Reborn in the Hong Kong entertainment industry in the 1980s

Compared to the male lead Ren Shaohua, Lan Xinya's screen time is pitifully short. Whenever she appears, she is either helping Ren Shaohua wash his clothes, cooking for him, or comforting and accompanying the confused young Ren Shaohua.

Lan Xinya is innocent, pure, gentle and considerate. She silently devoted herself to Ren Shaohua without complaint, and even when she died because of him, she had no regrets.

Hu Xiaoxiao read the script carefully from beginning to end again.

In the 40-episode martial arts drama, Lan Xinya didn't have a single fight scene.

Because Lan Xinya doesn't know martial arts!

So, she only cares about the male lead?

Hu Xiaoxiao pulled out the entire script and read it character by character. She paid special attention to all the female characters.

Besides the female lead, Lan Xinya, there are two other female supporting characters with significant screen time.

One is Lin Erniang, the tavern owner, a charming and sophisticated woman who navigates relationships with various men. She is skilled in martial arts and repeatedly helps the male lead, Ren Shaohua, while secretly developing feelings for him, making her Ren Shaohua's confidante.

Another character is Zhou Bijun, a female assassin from the assassin organization "Death Hall," known in the martial arts world as "Poisonous Scorpion." She is ruthless, vicious, and highly skilled in martial arts. During an assassination mission, she is injured and rescued by Ren Shaohua, falling in love with him. Ren Shaohua later obtains a peerless martial arts manual through a fortuitous encounter, but Zhou Bijun, under orders from the Hall Master, steals the manual and kills Ren Shaohua. Torn between the Hall Master's orders and the man she loves, Zhou Bijun experiences considerable inner turmoil and pain in several episodes.

Zhou Bijun, intending to betray the Palace Master for Ren Shaohua's sake, confessed her love to him. Unexpectedly, Ren Shaohua declared that he would only ever love Lan Xinya and would never be attracted to another woman.

Driven by love turned to hatred and jealousy towards Lan Xinya, Zhou Bijun directly caused Lan Xinya's death, and then killed one of Ren Shaohua's brothers. Finally, Zhou Bijun mastered demonic arts, killed the Palace Master, and ascended to become the new Palace Master of the Hall of Death.

Near the end, Ren Shaohua and Zhou Bijun have a spectacular showdown, featuring a lot of action scenes and one of the highlights of the entire series.

In the end, Zhou Bijun couldn't bear to kill Ren Shaohua, and was instead killed by him.

After reading Zhou Bijun's script, Hu Xiaoxiao counted her scenes and found that Zhou Bijun had ten more episodes than her. She, as the female lead, had less than ten episodes of screen time, while Zhou Bijun had nearly twenty.

Moreover, Zhou Bijun's character is very multifaceted, showing ruthlessness when killing, sweetness when in love, the pain of love and hate, and the ruthlessness of killing her master to take the throne. She is much more vivid than Lan Xinya, the female lead who only knows how to do laundry and cook.

However, despite having so much screen time and being so meticulously crafted, she's only a supporting actress. Meanwhile, Lan Xinya, with her one-dimensional personality and monotonous storyline, is the female lead.

Hu Xiaoxiao thought for a while, put away the script, and went to the TV station to find Charlie.

"Charlie, you lied to me." Hu Xiaoxiao said to Charlie, feeling wronged, "You clearly said I would be the female lead, but I'm just a supporting actress. Although I'm willing to play a supporting role, you can't just make me happy for nothing."

Charlie had been busy preparing for the start of filming these past few days, so busy that he was completely overwhelmed. When he heard Hu Xiaoxiao's words, he stopped what he was doing and said, "You are playing the female lead, Lan Xinya, that's right."

"But I counted, and Lan Xinya's scenes are much fewer than Zhou Bijun's. Zhou Bijun is clearly the female lead."

