My Landlord is an Idol Singer - Chapter 154

The place they chose for dinner wasn’t fancy, more like a street-side eatery, but Gu Zhinan got them a private room. Well, “private room” was just a small partitioned space. But no one found it odd. After all, none of them came from wealth; this kind of grounded, casual spot actually felt just right.

“To Natural Entertainment’s long and prosperous future!” At the table, Lai Jingming was the first to raise his glass and set the mood. “To smooth filming and box office success!”

One toast after another. Gu Zhinan finally had to stop him. Was he going to toast forever?

“Have you settled on shooting locations yet?” Only then did Gu Zhinan remember, without locations, what film were they even making?

Situ Hongwei nodded. He’d scouted a few spots over the past few days.

“The school scenes can all be done right here in Hangcheng. I found a high school that’ll let us shoot. The environment’s decent, and as long as we don’t interfere with normal classes, they’re fine with it. Hangcheng’s big on film, lots of places are used as sets, so schools are pretty open about it.”

Gu Zhinan mulled this over. 

“The main storyline takes place at school anyway. The rest can be shot at that new film base. It’s a bit small, but good enough.” Situ explained, giving his professional opinion as someone who actually understood filming locations.

Lai Jingming leaned over, his face slightly flushed from the alcohol. He spoke seriously. “Tomorrow morning I’ll drive to Hengdian with two of Situ’s guys to find some veteran extras. Costumes and props are on you, Brother Situ. Zhinan needs to head back to his apartment tomorrow, Legend of Sword and Fairy is about to be published, so he can’t miss an update.”

Situ nodded. “No problem. Gotta make money to feed the crew. Besides, the actors aren’t even in place yet, we’ve got time.”

“…” Yeah, to pay the landlady’s rent, thought Gu Zhinan with mild embarrassment.

“No, we need to pick up the pace. If we work hard, we might make it for a release after the New Year!” Lai Jingming said firmly. They had little money but a good script. Who knew what that fancy Shanghai production would be like?

But he believed in his directing skills. A fifty-million production? He’d love to go head-to-head.

Situ was stunned by Lai Jingming’s resolve. He glanced at Gu Zhinan, only to find him calmly nodding and quietly eating. He’s really letting Fatty Lai do this? 

Situ’s original plan had been to avoid the post-Spring Festival film wave and aim for a May Day release instead. But since the boss was fine with this, Situ kept his thoughts to himself. Still… his own excitement began to stir.

He’d only wanted to run his wedding shop properly, but now he was dragged aboard this wild ride by Fatty Lai. No choice but to follow and see it through.

When dinner ended, Situ took his team and left. Only Gu Zhinan and Lai Jingming stayed at the company’s third floor. Thanks to Gu Zhinan’s suggestion, the third floor had been turned into living quarters with several bunk beds. Lai Jingming’s old office was now Gu Zhinan’s personal workspace.

Such considerate service!

That night, when Lai Jingming tried to start a conversation about grand dreams and ambitions, Gu Zhinan shot him a weary look. He wisely shut his mouth. Clearly, Gu Zhinan was sleep-deprived.

And judging from his mood that morning… Lai Jingming had reasons to believe Zhinan must’ve been up to something good last night.

Early next morning, Lai Jingming took two of Situ’s wedding shop staff to drop Gu Zhinan back at his little apartment before heading straight for Hengdian. Gu Zhinan needed to write the next parts of Legend of Sword and Fairy according to the outline, at least enough to build up a buffer.

Looking at the familiar apartment, Gu Zhinan fought the urge to play ranked games. The comment section for Legend of Sword and Fairy now has a pinned post from Cheng Mengxi. 

It announced that Volume 1’s physical book was in production, even posting a few preview photos. There was also this message, “We’ve already spoken to the author, Straight Man, any day he misses an update, his manuscript fee gets docked. Everyone’s welcome to keep him accountable!”

Because of this, the comment section was livelier than usual. Even his long-forgotten Weibo account was gaining followers, up to 1.5 million now.

Readers rejoiced, justice may be late, but it always arrives!

Gu Zhinan felt helpless. Was trust between people really this fragile…?

As he scrolled, he stumbled on a hot new post. His eyebrow twitched, it was a detailed roast of his book, listing over ten flaws.

Like, “Li Xiaoyao is too pervy, a total loser character.”

“Zhao Ling’er is written like a spoiled drama queen, her character setting is weird and she doesn’t seem beautiful at all.”

“The plot’s a confusing mess, no skill needed to write this. The language is clunky and old-fashioned.”

And so on.

Annoyingly… some points made sense.

At first, Gu Zhinan thought about taking these as constructive criticism, after all, learning from faults was an old Chinese tradition. But the more he read, the more he frowned.

This guy’s just a pure troll.

He admitted his writing wasn’t perfect, but not that bad, surely? With his freakishly good memory, he’d mixed TV, game, and side materials into this version of Legend of Sword and Fairy. It should’ve been okay. But this critic gave no advice, only endless bashing.

Curious, Gu Zhinan checked the poster’s profile, yep, they’d posted nothing but negative reviews all over Chinese Web.

A professional hater. Forget it then.

No wonder readers were already attacking him in the comments.

“Don’t like it? Then don’t read it, you brainless troll!”

“You’re an idiot, can’t even write a sentence that makes sense!”

“Your mother called, you forgot your meds!”

