Chapter Twenty-Five

  He was enjoying killing the Xu siblings with his gaze when suddenly his line of sight was blocked - Jiang Chuan's stunningly handsome face appeared enlarged in front of him, and Hamster was startled, taking a step back. At this time, he heard Jiang Chuan call out: "A Fei."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  "Want your grandfather to lay eggs?"

  Jiang Chuan put the script in his hand on the cage and made a serious expression - although this guy's face always looked very serious, but when he didn't speak, he used those blue eyes to stare at something, it was... quite easy to make the other person feel tense.

  Having a murderous aura.

  The hamster in the cage instinctively shifted its fat buttocks back two steps, and immediately heard its owner say in a voice that sounded as gentle as a cloud: "From the moment that woman came in, I found you staring at her. Is she pretty?"

  Jian Ran: "......"

  A slight correction, it's not "the sound of light cloud and gentle breeze", but rather "a sound that feels like dark clouds are gathering even though the cloud is light and the breeze is gentle".

  Hahaha.

  Why stare at that woman, she's just a hamster, can't understand what you're saying with such complexity.

  To cover up his awkwardness, Jian Ran pretended not to understand anything and stretched out his paws to grab something on the side, grabbing a few times before finally getting a piece of what was probably hamster food. Without looking at it, he stuffed it into his mouth and pretended to be eating happily - although his green bean-sized eyes were fixed on Jiang Chuan's handsome face from start to finish as if mesmerized. The man and the mouse stared at each other for a long time before Jian Ran saw that the man's thin lips had opened slightly, saying: "Does Ah Fei like girls with big breasts and butts? Pervert."

  Jian Ran: "......"

  After three seconds of silence.

  The hamster flipped over a triangular eye and threw a small defective vegetable ring into the face of his self-righteous owner.

  The vegetable ring "slapped" against the wall of the cage and then bounced back, hitting the hamster's own face.

  ……

  About half an hour later, another staff member came to inform everyone that they could prepare for the audition. At this time, the hamster in the cage had been spiritually oppressed by its owner and was no longer looking at Xu Qianqian's side, as it was very afraid that its aesthetic level would become like that in its owner's eyes from now on. In fact, in a separate dressing room, watching Jiang Chuan take off his clothes and change into his costume, the hamster looked at his sturdy muscles with its eyes scanning from head to toe, and if it could speak human language, it might say to its owner: Compared to big breasts and buttocks, I still prefer big muscles.

  Hehehehehehe.

  Jiang Chuan was carrying the cage with the hamsters back and forth, from the waiting room to the dressing room and then out again. As he crouched beside the food bowl in the cage, shaking his legs and thinking about why Jiang Chuan didn't like wearing underwear when he wore a costume, Fang Yu, who had been waiting on the side, couldn't bear the strange looks of the people around him anymore and came over to try to stop Jiang Chuan: "Jiang Chuan, you can just leave your hamsters in the waiting room, there's no need to bring them to the studio, right?"

  Upon hearing this, the hamster immediately threw away the food in its hand, raised its head and shot out a protesting emotion with those green bean eyes.

  And he thought his emotions had been perfectly received by the host.

  Because in the next second, he heard Jiang Chuan say with a straight face: "No way."

  Fang Yu: "No way?... You're actually telling me no - wait, what's there to be okay or not okay about this?"

  "Because anyone can enter the rest room, I couldn't take care of this side while in the studio," Jiang Chuan looked at Fang Yu with a expressionless face, "What if someone takes advantage of my absence and comes in to poison me?"

  Fang Yu: "......Before answering your question, you first tell me what's the point of poisoning a hamster?"

  "I don't know," said Jiang Chuan. "But if Ah Fei died, I would be sad."

  Fang Yu: "......"

  "This is my first time raising a pet, I want it to die of old age."

  "Hey, not bad, you can even use idioms...” Fang Yu wiped his face weakly and compromised with a self-abandoning attitude, “I'm warning you, everyone's in a bad mood today. Later, it's best if your hamster keeps quiet on set and doesn't make too much noise running on the wheel, disturbing the audition. Otherwise, it might get a beating from Director Wang."

  "The teacher's mood has been bad all along."

  "Huh?"

  "Same-sex love affair episode."

  "You heard it too."

  "It's not like he's deaf."

  "This, the teacher is already old and it's not easy, but unfortunately, the tide of thought is progressing too fast these days. If you're not careful, the previous wave will be knocked down on the beach - since you know, just behave yourself a bit later, be good, don't make the teacher angry. Today Jiang Luocheng is not here, what the teacher says goes."

  "Got it." Jiang Chuan nodded, thought for a moment, and then lowered his head to look at the hamster in the cage that was lying on its back without a neck. Suddenly, he added out of nowhere, "The hamster was bought by Yuan Jinyan."

  Fang Yu, who was just dragging Jiang Chuan out, stopped in his tracks and turned around, saying: "Huh?"

  "It doesn't matter."

  This time, Jiang Chuan didn't make any more explanations and instead walked past the agent with the hamster cage, heading towards the dressing room. The man in the Tang suit didn't even turn his head as he walked, while many actors who came to audition for "Qiao Sheng" greeted him and politely asked him to take care of them later. He responded uniformly to everyone, whether they were leading actors or newcomers he had hardly met before, with a nod and an expressionless face.

