14.7 - What was his problem? Did he have nothing else to spend his money on?
translator: xiin
editor: BlueBug
When Xue Ling woke up the next morning, there was a dull pain in his neck, and his head felt dizzy. He got up and sat there for a good while before recovering, frowned, then raised his hand to massage his forehead.
"System." He slept quite well last night, but his voice was a little heavy when he woke up. The system trembled in fear and almost thought that its host had recovered his memories. "Yes?" The system treaded carefully, and kept its inquiry simple.
Xue Ling rubbed the back of his neck, then shook his head and asked thoughtfully, "Who brought me back from the bar?"
"… Well, President Su…" Amongst the three Su Family brothers, Su Xuanyan was the head of the Su Family as well as the person in charge. There was nothing wrong with calling him the president.
"Did he knock me out?" Although he phrased it as a question, his tone made it more of a statement. If the system hadn't been absolutely certain that Xue Ling couldn't remember the events from last night, it would definitely have been scared into tears by his tone.
"Um… He had to…" If he hadn't knocked you out, you would probably have pestered him for a bath, a change of clothes, and a massage…
Since the system said that he had had no choice, Xue Ling could guess that he must have done something silly, but he had no memory of what had happened after he'd gotten drunk at all. He basically didn't even know when he'd gotten drunk… "Is my alcohol tolerance… this low…?" He had some doubts as he lowered his head and sank into thought.
"Um… You were done with one drink. And it was a cocktail… Your alcohol tolerance is barely there?" The system tried to soften the truth, but the truth between the words was enough to attack Xue Ling's self-esteem.
Although he didn't know why he had the feeling that he wouldn't topple from a thousand drinks, at the moment he couldn't even handle one. The bitter experience of not having the slightest recollection of what had happened kept Xue Ling wary, and it looked like he shouldn't drink in the future. Yesterday night he had met someone with a paralyzed face and been knocked unconscious; if he had encountered anyone else, he might not even know where he was when he woke up.
He felt scared just thinking about it; Xue Ling ignored the pain in the back of his neck for the time being. After all, Su Xuanyan was still his superior even if they were separated by a few companies, and was a big boss. In the future, it would be fine as long as he avoided him. He had only started teasing the man on a spur of the moment impulse last night. But based on his iceberg face and his silent character that wouldn't answer even if someone spoke to him for a long time, Xue Ling was certain that the other party would want nothing to do with him, let alone take any action to retaliate against him.
After all, the other side's expression was covered in the words 'I'm super cool', and appeared like an alpine snow lotus at a glance; he wouldn't be concerned with a small actor and employee like himself.
Xue Ling happily decided to forget about what had happened last night and act as though his stupidity had never happened. He got up and bathed, then instructed the robotic housekeeper to wash the sheets.
Although there was no smell of alcohol on his body, Xue Ling still felt that it was better to clean everything properly.
After putting the shoes on the living room floor back on the shoe rack, Xue Ling refused to think about who took them off last night. After tossing about for a whole morning, he happily made himself lunch, and finally opened up his nano-computer.
He hadn't spent much time online recently while he prepared for the audition. He discovered as soon as he opened up Weibo that he had picked up a ton of new fans. Xue Ling raised his eyebrows and looked carefully before realizing that Tianxuan had announced news of their contract signing. His credentials had already been put up on Tianxuan's official website, and Su Liunian had also forwarded it.
Another thing that suddenly made him popular was the list of actors that the film crew had posted.
After yesterday's audition, the crew successfully signed contract with all actors. As a TV drama adapted from an online novel, the organizers had constantly been assisting with the marketing, and amongst drama adaptations, <Lost Track> has always been extremely popular. After all, Soaring Skies was a god in the World Literature Network, and was considered a very good writer even on a worldwide scale. This was not the first adaptation of his works, and some of his previous works have left their names in the history of film and television. It could be said that readers very much believed that this drama adaptation would be successful.
But this trust was shaken when Xue Ling's name appeared in the main character column.
At first, many people had no idea who this little, barely-famous star was. Later, they looked him up, and discovered that Xue Ling was nothing but a vase. Even if it was just based on looks, how could they believe that he suited the role? Had the crew and director's brains been eaten? If this kind of person was selected to play the core character in the drama, wasn't that simply destroying the adaptation?
The supporting actors were all people with strength, experience, and previous works backing them up; it didn't seem as though the crew and directors had problems choosing people for the roles, so how come only the casting for the main protagonist seemed wrong?
