Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 18

The actress playing the female lead had not shown up by the afternoon shoot. Zhang Zheng had made nine consecutive calls, and the agent on the other end kept making excuses, saying she would arrive soon. But even after five o’clock, the female lead still had not appeared.

Every day of filming was burning money, so Zhang Zheng could not let everyone sit idle. He had no choice but to keep pushing the scenes of other actors ahead in the schedule. Fortunately, a big name guest star who had come to make a cameo was very easygoing and willing to do Zhang Zheng a favor, rushing over to help save the day.

Zhan Hang finally got a breather. Zhao Kaile fanned him while specifically observing how many assistants that big name had brought along. He could not find a single one.

“What are you looking for?” Zhan Hang asked. “Did you lose your phone again?”

Zhao Kaile leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Brother Hang, isn’t he a Best Actor? He didn’t bring a single assistant?”

Zhan Hang said, “He used to have an assistant. Now it’s his wife. His wife won’t let him bring one.”

Zhao Kaile: “??”

You can actually do that!!!

“So now most management companies basically won’t assign opposite gender staff as personal assistants to their artists,” Zhan Hang said. He took a sip of water, still feeling hot, and slightly loosened his collar, revealing a bit of his collarbone.

Zhao Kaile hurriedly increased his fanning speed. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the second male lead sitting in the rest tent, with two assistants wildly fanning him with large palm leaf fans. He looked at the simple little fan in his own hand, and some inexplicable competitive spirit was stirred up, so he fanned even harder.

Zhan Hang’s hair ribbon was blown into a mess. He frowned and scolded Zhao Kaile, “Slow down!” Zhao Kaile looked embarrassed and had to slow his movements.

The guest star’s cameo scenes finished filming, and the female lead still had not arrived. Zhang Zheng was truly angry now. He told everyone to rest first, looked around the rest tent, and slowly walked over to Zhan Hang’s side. Zhao Kaile quickly made room for him to sit.

Zhang Zheng did not stand on ceremony and sat right down, asking Zhan Hang how he felt.

“Today I feel like I’m getting into the groove,” Zhan Hang said. “Yesterday wasn’t actually that great.”

Zhang Zheng thanked Zhao Kaile, who had brought over water, took a sip, and continued, “Yesterday you were actually very conscious of the camera. Sometimes your expressions were unnatural. Today is much better, not so obvious anymore. Your line delivery is excellent. I haven’t seen many of your productions with live sound recording before, so I’m a bit surprised.”

Zhao Kaile nodded vigorously from the side. Zhan Hang’s line delivery truly was excellent; he did not need dubbing at all. He did not know what those production crews were thinking, insisting on spending that unnecessary money.

Zhan Hang said modestly, “No, no, not at all.”

Zhang Zheng added, “But your crying scenes don’t seem to be particularly strong, right?”

Zhan Hang said, “That’s true. I will work hard to improve.”

Hearing this, Zhao Kaile suddenly recalled the scene that day when Zhan Hang held him in his arms, grief stricken to the point of heartbreak, and his heart began pounding wildly. He felt very indignant on Zhan Hang’s behalf.

Brother Hang’s crying scenes are amazing too, okay!

“No major problems,” Zhang Zheng said. “Our main focus is still a martial arts action film. For this part, the female lead can guide you a bit more…” At this point, he abruptly grew furious. “This Lin Yiyi is really too outrageous! Making so many people wait for her until now! I think she doesn’t want to film anymore!”

Zhan Hang quickly placated him, “Maybe something came up last minute. You can push my scenes ahead again, I’m fine with whatever.”

Zhang Zheng said, “It’s been hard on you too, Xiao Hang.”

Zhan Hang smiled slightly, very polite, completely unlike his usual self who cursed out Zhao Kaile behind the scenes. Zhao Kaile was now somewhat used to his two faced demeanor, so he was not as surprised as before, and simply found it amusing.

As they spoke, the female lead’s portrayer Lin Yiyi arrived belatedly. She had recently risen to fame due to a breakout web drama, and was now somewhat on the verge of joining the top tier of trending stars. On various female celebrity rankings, she was about to surpass Zhang Wenqian. Therefore, in pre filming interviews, her words had carried a subtle air of looking down on Zhan Hang. Although not very obvious, there were always some sharp nosed self media outlets who could sniff out a different vibe from between her lines. The female lead had arrived. Zhang Zheng, prioritizing work, suppressed his anger and discussed the scene with her for a while. Lin Yiyi seemed somewhat tired, clearly distracted when speaking, and her answers were incoherent. No one knew what was wrong with her.

Zhan Hang sat not far away observing her condition for a moment, and then he understood. Zhao Kaile lowered his head and scrolled through Weibo for a while, discovering that under Zhan Hang’s latest post, his fans were fighting with Lin Yiyi’s fans.

Zhan Hang’s fans said your girl’s nose is about to collapse from all that plastic surgery and she still dares to nitpick our wuli Hang Hang, do you make keys, do you, do you make how many! Lin Yiyi’s fans said laugh out loud, a fifty sixth tier nobody clinging onto our sis should be secretly grateful and still comes rushing to get scolded, if it doesn’t work out just go to the hospital, do you dare say your giegie hasn’t had work done?? Some neutral party that appeared out of nowhere said stop fighting stop fighting, won’t we know when this drama comes out? Below that, a four character ID commented laugh out loud, the domestic entertainment industry has no people, only ugly people fighting. Seeing this message, both sides of fans went crazy again, mobilizing people to go to this person’s profile and furiously hurling abuse.

