who had not changed but had been misunderstood by him for a long time.

It was just that they had been separated for too long, so long that Zhou Jinchen could only retrieve fragments of An Xu Mo from his fuzzy memories. Even if he felt guilty and wants to makeup, Zhou Jinchen himself had long been unaware of the ability to take care and look after others.

The only way he could think of now was to compensate An Xumo in his career.

Since the other party wants to become famous, Zhou Jinchen was also willing to give someone a hand. He himself wouldn’t be on stage for too long. When the situation improved, he might just quit the entertainment industry at the time of his fame. If the two were still on good terms by then, Zhou Jingchen wouldn’t mind leaving his resources to An Xumo.

He stood by the bedside for a while longer, until a soft knock came from outside. Zhou Jinchen walked over and opened the door. Tang Tang returned.

—

By the time An Xumo woke up, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

He had slept for a full twenty hours. If he didn’t have an IV infusion to hold him up, he would definitely feel weak when he woke up. Even so, it frightened Tang Tang who was waiting on the side.

But An Xumo himself felt that he had slept so soundly that when he woke up, he could manage to ignore the slight feeling of dizziness and nausea.

In addition to a soothing beautiful dream, An Xumo had a lot of things to deal with urgently. Naturally, An Xumo was embarrassed to have caused trouble for so many people because of what he had done. But when he proposed to go back and continue with his task, he was firmly stopped by Tang Tang.

Activities such as interviews have been pushed off. The ballet and acting teacher have taken a vacation. Tang Tang stressed three times in a row just to make An Xumo remember his most important task—to have a good rest and an early recovery.

An Xumo thought about it and said, “I think it’s fine for me to participate in the activities.”

Tang Tang slammed the table, startling Xiao Zhang, the assistant who was called in to help.

An Xumo hurriedly said it was alright. Xiao Zhang picked up the sliced apple peel on the ground and continued to earnestly peel the remaining half.

Tang Tang said, “The point is not the current activity!”

“That is?” An Xumo asked along, but he had other concerns, “I haven’t finished my acting classes…..”

“Acting lessons are not the priority either.” Tang Tang shook her finger. She took her phone and pulled up a chat, and showed the screen to An Xumo, “Look.”

When An Xumo received the phone, he saw on the screen was a chat interface between Tang Tang and a person noted as Sister Liu, a member of Ma Lao crew. She was the one who notified that An Xumo passed the audition before.

An Xumo read it twice before confirming. He was slightly stunned, “Let me……enter the group early?”

“Yes,” Tang Tang nodded. “Sister Liu said that you have no acting experience, and Ma Lao is demanding on this supporting role, so she asked you to enter the group early and go to the set to see how the others are filming.”

An Xumo’s eyes suddenly lit up, “Really?”

He remembered another thing after getting excited, “Then, will it delay other activities and such……?”

Although An Xumo didn’t have much enthusiasm for everything except meeting his brother, he never put off the work that should be done. He should have a sense of responsibility and will not waiver from the bottom line.

Surprisingly, Tang Tang directly waved her hand and said, “In order to prepare for the film, we haven’t taken on too many activities recently. The more promising plans are all long-term contracts, there’s no rush to execute the contract after you’ve finished filming.”

“Xiao Mo, you can concentrate on filming during this time.” Tang Tang said sincerely,²语重心长: meaningful and heartfelt words (idiom); sincere and earnest wishes. “Ma Lao is one of the most famous directors in China. You can definitely learn a lot of things with him.”

An Xumo paused, then smiled, “Okay.”

He was naturally happy, not only because of the advanced group could he learn a lot about acting, but also because he would be able to watch Zhou Jinchen for a few more days.

“But the necessary exposure still cannot be less,” Tang Tang suddenly turned around and ran to Xiao Zhang to bring An Xumo’s phone, scaring Xiao Zhang that he broke the rest of the apple peel.

Tang Tang handed the phone and apple together to An Xumo and stood beside the bed, “Come on. Post on Weibo, once a week is here again.”

An Xumo took the apple helplessly. He looked around, “But I’m in the ward now. It’s not easy to take photos, right?”

Tang Tang thought for a while and said, “Otherwise, you can use the previous selfie from your phone or just send a text?”

How can An Xumo have any selfies. The most he has on his phone are only gifs of Zhou Jinchen saved from the internet. If he really sends it out, it will be great.

He thought about it, opened Weibo to bring up the interface, directly input a good sentence, and set the timing.

An Xumo’s fans are already quite impressive. He didn’t have to go through any advance planning by his team to send Weibo, most of it was his own content. It was precisely for this reason that Tang Tang did not directly do it on his behalf, but instead urged him to send it every time.

This new Weibo is An Xumo’s own thoughts, but because of the timing, it wasn’t until 9pm that An Xumo’s Weibo page showed this content.

An Xumo momo: It’s the weekend, I wish you a good night’s sleep. [sleepy] [goodnight] [moon]

It was the happiest thing that An Xumo could share in the last few days.

•·················•·················•

The author has something to say:

After reading the comments, I answered a few questions:

1. Both brother and Xiao Mo have a lack of emotion, but the causes are completely different and the way they express is not the same. The whole story is a mutual healing process~

2. The golden finger refers to the career line. The development routes of the brother and Xiao Mo is ideal, and Xiao Mo’s upgrade will definitely be a little more cooler. His brother is basically full level, and all that’s left depends on Xiao Mo.

3. The relationship lines are sweet and sour, there will be enough aching and sweetness. Don’t worry-3-

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations. 

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. There will be grammatical errors and typos. Feel free to point them out~

•·················•·················•

Chapter 34 – The two get along a little sweet

Tang Tang stood three meters away from the hospital bed, rejoicing that she had insisted on coming to a two-person ward with no other patient present. She felt her cold sweat sliding down on the back of her neck into her collar.

“Bro, brother…?”

She even began to think that the empty bed in this two-person wards was most likely for herself.

Tang Tang was five years older than An Xumo, but because he went to school early, the two of them were only two grades apart in middle school at first. They first met at the start of the club activities. Tang Tang has a cheerful personality and a lively mind. Although she was only exchanged at school for a month, she soon made friends quickly. This is Tang Tang’s strength and also her preference. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come to Jin Dian right after her graduation. Instead of being a star, she wanted to be an agent.

The boy’s height was normal compared to his peers, but his body looked a bit too thin. It was unlikely that there were students in this school who were poor that they couldn’t afford to eat. Only after a long time had passed did she hear some vague rumors about An Xumo.

Although almost the vast majority of people in school knew of An Xumo’s identity, they wouldn’t give the details directly to Tang Tang who had only been an exchange for a month. Tang Tang only knew that An Xumo was the illegitimate son of some big family. She was only an exchange student and didn’t care much about the small groups in school, that’s why Tang Tang reached out and became An Xumo’s first friend.

After Tang Tang finished the exchange and returned to her original school, there was still contact between the two, but they never saw each other again. It wasn’t until half a year after she came to Jin Dian that An Xumo suddenly approached her and said he wanted to sign a contract as a trainee. Thus, the two of them re-established their current relationship.

In consideration of An Xumo’s mood, Tang Tang never asked about his family background. She only reported the extremely strange background information of “no father, no mather, no guardian” to the company, but she actually had some premonition in her heart. Later, when Xin Zimai came forward to give An Xumo the resources of “Sunny Weekend”, Tang Tang felt something was even more wrong. Although An Xumo’s appearance has great potential and his strength was undoubtedly good, he was still a newcomer who hadn’t officially debuted. Such good resources will not fall into his hands.

An Xumo didn’t say it and Tang Tang never questioned it. When she saw An Xumo’s admiration and respect for Zhou Jinchen, Tang Tang didn’t dare describe it. It was only when An Xumo really called out the name “brother” that she was able to confirm the true identity between the two.

This new film emperor, who has been famous for a long time and had an amazing flow is actually her own artist’s……brother.

Tang Tang was not sure why An Xumo had been hiding his identity, but she had learned a little about Zhou Jinchen’s background before. Remembering about the rumor that An Xumo was an illegitimate son of a powerful family, thinking that these two in front were definitely not the relationship of brother and younger brother in an ordinary family.

Their hidden relationship has been revealed by a dazed An Xumo. Tang Tang’s first reaction when she heard the breaking news was by no means excitement. She’s an agent and does not work part-time as a paparazzi. No matter how she thinks about it, it makes people more uneasy.

And looking at Brother Zhou’s attitude towards Xiao Mo before, there’s absolutely no way to describe it as close. Coupled with Zhou Jinchen’s long-standing “famous” difficult to get close….Tang Tang is really worried the other party will just throw his face and leave on the spot.

However, compared to Tang Tang who was so nervous that she was sweating, Zhou Jinchen’s reaction was much calmer.

He was neither disgusted nor impatient as Tang Tang imagined, nor was he nervous and uneasy because of An Xumo’s whispers. Zhou Jinchen stood by the hospital bed and looked down at the boy with half of his face in his hands. His face still had no expression, but he hadn’t taken his right hand back that was being pressed down.

An Xumo was a little feverish, and the hospital had given him an infusion bag. The side of his face that was rested on his hand was soft and hot, like a ball of freshly steamed soft bread that was still continuing to emit a thick, and milky aroma.

