PLT | Chapter 2

Husband and Wife Routine

In Huanyu TV’s conference room, the entire core director team, together with the two guests and their respective managers, sat around the long conference table until it was packed full.

Wei Lan was the first to speak, showing no courtesy at all. “Director Liu, we don’t have any objection to changing the guest at the last minute, but you should at least have informed us in advance, right? Having us get notified through Weibo instead, what kind of way is that to do things?”

The chief director of The Second Role, Liu Wei, was a middle-aged man. Yet at this moment, he cautiously glanced at the younger Yan Chao first, then, with a smile all over his face, explained to Wei Lan, “Xiao Yan-laoshi, President Wei, this happened very suddenly. The original plan was to make the official announcement today anyway, and we just happened to get in touch with Xiao Zhou-laoshi in time, so naturally we hurried to proceed according to the original plan…”

Wei Lan immediately frowned in dissatisfaction. “The original plan? The original plan never once said our Xiao Yan was going to perform xiangsheng…”

Before she could finish, Yan Chao opened his mouth and cut her off. “Wei-jie.”

He glanced at Zhou Chenyu, who was seated across from him. Fortunately, the other man seemed fairly thick-skinned, and did not appear to care much about Wei Lan’s blunt tone.

Only then did Yan Chao continue, “It’s already been announced. There’s no point arguing about this now.”

As he spoke, he looked toward Liu Wei, seated at the head of the long table. “Director Liu, now that the guest identity has changed, the script definitely needs major changes. Recording officially starts tomorrow, so why haven’t you given us the new script yet?”

As expected, Liu Wei revealed a troubled expression. Wei Lan saw it, and just as she was about to flare up, Zhou Chenyu suddenly spoke.

He looked at Yan Chao with a face full of curiosity. “Wasn’t a reality show supposed to guarantee full documentary-style authenticity? How come there’s still a script?”

The moment his words fell, everyone at the conference table lowered their heads and covered their faces with laughter at the same time, and the room fell into an awkward silence for a moment.

Everyone knew Zhou Chenyu was recording a variety show for the first time, but no one had expected that his understanding of reality shows would still be stuck at this stage. In this day and age, there was actually still someone who didn’t know that variety shows all had scripts?

With a helpless expression, Yan Chao asked, “You didn’t read the contract before coming?”

Zhou Chenyu matter-of-factly pointed at the young girl manager beside him. “My team signed it for me.”

He looked completely justified about not reading the contract himself even though he was the guest.

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhou Chenyu asked again, “Don’t tell me that when you record variety shows, what you’re supposed to do and say from beginning to end is all prescribed sentence by sentence?”

In fact, he had really guessed it right. Most variety shows on the market these days really were like that. Every guest held a different script and persona in hand. They were called reality shows, but in truth, the filming methods had long since become almost the same as TV dramas.

But The Second Role was obviously not that kind of variety show. What was more, judging from the current situation, there was no way the director team could hand over a detailed script anyway.

Yan Chao explained, “Our show definitely won’t go that far, but for each episode, what content we’re recording and what format we’re using, there still has to be at least a basic framework for those things.”

Only after hearing this did a spark of hope reignite in Liu Wei’s eyes. “The framework has long been there. I’ll have my assistant bring it over right away.”

Yan Chao asked, “Then why were you hesitating just now?”

Liu Wei gave an embarrassed laugh. “Isn’t it because the whole station knows Xiao Yan-laoshi has high standards? I was afraid that if the script wasn’t detailed enough, you wouldn’t be satisfied.”

Zhou Chenyu sized Yan Chao up with great interest. He had not expected that this kid, despite his young age, was someone even the chief director had to respect to some degree. Judging from the atmosphere around the conference table today, Yan Chao’s status at Huanyu TV was plain to see.

“Director Liu, please don’t say it like that.” Yan Chao smiled somewhat helplessly, then added, “But our show’s subject matter is pretty special after all, so I still hope we can preserve a relative degree of authenticity. There’s no need for the script to be written too rigidly.”

