The trending searches came faster than they had imagined; before the dumplings were even served on the table, their trending search had already surged onto the rankings.
#Chi Dianqing Suspected of Secretly Meeting Yan Jingyu#
After changing his clothes and lying down on the bed, Yan Jingyu only opened his phone to see this trending search topic. His heart skipped a beat as he tapped into it.
Pinned right at the top was a blurry photo of him lying sprawled on a wall. Judging solely from the photograph, aside from being able to confirm that the thing lying on top of the wall was indeed a person, one could not tell who on earth it actually was.
However, the comments underneath were abuzz with widely differing opinions.
Some stood on Chi Dianqing’s side.
[I’m honestly speechless. From where on earth in this photo can you see that it’s Chi Dianqing? From a spiritual level?]
[Spreading rumors without any boundaries! Your hand slipped so badly that you couldn’t even snap a clear photo; be careful not to slip your tongue next time, or you won’t even be able to catch your own drool.]
[Would it work if I said the thing lying on the wall is your resurrected great-grandfather? Anyway, this kind of stuff comes as soon as anyone opens their mouth, relying entirely on the wild fantasies of a bunch of psychopathic lunatics with tumors on their necks.]
[Who can even confirm that the thing lying on top of the wall is a human being? Who knows, maybe next time it will show up in the middle of the night on your windowsill or under your bed.]
“Tsk.” Yan Jingyu frowned and scrolled down a bit further. There were actually people who believed it, and they were joyfully immersed in the sweet candy of the CP (Couple Pairing), completely unable to extricate themselves, looking truly as if they had entered some kind of evil cult and been brainwashed.
[Ah! My Romeo-Qingqing went to see his Juliet-Yuyu!]
“Gag.” Yan Jingyu felt like he could barf right then and there.
[Who would have thought that my aloof little Chi would actually have the guts to climb over a wall for love!]
[Who would have thought that after not seeing his wife for just a few hours, his longing would already overflow like this… Little Chi, you…]
Wife?!
Yan Jingyu’s face gradually distorted: On what basis am I the wife?! Even if we were a CP, I should be the one on top! Absurd!
And Yan Jingyu, who suddenly realized that he had actually begun to care about the issue of who was on top or bottom, couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.
It was simply terrifying. Under the subtle and imperceptible influence of these trending searches, he had actually started accepting their CP. If this kept going, a portion of his solo fans would soon turn into CP fans, giving half of their love to Chi Dianqing!
Yan Jingyu suddenly flipped up from the bed and muttered to himself, “No! Absolutely not! How could my fans like Chi Dianqing? No, no way, absolutely, positively not!”
He paced back and forth on the floor, trying to think of a way to solve this problem.
“Aha, ” Yan Jingyu suddenly stopped in his tracks and clapped his hands together. “Since a portion of my fans will turn into CP fans, then a portion of Chi Dianqing’s fans will also turn into CP fans and give half of their love to me! That way, doesn’t it just balance out!”
Thinking of it this way, his anxiety from moments ago instantly blew away like smoke and scattered into thin air, disappearing without a trace.
Just at that moment, Fan Rong came up to call him for dinner.
“Brother, are we really going to eat here?” Fan Rong had a bitter expression. “How about we give Brother Ding a call and have him come pick us up to go back? You have an event tomorrow, so eating dumplings at night probably isn’t a good idea, right?”
“Call who? Why call Ding Zhi?” Yan Jingyu rejected the idea without a second thought. As soon as he heard they were having dumplings for dinner, he immediately sprinted downstairs with an excited face. “Dumplings! Eating dumplings!”
“Brother, brother, brother,” Fan Rong held him back, “are we really… really going to eat together with them?”
“What’s wrong with eating with them?”
I’ve been eating with them for so many years.
Seeing that Yan Jingyu was determined to eat this dinner of dumplings, Fan Rong made one last desperate struggle: “Are you really going to eat together with Yan Jingyu?”
“What’s wrong with eating together with Yan Jingyu? Does he have eight heads and three mouths that can eat people?”
Bah! I’m a little cutie! I’m the universe’s supreme number-one big handsome guy!
“In the past, you were resistant even to appearing in the same place as Yan Jingyu at the same time, but now you can actually sit at the same table and eat a meal?” Fan Rong made his final, ultimate struggle.
“The past is the past; right now, I don’t care about my pride.” Yan Jingyu tried to push Fan Rong off his arm.
Bah, bah, bah! The one who doesn’t care about pride is Chi Dianqing.
Fan Rong looked up at him in shock. “Brother, how could you say something like that?”
That expression on his face looked as if he had just found out his girlfriend had cheated on him.
“Aiya, are you done or what!” Yan Jingyu finally couldn’t bear it any longer and shook off Fan Rong’s hand. “If you keep acting like this, I’ll tell Ding Zhi to fire you.”
Yan Jingyu no longer paid any attention to Fan Rong, who looked as though he had been struck by lightning and was questioning his life choices. He headed straight for the dining room and even, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, sat down at the dining table without the slightest bit of politeness, eating away, entirely self-absorbed.
Meanwhile, the other few people, gasping and staring with wide eyes at how Yan Jingyu didn’t treat himself as an outsider at all, exchanged glances. The atmosphere in the space isolated from Yan Jingyu was awkward and heavy.
In contrast, Yan Jingyu didn’t feel this weird atmosphere in the slightest; instead, he was eating with great relish.
“When do you plan to go back? How are you going back?” Chi Dianqing broke the weird atmosphere.
