Chapter 37
"Du Jing?"
Xu Ying was somewhat bewildered; forgive her, she had never heard of this actor's name before.
"It's normal that you haven't heard of him. He's not very famous, and he mostly plays minor roles. I only learned about him by chance from watching an idol drama..."
While explaining, Lin Zhongxu took out his phone and searched for the names on TK short video platform. He found TV drama clips with actor tags.
“Look.”
He placed the phone screen between the two of them, and Xu Ying leaned slightly to look at it together.
In the video, the woman's family apparently owed money, and a group of people came to their house and robbed them, taking whatever they could find that was valuable.
The female protagonist was desperately trying to stop and reprimand these people, but her brother only managed to say, "You can't do this," before being shoved aside by these fierce-looking debt collectors and too frightened to utter another word.
However, after the debt collectors left, this brother, contrary to his previous cowardly behavior, started complaining to the female lead about her refusal to marry the wealthy male lead to help pay off the family's debts. His attitude of taking the female lead for granted was a stark contrast to his previous cowardice and incompetence, making him a typical bully at home.
It's infuriating to watch.
"His acting is pretty good, isn't it?"
Du Jing plays the older brother, a minor character in the drama. He only appears a few times at the beginning and middle. Each time he appears, he is either asking the female lead for money or the creditor is asking him for money. In short, the main purpose of his character is to leech off the female lead along with his family, pushing her step by step towards the rich and affectionate male lead.
Xu Ying stared at the screen and subconsciously said, "It's quite infuriating."
"ha?"
Lin Zhongxu found it amusing; was that really the question he was asking?
Xu Ying snapped out of her reverie and couldn't help but laugh: "I meant he acted quite well, and his appearance is pretty much what I expected. Let me see how I can get in touch with him..."
"Contact him?"
Lin Zhongxu thought of something and looked down to search for Du Jing's personal account again. When he clicked on the personal account, he found the email address for business cooperation on the homepage.
He excitedly moved closer to Xu Ying: "Look, there's a mailbox here!"
Xu Ying looked down at the phone handed to her, hummed in agreement, and began sending an email to the other party, asking if they were interested in playing the role of Li Zhi in the TV series "Wu Zetian".
"Aren't you going to send him the script?"
"It's not too late to send him the script after we see what he's willing to do," Xu Ying stood up. "Are you hungry? I'll take you out to eat."
The two of them must have been sitting in the room for at least three hours.
"I am indeed a little hungry."
Lin Zhongxu stood up, and his height advantage became immediately apparent. He was half a head taller than Xu Ying when he stood next to her.
That's really high!
"Come on, you've done me a huge favor, I'll treat you to a good meal!"
*
While Xu Ying and Lin Zhongxu went out for dinner, a new message quietly appeared in Du Jing's email inbox.
Du Jing was just a minor actor, barely known.
The TK platform claims to be for business connections, which looks very legitimate, but it's actually his personal account. Even the short videos he uploads to his homepage are all filmed and produced by him independently with just one mobile phone.
well.
This is what happens when you're not famous; you don't even have an assistant, and your manager is shared among several artists.
So it's normal for him to be all alone on set every day. His agent follows whoever is popular and has no time to pay attention to him. He's just grateful if he can get a job opportunity occasionally.
Congratulations on wrapping up filming!
With a face covered in soot, Du Jing announced the end of filming amidst perfunctory applause from the crew.
Another day of making money by playing dead bodies.
Although he was called a corpse, he was actually a minor character who could say a few words. Du Jing comforted himself and, enduring the sour smell, quickly returned to the hotel to wash up.
That evening, as he lay in bed checking for new messages as usual, he noticed the rather brief email that Xu Ying had sent him.
The moment he saw the message, his heart trembled and his breathing became rapid.
This is the first time someone has approached him to act. All the roles he received before were opportunities he had to audition and fight for.
Every single one!
It's not that I'm bad at trying, it's just that trying without seeing any hope is too exhausting.
He would occasionally fall into deep self-doubt, wondering if he would slip away from the edge of the entertainment industry if he relaxed even slightly one day.
Like now, even though he tries hard enough, the roles he can get are getting smaller and smaller... If this continues, he'll really end up lying on the ground playing a dead body.
The fear and helplessness he had been suppressing deep inside him collapsed the moment he saw this message, the truth of which was uncertain.
When no one is watching, he can be strong, but once he is seen, he can no longer hold back his inner grievances. With trembling hands, he searches for the name "Wu Zetian" on the Dayan platform.
Great, he found it.
This is a TV series that has already been approved. It will be produced and distributed by Lucky Film & Television Media Co., Ltd. Lucky Film & Television Media... He knew this company. It was a legitimate company with some reputation in the industry, or at least he had heard of it.
Everything made the email information seem incredibly credible.
In addition, the email signature was the casually written "February Sky," a name that Du Jing had just seen; she was the sole screenwriter for the TV series "Wu Zetian."
Du Jing was very excited.
He had no idea how many roles Li Zhi played in the script; he only knew that he would play whatever role he wanted.
He lay on the bed, carefully considering each word as he replied to the message.
Hello, I do...
That didn't seem quite right, so he deleted it and rephrased it.
Hello, I'm interested in acting in the TV series "Empress Wu Zetian". Could you please send me the script so I can take a look?
He revised the simple sentence over and over again, and finally even deleted the request to see the script, because he was afraid that the other party would find him troublesome.
Xu Ying and Lin Zhongxu lingered at the hotel for too long, and it was quite late when they went out to eat. So much so that after they finished eating, they took a walk and enjoyed the evening breeze before returning to the hotel in the middle of the night.
It was too late, so Xu Ying didn't let Lin Zhongxu go back to school. She booked another room for him on the same floor before returning to her own room.
