Reborn as a Substitute

Another first male lead was trying to grab the role of the second male lead! The screenwriter was speechless for a moment and hurriedly persuaded Ji Sheng:

“No, Xie Xuanming said that he likes the role of the second male lead. If it’s not the second male lead, he won’t play. Ji Sheng, be kind, just give him the second male…”

The screenwriter was extremely sincere, and Ji Sheng could only acquiesce. He agreed while wondering what kind of image Xie Xuanming actually had in the circle: he couldn’t even get a role but still stubbornly wanted to pick and choose.

That’s good.

Very tough and not easy to be bullied.

Ji Sheng said a few more words to the screenwriter, reminding him to contact Qingchu before hanging up.

Ji Sheng waited for Qingchu to contact him, but somehow, a few weeks passed and no news came. He couldn’t figure it out, so he could only contact the screenwriter to ask again, but the screenwriter didn’t make sense, only vaguely saying that there were some contradictions in the remuneration and asking Ji Sheng to wait.

There was nothing Ji Sheng could do. After asking about the approximate start date, he went to Sheng Kongzhi and asked him where he took the acting course.

“Are you going to act?” Sheng Kongzhi said after a surprised pause, “It’s pretty good, you are very photogenic, you will definitely make a hit.”

“I’m not doing it to make a hit.” Ji Sheng inexplicably felt a little uncomfortable. He suppressed this emotion but felt weird again almost at once, “Didn’t you know that I was going to act?”

“I didn’t know.” Sheng Kongzhi said, “The company didn’t tell me.”

“…” Ji Sheng felt even more strange. Qingchu was such a small company, it was a great joy to have an artist receive resources. As soon as Li Mi opened his mouth, the whole company would know.

Sheng Kongzhi hadn’t heard the news.

It was really weird.

“I will send you the training camp contacts. However, this class does not seem to accept private registration, so you’d better let the company contact them directly.” Ji Sheng was still feeling strange but

Sheng Kongzhi had already ended this topic, so he could only detach himself from these thoughts for the time being. After thanking Sheng Kongzhi, he hung up the phone with a few perfunctory words.

Ji Sheng waited for a few days, but did not get the company to contact him. What waited for him was a hot search.

#Ji Sheng Acting#

In the hot search, a marketing account offered melons saying that Ji Sheng and Xie Xuanming were  contacted for a popular novel adaptation and were invited to star as a male lead and a second male lead respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the comment area became the scene of a big battle. Ji Sheng and Xie Xuanming’s fans fought head-on, and Sheng Kongzhi’s fans were making comments from the sidelines.

[Tsk tsk, sure enough, if you haven’t debuted, you have to play a supporting role to a popular top in a series]

[Don’t cue Xie Xuanming, don’t bundle him with a fake drumming waste]

[Tsk tsk, the royal family is the royal family. Black materials are flying all over the world but there is a personal tour and performances. Take pity on my baby, he works hard but has to be dragged down by his teammates, he can’t even start the tour.]

[Don’t go too far, White Lotus Sheng’s fans, who was snatching his teammates’ resources?]

[Your idol personally said “I don’t want to act”. Now the band is out of the way and he’s shamelessly licking the drama pie. What kind of waste recycling bin is the profession of an actor, do you throw all the garbage into it?]

[Upstairs is really right, wasn’t your idol thrown into it earlier?]

[……]

Fans posted nearly 10,000 comments. Ji Sheng’s fans had been hit hard since the “birthday party” incident. Ji Sheng had retired in the past few months, so their fighting power was not as strong as before. They were uncharacteristically hammered down by Sheng Kongzhi and Xie Xuanming’s fans.

What made them even more heartbroken was that passers-by who heard the rumours also stepped on Ji Sheng.

After all, at that time, the popularity of “I don’t want to act” spread very widely, and the person who had said that was now going to act in a TV series, so naturally, the perception of the passers-by was not favourable.

When Ji Sheng saw the comments, the quarrel had already escalated. Sheng Kongzhi’s fans were taking over the comments defending their idol’s rights, his own fans began to curse, and Xie Xuanming’s fans were even more crazy, saying that if Xie Xuanming really lowered his worth to play a supporting role to Ji Sheng, they would immediately remove themselves from being his fans.

