Chapter 112: The Grand Performance, Part 2

Gao Xiang simply looked at Guo Kai with a smile, saying nothing.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, Guo Kai felt a wave of malice coming at him. “Sister Gao, you’re not about to tell me that Song Wan’s husband is Jin Youqian, are you?”

Gao Xiang smiled without answering.

The smile fell from Guo Kai’s face. “Sister Gao, are you kidding me? Jin Youqian? That dead pervert? A gay man in his thirties who’s never let a woman come anywhere near him?”

Gao Xiang continued to smile, but her narrowed, smiling eyes sent chills down Guo Kai’s back.

“My God, has the iron tree finally flowered?” Guo Kai’s eyes widened. “This is the scoop of the century! I have to tell my childhood friends. I can’t be the only one getting the fright of my life!”

With that, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his phone.

Smack!

Gao Xiang slapped her hand down over it. “I’m telling you this so you’ll know your place and stop bothering Song Wan in the future, not so you can spread gossip.” Her eyes were full of warning. “And remember, the only reason you got this opportunity is that the investor behind the Starry Skies production is President Jin.”

Worried that Guo Kai still did not understand the reality of the situation, Gao Xiang reminded him again. “This is your one and only chance. If you ruin it, you can go straight home and take over the family business.”

Guo Kai was stunned for a moment, then grew somewhat indignant.

Still, he knew that the situation was stronger than he was. He absolutely could not act recklessly on a whim.

A beautiful figure suddenly flashed through his mind. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, giving him a rather sinister look. At first, he had only thought Song Wan was pretty and exactly his type, so he had wanted to date her for fun. But now? He felt that bringing her home outright might not be such a bad idea either.

What had once been a casual thought hardened into resolve. Guo Kai was determined to have Song Wan.

He had never once doubted that his flawless skills at flirting with women would fail him where Song Wan was concerned. After all, although Jin Youqian’s achievements were astonishing, he wore a coffin-like expression all day long. He was also said to be especially stingy, unwilling to spend money on women at all…

Tsk. Snatching a woman away from a man like that would be effortless.

As for the fact that Song Wan and Jin Youqian were already married? That was no problem to him. In all his years, he had seen more affairs and mistresses kept on the side than he could count. To be honest, he was sick of watching such dramas.

Outwardly, however, he merely smiled and replied, “Don’t worry, Sister Gao. I’m not capable of stealing someone away from Jin Youqian.”

Even though Gao Xiang could see that Guo Kai was saying one thing and thinking another, she still nodded deeply in agreement.

She suddenly found her own nervousness amusing.

With someone like President Jin standing before him as a shining example, in Song Wan’s eyes, wouldn’t a rich second-generation heir like Guo Kai be nothing more than a pair of foul-smelling fish eyes?

Guo Kai: “…”

Forget it. He couldn’t afford to quarrel with his own manager.

—

Official Weibo of the television drama *Starry Skies*: Since our production team has been busy with auditions, we regrettably missed a spectacular drama unfolding online.

However, once we discovered that our production team was also involved in the main event, we found ourselves rather puzzled.

@Mr. Han Sen, could you explain what you meant by your Weibo post?

Yes, you did come to our production team to audition for the second male lead. But why didn’t you explain the circumstances leading up to it?

It is true that the newcomer you mentioned did come to our production team. But how exactly did you get here? No, that is not the right question. Let me rephrase it—

@Mr. Han Sen, why did you suddenly appear at our production team claiming that you wanted to audition for the second male lead, and even go so far as to pressure us with your company in an attempt to obtain the role for free?

As everyone knows, the original novel of *Starry Skies* is a work of light science fiction with a touch of fantasy. Its nonexistent plants, animals, and weapons, as well as its breathtaking scenery, all require extensive computer-generated effects. That is why, from the beginning, our standard for casting was to select newcomers with good acting skills who would accept modest pay.

We have already informed @Mr. Han Sen that someone has passed the audition for this role and performed very well. He fits the descriptions of the second male lead in both the original novel and the screenplay, and he better matches our casting criteria: a newcomer with acting ability, good looks, and a modest fee.

