Translator: Vian
Slightly edited: Vian (Please tell me if you find any mistakes, but it should be readable.)
The clear phoenix eyes reflected the other party's surprised appearance. Rong Xu stared at Qin Cheng, he observed for a while but did not find anything unusual. This person seems to be genuinely surprised to discover that he was here and truly didn't know that he was accepted for the role of the male lead in "Black Clouds".
Since the "Black Clouds" crew wants to keep everything a secret, it naturally also has to keep the hotel under wraps as well.
This hotel that was near the Film City only has four floors, just enough for everyone in the crew to stay in. The ones who can appear here are only people related to "Black Clouds". Rong Xu believes in Director Liang's character, and even if it was Qin Cheng who personally asked to stay here, Director Liang would still not make any concessions.
But… for Qin Cheng to actually stay next door to him, was there really such a coincidence?
As if he heard the youth's thoughts, Qin Cheng voiced it first: "You're staying next door to me?"
The last hint of doubt in Rong Xu's heart disappeared, he lightly chuckled and nodded: "It really is a coincidence. You should be here to appear as a guest in "Black Clouds" right? I heard that many stars will be coming for a guest appearance in this movie, but I didn't expect that you would come as well."
Qin Cheng wore a black woolen overcoat, a high-necked white wool sweater along with an outer black jacket, appearing handsome and stylish. He stood there in this quiet corridor, fixedly watching the youth in front of him, appearing calm and not moving an inch, but the hand in his pocket silently clenched into a tight fist.
When he opened his mouth, it was in a very calm tone: "Is the role you're playing… Ling Xiao?"
Rong Xu smile and nodded, not denying it.
Without a word, his lips curved into a smile. Qin Cheng reached out his hand, and in a low voice said: "This is our first time working together, I hope we have a happy cooperation."
Rong Xu also naturally extended his hand, holding the other's hand in a tight grip: "Happy cooperation."
However, after a while, the two each returned to their rooms and didn't continue to chat. In fact, there wasn't much for them to chat about. For Rong Xu, it just so happens that Qin Cheng came to do a guest appearance in the movie he was staring in. Since this movie already has Wen Xuan, Xia Muyan, and Chu Qi these top actors and actress coming as a guest, it was not impossible to add on a Qin Cheng as well.
After entering his room, Rong Xu quickly took off his jacket and prepared to bathe. When he washed his hands, he subconsciously thought: "Qin Cheng's palm seems to be really sweaty? Does he have a body that sweats a lot?"
The cold wind blew pass the window, appearing to deny the youth's words. Not thinking much of it, Rong Xu took off all his clothing, entered the bathroom, and turned on the hot water.
Just as the sound of the gushing water filled the bathroom, Rong Xu thought that he heard a familiar tune.
It was "Vie for Supremacy" opening background music for the theme song. Calculating the time, right now would be the time for when "Vie for Supremacy" is aired everyday.
The thought "someone is watching "Vie for Supremacy"" quickly flashed through his mind, but when Rong Xu turned off the shower faucet to listen clearly, he couldn't hear the music anymore. And so, he naturally didn't know that just next door, a certain man never thought that when he punctually turned on the TV –not even a second late– to watch "Vie for Supremacy", the volume of this TV would be so loud!
Qin Cheng's face blackened, and immediately lowered the volume at the fastest speed possible.
On the TV, it was already on the part where Wanqi Yao decided to "siege Wei Country and lure the tiger away from the mountain". The situation was progressing smoothly. Wanqi Yao already deployed all troops, creating an illusion of their confidence. He combined the Empty City Strategy and lure the tiger away from the mountain stratagem together and deliberately disclosed fake information to the spy he discovered with inside information. Now, he just needs to wait for the fish to take the bait.
After watching today's two episodes with no expression, Qin Cheng sat there cool and poised, his expression remaining unchanged. He picked up the remote, wanting to watch it again, but who would've guessed…! This hotel's TV actually has no playback function!
Qin Cheng: "..."
He can still ignore it when the volume was so loud, but there's actually no playback function! Bad review! Absolutely bad review!
These two episodes of "Vie for Supremacy" didn't have any scenes of Dongli lan and Wanqi Yao together, but while they didn't meet, there was scenes that linked them together one way or another. For example: after Wanqi Yao gave fake information to the spy, the spy passed the information to the Liang Empire and all the way to Dongli Lan.
