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

Chapter 768: Behind the Scenes of "The Book of Ancient Kingdoms"

The filming of "The Book of Ancient Kingdoms" went very smoothly.

As the opening episode of the first installment, the program team had specifically targeted the recent wave of public attention, using Emperor Chen's authentic calligraphy piece as the major selling point of this episode. They collaborated with experts and professors from the restoration center to explain the traditional methods of restoring genuine artifacts, as well as the modern AI-assisted systems.

Xiao He had personally experienced almost all of these parts and was very familiar with them. So, when he followed the restoration experts to create restoration items, he handled everything with ease from start to finish.

And on-site, it was the first time he saw Emperor Chen's calligraphy piece, "Stabilize the Realm," which was half-restored at the restoration center.

Of course, it had now been confirmed that this work was actually a copy by Mr. Qian Congwen. But even as a copy, it still carried Mr. Qian Congwen's intrinsic worth, so it couldn't be considered completely without value. This exhibition was also the official way to clarify the truth behind the recent art center artifact burning incident, preventing more people online from spreading rumors and allowing the misinformation to spiral further out of control.

At the same time, it was an opportunity for the Beijing Museum's Cultural Relic Restoration Center to make a public appearance.

But when Xiao He saw the calligraphy piece—which had originally been burned into small fragments—now appearing before him in a form that was both familiar and unfamiliar, he couldn't stop the shock rising in his heart.

Although he had guessed, ever since this program was established, that this incident was one of the main reasons for "The Book of Ancient Kingdoms," he had never expected that the copy, which had been burned into that state, was now more than half-restored by the restoration center. Except for the obvious splicing marks on most of the edges and the dark brown burn stains that couldn't be removed, it looked almost exactly the same as what he had seen at the art center back then.

When he had seen it in the restoration room, those fragments had been soaked in chemical solutions, making it impossible to discern their shapes. They were pitch black from the soaking, and he couldn't tell which fragment belonged to which part of the puzzle.

He never expected that Professor Ye's team at the restoration center had spent over a month restoring the piece to this level. Such incredible efficiency was truly admirable.

This was no different from bringing the dead back to life!

But it was also clear how hard they had been working during this time. This was no small workload. The entire team must have been working day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep, to restore this piece...

Xiao He observed carefully and indeed noticed that although Professor Ye's makeup covered it well, there was still an undeniable weariness in his expression. He must have agreed to the program team's invitation in order to promote the concepts and knowledge of cultural relic restoration, hoping to raise public awareness about artifact protection!

Otherwise, such a busy man would certainly have been unable to spare the time.

No wonder most of the heavily scripted content arranged by the program team fell to him.

From then on, most of the tasks were handled alternately by the host from Central TV and Xiao He.

Professor Ye mainly focused on explaining the key points, enhancing the overall value.

In addition to the restored "Stabilize the Realm" copy, Xiao He also saw other authentic works by Emperor Chen.

—These were the real deal.

The fact that they managed to gather all of them into one program, even if some weren't brought to the site, showed just how much effort and resources the program team had invested.

As Xiao He listened to the host's narration and gazed at these works, admiration for Emperor Chen swelled in his heart, while he couldn't help but feel both respect and regret for a calligraphy master like Qian Congwen.

...

The on-site recording segment of the program ended amid everyone's applause.

Xiao He completed the entire recording without a script from start to finish, surprising many on the program team.

Even Liu Rulan, who was sitting offstage, was stunned. She turned to Xiao Chen beside her and asked, "When did he even have time to memorize this script?"

Xiao Chen looked equally bewildered: "I don't know. Wasn't Brother Xiao always reading the *Book of Changes*?"

"He's already reading the *Book of Changes*?"

Liu Rulan was even more shocked. "But didn't Zhuang Hongyi say he should save that for last?"

This kid—hadn't he just gone to pay respects at the temple? What kind of nonsense was he up to now?

Could it be that he had already finished all the previous ones?

Ha. Hah...

The corners of the woman's mouth twitched slightly.

Given Xiao He's increasingly extreme level of competitive king behavior... it was actually possible!

At that moment, Liu Rulan was even considering what press release their company should issue to explain things if Xiao He suddenly dropped dead from overwork.

—Heaven is my witness! They didn't force this competitive king to do this!

They really weren't the kind to push their boss into overworking himself!

Sometimes they really wanted to kneel down and beg the boss to stop being so competitive, to stop pushing himself so hard, because they were about to be driven to death by him too!

-

When Xiao He came off stage, he had no idea what Liu Rulan was thinking.

As he walked into the backstage area, he heard someone calling out to him: "Xiao He! Xiao He! Teacher Xiao!"

Xiao He stopped and turned around, only to find an old acquaintance walking toward him.

"Yang Heng! Long time no see!"

Xiao He immediately smiled and greeted him.

Yang Heng seemed to be preparing for some performance as well. He was wearing a black-and-gold stage costume, with heavy makeup on his face. But his eyes were exceptionally bright, making it easy for Xiao He to recognize him at a glance.

"Xiao He, long time no see! Your recording just now went very smoothly! We were watching from below and saw everything!"

A faint smile appeared on Yang Heng's face.

"Oh, so you're part of the performance team for the later segments?"

Xiao He understood.

In fact, many people didn't know that aside from formal live variety shows, the broadcast order of TV programs ≠ the order of on-site recording.

Often, to save time, the actual recording was done in segmented blocks.

Take the simplest example: the content sequence viewers see on TV might start with a stage drama performance introducing the main artifacts and historical stories, followed by the artifact display, and finally expert explanations.

In between, there might be some fun song-and-dance performances and small activities to keep the expert explanations from being too dry, making the entire variety show both academic and entertaining.

But in reality, during on-site recording, they might just do the artifact display and expert explanations first, then film all the hardcore content in one go from start to finish.

Finally, the opening segments and interludes were recorded separately, sometimes not even on the same day.

This was the case with "The Book of Ancient Kingdoms" as well.

Special guests like Xiao He, including experts and professors, recorded first. Then stage actors like Yang Heng came on to perform.

"That's right." Yang Heng nodded, confirming Xiao He's guess. He touched the crown on his head and said with a rather complicated tone, "This time, I'm playing Emperor Chen again."

As an important program for Central TV, their National Theater had to contribute several performance segments. Especially since it was related to Emperor Chen, Yang Heng's responsibility was undeniable.

Even though he hadn't succeeded in the audition, his position as the stage version of Emperor Chen remained unshakable.

Xiao He couldn't help but laugh: "Well, that's really great. The two of us are each doing our part."

One for the stage version, one for the TV drama version—wasn't that still shining in their respective fields?