Chapter 5
Jiang Chi stood cautiously at the door of the dressing room. The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he became. He didn’t know how much Ye Lan saw, or whether he was angry just now.
Jiang Chi was so frustrated he wanted to pull his hair out. Reading someone’s fake news scandals right in front of their face, it was way too rude no matter how he thought about it!
Jiang Chi remembered that Ye Lan really hated people who wrote this stuff about him. The past few years had been okay. But when Ye Lan was young and impulsive, when he debuted back then, he constantly fought with the entertainment media.
Film Emperor Ye had the background and the ability. He was never afraid of offending people, and he also didn’t know what it meant to compromise and lie low. Every time, he had to feel good. Whether or not the entertainment media felt good wasn’t within his range of consideration.
Because of this, the entertainment media once gave Ye Lan, who had just debuted, the rather ambiguous title of “Rebel Film Emperor”. Later, in an interview, Ye Lan mocked “making up rumours about daddy1[In Chinese Confucian-influenced culture, society is organized hierarchically based on age-based and familial relationships. So it is very rude and arrogant to call yourself someone’s ancestor (unless you are actually their ancestor).], between the two of us, who is more rebellious?” After experiencing this self-inflicted humiliation, it was gradually no longer used.
Later on, perhaps it was because Ye Lan gradually grew older, became more laidback when faced with situations, and couldn’t be bothered when these things happened. Or perhaps, as his fame and popularity increased, he also created more and more headlines, until he could no longer handle it. Either way, he rarely went toe to toe with the entertainment media nowadays.
But that didn’t mean that he liked seeing people writing nonsense about him!!!
Jiang Chi wanted to cry but he had no tears. The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was a pity. In the past two days, he finally got closer to Ye Lan. Before he had time to be happy, in a moment of inattention, he cleared his favorability to zero!
Jiang Chi took a deep breath, comforting himself, at least… Ye Lan only saw him looking at his scandals. He didn’t see his semi-nude photos collected in the camera roll…
Jiang Chi gently opened the door of the dressing room.
In the dressing room, Ye Lan sat on a chair with a cigarette in his mouth, with his legs propped up on the makeup vanity. His eyes were half-closed as he lazily played with his phone.
Jiang Chi gritted his teeth and said, “Ye Lan-ge…”
Ye Lan raised his eyelids and glanced at him, asking, “Are my scandals fun to look at?”
Jiang Chi almost knelt down with a plop.
“They’re not fun to look at!” Jiang Chi shook his head vigorously, and explained in a weak tone, “I wasn’t reading on purpose… I wasn’t careful, it just happened to be in my news feed. I was a little curious, so I clicked in and took a look…”
Jiang Chi pitifully expressed his loyalty. “But I don’t believe a word!”
“So nervous?” Ye Lan raised a brow, “Did you reply in the comments and cause drama?”
“How is that possible!” Jiang Chi was about to start vowing, “It was too fake, it was purely made up to create traffic by rubbing off on your* heat. Looking at it made me very angry! Really!”
The corner of Ye Lan’s mouth lifted upward into a smile. “How angry are you?”
“So angry that I…” Jiang Chi blushed inexplicably. He touched his face, “I plan on not accepting interviews on this platform in the future.”
Ye Lan smiled, “Don’t, if you let your agent hear this, he would be the first to stand up and smear me.”
As soon as Ye Lan said agent, Jiang Chi remembered the text message Geng Tian just sent him. Seeing that Ye Lan wasn’t upset, Jiang Chi relaxed a little and sat in his seat, taking out his phone to look.
Geng Tian: What time does your work end?
Jiang Chi looked at the time and replied: Maybe eleven o’clock, not sure.
Geng Tian: What about tomorrow?
Jiang Chi: A full day.
Geng Tian was calling. Jiang Chi looked at Ye Lan, and left the dressing room to pick up.
