Chapter 57: Li Bingbing

In later years, following the fallout of *Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace*, any lingering ethereal charm Zhou Xun once possessed had completely dissipated. After being put through the wringer of numerous variety shows, her shallowness became common knowledge.

Many argued that she was only ever competent at romance.

Just look at her signature roles: Princess Taiping, *The Equation of Love and Death*, *Painted Skin*, *April Rhapsody*, *Suzhou River*, and so on.

Admittedly, the romantic dynamics in these works varied, but they all pointed to one conclusion: Zhou Xun was largely confined to themes related to romance.

Every actor has their wheelhouse, and romance is, after all, an eternal human theme.

To put it in Li Shaohong's words: Zhou Xun understands the world entirely through falling in love and acting.

That's right, Li Shaohong had offered critiques of Yang Mi, and she had critiqued Zhou Xun as well.

With only a single portal through which to perceive the world—and with Zhou Xun herself paring down that portal until it was microscopic—

This cognitive shallowness resulted in a middle-aged Zhou Xun who might deliver a decent performance in isolated scenes requiring emotional release, but whose overall performances were nothing short of fatal when viewed as a whole.

This flaw plagued not only *Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace*, but also her portrayals in *Tu Youyou*, *Imperfect Victim*, *Huimin's Family*, and other works.

She was simply incapable of grasping anything beyond romance; she could not comprehend the intersection of human character and destiny.

And the worst part... was her team.

They were just as insufferable as Chen Kun's team, always stepping in at the first sign of trouble to forcibly muzzle the audience—apologizing to the public out of one side of their mouths while reporting videos to get them taken down out of the other, all the while shifting blame and inciting fans to launch cyberbullying campaigns against others.

As a side note, let us briefly evaluate the top actresses of her generation.

None of this cohort possessed profound cultural literacy; to put it bluntly, there wasn't much ink in their bellies.

Yet Zhang Ziyi, Li Bingbing, Fan Bingbing, and Vicki Zhao all radiated a fierce sense of self, ambition, and defiance—a certain indomitable spirit.

Their respective journeys through the crucible of society had deepened their substance, keeping them from appearing utterly feather-light.

Only Zhou Xun and Xu Jinglei had sailed through life with the wind at their backs, even stooping to gallivant across variety shows.

Consequently, their shallowness and ignorance only grew more glaring.

Of course, none of this truly mattered; truly great actors cannot afford to be overly cultured. Reading and intellect, once they reach a certain threshold, inevitably blunt one's intuition for and expression of life. The moment preconceived notions take precedence, your acting deteriorates.

What was most terrifying was someone being a half-filled bucket yet remaining utterly convinced of their own brilliance.

Shen Yan held not a single shred of romanticized illusion regarding Zhou Xun.

Naturally, in *The Message*, she and Li Bingbing had fought to a standstill; Li Bingbing struggled with smoking, while Zhou Xun handled certain aspects of Gu Xiaomeng inappropriately.

The character of Gu Xiaomeng more or less exposed both Zhou Xun's strengths and weaknesses.

Her innate talent remained intact, and the character featured several moments of pure genius—such as that sudden burst of laughter—a style of unconventional performance utterly beyond the capability of standard, classically trained actors.

Yet her limitations were equally evident: she lacked a rational, analytical breakdown of character logic, or anything of the sort.

There was a sequence where she gets arrested, and her captors place a call to her parents. Gu Xiaomeng's reaction was overwhelmingly visceral. For a character like hers, this response was fundamentally incorrect, because given Gu Xiaomeng's intelligence and the path she had chosen, it was impossible that she had never anticipated a day when she might be arrested and her parents implicated.

That particular piece of acting should have possessed far greater nuance and complexity, rather than dissolving into a childish, screaming tantrum of "Don't you touch my parents!" In that instant, the character's profound gravity vanished, replaced by sheer immaturity.

Zhou Xun was particularly ill-suited to portraying ordinary individuals or deep, complex characters.

Ah, upon meeting Li Bingbing later, Shen Yan brought this up. "I feel that particular moment lacked sufficient consideration. She treated Gu Xiaomeng with too much levity; the underlying tone was off."

Li Bingbing contemplated this for a moment before asking, "And what about me?"

