Chapter 67

  At this moment, some staff members of Chuonuo Film and Television who heard their conversation also showed a slightly surprised expression on their faces.

  First, they had heard people in the circle say that Jiang Chuan has a good temper and rarely attacks others, and is serious about acting; second, they couldn't understand why Yuan Jinyan, who is also a first-line celebrity in China, would be criticized by Jiang Chuan, who is only semi-transparent; third...

  What about Jiang Chuan's long-held secret crush on Yuan Jinyan? He didn't care about public opinion and openly came out for him, did he?

  This painting style seems different from what was agreed upon?

  "Your figure isn't that great, wearing such a tight military uniform looks a bit strange, especially at the waist, it's like it's going to cut off your breath. It looks awkward." Ignoring the atmosphere around him that was freezing into ice, Jiang Chuan said calmly, "I feel suffocated."

  He even said that looking at my figure makes him feel suffocated.

  A line of dry, cracked words floated emotionlessly from his calm mind, and he felt like he was suffocating - he didn't know what expression to use to properly respond to the situation in front of him. A few seconds later, when the black-haired young man standing still on the spot finally reacted, he let out a dry laugh, lowered his head wanting to undo his belt, but just as his hand touched it, the buckle "popped" open, and then he heard Jiang Chuan coldly ask: "What are you doing again?"

  "...untie, unfasten the belt," he said with a serious expression, blinking his eyes and lifting his head with an empty face that looked particularly dazed. "Don't you think the buckle is too tight and doesn't look good? Although I think it's just right, but..."

  "This isn't a problem with the uniform, it's your problem," Jiang Chuan glanced at him and mercilessly struck the already pitiful young man with black hair, "This military uniform is too small for you, isn't it? The crotch is almost bursting open when you bend over, have you been getting fat from being sick recently?"

  Everyone: "......"

  Jian Ran: "......"

  At this moment, looking at the little wife who was standing still with a confused expression on her face, and then looking at Jiang Chuan who was sitting on the sofa with his eyebrows furrowed, saying something about "his pants were almost falling off", it's not that Jiang Chuan had a secret crush on Yuan Jinran, but rather Yuan Jinran had a secret crush on Jiang Chuan, after all...

  Who speaks like this to someone they're pursuing, isn't this just asking for a beating?!

  "Why don't you just go act in 'Mysterious Offspring' instead?" Jiang Chuan concluded, "This play really isn't very suitable for you."

  Silently: “……”

  Everyone took a deep breath, feeling that the scene in front of them was so beautiful that it couldn't be looked at... At the same time, Manager Fang Yu also turned his head, looking at Jiang Chuan as if he had seen a ghost, and said in a low voice, "What are you talking about? Are you crazy? Didn't take your medicine before leaving the house this morning?"

  Jiang Chuan swept a glance at Fang Yu with an exceptionally calm gaze, without expressing approval or disapproval. Fang Yu raised the corner of his lips to remind Jiang Chuan: "I don't care why you dislike Jing Ran acting in this play - it's none of your business whether he acts or not, I'm the agent!! If you say anything more, he'll cry, and I'm telling you, people who have just recovered from a serious illness are always emotionally fragile. If he cries, you deal with the aftermath."

  “……”

  Jiang Chuan paused for a moment, and unexpectedly really believed Fang Yu's nonsense. He subconsciously turned his head to look at the young man with black hair not far away - and then, without warning, he locked eyes with a pair of shiny black pupils... At first glance, Jiang Chuan saw only hesitation in those eyes, but for some reason, they seemed like a pair of eyes that could shed tears at any moment. So, after being stunned for a few seconds, he suddenly let out a sigh and beckoned to the young man with black hair not far away.

  He slowly loosened his belt and walked over to Jiang Chuan's side, bending down with a wooden expression on his face and asked: "What?"

  As soon as the words fell, he felt Jiang Chuan's hand on his waist, lightly adjusting the belt that had been pulled into a mess in the chaos earlier, and also helping him pull his clothes straight. After last night's series of actions, under the bewildered gaze, the man slowly said: "I was wrong just now."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Jiang Chuan: "You look great in that uniform. I've never seen anyone wear this color and style of military uniform so well before."

