Male God is Chasing My Brother Chapter 30.1

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

Zhang Zhiwei’s face immediately became serious, “What did Ma Xiao²Zhang Zhiwei did say Ma Xiao. say, someone wants to directly settle it?”

The assistant director on the phone sighed, “I didn’t ask too much. He just said that the investor will send someone over to participate with the casting team that day. If you listen to this, it’s not a good thing ah.”

“What’s the situation with your casting so far?” Zhang Zhiwei frowned, “Who made the final decision, did Ma Lao follow?”

“Now, there are three teams. Ma Lao is responsible for the most important roles, and the rest will be screened by the other two teams. After a few rounds, they will select a few suitable ones and let Ma Lao see.” The assistant director said, “The ballet dancer belongs to the latter. I’m afraid that the investors there will come and directly pick two people who are not so good to set them off, and finally send them to Ma Lao. Isn’t this result obvious.”

After all, this isn’t a major role. As long as the person stuffed in has good qualifications, the director and producer won’t be stupid enough to go against the investor. To put it bluntly, An Xumo actually relied on Zhang Zhiwei’s relationship to get on the line with this movie. Zhang Zhiwei now really has no reason to interfere with the investor’s cutting in the line.

“I understand. This thing, thank you for reminding me.” Zhang Zhiwei pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’ll think of another way. When the time comes, I’ll have to trouble you to help out a little more. I’ll treat you to dinner when I come back to S City.”

After a few more polite sentences on the other side of the phone, saying that he would contact him anytime if he had news, he then hung up. Zhang Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the phone with a heavy face as the screen blacked out.

An Xumo hesitantly said, “I’m sorry to trouble you, is this……”

Zhang Zhiwei waved his hand towards An Xumo, but his voice didn’t sound very tense as he said, “Don’t worry, your Uncle Zhang has seen a lot of storms where he can’t solve this small matter.”

Compared to getting this role, An Xumo is actually more worried about bringing trouble to others. He really doesn’t know how to return the kindness of others, and he always felt that he owe him too much for this kind of favor.

However, what Zhang Zhiwei said wasn’t superficial. He quickly analyzed the whole situation with An Xumo: “Xiao Mo, I didn’t recommend you simply because of my relationship with your mother. I read the script from Ma Lao, this dancer doesn’t have many roles, but it’s a very brilliant role. The conditions of this role are almost tailored for you. Whether you missed the role or the role missed you, it will eventually become a pity.”

“Your professional skills are solid enough for the role. Your own qualifications are also suitable for the big screen. If not, I wouldn’t have recommended you to Ma Lao.” Zhang Zhiwei said seriously, “In addition to that, there’s another reason, your own popularity and heat will also bring additional benefits to the film.”

“There aren’t many ballet dancers suitable for the big screen, but there will always be those who want to find them. Why doesn’t the casting team go directly to the ballet company to find seedlings? Because they also have to weigh up all the various factors combined. Although you have just made your debut, you already have your own topics and discussions, and those things will be converted into benefits when the movie is released. Under the same cost, they will not go for those ballet dancers, but choose you.”

Zhang Zhiwei took a sip from his coffee cup and slowly said, “So, you must have confidence in yourself, do you understand?”

An Xumo nodded his head and said seriously, “I will, thank you, Uncle Zhang.”

Zhang Zhiwei couldn’t help but sigh softly as he said, “Xiao Mo, this kind of thing isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. You’ll understand after you’ve experienced more in the future, that humility and courtesy will never be able to survive in this circle. You’ll also have to work a hundred times harder to make sure that what you have won’t be taken away from you.”

An Xumo responded nicely, and Zhang Zhiwei looked at the young and naive boy opposite him, but his heart still couldn’t get rid of the heavy feeling pulling down inside.

From the start of entering this industry, the road ahead was completely predictable and bumpy. Even if the young boy is lucky enough and hard-working enough not to be hit head-on like the others, he will certainly face all kinds of bumpy roads.

This casting was just the beginning. Zhang Zhiwei only hoped that there would be a successful result in the end.

—

After meeting with Zhang Zhiwei, the original clear prospect was blurred again. An Xumo hadn’t had any particular reaction yet, but Tang Tang had begun to sink into worry.

After all, this was an excellent opportunity, and if it ended up being a wedding dress for someone else, it would be a bit too much of a pity. As the day of the audition approached, Tang Tang was counting the days and turning koi³forwarding koi posts for good luck every day, not even caring how nervous she was when Xin Zimai called her over.

Xin Zimai called her to remind An Xumo to go to the audition. Because An Xumo was a signed artist of Jin Dian, all these jobs still needed to go through the company’s process. After Li Xiuqing left, Xin Zimai was responsible for a wider range of business. Tang Tang only thought it was a notice sent to the company by the drama team because of Zhang Zhiwei’s relationship, and Director Xin was responsible for going through it to remind her. She immediately responded to this matter, not even remembering that Xin Zimai was still Zhou Jinchen’s agent.

Compared to the nervous Tang Tang, An Xumo was instead the one with a more stable state of mind. He was still continuing his almost rigorous ballet training and figure workout, doing his best to finally get a good result.

