At 5:30 in the morning, the alarm clocks set by everyone in the dormitory rang one after another.
Two or three seconds later, the alarm clocks were pressed one after another.
Xue Xiao, with messy black hair., sat up in a daze.
in the other three beds, Gu Ling was already changing clothes silently. Zhao Dong squinted his eyes and scratched his belly. Chang Yun, who was on the bunk bed above Xue Xiao, kept yawning.
“Come on! Come on!”
The sound of him slapping his face twice was heard. Chang Yun muttered, “Let’s work hard for the college entrance examination!”
……
At 5:50, everyone gathered in the cafeteria.
The meal served in the cafeteria this morning included shrimp dumplings. These shrimp dumplings were made by the chef of the cafeteria. They had thin skin and large fillings. Each one had two whole prawns inside.
Shrimp dumplings weren’t served every day. Every time they appeared, they were snatched up. Today, the cafeteria gave out more than 20 servings.
Seeing them pouring in, the chef banged his spoon on the table and said loudly, “Don’t grab it. Come one by one. I will keep it for you to eat until you are full today!”
……
At 6:20, Xue Xiao finished breakfast and walked through the corridor with Chang Yun and the others.
The morning wind wasn’t hot yet. It carried some coolness.
The morning line shone on the small studio not far away and bathed the small forest connecting the dormitory building and Building 3.
The air was quiet, but it was suddenly broken by laughter. Everything woke up, and the morning light gradually turned a warm golden color.
……
At 6:30, everyone sat down in the dressing room of the studio. They changed clothes and put on makeup.
Some people were nervous, some encouraged each other, and some recited their lines loudly.
Halfway through, Old Gao walked in and said, “I would like to remind you that we won’t have a break at noon today. We will probably record directly until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Have you eaten enough in the morning?”
Everyone replied in unison, “We are full!”
Old Gao smiled. “Okay. As long as you are all full. If you really can’t hold it any longer in the middle, tell us.”
“Then I’ll go over the order of appearance today with you.”
Old Gao picked up a printed program list and said, “The first group is Snail. The second group is House of a Thousand Faces. The third group…”
“…The sixth and final group, Vertigo.”
Old Gao looked up. “Is it okay?”
“Yes!”
“Okay.” He put down the program list and said to them, “Good luck today!”
People started to roar and scream in the dressing room. Someone got excited and shouted, “Everyone~ is~ a~ huge~ star~ today~”
Old Gao couldn’t be happier.
In the mentor’s dressing room, which was some distance away from the actors’ dressing room, Su Shijin was the first to laugh when she heard the roars and cheers in the distance.
Guan Ruoying closed her eyes. Under the makeup artist’s delicate skills, she looked like a noble goddess in a painting. Her tone of voice was cute as she said, “Hey, I’m so nervous now. It feels like I’m a parent sending her child to the college entrance examination.”
Su Shijin smiled. “When you first came to the show, you never thought you would have such deep feelings for these kids, right?”
Feng Wei sat on the other side of them and joked, “Is this what young people call the cultivation system?”
Su Shijin wondered, “Hey, does Director Feng even know about this?”
In another corner, Shen Tingyan sat quietly. His eyes were closed, and he was relaxing.
Su Shijin said casually, “Teacher Shen, how do you feel recording until now?”
She was used to adjusting the atmosphere. She thought that Shen Tingyan would be too lazy to answer as usual and would only answer with a cold and indifferent look.
Unexpectedly, Shen Tingyan opened his eyes and said calmly, “It is pretty good.”
The other three were surprised.
Shen Tingyan looked up and glanced at them. “You are the one who asked me. You are also the ones who were surprised when I replied. Do you want me to reply or not?”
The other three: “…”
Very good. Shen Tingyan was still the same Shen Tingyan. He hadn’t been switched.
……
At 8 o’clock, all the participants and the four mentors entered the venue. The audience was all in place. The entire studio was noisy, and the atmosphere was fiery.
Xue Xiao sat with Chang Yun this time. Chang Yun’s legs kept shaking and he was taking deep breaths.
Xue Xiao comforted him. “We are the last group to appear today. It will be in the afternoon. Brother Chang, don’t be nervous.”
Chang Yun said with a bitter expression, “Xiao, don’t you think that the later you appear, the more nervous you will be?”
Zhao Dong came over from the back row and said seriously, “I think so too!”
Fortunately, his group was the first to act this time. Hahahaha!
Chang Yun glared at him, eyes full of hatred.
