C3 Part2

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P – Chapter 3.1

P – Chapter 3.2

Liang Sizhe came over and stood shoulder to shoulder with Cao Ye. Cao Xiuyuan’s eyebrows tightened again, his eyes going back and forth on the two of them.

He was a bit too much, Cao Xiuyuan thought, looking at Liang Sizhe. Xiao Man shouldn’t be so sharp, so keen, and it was even more obvious when standing next to Cao Ye. Cao Ye currently fit Xiao Man a bit better. Perhaps it had something to do with the way the two of them were dressed?

Cao Xiuyuan stood up from behind the monitor screen and walked over. As he continued looking at them, he said, “Take off your t-shirts.” He wanted to compare the both of them with their shirts off, but Cao Ye didn’t move. Liang Sizhe grabbed the bottom of his black t-shirt and pulled it off in one smooth motion, holding it in his hands.

Even though Cao Ye didn’t follow his orders, Cao Xiuyuan didn’t say anything. It actually didn’t matter if Cao Ye took off his shirt or not — the entire set of clothing on his body, chosen by Zheng Yin, was just right for Xiao Man.

Cao Xiuyuan looked Liang Sizhe up and down once, and then he took the shirt away, turning around to the main camera. The cameraman immediately took a step away, giving him his spot.

Cao Xiuyuan handed the t-shirt to the cameraman before taking the camera off its tripod. He hoisted it onto his shoulder, the lens directly at the two of them. “Stand back to back.”

Liang Sizhe turned first. Two seconds later, Cao Ye also turned.

“Lift your heads slightly. Good. Lower them back.” Cao Xiuyuan was observing the sides of their faces from behind the camera lens.

As they were lifting and lowering their heads, the ends of Liang Sizhe’s ponytail poked at the back of Cao Ye’s head; he found it a bit itchy.

Cao Xiuyuan zoomed out, looking at the boys’ entire bodies. It still didn’t look right — with his bare upper body and a pair of jeans, Liang Sizhe still didn’t quite fit what Cao Xiuyuan wanted. The way Liang Sizhe was dressed could perhaps be right for a Hong Kong triad member, but it wasn’t right for Xiao Man.

“Take off your pants too,” Cao Xiuyuan said.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Cao Xiuyuan impatiently urged, “Hurry up.”

Only then did Liang Sizhe begin. He looked down and undid his belt, unfastening his button and pulling down the zipper, before bending over to pull off his jeans. He lost his footing a bit when taking off his pants and staggered back a step, bumping into Cao Ye. Glancing back at him, Cao Ye reached back and caught his arm.

Liang Sizhe straightened back up with his jeans in his hands, his long and straight legs under a pair of black boxers. Maybe it was because he wasn’t used to baring himself in front of a camera, or maybe it was because he had born fluid and changeable, but that incisive aura around Liang Sizhe instantly weakened upon taking off his clothes.

Much better, Cao Xiuyuan thought as he looked at him. He took two photos of Cao Ye and Liang Sizhe, the camera clicking twice, and then he said, “Don’t keep holding them.” What an eyesore.

There were more than ten people around them, all of them either important members of the production or part of the general crew, but no one came up to take Liang Sizhe’s pants. No one had a single doubt about the results of this screen test — Liang Sizhe was someone unknown, not part of the industry, and it didn’t matter how unique he was or how outstanding his looks were. What qualifications did he have to fight with Cao Xiuyuan’s only son for a role?

Very quickly, Liang Sizhe and Cao Ye also understood what that moment of silence meant.

There were no tables around them. I’ll help you hold them, Cao Ye was just about to say, but then Liang Sizhe raised his hands and threw his pants to the ground not too far away.

They landed with a plop — the water splashed.

Now they’re dirty, Cao Ye thought.

All of the crew members were a bit shocked by Liang Sizhe’s actions, and for a moment, all of their eyes were on him — but his face didn’t show a shred of emotional turmoil at all.

It still wasn’t enough, Cao Xiuyuan thought behind the camera, so he said, “Let down your hair.”

Liang Sizhe, with his body bare and hair loose around his shoulders, was barely satisfactory.

He aimed the camera on his shoulders directly at them and took many photos from all kinds of different angles; he then returned it back to the tripod and went back to the monitor. “Cao Ye, come stand here.”

As he walked over, Cao Ye bent over and picked up Liang Sizhe’s pants.

Cao Xiuyuan had Liang Sizhe stand in front of the camera by himself — turning around, turning back, walking away and then walking back.

He stared at the monitor screen with a frown, the look on his face particularly grave. He shook his head, rubbing his chin, and then said, with that look still on his face, “Enough. That’s it for today.”

When Liang Sizhe looked over, he just so happened to see Cao Xiuyuan lightly shaking his head with a frown.

Behind the monitor, Cao Xiuyuan got up, took the camera from the cameraman and walked towards the meeting room next to the entrance. He quickly skimmed over each of the photos he’d just taken, and seeing him get up, the other main production crew followed along and went into the meeting room as well.

Cao Ye went over and gave Liang Sizhe’s jeans back to him. Before handing it over, he lifted it into the air and glanced at it, saying, “They’re so dirty. Are you still going to wear them?”

“It’s fine.” Liang Sizhe took them from him and pulled the pants over his legs without even a look.