“What? Are you trying to kick me out so soon?” Yan Jingyu picked up a few more dumplings into his bowl.
“What? Do you still want to stay here?” Chi Dianqing’s tone cooled down.
“It’s not impossible to stay here.” Yan Jingyu raised an eyebrow. “I want that room of yours.”
Seeing the chilly aura rapidly spreading across Chi Dianqing’s face, Jiang Mingze chimed in just in time: “I usually only see Teacher Chi through a screen. Opportunities like today are rare; may I consult you on a few questions regarding acting?”
Yan Jingyu knew that Jiang Mingze wanted to develop toward becoming an actor in the future; if he turned down these words, it would seem inappropriate. He glanced at Chi Dianqing beside him, chewed the dumpling in his mouth, and nodded his head.
Seeing that Yan Jingyu had agreed, Jiang Mingze was so excited that he even put down his chopsticks. “Teacher Chi, how do you manage to shape the multifaceted nature of a character and make their personality profile richer and fuller?”
Yan Jingyu swallowed a mouthful of dumpling and slowly repeated the question Jiang Mingze had just asked in his mind; he realized he hadn’t even remembered the whole question.
“Can you… repeat your question one more time?” Yan Jingyu said.
Jiang Mingze repeated it once more, and only then did Yan Jingyu fully understand the question. But the problem was that while he understood the question, he couldn’t answer it! Although he also had the intention to develop as an actor, this question was something he himself wanted to ask someone else; where would he know the answer?
Yan Jingyu glanced secretly at Chi Dianqing, but who knew that this guy would deliberately ignore him, clearly leaving the mess for him to deal with.
Hmph! You dog of a thing, not planning to help me out, huh? Then don’t blame me.
“Well, regarding this, ” He dragged out his voice, his peripheral vision falling on Chi Dianqing, “speaking of which, there is actually quite a lot to it.”
Sure enough, as soon as he said this, Chi Dianqing immediately knitted his brows.
Yan Jingyu sneered inwardly, then continued, “If you want to shape a character to be full and rich, you first have to make them come alive, make them become a real person.”
“How should one understand these words?” Yan Jingyu kept him in suspense. “When we get a script, those characters are merely roles within the story inside the script. They belong to the 2D world, existing only in people’s imaginations and within the story’s description of them. But what they are truly like: a thousand people have a thousand faces, and everyone has a different understanding in their heart.”
When this passage came out, Yan Jingyu felt like giving himself a round of applause and awarding himself a medal. Meanwhile, Chi Dianqing’s tightly knitted brows seemed to relax a little, and even the speed at which he ate dumplings slowed down, as if he also wanted to hear how Yan Jingyu was going to smooth things over.
Yan Jingyu proudly straightened his back, then suddenly remembered that the dummy Fan Rong seemed to have been left upstairs by him and hadn’t come down. So, holding his bowl, he walked to the stairwell as he ate and shouted toward the second floor.
“Fan Rong, get your butt down here and eat!”
Fan Rong stood up, feeling deeply wronged, and walked down the stairs. Xiao Meng waved at him and pointed to the bowl and chopsticks prepared for him on the side.
Only then did Yan Jingyu return to the dining table, setting his bowl down on the table. “Let’s continue.”
“And how to turn a 2D paper cutout of a character into a living, three-dimensional, dynamic person- that is the problem an actor needs to solve.”
“First, you need to understand this character comprehensively from all angles. At this point, the character actually already has a concrete outline in your head. And next, you have to try to have a dialogue with this character. Finally, try standing from the character’s perspective to look at the problems in the story, and even at various real-world problems. From knowing the character, to understanding the character, empathizing with the character, and finally becoming the character.”
“What’s important is not to ‘act,’ but to naturally express the feelings you have for the character in your heart. I think the meaning of acting is actually to express the character and to express the story. If you place the focus on ‘acting,’ there will instead be overly heavy traces of acting; in that case, no matter how brilliant the character is, they can only remain a flat, lifeless paper cutout.”
“Of course, these are all just my personal understandings and don’t represent any authority.” Yan Jingyu stuffed another large dumpling into his mouth.
Chi Dianqing suddenly asked, “Where… did you learn all of this?”
Yan Jingyu raised his head. “Didn’t I already say so? It’s my personal understanding; no teacher taught me.”
In truth, when Yan Jingyu decided to take the actor route, he had already begun learning about acting on his own and deriving his own unique insights.
Chi Dianqing gave him a meaningful look and silently remarked, “Nonsense.” Then, looking lost in thought, he lowered his head; who knew what he was thinking about.
As for Shao Yang, who had always disliked Chi Dianqing, after Yan Jingyu delivered such a speech, even though he didn’t quite get what all those words really meant, he inexplicably felt that Chi Dianqing actually had some real skill after all.
Even if it was total blather, being able to pull off such a long string of words that sounded so legitimate was quite a difficult feat in itself. What’s more, Chi Dianqing was originally someone who had won many awards, so he probably wasn’t just talking nonsense.
“Wow, you’re so amazing!” Shao Yang praised.
“Tsk.” Yan Jingyu expressed contempt toward Shao Yang’s wavering resolve. But on second thought, Shao Yang had changed his view of “Chi Dianqing” precisely because of the words he had just spoken, meaning that in reality, the person Shao Yang admired was still Yan Jingyu!
Thinking about it this way made Yan Jingyu feel much better inside. However, what happened next made him feel not so comfortable.