Chapter 5: Selection

Not only the director, but the whole room was shocked.

What's a top bowl, one of those acrobatics you saw as a kid?

A few decades ago the Internet was not developed, and in their leisure time people would choose to go to the theater to watch opera and acrobatics. But now it's 2020 and people still know this?

And the young man standing in front of him was only in his teens and twenties, where did he learn acrobatics from, he couldn't have been talking nonsense to get everyone's attention, could he?

Seeing that the director didn't say anything, Qi Xingchen asked, "Can I start performing now."

"Please." Without waiting for the director to speak, Bai Ye answered for him.

Acrobatics is not just skill, but requires a balance of attention and beauty.

Qi Xingchen removes his shoes and steps back on his left leg, placing a stack of bowls above his head. Turning on a piece of classical music, he leaned down slightly and saluted the crowd in the conference room.

After a salute, he suddenly raised his hand, the porcelain bowl out of his hand, did not wait for the crowd to react, has been firmly landed in the head among the stack of bowls.

The whole action process did not adjust the position to pick up the action, as if it was just throwing something casually, and it landed in the desired position. Whether insiders or outsiders, can be seen from the ease of movement, he is not in order to attract eyeballs now learning, absolutely have very deep skills!

As the tempo of the music increased, he danced classical steps and threw a few bowls over his head, dancing in a lively manner. Then he leans forward and stretches his left leg backward and upward in a "sea exploration" position.

At the instant the next heavy drum beat arrived, he threw a bowl backwards. The magic came - the bowl, landed within an inch of his life on the center of his foot!

Second one, third one, fourth one ...... At each drum beat he threw a bowl, and each bowl landed in the stack of bowls with perfect precision. The crowd watched in awe, even forgetting to applaud.

At the end of the song, Qi Xingchen, who has a bowl on his head and left foot, stays in place like a nail, not blushing, not panting, with a smile on the end of his eyes and eyebrows, nodding his head in front of him.

"...... Crap," the producer couldn't help but burst out, "This kid is too good. Xiao Liu, go help him take the bowl down."

"Snap-"

The crowd slowed down, the director led the way, and the room erupted in applause.

Qi Xingchen bowed and thanked him, saying nothing and not bothering to check the director's face. There were people waiting behind him, he didn't want to delay the other artists, and hurriedly packed up his bowl and ran out.

Without running a few steps, someone behind him called out to him, "Qi Xingchen, come back."

Is Bai Ye, Qi Xingchen back.

"...... Shoes aren't on." Bai Ye points to his feet.

"Ooooh," the youth who had been swimming around a moment ago then showed a few shy moments, "thanks for the heads up."

.

Qi Xingchen wasn't too happy with the performance just now.

Acrobatics on the body balance, flexibility requirements are very high, this body and the reality of him has a certain gap, can only choose a more basic program, placed in the acrobatic troupe, is the most most simple, can not be on the stage at all, but the time is urgent, can only cope with it first.

Han Qing had been waiting outside, and when she saw him come out, she pulled him towards the elevator shaft, "Xingchen, did you play well, was the director satisfied with you?"

"Can't tell if I'm full of it or not, I played kind of normal."

"Heh, even if you play well, what can you do," that's when Zhou Yu came over in front of him, "With your ability, can't you be chosen by the program?"

Zhou Yu performed before Han Qing and Qi Xingchen, so he should have gone home already. If he's staying at the company, he's probably because he hates Qi Xingchen for interfering with his efforts to impress Qi Yuji, and he's waiting here to say something about it.

Qi Xingchen was exasperated by Zhou Yu's childish behavior and wanted to laugh, "I can't, can you, a little white boy who relies on women to find connections, can?"

Zhou Yu couldn't figure out how this person, who not long ago was "Yu" long and "Yu" short, suddenly changed his face. After being stunned for a few seconds, he rushed up with great strides, "Qi Xingchen, if you have the guts, say it again!"

"Your request is quite unique," Qi Xingchen deliberately provoked Zhou Yu, "Fine, then I'll say it again. Regardless of whether I have the ability to be chosen or not, at least I'm competing with everyone on a level playing field, not like you, who's using flowery language to trick your girlfriend into helping you get through."

"......" Zhou Yu was furious, "Only poor bastards who can't find a backer are willing to mention fair play, who doesn't look at background in the circle nowadays? I can find someone to help, that's my ability!"

Hearing the commotion here, the rest of the people in the corridor curiously looked over, with wonderful expressions on their faces, including those who were watching the show, those who were gloating, and those who had been upset with Zhou Yu or Qi Xingchen for a long time, and wished that the two of them would just disappear as soon as possible after they clashed with each other.

Only no one was offended by Zhou Yu's words.

The real society is like this, laughing at the poor but not laughing at the prostitute. Living well is a skill, no one cares how you "live well".

Zhou Yu is a model who used to work for a small company and signed up with Noah through Qi Yuji. Without Qi Yuji's help, he would never have gotten a spot on Poor Traveler. Qi Xingchen didn't bother to argue with him, pressed the elevator, and continued to irritate, "I can't choose my background, but I can choose how to go next, so I can't agree with you."

"You, you ......." Zhou Yu face green, "you" half a day did not "you" out of the next half of the sentence, actually can not find words to refute.

Seeing more and more onlookers, he knew that he was about to lose face, head hot, do not care about video recording or not, raised his fist to Qi Xingchen!

