The assistant director smoothly pulled out a tissue and handed it to Xiao He. Xiao He thanked him, wiping the tears from his face while subtly observing the people at the table.
Director Ning's face still showed no expression, while Zhuang Hongyi wore a somewhat amused smile. When he met Xiao He's gaze, he deliberately looked away, seemingly unwilling to give Xiao He too much information.
Xiao He could only withdraw his gaze, anxiously waiting for their response.
However, to Xiao He's disappointment, Director Ning said nothing, merely scribbling something in the notebook before him, then directly gestured for Xiao He to leave.
Xiao He thought: Huh, aren't they going to say anything?
Xiao He didn't dare press further to avoid leaving a bad impression, so he slowly followed the staff member back out.
When he reached the waiting hall outside, Xiao He glanced at his watch and realized he had only been inside for seven minutes—earning him the title of actor with the shortest time on set. Preparation took five minutes, acting took two, truly not a moment wasted.
Xiao He thought: ...
Wait, he felt like he'd been inside for quite a while! After coming out, his head felt completely dazed.
And it had only been seven minutes?
Not only Xiao He noticed this issue—the other actors present had also taken note.
Immediately, most people excluded Xiao He from the list of serious competitors.
There was no helping it. Looking at the time, combined with Xiao He's age and ability, everyone basically assumed Xiao He was just going through the motions, attending the audition for exposure.
This kind of "audition crashing" was common in the industry, so no one found it particularly surprising.
Instead, more people turned their attention to Shu Han.
Everyone was quite surprised by Shu Han's sudden, unexpected return to the country. After the surprise came wariness. After all, Shu Han had once been one of China's top martial arts stars. Although he later went to Hollywood to develop his career, his foreign films still occasionally entered the domestic market. Many people hadn't forgotten him over the years, and if he were to return to China to develop his career, it would undoubtedly be very bad news for everyone present.
Those with better connections, who knew about Shu Han's relationship with Liu Rulan, also recalled who had ultimately won the audition for "No Bait" back then. Their expressions turned peculiar as they glanced between Xiao He sitting here and Shu Han sitting properly over there, their feelings quite complicated.
However, Xiao He wasn't particularly interested in the thoughts of these people. He just sat in his seat, continuously reflecting on his audition performance earlier.
On the other side, Shu Han also didn't respond to these gazes, calmly sitting in his seat while thoughtfully examining the script in his hands.
Seeing this, everyone gradually withdrew their attention.
After nearly two hours had passed, all the auditions finally concluded.
When the assistant director walked out of the audition room, everyone held their breath. Despite sitting quietly for several hours, they showed no fatigue or impatience, instead looking at the assistant director with full anticipation.
The assistant director didn't keep them in suspense, directly announcing to everyone present: "The auditions have now ended. Everyone may leave on your own."
Then he walked toward Shu Han's direction, bent down and said something to him.
Shu Han looked somewhat surprised, then nodded, stood up, and walked toward the audition room.
Everyone present showed disappointed expressions, including Xiao He.
It seems it still didn't work out after all.
In the end, Director Ning still chose Shu Han.
Was Teacher Shu ultimately more suitable for this role...
Xiao He felt disappointed, but held no resentment. He just stood up, casually shaking his numb neck, then prepared to follow the others as they slowly headed out.
But before he had taken more than a few steps, the assistant director caught up from behind: "Teacher Xiao, please stay for a moment."
Xiao He's steps paused slightly, then he couldn't control the surprised expression on his face: "Me, me?"
"Yes."
The assistant director looked at Xiao He, a smile appearing on his face: "Director Ning is very satisfied with both you and Teacher Shu, so he'd like to learn more about you both."
Xiao He's heart raced wildly.
"Okay, I understand."
He quickly followed the assistant director toward the audition room.
This scene was witnessed by the others, followed by sighs of varying volumes.
They had originally thought that since Shu Han's audition took the longest, he would most likely secure the role of Shu Yuxiu in one go. They never expected that Xiao He—the one they least favored, with the shortest audition time—would also successfully enter the final audition round.
This was truly unexpected.
"Young people these days are really impressive," sighed an actor who had won the Best Supporting Actor award, walking away slowly with his hands behind his back.
Others also shook their heads, reluctantly accepting this reality.
In their view, this young man definitely couldn't compete with Shu Han, but being able to reach the final stage and contend with Shu Han was already quite an achievement—
Xiao He followed the assistant director back to the audition room, first making eye contact with Shu Han standing in the center of the audition area.
He paused for a moment, then walked to Shu Han's side, quietly awaiting Ning Jiaqi's next test.
Ning Jiaqi didn't intend to waste words either, directly handing the script to the assistant director and saying to Xiao He and Shu Han: "Both of you fit my conception of Shu Yuxiu very well. But Shu Yuxiu can only be one person, so I need to further consider both of your performances. Now, based on your understanding of the script, perform this scene for me and prove which of you is the true Shu Yuxiu."
Xiao He quickly took the script and began reading through it.
Then he felt some surprise in his heart.
This script's plot clearly followed the audition version they had seen earlier—it was the storyline approaching the grand finale.
In the plot, the protagonist Shu Yuxiu was arrested by the police for allegedly poisoning his wife and had been in detention ever since.
On this day, a group arrived from higher authorities—reportedly an investigation team—who had received a tip-off letter from Shu Yuxiu's friend and came to investigate the truth of the matter, to determine whether Shu Yuxiu had been framed and wrongfully accused.
The scene they needed to perform now was exactly the first meeting between the team's lead investigator and Shu Yuxiu.
The dialogue in this scene was very simple, with extensive blank spaces left for character reactions. Basically, there was only dialogue—the related actions and expressions almost entirely depended on the actors' improvisation based on their understanding of the script and Shu Yuxiu's character.
But the main issue was that this dialogue was too brief, revealing very little information. It was essentially just a back-and-forth between the investigator and Shu Yuxiu—one asking about the situation, the other claiming innocence and saying he was framed, hoping the police would investigate thoroughly.
The two sides went back and forth like they were speaking in riddles...
Xiao He frowned, staring intently at the script, his mind racing wildly—Something's wrong, nine out of ten parts are wrong!
The feeling of this dialogue didn't seem like they were investigating whether Shu Yuxiu had been wrongfully accused. It felt more like... they were directly targeting Shu Yuxiu himself!
What was going on with Shu Yuxiu?
What secrets was he hiding?
Currently, what might be somewhat strange was the mystery of why Shu Yuxiu was inexplicably arrested—this was what made Xiao He feel the plot development later seemed abrupt.
Could he have actually killed his wife Qi Xinyue? But why was this never mentioned in the earlier plot?
Clearly, the entire earlier plot revolved around Shu Yuxiu—it was like an old-school wish-fulfillment male-oriented script: the male lead works hard, has some talent, starts from nothing, encounters benefactors, beautiful women fall into his arms, he becomes a winner in life! Wasn't this purely formulaic?
Moreover, in this story, Shu Yuxiu and his wife had a very good relationship—Shu Yuxiu had absolutely no reason to kill Qi Xinyue...
But if we reason in reverse: assuming he did kill his wife Qi Xinyue, then what about Zhu Penglin back then—could Shu Yuxiu have killed him too?
Although Shu Yuxiu later became Zhu Penglin's friend, at the same time, he was always responsible for maintaining Zhu Penglin's sports car!
If... he were to tamper with the sports car...
In that instant, Xiao He suddenly understood something.
A chill shot up to his scalp, abruptly exploding in his mind. An incredible idea burst into his thoughts, startling him so much his hair stood on end—
Shu Yuxiu was lying!