"Director Wang Anyi, blink if you've been kidnapped."
That was Gu Peng's first thought after he finished reading Arts & Life Weekly's interview with Director Wang.
Turns out the magazine's title wasn't exaggerated at all. If anything, it undersold it, because Wang Anyi said the performance even left Zhang Li struggling to keep up.
Who's Zhang Li? He's a Best Actor at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival, only just forty, but easily Tier 1 in acting.
If even Zhang Li almost couldn't catch it, Gu Peng couldn't even picture what that looked like.
"Did Wang Anyi use brother Jiu for hype?" Gu Peng's mind spun.
Didn't make sense. Wang Anyi had a good relationship with Chu Zhi and had worked with him on Shiyi Lang. And with Wang Anyi's status as China's top director, why would he need hype like that?
So what was going on?
Gu Peng decided he needed fuel for his brain, which really meant he was just hungry. He ordered sushi for three on his phone. Everyone preached healthy eating now, so he ate more meals with smaller portions.
A cold gleam first, then the spear follows the cage: "[Guys, what's happening here?]"
He switched to his Orang Home account with the longest ID name and posted the whole thing in the discussion board. Note, Orang Home IDs can be 1 to 15 characters.
More people saw Wang Anyi's praise. Gu Peng wasn't the only one shocked. Little Fruits who read the post were stunned.
"I remember Jiu-yé said acting's just his side gig," "Huh," "Don't drag Zhang Li to lift Xiao Jiu, Wang Anyi, that's dumb," "Is this just promo?" and so on.
The debate heated up fast, because the interview did raise questions.
Arts & Life Weekly hadn't expected it. They'd interviewed tons of stars and directors. A casual answer from Wang Anyi blew up and spread beyond the usual circles. The editor-in-chief sighed that the market's really hard to read.
#ZhangLiRespondsThat afternoon, the tag climbed the hot search. Zhang Li got "caught" by reporters while traveling with his wife and got asked about "Wang Anyi's answer."
"Director Wang's not wrong. Xiao Jiu's cameo this time being Best Actor level, no question.
That rooftop scene, when I played against him, I felt real pressure." Zhang Li chuckled twice. He'd remembered that night's dinner, when Chu Zhi treated the crew. A few people wanted to drink against him, and every single one got knocked under the table.
Realizing the laugh was out of place, since it sounded snide in that moment, he straightened up and answered seriously.
"I thought of something else just then. As for your question, I'll guarantee it with two Zhang Lis. Everyone in the crew saw the same thing."
Zhang Li's catchphrase: "I'll guarantee it with two Zhang Lis." No one knows how one person guarantees with two selves, but it meant he was dead serious.
Gao Tan posted: [I can confirm, Director Wang's right.]
Actor Ge Yi: [Brother Zhang Li's not wrong.]
Several leads spoke up, and lots of accounts claiming to be part of the Abnormal Is Normal crew chimed in online, all confirming what Zhang Li and Wang Anyi said.
The internet splits into two camps fast. Thanks to the wire, opinions polarize. Right now, it was two clear groups.
Little Fruits were hyped for the soon-to-premiere Abnormal Is Normal. They wanted to see what kind of performance had everyone praising in unison.
The other side just sneered and called it clout chasing. Two sample comments: "It's a hype ploy, and you really believe it?" "For real, it screams hype," "Even Director Wang bowed to capital," "The gap between Zhang Li and Chu Zhi in acting is like the gap between Chu Zhi and Wu Tang in music."
Wu Tang was a name that hadn't popped up in a while. Back in the "Wu on one end, Chu on the other, soaring spirits" era, he was top traffic. Now his popularity had dipped. According to his team, he was focusing on music.
He got dragged for no reason, but whatever. The point was that Abnormal Is Normal's heat was visibly rising, topping the "Want to Watch" lists on ticketing apps like Maoyan and Taopiaopiao.
