The Villain Runs Wild

Ch 39 - Newest Top Celebrity x Washed Up Film Emperor: Bring Me Into The Role


Yan Qin looked at the fruit in front of him and paused slightly.

“I almost forgot, Mr. Yan doesn’t like eating grapes.”

Lin Sui sat in front of Yan Qin, and though his mouth said those words, he still grabbed a grape and placed it next to Yan Qin’s lips, his actions no different from before.

“You can spit it out again this time, I’ll just feed it to you again if you spit it out until you actually swallow it.”

The green grape pulp slid over Yan Qin’s lips, smearing them with sticky sweet juice.

Yan Qin controlled his expression, but the lines of his lower jaw were stretched taut, his refusal was very clear.

Yan Qin had learnt his lesson, so he didn’t open his mouth to speak in order to avoid being forcefully stuffed, and planned to leave this predicament.

“Why are you refusing? Don’t you know that, for someone like me, the more people don’t do what I want, the more stubborn I’ll be?”

Lin Sui propped his cheek up with one hand and twirled the grape in the other, playfully lingering on Yan Qin’s lips.

“I will be really serious when that time comes, maybe I’ll have someone throw you into my room, use toys to keep your mouth open, and feed you the grapes one by one until you can’t eat any more. Maybe after that you’ll change to like grapes.”

Lin Sui spoke neither fast nor slow, his voice gentle and pleasant.

Following his words, a scene appeared in his mind like an unfurling picture scroll.

Yan Qin’s expression became a little colder, he pulled away from Lin Sui and said: “I don’t remember having done anything to provoke you.”

“You haven’t?” Lin Sui raised his eyebrows in slight astonishment, and smiled lazily, “You being in front of me right now is provoking me.”

An vain and self-important, audacious, and resource-grabbing flower vase may not have any sort of feelings towards a good-looking Film Emperor with good acting skills, but when one added the words ‘washed up’ in front of ‘Film Emperor’, it would naturally be different.

“Some people actually said that you acting with me was degrading and hindering your style, ridiculous, I haven’t even said you’re riding on my popularity, but you’re always putting on airs. It’s annoying to watch.”

Lin Sui threw away the grape in his hand and used a wet-wipe to clean the moistness from his fingers.

Did the villain need a reason to hate the protagonist? No, because when you hate someone, anything can become a reason.

“Eat up, Mr. Yan, consider this as my tuition payment. You’ve worked hard to teach me, if you don’t eat, I’ll truly be too embarrassed to use the things you taught me to act in this movie.”

Lin Sui pushed the fruit in front of Yan Qin, watching him calmly.

Yan Qin did not think this fruit was the end of it, maybe it was only the beginning.

The young man before his eyes seemed like the painted-skin beauties1 from supernatural stories, whose insides were filled with corruption and decay.

The meaning in his words was clear, making Yan Qin a little annoyed.

Being an actor meant having the duty to act well, even more so when being the main actor that influenced the quality of the work, but Lin Sui treated it like a game, didn’t take his own career seriously, and actually used this to threaten him.

Yan Qin had a bit of OCD when it came to filming, he didn’t like bad movies, and he didn’t want to see anything he acted in to be a bad movie.

As soon as he took on the role, Yan Qin had already forewarned Liu Buqun that if the results left much to be desired after a few days of shooting, he would withdraw from the cast.

He’d only asked for an extremely low pay in one part because he really wanted the script to be improved and wanted to help, but also so that he wouldn’t have to pay too high a penalty when he quit.

They day they started shooting, Lin Sui’s performance was flawed and stiff, but he had ingenuity and understanding, so Yan Qin didn’t want to give up too early.

As a result, even though his heart was unhappy, Yan Qin still picked up the grape and put it into his mouth, and that was the end of it.

Lin Sui didn’t talk again, he looked at Yan Qin and left.

The assistants in the breakroom had already laid out the packaged dishes, so Lin Sui let them leave to have their own meals and took out his cellphone to make a call.

“Lingling, why are you suddenly calling me? Are you unhappy on set? What’s wrong?”

The man on the other end had a rough and bold voice that carried a sense of affection.

“Godfather, I told you not to call me that.”

Lin Sui was eating. He was a little uncomfortable with the nicknames in each world, but fortunately the original owner didn’t like his nickname either.

The person on the other side of the phone was Hua Yun’s president, Yu Yushuo, who was a close friend to the original owner’s father. When the original owner’s mother was pregnant, he treated her and the child in her womb like family, so the original owner called him godfather.