Jiang Chi could roughly guess what Geng Tian wanted to say, and spoke first. “Geng-ge, I told you* yesterday. I don’t want to do a rolling drama2[轧戏, lit. “rolling/crushing drama”. This came up before in chapter 1, and I also translated it as “taking multiple projects concurrently”. It’s a term used to describe an artist shooting multiple projects at the same time — for example, taking on two TV dramas and rushing back and forth to film scenes, or asking the director for breaks to shoot variety shows. This isn’t very common in North America due to logistical and contractual reasons. However, it does (supposedly) happen in China, especially for “little fresh meats” who are in high demand / highly paid. It’s considered somewhat scandalous because it lowers the quality of their work and forces a lot of people to rearrange their schedules for one person.].”
Geng Tian choked, and spoke while laughing loudly, “Don’t make it sound so ugly, what kind of rolling drama. There are some public activities3[The word used here translates to “announcement”. It basically refers to activities assigned by the company such as variety shows, talk shows, press conferences, and autograph signing events, used to temporarily boost an artist’s exposure or to promote a new work. Some artists who are no longer popular and have nothing to do will basically go back and forth between these types of activities to maintain their sense of existence in public.] here. Some are not bad, so I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come.”
Jiang Chi smiled and said, “Thank you, but forget it. I haven’t produced any works recently. What’s the meaning of just doing public activities, why bother rubbing off of other people’s publicity?”
Geng Tian said vaguely, “It’s not rubbing off of other people’s publicity, it’s just… ah, how should I say it, the company recently signed a few people, they want you to bring them along.”
Jiang Chi understood.
Next year would be the last year of Jiang Chi’s contract with Century Entertainment. The contract renewal hadn’t been negotiated and everything was variable. On top of that, the company’s senior management was very dissatisfied with him after his breach of contract situation. They had already begun cultivating newcomers.
Many artists hated bringing along newcomers for the company, wasting their own popularity to pave the way for others. Jiang Chi didn’t care about this, but currently, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. So he had to refuse. “I really don’t have the time, but I can post on Weibo for them to help increase their popularity. Recording blessing videos or something like that is also fine. As for other things… it’s truly inconvenient right now.”
Geng Tian sighed and said, “If you can’t do it, just forget it, but Jiang Chi… you need to know what you’re doing. The company signed a lot of new people this year. Your senior brothers Yu Xijia and Tao Ke have also become popular. There’s only so much company resources. If you repeatedly refuse to cooperate… It’s difficult on my side, understand?”
Jiang Chi apologized, “I’m sorry.”
“And…” Geng Tian suddenly remembered something and said, “Speaking of Yu Xijia, somehow I vaguely heard that you seemed to have offended him? They said that you stole this film from him?”
Yu Xijia graduated from the same university as Jiang Chi. Because Yu Xijia debuted many years before Jiang Chi, and the two signed to the same company, he and Jiang Chi had always called each other junior and senior brother.
Jiang Chi was speechless. After a moment of silence, he said, “I know senior brother auditioned for this role. But…”
Jiang Chi didn’t talk at length about someone else behind their back, only saying briefly, “He auditioned before me, and was rejected by Director Ren on the spot. Because of the injury on my hand, I only had the opportunity to audition a week later… I auditioned many days after he had already been refused, so how could they say I stole the role from him?”
Geng Tian exploded when he heard this. “I actually believed that you robbed him. Today, when Yu Xijia’s manager told me about it, I was smiling apologetically the whole time! F***! His face is getting thicker and thicker. He dares to say anything…”
Jiang Chi frowned slightly.
Geng Tian cursed a few times, and said, “Isn’t it because a lot of people at the company know about your matter, these past two days? As soon as Yu Xijia heard that you were receiving a no-pay role, he started telling other people that you used this method to rob him. As you know, he’s already thirty-four years old. He only has a few years left of making idol dramas. He’s anxious to move into the film industry. Finally, he had a chance to work with a big director, but he couldn’t hold on to it. He’s just using you to vent and save his own face. What a piece of work…”
Jiang Chi laughed and said, “Don’t bother with him, I bet he wouldn’t dare to go around and say it… The film crew is perfectly clear what the audition situation was like. It’s too easy to clarify. He probably wouldn’t dare to offend Director Ren. At most, he could only complain a little.”