Zhou Jinchen glanced down. The boy moved quietly and closed his eyes again after softly murmuring about feeling sick. He should be feeling uncomfortable right now, a mild concussion plus a low-grade fever, and even the wetness oozing out of his eyelashes could be seen. But after pressing the right hand that was outstretched, he spread out his furrowed brow bit by bit under Zhou Jinchen’s gaze.

Zhou Jinchen had done a detailed psychological analysis before when he played 《The Scarecrow》. Lin Mai was insecure due to his parent’s quarrels and neglect since childhood, he had to hug a pillow at night in order to sleep. After that, he worked hard and started a family. His wife was uncomfortable with him tightly hugging a pillow and did not want him to hold a pillow to occupy space. Lin Mai could not adapt to the empty arms. The conflict between the two people was this trivial matter.

An Xumo and Lin Mai were almost nothing alike, but Zhou Jinchen felt that for no reason, his hand seemed to be the pillow An Xumo craved for.

A mild concussion wasn’t severe, but the patient would definitely have a very uncomfortable period after waking up. Rather than letting An Xumo wake up uncomfortable, it was better to let him continue to sleep for a while.

It was only after An Xumo had fallen asleep again that Zhou Jinchen slowly withdrew his right hand. He lightly held An Xumo’s side face, slowly adjusting the person’s position to avoid him pressing on the wound behind his head, and placed the side face back on the pillow. The pillow in the hospital was so thick that half of his face sank when he fell asleep. If it wasn’t for the fever that gave some redness, An Xumo’s face would have been paler than the pillow.

Tang Tang was watching them from the other side of the ward, Zhou Jinchen’s figure blocked An Xumo on the bed. He still had his usual expressionless face, but Tang Tang felt that when Zhou Jinchen moved, the light that was spreading down above his head seemed to have finally worked a little, making this man no longer look like a tall, cold, and hard statue.

At the very least, he wasn’t cold to An Xumo.

After Zhou Jinchen moved away from the bedside, the doctor who made rounds happened to see the room just in time. Tang Tang hurriedly asked Dr. Qing to take a look at An Xumo to see if there is no needle running. He just seemed to hold himself up and lay back down again.

Fortunately, An Xumo’s movement was not too big, and the needle was still in the veins on the back of his hand. The doctor gave a brief check again and advised to keep him warm, not to move around, and so on. And for the rest, just wait for the infusion to finish.

However, when the doctor was about to leave, Zhou Jinchen called out to him at the door.

Zhou Jinchen wanted to ask about An Xumo’s indigestion. It just so happen that the doctor’s office was nearby, and An Xumo was the last ward he had to check. He and Zhou Jinchen went to the office together. Tang Tang originally wanted to stay and take care of An Xumo, but there were some things Zhou Jinchen didn’t understand and needed to ask her. Besides, An Xumo had just fallen asleep, so she turned off the ward’s headlights and followed along.

The doctor pulled out the examination report from the bag and placed it on the table. He motioned Zhou Jinchen and Tang Tang on the chairs by the table before starting to read the report in his hand.

Zhou Jinchen didn’t wear sunglasses anymore, instead, he changed into a pair of black-rimmed glasses as a disguise. However, he looked too imposing that it didn’t look too rigid in his black-rimmed glasses. He was only able to fool people who weren’t familiar with the entertainment industry.

It just so happened that this doctor seemed to fall right into the category of someone unfamiliar with the entertainment industry. He placed the examination report on the table, crossed his fingers under the stethoscope on his chest, and said, “There is a problem with the digestive function of the patient’s intestines and stomach. His absorption capacity is not too good, and he can’t convert the food he eats into energy he needs.”

Tang Tang anxiously said, “Is it because of the stress? Or something else…..”

The doctor shook his head, “No, he should be born with this condition. Not absorbing well and not being able to put on weight.”

This kind of physique sounded tempting. It’s probably the kind that all girls couldn’t help but be moved. However, if it really turned out to be true, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

“It’s not just poor absorption, his entire digestive system is fragile and more prone to pathological changes than ordinary people, thus, special attention is needed. On the other hand, because of the limited degree of absorption, the energy supplied to the body is insufficient. The patient’s immune system is also affected.”

“But there is no good way to change his constitution. You can only pay more attention to it at ordinary times. Raw and spicy food should be limited, otherwise, the patient’s stomach will easily have problems.”

Finally, the doctor added, “However, the patient’s concussion was caused by himself. It has nothing to do with digestive problems. You should pay attention and not let him eat spicy food. It should be fine to take a few more days off. We will talk about other conditions.”

After the doctor finished speaking, Zhou Jinchen, who was silent on the side, suddenly spoke up, “If the absorption is not good, will it lead to eating too much?”

“Huh?” The doctor was stunned for a moment then waved his hand, “Indigestion and poor absorption usually go together, but that doesn’t mean the patient will eat more. Because of the failure to digest smoothly, his digestive organs don’t transmit hunger on time. He feels bloated and uncomfortable when he eats too much instead.”

“This is somewhat similar to being sick with no appetite, but to a lesser degree. It is in the case of the body’s need for energy, but this need is not converted into a feeling of hunger. Even if the patient has no energy, he doesn’t want to eat much.”

After the doctor explained, Tang Tang and Zhou Jinchen thought of the same problem at the same time—then why does An Xumo still eat so much?

When it comes to really eating in recent years, Zhou Jinchen actually only ate with An Xumo once when he invited him last time to a buffet. Although there were instances of eating together during the recording of 《Sunny Weekend》, An Xumo’s finger was injured at that time. In addition to Zhang Zhiwei’s cooking, the director team specially prepared another meal for An Xumo to make up a little off-cam. Zhou Jinchen didn’t pay special attention at that time, so he wasn’t clear about how much he really ate.

In the end, it was Tang Tang who inquired, “But Xiao Mo’s usual appetite is quite good……”

The doctor didn’t care too much, “That’s normal. Everyone is different and cannot be generalized. It’s good to be able to eat, just be careful not to eat too much. Otherwise, it will increase the burden on the stomach and intestines. In the end, it will still affect the body.”

Tang Tang simply wanted to cry without tears. The problem is her artist seems to have eaten too much……

Zhou Jinchen on the side said, “A single serving of sour soup and fatty beef, two deep-fried fresh milk, sweet and sour short ribs, a sixteen-inch pizza, plus seafood and soup….is this regarded as eating too much?

The doctor looked over with an odd look on his face as if he were looking at a real patient, “Isn’t that a lot? Who can eat this, Big Stomach King?”¹大胃王: I looked it up and apparently, big stomach king is a movie. When I searched it also showed up mukbang videos.

Zhou Jinchen looked sideways at Tang Tang, who raised her hand to wipe her forehead and whispered, “This is Xiao Mo, his appetite…..”

The doctor was obviously not quite convinced, “He eats irregularly? Often hungry for a full meal?”

Tang Tang shook his head, “No, basically every meal is almost like these…..”

The doctor couldn’t relate An Xumo’s small body with this appetite. He couldn’t help but hold his glasses and carefully sized up Zhou Jinchen and Tang Tang once more. Finally, his gaze fell on Zhou Jinchen and frowned, “This gentleman, I think you are a bit familiar.”

Zhou Jinchen was neither nervous about being recognized, nor doubted as the doctor changed the subject. He looked towards the doctor and waited for the other to finish the next part of his sentence.

But even Tang Tang, who was mentally prepared, did not expect that the doctor’s words would actually be, “Which live broadcast platform are you a host of?”

“…….”

Tang Tang: “???”

The doctor seemed to have discovered the truth, “Is this what the patient in sixth bed does? That’s what it is….oh yes, Big Stomach King, does he earn money by eating on live broadcast? He grows thin and eats too much without getting fat. Therefore, eating as much as you can to attract people to come and see?”

“If you don’t have this condition, don’t follow the same path as others. Look at the child lying on the bed, his face is so white and you still let him earn money in this way? His stomach and intestines simply can’t withstand this kind of torment….”

Seeing the expression of the man beside her becoming more and more inscrutable, Tang Tang, who was being scolded together, could only interrupt with a dry smile. “It’s not like that, doctor. We’re not doing a live broadcast.”

In the doctor’s expression full of suspicion, Tang Tang braced herself and explained, “Xiao Mo is a dancer. He usually trains a lot. We are worried that he can’t keep up with the nutrition so we didn’t restrict his diet…..”

“Eh, this, I’m sorry, ah. I recognized the wrong person.” The doctor held his glasses down again, only then did he take his eyes off Zhou Jinchen. He frowned, “But this amount of food….isn’t quite normal either. Does the patient usually have any stomach pains or other reactions?”

Zhou Jinchen also looked over, and Tang Tang felt her cold sweat coming out again. She had just felt in the ward that Zhou Jinchen looked a little more human, but now she can’t wait to pack herself back into the nanny car.²I think I also encountered the word nanny car before but I wasn’t able to give an explanation. Basically, it’s a car with more than 7 seats. It also refers to a car that is specially designed for the bosses to cook, makeup, and style, because the car can be like a nanny. Stars provide daily activities, so they are called nanny cars.

Ask your eyes!³RAW: 让你眼睛！I’m really confused with this one. QAQ.

