Supernatural World Chapter 27: Jealousy

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Finch joined the cast happily.

This was a large production, and people had invested hundreds of millions of yuan in it. ¹ It was an adaptation of an extremely popular Xianxia system from the internet that told the story of a magnificent cultivator. Besides the large investments and the famous director, all of the actors were also bigshots and very familiar faces.

The male lead was played by the most popular male star in the entertainment industry, Xie Yan.

The female lead was the currently most popular female star, loved by men and women alike, Ji XueFang.

Besides Finch as the second male lead, the second, third, and fourth female and male leads, were all famous actors. They were all the type that could star in TV shows and were all quite reputable to some degree.

Even characters that only appeared in a few shots were played by guest actors.

Finch looked around carefully and realized that he was the only little-known person here, and he felt that the pressure on him was quite big. However, that didn’t matter too much; he wasn’t the type of person to back out of anything, and he would definitely get famous overnight because of this! Hahaha…

Xie Yan’s character was the eldest disciple in their cultivation sect, and he was extraordinarily gifted. However, he became very frustrated when he was framed by someone. In the end, accompanied by the female lead, he takes revenge on the enemy sect. Overall, the plot was very cool.

As for Finch’s character, he was Xie Yan’s shidi, and he had always been very close to Xie Yan. When Xie Yan was in low spirits because everyone had turned against him, Finch believed him the entire time and stood on his side. He would help in various ways, and he was definitely a likable character.

Thus, he had a lot of scenes with Xie Yan, so Finch would definitely get a lot of screentime. Finch was bubbly as he imagined the response once this movie was released.

Finch was super excited, and he felt that he had finally reached the pinnacle of life!

*****

After they started filming, Finch became extremely busy. His appearance was very good, but his acting skills were just so-so and needed refining. Among the cast, everyone was better than him, but fortunately, Finch was quite modest and picked up things quickly. Nie Dao was quite satisfied with Finch, or at least he didn’t get too mad at him.

Finch was busy filming every day, as well as fanboying over the other actors and building relations with them. He didn’t even have enough time to think about Cesar anymore, and Finch had completely cast Cesar to the back of his mind.

Moreover, Finch had originally thought that, as a new person that had gotten in at the last minute, he might get bullied and looked down upon. He had encountered these things before when he played small roles. No matter how small and bad the drama was, there were always those people in the cast that weren’t very good-intentioned. People who put on a nice front for people who could help them yet turned cold when dealing with people beneath them were very common, so Finch had prepared to defend himself. However…

No one bullied him at all!

Everyone was so friendly…

Finch sighed. The makeup artists, camera crew, the director and assistant director, and even the other actors are all so polite and easygoing… Finch couldn’t help but be suspicious because of this.

Could it be that they thought so little of Finch that they didn’t even want to bother with him?

Finch didn’t have anything to do at this moment, and sitting to the side under a tent and staring off into the distance. A female assistant had bought milk tea for him, so she gave it to Finch and walked off with a foolish grin.

After walking away, the female assistant said to her friend, “Finch is so cute, and he’s also so handsome, it kind of makes one’s heart flutter…”

Her friend said ruthlessly, “Does he or his identity make your heart flutter?”

The assistant said, “How can you say this? I don’t even know who he is.”

Her friend said, “There’s no way he’s ordinary if he can replace that actor under Sister Ji at such short notice. But I haven’t heard that he’s a wealthy son, and before, he always played small roles that aren’t eye-catching. It seems that he’s gotten a hold of an extremely powerful connection that’s at least a few levels higher then Sister Ji. He depends on other people to get by, are you really interested in someone like him?”

The assistant smiled, “I heard that Mr. Luo himself appeared so Finch could get in. But Mr. Luo doesn’t like men, so I wonder how he did it.”

“No matter what, Sister Ji really suffered a loss this time…” The friend was about to continue speaking, but she saw the assistant’s expression change drastically. The friend looked behind her and saw that Ji XueFang was standing near them and glaring at them coldly.

The two of them immediately stopped talking and lowered their heads respectfully. “Hi, Sister Ji.”

After saying this, they didn’t dare to stay for a moment longer and quickly slipped away.

Ji XueFang’s expression was cold. Ha, she just knew that people would talk about this. She had spent a lot of effort and money on getting the role of the second male lead for one of the actors under her, and everything had been negotiated and settled. Yet he was quietly replaced just days before filming started; it was like a slap to her face!