Hua Yun Pictures was very famous in the entertainment industry. When the original owner said he wanted to go into the industry, Yu Yushuo registered him in his own company without any objections, offering him the best treatment and resources.

“It’s cute, you’ve never liked it, but your godfather thinks it’s super cute. What did you call me for? Was the investment not enough? Should I add more?”

“No, I just wanted to talk to you first. I’m planning to set up my own studio.”

“Why!? Did someone at the company give you a hard time and make you feel uncomfortable?!”

Lin Sui leaned against the sofa and spoke casually: “No, I just want to try making my own business.”

When capital intervened in the market, the market was not pure. If he wanted to seize influence, he had to always be in a state of ‘popularity’, and Lin Sui felt that the best way to do this was naturally to seize capital.

To be in an invincible position, one must always hold all the cards in their hands.

Yu Yushuo tried to persuade him a few times, thinking Lin Sui didn’t need to trouble himself so much and it was fine if he just relied on them, but since Lin Sui insisted, he was naturally willing to let the child try.

“Okay, I’ll go back and take care of that, if you’re ever in need of investment, let your godfather know.”

His godfather was rich and overbearing, with an outspoken and straightforward temper, so the matter was resolved in just a few words.

Lin Sui responded and hung up the phone, afterwards, he ate a few things and took out his computer to begin looking into his objective.

At that moment, Yan Qin was eating fruit, looking at the screen of his phone with a confused, hesitating expression. After Lin Sui left, he wanted to pull out his phone and leave that group, but he hadn’t expected that the girl that pulled him into the group had tagged2 him to say a few words of gratitude and recommendation.

The other girls in the group were also chatting with him. Yan Qin was not a person who liked making people feel awkward, so he didn’t leave the group immediately, but rather stayed in the group while maintaining a subtle eye on Lin Sui.

He would wait until tomorrow when those people weren’t paying attention to him and leave the group then.

In the afternoon shoot, Liu Buqun finished filming while drinking chrysanthemum tea to relieve internal heat.

He had originally planned to shoot the scene of the first meeting in which Shu Tang pulled on Xu Shuangxing’s hand so he could see his body for himself, but Liu Buqun felt that Lin Sui’s acting was not up to standard, so he simply pushed that scene back and filmed another one first.

Liu Buqun began to lose hair during the two days of stumbling through the shoot like that.

“Can your features not be so distorted? Being frivolous is neither enticing nor flirty, you look like you’re about to have an affair with someone like that, give it a little less emotion. Remember, right now you’re Ruan Qingqu acting like Shu tang, not the real Shu Tang or Ruan Qingqu!”

Lin Buqun gave earnest and well-meaning advice. He had turned a blind eye for other scenes, but he couldn’t do it for the first set-up scene. The first impression the audience got had to be distinct and profound, they couldn’t mess it up at the very beginning.

He also knew that, when the young master acted smoothly, it was purely him being himself, and that this amateur used to a life of luxury simply knew nothing about empathy or being in character. He felt that hoping for the other party to understand was simply as hard as ascending to heaven, but he couldn’t just let it go.

“Director Liu, what about your nesting doll?”

Lin Sui was a little exhausted, his exhaustion came from having to pretend to be a bad actor.

“You go mull it over yourself. I don’t care what methods you use, you need to give me something tomorrow before we begin filming, or else we’re not going to.”

Liu Buqun also had a bad temper, and this was not his original idea for the lead role, so if it didn’t work out, he really didn’t want to film.

Liu Buqun exploded and gave Lin Sui a vacation.

Looking at Lin Sui’s wooden expression, Yan Qin slightly pursed his lips.

Lin Sui headed back to the break room with all kinds of emotions in his eyes. Fu Nai followed beside him, coaxing him, afraid that Lin Sui was in such a bad mood he was about to angrily throw and break things when he returned to the break room, but Lin Sui just sat down on the sofa and began looking at his phone.

She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she felt that Lin Sui’s temper had improved a little these past few days.

“A-Sui, your acting just now was actually very good, your skills have improved so much, it’s director Liu who’s being too rude and nitpicky…”

Fu Nai continued to boast blindly, but this time it wasn’t complete lies. Although Lin Sui’s acting was a little defective, it was much better than before when he would just stare and frown.

Lin Sui was just browsing this world’s business layout and future trends, and felt like the agent next to him was a little noisy, so he shot her a cold glare to indicate she should shut up.

