CH 61

Slater’s new film was called Nirvana.

The plot was simple. The ending was a traditional happy ending. 

The male lead was a latin dance teacher. Thanks to his beautiful resume, he managed to land himself a job teaching at an aristocratic high school.

At the beginning of the film, he encountered a series of unfortunate events and fell to a low point in his life. His father went bankrupt. His mother was pregnant. Meanwhile, he was fired because he wouldn’t compromise with the school and lost his well-paid job.

The family had to move from a bustling metropolis to his grandparents’ hometown.

Unlike his blindly optimistic parents, the protagonist left behind his friends and his school. He was entirely unfamiliar with everything here. 

He applied to become a music teacher at the town high school. Yes, that’s right. A music teacher. There wasn’t even a need for a latin dance teacher here.

This school was very different from the schools he had been at before. It was dilapidated and small. The only thing the music classroom had was an old piano. The students also had their own problems.

He originally thought that he’d be living this mediocre existence for the rest of his life, but, unexpectedly, he managed to reunite with his dream here. After a series of twists and turns, he jumped back into the world of dance with a woman that he had met by chance and ended up winning the Blackpool Dance Festival.

Once he won the competition, his glory was returned. Countless invitations showered upon him. There was even one from his former school, which had extended an olive branch to him once more.

Gu Qingchi was playing Irene’s former dance partner. He was a supporting role that wasn’t even mentioned in the synopsis, but he played a big role in the development of the plot.

He was a troubled student that hadn’t been able to graduate, and he just so happened to be in the male lead’s class.

On the male lead’s very first day, he ignored the male lead and left the class.

He was the one who had given up dance first and abandoned his dance partner. 

As a result, his dance partner had no choice but to look all over the place for a suitable candidate before finally coming upon the male lead. She hoped to get the male lead to help her convince her old dance partner, but, in the end, it was fruitless. However, in the process of all of that, she discovered that the male lead was in fact a talented dancer.

Thus, the male and female leads decided to try pairing up. Unexpectedly, the two of them became the dark horse of the Blackpool Dance Festival, shooting all the way to the top.

Allen’s scene was about to start. At Slater’s request, he decided to forego shaving for the past two days in order to better express the male lead’s state of despondence.

Slater liked to be very meticulous when he was filming. He spent so much time crafting each shot that it was practically like burning a pile of money. 

As a result, the crew actually didn’t have a lot of money to spare. The male and female leads didn’t receive any special treatment. The entire cast was sharing a single makeup artist regardless of what role they were playing. They all lined up, one by one, to get their makeup done.

After all, they had wasted a lot of their budget on props and rental fees.

Due to the circumstances, Director Slater needed to wear several different hats. Before filming started, he needed to repeatedly check up on the actors’ conditions.

If the actors weren’t able to understand his explanations, he would even personally demonstrate what it was he wanted. 

Right now, he was in the middle of shooting a scene. It was a scene with a lot of dancers. He was talking to a female dancer about what kind of angle he wanted, what kind of feeling he wanted, and where he wanted her eyes to be looking.

The dancer was still a little confused after his explanation. Thus, Slater decided to show her what he wanted from her. His posture was actually quite accurate, both feminine and alluring. The male dancer opposite of him nearly burst into laughter, but, in the end, he managed to hold it in.

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Perhaps it was an issue with his temperament, but what was originally supposed to be a very arrogant and unbridled pose became much more calm and well-behaved when it came to Gu Qingchi. His upper body was too straight. There was even a bit of righteousness in his pose.

When he looked over at Slater, he couldn’t help cracking a bit of smile as well.

Once Slater finished speaking, he turned around and found Gu Qingchi smiling.

He looked him up and down. 

“Why is the vibe different when you do it? Don’t do it like this. Try being a little more arrogant, and don’t sit so straight. Right now, you’re a playboy, not an uptight CEO.”

Gu Qingchi tried to adjust his posture a couple of times. In the end, Slater ended up throwing in the towel first. He placed a hand against his forehead. It almost seemed as though he couldn’t bear to look at him.

“Don’t leave right after filming. I need to have a good talk with you.”

By the time filming ended, it was already late evening. The staff from the venue were bustling to and fro, cleaning the place up. 

Slater emphatically motioned for Gu Qingchi to come with him.

Finally, Slater brought Gu Qingchi off set. It was the cheaper part of the ballroom, the one that anyone could enter for a small entrance fee.

The sky had just started getting dark. There was still quite a bit of time before the ballroom would officially open.

The attendants weren’t yet in place. They were busy cleaning tables, preparing for another night of guests. 

However, they were allowing entrance into the venue. There were groups of young men and women gathered in groups of twos and threes, waiting for the real fun to begin.

The live band started playing soothing music.

Slater grabbed a table at random.

“Sit. Oh god, you don’t need to sit the way I told you to earlier. Relax.” 

Gu Qingchi was very reserved. At first, he posed the way he had been instructed to earlier. After hearing this, he breathed a sigh of relief and sat up straight.

Xie Luyu had given him some pointers before he left, and Gu Qingchi had done a good job at the time. However, he was a dumb student who only studied by memorizing everything and the teacher had changed the test questions.

