ATAMMDO 14

Chapter 14 – Jiang Liu Cheng: I Can’t Do it Without Acting

 

Thanks to Qin Lu’s fame, the popularity of the photo is only getting higher. At first, people would only come to see Qin Lu, but after seeing the image, they are attracted by Jiang Liu Cheng beside him.

 

The young man is tall with long legs. His upper body is dressed with a white top while wearing a pair of gray trousers in his lower half. Meanwhile, Qin Lu is wearing something black with his shades on. Their white and black tandem impact was influential to the audience.

 

[My male god is so handsome. I haven’t seen new material from him for almost two years, but it feels like a lifetime since I last saw him.]

 

[I have chased god Qin Lu for so many years, but it is the first time I saw the handsome guy standing beside our male god. This little brother’s appearance has the potential to become an idol. But the fact that he hasn’t been buzzing news before is too unscientific when his looks already look promising.]

 

[Ten minutes. I want to know all the information about the little brother next to our male god.]

 

Comments went through quickly, and someone soon found Jiang Liu Orange’s Weibo. Only to discover that he had terminated his contract with the former brokerage company not too long ago.

 

[Zhou Sheng Entertainment is a company that likes to hype and touch porcelain newbies. That’s all they can do, so its reputation is not very good.]

 

[As soon as I searched in, I found that the little brother had just recently terminated his contract with the company. The other netizens and Qin Lu’s fans are happy about it.]

 

[Wow, this little brother is kind of cool. I am done. He is so handsome that I have to cancel my appointment to stalk him instead.]

 

After Li Qiu followed Jiang Liu Cheng in departing from Zhou Sheng Entertainment, he did not idle. He always looked for opportunities to find more partners for Jiang Liu Cheng.

 

Recently, he hadn’t seen it on Weibo, but a friend suddenly called him and asked him to have a look on Weibo, saying that the artist he used to talk about was a hot search.

 

Li Qiu was unsuccessful last year, often complaining to his friends and showing them pictures of Jiang Liu Cheng. Hence, his friends recognized him at a glance.

 

Today is the opening ceremony of Jiang Liu Cheng’s crew, but Li Qiu does not know why it will be a hot search, so he opened Weibo to look.

 

He was shocked at the sight of what welcomed him.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng’s followers before today were only more than 10,000. And most of those people are his alumni.

 

But because he became a hot search with Qin Lu, his number of fans rose to 30,000. Whenever he refreshes the page, the follower count only gets higher in digits.

 

The termination statement he sent a few days ago now has thousands more comments than before, all of which praise him highly.

 

Li Qiu backed out and went back to see the hot search.

 

There he saw two people in the picture. If he has to be honest, even if he is a man, he thinks that they’re both very pleasing in the eyes.

 

“Li Qiu, your artist is about to be famous.” his friend said excitedly as he called him. “ Your sufferings are about to end. It’s good that you followed him and left Zhou Sheng Entertainment. Otherwise, you don’t know when you could have turned it all around.”

 

Li Qiu was really excited about this as well. When he heard his friend’s words, he suddenly realized something, making his emotions cool down a little.

 

After finishing the call with his friend, Li Qiu made a phone call to Jiang Liu Cheng. It rang six or seven times before it was picked up. And once he heard the other end,  the noisy background immediately appeared. 

 

“Brother Li, what is it?” The voice of the youth is like a stream in the noisy background, slowly flowing into the cochlea.

 

“Do you know that you went on a hot search with Emperor Qin Lu? In just half an hour, you gained 20,000 fans on Weibo.”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng has no idea, for he hasn’t been able to take out his phone since this morning. But now, he has just put on his makeup and is wearing his prop costume. It’s the first scene, and he is about to start filming with the other actors.

 

“I am going on the set now. We can talk about this tonight.”

 

“Okay then. It seems like you are busy. Now that you have reached certain popularity, it should be easier for me to grab partners, projects, and other opportunities for you.”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng placed away his cell phone and was ready to go over and take the shot with everyone. But then he saw many people around Qin Lu, so he went towards the corner instead.

 

“Xiao Jiang, where else are you going? Quickly stand beside Qin Lu.”

 

Before Jiang Liu Cheng could even walk away, Director Cheng Qinghua had managed to stop him and pull him beside Qin Lu. This made the other people who were crowding over Qin Lu move from the way. 

 

Because the director shouted, they had no choice but to disperse and dare not say anything.