  "...... No need to beat around the bush and scold me, I love my country. Your words are a personal attack on me, let me tell you."

  "Oh," said Jiang Chuan, loosening his grip, "hit me then."

  "......" Jianran thought for a moment and said, "Jiangchuan, I have a question for you."

  Jiang Chuan's face was paralyzed: "Ask."

  He bent down and leaned in close to Jiang Chuan's ear, asking in a volume that only the two of them could hear: "Why do you dislike me so much?"

  Jiang Chuan only felt a warm and cozy heat hitting his earlobe, which made him feel a bit itchy. His eyelashes twitched downward, and the man subconsciously leaned back... This evasive action that created distance between them made Jian Ran think: Oh, he really dislikes me.

  Damn it!

  Jinran suddenly stood up straight, not getting an answer but seeing Jiang Chuan turn his head to look at Fang Yu - the latter tightly pursed his lips and slowly shook his head towards the man. However, it was too late, as Jinran had already picked up the script on the table and slapped it onto the face of the agent, who looked guilty. After Fang Yu let out a pained cry of "Ah", he threw the script at Fang Yu's face, turned his head to Jiang Chuan and said: "No matter what he said or did, anything that damaged my image, believe me, that was all him slandering me."

  "Alright."

  He blew out a stream of air through his nostrils: "Now let's sort out the problem from scratch again: do I look good in this military uniform?"

  "Good-looking."

  "Does it look like a ghost?"

  Jiang Chuan glanced at him and said without thinking: "Looks similar on the surface, but doesn't look like it upon closer inspection."

  For "Patriot Yuan Jinyan", this is a perfect standard answer.

  He nodded slightly: "Very good hehe."

  With a satisfied expression, he stood up and turned around, quickly making amends with Jiang Chuan at a speed that shocked everyone. He patted his shoulder to indicate that he could relax now. Just as the man sitting on the sofa felt powerless and leaned back against it, the staff came over to inform Jian Ran that it was almost time for him to prepare for the audition.

  He heard the words and immediately turned around to take back his script from Fang Yu's face, flipped through it, and found that it was full of Japanese lines. Generally, for anti-war dramas like this one, if the actors themselves are not Japanese, they would usually find professionals to dub over their voices in post-production... but this time, the crew of "Star Fire" didn't know what medicine they had taken wrong, and they were so particular that they required the actors' mouth movements to match, even if there was going to be dubbing in post-production. This meant that the actor playing the villainous second male lead "Ito Taichi" had to be chosen from among those who could speak Japanese.

  Nowadays, among these actors, not to mention Japanese, some people can't even speak Mandarin well, so the range of choices suddenly became very small. Finally, thanks to the recommendation of Bai Yan Ge, the deputy director of "Star Fire", the crew found Yuan Jin Ran.

  This is undoubtedly a pie that has fallen from the sky.

  Because Jian Ran only met Director Bai Yan Ge a few times, to say that he was familiar with him or owed him a favor is completely untrue. Moreover, this director is also an old veteran in the film and television industry, unlike Jiang Luo Cheng who suddenly rose to fame, he has been working hard and steadily in this circle for a lifetime, with countless works under his belt, and his gaze on actors is even more stringent. To get his recommendation is almost equivalent to indirectly affirming Jian Ran's acting skills.

  He originally learned this language with a playful attitude, and at the time he even joked with Fang Yu that one day he would be acting as a ghost being torn apart - at the time he probably never thought that his words would come true, and the worst part is that he ended up playing the role of the ghost who got torn apart.

  But at this moment, even if he was torn apart, he would be willing - after all, no one wants to spend their whole life acting in a lousy play. To put it nicely, that's called making movies; to put it bluntly, that's just mixing food for the mouth. Acting out a good play is what an actor should do, and that's what creating art is all about.

  However.

  Ideological awareness is lofty.

  The road of practical enlightenment is arduous.

  At this moment, looking at a full A4 paper of Japanese lines makes me dizzy. My brain, which hasn't been seriously exercised since I recovered from my illness, is throbbing in pain... But thinking that the audition will definitely use it later, and not wanting to disappoint Shirai Kiyoshi-sensei, who recommended him and stubbornly left this role for him until the last second, he didn't hesitate to pick up the script, preparing to seize the last bit of time, starting to recite his lines word by word...