Slater truly had quite the headache. Gu Qingchi’s role was actually rather complicated.

If the main plotline was the protagonist’s road to success, then there was another sublot, that is, the third male lead’s path to ruin. 

There wasn’t any particular scene which showed this. All there was were a few clips which alluded to it.

He was the only Chinese kid in a school full of blacks and whites. This identity of his was already controversial enough.

His skin was fair, and he was exceptionally pretty. Despite his shocking low attendance record, he still managed to make a name for himself at school with just his face alone.

He was a problem student. He drank heavily. He smoked. He was a loner. He was very comfortable living in the shadows. He hung out in nightclubs, and he squandered himself away there. 

He indulged in pleasure, and he made no secret of his desires.

When the female lead asked why he’d become like this, he had doubled over with laughter. Tears were about to flow from his eyes. Then, he sneered at the female lead.

“I’ve always been like this, sweetheart. Don’t be so naive. Go cry about it to someone who actually cares.”

He was actually five years younger than the female lead. 

Gu Qingchi was too obedient, too restrained. He couldn’t quite portray that sort of vivid and passionate display.

Slater bit his smoking pipe and thought for a while. Then, he suddenly asked.

“Can you drink alcohol?”

Gu Qingchi nodded. 

He asked another question.

“Do you smoke?”

This time, Gu Qingchi shook his head.

He had never smoked. He’s only ever smelled the scent of tobacco from others. He actually detested the smell. He found the scent of tobacco to be rather suffocating. 

Xie Luyu really liked to smoke. This line of work came with a lot of pressure. There were a lot of people in the industry who were addicted to cigarettes, and Xie Luyu gradually became one of them.

Later, he realized that Gu Qingchi didn’t really like the smell of cigarettes, so he started cutting back. He didn’t smoke as often anymore, and, if he did smoke, he would do it at a distance. Xie Luyu would even take a bath afterwards to get rid of the smell. If there wasn’t enough time for a bath, he would douse himself in an entire bottle of air freshener.

Slater asked for two bottles of wine. He also bought a pack of cigarettes from the attendant. They were the cheap kind of cigarettes that could be found anywhere along the streets. They also happened to be the only kind of cigarettes his character could afford.

Slater first poured a glass of wine and handed it to Gu Qingchi. He motioned for him to drink up. Gu Qingchi accepted the glass and revealed a small smile. He’d never drunk alcohol during work before. 

He poured it back. His Adam’s apple bobbed twice. He didn’t make much noise. The glass of wine was quickly finished off.

Slater nodded, satisfied.

He then handed Gu Qingchi the cigarettes.

“Do you want to try?” 

Gu Qingchi hesitantly took one in his mouth.

Slater pulled out his lighter and moved to light his cigarette for him.

Gu Qingchi lowered his head and leaned towards the lighter.

Slater started instructing Gu Qingchi. 

“Breathe in. Don’t let it burn on its own.”

Gu Qingchi obediently inhaled. Soft smoke immediately started wafting up. He coughed a few times and lowered his head. His eyes couldn’t help but water. He still had the cigarette in his mouth.

The cigarette had already gone out.

Slater brought the lighter out once more. He patiently guided him. 

“Everyone’s like that in the beginning. Come on, let’s try again.”

Gu Qingchi had already taken the cigarette from his mouth and was holding it between his fingers. When he heard this, he put it back in his mouth. He had a very serious attitude towards learning.

Just as the cigarette was about to reach the flame, the cigarette in his mouth was snatched away.

Corenzo stepped onto the sofa with one leg and leaned against the back of the sofa with the other leg, circling Gu Qingchi from behind. 

He’d been sitting at the table behind Gu Qingchi. Who knows how long he’d been listening.

He had a couple of friends with him, both black and white. At this moment, they all stood up, standing behind Corenzo. They looked over with an unfriendly stare.

Corenzo looked at Slater.

He’d seen plenty of people like him. He knew what they were like. They just wanted to set people up. The goods are free at first. Then, once you can’t live without it anymore, they start sucking you dry. Even the eight-year-old girl that lived next door to him knew of this dirty trick. 

The only person who’d fall into this kind of trap would be a rich kid like Gu Qingchi.

Corenzo held the cigarette that he’d snatched from Gu Qingchi in his hand. He scrunched his nose and spoke in an unkind tone.

“Listen up, old man. You better not try anything around here. If you don’t want to get your ass handed to you, then you better stay in your lane.”

The boy with the dreadlocks stuck his hands in the pockets of his denim jacket. He piped as well. He spoke quickly and rhythmically, almost as if he were rapping. 

“Where are you from anyway? You’ve got guts to do this kind of thing in front of us. Don’t you know who’s in charge around here? All of the other guys that tried it are either sitting in jail or picking up trash around town.”

Despite being surrounded, Slater wasn’t afraid at all. Rather, he was quite excited. He pointed at Corenzo and started speaking to Gu Qingchi.

Slater had already fleshed out each and every character.

“This is the feeling I want! It’s this kind of ruthlessness, this kind of arrogance. This is what the character should be like. He’s the only Asian kid in school. He was well-behaved at first, but he later changed. His dignity had been earned bit by bit.”