Little Pink Starfish

Qiguan Rui smiled faintly, but didn’t really feel like answering.
Gu Bai turned his head expressionlessly and stared at that big-time director for three seconds.

The big director smiled with enthusiasm: “?”

Gu Bai: “…Director Chen, I’m Meng Chuan.”
The original worked with you, you know, big director! It’s just that I shaved my beard, and now you don’t recognize me? That’s not scientific at all! Has my appearance changed that much, damn it? Or did the original’s makeup skills truly defy the heavens…

Director Chen nodded: “Ah, so you’re Meng Chuan. Young man, we can work together in the futu—WHAT?! Meng Chuan?!!!”
Wocao fuck me grass!!!
Is it THAT Meng Chuan? Hell no, this must be someone with the same name!

The Meng Chuan he knew didn’t look like this at all!

Director Chen: Kid, are you messing with me? Fooling the director—so what if you’ve got a thing with the president, I, Director Chen, will still be very pissed off!
His face shifted through a thousand expressions. But he also clearly knew that if this kid didn’t know him, he wouldn’t have acted like he did.
And in his memory, the one he knew as “Meng Chuan” could only be that film emperor Meng Chuan!

Gu Bai: “It’s me.”
Director Chen’s eyes widened: “That Meng Chuan?”
Gu Bai, dead-fish-eyed: “The XX drama.”

Note: The XX drama was a film directed by Director Chen with the original Meng Chuan as lead actor.

Director Chen let out a long breath: “…Xiao Chuan, where… did you get plastic surgery?”
Damn it, this wasn’t plastic surgery, it was a face transplant!

He was just trying to be tactful.

Gu Bai could only explain again: “Shaved.”
Director Chen: “…Wasn’t just shaving, was it?”
Hell, if shaving could make this big of a difference, all male actors would start growing beards just to shave them off later, okay.

At this moment, Qiguan Rui spoke, his tone very gentle: “Director Chen, we’re just here for a casual visit. You know, Ah-Chuan really likes this series, so I brought him along. With you directing, it’s bound to be much better than the previous one. Ah-Chuan’s looking forward to it… so…”
So stop yapping and stealing my gege’s attention, okay?

Director Chen understood in a flash.
He gave Gu Bai one last reluctant glance, still feeling it was beyond belief.
But although he had originally disliked the former director of this project, now he started to understand—maybe that guy had turned down Meng Chuan not just to please that plagiarist? This face of Meng Chuan’s… really didn’t suit the gritty character.

Feeling he had grasped the previous director’s noble intentions, Director Chen’s attitude toward the now-demoted assistant director suddenly improved.
The assistant director, who had been secretly stealing glances at Gu Bai, was stunned—Did Director Chen just treat me kindly? He’s not scolding me anymore? Has he been touched by my hard work…?!

A beautiful misunderstanding ╮(╯▽╰)╭

Then Director Chen decided—he couldn’t be the only one who nearly embarrassed himself.
Since they were all part of the crew, they ought to share in both blessings and disasters, right? This kind of shock… everyone should be shocked together!

So when he saw the others still mesmerized by Gu Bai’s beauty, he immediately used his raspy voice to shout:
“Stop staring! Get back to filming! Haven’t you all seen a good-looking person before? Go home and turn on the TV! Today film emperor Meng Chuan and the president of Star Emperor are here to visit us! We should act well and ask the film emperor for some pointers!”

That voice was loud.

And when everyone finally processed what he was saying, the entire set exploded after a full minute of stunned silence.

“WOC film emperor?”
“Where is the film emperor!”
“No no no, they said the president and the film emperor came! There’s the president, so the film emperor must be…”
“Wait! The film emperor doesn’t look like that, okay?! I’m a hardcore fan, I’ve got pics on my phone! That’s a different person, right? Right?!”
“That can’t be possible!”

A lot of them had seen Meng Chuan in person before.
Even those who hadn’t had seen him in ads, videos, movies, dramas, and public appearances.

They all firmly believed:
The film emperor was a rugged man!
No way he was this pretty boy!

But they also knew Director Chen didn’t lie.
And those two over there didn’t deny it either.
That meant… it was true?
But how could it be true!?

So a bunch of them rushed over, crowding around the girl who claimed she had a photo of the film emperor.
They all stared at her giant phone screen.

Sure enough, it was a pic of the film emperor—full of masculine charm.

Just looking at it… yeah, that was a tough guy.

That bronze skin!
Those chiseled features!
That sexy stubble covering half his face!
Overflowing with manly flavor!

Then, a small voice piped up…
“…What if…”

This was the perfect time for a Meitu XiuXiu expert to step in.
Her slender fingers grabbed the phone, and her hands flew like flowing water. Within moments, she had successfully edited the image.

