CH 52

Tl: Hua

Qi Xiaoyu glanced at Jiang Sicheng, then looked back at Li Kun. He didn’t know that Jiang Sicheng could sing.

Li Kun shook his head quickly, “It’s not Young Master Jiang,” but he also showed a curious look, “Why is he here?”

Jiang Sicheng happened to be two or three meters away from them. When he heard Li Kun’s words, he swung the key of the Porsche around his finger, raised his chin, and showed a very proud smile, “Why can’t I be here?”

Then he asked, “Qi Xiaoyu, are you here for the audition?”

Qi Xiaoyu nodded.

Jiang Sicheng was even more pleased with himself. If he had a tail, it would be wagging more frantically than White-browed Hero, “I’m not here for an audition. Director Wang personally called me and said there’s a character that suits me very well. He wants me to give it a try.”

As he spoke, he shook his head and sighed, “Hey, originally I wanted to take a break after recording the variety show, but Director Wang, he’s so sincere, I can only come to take a look.”

While listening to him, Qi Xiaoyu recalled the undetermined roles in the crew – one of them was the white dragon he was going to audition for, one was the female character golden mouse, and the other one was… the black bear spirit.

Qi Xiaoyu looked at Jiang Sicheng and compared him with the black bear spirit – the curly hair and the round eyes were somewhat similar.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help showing a suppressed smile.

Li Kun looked at Qi Xiaoyu and also stifled a laugh, presumably thinking of the same thing as him.

But looking at Jiang Sicheng’s expression, it seems that the director has not told him about it, and Qi Xiaoyu didn’t mention it either. He only said, “Well, it means you have talent.”

Jiang Sicheng felt even better after being praised, “Well, I think so too.”

The three of them walked up to the second floor while talking.

Because the crew’s preparations for filming have been going on for some time and are now nearing the end, there is not much work left, so the corridor is quite empty.

Li Kun looked at his watch and saw that it was still a little short of one o’clock, so he suggested that Qi Xiaoyu go to the lounge to eat lunch first.

Jiang Sicheng glanced at the two big lunch boxes in Li Kun’s hands, touched his belly, and followed them very consciously.

The lunch box contains glutinous rice balls, steamed pork ribs, braised tofu, and a separate portion of sliced duck. Each portion is separated by a divider and placed neatly, even the sauce for the sliced duck in a small box.

The whole thing can be described in one word – exquisite.

Jiang Sicheng sat across the table and glanced at those dishes, “The food looks good. Who cooked for you?”

Qi Xiaoyu didn’t pick up the hint thrown by Jiang Sicheng, and lowered his head to send a message to Xun Qian, “I’ve arrived and am currently eating lunch.”

Although Mama Li prepared the food, she must have followed Xun Qian’s instructions.

After a while, a red 1 appeared on the crooked dog’s butt profile pic.

Another simple “Yeah.”

It’s really hard to get even one more word out of this person.

Qi Xiaoyu smiled, turned off the phone, and looked up to see that Jiang Sicheng had already picked up a piece of ribs and started eating it himself.

Jiang Sicheng squinted his eyes while eating and said vaguely, “Who are you messaging with? Girlfriend? Look at your expression, both Qingqing and I have better control over messaging than you do.”

Li Kun felt the same way when he saw Qi Xiaoyu messaging just now, but he didn’t dare to say it, and he also didn’t forget to warn Jiang Sicheng, “Young Master Jiang, don’t talk nonsense, be careful that walls have ears.”

As soon as he arrived here, his first impression was that the soundproofing here was not very good, and anyone talking in any room could be heard outside.

Qi Xiaoyu himself didn’t think anything was wrong with himself, but he was embarrassed by what Jiang Sicheng said. He put his phone away and shot back, “Will Sister Qingqing ever send you a message?”

Jiang Sicheng grunted and concentrated on eating.

After eating, Li Kun went to throw away the leftovers. Jiang Sicheng rubbed his belly, waved to Qi Xiaoyu, and went to the director’s room first.

Qi Xiaoyu sat on the chair and waited for a while, but found that Li Kun never came back.

