Studio Superstar: Chapter 77

Xue Xiao’s excellent condition made the entire crew extremely efficient.

The original plan was to shoot the high school scenes in a day and a half, but they ended up finishing by evening.

Shen Tingyan treated the guests and booked two private rooms in a hotel. After eating this luxurious ‘work meal’, they went to ‘Xie Jia’s home to continue the filming work.

The scenes at home were interspersed with the school scenes.

At this stage of the plot, Xie Jia hadn’t sat in the front row yet.

His hearing problems had seriously affected his studies. The school teacher called his parents.

It was Mother Xie who went to school.

The teacher talked to her seriously about Xie Jia’s ear problems and asked her if she had taken Xie Jia to the hospital. If necessary, he would have to wear a hearing aid. It would be difficult for Xie Jia to keep up with his study progress if he continued like this.

However, Mother Xie said with resistance, “What type of hearing aid does he need to wear? My son isn’t a disabled person!”

The teacher was speechless and tried to explain the matter clearly to her. However, Mother Xie had no intention of communicating properly. She interrupted the teacher throughout the whole process and finally turned around to leave.

The argument started when Xie Jia returned home from his self-study.

……

In the living room, Father Xie stood in front of the window smoking. Mother Xie sat at the dining table, her back straight. She was emotional.

“Do you want to be laughed at? Joke that you are a cripple? You might not be embarrassed, but we are embarrassed!”

“As for your grades, I don’t think you have any ear problems at all. You just didn’t listen to the teacher carefully. This is why your grades have fallen so far!”

Xie Jia’s face turned red, and he said in an aggrieved manner, “I didn’t. I really couldn’t hear clearly! Teacher Zhang told you to take me to the hospital for a check-up. Why can’t you even do this?”

“How much does it cost to go to the hospital?” Father Xie turned around and said.

Xie Jia immediately turned his head to look.

Shen Tingyan suddenly shouted, “Cut.”

Xue Xiao realized. Father Xie’s words were the calm before the storm. He didn’t say it loudly. Xie Jia couldn’t hear easily, so his reaction couldn’t be that fast.

Shen Tingyan knew from Xue Xiao’s expression that he didn’t need to say anything more.

Shen Tingyan said, “Adjust it carefully, and we will shoot again in one minute.’

Xue Xiao nodded and took a deep breath.

…However, Xue Xiao found it a bit difficult to film this conflict scene.

This was the section where Xie Jia’s mood was the angriest in the entire plot.

He was on the verge of collapse, crying and yelling. Finally, he gave into panic and despair.

Every time Xue Xiao pushed his emotions to the peak, he started to let his emotions drag him down. All his reactions became instinctive. It was easy for bugs to occur while acting.

If the two supporting actors spoke softly, he would have a huge reaction. This was definitely wrong.

After filming several times, filming stopped midway. Even though Xue Xiao was in a stable mood, he started to become a bit anxious.

He had never been so stuck.

The two veterans comforted him and asked him to adjust again. Xue Xiao nodded absentmindedly before walking to the corner to take a sip of water. His whole body was sweating.

Shen Tingyan looked at him not far away before saying, “The others should rest. Xue Xiao, you come with me.”

Xue Xiao turned his head. Shen Tingyan raised his chin, gesturing for him to enter the room together.

The room was empty without any furniture.

The owner rented this house exclusively for major film crews or Internet celebrities, so he didn’t do any complicated decorations. He just painted the walls and was done.

At this moment, the future in the living room outside was decorated by the crew.

The curtains were closed tightly, and the whole room was very dark. The moment Shen Tingyan turned on the light, Xue Xiao said with annoyance, “I’m sorry…”

Shen Tingyan asked, “Do you think I called you in to lecture you?”

If he wanted to lecture actors, would he need to specially call people into the room to lecture him?

Xue Xiao looked at him.

Shen Tingyan said, “This level of being stuck while acting is normal. If this happens and I lecture the actors, I will constantly have a dry mouth as a director in the future.”

Xue Xiao was already a very worry-free actor, but for such a difficult role, it was only today that he started to get a bit stuck.

Looking at the entire entertainment industry, there were countless actors who were stuck from beginning to end.

Hearing Shen Tingyan’s words, Xue Xiao smiled a bit.

In any case, he smiled.

Shen Tingyan’s voice also softened. “Xiao Xiao, try to think about Xie Jia’s personality again.”

“Xie Jia has never argued with anyone. The first quarrel he had was with his biological parents. It will definitely be difficult for him to deal with such intense emotions. He will speak incoherently, and it will be harder than usual to hear what others are saying.”