Ji XueFang stalked off.

Although she was resentful of Finch, since he was capable of replacing one of her people right before they started filming, he couldn’t be simple. At this point, it wasn’t necessary for her to offend Luo JinYi for this, and it was probably better for her to win favor from Luo JinYi and Nie Dao by pretending to be generous.

Having said that, she still disliked Finch.

In the afternoon, Finch had a scene in which he, Xie Yan, and Ji XueFang were going on a mysterious adventure together. Although it was an ensemble cast, Finch’s supporting role still had quite a bit of screentime, and it was a test of his acting skills.

Finch’s acting skills were so-so, and although he was working hard to learn the entire time, he still acted poorly the previous few times. Because he often wasn’t where he was supposed to be, the director had to call “cut” several times and scolded Finch. Then, he had told everyone to take a break before they continued filming.

Ji XueFang frowned unhappily at Finch and said curtly, “You’re wasting everyone’s time.”

It wasn’t too serious, but Finch had already been blaming himself and feeling anxious, and he felt his face redden at her words because she was right. He indeed had messed up the scene, and he was even making the big shots redo it with him. Finch stood there at a loss.

Ji XueFang was extremely beautiful, and she was wearing a billowy white dress and looked almost like an actual fairy. However, her expression was cold and haughty, although it only added to the feeling that she was otherworldly and above mortal affairs.

Finch inexplicably felt that Ji XueFang didn’t like him.

So it seems that there are people here who didn’t like him, and Finch’s misconception from before had made him feel like he was liked by everyone. However, it seemed that it was only to show respect to Mr. Luo, and Finch felt that things had become normal…

Finch said, “Sorry, I’ll be more careful next time.”

Suddenly, a man in a swordsman costume walked up to them, and his handsome face was adorned by a faint smile. He said to Ji XueFang, “Who can guarantee that they’ll never mess up? Before when we made mistakes, didn’t he also patiently redo the scenes with us? I’m afraid we shouldn’t fuss over something as trivial as this.”

Ji XueFang’s expression wavered. She hadn’t expected that Xie Yan would come and stick up for Finch over such a small matter. However, being in the entertainment industry, she knew to choose her battles, and she didn’t want to go against Xie Yan, so she turned around and left.

This time, she had lost.

Xie Yan smiled at Finch and said with his magnetic and deep voice, “It’s okay, just be more careful next time.”

Finch looked at Xie Yan gratefully; he really was worthy of being an idol on the inside and outside! He was handsome, kind, and patient, and he was even willing to stick up for someone like Finch. Finch was proud to be his fan.

Xie Yan nodded and made to leave, but Finch suddenly said, “Wait!”

Xie Yan asked, “Is there something else?”

Finch said tentatively, “Um, can we follow each other on Weibo? I really like you…” He had actually been a little hesitant about bringing this up. After all, he seemed to be taking advantage of Xie Yan’s friendliness, and Xie Yan’s follower count on Weibo was practically unimaginable…

But Finch really did seem to have caught the attention of his idol…

Finch looked down at his toes.

After a while, he heard a light laugh, and Xie Yan grinned. “Sure, what’s your Weibo username?”

Finch was overjoyed and quickly took out his phone, and when he saw Xie Yan follow him, he was speechless out of excitement!

After achieving his goal, Finch didn’t dare to waste any more of Xie Yan’s time, so he said, “Thanks.”

Xie Yan smiled. “You’re welcome, it’s not a big deal.”

Finch grinned and went to a corner. He began to quietly look at the comments on his posts, wanting to see when everyone realized that Xie Yan had started following him. Speaking of it, ever since the information that he was in this movie was released, his follower count had grown wildly, and he was almost at a million followers now.

Everyone was discussing exactly how he had emerged; after all, he was basically unheard of before!

Even his Baidu entry ² was only a few sentences long.

Very soon, every TV series he had acted in had been dug up, and although there weren’t a lot of mistakes in them, they were still far beneath the level of his current movie. Everyone was guessing if he had gotten in only because of some connections he had, and there seemed to be more anti-fans than fans.

Although some comments were very angering, which celebrity hadn’t received backlash online? Finch turned a blind eye to them and only looked at the comments he wanted to see. Thus, he felt much better.