After hearing that, Liu Wei became even more confident. “To be honest, our script only settled the filming content for each episode. As for exactly how it should be presented in the middle, we’re leaving that to your free play. We’ll record a little more material, and in post-production we’ll pick suitable content to edit in.”

As he spoke, the script had already been handed out to everyone.

Yan Chao flipped through two pages, and his handsome brows could not help drawing together slightly. “This script… is a little too brief, isn’t it?”

Liu Wei looked ashamed. “We’ll keep refining it over the next two days.”

Yan Chao continued, “Especially the content related to xiangsheng. Since the show’s main selling point is promoting traditional culture, why is the material in this area so dry and thin?”

Although Yan Chao was young, he was born tall and handsome. Even though in front of the camera he was gentle and refined, chatting and laughing with ease, his private working style was swift and decisive. In the eyes of the many junior staff beneath him, his aura inevitably came across as very strong.

Now that he had frowned, his face looked even colder and more serious, causing everyone in the conference room to involuntarily fall silent again.

Realizing that his tone just now had been a little too harsh, Yan Chao cleared his throat and half-joked, “I really do know absolutely nothing about xiangsheng. If you don’t flesh out the script a bit, how am I supposed to learn it?”

The director team were all suffering bitterly inside.

Zhou Chenyu was a guest they had only found at the last minute. If the little idol they had arranged before had not suddenly run into trouble, who would have imagined the show would end up inviting a xiangsheng performer?

Forget Yan Chao, everyone sitting here knew almost nothing about xiangsheng.

Yet Zhou Chenyu completely failed to realize that Yan Chao was tactfully offering criticism to the director team. Thinking he was being considerate, he comforted Yan Chao. “It’s okay, your kouhuo’er[3] was already good to begin with…”

Before he had even finished, more than ten gazes at the conference table all turned toward him in perfect unison.

Yan Chao also instinctively lifted his eyes to look at him, the expression on his face extremely subtle.

In front of so many people, what kind of nonsense was this man saying here?

Immediately after that, as if everyone had suddenly thought of something, they all turned their gazes toward Yan Chao too.

Yan Chao: ???

He was the one who said the wrong thing, so why are you all looking at me?

Yet from the various expressions in everyone’s eyes, Yan Chao felt that he had already understood the filthy little stories they were imagining in their heads.

Yan Chao felt utterly helpless inside. Making up random bullshit fantasies was one thing, but no matter what, it shouldn’t have gotten to the point where they were fantasizing about him together with this idiot in front of him, right?!

Under the tableful of increasingly strange looks, Zhou Chenyu gave an awkward laugh. “Ahem, what I meant was, Xiao Yan is a host, his articulation is smooth, and he’s smart too. When the time comes, I’m sure you’ll learn it the moment I teach you.”

Wasn’t it just that he had accidentally used one wrong word… did these people really need to react that strongly?

Actually, it was common for xiangsheng performers to let their mouths run wild. If this had happened on stage, it could even count as a xiangua.[1]

But this bunch sitting around the conference table in stiffly proper postures very clearly did not possess even the slightest sense of humor.

Liu Wei quickly followed up on his words. “Right, right, right. The first two episodes are all just recording the variety show, and it’s only in the third episode that you start performing xiangsheng, so isn’t there still a long time to keep improving it? Besides, Xiao Yan, your scriptwriting has always been first-rate. When the time comes, if Xiao Zhou helps out more, then the script you two write together won’t be on a level even higher than our director team’s?”

Yan Chao said nothing. Inwardly, he let out a silent sigh.

For no reason at all, his partner had been changed, and in the end he got switched to a total idiot.

For no reason at all, he was being made to perform xiangsheng, even though he had never even properly listened to serious xiangsheng before.

And now look at this, even the script was going to be written by him himself.

Was this how people made a show? Were they messing with him?

Yet his long years of experience as a host had already trained him into the sort of person who could have ten thousand lines of mmp in his heart while still keeping a smiling face. Even in a situation like this, Yan Chao still maintained an utterly calm expression.