At first, Dongli Lan was still suspicious of whether or not Wanqi Yao was deceiving him but he then recalled a match between them when they were young.
During the match that year, Wanqi Yao had turned a real strategy into a fake strategy, fooling Dongli Lan into entering. When he relaxed his vigilance, thinking that he already won, he ended up setting himself as an easy target. It was an overwhelming victory for Wanqi Yao.
At that time, the young Wanqi Yao smiled: "Do not be angry shixiong. Shidi has never liked to fight an uncertain battle and neither will I let myself be at a disadvantage, what more use an Empty City Strategy. Shixiong, do you not know how I am?"
Hearing that, Dongli Lan scoffed: "He pretended to use an Empty City Strategy, but was in fact hiding his troops. Let's not bother with him, he is definitely a deceiving schemer."
Like this, today's second episode ended here: Dongli Lan decided to send troops while Wanqi Yao used an Empty City Strategy to lure the tiger from its domain in the mountains.
By the time the audience was pulled out of it by the ending song, countless viewers was already immersed in the scene's tension. They were so nervous and excited that their heart squeezed, but suddenly… it was over.
[Ah ah ah ah ah ah who wrote this script! This was intentional, it's definitely intentional!]
[I don't care, I need to watch the next episode today, I need to watch it now! I need to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's face when he finds out he was tricked by his family's shidi again! Wouldn't his expression be particularly twisted~? Would he hate that he's unable to kill my family's Yaoyao~ Hahahaha~ My family's Yaoyao is exactly this kind of black-hearted beauty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can't win over him at all~]
[Yaoyao's so powerful, he completely figured out Dongli Lan's thoughts. What was this called? This is call being too smart for one's own good! If the one Dongli Lan was facing wasn't Yaoyao, he might have chosen a safer tactic. But he thought he knew Yaoyao but didn't know that Yaoyao knew him even better!]
[My wishes for my LanYao CP came true!There's new sugar everyday!]
[Hehehehe Raise the LanYao banner, I still can fight for another hundred years~\()/~lalala]
The episode just ended but many viewers already went over to "Vie for Supremacy" official Tieba, forums, super thread, and official Weibo to carry out their enthusiastic discussions.
Everyone excitedly discussed, especially the "LanYao" CP Party. There clearly wasn't many scenes of this CP together in the drama but when seeing this, contrary to what was expected, it just left them with more room for the imagination.
It was fine if there were no scenes, but once there is, it all leads to happiness and sugar!
[I stand on LanYao's side, those who don't like it can come and argue with me!]
Since there are people who like it, naturally, there will also be people who don't like it. In the entire "Vie for Supremacy" audience, it is either those who have no interest in this CP, those who are too lazy to argue about it, or those fervently love it. Among them, those who like it occupy the majority online. Almost no one would flat out say they hate it… of course, it's not like there wasn't any.
[Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing: LanYao doesn't suit each other at all! Not at all! Not one bit!]
…Once one click on this user's Weibo, they can quickly discover that starting from the episode Dongli Lan and Wanqi Yao met, this user has been resisting the LanYao CP. However, their Weibo barely has any followers and those few followers were all dead accounts, so there was no one to comment on their posts.
But still, this user would persistently, unwaveringly, hashtag themself.
[Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing: Don't match at all at all at all! Yaoyao is mine, Rongrong is also mine! Who's Dongli Lan, tell him to go away! #LanYao #VieforSupremacy #BeggingtosleepwithWanqiYao! ]
A fan of "Vie for Supremacy" came across this Weibo when bored. He clicked on this Weibo for a look, only to discover this Weibo owner's tireless and persistent resistant. He laughed in amusement and gave the other a sympathetic comment: [Seeing as you have no comments you poor thing ^_^]
Qin Cheng who saw this comment: "..."
A while later, Xu Jin who just arrived at S-City's airport suddenly received a call: "I just arrived, what happened? I already handled everything… WHAT?! You're asking me how to buy the water army? Why do you want to buy the water army… Wait a minute, I haven't touched the water army for years now. Why do you still want to advertise yourself now… what? You say you want to buy the water army to be followers for your secondary account? You actually have a secondary account? What secondary account, why didn't you tell me? Qin Cheng, you clearly explain to me… Hey! Qin Cheng? Qin Cheng…*! He actually hung up on me!"