  The result was halfway through, the script in his hand was suddenly taken away. He turned back slightly, just wanting to tell the person behind him not to mess around, but when he looked up, he found that the person who took away his script was Jiang Chuan - this person who had previously tried to persuade and pick faults to make him not act in this play. This time, after quickly scanning through the script, with a standard Tokyo accent, he recited the lines from the script once.

  After finishing, Jiang Chuan raised his eyelids and found that he was being stared at with a worshipful gaze. He relaxed his eyebrows, gently patted the script on the forehead of the young man with black hair who was staring at him with wide eyes, and asked: "What are you looking at?"

  "...... You're really good at Japanese."

  Kong Chuan: "Not only can I, but I also detected that your accent is from some rural area in Kansai - 'Ari ga to' and all that, what's with the quacking like a fluffy duck?"

  Jian Ran: "……………………"

  Putting aside the personal attack, the six words "fluffy duck" were spoken by Jiang Chuan's serious face, and for some reason, it really has a kind of heart-itching moe feeling...…Jiang Chuan was distractedly fantasizing about the male god, but he didn't know if it was because his gaze was too straightforward. He was holding the script and re-reading the line to correct the young man with black hair. Jiang Chuan glanced sideways and found that someone was staring at him foolishly, so he raised an eyebrow: "What I'm saying, are you listening?"

  "Yes."

  "Repeat it."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Under the awkward and piercing gaze of the young black-haired man, Jiang Chuan let out a sigh, thoroughly convinced, and explained: "After the 'k' sound becomes muddy, although it is marked as 'g' in the 50-sound chart, but if it is used as an intermediate sound in a certain word following another pseudo-name, it will change in spoken language. For example, 'g' will become 'a' with a slight nasal tone, and 'thank you' will become 'ariado' - the nasal tone becomes lighter and cannot be pronounced clearly, but it must be pronounced with the nasal cavity, quickly passing over - 'g' is the pronunciation of a country bumpkin, a country bumpkin."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  He stuffed the script into Jian Ran's hands, and under the young man's shocked gaze, he recited the first line of the script from memory. After finishing, he gestured for Jian Ran to follow him in reciting - Jian Ran looked down at the script in his hand, and indeed, not a single word was off, reciting it perfectly. And so, aside from "being able to solve high school math problems" and "speaking fluent Japanese", Jiang Chuan gained another halo of "photographic memory" in his eyes.

  Carefully and honestly followed Jiang Chuan to adjust his own rural accent.

  He studied diligently, and Jiang Chuan taught carefully - Fang Yu, who was watching them interact on the side, had a strange feeling of "those naughty kids have finally grown up". Compared to the previous suffocating scene of "have you gained weight?", at this moment, Manager Fang finally felt like he had crawled back from the underworld and was living among humans again.

  ……

  When Jiang Chuan finished teaching Jing Ran's pronunciation, coincidentally, someone came to take Jing Ran to the studio - Jiang Chuan and Fang Yu followed along as well, and they also witnessed Jing Ran's entire audition process.

  As soon as he stepped into the studio, I saw Bai Wengei from afar, wearing an old-fashioned windbreaker. Although he is approaching 55 years old this year, due to his good maintenance, he looks like a middle-aged man in his early 40s, with a stable and square face that mothers-in-law love. He has a distinctive facial structure, with sharp angles and edges. Bai Wengei returned from studying abroad decades ago, specializing in acting, and has been playing resistance war dramas for his entire career. It's as if the theatrical style has entered his bones, making him seem like someone who truly came from that era. His eyebrows and eyes are filled with a sense of... revolution.

  This is the real big brother in the domestic film and television circle. It's said - just heard, his remuneration has already reached 2.5 million per episode, a sky-high price - actually, there are not many who can quote this number externally, but truly get this number without any water content, probably only Bai Wenjie is the one in the country right now.

  The content of the trial mirror is a scene where Saito Taichi and Wang Weiwu, played by Bai Wenqi, are in a confrontation.