So, a whole crowd of people began to enthusiastically discuss this topic. Xue Ling's past work and how he entered the entertainment circle was pulled up, and even the voice acting he had done before was also brought to the surface. Quite a few people mocked him for not being able to accomplish anything. He had been in the circle for ten years, but had no works that could win him the title of 'god'. After all these years, hadn't he just relied on his beautiful face and acted like a vase in order to become popular?
Of course, if there were those who mocked him, there would naturally be supporters as well. Many people pointed to the messages that Tianxuan and Su Liunian sent out and analyzed the matter in an organized and reasonable manner. They showed that Tianxian had recently been signing on new artists, and if everyone was willing to look into it, they would discover that their signing requirements were very high. If Xue Ling managed to sign a contract based on his face alone, it would mean that Su Liunian was slapping himself in the face as it would also affect his own brand and reputation. Only fools would be willing to do such a thing.
Su Liunian has been in the business for so many years, and the thing he has done the most was slapping other people's faces. Regardless of whether it was his family's fans or other people, they were all extremely stable when it came to things concerning Su Liunian. They all adhered to the belief that Film Emperor Su always had his own reasons for the things that he did, and they spent the past two days preparing to watch the face slapping. The people who supported Su Liunian were all particularly optimistic regarding Xue Ling.
This meant that the polarization of opinions on Xue Ling's Weibo was very severe. Some people scolded him, saying that his garbage acting skills would make things difficult for the drama crew, while others supported him and hoped he would work hard. His fans seemed small and weak when compared to these groups of people, and those who were fans of his face or voice could only weakly speak up and talk about how beautiful their Little Fox was, and how wonderful his voice was.
Xue Ling was left quite speechless by this chaotic scene. He had just started thinking about what kind of message to send to divert the topic when his QQ automatically logged in and flashed.
Xue Ling was quite certain that he had not accepted any new voice acting jobs recently, but the flashing was so intense that it must be one of the managers looking for him.
He found that it was indeed the case when he opened QQ. It was Spring Rolly using his usual godly means to send an endless barrage of messages. He had discovered that these managers were all particularly good at acting cute, and their words were always sent in short phrases, and matters that could be clearly expressed in two or three sentences could somehow be stretched out to fill the entire screen.
Spring Rolly habitually praised Xue Ling for a while before sending a whole string of messages cutely begging for Xue Ling to come out and talk.
Xue Ling had already handed in his voice recordings earlier, and the new scripts hadn't come out yet. What was Spring Rolly looking for him for?
[ Spring Rolly: QAQ My lovely Little Fox, can't you just take a look at the group? We're about to start broadcasting, but you haven't said a word since you joined the group. Is it because you don't like our cast?! QAQ ]
That little cute expression of his made Xue Ling not know whether to laugh or cry. Personally, he habitually turned off notifications for all group chats, but it was true that he was in the wrong for not greeting everyone after joining the group previously due to matters that had come up.
[ Snow Fox: I was a little busy these past two days. I'm sorry I haven't had time to say hello. When will the play start? ]
[ Spring Rolly: Ah! My dear, you've finally shown up!!! I know you've been busy~ Congratulations on getting a new role and signing with a new company~ ]
[ Snow Fox: Thank you. ]
[ Spring Rolly: Hey, hey (*/w＼*) I've always said that you would become popular sooner or later~ We're going to start broadcasting tonight~ If you hadn't come online by then, I was prepared to go and harass you in real life! I'm sure I can find your address! ]
[ Snow Fox: Yes, yes, you're capable of finding it. I'll go look at the group chat. ]
Previously, Xue Ling had not paid much attention to it, but later on, he discovered that the audio drama <War Sword> did not seem to be a simple Ten Years production. Normally, a Ten Years production cast would be staffed by the community, but over half of the members of this cast did not carry the Ten Years' tag in their names. Other than the manager and a few voice actors, it seemed that the directors and script writers weren't from Ten Years at all.
Xue Ling looked at the name of the scriptwriter, Laughing Forgetting, in some surprise. If he hadn't remembered incorrectly… Wasn't Laughing Forgetting the author of this book? Was he also a scriptwriter?
No matter how strange it was, Xue Ling still popped up in the group chat.