Unspoken criticism aside,⁴腹诽归腹诽: I asked online and they told me that 腹诽 is roughly translated as unspoken criticism. Thus, “unspoken criticism is returned more with unspoken criticism.” Idk if it was right to shorten it, but yeah. Here’s also another meaning to it: Having slander in the heart refers to dissatisfaction in the heart, but does not say it when there are opinions, but only mutters in the heart. I hope you get the gist of it QAQ. I apologize. the question still needs to be answered. Tang Tang wiped her forehead again, “There should be no such thing… Xiao Mo didn’t mention it.”

The doctor frowned again at the examination report on the table, “It may be that he’s usually tired, plus, he’s growing in p***rty. That’s why he’s eating more.”

“But he’s still not very settled with this amount of food.” The doctor shook his head, “Not to mention that it’s a natural digestive problem, even an ordinary person’s stomach wouldn’t be able to take it if he ate this way. He’s still young, so he may not see anything, but it’s very likely that it will sow the seeds of illness in the future.”

Zhou Jinchen asked, “Does he need to control his eating?”

The doctor said, “If he has been accustomed to this kind of appetite, and his body has adapted to such a large amount, a drastic reduction could have an adverse reaction. This matter can’t be rushed.”

“However, the patient needs to rest and recuperate this time, he may not eat as much as he used to because of concussion, nausea, and other problems. You can take this opportunity to help him reduce the amount of food he eats step by step.” The doctor said, “There is no need to rush. Just take it slowly. The patient is young now, his body has no major problems. His recovery ability is stronger, just pay more attention.”

Tang Tang was busy nodding her head to take down the doctor’s words. She asked about some taboos and the like, before the two people retired from the office.

It was already late at night. Only the white lights remained in the corridor, and there was no one else passing by. Tang Tang originally thought that the two people were going back to the ward, but Zhou Jinchen pushed the door to take a look inside, making sure An Xumo wasn’t awake and closed the door again.

Tang Tang, who had been shut the door together, suddenly felt that her collar where she had just been drenched in cold sweat felt even colder.

Zhou Jinchen turned to look at Tang Tang. He was nearly one and nine meters tall. She didn’t notice anything on the screen, but she felt absolutely oppressive when facing the real person. Zhou Jinchen asked, “You said before that he was stressed. What’s the matter?”

Tang Tang reacted before remembering what she said to the doctor about stress, “Ah, it’s just that Xiao Mo has been preparing for the film of Ma Lao. Besides ballet training, he’s also taking acting classes. However, his acting classes don’t seem to be going too well. I’ve asked him a few times and he seems to have encountered some obstacles….”

“Hmm.” Zhou Jinchen responded and said, “Does he have any other important activities lately?”

Tang Tang bowed her head and flip through the schedule. Zhou Jinchen reminded, “Attending variety shows or attending parties and such.”

Tang Tang said, “It’s more about attending various events, as well as advertising endorsements….”

Zhou Jinchen said, “Those that aren’t set will be delayed first and those that are will be sent to Xin Zimai for him to solve, and let An Xumo recuperate himself.”

An Xumo doesn’t have the right to refuse at will right now. He doesn’t have enough capital.

Tang Tang nodded in response and hesitantly said, “Then, those classes for ballet and acting……”

“The ballet will be stopped for a few days. He can’t do strenuous activities right now.” Zhou Jinchen paused and said, “As for acting, let him enter the group early.”

Although An Xumo’s character is male four, Ma Lao wants to make a double male lead movie. Other than the main character, the other supporting characters were basically the same. It wouldn’t take too long for them to enter the group. According to the original plan, he would enter the group until half a month after the filming began.

Zhou Jinchen said in a faint voice, “Stay on the set for a few weeks and stop the acting classes for now.”

Tang Tang was stunned at first, then hastily nodded, “Okay!”

An Xumo had other activities to participate in, but honestly, with where he is right now, a hundred activities combined wouldn’t probably be as important as one Ma Lao’s film. Entering the group early was by no means a loss for An Xumo. On the contrary, it was an excellent treatment.

Tang Tang genuinely said, “Thank you, Brother Zhou!”

Zhou Jinchen waved his hand and said, “You go back first.”

Tang Tang was stunned:”…..Ah? “

Zhou Jinchen glance at her, “Go get An Xumo’s clothes. Be careful not to be photographed.”

“Yes, yes,” Tang Tang was now truly convinced that Brother Zhou is a good person. “I’ll go right away!”

But she quickly thought again, “Then, Xiao Mo’s here……”

Tang Tang thought that Zhou Jinchen also had to leave. After all, the other party didn’t seem like a leisurely person. Although An Xumo was busy, his busyness was absolutely nothing compared to Zhou Jinchen’s.

But in this case, no one would have taken care of Xiao Mo by the time she returned.

Tang Tang suggested, “Should I get a nurse first?”

Zhou Jinchen shook his head. “The fewer people know about his illness, the better. Bring the clothes and go back to rest after the infusion.”

After all, An Xumo had recently been considered a regular on all major pages. Even though it was now late at night, it was still necessary to be vigilant.

Tang Tang also reacted, she was distress. However, she heard Zhou Jinchen say, “I’ll watch here for a while. Go back quickly.”

•·················•·················•

The author has something to say:

The next thing to write is the brother and Xiao Mo’s time alone + the making of the movie!

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. So there will be some typos and grammatical errors. Bear with me QAQ

Short chapter~

•·················•·················•

Chapter 33 – Tearful An Xiao Mo

After An Xumo fainted, the ballet teacher quickly informed Xin Zimai who transferred him to the training. Xin Zimai just happened to be working overtime in the company. The office building and practice area of Jin Dian are connected to the two buildings where you can walk over directly to one floor. When Xin Zimai came over, even Tang Tang hasn’t rushed over yet.

An Xumo’s condition wasn’t so good. He knocked the back of his head on the handrail of the treadmill when he fell, and the noise was enough to make people feel scared. The ballet teacher didn’t dare to move him easily, so he laid a mat on the floor and carefully turned the person off the treadmill. He even found some new towels to cover An Xumo.

The boy’s face was frighteningly white, and even his lips were bloodless as if he had applied a white foundation.

After listening to the ballet teacher’s story, Xin Zimai’s heart sank. He raised his hand cautiously and touched the back of An Xumo’s head. He felt an obvious bump under the soft hair of the other party.

Tang Tang rushed over at that moment. She was stunned when she heard An Xumo hit his head. She almost didn’t dial the emergency number directly, but Xin Zimai stopped her from getting the call through.

There are cameras guarding all around Jin Dian. If an ambulance came, it would make the headlines that night. Xin Zimai and the ballet teacher carried An Xumo downstairs. Tang Tang ran back to get a long thick down jacket. It was already late autumn, the temperature at night was not small.

The company building was brightly lit, and carrying an unconscious person down would inevitably cause people to glance at him. Fortunately, it’s not too early now. A few people went off the elevator, and they walked through the side door so it didn’t attract much attention.

Xin Zimai himself had other work to do and it was not a good idea to trouble the ballet teacher to follow him over. He first asked the teacher to go home from work and waited for Tang Tang to follow the driver on duty and take An Xumo to the hospital. He hesitated for a moment and dialed Zhou Jinchen’s phone.

Zhou Jinchen was busy with the investment company, but he picked up the phone quickly. After Xin Zimai finished telling the story, he heard the man over there say, “Which hospital?”

Xin Zimai said, “Linshan Hospital.”

This was also the hospital affiliated with the university where Li Qiucheng was.

There was a pause on the phone. Zhou Jinchen seemed to be talking to the person next to him, after a while, his voice became clear again, “I’ll go and have a look.”

Xin Zimai was taken aback, “…..Are you done with your work?”

This approach is really not like Zhou Jinchen’s style.

Zhou Jinchen said, “Qiucheng said that my re-examination report is out. I’ll stop by to get it back.”

Xin Zimai was just about to respond when he heard Zhou Jinchen say, “Come over here after you finished your work in Jin Dian, there must be someone to finish up here.”

Xin Zimai: “……” Where’s the labor union? He wants to complain about the excessive exploitation of labor.

Zhou Jinchen seemed to hear his thoughts, so he added, “Otherwise, you go to the hospital and bring back the report?”

Xin Zimai is avoiding Li Qiucheng these two days. How could he take the initiative to send himself to the door, “No, no. You go first, I’ll go over once I’m done here.”

As soon as he hung up the phone, he received another text message from Li Qiucheng. Looking at the other party’s usual indifferent tone, Xin Zimai finally couldn’t resist and swiped right to delete the message prompt.

See the last task of this crafty premarital task….Who would agree to do something like that!¹Raw: 见了鬼的婚前任务最后一项……谁会同意去做那种事！I’m not really sure on the first part~

Let Li Qiucheng play by himself. He is very busy and has to work overtime for at least twenty days without going back.

At least twenty days!

Throwing the matter to Xin Zimai, who was in pain but volunteered to work overtime, Zhou Jinchen quickly rushed to the hospital. After the temperature dropped, the disguise of going out became less conspicuous. Zhou Jinchen took a mask and sunglasses to get his re-examination report and went to the ward where An Xumo was in the message forwarded by Xin Zimai.

Li Qiucheng was not there, Zhou Jinchen took the report back first and waited for some time to get a specific analysis. However, when he arrived at An Xumo’s ward, he saw another diagnostic report from Tang Tang.

“Concussion?” Zhou Jinchen took the result from Tang Tang’s hand and raised his hand to take off his sunglasses, “How did he fall?”

