Translator: Ink Hub

Editor: Yoog

Future Entertainment finally realized that Lin Ji’s “total ban” was not just empty talk. At the very least, the actors under Future Entertainment’s banner were already running into walls during auditions.

Future Entertainment specifically asked someone to pass a message to Lin Ji, saying that Qi Sui was willing to take on the role of Bai Mei and was also willing to follow every arrangement made by the production crew.

Before Lin Ji could say anything, Hu Weiyi shook his head repeatedly. “Xia Yan and Chen Cheng are both quite good. I’ll pick a few more candidates to try out.”

When it came to casting, Hu Weiyi wasn’t afraid of trouble. What he feared was actors causing unnecessary nonsense. Every director dreaded that. If too much energy was consumed by outside drama, it became difficult to concentrate on filming.

Even if Qi Sui herself was decent, the fact that she had a troublesome company behind her was enough for Hu Weiyi to kick her off the candidate list.

As for the other two actors, Xia Yan was signed to a small company and had some personal fame. Chen Cheng was a traffic star in the middle of a transition. In terms of image, neither was as close to the character of Bai Mei as Qi Sui, but as long as they were polished well, it wasn’t impossible to bring the character to life.

The relationship between the Records of the Bai’s Return crew and Future Entertainment seemed to have flipped. Now, it was Future Entertainment begging the crew to give Qi Sui another chance, or rather, Future Entertainment hoped Lin Ji would retract what he had said.

Although Future Entertainment still didn’t believe Lin Ji’s version of Records of the Bai’s Return could be a hit, whether Qi Sui could play Bai Mei didn’t matter. What mattered was that Lin Ji should not exclude Future Entertainment’s actors.

Lin Ji only had one thing to say regarding this: he wasn’t responsible for casting; for casting, please find Hu Weiyi.

* * *

Hu Weiyi was torn between Xia Yan and Chen Cheng.

In terms of image, Xia Yan was closer to the Bai Mei described in the original novel. However, in terms of displaying the character’s spirit and essence, the “awakened” Chen Cheng was superior.

If there had been an actor who could support both Bai Mei’s image and temperament, Hu Weiyi would have chosen them without hesitation. Now that Qi Sui was no longer under consideration, he personally leaned toward Chen Cheng between the remaining two.

It was just that if he chose Chen Cheng, Hu Weiyi estimated it would likely stir up a bloodbath within the industry.

The hype for the Records of the Bai’s Return adaptation was already high. Even if they found a non-traffic actor, the doubts from book fans wouldn’t be few. Aside from her impressive performance as Shen Yin in Code 11, Chen Cheng only had two roles from her debut that were worth mentioning. Combined with her traffic-prone constitution, any casual word she spoke could easily trend on the hot search.

Chen Cheng was different from traffic stars like Yu Muzi.

Chen Cheng herself didn’t actually like to compete. She became famous because of her roles, not by shipping CPs or leeching off heat. However, no matter what she said or did, if she wasn’t careful, her fans would end up fighting eight hundred rounds with her rivals.

As for Yu Muzi, she was the type her fans called “my sister has a very Buddha-like personality”—but only after she became famous.

Before becoming famous, Yu Muzi had stepped on Chen Cheng to climb up, manufactured CPs, and frequently had “accidental likes” or “account hacks.” After several years of acting out dramas to torment her fans, her status stabilized, and only then did she begin to show the demeanor of an A-list star.

Hu Weiyi could already imagine the headache he would have after Chen Cheng played Bai Mei.

“What do you think?” Hu Weiyi asked Lin Ji.

Lin Ji was putting the final touches on the plot he had recently written. He had finished more than half of these few episodes when he suddenly felt something wasn’t right and pulled them out to rewrite them. He belonged to the category of screenwriters who wrote very quickly, yet this Records of the Bai’s Return forced him to revise again and again.

Adapting an original work was much more exhausting than letting his imagination run free.

