With such exaggerated and affected acting, Bai Shuijin didn’t know how they could praise him, but he could see they were working hard for their paychecks.
It was no wonder Wang Muguang didn’t understand why netizens cursed him; after all, there wasn’t a single person around him telling him the truth.
Receiving a negative answer caused ripples in Wang Muguang’s heart. Being denied clearly made this pampered young master unhappy.
Eager for validation, he picked up another script. “Watch closely this time.”
He tilted his chin at Bai Shuijin, determined to get a compliment.
This script was for a modern drama. Wang Muguang’s character was a sexy supermodel working in the fashion industry.
He flipped to a small scene and used every trick in the book to perform in front of Bai Shuijin, enunciating his lines perfectly.
“How was that?”
This time, he had enough confidence.
“How should I put it?” A look of trouble appeared on Bai Shuijin’s face. “It was quite ‘sexy,’ but the ‘sy’ (acting/skill) was silent.”
“…”
Wang Muguang’s acting he’d call it the “King’s Acting”; you couldn’t see a single trace of it.
The smile on Wang Muguang’s face completely vanished. When he wasn’t smiling, he actually shared a bit of that terrifyingly powerful aura with Wang Huanxiu.
He looked at the script and then at Bai Shuijin, as if he didn’t know what had gone wrong.
Bai Shuijin didn’t praise him like his manager did. Instead, he said directly, “Your acting has no sense of immersion at all. And why are you taking on two scripts at once?”
The assistant spoke up, “What do you know? Good scripts have to be fought for. If Brother Mu doesn’t take it now and someone else does, then what?”
Bai Shuijin ignored him, his eyes looking straight into Wang Muguang’s. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the other one. You’re still young and have plenty of opportunities. Isn’t it better to focus on one? Why can’t you be single-minded?”
Isn’t the most important thing for an actor to have acting skills, a representative work, and to be immersed in their character?
Taking on two roles at once, playing two different people while his acting was still immature the chance of doing a good job was basically zero.
Looking at his face, Wang Muguang felt a jolt in his mind and swallowed. He made it sound like he was being unfaithful.
Initially, the denial had made him unhappy, but now, faced with the questioning, he truly couldn’t speak.
Thinking carefully, the guy was right. He couldn’t even act one role well, yet he wanted to play two it was indeed delusional.
“And I believe that if you choose one role to act well and polish it, you will definitely be recognized.”
Wang Muguang: “Didn’t you just say my acting was disgusting?”
“But I believe you won’t be like that later.”
Wang Muguang thought it over and made a choice among the scripts, selecting the current hit Night Traveler.
But as for how to hone his acting… he was joining the cast in a few days. It was too late to find a professional acting teacher.
Bai Shuijin, however, thought of someone.
Ten minutes later, the beggar at the villa entrance looked at Bai Shuijin, who had suddenly appeared before him.
“…Is something the matter?”
Bai Shuijin explained his intention: he wanted to learn the “experience” of being a beggar.
What he said: “Teacher, I’m here to learn.” What the beggar heard: “Poor guy, I’m here to steal your rice bowl.”
These days, people were even fighting to be beggars. Although this spot earned a fortune daily since rich people were the most likely to show kindness fighting to be a beggar still sounded quite ridiculous.
Wang Muguang would take a while to get here; just choosing clothes was a major struggle for that narcissist. Bai Shuijin crouched next to the beggar. “Brother, is business good lately? How much do you make a day?”
“Not much, about this amount.”
The beggar held up one finger.
“A hundred?”
“Ten thousand.”
!
So much! That’s more than I made working like a spinning top in my past life!
Bai Shuijin looked at the broken bowl in front of the beggar. “Give me my two yuan back.”
Beggar: “…”
Earning ten thousand a day the massive amount gave him quite a shock. He wanted to say, Why are you still a beggar if you make ten thousand a day? But then again, no other job really paid this much for being a beggar.
But more than the beggar’s daily fortune, Bai Shuijin was curious about what kind of people would give a beggar so much money.
After all, he had lived a struggling life in the past; the two yuan he gave was a huge sum to him.
Footsteps came from behind. Wang Muguang, wearing an outdoor jacket and trousers with sunglasses, walked out of the complex.
He scanned the area and found Bai Shuijin, walking over to him. Upon arriving, he noticed the beggar kneeling on the ground.
The beggar was covered in dust, his hair messy. In the sub-zero weather, he was dressed thinly; just looking at him made one feel cold.
“How pitiful.”
Pity appeared in Wang Muguang’s eyes behind his sunglasses. He took his wallet out of his pocket, removed all the cash, and dropped it into the beggar’s bowl.
A full two thousand yuan it made the chipped bowl wobble.
Bai Shuijin: “…”
The person making the beggar earn ten thousand a day is someone like Wang Muguang.
Kind, wealthy, and lacking a few brain cells.
Upon receiving the money, the beggar immediately performed a “rap” for Wang Muguang: “Sir, you are truly the greatest person in the world! Thank you, truly thank you! You are with Jesus!”
Wang Muguang patted him. “Shorty, he said I’m kind.”