Fu Nai immediately fell silent, showing she wouldn’t speak any more.

It seemed like his temper hadn’t changed, he was even a little scarier.

As Lin Sui was putting together the information he needed, his cellphone got a call from Yu Linxi.

“Bro, are you free right now? The Jianghu urgently needs your help!”

Yu Linxi was Yu Yushuo’s son, and the original owner’s godbrother. He was seventeen this year, and was a rich second generation who would go work the land if he couldn’t sing or dance well.

Yu Linxi’s dream was to be an e-sports player, but Yu Yushuo thought that this industry was for the young and couldn’t last, and that he had to study and become dependable. Yu Linxin went on a hunger strike at home, and Yu Yushuo thought that he just had too much free time, so he immediately threw him into this year’s talent show and threatened with sending him to the countryside to farm if he didn’t perform well.

Yu Linxi performed tearfully, and in the end he actually debuted. The original owner could go back to inherit family property if he couldn’t act, but Yu Linxi didn’t even have the opportunity to inherit if he couldn’t sing or dance, only to go raise pigs. That hadn’t been a joke, Yu Yushuo was a tiger dad, and he always kept his word.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m participating in a live variety show, but the guest that we had planned suddenly felt unwell and couldn’t make it. I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly connect with other people, so can you come and save me? It’s only half an hour!”

“Sure.”

Lin Sui dealt with the things in his computer and closed the screen.

In the original story, Yu Linxi was a supporting role, and belonged to the neutral camp. He was Yan Qin’s fan, and even helped him a few times when the original owner made things difficult for Yan Qin. Later, when the original owner was out of luck, he also tried his hardest to let the original owner have some dignity. He was a good kid with principles and a clear idea of right and wrong.

Lin Sui took the itinerary end explained things to Fu Nai. Fu Nai nodded and asked about the venue, then took Lin Sui there and communicated with director Zu while in the car. The gist was very clear; although they were only going for half an hour to save the show, it still counted as half an hour’s pay. Director Zu didn’t want to stiff them.

Since they were going for Yu Linxi’s sake and would give the programme a fun act that could generate traffic, director Zu would pay according to the market value and the time, but seeing as they were doing it for Yu Linxi, they could give him a discount.

Fu Nai’s communication was exceptionally strong, making Lin Sui raise his brows slightly.

He originally had a mediocre feeling towards this manager, but now he felt pretty good. He liked people who didn’t yield an inch towards the benefits they were owed, and who had certain skills.

When Lin Sui arrived at the shoot, the production team had already changed the name on the broadcast since Lin Sui agreed to the shoot to attract attention. Lin Sui’s fans were already waiting, and the moment Lin Sui appeared on the scene, a barrage of densely-packed messages completely covered the entire screen.

Lin Sui greeted Yu Linxi and interacted with everyone. Yu Linxi became much more at ease after Lin Sui arrived, after all, the two of them were very close, and their conversation was more open.

The programme was really just playing games and doing a few Q&As while interacting with each other from time to time. The host was a famous comedian, and the venue was always lively.

Fu Nai had given them prior notice that they couldn’t ask about the new movie. The host cleverly did not ask, but did bring up the movie’s name, which counted as publicity.

Near the end, the host jokingly asked the two handsome guys about their criteria for choosing a spouse.

Yu Linxi was very conscious of being an idol, so he said: “I’m not thinking about love for the time being, so I don’t have any criteria.”

The barrage of real-time comments: You’re not old enough yet, son, your mother won’t allow it. Such a good son.

When the host turned his gaze on Lin Sui, Lin Sui thought about it for a moment and smiled as he answered: “Someone obedient, who can understand my thoughts.”

Yu Linxi teased him: “It seems that Lin-ge likes the cute and pleasant type.”

Soon after, the topic of Lin Sui’s spouse selection criteria rushed to the top of the hot trends.

Some people thought it was very normal, some shouted ‘choose me, baby, I’ll always listen to what darling says’, and some people thought Lin Sui was too straight, too much of a male chauvinist, and too controlling.

[Lin Sui’s Husbands Group]

@It’s Suisui Ya: Sisters, get to work, someone is scolding our wife again @Swallows Return to the Forest @Stir-Fry the Wife 100 Times @Kiss The Wife A-Sui

@It’s Suisui Ya: How do we fix this, this group of anti-fans is stirring up trouble, saying the wife is a straight male chauvinist. Why are they saying the wife’s requirements objectify women, so he discriminates against them? They’re really rubbish to randomly use women’s rights to mess up the reputation of this group.