He hadn’t paid any attention to what Hu Weiyi said. By the time Lin Ji snapped out of it, he realized the role of Bai Mei had already been decided. Chen Cheng was the one.

“When the time comes, you might… have a bit of trouble.” When Hu Weiyi said this, his tone was quite meaningful.

* * *

Fortunately, aside from hitting a snag with Future Entertainment, the casting for the other actors in the Records of the Bai’s Return crew went very smoothly. With three generations of characters spanning a full seventy years, Hu Weiyi and the casting team worked busily for a long time before finally selecting the most suitable actors.

The scale of Records of the Bai’s Return seemed large, but a drama with such a wide span also had an advantage. Stories from different eras could be filmed at different locations, which could greatly speed up the progress.

Once the actors were all gathered, Lin Ji’s script was also completely finished. Three thick volumes, which had almost burned through all of Lin Ji’s brain cells.

When he looked back at the script, he could hardly believe he had written it.

While writing Code 11, Lin Ji had already experienced a strong sense of fulfillment, but Records of the Bai’s Return was even more intense. Although there were very few parts in the script where Lin Ji could play freely, he always felt that the most important principle for this kind of adaptation was to respect the original work.

Whether it was fabricating romantic subplots or the screenwriter using their own ideas to speculate on the original author’s thoughts—believing themselves to be superior and the original author’s ideas to be outdated—no matter how high the screenwriter’s own creative level was, it was all redundant.

“Finally finished.” Lin Ji took a deep breath, wanting to arrange a long vacation for himself. Unfortunately, the completion of the script meant the series was officially entering production. As the screenwriter, it was impossible for Lin Ji to idle around.

Records of the Bai’s Return trended on the hot search on the day of its crank-up.

When this drama announced its adaptation, it had already sparked a round of heated discussion online. Afterward, Lin Ji had represented himself in blacklisting the entirety of Future Entertainment, so there had been constant turmoil before the filming even began.

Once the cast list was released, the discussion became even more intense.

“Chen Cheng is Bai Mei again? Just how much does Lin Ji favor Chen Cheng?”

“Chen Cheng’s Shen Yin was indeed played well, but she doesn’t really fit Bai Mei, does she? I heard the Records of the Bai’s Return crew was looking for Qi Sui at first? Actually, Qi Sui is quite close to Bai Mei’s image.”

“Everything went dark before my eyes the moment I saw the casting. I have a premonition that this version might be even worse than the ’93 version. Anyone who feels the same, please raise your hand.”

“+1, +1. Unless the script is really, really, really good, it’ll be hard for Records of the Bai’s Return to change its fate against the odds.”

“As a fan of the book, I feel Records of the Bai’s Return shouldn’t be made into a drama at all. Reading the original is enough. Making a drama is just ruining it over and over again.”

“Heavens, how can Bai Mei be Chen Cheng! Aaaaah! I feel like she’s going to poison my brain with her wide-eyed acting again!!!”

The crew’s official Weibo was filled with protests from book fans, while the netizens who loved eating melon compared the faces at the crank-up ceremony while searching the encyclopedia.

“Reporting! Not a single actor from Future Entertainment!”

“LOL, the grudge between Lin Ji and Future Entertainment is truly set in stone. I’m really shocked because Records of the Bai’s Return has at least a hundred actors, right? There isn’t even a 1% probability. LOL.”

“The viewership rating reached 4.8%, but there really isn’t even 1% of Future Entertainment actors.”

“Isn’t Little Lin’s grudge too blatant? Isn’t anyone going to do something?”

“This is where we should @Gu Lenian @Qike Video @Maple Leaf TV.”

“…Isn’t the netizen who listed the management companies of all one hundred actors even more bored?”

“The most ridiculous thing is that at the beginning, Records of the Bai’s Return sought out Wang Heng from Future Entertainment to play Qiu Wenfeng. Later, after Wang Heng was kicked out, they found Wang Heng’s twin brother.”

“This one really makes me die of laughter.”