“If we weren’t in the same company, I would tear4[This use of “tear” has the meaning of poking through the veil or paper screen and revealing someone’s lies.] him up in minutes.” Geng Tian sighed, “Forget it, tearing him up can only help him get publicity. Jiang Chi…”
Geng Tian said helplessly, “Because of this movie, you have offended a lot of people. Whether it’s worth it, you know for yourself. I won’t continue to persuade you to do rolling drama or public activities anymore. On my side… I also signed two newcomers. I might pay less attention to you for a while. If you have any problems, remember to let me know.”
Jiang Chi was silent for a moment and then nodded, “Okay.”
Jiang Chi hung up the phone and let out a sigh of relief.
His current position in the company was very embarrassing.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he was standing alone, without any help.
Right now, his popularity was real, but he understood clearly, that for fan-made idols like him who were suddenly hyped into popularity, fame came quickly and went just as quickly.
Once he lost the company’s resources, his popularity would drop and his heat would cool down. After that, becoming popular again would be as difficult as climbing up to the sky.
Fortunately, he had anticipated these situations long before he accepted the role, and made a worst-case scenario plan. At most, he wouldn’t renew the contract next year, and he would find a smaller company, starting over again.
Perhaps he would meet a better boss?
He suddenly became popular, and he was able to play against Ye Lan… These were things that he didn’t even dare to imagine before.
Jiang Chi was already content.
Right now, he only needed to act well in the movie in front of him. As for the future, he could consider that later.
Thinking about how he could spend the next half year with Ye Lan, day and night, Jiang Chi’s mood instantly improved.
He went back into the dressing room and saw that Ye Lan was still looking at his phone.
In a while, there would be another scene. Jiang Chi sat down waiting for makeup, and took out his own phone to play.
Although Geng Tian couldn’t be considered a qualified and responsible agent, at least he didn’t overexpose Jiang Chi in the past few years, and he never sent Jiang Chi to some messy “gold masters”5[Basically, sending your artist to sleep with producers and other bigshots in the industry.]. Jiang Chi was still grateful to him, inside. Remembering what he said earlier, that he had just received a few newcomers, Jiang Chi opened Weibo, checking if there were any PR posts that he could repost to help increase their popularity.
Jiang Chi swiped through Geng Tian’s Weibo. Just when he picked a post from Geng Tian’s recent PR posts, his notifications suddenly reminded him that he had a new friend. Jiang Chi clicked to take a look…
Ye Lan followed him!!!
* formal you (您)
- 1[In Chinese Confucian-influenced culture, society is organized hierarchically based on age-based and familial relationships. So it is very rude and arrogant to call yourself someone’s ancestor (unless you are actually their ancestor).]
- 2[轧戏, lit. “rolling/crushing drama”. This came up before in chapter 1, and I also translated it as “taking multiple projects concurrently”. It’s a term used to describe an artist shooting multiple projects at the same time — for example, taking on two TV dramas and rushing back and forth to film scenes, or asking the director for breaks to shoot variety shows. This isn’t very common in North America due to logistical and contractual reasons. However, it does (supposedly) happen in China, especially for “little fresh meats” who are in high demand / highly paid. It’s considered somewhat scandalous because it lowers the quality of their work and forces a lot of people to rearrange their schedules for one person.]
- 3[The word used here translates to “announcement”. It basically refers to activities assigned by the company such as variety shows, talk shows, press conferences, and autograph signing events, used to temporarily boost an artist’s exposure or to promote a new work. Some artists who are no longer popular and have nothing to do will basically go back and forth between these types of activities to maintain their sense of existence in public.]
- 4[This use of “tear” has the meaning of poking through the veil or paper screen and revealing someone’s lies.]
- 5[Basically, sending your artist to sleep with producers and other bigshots in the industry.]