Ji Sheng read the comments  silently, locked his phone and stared at the black screen without knowing what to think, when he suddenly received a call from Li Tan.

“I want to talk to you about acting.” Li Tan started with the main point, “Recently, the company has been so busy with this matter, so I want to talk to you about my thoughts.”

“En…” Ji Sheng replied absent-mindedly.

“There is something wrong with that series… I don’t know if someone leaked the news that you can’t play music anymore because of a hand injury. But they used that to lower the price like crazy, offering a completely unreasonable fee…”

“So you refused?” Ji Sheng said suddenly.

“No.” Li Tan paused, “The other party is very persistent about you, but the company thinks you shouldn’t lower your worth to take on such a drama… What do you think?”

“Persistent but offering a low price.” Ji Sheng said coldly, “Their side is really contradictory.”

Li Tan paused again. Ji Sheng’s words carried doubts that even the deaf could hear. As the boss, Li Tan felt that he had to hold his face, so he raised his voice, “Are you suspicious of the company’s actions?” 

“No, I’m just very interested in this series.” Ji Sheng said, “After all, my hand is injured now and I can’t play drums. It’s better to develop in another direction.”

Li Tan was quite worried.

The drama that approached Ji Sheng was a resource that Qingchu had long been interested in, a popular novel adapted to TV series, and if they could grab either the male lead or the second male lead role, it would be a huge plus for Qingchu.

Qingchu originally planned to talk about the second male lead role for Sheng Kongzhi, but who knew that the drama party actually took the initiative to come to their door and ask Ji Sheng to star as the male lead, offering him a high fee.

Li Tan was surprised when this pie fell from the sky, and then he began to feel uneasy.

Although Ji Sheng was also an artist of Qingchu and it was good to get this role to make money for Qingchu, he knew that the daughter of Qingchu’s major shareholder did not like Ji Sheng. She even slashed Ji Sheng’s hand last month and if she hadn’t had such a strong background, she would have gone to jail… But with such a deep hatred, how could she allow Ji Sheng to play the first male lead?

Sure enough, the first lady of the investment went crazy when she heard the news. She bombarded the phone, threatening to withdraw the capital and yelled frantically that she’d get to Ji Sheng again.

For Ji Sheng’s safety and Qingchu’s development, Li Tan had to bite the bullet and coax Ji Sheng to reject the role.

He originally thought this was a very easy task. After all, Ji Sheng’s lack of interest in acting was obvious, and Li Tan didn’t think he would be too obsessed with this series.

But at this moment Li Tan realized that things were complicated; Ji Sheng was more difficult than expected, stubbornly unwilling to refuse.

Li Tan frowned, vaguely guessing from Ji Sheng’s uncharacteristic behaviour that something was wrong, and asked tentatively, “Do you want to act in this drama so badly? In fact, it is not a very good choice.” 

“I don’t particularly want to act.” Ji Sheng really took the bait, opening up a little, “It’s just that Xiao Xie is going to take this drama, and the crew can’t get the actors together, so filming will have to be aborted if no one takes it.”

“…” Li Tan was silent for a long time, then asked strangely, “Is that what Xie Xuanming told you?”

“En.” 

“…No wonder.” Li Tan said in a low voice.

No wonder the drama party was so obsessed with Ji Sheng. If they could get Xie Xuanming and Ji Sheng together in one cast, they could make a lot of publicity from the topic.

And…

Li Tan remembered that the staff of the drama party once said helplessly: “It’s not that we must have Ji Sheng. But the actor that the screenwriter wants must have Ji Sheng, so we can’t help it…”

It turned out to mean this.

Li Tan suddenly was enlightened; and while he was surprised that Xie Xuanming, a cold-hearted kid, was still so affectionate and righteous, he found a new entry point.

“Have you seen the hot search today?” 

“I have.” Ji Sheng said.

“That’s Xie Xuanming’s company testing the waters.” Li Tan said, “Xie Xuanming has had a lot of conflicts with his company because of this drama. The company believes that the second male lead lowers his worth and it’s easy to lose fans, but Xie Xuanming insists.” 

“…” Ji Sheng’s expression darkened when he remembered the remarks on the hot search.

Xie Xuanming’s company was not an alarmist.

“That’s why they used a marketing account to test, and you saw the results.” Li Tan said, “Xie Xuanming’s company is determined. Even if he doesn’t have the resources, he can’t pick up a bad pie. But Qingchu appears to find a two-way solution.”