Wang Anyi didn't care. Her films got T1 theater scheduling whether they trended or not. That said a lot about her standing.
When postproduction on Abnormal Is Normal wrapped and publicity began, Wang Anyi suddenly thought of something.
"Hui Zhi, do you think Xiao Chu might have dissociative identity disorder?" Wang Anyi asked out of the blue.
"Xiao Chu's a good person, he just lacks intuition," "Nice guy, why can't he open up," "Forget it, I picked the actor myself"… back during Shiyi Lang, Chu Zhi's name popped up often in Wang Anyi's late-night calls.
Han Huizhi knew her temperament. If she kept mentioning someone, she genuinely cared.
"I don't think so. Didn't you say it yourself? Xiao Chu treats people the best you've ever seen. If he had dissociative issues, he couldn't manage that," Han Huizhi said. She never asked why she suddenly worried. She focused on the question.
Made sense. Chu Zhi's social grace was rare not just for his age group, but across all ages. Still, Wang Anyi wondered, "why did Xiao Chu suddenly perform like a god?"
"Xiao Chu's performance was too good. Thinking back, it felt very real," Wang Anyi muttered, eyebrows knotting.
"Anyi, did you forget? Xiao Chu has serious psychological issues," Han Huizhi said. "That realness you felt, could it be reflections of his condition?"
One line woke her from a dream. Right, that made too much sense. Wang Anyi rapped her phone on her kneecap in frustration. The phone hurt, and so did her kneecap.
If part of it came from real emotional pain, then he shouldn't praise it in public. That kind of praise bordered on celebrating suffering. She picked up her phone, ready to call friends and cool the hype.
Han Huizhi saw what she planned. "I think the call should be to Xiao Chu."
Wang Anyi froze a little, less smooth than before. She didn't quite dare dial.
"If you don't dare, forget it," Han Huizhi teased.
Classic reverse psychology, and he really didn't dare, not because she feared blame, but because if Xiao Chu didn't care, it'd be awkward.
She look at Huizhi that smiling beside her, "Forget it," she thought. "Next time we meet, I'll treat Xiao Chu to dinner."
Far away in Europe, Chu Zhi didn't care about any of it. If he had time, sure he'd take a look. Enduring Sick-Leave Man's pain was for the praise anyway, right?
Right now he had no time and no Wi-Fi.
"Unsinkable. My scenes are finally done."
"Unless something unexpected happens, I won't take another film." The last time he said something similar was when You Who Came From the Stars wrapped. It turned out exactly like he expected, he didn't take another drama.
Surprisingly, the airline didn't have in-flight Wi-Fi. The Emperor Beast sat in business class, drank the hot tea the flight attendant poured, and felt groggy.
It wasn't the set that exhausted him. He'd caught a slight cold last night. It was chilly, so he set the heater on a two-hour timer. He must've fallen asleep and got too warm, kicked off the blanket, and woke at dawn with it neatly on the floor. Catching a chill made perfect sense.
He'd taken the Oddity Dead-Pig Miracle Medicine and the Sweet-Dream Magic Chocolate, then slept like a rock and even had a good dream.
In the dream, he dragged the Unit-01 out of a frozen wasteland and saved the world. Cold as it was, his spirit was flying, which meant he didn't wake from the chill.
A few hours later, the plane landed at Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Ezeiza. He'd arrived in Argentina's capital to shoot the MV for Don't Cry for Me, Argentina.
The song commemorated the First Lady in Argentine hearts, Eva Perón, Evita. On Earth, the famous version came from the musical Evita. Even though the writers weren't Argentine, the song still took off.
Whenever something big happened in Argentina, this song played. When Diego Maradona passed away, this song rang out.
In this world, there wasn't an Evita musical, so he included the song as a standalone on the album and had to explain its origins. The MV plan had him visiting vault 57 at Recoleta Cemetery and touring the Eva Perón Museum, her former residence.
The more famous "Evita Fine Arts Museum" in Argentina was really just a name. The exhibits there didn't have much to do with Eva Perón.
