Chapter 4 : Dad’s in love with me once again

Translated by Lian

Edited by Sera

There is one Chinese proverb that said: ‘ Destiny depends on our own will, but we also need to reflect on history.’

But most of the time, history is even more important than our own fight.

The same goes for this drama crew.

Although Yue Guan’s interpretation of the young Emperor was impressive , if the director is not satisfied, all of his effort would be futile.

Besides, he already had some acting experience in his previous life and he also thinks that his acting is not bad, but if someone said that his acting skill is beyond imagination, he will not believe it at all.

Furthermore, Deng Chao’s acting had always been the top among the performers of his age. His acting was always on point and he continuously set new standards in every project he worked on.

Just take “The Dead End” as the sample. Even though all of the actors are A list actors, Deng Chao still didn’t lose at all. He devoted his acting to the textbook level.

However, Deng Chao’s own films were terrible, but his acting skills were great when he shot for other projects. But, if it’s based on Deng Chao’s acting alone, Yue Guan believes this young Emperor will not be that great.

Is Deng Chao’s acting skill not good?

Yue Guan didn’t think his acting would be better than Deng Chao.

So, basically, the character itself set the limitation for the actor to experiment their styles.

There is another factor, the director himself does not want to make this young Emperor too brilliant. He didn’t want this young Emperor to affect the main story and the protagonists.

He read through the entire script once again to have a better understanding of the storyline.

Well, this Wuxia drama storyline is quite simple. It mainly talks about the story of Zhu Wushi, the great Minister of the Ming Dynasty. To protect the monarchy, he established a secret service called “Hulong Manor”. Zhu Wushi had four elite secret agents serving under him. They are known by their code names: “Heaven”, “Earth”, “Mysterious”, and “Yellow”. These four secret agents are the four major roles in this series.

The calm and cool-headed “Heaven number one” original name was Duan Tianya. He was raised by his godfather, Zhu Wushi. In Japan, he learned the sword art of ninjutsu from LGA School.

“Earth Number One” was the cold and aloof Guihai Yidao. He had sworn to avenge his father, Guihai Bailian. This became his motivation to be the best Chinese martial art master in the world.

The third secret agent, “Mysterious Number One” who was the beautiful and witty Shangguan Haitang. She had exceptional skills in various fields, including medicine and astronomy. In daily life, she likes to dress up as a man. She also managed “The Best Village” which was full of great warriors.

And the last one was “Yellow Number One” whose original name is Cheng Shifei.

“Yellow Number One” is the street thug Cheng Shifei. He was never serious in learning and had no skill, but he is smart and witty. By coincidence, he inherits Gu Santong’s spiritual energy and ‘Impenetrable Metal’ skill. The skill that can temporarily make him turn his body into gold metal, with infinite strength, immune to fire and water, invulnerable to knives and guns, and also invulnerable to all kinds of poisons.

At that time, the imperial court was controlled by the Eastern Bureau led by Eunuch Cao Zhengchun. He is very ambitious and has great power. He achieved outstanding achievements in cultivation since young, succeeded in the martial arts world, and took control of the Eastern Bureau by himself. With the power in his hand, he formed parties for personal gains, framed the Emperor’s loyalists, and committed to doing all evil things.

(Translator Note: Eastern Bureau was a Ming dynasty spy and secret police agency run by eunuchs. It was created by the Yongle Emperor. )

Cao Zhengchun betrayed his vow to Zhu Wushi and even found an opportunity to eradicate Hulong Villa. But no matter how hard he tried, he was not as strong as Zhu Wushi.

Zhu Wushi used 30 episodes of the drama to defeat Cao Zhengchun. After Cao Zhengchun’s death, Hulong Villa was no longer constrained, and its strength expanded rapidly, and Zhu Wushi also began to show his ambitions.

In the end, Zhu Wushi revealed his true nature. All these years he had been wanting to usurp the throne from the Emperor. The four agents had to combine forces to defeat their master and save the Emperor. If it only stops there, Zhu Wushi can still win. He was the best in the martial arts world. His troops were powerful. Even if the four agents combined their strength, they were still not Zhu Wushi’s opponent.

But at the final moment, his only true love, Suxin, sent him a great shock. She committed suicide. She even cut her head off and sent it to Zhu Wushi.

Seeing the detached head of his once true love, Zhu Wushi collapsed. He was sad to death. In the end, the villain was not defeated by the protagonists, but by his own lover.

To be honest, this was really anti-mainstream. In TV series, the protagonist normally defeats the villain.

But Wang Jing was very clever. Compared to other directors, he could grasp the audience’s preferences more accurately than anyone else.

That was why in this TV series, he let Zhu Wushi become the best in the world, undefeatable, and was even stronger than the protagonists. But in the end, he was trapped by love. This villain boss that has done so many bad things, his character was extremely arrogant. The audience will like it more.

The other Wuxia TV series that he directed “The Proud Twins” also received a lot of support. He successfully made Jiang Yuyan, a female character who didn’t even know any martial arts to counterattack and became the ultimate Boss in the end. This female boss killed the entire people and only left the title.

(Translator Note: The Proud Twins name based on the real tv series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Proud_Twins_(TV_series) )

Even the two female leads were murdered by Jiang Yuyan’s knife. This type of plot usually only appeared in Japanese drama, but Wang Jing dared to do this in the Chinese drama industry. It was a risky business.

Besides, Jiang Yuyan is more ruthless than Zhu Wushi. Although she is deeply in love with Hua Wuque, she knew it was impossible for them to be together, and the only thing she could do was to kill him.

It can be said that no other female villain was more successful than Jiang Yanyuan in the Chinese drama industry. The success here referred to the ruthless determination. She wasn’t blinded by love and wouldn’t even hesitate to kill them if she had to.

Jiang Yanyuan and Zhu Wushi, these two classic great villains were born from Wang Jing’s hand.

It wasn’t that he favored the villain role, but he believed that as long as you act well, you can shine even when playing a bad guy.

The only problem was…. This young Emperor was not a villain.

In Wang Jing works, the villain and the protagonist usually have a lot of support from fans. But the supporting role had many limitations.

Just use this series “The Royal Swordsman” for example, after many years later, everybody would remember how outstanding Zhu Wushi was. They would remember the beauty and bright Shangguan Haidang, and the skillful Guihai Yidao. And even Cao Zhengchun’s famous line, “Eastern Bureau needs talent like you.”

Other than that?

Not many would remember after a few months.

Even in the other world, this young Emperor probably has long been forgotten by Deng Chao himself.

This was not the actor’s fault, there was just a lot of limitation for a supporting character. The young Emperor in this drama was only an excuse for Zhu Wushi and Cao Zhengchun’s muddy relationship.

‘ So, no matter how good the acting is, it also can not make this role shine to the full ’ Yue Guan thought. And after contemplating for a long time, the best way he found was to revise the script and give this young Emperor more scenes.

‘ Do you have no shame? ’

Yue Guan looks at himself in the mirror, baffled by his own actions.

Just right at this moment, lines of words appear before his eyes:

[You’ve got the role of young Emperor in “The Royal Swordsman”.]

[You’ve got the chance to experience becoming the young Emperor yourself.]

[Do you want to start it now?]

Yue Guan blinked his eyes and chose “Yes”.

A shiny door appeared right in front of him.

Yue Guan pushed the door. He felt his heartbeat racing fast.

Right behind the door, it was…..

Read only at Travis Translations

Read only at Travis Translations