Cute Entertainment Circle - CH 59

Zhang Cheng sat up straight and looked at the two people on the stage with all his attention.

Li Zhibai was silent with a complicated expression when he suddenly received a call from his superior.

“Officer Liu… It seems that this time it’s as you wish. It’s impossible to go to Landu tonight.” Li Zhibai looked at the caller ID and said to Bai Xinyan deliberately in a lively atmosphere. Bai Xinyan took advantage of the situation to get rid of the emotions just now and gave Li Zhibai a sideways look, “I won’t go without work.”

Li Zhibai made a soothing gesture toward him and answered the phone. After a few words, his expression gradually became serious, “Explosion? Are you sure it was man-made?”

What was said over there, Li Zhibai suddenly showed a shocked expression, opened his mouth, and said in a tight voice, “Officer Liu, are you… sure?”

Bai Xinyan felt his abnormality and looked at Li Zhibai strangely. When the other party hung up the phone, he immediately asked, “What case?”

Li Zhibai’s expression was a little dazed and the complexity was even more complicated than before. Seeing Bai Xinyan’s unaware but slightly concerned appearance, he seemed to struggle for a while. After a while, he closed his eyes and with a slight trembling in his voice, he said softly, “There has been a man-made explosion on West Street. Two people have been killed and one injured. Officer Liu said… the method is the same as the explosion 16 years ago…”

Bai Xinyan’s eyes widened suddenly. His face turned pale almost instantly.

The explosion 16 years ago was personally experienced by Lu Zifeng. He barely escaped the disaster, but his mother passed away. The murderer of that year hadn’t yet been caught.

This was the biggest knot in Lu Zifeng’s heart. Although he never mentioned it, it seemed that he had given up continuing the investigation, but in fact, it was just buried deep in his heart and wouldn’t be easily discovered.

Zhu Ling knew this, so he was very hesitant to tell him about it and he was also very worried. After Li Zhibai finished speaking, he looked at Bai Xinyan with a worried look on his face.

Bai Xinyan’s face was pale. He remained motionless for a while, but his expression didn’t change much. The thick lenses blocked his eyes, which quickly turned red, but the hand holding the book was involuntarily clenched tightly. It wasn’t until his almost white knuckles from using force that he could see the turbulent ups and downs in his heart.

After he noticed his gaffe, he hurriedly lowered his head slightly to clear up his expression. He quickly calmed down again, let go of his hand, took a deep breath, and raised his head again. He put the book back on the table to avoid looking at Zhu Ling and said plainly, “So do I need to avoid suspicion in this case?”

On the surface, Bai Xinyan didn’t seem to be affected in any way. He was still calm, self-controlled, and rational, but his avoiding eyes and his uncontrollable trembling fingers could make people feel the inner restlessness. Even with a tone that didn’t fluctuate, they all showed a taste that was deliberately concealed.

“Good!” Zhang Cheng couldn’t help but praise in a low voice.

Bai Xinyan’s performance was very restrained and delicate. For TV dramas, this kind of acting that wasn’t obvious enough might not be flattering, but he was very smart. Although the performance wasn’t large, he showed those details just right. The audience for this audition was Zhang Cheng and others, so when he performed, he deliberately chose an angle they could see from their side to show the details and would guide the audience to notice. For example, with the slight trembling of his fingers, Bai Xinyan first put their eyes on his hands through a movement of putting a book, so that people could naturally discover the details that were easily overlooked.

Of course, it was possible to close up these details through the lens during the official shooting, but it had to be said that it was quite outstanding to have such expressiveness and performance awareness on the scene. These skills allowed his performance to be restrained but conveyed enough emotions and information. It was also a choice that perfectly fit the character’s setting. Even if it wasn’t very suitable for the acting skills of TV drama, it could be imagined that the effect wasn’t worse than the relatively exaggerated performance method.

An actor who could find his own lens and guide the audience to pay attention to details would save a lot of trouble for the director and post-editing. And he had to say that Bai Xinyan’s performance seemed to have a very strong appeal. It was clear that the emotion in this paragraph was completely closed and Bai Xinyan’s performance was also very restrained, but for some reason, Zhang Cheng just felt that the atmosphere was very depressed. It was heavy, with suspicion and pain, as if he felt the same way as Lu Zifeng in the plot.

Zhang Cheng had seen a lot of good actors. There were many people who could bring the audience along with them when the plot was high. However, such an appeal would appear in a plot point that wasn’t particularly intense. Zhang Cheng saw it for the first time so for a while, he put aside his picky and demanding personality and couldn’t help but call for good.

But the few people who heard the sound of “Good” didn’t show any surprise. After all, they also wanted to applaud, but they were preempted by Zhang Cheng.

Bai Xinyan’s indifferent expression contained a hint of tension. It seemed that he didn’t care about this matter, but in front of familiar people, he still revealed a trace of true emotions.

Li Zhibai opened his mouth and wanted to say something to comfort the other party, but he couldn’t find the right language. After a while, he said in a hoarse voice. “…not sure yet, we have to wait for the notification.” Of course, he couldn’t participate in the case, but Zhu Ling knew that Lu Zifeng definitely wanted to catch the murderer, so he had to wait for the notice.

Hearing this, Bai Xinyan sneered softly and said, “Okay, it’s normal to avoid suspicion, but it’s not that they can’t solve the case without me. And it’s not necessarily whether the same person committed the crime.”

