Chapter 1

When Jiang Qi came to his senses, he was already accompanying Old John to look at houses.

Old John’s definition of a house is that as long as you can’t live in a rich neighborhood, any place is the same; there is no difference between sleeping on a skywalk and sleeping in a fully furnished house.

Facing Cao Yongjun's warm and well-decorated house full of living atmosphere, Old John did not show any excitement.

On the contrary, Cao Yongjun was very tempted.

"Xiao Qi, can your teacher understand Chinese? He seems to be well-educated and gentle, and you can tell at a glance that he cares about the house." While Old John was staring out the window, Cao Yongjun pulled Jiang Qi aside to chat.

"I understand. He is a foreign teacher in our school and his Chinese is very good." Jiang Qi didn't know how Cao Yongjun knew that Old John was caring about the house. While he agreed, he was thinking in his mind.

Cao Yongjun’s house is really suitable.

First of all, it is close, so any emergency can be dealt with in a timely manner when going up or down the stairs.

Secondly, the rent is cheap. Cao Yongjun's house is so good, with four bedrooms and two living rooms, and it costs 1,800 yuan a month. There are no middlemen or agents to charge agency fees. It is a good house that is hard to find even with a lantern. Moreover, Cao Yongjun said that he could rent a single room first. Judging from his attitude, if the other rooms cannot be rented out, they will not be rented out. Rounding it off, it is a few hundred yuan per whole room, which is very suitable for poor players like Jiang Qi who are short of money.

The most important thing is that just when Cao Yongjun pulled Jiang Qi upstairs, he remembered the gossip that Ms. Jiang Xiaohong told at the New Year's dinner table.

Cao Wenyang is married!

Not only are they getting married, they're also planning on having kids!

Based on Jiang Qi's understanding of Cao Yongjun, as long as Cao Wenyang and his wife did not object, Cao Yongjun and his wife would definitely stay in the capital to help them raise the children, and they would definitely not be able to come back for a few years.

After thinking it over again and again, Jiang Qi said, "How about this, Uncle Cao, my teacher is here to collect inspiration. If he has no inspiration, he may leave in a few months. If he has inspiration, he may stay for a year and bring other teachers with him."

"If you feel comfortable with it, you can rent a single room to our teacher first, and then rent the rest slowly. In case there are other teachers coming to our school, can you give them priority?"

"Of course!" Cao Yongjun agreed immediately. "I'd be worried if I rented this to someone else without you here. Aunt Qian treasures this house so much. If I rent it to the kind of tenants online who make me so angry, Aunt Qian will fight me to the death."

"Don't worry, we've been neighbors for more than ten years. I'll definitely check your house from time to time to see if there's any problem."

After Old John showed Cao Yongjun his ID card, which he didn't know whether it was valid or not, Cao Yongjun happily went to the printing shop at the entrance of the community to print out a rental contract that he had randomly got from the Internet.

The rent was also finalized, 400 a month, one month deposit and one month payment. Until another tenant moved in, Old John could use any space in the house as he pleased, as if it were free.

Before leaving, Cao Yongjun handed the spare key of the house to Jiang Qi and asked Old John to choose a room first and pay the money and sign the contract when he came back.

Old John finally chose the smallest study room, which was Cao Wenyang's room. Although it was the smallest in size, it had good lighting, so he could read during the day without turning on the lights and hurting his eyes.

Don’t ask Jiang Qi how he knew this was Cao Wenyang’s room. When Jiang Qi was in junior high school, he came to Cao Wenyang’s house to ask Cao Wenyang for extra lessons.

Old John stared at the books on the bookshelf for a long time as he looked around the room.

"Someone in that family studied architecture." Old John said with certainty after Cao Yongjun left.

"Architecture?" Jiang Qi thought for a moment. "It seems that Cao Wenyang studied architecture. He is Cao Bo's son. I heard before that he seemed to study bridges. I don't know if it has anything to do with architecture. I don't know. It is said that it is not very popular and not many people study it nationwide."

Old John nodded to show that he understood.