“Little Lin: Ostracizing an entire company with his own strength.”

However, although Records of the Bai’s Return didn’t use any actors from Future Entertainment, on the day the crew started filming, Future Entertainment was actually quite generous and gave its blessings.

Future Entertainment: [Hope there will be an opportunity to collaborate with Screenwriter Lin in the future.]

Lin Ji himself did not respond, but netizens had already thoughtfully started playing with memes for him.

“Little Lin: No more.”

“Little Lin: No collaboration, no thanks, because I have a 4.8% rating, and you don’t.”

“Back then you ignored me, now I’m someone you can’t reach.”

“As someone half-in the industry, I personally say that no one actually likes Future Entertainment’s behavior of forcing people in. This time, they’ve finally hit a steel plate like Lin Ji.”

“Don’t worry, Lin Ji holds such a grudge, he definitely won’t collaborate in the future.”

Perhaps dissatisfied with Lin Ji’s lack of response, combined with the fact that the failure rate for their actors’ auditions had been getting higher recently, at 12:00 AM, Future Entertainment’s official Weibo posted another new message: [Wishing Screenwriter Lin’s new drama Records of the Bai’s Return a viewership rating that breaks 4.8%.]

“LOL, the battle is about to begin, right?”

It was too late, and there was still no response from Lin Ji’s side. Instead, Qike Video boldly forwarded it: [Brother, as someone who’s been through it, let me remind you: don’t raise a flag.]

“When it comes to being beaten up by Little Lin, Qike Video has the most extensive experience.”

“Staying up late waiting for Little Lin’s reply. If Little Lin doesn’t curse someone out, I really won’t be able to sleep!!”

* * *

When Lin Ji woke up, his Weibo comments and private messages were almost exploding. With a slight scroll, he saw that post from Future Entertainment.

Lin Ji: [If you’re going to @ me, your heart isn’t sincere.]

Lin Ji: [How do you know I have a 4.8% rating?]

Future Entertainment: “…”

How thick-skinned.

“Hahaha, that unforgettable 4.8% rating. Is this 4.8% going to be carved into an epitaph?”

“Future Entertainment is going to get 4.8% PTSD.”

“I have a premonition that this show will probably go on until the finale of Records of the Bai’s Return. It’s a pity Little Lin will post less on Weibo after joining the crew. I really love watching his antics.”

“@FutureEntertainment, why don’t you go consult @MapleLeafTV first? May I ask, from the time you started battling Lin Ji until now, have you gained even a single advantage?”

Future Entertainment remained silent.

In the past, what it could do was pressure the satellite stations. For example, when Future Entertainment’s actors could drive viewership, it would demand that the stations not collaborate with actors from rival companies.

But Lin Ji was not an actor; he was a screenwriter.

He was also the type of screenwriter satellite stations loved most—he had ratings and he had buzz. Right now, Records of the Bai’s Return had only just started filming, yet its popularity online was already no less than several hit dramas currently airing.

By hiring Lin Ji as the screenwriter, if nothing else, a lot of marketing costs could be saved.

Future Entertainment could only silently pray, hoping that Records of the Bai’s Return would be as bad as the outside world predicted.

Little did they know, the Records of the Bai’s Return crew had already started a plot training class.

In addition to memorizing their lines until they were perfectly fluent, the actors had to read the original work. Especially for the parts involving their respective roles, they had to understand them thoroughly.

The two consultants the crew had previously invited also played a role. During the actors’ breaks, the consultants analyzed the characters one by one using PPTs and video materials.

This was much faster than Lin Ji and Hu Weiyi explaining the scenes.

While the consultants were giving lectures, Lin Ji also went to sit in and listen. The more the two consultants spoke, the more Lin Ji murmured in his heart that his graduate degree in classical literature… might actually be worth a try.

NOTES
Raise a flag (立flag): Making a boastful or definitive statement that inevitably leads to a contrary or disastrous outcome. In other words, jinxing oneself.

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