Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Chapter 31

Finally, Zhou Chen Xi’s last scene still hasn’t been completed.

He originally wanted to perform better in front of Lu Ji, but the more anxious he got, the more things went against his wishes. Coupled with a few criticisms from the director towards the actress he was working with, the two of them ended up bowing and apologizing together afterward. They privately discussed treating the whole crew to afternoon tea. After the director finished his arrangements, Zhou Chen Xi finally dejectedly made his way to Lu Ji’s resting car.

Lu Ji was sitting in a spacious RV.

Since joining the crew, Zhi Qi had assigned Zhou Chen Xi an assistant. Other actors had smaller cars for resting, and he had one too, but it was relatively simple and not as luxurious as the car Lu Ji had driven over.

“Wow!” Zhou Chen Xi looked at the decorations inside the car. “Does Lu President always use this car?”

“It’s prepared for you,” Lu Ji said. “The branch company arranged it temporarily. I thought I would have to wait for you for a long time, but you arrived quite quickly.”

Speaking of this, Zhou Chen Xi felt ashamed. “No, it’s just that I didn’t do well today at work.”

“How so?” Lu Ji asked.

Zhou Chen Xi didn’t want to mention it and said with a pitiful look, “I’ll go change my clothes first!”

He was wearing a glass fairy costume, with a layer of light gauze under the hem of the clothes, his long hair reaching his waist, and his ethereal makeup making his beautiful eyes appear even more lively.

Zhou Chen Xi stood up to get off the car. Although the interior was spacious, the space was still somewhat limited. The hem of his clothes and wide sleeves brushed against Lu Ji as he passed by, causing Lu Ji’s heart to skip a beat.

Lu Ji grabbed his wrist.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Chen Xi turned back.

“Change here,” Lu Ji lifted his chin, “Isn’t this space big enough for you?”

Zhou Chen Xi looked to the side and thought about it. He then let his assistant bring his clothes over and changed inside Lu Ji’s car.

The dressing room partition was raised, and Zhou Chen Xi took off each piece of his costume and hung them on a makeshift rack behind the partition.

Lu Ji, holding his work tablet, unconsciously counted the clothes he hung up.

One, two, three, four…

Well, historical costumes were indeed troublesome.

Being a fairy came at a cost. After changing his clothes, Zhou Chen Xi was completely exhausted. He pushed the partition aside and said, “I’m so tired. Just the thought of wearing this for two hours and taking it off in five minutes makes me even more tired.”

Lu Ji chuckled.

Zhou Chen Xi returned the clothes to the costume designer and, with their assistance, removed his wig. He then returned to Lu Ji’s car.

“Shall we go?” After adjusting himself a bit, Zhou Chen Xi regained his energy.

Since he had no immediate plans and Lu Ji had taken the trouble to come, he couldn’t bring his negative emotions to others.

“Where are we going?” Zhou Chen Xi sat down in the car and asked Lu Ji.

After changing back into his casual clothes, Zhou Chen Xi wore his usual graffiti T-shirt, light-colored jeans, and due to not having enough time to style his hair after removing the wig, he simply put on a cap, making him look like a university student who hadn’t left campus yet.

“Have dinner first?” Lu Ji suggested.

It was already past 5 pm, and Zhou Chen Xi glanced at the time. It seemed like a reasonable idea, so he agreed, “Sure, let’s go!”

The driver started the car.

At a restaurant that Zhou Chen Xi didn’t pay much attention to the name of, they had a dinner that he couldn’t even taste what he was eating. He felt guilty for Lu Ji’s sake.

Leaving the restaurant, Zhou Chen Xi sighed, “President Lu, next time let me treat you to a good meal.”

“Did something happen during filming?” Lu Ji finally asked.

He had noticed it earlier but thought it best to enjoy their meal first. However, Zhou Chen Xi seemed distracted and disengaged throughout, and he felt he should have asked sooner.

“There’s a scene I didn’t perform well,” Zhou Chen Xi said. “I didn’t complete today’s task. The director said we’ll continue filming tomorrow morning when I go back. That’s not a big deal, but I’m worried that my mood won’t improve tomorrow, and it’ll affect everyone’s time.”

“Why stress yourself out so much?” Lu Ji asked.

“Are you serious, President Lu?” Zhou Chen Xi exaggeratedly replied, “Don’t compliment me randomly, I’m fragile!”

“True,” Lu Ji said earnestly. “I’ve seen you act in previous roles.”

Zhou Chen Xi was taken aback, “What have I acted in before?” He couldn’t even remember!

Many of his works had either gone unnoticed or failed to air for various reasons. Plus, having lived through a rebirth, he genuinely couldn’t recall which of his roles had managed to escape his streak of bad luck and be broadcasted.