*****

The filming of the movie was progressing smoothly, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Finch hadn’t encountered any more supernatural events, and he felt as if he had returned to his normal life. He got along with everyone on the set, and his acting skills had improved, so the director wouldn’t scold him as frequently. Ji XueFang was still quite cold and distant to him, as she seemed to disdain interacting with such a little-known actor as Finch. However, Xie Yan was very easygoing, and he and Finch got acquainted quickly.

Speaking of it, Finch’s anti-fans and fans had grown steadily, and after the film stills had been released, some people had even started shipping him and Xie Yan!

The characters Xie Yan and Finch played had a large number of shippers, and before the actors had been decided, the ship was already very popular. Thus, no matter which actor played this character with Xie Yan, they would definitely become extremely popular.

Not to mention Finch’s appearance was very remarkable, and the film stills of him and Xie Yan were practically perfect and unflawed. The photographer was worthy of his reputation, and even Finch couldn’t help but admire the photos.

Gradually, people began to stan Finch. ³

Xie Yan’s fans also discovered that Xie Yan was paying attention to Finch, so the fans said that they were definitely good friends. Finch was able to get on Weibo’s hot search ⁴ several times because of Xie Yan, and his popularity began rising.

Finch felt a little guilty about this, but Xie Yan didn’t seem to mind at all. To him, this really was an insignificant matter. Today, when he was taking a break, Finch was scrolling through Weibo in boredom. He saw a fanart of him and Xie Yan, and there was even a fan fiction to go along with it! The art was very beautiful, and Finch couldn’t help but like the post.

The like sent him to Weibo’s hot search immediately!

The internet raved: In order for the little-known actor to increase his popularity, he actually liked the post of someone who ships him and Xie Yan! The discussions that ensue were wild.

At this time, Finch had already turned off his phone and was filming.

What he didn’t know was that among his followers, which had already reached the one million milestone, there was an original follower that had been quietly paying attention to him for two years——Cesar.

Logically, this wasn’t Cesar’s style nor something he would do.

Before, Cesar didn’t have Weibo, but Finch liked it, so at the time, he had registered an account to observe Finch’s. Cesar never posted anything and he didn’t look at other people’s posts; it was practically an inactive account. 

The account’s only use was that when Cesar remembered to, he would occasionally check Finch’s activity. Then, he saw that Finch had been extremely busy because of his new movie and was filming with Xie Yan every day, and today, Finch had even intensified things by liking a post from someone who shipped Finch and Xie Yan!

Cesar gripped his new phone tightly, but he restrained himself from crushing it again as he thought, You really like him that much?

After a while, Cesar took a deep breath and wondered if he was going crazy.

He was very busy, and he didn’t have that much time to pay attention to such trivial matters. Cesar also didn’t need to register an account on a social media platform he didn’t even use just so he could observe one person. It was so ridiculous, and he seemed like a petty stalker.

But he did just that.

Actually, if Finch hadn’t mentioned breaking up at the time, or if Finch had regretted it after, or… Maybe he wouldn’t have let go? Even if there were more difficulties, he would still think of everything he could to endure it.

It was just a pity that Finch hadn’t.

They had broken up cleanly, so Cesar hadn’t really had an excuse to stalk him. And now, it was even more inappropriate for Cesar to ignore Finch’s will and drag him into this mess.

Forget it.

Cesar closed his eyes, and the corner of his lips tugged upwards in self-ridicule. Perhaps just occasionally taking a look like this was enough.

But what was this suppressed sourness in his heart?

Was it… regret?

*****

The filming of the movie went very smoothly, and they were now filming the ending. Finch didn’t have any scenes today, but he was an idler, so he still arrived at the set to be on standby. He had pulled over a small chair, sat down, and was looking at Xie Yan act.

Xie Yan was currently filming a fierce fight scene.

He was wearing midnight blue robes, and his black hair was in a high ponytail. He looked handsome and sharp, and his robes billowed behind him, making him look fairylike. Even though he was only standing there, he still emanated an extraordinary aura.

He really was exactly like his character…

And he was also really handsome…

And his temper was very good, and he was polite and warm…

Finch’s heartbeat quickened.

He couldn’t help but murmur to himself, “It would be nice to have a boyfriend like him…”

Cesar, who had just arrived, just happened to hear this.

As Finch watched everyone’s etherealness, he inexplicably felt a chill on his back. He rubbed his chin and thought, Everyone’s acting is superb! I feel as if I’ve actually received a murderous look!