Xu Su

Biodata

Background

Before transmigrating, Xu Su was an ordinary working person whose jobs included customer service, food delivery, and occasional agricultural errands. He describes his original life as focused on survival, without opportunities to study luxury goods or expensive plants 1 20 40.

He enters the body of an entertainer who had once been highly popular but had become obscure and notorious for pursuing Li Weizhou. He retains the original owner’s memories, including knowledge of expensive possessions and the people around him 1 18 40.

The original owner did not know that Li Weizhou and Zhuang Luo were already involved when he pursued Li. Zhuang Luo encouraged that pursuit and used it to make Li jealous and obtain reassurance. Xu Su recognizes that his predecessor had been made an accessory to their relationship 2 10.

Xu Su also knows that he is living inside a novel. However, he discovers that its original story has already reached a badly written ending, leaving him without a remaining plot to follow 2.

Appearance

• Build: Slender, with a narrow waist and smooth, delicate wrists 19 31.
• Face: Finely sculpted features, defined brows, bright dark eyes, a straight nose, and vividly colored lips 9 18 19.
• Skin: Fair, fine-textured, and naturally clear; he indignantly defends his complexion when Gu Xingfan calls it poor 43 78.
• Bearing: Naturally refined and elegant, often contrasted with his crude jokes and languid posture 23 43 78.
• Change after transmigration: Cheng Nan and makeup artist Xiao Jing notice that he seems different despite having had no plastic surgery. Xu Su privately attributes this to the change in the person occupying the body 43.

Personality

Xu Su is outspoken, irreverent, and exceptionally difficult to embarrass. Rather than maintaining a carefully polite celebrity image, he answers hostile comments directly and turns confrontations into public comedy. His insults frequently rely on literal interpretations, rhetorical traps, and making opponents explain their own accusations 2 13 23.

Money and leisure are his most openly stated ambitions. He jokes about having “terminal laziness,” wants to leave the entertainment industry, and dreams of being a good-for-nothing with several hundred million in the bank. His ideal future involves lying on a beach in the Maldives with nothing to worry about except having too much money 43 77.

His dislike of work does not mean he lacks endurance. Drawing on his previous working life, he tolerates farm labor better than Huo Yuchen and avoids making another working person’s job unnecessarily difficult. He also becomes fiercely competitive when a game offers a useful reward 18 20 29.

Xu Su is perceptive about manipulation but slow to recognize romance directed at him. He identifies Zhuang Luo’s attempts to damage his reputation with striking accuracy, yet interprets Huo Yuchen’s attention through melodramatic possibilities such as a scheme to take his corneas. Even after nearly a month, he fails to understand what Huo considers increasingly obvious courtship 35 84 106.

Abilities & Skills

Verbal Sparring

Xu Su repeatedly turns accusations, reassurance, and moral lectures back on the speaker 13 21 23.

• Challenges Zhuang Luo to accept eight mu of wasteland after Zhuang claims that doing more or less work makes no difference 13.
• Demands money as concrete proof when Zhuang urges others to be understanding toward him 21.
• Makes Zhuang repeat alleged insults, then points out that Zhuang has identified himself as their target 23.
• His confrontations generate trending topics and attract supporters, but also provoke accusations of bullying 5 23 88.

Reading Manipulation and Bluffing

Xu Su combines his knowledge of the novel with close attention to other people’s behavior 2 35 84.

• Identifies several purposes behind Zhuang Luo’s apparently concerned questions, including creating friction with Huo Yuchen and recovering audience sympathy 35.
• Predicts an intended guilt-tripping speech so accurately that Zhuang wonders whether Xu Su can read his mind 84.
• Uses the threat of recorded evidence to recover a diamond and obtain ten million, then reveals that he deleted the evidence long before 26 27.
• This perception is not supernatural mind-reading, nor does it extend reliably to Huo Yuchen’s romantic intentions 84 106.

Agricultural and Practical Work

His previous farmwork experience gives him familiarity with tools and controlling his strength 20.

