Lou Lan looked at the production team, who were standing there dull and dumbfounded, completely unaware of how to proceed with the next step of the flow.
So, he stood up and swept a sharp glance at the production team. The production team, having received the “eye-knife,” suddenly snapped back to reality.
Lou Lan walked to Zhuang Qingyuan’s side: “Teacher Qian Xu, good acting. With just one or two looks, you hooked the soul right out of my brother.”
“Clap, clap, clap.”
The sound of applause rang out from the stage. Fu Yan looked at Qian Xu with a complex gaze; he could not believe this was acting that a small newcomer would possess.
Not only did he enter the scene in one second, he also brought Zhuang Qingyuan’s emotions forward step by step. With such acting skills, and with the added bonus of Qingyi’s resources, it was only a matter of time before he became a hit.
At this moment, he seemed to understand a little why Zhuang Qingyuan was captivated by this “little transparency.”
The host went on stage: “Boss Zhuang and Qian Xu’s warm confession was very seductive, especially our Boss Zhuang’s eye acting—delicate and moving, it really made one’s eyes light up. It looks like the guests down below are going to be under pressure.”
“Please welcome Su Yuyan and Han Yan. Their theme is ‘Passionate Love’.”
Su Yuyan and Han Yan were stunned by Qian Xu’s acting just now. Isn’t he a small transparent with no work? How could he have such relaxed and controlled acting skills?
The change in gaze when raising his eyes, the instantaneous control of emotion—not only that, they also noticed that Qian Xu’s positioning was just right, ensuring the camera could capture the emotional changes in Zhuang Qingyuan’s eyes at all times. How could a little newcomer achieve these things?
The two’s mental states were clearly affected, so their performance had no highlights, and the emotions were overly flat or even abrupt.
The production team felt awkward for them. Two people with professional training couldn’t even compare to an amateur, not to mention they couldn’t even compare to the capital (the investors). They really didn’t need to stay in this industry.
Lou Nuonuo and Lou Lan went on stage. The corners of Lou Lan’s mouth hung with an elusive, faint smile, and the sharpness on his body had weakened a lot.
Lou Nuonuo walked onto the stage with his head hanging down, his whole brain racing at high speed to think about how to make it sound more “sour” later!
After watching Qian Xu’s performance, he also wanted to have that kind of effortless emotional transition that Qian Xu had, and to be able to pull Zhuang Qingyuan into the scene. He didn’t know if he could pull his brother into the scene.
Fu Yan looked at these Lou brothers. He had checked; these two were not biological brothers. Lou Nuonuo arrived at the Lou family when he was 17. As for Lou Nuonuo’s true identity, it couldn’t be checked; it had clearly been erased by someone.
He didn’t know if these two could perform “sour unrequited love.” If the investors could all act like this, then the guests he selected wouldn’t even need to be on the show, and his show could just be shut down.
“Lou Lan, have you got a girlfriend?” Lou Nuonuo’s fingers kept pulling at the corner of his clothes, looking like he was very nervous. He slowly raised his head to look at Lou Lan and asked cautiously.
Hearing Lou Nuonuo call his name, Lou Lan raised his eyebrows imperceptibly. Ever since he arrived at his house, Lou Nuonuo had been calling him “brother” every other sentence; he hadn’t called him by his name for a very long time.
As if thinking of some beautiful memory, Lou Lan’s eyes were dyed with a smile.
“Why ask like this suddenly? How about I bring you back a sister-in-law another day?” Lou Lan’s tone was indifferent, asking nonchalantly.
Hearing Lou Lan’s tone, which was no different from any other day, Lou Nuonuo couldn’t distinguish for a moment whether Lou Lan was acting, or if he didn’t have Qian Xu’s ability to pull Lou Lan into the scene instantly.
“Brother, are you for real?” Lou Nuonuo really didn’t know if his brother had a girlfriend outside, “Do you really have a girlfriend?”
Hearing Lou Nuonuo start calling him “brother” again, the faint smile at the corner of Lou Lan’s mouth disappeared instantly. He shrugged lazily, and said indifferently: “Who knows.”
Hearing his brother’s vague and ambiguous answer, Lou Nuonuo pouted. His brother was always like this—everything he said was ambiguous, leaving others to guess.
He didn’t understand the meaning at all, how could he guess?
But once he thought about his brother really bringing back a sister-in-law, then his brother would have his own family, and he would be left alone in the house again.
But his brother had to start a family, didn’t he!
He would eventually be alone!
Lou Nuonuo’s nose suddenly felt a bit sour, and his eyes formed a layer of mist: “If brother has a sister-in-law, you will have a home. That’s quite good, too.”
Lou Nuonuo raised his eyes to look at Lou Lan. He didn’t even know his whole eye socket was red, which made Lou Lan’s heart skip a beat.
“Lou Lan, you must be happy!”
Watching Lou Nuonuo’s red eyes asking him to be happy, Lou Lan’s heart tightened. His whole heart felt like it was being tightly gripped by someone, suppressing him so he couldn’t breathe.
