CH 14

March 5, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 14: Audition

Translated & edited by KChandra

After knowing the two roles chosen by Gongxi Qiao, Chen Ke had preliminary trust in his ability to select scripts. Sometimes, even with more resources, an artist couldn’t help but not be good at choosing his own role, and spoiling his fame.

Two days later, he went to the Gongxi home to pick up Gongxi Qiao for an audition. Along with him was Lu Xiaoyao, the assistant the company had arranged for Gongxi Qiao, who was holding a thermos in her hand and was full of tension.

“Brother Chen, last time when Gongxi Qiao’s show was recorded, I took some time off. Do you think he will have a problem with me when he sees me today?” Lu Xiaoyao was a young innocent-looking girl. Originally, the company arranged for her to start working with Gongxi Qiao when he participated in the recording of the ‘Happy Fun’ program. Who knew that she would get sick that day and spend two days in the hospital hooked up to fluids, so the meeting time was moved to today.

“Don’t worry, Qiao Shao is a very nice person, as long as you work quietly,” Chen Ke looked at Lu Xiaoyao from the rearview mirror, “he has an assistant arranged by his father. Pay attention and don’t clash with him. As long as the other party doesn’t go too far, just do what he wants. “

“I understand. That assistant is Qiao Shao’s little brother, I’m that assistant’s little brother.” Lu Xiaoyao nodded her head with sudden realization.

Chen Ke: “……”

She seemed to have a point.

The car drove into a high-class residential area, which was full of small villas. Lu Xiaoyao lamented in her heart that in the imperial capital where every inch of land was gold, people who could afford to live in such houses were all tycoon-class people. No wonder everyone called Gongxi Qiao ‘Qiao Shao’.

After parking the car in the underground parking lot, Chen Ke took Lu Xiaoyao and pressed the elevator button.

“Why did you park the car here? Don’t all villas have private parking garages?” Lu Xiaoyao asked in confusion.

Chen Ke stopped and looked at the garage almost full of cars and said with a sighing tone, “A tycoon will always lack parking space.”

“Oh.” Lu Xiaoyao nodded her head to show understanding. Rich people had so many cars, private garages were simply not enough. There was no parking space for them.

Knocking on the front door of the Gongxi house, the door was opened by a middle-aged woman who smiled politely when she saw Chen Ke outside the door, “Here comes Mr. Chen, please come in.”

“Good morning Aunt Luo,” Chen Ke walked in the front door and saw Gongxi Qiao’s parents sitting on the sofa, so he spoke, “Uncle, Aunt[1], good morning.”

“Xiao Chen is here,” Mama Qiao smiled and waved at him, “Have you eaten breakfast? Let’s eat together later.”

“Then I won’t refuse your hospitality,” Chen Ke smilingly responded and turned to introduce Lu Xiaoyao, “This is Xiaoyao, the assistant the company arranged for Xiao Qiao.”

“Good day, auntie,” Xiaoyao’s legs were a little weak the moment she saw Gongxi Xiong, but when she saw the smiling Mama Qiao, she finally mustered up enough courage to move forward a few steps and greet her carefully.

Gongxi Xiong sized up the young girl in front of him and shook the newspaper in his hand that he hadn’t read much at all: “Sit down, I’ll go get Xiao Qiao up.”

Xiaoyao’s ears twitched. Qiao Shao still hadn’t gotten up?

Wasn’t a creature like the male god supposed to be sleeping on time every night, waking up on time every day, exercising plus reading a bunch of foreign books that ordinary people couldn’t understand? How could there be such a thing as a lazy sleeper, didn’t this not conform to the setting?

“He played late last night, so I let him sleep more today,” Mama Qiao smiled and spoke, looking at Xiaoyao unobtrusively, “Xiaoyao hasn’t eaten either, right?”

She didn’t expect Mama Qiao to be such a gentle person. Xiaoyao blushed and shook her head, sitting on the sofa, somewhat at a loss for words.