  Upon arrival at the photography studio, the producer and assistant director changed their usual habit of walking around and inspecting each camera position. Instead, they replaced Jiang Luocheng and squatted behind the director's monitor in pairs. When everyone walked in, the assistant director greeted them, and the trial shoot began immediately.

  Jiang Chuan sat there expressionlessly, watching countless "mouse spirits" dressed in the same Republic of China-era young master attire flit about before him. Each person had a different demeanor when posing for photos under the camera lens - some were aloof, others haughty, and some tender. They all seemed to be following their own understanding of the role, trying to bring out their own unique flair along the lines of Yuan Jinran's direction.

  Such an idea is correct.

  Jian Ran crouched in the cage, watching Wang Mo, and when he saw this colleague who was much taller than himself standing in front of the camera, he brought out the stubbornness in his "樵生" bones, highlighting his own strengths while downplaying his lack of refinement. He couldn't help but nod repeatedly - if it were him up there vying for a role, he would also follow this approach, satisfying the director and screenwriter's expectations as much as possible, then emphasizing his strong points and avoiding his weaknesses.

  It's obvious that most people understand this principle.

  Except for a few people who want to take a different path.

  When Xu Wenjie walked in front of the camera and posed in a few fixed postures as required by the photographer, he clearly heard the director's teacher exclaim "hmm" not far away from him, then turned his head to ask the staff: "This kid looks very similar to Yuan Jinyan's figure, looking at the background it's almost like one person came, where did you find him?"

  The staff lowered their voices and explained in a low voice - probably because the director's teacher's voice was louder, his doubts entered Xu Wenjie's ears. When the photographer asked him to turn around for several frontal photos, he clearly saw that the corner of his mouth was slightly hooked into a satisfied angle.

  I'm going to throw up.

  He was pacing back and forth in the cage, but Jiang Chuan, who had been squatting beside him from start to finish, was very calm. He looked at Xu Wenjie, who had a slight smile on his face after their non-confrontational argument that morning, with no expression. The only time he reacted was when Xu Wenjie showed a hint of complacency, and Jiang Chuan let out a meaningful "hmm" and moved his neck before propping up his head with one hand.

  Those azure eyes didn't reveal too much extra emotion.

  After the stills were taken, the staff spent about ten minutes organizing the data. Then someone came to tell Jiang Chuan that he needed to go on stage and cooperate with a dynamic screen test - this time, they changed the script fragment to one where the Taoist priest bursts in during the mouse spirit's wedding ceremony, points his sword at the mouse spirit's bride, and the mouse spirit tries to stop him. The bride is frantic behind the mouse spirit.

  Here, from a calm understanding, it should mainly be to show that Qiao Sheng was flustered after seeing the exorcist for the first time - but after the initial panic, Qiao Sheng still gritted his teeth and stood in front of his fiancée, watching as Huai Jin's sword approached him. Although he had a way to escape, he considered the villagers and elders present, fearing that they would see through his demon identity and tarnish his wife's reputation. He had no choice but to endure the pain and take Huai Jin's sword.

  Although the play is different from the previous one on the cliff, there are still some similarities in the way of expression - it's said that the selection of this trial script was also decided by Jiang Luocheng beforehand, probably just to see if anyone can figure out what he wants to express and then integrate it into other parts of the play.

  The character setting of "Qiao Sheng" is a contradictory and stubborn person, in his world, "himself" is always placed after "others".

  There's a hint of those sentimental female ghosts or fairies from the chat rooms.

  After careful consideration, if I remember correctly, this should also be the last scene of Xu Qianqian's portrayal of the mouse bride.

  He crawled to the highest level of his own villa, and with great difficulty, he climbed onto a swing hanging high up - this was the best seat in the house to observe everything that was happening inside the studio... When he was acting himself, he didn't think much of it, but now, squatting on the side and watching, Jiang Chuan was playing Huai Jin, waving the wooden sword in his hand towards Qiao Sheng, and the person playing Qiao Sheng had to pretend to be terrified, as if he had been injured by the sword energy and stumbled backward... Because of course, you can't see special effects on a monitor, so... watching two people making gestures at each other with such seriousness was really quite embarrassing.

  Xu Wenjie was placed last on the scene, and when he went on stage, Xu Qianqian was watching from the side. He walked under the camera lens and seemed to be in a daze. Jiang Chuan raised an eyebrow, and the wooden sword in his hand flipped agilely as he played the role of Huai Jin, speaking out the first line of dialogue——

  "Get out of the way."

  Next, according to the script, the person playing Qiao Sheng should have a panicked face, but instead of stepping aside as Huai Jin said, he subconsciously took a step forward and blocked his own fiancée, then asked in a flustered voice "Who are you? Why did you come here to cause trouble?"

  Each camera lens is slightly closer, mainly focusing on Xu Wenjie's face.

  However, unexpectedly, Xu Wenjie, who played the role of Qiao Sheng at this time, did not express the contradictory emotions of "fear" and "pretending to be strong" in a brief moment like others. Instead, his eyes turned red, blinked, and big tears fell down.

  "Thus:"

  Jiang Chuan: "What's going on?"

  Everyone: "………"

  There was a moment of deathly silence in the studio.

  Suddenly, I heard a staff member in charge of props behind me whispering in a low voice: "My god, what the hell is this?"