Chapter 76: CH 76

Following this yell, others started turning towards where Chen Yi was standing, with faces of happy surprise. As they flipped their signs that very clearly stated his name over to face him, Ling Dang said, 

“Xiao Yi-Ge, it looks like they are your fans.”

Hearing this, Chen Yi was silent for a moment before saying, 

“…… Anti-fans?”1

Ling Dang held in her laughter and said, 

“Although they are dressed quite dark and moodily, they should be real fans.”

Following Chen Yi stepping closer to them, the fans who were just enthusiastically yelling his name suddenly felt like they had overstepped their boundaries and all of them started to quiet down. Only using their pairs of shining eyes to watch him. There were even some who had brought professional cameras over to take photos of Chen Yi.

“Yi-Ge! Do your best! Jia You!2 You’re the best!”

“We’ve been waiting here since very early this morning. Thankfully we were able to see you.”

“Acting in period dramas in this kind of weather can be very hot. Make sure to take care of yourself. I bought you a small fan and some ice cold temperature stickers!”3

A fan took a small bag out of her backpack to give to Chen Yi, but perhaps she was a bit too nervous or perhaps her hands were too slippery as her phone flew out of her backpack when she reached in. Just as her eyes noticed it falling out and about to hit the ground, a hand suddenly caught it right in its palm.

“Here. Hold it well.”

Chen Yi flipped his hand over and returned the phone. Underneath his cap, his eyes still held a bit of that coldness, and the fan who was still out of her senses, immediately blushed bright red up to her ears upon meeting his eyes. She passed the bag of gifts over as she accepted her phone back, 

“Thank you, Chen Yi.”

Chen Yi hummed an acknowledgement.

He was all too used to other people’s malicious actions and so at this moment, he really didn’t know what kind of attitude he should be displaying to his fans. But regardless of his exterior attitude, he was very accommodating to their requests. Those who wanted a picture, he took a picture with. Those who wanted an autograph, he gave his signature. Those who wanted to play rock, paper, scissors, he went to battle with them. This made the group of fans yell out in their hearts, what an unexpectedly cute personality underneath his stoic exterior!!!!

When Chen Yi finally reached the hotel after his flight, it was already almost evening. The filming crew had someone pick him up and when he was given the keys to his room, he checked the room number first. Finding that Fu Xiu Nian was just right beside him, he immediately became overjoyed.

Fu Xiu Nian had arrived earlier than Chen Yi by about half an hour and he was currently kneeling by his suitcase on the floor, taking things out and organizing them. When his room door was knocked upon, he could tell who it was from the rhythm and the strength of the knock and quickly went to open the door.

The door had only been opened a tiny inch, and before Fu Xiu Nian could even look at the person outside in the face, he was being hugged. Chen Yi used one hand to wrap Fu Xiu Nian into his embrace and the other to shut the door closed. Hiding him as he moved further inside, Chen Yi bombarded him with a show of actions that was just as arrogant and dominant as he usually was.

“You arrived quite early…… And you’re still organizing your clothes?”

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The morning right after, bright and early, the filming location was set to be in the imperial palace of Hengdian World Studios4 and Chen Yi was already slated to be in the first scene.

A dragon has nine sons, each of them different.5 The Emperor was aging, already having passed his prime. And so his sons were antsy, starting to covet the seat even more than they had before and fighting above and below the surface with each other even more aggressively. In particular, the ninth prince, Meng Yu was the leading contender in this war, but he was used to acting as the wolf in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be mundane and dumb, such that his shrewdness was not easily shown in front of others.

The first scene was mainly to establish the power dynamics of the imperial court, where the crown prince and the other princes would be showcasing their mastery of the sword before the Emperor. Because the Emperor was watching them, they were using everything they had to show that they were better than any other. Yet Meng Yu purposefully lost to the crown prince, letting others believe that his skills were so terrible that it would make them drop their guards around him.

The actor playing the crown prince was called Wang Yan and he was a very open hearted, extroverted kind of guy. He was an actor based on his martial arts skill and so the first scene wasn’t much of a difficulty for him. The director said to Chen Yi, 

“For this scene, you and Wang Yan will fight for about ten, twenty rounds and then you will lose immediately. The actions should be fairly straightforward and simple. You can practice with him and if there’s no issue, we can start filming then.”

Chen Yi didn’t say that he knew martial arts and followed his orders to practice with Wang Yan. His actions however made the other a bit surprised, 

“Ack, Chen Yi, you seemed to be well versed in this.”

Chen Yi didn’t explain other than saying, 

“I’ve learned a bit before.”

Fu Xiu Nian slightly smiled, gentle as the warmest jade yet somehow feeling as if you could never catch him and his thoughts. He swirled his finger around the tea cup and warmly said, 

“Trees that grow beyond their peers, wind must blow them down……”6

Notes:

*1 Anti-fans: What we call “antis”, the word in Chinese is actually “black” so here he’s making a reference that they are antis/”black” fans because they are dressed head to toe in black.

*2 Jia You: This is a very common phrase to use to support someone, give them energy to go on, cheering them on. It translates to “add oil” which may also be a more well known phrase now too 

*3 ice cold temperature stickers: I’ve only really used them when I have a burning fever, but they are like gel like stickers that you usually stick on your forehead to cool down your body and it kind of “sucks” all the hotness/burning sensation into the sticker itself (feels great when you are burning hot from a fever, but it’s not like a brain freeze cold/is a sticker, no mess no hassle kind of sticker, easily peeled off too).

ice cold temperature stickers (冰涼貼)

*4 Hengdian World Studios: The largest filming studio in the world apparently but it’s basically an entire studio that encompasses a large area of indoor and outdoor sets such as palace set ups, buildings, walkways, etc.

*5 dragon’s nine sons: I believe you can search this up with “the legend of the dragon’s nine sons” but briefly here: a mystical dragon gives birth to nine sons that are not actually dragons, all diff creatures, but the special part is that he birthed nine. Nine is a very special number associated with the emperor as it means longevity (the sound of 9 is like the word for “a long time”) and is considered quite an elegant number. In old references, it is usually considered/associated with royalty (also dragons are great mythical creatures, also associated with royalty only, for the emperor).

*6 I thought I escaped historical genre poetry, but here you have another terrible attempt of mine. This poem is to mean that those who are always above others or show to be better than others will always be envied and so then be the source of a target of attack.

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