By the museum's rules, photos were fine, video wasn't. He got to film purely by face card.
That dazzling World Cup opening performance had given him huge global name recognition. And in Argentina, everyone followed football already.
The curator was a kindly grandpa, already past eighty, but still sturdy. He took the stairs like a champ, opened doors and moved things without help. Chu Zhi thought if he had that body at seventy, he'd be thrilled.
The curator personally narrated Eva Perón's life by his side. Even though her corpse was desecrated after death, it was still a life worthy of respect.
"In 1948, I saw Ms. Evita once, and she shook my hand," the curator said with pride. He always used that line to open his tours.
The exhibits included newspapers, letters, and photos. The most precious were a dozen sets of clothing.
After they finished the whole museum tour, the curator's eyes were full of memories. "Mr. Chu Zhi, is your new album about Ms. Evita?"
"There's one song written to commemorate Eva Perón," Chu Zhi explained. "I read a biography of her back home, so I wanted to write a song like this."
"When the record's out, you must send me a copy," the curator said.
"Of course," Chu Zhi agreed on the spot.
He noticed the curator never said "Mrs. Perón," only "Ms. Evita." He understood the old gentleman's feelings a little better.
They left the former residence, tucked in a neighborhood lined with sunshade canopies.
"Sir Curator never married. He adopted a daughter," said the photographer, Dai Wen. "I remember an interview where he said his heart belonged to someone from the time he was ten."
Chu Zhi didn't really understand that kind of love, but he respected it.
Dai Wen was the local photographer Chu Zhi hired, so he knew more about the curator. The MV director could fly in from China, but there was no need to import a photographer.
For the record, the international album's MV director was an old friend, Li Tedian.
The MV for Don't Cry for Me, Argentina used a one-take plan. It didn't need flashy tricks. Once Li Tedian heard Chu Zhi's idea, he set everything as simple as possible.
They wrapped that day and took an early flight to Spain.
At the exit of Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas, Li Tedian and Xiao Zuzhi followed behind. Before they could even reach the parking lot, they spotted a young man holding a sign that read, "Welcome, Chief Consultant Chu Zhi."
"Brother Chu, is that our ride?" Li Tedian asked.
Looked like it wasn't a namesake.
Weird. They hadn't arranged any pickup.
Chu Zhi walked up, and the slicked-back youth quickly introduced himself. "Consultant Chu, I'm Wang Ting from the Chinese Embassy in Spain. Here's my ID. Ambassador Li sent me to receive you."
"Alright," Chu Zhi said calmly.
In truth, the Emperor Beast hadn't expected the embassy to send staff to meet him. Not only that, they'd arranged everything, from lodging inside the compound to meals and transport.
Aren't they being a bit too polite? Adults all know extra-polite means there's a favor to ask.
"Tsk tsk, only by sticking with Chu bro can you make it this far. I never dreamed I'd get to stay in an embassy one day."
"And we're being hosted too. I'm high as a kite, feels like life's already peaked…"
Li Tedian was impressed. If a star can reach this level, who else can compare?
He'd be bragging about this for years.
And yes, the politeness came with a request. Ambassador Li said, "Consultant Chu, I have a small favor to ask. If you have time, could you arrange a meal with Princess Sofía of the Spanish royal family? She's a devoted fan of yours."
One princess alone wouldn't push the ambassador to ask, but Princess Sofía had made real contributions to promoting Chinese culture in Spain. Ambassador Li wasn't overpromising, but the message had to be delivered.
"My Fans Are All Princesses," Chu Zhi suddenly thought. The light-novel title wrote itself. A meal was fine. They set a dinner date.
Chu Zhi hopped through five countries to film MVs. In the middle of that, good news landed. His poetry collections, including Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, now came in Chinese, English, French, and Japanese editions.
He'd just pulled Spanish in the system, and he'd planned to translate a Spanish edition himself once he had time. But as the books spread through the literary world, several translators emailed to request authorization.
