Chapter 3: I Want to Be Handsome Like a Bolt of Lightning

Fang Xinghe knew a little about Han Han, because he had taken on Xiao Si's marketing flyer.

It sounds a bit funny, but for a long stretch of time Han Han and Guo Jingming really were bound to each other — mention one and the other immediately comes to mind.

The root cause was that they both rose to fame through the same new concept.

Actually Fang Xinghe didn't see what was so worth competing in a writing contest, but… what a coincidence, right?

He opened the panel and glanced at 【Artistic Attributes】; hanging at the very top was an entry reading 【Writing 76】.

In his previous life, Fang Xinghe had started working as an internet water army the moment he graduated high school; during the years when his writing and thinking were at their peak, he didn't let college ruin it — on the contrary, he kept honing himself for many more years.

Sick as he was, with no one around to talk to in real life, he could only brandish his pen across the internet.

So practice after practice, his Writing attribute had been hammered up to 76 points.

It doesn't look that high, and compared with those top-tier linguistic-genius types it really isn't, but writing works like this — output ability doesn't equal output material; having top-tier prose doesn't mean you have top-tier content.

Fang Xinghe's output ability was only 76; by the scale of 60 passing, 70 excellent, 80 expert, 90 master, 95 divine, 76 points barely scraped by as usable.

But his output material was top-tier, solidly god-tier.

Thirty years of lead time!

And it was the thirty craziest years of Huaxia's social development, the thirty years of most explosive information overflow.

Even if in later years he was just an ordinary person with a slightly off-kilter talent—nothing impressive—this kind of dimensional overview was terrifying enough.

So, as for whether he could win an award in the New Concept competition, Fang Xinghe wasn't worried in the slightest.

But winning an award wasn't the goal — becoming famous was.

So how to pull it off?

He had to add some explosive hooks to himself.

A water army boss understood exactly how trending topics worked; even though this was the print-media era, not the hyper-developed internet ecosystem of the later world, the underlying logic was the same.

In fact, because page space was more precious now and media resources more limited, the demand for explosive hooks was actually higher.

To catch this ride, he had to possess an extremely outstanding trait.

Thinking to this point, Fang Xinghe opened the panel, solemnly selected the newbie gift pack, and pulled 【Looks】 up to 99 points.

If there were no New Concept Composition Contest, he would have chosen to raise two attributes to 90 points.

Having two strong points would clearly make development smoother.

But now he had to take the extreme route; those shortcomings could be filled in slowly after cashing in on the New Concept bonus.

He tapped confirm in the panel, and the system popped up a prompt —

【Please choose a development direction for Looks; you may provide three descriptive short phrases to determine the style】

Fang Xinghe deliberated carefully and made a cautious decision: between striking features and delicate features, highly malleable, eyes good at expressing emotion.

The system continued prompting —

【Please set the adjustment period yourself; minimum one month, maximum three years】

Hmm, it's November now; too long or too short is no good, so… three months.

【Confirmed】

【Now displaying the final effect based on the host's original features; if unsatisfied, further fine-tuning is possible】

Suddenly a lifelike 3D face projected before his eyes; he could command it to rotate, or ask it to make any expression he wanted.

Fang Xinghe studied it carefully, the more he looked the more his heart stirred.

The skin was too good — it really could be described as "face like a crown of jade"; the whole face had a luminous jade-like quality, and when his expression was subtle it brimmed with a divine presence.

This kind of quality could only be extracted from the very top-tier skin texture; medical aesthetics and makeup could never produce such luster and such texture.

Because it was rare, it was superhuman.

The eyes were large, but the eye shape was diamond-like, so they didn't look round or dull.

The inner corners of the eyes hooked slightly downward, the outer corners lifted slightly upward, the overall line parallel, presenting as a standard parallelogram.

The double eyelids flowed naturally, the lashes long and dense, the eye sockets sunken just right.

Very beautiful — the kind that, taken alone, could serve as an aesthetic case study.

And the "good at expressing emotion" Fang Xinghe had requested was embodied in the changes of eye shape under different expressions.

When smiling, the eye corners softened, carrying a peach-blossom-flooding depth of feeling.

When his face went cold, his eyes narrowed slightly; focus and intent gathered, with sharpness hidden within.

Lips lightly pressed, gazing wistfully into the distance, a Chen Kun-style artistic melancholy welled up of its own accord.

What a magnificent face—if Brother Xun was the founding master chasing him down to spoon-feed him, then he had personally robbed the founding master, even snatching the bowl clean.

But, for some reason, Fang Xinghe always felt something was still missing.

What was it, exactly?

He pondered for a long time; just as this divine face was starting to blur in his mind, a flash of inspiration suddenly streaked through his brain —

Exactly—recognizability!

There's a fact about the entertainment circle that's hard for outsiders to grasp: the industry actually truly lacks handsome men and beautiful women, rather than being flooded with them as people assume.

Because being beautiful in real life and being beautiful on camera are two fundamentally unrelated things.

What the industry lacks are people who are beautiful on camera, not big beauties and handsome guys in daily life.

Moreover, this beauty must be extremely recognizable; otherwise, the audience simply can't remember the face, and the actor can't be propelled forward or properly inhabit a role.

So recognizability is an artist's lifeblood.

Lin Qingxia, Zhang Manyu, Gong Li, Shu Qi, the Four Dan, the Double Ice, Liu Yifei, and the sweet, honeyed purple beauties Ni Za and Ba—every female star whose face you can recall the moment her name is spoken is a victor in this elimination match of recognizability.

