Su Shijin took over Guan Ruoying’s words and was the second to comment.
She looked up and said seriously, “I have to praise the mentality of the two of you. You are the last group in the fourth round. Before you, there was a group that performed abnormally due to nervousness. Even so, your performance was very relaxed.”
“Plots like this have very high requirements on the actors’ condition. The camera is always half a meter away from you, constantly taking close-ups of you. If you are even slightly distracted, the audience below will frown. But did the audience frown today?”
The audience on both sides cooperated and shouted in unison, “No!”
Su Shijin said, “Your performance made the audience immersed in the story. There is no disconnection during the whole process. It is great.”
Xue Xiao and Chang Yun bowed. “Thank you, Teacher Su!”
Su Shijin started to comment individually. “Chang Yun, compared to the first round of the competition, you have improved too much. You really have to thank Teacher Shen. Since you joined his group, your progress has been rapid.”
Everyone agreed on this.
In fact, every student who followed Shen Tingyan made great progress, but Chang Yun’s starting point was low. His progress was particularly eye-catching.
Chang Yun was indeed very grateful to Shen Tingyan.
In the past, he never dared to think about starring in a play like Vertigo. However, Shen Tingyan said he could do so. He gritted his teeth and tried it. Then he found that he seemed to be able to really do it.
Shen Tingyan’s teaching and encouragement to him as a teacher played a huge role in this. It was this force that pushed him to climb this seemingly unattainable mountain.
He bowed deeply to Shen Tingyan. “Thank you, Teacher Shen!”
Su Shijin continued, “In addition, Xue Xiao. I am really looking forward to your future works. If possible, I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with you. I joked about this with you before, but now I am serious.”
The audience was in an uproar again.
In the last round of the competition, the special guests invited Xue Xiao.
But this time, even Su Shijin couldn’t help it!
After recording this show, Xue Xiao’s schedule would be full, right?
Su Shijin glanced to the side. “I hope your future boss won’t be a bad man.”
Xue Xiao coughed and sneaked a look at Shen Tingyan.
Shen Tingyan folded his arms and shook his head lightly.
Feng Wei was the third to speak.
“Xue Xiao, you are so unique when playing the villain.”
The description ‘unique’ sounded a bit confusing at first, but the audience got it and nodded wildly.
Xue Xiao had a very good appearance and personality, but when he played a villain, he always had a sharp, crazy, and bright beauty.
Feng Wei added slowly, “But we certainly don’t advocate worshiping villains here. It is just that the characters you perform feel particularly good-looking.”
“You have a good-looking image and temperament. This makes it impossible for the audience to take their eyes off you,” Feng Wei said. “You are the type of actor where the audience will specifically look for your cut to watch again and again afterward.”
The audience nodded so hard that their heads almost flew away. They shouted in their hearts, ‘Yes! That’s right!’
Su Shijin joked, “Does Director Feng understand this?”
Feng Wei smiled happily. “My niece is like this. Which generation doesn’t love beauty? As long as they are human, they love beauty.”
The audience shouted, “Yes!”
Xue Xiao’s ears turned red.
He never thought he would be associated with the word ‘beauty’…
The next second, Feng Wei dropped a meaningful sentence. “If you let me tailor it for you, I will further dig out your sharp side.”
Huh?
Everyone came to their senses.
This seemed to be an attempt to attract votes for the final round. Did Feng Wei want to form a team with Xue Xiao?
Shen Tingyan, who had always been silent, finally opened his lips at this time. “Let him play a villain again? Director Feng, is your imagination of actors too limited?”
Feng Wei calmly accepted his words. “So far, Xue Xiao has only played a villain twice, and both were short plays of ten minutes. This can’t be said to have limited his development, right? On the contrary, the audience must want to watch it all at once.”
“Blindly catering to the audience’s preferences to shape actors is a restriction on actors.”
“So Teacher Shen doesn’t think the audience’s preferences matter?”
…These two people suddenly went head-to-head?
The audience was stunned.
Xue Xiao was also stunned for a moment.
They had a good conversation just now. Why did it suddenly become tense?
Su Shijin also joined the battle. She said with great interest, “Why is Director Feng suddenly optimistic about Xue Xiao again?”
Feng Wei asked back, “When have I not been optimistic about him? I saw how he performed in Puzzle.”
Su Shijin sneered.
Old fox!
The audience and participants didn’t know it, but the mentors knew that Feng Wei was originally optimistic about Cheng Yang.
