Chapter 248: Pliers’ Joys And Sorrows Have Nothing To Do With Chi Ye
I still remember last year’s Golden Eagle Festival. At that time, Xing Ni had not yet aired, and Chi Ye’s star power and status were still that of a pure small card.
But relying on the lingering popularity of Singer and Full Firepower, he defeated Chu Han Zhou, one of the Four Great Young Actors, as well as Peng Chen, and won the Golden Eagle Male God/Most Popular Actor award at that year’s Golden Eagle Festival in one fell swoop.
Because he relied on the popularity from “Singer” to win this award, Chi Ye was relentlessly criticized across the internet at the time. Even the Golden Eagle Festival program team later expressed slight regret. Various rivals labeled this as one of Chi Ye’s biggest black marks in recent years, frantically marketing him as a “water emperor.”
Hmm… After Xing Ni aired, the world became quiet.
This year’s Golden Eagle Festival is still held in November. The difference is that this time, almost without thinking, everyone knows who this year’s Golden Eagle Male God and Best Actor will be… probably the same person?
——Xing Ni has been submitted to the Golden Eagle Festival.
Feitian Awards and Magnolia Awards are not guaranteed, or for a theme like Xing Ni, it’s almost 100% impossible to win an award.
But the Golden Eagle Festival, which has always claimed to be “mass entertainment” and values traffic and popularity the most…
Chi Ye stretched lazily, feeling that after mixing in the industry for these years, he finally had a real “emperor” title to claim, and his mood was pretty good. Then… he thought again of the more valuable Magnolia Awards and Feitian Awards.
“Teacher You, do you think this face of mine can go undercover?”
Chi Ye joked.
Keke was stunned, then hesitated: “Um… does that matter? Aren’t actors supposed to be ever-changing… He’s already asked several times. It’s clear he really thinks your acting skills, image, and age are all suitable. He’s been waiting for you.”
“Um, I see.”
Chi Ye nodded, pondering in his mind.
Should he complete a Grand Slam first?
His current audience has always been young girls. Although his national recognition is higher than Yu Yan’s, compared to true household name status—from toddlers just learning to walk to the elderly at ninety-nine—there’s still a big gap.
If he misses this role, there won’t be such an “opportunity” later to complete a Grand Slam and boost national recognition in one go. After all, his acting skills are sufficient, but scripts like this are too rare.
“Check my schedule. Also, screen through the scripts from Director Zhang, Penguin, Kiwifruit, and Ku Ying and send them to me. I’ll skim a few when I have time to see if there’s any ‘hidden gem’… Even if I can’t film it, I can invest.”
“……Okay, I understand.”
Keke nodded.
……
At the same time.
Inside a small company.
The screenwriter and producer Teacher You of Deep Sea sat on the sofa with furrowed brows and worried expressions.
The friend Director Jiang nearby frowned and asked: “Are you sure Chi Ye agreed to you?”
“……It should count as agreed, right?”
Teacher You was not too certain.
Back when he first met Chi Ye on Deep Sea, he never imagined the other could become this popular in just two or three short years.
What level is Chi Ye at now?
He’s the only top-level trending top streamer and strength acting faction in internal entertainment’s film, television, and music triple domains.
To be honest… in the past, Teacher You would have found it hard to pair the adjectives “trending top streamer” and “strength acting faction” to describe one person, let alone a young male artist…
But reality is like this: first Si Zi, then Zhu Yao Lin, and finally Chi Ye…
And compared to the other two, Chi Ye also has achievements in the music scene and appearance, making him even more advantaged.
How to put it… one can only say that the quality of internal entertainment’s 1995-born cohort has been forcibly elevated a notch. Things are looking up.
“That doesn’t seem right.”
Director Jiang saw his expression and felt it was unreliable. Mainly, he was also an industry veteran and had heard some “rumors.”
“I heard that back then, you said Chi Ye was pretty good but not popular enough… Is that true?”
Teacher You was stunned, thought for a long time, then recalled, embarrassed: “Ah… yes, he really wasn’t popular enough back then.”
“……Then it’s over.” Director Jiang slapped his thigh.
Teacher You was puzzled: “What’s wrong? What’s over?”
Director Jiang said animatedly: “The matter of getting Chi Ye as the male lead is over!”
Teacher You: “?”
Director Jiang was speechless: “Who doesn’t know now that Chi Ye holds grudges? He’s very vengeful. Look at Rise group’s teammate who offended him, then look at Yue Na and the Beijing Circle… I’m telling you, he might still remember clearly what you said back then.”