• Sustains only minor abrasions while working, despite the original owner’s delicate body 20.
• Earns 70 points from apple picking, compared with Huo Yuchen’s 56 21.
• Applies medicine and gauze to Huo Yuchen’s injured hand 20.
• Suggests practical shore-foraging methods: digging for shellfish, searching rock crevices, and prying oysters loose with a kitchen knife 71.

Competition and Improvisation

Xu Su often approaches show activities through unconventional solutions 29 63 82.

• Eats watermelon at approximately three seconds per slice during a competition 29.
• Proposes taking the production team’s tents when the guests are left without adequate shelter during heavy rain 63.
• Wins over a mock interviewer by emphasizing low pay, long hours, and limited advancement expectations 82.
• Limitations: He struggles with factual recall and asks Huo Yuchen for quiz help. He also admits that his boasts about cooking awards refer to self-awarded prizes and terrible food 13 23.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Rejecting His Lovesick Reputation

Xu Su announces his change in attitude with a Weibo post claiming that he has surgically removed his “hopeless-romantic brain.” He follows it by answering highly liked hate comments, immediately returning his name to the trending searches 1 2.

Cheng Nan sends him to North Suburb Miemeng Village to film Return to a Simple Life. There, Xu Su refuses to resume the original owner’s submissive behavior toward Li Weizhou or accommodate Zhuang Luo’s apparent friendliness 2 5.

Confrontations on *Return to a Simple Life*

Repeated games, meals, and work assignments become opportunities for Xu Su to challenge Li and Zhuang. His behavior initially divides viewers, but some begin to recognize Zhuang’s provocations and admire Xu Su’s refusal to tolerate them 13 16 23.

The conflict escalates when Xu Su demands the return of his diamond and an additional ten million for emotional distress. After the valuables and money are handed over, he reveals that his supposed evidence was a bluff. He then asks to end his show contract but accepts a one-million pay raise to stay 26 27.

When Li visits before dawn, apologizes, and advises him to love silently from a distance, Xu Su dismisses the lecture rather than accepting its premise 27.

Huo Yuchen’s Assistant and the Huo Household

After an electric-scooter incident, Xu Su agrees to work as Huo Yuchen’s personal assistant for one week. He later tries unsuccessfully to find a substitute for the assignment 30 31 38.

His first visit to the Huo household begins with a misunderstanding: he mistakes preparations for his welcome for a sinister threat. Once Huo identifies Huo Ruhui as his grandfather, Xu Su immediately changes his approach and enthusiastically accepts the elder’s diamonds and agates 38.

The family increasingly treats the pair as a couple while Xu Su continues to think in terms of an assistant’s duties and accommodation. During a visit to Huo Ruyu, he also discovers that his variety-show behavior has earned him genuine fans 39 40 41.

Jewelry Endorsement Dispute

A jewelry shoot becomes a joint endorsement with Zhuang Luo, bringing Xu Su into conflict with client Fang Han. Fang demands an apology after Xu Su insults Zhuang 44 45.

Zhuang subsequently slaps himself and stages a scene implying that Xu Su attacked him. Rather than accept blame for something he did not do, Xu Su openly slaps Zhuang and declares that he is making the accusation deserved 46.

Huo Yuchen intervenes in the wider dispute. Cheng Nan later informs Xu Su that Fang has canceled the endorsements but amended the contract so that Xu Su will still receive full payment 49.

Wilderness Filming and Public Romance Rumors

During the wilderness show, Xu Su faces inadequate supplies, rain, food-gathering tasks, and Gu Xingfan’s unwanted courtship. He usually partners with Huo Yuchen and proposes taking supplies from the production team when their provisions prove insufficient 56 63 85.

While picking jaboticabas, Huo threatens to kiss him if he says another word. Xu Su screams upon seeing a spider, and Huo kisses him. Viewers turn the incident into marriage rumors and establish a Huo–Xu pairing supertopic, while Xu Su unsuccessfully insists that the spider caused his reaction 57 58.