First, she changed the skin tone…
Whoa, without the bronze, the rough-and-sexy look instantly became cold and aloof!
The facial features suddenly looked completely different!

But now, the beard felt too obstructive.
Instantly, a lot of people urged:

“Shave the beard! Shave the beard!”
“Erase it! Please!”
“I think I’m starting to believe it… I need to see that face!”

The Meitu master’s hands trembled slightly.
Trembling. Trembling.
She gently erased the beard… and erased… and erased…

Gasps spread like wildfire.
It was practically screaming!

That—that—that—that—!
It really was AAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

Howling like wolves.
They could clearly see that after the beard was erased, the face that remained was exactly the same as the one standing here today! Exactly the same!

It was real!

No one knew how many gasps they let out…
But it felt like magic, an overwhelming tide of disbelief!

Everyone held their breath.
This was—this was a miracle of the world!

But soon, people started to feel heartache:

“Why did the film emperor make himself look like that before…”
“Yeah, if I’d seen that face earlier, I would’ve watched all his shows!”
“I’d buy movie tickets for sure! Watch it three times, four times, five times, licking the screen and buying more!”
“Hot guys, why do you torment yourselves…”
“Sure, rugged manliness is good, but it hides this gorgeous face!”
“It’s hard to breathe, okay!”

Thinking that, they felt even more suffocated.
A peerless beauty… wasted by a pig.
They didn’t want to accept it!

In deep heartbreak, the actors listlessly returned to their places. The crew members started working again.
They had to drown themselves in work to forget this beautiful yet tragic reality!

It hurt so much!

Gu Bai had no idea why these people were freaking out.
The highs and lows made no sense to him at all.
Sure, he knew this shell was a bit “anime,” but those reactions? Too damn exaggerated!

Back in Tianmei City, sure, face mattered too—but the citizens genuinely respected him from the heart.
Here? Just a face and it was this wild?
Damn it, how was he supposed to understand this!

#This is a face-judging world#

As a die-hard shut-in otaku, Gu Bai knew this already.
But two-dimensional otakus and real-world face-worshippers were clearly two different species.
Such dazzling insanity was to be expected.
Face-worshippers were evil incarnate.

After flashing his face around, Gu Bai quickly recovered thanks to his many lifetimes of experience traveling through worlds for thousands, even tens of thousands of years.

This has nothing to do with me.
I came to watch people act.
Come to think of it, after living so long, he’d never seen a crew shoot a scene before!

The production was operating nonstop. Gu Bai, held by Qiguan Rui, sat expressionless, watching them act.
The crew members were quite professional.
Even though Gu Bai’s presence was highly distracting, they still summoned their pride and self-control and tried to stay focused.

Someone even brought over an extra chair.
—Yes, there were people who didn’t want to see the film emperor being “snatched,” even by the president!
They had to try!

But every chair brought over was cruelly ignored by Qiguan Rui.

This led to…
A single chair surrounded by many others.
And in that chair’s center sat the “pig”—no, the president—holding the film emperor.
To be fair… they were a pretty good CP!

Gu Bai watched for a while, observing the actors compete in their performances, their expressions fluid, movements precise, their emotions building, crying on cue, laughing on cue…
He turned his head in silence.

He lost.
Damn it, he lost.
Laozi could never make those kinds of expressions with this face, okay!

Sighing, Gu Bai decided to stop torturing himself.
Actors were evil creatures.
He had zero acting skills—not going to compare.

Then Gu Bai stood up, preparing to leave.
Qiguan Rui wrapped an arm around his waist: “Gege’s not watching anymore?”
Gu Bai slowly shook his head: “Going somewhere else.”
Qiguan Rui smiled faintly: “When we’re done, let me treat gege to a coffee, okay?”

Gu Bai hesitated.
Qiguan Rui leaned in and said sweetly, “Gege… okay?”

Gu Bai: “…Okay.”

And just like that, the two of them left.
Once their backs disappeared, all the people in the crew let out a synchronized sigh.

Sigh…
The cabbage—no, the god-tier beauty—had been taken by the pig—ah no, by the president.
Their motivation to act was gone, how could they go on?

Yes, they had just given amazing performances because the film emperor was there, okay!?
Now he was gone.
Suddenly everything felt dry.
Film emperor please come back!
We can’t handle life without you!

But all of this, Gu Bai didn’t know.
Qiguan Rui… didn’t care.

What neither of them knew was that their appearance had been accidentally captured by a crew camera.
A diligent crew member pulled out the footage, cropped out the domineering president, and left only the film emperor.

That night, Weibo exploded.

—

@MessyV:
“Everyone guess who this person is? [Image] It’s someone very familiar~ Here’s another angle~ [Image] Guess right and win a prize~”