 

Cheng Qinghua did not let Jiang Liu Cheng stray away, for he was aware that Qin Lu would again tell him that he was no man. Whenever he thought of this, he tried to suck in his annoyance, knowing this must be down to keep Qin Lu as his leading man. 

 

Because so many people were watching around them, Jiang Liu Cheng did not dare change his facial expression and then walked all the way beside Qin Lu. 

 

Qin Lu glanced over at the young man and saw that his skin from his face all the way to his neck was starting to get red due to the sun. Thus, he suddenly took off his hat and put it on Jiang Liu Cheng’s head.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng’s head is not as big as his, so when he received the hat from Qin Lu, it made his face even smaller. 

 

“The weather has been scorching recently. If you are going to have outdoor activities in the future, it is best to remember to wear a hat and put sunscreen on so your skin won’t get burned. It will be difficult to put makeup on that in the long run.” With that, Qin Lu also gave Cheng QInghua a glance.

 

Cheng Qinghua rolled his eyes where Qin Lu wouldn’t be able to see him, knowing that this male matchmaker must be dissatisfied with him yet again. With so many things happening on the crew, how could he expect so much from him? It would be nice for Jiang Liu Cheng to take care of himself. 

 

Jiang Liu Cheng was surprised for a moment as he felt the hat on top of his head. Except for his grandfather, a few people are actually concerned about him. Not to mention the fact that he can faintly smell Qin Lu’s perfume from it. “Thank you.” He mumbled as he looked up at him. 

 

“You’re welcome, of course.” Qin Lu replied as he nodded his head.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng flashed a smile in his eyes. He had never seen such a matchmaker before. The other party seemed to feel that it was right to take care of him after becoming his matchmaker.

 

After taking the picture, the first scene is turning on the phone.

 

At first, everyone thought that the first scene must be Emperor Qin, but who knew that it was not but a newcomer. And only later was there the scene of rivalry between the newcomer and Emperor Qin.

 

“What was the director thinking? It’s the first day, and he lets the newcomer play a cene side by side with Qin Lu? Is he not afraid that Emperor Qin would eat the newbie alive? This will be a public embarrassment.”

 

“Yes, I even heard that the director takes care of the newbie real well. That might not be the case after all.”

 

“How can it be fake? The director himself decided and gave him this role, offending the Mo family on the way.”

 

Several actors gathered around and talked about it endlessly.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng had not acted with Qin Lu before, but he had studied Qin Lu’s roles and felt that he should be the kind of actor who is immersed. When he searched about him online, articles said that he killed a scene even if he did not appear in it.

 

Most people do have pressure to play against the movie star. As someone who has not acted in a film more than several times, it is normal not to catch the scenes immediately.

 

Cheng Qinghua obviously thought of this too. So before they started filming, he called Jiang Liu Cheng over.

 

“Today’s first scene is about your classmate speaking ill of your brother in front of you. You are very uncomfortable, but since you have had a heart illness since you were a child, you can’t let your emotions sway you too much. That’s why you tried to suppress your anger, but it does not mean you can keep it down completely. Do you understand?”

 

The first scene is said to be a rivalry between him and Qin Lu instead of the younger brother persona – Jiang Liu Cheng’s character that he is supposed to play. Not to mention the fact that it will even focus on Jiang Liu Cheng more.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng nodded. The small composition he had written before about his brother’s psychology in the whole movie had been listed, which was similar to what the director had said. He had simulated it many times in his mind already.

 

The people around them were shocked when they heard the director’s words.

 

Isn’t this too difficult for a newbie?

 

Resurfacing the emotions won’t be the most challenging part of this scene since many people can perform in front of the camera. The real difficulty of the situation is the fact that Jiang Liu Cheng needs to resurface such introverted emotions while facing off Qin Lu. Qin Lu would eventually outshine Jiang Liu Cheng. 

 

But the most outrageous thing is that the newcomer seems to agree with the director.

 

Qin Lu also came to Jiang Liu Cheng’s side. “Don’t be nervous about the first scene. Go through it first. If you have any problems, there won’t be any fuss about it since you are new. No one will talk about you even if we take the scene several times. Everyone is psychologically prepared for that already.”

 

Knowing that he was trying to reduce his burden, Jiang Liu Cheng said frankly, “I’m not nervous.”

 

As the director took his place, the crew began to go to work.

 

Cheng Qinghua lets Jiang Liu Cheng pass, ready to begin the take.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng came to the shoot’s center, surrounded by the seats.

 

When filming for the first time, he didn’t know how to find a plane seat. At that time, he was ridiculed by the crew, saying that he didn’t even know how to find a plane seat when he came to the filming site.