After returning to her room, she saw Du Jing's reply, in which he said he was willing.
This was good news, and Xu Ying was quite excited. She immediately replied to the other party, asking them to come over for a screen test in the next two days. The other party must have been awake, as they replied in a second.
Du Jing: I have time tomorrow, is tomorrow okay?
February Sky: Sure, the meeting room on the third floor of the Holiday Inn Shanghai, at 3:00 PM, is that time okay?
Du Jing: OK, no problem.
*
The next day at 3 PM.
Du Jing arrived at the Holiday Inn in Shanghai as promised.
The hotel looked very upscale. Du Jing knew about this hotel; he had heard that many well-known celebrities stayed here when filming. However, he had never received such treatment. The film crew usually booked budget hotels for him.
He pursed his lips, straightened his white shirt, and then walked in with a slightly uneasy expression.
The door to the conference room on the third floor of the hotel was open.
Du Jing walked over and immediately spotted a young couple standing inside. He politely knocked on the door, and the young couple in the conference room immediately turned to look at him.
Two very outstanding young people.
Du Jing subconsciously assumed they were also artists who had come for auditions today. As he walked in with a smile, he felt a sense of crisis as he looked at the male artist.
He was much more handsome and sharp-looking than me.
The male artist whom Du Jing regarded as a competitor was actually Lin Zhongxu, who had not left.
He was originally going to leave in the morning, but when he heard that Du Jing was coming to audition today, he couldn't leave. He had never seen an audition before, and he wanted to observe it before leaving.
Xu Ying happened to have no one else available, so she let him stay, and he could also act as an assistant to maintain appearances.
Upon seeing Du Jing enter the room, Lin Zhongxu's assistant instincts kicked in instantly. He turned around, poured Du Jing a glass of water from the kettle next to him, and handed it to him.
Du Jing took the water glass, somewhat bewildered.
"Hello, you must be Du Jing. This is Er Yuetian, the screenwriter of our production team. I'm the screenwriter's assistant, you can just call me Xiao Lin," Lin Zhongxu introduced himself in a professional manner.
Du Jing: "Are you the assistant?"
Is it true that someone this pretty can only be an assistant...?
Also, he said the young woman next to him was a screenwriter?!
"Hello screenwriter, I'm Du Jing. It's an honor to participate in today's audition..."
He had spent a long time memorizing his self-introduction last night, and although he was quite taken aback, he still instinctively bowed and introduced himself without stammering.
You could tell he was very nervous.
Xu Ying smiled and reassured him, "Hello Du Jing, I am the screenwriter of the play 'Wu Zetian'. Don't be nervous. Today is just a simple interview. Here is a short scene of Li Zhi's story. Take a look first. Once you're ready, we'll go through the scene together."
As she spoke, she winked at Lin Zhongxu.
Lin Zhongxu understood immediately. He reached out and pulled out the script paper that had been printed out that morning, handing it to Du Jing.
At this moment, Xu Ying had already turned around and sat down at the interview table, while Lin Zhongxu pulled Du Jing to a corner and whispered, "Brother, don't be nervous, our screenwriter thinks highly of you."
A simple sentence, yet it instantly soothed Du Jing's heart.
Xiaolin had no reason to lie to him. Since the screenwriter thought so highly of him, he absolutely could not let her down. Du Jing gradually calmed down and focused on reading the script.
Seeing this, Lin Zhongxu turned to Xu Ying and raised an eyebrow. "How was it? Did it work?"
Well done!
Xu Ying secretly gave him a thumbs up.
Du Jing's acting skills are not a problem. He was just too focused on the audition, which made him seem dizzy and out of sorts. Once he calmed down, his acting skills immediately came through.
The scene Xu Ying gave him for the audition was the one where Empress Wang persuades Li Zhi to bring Wu Meiniang back to the palace.
Here, Li Zhi clearly wanted to bring Wu Meiniang from Ganye Temple into the palace, but he didn't speak up himself and needed someone around him to give him a legitimate reason.
This pretext was given to him by Empress Wang. Empress Wang wanted to use Wu Meiniang to deal with the favored Consort Xiao, so she took the initiative to suggest bringing Wu Meiniang back to the palace.
This short passage reveals that Li Zhi was not a simple, naive person; on the contrary, he was quite cunning and adept at exploiting the desires of those around him to achieve his own goals.
This scene lacks a backstory, but Du Jing's performance was quite good.
Beneath that calm and gentle exterior, a hint of darkness occasionally flashes in his eyes, perfectly understated and unpretentious, yet giving the character a unique charm.
Danger.
It's a feeling of danger.
This feeling was mysterious and elusive, but Du Jing brought it to life. He perfectly grasped the essence of the character, and even when he was playing the role of Empress Wang opposite the delicate and pretentious Lin Zhongxu, he was able to perform the entire scene without changing his expression.
Xu Ying was very satisfied.
She raised her hand to applaud and immediately handed the script of "Wu Zetian" to Du Jing.
"This is the script. Please take a good look at it this month. Our crew is starting filming on the first of next month, so time is tight. I'll have to work hard to make the most of your time..."
Du was surprised that he passed the interview so easily.
He walked out of the conference room, still feeling a bit unreal looking at the script in his hand.
He was selected so easily?
Du Jing looked grateful. He turned to Xiao Lin, who was seeing him out, and said, "Thank you, Xiao Lin. I'm so grateful for your reminder and help with the scene today. I'll definitely treat you to a meal sometime!"
Xiaolin twitched the corner of her mouth: "No need, you're too kind."
Du Jing didn't feel awkward playing the Empress, but he himself was extremely embarrassed. He didn't want to see Du Jing for a while.
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