Chapter Ninety-Eight: Audition

At six o’clock on the morning of the second-to-last day of the National Day holiday, Wen Xiu and Yu Qian got up on time and headed to Director Lin’s crew for an audition.

If Yu Qian passed this audition, Wen Xiu would need to speak with the school and arrange a leave of absence.

Even with Director Xu’s recommendation, Wen Xiu still did not dare to hope for much.

She had only been in the entertainment world for a short time, but she had already learned everything she needed to know about these directors. Lin Mubai was not like Xu Guangrong; if a person suited the role, he did not mind casting an outsider. What Lin Mubai valued more was acting. In his view, a good actor could play anyone and seem exactly right, while a bad actor would still be themselves no matter who they played.

Yu Qian had practiced alone in Little Cave Heaven the entire time. Sometimes she looked fairly convincing, but whether she truly had what it took was another matter. No one could say for sure.

They left early and reached Director Lin’s crew before nine.

The filming location was in Wuxi Town in the neighboring city, a Jiangnan water town that had preserved a great many ancient buildings.

When they arrived, the town had only just awakened. Street vendors carrying shoulder poles were calling out breakfast for sale in the lanes and alleys. Wen Xiu remembered that neither she nor Yu Qian had eaten breakfast, so she simply bought two servings.

Sweet tofu pudding, fried dough sticks, soy milk. Everything was sweet, and the two of them, used to the spicy breakfasts of Sichuan, were somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Still, there was no denying that it tasted quite good.

They arrived on time at the inn where Lin Mubai was staying. By then, Lin Mubai was already sitting in the lobby with the assistant director, drinking tea and waiting.

After a brief pause, Wen Xiu said, “Hello, Director Lin. I’m very sorry we’re late and kept you waiting.”

Lin Mubai glanced at Yu Qian standing behind Wen Xiu, his expression unchanged and giving away nothing. “You’re not late. We got up early.”

“Hello, Director Lin. I’m Yu Qian’s agent, Wen Xiu.” She drew Yu Qian forward from behind her. “This is Yu Qian.”

“Hello, Director Lin,” Yu Qian greeted obediently.

Lin Mubai looked at her again, then turned and exchanged a glance with his own assistant director before speaking. “Let’s go. Don’t waste time.”

He motioned for Yu Qian to follow him to the back courtyard, and Wen Xiu tried to go after them, but the other crew members stopped her.

Wen Xiu was a little uneasy and had a bad feeling that this would fall through too.

And indeed, it did.

Ten minutes later, Lin Mubai, the assistant director, and Yu Qian returned to the lobby. Yu Qian shook her head at Wen Xiu, and Wen Xiu understood immediately: this role was also a bust. Yu Qian had not been chosen.

She did not ask any further. Wen Xiu politely thanked them and took her leave. Before they left, perhaps feeling a little apologetic that a friend’s recommendation had not worked out, Lin Mubai offered Wen Xiu a suggestion.

“Looking at the girl’s age, she’ll keep growing taller. If she keeps going like this, it’ll be very hard for her to find a male co-star to match her in the industry. You might want to think about changing her direction.”

Wen Xiu froze. The two of them had never even considered that issue.

“Thank you for the advice, Director Lin. We’ll think it over again,” she said.

After they left the inn, it was only on the way back that she asked Yu Qian how the audition had gone.

In fact, the moment he saw Yu Qian, Lin Mubai had already felt somewhat disappointed. But because she had been recommended by his friend, he still let her try. If her acting had truly been good, he planned to give his friend some face and cast Yu Qian.

But Yu Qian’s acting was not good.

It was not that she was completely incapable; rather, it was somewhat stiff, still at the stage of imitation. The textbook sort of performer, the kind produced by formal training, with no real spark.

“Director Lin gave two reasons,” Yu Qian said with a frown. “First, I’m too tall, and I don’t look like a child of eleven or twelve. Second, my acting still isn’t good enough. The imitation is too obvious.”

She had never really thought about the issue of her height before. She had only been happy that she was taller than in her previous life. Only now, when she was trying to enter the industry, did she realize it was a major problem.

Not every male actor was a towering six-footer.

“I’ll switch directions, then. I estimate that by the time I’m an adult, I’ll be around five foot nine,” she said as they walked slowly along.

“Then what can you switch to in the entertainment industry? Singers, actors, and idols?” Wen Xiu frowned as well. “Your singing is only decent enough not to go flat, and your dancing is passable. In other words, you can’t do idol singers either.”

“…”

That hit hard.

Yu Qian knew her singing was no good, but hearing Wen Xiu say it so bluntly still felt like a knife to the heart.