Tang Tang recounted the process she heard from the ballet teacher. Zhou Jinchen frowned after hearing it and said, “Where is An Xumo’s schedule? Show me.”

When she came in a hurry, Tang Tang took nothing but her phone and down jacket, but she had a spreadsheet on her phone, thus, she sent the schedule for the last week to Zhou Jinchen.

Zhou Jinchen looked at the screen and his face became more and more uncertain. He put down his phone and looked at Tang Tang, “Who made the course plan?”

Tang Tang was frightened by him. She was already a little flustered because of An Xumo’s fainting and stuttered even more when Zhou Jinchen asked her, “Me, I reported it to Director Xin.”

Zhou Jinchen asked, “From 6 am to 11 pm, besides course training, there are activities to attend, catch up to four announcements in three days, and eight classes per day. This kind of high-intensity plan was really approved by Xin Zimai?”

Tang Tang has never heard Zhou Jinchen say such a long sentence, she said with a bitter expression, “The original plan was to……to cancel the course as soon as he was notified, but after An Xumo came back…..he made up the classes again……”

Zhou Jinchen was about to say something, but he suddenly stopped and turned his head toward the boy sleeping on the bed.

Tang Tang also followed his line of sight and saw that the boy who had been sleeping had opened his eyes.

“…..Xiao Mo!”

—

An Xumo didn’t sleep well, he felt as if his chest was heavily pressed by something, and he felt sick even when he breathed. There was still something banging desperately in his head, his ears were ringing, and it was barely possible to hear a little extra sound.

“…..Mild concussion….gastrointestinal digestion….unsuitable….”

He could vaguely hear a bit of Tang Tang’s anxious voice, but it was hard to hear what the other was saying. An Xumo wondered if he should get up, there was a new training session coming up soon. But he was never able to wake up, something behind him was tugging him, and pulling him into the endless darkness bit by bit.

It wasn’t until a familiar deep male voice appeared in his ears that An Xumo gave up his desire to open his eyes.

It turned out I was dreaming, and I dreamed of my brother again. An Xumo thought vaguely that the alarm clock hadn’t gone off yet, he could probably sleep a little longer.

After a while, An Xumo somewhat felt that he had slept for a bit too long. Since signing with Jin Dian, he has never had the opportunity to stay in bed. It’s time to get up when he closes his eyes and opens them again. An Xumo was worried that he would retreat, but in the end, he tried to roll over and sit up from the bed.

As a result, as soon as he exerted himself, there was a stabbing pain in his right hand, and the body he was trying to hold up lost strength and fell back, knocking the back of his head that was already stuffy and painful making it even worse.

“Um….”

An Xumo opened his eyes but he felt like he couldn’t see anything clearly, in front of him was white and full of stars.

The pain brought out tears in his eyes, blurring his vision in front of him even more until a familiar man appeared in his line of sight. An Xumo, who was suffering from pain and nausea to the point of tears, caught sight of something.

How did he….still didn’t wake up from such pain like this?

A hand reached out as if trying to help him adjust his position. It was just that the dizzy An Xumo didn’t have the strength to discern anything else. He carefully but extremely eagerly tilted his head over and pressed against that hand.

The warmth from the palm of his hand made An Xumo feel a little less sick. He wrinkled his nose and couldn’t help but whisper out the name from the bottom of his heart, “Brother…..”

Originally wanted to take away the hand.

An Xumo didn’t notice the stiffness of that hand. He only thought that he was still in a dream. A dream that was too unpleasant, painful, and dizzying that he hadn’t been able to wake up.

Fortunately, my brother was there.

An Xumo pressed a little closer, burying half of his face on that hand.

The tip of his nose was sore, and his voice became a little smaller, “Brother….I feel sick….”

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. There will be grammatical errors and typos. Feel free to point them out~

•·················•·················•

Chapter 32 – Cold An Xiao Mo

An Xumo’s eardrums were almost burst by the sound of his own heartbeat. He stood there flabbergasted, with Zhou Jinchen standing only a little distance in front of him. An Xumo’s nose was sore from the bump. He couldn’t smell the faint perfume on the other man’s body. But with the distance between them, An Xumo could even feel the warmth coming from the man’s body.

He didn’t even have to reach out his hand to touch the real-life brother standing in front of him.

When An Xumo was startled, Zhou Jinchen had already seen the expression on his face. Seeing that the man’s eyes were slightly red, his eyelashes were wet, and there were still obvious tears on his face, the man’s heart sank. He quickly raised his eyes and glanced around the room.

Ma Lao was here and the room was full of faces that he had seen before in the crew. Zhou Jinchen calmly withdrew his gaze, putting up his hand over An Xumo’s back to bring him forward gently, making room for Lin Rui who was still standing outside behind him.

“Come in first.”

Zhou Jinchen motioned to Lin Rui, who looked at him with some confusion and followed from behind, before seeing An Xumo standing in front of Zhou Jinchen.

Although An Xumo raised his hand in time and covered his eyes with the back of his hand, Lin Rui had also seen his expression. As Lin Rui was about to ask, he heard Zhou Jinchen say, “Ma Lao is waiting for the script.”

Lin Rui had to withdraw his gaze and took the script over to Ma Lao first.

It was only when Lin Rui walked away that Zhou Jinchen turned sideways to block the view behind him. An Xumo stood between the door and his brother, wiping his eyes, he heard the man ask him in a deep voice, “What’s wrong?”

An Xumo put his hand down, straightened his back like a student being questioned by a teacher, and whispered, “Bumped, hit the nose.”

There was a nasal sound in his voice, and his expression looks like he made a mistake. He didn’t dare to raise his eyes to see Zhou Jinchen.

Zhou Jinchen frowned and asked, “You cried earlier?”

It was only then that An Xumo realized what the other was asking. He hurriedly nodded, “It was a request made during the audition.

That said, it wasn’t that someone was deliberately trying to embarrass him. Only then did Zhou Jinchen put his right hand back. At this moment, the black shirt not far away came over and greeted him with a smile, “Jinchen came over, what, do you know each other?”

“Brother Yang.” Zhou Jinchen nodded his head and said, “We were on the variety show together before.”

The recording of 《Sunny Weekend》 has now become a ready-made excuse, perfect for responding to inquiries.

“Eh, oh, yes, Green City’s 《Sunny Weekend》, right. How did I forget about that?” Yang slapped his forehead and said, “You’re asking about Xiao An, right? It’s nothing really. It’s just at the audition, Ma Lao asked him to try crying for a bit. The audition for their group is over.”

Generally, the audition will not directly announce the results on the spot, but since Ma Lao had made a separate request to An Xumo alone, I’m afraid that the result has no longer any suspense. Zhou Jinchen nodded calmly and said, “It’s good that everything is fine. Thank you, Brother Yang.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Brother Yang waved his hand and said to An Xumo, “Just go back and wait for the notice. We’ll contact you.”

They had auditions for other roles afterward.

An Xumo replied, “Okay.”

He carefully lifted his hand and waved at the man beside him, “Goodbye, Brother Jinchen.”

Zhou Jinchen looked at him and nodded his head, “Go ahead.”

An Xumo pushed the door open and walked out, helping to softly close the door again outside the room.

He stood in front of the door and leaned back against the panel, raising his hand to pat his chest and let out a long breath.

The elder brother finally answered his greeting, and the tone sounded calm that he didn’t leave a bad impression on the other man today……This was just so surprising.

An Xumo stretched out his hand and rubbed the tip of his nose. Even though it was still a little sore, his lips couldn’t help but curl up. So happy, ah!

An Xumo walked down the stairs, even his pace was lighter. He just thought of the most refined possibility during the audition process, and as a result, he could still greet his brother now. Is there anything happier than this?

When Tang Tang, who was waiting downstairs, noticed the other party’s ease when she saw An Xumo from a distance, she was delighted but froze after welcoming the person’s slightly red eyes.

Tang Tang carefully asked, “Xiao Mo….How was it, did the audition go well?”

An Xumo nodded and smiled, “It should be fine.”

Tang Tang let out a sigh of relief, “What did the crew say?”

An Xumo thought, “Ma Lao said that my acting lessons were the same as if I had never taken them.”

Tang Tong was first shocked by Ma Lao’s appearance and then struck hard by the latter half of the sentence. She said incredulously, “Wha, what?!”

An Xumo didn’t expect Tang Tang’s reaction to be so intense. He hurriedly comforted her, “It’s fine, don’t panic. The crew said I’ll be notified in a few days.”

He was a bit excited about what just happened. He didn’t think his words would scare Tang Tang. An Xumo apologized to Tang Tang in distress, “I didn’t think I would scare you. I’m sorry.”

Tang Tang still didn’t react a bit, she was stunned. “Ah, did Ma Lao really said that?”

An Xumo said, “That’s what he said, but Ma Lao also said that my image is more suitable for the role.”

It was only then that Tang Tang really came back a little bit. She looked at An Xumo expectantly, “Really?”

“En,” An Xumo nodded. “And I think the chances are quite high, really.”

He briefly told Tang Tang about the process, and by the time the narrative reached the end of Ma Lao’s words, Tang Tang was so happy that she couldn’t suppress it.

“Oh my god…..” Tang Tang couldn’t help but reach out and rub her face. She looked excitedly at An Xumo and before the latter had an ominous feeling, she shouted a name, “Big Mo!”