 

This kind of experience is different from learning other people’s acting skills, and he can only feel it on the spot. Later, he went around several crews to see how the actors found seats and found out the rules, and never reencountered this problem.

 

Qin Lu stood aside as he was worried about Jiang Liu Cheng’s lack of experience. But then he found out that Jiang Liu Cheng doesn’t feel rushed, but he also knows how to get his way around the position.

 

Qin Lu flashed a smile in his eyes. He remembered the information his agent gave him once he requested that Jiang Liu Cheng should be checked. The young man had only been in business for only a year, and he had not made any film all this year. But then, he has the skills. No one can deny him of that.

 

“Are you ready?” Cheng Qinghua asked with a loudspeaker outside the camera.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng nodded.

 

The attendant stood in front of him with the board. When he hit the board, all the machines around him started running immediately, and the first scene officially began.

 

Xie Fei, played by Jiang Liu Cheng, is a 17-year-old in high school. He has always followed his brother’s example. Because his brother is intelligent and strong, his brother was so popular even when he stepped into college. Xie Fei is so proud of having such a brother. 

 

But such a brother, who made him incredibly proud, was reviled by the whole internet one day for defending and acquitting a lousy guy who killed a man.

 

Originally, his classmates envied him for having such a powerful brother, but from this day on, the way people around him looked at him changed, and they no longer envied him. Those who once envied him would even say that he has a bad brother.

 

“Some people are dapper on the surface, but who would have thought that he would be personal scum?” A classmate stared at Xie Fei in front of him, and the disgust in his words was released almost exponentially.

 

Some students on the side tried to stop him, but the other side ignored him and went on talking on his own.

 

“If you help a murderer off the hook, he will certainly be punished. Some people used to tell us how good his brother is. But If I were his brother, I would be ashamed to see people now.”

 

An iron box with a pen brushed past his ear before it smashed against the blackboard at the back of the classroom.

 

The classroom quieted down after that loud noise.

 

The abusive classmate also stared at Xie Fei.

 

Xie Fei looked pale as he stared right back at his classmate. From whipping down when he first heard his classmate’s words to the anger and embarrassment he felt for his brother, Xie Fei spoke, “My brother is not like that.”

 

This statement seems to be to tell his classmates off, but when in reality, it is to convince himself that his brother is still a good guy. It’s the self-deceiving stubbornness.

 

After saying that, he passed out.

 

Xie Fei originally had a heart condition and could not have too many mood swings, but the students did not know that. So after seeing him faint, the classroom suddenly came into a buzz.

 

“Cut”

 

The scene has filmed a total of five times, and after the last take, the crew looked at Jiang Liu Cheng differently. They thought he was a young man with little acting experience, but they didn’t expect him to be a hidden gem.

 

With such acting skills, even if he plays against Qin Lu, the end results will not be too bad.

 

Cheng Qinghua has long seen the roles Jiang Liu Cheng had played before and knows that he is good at controlling this kind of emotion, not to mention perfect, but he is also better than those actors who have been in the play for many years, so he is not much surprised.

 

“Drink some water.” Knowing that he didn’t have an assistant, Zhou Wenbin handed Jiang Liu Cheng a bottle of water.

 

“Thank you.” Jiang Liu Cheng did not refuse and took a big sip of the water.

 

Qin Lu was speechless. The young man’s performance is really beyond his expectation, “Did you just act very well? And did you just teach yourself all of your acting skills?”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng capped the bottle. “I was indeed self-taught. I studied a lot of people’s acting skills and tried to absorb them.”

 

Qin Lu placed down his water and folded his legs, “Including mine.”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng met his eyes. “Yes, yours is the hardest to learn.” 

 

The corner of Qin Lu’s mouth bent. “Why?”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng: “Because you are immersed in your role, you treat yourself as the character in the film. It will be difficult to get out of the scene after the character was killed.”

 

Qin Lu: “…..”

 

Should he say thank you? But he didn’t feel praised.

 

Zhou Wenbin smiles to himself. Probably because the other side praised himself in disguise, but it is rare for Qin Lu to have nothing to say.

 

Meanwhile, at Zhou Sheng Entertainment.

 

Boss Zhou, who originally wanted to delay for a few more days and talk to that person again, suddenly received a call from that very person.

 

“Boss Zhou, you broke our agreement. I said not to give Jiang Liu Cheng too many opportunities to work. I do not want him to be famous in the entertainment industry. Did you turn a deaf ear to what I said?”