Wu Lei’s Newbie Plant Boy Experience

Half a year ago, Wu Lei was still a “newbie about plants”. The last time he raised plants can be traced back to his elementary school days.

This time, he moved the happy tree, panax notoginseng, mangosteen, cactus, and amaryllis home, and went to see how his plants were doing when he got up every day. He said that silent plants have a graceful and wonderful world.

“Plant Newbie”

When spring just emerged this year, Wu Lei posted three photos of small potted plants on Weibo, from seedlings to dense branches and blooming flowers. “Recent achievements,” he wrote. This young man born at the turn of the millennium also started raising plants.

He picked these plants in pots from the flower and bird market in Beijing. When he went there for a walk half a year ago, Wu Lei was still a “plant newbie”. The last time he remembered growing a plant dates back to his distant elementary school days. It was an onion-like Daffodil. After being immersed in water, white flowers bloomed soon after. It was easy to raised.

This time, he chose plants based on his “sight” – this one is good, this one is quite small, and this one looks easy to grow. As for habits, there is no clue. You still have to ask the shop owner how often to water and what does “watering thoroughly” mean? The uncle naturally cast a distrustful look at him – young man, these guys will definitely die if you raise them for two days. Especially this amaryllis, it takes three months to bloom. You may not be able to grow it for three months, right? “Ouch! Do you know the desire to win in my heart? He probably thought that a kid like me would only be passionate for three minutes. I just thought, it just so happens that there is nothing going on during this period, I can definitely grow flowers.”

“Raising children”

Happiness tree, Panax notoginseng, Setaria, cactus, amaryllis, these plants were moved home by Wu Lei, and many of them were still small seedlings with an unattractive appearance. In order to prevent dogs from causing damage, he placed these “young” plant collectively in his home. As he looked around, they were full of life.

The first thing Wu Lei does when he gets up every morning is to see how these plants are doing. For this boy in his early twenties, raising plants allows him to feel the mood of “raising children” in advance.

In the corner, the little Panax notoginseng was whirling, and the leaves seemed to have radar, climbed to the top of the happy tree on the side. Wu Lei felt the silent but vigorous world of plants, “Plants can move and think, and they are striving for more sunlight and nutrients.” Occasionally, it is inevitable to bring in the popular thinking logic of the new generation – facing these silent lives, Wu Lei, who raises plants, will seriously shout “Come on” to them from the side.

Plants’ “repayment”

In Wu Lei’s eyes, plants can also understand people’s hearts. The amaryllis plant that the man from the flower and bird market pointed out that he could not grow, under his careful care, four flamboyant and gorgeous red flowers appeared one after another from a small flower in a few days, which surprised him very much. “It’s like a good omen. Such a small ball suddenly branched out and became a flower. When their shape changed dramatically, I felt very powerful.”

Wu Lei prefers this small pot of amaryllis, partly because he is secretly competing with the uncle in his heart, he wants to prove himself. When he first brought it home, Amaryllis was only the size of a fingernail. He watched a lot of videos and figured out its habits – it likes water, but not too much, and likes sunshine, but it will become dehydrated if left out for too long. The flower buds slowly appeared, and for a while the branches started to shoot very quickly. Wu Lei was worried that the branches would be too long and would bend easily, so he stuck a chopstick in the soil every day and fixed the branches with shoelaces, “like wearing a backpack for a child.”

He is also thinking about challenging more difficult techniques. “There is one disadvantage in growing flowers at home. Flowers need insects to help pollinate them. We can also use some methods to replace them. I am going to study what to do next.” At this point, the voice on the other end of the phone obviously became louder and he started talking non-stop.

Three months of heat

Young people often prefer excitement. It was the movie “Dwelling By The West Lake” that made Wu Lei, who was in his early twenties, connect with these silent plants. In the movie, he plays a young man who is very close to nature. In order to understand the feeling of communicating with plants, he used a simple and simple way – “becoming” a plant keeper.

