Chapter 35

The phone vibrated suddenly, breaking the ambiguity floating in the air.

Li Baixi coughed, glanced at the screen, and answered lazily: “You are limited to sixty seconds to finish.”

“Master!!” Ma Kou buckled on the other end and howled, “I’m afraid I’m going to die here today!”

Li Boxi: “?”

Ma Koukou: “It was announced almost as soon as the filming started. There was a temporary change of judges. Guess who it is?”

Li Boxi frowned: “My good junior brother?”

Ma Koukou cried bitterly: “Do you think this is God’s jealous beauty? He will definitely give me a bunch of zero points, and I will be out of the round! That’s all, if he takes the opportunity to say something humiliating, I will lose face. People will definitely say that you have no way to teach girls…”

Li Boxi was annoyed by his crying: “You can’t retire.”

“Why retire?” Suddenly someone interjected.

Ma Koukou choked up halfway through crying.

Cheng Ping leaned over to the phone: “He’s not the only judge, if he scores unreasonably, he will be questioned too. Why are you cowarding? Just him!”

Horse button: “…”

Ma Koukou said cautiously: “Brother Cheng…do you two share a room?”

Cheng Ping: “.”

Cheng Ping was about to explain, but Ma Koukou cried even louder: “It’s all because of this Laoshizi show, I even missed 80 chapters of gossip between you two! I’m struggling here, and your children are all in college!”

Cheng Ping’s ears felt hot, and he glanced at Li Boxi.

Ma Koukou: “Is this the life of a man? This is the life of a dog…”

Li Boxi rolled his eyes: “It’s been more than a hundred seconds. Goodbye.”

“Wait, wait,” Ma Koukou hastily withdrew his supernatural powers, “Then should I still compare?”

Li Boxi: “If you want to compare, just compare, you are my apprentice, what are you afraid of?”

Ma Koukou pondered over the meaning of his words, but he was still not at ease, and said in a cliché, “Well, as the saying goes, one day is a teacher and one day is a mother, you have to be the master for me…”

But Li Boxi didn’t fall for the trap: “You rely on yourself first.”

He cut off the phone before a new round of begging came, and sighed: “It’s like raising a baby, damn.”

Cheng Ping knew from his tone that he would not really stand by and watch this matter. If Ma Koukou was bullied, he would definitely come forward.

This kind of scoring competition is bound to involve a professional level contest. However, Cheng Ping remembered that Li Boxi seemed to have some unspeakable psychological shadows in this regard.

Cheng Ping: “Are you going to confront your junior brother?”

Li Boxi looked at him with a smile: “You said it, just him.”

Cheng Ping was afraid that he would force it: “…don’t be in such a hurry, if it doesn’t work…”

Li Boxi: “?”

Li Boxi immediately said solemnly: “Xiao Cheng, men can’t say no.”

Cheng Ping: “?”

Why are you angry at being a man now?

Li Boxi: “Besides, we were also on his way. He plans to win the best modeling award this year, and I happen to have the same intention. I’ll wait until you pass the audition tomorrow.”

Cheng Ping knew that he was cheering him up, but he still felt an itch in his heart when he said “we”.

Li Boxi raised his hand at this moment, and the palm slid across his face without touching the ground: “If the object is you, I have the confidence.”

The itching in Cheng Ping’s heart turned into a more realistic sensory experience, and the skin went numb along his moving palm, as if a feather was scratching lightly.

He and Li Boxi looked at each other, neither of them spoke.

The air between them was thick with almost a sense of urgency. Another tenth of a second of stalemate, and something should happen.

Cheng Ping suddenly took a step back as if nothing had happened, then turned and walked to the bathroom, muttering: “Borrow it.”

This is not stage fright, I don’t have stage fright, he convinced himself in his heart. This is just for fear of affecting the audition tomorrow morning.

Li Boxi looked at his flustered back, silently withdrew his hand, and smiled helplessly.

Wasn’t it you who knocked on my door?