Xue Xiao said in distress, “I know…”

He understood the truth, but whenever his emotions got excited, his body’s conditioned reflexes couldn’t be controlled. He would react very sensitively to some small movements.

“Xiao Xiao,” Shen Tingyan said to him. “What would Xie Jia do when he can’t clearly hear what others are saying?”

Xue Xiao was slightly startled.

He remembered something. “…He will try to read the other person’s lips.”

Shen Tingyan nodded. “So at that time, when he was arguing and felt that he couldn’t hear what his parents were saying, he should’ve stared at their lips.”

However, Father Xie and Mother Xie were standing by the window or sitting at the dining table. One was on the left and the other on the right. Xie Jia had no way to look at both of them at the same time.

It was only when Mother Xie looked toward the window that he could realize that Father Xie had just spoken. Then he quickly turned his head to look.

His reaction was always one step slower than others.

Once Father Xie and Mother Xie got angry, they didn’t care about their son’s ear problems. They spoke very quickly. Of course, their lips also moved very quickly.

Xie Jia found that he could no longer read lip language clearly. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t catch up with the speed at which his parents were talking.

He strongly felt the resistance of his biological parents to taking him to see a doctor, but he had no way to talk to them or communicate with them…

He would feel an abyss of helplessness and despair.

That was when he truly collapsed.

Shen Tingyan pointed to his lips and said, “I’ll act with you again. You focus all your attention on my mouth. Try hard to see the shape of my mouth, and try to see if you can block out the interference of other sounds.”

Xue Xiao nodded seriously.

Shen Tingyan opened the script and started reciting the lines of Father and Mother Xie.

Xue Xiao quickly entered the role.

His eyes turned red, and his hands clenched into fists.

His nerves tensed as he struggled to look at the shape of the lips of the man in front of him. He tried to see what the man was saying.

“…How much do hearing aids cost? Where can we get that much money?”

“Have you ever asked?”

“Who should we ask? Ask the doctor? The doctor will definitely recommend you to use it! The hospital is eager to drain the patient’s money!”

“…Then you can look it up online!”

“Online? There are more scammers online!”

Father and Mother Xie were the typical parents who felt that they were responsible as long as they raised their child until adulthood.

They only knew that a fever and cough was a disease, but they didn’t think that skin disease was a disease or mental illness was a disease… Since Xie Jia wasn’t completely unable to hear sounds, they naturally thought that his hearing loss wasn’t a problem.

Of course, they actually had a bad premonition in their hearts.

They realized that if they were really going to treat Xie Jia’s ears as a problem, they would have to spend a lot of money and might be criticized by their neighbors. They wouldn’t be able to hold up their heads high among their relatives during the Spring Festival, so they pretended to be ostriches. They thought that as long as they didn’t go to the doctor, Xie Jia wouldn’t be sick.

When Xie Jia faced his biological parents, it was like a scholar meeting soldiers. He couldn’t explain it clearly.

But as a minor, he could only rely on the help of his parents to do many things, including going to the hospital to see a doctor. Where could he get the money?

He was left alone when his parents refused to help him.

……

Shen Tingyan didn’t inject too much emotion when he read the lines because what he wanted to practice now was Xue Xiao’s concentration.

He asked Xue Xiao not to ‘listen’ but to ‘see’ to distinguish the lines.

He sometimes spoke softly and sometimes loudly. This was naturally a distraction for an actor, but when the actor put all his attention on the shape of Shen Tingyan’s lips, this disturbance wouldn’t exist.

Xue Xiao had obviously completely entered the state.

He stared at Shen Tingyan’s lips. No matter how loudly Shen Tingyan spoke, he just stared hard.

But the lips moved so quickly that he couldn’t see clearly.

Tears slowly gathered in his eyes.

There was anxiety and grievance in those tears.

“I think you should stop studying. Your teacher said that you can’t keep up with classes. If you go on like this, studying will be in vain—”

Xue Xiao’s tearful eyes were trembling, and he said anxiously, “I—”

The lips ignored him and continued talking.

“—Should we still send you to some useless, third-rate college to study?”

Xue Xiao opened his mouth again, but there was no way to interrupt.

“Stop studying. It is better to go to work and make money. Accumulate some work experience. Maybe you will be more successful than those college students!”

This time, Xue Xiao understood. His pupils suddenly constricted.

He blurted out, “No, I want to study!”

Those lips kept moving, but he couldn’t see clearly or understand them.

He didn’t know what the person in front of him was still saying. There was a mix of sounds in his ears. Panic came over him like a tide. He started to shout loudly, “I want to study!”

“—I don’t want to drop out of school! I want to study! I want to study!!”