He checked each translator's representative works and picked two. One would handle German, one Spanish.
He chose the German translator for pure fame, with two Goethe Prizes and one Büchner Prize for translated works. He chose the Spanish translator because he was currently fluent in Spanish and genuinely admired that translator's craft.
"That makes six languages for the collection. Still far from those literary giants with twenty or thirty, but we're getting there."
While he hustled abroad, Abnormal Is Normal opened back home.
Li Silu was one of those popcorn-in-hand skeptics. He wasn't exactly cynical at thirty-something, but he did run conspiracy theories like a pro.
He bought a ticket for the midnight premiere. Lao Li wanted to see how that wildly praised cameo actually looked.
Attendance was solid. A glance around said at least sixty percent. The dragon logo flashed, the film rolled, and twenty minutes in, Li Silu's mood shifted. He'd been pulled into the story.
The worldbuilding had a brush of magical realism. Everyone was born with a "measure constant" in their brain. The constant could precisely gauge your give and take. The protagonist was born without one.
The script wasn't by Wang Anyi. It was adapted from a novella, with a different screenwriter. Still, the film's quality lived or died on the director.
Crazy background settings adapt to anime fine, but live action can feel fake. Somehow Wang Anyi's weighty visual style pressed the floaty setup into something real, with strong immersion. It hit especially hard with the simp storyline, the one where you give 98 points and receive 6 and still float for days.
It hurt. It hurt a lot. Li Silu had a friend just like that…
He rubbed his eyes and wiped away the treacherous "drool."
Around ninety minutes in, it came, Chu Zhi's cameo.
Under pressure, the protagonist made a choice against his heart. He decided to make a pair of "Measure" glasses so he'd be no different from anyone else. Before that, he drifted up to the rooftop.
He stood on the edge, blocking the wind with his body, and every gesture said he'd lost the future.
A nameless passerby came up not long after. Plain clothes, makeup only a little haggard.
Li Silu recognized Chu Zhi at a glance, but he couldn't connect that man to the bright superstar in his mind.
A closer shot. The passerby realized someone was on the roof, and his wary eyes and posture treated the protagonist like a mortal enemy.
Across the theater, including Li Silu, many people wondered if they'd missed something. Had this passerby appeared earlier?
The passerby looked away, then stared at the sky in bottomless despair. The expression sold the feeling that the sky could collapse in the next second.
Despair turned into sorrow, one the Milky Way couldn't wash clean. He tilted his head back and stood there like a nailed post.
The camera held both faces, Zhang Li's lead and the nameless passerby, but every eye in the theater fixed on Chu Zhi.
"This guy's absolutely not normal, I swear on all ten fingers," Li Silu muttered. Switching between three extreme emotions in seconds wasn't something a regular person pulled off.
On screen, the passerby never spoke to the lead. The lead left the roof to make the glasses, the passerby vanished, a brush with a stranger you'd never make sense of.
Before, the protagonist would've comforted his friend, played by Gao Tan. Now he decided he didn't qualify.
"People are bundles of informational elements. What kind of person you are decides what work you can do. Even whether you can help someone depends on whether they can accept help from someone like you." The film dropped a quietly nihilistic monologue.
The ending felt bittersweet. More babies like the lead were born around the world, newborns with no "Measure."
A cyclical ending.
Then again, maybe not. If the lead had more of his kind, his choices might change. Li Silu wondered if there'd be a sequel.
He flowed out with the crowd, still dazed by the film's aftershocks. Most people around him looked stunned too.
"This isn't a sci-fi blockbuster, but it talks about as much as one," he thought.
"Wang Anyi's still got it. I thought winning the Palme would kill her drive. Didn't expect she'd have another round in him. This must be her first stab at soft sci-fi." He mulled it over as he walked.
The film hit him so hard he forgot why he came. Only when he got home did it hit him. That nameless passerby Chu Zhi played, was that, like, god-tier?