How Wu Lei and Dilraba Dilmurat Maintain Close Bond After The Long Ballad

 

The most authentic interaction of a CP we saw (coupling in a drama) during the 2023 Weibo Night Awards on January 13, 2024, was that of Dilraba Dilmurat and Wu Lei. 

Their interaction was caught off-camera (not part of the live coverage but just snapped by fans inside the venue) and landed in the hot search on Weibo! 

Dilraba and Wu Lei's interaction off-camera

Many obsessed fans have exaggerated claims that their favorite CPs have sweet moments during the Weibo Nights (but the photos they shared were actually edited), even though in reality those CPs did not interact.

But Dilraba and Wu Lei had the most authentic interactions among all of them. They went up on stage together because they received the same award, together with Bai Jingting and Jing Boran. 

Wu Lei assists Dilraba as she struggles with her gown

Wu Lei tells Dilraba to watch her steps

They glanced at each other and nodded, acknowledging each other's presence since they stood side by side, but what the fans (those who only watched through online streaming/coverage) did not see was the interaction of the two after the live camera went off. 

Fan cam shows Wu Lei waiting for Dilraba to leave the stage together

As Bai Jingting, Jing Boran left the stage, Wu Lei waited for Dilraba who was struggling to walk with her long gown at the same time holding her trophy and bouquet of flowers. 

So he took her trophy to make it easier for her to walk, told her to watch her steps and guided her to descend off the stage. 

Wu Lei constantly glanced at her to make sure she was okay, then handed her back her trophy, and returned to their respective seats. 

Dilraba and Wu Lei at the 2023 Weibo Night Awards

Fans inside the venue also shared a footage where Wu Lei and Dilraba rushed together to leave the venue, and Wu Lei allowed her to exit first before he walked to the door to greet Hu Ge. Dilraba turned back and waved him goodbye then rushed outside.

Dilraba and Wu Lei at the Weibo Night Awards

It's so nice to see them maintain a warm bond of friendship after The Long Ballad in 2021.  In a drama industry where fans would become so wild with their speculations about on-screen couples, with others even going far by spreading rumors that their favorite CPs are dating in real life, celebrities have a hard time maintaining or establishing close friendships with their on-screen partners.

Dilraba and Wu Lei

Chinese drama has the weirdest fandoms. Fans who seem cannot move on from their favorite drama would often cross boundaries, treating the drama as an extension of themselves, and would go as far as creating malicious issues of the two co-stars gone dating in real life when in fact they did not. 

So most celebrities (especially the singles) choose to never interact with their on-screen partners in any means once the promotion period of their drama is done so as not to feed wrong assumptions to fans, and to untangle from the CP, and concentrate on their next acting projects.

Wu Lei and Dilraba in The Long Ballad (2021)

Wu Lei and Dilraba in The Long Ballad (2021)

Among the current generation of popular C-drama stars, only a few were able to establish an enduring bond with their onscreen partners: Dilraba and Wu Lei, Yang Zi and Li Xian, Dilraba and Gong Jun, and Cheng Yi and Yang Zi, just to name a few. 

Wu Lei and Dilraba were already good friends even before they paired in The Long Ballad. They often bumped into each other on small projects, so they were able to establish a close bond before working together in a big project. 

Wu Lei and Dilraba in The Long Ballad (2021)

Wu Lei and Dilraba in The Long Ballad (2021) promo

Dilraba has the wildest fans with her CPs with Yang Yang, Johnny Huang, and Vengo Gao. So during interviews, she chose not to mention these guys to prevent their fans from spreading exaggerated claims of dating.

But she seems comfortable with other drama male leads: Vic Chou, Wu Lei, Ren Jialun, and Gong Jun. She never hesitated to mention them on interviews. Zhang Binbin is also her good friend. 

For instance in 2022 during her livestream promotion with The Blue Whisper, when asked if it would be okay for her to be paired with younger actors in a drama, Dilraba mentioned that her age limit is Wu Lei's age (seven years age difference). Younger than Wu Lei (he was born in December 1999) is not okay with her and she cannot take the project.

Last photo shoot that Wu Lei and Dilraba did in 2021

It's so good to see celebrities act normal in public with their drama co-stars, interacting and getting cozy without worries of being dragged into controversies of dating. It makes them more human and relatable. 

Nowadays, C-fandom is becoming more toxic and stressful for celebrities and other fans alike due to some obsessed fans refusing to untangle from the on-screen CP they adored. 

They seem to forget that drama stars are real people too who have lives of their own and not fictional characters who live in the fantasy world of fans.

Glad Wu Lei and Dilraba were able to maintain their close friendship after all these years. You can see it the way they interact off camera.