Zhang Minghan came over at this moment, giving Cao Ye a black t-shirt; the cameraman had asked him to hold it earlier. He laughed, “Cao-laoshi really does things by the book — even his own son needed to be tested so thoroughly.”

“Yup,” Cao Ye said, taking the shirt. “Who knows, he might even give me up for the sake of righteousness1.”

“Hey, your idiom knowledge’s not bad,” Zhang Minghan grinned.

Since Liang Sizhe had finished putting on his jeans, Cao Ye handed the shirt over and casually boasted, “Isn’t my level 8 HSK2 Chinese great?”

With his clothes back on, Liang Sizhe patted Cao Ye on the shoulder and said, “I’m going to the bathroom.” And then, he headed over to the corridor with the bathroom, tying his hair back up.

“Oh, okay,” Cao Ye responded, watching Liang Sizhe walk away. There was a fairly large wet patch on the back of his left leg, and it was quite obvious: it was drenched from the knee to the bottom. It looked so very uncomfortable.

“Level 8 HSK… Are you serious?” Zhang Minghan laughed. He followed Cao Ye’s gaze. “How’d your dad choose him?”

“Who knows.” Cao Ye pulled his eyes away from Liang Sizhe and shrugged. “Probably the same way as he chose you.”

Zhang Minghan smiled. “Wanna eat dinner tonight?”

“Tonight’s… probably no good. I might need to eat with my dad,” Cao Ye said. “Next time.”

“That’s true. All right, next time then.” Zhang Minghan didn’t push. “I’ll head off.” He then called out to his assistant, turning back around to give Cao Ye a wave; he left the audition site.

Cao Ye went to the monitor screen and sat down, playing with the machinery. The remaining staff members all knew he was Cao Xiuyuan’s son, so they let him fiddle with it all he wanted — no one dared to stop him.

He found it a bit boring after a while, and so he turned back around to double check. Liang Sizhe still hadn’t come back yet. What a long trip to the bathroom.

He got up from behind the monitor and took a few steps towards the door. Once he reached the entrance to the corridor and was about to head in, he saw Liang Sizhe standing in front of the door right at the end, his head faintly lowered. He stood there stiffly, not moving a single part of his body. The afternoon sun cut directly in from the window, and the ray of light pulled the shadow of his body until it was very long, very narrow — stretching it almost to Cao Ye’s feet.

Was he finished with the bathroom? Cao Ye wasn’t sure, so he walked in his direction. When he was close and was just about to call out Liang Sizhe’s name, he saw Liang Sizhe’s tightly clenched fists and tense arms, as well as the raised veins on those arms. Under the sun, those veins turned almost transparent; they looked fragile and so easy to break.

And at that same moment, Cao Ye finally heard the voices coming from behind the door. “What’s the point in considering him if he can’t even play the violin? We’d still need to find a stand-in for him… And it’s not whether he can learn to play or not, it’s that he can’t. He used to play, but now his hand doesn’t work. He’s useless…”

The person talking spoke with a full Beijing accent. Since the meeting room was filled with partners and staff he’d worked with for many years, he spoke without a single care, almost overly blunt and straightforward.

Was he… talking about Liang Sizhe? Cao Ye frowned and took a step towards the door. In a low voice, he said, “I’ll go in…” but before he could finish, a hand wrapped around his wrist. That palm was very cool — so cold that Cao Ye almost shivered the moment it touched his skin.

Liang Sizhe didn’t speak; he didn’t even tilt his face to glance at Cao Ye. He kept his head faintly lowered, listening to the voices coming from inside the room.

“Honestly, if we really need to pick someone who can’t play the violin, then we might as well use Zhang Minghan… Wasn’t it super obvious during the screen test? Zhang Minghan looked much closer to Xiao Man than that Liang… whatever his name was.”

So Zhang Minghan had also tried out for the role — Cao Ye was a bit surprised, hearing that. Why didn’t he mention it?

“Did that boy really break all his fingers? Then other than shots of him playing violin, would we even be able to film close-up shots of his hands doing other things? We have quite a few scenes of him lifting buckets of water, and once those buckets are filled, they’re really heavy… And he’ll need to lift them quite high, too — he’ll need some serious strength for those…”

“Well, I mean, there’s also a later scene of him masturbating. If we follow what you’re saying, then can he even grip himself?” said that Beijing accent.

That caused a loud ripple of laughter, and someone nearby chuckled, “So you fuckers use your left hands? His right hand’s doing just fine.”

“Violinists all have more agile left hands, compared to their right… A violinist using his right hand? Does that even make sense?”

Fucking hell, how insulting. Cao Ye wanted dearly to kick open that door, but Liang Sizhe’s ice-cold fingers were still wrapped around his wrist. Those fingers held onto him very tightly, very forcefully, almost digging into his flesh and carving themselves into his bones. Cao Ye could feel each separate joint on those fingers — as well as the imperceptible, uncontrollable trembling coming from that hand. All those things displayed his current self-respect and its vulnerability.

Don’t go, Liang Sizhe didn’t say — but those two words were written clearly on his body.

Translator has something to say:

This idiom here is pretty self-explanatory, I think (大义灭亲). Where someone ignores all familial relationships in favour for doing what’s right/”righteousness”. ↩The HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi/汉语水平考试) is the Chinese equivalent of the TOEFL test, where non-native Chinese speakers can test themselves on their Chinese. Wikipedia article here. Level 8 is advanced, with the highest level being 9. ↩

P – Chapter 3.3

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