“What can be done?” 

“Kongzhi has a gap in his schedule.” Li Tan said, “The drama party is very satisfied with Kongzhi. Xie Xuanming’s company also said that Kongzhi’s actor image is more acceptable as a male lead than yours. If Kongzhi takes over the role, the drama can proceed with normal filming, and Xiao Xie won’t be at odds with the company and the fans.”

Ji Sheng didn’t reply immediately. He lowered his head and thought for a while. “Does Xiao Xie agree with this decision?”

“Why doesn’t he agree? Won’t the drama start filming the same way with whoever is in it?”

“That’s not the problem.” Ji Sheng said, “He and Kongzhi… have some contradictions.”

“What contradictions can be at work?” Li Tan laughed loudly, “Is it possible that the two of them quarrelled because of you?”

Li Tan joked but unintentionally touched the truth. In Ji Sheng’s mind, Xie Xuanming’s face flashed for a moment, leaning forward, the coldness of his lips, the mean substitute remarks after the forced kiss… and finally, those bright eyes.

He was stung and then immediately forcibly suppressed all these emotions, saying, “There is no such thing, the two of them… should have no problem working together.”

“That’s good.” Li Tan smiled a little, “Then I will refuse the drama party for you. As for the cooperation between Kongzhi and Xiao Xie, let me talk about it. Anyway, we have a bit of a friendship, and Xiao Xie still has to listen to what I say as the eldest brother.”

Ji Sheng muttered to himself that Xiao Xie would not even listen to his words and he was closer than a brother, why would he care about you…

But he really didn’t want to take the initiative to face the angry Xie Xuanming, so he grunted and said, “Talk to him.” 

“Okay.” Li Tan readily agreed, “By the way, the doctors I introduced to you before…”

“The ones that treat hands?” Ji Sheng replied softly, “No, I’ve been to see them all.”

All said they were powerless.

“Oh, that’s it… Xiao Ji, don’t be sad. Now that medical technology is so advanced, everything can be cured. Just take a good rest. Kongzhi will return from the crew in two days. I will come with him to see you… I have a meeting later, so I’ll hang up first.” 

“Um, okay, bye.” 

For a while after rejecting the role, Ji Sheng hesitated to explain the matter to Xie Xuanming again and again. But then he heard that Xie Xuanming’s debut movie was blocked before it was released. Xie Xuanming’s face was tired and upset in a sneak photo… Ji Sheng typed a message and deleted it. In the end he didn’t know what to say.

He hesitated for a long time, and failed to send out the message until the day when the crew officially announced the actors.

The morning of the official announcement, Ji Sheng was awakened early in the morning by a phone call.

“Hello…” He picked it up in a daze and heard a heavy breathing on the other end but no words were said for a long time.

“Hello, who is it?” Ji Sheng looked at his mobile phone to check the name of the caller, but his eyes were so bleary that he couldn’t see the characters clearly.

“Are you so eager to promote Sheng Kongzhi to the top?” The voice coming from the phone made Ji Sheng’s narrowed eyes widen in an instant.

“Xiao Xie?” 

“Don’t call me that!” Xie Xuanming growled in a low voice, his tone overflowing with emotion, “Ji Sheng, did your brain collapse when you fell in love? You’ve been victimised by Sheng Kongzhi like that and you still let him have the role… Did Qingchu even offer you to take this role in the first place?” 

“What are you talking about?” Ji Sheng was confused, “Wait…”

Xie Xuanming did not explain.

“Forget it.” Xie Xuanming’s voice dropped, “What’s the use of talking to you about this?”

“Xiao Xie…”

“Anyway, you don’t care about anything, you only care about Sheng Kongzhi’s feelings… I actually understand now.” Xie Xuanming gave a self-deprecating laugh and hung up.

Ji Sheng held the phone, confused for half a second, then dialled back and couldn’t get through, sent a few messages to Xie Xuanming and each message was followed by a bright red exclamation mark.

Ji Sheng stopped contacting Xie Xuanming and switched to Weibo, just in time to see the news coming in.

[The official announcement of the main cast of “Wanna Stick it to the President”, the original second male lead Xie Xuanming withdraws, the contract breach fee up to ten million]