He watched the documentary “Kingdom of Plants” and was amazed at the new world inside; he also bought a book “Illustrated Plants” to learn about the various “characters” of different plants.

For Wu Lei, a child star, life and work have been mixed together for a long time. The 22-year-old has limited life experience. He needs to practice the preferences of the character to broaden the boundaries of life. Does it really work when performing? His answer was that it would at least give him some confidence getting into the role.

He called this experience a brief fascination. He joked, “Others have a three-minute fever, but I have a three-month fever.” The hobbies of these characters have also become part of his life. He often inevitably falls in love with various fields because of his work. For example, after playing a DJ in “Upcoming Summer”, the music played in his headphones became electronic music. Another example is getting used to work out because he have to show his muscles in front of the camera from time to time.

He has a little gym that he carries with him, hidden in the trunk. Not only are it equipped with small health items such as neck pillows and hand warmers, but it also have a lot of fitness equipment, such as elastic bands and waist twist plates.

This “three months of enthusiasm” was quite effective and brought him “hot discussion”. Not long before the conversation, Wu Lei had just become a hot topic because of the scene in “Love Like The Galaxy” where he exposed his abs. This is not the first time that discussions have arisen due to body shape. Wu Lei calmly expressed that this was expected. In fact, he has higher standards in his heart, “People may have lower requirements for muscles, and compared with those who are really in good muscle condition, I’m the kind of person who can’t hold his head up and has to walk by in a humble voice. I’m not very self-disciplined at ordinary times. Like everyone else, I stay up late and live an irregular life. I’m just a serious person who does his job well.”

On the set of “Love Like The Galaxy”, the director would often call it a day. Before he took off his headgear or changed his clothes, he would receive a WeChat message from the fitness instructor. It would always be the same four words: “Do you practice today ?”, add a little smiley face, and the fitness begins. “My coach is the most clingy coach in the world,” he commented.

In order to portray the lean and capable young general in his mind, he pushed himself hard. Before the official shooting, he ritually followed the standards of a bodybuilding competition and cut off water and sodium for a while.

Orchids in the vast world

What would it look like if Wu Lei was also a plant? We threw this sudden idea to him, and he fell into a serious entanglement. “I haven’t finished reading the “Illustrated Complete Plants” at home, and I haven’t accurately thought of a plant that matches my personality.”

Like many plants, Wu Lei prefers the vast natural world rather than the closed spaces of cities or RVs. The fragments of life on social platforms also confirm this. In winter, he go to the icy and snowy wilderness, and in spring, he take his puppies to play on the grass with peach trees and fly kites. On the set, you can even see him riding a bicycle wearing full costume and a hood. He once recorded a 90-kilometer ride in his vlog – the filming location of the movie “Upcoming Summer” was transferred from Quanzhou to Xiamen. He used his break to set off in the afternoon and rode alone for two days.

Outdoors, dog Xiaobei is often his best companion. When meeting people walking their dogs, everyone is talking about the breed of their dog, and Wu Lei will definitely share it loudly and proudly – Xiaobei is a Guangxi native hound. Mixed among a group of large dogs, this little white dog looked a bit like an “idol drama heroine” in his eyes.

For his birthday this year, he insisted on driving to the snowfield where the temperature was more than 20 degrees below zero. Riding horses with the herdsmen through the white woods, his eyelashes were covered with frost and his gloves were frozen stiff. He spent an unforgettable night pitching a tent on the snow with an excited look on his face. On the first morning when he turned 22, he started a live broadcast and shared the romantic sunrise moment on the snowy field.

At the end of the chat, Wu Lei had the answer to what kind of plant he was. He remembered the orchid in the documentary “Kingdom of Plants”. “Orchid is a plant with many branches. Facing different environments, it can evolve itself into a state most suitable for survival. If I had to choose, I would like to be an orchid. I can evolve into different forms for different roles in the future.”

Source: Esquire Fine