Chapter 405: After All, You Are Her God

Lu Han, having completely given up, switched topics immediately after chatting with Bai Liang about a movie for less than two minutes.

He said he'd be launching a new variety show next year with Deng Chao and Chen Chichi—a reality outdoor show—and asked if Bai Liang was interested.

Bai Liang looked puzzled and asked, "Aren't you worried about conflict with Running Man?"

"We didn't record Running Man this year. You really don't care at all," Lu Han sighed in exasperation.

"I'm not Guan Xiaotong—why would I care about you? Besides, I never watch Running Man."

That makes sense!

Lu Han scratched his head. "So, wanna join us? It's basically a friend group."

Bai Liang didn't even ask why they'd left Running Man—after all, the reasons were obvious, and he was too lazy to dig deeper.

He merely asked curiously, "Is your budget enough for this show?"

This instantly left Lu Han speechless—damn, he'd forgotten about this guy's appearance fee problem.

They really might not afford Bai Liang for their new show.

After all, Bai Liang was currently the highest-paid celebrity in the entertainment industry—far ahead of everyone else.

Not just because of his status and fame, but because his variety show performance was genuinely exceptional—he was incredibly good at creating chaos.

Some of his stunts were even so extreme they made people go blind with shock~

There was virtually no substitute for him in the entertainment industry.

So in a way, Bai Liang was thriving across film, TV, and variety shows—but compared to his high output in movies and dramas, he rarely appeared on variety programs.

Aside from occasional guest appearances for promotion, his only long-term variety show to date had been Flowers and Youth, a massive hit two years ago.

Back then, people even wondered who had elevated whom.

That question disappeared later.

Because the next year, Mango seized the momentum and produced another season—only for ratings to plummet, utterly disastrous.

It directly killed any lingering desire to make another season this year.

Advertisers refused to buy in.

Mango desperately wanted Bai Liang back for another season, but he had no time—his schedule was already completely full.

Travel variety shows couldn't be recorded episode by episode like other programs; they required a solid block of uninterrupted time.

Bai Liang simply couldn't free up such a block in the past two years.

So the show's IP was temporarily shelved—until Mango came up with a new idea, they'd rather hold off recording than risk ruining the IP.

To prevent the show's IP from going bad.

As for Lu Han's new show, Five Ha, whether Bai Liang would join wasn't something they could decide over dinner.

Sister Yanzi would have to negotiate and discuss it with the production team.

Just as Lu Han felt a little disappointed, something hilarious happened.

Bai Liang suddenly received a call from Yang Yang.

After learning the purpose of the call, Bai Liang burst out laughing and said to Lu Han, "Your rival's here—wanna fight?"

"What rival?" Lu Han was baffled.

"Yang Yang—he asked if I'd join Mango's new variety next year, called Full of Vitality Brothers. What's going on with you two? Recruiting people everywhere for a variety show—are you shy or insecure?"

Scolding two former top four idols at once—this feeling was strangely satisfying.

At that moment, Yang Yang on the other end of the line was equally confused. "You two? Who?"

"I'm having dinner with Lu Han—he's also trying to get me on some show. Should I turn on speakerphone so we all talk?" Bai Liang chuckled.

He did it immediately—but when he placed the phone down, Yang Yang actually got shy, seemingly unsure what to say.

"Just do both shows. What's the problem?" Lu Han said, since he'd already given up anyway—he had nothing to be "shy" about.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Through the phone, Yang Yang's low, restrained voice made Lu Han freeze for a moment, then he covered his mouth, stifling laughter, winking at Bai Liang as if silently mocking.

As if to say: Does he have such a heavy idol complex?

Bai Liang nodded at Lu Han first, then said, "You two idiots, go contact my agent properly—when did it become the job of top idols to personally handle production team work?"

"I just asked," Yang Yang sighed.

"Didn't you get traumatized after recording Flowers and Youth 2? Didn't you develop a phobia of variety shows? You got over it?" Bai Liang teased casually.

Lu Han was clearly very interested in this topic—he gave him a thumbs-up and leaned in to listen.

Yang Yang replied confidently: "This show has no girls."

Of course—it's called Full of Vitality Brothers, so it's all guys.

As everyone knows, when men gather, they tend to produce the most creative troublemakers.

They rarely fight or create those nauseating dramatic scenes.

But Bai Liang didn't let him off the hook: "I recorded that. I'll send it to Shuangzi and have her roast you on Weibo."

Lu Han: Holy shit, that's brutal!