So we would like to ask @Mr. Han Sen one question. You repeatedly emphasize that you are a veteran who has been in the industry for more than a decade. Why, then, have you come to seize an opportunity that belongs to a newcomer? Are you relying on seniority? Or are you using your influence to bully others?

Because we did not want to fall out with @Mingshi Entertainment, Director Zhou Qi decided to give @Han Sen one opportunity to audition. Yet Mr. Han seemed to regard this as an immense humiliation and immediately began arguing with Director Zhou. He then went on to verbally threaten members of our production team. When we refused to compromise, Mr. Han slammed the door and walked out.

We would like to ask: If your acting is truly as good as you claim, why are you afraid to compete with a newcomer?

…

This post, more than a thousand words long, not only explained the entire course of events but also threw the blame straight back at Han Sen and Mingshi Entertainment.

And beneath the post, as expected, came the evidence—

A promotional poster for the production team’s open casting call. The casting requirements—“good acting, attractive appearance, modest pay, preferably a newcomer”—had been circled in red highlighter, making them impossible to overlook.

A video of Guo Kai’s audition.

Most of the time, audiences are laypeople merely watching for entertainment. They have no idea whether an actor’s performance is truly good or bad. They only know whether the story itself is enjoyable. As long as the acting is not particularly embarrassing, they will barely notice it. Ask them about it, and the only answer they can give is, “The acting was great.”

But this video contained nothing except Guo Kai’s ragged breathing, his terrified and disheveled expression, and body language and acting so vivid that they made viewers feel as if they were there themselves. Its overwhelming sense of immersion allowed every netizen who watched it to understand, in the most direct way possible, what true acting really was.

There was no music, no costume, no background…

Just a green screen, an actor, and a brilliant performance…

That alone was enough to transport readers of the original novel straight into the scene of the second male lead’s first encounter with the heroine. The despair of fate swept over them, and many fans of the second male lead burst into tears, their hearts aching for him.

“This is our Lu Yang. Only he could ever be our Lu Yang!”

Many readers came to the same conclusion. They flooded the official account with comments, insisting that this newcomer be cast as Lu Yang, the second male lead. They would accept no one else, whether that person was a veteran of the entertainment industry or simply more famous than the newcomer.

At the same time, the production team’s publicity account posted a link to another video—

An old audition video of Han Sen’s. Ordinarily, footage like this could not be circulated without the original owner’s consent.

But Han Sen had been so terrible at dealing with people that he had offended a director in nearly every production he joined.

This video had been assembled from audition footage held by directors he had offended in the past. Scenes from roughly a dozen productions and more than twenty roles had all been edited into one compilation.

It could truly be called a collection of highlights.

Yet every netizen who watched it had the same reaction—

Good grief, that was painful to watch!

My God, with acting this terrible, how did Han Sen have the nerve to claim that his skills were unquestionably better than those of the newcomer? Where was his shame?

Oh, no, that is not right…

He didn’t possess such a thing as acting ability in the first place.

And did you think that was the end of it? Of course not. The *Starry Skies* production team seemed determined to vent all the anger they had accumulated after being falsely accused. So they decided to go all the way and make an even bigger spectacle—

After the two videos, the publicity account released a third round of evidence: a compilation of roles Han Sen had played in the past.

But did the publicity team intend to do him any favors? Obviously not…

They had a technician edit all the performance clips together, then removed the audio entirely, leaving only the subtitles.

The general public—and Han Sen’s fans in particular—felt the malice in the video more directly than ever.

That stiff-faced man with no expression and painfully awkward movements… Was he really the Han Sen who was supposedly renowned for his acting?

The production team clearly felt that this still was not enough. They released yet another video.

This time, it belonged to Song Wan. They took the opportunity to reveal the production’s leading actress while nipping in the bud any quarrels that might erupt among fans of the original *Starry Skies* novel.

To make sure netizens understood that the production team had made the right choice and that the television drama was worth anticipating, Zhou Qi went directly to Qian Fu and Zhao Qing and obtained Song Wan’s audition footage from them.

To avoid revealing any spoilers ahead of time, the audition for *Best Friends* had been completely muted.

Even so, the audition clips for all ten roles, including Miao Yu, left every netizen who watched the video utterly stunned.