Teacher You was also startled by Director Jiang’s examples, feeling uneasy inside: “No way… I’ve interacted with him. He shouldn’t be as bad as the industry rumors say… This… this shouldn’t be.”
“Just say whether you said it or not!”
“……I still think he won’t.”
“Sigh.”
Director Jiang sighed, feeling that the project he’d been working on with his friend for so many years might really fizzle out.
Latent is a script that Teacher You spent a lot of energy and experience researching, incorporating multiple prototype characters. It was an ambitious project from the hottest period of spy drama themes.
In the end… bad timing. This project has been bumpy, experiencing the spy drama cooldown, the rise of traffic stars, the film and television winter, tightened review standards, and other accidents due to overly long preparation time.
So only now has there been a glimmer of hope.
But now, it seems that glimmer is gone too.
For Chi Ye, the first condition when initially selecting the male lead for Latent was actually acting skills. High appearance is definitely better, but even without it, no problem—acting skills are the most important.
This is also why Teacher You felt Chi Ye was suitable yet not quite: good looks were one aspect, but mainly he thought Chi Ye lacked acting skills.
And after being proven by multiple works like Big Shot and Girl, especially Big Shot—Golden Rooster Best Supporting Actor, a movie star descending to act in a TV series—isn’t the acting enough?
Teacher You had personally gone to the cinema to watch the movie Big Shot. Many outsiders said Chi Ye’s acting exploded, but in his view… this wasn’t explosive at all; it was “plastic surgery-style acting.”
Since he can “do plastic surgery,” who could be more suitable for Latent than Chi Ye?
Has traffic, has acting skills, has the right age… commercial value goes without saying.
This suitability has seeped into the bones for someone with Teacher You’s obsessive personality. If he hadn’t met Chi Ye or seen his performance, fine—but he has, and he really doesn’t want to give up.
It’s just…
“As far as Chi Ye goes, he hasn’t acted in a script that wasn’t written by himself or that he didn’t participate in writing… Old You, prepare yourself mentally.”
Director Jiang gave his friend a heads-up in advance.
Chi Ye is great. With him, Latent might instantly leap from an overlooked small project to the industry’s hottest big pie. Just the commercial value and investment promotion alone could recoup costs instantly.
But… good things are expensive. With Chi Ye’s current filming fee, schedule, status, and identity… would he really act in an obscure spy drama?
Combining the rumors he’s heard and the cold attitude from the other side, Director Jiang holds no hope.
“……I’ll go find him again.”
“I’d say, just pick someone else. Our script quality is good; many male artists are interested… A bit older is fine, no problem.”
“I’ll look again. I’m unwilling. Even just for making money, no one is more suitable than Chi Ye.”
“Alright then, you keep looking. I’ll contact some others too.”
Director Jiang watched Teacher You pick up the phone again and shrugged silently.
……
Late October.
The National Day Slot’s lingering buzz is fading, and Girl’s popularity is gradually declining too, but the benefits have been reaped. And through this, Chi Ye’s star power upgrade is a done deal.
This day.
Canada, Ghost film crew.
Chi Ye changed into ancient costume—a man with a jade crown binding his hair, sitting alone on the flying eaves. His silver-patterned crane cloak lightly fluttered in the night wind. Just this appearance of sitting there made it impossible to look away, deeply captivating.
——So damn handsome!
Shi Jinwei not far away stared at Chi Ye, her sapphire blue eyes a bit dull.
“Teacher Chi, are you really not going to act in a costume drama? Such a pity for this face and physique.”
The makeup and styling teacher nearby pursed her lips in a light smile. Despite such voices around Chi Ye since he became popular, everyone knew this time the makeup and styling teacher wasn’t exaggerating.
Chi Ye’s appearance, image, and physique—actually, people had wanted to see him in ancient idol dramas or costume dramas for a long time. But perhaps due to chance, after leaving Yue Na, Chi Ye has mostly done modern outfits or pseudo-modern ones.
He has done ancient costume before, like Professor Chi’s costume drama scenes in Xing Ni, the “past life” scenes in Ghost, and performing Blue and White Porcelain with Jin Xia on stage.
But these ancient costumes were either fleeting glimpses or limited roles. In short, it’s hard to see Chi Ye fully act in a complete costume drama.
Fans and ancient idol drama fans are roaring. Chi Ye’s team has considered this too… but there really hasn’t been a suitable script.
This time, internet giants behind the three major platforms like Penguin extended olive branches. Keke is frantically screening through script piles, not sure if she can find a suitable one.