"You probably aren't fond of smoking..."

"...True, I don't like smoking..."

Shen Yan remarked, "There was a slight blemish in that regard..."

"It couldn't be helped. I practiced for over a month, but I simply couldn't get used to it!"

"That's completely normal. I'm not much for smoking either..."

"I've read the script for *Architecture 101*. Yang Ruiying doesn't end up with Li Shengmin?"

Shen Yan smiled faintly. "...No... A missed connection is a missed connection. Meeting the right person at the right time is a fairy tale. Meeting the right person at the wrong time—that is youth!"

"...Very well, I'll take this project. Ji Xiang, give me a shooting schedule and location..."

Ji Xiang immediately chimed in, "We'll shoot in Xiamen, by the sea... How does early next year sound?"

"Are we casting Ren Quan as the male lead?"

"Mhm... I haven't spoken to Brother Quan about this yet. Would you mind helping to reach out to him?"

"...Alright, I'll give him a call... He doesn't have any serious roles on his plate lately anyway." Li Bingbing nodded, then continued, "I heard you're looking to partner with Enlight Media this time?"

"Yes... President Wang is simply too accustomed to meddling in casting decisions. This script was written by little Shen, tailored specifically for him. If we handed it over to Huayi, the role might vanish altogether!"

Shen Yan interjected, "I might not even end up as the screenwriter!"

Ji Xiang shook his head. "...It wouldn't come to that. After all, you have a certain level of recognition now..."

They did not share dinner; Li Bingbing still had to rush off to handle promotional duties for *The Message*.

She was exceptionally busy this year, juggling three films—*Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame*, *Swordmen*, and *I Do*—while simultaneously preparing for an invitation to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which required her to diligently practice her English speech on set.

Presumably, her willingness to accept *Architecture 101* stemmed not only from the strong script, but also from the considerable effort Li Xue had invested.

Most importantly, *Architecture 101* featured no particularly grueling sequences and would be filmed entirely in Xiamen, making it effectively a vacation disguised as work.

This development allowed Shen Yan to breathe a sigh of relief; he had been genuinely worried about whether he might catch someone's eye...

After all, he was exceptionally handsome. If Li Bingbing had taken a fancy to him and insisted on a trial run in the bedroom, how could he possibly refuse?

Well, he had indeed pondered this dilemma. A benefactor is a benefactor—if sleep with her he must, then so be it...

Fortunately, no such event had transpired!

With Li Bingbing secured, the rest was straightforward. Ji Xiang flew to Shanghai to spend an afternoon in discussion with Director Joey Law, locking down the director, before returning to Beijing to meet with Li Xiaoping of Enlight Media to finalize the investment terms, setting the official start of filming for next February.

As for the director of photography, lighting crew, props department, and assistant directors, those logistics were even simpler. Joey Law was an established name in the industry, perfectly capable of summoning a competent crew with a mere wave of his hand.

Speaking of which, Ji Xiang had also managed to secure several media interview opportunities for Shen Yan.

On the offline front, these included performances at the Modern Sky Music Festival, the Changsha Orange Island Music Festival, and a live rendition of *Mountain and Sea* at the inaugural Chinese Rock Midi Awards ceremony.

In short, following two months of relentless promotion, while Shen Yan could not yet claim to be a household name, his visibility had at least skyrocketed.

On Xiami Music alone, his album *Shen Yan* was sitting firmly in the top three of the audition charts...

Ah, Xiami Music was currently one of the fastest-growing music platforms.

Though barely two years old, it had already claimed an unrivaled position in the hearts of domestic music enthusiasts.

Its most alluring feature was the rapid proliferation of its user base; to determine who the most popular artist of the day was, one only needed to glance at the cumulative total audition counts for the songs uploaded to the platform.

Three of his tracks—*Slightly*, *Strolling*, and *Light*—had squeezed their way into Xiami's top ten listening charts...

During this period, Shen Yan was buried under an avalanche of work, barely finding the time to update *Lord of the Mysteries*—surviving entirely on pre-written backlog chapters.

Not to mention finding time to see Shishi!

In an entire month, they had managed to meet precisely twice...

Fortunately, by late October, he finally joined the cast of *The Vigilantes in Masks*...