A few minutes later, Gongxi Qiao walked downstairs in his pajamas and sat down beside Mama Qiao with a dazed face, yawning and leaning against the sofa, and continued squinting his eyes.

“Still not awake?” Mama Qiao stretched out her index finger and poked his cheek, “Xiao Chen brought you an assistant.”

“Huh?” Gongxi Qiao opened his eyes and sat up straight to look at the girl sitting next to him, smiling gently, “Hello.”

Xiaoyao watched dumbfounded as Gongxi Qiao changed into a male god in a second, and froze for a moment before stammering, “Good day, Qiao Shao.”

If you see this message this content has been stolen. Please read at KChandraTL [dot] wordpress [dot] com.

Then she heard a laugh that was pleasant enough to make her ears pregnant.

“No need to be so formal. Just ask He Peng if there’s anything you don’t understand. Now, let’s eat breakfast first.” Gongxi Qiao rubbed between his eyebrows to make himself look a bit more awake, then once again showed a nice smile to Xiaoyao.

Chen Ke looked at Xiaoyao’s obviously uncomfortable look and showed a look that he knew it would be like this. He was also a bit uncomfortable when he first found out that Gongxi Qiao behaved so inconsistently. Now he had a weird sense of mental balance when he saw Xiaoyao behaving even more stupidly than he did at first.

After eating, the group rushed to the audition site of ‘Young Minister’. Xiaoyao sat in the passenger seat, peeking at Gongxi Qiao sitting elegantly in the rearview mirror. She stroked her chest where her heart was racing a bit. Even without her obsessive-love tendencies, she felt that this man was too good-looking to be true.

His looks might not have been the best looking in the entertainment industry, but with the surrounding aura and the nosebleed-worthy[2] long legs, it was enough to make any discriminating woman scream for him.

“What time is it?” He Peng, who was driving, suddenly opened his mouth, interrupting Xiaoyao’s daze.

“It’s already eight thirty-five,” Xiaoyao recovered her senses and calmed herself down, “Today’s lead audition is scheduled for nine thirty. There’s no problem with the time.”

He Peng inclined his head and looked at her. Seeing that she had finally returned to work, his tone became mild: “When there are many people later, do more work, talk less, and don’t listen to others indiscriminately.”

Xiaoyao froze and nodded her head.

Gongxi Qiao flipped a page of the script of ‘Young Minister’. Hearing the conversation between He Peng and Xiaoyao, he looked up and glanced out of the car window. It was nearly autumn, and some of the ginkgo tree leaves beside the street had already started to yellow.

A generation’s most famous minister, born in a scholarly family, who got first place in the three ancient imperial examinations[3] and brought honor to his ancestors, with great literary talent and integrity, with a graceful countenance like a crowned jade, attracting countless women to fall in love with him.

Gongxi Qiao closed the script with a smile on his face. Such a person… Was completely different from him.

The audition site already had a number of actors waiting. Gongxi Qiao passed through the corridor, and even heard someone reciting lines nervously.

As a specially invited auditioner, he didn’t have to squeeze into a large waiting room with other actors auditioning for supporting roles, but was led into a VIP room by the staff.

Once inside he found that there were three other male artists inside. He had learned before he came that he had four competitors this time. He had also looked at their photos on purpose so that he wouldn’t be ignorant of how to greet them when they met.

After greeting each other, they sat down separately. Except for the occasional small talk, they all looked down and played with their cell phones at other times.

They were rivals, and they weren’t from the same agency, and they hadn’t even worked together, so what could they talk about?

When the audition was about to start, the door of the VIP room opened again. A young man wearing dark glasses followed by four or five entourage members walked in. He entered the door without any greeting, and sat straight to the side to play with his cell phone.

Gongxi Qiao’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Wasn’t this the recently promoted Zhao Yikun of Ringstar Entertainment?

Zhao Yikun’s agent also knew that his artist was a bit rude, so he greeted the people present politely and then whispered a few words to Zhao Yikun, who glared at him impatiently and changed his sitting position to continue playing with his phone.

Gongxi Qiao had some impression of this agent. He had met him before in the ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’ production. He seemed to be Chen Wen’s agent.