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: Hello, everybody. I hadn't had a chance to say hello to you all. Everyone's really worked hard. ]
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: …This group title… Who came up with it? ]
[ [Manager] Spring Rolly: Hehehe, everyone agreed to change it for you (*/w＼*) ]
[ [cv] Woods on the Hill: Aiya, Little Fox is here~ Is it because you know that the broadcast is going to start today, and you've already made preparations for getting licked by everyone? ]
[ [cv] End of the World: Since you won't live for long anyway, don't come out to mingle. Even though you're the one suffering, at the end of the day, I still have to deal with it! ]
[ [Director] Uncertain Return: What are you guys fighting for? Little Fox is the main character. Those of you who end up dead or wounded should step to the side. ]
[ [Writer] Laughing Forgetting: Ah! The actual person has shown up~ How serious and cute~ He's indeed an evildoer that's on par with Forgotten. Come here and let auntie pinch your cheek~ ]
There group chat was chaotic, and Xue Ling couldn't even tell who was who. After he showed up, the entire group chat seemed to blow up, and all kinds of things were said to tease him. If it weren't for the fact that Xue Ling had some level of experience, his face would probably be blood red by now.
After thinking about it, he still maintained his solemn tone as he responded.
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: There's still a gap between me and Forgotten. Since everyone is here, I believe that I still have room for improvement. ]
[ [President Gong] Forgotten Shore: I'm the original voice, and you're the one who has to pretend. If you look at it that way, you have a higher ability. ]
Xue Ling: "…" ??? How come this person was in the group?? Hadn't he left this audio drama already?
[ [Writer] Laughing Forgetting: Hehe, even Forgotten is praising you like that. Little Fox really is the ideal candidate for the evildoer tag~ ]
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: … How come lord Forgotten is… ]
[ [Director] Uncertain Return: Because he caused problems, we made him stay to record the end song for us. ]
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: Back then, I had to join in a hurry because you said that the licensing authorization might be withdrawn… But isn't lord Laughing Forgetting right here… ] The scriptwriter was the author, so didn't the withdrawal of permission depend on her attitude?
[ [Writer] Laughing Forgetting: (///w///) Although I'm the scriptwriter, the contract terms that should be followed still needs to be followed, and if the deadline is up, the permission would have to be withdrawn. Of course, the manager can come and beg for an extension~ ]
[ [Evildoer] Snow Fox: … ] What the hell was this!
[ [cv] Woods on the Hill: Hahahahahahahaha I feel as though I can see the frozen expression on Little Fox's face. He's so easy to trick! ]
Xue Ling was rather speechless as he turned his attention back to his Weibo account. He had turned into a trending topic, and Xue Ling had already become indifferent towards this matter. In any case, he would probably be slapping other people in the face as soon as his works came out, so what they said now didn't matter.
The crew had already sent out an announcement, and they would start the project pilot in three days. The director had already decided which scene to do for the pilot; it was precisely the tenth act that Xue Ling had performed for the audition.
Although selecting such a high difficulty act was a challenge for the actors, it was precisely this kind of fierce scene filled with conflict that highlighted the characters and helped actors quickly step into their roles.
The crew was filming at the city's film and television base, and they would not have to travel for the set, but even so, Xue Ling planned to pack up his things and join the crew on-site. It didn't make sense to spend all day filming and then return back home. There was nothing he needed to worry about at home, so if he was on-site, he could absorb some experience and learn some things if he had nothing else to do.
Shen Yue had already taken over some of Xue Ling's affairs. Because this was the first time, Shen Yue would also follow Xue Ling when he joined the crew. Xue Ling did not have an assistant, and had no intention of looking for one for the time being, so Shen Yue would first take on that role as he also needed to get a feel for Xue Ling's state when he was acting as well as his personality before arranging a suitable assistant for him. He hoped that the person he picked would not drag Xue Ling back.
Three days passed by fast. But on the last night before Xue Ling was about to leave and join the crew, he received a gift.
He looked on expressionlessly as someone from the bar delivered over several bottles of wine to his home. The confusion Xue Ling felt in his heart towards Su Xuanyan became more and more deep.
He had originally thought that Su Xuanyan had not appeared in front of him because he intended to treat him as though the two of them had nothing to do with each other after that night. But for some reason, the man had asked the people from the bar to deliver an entire bar's worth of alcohol to his house two days later.
The young man who delivered the alcohol expressed that these were all from Mr. Su, and that he had said to say that this was his compensation.
Xue Ling asked the young man to bring everything back, but the other party absolutely refused to do so. He stopped just short of hugging Xue Ling's thigh and begging him to accept it, crying and shouting that he didn't want to lose his job.
He couldn't just make things awkward for the young man for no reason, so Xue Ling took advantage of the opportunity to ask him to help him bring everything inside.
The man clearly knew that he couldn't drink. What was the point in moving these things to his house? What was his problem? Did he have nothing else to spend his money on?
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