Chapter 3

"My gut tells me this is going to work out."

He refrains from telling her that might just be indigestion.

Time passes and Yao Shen's nerves only mount, as actor after actor leaves the audition room looking pale, sad, or just plain scared.

Which is confusing to say the least.

He catches the tail end of a conversation just as one of them talks with his team members. "...so fierce and demanding. He criticized me from start to finish."

Oh no, that's not good.

A casting assistant comes out the casting room right after the last actor leaves, reading off her clipboard she says, "Yao Shen," she looks around until Yao Shen meets her eyes and then nods. "Come with me."

With one last panicked look towards Bi Jialu, Yao Shen follows the casting assistant into the audition room.

It's no different than all the other casting rooms he's been in; mostly empty with a makeshift stage in the middle, a camera on a tripod facing it, and some stage lighting.

Behind a long table sit five tired looking people, the casting director, the drama director and the screenwriter, most likely. Although Yao Shen can't tell who is whom.

The biggest difference is the lone figure standing in the corner, looking out the window at the busy streets, one hand carelessly shoved into the back pocket of his slim fit black joggers.

Yao Shen would recognize that elegant profile anywhere.

The long crane-like neck, the sharp angle of his jaw, the narrow slope of his upturned nose, all of it engraved with painful, heartbreaking detail in Yao Shen's mind.Above all, he can't forget those cold phoenix eyes, angled sharply towards his temples. In his mind's eyes he always sees them narrowed in contempt, sneering at him with a subtle curl of his full upper lip.

Xin Hulei.

The motherfucker who got him kicked out of a talent show competition for young actors in the first round.

That's who they've cast to play Xie Huan?

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didi- Chinese ride hailing app service, not the same characters as younger brother (pinyin also didi)

shizun - esteemed master. Same as Shifu (but hornier), master in a cultivation/ martial arts sect."Yao laoshi, I'm sure you know Xin laoshi," a young woman who introduces herself as the casting director says, waving towards Xin Hulei's motionless back.

He hasn't bothered to turn around and acknowledge Yao Shen at any point, gaze still fixed on the scenery outside the window.

Yao Shen's fingers tighten on his audition script.

"We've met," he says, biting out the words.

'Met' is perhaps an overstatement.

Yao Shen recreated a scene of a very famous wuxia drama with a fellow newbie actress in front of a live audience, for the talent show "Lights, Camera Actors!"

And during the judging portion of the show Xin Hulei, one of the guest judges, completely eviscerated his performance of.....

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