  At this time, as a new officer sent to the concession by the Japanese government, Lieutenant Colonel Saito Taichi had a black heart towards the Emperor, and he did everything personally, causing a lot of trouble for the Intelligence Department... This time, Saito Taichi's trusted assistant Tanaka mysteriously disappeared, and Saito suspected that it was Wang Weiwu and others who were responsible. The dialogue scene is in a Western-style cabaret, but in fact, this cabaret had already been occupied and used as an intelligence transfer station in the script. Following the principle that the most dangerous place is also the safest place, when Saito Taichi talked to Wang Weiwu, Tanaka was being held in a secret room directly below them.

  At that time, Wang Weiteng had not yet become a formal party member. He was just an underworld businessman who opened a song and dance hall in the concession after returning from studying abroad. He had a heart that hoped his country would win the war of resistance as soon as possible. However, when the script reached this point, his intention was there, but his ideological awareness had not yet caught up - and the entire script of "Star Fire" is about a successful underworld boss who abandons his evil ways to join the army, helps occupy the base area, transports intelligence, and defeats the Japanese as an excellent party member.

  Suddenly hit the two main themes of "abandoning the dark and joining the army" and "the spirit of resistance against Japanese aggression", I couldn't help but feel that the screenwriter is quite impressive when I saw this script.

  At first, Jian Ran was a bit nervous when he saw his senior, Bai Wen Qi. He was tense and seemed to be holding his breath as he walked into the studio. He straightened up, took a deep breath, calmed himself down, picked up the tea cup on the table, and pretended to pour tea. However, he hadn't fully composed himself yet, and the teapot in his hand knocked against the cup, making a light "ting" sound.

  He slightly frowned, thinking to himself that things were going terribly wrong.

  But he didn't dare to turn his head to look at the expressions of the two teachers sitting behind the monitor, otherwise it would only expose his embarrassment even more - and at this moment, he happened to hear the footsteps of Bai Wengui entering the studio, slightly stabilizing his mood, he first showed a slightly stunned expression, intentionally letting this expression pause for a while to let the camera capture it - when everyone thought he had really dropped the chain, they saw the black-haired young man sitting there suddenly put down the teapot in his hand, turned his head, and faced Bai Wengui with a raised eyebrow, revealing a hint of a ambiguous smile.

  "I said who was coming, and it turned out to be Mr. Bai."

  The line in the script is "Mr. Bai, you're here", and he made a slight modification to make his previous action of knocking over the teacup with the vase seem reasonable, turning it into "Saito Tai felt that Bai Wenqi had arrived, and a psychological activity appeared in his mind" - Saito's lines are quite good, and this time, although the line is in Chinese, he deliberately used the tone of a Japanese person speaking Chinese to recite it.

  Shirogane Kiyoka, who was crouching behind the monitor, said in a low voice: "Okay."

  Jiang Chuan and Fang Yu, who were standing by the door with a serious expression, also straightened up slightly. Jiang Chuan frowned slightly and quickly relaxed: "He learned to speak Chinese like a Japanese person, it's quite authentic."

  "Don't say this out loud for a while," Fang Yu sneered, "he'll say you're making personal attacks."

  Bai Wengui was also somewhat surprised, at first glance the calm and collected appearance and the first line of dialogue, if he hadn't known in advance that the black-haired young man in front of him was indeed Chinese, he would have almost thought he was a foreign actor... At this time, his conversation with Jingran had already progressed to one-third, the atmosphere between them gradually deepening along with the lines, and finally, when Jingran's cup "clanged" loudly on the table, the table "rang" out, Bai Wengui's line came to an abrupt halt, the entire studio was so quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop!

  Jian Ran and Bai Wen Qi fell into a brief silence between them.

  At this time, completely different from the violent rage of smashing a cup earlier, it was as if the violent emotions were suddenly and completely retracted - only to see the black-haired young man smile, lightly remove the turd-yellow military cap on his head and place it on the table. He turned his head, his black pupils flashing, the corners of his mouth slightly hooked, and in a low voice, he spoke out his first line of Japanese dialogue -

  Mr. Tanaka has been here all along, I knew this.