Zhao Kaile looked at the bloodbath on Weibo, then looked at the calm and peaceful filming set, and inexplicably felt a strange sense of disconnection.

Zhan Hang made a soft sound and said in a low voice, “She definitely went to double book.”

Zhao Kaile asked, “What does double booking mean?”

“Taking on too many projects to film, finishing this set, then going to another production crew to film during breaks,” Zhan Hang said. “With this kind of condition, if she can film well, that would be a miracle.”

Zhao Kaile exclaimed, “You can actually do that…”

“For money, nothing is strange,” Zhan Hang said. He leaned back slightly and stretched his neck. “Your Brother Hang did the same thing when I was young.”

Zhao Kaile nearly spat out his drink, thinking to himself, you aren’t that old now either!

“I estimate that after today’s filming, Zhang Zheng will be clamoring to replace her,” Zhan Hang said. He stood up, tidied his clothes, and prepared to go on set.

Zhao Kaile hurriedly helped pull down a corner of his shirt that was sticking up, made a cheering gesture, and Zhan Hang hummed softly while smiling at him, then walked toward the set.

That smile was too brief, so much so that Zhao Kaile saw it but also did not quite see it. He sat in place and carefully recalled for a moment, confirming that Zhan Hang had indeed smiled at him just now. He suddenly gasped, and fireworks began exploding in his heart.

Sorry! Wenqian!

Sorry! My goddess!

I’m going to climb the wall for thirty seconds! I’ll climb back down right after!

On set, Lin Yiyi had already changed into costume and finished makeup. She gathered her emotions in front of the camera and nodded at Zhang Zheng. Only then did the first scene between the male and female leads officially begin filming.

Lin Yiyi’s character “Shen Qing” was only seventeen years old at this point. She was gathering herbs in the forest. The twenty three year old Lin Yiyi did not look too out of place showing a young girl’s coy and cute demeanor. She simply bounced along with a medicine basket on her back, a hair ornament swaying on her head. She had not gone far when she suddenly noticed a person’s foot sticking out from behind a tree.

“Shen Qing” had a bold and outgoing personality, so she was not frightened, only curious to investigate. She discovered a wounded man leaning against the tree, who was precisely the male lead “Xiao Yao.”

“Hey?” She first reached out and touched the man, finding him motionless, so she reached out to check his breathing.

The man was not quite dead yet. Lin Yiyi hurriedly took out some herbs from her medicine basket, crushed them in a small mortar, and fed him some. As if stimulated by the bitter taste, Xiao Yao’s brows furrowed, then his eyes snapped open, and he struck out at Shen Qing, who was extremely close to him.

Fortunately, since he was severely wounded, he had not yet fully recovered his martial power. This palm strike merely pushed Shen Qing onto her bottom.

The script called for a forceful push, but Zhan Hang, considering the other party was a woman, did not use much force in his hands, only showing ferocity in his expression. Lin Yiyi exaggeratedly fell backward, and her palm seemed to scrape against some sharp stone. The pain made her cry out.

Zhan Hang felt a bit puzzled, unable to determine whether this was something she had improvised on the spot. However, since Zhang Zheng did not call cut, he had no choice but to continue, “Who are you?”

Lin Yiyi frowned at him, then turned to Zhang Zheng and pleaded, “Director, I’m injured. Can I rest for a bit?”

Everyone’s faces showed expressions of utter dismay. Zhang Zheng had no choice but to call cut, and said to her with a fake smile, “Miss Lin, you just filmed one scene and you already want to rest? Have your assistant help you deal with it briefly, and we continue.”

Lin Yiyi naturally could not offend him, so she said “oh” with grievance. Several assistants immediately rushed over with a first aid kit to help her treat it. One of them specifically took photos and began editing a Weibo post, with vivid text and images: Lin Yiyi injured on set, enduring pain to continue filming so as not to delay the crew’s progress!

Zhan Hang showed no expression, waiting on the side for her to finish.

A moment later, filming resumed. Lin Yiyi was unwilling to fall a second time, so they cut directly to a confrontation shot.

“I’m your lifesaver!” she frowned, her face full of disbelief. “Is this how you treat your lifesaver?”

Xiao Yao paused, spat out the residue of the medicinal paste in his mouth, knowing her words were true, feeling at fault, and a hint of helplessness mixed into his cold tone, “…Thank you.”

After speaking, he clutched his abdomen and tried to get up, wanting to leave, but his strength was exhausted, and he could not stand up no matter what.

Shen Qing hurriedly supported him. They looked up at each other, and the camera pushed in for a close up. Lin Yiyi’s mouth moved silently a few times, and after three seconds, she still had not spoken a word: she had forgotten her lines.

Zhan Hang, however, somewhat embarrassedly turned his head away, his Adam’s apple moving slightly, “Miss.”

Lin Yiyi immediately picked up, “What miss miss, my name is Shen Qing. Who are you? Where did you come from?”

Everyone off set simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Zheng raised his hand, signaling them to continue.

Anyone with eyes could see that Lin Yiyi was very out of sorts in this scene. Zhan Hang, who Zhang Zheng had originally said needed to be guided by her in emotional scenes, was instead helping her maintain the rhythm. After barely finishing the first scene, Lin Yiyi’s assistants hurriedly supported her off to rest.

Zhang Zheng sat in front of the monitor, frowning as he watched the scene again, his face dark as water. Everyone held their breath, afraid that if they made another mistake, he would directly explode.

Author’s Note:
You XX! I told you not to double book and you insisted on double booking!