Then Director Liu said again, “Besides the script, there’s another very important issue.”

Under the bright and burning gazes of the two handsome men on either side, Liu Wei felt immense pressure, and even his voice dropped a few degrees. “…Selling a CP.”

Yan Chao’s heart filled with mmp all over again.

Selling a CP was, of course, a necessary part of a show. In fact, if a variety show wanted to become popular these days, it first had to build a CP with buzz.

A BG CP could easily make viewers become genuinely emotionally invested, and once it went BE, the damage to the celebrities themselves could be huge. By comparison, a BL CP was selling brotherhood from the very beginning, and that way there were far fewer worries afterward.

Although Yan Chao was not particularly enthusiastic about selling CP, neither was he especially resistant to it, because he was confident he could grasp the proper degree, neither deliberately baiting fujoshi fantasies nor seeming fake, while still letting real emotion show naturally. Whether it became rps or true brotherhood, he could advance and retreat with proper measure.

In the entertainment industry, every popular young actor and actress had long since become an old hand. More or less, everyone understood these routines.

But when he ran into someone like Zhou Chenyu, Yan Chao felt a bit of a headache about selling CP for the first time.

Zhou Chenyu had no prior experience recording variety shows in the first place. Looking at the way he let his mouth run wild, able to say kouhuo’er when he meant koutiao’er[4], Yan Chao was truly afraid that if this got aired on the show, the two of them would both be banned before long.

Before Yan Chao could speak, the esteemed ancestor across from him was already impatient to open his mouth. “Selling CP? I’m good at that.”

Yan Chao could not help looking up at him, surprised that someone who seemed completely clueless about entertainment-industry tricks still knew what it meant to sell a CP.

Liu Wei looked at him in delight. “You’re good at that too?”

Zhou Chenyu revealed an openly smug expression. “Fuqi gen,[2] we use that onstage all the time.”

Yan Chao was utterly baffled. “…Fuqi gen?”

Zhou Chenyu explained to him, “Just what it says on the surface. I’m the fu, you’re the qi.”

Yan Chao: “…What the hell kind of thing is that!”

Zhou Chenyu seemed to be startled by his dramatic reaction. His pair of peach blossom eyes blinked a few times, and he looked at Yan Chao cautiously. “Then… if you want to be the husband, that works too?”

Footnotes:

[1] Xiangua: An improvised joke or bit of humor created on the spot in response to the live situation. In crosstalk, this is often prized as a sign of quick wit and stage responsiveness.

[2] Fuqi gen : Literally “husband-and-wife banter/routine.” In crosstal, this refers to a comedic dynamic where two performers adopt a husband-wife style of interaction for humorous effect. It does not mean they are literally playing a married couple in a formal dramatic sense every time, but rather that the rhythm, teasing, and role division draw on that domestic dynamic.

[3] Kouhuo’er : Literally “mouth work.” In ordinary use it can mean verbal skill or performance ability, but in the context of this scene it sounds sexually suggestive, which is why everyone reacts so strongly.

[4] Koutiao’er : Articulation, verbal fluency, or smoothness of speech. Zhou Chenyu mistakenly says kouhuo’er instead, creating the awkward joke.

[6] CP: A fandom and entertainment-industry term for a “pairing,” usually two people whom audiences enjoy imagining together romantically or quasi-romantically. “Selling CP” means deliberately creating or encouraging that on-screen chemistry and audience perception.

[6] BG CP / BL CP: BG means boy-girl pairing. BL means boy-love pairing, usually referring to a male-male pairing marketed to fandom audiences.

[7] BE: Short for “bad ending,” used in fandom to mean the pairing breaks apart or ends unhappily.

[8] RPS: Real Person Slash, a fandom term referring to shipping real people rather than fictional characters.

[9] MMP: Internet slang standing in for a curse phrase, used here to show Yan Chao’s internal frustration without spelling it out directly.