CH 33.4

Do You Still Hate Her? 23 – Cross-dressing as a male and playing the female lead’s white moonlight

Yue Qi and the screenwriter was leaving, so Cheng Zhe watched the recording by himself, starting from Shang Lu and Duan Anguo’s performance.

He originally intended to skip it, but somehow he stopped and watched.

This was the first time Cheng Zhe seriously watched Shang Lu’s performance, and also the first time he realized that her acting skills were not at the level he had imagined.

When he saw Shang Lu’s smile and felt goosebumps all over himself, Cheng Zhe was completely stunned.

He originally didn’t believe it, but now he had to admit it. Although he was the senior, Shang Lu’s acting skills were indeed better than his. He couldn’t immerse himself in the role in such a short time as she did.

Next, Shang Lu and Shen Xian’s scenes together were also good. Although Shen Xian was not particularly well-known as an actress, she excelled in youthful charm and matched the role well. Their comedic chemistry on stage was just right.

But what scared Cheng Zhe the most was when he saw his scenes with Shang Lu. It was evident that there was a gap between their performances, both for him and for Shang Lu. They say that actors with spirit become stronger when facing strong opponents but weaker when facing weaker opponents. Could it be… that he was the weak one? So not only did he not perform well, but he also made Shang Lu weaker by being her scene partner?

Realizing this, Cheng Zhe fell into extreme self-doubt, then he started making a call, “Get the previous acting coach here quickly, I need urgent training!”

He had to nail this role! He had to perform it well to prove himself and show Shang Lu that he would absolutely not drag her down!

In fact, Cheng Zhe was overthinking; Shang Lu’s final scene wasn’t that great either, and it wasn’t his fault.

Because Shang Lu’s campus life was not colorful, and she didn’t have the experience of joking and playing around with friends, her performance with Cheng Zhe wasn’t up to the best standard either.

After thinking it over, Shang Lu called Lin Yanyan, who had just joined the set to shoot a youth campus idol drama yesterday, and asked, “Can I visit your set? I want to see the atmosphere there.”

Lin Yanyan didn’t quite catch the latter part of the sentence; she only focused on the fact that Shang Lu wanted to visit her. She replied eagerly, “Sure, sure! When will you come? Is now okay?”

“Okay, right now,” Shang Lu agreed immediately. She then had Meng Zhichuan drive her to the address Lin Yanyan had sent, which was a well-known university in the capital city, where they were filming the drama.

Lin Yanyan sent her own manager to pick up Shang Lu. When the manager saw Shang Lu, the manager was touched and said, “Teacher Shang, you’re here. Please come in, come in quickly.”

Seeing the eager look of Lin Yanyan’s manager, Shang Lu couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

The manager covered her ears in anguish and said, “Since you called to say you were coming, she kept asking every three minutes whether you had arrived or not. My ears are going to develop calluses if you don’t come soon.”

Shang Lu found Lin Yanyan’s manager quite amusing and asked with a smile, “Isn’t she filming? Why is she so free?”

The manager replied, “Originally, her schedule was full in the morning, but one of the male actors she was supposed to act with suddenly stood us up and said he wouldn’t come today. So, now she only has this one scene left to film. It just happened that you arrived, and she started shooting.”

Shang Lu was curious and asked, “The male lead?”

“Not really, it’s a supporting role. They hired Ou Yi, the one who recently made his debut through a talent show, to play that role. But he suddenly acted like a big shot and canceled at the last minute.”

Ou Yi had been quite popular recently due to a scandal involving Xia Yuan, which left countless fans ‘homeless.’ Ou Yi’s type was similar to Xia Yuan’s, and he happened to fill the void left by Xia Yuan, making him extremely popular lately.

Lin Yanyan’s manager continued, “By the way, Teacher Shang, this drama has two female leads. Lin Yanyan and the other Teacher don’t get along well. When they met for the first time today, they almost got into a fight. Please don’t mention the other Teacher’s name in front of her.”

Shang Lu asked curiously, “Who is the other Teacher?”

The manager replied, “Tang Qingqing.”