He looked at the time and saw that it was already one o’clock, then he got up and walked to the garbage room.

As soon as he pushed open the first door, walked a few steps along the fire escape stairway, and reached the fire escape door, he saw Li Kun standing there, obviously listening to the situation.

Qi Xiaoyu walked over quietly and listened along.

There were two staff members inside. It’s unknown what they were talking about from the start, but when Qi Xiaoyu came, he happened to hear one of them say, “In terms of seniority, of course, Yuan Yaling is better. But right now Qi Xiaoyu probably has more traffic.”

“Qi Xiaoyu has been very popular recently. I liked him after watching that variety show, but in terms of singing, he is still a little worse than Yuan Yaling. Hiya, I don’t know who Teacher Kang will choose in the end.”

Being interrupted by Jiang Sicheng just now, Qi Xiaoyu even forgot to ask Li Kun who was trying to compete for the OST with him. Now it turned out to be Yuan Yaling.

Qi Xiaoyu patted Li Kun on the shoulder, signaling him to stop listening. Li Kun threw away the leftovers and hurried to the recording studio with Qi Xiaoyu. Although the staff gossiped a little, they didn’t say anything bad about him, and even said most surface-level “facts.”

After returning from the garbage room, before they even reached the recording studio, Qi Xiaoyu and Li Kun heard Jiang Sicheng’s roar from the director’s room next door, “What? You asked me to play the role of Black Bear Spirit. Get lost! I want to play a role like Little White Dragon!”

Well, Li Kun was right. The sound insulation here is indeed not very good.

Then they heard the director’s earnest advice, “Why don’t you try the makeup first? The human form of the black bear spirit is quite good-looking. It took us a long time to find… a suitable actor like you.”

The director’s words didn’t sound like a compliment…after all, he was a black bear spirit.

Sure enough, it was Jiang Sicheng who roared again, “You think I’ll believe your word?”

Jiang Sicheng roared so hard that the ceiling trembled, and both Qi Xiaoyu and Li Kun were amused.

Amidst the shuddering aftershock, the two arrived at the door of the recording studio.

It’s unknown what kind of luck they had today, but they could hear gossip wherever they went.

As soon as they walked to the door, they heard someone bringing up Qi Xiaoyu’s name again.

The discussion this time was much less polite than the two staff members just now.

“Old Kang, you worked so hard to make a song, how could you let someone like Qi Xiaoyu ruin it?”

It was Yuan Yaling’s voice, and his voice was full of regret.

As soon as Qi Xiaoyu heard this, he gestured to Li Kun with his eyes.

Li Kun understood, immediately took out his mobile phone, and opened the recording app.

Since the last time on the set of “The Legend of the Tang Dynasty Empress”, when Tang Kui secretly cut off the wires, Li Kun and Qi Xiaoyu have been more cautious, taking pictures and recording when they can, so that they can have proof when settling accounts later.

The last time he recorded a variety show, there were countless cameras following him throughout the whole process, so he didn’t have to worry so much. But now that someone is openly and directly slandering him behind his back, it’s better to record it first.

Yuan Yaling showed a fake smile while saying, “He had been training for three months in the program group, but couldn’t even understand the five-line score. His performance on the final day was merely luck. Old Kang, haha, we’ve known each other for so many years, and yet you’re looking for him instead of me.”

Inside the room Kang Qitao coughed twice, “Qi Xiaoyu’s level is pretty good as far as I’m concerned. Yaling, don’t be biased against him. After all, there are many talented people in this generation… Hey, you both can sing this song later and see who is more suitable. Anyway, I have sent you the music score before.”

Yuan Yaling snorted, his tone naturally showing arrogance and disdain, “What about him? Why is he not here yet?”

At this moment, Qi Xiaoyu knocked on the door a few times, the sound was neither gentle nor harsh, but enough to cheer up the people inside.

Everyone in the room looked up at the door.

In addition to Yuan Yaling and Kang Qitao, there are three or four staff members.

