Huayu 2021: Isn’t he in the technology field?

Chapter 108 A Subtle Change, The Promise with Dudu

June 14th has arrived, and two days have passed since the casting controversy surrounding "The Beginning".

Although the trending topic of the initial casting controversy has quietly slipped out of the top 20 on Weibo's entertainment list, the aftershocks of this crossover controversy are still surging in the capillaries of the internet.

According to Weibo public opinion monitoring, 72 hours after the incident broke out, the daily average number of discussions on related topics remained above 120 million, presenting a peculiar phenomenon of "the hot search cooling down and deep fermentation".

Although the chaotic battle on Weibo's supertopic has temporarily subsided, the question on Zhihu, "How do you view tech geniuses crossing over into acting," has received 287 new professional answers.

Among them, film and television professional @DirectorXiaoLin used the casting history of "Farewell My Concubine" as an analogy, pointing out: "What Cheng Dieyi needs is Leslie Cheung with his captivating eyes, not a top student from a traditional opera school."

This analogy was shared by a professor from the Central Academy of Drama, who added that "art requires talent, not academic certificates."

Bilibili saw the emergence of 21 fan-made videos with over a million views. The most popular video was a cross-editing of Jiang Qing's work in the laboratory during her university years with Bai Jingting's variety show clips, set to the background music "Where Has the Time Gone," creating a "dialogue between academia and entertainment." The bullet comment section became a debate arena for "intellectual aesthetics" and "actor professionalism."

In the Douban group "Acting Research Institute", some netizens launched a "Character Adaptability Measurement Experiment", which decomposed 67 physical descriptions and 41 personality portrayals of Xiao Heyun in the original work into data models and calculated the matching degree with the public images of Jiang Qing and Bai Jingting respectively.

The results showed that Jiang Qing scored 38% higher in the dimensions of "intellectual sense" and "aloof temperament", while Bai Jingting led by 27% in the categories of "youthful sense" and "empathy". The post sparked a thousand-page discussion on "whether the adaptation of fictional characters into film and television should be based on the text or reshape the image".

Jiang Qing's super topic has started a new mode of "academic idol worship".

The nine-grid photos posted by the top fan on the super topic are no longer professionally edited portraits, but a mix of SCI paper catalogs and lab work photos, with the caption "Following tech geniuses should have the ritual of literature review".

The fan club produced an "Academic Guide to Idol Chasing," detailing "how to track idols' scientific research achievements through CNKI."

What surprised many netizens was that over 30% of the fans posting in Jiang Qing's super topic were students from top universities such as 985 and 211.

Jiang Qing's fan club has thus been jokingly referred to by netizens as the "high-IQ star-chasing group".

In a mirror image, Bai Jingting's fans launched the "Entertainment Acting 101" topic, compiling his past roles into a "History of Acting Evolution" video. The pinned guide in the comments section reads, "Click to see the growth trajectory of a future TV King."

But the changes don't stop there. According to WeChat Reading data, among the new annotations in the original text of "The Beginning", the number of annotations related to "Xiao Heyun" has surged by 53%, and the chapter on "Circulation Mechanism" has gathered a large number of bookmarks for "Jiang Qing's compatibility test".

This phenomenon of "decoupling from actor controversies and returning to the essence of the story" is interpreted by the industry as the audience's implicit expectation for the quality of the series.

Even more insidious public opinion exists in 28 original novel groups with thousands of members each. After the administrators specifically added a "ban on mentioning actors" announcement, new documents such as "Analysis of Jiang Qing's Public Speech Lines" and "Analysis of the Game Architect Profession" were added to the group files.

This shows that the silent majority is quietly adjusting their expectations through technological means.

The Beijing News published a commentary in its culture section titled "Identity Anxiety Behind Casting Controversy," pointing out that "when tech geniuses become the control group for actors, it is essentially a projection of public dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of 'pseudo-professionalism' in the entertainment industry."

At a closed-door seminar organized by the China Television Drama Production Industry Association, a producer revealed that they are developing "Risk Assessment Rules for Crossover Actors," which will take factors such as educational background and public image into consideration when casting.

This storm, which began with gossip, is quietly spurring profound changes in the rules of the film and television industry.