Shang Lu : “???”

Oh boy.

Over there, she was acting alongside Tang Qingqing’s cousin, Shen Xian, while Lin Yanyan was acting with Tang Qingqing here. Fate truly works in mysterious ways.

So, Shang Lu nodded to show that she understood.

When Lin Yanyan saw Shang Lu, she had just finished shooting her scene and looked quite aggrieved. She said, “Today, I wore heavy hairpieces and spent a long time doing my makeup. But that actor didn’t show up, and we had to finish the scene without him. Now, we’ll have to redo it again later.”

Shang Lu could only comfort her.

Suddenly, Lin Yanyan’s eyes lit up, and she looked at Shang Lu’s face, asking, “Lulu, are you willing?”

Shang Lu was puzzled, “Willing for what?”

Lin Yanyan held Shang Lu’s hand and said seriously, “I think you looked particularly handsome when you dressed as a man last time, much better than that guy Ou Yi. How about you play this role? You’ll be the white moonlight in the female lead’s memories, and actually, you don’t need to do much acting. Just stand there and smile.”

It sounded very simple.

Cross-dressing as a male and playing the female lead’s white moonlight? That sounded interesting.

So Shang Lu replied, “I can do it if you ask the director.”

After Lin Yanyan asked the director, the director said, “What a great idea!”

Setting aside the fact that Shang Lu’s current popularity was higher than Ou Yi’s, who knew how long these talent show idols could stay popular. Shang Lu dressing as a man would surely create a lot of buzz. When the drama aired, the audience would be astonished, and it would pique their curiosity to watch the show.

Since both sides had no objections, the role was given to Shang Lu.

The makeup artists were also excited and used all their skills to transform Shang Lu.

This was a formal TV drama shoot, much more serious than the styling they did on the variety show before. Shang Lu also changed into the school uniform provided by the crew and put on the black wig. Under the skilled hands of the makeup artists, she quickly transformed into a beautiful young man.

Shang Lu could feel that every time she dressed as a man, the makeup artists would focus on her eye makeup, making her aura appear very melancholic. She cooperated well, slightly furrowing her brows and showing a sad expression.

Lin Yanyan was on the side, enthusiastically capturing the moment with her phone, and her smile reached the heavens.

The actual shooting, as Lin Yanyan had said, was very simple. As the white moonlight in the memories, Shang Lu really only needed to smile or wear a cold expression while handing Lin Yanyan a band-aid. These were simple actions, and she didn’t even have to remember any lines!

Lin Yanyan, however, gave the best performance of her acting career because her gaze towards Shang Lu was genuinely happy and joyful. Even the director couldn’t help but exclaim, “She indeed seems to love this white moonlight more than the male lead. Truly, the white moonlight is irreplaceable.”

However, at the moment the shooting on their side ended, Tang Qingqing’s side also finished filming. She walked over holding a cup of milk tea but froze when she saw Shang Lu.

Tang Qingqing’s assistant noticed her pause and asked curiously, “Sister Qingqing, what are you looking at?”

Tang Qingqing didn’t speak but held her chest with one hand while holding the milk tea with the other.

*Thump thump*, her heart was beating so fast.

Tang Qingqing stared ahead and asked, “Who is the male actor acting alongside Lin Yanyan?”

The assistant couldn’t see Shang Lu’s full face, so she replied based on her memory, “The actor for today’s scene… should be that newcomer Ou Yi. What’s wrong?”

But the next second, when she saw Shang Lu’s profile, the assistant felt something was strange, “Wait, this doesn’t look like Ou Yi. I haven’t seen this person before.”

According to common sense, someone with this level of attractiveness should already be a popular celebrity, and she shouldn’t have forgotten seeing them.

Tang Qingqing pursed her lips and said earnestly, “Regardless of who he is, my first love is about to begin.”

Tang Qingqing felt like she was falling in love at first sight with this face. She had never seen such a gentle and handsome young man in the entertainment industry. He looked exactly like the male leads she used to read about in girls’ comics when she was a child! It was as if her aesthetics were going crazy with excitement!

Assistant : “???”