14.8 - The peach blossoms are blooming for him recently
translator: xiin
editor: BlueBug
The background for <Lost Track> was set in an era from a hundred years ago. At that time, cities were not as big, and vehicles still travelled on the ground. Sometimes, during winter, haze would cover the entire city, and evil and dirty things hid within.
There were a lot of dramas filmed in that era, so there was a large film and television base dedicated to this type of backdrop.
Xue Ling and Shen Yue arrived one night ahead of schedule. Filming began relatively early the next day, and the two of them had arrived early to prevent causing delays the next morning. After arriving on-site, Shen Yue brought Xue Ling to pay a visit to the directors, and they greeted each of them one by one before obtaining a complete copy of the script from the scriptwriter.
According to the scriptwriter, she had been inspired after watching Xue Ling's performance, and finished the entire script within a week. The quality of the script was extraordinarily high, to the point where even the director praised her. For this reason, she also gifted Xue Ling with some biscuits that she had made herself.
Xue Ling was very thankful, and then made it a point to send a Weibo post with it in order to show that the crew was very lovely.
His post basically confirmed that he had joined the film crew. Although he didn't disclose any information about the drama, he still managed to send accurate confirmation that he was there to his haters. No matter how much they hated on him, the crew would not choose to change people, and he was now already on-site.
Unexpectedly, the entire filming process proceeded without a hitch, because the shooting of every scene went by very smoothly. As long as Xue Ling was in the shot, everything went well and could basically be completed in one go. At most, they would only need to specifically fill in some shots from certain angles or close-ups.
Filming in this world involved 360 degree shoots without any dead angles. The cinemas were able to reproduce the entire scene and backdrop without leaving out any detail, allowing lighting effects to play out to maximum effect. Everyone in the audience could watch the story from a third person perspective, and enjoy the story to its fullest. This kind of technological advancement meant that there was another step up in the requirements for the performers' acting abilities.
If anyone wanted to stand out in the crowd, it was useless to rely only on looks. The most important thing was still talent, and Xue Ling was someone that the entire crew recognized as having the most talent.
It was probably because of his high efficiency and outstanding acting ability that he could lead other people who were working with him to quickly enter the appropriate mindset, allowing any scenes that involved him to be completed extremely quickly. The directors were all smiles as they filmed, and hurriedly urged people to schedule everything else ahead of time. Based on their filming progress, they wouldn't need to use the full amount of time they had originally allocated. The filming would be finished very soon, and they would be able to move straight into production. If they had more time for production, they would naturally be able to make it more sophisticated and satisfying.
Xue Ling no longer carried any concerns about his acting level that seemed to have soared to the skies. In any case, as long as he was in front of the camera, he would be able to get into character as if he was born for acting. When he was in front of the camera, shooting, he completely wasn't Xue Ling at all, but the protagonist himself.
The system refused to take credit for it, and claimed it was all Xue Ling's own talent. Xue Ling wondered to himself that if this was his inborn talent, then what had he been doing for the past ten years? Was it all for show? But now, when he tried to recall any deep impressions from his past, he had the feeling that his previous life was very bland, as though the version of him that had showed up in other people's eyes in the past was not him. The him that was living here now was fleshed out, had acting ability, was full of confidence and had no doubts about his own future—this was the real him.
The more Xue Ling thought it through, the more in-character Xue Ling became. The director had previously been worried that his acting skills would suddenly go offline, but he was totally unconcerned about this problem now. He almost wanted to thank the version of himself from the past who had agreed to audition people from Tianxuan. Xue Ling was just like a god who had been sent down from the heavens to save him; ever since he met him, everything had proceeded smoothly. Investments came quickly, and the post-production period had been extended, giving him ample room and time to make use of his ideas.
The director was not a top-line director and had been filming TV series all year 'round. He felt that, this time, he should be able to step across the line and become one of the best.
He had always lacked a work that could be featured, praised by countless people and gaining endless recognition, but now, this work was taking shape.
In comparison to the cheerful director, Shen Yue had gradually begun to take it for granted. The actors he managed basically never required him to worry about them at all. Su Liunian and Xue Ling's acting abilities were always turned on; although Su Liunian's private life was filled with complications, his family's business scope was big and was able to block everything without requiring him to do anything. He just needed to help arrange some work matters, and that was all. This time, he had taken on Xue Ling and thought that he could finally do a good job, but later on, he found that Xue Ling did not need him to worry about anything either.