The phone on the table vibrated again, this time it was Assistant Yang who sent a voice message.

Li Boxi glanced at it, thought it was about tomorrow’s matchmaking, and clicked on it.

Many years later, Li Boxi would still travel back to this night in his mind, and beat up the self who made his voice public.

Assistant Yang’s voice sounded in the room: “Master, I’ve thought about it for a long time, and I still have to risk my life to talk to you about one thing. If I remember correctly, the last time you told me about your orientation…”

Li Boxi was listening absent-mindedly, but suddenly reached out to turn off the voice, and in a mess of movements, he knocked the phone off the table.

The phone fell to the ground, and the voice was still playing: “…it’s straight. I have no right to speak about the matter between you and Brother Cheng, but if that’s the case, isn’t it a bit unfair to him…”

Li Boxi finally turned off the voice.

There was a dead silence in the room, only his own rapid breathing could be heard.

He did tell Assistant Yang about this. That was a long, long time ago, when he still had some meaning for her. However, if you don’t have the heart, I will leave, he completely forgot about it.

How could he forget this?

A few seconds later, his soul returned to his body, only to find the sound of water in the bathroom next door.

But when did the sound of water sound, and how much Cheng Ping heard, he didn’t know.

The sound of water soon stopped, and Cheng Ping pushed the door out with water droplets on his hands.

He came over and picked up the script, and said in a calm voice, “The audition is important, I’d better go back and find a foreign teacher to dig out the lines again, see you tomorrow.”

Li Boxi tried hard to recognize his face, but Cheng Ping didn’t give him a chance, and quickly turned around and left.

Li Boxi: “…”

Li Baixi poked his phone angrily and typed: “You can’t have a face-to-face interview???”

Assistant Yang was puzzled: “How can such an embarrassing matter be discussed face-to-face? I have hesitated to send this voice for half a century, for fear of losing my job.”

Li Boxi: “…”

Assistant Yang: “But I remembered a word.”

Li Boxi: “…”

Assistant Yang: “You want to be a coward for the rest of your life, or a hero for three seconds.”

Li Boxi: “…”

The next morning, Cheng Ping’s face remained calm.

This mediocrity itself means abnormal.

He didn’t say a word while putting on makeup. Li Boxi raised the topic several times, but he always answered in two or three words.

Li Baixi thought to himself: It’s over.

Cheng Ping must have heard it last night. Wait, maybe he’s just too nervous? Maybe he’ll be fine after the audition?

Li Baixi was lucky, so he simply didn’t mention it, anyway, it’s not suitable to mention it at this time.

He can only put on makeup more carefully. Although the character is of mixed race, he did not deliberately emphasize the sense of mixed race. Cheng Ping’s face is already three-dimensional enough, and it would be too much to try to trim it. Instead, he spent his time reducing his age.

The cheekbones, the sides of the nose and other positions that show the actual age have been carefully brightened, the slightly aggressive eye shape has also been softened, and a slender and melancholy teenager gradually revealed his true face.

Li Boxi has seen the audition clips, and he roughly knows what kind of feeling this performance needs.

Assistant Yang circled around them the whole time, serving coffee and breakfast.

Last night, Li Boxi told her the whole truth in a fit of anger, and it was only then that Assistant Yang realized that his heroic actions had caused a catastrophe. As for whether this job can be kept… It probably depends on whether Cheng Ping can smile today.

Thinking of this, she became even more stupid: “Brother Cheng, the makeup is so pretty, I will definitely take it off on the spot later.”

Cheng Ping: “…Thank you.”

They found the audition room on time.

The director was very enthusiastic, he took Li Baixi to exchange pleasantries, and praised Cheng Ping for being handsome. Cheng Ping understood roughly, but he was still impatient in speaking, afraid of showing timidity at the beginning, so he only replied, “Thank you.”

However, he was afraid of what would happen, so the director stopped asking questions, but an assistant director next to him asked Cheng Ping endlessly: “When did you fly here? How is the time difference? How is the traffic this morning? There is no traffic jam on the road, right?”