Jiang Lianlian waved her hand. “Okay, okay. In any case, the worst thing is that you can’t make it to the finals. Don’t be so mentally burdened.”
Jin Xiaochen said, “Hey, I’m okay this time. Just treat it as an exhibition performance.”
Dou Mingjian couldn’t help laughing. “Exhibition performance? Indeed, this time, we don’t have to think about winning or losing.”
Xue Xiao’s gaze swept over everyone’s nervous or excited faces, including the silent Gu Ling. He whispered in encouragement, “As long as you follow the state you were in during the rehearsal, it will be fine. Jiayou, everyone!”
“Yes!”
At 8:10 a.m., the recording of the fourth round officially began.
Jiang Quan gave the opening speech as usual. He explained the rules of this round and the next round. After that, the first ‘Snail’ group came on stage.
Snail was a script written by Su Shijin about the entrepreneurial struggles of small people.
The core of the story lay in a small verbal dispute. Zhao Dong and his co-star represented two different times of ‘small people.’
It was different from the colorful characters played in the first three rounds of the competition. The character played by Zhao Dong this time was an ‘ordinary person’ who could be seen everywhere in society, struggling for life.
He was very ordinary but also very unique. He was a bit thoughtful, but not much. He was a bit stupid, but occasionally, he could glimpse a bit of wisdom and foolishness.
Xue Xiao could clearly feel that Zhao Dong’s acting skills were much more ‘natural’ than in the beginning.
If it were Zhao Dong who starred in Praying Mantis, he might not have been able to blend the different qualities of this character well. But at this moment, Zhao Dong on the stage played this character so naturally and reasonably that everyone laughed one moment and felt distressed the next.
There was no on-site voting this time. The mentors’ evaluation was much milder. Even Shen Tingyan gave a few compliments, which flattered Zhao Dong’s group.
Su Shijin said with a smile, “It isn’t that we don’t want to be bad guys at this stage of the competition. It is that you have really made a lot of progress and deserve praise.”
Zhao Dong and the others bowed deeply on the stage and said, “Thank you, four mentors.”
Dou Mingjian, You Qianqian, and Xu Shi’s performance of ‘House of a Thousand Faces’ was the second group to appear.
This group caused a much greater reaction from the audience. From time to time, there were sounds of gasps from the audience. The plot of this show was really too exciting.
These three people played a father, a brother and sister. They constantly changed their costumes and identities to cheat people everywhere.
One moment, it was a poor brother and sister who lost their parents and an uncle who cheated them out of their parents’ inheritance. Another moment, it was a middle-aged gay man, a girl in love, and a scumbag bisexual who wandered between his girlfriend and the middle-aged gay man.
In the ten minute play, these three people changed their identities five times and defrauded others of a staggering amount of money.
Once the plot reached its climax in the end, the identity of these three people as liars was suspected, and they realized that something was wrong. Everyone wanted to trap the other two and escape by themselves. Their shamelessness and ruthlessness stunned the audience.
However, at the end of the story, the audience was shocked to discover that even this was a deception of the three people! They used this method to escape in three directions and finally met at another location!
The plot was too exciting, and the performance of the three people was so natural that the audience burst into applause at the end.
Su Shijin was still unsatisfied. After praising Dou Mingjian and the others, she started to hint intentionally or unintentionally about whether she would have a chance to cooperate with Shen Tingyan in the future.
At this moment, it wasn’t just professionals like them. Even the audience was starting to realize that Shen Tingyan’s personal directing style was too strong. This was almost impossible for an actor who was still focused on his acting career to do.
To achieve this level required a lot of thought, time, and effort.
Once a person reached this point, his ambition to transform into a director was obvious.
However, when Shen Tingyan established a film and television company and announced the IP of Xue Xiao’s novel, the Internet thought the man just wanted to make some investments on his own.
They didn’t expect this guy to make such a big wave the moment he came!
In response to the meaningful glances from both sides, Shen Tingyan remained calm and didn’t answer directly.
Sitting in the audience, Xue Xiao knew all about this and suddenly felt like he shared a little secret with this man…
……
Jin Xiaochen and Jiang Lianlian’s group appeared third.
The mentality of these two people was really good this time. Xue Xiao watched from the audience and felt that they performed even better than during rehearsal.
At this time, almost no one would agree that Jiang Lianlian had no acting skills.
Her eyes were very lively. Her every frown and smile spoke words.
The characters she played would no longer be so stereotyped. Even the characters with heavy personality labels were acted by her in a unique way.
As for Jon Xiaochen, who would believe it if someone pointed at him and said he had only been acting for more than a month?
