Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 23

For several days the weather had been excellent, and Zhang Zheng had already done everything within his power to film all the exterior scenes he could in this area. The female lead was also finally settled at this time.

To everyone’s surprise, he had actually chosen Yao Min’er, who had only recently returned from her hiatus.

But it was understandable. Actresses with suitable images and some acting skills all had packed schedules. Zhang Zheng had asked around, and most of them had politely said they would love to come, but had still tactfully declined in action. Only Yao Min’er had recently given birth to her first child, recuperated for a period, and was preparing to make her comeback. She had the availability to take this film, and her acting skills passed Zhang Zheng’s standards.

The assistant director and producer were both somewhat worried. After all, Yao Min’er was already someone who had given birth once, and it should be difficult for her to portray the bearing of a young girl. However, the day Yao Min’er arrived for costume fitting and test filming, she directly conquered most of the people present who had held objections with her acting skills.

Zhang Zheng was somewhat surprised. The Shen Qing that Yao Min’er portrayed was something he had never envisioned. She was no longer the traditional well-behaved, cute young girl with a bit of cleverness. Instead she was somewhat seductive, somewhat flamboyant. Although she was a bit older, with the help of makeup and some post-production smoothing and filters, it was basically impossible to tell she was someone who had given birth.

All film and television staff liked artists who had no airs and good tempers. Yao Min’er, who had a bit of seniority, was precisely this kind of actress. Before giving birth she had won a few awards of moderate importance. Her popularity was far from what it once was, but compared to Zhan Hang, her weight was still somewhat heavier. Zhan Hang had originally been somewhat low in spirits, but he had always been someone who easily immersed himself in work. By the time filming started, half of his mood had already dissipated. During breaks Yao Min’er even specially came over to talk to him, so for the entire day he had no opportunity to have another outburst.

Zhao Kaile was just attending to Zhan Hang eating chilled grapes when he saw Yao Min’er arrive with a script in hand, smiling broadly. Zhao Kaile hurriedly stood up and huffingly moved a stool for her, then shared some of the grapes with her.

Zhan Hang stood up and opened with: “Shijie.”

Zhao Kaile thought he had misheard and looked at the two of them suspiciously.

“Shidi, sit.” Yao Min’er said with a smile. “I didn’t expect that as soon as I came back I would be able to act with you. This really saves me a lot of trouble. Shijie has no condition right now, so I’ll trouble you to help me more.”

Zhan Hang hurriedly said: “Not at all. Just now Director Zhang and the others all said you performed extremely well, very much beyond his expectations.”

Yao Min’er: “Ah, no good anymore. I’m old. Playing this kind of role, there will definitely be a bunch of people cursing me for pretending to be young.”

“Not at all.” Zhan Hang said: “You standing next to me look like my younger sister. What old? Don’t talk nonsense.”

Yao Min’er was coaxed by him into beaming with joy. After chatting for a while, she glanced at Zhao Kaile and asked: “I remember last time it wasn’t this assistant? Newly changed?”

“Yes, changed almost a month ago.” Zhan Hang smiled. “A fresh college graduate, clumsy and not very good at talking. Don’t take offense.”

Zhao Kaile had originally still been daydreaming, but hearing this he finally realized they were talking about him. He hurriedly nodded toward her: “Shijie.”

“……..” Zhan Hang’s face was full of black lines: “This is my shijie, what are you calling shijie for???”

Zhao Kaile instantly felt so awkward he could die. Fortunately Yao Min’er didn’t care about these things at all, and just kept laughing: “This little brother is too interesting. What’s your name?”

“I’m called Zhao Kaile.” Zhao Kaile’s toes were digging into the ground as he answered embarrassedly.

Yao Min’er: “Oh~ Kaile. Just call me Min’er-jie normally. We have at least a month of seeing each other every day, so take care of me~”

Zhao Kaile knew she was just politely making a joke, but he still felt extremely frightened and said nervously: “Where where! I am the one who needs to ask you to take care of me!”

Zhan Hang’s eyebrows moved slightly, his tone carrying some gratitude as he introduced: “Shijie and I both graduated from D Film University. She’s three years my senior. The first TV drama I participated in after graduation was still recommended by her.”

“All old sesame and rotten grain matters, don’t mention them anymore.” Yao Min’er hurriedly waved her hand: “Look at me, I was only focused on catching up with you. I originally came to run lines with you for a while.”

Zhan Hang knew she had just joined the production and the schedule was so rushed that she basically had no time to memorize lines. So he nodded with complete understanding and sat with her to go through the lines.

Zhao Kaile just sat quietly to one side watching them busy themselves. He thought to himself that not all good-looking actresses were as spoiled as Lin Yiyi and Li Siyi. There were also hardworking career-focused types like Yao Min’er who seized rest time to practice lines.

He silently expressed his approval of Yao Min’er in his heart, then looked at Zhan Hang.

Zhan Hang’s expression was extremely focused. Outside of acting, in front of people, whether joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, there was a defined degree. This was completely different from his usual behavior at home when he flew into terrible rages. He discovered that Zhan Hang was also very career-focused, and never deliberately flaunted this to outsiders. Bai Li had once said in front of Zhang Zheng that Zhan Hang rarely used stunt doubles for fight scenes and had suffered many injuries himself.

Why did someone who worked so hard remain lukewarm in popularity, while the Lin Yiyi types who suffered a bit of scraped skin would sell misery and post on Weibo, instead occupying half the entertainment industry?

When Zhao Kaile thought of this, his heart instantly overflowed with sympathy for Zhan Hang, falling into a vast, compassionate, noble sentiment.

