Ever since signing on as the male lead for “A True Hero Does Not Break the Law,” Jiang Ze felt as if he were living in a dream.
Honestly, which “18th-tier” obscure actor hadn’t dreamed of being chosen by Ying Shi Entertainment and skyrocketing to fame?
But a dream was just a dream. Jiang Ze considered himself not ugly—his features were decent—but under Guanjun’s strict aesthetic standards, he definitely wouldn’t rank.
Who would have thought this pie would fall right into his lap?
He planned to call his parents back in his hometown and ask them to burn a few extra sticks of incense for their ancestors, to thank them for their blessings.
Jiang Ze was a signed artist at a small entertainment company, and he ranked fairly high within the company.
While most of his colleagues were stuck in short-form dramas or, at best, supporting roles in low-budget web series, he was able to audition for and secure numerous supporting roles in major productions.
But ever since he was selected to be the male lead in Ying Shi Entertainment’s drama, his status within the company had shot up to number one. His boss and agent were both terrified he would jump ship.
And this was just based on being selected—the production hadn’t even started filming yet. Whether the drama would flop or become a hit was still unknown.
But his agent, Sister Qiu, had great confidence in him—or rather, great confidence in Boss Ying.
Sister Qiu believed that even if this drama didn’t become a hit, it would never lack buzz. The name “Guanjun” alone already represented buzz. Even if it flopped, it would flop spectacularly.
And as a complete nobody, Jiang Ze had already gained an opportunity to be seen in this industry.
When he learned that the female lead was Xia Wenxin, Jiang Ze was dizzy with disbelief once again.
It was Xia Wenxin! He was actually going to work with Xia Wenxin!
He had watched “The Legend of Medicine Maiden” several times—not only to learn from the actors’ performances, but also because he genuinely loved the drama.
Among the cast, he had great admiration for Xia Wenxin’s acting.
Sanxiu was a very perfect, upright character. If played even slightly too much, she could easily come across as “pretentious” and turn the audience against her.
But Xia Wenxin had handled it perfectly, bringing a perfect, nearly flawless character to life with a sense of genuine humanity.
And now, he was going to act opposite such a skilled actor!
Jiang Ze threw himself into studying the script obsessively. He didn’t aim to deliver a stunning performance on set—he just wanted to avoid holding everyone else back.
He played the male lead, Shen Rui, a rookie police officer assigned to the police station on Yanxi Road.
Within the station’s jurisdiction was Yanxi Garden, and at the edge of the garden was a small square. Every night, the small square turned into a food district.
The stall owners setting up for business, the residents out for a stroll, and the customers from the nearby large shopping mall and cinema all made this area bustling and lively.
The story begins on an ordinary night.
That night, Shen Rui was on the night shift. The police station received a call reporting a robbery at a gold store near Yanxi Park. The robber was armed with a knife, and the patrol officers in the area had already gone after him.
The robber broke into Yanxi Small Square, and in the chaos, took an eleven-year-old girl hostage.
By the time Shen Rui and his colleagues arrived, the robber had already been subdued. However, his right hand was injured, and he was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
According to the hospital’s follow-up report, there was a penetrating wound on the robber’s right hand, near the base of the thumb at the wrist. The wound was very small. The weapon must have been a stick-like object about two to three millimeters thick.
The patrol officer who had been chasing him reported that the robber had suddenly been injured, causing him to release his knife. They had checked the area afterward and found no suspicious traces.
Of course, the scene had been very chaotic at the time. Even if there had been any traces left, they would have been contaminated or covered up afterward, making them impossible to find.
Shen Rui reviewed the surveillance footage repeatedly, finally noticing a three-wheeled electric food cart selling barbecue skewers in the corner of the frame.
After the robber was injured and released the hostage, the people nearby were all in a panic. But the female stall owner remained very calm.
He watched that short segment frame by frame several times. Because of the distance, he could only vaguely see that the female stall owner had raised her hand both before and after the robber was injured.
But from such a distance, her raising her hand didn’t prove anything, nor could it be used as evidence.
Shen Rui then searched along the straight line from the skewer stall to the robber’s position. On the wall of a public bathroom not far behind the robber, he found a small hole.
He called in colleagues from the forensics unit. They found traces of the robber’s blood on the small hole in the wall, and were able to confirm that the tool which made the hole was the same object that had pierced through the robber’s right hand.
That night, after work, Shen Rui went to the night market at Yanxi Small Square and saw the female stall owner of the skewer cart—the female lead of this drama, Ye Wei.
Aside from wanting to get to the bottom of the robber’s injury, Shen Rui was even more curious about how she had done it.
He bought some skewers and sat on the edge of a flower bed not far away, watching Ye Wei the entire time.
But he didn’t notice anything unusual.
After finishing his skewers, he looked at the empty bamboo sticks in his hand and thought of the report on the robber’s penetrating wound. The description of the weapon closely resembled the bamboo skewers used for grilling.
Unfortunately, the skewers at this square were all pretty much the same. You could easily pick up a bunch just by looking around.
But this did remind Shen Rui of something. In the surveillance footage, just before the robber was injured, Ye Wei had raised her hand—almost as if she were pulling a skewer out of a container.
Except, without any external force assisting it, how could a bamboo skewer have such strong penetrating power that it could even pierce a hole in a concrete wall?
Jiang Ze, reading the script, knew that the female lead Ye Wei was the last remaining heir of a hidden weapon martial arts sect. But Shen Rui in the drama didn’t know that.
