Chapter 2
When Cheng Yan was in university, the major he studied had absolutely nothing to do with acting. It was just that his boyfriend at the time was an acting major. In order to spend more time with him, he followed him as a temporary worker on set, running errands and filling in as an extra. After graduation, his boyfriend left to work for his family business, and he somehow ended up staying.
At the time, he made this decision very naturally. Thinking about it now, Cheng Yan felt that in his nearly 30 years of life, it was the most romantic thing he had ever done. It was both impulsive and passionate. And the most important part was, he had never considered the unspoken rules at all.
A poisonous arrow flew through the air, and Cheng Yan fell down.
It seemed that the greeting to the screenwriter was very thorough. One arrow pierced through Constable Chen’s heart, and he died with such clean finality that he didn’t even have a single line.
After shooting finished, Yang-laoshi personally drove Cheng Yan away. He was a busy man, wearing a headset and talking nonstop on the phone while driving. Cheng Yan sat in the shotgun seat, only half-listening. Suddenly, he heard a slight smile in Yang-laoshi’s voice. “Boss Xia!”
Cheng Yan’s back straightened immediately. He twisted back and forth in his seat, but he couldn’t find a comfortable position.
Yang-laoshi only made a few “mmm” sounds. The conversation was simple and it was probably good news. They didn’t speak for long, and he quickly hung up.
Cheng Yan waited for Yang-laoshi to give his instructions.
“Do you still remember that Qi Ming?” Yang-laoshi took off his headset, his voice still carrying a slight smile.
“Huh?” Cheng Yan couldn’t keep up with Yang-laoshi’s train of thought for a while. “I remember. A singer, right?”
Last year, he went home to recuperate for medical reasons. Well, they called it recuperation but it was actually being frozen[1] by the company. Cheng Yan vaguely heard some rumors internally, but he didn’t like to inquire about these things, so he didn’t know the details.
“There was a rich second generation[2] whose family owned a chain of jewelry stores, who fell for him. It didn’t take long for the two of them to become passionate lovers. However, for this rich second generation, playing around with men was just playing around with men. He didn’t delay his arranged marriage at all. It was just like this. On one side, he took out money and real estate to compensate Qi Ming, and on the other, he married his wife. After getting a lot of money, Qi Ming peacefully accepted being the kept man on the outside.”
Cheng Yan was silent. Yang-laoshi took advantage of the red light and lit a cigarette.
“Later, the rich second generation’s wife found out. His father-in-law was also someone with a bit of background, so how could he possibly accept this? First, they divorced. Then after the divorce, they got some people to trick the rich second generation to Macau to start gambling, until he lost his entire family wealth. After the rich second generation came back, he went to Qi Ming, asking for everything he had given before. From the big to the small, from houses to rings, everything was clearly listed. He threatened that if he didn’t return it, they would go to court. At this point, let’s not talk about love or affection. They had long torn off their faces and refused to recognize each other as people.”
“A dog biting a dog, getting only a mouthful of fur.”[3] Yang-laoshi concluded, “Do you have any thoughts after listening?”
Cheng Yan replied, “Don’t provoke a married man?”
Even if he hadn’t heard this story, this had always been one of his rules. He was a little confused as to what Yang-laoshi meant.
Yang-laoshi glanced at him profoundly, “I wanted to tell you how lucky you are.”
“Ah.”
“No circle can do without money and relationships. Boss Xia has both money and relationships. Let’s put it this way–you could pile up the rich second generation hooked by Qi Mings one by one, and even if you piled up one hundred, you still wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom of Boss Xia’s trousers. And also, he divorced a long time ago…”
“He was married?” Cheng Yan only knew that Xia Shaoqian was single.
Yang-laoshi paused. “Otherwise, how could I say that you’re lucky? No matter how he was in the past, just look at the present. Such a single, rich and handsome man, even if he went out and looked for a one-night stand[4], he wouldn’t be lacking you, right?”
Cheng Yan only understood now–Yang-laoshi was doing ideological work for him.
He quickly clarified, “I didn’t feel…”
Yang-laoshi interrupted him with a half-smile, “Whether you felt it or not, you know for yourself. I only want to advise you a little, don’t take this matter so seriously. You’ve been in this industry for ten years now, right? Consider it for yourself, is it even worth making a confession[5]? If it was someone else, they would have laughed all the way to the bank long ago!”