An Xumo, “……”

“If Ma Lao says so, there must be no problem, ah!” Tang Tang excitedly said, “Big Mo on the big screen!”

An Xumo laughed, “Okay, okay, I know. Let’s go back first, shall we?”

“Go, go, go.” Tang Tang’s lively expression flew up, “I’ll give you extra lessons when we get back!”

“…….”

An Xumo thought he hadn’t heard clearly, “What are you going to do when you go back?”

“Extra lessons,” Tang Tang said naturally. “Acting class. Didn’t Ma Lao say your performance wasn’t good? We’re going back to train harder.”

“……okay.”

Contrary to the hesitant “okay” that day, An Xumo’s life had been described as “not okay” ever since he returned from the audition.

In order to stay in shape and maintain his professionalism, An Xumo’s ballet classes continued, but at a much reduced pace. After all, his current ability is sufficient for the ballet show in the movie.

The commercial activities that followed were not a problem either. After 《Dance to the Top Show》 and 《Sunny Weekend》, An Xumo can be described as “popular overnight.” Although he is still in his infancy, his fans are getting into the pit as quickly as they climb the wall.

Although these two tasks have made people very busy, they were still within the reach of An Xumo, who could spend sixteen hours a day in the training room since his days as a trainee. What really made An Xumo fearful was the fact that there were only three acting classes a day.

No matter how intense the other tasks were, they would be physically exhausting. However, acting was the only one that was tiring An Xumo’s heart.

“Your expression is too stiff, Xiao An.”

The acting teacher couldn’t help but sigh. He had already said this sentence three times today, but it didn’t seem to be of much use how many times he said it. He looked at An Xumo who had stopped in front of him and was a little embarrassed. In the end, he slowed down his tone and repeated the main point again, “This smile should be relaxed, let go of the facial muscles, and just let what’s in your mind appear on your face.”

An Xumo tried again with the teacher’s encouragement. However, seeing the helpless expression on his teacher’s face in the end, An Xumo could also guess the result of his attempt.

He stood there somewhat at a loss for words, and once again deeply tried to feel frustrated.

Although An Xumo has not been liked by many people around him since he was a child, there is no doubt about his own talent. Whether it was his academic record of being successfully admitted to a top university or the admirable dancing ability after every practice, the truth is that An Xumo had never really failed on the path of learning.

The acting classes, however, had made up for this not-so-pleasant first time for him.

When he finally finished a class, An Xumo, who bowed his head to pack his things, lowered his eyes, feeling that his chest and shoulders were being pressed so hard that he even felt tired from breathing. He stood up and was about to bow to the teacher and leave, but he was called out.

“Xiao An, let’s say, you don’t have to come over for tomorrow’s class.”

An Xumo was stunned, “……?”

The acting teacher saw his nervousness and smiled, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll give you another task.”

“Our current class adds up to about five hours a day. When you go back, work a little harder. Find a movie to watch three times and see the main actor’s performance.”

This step of analyzing other people’s performance had already been done before, and An Xumo didn’t hold out much hope. He just nodded his head and answered the teacher’s request, “Okay.”

The acting teacher continued, “I’ve drawn the scope of the movie for you. I’ll send it to you on WeChat later, just pick one from the entire list. Of course, if you have a movie you like better, you can send it to me and ask me. I’ll help you see if it fits.”

“Okay, teacher.”

“Actually, analyzing other people’s performance is just a way to learn. The most important thing is how you, yourself, can comprehend this matter.” The acting teacher sighed lightly, “But I see that these days, the pressure of your classes in this rehearsal room is a bit too much. So, why don’t you go back, relax and adjust your mind.”

An Xumo was startled, “Teacher, I……”

“It’s fine, you don’t need to be too nervous.” The acting teacher said, “Learning to act isn’t at this moment. Relax and change your mindset. It may have better results. Go ahead.”

What the teacher said was actually An Xumo’s true state these days. He was able to continue evening dance training after coming back from the endless interviews without a hitch, but he was resistant and tired of the seemingly least physically demanding acting classes.

Fortunately, his acting teacher has a very good temper, and he has a lot of experience in colleges and universities, so he didn’t put more pressure on An Xumo, but instead advised him to make some adjustments himself.

Taking advantage of the assignment assigned by his teacher, An Xumo spent a rare afternoon in the apartment. He was still living in the dormitory building that the company had bought, and it was still downstairs from the top floor of Zhou Jinchen’s villa. Only Tang Tang had gotten him a single room, and while the conditions were still not great, it was already many times better than the original eight-person bunk.

In the teacher’s list, An Xumo immediately saw 《The Scarecrow》 starring Zhou Jinchen. He had watched Zhou Jinchen’s movies many times before, but he used to watch them as photos when he saw them, coupled with the busy days after his debut. This film can be regarded as a new film for An Xumo.

Because there was no time to rest for a long time, An Xumo’s video membership expired long ago. It took him a while to turn on the film, put his computer on the table, and laid out his notes carefully.

《The Scarecrow》 is a literary film, the production scenes are not very grand, but the deep meaning inside is worth thinking about.

The main character in the film is a boy from a good but a broken family, Lin Mai. Born in the city, Lin Mai was sent to live with his grandfather in the countryside because his parents were divorced and he had no one to take care of him. He saw a scarecrow in the farmland that could not be moved. He remembered his parents divorced and vowed to be a person who controls his own destiny. After returning to the city, the divorced and separated parents continued to fight endlessly because of property issues and various frictions. Lin Mai studied hard in a depressing atmosphere, eventually succeeding in getting into a prestigious university and starting a life of his own.

The war between his parents that lasted for more than a decade was only stopped after the death of one of his parents. However, her mother was still adamant after her husband’s death. The scene of her scolding at the funeral was deeply imprinted in Lin Mai’s heart. He was completely cold about family affection. He worked hard to earn a high salary and successfully started his own family. A family of three that is incomparably complete in the eyes of outsiders. However, soon after the birth of his daughter, friction between Lin Mai and his wife began to grow. In the end, he even raised his hand to his wife in the clear and frightened eyes of his daughter.

—— Exactly as his father had done more than 20 years ago.

At the end of the film, Lin Mai, who just gone through divorce proceedings and had just left the family home, received the news of his grandfather’s death. He went back to the countryside for the funeral, only to find a brand new immobile scarecrow on the farmland.

The character played by Zhou Jinchen in the film was none other than Lin Mai. Except for the first ten-year-old boy stage, the rest of the film was performed by him. Although the age span from 17 to 35 is not large, it’s still a very difficult challenge for an actor to accurately portray the difference between each stage. This is precisely why Zhou Jinchen eventually took home the Wutong Award for Best Actor in a leading role, thanks to his outstanding performance and vivid, three-dimensional characterization.

An Xumo knew that the film was very good for a long time ago. He had already watched the interview of Zhou Jinchen when he took the film. He didn’t miss the award ceremony when Zhou Jinchen won the Best Actor award for 《The Scarecrow》. However, the film was not a good choice for An Xumo now.

The film’s discussion about the issue of lack of affection and the damage done to the original family had a certain degree of impact on An Xumo. He’s not only the exception to this rule—when 《The Scarecrow》 was first released in the cinemas, it sparked a collective discussion in the whole society about “unchangeable fate” and “finally becoming the most annoying appearance” the topics were stark pain points. If it hadn’t caused such a wide resonance, 《The Scarecrow》 might not have ended up with such an impressive box office.

On top of that, Zhou Jinchen’s performance in the film makes An Xumo recognize the gap between the two of them—the difference in their acting skills is the same as the difference in their identities now.

An Xumo is not someone who gets discouraged easily, otherwise, he wouldn’t have stuck around as a trainee for almost a year with no chance of appearing on camera. However, on the acting side, he had been losing his way from the beginning. Even with the teacher’s patience and guidance, he never made any progress that can give people confidence.

He didn’t understand why those characters are angry or crying because they were scolded by their parents or why they were so happy to get good grades. Perhaps, An Xumo could understand the events of the first half, but he could never understand the emotions of the second half.

No matter how hard he tried, the character he played out was cold, emotionless, and without warmth. What came out, in the end, was not at all like a participant in the situation, but more like a bystander on the sidelines.

In contrast, Zhou Jinchen, who has always been cold to people, has a completely different performance in front of the camera.

An Xumo was still originally arranging his notes in earnest and wanted to take notes, but then he put down his pen and curled up on the couch, hugging his knees and watching the screen.

Lin Mai, who was extremely angry because his father tried to attack his mother, earnestly studied hard, wanting to enter a university to find his own bright future. At the funeral of his father, he watched in shock as his mother scolded and laughed. Working overtime in a muddleheaded manner with high pay, happiness embraces the couple and their faces. Lin Mai furiously waved to his wife……

They are all vivid, but perfectly integrated three-dimensional images.

When An Xumo watched Zhou Jinchen’s movie before, he only thought of it as a way to see his older brother and didn’t even pay much attention to the plot. It wasn’t until the acting teacher gave An Xumo this assignment that he paid attention to see his brother’s performance.

When An Xumo looked at it this way, he realized that the person in the movie wasn’t Zhou Jinchen himself, but rather, a protagonist who had been deeply hurt and finally couldn’t help but hurt others. Although he had the same exact face as Zhou Jinchen, even An Xumo could see that he was a living character, he was Lin Mai.