The negative example is Principal Wang's girlfriends — in real life each and every one is drop-dead gorgeous, but looking at photos alone you simply can't tell who is who.

Outsiders, seeing with their own eyes that "so many handsome men and beauties in the entertainment circle can't make it," assume being good-looking is useless and that you have to throw yourself into sleeping your way up or have backing — actually it's the opposite; backing really isn't as useful as being good-looking.

It's just that what the entertainment circle wants is to look good on screen, and to look good in a very distinctive way.

In the final analysis, it's just that the needs are different.

Precisely because he understood the logic deeply, Fang Xinghe judged that he needed an extremely distinctive personal highlight to establish a one-of-a-kind label.

Right now, this face still wasn't enough.

After thinking for a moment, he asked: "Can you change the iris color without altering any other detail?"

【Affirmative】

"Good, then execute the modification."

The 3D face slowly began to shift the iris color, presenting all manner of exotic eyes one by one.

Just as the pupil turned a particularly translucent brownish-grey, Fang Xinghe hurriedly called for a stop.

"Stop, that's the one!"

The newly born eyes had a pupil of pure black, with the iris brown on the outside and grey within, exceptionally clear.

Therefore, when the pupil dilated or contracted, it looked especially distinct.

Setting aside the exotic, stunning quality it brought, these eyes were simply too suited to displaying subtle emotions on the big screen.

Plasticity maxed out, full marks!

Fang Xinghe's only concern about these eyes was that the iris color was too trendy, carrying a certain probability of making people lose their sense of intimacy; moreover, when playing certain roles he would have to wear pure black cosmetic contacts, which would actually weaken his expressiveness at that point.

However, he didn't deliberate too long before deciding to keep the modification.

The benefits brought by this super-rare iris color far outweighed the drawbacks, so why not?

Cool and aloof, like a demon or an immortal — I just love it.

With these eyes, as long as the nose and lips performed normally from here on, he would be a top-tier handsome guy.

But his "father" clearly wouldn't be that perfunctory, and instead delivered a perfect answer: a straight nose bridge, refined lip shape, an extremely even nasal base — all serving the overall bone structure of the face.

The five features as a whole sat between the "heavy" and "light" extremes.

Generally speaking, the "heavy" type features large, compact facial features with little negative space, intense color, and high contrast; the "light" type is the exact opposite.

The "heavy" type has more visual impact, easily producing a stunning effect, often appearing glamorous and alluring; the "light" type looks very comfortable, especially enduring, often carrying a literary, tranquil quality.

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chow Yun-fat are standard "heavy" looks; Lu Han and Xiao Zhan are refined "light" looks.

So normally men default to thinking Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chow Yun-fat are more handsome — stunning at first glance — but the extreme "heavy" look has too limited a range of roles, and isn't as malleable as the "light" type.

Fan Fan Bingbing can't play Bai Baihe's roles, let alone play the pure, first-love, fragile, delicate flower — Gong Er or Xiao Gu — that's role fit.

But the god-tier version of Fang Xinghe was different: lift his head and he's aloof, lower it and he's gentle; draw thick brows and he's "heavy," shave them sharp and he's "light"; in daily life he's a super handsome guy with impact and refinement perfectly balanced; once he gets on screen, the person follows the styling.

Fang Xinghe had just one word: satisfied!

A good face can be a trump card in any era.

Being strong or not is a matter of a moment; being handsome or not is a matter of a lifetime.

"Alright, that's it then."

Three months from now, this brother's gonna be so handsome he'll be a bolt of lightning.

Fang Xinghe lifted his head in satisfaction, when suddenly a sticky, syrupy moan reached his ears: "Sir, harder…"

Hm?

Wait, what the hell are you guys watching?

The three little bros had drool running down the corners of their mouths, staring unblinkingly at the screen, appraising content extremely characteristic of the era.

Fang Xinghe couldn't make out the faces clearly, but those big buns sure were snowy white.

"What kind of film is this?"

Liu Fu replied offhandedly: "Sex and Zen something-something, didn't pay attention."

"It's 'Sir, I Want!'" Dang Tao answered while still slurping drool, "Damn, Zhong Zhen is such a slut…"

Yu Xiaoduo immediately protested: "Who does she think she is? Could she be sluttier than Ye Yujing?"

Liu Fu also had his own pick, blustering: "You're all too shallow, Shu Qi is the sexiest, okay? Don't just look at the chest, pay attention to the charm! Damn, once I strike it rich, I gotta find her to shoot something even more intense…"

Fang Xinghe's head was full of question marks, feeling completely out of place with these perverts.

To fit in, he casually chimed in.

"No ambition, what's so good about Category III? The unmounted teachers of Japan are the eternal gods!"

The moment the words fell, all three bros turned their heads and stared at him dead-on.

"Bro, you got a way?"

"Bro, I beg you, get your bros some real intense films!"

"Bro, I've always believed in you the most, I know you can definitely do it!"

In an instant, Fang Xinghe found himself in an awkward spot.

Whoa whoa, are kids these days really that starved for that kind of stuff?

Go on p… ah ptooey, I've never been on one.

Pure little Fang scratched his head: "Where would I get that stuff for you? I'm a clean-living person…"

"Pfft!"

All three bros simultaneously flipped him the middle finger, turned back around, and began heatedly discussing where they could get their hands on truly instructive teaching materials of esoteric knowledge.

That's how '98 was. Fang Xinghe, who'd long since seen enough of all that messy stuff, only thought about soaring into the sky shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun, while ordinary boys' restlessness usually only existed between the little patch of sky they could see and the tiny inch of ground they couldn't.