Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 39

In the afternoon, they did a basic rehearsal and took costume photos. The first official scene to be filmed was a night scene.

The content was that the protagonist almost got discovered entering a secret agency, and Zhan Hang, playing the younger brother, came out to cover for him. But they got into a fight with the other party over a disagreement, and the protagonist had no choice but to expose his martial arts skills, retreating together with his brother.

Zhan Hang already had some issues with Li Yang, and now he had to call Li Yang, who was two years younger than him, “brother” in the show. On top of that, it was a brainless younger brother character who was constantly overshadowed by his smarter older brother. He felt even more dissatisfied.

When they came on set, the two of them sized each other up. Li Yang had always been a Japanese/Korean style pretty boy, and ancient costumes didn’t suit him as well as modern clothes. The tight headpiece actually made his face look bigger than usual. But he was decent at getting along with people, not as arrogant as Zhao Jingran, who looked down on everyone with his nostrils in the air as if the whole world should bow before him. He simply greeted Zhan Hang politely as “Brother Hang.”

You don’t hit someone who’s smiling at you. Li Yang’s favorability rating in Zhan Hang’s heart instantly increased quite a bit.

Zhan Hang found it a bit unexpected, but he didn’t show it. He nodded and said politely, “No need. Just call me Zhan Hang.”

Wang Hua sat calmly in the director’s chair, holding a megaphone and calling for work to begin.

“Langya Pavilion,” Scene 10, Shot 3, Take 1.

Li Yang hid behind a door. Zhan Hang looked at him with a puzzled expression, but instinctively chose to trust his family member. Without asking questions, he went out to cover for him, refusing to let anyone enter the room no matter what.

The three extras playing minor roles immediately got anxious, shouting at him to move aside and stop blocking the way. The argument escalated until they said insulting things like “a good dog doesn’t block the road.” Zhan Hang’s expression instantly changed. He reached out and grabbed the neck of the man in the middle, saying angrily, “Looking for death!”

The extra screamed with full effort, cooperating with Zhan Hang’s forward movement, and was slammed against a corridor pillar, coughing uncontrollably.

The camera cut to Li Yang, who was afraid his brother would kill someone. A conflicted expression appeared on his face.

Off set, Zhao Kaile watched with full attention. An assistant from who knows which production company recognized him and came over with a gossiping expression, asking, “Hey, hey, I heard your Zhan Hang beat up Zhao Jingran’s assistant? Is that true?”

“It’s not true…” Zhao Kaile thought, please, who are you, are we even close, friend? But he smiled politely and said, “Hasn’t it already been debunked online? Let’s not believe rumors, not spread rumors, and be law-abiding good citizens.”

That girl had a teasing expression. “Oh, come on, who in the industry doesn’t know Bai Li’s PR skills are top notch? Zhan Hang even dared to hit Yu Zhengfeng. What’s so strange about him hitting some so-and-so’s assistant?”

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Why are you making Brother Hang sound like a gangster, seriously!

A moment later, they reached the scene where Li Yang and Zhan Hang argued. Li Yang tried to keep a stern face, lecturing his brother, pointing at the sky and the ground, and finally pointing at the tip of his brother’s nose. Then he met Zhan Hang’s defiant gaze, but suddenly froze and forgot his lines.

Wang Hua had to call cut and ask Li Yang what was going on.

Li Yang apologized and indicated they should do another take.

Those in the industry who knew what they were watching understood that he hadn’t been able to match Zhan Hang’s acting. Those who were just watching for fun thought their gege was so cute, forgetting his lines was so adorable.

They shot this scene over and over several times, but Wang Hua was still unsatisfied, so he called both of them over to explain together.

Li Yang was unexpectedly honest. He said frankly, “Sorry Director Wang, Brother Hang’s presence is too strong. I couldn’t quite match him.”

Wang Hua was also direct. “Yeah, you’re supposed to be his older brother. Why are you acting like his little brother? Zhan Hang, tone it down a bit. Li Yang is still a newcomer when it comes to acting. Guide him a little.”

“Understood.” Zhan Hang made an apologetic gesture. “Let’s go again.”

The makeup artist and assistant came over to touch up their makeup and give them water, then filming continued.

The night scene wrapped after ten o’clock. Zhan Hang was completely exhausted and went straight back to the car to remove his makeup. Zhao Kaile helped him take off his costume and shoes, then took out makeup remover and tissues to wipe his face.

“Who were you chatting with just now?” Zhan Hang asked lazily, leaning back in the seat.

Zhao Kaile said, “Huh? I don’t know who she was.”

Zhan Hang: “…You don’t know who she was and you still chatted? What did you talk about?”

Zhao Kaile hesitated and said, “She came over herself… I didn’t have the heart to avoid her. She just said you were so handsome and wanted an autograph, stuff like that. I didn’t agree.”

Zhan Hang looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then didn’t ask further. He seemed to believe him.

Zhao Kaile secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhan Hang then hugged his arms and said indignantly, “Li Yang is this terrible at acting and he dares to take the lead role? Are all these people blind?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zhao Kaile said. “He acts like a robot. He’s only got his face going for him.”

Zhan Hang: “His face looks good? It’s pulled so tight it looks like a plate. Good looking?”

Zhao Kaile quickly corrected himself: “Not good looking, not good looking.”

“If they keep filming like this, this drama will explode in failure, I tell you. Even Wang Hua can’t carry him. I’m telling you.” Zhan Hang was so angry he spoke without thinking, planting a flag of doom.

Zhao Kaile didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Don’t say that. You’re in it too. How can it not explode?”

“…” Zhan Hang had no choice but to drop it. He said, “I’m hungry. I want midnight snacks.”