In the field of acting, An Xumo was is too far behind Zhou Jinchen.

He had earnestly fought for the role, but when he was actually filming, An Xumo’s stiff acting skills would be directly witnessed by everyone, including…..

Including Zhou Jinchen who he wanted to get close to in his heart.

An Xumo still ended up recording the main points of the two sides, including the way he acted when his emotions fluctuated violently, the acting skills embodied in various details, and the expression of different emotions, but still felt empty in his chest after remembering them.

It’s the same in the stomach, cold and unheated, obviously eating the same food as usual, but didn’t convert half a bit of heat out. All that was left was the raging hunger that engulfed An Xumo again and again.

When the class resumed the next day after suspension, the acting teacher smilingly asked An Xumo how he was feeling. An Xumo lowered his eyes and said the points he had written down in his notes yesterday.

The teacher gave An Xumo time to adjust. He thought that An Xumo’s analysis meant that he was making progress, but when the class continued, the acting teacher rubbed his forehead again.

It was still the same and no progress. An Xumo was even more nervous than before.

He left the rehearsal room in a state of confusion, with no time to recover from the feeling. An Xumo hastily had dinner and changed his clothes. He went back to his extra ballet training that night.

This evening’s session was strength training, to maintain good muscle strength and physical appearance. An Xumo was still doing all his tasks with quantity and quality. However, when he got off the treadmill and the teacher was calling him out to do stretching after running, he didn’t get any answer.

When the teacher turned his head, he saw the boy whose back soaked suddenly shook, and fell straight down on the treadmill.

•·················•·················•

The author has something to say:

Guess how An Xumo’s golden finger will work this time?

Or guess who he’ll see when he wakes up (…..

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. So there will be some typos and grammatical errors. Bear with me QAQ

Sorry for the delayed chapter~~

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Chapter 31 – You cry and give it a try¹RAW: 你哭一个试试看。Welp. Not sure.

Zhou Jinchen’s voice was cold and the questioning in his tone was also very obvious. Liu Longfei, who was suddenly attacked, couldn’t help but feel puzzled. He raised his right hand and dryly said, “That, I, I was greeting Xiao An…”

An Xumo, who was being blocked behind Zhou Jinchen was still not clear about the situation. Before he could speak, he heard the man in front of him say, “Since the greeting is already finished, asking Assistant Director Liu to please go back early so as to not delay the process of Group A’s audition.”

Having just been frightened by Zhou Jinchen, Liu Longfei state at this time was also a little dazed, “Ah? Ah…….Okay.”

Without waiting for him to respond, Zhou Jinchen turned around and left, taking An Xumo who was just as dazed behind him with him before he left.

An Xumo walked two steps before remembering to wave goodbye to Liu Longfei, who dazedly raised his hand and said goodbye to them. But not just far from the corner, Liu Longfei’s hand had just been lifted, and An Xumo, who has been carried away, had disappeared in his line of sight.

Liu Longfei stiffly lifted his right hand, and only after a long while did he react to put his hand down. He seriously recalled the few times he had spent time with Zhou Jinchen, and suspiciously thought to himself, hadn’t the two of them been polite and courteous before? How come this time Zhou Jinchen looked like he was inquiring about crimes.

Liu Longfei was a bit distressed. He really couldn’t remember when he had offended this new movie emperor.

In a similar confused state, An Xumo, who was carried away by Zhou Jinchen, held him by the back of his neck all the way to another corridor and turned to the corner to a place where Liu Longfei couldn’t see him. Zhou Jinchen withdrew his hand and let him follow him.

Zhou Jinchen’s intention was to use this action to warn Liu Longfei so that the evil Assistant Di2rector who threatened An Xumo would have something to fear. But he didn’t open his mouth to explain, so An Xumo naturally couldn’t guess the meaning. In addition to the fact that the man’s hand unconsciously tightening and the difference in height between the two, what was originally to be just a hold on the back became “carried away” on An Xumo.

It’s the same as picking up a cat by squeezing the back of its neck.

The two of them went all the way to the stairwell before Zhou Jinchen stopped. There are a total of four elevators in the building, and very few people would choose to take the stairs, making this an exceptionally quiet place.

Zhou Jinchen turned to look at An Xumo who was following behind him. The boy’s face was slightly flushed, he didn’t know that this was caused by him pinching the back of someone’s neck, and thought that An Xumo was scared by Liu Longfei. He opened his mouth and asked, “What did Liu Longfei just say to you?”

An Xumo got used to his conditioned reflexes. After listening to Zhou Jinchen’s words, he subconsciously wanted to answer. He was about to speak before remembering that this is Zhang Zhiwei’s arrangement, so revealing it like this may not be appropriate.

An Xumo thought, and he took a while to speak. Zhou Jinchen saw the situation and frowned again, “Did he threaten you?”

An Xumo was confused when he heard the words. He didn’t think that Zhou Jinchen would feel that assistant director Liu was threatening him. It was all a matter of where to follow. He shook his head incessantly, “No, no, there is no such thing.”

Zhou Jinchen raised his wrist and looked at the time, saying, “Lao Ma is already here. He will be involved in the next auditions for Group B. Don’t worry about anything else. It’s enough to perform well.”

Ma Mingcheng had been focusing on casting several major roles, he was already in his sixties. Last year, he also had a serious illness and just recovered from the beginning of the year. In previous shootings, Ma Mingcheng has always followed the entire audition process. But this time, the rest of the crew is worried about his health, and Ma Mingcheng’s son, Ma Zechi also came to the crew to help him. Ma Mingcheng agreed to the group audition plan.

Today’s auditions for the two groups, A and B are all supporting roles. Ma Mingcheng originally had no plans to come over. His plan today was to ask Zhou Jinchen and Lin Rui, the two main characters, to talk about the scenes. This is all because, during the talk, Zhou Jinchen’s words gave rise to new ideas, wanting to reconsider the positioning of a few supporting roles. That’s why Ma Mingcheng came to the audition after the talk.

The others don’t know the situation and only said that it was Lao Ma’s whim that changed the plan on the spur of the moment. When Ma Mingcheng was young, he was accustomed to doing things his own way and would go through a succession of trouble with two producers. It wasn’t until later on, when he got older and had a ghostly son²clever/genius. I think I mentioned it before. whose talent was almost a replica of his, that he became calmer these days. No longer as cranky as before.

He is a sharp contrast with another director in the country, who was always rigid enough to not say anything. No one would be surprised if he did such a thing.

But in reality, it was Zhou Jinchen who single-handedly contributed to this matter. After he heard the news from Xin Zimai, although he said at that time that he could come directly to the post, in fact, the situation in the audition was actually not very easy to manipulate, so Zhou Jinchen turned around the corner and asked Lao Ma to check it.

Zhou Jinchen had already read the script, and he naturally knows that An Xumo was exactly the right person for the role. As long as Lao Ma is sitting on the battlefield, people who want to engage in moths will have no chance.³Can also mean: As long as Lao Ma was in charge, there would be no opportunity for anyone who wanted to do something. The role of the male four will also fall smoothly on An Xumo’s head.

Since he didn’t disclose his relationship with An Xumo, Zhou Jinchen didn’t deliberately come to An Xumo to talk to him about these things. He thought nothing would go wrong if he came along, but he didn’t expect to encounter a situation where someone would directly threaten An Xumo.

Not to mention An Xumo, even Zhou Jinchen had never had much interaction with Liu Longfei before. In Zhou Jinchen’s view, there’s no reason for Liu Longfei to talk with An Xumo—unless Liu Longfei has been paid by another force that wants to fight for the male four candidate to put pressure on the other candidates in advance.

Zhou Jinchen’s preconceived misunderstanding, coupled with the fierce look on Liu Longfei’s face when he spoke to An Xumo, would give birth to this misunderstanding. It’s just that the time is now tight and he can’t afford to question An Xumo again before he changes the subject to mention the other candidate, so An Xumo can try to alleviate some psychological pressure and perform well in the audition.

Zhou Jinchen’s words were similar to what Liu Longfei had just told him. An Xumo naturally took these words as encouragement before the audition. He had no idea that Zhou Jinchen and Liu Longfei were actually standing on opposite sides. Both of them took Me Mingcheng as a guarantee that their “family” would not suffer.

Compared to Lao Ma, An Xumo actually cared more about another matter. He nodded his head in response to the man’s word and paused for a moment, then carefully asked, “Then, Brother Jinchen, will you also be at the audition later?”

Zhou Jinchen glanced at him and said, “I don’t have the need to watch the auditions at the moment. There is a special casting team on-site to take care of it.”

His current identity was still an actor. Since he tried to break away from the Zhou family’s control and cultivate his own power, these investment projects have not been exposed to the public so as not to attract the attention of the Zhou group.

An Xumo nodded, “En, I understand.”

Zhou Jinchen said, “I can’t help you when I’m there. But with your conditions, there’s no suspense in taking this role.”

An Xumo was stunned. He was actually thinking that he might be more nervous if his brother was there. But he didn’t expect that the other party would interpret it as him wanting to ask for help. An Xumo’s cheeks couldn’t help but heat up and his ears were so hot that he burned unbearably.

An Xumo’s lips opened and closed a few times, but in the end, he couldn’t say anything. Instead, Zhou Jinchen took another look at his watch and said, “You should prepare.”

