Falling in Love With the Male God

The night had yet to fade away completely, the sky carried only a faint light.

The camera director, who was carrying a camera knocked on the door in front of him.
He thought it would take a long time before someone came to open the door, but unexpectedly the door opened after a minute.

A young man opened the door, his facial features soft and handsome, lips slightly pursed, as if he was a little nervous.
His hands were hanging on both sides of his body, while his fingers gently twisted the seams of his pants.

“Good… good morning.” This young man was Lin Qin, he was one of the main participants of this reality show.
He spoke softly, with a voice very low.
If he wasn’t closer to Lin Qin, the director might not even have heard his voice.

“Good morning teacher* Lin.” Entering the room, the director filmed the scene in Lin Qin’s room as required.

[TN: Ok if you all are unfamiliar, they called the Asian actors as a teacher when addressing them.
It’s a sign of respect they give to them as far as I know.
Let me know if I’m wrong here though.]

Although Lin Qin lived in the apartment alone, there was no clutter unlike in an ordinary boy's room.
Everything was clean and neatly organized to a point it didn’t look like a boy’s room at all.

While the camera director was filming, Lin Qin had pushed the suitcase out of the bedroom and stood far away.
His palms held the lever of the suitcase, not saying a word.

“Teacher Lin, shall we go now?” When the director finished collecting the material, he discovered how Lin Qin was standing in the corner surprising him slightly.
Although Lin Qin was extremely handsome, it was as if he had no sense of existence when he stood in that corner.

Lin Qin nodded, his gaze seeming to fall on an empty place.

The car of the program group was already waiting downstairs in the community parking and Lin Qin pushed his suitcase all the way down without saying a word, making the director who was filming him frown.

Being so quiet was not suitable for a reality show at all.
With no drama, there would be nothing left to watch after editing.

After getting in the car, the director tried to initiate a conversation with Lin Qin.

Director: “Teacher Lin, what made you accept the invitation from our program crew this time?”

Although Lin Qin was a member of the entertainment circle, he was extremely low-key.
Apart from starring in movies, he didn’t accept any advertisements while he rarely attended events.
Even when he won the Cannes Film Festival Movie Emperor award, it was his agent who went up to receive the award for him while he was nowhere to be seen.
Apart from a few activities where he just walked down the red carpet, nothing else was heard from him.

If it weren’t for the fact that all movies he had starred in were brilliant, no one would even know of such a person existing in the entertainment industry.

So this time when Lin Qin accepted the invitation to the reality show ‘We’re together’, agreeing to become a regular guest, the whole program crew was surprised.
As when they sent the invitation, they held no hope for it being accepted.
Hence, Lin Qin’s consent was really unexpected.

But it was obvious to the director how his question seemed a little difficult for Lin Qin to answer.
It took him a long time before Lin Qin could come out with a few words, “…I wanted to accept it…”

Director: “…”

Very well, I just chatted the sky to death*.

[TN: *It’s a slang to say as the other party is not interested in the conversation, hence the conversation dies.]

Feeling he had finally encountered a mountain in his directing career, the director couldn’t help but frown.
After racking his brain, he finally came up with another question, “Teacher Lin, do you know who is recording this program with you?”

Just after asking this question, Lin Qin seemed to have thought of something making the roots of his ears dyed with crimson.
He felt as if his whole person was burning.

“I…
I know.” Lin Qin nodded slightly, sitting in the seat like a child in a kindergarten.
With his back straight, hands on his knees, looking obedient.
“It's Senior Meng.”

This time, the director hurriedly struck while the iron was hot.
“Is this the first time Teacher Lin meeting movie emperor Meng?”

“Yes.” Lin Qin replied in a low voice, blushing just as if an ink drop had fallen into the water, slowly spreading.
He was already pretty good looking, but with this faint touch of pink, his facial features were even more beautiful and compelling.

However, his nervousness could not be concealed throughout this entire conversation. 

Adjusting the camera, the director questioned, “Teacher Lin, are you nervous?”

“Huh?” A little stunned, Lin Qin twitched the corners of his mouth slightly before answering with a smile, “Yes, kind of.”

“Why?” The Director probed, “Is it because you want to meet the Film Emperor Meng? I heard you like Film Emperor Meng very much.”

Lin Qin felt as if a sudden fire was raised on his body, burning his entire body.
He stumblingly replied, “Yes, Senior Meng…
is my male god.”

“Then since we are going to record “We Are Together” with Film Emperor Meng this time, does Teacher Lin have any expectations? Or what do you want to say to Film Emperor Meng?”

Lin Qin held back for a long time before suffocating a word out, “Senior Meng, please advise me in the future.” He looked at the camera with a serious, sincere expression.

Director: “…” Alright then, the chat was over.

Because of the early departure, the crew of the program group did not meet the morning rush hour in the capital, managing to go all the way to the airport smoothly.

According to the agreement, both the team who picked Meng Chao up and the team who had picked Lin Qin would meet at the airport, then fly to Binhai City to officially start the recording of “We Are Together”.

With the increasing popularity of Tanmei culture*, this kind of piece of cake** was more and more seen by the market.
Today, variety shows were blooming everywhere.
So right after Gay Marriage Law was passed, Apple TV followed the trend and planned a reality show featuring men and boys.
This variety show was called “We Are Together”.

[TN: Baidu: *Indulge in beauty, indulge in beauty, ” indulge in ” means indulging in, fascinated, refers to indulging in beautiful and romantic things.
The term Tanmei comes from Japan, originally referring to aestheticism.
Later, it was mostly used to express the love of gay men in China by rotten women.]

[TN: **something that would be extremely popular in the market]

 

This program only invited two fixed MC*s to record the show for over two months.

[TN: * Main Characters]

During this period, they would invite guests from other entertainment circles to talk about life and take part in games.

The simple point was the day-to-day stories of newly married husbands and their friends.
As for how to make these stories stand out, those were MC's business.

To put it more bluntly, it was a reality show to sprinkle dog food* under the skin of a slow life variety show.

[TN: *to sprinkle/scatter dog food; to display affection in public.]

And the degree of freedom of this show was extremely high.
There was no script, it just completely let the MC’s play according to their will.
No one knew what kind of sparks it would create in the end.

About half an hour later, the team which picked up movie emperor Meng arrived late.

The name of the movie emperor Meng was Meng Chao.
He had a tall, magnificent jade-like body, his facial features were very outstanding.
Even in the entertainment circle full of beauty, he was a very eye-catching existence.
Usually donning a pair of glasses, he looked suave and elegant.
He didn’t participate in any activities, also didn’t interact often with fans on Weibo, so in the eyes of fans, he was a very high, cold and aloof existence.

Meng Chao was definitely a legend in this circle.
He made his debut at the age of 18.
Not only did he win all the domestic trophies a movie star could win at 19.
In the same year, he won three consecutive best actor awards at the international A Film Festivals with his superb acting skills in a literary film.
It could be said that he reached the peak right at his debut. 

In the following year, each movie he started in had double harvest at the box office just by word of mouth.
His exquisite acting skills made him a leading figure in Chinese movies, winning awards till his hands got soft*.

[TN: *won so many awards to a point his hands were exhausted]