  That smile-like-not-smile expression, with a hint of mischief that didn't quite reach the eyes, and the sparkling pupils were full of evil intentions.

  At this moment, the surrounding staff also unconsciously followed suit, a pair of eyes staring intently at the young black-haired man's face - paused for a while, and then looked very nervously at the person sitting next to him, as if they were really worried that his answer would mess things up, making Lieutenant Saito realize that Tanaka was actually under the floorboards beneath their feet...

  Under the tense gaze of everyone, Bai Wenqiu smiled slightly and adjusted the scarf around his neck: "Mr. Saito, how can you have such an absurd conjecture?"

  After all, he has been acting in anti-war dramas for a lifetime, so Bai Wengu's Japanese is also quite good. His plays basically don't need to be dubbed later, and even if they are dubbed, his own voice is used.

  At this moment, he only felt that the black-haired young man in front of him gave him too many surprises compared to ordinary popular idol actors - from the first Chinese line to this Japanese line, every gesture and action as well as his tone and speed of speech were all grasped very well, and accurately captured the climax part of this small trial content: it was when the first Japanese line burst out.

  At this point, according to the script, Saito Taichi's patience had run out. He had been speaking Chinese with Wang Weiwu all along, but suddenly switched to his native language, symbolizing that his emotions were out of control in an instant - and according to the character setting, this was not a common occurrence for Saito Taichi, a calm young officer. The moment he lost his composure was destined to be at a disadvantage, and next was Wang Weiwu's wise counterattack.

  He grasped this point very accurately.

  Moreover, his Japanese is not stiff and memorized by reading the phonetic script, but has a natural rhythm when spoken - this advantage is that it won't make the actors playing opposite him lose their concentration due to strange lines, and the two people naturally switch to another language to continue with the script.

  He had never had an acting experience with a black-haired young man in front of him before, but today was the first time. However, Bai Wenqi felt that this acting process was comfortable and relaxing - he didn't even need to carefully guide his opponent's acting skills like he used to when facing new people, or slow down his own pace to keep up with his opponent.

  Yuan Jinyan is keeping up with his acting.

  When Fang Yu saw the director and producer's furrowed brows slightly relax, with the latter even nodding slightly, his heart also landed.

  Gang Chuan, who was standing beside him, stood with his arms around him from head to toe, expressionless.

  Fang Yu Ba Ge's eyes lit up, and he leaned in close to Jiang Chuan, lowering his voice: "I thought you didn't want Jian Ran to act in this play - no matter what weird reason you had, how come you helped him just now?"

  "'Afraid he'll cry,'" Jiang Chuan said expressionlessly, "'can't be persuaded.'"

  Fang Yu: "......"

  "Actually, there's nothing," Jiang Chuan said again, "it's just that he can see how much he's looking forward to this play - so let's not mess it up."

  "Of course I'm looking forward to it, this is a play of Chuan Na."

  Jiang Chuan smiled and stopped talking. At this time, Jin Yan had finished trying out the role - it was clear that neither Jin Yan himself nor the leaders present had any major objections to Jin Yan taking on the role of Ito Taichi. Even Shirai Kō sensei laughed and said to Jin Yan: "I didn't think your pronunciation was really good, this way we can save money on finding someone to dub over you later, haha!"

  He listened carefully and suddenly felt he had a good chance, so he quickly nodded his head in thanks.

  Right after that, Shirai Kō turned the conversation around and reminded: "When you go back, you need to think more about the role of Itō Taichi. He's a cunning and ruthless officer. Your emotions were in place when you read the lines earlier, but your eyes weren't enough. You need to think more - every detail can't be neglected. One glance, one movement, maybe you didn't notice yourself, but on screen, they're all infinitely magnified."

  A word made Jian Ran feel the justice from Chu Nuo, he hastily agreed not to disappoint everyone and seriously explored the inner world of "being evil and ruthless", directly throwing his previous resistance to playing a ghost into the back of his mind. The young man with black hair was overjoyed, his face radiant as if a cluster of peach blossoms could bloom on it.

  "Look," Jiang Chuan said, "he really wants to act."

  Fang Yu could only let out a sigh of agreement.