As far as she knew, the old guy originally planned to do something to ensure that he and Cheng Yang could be paired together in the final round.
As a result, Cheng Yang’s psychological quality wasn’t good, and he directly overturned in this round.
The old guy saw that Cheng Yang couldn’t help him rise up, so he wanted to make a bet with someone else, right?
—At this point in the competition, the situation had already become clear.
If they really wanted to say who had the best chance of winning the championship, it was naturally Xue Xiao and Dou Mingjian.
Su Shijin suddenly became a bit suspicious. Since Feng Wei originally planned to use tricks to ensure that he and Cheng Yang were together, would he change his mind now and try to tie Xue Xiao and himself together?
As soon as this idea came to her mind, she glanced at Shen Tingyan.
No, this man would never allow it.
It was a huge failure if he was the boss and couldn’t even protect his little artist from this.
Shen Tingyan would never be that type of person.
At exactly this moment, the man said something that lived up to her expectations.
It was absolutely perfect.
Shen Tingyan almost directly exposed Feng Wei. “Feng Wei, the card you are playing this time is too disorganized.”
First, it was Fang Xue, then Cheng Yang, and now Xue Xiao.
There were only a few rounds in the competition. How many goals had Feng Wei changed?
It seemed like this old god was here to control the situation, but in fact, his card skills were weak, and his vision was extremely poor.
The moment these words came out, Guan Ruoying couldn’t hold back any longer and cleared her throat. Su Shijin almost laughed.
Feng Wei finally lost control of his expression and looked sullen.
The audience couldn’t understand what these people were talking about. Why was the discussion so profound all of a sudden?
…Xue Xiao didn’t quite understand it, but his instincts as a small animal were there.
The current scene made him a bit uneasy.
He opened his mouth for a moment, wanting to speak. He just didn’t know if he should interject or not.
Just as he was feeling confused, Shen Tingyan glanced at him from the mentor seats.
Xue Xiao was stunned for a moment before shutting his mouth obediently.
Feng Wei adjusted his expression and said slowly, “Teacher Shen’s cards aren’t messy. After all, you always have the same card.”
“But you are guarding your card so tightly now. I would like to ask—what are you going to do if the pairing in the finals is different from what you imagined?”
The audience roared again. This time, they understood!
Feng Wei was asking Shen Tingyan what he would do if the student he was paired with in the finals wasn’t Xue Xiao!
Oh my god, Feng Wei was asking in such a straightforward manner?
It was true that it was normal for the mentor to have a participant they were particularly interested in, but in this type of competition environment, the most taboo thing was for the mentor to have participants they were particularly partial to.
Wouldn’t it be difficult for Shen Tingyan to answer this question?
On the stage, Xue Xiao’s heart rose to his throat.
Feng Wei probably thought that Shen Tingyan couldn’t answer, so he laughed and said, “At that time, won’t Teacher Shen also lose your mind? There are so many accidents in the world. How can anyone predict them all?”
In the next second, Shen Tingyan said calmly, “Director Feng might’ve misunderstood. At least in this competition, I have never guarded only one card.”
Feng Wei was stunned.
The audience listened breathlessly with wide eyes.
“Then again, I thought we had already discussed this issue backstage. Director Feng, have you forgotten about it so quickly?”
“I never regard any of my students as a chance to win. My only role is to train my students to the point where they can perform on stage.”
The man’s cold and calm voice echoed throughout the studio.
“What if the final pairing is different from what I imagined? I will just do what I have to do.”
“I will do my best to let the student I am paired with win the championship. This is my respect for the other party and respect for the competitors.”
Below, many participants clenched their hands.
They had been nervous when the mentors competed for Xue Xiao.
Of course, they knew how strong Xue Xiao was.
But once a mentor determined that Xue Xiao was likely to win the championship, it was hard to say if they would seriously shoot the final film for the participant they were paired with.
For example, Feng Wei’s current speech made many participants hesitate.
In contrast, Shen Tingyan’s words made them feel more at ease.
Shen Tingyan was the one who liked Xue Xiao the most among the four mentors. Everyone knew it.
However, at this moment, they could believe that if the person paired with him in the finals wasn’t Xue Xiao, Shen Tingyan would definitely do his best for the paired student.
This was what this man did. In the fourth round, he ensured that every participant’s role had a similar amount of acting time. He also greatly improved every participant’s ability. He was using his actual actions to ensure fair competition!
They naturally believed that under Shen Tingyan’s teachings, they could compete with Xue Xiao.