“Battle Flag,” Lu Ji mentioned a drama title. “You played a newspaper-selling student in it.”

Zhou Chen Xi’s eyes widened slightly, “Impressive, President Lu.”

Lu Ji smiled, “It’s the only one I know. A couple of days ago, you updated your information on Baidu Baike, and I was bored, so I looked it up. I couldn’t find much else about your previous works, but this one is available on Xigua Video.”

[Baidu Baike is a semi-regulated Chinese-language collaborative online encyclopedia owned by the Chinese technology company Baidu]

Indeed, it was the video platform under the Lu Corporation. Zhou Chen Xi gave a thumbs up, “Impressive!”

However, he realized that the information on Baidu Baike had mostly been updated by Zhi Qi. It was more like a showcase of his personal history, with few details about the successful roles he had played. Considering how few there were, Zhi Qi didn’t bother organizing them properly. Most of the entries were just added if he had appeared in them. It would indeed take some effort to sort through them.

Zhou Chen Xi asked, “Did you go through each of my roles one by one?”

Lu Ji hesitated for a moment before replying, “Not exactly. There are only four listed under ‘completed works’ on the website, and even minor roles like ‘Supporting Actor A’ have been marked.”

Zhou Chen Xi said, “…”

Was Zhi Qi unusually free lately?

Zhou Chen Xi took out his phone and checked Baidu Baike.

Indeed, there were updates. Not only was “Carp” already in its third episode, even his previous roles had been organized. Looking at the list, it seemed different from Zhi Qi’s usual style, which lacked structure. These entries resembled those of other similar artists.

He scrolled down and found a note at the bottom that read: [This entry was last edited by the “Zhou Chen Xi Global Fan Club”].

Zhou Chen Xi exclaimed, “Wow…”

Did his brother actually recruit a team and establish a fan club for him?

He still hadn’t received a reply to the direct message he sent on Weibo. Zhou Chen Xi decided not to inquire about it from his brother just yet and put that matter aside.

“Ahaha…” Zhou Chenxi slipped his phone back into his pocket and laughed it off. “Why does this Baidu Baike entry suddenly seem a bit embarrassing?”

“Although you have fewer roles, you’ve certainly performed well,” Lu Ji said seriously. “At least I’ve been a judge for numerous auditions, and if I didn’t have some discernment, wouldn’t I be a blind puppet of the financial backers?”

—Though there were indeed blind puppets of financial backers, at this moment, Lu Ji was resolute not to admit it.

He needed to give Zhou Chenxi confidence.

And that was true.

Zhou Chenxi actually believed his nonsense, wondering if he had truly hit a bottleneck.

Lu Ji’s hotel was next to the one provided by the production crew for Zhou Chenxi. Since Zhou Chenxi didn’t have much to do, he was invited by Lu Ji to have tea.

And indeed, they were really having tea.

In front of Lu Ji was an entire tea set, and he brewed the tea gracefully, performing each movement with elegance. He had an ethereal charm about him, but Zhou Chenxi was feeling rather drowsy.

He couldn’t help but feel that brewing tea was something that older people did.

Zhou Chenxi had both hands hanging outside the sofa, sprawled on the couch, and said, “President Lu, you’re really handsome.”

“Hmm?” Lu Ji raised an eyebrow.

“But could I have a glass of iced cola?” Zhou Chenxi blinked.

Lu Ji chuckled, “There’s some in the fridge. Feel free to get it yourself.”

Zhou Chenxi cheered and added two ice cubes to his drink. He chugged it down enthusiastically and finally felt satisfied.

Lu Ji said, “Since you’re worried about completing tomorrow’s filming tasks, how about you tell me where you’re stuck in the plot?”

Anyway, Lu Ji is the financial backer, and Zhou Chenxi doesn’t shy away either, directly saying, “You saw it today, it’s the scene where Fuzheng and I part ways.”

Fuzheng is a romantic entanglement experienced by Luli after descending to the mortal realm. This girl is also a deer demon, but unlike Luli who is a nine-colored celestial deer, she’s ordinary and unremarkable. Luli first encountered her in the forest when she was being chased by a group of hunters.

Those hunters were humans, and Fuzheng refrained from using magic to avoid harming them. However, she was eventually shot by their arrows, and by the time she thought of preserving her life, she was unable to cast spells.

Naturally slow-witted, she had just recently transformed into a young deer, struggling to even maintain a humanoid form, let alone cast spells when injured.

Luli saved her. He didn’t intend to have much to do with her, but she ended up clinging to him.