An Xumo had his worries, but they weren’t focused on how much he would lose by missing out on this opportunity, but rather on the acting classes that went along with his ballet training.

Like the ballet teacher, the instructor for the acting lessons was a resource approved to Tang Tang by Xin Zimai. However, unlike the early successful dances, An Xumo could be said to know almost nothing about acting before the class. From the first day of the class, the tension from the daily two-hour acting class far outweighed the ten hours of ballet training.

Because of the time constraint, they only had time to hold the Buddha’s feet temporarily,⁴lit. to clasp the Buddha’s feet when danger arises (idiom); fig. to profess devotion only when in trouble; doing things at the last minute; making a hasty last-minute effort.and the acting teacher didn’t go into the systematic theory. The task he assigned the most was to make An Xumo show his real emotions in front of a video recorder—crying, laughing, surprised, scared, and so on and so forth.

This kind of thing is the most basic quality for an actor, but for An Xumo, it was the biggest problem.

An Xumo really can’t show such intense emotions, and every day’s acting class becomes almost a torment. Finally, in order to prevent him from losing confidence and getting worse, the acting teacher had to start training An Xumo to speak, trying to tighten up his ability to improve his lines.

After the string was tightened for several weeks, the audition day for casting finally arrived.

The audition was held in H City. An Xumo and Tang Tang arrived one day in advance and were called to a building early the next morning by the crew. On an occasion like this, Zhang Zhiwei naturally couldn’t show up in person, but he entrusted the assistant director who had called before, Liu Longfei, who was in charge of coordinating the work, to look after An Xumo in advance.

A lot of people had come to the audition, and there was more than one role to be cast today. An Xumo was assigned to Group B, standing with a group of young boys whose temperament was clearly different from ordinary people. This group of people didn’t seem to be very old, and they should have known each other. After listening for a while, An Xumo realized that they were male dancers from several large ballet companies nearby, and they were more familiar with each other since they often performed and competed together.

Compared to them, a single An Xumo seems to be a bit lonely. The young men were talking excitedly at first, but then someone recognized An Xumo and their voices dropped significantly.

It had to be admitted that most of An Xumo’s fans were young girls. Relatively speaking, the same sex was not that crazy about him. Plus, it was obvious that they were competing for the same role, and it was normal for that group of young people to react.

An Xumo didn’t pay attention to this, he was thinking about what Zhang Zhiwei had said before, the other party was right, this role was just a supporting role with a few scenes. Popular young idols who could dance didn’t look good standing in a group of professional dancers, An Xumo stood out a little more.

The first round of auditions started quickly, everyone went in one by one, and it took less than two minutes for them to come out for the next round.

After An Xumo went in by himself, he found that there was only a very simple shooting process in the first round. There were three people in the room, one person in charge of the camera, one person in front of the computer to sort out the video, and one person holding the list to the sequence number. An Xumo did a front shot, side shot, and back shot. After the shot, he was asked to leave the room.

The first round was just about appearance and standing quality, so he quickly finished the round. All the videos were sent to the casting team and about half an hour later, someone came to announce the names for the second round of auditions.

What everyone didn’t expect was that just a simple shoot had directly wiped out nearly two-thirds of the candidates.

After the person finished reading the shortlist, everyone still didn’t react, thinking that there would be a second page next. In the end, the person folded the paper after reading and directly said, “The others can leave first.”

It was only after hearing Tang Tang’s explanation later that An Xumo knew the criteria for the first round of brushing people off. Although those who came to audition were already the best chosen from the major ballet companies, there were many who were still limited by the appearance conditions. After all, it wasn’t necessary to look at faces to practice ballet, but movies were different.

Naturally, those who weren’t selected wouldn’t be happy, but their emotions were no longer part of the crew’s consideration. An Xumo and the others who were chosen followed the person reading the list, and they went up a floor to a larger room.

This round of testing was even more concise and straightforward than the first round, everyone, in turn, was measured for height, head circumference, leg length, and neck length. An Xumo had never been through this before and was confused by the measurements, but the other spectators acted calmly as if they had already experienced it.

An Xumo thought for a moment before remembering what his teacher had said when he first started training for ballet. The teacher said that ballet on the dancer’s body shape requirements is very strict. Dancers generally have nine-headed—the body is the length of nine heads. Such a tall and small face is more in line with visual aesthetics. In addition, the dancer’s body proportion is also required, excellent ballet dancers are basically legs that are fifteen centimeters longer than their upper bodies, which will be more pleasing to the eye when they are on stage.

At that time, these were just theories that the teacher casually mentioned in between dance practice. An Xumo didn’t expect that the cast would use these criteria as selection criteria, and because of the magnifying effect of the film camera, the actor needs even better physical conditions. This round is even harsher than the requirements of ballet dancers.

However, due to An Xumo’s outstanding physical condition, he soon became one of the only ten people left to audition for the next round.

The third round was an acting test, but before it began, the crowd waiting in the corridor heard another piece of news—the director of the film, Ma Lao, who had no plans to show up, was actually here. And he was there at the audition, planning to see the next performance.