However, when his emotions were running high, Zhan Hang’s little devil figure floated out holding a small pitchfork and gave him another dose of clarity, speaking in a strange yin-yang tone: “I think you’re really muddled. You’re just a maidservant. You don’t feel pity for yourself, but instead feel pity for your master who wears fine clothes and eats fine food!”

“……..”

“Zhao Kaile?” Zhan Hang waved the script in front of him. Seeing he wasn’t woken up, he directly smacked him on the forehead: “What are you thinking about all day?”

Zhao Kaile came to his senses, his heart full of mixed feelings: “Hang-ge……. what is it?”

Zhan Hang said irritably: “We’re wrapped for the day!!”

At dinner that evening Zhan Hang received another call from Lu Jiayin. It seemed KIKI’s condition hadn’t improved much. Zhan Hang simply made a video call, and Lu Jiayin answered instantly.

In the frame KIKI was lying listlessly, still receiving an IV drip.

Lu Jiayin’s voice said: “A bit better than before. The first day she couldn’t eat anything at all, always vomiting.”

“Tell those aunties not to feed her anymore.” Zhan Hang said: “Help me watch her for a few days. Don’t feed meat.”

Lu Jiayin said: “Okay, but I’ll be very busy starting next week. How about I hire someone specifically to take care of the cat?”

Zhan Hang frowned, with an expression that wanted to veto this.

Zhao Kaile thought for a bit and said: “Hang-ge, how about I go back to take care of the cat during the day, and come back to attend to you at night?”

“No.” Zhan Hang’s tone was full of distrust: “You just want to slack off, right?”

Zhao Kaile: “…….”

Lu Jiayin heard his voice and turned the camera toward herself, grinning as she greeted Zhao Kaile: “Lele~ Did you miss me~”

Zhao Kaile showed a bit of a smile: “Yes.”

Lu Jiayin said again: “No need for you to go back and forth. It would be too tiring. Better to find someone who makes house calls to take care of pets.”

Zhan Hang pushed Zhao Kaile away a bit, made a few sounds of agreement: “Find someone reliable.”

Lu Jiayin: “Got it!”

After hanging up, Zhan Hang had Zhao Kaile take out the trash, while he went into the bathroom to shower.

Zhao Kaile felt a bit sad. He sat on the bed spacing out for a while.

When Zhan Hang came out to get something and saw him still sitting there, he was about to get angry again. Zhao Kaile hurriedly grabbed the bag and ran, shutting Zhan Hang’s roar behind the door.

At past ten he wrote for a while, then replied to a few reader comments. He discovered that the long-unseen Snake had thrown him a few more tips. But a month later, seeing these tips again, he wasn’t as excited as he had been initially. He only replied with a thank you in the comments section. Since Zhan Hang joined the production, he rarely had time for his own entertainment activities. Tonight was probably just because he had been too tense for too long and occasionally relaxed by reading web novels.

Zhao Kaile clicked into Snake’s homepage and discovered he had collected most of his works, but mostly just silently followed and silently tipped, rarely commenting. It seemed he had truly been struck by the female lead character setting of the novel he was currently serializing.

His phone rang. Li Wenyao called to ask if he was free to go out this weekend for a dorm brotherhood gathering.

Zhao Kaile had no confidence and could only say: “I’ll ask in a few days.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Li Wenyao seemed quite perceptive: “Emo again?”

Zhao Kaile said: “A bit.”

Li Wenyao: “Let me guess. The web novel you’re writing now has flopped again, and the editor talked to you?”

Zhao Kaile: “…….Thank you so much, guess something else.”

Li Wenyao laughed: “Then what? Didn’t you keep saying that Zhan Hang treats you especially well, how he takes care of you? How can you still be depressed about work?”

“Really.” Zhao Kaile lay on the bed, frowning as he said: “I always feel that Hang-ge especially doesn’t trust me. Either he suspects I like other celebrities and am not wholeheartedly devoted to him, or he suspects I’m slacking off every day. How can I prove my loyalty to him??”

Zhao Kaile asked: “What’s wrong, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Li Wenyao said: “Are you serious? You really treat him as your master now, Zhao Kaile?”

Zhao Kaile was a bit puzzled: “Then what else? What’s wrong with that.”

Li Wenyao was extremely regretful: “What about your scholarly pride? ‘How can I bow and serve the powerful, which would make me unable to have a happy face!'”

Zhao Kaile clicked his tongue and lectured: “Wake up a bit, Brother Yao. We’re not children anymore. We’re all people who have entered society.”

After saying this he also fell silent, always feeling that he had been unconsciously assimilated by Zhan Hang.

“No wonder.” Li Wenyao said: “No wonder I feel that the things you’ve written recently have a strong social atmosphere. So your heart has already changed.”

Zhao Kaile said speechlessly: “I haven’t!! Can you first help me think of a solution!”

Li Wenyao: “There is no solution. All bosses will feel that employees are not doing their utmost, that they are sorry for the wages they receive. You don’t need to think so much. Just do your own job well. When all is said and done, it’s still because you owe him a large sum of money, so you feel uneasy in your conscience, right?”

“!” Zhao Kaile: “What you said is too right.”

Li Wenyao encouraged him: “Then from tomorrow on, express your loyalty to him at all times. Go for it, worker!”

After hanging up, Zhao Kaile thought more and more painfully about it. Like a caterpillar he wriggled and wriggled to the edge of the bed, hung his head upside down for a while, and barely managed to calm down.