He suddenly realized Bai Liang had gone easy on him—Yang Yang was the one getting absolutely destroyed~

But this time, Yang Yang didn't surrender—he dared to counterattack.

Still in that low, composed voice: "Mm, I believe that. After all, you're her god."

"Hahahaha!" Lu Han completely broke down, laughing in fits.

"You're her god"—that line killed the competition outright.

Amazing, bro!

But after laughing, he didn't forget to add: "My show's regulars are all male guests too—guys-only crew."

"Dou Dou Xiao Lu~ I've always had a wish—if you grant it, I'll join your show as a regular no matter what," Bai Liang suddenly whispered like a demon.

Lu Han didn't care that Bai Liang, who was younger than him, called him "Dou Dou Xiao Lu"; instead, he curiously asked, "What wish?"

"I've always thought you'd look amazing in women's clothing," Bai Liang said with a grin.

Upon hearing this, Lu Han completely lost it: "F**k! You're fucking kidding me~"

This time, it was Yang Yang on the other end of the call, laughing uncontrollably.

He could no longer hold it together.

Of course, before he laughed, he quickly imagined it—yeah, he wasn't suited for women's clothing; this topic couldn't hurt him.

Besides, to be honest, he was kinda curious to see it.

But Lu Han insisted he would never agree to such an absurd request.

This made Bai Liang regret it—why hadn't he bet on this back then?

"Lu Han won't do it—what about you?" Bai Liang turned to hustle Yang Yang, thinking he'd be good enough.

"Don't even think about it!"

Yang Yang: This bastard's sense of humor is getting worse and worse!

Women's clothing? Better off dead~

After this meal, Bai Liang had added two more items to next year's schedule—after all, they'd asked, so even if he couldn't stay long-term, he'd at least show up as a guest.

After learning the filming schedule of these two shows, he was surprised to realize it roughly coincided with the air dates of "Dear, Love You" and "You Are My Glory"—he actually had promotional needs.

But for Bai Liang, promoting these two dramas was a real problem—he really wanted to kill two birds with one stone and promote them together.

But he worried that Reba and Na Zha would start arguing on the show.

Bai Liang didn't overthink this issue; in a way, he was even more laid-back than Lu Han.

Lu Han was laid-back because he truly couldn't do anything about it, while Bai Liang was laid-back because that was just his nature—Capibara never wasted energy on internal struggle.

When the boat reaches the bridge, it'll naturally find a way~

After Bai Liang returned to Shancheng to continue filming, "Nezha: The Demon Child Reborn" finally revealed its "fangs."

With strong screen allocation, this animated film began wildly shattering everyone's expectations.

Everyone assumed "Nezha" would surpass "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and redefine the ceiling of animated films.

But many were stunned to realize—why did this movie's box office trend look so familiar?

Something's wrong! The ceiling seems to have been punctured.

In summer season, this box office trajectory? F**k! "Wolf Warrior 2"?

Back to two years ago—back then, the industry was ruthlessly dominated like this during summer.

Maoyan's box office prediction was immediately revised to 4.5 billion, showing "Nezha" the utmost respect for its insane performance.

Of course, this was just the beginning—predictions would keep changing.

After "Nezha" established its reputation, more and more audiences flooded theaters, naturally pushing the projected box office higher.

As for its original "rival," "Shanghai Fortress," its box office completely collapsed.

After barely scraping past 100 million, its screen allocation was slashed by nearly every theater chain, desperate to kick this damn thing out and give every slot to "Nezha."

Coupled with its total reputation collapse, this "sci-fi epic" was a complete crash.

For Lu Han, this was bad news—but there was good news too.

Because he'd been tied to "Nezha," when Teng Hua Tao tried to blame him, nobody paid attention.

"Wrong choice of Lu Han."

This weird apology was obviously just shifting blame~

But he had to shift blame—this movie lost badly. Screw up an investment like this, and he'd never get to direct another film again.

It wasn't just Lu Han's film career that was cut off—Teng Hua Tao's path as a film director was nearly severed too; he'd basically have to return to directing TV dramas.

Now, the blame-shifting was more like a final gasp.

So, did this guy pick Lu Han as lead from the start, planning to dump the blame on him?

But everyone was now curious about what kind of film "Nezha" really was—they weren't interested in watching him perform.

Oh right, "Shanghai Fortress" still had a tiny bit of presence.

Some internet trolls described the two films, initially framed as rivals, as "Northern Qiao Feng, Southern Murong Fu."

I'm Qiao Feng, a mighty man—how dare I be mentioned in the same breath as you?

This was the worst humiliation Murong Fu had ever endured.