@Wife Brides3 Me: Right right, who said the wife’s other half has to be a woman? Everyone here is his husband, ok?

@Stir-Fry the Wife 100 Times: Go to battle at once! The wife praised me for being good in bed last night heh heh heh!

@Kiss The Wife A-Sui: Nah nah, 100 Times is dreaming again, the wife was clearly in my bed last night!

@Swallows Return to the Forest: ………

Yan Qin had wanted to leave the group countless times, but he was tagged every day, not only that, but because some of the advice he gave the little sisters on work and life was quite reliable, he’d already been made the group’s admin.

It was fine if he was tagged every day, but he was still completely shocked by these words.

So exhausting.

He skimmed over Lin Sui’s spouse criteria and posted a Weibo using the words given in the group, then logged out.

As the shoot ended that afternoon, Yan Qin caught sight of someone jogging towards him. His memory was pretty good, so he knew that was one of Lin Sui’s assistants, it seemed to be the one called Tao Yang.

“Mr. Yan, Lin-ge wants to invite you somewhere, he said it had to do with that scene director Liu wanted him to act in today.”

Yan Qin didn’t refuse, and followed Tao Yang outside.

Director Liu’s ultimatum was for tomorrow morning, so it was normal for Lin Sui to feel nervous. That was good, it showed that the other party still wanted to make this film a success. When it came to acting, Yan Qin could put aside some of his personal feelings to achieve better results on screen.

He had originally thought that he would go to Lin Sui’s room or the lounge, but Tao Yang took him in front of a van.

Yan Qin opened the back door and saw Lin Sui sitting there.

He seemed to be a little out of sorts, lazily leaning back against the seat and resting with his eyes closed.

When the car door was closed, they set off. Yan Qin didn’t know what their destination was, but he saw Lin Sui had no plans of explaining things to him, so he quietly watched both sides of the road.

Lin Sui had headed home after the end of the live broadcast to get some information and continue with his preparation work, after that, it was time to get busy with the highlight of the day.

Liu Buqun’s words had been an exceptionally good reason, although Lin Sui would still have done this even if he hadn’t said that. But since he happened to have an opportunity, Lin Sui set things up in advance.

The destination of this trip was an elegant little building with a touch of the graceful Hui style4 on the inside, there was bamboo and orchids everywhere, making it seem particularly beautiful and secluded.

Yan Qin was frowning on the inside. A few years ago, before he had the accident, he had also been invited to dinner parties in these kinds of places. This type of building seemed clean and elegant on the outside, but was a bordello on the inside, it was just that this one was an extremely high-class one, both pure and obscene, paying particular attention to hinting but not revealing, but it was the same in essence.

“Mr. Yan, let’s go. I’m afraid I’ll waste everyone’s time tomorrow if I’m delayed, and director Liu is really going to quit.”

Lin Sui looked at Yan Qin’s slight hesitation and invited.

Yan Qin looked at his expression and wondered what he was doing again, then followed him inside.

Lin Sui arrived at the reserved room. It was an antique-style building with a large soft couch and table on the inside which guests could sit or lie down on, then there was the long, narrow table, which was convenient for letting guests drink while watching the qin players.

Lin Sui sat down on the couch, and had the manager call people in.

After the manager went out, a few charming young woman came in from outside the door, all of which had the same graceful and elegant style, adn two delicate boys also came in, and they all stood in front of Lin Sui and Yan Qin.

Yan Qin’s face sunk, seemingly in a bad mood.

“Okay, start laughing. Incorporate your personality into a frivolous laugh, he’ll pick who gets to stay.”

Lin Sui raised his chin, indicating that they could start.

Those people were a little startled, but they were professional enough and quickly began to act.

“Mr. Yan, remember to pick the one who fits Ruan Qingqu’s Shu Tang the most, I’m eager to learn.”

Lin Sui leaned close to Yan Qin, speaking next to his ear.

Yan Qin had just realised what he was playing at. He looked at those laughing people and took a deep breath.

“You can consult an acting teacher, there’s no need to…”

“Wasn’t it about understanding and being in character? In that case, this is just a little real.”

His words were not wrong, and for a moment Yan Qin didn’t know if Lin Sui was making a joke in bad taste or if he was being serious.

Yan Qin watched for a while with rapt attention, and finally pointed to a boy.

The other people left, and that young man stood there slightly uncomfortably.

