Chapter 59

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Huang Jixin used his key to open the door of Xia Xingcheng’s house. When he walked in, he saw Xia Xingcheng lying on his side on the living room floor. He jumped in shock, approaching Xia Xingcheng in a flurry, yet at the same time, he saw Xia Xingcheng drop the arm that was originally covering his eyes and look over at him. He let out a sigh of relief and said, “It’s the middle of winter, what on earth is wrong with you?”

Xia Xingcheng rolled over and switched from lying on his left side to lying on his right side. He said, “Jixin, I feel like dying.”

Huang Jixin walked up to him and kicked him with a foot, cursing, “Get lost!”

Yesterday, Xia Xingcheng had gone to Ding Wenxun’s screen test. He hadn’t seen the script yet and had only heard that Ding Wenxun was going to film a comedy, yet the audition had him act in a scene where a young university student suddenly found out that his girlfriend was dead.

At that time, Xia Xingcheng was actually a bit confused. He only asked Ding Wenxun a single question: “Do I love her?”

Ding Wenxun thought about it for a moment and answered him, “You quite like her, but saying that it’s love is a little too strong.”

Since it was an improvised scene and no one was playing against him, Xia Xingcheng planned the setting himself. He saw a group of people at the university campus standing in a circle and watching a female student jump to her death, walked over to find that that person was his girlfriend, and instantly rushed over in shock, but was then stopped by the security guard. With red eyes, he yelled, “That’s my girlfriend, can’t you let me through?” Yet the security guard wouldn’t let him pass no matter what. He grabbed the security guard, questioning whether they’ve called an ambulance, then pulled out his phone to call the emergency number himself.

After this performance was over, Ding Wenxun didn’t make any on scene statements, but Xia Xingcheng felt that he had performed badly.

He wasn’t a skilled actor who could enter a role whenever he liked in the first place. His real gateway to acting was during his time filming ‘Gradual Distance’, where he constantly flipped through the script and fantasized about the scenarios of the plot, slowly integrating himself into the role of Fang Jianyuan.

As a result, when the improvised performance was over, he felt a little unsure of himself. Moreover, the expression on Ding Wenxun’s face showed that he wasn’t quite satisfied either.

Since returning home from yesterday’s audition, Xia Xingcheng has been in a gloomy mood, stuck in a pit of self-loathing.

Currently, Huang Jixin saw the drained bottle of red wine Xia Xingcheng had left on the coffee table.

Xia Xingcheng lay on the floor and refused to get up.

Huang Jixin sat down on the sofa and watched him, saying, “That bad?”

Xia Xingcheng pressed a hand to his chest, feeling his beating heart, and said, “That bad.”

“It’s just a movie,” Huang Jixin lit a cigarette and leaned back on the sofa, making himself comfortable. He analyzed Xia Xingcheng’s situation, “It’s Ding Wenxun’s first time making a movie, god knows if it’ll be a dud or not. He’s been acting for so many years, but we haven’t really seen him make any breakthroughs.”

Xia Xingcheng inexplicably stated, “I believe in him.”

Huang Jixin didn’t understand, “What? Who do you believe in?”

What Xia Xingcheng actually wanted to say was that he believed in Yang Youming. Yang Youming had fought to give him the opportunity to take part in this audition, and since Yang Youming recommended him to go, it meant that Yang Youming was optimistic about Ding Wenxun’s ability as a director.

So it would be a shame if he couldn’t grasp that chance Yang Youming had fought for. He could even imagine how disappointed Yang Youming would be in him then.

“This won’t do,” Xia Xingcheng rolled over and got up. He reached out for his phone that he had placed on the coffee table and unlocked it to look for Ding Wenxun’s number. “I’ll give Director Ding a call and ask him to give me another chance.”

Huang Jixin promptly stood up to stop him, directly snatching his phone, “You only auditioned yesterday, but you’re already asking for the results today? Why are you going this far?”

Xia Xingcheng sat cross-legged on the floor.

Huang Jixin squatted down and looked at him strangely, “You’ve been really weird these past few days. What happened when you went to attend Chen Hailan’s wedding?”

Xia Xingcheng said, “Nothing.”

Huang Jixin said, “I heard from Chief Cai, it was Yang Youming who introduced you to Ding Wenxun’s movie?”

Xia Xingcheng hung his head, forgoing an answer.

Huang Jixin had felt that something was fishy from the beginning. He said, “I really didn’t expect Yang Youming to be such a nice person. When you offended him that time, I was always a bit worried for you, but now it seems that I was overthinking.”

Xia Xingcheng didn’t respond to this particular subject. He quietly sat on the floor for a while, then said as he stood up, “I’m going to seize this opportunity no matter what. You go find someone to help me find out exactly what Director Ding is planning to do now so we can think of a way to deal with it.”

Seeing that he couldn’t be persuaded, Huang Jixin had no choice but to ask around for news from Ding Wenxun’s directing team.

As a result, after two days, Huang Jixin not only brought back news for Xia Xingcheng, but also the movie’s script.

Ding Wenxun’s directorial debut, tentatively titled ‘Accidental Murder’ is an absurd drama[1] about a family: A middle-aged rich man marries a beautiful young wife after the death of his first wife, and has a pair of children in his family. The son was in university and the daughter was about to graduate from high school. The rich man’s company had operational problems and needed a working capital, so he mortgaged his family’s mansion, but it still wasn’t enough. When he comes home one day, his young wife is indifferent to him, only caring about squandering his money, so he grows tempted to kill his wife in order to obtain a huge amount of insurance money. Meanwhile, the rich man’s wife hooks up with a handsome young lover, and she increasingly turns her back on her current husband. With her lover, she plots to kill the rich man to acquire his inheritance and flee together afterwards.

The couple who shared the same bed yet different dreams planned a series of accidents to get the other to die in an accident. Coupled with the frivolous playboy son and the high schooler daughter who was secretly in love with her stepmother’s handsome lover, the entire story was absurd as well as outrageous.

Huang Jixin brought back only the outline of the whole story, along with all the scenes and lines of the role of the rich man’s son, Qian Chengjin. He said that Ding Wenxun had asked Xia Xingcheng to read the script first then re-audition next week, so he tried the scene in which Qian Chengjin discovered his girlfriend’s unexpected death.

☆ ☆ ☆

Footnotes:

[1] absurd drama/theatre of the absurd

⟵ Chapter 58 | TOC | Chapter 60 ⟶

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