Reborn as a Substitute

Although the scene was very awkward and was unlikely to be broadcast, fortunately, the people present had all been in the business for years. After the actor got over being stunned, he took the initiative to say hello and change the subject. Wang Yao also laughed and started another topic. Ji Sheng pushed Xie Xuanming away. At the same time, he raised his eyes to give a “don’t be evil” look to Xie Xuanming. Xie Xuanming received the warning and honestly stopped messing around…

The four of them each had their own agenda; they exchanged a few words with some fake smiles, got in the car and went to the recording venue.

The recording location was in a suburban villa area; each CP couple had a separate villa. Xie Xuanming walked in and looked around, and objectively commented: “Not as big as my house.”

Ji Sheng: ……

Ji Sheng dragged the suitcase into the guest room on the first floor: “Say something that can be broadcast, Teacher Xie, you’re going to be scolded again.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Xie Xuanming shrugged, went to his own suitcase and pulled it into the house.

Ji Sheng had just put the suitcase down in the guest room when he turned and saw Xie Xuanming dragging his large suitcase through the door as if it was the most natural thing to do.

Ji Sheng quickly straightened up to stop his invading pace.

“What are you doing, Teacher Xie?” Ji Sheng smiled in embarrassment, his eyes full of warning, “You live on the second floor, the master bedroom is up there.”

“The first floor has good lighting.”

“Upstairs are floor-to-ceiling windows with a balcony.”

“I don’t want to carry the suitcase.”

“I’ll help you carry it.”

“I like this room.”

“……”

Ji Sheng took a deep breath, raised his eyes, glanced at the camera and put on a fake sweet smile: “Then I’ll go upstairs and you sleep here.”

His smile was amiable; his eyes were full of murderous aura.

Xie Xuanming looked at him for two seconds, then turned around reluctantly: “No, I’ll go upstairs.”

Xie Xuanming strode out, dragging the suitcase. Ji Sheng just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard a rumble upstairs and then someone said sullenly: “I have your toothpaste, remember to come and brush your teeth tonight.”

Ji Sheng’s breath caught in his throat and he coughed violently, instinctively looking up at the camera. Under his stare, the cameraman in the corner turned away, proverbially covering his ears to steal a bell, indicating that he “didn’t notice anything”.

Ji Sheng was so tired that he covered his face with his hands, thinking that it might have been a mistake to take on this variety show.

He just wanted to promote his CP with Xie Xuanming to add some heat to the web drama.

He didn’t want to kick open the closet door in front of the whole country.

In the evening, Ji Sheng and Xie Xuanming still went to Wang Yao’s house for dinner.

Ji Shneg did not bow to Xie Xuanming’s messy request for the title of seniority (gege) and Xie Xuanming, relying on the camera to prevent Ji Sheng from cursing, used cooking as a blackmail, stubbornly cornering Ji Sheng to make him say unpleasant things.

Ji Sheng was also very tough; if you don’t cook, fine, then I won’t eat. He turned and ran away to Wang Yao.

The words that were said were like water that had been spilled, and the conversation that exploded was like chewing gum that had run out of flavour.

Xie Xuanming didn’t have a sense of measure and scared Ji Sheng away, so he could only follow Ji Sheng to the next door to eat. From sitting down to putting down his chopsticks, his face was as stinky as if everyone present owed him five million.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of Wang Yao and the male actor, a cold face was the norm for Emperor Xie, and it was in Teacher Xie’s character to lose his temper all the time, so there was nothing special about it. Seeing Xie Xuanming like this, the two of them instead felt more sympathy for Ji Sheng and welcomed him even warmer, thinking they were saviours giving a homeless little wretch a meal to eat.

Ji Sheng, the only one who could see that Xie Xuanming was making trouble, deliberately ignored his emotional outburst, buried his head in the food and had a lot of fun. From time to time, he raised his head and joked with Wang Yao, disregarding the chill-spreading air-conditioner sitting on his right.

With this dinner, Ji Sheng won a big victory in the secret battle between the two of them.

On the way back, he proudly teased: “Teacher Xie, it’s true that whoever provides the meal is the master, but the title is not monopolised.”

Xie Xuanming hooked the corners of his mouth, smiling humorlessly: “Xiao Ji, don’t be happy too early.”

Xie Xuanming also had a reason to speak so harshly. Xie Xuanming knew how picky Ji Sheng was; he would either eat with gusto or perfunctorily ignore the food he did not like. This was Ji Sheng’s eating style.

At the table just now, Ji Sheng ate two mouthfuls of white rice and barely touched the other dishes that were obviously not to his liking.

Xie Xuanming, who witnessed all this, washed up and went to bed calmly. He picked up the book “The Use and Practice of Psychoanalysis” on the bedside and read it with relish. As expected, he heard the door of the bedroom being knocked on when it was close to midnight.

“Come in.” Xie Xuanming said.

The door creaked. Ji Sheng poked his head in and tentatively said, “Teacher Xie.”

Xie Xuanming didn’t raise his head, turning a page in his hand, and asked, knowing the answer: “Here to brush your teeth?”

“No.” Ji Sheng said in a low voice, “I’m hungry.”

“Oh.” Xie Xuanming remained motionless.

The two remained in a stalemate for a while. Eventually Ji Sheng couldn’t bear the emptiness of his stomach, gritted his teeth and said, “Teacher Xie, can you cook?”

Xie Xuanming finally reacted, put down the book and said, “Yes.”

“Can I ask you to make supper?” Ji Sheng said, “There are Japanese-style ramen, tomatoes, eggs, lean pork and scallions in the kitchen.”

“I usually cook when I’m in a good mood.” Xie Xuanming said leisurely.

