Chapter 60

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Xia Xingcheng stayed up all night reading the entire script, taking meticulous notes about everything he could think of concerning Qian Chengjin’s character. He didn’t even work this hard for his university entrance exams way back when.

Unlike his previous improvised screen test, this time he had a complete understanding of his role and Qian Chengjin’s character–his attitude towards his father, stepmother, and sister, as well as his relationship with his girlfriend and the circumstances leading up to her death.

Before his second audition, Xia Xingcheng reconstructed the story and the character of Qian Chengjin in his head, immersing himself in it until he stood before Ding Wenxun on the day of his re-audition.

In Xia Xingcheng’s imagination, the environment at that time should be dark and quiet. He suddenly saw a person lying on the living room floor, yet didn’t dare to confirm who it was immediately. Then he slowly walked over while watching his surroundings guardedly.

Once he got closer and was sure that the person on the floor was his girlfriend, he promptly kneeled down and held her in his arms, shaking her body and calling her name in a low voice.

There was no response.

Slowly, Xia Xingcheng reached out with trembling hands to check her breathing, and the moment he was certain that she had stopped breathing, his complexion paled. Fine cold sweat oozed from his forehead.

“Call– call the police,” he said to himself. Compared to panic and sadness, he was surprisingly overcome with a sense of dread. He fished out his phone from his pocket, yet his grip was far from steady, and it fell to the ground and slid across the smooth floor. He instantly threw himself to pick up the phone, but a pair of leather shoes suddenly appeared before his eyes, and he slowly looked up in fear.

It was at this moment that Ding Wenxun called for a stop.

The cold sweat on Xia Xingcheng’s forehead hadn’t completely disappeared as he took a few deep breaths and got up from the floor.

Ding Wenxun’s expression was completely different from the end of his last audition. He seemed very interested in Xia Xingcheng’s performance. “Why do you think that Qian Chengjin felt fear when he was about to get up?”

Xia Xingcheng raised his hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “I just kept imagining the circumstances at that time. He went back to his house to steal something, so he was originally already nervous, and up until that point, he had noticed that someone was in the house. It was also dark around him, and he didn’t have deep feelings for his girlfriend either…”

Ding Wenxun listened and took notes on his notebook all the while. Later, he put his pen down and stood up from his chair, extending a hand towards Xia Xingcheng.

Xia Xingcheng promply went forward to shake Ding Wenxun’s hand.

Ding Wenxun said, “I sincerely invite you to be a part of our movie.”

Xia Xingcheng felt his entire body relax at once, and he nodded and said, “I’m honored.”

After it was over, Xia Xingcheng ducked inside the bathroom for a smoke. He had been under a lot of pressure for this audition, and now he could finally relax. However, his mind was still hounded by the earlier scene.

He wasn’t aware of it at all in the past, but ever since he filmed ‘Gradual Distance’ and kept repeatedly telling himself to immerse himself in the character and his scenes, he gradually discovered that he was a person whose emotions are easily affected. Or to put it in another way, he was prone to accepting psychological suggestions and then getting caught up in them, unable to extricate himself from those emotions without difficulty. Yet in order to film a good play, he had no other choice but to continuously give himself these psychological suggestions.

Like now–after the audition was over, he still couldn’t completely break away from the horror of what he’d just been feeling. Even as he tried to calm down, the psychological suggestions he’d been repeating to himself over the past few days only made his head imagine the pitch-black darkness of his surroundings and the dead body of his girlfriend in the middle of the living room.

He stayed in the bathroom stall, holding the door shut to isolate himself from the outside world, not wanting anyone to notice his current state. The phone in his left pocket rang several times. It was Huang Jixin sending him WeChat messages asking whether he could leave, yet he never replied, only propping his forehead against his palm and closing his eyes to calm his thoughts.

After a while, Xia Xingcheng heard two people come in from outside. They seemed to be urinating and chatting at the same time. One of them said, “Why is there a second audition? I thought Ding Wenxun wasn’t happy with that surname Xia.”

The other said, “I heard Xia Xingcheng was in He Zheng’s movie before.”

“So what?”

“He performed really well today, I saw that Director Ding is very satisfied.”

“I heard that it was someone from Cai Meiting’s company who pulled these resources for him?”

At this time, one of the people speaking suppressed his voice, “I actually heard that it wasn’t because of Cai Meiting, but because of Yang Youming.”

“Yang Youming?” the man who had spoken earlier sounded completely stunned.

“Not only that, but didn’t Director Ding find his first audition unsatisfactory? It’s said that Yang Youming fought to give him another chance, and the script was even given to him, and that’s why this audition passed so smoothly.”

As the two people finished gossiping, they also happened to finish washing their hands, and they opened the door and left one after the other.

Xia Xingcheng sat on the toilet seat. The instant he heard this conversation, he was abruptly pulled out of his character. Raising his hand, he took another deep drag of his cigarette, then fished out his phone to call Huang Jixin. “I have something I want to talk to Ding Wenxun about, I’ll call you later.”

With that, he exited the stall, stood in front of the sink, and carefully washed his hands. He dabbed some water to comb over his hair, then headed out.

Xia Xingcheng invited Ding Wenxun to dinner. He had already mentally prepared for the possibility that Ding Wenxun might refuse and he would then propose another time, yet he never expected that Ding Wenxun would simply agree to it. Not only that, but he also told Xia Xingcheng that he also had something he wanted to discuss.

As a result, Xia Xingcheng called Huang Jixin and asked him to make a reservation at a restaurant, and he and Ding Wenxun left for dinner together.

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – i can’t believe we’re already at chapter 60! thank you all so much for reading and for all the comments & kofis ❤ i’ve really loved this novel so far and i hope you’ll continue to enjoy it too! remember to support the author by buying the VIP chapters if you can. it’s really really cheap, a total of 72 VIP chapters only costs over one (1) us dollar. i found a really easy gongzicp tutorial on twitter a few days ago (for iphone/ipad users only, sadly) that you can follow. if you have any questions about buying the novel on gongzicp, just comment down below~

⟵ Chapter 59 | TOC | Chapter 61 ⟶

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