I Rely on My Versatility to Reach the Top of the Entertainment Industry [Ancient Times to Modern] - Chapter 8

This was just as mortifying as being caught daydreaming during morning prayers by his fellow disciples.

Jing Yi’s cheeks flushed crimson as he hung his head dejectedly. “Director Guo, I’m sorry… Apologies, Mr. Lu.”

“It’s fine, just adjust yourself. No more NGs, okay?” Guo Lin waved his hand dismissively.

A flicker of amusement shone in Lu Yuzhi’s amber eyes as he comforted softly, “It’s alright, NG isn’t scary. Take a moment to collect yourself – I’ll wait for you.”

He had seen many actors become embarrassed after making mistakes during scenes with him, but never anyone like Jing Yi whose ears turned completely red. The way he hung his head so dejectedly, he looked as if he would immediately burrow into any hole in the ground and never emerge again.

“Mm, thank you.”

Jing Yi took two deep breaths to compose himself.

After about two minutes, he touched his ears and looked up to ask quietly, “Are… are my ears still red?”

— His eyes were anxious, like a startled little rabbit.

Lu Yuzhi suddenly felt the impulse to smooth down Jing Yi’s tousled wig.

But such an action would be too intimate given they had only met twice.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Lu Yuzhi took two steps closer to Jing Yi and looked down to examine his ears.

Jing Yi was naturally fair-skinned – even after daily wood-cutting and water-carrying through all weather conditions, he hadn’t tanned at all. His fellow disciples always said he was naturally delicate, otherwise his earlobes wouldn’t be so exquisitely shaped compared to his peers.

At this moment, some pink still remained on Jing Yi’s earlobes.

The rosy hue against his fair skin was particularly adorable.

“Mr. Lu? Senior?”

Lu Yuzhi had been watching for a while when Jing Yi’s call made him realize he had been staring at a junior’s earlobes for quite some time.

“Mm… still a bit red. Where’s your assistant? Have him get you some water.”

Xue An had actually been waiting nearby. Hearing Lu Yuzhi’s words, he quickly approached Jing Yi and handed him a water bottle while comforting, “Have some water and you’ll feel better, Xiao Yi. Don’t be upset.”

If the film emperor hadn’t been speaking with Jing Yi, he would have come over sooner.

This was his artist’s first NG since his breakthrough – of course he’d find it hard to accept. But there was no shame in NGs when acting opposite Film Emperor Lu!

After drinking water and quickly reciting a calming mantra in his mind, Jing Yi looked up to ask if his ears were still red, but Lu Yuzhi spoke first: “They’re not red anymore. Let’s try again.”

“Okay.”

They returned to their original positions and signaled to Guo Lin.

One second before the clapperboard sounded, Jing Yi took a deep breath and his expression instantly transformed.

While Lu Yuzhi maintained the transcendent demeanor of his character Liao Chen, inwardly he marveled at Jing Yi’s excellent eye acting.

The way this little white rabbit could instantly transform into a big bad wolf was endlessly fascinating to watch.

As a seasoned actor, even while thinking different thoughts, his eyes and facial expressions remained completely in character, unlike Jing Yi who would completely break character.

“Fine! I’ll go back to the temple with you! Let’s see if you, this esteemed monk, can keep your promise!”

Jing Yi slightly lifted his chin, a wicked smile of smug satisfaction playing on his lips.

This was the final line of this scene.

After speaking, Jing Yi and Lu Yuzhi needed to walk away from the camera one after the other.

Lu Yuzhi walked steadily, not even the hem of his robe stirring. In contrast, Jing Yi walked with uneven steps, sometimes fast sometimes slow, even plucking a withered foxtail to tickle Lu Yuzhi’s neck.

The camera froze on this scene as Guo Lin called “Cut!”

“It’s noon. Let’s break for lunch and rest, then resume work this afternoon.”

Jing Yi slowly exhaled and withdrew the foxtail grass in his hand.

Lu Yuzhi turned around and leaned in slightly to praise him: “The last scene was excellent. You have a natural talent.”

From NG to a smooth take, Jing Yi’s face showed unconcealed joy: “Thank you for the compliment, senior. I’ll work even harder.”

After speaking, Jing Yi clasped his hands together and habitually performed a Buddhist salute.

Lu Yuzhi quickly returned the gesture. As he straightened up, he proactively brought up Lu Yi’s matter: “Lu Yi should be about to eat. Hmm, I bet the keeper is going to have a headache again.”

“Why?” Jing Yi’s curiosity was piqued by Lu Yuzhi’s words.

Lu Yuzhi sighed softly and said with distress: “Whenever he’s in a bad mood, he needs someone to coax him into eating. Once when I was filming in a tropical rainforest with poor signal, I missed the keeper’s video call. When I returned, he had lost a significant amount of weight.”