Xue Xiao’s emotions completely exploded, and Shen Tingyan suddenly stopped.

The young man’s voice became hoarse, and tears dripped down his cheeks.

He was sobbing, and his whole body was shaking. He didn’t know whether it was because he was so angry, scared, or both.

Shen Tingyan’s eyes were dark.

Xue Xiao looked helplessly at his lips. Seeing that he didn’t speak, he stared into Shen Tingyan’s eyes in a panic, as if hoping Shen Tingyan would give him another response and say he wouldn’t be stopped from studying.

Tears filled his eyes, and kept falling.

Xue Xiao tried hard to look tough and said loudly, “I won’t go to the hospital. I don’t need a hearing aid, and I won’t let you spend more money! But you can’t make me stop going to school. I can learn, and my grades can keep up!”

It looked like he was showing his teeth and claws, but in reality, he was crying and looked extremely pitiful.

Shen Tingyan suddenly lowered his head and kissed Xue Xiao.

The words disappeared between their lips.

Xue Xiao’s eyes suddenly widened.

Shen Tingyan threw away the script, hugged his waist, turned around, and pressed him against the wall. He raised his chin and swallowed all of Xue Xiao’s words and breath.

The bedroom suddenly became quiet.

Of course, there was still a faint and ambiguous movement.

Xue Xiao emerged from the act the moment Shen Tingyan kissed him.

But he couldn’t hold back the tears that had been shed. He was so surprised that they fell down his cheeks like a broken thread.

Then he felt it clearly… these tears were swept away by Shen Tingyan.

His ears and neck instantly became hot.

His hands curled up, and he didn’t know where to put them.

His eyes became misty and foggy. His heart was about to jump out of his chest.

Outside the door, people in the living room were talking.

They probably knew that Shen Tingyan brought Xue Xiao into the room specifically to teach him, so they didn’t dare to make too much noise out of fear of disturbing him.

But the bedroom was too quiet at this moment, so the voices that were deliberately suppressed became clearer.

Xue Xiao was flustered and shy.

The intertwined breathing of the two of them almost burned his brain dry, and there were no thoughts left.

Shen Tingyan didn’t kiss him for too long. This was an impulsive kiss.

After the kiss, he pecked along Xue Xiao’s tears all the way until he kissed the tail of Xue Xiao’s eyes.

“… I can’t watch you crying any longer.”

Shen Tingyan’s voice was low and pleasant.

Xue Xiao’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

“It is too much to bear.” The man laughed at himself.

“……”

Xue Xiao’s breathing was still shaky.

Shen Tingyan was quiet for a moment before asking, “You aren’t going to push me away?”

The simple words broke through the already tacit understanding between the two of them.

“……” Xue Xiao breathed hard, his face red. Soon, he whispered, “Why push you away?”

I like you so much.

He heard Shen Tingyan laugh.

Then the man lowered his head and kissed him again.

This time, it was only a slight peck.

Shen Tingyan stared into his eyes with burning eyes.

Xue Xiao also mustered up his courage and looked up in confusion.

The two of them stared at each other in the quiet air.

Shen Tingyan raised his hand, pinched the soft cheek, and whispered, “We can talk about the relationship between us once the show is over.”

The relationship between him and Shen Tingyan…

Xue Xiao shrank back, feeling that hearing these words actually made him feel sweeter.

……

The two of them looked dignified as they walked out of the bedroom.

But no matter how dignified they were, the incriminating evidence that Shen Tingyan left on Xue Xiao couldn’t be eliminated in such a short period of time.

A person in the living room turned his head to look and wondered, “Hey, Xiao Xiao’s face is so red?”

Xue Xiao: “……”

“Why is your mouth so red?” The senior playing Mother Xie asked with concern. “Xiao Xiao, don’t bite your lips during crying scenes!”

Xue Xiao: “…………”

The culprit said calmly, “It is my fault. Where is the makeup artist? Give me the foundation.”

The group of people didn’t understand why he was the one at fault. They also didn’t understand why Teacher Shen, who usually hated trouble the most, was suddenly in the mood to do makeup for his actor, using foundation to cover Xue Xiao’s red lips.

They didn’t understand.

Teacher Shen was thinking seriously as he covered Xue Xiao’s red lips with foundation.

There was something wrong with that look. Xue Xiao’s heart started to beat wildly again.

He quickly reminded in a low voice, “…After the show is over!”

Shen Tingyan paused for a moment before looking away. “Tsk.”

Xue Xiao looked at Shen Tingyan’s face and suddenly understood this man a bit better. Such as:

Shen Tingyan was really fickle…

He said these words himself, but he was unhappy in the next second…

White Lily

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