Chapter 50: Choosing the Same Hero in Different Matches

"It's a wrap, let's call it a day."

Once the live broadcast ended, the staff members just wanted to pack up and head home. Why did listening to Yu Wei's song right to their faces leave such a lingering, bittersweet sting in their hearts?

After all, they were precisely those nameless individuals standing behind the stars...

As his hands left the piano keys, the joints in Yu Wei's fingers popped softly. He rotated his wrists, which were still trembling slightly as they dropped to his sides.

He hadn't felt this exhausted back when he was filming The Tuner; it seemed he had simply invested a bit too much emotion just now.

"Looks like I can settle down and hone my craft in peace."

Qi Yuan got up and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't get complacent just yet. Once I've finished my hiatus, let's have a rematch."

Despite his breezy tone, being utterly steamrollered by Yu Wei had somewhat shaken his confidence. Even putting aside the inherent differences between their respective works, Yu Wei had simply outperformed him in vocal technique and emotional delivery.

Could this be the unbridgeable gap of pure talent?

No, that couldn't be right. Yu Wei used to be hopeless at everything. If he had any talent, he would have shown it long ago. This was clearly an epiphany born of tribulation!

It seemed he needed to delve even deeper into the hidden meanings of that book.

"You're the very first person to leave Yuanyuan completely speechless."

Zhang Linghe proactively wandered over. Disregarding Qi Yuan, the supposed main event, he continued teasing, "I was just lurking in Qi Yuan's super-chat forum a moment ago, and I even saw a few rebel fans suggesting the two of you collaborate."

They didn't even dare to imagine how viral that song would be if Qi Yuan had been the one to sing it. He would practically be walking sideways with swagger after that...

Qi Yuan smiled and brushed it off. People always talked about how fan-club members loved blindly, but in reality, their hearts changed pretty quickly. If he really went into seclusion for a year or two, they would undoubtedly have defected and switched fandoms long ago.

Of course, he didn't plan on hiding away for that long anyway.

Just as Qi Yuan exchanged a few casual remarks with Zhang Linghe, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Yu Wei was massaging his hand while tapping away on his phone, seemingly chatting with someone.

Vaguely, he thought he caught a glimpse of a familiar profile picture...

"Sister Liu is calling me to discuss some business deals. You guys chat amongst yourselves."

Before Qi Yuan could press him for details, Yu Wei scurried off like a wisp of smoke. Seeing him disappear into the distance, Zhang Linghe adopted a mysterious and gossipy tone: "Let me whisper a secret to you—I happened to catch a glimpse of Wei-zi's little girlfriend last week. She's actually quite pretty."

"Except her fashion sense is a bit weird."

Qi Yuan: ?

...

Artist managers were hailed as the most stress-resistant profession in the entertainment industry. On the surface, they managed the celebrities, but in truth, they were merely relaying the demands of the higher-ups, making it terribly easy to displease both sides.

Song Yiwen was the quintessential stress-resistant artist manager. She woke up earlier and went to sleep later than the stars themselves, working year-round without a single day off, always on call, and capable of instantly handling "emergencies," last-minute schedule changes, and unstable emotional states among her charges.

If something actually went wrong, the celebrities merely lost face, but she would lose her livelihood...

Managing celebrities felt to her much like playing a tower defense game; deploying the exact right personnel to the correct positions required meticulous strategy. Making one or two miscalculations was forgivable, but too many mistakes meant hitting the reset button.

Yu Wei was an absolute exception. She wasn't afraid of misplacing him; she was terrified of leaving him idle. If she didn't assign him some work, heavens knows if he'd end up churning out ten thousand words a day or pulling some other stunt.

"Sister Song, you were looking for me?"

Their manager was genuinely a good person. Back in the days when he was just coasting by and slacking off, Song Yiwen would still toss him some leftover commercial gigs from time to time—she was a remarkably humane person.

"You performed brilliantly!"

Even though Yu Wei's knack for stirring up trouble gave her massive headaches, her attitude remained remarkably amiable upon meeting face-to-face. Much like a teacher dealing with a brilliant yet rebellious troublemaker, she could only praise him for having "personality."

"These are the options we've filtered out based on your requirements. Have a look and make your choice."

Liu Ning, standing nearby, promptly opened a folder for him to inspect. Yu Wei ruled out commercials and paid performances; what remained consisted primarily of variety shows and television dramas.

Unsurprisingly, not a single one of these TV dramas was worth watching. The titles were uniformly taken from classical poetry tune names, and the plots invariably revolved around romantic entanglements.

If you had bad luck and landed a project stamped with the "Big Female Lead" label, the cast would start fighting over billing order the moment the drama was officially announced... Too much trouble, far too much trouble. Better to look into variety shows on the horizon.

People always said going on variety shows was just a way to coast and slack off, but upon second thought, at least coasting on a variety show wouldn't result in creative garbage. It was still vastly superior to being a rat-eyed actor with mediocre skills who insisted on playing handsome heartthrobs.