Qi Xingchen did not avoid, did not even shout, just quietly waiting for him to hit himself. Before his fist was about to hit his face, a tall shadow suddenly flashed in front of his eyes.

-- Bai Ye grabbed Zhou Yu's wrist and said in a cold voice, "Have you eaten all the company's rules?"

After saying that, he shook off Zhou Yu and led his assistant into the elevator that happened to open.

Qi Xingchen did not expect the male lead to fight for him and froze in place.

"...... What a daze."

Bai Ye frowned and whispered, "Are you coming up or not."

.

Qi Xingchen had seen the same frown on Ai Dou Bai Ye's face many times.

Bai Ye is an impatient man - for a long time, the media and black fans, who are only interested in the world, seized on this and made a lot of rumors that he was playing a big game and punching his fans in the black, with all kinds of claims.

Only his fan "Night Sky" knows that if Bai Ye's tenderness has two parts, one part goes to his love of dance and music, and the other part goes to "Night Sky".

He doesn't even treat himself as well as he treats his fans.

Zhou Yu was caught by Bai Ye violating the company's rules, his face red with black, and immediately fled down the fire escape.

Qi Xingchen stepped into the elevator in a daze, and it wasn't until she reached the sixth floor that she realized she hadn't thanked him yet, and hurriedly patched, "Thank you, Senpai."

"That's okay, remember to wear your shoes after the next show."

"...... Uh, I will." Qi Xingchen's voice was as thin as a fly.

"And-" Bai Ye paused, "if someone strikes out with you again, don't move a muscle, I won't always be around next time."

"...... Well," Qi Xingchen rubbed the tips of her slightly warm ears, "I know."

In fact, he purposely didn't hide just now, so if Zhou Yu really dared to hit him, he could take the video to Qi Yuji, so Qi Yuji could see the true face of the scum.

But it doesn't matter if you lose this chance, you can wait for the next one. Qi Xingchen went back to the practice room and the image of Bai Ye frowning kept flashing before his eyes.

As the saying goes, it's hard to paint a tiger's skin, and when describing a particular character in words, it's easy to outline the appearance, but it's hard to show the temperament.

He had read the original article, and throughout it was described how much the male lead and supporting characters favored the female lead. The men were all toolmen, and the author barely described the male lead in any detail.

So ...... Why are the male lead and the real Bai Ye, so similar?

.

When I got home in the evening, Qi Yunxiao was, not surprisingly, reading papers in the living room. Besides him, there's Qi Yuji, who keeps dozing off with a face mask on.

"Back Xingchen," Qi Yunxiao said, "You've just been discharged from the hospital, don't be too tired lately, go to sleep."

"Wait!" At the sound of her brother's name, Qi Yuji rose from the couch with a swish like a reminder, "Xingchen, did you audition for that variety show too?"

"Yes, I'm in."

"You," Qi Yuji tiptoed up and nudged his forehead, "Why don't you tell Big Brother if you want to be on the show? I know the boss of McMansion TV, and I know the producer's daughter, so why do you have to work so hard to get an audition?"

Her words sounded like a rant, but her tone was gentle and full of heartache. Qi Xingchen was a bit uncomfortable and took a step back, "I want to feel it myself."

The original owner gave a death order not to allow his family to help him or expose his identity without authorization, which is why Qi Yuji only hung up Zhou Yu's phone and didn't tell Zhou Yu that he was scolding his brother-in-law.

"Okay, then you must let us know if you need anything."

Afraid that his brother would do something deviant again, Qi Yuji didn't dare to say more and sighed.

She then realized that Qi Xingchen had been fooling around somewhere and his clothes were covered in a lot of dust, and bristled, "Which car did you drive back in, the cuffs are so dirty."

"Didn't drive, I took the bus back."

"Didn't drive!" Qi Yuji and Qi Yunxiao were both shocked and looked at each other before simultaneously pulling out their cell phones and messaging the car dealers they knew.

Qi Xingchen doesn't know what they're up to, so he flees to his room when no one is watching.

After washing up, he collapsed on his bed and opened his Twitter feed, which he hadn't looked at all day, and went to his trumpet first.

All the live fans bought were in place, and on top of that, seven fans who could tell from their ids that they were Night Sky followed him, and three of them retweeted the tweets he broke.

Well, it's okay. It's better than no splash at all.

He cut to the big one in relief, and to his surprise, over forty additional replies came up under the one for his big one!

There were questions about where he'd been for most of the year; there were those who wondered if he'd been kidnapped and told to blink; there were those who guessed if he was finally coming out of the woodwork;

The one with the most likes was a simple sentence:

[It's good to have you back, we're always here]

Yesterday, he chose to post a selfie in order to build up his popularity. Only when his popularity came up could he get closer to the hero and heroine.

From the time he wore the book until now, all he could think about was how to stay alive and how to make the next move to save his life. It was only when he saw this that he suddenly realized that he was more than himself now.

He's still an unknown entertainer.

It was idolized by dozens of teenage girls.

Just as he liked Bai Ye, those young girls, too, were liking him.

Qi Xingchen rubbed his sore nose and replied to the forty or so comments one by one. When my fingers got stiff, my cell phone zipped.

It was Du Lanxin's phone call, his voice was surprised and amazed: "Yo, you've stepped on shit, right? You've actually been chosen by the program!"