Fuzheng was innocent and naive, somewhat resembling Luli during the time he was taken in by the Immortal Flow Lord. At that time, his memories were wiped clean, and the Immortal Flow Lord cherished him greatly. No matter what mistakes he made, the Lord couldn’t bear to reprimand him harshly. Instead, after he disturbed the Queen Mother’s meditation, the Lord even took responsibility for his actions, showing exceptional tolerance towards him.

Seeing Fuzheng was like seeing his former self. Eventually, for reasons unknown, he allowed her to stay with him.

As the plot developed later, Luli came to know that Fuzheng is a descendant of his deer clan. When the deer clan was annihilated in the past, Fuzheng’s mother protected her, using her own demon core to shield her with all her might, preventing her soul from being damaged.

Now, the demon core inside Fuzheng’s body is her mother.

No wonder her aptitude seems dull.

Because the demon core doesn’t belong to her.

Fuzheng’s mother, Luli remembered, was a sister he once liked. She treated him well, always picking fruits for him with exceptional gentleness.

But the demon clan priest used celestial calculations to determine that Luli was fated to bring calamity, causing many in the clan to be unwilling to let their young demons get too close to him. Later, under the leadership of the demon clan chief, the sister married someone else.

This was the first time the young demon Luli, who was not even a hundred years old, experienced a taste of human emotions.

It all ended due to his youthfulness back then.

Now that Fuzheng appeared in his life, Luli wasn’t sure what kind of emotions he held for her. He feared that he might only consider her a replacement for his sister from that year, but also worried that he might genuinely fall for Fuzheng.

As Buddhist teachings say, from love arises sorrow, from love arises fear.

He bore the grudge of the deer clan and knew that one day he would return to the immortal realm.

He also feared that he might ultimately disappoint Fuzheng.

And so, in the blink of an eye in the mortal realm, from vibrant blossoms to withering flowers, Fuzheng was killed by envoys from the immortal realm.

Once, the deer clan’s power made the immortal realm wary, and they would occasionally send people to eradicate the remnants of the deer clan. Fuzheng had hidden and fled for a long time until she encountered Luli.

It turned out Fuzheng had a different motive for following him, as there was an imprint of the Immortal Flow Lord on Luli’s body, making it impossible for the immortal realm to control him.

But in the end, Luli still couldn’t protect her, and his emotions erupted in that moment.

“This plot is too complicated,” Zhou Chenxi said, “it’s entangled in various grudges and relationships, the plot threads are all tangled up like a mess. The director is really impressive for being able to film this show well.”

“In the end, it’s all about setting the stage for ‘me’ and the Immortal Flow Lord to love and fight each other,” Zhou Chenxi deciphered.

Thinking this way, the plot actually seemed a bit clichéd.

Truly worthy of being an elite figure with a list of foreign books, Lu Ji’s logic was clear. He immediately grasped the key point: “Do you like her?”

“Huh?” Zhou Chenxi was momentarily stunned.

“Do you like her in the play?” Lu Ji asked again.

“I… I think so,” Zhou Chenxi wasn’t sure. There were definitely emotions involved, but he was primarily uncertain whether Luli in the early stages really liked Fuzheng or just treated her as a replacement for his sister.

“If you’re unsure, it means the script leaves room for interpretation. You’re free to explore within the given context. Have you read ‘An Actor’s Self-Cultivation’?” Lu Ji asked.

“I have!” Zhou Chenxi exclaimed in excitement.

Finally, a book from Lu Ji’s reading list overlapped!

“Give yourself conviction,” Lu Ji said, “liking is liking, not liking is not liking. With this premise, you’ll have emotional support.”

Zhou Chenxi was almost moved to tears. “President Lu, you’re amazing!”

He rubbed his face and exclaimed eagerly, “Then I’ll go back and read the script…”

“Don’t rush, isn’t the script right here?” Lu Ji stood up, picked up the script that was placed aside, and said, “Personally, I suggest you assume that ‘you’ like Fuzheng.”

“Is… is that so?” Zhou Chenxi seemed a bit bewildered. He was also thinking along those lines. It would be best to make himself believe that Luli likes Fuzheng — but what exactly is President Lu trying to do?

“Weren’t you worried about delaying others’ time tomorrow? Then I’ll rehearse with you.” Lu Ji smiled and approached, placing both hands on the sofa armrest, and leaned down to look at Zhou Chenxi sitting there.

Zhou Chenxi stared at him dumbfoundedly and looked up. “President Lu, you make a lot of sense, but Fuzheng isn’t as domineering as you, the CEO. Otherwise, would you lie down on my legs?”

As he spoke, he uncertainly patted his own thigh.

Lu Ji: “…”

He almost forgot, this scene is where Fuzheng dies in Luli’s arms.

A bit of a miscalculation.

Thinking of taking advantage of the situation, Lu Ji thought.

Just lying there stiffly, how could he even take advantage?

1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ”