The official Weibo account of *A Picture-Perfect Kingdom* announced the cast lineup and @-mentioned Gu Xiaowei, Ren Qingzhou, and Lin Yujie.
Although many marketing accounts had previously revealed that Ren Qingzhou was about to participate in this ancient-costume epic, since he hadn't taken on a TV drama, especially an ancient-costume one, for a long time, people were still half - believing and half - doubting this news.
Now that the official announcement had finally arrived, Ren Qingzhou's fans, the "Sugar Cubes," were in a frenzy.
Naturally, his acting fans hoped that Ren Qingzhou would star in more works and create more characters. In fact, even his appearance fans shared the same hope.
After all, a TV drama usually had at least 30 to 40 episodes. Being able to see their idol's handsome face for more than half a month was surely a happy thing, wasn't it?
However, Ren Qingzhou's fans also knew that their idol preferred singing. So they respected and supported his choice.
Now that he suddenly took on a TV drama, and judging from the production scale, it was going to be a long - running series, probably over 60 episodes. The Weibo was filled with screams of excitement. Fans simply couldn't contain their emotions.
Of course, amidst all the screams, there were also some discordant voices.
On the one hand, as an adaptation of an IP novel, *A Picture - Perfect Kingdom* already had a large number of original novel fans. As the saying goes, "There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes." It was impossible for all the original fans to be satisfied with the actors chosen by the production team.
Moreover, the character of Shangguan Jiayu was quite three - dimensional and had a large number of fans from the original novel. With so many different opinions, while some were looking forward to it, others were bound to be disappointed.
On the other hand, Shangguan Jiayu was not the protagonist of the novel, but Ren Qingzhou was ranked ahead of Lin Yujie in the official announcement. This also touched the sensitive nerves of some people.
Lin Yujie was not extremely popular in the entertainment circle. To be precise, his dramas were well - known, but his own popularity was not as high. He had acted in many hit TV dramas, playing supporting roles, both positive and negative characters, and had gained quite a number of acting fans. His popularity among passers - by was also not bad.
When the marketing accounts revealed that Lin Yujie was going to play Shangguan Jiatang in *A Picture - Perfect Kingdom*, his fans once thought it would be his first leading - role drama. However, Ren Qingzhou came out of nowhere, and it turned out that the second - male lead in the original novel had become the leading male.
Lin Yujie's fans were very dissatisfied. Some of them even came up with long - winded conspiracy theories. For a while, *A Picture - Perfect Kingdom* was extremely popular.
Ren Qingzhou didn't really care about these things. The disputes in the fan circle actually had little impact on the stars themselves. Moreover, he couldn't persuade them even if he wanted to, and sometimes his words didn't work.
Compared to this, the thing that bothered him the most at present was the upcoming separation.
In the past, he was a carefree single guy. He could go wherever he wanted with just a suitcase.
Now that he truly had someone to care about, parting had become a sad thing.
Su Tang didn't have a day off today. After transferring to a new department, although she wasn't as busy as before, she still couldn't leave work on time every day.
She even thought that overtime was the corporate culture of Tencent.
Fortunately, they weren't restricted from using their phones at work, so she could still find some time to contact Ren Qingzhou.
She really wanted to see him today because this was their first separation since they got together.
Once he entered the filming crew, she didn't know when they would see each other again.
So when Ren Qingzhou sent a message saying he wanted to pick her up from work, Su Tang hesitated for a moment.
But she still chose to decline his offer.
After thinking it over, Ren Qingzhou really didn't have any low - key cars. If he parked his flashy cars downstairs at Tencent, she would surely become the topic of her colleagues' after - work conversations for a long time.
To avoid trouble, Su Tang decided to take the subway there.
Today she still had to pick up Xihuan. Her father was leaving tomorrow, and Xihuan would go to live with her for a while.
So when Su Tang saw Ren Qingzhou downstairs at her company, she was really shocked.
He had specially driven a car that didn't stand out too much. The reason Su Tang could recognize him was that Xihuan stuck its head out of the car window and kept barking at her.
Su Tang opened the car door and saw Ren Qingzhou's cool face. Even though he was in the car, he still wore sunglasses and a mask.
"I'm here to pick you up from work."
"Let's go to the supermarket then." Su Tang had a sudden idea. "Is that okay?"
"No problem. Let's go." Ren Qingzhou quickly started the car and drove into the endless stream of traffic.
They of course couldn't go to a supermarket in a bustling area. Fortunately, there was a supermarket near Ren Qingzhou's residential community. There weren't many people there on weekdays. Most of the customers in this community were local residents. The housing prices in the surrounding communities were quite high, and it was not uncommon to see celebrities here, so there wouldn't be any particular commotion.
Ren Qingzhou pushed a small shopping cart and entered the supermarket with Su Tang.
This was the first time they had gone to the supermarket since they fell in love. Just like ordinary couples, they selected their favorite ingredients together and bought some daily necessities.
This was the earthly atmosphere of life, but it rarely appeared in Ren Qingzhou's life.
So when he experienced this special feeling, he found it extremely fresh.
So this was what it felt like to have someone by your side. It was a rather wonderful feeling. When two people in love did those warm little things, they would already feel happy.
It was just like when he lived alone in the past, his house always had a lot of instant food, but now there were many more vegetables and ingredients.
"When are you going to move in?" Ren Qingzhou remembered that her lease was about to expire soon. For convenience, she still lived near her company.
"I'll move my things little by little after a while."
"Let me know in advance. I'll try to come back to help you move." Ren Qingzhou also knew that once he entered the filming crew, he might not be able to take care of Su Tang's matters, so he reminded her in advance.
"It's okay. If necessary, I'll just hire a moving company. You focus on filming and don't worry about me."
"Summer is coming soon. It must be very hot filming in ancient costumes. Be careful of heatstroke. Pay attention to safety when you're on the wire. If I have a chance, I'll definitely go and see you." Su Tang also babbled a lot to him. They returned home from the supermarket, and then Su Tang started to prepare dinner.
Ren Qingzhou packed his things again and prepared to post a Weibo.
Su Tang suddenly asked him, "Who are you going to the filming crew with?"
"Li Momo. Wei Guo will also go." Ren Qingzhou took out a script and put the others below it. He actually had an electronic script, but he was more used to the paper version, so he specially brought them with him, although they were indeed a bit heavy.
"I saw something on the Internet today about you and Lin Yujie..." Su Tang was a bit hesitant to ask. "Will this have any impact on you?"
"Don't worry. It shouldn't."
"Actually, we already knew these things when we signed the contract. Unless they secretly change the amount of screen time or use double - faced scripts, actors generally won't fight over their billing order."
"After all, it's just a job. To be honest, the billing order isn't that important, at least not to me."
Just as he was talking, Su Tang's phone suddenly rang.
Su Tang asked, "Whose call is it?"
Her phone was on the living - room table. Ren Qingzhou went over to take a look and replied, "Your mom."
"Can you answer it for me?"
Ren Qingzhou took her phone and walked into the kitchen. Su Tang first motioned for him to be quiet, then asked him to answer the call and turn on the speakerphone.
"Mom."
"Tangtang, what are you doing?"
"I'm cooking. What's up?"
"It's nothing. I just wanted to ask if you've been busy with work lately?"
"Not too bad."
"Your aunt said the other day that there's a child from a relative's family who is also working in City S. If you're not too busy lately..."
As soon as Su Tang heard her mom's tone, she knew that her mom was going to arrange a blind date for her again. She quickly interrupted her, "I'm really busy lately. Let's talk about this later."
"You child. You just told me you weren't busy, and now you're saying you don't have time. You're clearly just not willing to meet the person."
"You're not getting any younger. Why do you always make me worry about this? Why don't you just bring someone home?"
After Ren Qingzhou answered the call for her, he didn't go back to the living room. He just stood by the kitchen door, silently watching her. Su Tang decided to end this embarrassing call quickly. "Mom, I'll hang up now. I suddenly have something to do."
After saying that, she hung up the phone without caring what her mom was saying.
As soon as the call ended, she saw Ren Qingzhou looking at her with a half - smile. "It seems your mom has arranged blind dates for you more than once."
"Blind dates are either zero or countless." Su Tang replied.
"When will I have an official status?" He said this half - jokingly, but in his heart, he hoped for a definite answer.
At present, both of their parents didn't know about their relationship. He originally planned to take Su Tang to meet his parents when they returned to China.
He also wanted to know when Su Tang would take him home to meet her parents.
"Let's wait for a while. I want our relationship to be more stable."
This answer was neither satisfactory nor unsatisfactory.
It was just a rather moderate response.
Just like they both knew clearly that although they were getting along happily now, there were actually many problems between them that hadn't been solved. If these problems weren't resolved, it would be difficult for them to have a future.
For now, they just tacitly didn't mention these problems and only enjoyed the sweet moments at present, just like every young couple newly in love.
In this relationship, Su Tang had already made a lot of compromises, but Ren Qingzhou didn't want to let her be wronged. So the road they had to walk was even longer and more arduous.
Su's mom's call made the already somewhat depressing atmosphere of separation even heavier.
The only sound in the kitchen was the knife hitting the chopping board. Xihuan seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere between its two masters and came over, circling around them.
In the end, it was Su Tang who comforted him. "Take it one step at a time. Everything will be okay."