Soon the audition began. Gongxi Qiao was placed second to last. With his current position, the second to last position was still due to his recent popularity, otherwise he would definitely be placed at the bottom.

Zhao Yikun, who was last in line, looked a bit uncomfortable. After cursing, he threw his phone to his assistant and glared at Gongxi Qiao, seemingly dissatisfied with him being in front of him.

Gongxi Qiao noticed his action and gave him a standard 35-degree smile back.

His smile provoked a senseless anger. Zhao Yikun almost jumped up, but his manager was quick to catch him.

It was a real pain in the ass for Sun Xiang to bring such an artist, but he could only coax and support him because he had someone backing him up. Now when he saw that Zhao Yikun was going crazy again, and the object of his madness was Gongxi Qiao, he felt that his hair was falling out.

Gongxi Qiao wasn’t an ordinary star. Could this person be easily offended? The last person who had a problem with Gongxi Qiao, Zhou Huaisheng, ended up being mocked by the masses. Had Zhao Yikun not learned his lesson?

Looking at Zhao Yikun’s appearance of wanting to have a fit but not being able to, Gongxi Qiao showed a satisfied smile. He liked to see people who offended him show such a stifled look, how cute.

“Damn, he’s provoking me!” Zhao Yikun gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice, “I’m going to beat him to death!”

“Young master, you just sit quietly. He didn’t say anything. How did he provoke you?” Sun Xiang held him down for dear life.

“He laughed at Laozi[4], and he’s still laughing!”

Sun Xiang: “……”

The heart was so tired.

When the first three artists finished auditioning, a staff member came over to invite Gongxi Qiao.

Gongxi Qiao got up and said thank you to the staff, and nodded politely to Sun Xiang as he walked by.

Seeing Gongxi Qiao’s back leaving, Sun Xiang looked at the Zhao Yikun beside him and sighed in his heart. Qiao Shao was still a good person, but Yikun was so irrational that it was too easy to offend people.

The audition scene Gongxi Qiao got was the dialogue between the protagonist and the emperor during the hall examination.

Because the protagonist had a reputation for being talented when he had not yet taken the imperial examinations, the emperor felt very curious and quizzed him in front of the examiners and all the scholars after the palace examinations were over.

This was a very important scene. If he didn’t handle it well, he would easily lose a touch of the famous minister’s style.

When Chen Ke knew that Gongxi Qiao was going to perform this scene, he frowned slightly. He had inquired about it, and the previous three artists auditioned for a scene that wasn’t so complicated. Was this a coincidence or did someone make things difficult?

“Student Zhu pays respects to Your Majesty.” The young man took three steps forward and respectfully bowed toward the emperor.

The emperor in the hall seemed to say something, and a hint of pride appeared in the youth’s eyes, “Replying to Your Majesty, you are talking about none other than my father.”

Then, his face showed a hint of embarrassment as he knelt on the ground and said, “It is my father’s expectation to be able to serve the country from a young age, but in this student’s eyes, my father is a lofty mountain that accompanies this student to move forward firmly.”

“This student respectfully obeys.” The young man kneeling on the ground got up, arching his hands and hanging them to talk about filial piety and law, law and country, and country and love, with every single word, but without appearing to be too forward.

Director Yang watched Gongxi Qiao’s performance in silence. The hand that squeezed the pen increased its strength. Originally, Gongxi Qiao wasn’t in the scope of his own consideration, but the producer valued Gongxi Qiao’s current popularity and wanted to use him to increase the popularity of the drama. So although he was reluctant, he had to agree to the producer’s request.

He asked Gongxi Qiao to play this scene because it had many lines and was very strict in terms of emotion and etiquette. Knowing that there was a lot of etiquette and attention needed for candidates to meet the emperor and any impropriety would be a breach of etiquette before the emperor, he had a reason not to choose him if he did not perform well.

But this young man’s performance was so good that he was surprised, so much so that he wanted to abandon the original candidate and pick him as the main actor on the spot.

T/N: