Inside Studio 3.
The other end of the line was quiet for a few seconds.
“Old Li.”
Xu Pingqiu finally spoke, his tone giving away nothing.
“Who is this person?”
Li Cheng held his thermos and took a slow sip of tea.
He was absolutely ecstatic inside.
He knew Xu Pingqiu too well.
The more calmly the old guy tried to act, the more agitated he actually was.
“A newcomer.”
Li Cheng leaned back in his chair, his tone casual.
“Just joined my crew to play a minor role.”
“A newcomer?”
Xu Pingqiu clearly didn't believe him.
“Li Cheng, we've been friends for twenty years. Don't play dumb with me.”
“This level of eye control, this emotional progression, and that effortless ease in dialing it up and down.”
“You call that a newcomer?”
He paused, lowering his voice.
“Which agency is he with? Xinghui? Shengtang? Or is he a hidden talent some other company hasn't announced yet?”
“None of the above.”
Li Cheng set down his thermos, his smile widening.
“Donghai University.”
“A computer science major.”
“A graduating senior.”
Silence fell over the other end of the line.
This silence was even longer than the last.
A full ten seconds.
Only then did Xu Pingqiu speak up, as if needing to double-check.
“What did you say... he does?”
“He's a computer science student.”
Li Cheng finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
“To be precise, he came to repair our server. When Zhang Yu walked out yesterday, we were short-handed. I thought he looked the part, so I dragged him over to give it a shot.”
“Who would've thought? I struck absolute gold.”
“What a waste of talent!”
Xu Pingqiu's voice sank.
“You have a prodigy like that, and you let him repair computers?”
Li Cheng almost spat out his tea.
“It's not that I made him do it; he came here specifically to repair computers.”
“He just wrapped up his scenes and went back to school with his tool bag.”
“Before leaving, he even told me that if the crew's computers ever break down, we can contact him anytime.”
“And that he'd give us a twenty percent discount.”
Silence reigned on the other end once again.
This time, Xu Pingqiu was truly rendered speechless.
A few seconds later, his voice became decisive.
“Give me his contact information.”
“《The Grand Game》 starts filming in a little over a month, and I need a young actor who can carry a scene.”
“Not those useless pretty boys who only know how to make faces at the camera.”
“Someone who can genuinely command the screen.”
Li Cheng had already expected this.
He went with the flow.
“Alright, I'll send you his WeChat.”
“But let me warn you first, this kid isn't like other newcomers in the industry.”
“He focuses on the work, and he values his pay.”
“Your reputation as a top director might not carry much weight with him.”
Xu Pingqiu answered quickly.
“Money is the last thing I lack.”
With that, the line went dead.
Li Cheng looked at his dark phone screen, his smile growing wider and wider.
He could already picture Wang Jin's face.
Wang Jin, the star agent of Xinghui Entertainment, had been desperately trying to build a connection with Xu Pingqiu. Yet now, Xu Pingqiu was proactively extending an olive branch to a college student Wang Jin had looked down upon.
What did they call this?
Man proposes, God disposes.
While Wang Jin was still busy running his calculations, Jiang Yue was already nearly on the highway.
...
7:00 PM, the evening rush hour on Metro Line 1.
The subway car was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, making it difficult to even turn around.
Jiang Yue leaned against a handrail in the corner, looking down at his phone.
A friend request suddenly popped up on his WeChat.
【Casting Assistant Director Zhao Gang for Xu Pingqiu: Hello, Teacher Jiang. You were recommended by Director Li Cheng. Director Xu highly appreciates your acting and would like to invite you to audition for our new drama, 《The Grand Game》. It's at 10:00 AM tomorrow at the Blue Ocean Hotel. Do you happen to have time?】
Jiang Yue's eyes flickered.
Xu Pingqiu.
Lu Ming had filled him in on this man's stature before.
In the Xia Nation's television industry, Xu Pingqiu was a top director sitting at the very peak of the pyramid.
His historical dramas had won countless awards.
Many actors couldn't even get an audition, let alone a role in his projects.
Jiang Yue didn't hesitate long before replying.
【I'm free.】
After sending the message, he put away his phone.
In the next second, the pale blue light screen popped up before his eyes.
The data began to tick up rapidly.
【Detected Xu Pingqiu's shock: Prestige points +200】
【Detected Li Cheng's recognition and expectation: Prestige points +80】
【Crew members' continuous admiration and discussion: Prestige points +45】
【Current Prestige points: 1175】
Jiang Yue's eyes lit up. He had broken past a thousand.
Xu Pingqiu truly lived up to his status as a top director.
The emotional impact from a single person like him was worth half a crew's.
The quality was indeed on another level.
“System,” Jiang Yue muttered in his mind.
“Spend one thousand Prestige points to initiate a High-Tier Draw.”
【Spending 1,000 Prestige points to perform a High-Tier Draw...】
【System scanning current predicament: Facing an audition for a top-tier political drama. Detected character requirements involving an extremely complex double personality and deceptiveness.】
【Adaptive scenario activated. Adjusting prize pool weights...】
In the depths of his vision, light exploded.
It was a dazzling flash of gold.
Pure gold.
Jiang Yue's breath caught for a moment.
【Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Gold-Tier Trait: Zhuang Zhou's Butterfly Dream.】
【Trait Description: The highest form of acting in this world is to become the character itself.】
【Once equipped, the host can construct and enter a completely independent "second personality." This personality only assists in the host's acting and will not affect the host's original self.】
【During the active duration, the host's physiological characteristics—including heart rate, blood pressure, and pupillary response—will perfectly match the state of this personality.】
【Even a top-tier polygraph will be unable to detect your disguise.】
Jiang Yue stared at the golden text, his eyes unblinking for a long moment.
A Gold-Tier Trait.
The lowest probability tier in the High-Tier Draw, and he had pulled it on his very first try.
The Purple-Tier Trait 【Micro-Expression Master】 allowed him to control every single muscle on his face.
The Blue-Tier Trait 【Vocal Control】 gave him mastery over speech pacing and emotional dominance.
But the Gold-Tier Trait 【Zhuang Zhou's Butterfly Dream】 was different.
It didn't just make him act like the character; it made him become the character.
The moment he equipped the trait, he could be an entirely different person.
Since the system prompted that the character possessed a complex double personality and deceptiveness, it meant this was another role that relied heavily on disguise.
In that case, this trait was a perfect match.
He was fully prepared for tomorrow's audition.
The subway arrived at his station, and the flow of people swept him out.
Jiang Yue stepped out of the carriage with the crowd, the sharp glint in his eyes quickly fading away.
...
Half an hour later, inside the Donghai University men's dorm, both of his roommates were in the room.
“Yo,” Lu Ming, with half a slice of pizza hanging from his mouth, teased him indistinctly as he saw Jiang Yue enter.
“Wrapped up and back already?”
Jiang Yue pulled out his chair and sat down without explaining.
Instead, he opened the bank notification on his phone and held it up to Lu Ming's face.
Lu Ming leaned in to take a look.
【Your savings account ending in 9527 has received a deposit of 70,000.00 RMB...】
In the next second.
The pizza in his mouth dropped onto his keyboard with a splat.
“Holy crap!”
Lu Ming practically leaped out of his chair.
“For real?!”
“A hundred thousand yuan, just like that?”
Rate on N.U.