“Qianzi, are you dazed? What are you staring at?”
Chi Ye finished makeup and styling, walked up to Qianzi, but found her “staring blankly” at him.
Actually, ever since he officially joined the Ghost crew, he’s noticed Qianzi is no longer the old Qianzi. She often stares at Chi Ye with strange gazes—of course, sneakily. Once she meets Chi Ye’s eyes, she immediately pretends nothing happened.
Um… slightly autistic.
Chi Ye suspects she might be stimulated by being ranked below him.
So he said straightforwardly: “Don’t think about it. You’ll never rank above me in the future, unless I flop.”
Then I’ll make you “flop a bit.”
Shi Jinwei came back to her senses, pursed her lips, turned around: “If you’re ready, let’s start shooting.”
“It’s too late today. Just testing the makeup first. Get ready; tomorrow we shoot the kiss scene.”
Chi Ye said casually. Shi Jinwei’s steps halted. She turned back, looking at him in shocked disbelief: “Kiss scene?!”
Chi Ye glanced at her sideways: “What? Unwilling?”
Shi Jinwei held back repeatedly, using her lifetime’s effort, finally neither fully hard nor completely soft: “……Then I need to eat more.”
Chi Ye was surprised: “Why aren’t you retorting? If you don’t retort, it’s no fun for me…”
Shi Jinwei: “???”
What kind of special fetish is this?
She didn’t dare ask. Because after saying that, she felt her heartbeat was off. She didn’t chat more with Chi Ye and turned to dive into her RV.
Her little assistant followed with an equally “delighted” expression.
“Can you not make it so obvious?”
Sister Qianzi closed the room door. Turning back, she saw the little assistant’s expression that wasn’t even pretending anymore, and she almost couldn’t hold it together: “Should I draw a smiley face on your mouth?”
Little assistant: “…”
She was indeed very happy: “Sis, Sister Shi, there’s a kiss scene! I thought after Professor Chi said it last time, it was gone. Didn’t expect he was teasing you…”
“A kiss scene is me getting taken advantage of. Why are you happy?”
Sister Qianzi had been quite sad… quite happy too, but seeing the little assistant’s spineless look, she inexplicably felt a bit “angry”: “You… can’t you show some composure? Acting like this doesn’t just make people look down on you; it makes Chi Ye look down on me, Shi Jinwei!”
Little assistant was stunned, opened her mouth: “Ah?”
Sister Qianzi’s face went “cold”: “Go prepare some surströmming for me. I heard he ate that last time when kissing Shang Youshu. Go prepare… prepare ten cans.”
Little assistant looked at her in horror: “Sis, are you trying to kill yourself?”
“……He’d only be harsher on me.”
Little assistant blinked, reminded: “Doesn’t seem like it. I heard… I heard Professor Chi said every kiss scene in Ghost is very important. To ensure immersion, he even specially had Sister Liu buy chewing gum…”
Shi Jinwei was also stunned. Her sapphire blue eyes looked at the little assistant full of suspicion: “Is that true? You’re not lying to me, right?”
“How could I, sis? Don’t you know me? When have I ever sold you out?”
Little assistant patted her chest in guarantee.
Shi Jinwei’s mind instantly became a bit chaotic… this… this… if that’s the case…
“Sis, shall I buy you some lemonade?”
Little assistant knew it was her time to shine again and volunteered.
“Buy… buy lemonade for what…” Sister Qianzi turned her head away: “No need, right.”
“Sis, don’t you love lemonade the most usually?”
Little assistant blinked her eyes: “You’ve loved it since you were little. Forgot?”
“Is that so… Oh, yeah, probably.” Shi Jinwei had wanted to hold firm, but seeing only the little assistant beside her, who was looking at her eagerly, clearly saying: Sis, no outsiders, let us both off the hook.
Her heart softened, and she nodded: “Then go… Um… I’ve loved lemonade since I was little… I’ve loved it since little…”
She repeated it a few times, starting to brainwash herself forcibly the way she did as a kid.
“……Sis, don’t leave regrets!”
Seeing her like this, the little assistant was equally excited. She pulled open the car door, got out, and hurried off to buy the lemonade that Professor Chi usually loves most.
Shi Jinwei didn’t reply, just kept muttering: “Loved it since little… I’ve loved it since little…”
……
At the same time.
Chi Ye looked at Xiao Liu: “No surströmming this time. Get that blue cheese… the one from the restaurant we ate at during Time With You. Get some of that. Qianzi’s mouth is tough; without some heavy stuff, I can’t soften her up.”