Seeing Qi Xiaoyu standing at the door, Yuan Yaling didn’t show any embarrassment and raised his eyebrows. He felt that it would be nothing even if Qi Xiaoyu heard what he just said. After all, he said nothing wrong.

After Yuan Yaling served as the mentor of “Let’s Debut, Trainees”, he recently took on the role of judge on a singing show.

After two programs, he has gained some recognition, and his popularity is gradually rising.

But there are also criticisms, saying that he is so old and can’t produce his own work, that’s why he will go on shows every day to make money.

He does want to make money, but he also wants to make it decently.

But in this environment, it is really difficult to release another record.

Popular songs nowadays are either OSTs from TV series and movies, or works produced by young idols and have a large number of fans paying for them.

He can’t be an idol, so he can only set his eyes on movies and TV series.

Among them, movies are of course better than TV series.

What’s more, the theme song of this movie was written and composed by Kang Qitao.

The popularity of the song will not be low. If he can sing this OST, not to mention becoming famous, he can also increase his value.

What is unexpected to him is that the candidate in Kang Qitao’s mind would be Qi Xiaoyu.

Yuan Yaling was not very happy when he found out about it.

He has always had a bad impression of Qi Xiaoyu as he’s been Qi Xiaoyu’s mentor for several months on the show. How could he not know what kind of strength the other party had?

Although Qi Xiaoyu’s performance on the final night was indeed amazing, it was only a few lyrics after all.

Moreover, Qi Xiaoyu’s current popularity relies on variety shows, not singing.

As for why Qi Xiaoyu was favored by Kang Qitao, it was even simpler in Yuan Yaling’s mind. It was just because he knew how to manage interpersonal relationships, just like his performance at Kang Qitao’s birthday banquet.

Yuan Yaling didn’t give a good look, and Qi Xiaoyu also kept a polite distance throughout the whole process.

He greeted everyone politely, then stood in front of Yuan Yaling and said, “Long time no see, Teacher Yuan.”

Yuan Yaling didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he always felt that Qi Xiaoyu had a fierce aura that didn’t allow people to approach him easily after not seeing him for a few months.

Unfortunately, Yuan Yaling’s previous inherent impression of Qi Xiaoyu was so deep-rooted that he didn’t even notice the difference in this aura in time. He was even slightly angry, feeling that Qi Xiaoyu was arrogant due to his popularity.

Qi Xiaoyu didn’t talk to him much. His back was straight, his neck was slender and fair, his mouth was just slightly pulled up, and his good-looking face immediately put on a look of calm and self-respect, which made Yuan Yaling and those few staff a little afraid to talk casually.

In the past, Yuan Yaling was the mentor and he was the trainee. He had to respect others and maintain the surface politeness and harmony. Even though Yuan Yaling deliberately made things difficult for him on the show, he had to endure it.

But it’s different now. They are on a level playing field.

Yuan Yaling is the one who said something so unpleasant, so there was no need for him to be polite.

*****

“The Evil” is a movie adapted from Eastern mythology.

The theme is the battle between gods and dragons.

The director’s name is Wang Mingge, and the subject matter he is best at shooting is ancient legends. Firstly, he is good at using colors, thick reds, gorgeous yellows, and splash-like blacks. There is no color that he dares not use, plus exquisite costume. The cinematics alone can make many people willing to pay for tickets.

Secondly, he is the best at discovering the beauty of actors. Legend has it that an actor who is only fifty percent beautiful can look extremely beautiful under his lens, and a perfect actor will surely leave stunning shots.

According to the information obtained by Yu Xiaosheng, the role of the little white dragon is the most expensive and visually appealing character in this movie. If Qi Xiaoyu were to win it, he might soon be able to acquire a classic big-screen character with a stunning appearance. Moreover, according to the script, this character is very unfortunate and is likely to become a white moonlight for many people.

In addition to being a good director, Qi Xiaoyu also remembered that when Kang Qitao was mentioned in the original book, he said that one of his masterpieces was the theme song of “The Evil”, and the movie and the song were both a hit.

Xun Qian provided him with a lot of resources and connections in the early stage, and now that it was time to seize the opportunity, he would never miss it.