Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 66

On the eighth day of the New Year, Zhan Hang received his second piece of good news for the year. The Green-Clad Guest had been scheduled for broadcast, airing every night at eight on Blue Satellite TV, which could be considered prime time. How much effort and maneuvering Bai Li had put in behind the scenes was temporarily unknown.

Dream Song still had no concrete news, but its subject matter was not sensitive, so getting it past censorship should be no major problem. They just needed to wait patiently. The biggest problem still lay with Langya Pavilion, after all. The lead actor Li Yang’s reputation had fallen to rock bottom, and scandals had broken out one after another about his private discord with Zhan Hang, who played his brother in the series, and about his deception of his official girlfriend, who was also the female lead of the series, Zheng Keke. Thus the drama had already been cursed to pieces by netizens before it even aired, stinking to the point of no return. No one knew what year or month this drama would have to be shelved before there was any chance of warming up again.

Of course, if the investors became desperate like a cornered dog jumping over a wall, it wasn’t impossible for them to release the drama directly while weathering the curses. After all, black traffic is still traffic, and recovering some of the capital was better than nothing.

On the premiere night, past seven in the evening, Zhao Kaile sat early on the sofa, waiting with great anticipation for The Green-Clad Guest to begin. Zhan Hang, on the other hand, was completely uninterested, collapsed like a sea otter with no regard for his image, reading a novel with a blank expression.

At eight o’clock sharp, the opening theme song played. Zhao Kaile sat up straight with reverence, and when he saw Zhan Hang’s image flash across the screen, he immediately cried out in surprise: “Brother Hang, quick look! It’s you!”

“…” The corner of Zhan Hang’s mouth twitched: “Is it strange that I appear in a TV drama I starred in?”

Zhao Kaile laughed haha, but his eyes had no free time to look at him. He stared at the TV screen with complete concentration, occasionally exclaiming in surprise, or roasting some continuity error or some extra’s terrible acting, then tutting and shaking his head.

Zhan Hang had zero interest in dramas he had acted in. After all, he had followed the entire plot from start to finish, so there was absolutely no joy in chasing the series. He just continued to read his novel distractedly. A moment later, Bai Li’s call came in, asking if he wanted to go on a variety show.

“What kind of content?” Zhan Hang got up, one hand in his pocket, shuffling in cotton slippers to the adjacent room to take the call.

Bai Li said: “Orange Satellite TV plans to launch a new variety show, inviting four different types of permanent male guests. The content mixes together some variety show formulas from before, basically a hodgepodge. Are you interested?”

“Permanent?” Zhan Hang asked: “Going by this, you’re not planning to let me take on any dramas during this period?”

“Let’s see which way the wind blows. The current situation still isn’t clear.” Bai Li said: “I don’t have ten out of ten confidence right now that I can negotiate your previous salary level for you.” Zhan Hang frowned with some disgust: “At worst I’ll lower my own price. You can’t expect me to maintain my heat through variety shows.”

“Zhan Hang, the concept of going on variety shows now is different from before. It’s not as bad as you think.” Bai Li said patiently: “Besides, this variety show is an adventure challenge type. You can totally establish a genius persona with maxed out athletic talent in there. Smile more at people when you have nothing to do, and you’ll gain fans very quickly.”

Zhan Hang: “…”

Bai Li continued: “Didn’t Sister say before, what we’re lacking is luck. How long do we have to wait for good scripts and roles? Look, so many recently popular traffic stars became famous precisely through the personas they established in variety shows. Going on variety shows, to put it plainly, just gives the audience one more convenient channel to get to know you. Think about Li Zong and Wang Chengsheng, they’re both serious award-winning Best Actors, don’t they also occasionally go on variety shows to close the distance with audiences?”

Zhan Hang said with a hollow laugh: “But they all became famous first and then went on. That’s called going for fun. What does this count as for me, hitting the jackpot?”

Bai Li was silent for a moment. The two still couldn’t agree, exchanged a few more arguments, and Zhan Hang hung up the phone with a cold face.

During the mid-episode break of the TV drama, Zhao Kaile turned back, saw his bad expression, and cautiously pushed a cup of hot drink over, then shared some of his own snacks and placed them in front of him.

Zhan Hang picked it up and took a sip, still a bit annoyed.

“Did you argue with Sister Li?” Zhao Kaile persuaded him: “Calm down, calm down. Sister Li definitely has your best interests at heart.”

Zhan Hang said: “If she has my best interests at heart, why does she keep pushing me to go on variety shows?”

Zhao Kaile asked, not understanding: “Is going on variety shows really that bad?”

“Bad.” Zhan Hang said irritably: “An actor, constantly playing games and selling smiles in front of the camera day in and day out, unable to produce any decent work. Doesn’t that devalue me?”

Zhao Kaile gave a weak “oh,” thinking to himself that he actually thought variety shows were quite fun to watch. Wasn’t the whole point of watching variety shows to have fun? Of course everyone would laugh haha.

Zhan Hang said sarcastically: “The last person who rose to prominence through a variety show persona, who was that? Li Yang. Look at how badly he’s collapsed now.”

Zhao Kaile didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “That’s not the same…”

“These programs nowadays, at their core, are all entertainment with no professionalism whatsoever.” Zhan Hang roasted without mercy: “A few people get together to play games, laughing at every turn. If the audience doesn’t laugh, they play a fake laugh sound effect. Hehehe hahaha. Do you really think that’s funny?”

Zhao Kaile looked at him with admiration, clicking his tongue in wonder: “Brother Hang, you could totally establish a persona as a roasting demon king. People really like this kind of thing now.”

Zhan Hang: “…”

Zhao Kaile gave a dry laugh: “I was just talking randomly.”

