Chapter 11
In no time, it was already the second round of auditions.
During this period, someone leaked the news online that I was also auditioning.
A single stone stirred up a thousand waves.
It seems I’m just naturally “infamous for being famous,” trending on hot searches every day and getting cursed out.
“Didn’t she already get in? Why is she popping up again?”
A social-media marketing account editor sat at their computer, sipping milk tea and typing furiously: “Shocking! An entertainment industry vase tries to piggyback off a famous director. If she gets the role, I’ll eat my keyboard live!”
“Did she take the wrong medicine? Going for a crime genre?”
I was exasperated and had the company issue an official clarification.
Although my acting skills are a bit lacking, I’m still a law-abiding, tax-paying breath of fresh air in the entertainment industry, okay!
The audition room was an indoor space, with one wall made of one-way glass.
Once the actor entered, they couldn’t see the director, casting director, producer, and others sitting outside, to avoid too much outside interference.
The audition scene was a major one: the female lead, while delivering an umbrella, is stalked by the murderer but manages to escape by luck.
I was the last to audition.
In terms of age, Wen Yi and I were the most suitable.
Wen Yi had clearly prepared meticulously for this opportunity.
As soon as the audition started, she put on a pale yellow raincoat, white knee-high rain boots, and carried an umbrella.
The color combination made her stand out.
She walked through the alley, tucking her wet hair behind her ear. Sensing something was wrong, she hurried her steps, her face a mix of fear and anxiety.
Wen Yi clutched her raincoat in panic as she walked, wearing a camisole underneath to emphasize her hurried state.
“Ah-”
She was attacked from behind, kicked and struggled in panic, and scrambled up in a mess.
Her raincoat was torn off in the struggle, and her facial expressions shifted through rich layers.
From despair to pain, then numbness, and finally a desperate fight for one last shred of hope.
When she finished, I caught a glimpse of the producer peeking through the door, seemingly nodding in satisfaction.
I wanted to see the reactions of the other “judges” inside, but the door closed instead.
My nerves were so tight my calves were cramping.
Finally, it was my turn.
I hadn’t specially prepared any clothes, but with a ding, I switched to the victim’s perspective.
Walking through the alley, clutching tightly the umbrella I was going to deliver to my husband.
The gale blew the umbrella backward, making it hard to walk, not fast at all.
On such a stormy night, I squatted down to scrape off a patch of black mud stuck to my shoe. When I looked up, I suddenly saw something.
After the initial fright, I actually smiled.
I took a few steps in that direction and handed over the umbrella in my hand.
Just like that, I kept walking. After turning a corner, I sensed something wrong behind me.
This time, a violent fear gripped my heart, and something seemed to shatter before my eyes.
The boot that had been dangling finally hit the ground.
“Bang!”
The audition room door was forcefully pushed open.
“What are you acting?” Gu Weifeng suddenly burst in, full of momentum, grabbed my collar, “Who are you handing the umbrella to? What do you really know!”
“Xiao Feng!”
An elderly man with graying hair shouted from behind.
“Master! She…”
Bai Yu closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. He still maintained a faint smile. “All auditions end here.”
-I hadn’t even finished acting.
The old man glanced at Gu Weifeng, and Bai Yu promptly cleared the room.
“Jiang Juexia and Wen Yi stay for discussion. Results for other roles will be announced later.”
Wen Yi stared at me fiercely.
Zheng Nan Zhou, who also auditioned today, seemed to have completely messed up the male lead’s part, and stood lost in a distant corner.
The old man’s gaze swept over us like a scalpel.
After a long time, he finally spoke, “Director Bai invited me to be the film consultant. I originally refused.”
“This case was the first major one I encountered. It’s been over twenty years, and I still can’t forget it. I didn’t catch the murderer, and I have no face to meet the victim’s family.” He raised his empty sleeve, “Now I’m injured and retired, and every night I dream of those young faces.”
“Director Bai, do you think the murderer will see this film? Can you help me ask him a question? Help me ask him, how is human malice born? Why can a person hurt another person like this?”
The detective, now over fifty, gripped Bai Yu’s arm, tears streaming down his face.
“Why does a person have to kill?”
Even my system couldn’t answer that question.