For Lu Han, the film's fading presence was actually a good thing—at least he wasn't being subjected to such intense humiliation anymore.

He even sighed in relief—thank goodness, thank goodness~

But guess what happened next?

Bai Liang was filming the shaved-head scene for "Youth." It was just Lu Han's luck—he'd been most criticized in "Shanghai Fortress" for his bangs.

Honestly, losing to Bai Liang wasn't that shocking—after all, no one in the younger generation could match him.

So when photos of his shaved head surfaced, people only teased a little, saying things like, "What a huge gap between top-tier stars."

Lu Han kept slacking, completely unfazed.

Then photos of Chen Duling's shaved head came out.

This time, everyone was truly stunned.

She was a girl who cut off her long, beautiful hair for the role—she'd been famous as the campus goddess with jet-black, waist-length hair!

The film's official account released behind-the-scenes footage showing how heartbroken Duling was after shaving her head.

But after crying, she kept acting, and didn't make a fuss—she cried just once.

A flood of people liked and praised the girl.

This was a genuinely positive promotion—after all, Chen Duling never forced the entire crew to shave their heads with her.

Lu Han:. Oh no, I'm done for.

After seeing this thing, he immediately declared that he had to spend less time online these days, having already foreseen just how badly he was going to get roasted.

Fortunately the roadshow was over, otherwise he suspected he'd have people getting right in his face and going off on him.

The "educational lesson" this incident gave him was: never again did he want to "compete on the same stage" with Bai Liang — damn it, getting his movie destroyed was one thing, but having to be chased down and killed outside the movie too?

This capybara seemed able to suddenly leap out from any angle and then slap him across the face twice.

Meanwhile, Chen Duling had no idea she'd accidentally broken someone's defenses — she was genuinely upset, feeling she looked too ugly.

Summer in Shancheng was just like a furnace, unbearably hot.

But the young lady's love of beauty conquered everything.

As long as she wasn't filming, she would definitely put on the whole wig.

Otherwise, she said she didn't really dare to hang around Bai Liang.

It wasn't that her idol burden weighed that heavily — mainly, Zhou Ye didn't need to shave his head.

That little sister was still pretty as ever, and always stuck close to Bai Liang; Chen Duling, sporting that tomboy haircut, was basically just there to serve as a foil.

How could she possibly allow that!

"Dudu, actually your short hair looks pretty nice too. Take off the wig — it's so hot." Bai Liang offered sincerely.

"Don't lie to me." Chen Duling said pitifully.

"How could I lie to you? Actually, a pretty Miss will still be pretty even with a shaved head. Have you seen 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'?"

"I have, why?"

"There's a character in it called Yilin — she's a bald nun, and she still managed to attract the flower-picking thief~"

Although the description was a bit odd, under Bai Liang's encouragement, Chen Duling still took off that damn wig.

Unfortunately, the moment she touched her head, she ran off in a flash.

Her head was drenched in sweat — too disheveled!

She even suspected it had gotten smelly under there. If her head stank too, she felt she really might break down.

To ease her awkward state of mind, Bai Liang invited her to go watch a movie together.

This made Miss Dudu both thrilled and conflicted — at her "ugliest," her male idol senior was asking her out?

The girl frantically searched for outfits to match, but everything she tried on felt weird, clashing with that short hair.

In the end, she could only choose to put on a baseball cap.

Still, she firmly applied makeup for herself, then full of anticipation went with Bai Liang to a rather faraway cinema.

This made her little heart go thump-thump wildly — why did they have to go so far? Did the senior have some ulterior motive?

So should she play a little hard to get?

And the result was — Bai Liang took her to see "Shanghai Fortress"!

Yes, that's right, "Shanghai Fortress."

The reason they'd gone so far was entirely because the nearby cinemas simply had no evening showings.

Bai Liang had searched for half a day before finding a cinema eight kilometers away that had one screening.

The upside was, there really weren't many people watching — the entire cinema, including the two of them, only had three people.

Bai Liang even felt that guy who came alone to watch a movie and chose "Shanghai Fortress" was a bit of a freak — was he really that desperate?

Actually, Chen Duling also felt the senior was a bit of a freak. The film had been called terrible by so many people, yet he insisted on going to seek thrills? Did he want to see just how bad it was?

Bai Liang: I'm taking you to see what happens to Lu Han when he doesn't cut his hair~

Using others as a mirror, one can discern one's own gains and losses.

Chen Duling: I've read a lot of books! You can't fool me, big brother.

Bai Liang: Is that so?