"So that's what you're worried about?" Charlie laughed. "Xiaoxiao, haven't you ever watched TV dramas? The distinction between protagonists and supporting characters is based on loyalty and treachery. Zhou Bijun is a villain, a bad person, so no matter how much screen time she gets, she's still just a supporting character. Lan Xinya, on the other hand, is a kind and good person, on the loyal side, so she's the protagonist. Besides, Lan Xinya is Ren Shaohua's lover, so she has to be the female lead."

Hu Xiaoxiao was very envious of Zhou Bijun's scenes. "Lan Xinya grew up in a security escort agency, and her father knows martial arts. Why can't she also know martial arts and travel the world with Ren Shaohua?"

"It's necessary for the plot," Charlie said. "The script is already written. If Lan Xinya's storyline is changed, the entire script will have to be changed. Xiaoxiao, do you think there aren't enough scenes?"

Hu Xiaoxiao didn't answer the question, but instead asked, "I want to know, who plays Zhou Bijun?"

"It's Yuna. Only she can play this role in this play."

"why?"

"She is very experienced in acting action scenes, and her image is also very suitable for the role of Zhou Bijun."

Hu Xiaoxiao asked, "Will Sister Linda release them?"

“This is a big-budget drama for the company, a key project for next year, and she will prioritize the overall situation,” Charlie explained to Hu Xiaoxiao. “Xiaoxiao, your main job right now is fulfilling your duties and obligations for the Miss Hong Kong pageant, so you don’t have much time to film. The role of Lan Xinya has few scenes, is easy to play, and doesn’t require action scenes, making it perfect for your current situation.”

"Besides, you're the leading lady, a high-profile actress. This role was meticulously tailored for you. As long as you portray the character well and leave a good impression on the audience, you won't have to worry about finding roles in the future. Don't worry, after you hand over your Miss Hong Kong duties to the next Miss Hong Kong, I will definitely film a drama with a large role for you, one that you'll act in from beginning to end."

Since Charlie had already brought it up, Hu Xiaoxiao chose not to say anything more and sensibly said, "I see, I misunderstood Charlie. I'll go and study Lan Xinya's acting now, and try not to disappoint Charlie."

Seeing how sensible and obedient Hu Xiaoxiao was, Charlie nodded and said, "Take good care of yourself, and I won't treat you unfairly."

After leaving Charlie's office, Hu Xiaoxiao went to the film and television city next to the TV station and found the training place of the "Grandmaster" crew.

Besides the thrilling plot, the most captivating aspect of martial arts dramas is their spectacular fight scenes. For each new martial arts drama, the martial arts director designs a new set of martial arts moves.

In "The Martial Arts Master", the peerless secret manual that Ren Shaohua mastered was the Bodhidharma Sword Technique.

The martial arts instructor had already designed the moves of the Bodhidharma sword technique and was teaching Mingxu each move step by step.

When Hu Xiaoxiao arrived at the training ground, she saw Mingxu holding a sword and learning very seriously from the martial arts instructor.

Hu Xiaoxiao found a place to sit down and watched Mingxu's every move intently, her fingers occasionally mimicking his movements, practicing sword techniques and wrist exercises.

When Hu Xiaoxiao was learning fan techniques on her own, she found a lot of martial arts videotapes and learned a lot from them.

But self-taught skills are completely different from those taught by professional teachers. There are many things that she wouldn't have known about unless the martial arts instructor explained them to her.

After Mingxu finished his round of practice, he saw Hu Xiaoxiao sitting there rotating her wrists. He wiped the sweat off his face with a towel, walked over, and asked, "Xiaoxiao, what brings you here?"

"Let me see if I can learn a few moves," Hu Xiaoxiao said.

"Your role doesn't involve any action scenes, so you don't need to work so hard."

"It's never a bad thing to learn more; you never know when you might need it."

Mingxu thought it made sense and nodded, "That's right. The company has a lot of martial arts dramas in production, and you might have action scenes in the future. Why don't you train with me?"