Xue Xiao looked at it and felt excited and happy from the bottom of his heart.
Everyone’s progress had moved forward by leaps and bounds!
……
Gu Ling was acting in the fourth group.
Xue Xiao watched his performance today and was still amazed.
Gu Ling completely recovered the state he had in the first round and was very relaxed!
Xue Xiao suddenly thought it was a pity that Gu Ling couldn’t take on roles all year round like an ordinary actor.
However, once Gu Ling received roles and scripts that suited him… the works he left behind would definitely be treasures that amazed the world.
Therefore, Xue Xiao looked forward to it.
Even if it was only one movie every two or three years, or one movie every six or seven years… he would continue to look forward to Gu Ling’s performance, and look forward to the moment when this man accumulated enough strength to burst into light.
Time passed. Neither the mentors, the participants nor the audience felt tired and hungry.
As the only team under Feng Wei, Cheng Yang’s group appeared fifth.
Xue Xiao was looking forward to it.
It was because this was the only costume play today. It was also the play with the most gorgeous makeup so far.
Feng Wei had strong directing ability, and the acting abilities of Cheng Yang’s group were sufficient.
Xue Xiao remembered that they all performed quite well on the day of the rehearsal.
It wasn’t known if this competition round placed too much pressure on him, but Cheng Yang actually forgot his lines during the performance.
The strange pause lasted only two seconds, and Cheng Yan didn’t panic too much and covered it up calmly. Even so, the audience still felt that ‘there was something wrong with that place just now.’
After Cheng Yang forgot the words, the performances of the other two actors became tense. The three of them became extremely unnatural.
Feng Wei’s expression sank when the performance ended.
Shen Tingyan didn’t comment much. Guan Ruoying and Su Shijin gave some words of comfort and made suggestions. Once it was Feng Wei’s turn, he criticized these people for a full eight minutes!
Finally, he exhaled and said, “I hope some of you can reach the finals, but opportunities might not always be waiting for you at the next intersection. I hope you won’t make such a low-level mistake again in the future.”
The heads of Cheng Yang and the others hung very low, and their hands were clenched tightly.
It was already 1 o’clock in the morning.
Out of all the groups that hadn’t appeared, only the last group remained.
Xue Xiao straightened his back, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.
Chang Yun moved his body slightly in his seat to warm up his hands and feet.
Dou Mingjian joked, “Those who don’t know better would think you were going to participate in the Olympics.”
Chang Yun trembled. “Brother Dou, you don’t know, but my hands are ice-cold right now. Do you want to try it?”
Dou Mingjian exclaimed, “Hey hey, don’t come over here!”
On the stage, Jiang Quan said, “Now, let’s invite the next group. It is our last group today. Xue Xiao and Chang Yun, please come onto the stage!”
The applause of the audience suddenly became several times warmer.
It was obviously who they were looking forward to.
Xue Xiao and Chang Yun stood up and walked onto the stage.
Once the spotlight hit them, Jiang Quan joked, “Are you already extremely nervous?”
Chang Yun stuttered when he opened his mouth. “A-A bit.”
Laughter rang out.
“Before the two of you start performing, do the mentors have anything encouraging to say?”
Su Shijin said leisurely, “Don’t be nervous. You are the last group. You can feel relieved after the performance.”
Guan Ruoying suddenly laughed. “What relief is there? There is still the final.”
Su Shijin’s lips curved up. “The finals aren’t a live performance. No matter how nervous you are, nothing will go wrong on the spot.”
Chang Yun also swore, and Xue Xiao was also flustered. In the audience, Cheng Yang had an extremely dark expression.
Other participants secretly sweated.
Su Shijin was too dark. She blackened two groups at once.
Shen Tingyan gazed at her coldly. Su Shijin immediately made a gesture of zipping her lips.
After the previous group’s performance, Feng Wei had obviously lost interest in talking.
Shen Tingyan looked at the two of them and said lazily, “Just act like you did during the rehearsal. Don’t listen to everything in your head. Learn to filter it yourself.”
Su Shijin stared up at the ceiling.
Chang Yun wiped his sweat, and Xue Xiao smiled.
Shen Tingyan’s gaze swept over him inadvertently.
The man finally spoke in a tone so gentle that everyone in the audience was surprised.
“Don’t be nervous.”
“Go ahead.”
Xue Xiao’s gaze calmed down.
He bowed with Chang Yun. Then they turned around and walked toward the depths of the stage.
The big screen went down.
Vertigo officially took the stage.
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