Their eyes met. Looking at his sincere gaze, Miss Dudu's mind instantly went blank, completely "forgetting" all those books she'd read.

No way around it. The willing are hooked.

If she's willing to be deceived, no amount of book-reading will help.

Then the two of them really did, with great gusto, watched this massive stinker of a film.

Hmm. This film was actually quite remarkable, because it was uniformly bad — it basically collected every mistake Chinese sci-fi could make.

But if you had to pick what was most memorably bad about it, it was actually Lu Han's bangs that stood out more.

No wonder Teng Huatao could pass the buck — serving up something like this, honestly, Bai Liang had to say a word or two for Lu Han: his share of the blame really wasn't that big.

That guy just delivered the kind of performance you'd expect from a fresh-faced pretty boy — nothing particularly outstanding.

Of course, today's screening of this film did serve another purpose.

After watching it, Chen Duling let out a long sigh of relief, feeling that shaving her head was no problem at all — compared to a period of awkwardness, she didn't want to hold anyone back or get roasted by the audience over it.

"How do you feel?"

Hearing this, Chen Duling almost burst out laughing, feeling that Bai Liang's way of comforting her was really special.

"Mm, I'm much better now."

"There's still a show tonight."

Tonight? A show?

Chen Duling's eyes lit up again, but after getting back into Bai Liang's RV, she felt... she shouldn't have had so many expectations.

This kind of "date" was just too weird.

First he took her to watch a massive stinker, and now he wanted to take her to watch Lu Han's livestream.

That's right — Lu Han was going to fulfill the bet.

He was a man of his word anyway. He'd completely given up and resigned himself to mockery — how the movie did no longer mattered; finishing this bet between men sooner was actually more important.

One sentence, one glob of spit—even knowing that going live would draw a high-intensity barrage of abuse, he just wouldn't read the comments.

If he dragged it out too long and got branded as a man who didn't keep his word, that would sting worse than the movie flopping.

"Hello, hello~ Can you hear me?"

He didn't know why, but after connecting the mic with Bai Liang, Lu Han felt a distinct sense of relief.

With this big brother around, he inexplicably felt a lot safer.

It wasn't that he'd suddenly turned gay—because the moment Bai Liang's voice appeared, the crowd that had been cursing him really did shift their attention right away.

At this point Bai Liang was still watching his stream on one side, casually answering some questions from the comments on his end.

"My relationship with him? Pretty good actually, he treats me to meals all the time."

"You want me to review 'Shanghai Fortress' and Lu Han's acting? Honestly bro, I just took a Miss to see 'Shanghai Fortress'."

Lu Han heard that and was quite touched, "You even brought a girl to watch my movie?"

Bai Liang: "Yeah, do you have any idea how hard it was to find a theater with an evening screening of 'Shanghai Fortress'?"

". Wow! Who did you take to see it?!"

At that moment Guan Xiaotong suddenly crashed in beside Lu Han, her face written all over with gossip.

Lu Han couldn't hold her back~

"Chen Duling, she's right next to me right now, she's going to play games with your boyfriend later."

"How did you two suddenly think of going to watch my movie?" Lu Han quickly held back Guan Xiaotong, whose soul of gossip was burning wildly, thinking to himself, don't cause some kind of livestream accident.

"Dudu, why don't you say it?"

"No way." Chen Duling said a little sheepishly.

"It's fine, this guy's mental resilience is still pretty solid, no need to worry about hurting him—I often stab him a couple times for no reason."

"Alright, no need to say more! I get it now bro, you're really out for blood. I just won't make movies anymore, alright?" Lu Han said helplessly on the other end.

At this moment the comments were furiously spamming "It's a deal" and "Great merit."

But this kind was already just teasing, still different from the kind of abuse loaded with real malice.

After that came the long-awaited girlfriend-kissing segment.

Not to mention, the young couple put on quite the show.

Bai Liang watched with great relish, while Chen Duling was getting a little restless, glancing at the screen, then glancing at Bai Liang.

She seemed to want to say something, but ultimately closed her mouth again.

Afterwards everyone connected mics again and played games for a while, and this bet between men was officially wrapped up.

At the same time, Lu Han's saying in the stream that he wouldn't make movies anymore naturally spread out as well.

Everyone said this was his greatest contribution to the film and television industry—finally the era of fresh-meat fanservice movies was coming to an end~ universal celebration.

However, what no one knew was that right after, a "Zhu Xian" starring Xiao Zhan was about to come roaring back, throwing open once more the traffic gate that "Shanghai Fortress" had shut.

(End of chapter)