"Hello, hello." Chu Xinghui also extended his hand and shook Fan Weicai's. "I look forward to working with you."
Fan Weicai squeezed hard, gripping Chu Xinghui's hand tightly.
Chu Xinghui felt the pain and pulled his hand away, keeping a polite smile on his face.
Filming had not started yet, and he did not want to get too entangled with the crew.
Seeing Chu Xinghui's reaction, Fan Weicai thought he was scared and smugly sat down in the executive chair beside them.
"All right, Chu Xinghui, let's take your character photos first."
The setup for the character photos was rather makeshift: just a white backdrop placed in front of the crew's props.
The photographer stood in front, waiting to take the pictures.
"Xinghui, act a little more roguish. Look at the camera like you're looking at a dog."
The director stood to one side, giving instructions.
Chu Xinghui raised his head and lowered his eyes, looking at the camera with disgust.
"Yes, that's exactly it!"
The director could hardly resist going over to the photographer and taking the pictures himself.
He had seen Chu Xinghui's acting before and had been a little worried about his skills.
Now, it seemed there was no need to worry at all.
At least, not in this production.
Because he was not the worst actor here.
The worst one was sitting in the executive chair, leisurely drinking water.
Fan Weicai searched for Chu Xinghui on Weibo.
How could a small-time actor with a hundred thousand followers compare to a star like him, with a million?
Even signing with Universal Entertainment did not make him anything special.
He snorted. Seeing the director constantly praising Chu Xinghui left him displeased.
He got up from the executive chair and walked behind the camera, wanting to see exactly what pose had earned Chu Xinghui so much praise from the director.
He was just a pretty boy.
Fan Weicai was the one with real ability.
"Director, isn't it my turn for character photos?"
Unhappy that someone else was praising Chu Xinghui, he decided to go up there and outshine everyone.
"Yes, yes, yes."
The director did not even take his eyes off Chu Xinghui's photos. Hearing Fan Weicai beside him, he nodded repeatedly in perfunctory agreement.
Chu Xinghui stepped down and sat in a crew chair to check the messages on his phone.
[Boss (moneybag edition): How's your first day on set?]
Chu Xinghui had changed Pei Hanmo's contact name to this on the day he signed the contract.
He raised his phone and took a picture of the set. Just as he was about to send it, he remembered their relationship.
[Chu Xinghui: Do employees get treated this well? Getting a check-in from the boss on my very first day on set.]
"Brother Hui!"
Gu Kai's voice approached from behind.
He turned around, and a bottle of ice water pressed against his cheek.
"They don't even have a mini fridge here, so I had to go out and buy cold water."
There was no air conditioning on set, let alone a refrigerator.
He thanked Gu Kai and took the water from him.
"Boohoo, Huihui, I'm late. All the crew outside are saying your character photos look amazing. I want to see them too."
Gu Kai drowned his sorrows in cold water, making a show of wiping away tears before gulping water from his bottle.
"But is that the male lead taking photos now?"
The little web dramas they had worked on before were essentially cringey skits for short-video platforms and had no character photos at all. This was Gu Kai's first time seeing them being taken, and he craned his neck curiously to look at Fan Weicai's shoot.
Fan Weicai stood before the camera with his arms crossed and one corner of his mouth slightly raised. His hair, slick and gleaming with gel, reflected white light under the photography lights.
He had originally looked like a real estate agent. The moment he struck that pose, his sleaziness went off the charts, complete with a CEO's signature thirty percent mockery, forty percent coldness, and thirty percent disdain.
He all but had "I'm a CEO and I'm awesome" written on his face.
Gu Kai spluttered and sprayed out the water in his mouth. He did not dare laugh but could not hold it in, either, and kept coughing.
"Just laugh if you want to."
Fan Weicai was absorbed in his own captivating jaw, constantly stroking what his fans called "a jawline clearer than my life plans" as he preened for the camera. He had no time to look their way.
"N-no, I don't want to laugh~~"
Gu Kai's voice wavered as he suppressed his laughter, but in the end, he managed not to laugh.
As the two admired Fan Weicai's perfect figure, the door behind them opened.
It was the female lead's room.
The woman who emerged wore a pure white maxi dress, her long black hair drifting behind her waist in the breeze, with little daisy shoes on her feet.
A gust of wind lifted her hair, releasing a faint floral fragrance.
Wait, where was the wind coming from indoors?
Chu Xinghui looked toward its source. A man who looked like her manager followed behind her, carrying an enormous fan and attentively aiming it at the actress.
Chu Xinghui: ...A manager really doesn't need to take quite this much care of someone.
Seeing Fan Weicai having his photos taken, the actress walked over to Chu Xinghui and held out her hand.
"Hello, my name is Ye Jing'er. I'm the female lead in this drama."
"Hello, hello. I'm Chu Xinghui, playing Hui."
Chu Xinghui extended his hand, lightly clasped Ye Jing'er's, then let go.
He still had enough common sense to know that male actors should only lightly clasp a female actor's hand when shaking hands.
Ye Jing'er withdrew her hand, and the manager beside her immediately offered her an alcohol wipe, saying attentively:
"Here, wipe your hands."
She took the wipe and scrubbed her hands hard a few times, saying with an apologetic smile:
"Sorry about that. I'm quite a germaphobe."
"No problem, no problem."
Once the two turned away to find the director for her character photos, Gu Kai took out his phone and jabbed his thumbs hard against the screen, producing a series of taps.
[Gu Bear: I thought this script was pretty good and coming here would be great, but it turns out nobody on this whole crew is normal!]
[Gu Bear: Aaaaaah, Huihui, are we going to survive here?]
[Chu Xinghui: A little set producing legends.]
[Chu Xinghui: Ignore them. Just focus on finishing the drama, and we can leave.]
Gu Kai had noticed that Chu Xinghui had changed since signing the contract.
Before, he had been the type to give up trying. Although he still took roles, he had never started studying a script so far in advance like he did now.
He also took things much more in stride than before and was no longer affected by comments on Weibo.
He could even enjoy his meals with the haters' remarks on the side.
Surely it could not just be because this script was better than the previous ones?
The only recent change was that Chu Xinghui had left his old company for Universal Entertainment.
Gu Kai cupped his chin in one hand and laid his other arm across his chest. All he lacked was a pair of glasses flashing in the light.
Shinjitsu wa itsumo hitotsu! (There is only one truth.)
Pei Hanmo's arrival had allowed Chu Xinghui to become his true self.
Could this be what people online meant by "being loved makes you strive to grow flesh and blood"?
Although Chu Xinghui had not grown flesh and blood, his mental state was definitely much better than before.
He opened Weibo, wanting to see which way the comments were leaning.
Unexpectedly, after just two days away from Weibo, he found that Chu Xinghui had already beaten him into the comments section.
[Dude, you're twenty-five and still pretending to be young!]
[Chu Xinghui: That's right, little sis. Feel free to follow me! (Smooch and finger heart.jpg)]
[Can you stop leeching off our Brother Mo's popularity?!]
[Chu Xinghui: Chu Xinghui, you really are famous now. I forgot the rest, but anyway, Chu Xinghui, you really are famous now.]
[LMAO, I heard Chu Xinghui's in a new drama? I've already helped spam it with one-star ratings for when it airs.]
[Chu Xinghui: You're right. What does this tell us? It tells us each link is stronger than the last. King of Kings, ham sausage, for jelly I want Strong.]
Gu Kai tore his gaze from his phone. Dude, isn't this a little too much of a recovery?
Was Chu Xinghui always like this before?
Before you continue