At 10:32 a.m., Jiang Qing landed at Xiamen Gaoqi Airport.

Xiamen Island was the filming location for "The Beginning".

Tomorrow is the official start of filming, and everyone needs to arrive at the film crew's hotel a day in advance to meet and have a script reading in the afternoon.

After leaving Hengdian, Jiang Qing stayed in Luyang for two days. He went to the company to hold a meeting to arrange the project cooperation with Tencent on brain-computer interface, and then rushed to Xiamen Island without stopping.

Now that he's confirmed to be in the role, he'll naturally take it seriously.

He didn't come alone this time, but with his assistant Chen Duo. After all, there are many things to do on set, and he can't do everything himself.

Chen Duo was also planning to build him a complete artist team, which he was very enthusiastic about, but Chen Duo decisively rejected it.

He could tell that this guy was bored out of his mind at the company, and now that he finally had a chance to be of use, he was eager to turn himself into a professional agent.

On the plane, he saw Chen Duo engrossed in reading a "Guide to Entertainment Agents" the entire time.

After meeting up with the crew members who were there to pick them up, the three of them traveled together to the film crew's hotel.

During the journey, Jiang Qing suddenly remembered that Chen Duling was from Xiamen, so he raised his phone and took a picture out the car window and sent it to her.

Chen Duo, standing to the side, looked surprised and curiously moved closer to him.

"Mr. Jiang, you don't seem to have the habit of taking photos and checking in at every new place you visit, do you?"

Jiang Qing glanced at him and spoke leisurely.

How many times have you gone out with me?

"I... well, that's true too!"

Chen Duo thought about it and realized it was true. He moved to the side with a resentful look on his face.

After thinking about it carefully, he realized that he was probably the most relaxed, but also the least accomplished, assistant.

If Jiang Qing hadn't needed someone to do odd jobs while filming, he probably wouldn't have had the chance to come along.

So, although he didn't quite understand Jiang Qing's acting career and thought he was neglecting his duties, he was still very happy to finally be able to put his skills to use.

Moreover, he was entrusted with an important task by the company: to share Jiang Qing's daily filming activities in the company's group chat from time to time for everyone to judge. He had never been so important before, so he had to do his best!

Chen Duo secretly encouraged himself!

When Jiang Qing's phone screen lit up, the vehicle was crossing the Yanwu Bridge.

The sea breeze, carrying a salty scent, wafted in through the car window. He stared at the aerial photos of Gulangyu Island that Chen Duling had sent in the chat box, his fingertips hovering over the virtual keyboard for a moment before switching to the voice call interface.

"You certainly know how to steal things."

Chen Duling's clear voice came through, mixed with the static of electricity.

"I was just looking through the archived photos of [Beautiful China]".

Jiang Qing moved her phone to the side facing the sea, so that the sound of the waves could reach the receiver.

"Did you hear that, beep beep? The sea in your hometown is saying welcome home."

He heard the soft rustling of papers on the other end of the phone, guessing that Dudu was probably looking through documents in the film crew's trailer.

"Three hundred meters ahead of the sunset viewing platform of Yanwu Bridge, there is the most authentic satay noodles in all of Xiamen. The owner is called Abing. When you see him, just say that I introduced you, and he should give you two extra slices of pig liver."

She spoke with the rhythmic quality typical of a news anchor, yet Jiang Qing could imagine her expression at that moment.

Her left hand unconsciously twirled the ends of her hair, while her right knuckles lightly tapped the table—a habitual gesture she made when sorting through information.

He discovered this through three meetings.

"So willing to hand over your secret hideout?"

Jiang Qing signaled the driver to slow down. The orange sunset was piercing through the clouds, spreading shimmering gold across the sea.

Chen Duling's soft laughter rang out.

"We're worried that Dr. Jiang might not be used to the local environment, which could affect the filming schedule, after all..."

She paused for a moment, and Jiang heard the faint sound of the thermos lid being unscrewed.

"You're practically a son-in-law of Xiamen now." This teasing remark came out of nowhere, and Jiang Qing's lips twitched as she caught a glimpse of Chen Duo's suppressed laughter in the rearview mirror.

Just as he was about to retaliate, Chen Duling switched to tour guide mode.

"Remember to make a reservation in advance for Luda Little Squid on Dongdu Road, they..."