“Will the keeper call on video today too?” Jing Yi asked somewhat shyly, “Could I watch him with you?”

“Of course. Seeing you might make Lu Yi eat more obediently.”

As they spoke, their assistants had already brought over the boxed meals.

“Xiao Yi, I specially got you a full bowl of rice! Look, this box has your dishes.” Xue An presented the boxed meal like a treasure, placing it on the stone table.

Jing Yi had originally intended to fetch it himself but got delayed talking with Lu Yuzhi.

He thanked Xue An, then pushed the box containing the dishes back to him: “I still prefer something light today. Xue An, please help me eat these.”

Xue An was stunned.

Today’s dishes included half a chicken and a chopped pepper fish head. The appearance of the food was clearly much better than yesterday’s.

Yet his artist still wouldn’t eat it?

“Xiao Yi, why have you been avoiding meat lately? Your nutrition will be unbalanced.” Xue An spoke earnestly, “You haven’t eaten any meat dishes during these past two night shoots either. What’s going on?”

“I can’t eat meat dishes.” Jing Yi couldn’t bring himself to lie about this matter, so he simply gazed into Xue An’s eyes and gave a partial explanation.

Xue An looked at the food, then at Jing Yi, and suddenly a thought struck him. He exclaimed in shock, “You’re not really treating yourself as a monk, are you?”

Jing Yi shook his head, then nodded, remaining silent.

It wasn’t that he was treating himself as a monk—he was originally a monk. Though now he was considered a lay disciple, since the abbot had burned his ordination certificate. Once he fulfilled this Jing Yi’s goals, he could find a temple to ordain again.

“Really not eating?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll order you some takeout—two vegetable dishes.” Xue An said, pulling out his phone.

“I’ve already ordered.” Lu Yuzhi naturally joined the conversation from the side, “Perfect timing. We can discuss our roles together.”

Since it was his oversight to begin with, he should naturally be the one to resolve it.

“I can’t let you spend money, Mr. Lu.” Jing Yi felt he was causing trouble for those around him and was quite embarrassed, “I can order for myself.”

Lu Yuzhi smiled: “Have you forgotten I still owe you a favor? Ordering a meal is nothing.”

Just then, a video call came through on his phone.

Lu Yuzhi asked his assistant to help pick up the food and answered the video.

A round, tiger-like eye appeared on the screen. After a moment, the eye grew smaller as Lu Yi’s massive tiger head came into view.

However, he was still very close, and the phone’s small screen couldn’t fully contain his large face.

“Mm-hmm, thank you ‘Tiger-Head-Tiger-Brain’ brother for the rocket. That’s right, Mr. Lu, the adopter of Lu Yi, has answered the video call. What? You want to see the phone screen? Let me ask if Mr. Lu agrees or not.”

In today’s trend of live streaming, the National Forest Zoo has kept up with the times by launching a live streaming platform to provide better lives for the animals.

Besides taking care of the animals, the zookeepers also need to regularly host live streams, allowing netizens to experience the joy of cloud-raising animals.

Aside from the national treasure pandas, Lu Yi, the highly intelligent tiger, is the most popular animal celebrity.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lu. Would you agree to the netizens’ request?” The zookeeper turned to the tablet in front of Lu Yi and politely relayed the netizens’ demand.

Lu Yuzhi didn’t immediately agree but temporarily muted the microphone and asked Jing Yi, “Your face would be shown. Are you willing?”

“…Does this count as self-promotion?” Jing Yi thought of his company’s instructions. “My manager said I’m not allowed to do self-promotion.”

Even though he had learned some knowledge about this world from the original Jing Yi’s memories and was gradually integrating into it, Jing Yi still wasn’t very clear about certain rules.

Xue An chimed in from the side, “Yeah, Lu Shen, the company keeps a tight rein on Xiao Yi. Honestly, seeing all those restrictions makes me uncomfortable.”

A hint of depth flashed in Lu Yuzhi’s eyes.

“Alright, then step back a bit. I’ll explain the situation to the fans.”

The audio was turned back on, and Lu Yuzhi faced the camera calmly.

The relayed footage reached the netizens’ phones, and he gently explained that there was a mutual friend of Lu Yi present who wanted to see the tiger.

Since the friend couldn’t show their face, he asked for the netizens’ understanding and clarified that the video content with Lu Yi couldn’t be redistributed.

The netizens were already ecstatic just to see Lu Yuzhi, and gifts flooded the screen.

The zookeeper smiled and shifted the camera to focus on Lu Yi, who was watching the phone and already swinging his tail impatiently from side to side.

Lu Yuzhi moved the phone aside so Jing Yi and Lu Yi could face each other.