Cheng Ping: “…”

Cheng Ping froze through the vocabulary in his mind, and answered a few sentences after stumbled.

Seeing that he was really reluctant, the director waved his hand: “If you are ready, let’s start.”

The assistant director thoughtfully assigned Cheng Ping a position, but he was still asking, “What do you think of the script? How do you understand the role of Hong?”

Cheng Ping had prepared this question with a foreign teacher, and now he brought out the answer he had memorized in advance: “Hiro is not the kind of person who is the best at expressing emotions, but I think his quietness actually contains rich emotional changes… ”

Assistant director: “For example, what kind of emotion?”

Cheng Ping: “…sadness and…uh…”

He wanted to say “infatuation”.

But he won’t.

Li Boxi cleared his throat from the side: “Director, I can act as an interpreter.”

“No, no, I don’t think it’s necessary.” The assistant director smiled secretly, obviously without any kindness, “Let us see your performance.”

Li Boxi frowned and glanced at him.

The assistant director is Korean. He had been on the crew for a while, and he had figured out the resources the director had brought in for this project. Knowing its weight, he immediately recommended familiar Korean actors to audition. But the director was noncommittal after watching the actor’s performance.

After the actor left, the director made it clear to the assistant director: “He is the most suitable candidate so far, but it is a pity that the image in my heart is still different.”

So when the assistant director saw Cheng Ping’s appearance, he felt the threat acutely. This figure, this face, I am afraid that he is a strong competitor.

Fortunately, he soon discovered that Cheng Ping was not good at English. He decided to force this person to expose this shortcoming, and it would be best to break his mentality before performing.

Cheng Ping really stood there with a blank face. As for whether his mentality has collapsed or not, he doesn’t know for the time being.

Li Boxi secretly sweated.

Director: “Start.”

Cheng Ping closed his eyes and sat down slowly.

A table and two chairs were prepared in the room, and a plastic model was placed on the chair opposite him, acting as a painter.

In the script, Hiro’s mother died of poverty and disease. The painter helped to bury the poor woman and took Hiro to a tavern to get drunk.

Cheng Ping raised the empty wine glass on the table, took a sip as a gesture, and coughed violently again.

The staff read the artist’s lines beside him: “You don’t drink?”

Cheng Ping shook his head while coughing, and said intermittently: “I don’t drink often.”

The director watched with interest. This guy seems to be able to act.

Cheng Ping put down the wine glass, and lightly fiddled with the stem: “Before she got sick, she was a beauty. They said, if only I inherited half of her beauty.”

The assistant director turned his head to look at the director quite deliberately, trying to convey a message with his eyes: this English is too poor.

Worker: “You are beautiful. But I believe she is beautiful too.”

Cheng Ping leaned back, leaning on the back of the chair, showing a bit drunk, looking confused and naive.

“A painter, one of your colleagues, showed me a copy of Ukiyo-e, “Nine Phases of Ono Komachi”, which depicts the process of a beautiful woman’s body decomposing after death until only her bones remain. My father’s compatriots are some Weird people. They say this is to let people know that the body is just a vain illusion, and they should not be too attached to the world.”

The assistant director couldn’t make an expression.

Li Boxi quietly raised a smile.

This line was long and awkward. When Cheng Ping read it for the first time, he wished he could stutter every word.

Look now.

The overly long lines, on the contrary, weakened the sense of disobedience brought by his accent, and made people notice other details: the frustrating and turning of the tone, the subtle changes in body language and eyes at every node.

His despair is not a violent thunderstorm, but a little bit of cool water vapor seeping out, weaving a net in an invisible place, tightening the opponent and himself together.

Staff: “Is it a good thing too? It means that the dead are no longer there, and their souls have gone to heaven.”

Cheng Ping raised his eyes and looked at the blank face of the plastic model, but his eyes seemed to penetrate the model and cast into the unknown void.

Almost affectionately, he asked softly: “But, I already know that love is false, and so is truth. If even beauty is false, what else is true?”