“His laugh wasn’t very frivolous.”

Lin Sui held his chin, he understood Yan Qin’s reason for choosing, but pretended not to.

“Shu Tang never had that kind of experience, so his actions lean towards wide gins and teasing. Ruan Qingqu is aware of this when he acts, but in the end he isn’t Shu Tang, so he brings a little charm to it, in addition to his previous dignified appearance…”

Yan Qin patiently explained this to Lin Sui, instructing that young man to make facial expressions as he taught Lin Sui.

The person who was told to stay was dumbfounded, he thought there was going to be a threesome tonight, but ended up very uncomfortable, it seemed like he was being used as a blackboard?

If you want to have a class, do you have to do it here?! That’s really weird, ok?!

Lin Sui seemed to have understood and waved at the person standing in the room. As the room returned to silence, he and Yan Qin began to rehearse the scene.

Since they weren’t in front of a camera, Lin Sui didn’t have the patience to act like a flower vase, so it was over after two times.

Yan Qin nodded inwardly, his feeling was right, Lin Sui did have some understanding.

“It’s so annoying, acting the scene takes so much effort, and I still don’t know how much time the rest will take, I’ll just act casually.”

Lin Sui spoke impatiently, and his lips rose inwardly when he noticed the corners of Yan Qin’s lips were pressed down.

“Stereotyped and repetitive acting will wear down ingenuity, and will be unbearable to look at in the end. If you always have these kinds of thoughts, what you present will ultimately not be art, but rubbish.”

“I don’t care.”

Lin Sui supported himself with his hands and sat up, looking at Yan Qin indifferently.

“But I still have to practice so I don’t have to do it all over again. It’s annoying if Liu Buqun doesn’t bother me, he even told me there was a very important scene, the one where we’re filming Ruan Qingu’s memories, so I can get my expressions right.”

During Shu Tang’s narration for Xu Shuanxing’s investigation, he learnt of Ruan Qingqu being passed into the beds of many people. At this point, they would insert a scene of the fake-Shu-Tang-real-Ruan-Qingqu’s memories, which was Ruan Qingqu’s hate-filled appearance when he made up his mind.

Yan Qin began to explain the scene to Lin Sui again, analysing Ruan Qingqu’s character and talking about his disposition and innermost thoughts at the time.

“The helplessness, humiliation, and despair of being forced, those are very desperate and extreme emotions during that time, you need to act well so as not to let the hatred rise to the surface, and to evoke empathy from the audience…”

Yan Qin’s lips opened and closed, and Lin Sui looked down, revealing an annoyed and irritated expression.

“How can I empathise with this? I have no way to get into character, I can’t really have someone to force me to help me understand, right?”

“But perhaps pretending is fine.”

The young man’s eyes turned, and he seemed to be planning something.

A foolish flower vase with poor acting skills only needed to ‘feel as though it happened to him’ to be able to act.

Yan Qin’s heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad premonition.

“I’ll try to be as cooperative as possible, but you can’t be really inappropriate. Just let me experience the emotions to deal with it, but if you really make me uncomfortable, don’t think about acting again in your life. I have more than enough power to keep you out in the cold.”

The young man coldly looked askance at Yan Qin, and one-sidedly gave the order.

“Then, I’ll trouble Mr. Yan. Act well, and please bring me into the role.”

He changed the topic again, but his attitude didn’t seem like he was making a request.

Lin Sui leaned on the soft couch, looking at Yan Qin in a waiting stance.

“Okay, you can begin.”

The scene was so incredibly beautiful and alluring it seemed to have replaced all common sense, making it impossible to think.

 

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1 Refers to a monster taking on a beautiful human appearance. Top.

2 艾特 Means to mention someone with the @ symbol, but I wasn’t really sure if ‘to at sb.’ is an actual thing in english lol. Top.

3 So the original word here is ‘臍橙, qíchéng’ which is a type of orange, but it sounds exactly like ‘骑乘’ which means to ride, turning the username into a play on ‘Wife Rides Me’. I tried to keep the original play on sounds rather than going for the literal ‘Wife Oranges Me’. Top.

4 Hui style architecture is one of the major factions of traditional Chinese architecture styles, dating back to around the Ming dynasty. Top.

TN: This and the following three chaps are kinda long so my uploading schedule will probably be a little wonky(er than usual) until chapters return to a reasonable length (i.e. ~3k cn characters instead of ~6k lol). Longer ones are usually not that much of a problem but four in a row is just a bit oof.