164: Chapter 164 Bad Reputation ✓ Bad Acting Skills ✗

The weather outside was stifling. As the end of May approached, the rain gradually increased. Even Beijing was Acting out of Character this year, with constant rainfall.

I heard there's going to be a typhoon today.

Watching "thunderstorm" on a rainy day is quite fitting.

In the best seats of the third and fourth rows of Baihua Hall, the audience arrived one after another. Looking left and right, wow, they were all familiar faces.

"Did you also get your ticket from Old Qiao?"

"Yeah, I heard this is his young apprentice's debut, so he asked us to come show our support."

"Look around, Director Xi Weifeng, Ran Wanniu, Guo Sha—tsk tsk, what a luxurious lineup. It seems like all the big shots and directors in the national theater scene have come."

"Not just them, there are people from the small screen too. Besides Director Xi Weifeng, that tall, thin guy is Director Wang Cai. The three sitting together in the front row are all famous producers."

"Huh? How did the TV drama people get involved?"

"Your intel is outdated. This female lead isn't just Old Qiao's apprentice; she's also a popular actress who acts in TV dramas."

"What? What's her background? Who's her dad? Or whose mistress is she?"

"Not clear on that yet, haven't found out."

"Tsk, your information isn't very up-to-date either."

After mocking his companion, the speaker looked around and sighed, "I haven't seen a favor-trading gathering of this caliber in years. Old Qiao really is willing to put his reputation on the line. I wonder how this young girl's Acting is?"

"You said it yourself, it's a favor-trading gathering. Everyone is just using this platform to swap resources; as long as the performance is watchable, that's enough," the companion said nonchalantly.

He was right. That's how it is in the industry for those with connections—everyone feeds resources to each other's juniors, and over time, they become familiar.

"I still think Old Qiao chose the wrong path. Stage plays are the ultimate test of skill and the easiest way to attract hate. Since she isn't his biological daughter, he's willing to let her take the 'infamous-to-famous' route."

"Shh—" Someone in the front row seemed to have overheard their whispering and turned back with a pointed warning.

The two quickly shut their mouths.

In this "favor-trading gathering" of big shots, the two could only sit in the back corner. They weren't important enough to break into the inner circle, so they could only whisper gossip to each other.

At this moment, the female lead had just finished her makeup, and the stage crew was adjusting her microphone.

Chu Bing had already returned, having specially cut her advanced training short to do this stage makeup for An Zhuo.

Indeed, makeup and styling technology had improved by leaps and bounds; compared to the other actors' stage makeup, it was on a completely different level, whether viewed up close or from afar.

At first, she made An Zhuo look extremely beautiful. As a celebrity known for her looks, her foundation was already much better than the average actor. With her maturing features paired with Chu Bing's makeup skills, she garnered countless glances and amazed stares within half a day at the Film Crew.

In the end, this makeup look was very reluctantly rejected by An Zhuo.

"This is too pretty. Make me look older. I'm playing a mother in this play, after all."

Actor Lu Kun, who was passing by, looked thunderstruck and immediately told the makeup artist to put in some real effort to make him look younger.

Ji Yunqi and Sister Cheng were both backstage keeping her company. Zhu Mian had nearly failed in his first attempt at solo PR and was currently working hard in secret at the studio, preparing the PR plan and messaging strategy for after the play ended.

Before going on stage, the entire Film Crew was very busy. Everyone was chattering, wishing they could strap on roller skates to zip around.

On the contrary, the female lead, An Zhuo, was the calmest.

She had always been like this; the more critical the moment, the more composed she remained.

Teacher Jiang Ying called to encourage her, saying she would be in the audience applauding for her and told her not to be nervous.

An Zhuo really wasn't nervous. She had already done the best she could in her area of control, so there was nothing to be nervous about.

In the audience, Jin Taihong was sitting quite centrally. The seats Suisui had snatched were excellent, offering a full, unobstructed view of the entire stage.

At this moment, his girlfriend was taking pictures of the stage to send to their fan group.

The guy sitting next to him was carrying a big black bag containing four or five long lenses, and was currently aiming at the stage as if it were a machine gun.

Jin Taihong peeked at him and discovered that those lenses were covered in flashy headshot stickers of An Zhuo, along with anime Character stickers he had previously seen on his girlfriend's phone case.

Hiss—

A fan on the left, a fan on the right—where are the real theater buffs? Is this even our camp anymore?

The guy sitting in front of them turned around and kindly reminded them, "No photography allowed once the show starts."