Without warning, tears fell from his eyes.

Compared with the riddle-like slender voice of the heart, these tears are so frank, and a clear prayer is washed out of the fog: see me, love me, even for a moment.

He lowered his head, buried his face in the palms of his hands, and called out incoherently, “Sir…Mr.!”

No one spoke at the scene. Everyone is waiting for the director’s instructions.

The director took the lead in applauding.

There was applause, Cheng Ping took it as a call to stop, wiped away his tears, stood up and bowed.

Director: “Very good, very good, please go back and wait for the news, let us look forward to a good news together.”

He was almost out of contract on the spot.

The assistant director forced a smile and said in a joking tone: “It seems that we need to hire a few more translators.”

“What’s wrong with the assistant director?” Assistant Yang spoke up as soon as he left the venue.

Li Boxi: “Is there some PY transaction behind it that we don’t know about?”

Assistant Yang boasted bluntly: “Fortunately, Brother Cheng spoke with his strength and slapped him in the face.”

Li Boxi: “…” You have been a hero for three seconds, and you will be a coward for the rest of your life?

Cheng Ping smiled lightly: “It’s still far away.”

Li Baixi thought to himself: It’s over.

This time it’s really over.

He winked at Assistant Yang: “It’s dinner time, let me treat you to a meal to celebrate the successful audition.”

Assistant Yang turned around obediently: “You guys eat, I have a dinner appointment with my classmates, so I’m leaving first.”

Li Boxi chose a Japanese grocery store, because only the Japanese grocery store has private rooms nearby, separated by curtains, barely guaranteeing privacy.

At least Cheng Ping agreed to have dinner with him, which is a good sign.

Li Boxi ordered two bottles of sake, poured the other party and poured himself, intending to be bold enough to talk.

After a few cups, his mind was warmed up, and his belly draft was almost finished. Cheng Ping spoke first: “I treat you this time, thank you for giving me the opportunity to fight for the role.”

Li Boxi: “…I didn’t mention this beforehand, that, Xiao Cheng, last night…”

“Are you straight?”

“…”

Cheng Ping stared straight at him, with a drunken blush on his cheeks, but his eyes were ferocious.

Li Boxi smiled wryly in his heart.

God, this is God’s will. He, Mr. Li, owed the debts he owed through fraud for so many years, and today is finally the repayment date.

Li Boxi bowed his neck and said: “It used to be.”

Cheng Ping: “Was it?”

Li Boxi: “Not anymore.”

Cheng Ping: “Why?”

Li Boxi suddenly felt that he was not drunk enough.

He drank another cup: “I was bent.”

Cheng Ping still stared at him: “By me? I have so much ability?”

Li Boxi gave up on himself and said, “Honey, you don’t know anything about your own abilities.”

Cheng Ping tried his best to believe it.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the utterance of the voice last night, he could still continue to believe that Li Boxi is crooked, and that the liking is true.

Because, if you don’t believe it, your own life is too ridiculous.

Cheng Ping suddenly remembered the cynicism of the former captain before leaving the team: Don’t say I’m not authentic, you’re okay to harass straight men?

He didn’t.

Last time he didn’t harass at all, this time…

“This time, you deliberately lied to me.”

Li Boxi was in a state of desperation: “I did lie before, but I didn’t lie to you now. Really, otherwise you can find a way and let me prove it…”

The tail sound disappeared in shock.

Cheng Ping stood up suddenly, leaned half of his body across the table, grabbed his collar, and kissed him with force.

Someone’s tongue was broken, the smell of blood mixed with the smell of wine, recklessly back and forth between the lips and teeth.

Li Boxi’s scalp was numb, just getting used to this vendetta-like rhythm, trying to bring it into the flirting zone, Cheng Ping let him go.

Cheng Ping looked down, his scrutinizing eyes swept over his calm crotch, and there was a faint self-mockery in his eyes.

Li Boxi: “…”

Li Boxi: “Give me another chance.”