Cheng Yan wanted to say “others are others”, but he had already done it. Anything else he had to say would be hypocritical. What was the fundamental difference between him doing it unhappily, and other people doing it filled with joy?
So he simply fell silent.
Teacher Yang stopped the futile exercise, also shutting up.
After a long silence, Cheng Yan finally said, “Sometimes, the brain understands but the heart just can’t accept it.”
Teacher Yang sighed, “I see. Then why don’t you treat it as acting?”
“Acting?”
“Play a considerate and well-behaved lover. At the very least, don’t put on a look of bitter hatred.”
Cheng Yan nodded. In fact, he had already forgotten how he behaved that day, when he was doing it with Xia Shaoqian. When he thought of the phone call Yang-laoshi answered just now, he started on the topic again, “Bitter hatred… is that what Mr. Xia said?”
“No.” Yang-laoshi said a string of numbers. “Write it down. You must answer Boss Xia’s phone calls, but you can’t call him casually. In addition, he wants you to go there tonight.”
Yang-laoshi took Cheng Yan to the financial district. After picking up two suits, it was already dark outside.
“Put it on directly!” Yang-laoshi stuffed a dark blue pinstripe suit in Cheng Yan’s hands.
By the time he changed and came out, there was already a short young man beside Yang-laoshi, holding a bunch of dress shoes, belts, ties, handkerchiefs, and socks. Yang-laoshi picked out some accessories that matched well and urged Cheng Yan, “Change everything.”
Cheng Yan was like a spinning top, turning so much that he was dizzy.
On one side, Yang-laoshi shook out a goose yellow handkerchief, carefully folding it, and on the other, he introduced the young man to Cheng Yan. “This is Xiao Hu. You used to have only one assistant. Now you can take another. Xiao Hu is my apprentice. If you have any problems, discuss it with him. He knows what to do!”
Cheng Yan understood what he was implying. He greeted Xiao Hu while pulling on his shoes. From first impressions, he seemed different from his master. The apprentice Xiao Hu looked muddleheaded.
Yang-laoshi carefully inserted the goose yellow handkerchief into Cheng Yan’s suit pocket. “Okay, no need to wear a tie.”
Cheng Yan looked at himself in the mirror. “It’s too much, right?” He could even walk the red carpet like this.
Yang-laoshi smiled, “Go ahead, show your face.”
It was still the same hotel. The room had changed.
This time, after opening the door, there was a large hall with a self-serve bar.
Cheng Yan immediately felt many sets of inquiring eyes sweeping over in an instant. But in one glance, he saw Xia Shaoqian–a black suit, standing very straight.
He could only walk directly toward him.
T/N: These chapters are about half the length of the chapters in The Film Emperor, around 1000 words each. Since they’re fairly easy to translate, I’m trying something new to increase my efficiency. Instead of giving exact translations, I am leaning more toward idiomatic, colloquial English.
Actually, the language in these entertainment industry novels is fairly prosaic. There’s nothing special that I think should be retained. Hopefully, this will also produce a result that is more readable.
What else is there to say… So far, not much has happened. The author is still establishing Cheng Yan’s character. He’s actually a very interesting guy, someone who stands by his own principles. A bit like the main character in Flower Vase, a really good (but much more painful) danmei with many similarities to this one. Highly recommend reading it while you wait for me to update haha 🙂
[1] 雪藏, lit. “hidden in snow”. When the company doesn’t terminate their contract with an artist but also no longer accepts any work for them, resulting in the artist disappearing.
[2] 小开, a term in the Shanghainese dialect meaning rich second generation, a nouveau riche whose parents were self-made or entrepreneurs.
[3] 狗咬狗，一嘴毛, lit. “Dog biting dog, a mouthful of fur.” He’s emphasizing that a human’s bestial nature comes out when they’re desperate. Two desperate parties biting each other results in both parties coming out with nothing.
[4] 炮, lit. “cannon”. Not exactly a one-night stand. It just means casual sex between two mutually consenting adults who aren’t receiving remuneration. For example, a booty call, friends with benefits, or hooking up after meeting at a bar. The important point is that Cheng Yan’s relationship with Xia Shaoqian doesn’t fall under this category, since he is being compensated for sex.
[5] 忏悔, lit. “repentance”. Means a confession in Buddhism, made after monks violate their vows.