Huo later asks whether Xu Su wants to get married. Xu Su is so bewildered that he slaps both himself and Huo to test whether he is dreaming or encountering someone sleepwalking 77.

Leaving the Agency and Moving to the Manor

After filming, Xu Su returns to his rented room, considers buying a villa, and asks Cheng Nan to prepare a contract-termination agreement. He remains determined to leave even when the agency offers its best resources and a route to becoming a top star 96 97.

Huo Ruhui subsequently reveals that a housing development has been transferred into Xu Su’s name. Xu Su responds by promising to treat him as his own grandfather. Huo Ruhui and Old Mao interpret this as agreement to marry Huo Yuchen and arrange for Xu Su to move into the Manor 100 101.

Xu Su eventually realizes that Huo intends him to be the marriage partner, but remains uncertain why Huo wants him. His misunderstandings continue until Huo resolves to stop hinting; Huo later explicitly states that he hopes Xu Su will one day truly fall in love with him 101 107 109.

Relationships

• Huo Yuchen — Temporary employer, frequent show partner, protector, and romantic pursuer. Xu Su grows accustomed to his physical affection but repeatedly misunderstands his intentions; Huo eventually expresses his wish for genuine love directly 30 53 106 109.
• Li Weizhou — The original owner’s unrequited love interest. Xu Su rejects him, while Li initially assumes the change is an attention-seeking tactic and later plans to use a renewed romance to restore his fortunes 5 27 85.
• Zhuang Luo — Former friend of the original owner and Xu Su’s principal antagonist. He encouraged the original pursuit of Li, attempts to manipulate public sympathy, and stages an assault accusation 2 23 46.
• Cheng Nan — Agent and work supervisor. Their conversations are dominated by Xu Su’s jokes, Cheng’s reprimands, contractual obligations, and Xu Su’s determination to leave the agency 1 43 97.
• Huo Ruhui — Huo Yuchen’s grandfather and Xu Su’s generous benefactor. He welcomes Xu Su into the household, gives him valuable gifts, and encourages a marriage between the two younger men 38 100 101.
• Huo Ruyu — Huo Yuchen’s great-aunt. She watches Xu Su’s show, receives him affectionately, and regards him as her grandnephew’s future spouse 41.
• Gu Xingfan — Unwanted suitor whose declarations and nickname “baby Xu Su” repeatedly disgust Xu Su. After Gu’s grandfather explains his childhood illness and apologizes, Xu Su outwardly expresses understanding 54 61 102.
• Fang Han — Jewelry client and Zhuang Luo’s defender. His confrontations with Xu Su extend from the endorsement shoot to variety-show disputes and assault accusations 44 46 71 88.
• Lu Jing — Fellow variety-show guest and a friendly contact who later calls to praise Xu Su’s revenge and mentions a book of his quotes 31 96.
• Ling Yi — Fan won over by Return to a Simple Life. Her enthusiastic first meeting surprises Xu Su, who has not yet realized how much his public image has improved 41 42.

Possessions & Finances

• Fifty-million debt: Publicly acknowledged by Xu Su and used as a winning claim during the “You Have, I Haven’t” game 6 7.
• Recovered diamond: A valuable diamond previously accepted by Li Weizhou, which Xu Su demands back 26 27.
• Ten-million payment: Obtained through his emotional-distress demand and bluff about retained evidence 26 27.
• Diamonds and agates: Welcome gifts from Huo Ruhui 38.
• Linxi District housing development: Transferred into his name by Huo Ruhui; its stated area is 50,000 square meters 100 101.

Notable Quotes

“I admire your taste, but pity your intellectual disability.” 2

“If it did, point it out, and I’ll say it again.” 4

“As long as I’m not in an urn yet, what’s this little bit of bullshit work?” 19

“All right. After listening to all that, whatever wrongs I committed before, whatever sins I committed, they’re all wiped clean now.” 27