“Go write your own bestseller if you’re so clever!”

“Buzz off, ruining my mood for the day!”

“Freakin’ mood killer!”

“Just here to hate for attention? Get lost!”

“Guys, he’s just farming points, ignore him!”

“Don’t bother, report him to the mods instead!”

Before, Gu Zhinan would’ve ignored this. But this time, he left a comment, “When you don’t treat someone like a human when they’re young, they won’t grow up to be one.”

Lu Xun: “Kid… why does this sound so familiar?”

He exited the post, but moments later, his phone rang. It was Cheng Mengxi. “You checked the comments, didn’t you?” She got straight to the point.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“Your comment stirred things up again. Lots of haters these days, probably jealous that Legend of Sword and Fairy is getting published.” She sighed. She’d seen these trolls swarming his comment section all week.

“Maybe they just genuinely dislike it?”

“If they really disliked it, they’d leave quietly. There are plenty of other books, even on other platforms. Reading something you hate is just masochistic.”

Cheng Mengxi wasn’t shy about calling them out.

“I saw your comment, by the way. ‘Not treated as human when young, not human when grown’? Nice. Insulting without a single curse word.” She laughed. Sharp words, deep meaning.

Hey, I didn’t say that. That’s Lu Xun’s line!

“I wasn’t insulting, just offering perspective!”

“Yeah, right. Well, your comment lit a fire, your fans are rallying behind you again.”

Gu Zhinan panicked and reopened the post. His fans had filled the thread.

“Following Straight Man to purge the traitors!”

“Marching with Young Master Gu to crush these dogs!”

Oh, come on…

“Take it down, please. Can we delete this post?”

“Let it stay a bit longer? Your fans are having fun.”

“No, no. Trolls troll for attention, but my readers aren’t like that. They’ve got standards.”

Cheng Mengxi paused, then gently said, “Alright.”

He said he’d shut himself in to write for a few days. She didn’t argue. 

The more famous you are, the more gossip follows, it’s always been that way. Fame? Gu Zhinan thought of a line from a wise old man in his past world, “As long as I write good articles, why fear anything?”

Solid truth. He smirked. His heart was for important things, not for garbage like this.

Not long after, the thread vanished from the site. Good. It was annoying. Of course… no writing has been done yet. He kept browsing the comments. One popular post caught his eye, “Lin Yueru bravely chased love, but why is there no real Li Xiaoyao worth chasing in life?”

When he clicked it open, his eyes widened. A girl had posted a teasing photo… sheer black stockings.

“Haipu City’s Li Xiaoyao reporting in, sis, drop your WeChat, I’m very warm!”

“Beijing’s Li Xiaoyao here with my sword, WeChat, and I’ll teach you swordplay!”

“Hangcheng’s Zhao Ling’er here, so sexy, sis! I wanna learn too!”

“Sis, can you mail me those stockings? Also, your WeChat, Xiangcheng’s Li Xiaoyao here. Very big!”

What the hell? I was only gone a week, how did the comment section turn into this?! But compared to the earlier post… this one was actually funny. He chuckled and gave it a like.

“Hope all the girls in the comments stay positive but keep it decent, okay? And all you guys claiming to be Li Xiaoyao… what about me, the real Legend of Sword and Fairy Li Xiaoyao?”

He closed the comments and opened his outline. Time for three days of focused writing. But his comment left the forum buzzing.

“Whoa! Straight Man’s back?!”

“He’s been gone a week and now this?!”

“Takes this chaos to lure him out, huh?”

“Girls, keep posting, he likes it!”

They joked excitedly, even forgetting about the story’s new update.

First serious writing sprint since August. Ten thousand words in an afternoon. Exhausting, but satisfying. That night, he tried cooking noodles like his landlady did. Still not as tasty. Same pot, what secret did she use?

Ding.

His phone buzzed. He thought it was a message from Lai Jingming. But no… it was the landlady. “Did you return to the apartment?”

Why does she always ask that? Is rent void if I don’t stay here?

“Yeah, I need to keep Legend of Sword and Fairy updates stable. Got work to do, so I’ll be writing here for a few days.”

What he didn’t say, he focused better here. Maybe because this was his starting place?

“Oh.”

At Haipu City. Xia An’ge’s apartment. Cheng Mengxi and Ruan Ying were snacking on the couch while Xia An’ge sat gloomily at the table, picking at her bland boiled chicken breast.

She suddenly missed Gu “Brute” Zhinan sneaking her snacks.

Then she remembered seeing Legend of Sword and Fairy’s comment section that afternoon. She grabbed her phone. “Your Legend of Sword and Fairy is great. I really enjoy it.”

A true fan!

Gu Zhinan teared up. She must’ve seen the comment section too. 

“I really enjoy your singing, especially when you play and sing live.”

Xia An’ge’s ears turned red. She only sang those songs for him in person. Feeling secretly pleased, she suddenly thought of that scandalous comment. “So… you like black stockings?”

“You like that too, Landlady?” Gu Zhinan replied in shock. Wait, I’ve never even seen her wear them…?!

“Pervert!”

“???” Huh? How was that perverted?

Xia An’ge’s face burned as she puffed her cheeks and sent one last angry message, then blocked him. Gu Zhinan blinked, about to explain about aesthetic appreciation, but… message rejected.

Blocked???

He fell silent…