Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

”Speaking of which, when Mr. James sent us back, he gave me a little insight into Director Tannis’s arrangements... Did they already approach you this morning?”

Liu Rulan brought up another topic instead.

Hearing this question, Xiao He showed hesitation on his face. After a moment of silence, he finally gave a slight nod. ”Yeah, there is something about that.”

”Then tell me the details?”

Liu Rulan’s eyes gleamed with curiosity and the sharpness that belonged to an agent.

”Someone went through Director Tannis’s connections to invite me to participate in a multi-series web drama that Netflix is about to launch. I’ll play a major supporting role in it.”

Xiao He explained.

”The web drama is called ’Doctor White.’ Apparently, it’s a project their company plans to focus on in the future. There are a lot of ensemble scenes. If I can join, it might turn into another really good long-term project.”

Liu Rulan’s eyes lit up.

”What do you mean?” she immediately pressed on with enthusiasm. ”Is it a medical comedy? Or what genre is it? What kind of role are you playing in it?””Uh—”

Xiao He scratched his head and gave Liu Rulan a helpless smile. ”Sister Liu, you know as well as I do, given how popular their platform’s recent releases have been, there’s no way it’s heading in that direction.”

Even though the title sounded like a light medical comedy, it was, in fact, an unadulterated crime drama.

”I skimmed through it a bit. To put it simply, it’s about a doctor who originally comes from a wealthy family with a certain social status. After a sudden accident knocks him down to rock bottom, his life undergoes an earth-shattering transformation, and he eventually plummets into the abyss.”

Liu Rulan furrowed her brow. ”A modern gangster crime theme? The current climate isn’t exactly great. Are they sure they want to touch on those serious topics?”

”It’s actually not that bad. It leans more toward metaphor and satire. The main focus of the plot is on the male lead, who, by doing business with gangs and maneuvering between several factions in the underground district, struggles to survive and eventually climbs back to the peak of his life step by step.”

Xiao He shrugged.

”I doubt the capitalists care about expressing any rebellious ideas. For them, what matters more is making money.”

Spending their own money to make films that criticize themselves, then profiting off ordinary people—how is that not a form of value exchange?

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many corrupt chaebols in Korean dramas.

Of course, that wasn’t the point here.

”Their production needs an Asian gang image and wants to find a Chinese person to play it.”

Xiao He explained further.

”As for the character profile, I hear they want to model it after Zhuge Liang. The main identity is one of the leaders of a Chinese gang. In the ’Doctor White’ storyline, he has a few brief confrontations with the male lead.”

Since scripts like this are often written as they go, with only a character outline and framework in the early stages, and later additions and plot twists based on audience reactions, this was all Xiao He could learn from Director Tannis.

This kind of gangster crime genre is still very popular right now, especially with a bit of bloody and violent elements, combined with cultural clashes and satirical metaphors about certain societal phenomena. If done well, at least the first two seasons could maintain a good reputation.

As for the later seasons, everyone knows how it goes.

Once a project truly blows up, all kinds of forces get involved, the capital side stops being pure, and there might even be situations like swapping screenwriters or the entire team. So in the end, it usually can’t escape a bad ending.

”Their requirements for this role are actually pretty low. After hearing about my situation, they actively reached out to Director Tannis to help broker the connection. So if I decide to join this project, I’ll basically have to go abroad and report to the set right after finishing ’Imperial Enterprise.’”

Xiao He spoke while watching Liu Rulan’s expression.

Liu Rulan’s face finally showed a clear change.

Her expression shifted from surprise to hesitation. ”But if that’s the case, your schedule for reporting to the set will clash with Director Zhuang’s ’Dragon.’”

Even though they still hadn’t given Director Zhuang a definite answer, he had already started building his team and looking for other actors.

Going by the timeline, the filming start dates would likely overlap exactly.

And this time, there was no way to work on both sets simultaneously—one in the country, one abroad. Even if Xiao He wanted to take on both jobs at the same time, he simply lacked the means.

”Yeah, so I’ve already decided to turn it down tomorrow.”

Xiao He nodded and said it very frankly.

Liu Rulan: ”You made that decision so quickly?”

In truth, putting ”Dragon” and ”Doctor White” side by side, each had its pros and cons.

”Dragon”’s subject matter was destined to appeal to a smaller audience. It could only be broadcast outside the mainland, essentially giving up the domestic market.

The good side, though, was that if Xiao He joined ”Dragon,” he would directly be the lead. There was no need to worry about screen time. And with Director Zhuang Hongyi in charge—a guy who was pretty well-known in several neighboring countries and had plenty of connections—there wasn’t much worry about ”Dragon” ending up as a 404 or being killed off prematurely.

As for whether he had plans to use ”Dragon” to break into the international market and win awards on foreign platforms, that was his own calculation.

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”Doctor White,” on the other hand, was a big Netflix project with an extremely wide audience reach, which would be a huge help in boosting Xiao He’s global popularity.

Maybe a lot of Chinese people who don’t follow foreign-language dramas don’t know much about Netflix, or even what it is.

It’s an emerging foreign film and television giant, focusing on self-production and self-distribution—meaning it creates its own original content, invests in production independently, and pushes its own platform for release...

Its status is equivalent to domestic platforms like Penguin and Fruit Video, and it far surpasses domestic streaming platforms. Covering more than 190 countries and regions worldwide, with over 300 million paid subscribers, every drama it releases goes global simultaneously, comes with built-in world-class buzz, has the top-tier promotion in the world, and is a major award winner abroad.

Some netizens even joked: ”If the world’s good dramas were a bushel, Netflix would take eight-tenths...”

Looking at the foreign dramas that have been especially popular in recent years, every single one carries the Netflix logo.

But of course, even gods stumble sometimes. Especially with this kind of serialized sequel production, a bad ending is unavoidable eventually. But overall, its authority has reached a level where audiences are willing to blindly pay for it.

For this new major project, they had their eyes on Xiao He and promised him a fixed character position. You could say they were taking this invitation very seriously.

If Xiao He agreed to participate, given his current international influence and his confidence in his acting, even as a supporting role, it wouldn’t stop him from winning over foreign fans. In fact, he might just ride this wave and firmly establish himself in the foreign online scene.

At that point, Xiao He could really be described as ”going global.”

But at the same time, the downsides of this were also significant.

First, the foreign market wasn’t his home turf after all. Xiao He’s side would be at a disadvantage. And with the typical unpredictability of foreign scripts, no one could be sure how the character would develop in later seasons, whether it would stay consistent, or whether his role’s screen time would really remain as initially promised, instead of getting sidelined into a marginal character later on.

Second, the atmosphere abroad wasn’t great. Even Netflix had been caught up in numerous scandals, especially regarding international stances. In serious cases, one person’s mistake could drag down the entire production team. And right now, the situation was particularly volatile. If Xiao He got too deeply involved in profit-sharing with the United States, he could easily be affected.

Finally, there was what happened today...

Even though Sister Liu and the others weren’t hurt, Xiao He couldn’t help but feel worried.