When the two of them came out of the stairwell and went in different directions, only then did An Xumo let out a sigh of relief and pressed the back of his hand against the side of his feverish face.

Seventy-four days since the recording of 《Sunny Weekend》 until now, this was the amount of time that separated them before they saw each other again.

An Xumo’s heart couldn’t help but feel a little bit of annoyance in his heart. This time, he still didn’t seem to be doing too well.

An Xumo took a deep breath and slapped his cheeks with both hands, trying to cheer himself up. His next performance, however, directly determine when he and his brother would see each other again.

Within half an hour after An Xumo returned to the waiting area, the ten of them were called to another spacious room. The third round of auditions still went in order, but this time each person took significantly longer than the previous two rounds.

No one who entered the room came out, so those waiting outside were unable to find out what exactly was going on inside. As the number of people slowly decreased, after about another half an hour, An Xumo, who was in the sixth position in line, was called by name.

When An Xumo pushed the door in, he saw a long U-shaped conference table placed inside, with nearly ten people sitting at the table. The candidate who had come in earlier stood in the corner on the other side.

The room wasn’t very quiet, and an old man with glasses next to the table was listening to the person next to him with a slightly more serious look on his face. An Xumo immediately recognized his identity, this person was the Chief Director of the film, Ma Mingcheng.

The center of the U-shaped conference table can be used for walking, but due to the lack of space, the candidate still had to stand in the open space not far from the table. An Xumo stood in the designated position, after bowing and asking, the cameraman beside him moved the camera over to focus on him.

An Xumo stood waiting for instructions, he didn’t make any extra movements. But when Lao Ma turned his head when he was finished speaking, he just saw An Xumo standing there, his original serious expression became more solemn and even his eyebrows widened.

However, Lao Ma did not speak and everything must be done according to the process. A middle-aged man with a black shirt said, “You perform this situation first: Let’s say you came back from dance practice and you’re happy to meet up with a friend to go play on your day off.”

In fact, the moment he walked in the door, An Xumo felt uneasy in his heart and his mind has been buzzing. His practice in his previous acting class was not satisfactory. In addition, this audition was about whether or not he would be able to film with his brother. This pressure quickly solidified, sinking all over one’s shoulders.

The request given by the black shirt is not difficult, but An Xumo has neither friends nor days off, so An Xumo was left in his own imagination for the entire performance.

There were no pairs of partners in the room, and the candidates all had to complete solo performances. The black shirt shouted to begin, and An Xumo began his first performance in full view of the crowd.

He first raised his hand to cover the back of his neck and turned around. After expressing his exhaustion, he put on a happy expression and said to his side, “Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

The room had been completely quiet when An Xumo performed. Although he was used to the attention focused on him, dancing in front of a crowd was a completely different feeling than performing in public. While An Xumo showed obvious nervousness to the point of affecting his state, he was actually completely filled with embarrassment.

The smile on his face is exactly the kind of professional smile you’d find on stage in front of an audience, and the plot design, which has room for freedom of expression is uninspiring. The only desirable thing was that he spoke fluently and the rhythm wasn’t too messy, but other than that, it was impossible to find anything else to excel at.

By the time An Xumo finished his performance, there really wasn’t much reaction from the crowd in the room. The black shirt on the side quickly proposed a second performance assumption, “When you were practicing dancing….”

Before the black shirt had finished his words, Lao Ma, who was sitting at the table suddenly spoke up, “Try crying one.”

Not only the interrupted black shirt, everyone in the room was stunned. Even the other candidates who were originally standing safely in the corner no longer covered up their concealed glances and took a good look at An Xumo, who was standing in front of the conference table.

This was the first time since this set of auditions that Lao Ma had taken the initiative to speak up.

An Xumo didn’t expect Lao Ma to interrupt midway, he hesitated for a moment and asked, “Just, just cry? Are there any other situational assumptions….?”

Lao Ma looked at him, “No, just cry it out.”

This kind of test is actually quite common. After all, for actors, this kind of emotional control is the most basic quality. But in fact, it was easier said than done. Even if it was a really powerful actor, they might not necessarily be able to turn their emotions around in just a short period of time under the full glare of the public.

When this request was made, the others originally thought that Lao Ma was intentionally making things difficult for this candidate, but then he added, “Don’t mind the time, cry it out.”

When he said this, An Xumo himself didn’t feel anything yet, but the others in the room felt slightly more subtle.

Letting someone cry but not counting the time…..This wasn’t a harsh request, and it even made sense to have special treatment.

After all, everyone had a limited amount of time to audition, but Lao Ma was now willing to spend this time waiting for this candidate. This situation seemed a bit special anyhow.

An Xumo didn’t know what the other people were thinking, but he had been taught how to show strong emotions like crying and panic by his acting class teacher. Although it didn’t work out so well in the end, there was one trick An Xumo remembered from his teacher—

Thinking back to one of his most recent experiences of emotional change, replaying the emotion at that time, or further intensifying it, and then turn that intense emotion into the feeling you needed.

Coincidentally, even though it was a small matter that only he cared about that time, An Xumo did burn his ears red just now in a stairwell not far away.

He took a long deep breath, first letting himself ignore the surrounding environment as much as possible. Since his debut, An Xumo’s reaction to the surrounding eyes has been much smaller. He quickly isolated the disturbance around him and imagines himself back in the stairwell with no one else.

An Xumo was slow to react to the misunderstandings and malice of the bystanders but was only sensitive to Zhou Jinchen’s emotions alone. The other party didn’t actually say anything heavy at that time, but An Xumo himself felt as if he had left a bad impression on his brother.

He had always regarded Zhou Jinchen as motivation, direction, and hope. More precisely, his brother is An Xumo’s sun. He liked his brother’s light, and his brother brought him warmth. But also, in the same way, the sun would shine all things in a clear view, so An Xumo is eager to get closer but is also nervous when the other person looks at him.

Even the small misunderstanding that was not even worth mentioning just now would embarrass An Xumo. What if, if…….

What if my brother found out he likes him?

In this situation, Zhou Jinchen had just been promoted movie emperor, but An Xumo was still an idol who had only just debuted. His feelings were destined to be lined with various coats, just like Han Ming was scolded last time, shamelessly rubbing people’s enthusiasm, and using the romance for profit.

What would Zhou Jinchen think if he knew how An Xumo liked him?

“Brother, will you be there?”

“I can’t help you even if I’m there.”

— “Brother, will you let me like you?”

— “It’s impossible for me to make you hype with this kind of thing.”

I don’t think so brother, I won’t get you in trouble……

An Xumo stood muddled until someone shook his arm a few times and he barely regained his consciousness from the icy pool of despair.

The person who approached him and called him was black shirt. An Xumo panicked and reached out to wipe his face, that’s when he heard Lao Ma’s voice, “Where’s number six’s resume? Show me. How was his ballet dance?”

Because of the lack of focus just now, An Xumo didn’t hear Lao Ma’s comment about him crying out. When he reacted, Lao Ma had already flipped through his information from the thick pile and was holding his glasses, reading carefully.

The black shirt on the side handed over a tissue, and An Xumo quickly thanked him. He hadn’t finished wiping his tears when he heard Lao Ma say, “How many people are left? Call them all together.”

An Xumo stood to the side to slowly calm down. He would have gone to stand in the corner with the other candidates, but the black shirt didn’t let him pass. After the remaining four people outside came in, Lao Ma had them make a few actions in sequence, then waved his hand and said, “Alright, you guys go back first.”

The first few candidates who came in and didn’t leave were also a bit confused. Black shirt was very keen and said directly to them, “You guys also go back first. We will notify you of the specific results in two days.”

After the candidates in the room left, only then didLao Ma put An Xumo’s resume on the table. He held his glasses to look at An Xumo, who still had red eyes, and said, “You have never studied acting, right?”

An Xumo said softly, “Took a few lessons……”

“Hmph,” Lao Ma lightly snorted, “Same as not attending.”

An Xumo slightly shining,⁴RAW: 安许莫微晒 not really sure with the trans QAQ help.but he didn’t feel that Lao Ma said anything wrong.

Seeing that he didn’t show any expression of dissatisfaction, Lao Ma said, “But you look pretty smart, you can still give it a try with a lesson.”

An Xumo was stunned, “…..Thank you, Lao Ma.”

“Don’t thank me,” Lao Ma waved his hand. “What I see is not your performance, but your demeanor.”

He picked up a piece of paper, printed on it was the casting keywords for male four. Lao Ma said, “You’re not very good at acting, but you look like you fit the role. The character’s nickname is Swan, you know? He needs to have a fragile sense of arrogance. You have these two words in you⁵two words in the raw. and they are easy to catch out.”

An Xumo vaguely realized something, and he couldn’t help but expect.

But Lao Ma waved his hand off, “You also go back and wait for the notice.”

An Xumo was stunned again, but the black shirt beside him patted him with a smile and said, “Go on, I’ll call you in two days.”

An Xumo hurriedly thanked everyone, before turning around and planning to go out.

Before he reached the door, he heard Lao Ma behind him ask the person next to him, “Where’s the script? I remembered the one with the character changes. Didn’t I just go through it, haven’t I found it yet?”

Another voice said, “That script is at Lin Rui’s, he just said that he will send it over immediately.”