After Cao Yongjun came back, the two signed the contract directly. Jiang Qi transferred money to Cao Yongjun on behalf of Old John. Cao Yongjun said that after he cleared out the debris in the house in a few days, Old John could move in with his bags.

After finishing the house matters, it was almost time for lunch.

Jiang Qi took Old John to the alley where the script-killing shop was to have lunch. There were too many shops and Jiang Qi didn't know how to choose, so he simply went to the place where he had beef noodles yesterday to continue eating beef noodles. That noodle shop had large portions and a fragrant soup base, and it was economical and affordable.

As soon as he entered the noodle shop, Jiang Qi saw Liu Lan drinking soup from a bowl.

"Hey, Jiang Qi, John, you guys also come to this noodle shop to eat noodles!" Liu Lan saw the two of them and greeted them enthusiastically, motioning them to sit at his table.

Before Jiang Qi even touched the chair, Liu Lan couldn't wait to speak: "I wrote the lyrics all night last night and revised the interpretation. I just went to the printing shop to print it out. You can take a look."

As he spoke, Liu Lan took out a few sheets of A4 paper from his bag.

"The printing fee is 1.2 yuan. Jiang Qi, remember to reimburse me."

Jiang Qi nodded and watched it with Old John. He found that Liu Lan's interpretation was well written.

Clip 4:

Props: Clothes bags, tables and chairs, books, paper and pens

Narrator: In the darkness, you saw yourself at the age of 19, running home like a child, holding the bag you treasured. It was the suit you carefully selected for your father, the best gift you could buy for him at the age of 19.

Liu Lan (male voice): "Dad, guess what I bought for you?"

John (male voice) (dim light, only silhouettes visible): "What?"

Liu Lan (male voice): "A suit. You can wear it on important occasions."

The curtain was slightly opened.

John (male voice): "I don't have any important occasion."

The curtain opens.

Liu Lan (male voice): "You can wear it at Sunny's wedding."

John (male voice): "I won't be at your wedding, and you won't invite me. No one wants to see me at that time, not even your mother. We have hated each other for many years, and no one wants us to be together."

Liu Lan (male voice): “But (pause), you can…”

John (male voice) (impatient): "Okay, there's food in the microwave, don't bother me, I'm watching the key part."

The curtain closed, Old John stood up, picked up the bag and left.

Turn off the lights.

.

Jiang Qi read through it quickly and felt that there was nothing wrong with it, except that he was a little confused.

"Are you talking about Little John's words? Isn't this a male character?" Jiang Qi said as he quickly browsed through the other clips.

Admittedly, his role is still very rich.

A scumbag who cheated on his girlfriend, a younger brother who was hit and killed by a car, a serious boss, a black-hearted vendor who extorted money and a young teacher who was harsh on students.

Except for the one who died, they are all villains.

Liu Lan leaned over to take a look and said, "I saw that there were too many roles for young men, and I was afraid that you wouldn't be able to memorize the lines in a short period of time, so I gave myself the role of Little John, who has the most scenes. I can't imitate the voice of an ordinary man, and the voice of a young boy is barely okay, but if you want to play Little John, you can play it, no problem."

Jiang Qi studied it carefully and found that Little John's words were indeed outrageous.

"You should act." Jiang Qi said sincerely, and then asked, "Who will control the lights and curtains?"

"Let me do it. The lights and curtains in the store are second-hand and the quality is not very good. I have tried them before and they always have problems."

"Let me do it." After hearing Liu Lan's words, Jiang Qi immediately took on the task. "I was in charge of lighting and curtains in the drama club in college."

Liu Lan had no objection: "Okay, then you can get used to the store first. We will start rehearsals this afternoon. Just recite the lyrics during rehearsal. Try to memorize the whole script the day after tomorrow."

The two chatted for a long time, and when they turned around, they found that Old John had already started eating. Liu Lan smiled and asked Old John: "Teacher John, do you think your part is okay?"

"I'm fine."

.

After eating the noodles, the three of them returned to the store together.