Self-awareness was a virtue.

The variety shows Liu Ning had shortlisted for him were all the hottest titles currently airing. Clearly, she had seized the opportunity of this "choose whatever you want" mandate to handpick the absolute best options for Yu Wei—why pass up free benefits?

He had already tried out a reality show last time, so this time he wanted to gain some insights from music-related programs. Yet, after flipping through the list twice, Yu Wei couldn't find a single music show.

What era was this to still be shooting traditional music variety shows?

In truth, there had been a few music shows among the initial resources, but Liu Ning had weeded every single one of them out without exception. Those programs either featured bottom-tier artists desperately fighting for a debut through survival shows, or washed-up veterans trying to relaunch their careers.

Yu Wei was currently blazing hot and trending everywhere; going on an obscure music show right now would simply be walking into a trap to have his popularity sucked dry.

"There's an innovative music variety show premiering next month. If you're interested, I can help connect you."

Sensing Yu Wei's hesitation, Song Yiwen quickly added, "Just pick something that catches your eye as a transitional gig. You're currently on a strong upward trajectory in your career, so try to avoid any blank periods."

Her remarks practically spelled out "For heaven's sake, don't stay idle." Securing resources was easy; she just prayed he wouldn't actually storm the entertainment industry like the characters in his books.

"Alright, sorry to trouble you."

Yu Wei flipped through the project portfolio once more and ultimately settled on * vượt qua ước mơ (transcend dreams / beyond the dream)*, a professional acting training variety show dedicated to refining acting skills.

Wait, wasn't this the show with that whole snake-demon drama?

However, this variety show genuinely focused on teaching acting without all the pretentious fluff. Besides, going anywhere was just going somewhere—he might as well learn something.

Acting was all about truly listening, truly watching, and truly feeling; he could just treat it as a field trip for research...

"You chose this one?"

This was something neither Song Yiwen nor Liu Ning had anticipated. They had assumed Yu Wei would simply pick an easygoing reality show to coast through, but who would have thought he'd select a project centered around professional acting?

It seemed this kid wanted to develop in all directions after all?

They had previously heard that after finishing his music video, he shot some personal projects he liked, and since it didn't exceed the budget by much, the company hadn't questioned it. But looking at it now, Yu Wei had clearly been plotting this for a long time.

"This is a legitimate acting boot camp. Those veteran actors and directors are notoriously fierce. You might be good at singing, but once you're over there, no one is going to coddle you."

Even though Song Yiwen was desperate to keep Yu Wei busy with work, she had no intention of digging a pitfall for him. One had to think carefully before crossing over into such demanding territory.

"It's fine. As long as I learn something, I won't be at a loss."

Yu Wei wasn't some delicate pampered darling who had never faced hardship in the entertainment industry. He had worked regular jobs and tightened screws; what kind of scoldings hadn't he endured? Moreover, he possessed years of hard-earned experience in being cursed at for flops.

Besides, he wasn't completely devoid of acting chops; at the very least, his portrayal of a blind man was presentable enough to take on stage.

He could play a historical blind man, a campus blind man, a gangster blind man, an agent blind man...

A master of niche tricks could pick the exact same hero across different matches, and he could perform the exact same blind man across different plots. He was the server-topping blind man.

Seeing how persistent Yu Wei was, Manager Song had no reason to block him further. She simply instructed Liu Ning to brief him thoroughly on the program's workflow and the mentors' coaching styles.

Everything was going smoothly until he heard the surname of one of the directors, a certain Teacher Qi. Could it really be such a coincidence?

"Teacher Qi Yunming should be the easiest person to talk to on the show. Since you and Qi Yuan are on good terms, he should look out for you."

Really? Why did Yu Wei find that hard to believe?

He had just beaten Qi Yuan into taking a hiatus, and right after dealing with the junior, the senior was showing up? Why were Qi family members everywhere? Was this the universe's center, the Niu Family Village...

Still, he was merely a "temporary contracted artist" on the show, acting essentially as a substitute guest. Since he was only recording for a single episode, their paths wouldn't cross too often anyway.

Putting aside personal connections, getting acquainted with an industry heavyweight like that wasn't a bad idea; it certainly wouldn't do any harm.

Upon leaving the office, Yu Wei immediately sought out Qi Luo'an to sound her out. Her response was that old Qi was just an old, lazy salted fish who didn't even care much about Qi Yuan—she told him to simply treat the man as if he didn't exist.

A salted fish was great; salted fish were far easier to get along with than those prickly, combative veterans. Yu Wei was a veteran salted fish himself; perhaps they might even find some common language.

"Should I put in a good word for you?"

"Please don't."

Hearing words of praise behind one's back from others was one thing, but coming directly from a daughter's mouth, the nature of the thing changed entirely...