There was nothing to say about his interpersonal communication skills; the entire crew now addressed him as 'god' regardless of their gender. His private life didn't seem to be problematic either. He didn't have anyone else in his family, and ever since he started filming, he stayed at the crew's hotel and came out when there were scenes. When there wasn't any acting to do, he seemed to enjoy staying holed up even more than Su Liunian.
Just when Shen Yue felt that he was really useless, Su Liunian contacted him and asked him for information regarding Xue Ling's recent activities.
"Other than this current project, he doesn't have anything else going on. He plans to wait until the show is aired before taking on anything else. As for other dramas and so on, you should also know that there isn't anything else good going on recently. Other than <Lost Track>, the company's resources are mostly focused on <Asking Heaven>, but it's still in the preparatory stage right now."
As the author of <Asking Heaven>, Su Liunian naturally knew what stage the adaptation had reached. In fact, <Asking Heaven> would be close to starting the shooting stage when Xue Ling emerged from <Lost Track>'s publicity period. After the script had been improved, he planned to ask Xue Ling to participate.
In fact, the main reason why Tianxuan recruited new people this year was <Asking Heaven>. This film involved two sword cultivators, and one of the main stars had already decided on. Back then, it had been Su Liunian's intention to use <Lost Track> for the recruitment, and the main reason was in order to find the other male protagonist whose character matched the second starring role in <Asking Heaven>.
But right now, Su Liunian was not concerned about this matter. "Are you sure that he doesn't have any other activities? Is he staying in the hotel all day long when he isn't filming?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"He hasn't come into contact with anyone?"
"What's wrong…" Shen Yue looked at Su Liunian strangely. Su Liunian never discussed other people's private lives. He was now so asking so much about Xue Ling's private life that it seemed weird. "You seem to be a little overly concerned…"
"How to put it…" Su Liunian looked thoughtful and distressed. "I just saw something incredible in my eldest brother's room."
"Brother Su?" Shen Yue did not have a deep impression of Su Xuanyan. He knew that he was crazy about his younger brothers, and cared very deeply about Su Liunian. He had previously been abroad, but after he started shifting their businesses back to Hua Country over the past two years, he disappeared for a year, supposedly for a vacation.
Because Su Liunian was his friend, and Su Xuanyan was friends with his own lover, Shen Yue had a good understanding regarding both sides of Su Xuanyan. Su Xuanyan was extraordinarily serious about matters concerning his two younger brothers, and he showed two totally different sides of himself when dealing with family and outsiders. He was very gentle towards Su Liunian, paying attention to all aspects of everything that involved him. Although he had changed the way he showed his care after Su Liunian and Su Xuanqing got together, he always appeared to be a very gentle and caring elder brother when he was at home.
Compared with his external image, as long as he was faced with outsiders, even if they had been friends for many years, Su Xuanyan had a face like an iceberg. It was the kind of giant iceberg that the Titanic was sunk against, and very few ordinary people could carry that kind of deep cold aura. He was the current generation's head of the Su Family, but in fact, many matters and businesses in the Su Family were already being taken care of by Su Xuanqing. Even so, Su Xuanyan's status has never been shaken.
To sum it up, Su Xuanyan was an extraordinarily mysterious existence in Shen Yue's eyes. Sometimes he seemed quite close, but Shen Yue knew that he did not exist in the same dimension as this great god.
"What's the matter with big brother Su's room?"
Su Liunian's expression was too horrible to look at. "…It's filled with pictures of Xue Ling…"
Shen Yue: "…"
Shen Yue: "???" The expression on his face was definitely very complex, complicated to the point where it was difficult to describe. He could only place a few question marks over his head to express the incredulity he felt in his heart. If he could send an emoticon, Su Liunian's face would probably be 'a face covered in question marks.jpg'.
"Where… Where did they come from?" He asked.
The expression on Su Liunian's face was also strange, "…He must have hired people to take them. I took a look, and they are all recent pictures of Xue Ling on the set. All kinds of photos… The photos of him from before he terminated his contract with the previous company were all thrown into the trash can… But his recent photos are stuck all over his study, and there are some records that I can't understand next to them. It's like he's studying something…" His eldest brother normally had a face full of indifference. He hadn't expected that his means would be so… weird?
Apart from praising him for knowing how to play, Su Liunian basically couldn't think of any other way to express how strange his mood was right now.