“Lu Yi, good afternoon.” Jing Yi cheerfully greeted the fluffy big cat. “Have you had lunch yet?”

“Roar~” Lu Yi let out a cry, changing from a lying position to sitting up.

The zookeeper quickly adjusted the tablet to a higher angle for Lu Yi.

Once the angle was right, Lu Yi stared at the screen and lifted his injured tiger paw.

Jing Yi immediately comforted him, “It’s okay. Just follow the doctor’s instructions for changing the dressing and applying medicine, and you’ll recover soon.”

Lu Yi drooped his tiger ears and let out a low whimper, pitifully rubbing his big face gently against the tablet.

In the live stream, the netizens went wild.

Comments scrolled rapidly below, with discussions shifting from Lu Yuzhi’s new role and why he was dressed like a monk to questions about who this person chatting with Lu Yi really was.

Lu Yuzhi had personally acknowledged that this person was his friend! And this friend even knew Lu Yi!

Lu Yi’s acting cute—aside from Lu Yuzhi, no other two-legged human had ever been treated to such affection from the big cat before!

Instantly, Lu Yuzhi’s hardcore fans caught wind of the news. Countless people logged into Lu Yi the tiger’s live stream simultaneously, causing the platform to lag and the stream to black out completely.

The zookeeper was stunned.

Lu Yuzhi had appeared in Lu Yi’s live streams before—he was Lu Yi’s adopter, and netizens jokingly called Lu Yi Lu Yuzhi’s son.

Watching the “father and son” interact through video calls had become netizens’ favorite pastime.

But even that shouldn’t have been enough to crash the live streaming platform’s servers.

The keeper immediately received news about activating multiple server clusters for traffic distribution, and soon the live stream resumed.

“Hmm, are you hungry? Should we ask the keeper to give you some food?” Jing Yi was still coaxing Lu Yi to eat.

Lu Yi turned his massive tiger head toward the keeper, baring his teeth and roaring fiercely.

The sound made netizens who had just regained the live stream shudder, almost making them believe the usually gentle Lu Yi had turned ferocious.

“Lu Yi, calm down,” Jing Yi gently scolded. “Even if you’re eager to eat, you can’t behave like this. You need to apologize to the keeper.”

Lu Yi’s ears drooped again, his tiger eyes showing a pitiful expression.

Animals perceive visuals differently from humans, but he could tell from Jing Yi’s tone through the phone that Jing Yi was genuinely angry.

So, he walked over to the keeper and affectionately rubbed his head against the keeper’s.

Netizens were astonished once more.

Even when Lu Yuzhi spoke to Lu Yi like this, the tiger would only comply based on his mood, never immediately obeying. After all, it’s common for sons to be mischievous in front of their fathers in families, but they’d be as obedient as little quails when facing their mothers.

Wait, didn’t that make the speaker Lu Yi’s mom?

The phrase “Lu Yi’s mom” quickly trended on Weibo’s hot search.

The keeper had already received fresh meat delivered by staff. Holding the bucket, he announced to viewers that it was feeding time, then adjusted the camera angle to serve the big cat Lu Yi his meal.

Graphic scenes needed to be avoided to prevent traumatizing children watching with their parents.

As Lu Yi began eating, Jing Yi lowered his head, pressed his palms together, and murmured: “Amitabha.”

He quietly recited sutras for the deceased.

“Holy crap, isn’t that the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva liberation sutra my grandma occasionally listens to?”

“I’m growing more curious about Lu Yi’s mom!! Staying in this live stream – we’ll eventually see Lu Yi’s mom’s face, right?”

The keeper watched the screen filled with astonished comments and gifts, thinking today’s stream was brilliantly timed. His commission was likely to skyrocket again.

Though caring for tigers was dangerous, the additional income from live streaming balanced out the risks.

After Jing Yi finished reciting, Lu Yuzhi beside him opened a lunch box and offered it.

“The food’s here, let’s eat first, hmm?”

Netizens flooded the screen with exclamation marks.

Those who had already imagined the “parental” roles suddenly found Lu Yuzhi’s final “hmm” utterly heart-melting.

The hot search ranking continued climbing as netizens, ever enthusiastic about playing detective,

simultaneously watched the stream while scouring Lu Yuzhi’s Weibo account, his agent’s, and his agency’s accounts for any clues.

But after thorough searching, they only found promotional content for “The Martian.”

Finding no substantial information, netizens could only start from Lu Yuzhi’s monk attire.

After much speculation, they eventually recalled the online drama “Seduce the Monk” starring a certain widely-criticized minor celebrity.

“Impossible, absolutely impossible! You’re overthinking this. Even if this is the only recent production related to monks, there’s no way. Our great Lu would never stoop to acting in an online drama!”

A devoted fan’s comment dispelled everyone’s speculations.