Seeing this, Li Zhibai took a deep breath and said solemnly, “The murderer will definitely be arrested and brought to justice, I promise.” Not only the murderer in this case but also the people who destroyed Lu Zifeng’s family back then.

At this time, Li Zhibai was completely different from the playful look he had before. Although his face was still the one that attracted bees and butterflies, his expression and posture became more solemn and reliable. His temperament became more and more prominent, with ruthlessness and determination in his bones.

Bai Xinyan twitched the corner of his mouth and smiled, “Of course, I believe you.”

However, after the other party turned around and went out, he suddenly leaned back on the chair tiredly. He took off his glasses, revealing those eyes that were originally very good-looking, but now full of complicated emotions. He looked at the ceiling silently and stiffly for a while. His whole person’s posture was no longer as calm and powerful as before, but against the pale and delicate face, he looked rather fragile and helpless.

Those who saw it felt their hearts twitch.

It wasn’t until Bai Xinyan opened his eyes and returned to his normal expression after the performance that the others came back to their senses.

At this time, Zhang Cheng was already looking at Bai Xinyan with pleasant eyes and he was no longer as cold as he was at the beginning.

In fact, since Bai Xinyan and Li Zhibai deliberately changed their images before they started, Zhang Cheng was relieved a lot. After all, it seemed that they were at least serious about this audition. But he didn’t give much hope at the time. First, he wasn’t optimistic about the acting skills of the two actors. Second, the scene they chose to perform wasn’t very suitable. There was no intense plot. Most of them were daily conversations. To show good acting skills, you needed to be very meticulous and fit the character.

In terms of acting skills alone, Li Zhibai was barely enough. His acting skills weren’t the best, but he wasn’t bad. He was very popular. Zhang Cheng also guessed that 《Tracing the Source》 of Xinghuan’s investment was likely to choose him as the male lead, so he knew that he should accept the default.

However, Bai Xinyan was different. He was a pure newcomer, not from a professional background. He had only been trained in Xinghuan for less than two months. He was still on the road of reality show. He didn’t look like having acting skills. Even though his popularity on the Internet had been high recently, his actual popularity and appeal were still far from those of established male stars. Zhang Cheng never imagined that Xinghuan, who had always been upbeat, would have to make him the male lead by default.

Originally, based on Zhang Cheng’s pickiness, he would definitely not agree with Bai Xinyan to play Lu Zifeng, but Xinghuan asked He Wenhong to assure him that Bai Xinyan’s acting skills were actually very good. He showed him a video of the performance. Zhang Cheng reluctantly agreed.

But even so, Zhang Cheng only felt that Bai Xinyan’s acting skills were mostly at the level of Li Zhibai’s. The so-called excellent performance must be exaggerated. Fortunately, Li Zhibai’s acting skills were almost sufficient. With the approval of investors, he couldn’t object to it anymore. He could only spend more time adjusting and teaching during filming.

However, the audition was beyond his expectations. It was Bai Xinyan who brought him a huge surprise! Only then did Zhang Cheng understand that what He Wenhong said was excellent wasn’t an exaggeration, but was truly excellent! With Bai Xinyan’s acting skills, he was fully qualified to be the male lead of the TV drama he directed. Even Zhang Cheng felt that Bai Xinyan was no worse than some movie actors. In addition to age and image constraints, in terms of acting alone, he now had the strength to take home a trophy.

No wonder Xinghuan, who always relied on strength to speak, had appointed a new person to be the male lead. It turned out that Bai Xinyan’s strength was indeed qualified!

In addition to acting skills, it was said that Bai Xinyan’s popularity was also skyrocketing. His potential was huge at first glance. No wonder Xinghuan wanted to hold him.

Zhang Cheng thought so. He was very warm and kind to Bai Xinyan. When he was filming, he was strict and critical, but he was always good to young people with good acting skills, especially since he had a bad impression of Bai Xinyan at first. However, now after the reversal, the impact was even greater. The more he looked at Bai Xinyan, the more satisfied he became.

Li Zhibai’s performance was also much stronger than what he had imagined. The two leading actors were good. Zhang Cheng had directly put half of his heart into the filming of the whole drama.

After the audition, the main members of the crew had another meal together. The atmosphere became more harmonious under the careful management. Li Zhibai had been worried that Zhang Cheng wouldn’t like him because of Yu Anyan, but now he was finally relieved.

After the dinner, Bai Xinyan and Li Zhibai were originally sent back by their respective agents and assistants, but they received news that Bai Yin was coming to pick them up.

Bai Xinyan looked at the information on the phone and said to Li Zhibai, “Is my little uncle here to pick you up?” During this time, Li Zhibai and Bai Yin seemed to be very familiar with each other. They seemed to be continuing to engage in that stimulation therapy. When Bai Xinyan asked, the two were vague, but their relationship was obviously closer than before.

Bai Xinyan was happy to see this happen. Bai Yin focused on Li Zhibai, not just staring at him and Yin Heng all the time and disturbing his relationship.

Li Zhibai’s expression suddenly became unnatural when he heard this. He said stiffly, “He is your uncle. Of course, he will pick you up if he wants to come.” He forcibly ignored the message Bai Yin sent himself.

The two pushed each other, hoping that the other would be the target. Unfortunately, after Bai Yin arrived, the two were carried into the car by Bai Yin and neither could escape.