"Speak slowly, I'm taking notes."

Jiang Qing actually took out a notepad and scribbled his pen across the paper.

Chen Duo stared wide-eyed; he had never seen his boss so serious.

Chen Duling slowed down her pace as she recited the menu. Jiang Qing, gazing at the palm tree shadows passing by outside the window, suddenly noticed a slight tremor in the end of her voice.

This discovery made him pause at the tip of his pen.

It turns out that even someone as calm and composed as her can reveal a hint of tenderness when talking about her hometown.

"Sister Yubao in Shapowei only accepts cash, so remember to bring change."

As she said this, Jiang Qing happened to see an old man pushing a cart by the roadside lift the lid of a steamer, and white steam rose up like a curtain of bygone days.

“When I was little, if I got a perfect score on a test, my dad would buy me three taro buns as a reward. I always saved the red bean paste ones for last.”

Jiang Qing drew a star next to "Taro Dumpling Sister".

"Can you still taste the flavors of your childhood?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone before Chen Duling spoke again, her voice carrying the warmth of the sea breeze.

"Last week, I was filming a city promotional video for the station, and I made a special detour to buy it. The red bean paste was still too sweet, but after the third bite, I suddenly remembered that when I was a child, I thought it was sweet because..."

She suddenly chuckled softly.

"Back then, the threshold for happiness was low."

Jiang Qing looked at her own upturned lips in the rearview mirror and suddenly realized that this was the first time they had talked about life calmly since their last unpleasant conversation.

Chen Duling is using her best skill, deconstruction, to knead her hometown into shareable memory slices.

They were neither overly intimate nor did they deliberately avoid the minefield that they both deliberately ignored.

"By the way, the night fishing pier at Bailuzhou..."

She suddenly lowered her voice, and Jiang Qing subconsciously moved closer to the receiver.

"Go with a flashlight at 2 a.m. and you can find glowing snails in the crevices of the rocks. Of course, if you get caught by the zookeeper, don't say that I taught you how to do it."

"After all, I have a certain reputation in Xiamen."

Jiang Qing smiled and let out a laugh.

"Is Host Chen inciting people to make mistakes?"

"It's about sharing hidden gems in the city."

Chen Duling responded in a very serious manner.

"We featured this in issue 37 of our 'Top Ten Hidden Gems of Xiamen,' and exploring it with a permit is not considered a violation of regulations."

Suddenly, a stagehand's voice came from the background, urging her on; she spoke a little faster.

"There's a viewing pavilion on the back mountain of Nanputuo Temple; you can go there if you're feeling stressed during a script reading..."

"Host Chen."

Jiang Qing suddenly interrupted her.

"Will you take me to these places?"

The sea breeze suddenly became noisy, and all that could be heard on the phone was the sound of their breathing.

Jiang Qing watched the ink smeared on the notepad by the fountain pen and heard Chen Duling sigh softly.

"Dr. Jiang, I will be in Hengdian for the next three months."

"I can wait."

The moment the words left her mouth, Jiang Qing was startled by her own eagerness.

He hastily made amends.

"When Host Chen returns to Xiamen for research or goes home to visit his family, he can..."

"Didn't you want to eat Ah Bing's satay noodles?"

Chen Duling suddenly spoke, her familiar, slightly husky, mature voice carrying a hint of lightness.

"If you turn around and head to Xiamen University now, you can still catch the last serving of pig liver."

Jiang Qing was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Chen Duling, you did this on purpose."

"Ok?"

Her feigned ignorance was accentuated by a slight rise in her voice at the end.

“I just suddenly remembered that Ah Bing is closed on Sundays, and I was afraid you would come all this way for nothing.”

"Thanks for reminding me, but I still want to wait for you."

"it is good."

"So...it's settled?"

"Yes, it's settled."

……

As the black sedan disappeared at the end of the ring road, Chen Duling, inside her Shanghai RV, put down her overheated phone.

The makeup mirror reflected her flushed ear tips, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the edge of the notepad.

Tucked inside was a faded photograph of her at fifteen, standing on the viewing platform of Yanwu Bridge, holding three taro dumplings in her arms.

Next time, she wants to take Jiang Qing to try it.

(End of this chapter)