Lao Ma said, “Hurry up, ah, I guess I have to change the male four…”

Before Lao Ma’s words were finished, the door was pulled open from the outside. An Xumo who was planning to push the door out didn’t have the time to stop his steps and even crashed into the arms of the visitor.

An Xumo, who had just finished crying, was hit like this. The tip of his nose which had turned red felt even sorer. He barely opened his watery eyes and looked up. He was about to apologize, but his voice choked in his throat.

Lin Rui’s voice sounded from the door, “Lao Ma, I’ve brought the script you wanted…..Hey, Jinchen, why did you stop?”

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Jie Jie(1/17/22): I’ll be editing “Ma Lao” into “Lao Ma” on the other chapters soon. I’m only able to do it in this chapter for now.

DISCLAIMER: We don’t own any of the stories published. We don’t know any Chinese language and this is our first time MTL-ing a novel, expect inaccuracies in the translations.

❌ NO SPOILERS. WE ARE MTL-ING THIS AT THE SAME TIME WE’RE READING IT ❌

Translated by: Jie Jie

Unedited. So there will be some typos and grammatical errors. Bear with me QAQ

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Chapter 30.2 – Go forward, brother¹RAW: 挺身而出的哥哥。Not sure, I might’ve MTL-ed it wrongly.

A few young people who had passed the audition were still waiting quietly. When they heard the news, they couldn’t help but get nervous, this was Ma Lao. It was unimaginable that they could possibly be in contact with the real person.

Ma Lao, whose real name was Ma Mingcheng, was one of the few great directors recognized in China. He was one of the first explorers from the time when domestic cinema was just developing. Over the decades, he has won countless awards and has single-handedly cultivated five film emperors and empresses for the entertainment industry.

If there was no specific concept when they came to the audition before, when they learned that they would soon be able to see the real person, the excitement and nervousness completely flooded over them. With such a person coming to see their audition in person if they perform badly……the consequences are too bad.

The surrounding tense atmosphere didn’t affect An Xumo. Although he also admired Ma Lao’s achievements, his state of mind was still quite stable. At this moment, Tang Tang, who was waiting downstairs, suddenly came running and whispered to An Xumo that Assistant Director Liu asked him to wait at the corner of the right corridor for a while, and he had something to explain.

In the second round of height measurement, An Xumo gave his cellphone to Tang Tang, it was easy to leave a bad impression when he looked at the phone while waiting. An Xumo directly did not take the phone back, so Tang Tang who received the text message came to find him.

The news from the crew is that Ma Lao is watching another character’s audition, so they will have to wait a while for the third round of auditions. Tang Tang helped to wait here in case there was short notice, so An Xumo went to the right corridor by himself.

Although there were a lot of people coming to audition today, the arrangement of the crew was very proper. The candidates of each role were uniformly concentrated in the same area, so no one was running around. Plus, the building had enough space. After leaving the area where those candidates were just now, the surrounding area seemed empty and no one else came and went.

Liu Longfei was talking around the corner, and An Xumo walked for a while before reaching the end. At the end of the corridor was a public restroom, before An Xumo walked over, he saw a slender man walk out of the open door.

An Xumo froze for a moment.

“Brother, Uh,…Senior…..Brother Jinchen?”

The man whose name was called seemed much less nervous than An Xumo, who was so nervous that he changed his name three times in two seconds. He didn’t seem surprised why An Xumo appeared here and just nodded his head.

An Xumo’s entire body monk-ed²Frozen; stunned; unmoving for a moment before realizing that Zhou Jinchen had no intention of leaving and that the other man didn’t look like he was specifically left behind, thinking that there should be someone else in the bathroom.

An Xumo was a little overwhelmed. He said softly: “Brother Jinchen……is also here for an audition?”

Zhou Jinchen looked at him with a somewhat inexplicable expression on his face. Just when An Xumo thought he wouldn’t answer, the man opened his mouth, his deep voice vibrating in his eardrums, “I am the lead actor of this movie.”

Now, An Xumo was really and completely stunned.

Joy and tension can’t be said to be stronger. The emotions surged through the outer membrane and hit directly into the chest. Before the audition, An Xumo would comfort Tang Tang not to be nervous, but now, he suddenly possesses a hundred times stronger emotions than Tang Tang.

He, he wanted to get this supporting role.

In order to not affect An Xumo’s mood, Tang Tang didn’t say much before, but from her occasional words, An Xumo could understand what the film could bring him if the audition was successful. “The Director’s personal guidance”, “movie big screen resources”, “from idol directly to an actor”…….and so on. Each of these is something that people are crowding around to grab.

However, before the audition, An Xumo was more concerned about not wanting to let down Zhang Zhiwei’s efforts for him than these attractive benefits.

Until he met Zhou Jinchen, An Xumo still held a very precious normal heart. Even if the surrounding candidates were anxious because of Ma Lao’s personal visit, he was calm and stable and felt that as long as he did his best, it would be fine.

But now, his thinking is completely different now.

An Xumo subconsciously began to look forward to the news brought by that Assistant Director Liu. He wanted to know the news of his competitor. He couldn’t help but want to confirm that he could hold on to the results he deserved in this audition.

But now that Zhou Jinchen was standing here, An Xumo was not in a position to take two steps forward to go around the corner. He was so nervous that his fingertips were getting cold, and he couldn’t help but bite his tongue again.

For a moment, An Xumo even overlooked why Zhou Jinhen didn’t ask him why he would appear here. He heard the other party say, “Ma Lao is here to see the audition, we’re with him.”

After Zhou Jinchen said “we”, another man walked out of the bathroom beside them.

The person had a handsome face, smiling eyes, and a clear voice, “Jinchen, I’ve been waiting for a long time.”

Because Zhou Jinchen blocked his line of sight, he only saw An Xumo after he came out. He was slightly surprised, but quickly regained his faint smile, “This is…?”

An Xumo hurriedly said, “Teacher Lin Rui, I’m An Xumo.”

That person was precisely Lin Rui, the movie star who had previously worked with Zhou Jinchen on 《The Scarecrow》. Although he had been famous for a long time, his age was not yet thirty, and he gave the impression that he did not have a big name, looking very easy-going, “I know you, Wang Yixiang mentioned it to me, a great little friend.” An Xumo smiled shyly.

Lin Rui turned to Zhou Jinchen: “You two are chatting? Do you want me to wait for a while?”

Zhou Jinchen shook his head, “No need.”

He said to An Xumo, “Perform well later.”

An Xuemo hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, I’ll work hard!”

When An Xumo disappeared around the corner, Lin Rui withdrew his gaze and smiled, “Jinchen, how did you guys meet?”

“Been on a variety together.” Zhou Jin Shen gestured, “Let’s go.”

An Xumo arrived at the agreed corner, where there was a semi-separate space with an automatic coffee machine. In a short while, Liu Longfei hurried over.

In the previous audition, An Xumo had already met Liu Longfei once. He had a fierce look and a beard. Just looking at his appearance could stop a child from crying at night. But his personality was actually very good, and he was also very easy-going when talking to An Xumo.

“Come on, Xiao An. Let me tell you something.”

Liu Longfei took a look around to make sure there was no one before lowering his voice, “Today the audition group added someone. The investor’s side is sure to come, but the group I’m in is not responsible for the male four, so I don’t know what people there look like now. You don’t have to be anxious, ah, when you audition later, someone may deliberately make things difficult for you. You must rest your mind. Now that Ma Lao has come, he is the one who makes the decision. As long as you perform well, the investor can’t force you down.”

“Be sure to keep your mind steady, don’t panic, do you hear me? “Liu Longfei knows that people like them who have no acting experience are most likely to be nervous in full view of the public, especially now that there is still Ma Lao present. The general mindset of the people must not be very stable, so he emphasized, “Even if it’s difficult for you, you can just directly treat it as an acting test.”

As soon as An Xumo finished nodding his head, he saw Liu Longfei in front of him suddenly shudder, “Huh?!”

He opened his eyes wide and looked behind An Xumo, “Who?! “

An Xumo stood facing the coffee machine and didn’t see the figure of the person behind him. When he turned around and came back, he found that Zhou Jinchen, whom he had just met, was looking at Liu Longfei with a bad face.

Liu Longfei let out a sigh of relief once he saw the figure clearly, “Scared me…it’s Jinchen ah, why are you here?”

He had just deliberately lowered his voice just now, and he has been paying attention to the movements around him until finally, with an uneasy emphasis on the warning, he neglected his sight. Liu Longfei was certain that Zhou Jinchen hadn’t heard what he said, so he was relieved again and put on a smile, “Aren’t you going to watch the audition with Ma Lao?”

Liu Longfei’s looks had made him take a lot of accounts before and only after the cooperation became familiar did people feel at ease to believe that he was an enthusiastic and good person. However at this moment, in the eyes of An Xumo who had been told, Liu Longfei’s smile looked a bit fierce, as if…..he had just finished blackmailing.

Not to mention the image that fell in Zhou Jinchen’s eyes.

Zhou Jinchen frowned at Liu Longfei and reached out his hand to pull An Xumo who was standing between the two. An Xumo didn’t have time to react before the man dragged him behind him.

The man with his back facing him had a slender figure, with a grim voice, “Assistant Director Liu, the auditions for Group A have already started, why are you here?”

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The author has something to say:

After several chapters, Xiao Mo was finally able to film with his brother happily~xd