Liu Lan brought the two of them to the performance room on the second floor. This room was the largest on the second floor. When Jiang Qi came here for the first time, he noticed that there was an open curtain near the door of the room. At that time, he wondered what it was used for.

Liu Lan handed the remote control of the lights and curtains to Jiang Qi, told him the function of each key, and asked him to press them one by one to get a feel for them.

"The sliding rail of this curtain has a problem and is always out of control. If the lights are dim during the performance, you can just go over and pull it. The guests can't see it anyway." Liu Lan also passed on her experience to Jiang Qi.

After some adjustments, Jiang Qi almost mastered the changes in lighting and curtains and the switching of BGM. Liu Lan and Old John also went over the lyrics. At Liu Lan's eye signal, the first rehearsal began.

The curtain closed, and Jiang Qi, as the stagehand, was the only audience member.

There were no windows in the room, and it was dark after the lights were turned off. Liu Lan squatted in the corner behind the curtain and said in a clear boyish voice: "Dad, guess what I bought for you."

Jiang Qi pressed the light control remote, but there was no response.

Jiang Qi:?

It was working just now, but now it’s broken?

Just as he pressed the remote control hard, the light came on.

Jiang Qi was a little unsure if it was the light that was on, because the light had not been that bright when he tried it before.

The dim light was just enough to illuminate old John's slightly hunched back as he sat at his desk. This background, printed on the curtain, looked a little lonely.

"What?" A slightly old voice.

The BGM that did not appear in the playlist but was extremely appropriate for the occasion sounded at the right time.

Jiang Qi didn't even press the remote control, but the curtain moved by itself.

The curtain slowly opened, stopping at just the right moment, revealing just half of Old John's face, neither more nor less.

The lights rotated, slowly from bottom to top, just like a person's gaze, making people involuntarily focus their attention on the only actor.

Old John looked normal, looking to the side with indifferent eyes, as if there really was a young man standing there with a face full of expectation.

Jiang Qi didn't need to control the lights and curtains at all. To be more precise, these two things were not under his control. They seemed to have their own opinions and would follow Old John to make the appropriate reactions, light, dark, gathering, and dispersion, and every change was just right.

The plot has reached its end.

Liu Lan began to read the narration: "From that day on, you deeply realized that he didn't love you at all. He didn't love anyone. He had always lived in his own world. What you thought was that he was different from you was just an illusion. To him, you were just a stranger with a blood relationship."

The light still followed Old John, and the curtain began to close slowly. Old John stood up on time and walked forward without any reluctance, leaving only the bag on the ground that had never been touched by anyone.

Lights out.

Jiang Qi stood there in a daze.

"Clap, clap, clap!" Without waiting for Jiang Qi to react, Liu Lan, who had been squatting in the corner, clapped excitedly and stopped only when his hands turned red.

Liu Lan turned on the light and gave Jiang Qi an exaggerated thumbs up.

"That's amazing! The lighting and the curtains just now were amazing, and the background music, you must have changed it yourself because you found the original one wasn't good enough, right? The atmosphere, it's just, it's just, it's just... absolutely amazing!"

"And Mr. John, you acted so well! Are you an acting teacher? I was just squatting in the corner watching you, and I felt that you were just like old John himself! It was incredible, I couldn't help but be drawn into it. Is this the legendary "immersion in a role"? It's such a pity, if I had known you earlier, I might have gone to learn acting."

Liu Lan used her poor vocabulary to flatter Jiang Qi and Old John crazily, and even addressed Jiang Qi as "boss".

After praising for about three or four minutes, Liu Lan probably realized that he was at a loss for words. He repeated the same praise over and over again, and could only say excitedly: "Come on, let's move on to the next scene and seize the opportunity!"

In the next scene, Jiang Qi still had no lines and stood in front of the screen acting as a spectator.

Just like before, the lighting, curtains and BGM all have their own ideas, which perfectly match Old John's performance.

For no reason, Jiang Qi suddenly remembered John's second skill in the card - playing himself (everyone is good at playing himself, even if it's a bit boring).

So, the out-of-control lights, curtains and BGM were just playing out old John's true colors?