***
Early next morning, Rong Xu arrived at the crew and saw Luo Zhentao quickly come over.
Luo Zhentao had arrived at the crew in advance to deal with some things today. As soon as he saw Rong Xu, he immediately lowered his voice: "I just got the news today, it turns out Qin Cheng is also coming to be in this movie. Xiao Xu, you and he could be considered to know each other, did you know about this before?"
After entering the room, the temperature rose a little. Rong Xu removed the wool scarf around his neck as he replied with a smile: "I saw him at the hotel yesterday, it does seem like he came to be in the movie. But this could be considered quite normal, Luo ge, didn't you say Wen Xuan was also coming as a guest?"
Luo Zhentao heard these words and was surprised: "You're not surprised at all?"
Rong Xu slowly raised an eyebrow: "What do I need to be surprised about?���
Luo Zhentao stayed silent of a minute: "Although this movie "Black Clouds" is an exception, but for Qin Cheng to be your co-actor, you don't feel… worried?"
The smile on his face froze, the elegant and beautiful youth slowly raised his head, staring at Luo Zhentao. His eyes slowly widened. After a while, Rong Xu pronounced word by word: "…Qin Cheng, isn't coming as a guest?"
Luo Zhentao suddenly realized: "Ah, I thought you already knew. He really didn't come to guest star this time. I asked about it this morning, apparently, the crew originally invited him to come as a guest. Just like Wen Xuan and rest, he would act as himself and only appear for around ten seconds to one minute at most. But a few days ago, Qin Cheng's side said he decided to take up a role in "Black Clouds". So while Wen Xuan and the rest are coming as a guest, they are still going to be acting as themselves. But for Qin Cheng, he will be playing the role of Ling Xiao's imperial lyricist, Gu Mingxiu!"
His heart shaken up, Rong Xu opened his mouth, wanting to ask again, but he suddenly heard a low-pitched exclamation coming from his side.
"Qin Shen! Qin Shen is so handsome ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Rong Xu subconsciously turned around to look. When his line of sight came across that person, he suddenly froze.
At the door of the dressing room, he saw a tall and handsome man with his head lowered, letting the stylist help arrange his collar. He was wearing a simple black cheongsam along with a slightly darker black jacket. His long and straight legs was also wrapped in black trousers. Attached to the clothes was a broken tassel that appears ruined and melancholy.
It's unknown when they attach hair extensions, but a single leather cord pulled his hair back, leaving only a few loose bangs on the left cheek. He silently stood there, not smiling or moving. It created a certain quiet and somber atmosphere of an artist that does not fit with those around him.
Qin Cheng's gaze was lowered, his expression was calm as he let the stylist sort out his outfit, but his lips were tightly pressed together. As if he noticed the youth's gaze on him, he raised his head, looking towards Rong Xu's direction. Their eyes met in the air, starling them both.
After a long while, Qin Cheng's lips slightly curved, showing a gentle smile.
Rong Xu was stunned for a moment before also smiling back. There was a strange feeling that inexplicably spread in his heart.
And this was only "Black Clouds" first day of filming.
Translator's Corner:
Vian: You guys didn't actually think our Orangeorange would only appear as a guest in Rong Xu's movie now did you? o(≧∇≦o)
Also, I was doing a writing assignment for French class and it was to write a complaint to a hotel for bad service. I remembered Orangeorange's "Bad review! Absolutely bad review!" and ended up putting that in at the end lol
Thinking about it now, I should've just written the whole complaint based on Orangeorange's experience XD
My wishes for my LanYao CP came true – Specifically, the "my wishes came true" part which in the original was [头顶青天 – Tóudǐng qīngtiān] (On top of the world)
It derived from [青天大老爷 – Qīngtiān dà lǎoyé] (Upright and honorable official)
The original intention of the saying was to praise the officials and ministers who listen to the plight of the people. Now in the entertainment circle, it generally means that the production team officially conforms to the fans' wishes. Especially when there is disagreement about the plot and the fans split into two factions. When the plot finally develops towards the wishes of one of the faction, those members would claim to be [On top of the world]