Chapter 206

After much deliberation over these past days, Ellen Page gradually abandoned her previous obsessive thoughts; she was quite content to continue living as a girl.

Too bad her confession was rejected by Xu Can……

Soon, Xu Can wrapped his scenes on the "Inception" crew.

He had originally come just to have fun, to take part in a film he quite liked in his previous life — treating it like a large-scale cosplay event, satisfying a craving before moving on.

And earn a billion at the box office along the way.

Xu Can's focus was still more on "Druggist."

As for the role he played this time, Arthur, Xu Can hadn't felt any strange changes for the moment.

The Joker, John Wick, Peter Parker, and even Jamie, the male lead of "Love and Other Drugs" —

these characters were all flesh and blood, with their own inherent storylines.

Xu Can judged that the more well-rounded the character, the easier it was to exert influence on him after merging.

But Arthur, as a supporting role, didn't have much storyline of his own; the character was set up rather thinly, so perhaps the influence wouldn't be too great.

Based on multiple experiments, Xu Can gained a deeper level of understanding of his own golden finger.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but after this, Xu Can's dreams became more vivid and easier to control.

Whenever he wished, he could wake up lucid in the dream and take control.

Flying, teleportation, creating people he knew around him… doing whatever he pleased in dreams.

"Uh… this ability is a bit of a dud."

Xu Can quipped with amusement.

These were conclusions he had reached through constant training on Third Brother's turf.

The "Druggist" crew didn't stay long at Third Brother's place; after finishing his scenes, Xu Can hurried off to Jin Ling without a moment's delay.

Otherwise he was afraid he wouldn't last even one more day there —

it really was "clean and hygienic," to the point that Spider-Man himself would probably end up running to the point of collapse.

……

Back in Jin Ling, Xu Can finally recuperated and recovered.

Compared with those watery curries and masala, Jin Ling's cuisine was simply heaven.

With the full crew assembled, filming progress sped up considerably.

Being able to collaborate with an internationally renowned director/actor like Xu Can, everyone was full of drive and enthusiasm.

Wang Chuanjun especially — whenever he had free time, he liked to come over and ask Xu Can for acting advice.

What could Xu Can do?

He could only express his recent insights on performance as plainly and understandably as possible.

But in the beginning, only Wang Chuanjun was attending the lessons.

Later, Song Qian, Zhou Yiwei, Zhang Yu, and even Wang Jianhui himself came to humbly sit in.

Xu Can was dumbfounded — your three-minute performance made it into the Beijing Film Academy textbook!

Coming to listen to my lecture?

Xu Can assumed he was just being polite.

Until 2015, when "The Dead End" was released, and Wang Jianhui's segment playing a murderer was truly incorporated into the textbook.

Facing media interviews, Wang Jianhui was quite modest.

"My performance in that segment was also originally inspired by Teacher Xu Can; he has been a tremendous help to my acting career."

At the same time, Wang Chuanjun, who had also delivered outstanding performances in multiple roles, similarly revealed to the media:

"Yes, Teacher Xu Can shared a lot of insights on acting onset back then. I took notes in a little notebook at the time — filled an entire one. That notebook still helps me often even now."

"I'm truly grateful to Teacher Xu Can."

Only then did the media and the public realize —

so the collective explosion of Chinese-language film industry and Chinese entertainment's powerhouse actors after 2010 really was connected to Xu Can!

Those past rumors weren't baseless — they were all true!

At this point the media still wanted to interview Xu Can himself, but unfortunately Xu Can had long since wandered off to the ends of the earth, living it up somewhere on some unknown sea.

He was like an immortal who had renounced the world, occasionally descending to film one or two masterworks to save all sentient beings,

and the rest of the time, there was simply no finding him.

……

Back in 2008, the Olympic fervor had yet to fade, and Xu Can was filming in the still-bustling city of Jin Ling.

That day's scene was the dancer Liu Sihui, in order to earn money to treat her daughter's illness, going to a nightclub to pole dance.

Song Qian, whose charm hadn't faded from her heyday, faced the pole before her with some hesitation.

"Director Xu, how about I privately show you the effect first?"