Zhan Hang frowned, reached out pretending he was going to hit him. Zhao Kaile hurriedly dragged his bag of snacks and shrank to one side, then grabbed his own water cup and pulled it closer. Zhan Hang said angrily: “Would I steal yours?”

The water cups they were using now were both gifts from fans, one a dinosaur-shaped ceramic cup, the other a simple and elegant white porcelain cup.

Zhao Kaile was silent for a while, then pushed the cup back to show his sincerity.

Zhan Hang couldn’t help baring his teeth, having an urge to grab him and rough him up a bit, or pinch his face and ask what kinds of things ran through his brain all day.

Late at night, Zhao Kaile sat upright before his laptop, his expression serious as he tapped the keyboard.

The cursor blinked on the screen. He stopped to think for a while, then wrote a line: Embracing the sword to gaze at the bright moon, carrying two sleeves of clear breeze, dressed in splendid clothes upon a spirited horse, traveling the martial world with a companion. The novel was titled “The Wind Rises.” The male lead, Ying Qianfan, his appearance and personality modeled after Zhan Hang. The female lead, Chi Yue, was precisely the snake woman who had died tragically in his previous novel. The main theme was roughly that the male lead, through some twist of fate, obtained a golden finger, and from then on the impoverished youth from a humble background turned from a salted fish that had flipped over, leaping through the dragon gate like a carp, and stirred up a storm of blood in the martial world that had been peaceful for too long.

Since she couldn’t be reborn within the same novel, then in another parallel world, let her and Brother Hang be entangled in love and hate!

Zhao Kaile rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, then deleted and revised in the outline, adding some hero-saves-beauty plot points, then nodded in satisfaction.

Approaching midnight, he placed the first three completed chapters into the scheduled draft box, set the timing, then cautiously saved the several-thousand-word outline. Only then did he stretch and stand up, preparing to go downstairs to find some water to drink.

By tomorrow morning, when Zhan Hang woke up, he would naturally see this birthday gift. Mission accomplished.

Zhao Kaile was immensely pleased with himself, happily entering the kitchen to pour water. Halfway through drinking, he suddenly heard the sound of a door opening outside, followed by a somewhat hurried set of footsteps.

What was going on?

He hurriedly put down his water cup and went out to look, discovering Zhan Hang coming down the stairs with a solemn expression, pacing back and forth in front of his bedroom door, seemingly hesitating whether to knock and enter.

Zhao Kaile walked over in confusion, looking up to call him: “Brother Hang?”

Zhan Hang was clearly startled upon hearing his voice, then composed his expression and turned around with feigned calmness.

Zhao Kaile asked hesitantly: “You…”

“I saw it.” Zhan Hang commented in a flat tone: “Mm, not bad.”

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Please, I hadn’t even asked yet!

Zhan Hang thought for a moment, then started nitpicking: “Having Chi Yue as one female lead is enough. Don’t open a harem for me, bringing in that stallion novel stuff. The weapons and horse must be good. The dungeon settings should be high level. Don’t write me as an idiot. Don’t open too many side plots either. The side plots in your previous book were written in complete chaos. The foreshadowing you buried in the first several dozen chapters, by the time you reached several hundred chapters you had completely forgotten about it.”

Zhao Kaile: “…Oh.”

Damn it! If only he had waited until after filling this massive pit before telling him! Anyway, this person wouldn’t remember anything about gifts or no gifts!

Midnight arrived, and the electronic clock emitted a faint buzzing sound.

After running his mouth, Zhan Hang suddenly went quiet.

Zhao Kaile pulled out his phone, opened the notepad, and roughly jotted down what he had said, then asked: “Then what kind of girl do you specifically like? Uh, how about modeling her after the girl in your heart?”

Zhan Hang asked in confusion: “Which girl in my heart?”

“That is…” Zhao Kaile paused, then said vaguely: “That time… you know… when you said you mistook me for her.”

Zhan Hang was silent.

As expected, once a person tells one lie, they need more lies to cover it up.

“Not necessary.” He crossed his arms and said calmly: “People must look forward. No need to reminisce. Just write according to Chi Yue’s original personality.”

Zhao Kaile nodded thoughtfully, thinking to himself, could it be possible that… Brother Hang had been dumped by a woman before??

Zhan Hang asked alertly: “What are you thinking?”

Zhao Kaile said in panic: “Nothing nothing nothing!”

Chatting idly until now, both of them were completely without sleepiness. Zhao Kaile rummaged in the refrigerator but didn’t find any cake or substitute, so he decided to cook a bowl of noodles for Zhan Hang.

Past midnight, the living room was still brightly lit. In the center, a large dining table. On the table, one bowl of noodles, one pair of chopsticks. Beside the table, two people, slightly lonely.

But under the lamplight, the two shadows intertwined together, and didn’t look so lonely anymore.

Zhao Kaile enthusiastically pushed the bowl over: “Done, eat eat.”

Zhan Hang asked: “You’re not eating?”

“Only the birthday person has the right to eat.” Zhao Kaile said, his expression exceptionally serious.

Zhan Hang didn’t argue. The noodles weren’t much. Given his appetite, six or seven mouthfuls and he could slurp them down. Before long the bowl was clean, not even the soup remaining.

Zhao Kaile looked at him with anticipation.

Zhan Hang elegantly wiped his mouth with a napkin and gave a fair evaluation: “Overall not bad. Next time when cracking the egg, be careful. Don’t let broken eggshell fall in too.”

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Zhan Hang looked at his deflated expression and couldn’t help but laugh, rarely speaking gently: “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome…” Zhao Kaile said: “Happy birthday.”

Actually, Brother Hang really does look very good when he smiles like this. He thought to himself, selling smiles isn’t so bad after all.