Ch3 - The Peak of Competition Between Beauty and Acting Skills (3)

As Xu Qichen was thinking of a way to react, Li Yun’s voice came from outside.

“Mengze? Mengze? Are you in there?” 

“En!” Like grabbing a life-saving straw, Xu Qichen replied through a mouthful of candies.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, faced the man before him, and bowed, “Thank you”.

Then he walked out.

“What were you doing ah, made me anxious to death!” 

Li Yun dragged Xu Qichen forwards, travelling at great speeds even in her high heels.

With an expression of pleasant surprise on their faces, the female staff around them were quietly calling Ji Mengze’s name.

Only now did Xu Qichen realise that his cap was still with that person.

He subconsciously turned his head around just as Lin Ran came out of the washroom. Their eyes met. Lin Ran waved the black baseball hat in his hand, the corners of his mouth tilted up.

Xu Qichen turned back his head and asked, “Will Lin Ran be in the audition room later?”

Li Yun: “En. All the actors auditioning previously saw him.”

Afraid that Xu Qichen would be nervous, Li Yun comforted, “It’s alright. Lin Ran may have become famous young, but his temper is good and he’s approachable.”

Xu Qichen was not comforted at all. 

This is a character he created. He knows better than anyone what kind of person this young film emperor with a gentle and kind facade is like on the inside.

Why did he have to make such a ‘smiley tiger’ character design?

Although, why did the outer appearance created from Lin Ran’s character design seem oddly familiar…

Li Yun saw him in a daze and rushed to get him to stop thinking, “Quickly prepare, the next one is you. Do you want to take the script in?” 

Xu Qichen shook his head, “There’s no need.”

Li Yun looked at him half-trusting and half-suspicious. Seeing his calm face, she contrarily became more worried, “Don’t be too Buddha.”

Xu Qichen nodded, “I know.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Before long, the person auditioning before him came out. 

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Seeing the third chair was empty, Xu Qichen felt some relief.

He bowed slightly, walked in front of the video camera and did a simple and customary self-introduction. 

Since he walked in, Chen Anping and Qu Qing had been sizing him up, their gazes not too friendly.

Xu Qichen found their reactions to be understandable. After all, Ji Mengze was famous for being an empty flower vase with a good skin.

Director Chen kept a cold face and did not speak. The atmosphere was full of anxiety.

Xu Qichen is a noncompetitive guy. He seldom felt any tension brought about by being in a competition. 

Since Chen Anping was staring at him, he also looked back motionlessly.

Qu Qing was the first to speak, her tone neither warm nor cold, “Have you read the script?”

“En.”

“Try Yu Ning’s narration on the third page first. There’s a script there, you can read off of it.” 

Xu Qichen replied with an ‘en’ while thinking to himself, they’re probably worried about his performance and don’t want to make things overly difficult for him.

But he did not take the script, only lowered his head and cleared his throat, looked straight at the video camera, and started directly.

“It’s June, the hot air above the asphalt road slightly distorted everything in my field of vision, swaying before my eyes like seaweed. The sound of bicycle wheels spinning wildly in my ears, sweat, warm wind, and blue sky, were mixing together roughly like the oil paints on a palette tray.”

“Will he still be in that coffee shop today? Perhaps.
What he was wearing yesterday was an old black uniform, but it really suited him.
Why didn’t I look at the nametag on his chest? That way I would know his name.” 

Xu Qichen spoke slowly.

His voice is quite unique; youthful, with a slight cold calmness, but also, soft and waxy.

“What if he’s not there? What if he’s resting today?
It’s so hot, the sun is roasting my spine, it hurts a little.
This road looks like it’s going to melt. It has the look of hot sticky oil, just like the clothes sticking on me.
In the clustered air, the subtle scent of coffee appeared.
My nose is really good.”

“Should I go in to buy a cup? I’ll look first.
That’s right!
I’ll look through the window to see if he’s there. If he’s not, I’ll go in to enjoy the air-conditioning.
If he is…?” 

“My palms became sticky with sweat for no reason.
I hate summer! Summer makes me pathetic.
The window is very transparent, I can clearly see the shape of his lips as he smiles and takes others’ orders. He’s there, I should leave.
I try to pedal away, but my legs ignore the orders.”

Xu Qichen looked at the camera, his expression started to become cramped.

“Hello, one cup of…  Iced Mocha.”

“I still came in. It’s because it’s summer. The heat and stuffiness stick on my body, forcing me to speak.” 

“Now, I also hate him a little, just like I hate summer.”

“Strongly, unscrupulously, oppressing my heart.”

Xu Qichen finished the last line.

But before he could clear the confusion of the character’s emotions from his mind, he suddenly heard applause. 

He turned around in a daze to see Lin Ran leaning on the doorframe.

The other party smiled, walked into the room, and sat beside Director Chen.

Director Chen looked at the extremely delicate boy in front of him. His eyes were still cold, but they didn’t seem to hold as much disgust for him as before.

He opened his mouth after a moment, “When did you memorise the lines?” 

“When waiting for my turn,” Xu Qichen said honestly.

A familiar voice suddenly spoke in his mind: “Mr. Xu, your memory is really good.”

This was the first time 0901 had initiated a conversation.

Xu Qichen replied: “I studied literature in highschool, memorising things is already my specialty. And I wrote this narration myself. I more or less have some impression of it.” 

Unlike Chen Anping, Screenwriter Qu’s expression did not hide her pleasant surprise. She almost stood up earlier to hug the clean makeup-less teenager, and shout, ‘It has to be you!’.

However, she’s only the screenwriter. No matter how well he matches the character design, the director still has the final say.

“Your voice and appearance really match Yu Ning’s character.” Qu Qing pushed her glasses up her nose. “The previous candidates’ monologues all seemed to lack something, but yours really gave me a sense of imagery.”

Frankly speaking, Ji Mengze’s white t-shirt and jeans, and makeup-less appearance is already like a Yu Ning who walked out of the script. 

However, acting skills are still a big issue.

After all they’re making a film, not a magazine shoot.

Xu Qichen was not used to accepting praise, so he slightly kept his chin, “Thank you. It’s just that when it comes to acting, I really can’t keep up with others.”

Director Chen nodded, seeming to not dislike this answer. At least he has self-perception, and does not use ‘I didn’t study acting’ as an excuse. But Ji Mengze’s reputed acting skills really made him unable to relax. 

Chen Anping stared at Xu Qichen for a long time without speaking, until Xu Qichen’s heart started to feel uncomfortable.

Xu Qichen continued to stand there, but his gaze stopped on Lin Ran.

“0901, does Lin Ran’s outer appearance have a prototype?”

0901: “Mr. Xu, it was not built based on any real person. It only followed your setting.” 

This answer was very perfunctory. Xu Qichen couldn’t help but keep looking at Lin Ran.

Unexpectedly, the other party turned his head to look at him as though he noticed Xu Qichen’s stare.

“Director Chen, how about I act in a scene with Ji Mengze?”

Xu Qichen rejected the proposal in his heart. 

The author has something to say:

About audition: videos of many western actors’ auditions can be found online. Most of them are facing a video camera (the director may be behind it) and performing lines. Basically they will use their own understanding to act out a scene without props or partners. If anyone finds it hard to believe, you can look them up online.

In China, few audition videos are leaked out, so I wrote according to western practices. But I think they should be more or less the same.