He really wanted his eldest brother to find someone he liked, but why did this scene seem so weird? Had his eldest brother been staying in his room to study these photos recently? He hadn't broken down, right… this was a little too scary.
"… I didn't notice anyone taking sneak shots… The set is very strict. You should also know that the average person won't be able to enter."
"The pictures are very clear, and some of them are close-ups. If even Xue Ling isn't aware that someone is taking photos of him, then something weird is definitely going on…" Su Liunian's scalp was numb. He had originally been looking for Su Xuanyan for a reason, but now his brain was full of photos of Xue Ling, and he still didn't know where Su Xuanyan had gone off to. He could only ask Shen Yue about it first, and see if his eldest brother and Xue Ling knew each other.
But from Shen Yue's words, Su Xuanyan didn't seem to have had the opportunity to interact with Xue Ling recently…
"Speaking of which." Shen Yue suddenly remembered one thing. Now that he recalled it, it seemed rather strange too. "On the evening of big brother Su's return, after we separated for a while, he sent me a short message asking me to give him Xue Ling's address. He said that Xue Ling was drunk and he was going to send him home…"
"…" Su Liunian was even more confused.
Su Xuanyan and Xue Ling knew each other? If he knew him, then why did he have to take photos of him like this? What happened this year? Had his eldest brother gotten dumped?
But Xue Ling had always been active over the past year. At the very least, he held interviews about his works… He didn't appear to have had time to engage in a foreign love affair with his eldest brother…
Wait a minute. The old pictures of Xue Ling were all tossed away, but the recent ones became research materials. Which meant that the Xue Ling from before he terminated his old contract, or rather, the Xue Ling that had been successful solely based on his looks, was someone that his eldest brother didn't feel any need to study, right? And the person he was now interested in was the Xue Ling who had signed with Tianxuan and had acting skills that could explode across the sky.
With these kinds of thoughts in his head, Su Liunian ended his communication with Shen Yue, and felt that he needed someone else to help him fill up the hole in his brain.
So he turned around and made another call.
On the other side of the communication, Su Liunian speechlessly looked on as a new father dealt with a pair of new-born baby twins that were crying hard enough to shake the earth. He thought internally that it was a good thing that he and his second brother had no intention of having children, because otherwise their lives would not be as smooth as they were now.
Yuan Chuanbai seemed to have a headache from the noise the children were making as he unconsciously removed the glasses from his nose. The two little fart children finally stopped crying, staring at the beautiful eyes of the person in front of them and reaching out to touch. But, they were pushed away by a discontented Baili Shaoshi who was standing to one side.
Su Liunian's attention was slightly diverted. He wanted to watch the scene unfolding in front of him, but Yuan Chuanbai threatened to close the communication and he finally recovered, "Oh, Chuanbai, don't hang up! I was really looking for you!"
Yuan Chuanbai had recently become easily irritated by these two little fart children, and even the audio drama he had accepted had to be pushed off in order to get some spare time. He pressed his fingers against his forehead as he asked, "What's the matter?"
"My eldest brother is missing. Do you know where he went?"
Yuan Chuanbai complained in his heart that although he was capable of telling fortunes, asking him to find missing people all day long was too trivial, right? Though he felt that way, he still helped Su Liunian calculate Su Xuanyan's fate. After obtaining a result, he spoke lazily, "What are you so worried about your eldest brother for? The peach blossoms are blooming for him recently, and the lucky star of love is moving; he'll be able to find you a sister-in-law no matter where he goes. You can't afford the price you'd have to pay if you look for him all over the world and accidentally mess up his courtship."
Su Liunian thought to himself that it really was the lucky star of love. But his movements were really too strange, right? He thought about it for a while, then told Yuan Chuanbai about the photos he had seen in Su Xuanyan's study, but Yuan Chuanbai wasn't concerned at all. He only said, "Don't worry about him. You won't be able to, anyway." Then, he hung up, and prepared to study the 360th method of educating children.
Being the last of their line was so miserable. They were two fully grown men, but still had to take care of children. Ah… how come their infancy period passed by so slowly? Couldn't they group sooner…?
to clarify on the alcohol sending thing from the last two chapters: XL told SXY that he needed to compensate him for them dressing in the same clothes and putting him in a bad mood, then told SXY that he should compensate him with all that alcohol in the bar. SXY was doing 'exactly that' by sending the alcohol to XL. But it's also an opening gambit for SXY, kinda like a 'i'm on to you now' statement, i guess~
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