And Shen Rui was just an ordinary young man who had followed the standard path—studying, taking exams, and entering the workforce.
Later, as he investigated various cases, he slowly came to understand that beneath the surface of ordinary daily life, there existed an astonishing martial arts world.
Martial arts, internal energy, sect rivalries—these were no longer just stories confined to the pages of books.
Jiang Ze didn’t just study the script; he also joined the action training camp for “A True Hero Does Not Break the Law” and met Xia Wenxin.
Within a single day, he had completely separated the actress from the character.
Xia Wenxin had a very good temperament, almost with a laid-back, veteran-cadre kind of ease. She didn’t seem to quite keep up with the jokes of her peers. Compared to Sanxiu’s “obsessiveness,” she was much more relaxed and nonchalant.
But her foundation in action scenes was truly excellent. Jiang Ze couldn’t help but admire and envy her.
However, Jiang Ze’s training program was different from everyone else’s. Everyone else trained in traditional martial arts. He was the only one doing weighted running, shooting, and close-quarters combat.
During training, all he could do was envy the others as they practiced leaping over walls and rooftops, while he continued with all kinds of physical conditioning. Compared to the others, he felt like a clumsy, lumbering bear.
At one point, Boss Ying came to check on the training. She then told Jiang Ze to work more on building his muscles, especially his abs. She said that for a male lead with his character profile, he had to have abs—otherwise, the audience would criticize him.
His agent, Sister Qiu, had been following his schedule closely recently. After hearing Boss Ying’s words, she strongly agreed and began controlling Jiang Ze’s diet, determined to help him achieve that lean-but-muscular physique—the kind that looks slim in clothes but reveals muscles when undressed.
Jiang Ze said, “I didn’t see any shirtless scenes in the script either.”
Xia Wenxin, standing nearby, responded very seriously, “Once you build those muscles, the clothes definitely won’t stay on.”
Jiang Ze: “…”
All in all, this was the biggest-budget production he had ever been on, and also the one with the best atmosphere.
The training period passed quickly. By mid-February, the production finally began filming.
Everyone changed into matching black hoodies. At the opening ceremony, they lit incense, received red envelopes, and then posed for photos from reporters and unauthorized photographers.
Naturally, the most popular was Xia Wenxin. As the male lead and her official romantic partner, Jiang Ze stood beside her and posed for a few couple photos.
Jiang Ze was a bit nervous, but the entire process went very smoothly.
After the opening ceremony ended, Sister Qiu told him that the trending topic for the production’s launch had already entered the top ten, and he had gained the most attention he had ever received since his debut.
[Is the official couple of “A True Hero Does Not Break the Law” already locked in? (Image) (Image)]
The attached images were photos released by marketing accounts. In the photos, the man and woman were wearing matching black hoodies with the drama’s logo on the front. The actress had chin-length short hair and a slight smile, while the tall actor beside her had a very serious expression.
[Xia Wenxin is around 1.7 meters tall, right? The male lead standing next to her makes her look so small.]
[Jiang Ze, right? I’ve got my eye on him! Look at his rolled-up sleeves, look at his wheat-colored forearm, look at those toned muscles QAQ. He seems to have a great physique QAQ.]
[You’re just lusting after his body. You’re shameless.JPG]
[As soon as Xia Wenxin speaks to him, he immediately smiles. Why does he look so dog-like when he smiles?]
[Haha, of the three dramas produced by YSYS, two have romantic storylines, and both have dog-like male leads (dog head).]
[This is the downside of original scripts—you don’t know the character settings!]
[The female lead should be from the martial arts world, right? They went out of their way to find a female lead with a martial arts background, so she must be an expert!]
[Probably. The previously rumored ZYX also gained attention through action scenes. The female lead definitely knows martial arts.]
[Flashback to the Heavenly General and the Rogue Immortal. I feel like the female lead is going to beat up the male lead…]
[Although both are dog-like male leads, Shen Xiao is a little milk dog, while Jiang Ze is clearly a little wolf dog. He looks like he can fight too… right?]
[Say that again while looking at this photo (image).]
The attached image showed Jiang Ze chatting with Xia Wenxin, his smile so wide his eyes had disappeared. There wasn’t a trace of wolf-like wildness—only the goofy, silly vibe of a dog.
[Are they starting to promote the CP this early? Has XWX become a blood bag?]
[He’s a nobody, so of course he’ll seize this opportunity.]
[Xia Wenxin is the real victim here. Forced by Mushroom’s pressure, she has to go along with being drained of popularity.]
[Pfft, go look at the trending topics. There isn’t a single CP-related one. They’re all just from the launch topics.]
[During “Little Sweetheart,” when CP fans demanded the leads do promotional couple interactions, Guanjun said there would be normal promotional activities, but they wouldn’t require the actors to do any CP-oriented interactions. Because actors and characters are separate. The actors had simply completed a job, and in the future, they would need to play other roles. The little bit of CP interaction between Zhou Qingning and Shen Xiao later was only because they were from the same company.]
[I remember. Guanjun got heavily criticized back then for breaking the audience’s fantasies.]
[But Guanjun replied immediately, very patiently telling the audience: “Characters forever exist within the story. Projecting your hopes for a character onto real people—only to find out they’re just coworkers—will only make you more disappointed. Focus on shipping the characters, and the joy will last forever.”]
[I feel like Mushroom has a story…]
[Haha, she did ship a pair of drama CPs before. Then, the day after the drama ended, the male actor was exposed for having a girlfriend outside the industry. She must have seen through the illusion because of that!]