“…” Ji Sheng asked, “Are you in a good mood now?”

“In general.” Xie Xuanming said, “If someone calls me ‘gege’, I might be in a better mood.”

“……”

“……”

If I hadn’t died, would this kid be so arrogant and domineering?!

Ji Sheng had never regretted his carelessness in his previous life so much.

“Brother Xie… Gege…” Ji Sheng almost gnashed his teeth, “Please make me supper, thank you.”

“Okay.” Xie Xuanming closed the book contentedly and went downstairs to the kitchen.

The mode of getting along between the two was so intimate that they discussed it with the director again and again in the late stage of the filming, but still did not find a solution. Although the director promised Ji Sheng to cut out the overly ambiguous scenes, when the material was presented in front of them, all the interactions were too intimate and the director was dumbfounded.

“How to cut it?” The post-production crew asked in a low voice, “Are you going to cut it all?”

“…” The director was very tired, “Keep it, there will be nothing to broadcast if you cut it.”

The heartbroken crew left the footage of the two together, and even did the opposite, using the intimate interaction between the Xie/Ji couple as a selling point, creating an illusion of “real or fake, fake or real”.

The trailer was a hit, and the internet exploded.

[Call me ‘gege’ and I’ll let you go]

[Gege]

When the necking scene on the sofa flashed by and several clips of ambiguous conversations were released, the netizens were shocked.

[kswl!]

[Help, Xie Xuanming turns out to be this kind of persona?]

[Are the two here to record the show or are they in love?]

[“We are CP” X “We are Married”]

[I’m going to jump into the pit. I heard that the CP of “The Drummer” was good, but I didn’t expect the after-sales service to be so good either.]

[Guide the way to the supertopic “Round Ten”, you will have everything you need there]

[……]

The broadcast time of “We are CP” was Sunday night, immediately after the two episodes of “The Drummer” were broadcast in a row.

In episodes 4 to 8 of “The Drummer”, the drama progressed as Xie Yuan and Ji Renshi gradually fell apart while venturing into the entertainment industry, with their relationship drifting apart and eventually breaking up because of a role.

The CP in the drama was extremely heartbreaking, and the CP outside the drama was sweet to death.

As soon as the sad “Round Ten” CP fans finished watching “The Drummer” crying, they were crushed to death by the avalanche of sugar in “We are CP”. The overwhelming difference between reality and drama further contributed to the expansion of this CP fan group.

Of course, in addition to being obsessed with the CP, the audience had not forgotten the prototypes of  “The Drummer”. They were sorry and saddened by what happened to Ji Renshi, and what Sheng Mou did in the drama was really disgusting.

Although the drama was separate from reality, when the audience thought of the various methods of Sheng Kongzhi and Qingchu in reality, its anger turned to aim directly at Sheng Kongzhi and Qingchu, and fired.

Sheng Kongzhi’s side sued several particularly vocal netizens, but they could only pretend to be deaf and dumb about the source of their anger, “The Drummer”, together with Xuansheng Company, so that not to hit a stone with an egg.

In the second week of the broadcast of “The Drummer”, Xie Xuanming received two pieces of good news.

First, Qingchu Company declared bankruptcy due to financial difficulties, and Xuansheng’s side finally could start trademark acquisition.

The second was that Xie Xuanming’s last movie was nominated for the Cinéma Awards in France and the organisers invited Xie Xuanming to attend the award ceremony.

The Cinéma Awards were one of the most prestigious and widely recognised international awards at present. The news that Xie Xuanming had been nominated for the award in less than five years after his debut had caused a ripple effect on the internet. The black fans who had previously sarcastically criticised Xie Xuanming for not being able to pick up any movies and making web dramas instead were silenced. Everyone knew that whether he won the award or not, this would undoubtedly give Xie Xuanming another layer of gold and strengthen his status as a movie emperor.

The actor was nominated for an international award just four years after his debut. Xie Xuanming, a 25-year-old new generation actor, had unlimited possibilities in the future.

On the day Xie Xuanming went abroad, his itinerary was made public. With the company’s tacit approval, many fans came to see him off.

Due to the large number of people coming, for the sake of public order and safety, a protective tape was put up. Fans who arrived were asked to stand behind the protective tape for an orderly send-off.

Most of the fans stayed in the designated area sensibly, holding up their cameras or preparing letters to Xie Xuanming, and waited quietly.

But when Xie Xuanming arrived, there were still some irrational fans, or sishengs who had been lurking for a long time; they screamed and lifted the protective tape, trying to cross over and approach Xie Xuanming.

Most of these intruders were stopped by the quick-responding bodyguards, but one sisheng was the fish that missed the net. She rushed past the bodyguards and quickly approached Xie Xuanming, who was standing with his back to her, unsuspecting.

The fans gasped as no one knew how stinky the sisheng was and what she might do to Xie Xuanming.

Just as the sisheng was about to rush in front of Xie Xuanming, a man in black clothes and a black cap suddenly appeared beside him, blocking the sisheng’s way, grabbing her waist.

The sisheng was caught off guard, flailing her arms and kicking, screaming harshly, but the man held her firmly, not letting go even though his cap was knocked off.

The bodyguards who finally reacted took over the sisheng and escorted her out.

Xie Xuanming, who was handling some business in front of him, was so startled by the commotion that he turned around. The man picked up his cap and gave him an OK gesture, signalling that it was fine.

Not far away, the station sister  pointed her camera at Xie Xuanming but accidentally photographed the man’s profile before he put on his cap.

The brim of the cap couldn’t cover his curved eyebrows, and under his eye, a tear mole was particularly eye-catching.