The photographer acknowledged it.

Jin Taihong glanced forward; what a coincidence, it was the guy with the "Refund" banner he had met before.

Thank goodness, at least he wasn't completely stranded and helpless in a pile of fans.

As time passed, the broadcast repeatedly announced that the show was about to start. As people who had at least one theater-going experience, everyone consciously put their phones away.

The lights dimmed, and the actors slowly came onto the stage.

Fanyi was not the first person to go on stage, so An Zhuo waited backstage.

The first to appear was Sifeng, Fanyi's junior and love rival in the play. She performed very naturally—innocent, youthful, and beautiful.

Fantastic, it was still the same flavor. Jin Taihong took a deep breath, comfortably half-slumped into his chair, and began to enjoy it.

The familiar prologue had just ended, and the new Fanyi took the stage.

She was like an audacious intruder, directly pulling all the audience members out of their weary complacency.

If what was originally presented to the audience was a delicate and crispy pastry, then what was presented to everyone today was a bowl of fragrant, rich, and savory braised pork belly.

It wasn't to say the previous one wasn't fragrant enough, but the current one was simply too fragrant.

Everyone around Jin Taihong straightened up in an instant, but he had no time to pay attention to these changes in the audience. Because all of his focus had been pulled away by the person on stage.

Too beautiful. Actually, during the performance, there was a great distance between the audience and the stage; one couldn't see the actors' faces clearly at all, but her temperament and posture made one feel she was especially beautiful.

Her entrance completely changed the water-like, gentle temperament Teacher Jiang Ying once had. That morbidity, that coy petulance, and that touch of madness seeped into the actor's very bones, and also seeped into the minds of the audience.

Jin Taihong had never experienced this style of Fanyi before. Every hair on his body stood on end, and he couldn't spare a single glance for the other actors.

An Zhuo spoke. She was reciting Fanyi's lines, and one could tell immediately that her foundation was extremely deep and well-practiced. Her pauses, phrasing, and enunciation were clear, and her emotions were so full they were practically overflowing.

His girlfriend unconsciously grabbed Jin Taihong's hand, her eyes fixed on the stage as if entranced.

When had she ever been this intent on watching a play?

No wonder people always say that talented people cannot be crushed by a bad reputation. Eighty percent of the people sitting in this Baihua Hall had entered wearing colored glasses.

Now, one by one, they were holding their breath, focusing on the performance.

Never mind that the spotlight on the other supporting actors was stolen; even the famous Actor Lu Kun, who was playing opposite her, and the veteran actor playing the feudal patriarch, had lost much of their luster and charm on stage.

The tense arms and white-knuckled joints during their confrontation, the breath held in the throat, their gazes intertwined like fire and ice.

During her performance, An Zhuo added many harmless little gestures. Not only did they not make the Character cumbersome, but they actually allowed the audience to perceive the woman behind the lines more vividly.

She completely overturned the previous performance style of "Fanyi," delivering a Character that was unlike anyone else's, a brand-newly birthed Character, bringing the audience layer after layer of surprises and wave after wave of visual enjoyment.

Unconsciously, everyone was led by her. This Character, the original author's favorite, bloomed with endless artistic charm in the person of this twenty-something-year-old.

"It was you who turned me into a volcano of dead ash."

She poured out her fire-like passion to her stepson. When she received no response, she instantly raised all her sharp quills, turning her inner burning temperature into magma that engulfed everyone else.

"Crack—crack—" A sharp sound of a thunderstorm rang out. It was background audio.

But outside the glass dome of Baihua Hall, the spring thunder of May was also flashing and baring its fangs.

That's right, it was about to rain.

"It's about to thunder!" the Character on stage shouted. Jin Taihong shuddered all over; reality and the play seemed to be echoing each other.

The lightning struck from illusory words became a purple arc of light in reality, reflecting in everyone's pupils.

Fanyi, abundant water patterns; she was that thunderstorm. Under the despotism of the Zhou Mansion, she used her own joys, rages, and frail soul to gather into thunder and torrential rain, washing away all false appearances and stifling order.

An Zhuo portrayed this most pitiable person in the Zhou family vividly and thoroughly, like a firework falling into the sea. "The bird in the cage gave birth to an elfin child, yet God would punish her to perish in the thunderstorm."

Beyond the emotions, the vicissitudes and life experience of a woman in her thirties were not left out, as if a young shell were trapped in the shackles of age.

Too spiritual, too divine!