54: Chapter 54 Half Angel, Half Devil

Su He left, but before he did, he added Lin Chuyan on WeChat.

Meng Xinle also left, still without saying a word, not even glancing at the two of them.

Lin Chuyan didn't think much of it; perhaps the guy was just introverted or socially anxious.

However, Su He quickly sent him a message on WeChat:

"Dude, Meng Xinle's attitude today is nine times out of ten because you snatched his role. I was present during his audition, and the role he was initially auditioning for was the Xie Yu you're playing now."

Well, that makes sense.

But there's no helping it. The entertainment industry pie is only so big; when you go up, someone is destined to come down. It's inevitable to offend people.

"Thanks, Su Su."

Lin Chuyan shook his head, not taking the matter to heart.

His white-haired, earring-wearing look was approved by Director Liu Zhi and the others, but he wasn't finished yet. After taking the makeup photos, he needed to change into another look—

For the end of the film, after being blasted by the male lead's gun, he needed injury makeup for a destroyed eye and ear.

This part was quite difficult; even with two makeup artists working together, it took a full four hours to finally finish.

The final result was half his face looking almost completely disfigured: burn makeup, stitching effects post-injury, the left eyeball stitched so only the white was visible, and the left ear, which originally wore an earring, made to look like a small chunk was missing using prosthetic skin.

Lin Chuyan was naturally exquisite, and with the contrast between the left and right sides of his face, he was half angel and half devil, which perfectly corresponded to the content of the film—

Some children look like angels, but hide devils in their hearts.

Lin Chuyan couldn't speak easily with this face on, but Director Liu Zhi liked this disfigured look even more than the previous long-haired, earring-wearing one: "Good, good, good! This look—when the final film comes out, we must give it a few more seconds of close-up. It's too stunning, haha!"

Fine by me, as long as the director likes it.

For the next few days, whenever Lin Chuyan finished work, he would stay in the hotel to practice his song 'people and people'.

Work mainly consisted of script readings, an essential step before filming movies or TV shows.

There were two types of readings.

One was attended by all departments, where the director would go through the scenes one by one. During this time, every department could raise any technical issues, including questioning the rationality of the actors or the story, in order to resolve them.

The other was an internal reading for actors.

During this process, the director would explain his creative intent and understanding of the entire film, allowing everyone to become more familiar with the script and characters.

This type of reading varied. If you encountered actors who weren't serious, it might just pass by with laughter and joking.

However, Zhang Wentang, Zhao Jinpeng, Actress Xin Ya... this group were all famous acting fanatics. As a result, the readings became much more interesting. Lin Chuyan watched them break down and dissect the script's problems one by one, arguing and even fighting over them, and felt he benefited immensely.

The only problem was that his senior, Zhao Jinpeng, Director Liu, and even Actress Xin Ya were all chain smokers, basically never without a cigarette in hand. Lin Chuyan sat on the side and got his fill of secondhand smoke.

After the readings, there was nothing left for him to do, as the director took the technical staff to continue scouting locations and dealing with issues.

Lin Chuyan took the opportunity to ask for leave to return to Beijing—he had to catch a flight that night, as the new album listening party organized by Zheng Hai was starting the next day.

It was already dinner time when he returned to Beijing with Wu Yue.

The latter went home, while he went to his teacher's house for a meal and chatted about his role.

After saying goodbye to his teacher and returning home, it was already past ten at night. He grabbed a quick sleep and appeared at the Tianxing Company building early the next morning.

Tired and sleepy, he had finally experienced the rushed schedule of an artist. He was equally busy today.

The listening party Zheng Hai arranged for him was at 7 PM, but he had to rehearse songs and test the venue during the day.

After finally getting everything done, Zheng Hai also sent a staff member over, mainly to go over the script with him regarding the music critic Q&A session after the listening party.

"So, is the Q&A session pre-arranged or…?" Wu Yue asked from the side.

The staff member shook his head: "The people coming tonight are all experts in the industry—Big Vs, music critics, Songwriting masters, and even some Singers. Many of them have huge tempers, so we wouldn't dare arrange it like that. They might turn around and sell us out."

"Then what do we need to prepare in advance? Isn't it just improvising?" Lin Chuyan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"For example, if Teacher Lin has any taboo questions you don't want to be asked, we can notify everyone in advance to avoid any unpleasant situations."

Lin Chuyan tilted his head and thought for a long time...

"None. No taboos; you can ask whatever you want."

He had exchanged the dynamic traffic value settled over the past half month for 4 basic attribute points. Added to the 7 points he had left over, he maxed out all 11 points, and his "Singing Ability" went straight to 50.

Singing the songs well tonight was the most important thing; everything else was trivial and not worth worrying about.

"...Alright, Teacher." The staff member had never encountered this situation before and was about to leave when Wu Yue blocked him, turned, and asked Lin Chuyan: "What about Lin Mo's identity?"

"This will definitely be asked. I'll just say Lin Mo himself doesn't want to reveal his identity... That's not a lie, is it? It's true that he himself doesn't want to disclose it."

6:30 PM, Tianxing Company, Basement Level 2, performance hall.

Though called a performance hall, the interior design was more like a bar. Aside from the stage being larger and the equipment being better, the tables and chairs underneath occupied almost the entire floor, making it very suitable for eating and chatting while enjoying the performance on stage.

The 7 PM time slot was neither here nor there, exactly dinner time. Naturally, Tianxing wouldn't let the guests go hungry, so each table was set with plenty of exquisite snacks.

After all, there were only a few songs, so not providing something else would be inexcusable.

Songwriting masters He Xi and Wawa were also among the invited guests and were currently huddled together chatting.

"Tianxing holding this kind of small listening party isn't exactly standard operating procedure... I can only say that Zheng Hai is really confident in this EP."

Wawa idly toyed with the snack plate on the table, eyes fixed on the floor-standing microphone stand in the center of the stage: "I'm only interested in Lin Mo; otherwise, I couldn't be bothered to come..."

He Xi smiled: "Aren't you curious about the Singer of this 'rebirth' album?"

"What I'm curious about is why Lin Mo gave all the songs to one person. I have a thought, what do you say... could it be that Lin Mo himself is singing them?"

He Xi glanced at him sideways: "I think you're becoming obsessed. How many songs did Zheng Hai reject from you?"

"Hey, hey, we're just chatting, don't rub salt in the wound..." Wawa got a little anxious, but quickly shook his head again. "But seriously, this Lin Mo is too prolific. I checked Aiyue.com yesterday and it seems he wrote another one, called something like 'people and people'. What's up with that? Is it about the gap between people? Look at his creative speed; is he even a normal human? Surely not every song is of similar quality to 'Similar to Love', right?"

"What I can't wrap my head around is that this person is just too mysterious... During the Q&A session later, should I ask or will you?"

"I'll do it!" Wawa said decisively.

He had already made up his mind. He'd listen to the quality of these songs by Lin Mo first; if they weren't good, he didn't plan to hold back during the Q&A session. He would also see who exactly was singing these songs, acting all mysterious for this long. Heh, if they couldn't sing well, he'd start roasting them immediately!