Shen Tingyan’s words also made Xue Xiao sigh in relief.
That’s right. This was Shen Tingyan.
This was his favorite Shen Tingyan.
Xue Xiao’s lips curved up.
Feng Wei was silent.
Shen Tingyan’s words changed, and his tone became lazy, “One card is one card. Director Feng must be worried about the final round, so you said these words to win the audience’s vote. However, it is inappropriate for actors to play the same type of role repeatedly in a short period of time.”
“I would say this even if the person standing here today wasn’t Xue Xiao, but another actor.”
The second half of the sentence almost explicitly admitted that he liked Xue Xiao.
The audience screamed instantly.
Jiang Quan, Xue Xiao, and Chang Yun on the field: “……”
It was possible to scream in this type of atmosphere. The audience this time was really awesome.
At this moment, it wasn’t known if the atmosphere in the studio was awkward or not, harmonious or not.
Feng Wei took a sip of tea with an expressionless face and stopped talking.
If they continued to talk, he wouldn’t be able to convince Shen Tingyan, and it would only increase the editor’s workload.
Jiang Quan had no choice but to smooth things over and take charge of the overall situation.
He invited Xue Xiao and Chang Yun off the stage. Then he started to explain the voting rules for the final round of the competition to the audience.
The participants below started to make calculations.
There were four finalists.
Judging from everyone’s performance in all rounds of the competition so far, Xue Xiao and Dou Mingjian would undoubtedly occupy two spots.
So who would the other two spots go to?
There were Gu Ling, Cheng Yang, and a few other participants who didn’t have a strong presence in the previous rounds but performed particularly well in this round.
What would be the final pairing?
Everyone’s little brains were running rapidly.
After Jiang Quan finished explaining the rules, he turned to them and said, “If we meet again, it will be half a month later.”
Everyone straightened their backs and looked serious.
“Before today, I asked Director Gao if I should say something to conclude the end of this competition. For example, what was the original intention of this competition, or what did the participants gain from this show? After all, for most people, today is the last round.”
“But Director Gao said, ‘What is the point? The only function of this show is to give invisible actors a chance to show themselves. Even if the show ends, for the participants, this is just the beginning of their career path.”
Jiang Quan imitated Old Gao’s tone vividly.
The participants burst out laughing.
“—Director Gao and the others gave everyone the ‘zero’ badges. Do you still have them all?”
The participants said in unison, “We’ve kept it!”
Jiang Quan smiled. “Hey, that’s right. No matter the final result of this show, you are still at the starting point of this road. What is there to say about the starting point?”
“I wish all of you to advance to the finals of your life and win your own championship!”
“The future is bright!”
—
This was the recording that finished the earliest so far.
The spectators left the camp one by one. The participants returned to their dormitories.
It was still early. Many people chose to go to bed to catch up on sleep. Thus, the whole camp was surprisingly quiet.
By the time Xue Xiao woke up, dusk had arrived.
The setting sun shone on the floor in the middle of the dormitory. The orange-red color made people drowsy.
Gu Ling was still sleeping while Zhao Dong, who was on the bunk above him, was lying on the bed and playing with his phone.
Seeing Xue Xiao wake up, Zhao Dong shook his phone and lowered his voice. “Xue Xiao, you are on the hot search again.”
At noon, the fifth episode of the show was launched as scheduled.
The progress bar of the fifth episode had reached the third round.
With Xue Xiao’s current popularity, it was best for the show’s staff to end the fifth episode before the Puzzle group started performing., This way, it could whet the audience’s appetite and ensure the broadcast rate of the next episode.
However, Old Gao was sincere. He loved the audience so much that he released the performance of Puzzle in this episode.
Fortunately, Shen Tingyan’s line of ‘I want Xue Xiao’ was amazing enough. The barrage exploded at this moment. There was no need to worry about the play rate of the next episode.
In addition, Xue Xiao’s performance in Puzzle naturally set off the entire Internet.
‘Xue Xiao 3214’ was first in the hot search.
Avid fan of danmei novels! If you want access to advance chapters, you can subscribe on Patreon. Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/WhiteLily476
I still can’t believe Feng Wei dared to give 3214 character to Xue Xiao and dreamed to do what Fan Xue’s wanted to do, a reversal, with Cheng Yan. Like Shen Tingyan said, his presumptious knows no bound. And now he wanted to incite audiences to vote for him and Xue Xiao as mentor-mentee pair just because Cheng Yan’s boat capcised.