“No, he meant you’re ‘kind to death’.”
“That much praise?”
“Because Jesus is already dead.”
“…”
Looking at the beggar’s fawning smile, Wang Muguang felt a bit uncomfortable. This little bit of money made the man this moved; he couldn’t believe what kind of miserable life these people lived.
Bowing and scraping for two thousand yuan, freezing in the dead of winter.
Because of that two thousand yuan, the beggar taught the two of them some essential pointers for being a beggar. The first step: discard your dignity.
If you’re begging for food, how can you still be stiff-necked when asking for money? Second, make yourself look pitiful. Although the beggar made a fortune, he never wore thick clothes or shoes, and he only ate a tiny bit of food each day, suffering from hunger and cold.
Only if you are truly pitiful will others show kindness and pity you. That’s how a beggar is: not enough to eat, not enough to wear, no dignity, and filthy.
This gave Wang Muguang’s worldview quite a shock. For a moment, he felt he truly couldn’t handle this role.
How could he act this? Let alone starving, he hadn’t even been slapped before.
And he didn’t look like a poor person.
Just as he was about to retreat, a cheering voice exploded beside him. “It’s that easy? Then can’t anyone play a beggar!”
Wang Muguang was momentarily speechless; the words to withdraw from the script were stuck in his throat.
“It’s so easy to act! Uncle, you can definitely do it.”
Seeing Wang Muguang’s silent expression, Bai Shuijin narrowed his eyes. “No way… no way… Uncle, you can’t actually not know how to act, right?”
“Who said that!” Wang Muguang was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. “This little thing is a piece of cake for me. Just you wait and see.”
A narcissistic person like Wang Muguang was actually the easiest to coax. By praising them to the heavens and placing them on a pedestal, they would naturally hold themselves to a high standard to reach that height. After all, what they could stand least was a look of disappointment from others.
A strategy began to form in Wang Muguang’s mind. Though he wasn’t a real beggar, he could experience a beggar’s state of mind through other means like running outdoors in a short-sleeved shirt or not eating for a day.
Experiencing cold and hunger only by being in the situation could he achieve empathy. Also, he had to set aside his pride and bow to others.
When Wang Huanxiu returned from work, he saw his brother wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, sitting on a small stool while Bai Shuijin “dropped coins” into his teacup.
“Muguang, Muguang, who is the smartest person in the world?”
“It’s you, it’s you! The smartest person in the world is you!”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
He wasn’t surprised at all that the two of them got along so well.
He ignored them and went upstairs. The contrast between the suit-clad Wang Huanxiu and the mentally-challenged-looking Wang Muguang was stark.
Bai Shuijin also noticed the difference in the two brothers’ auras. Although they were only four years apart, Wang Huanxiu was far more mature in both mindset and conduct.
While Wang Muguang went outside without a jacket to experience the cold, Bai Shuijin found the butler. Uncle Zhang was an old hand in the Wang family and knew much more about them than he did. “Uncle Zhang, why is there such a big difference in personality and intelligence between the younger brother and Hubby-bro?”
The butler couldn’t stand to hear such things. “Where is the difference? Master Muguang is also very smart.”
Both children were excellent.
The Wang family had many children; as the old butler, he had to be fair everyone was the same.
Listening to the butler’s earnest tone, Bai Shuijin said calmly, “Oh. He gave a beggar two thousand yuan today.”
The butler went silent. It took a long time before he gave an answer. “Actually… at the beginning, Master and Master Muguang were twins, but their brains were connected. Later, the doctor’s knife fell, and he gave all the brains to the Master.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
Even though I know you’re lying, it doesn’t sound fake.
In order to experience hunger, Wang Muguang hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for a day. Even when dinner was served at night, he wasn’t enthusiastic. Finally, he came to the table, but not before going to the kitchen to find some soot to smear on his face to make himself look scruffy.
Wang Huanxiu and Bai Shuijin had bowls of white, fragrant rice, but he didn’t. He had only an empty bowl, cleaner than Bai Shuijin’s mutton-fat jade-like face.
Facing the delicacies on the table, he held his bowl up to Bai Shuijin, trembling. “Have pity… I haven’t eaten in three days.”
Bai Shuijin gave him half a bowl of rice.
He had no side dishes, but he still devoured the rice with gusto. It was clear he was truly hungry; a 188cm tall guy hadn’t had a drop of water all day and had spent the afternoon running outside in short sleeves.
After finishing the rice, Wang Muguang began to beg for the other dishes on the table.
He held his empty bowl up to Wang Huanxiu. “Have pity.”
The latter looked at him expressionlessly.
Wang Muguang didn’t expect him to be unmoved. It must be that he wasn’t pitiful enough, and his acting hadn’t touched the other person.
His tone grew even more mournful. “I haven’t had a full meal in so long.”
“The world is freezing, and I have neither enough to eat nor wear. My hands are covered in chilblains. If I don’t get this mouthful of hot food, I won’t survive this winter.”
“I still have a terminally ill, paralyzed older brother to support at home.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
If you keep talking, he really won’t survive this winter.