  When it was time for other actors to audition, Jianran sat aside looking at the photos taken during the audition, occasionally discussing with the post-production team how to retouch them - this kind of thing is usually done by Fang Yu, after finishing the audition, Jianran would lie down like a dead dog and play with his phone. But today he seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, taking care of everything personally, this attitude was a bit like when he first entered the entertainment industry...

  Fang Yu thought it was pretty good, having been a vegetable for a while, washing away all the greasiness that old slicker had cooked up before. The enthusiasm of "dedication and enjoyment" was all stirred back up - so at this moment, even Manager Li didn't go to stop Jian Ran, just standing aside watching him jump around energetically.

  Fang Yu and Jiang Chuan stood aside talking.

  Standing there with one hand on the table, looking at the beauty editor adjusting the photos, chatting idly with him...

  At a time when no one expected it, Li Rui, the director who was originally sitting next to Bai Yan Song, stood up and walked in their direction - Li Rui is also an old-fashioned director like Bai Yan Song, specializing in filming anti-war dramas, and is quite famous in the circle. As one of the main hired directors of Chuan Na, his aura also matches Chuan Na very well... In short, he is a serious person who doesn't like to joke around, full of mainstream melody all over his body.

  When he appears, he comes with his own BGM, which is something like "The Volunteer Army March" or whatever.

  Although online, Li Rui only posted some inappropriate comments on the internet, for example, if someone commented "23333" under his Weibo post, he would ask that person what "23333" means. If they replied it meant "laughing so hard I'm rolling around", he would tell them young people shouldn't take shortcuts and should just type "hahaha" instead... the Chinese language is profound and complex pp...

  In short, Director Li Rui is a senior who makes people feel unconsciously respectful and at the same time quite speechless (not in a derogatory sense).

  At this moment, he came to Jianran's back, patted his shoulder - Jianran turned around and saw that the person who called him was him. He felt a sudden realization that something might be wrong. As expected, in the next second, he waited for Director Li Rui to express his desire to talk about life with himself... Jianran nodded at the same time, and found that his agent was also approaching himself with an extremely serious face.

  Then comes the time for primary school students' speeches.

  Although Mr. Li Rui's words were gentle and carried an elder-like tone of advice, what he said was often so piercing that it made Jian Ran feel like he couldn't survive for even a minute, such as ——

  p1：

  Teacher: "This time, both I and Bai Yan Ge teacher are co-recommending you with the producer. We have high hopes for you. You must know that it's rare for a mainstream TV drama to use young idols like you."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Teen Idol?

  What era's ancient tomb was this word excavated from?

  p2：

  Teacher: "I can also see that you attach great importance to this TV series, which is very good. As a director, I'm delighted. However, there's something I need to remind you about - recently, there have been quite a few rumors online about you and another male actor... I even saw that another female star painted an oil painting with the theme of your intimate contact with him, which has been widely circulated online..."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  Intimate contact as the theme, widely spread on the internet.

  Widely spread on the internet.

  Xu Qianqian that cheap person's oil painting Weibo forwarded how many times? One million? Or one and a half million? Hasn't my old man's photo of the vagrant uncle been spread more widely?

  p3：

  Teacher: "This needs to be noted, young people. Joking around is okay, but taking it too far isn't good, right? We can't go out and let others see your face, then think of that oil painting and say this actor and another actor, ah, have close contact, and spread it widely - this influence is indeed not good."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  When others see your face, they think of that oil painting.

  It appeared again and spread widely.

  ……

  Throughout the entire 20-minute conversation about life, Jian Ran could only respond with "yes", "thank you teacher for pointing that out, I'll pay attention" and "good".

  Twenty minutes later, Teacher Li Rui turned around and walked back to his monitor with a swagger, leaving Yuan Zhenran and his agent stunned, both realizing that the other's blood bar had been completely emptied.

  "I want to kill Xu Qianqian right now." Jin Ran said expressionlessly, "Burn her and that oil painting together, turn them into ashes."

  Above.

  It ended in a thrilling way like this during the audition of "Star Fire", to sum up, if you delete the last paragraph's "pleasant conversation with Teacher Li Rui", it can still be called "the audition went very smoothly and everyone was happy".