Zhao Kaile kept Bai Li and Lu Jiayin’s teachings firmly in mind. He didn’t dare rashly agree to such a request, afraid that the abs Zhan Hang had built up over years of training would be ruined by these occasional bad moods. He just looked at him pitifully.

Zhan Hang said, “What are you looking at me for! Go buy them!”

Zhao Kaile’s attempt at playing the victim failed, so he had no choice but to get out of the car and go buy midnight snacks.

Coincidentally, when Zhao Kaile entered the mall, bought the stuff, and was leaving after paying, he ran into that girl who had chatted with him again.

He quickly pretended to be looking at his phone, preparing to hurry past. He didn’t expect that girl to be quite fierce, blocking him right in front of him. She asked enthusiastically, “Which hotel are you staying at? Our Yangyang is staying at CC Hotel. Hey, you bought so much food? Did Zhan Hang ask you to buy it?”

Good heavens, so it turned out you were Li Yang’s assistant.

Zhao Kaile said awkwardly, “Yes, yes, Brother Hang wanted it. Keep your voice down…”

“It’s fine. This whole area is a filming base. There are lots of artists around.” The girl continued, “Your name is Zhao Kaile, right? I’m Jin Mengjie. I sent you a WeChat friend request. Why didn’t you respond for so long?”

Zhao Kaile opened WeChat and looked. Sure enough, there was a friend request. He reluctantly tapped agree out of politeness, then said, “I added you. Um, I should go now? Brother Hang is waiting for me.”

Jin Mengjie laughed and said, “Sure, see you tomorrow.”

Zhao Kaile also smiled and nodded. The moment he turned around, he showed a bewildered expression.

Why does she keep coming over to chat me up? Is it because I’m considered somewhat handsome among ordinary people, so she fell for me at first sight?

When he got back to eat the midnight snacks, Zhan Hang had a mocking expression. “Pretty confident, huh? You think she came to find you again?”

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Zhan Hang said, “Watch what you say. Li Yang is quite scheming. Who knows what he’s having his assistants do.”

“Oh, got it.” Zhao Kaile cleaned up the trash and looked at the half-eaten ice cream. “Are you still eating this?”

Zhan Hang waved his hand, indicating he wasn’t eating it anymore.

Zhao Kaile went out to throw away the trash. In the brief moment he was outside, he saw quite a few celebrities dressed in flashy clothes, wearing sunglasses and masks, surrounded by large entourages. It seemed this hotel frequently hosted these kinds of people.

His phone notification rang. Lu Jiayin sent a message urging him to post on Zhan Hang’s Weibo.

Zhao Kaile then remembered he hadn’t posted photos in several days. So he went back and asked Zhan Hang for his opinion while holding his phone. Zhan Hang flipped through his photo album and frowned in displeasure. “What are these… How do you manage to make me look so ugly?”

Zhao Kaile opened his eyes slightly wider and leaned over in confusion. “Are they? They all look handsome to me.”

The two of them leaned together looking at the photos, shoulders touching, like two brothers.

Zhan Hang scrolled through the screen speechlessly. “Were you lying down when you took these? How did you find such bizarre angles?”

“That day there were too many people… I almost got squeezed off the stage.” Zhao Kaile said with a bitter expression. “There was originally a video too, but it shook too much. The long shots were all pixelated, so I deleted it.”

Zhan Hang scrolled to the next photo and said unhappily again, “Why did you take photos while I was sleeping? I’m drooling.”

Zhao Kaile: “It’s not that bad. If you don’t look closely, you can’t tell. How about I Photoshop it…”

He reached out, wanting to take back his phone.

Zhan Hang domineeringly slapped his hand away and kept scrolling on his own. He was shocked: “And what’s this… Normally when I ask you to make me look good, you make me into memes instead?”

Zhao Kaile said guiltily, “Just, just a few. There aren’t any more after this, don’t scroll.”

However, his tone was basically a guilty conscience showing itself, extremely self-incriminating.

“…” Zhan Hang scrolled down suspiciously. Ten photos in a row were all memes.

There was one of him rolling his eyes, one of his features flying all over the place, one of him falling during an NG, and one of him acting against the air by himself. All of them had fitting white text added.

Zhan Hang instantly flew into a rage, knocking him on the head twice with a thud: “Sent by a rival company?? Specifically here to sabotage me??”

Zhao Kaile cried out in misery: “There aren’t any more, there aren’t any more. The ones after this are all normal.”

Zhan Hang said, “Delete them!!”

Zhao Kaile tearfully deleted a string of memes, then pointed to the photos of Zhan Hang holding a cat and kissing it: “How about we post these old ones instead?”

Zhan Hang snorted and didn’t object, which meant he agreed.

Around eleven o’clock, Zhao Kaile posted the work update on Weibo. The caption was “Clocking out after work. Too busy, posting some old stock.”

A few minutes later, message notifications popped up frequently. Dozens plus hundreds of comments came in. Some praised Zhan Hang’s divine looks, some felt sorry that gege was resting so late. Of course, there were also the black haters who kept an eye on Zhan Hang all day long. But a small amount of hate was fine. Before long, it would be controlled and suppressed by fans’ spontaneous comments, so it didn’t cause any real impact.

Zhao Kaile returned to his room and secretly set the memes stored on his computer into a hidden folder, feeling guilty. This way, if Zhan Hang had another fit and came to check, he wouldn’t get scolded again.

Zhan Hang soaked silently in the bathtub. The thought that Zhao Kaile’s phone was full of his own photos, with no Zhang Wenqian and no one else, made him feel inexplicably pleased.