Lou Lan lowered his eyes and smiled softly, hiding the emotions at the bottom of his eyes. He thought that Lou Nuonuo really had some acting talent; he had almost broken his defenses. It seemed that agreeing to let him enter this circle wasn’t a mistake.
“Alright!” Lou Lan raised his hand and pressed down on Lou Nuonuo’s head as he usually did.
The director started clapping, looking at them. See, wasn’t the “sour unrequited love” theme correct? These investors were all quite versatile, all able to act. This acting was too realistic, just like it was real!
Lou Lan cleaned up the emotions at the bottom of his eyes and looked at Fu Yan: “My younger brother has quite a talent for performing. Let him play here for a few more episodes.”
“Yes, yes.” Fu Yan agreed repeatedly.
Fortunately, there were two other groups of guests who performed well, which preserved the face of the guest group.
Later, it reached the singing segment. Su Yuyan and Han Yan chose a popular love song to sing as a duet.
Han Yan broke into the industry on this show with his bass, and now, matched with Su Yuyan’s “milk dog” voice, the strong contrast caused the two to collide and create unexpected sparks.
The production team finally nodded, indicating that it was quite good.
They originally thought they would just play around to cater to the big shots this episode, but currently, it looked like the effect was quite good, far exceeding expectations.
Next, the Lou brothers chose a classic English song. Lou Nuonuo had never heard his brother sing, but his brother’s voice was good, so his singing shouldn’t be bad, right?
“What kind of expression is that!” Lou Lan lowered his eyes, looking at Lou Nuonuo, who had his head hung again, looking like he had been frosted.
Lou Nuonuo: “I’m just a little nervous.”
“Didn’t you act quite well in the last scene? Why are you nervous now?” Lou Lan stroked the top of Lou Nuonuo’s head.
“Mmh.” Lou Nuonuo wanted to say that he wasn’t acting in the last scene; it was all genuine feelings. He was truly worried about what he would do if his brother got married and left him alone.
Seeing Lou Nuonuo keep his head down, worrying that the child was truly nervous, Lou Lan reached out to hold Lou Nuonuo’s hand and walked onto the stage.
When Lou Nuonuo heard his brother sing, he suddenly raised his head to look at him.
The standard London-accent pronunciation matched with his brother’s low and lazy voice; the deep, lingering notes struck straight into his heart. From the amorous melody, Lou Nuonuo heard a rare gentleness in his brother.
Seeing Lou Nuonuo’s surprised expression, Su Yi was puzzled: “Lou Nuonuo doesn’t know his brother can sing?”
“They aren’t biological brothers. Lou Nuonuo is the child of a friend of Lou Lan’s mother. Lou Nuonuo only moved to his house when he was 17. At that time, Lou Lan was in his third year of high school and Lou Nuonuo was in his second.” Zhuang Qingyuan leaned toward Su Yi and lowered his voice: “Lou Lan used to like someone, but later that person became his brother, so he could only intentionally avoid it!”
“Ah!” Su Yi was caught off guard by hearing such a big piece of gossip; he couldn’t even manage his facial expressions, and his eyes widened in surprise.
“Shh!” Zhuang Qingyuan looked at the little expression on Su Yi’s face and smiled, putting his index finger to his lips, “This is Lou Lan’s secret!”
Su Yi made a zipping motion over his mouth and then gave an “OK” gesture, indicating he wouldn’t tell.
With Lou Lan’s personality, if his secret was leaked, he would probably kill someone.
Sharing a secret could instantly shorten the distance between two people. Zhuang Qingyuan felt as if the relationship between him and Su Yi had suddenly become much closer.
There was no way around it; in order to chase his wife, when a brother needs to be sacrificed, he must be sacrificed.
The production team naturally saw Zhuang Qingyuan and Qian Xu whispering and gave them a few shots from time to time. Su Yi didn’t even know that from the angle of the camera, the two of them leaning their heads close together looked very intimate to others.
Wang Xia below was already “lying flat” with his hands, Su Yi wouldn’t even lift his head!
Of course, if Wang Xia knew what Su Yi had heard, he would understand why Su Yi was listening so intently.
Huo Yang patted Wang Xia: “Manager Wang, stay calm. It’s fine even if it gets filmed. If Zhuang Qingyuan doesn’t give the word, they won’t dare to release it.”
When Wang Xia heard this, it seemed he was right!
He had momentarily forgotten that Su Yi was standing next to a super big investor this time, and was no longer fighting alone.
Su Yuyan on the side leaned over, wanting to hear what the two were talking about, but the sound was too small; he couldn’t hear a thing.
“Haven’t seen you for a few minutes, your relationship seems to have become more intimate?” Lou Lan saw the two sitting with their heads together and pointed to the camera, “It’s all been filmed.”
Su Yi only then reacted and quickly sat up straight. He was truly too engrossed in listening to gossip and had forgotten he was still in front of the camera.
But afterward, Su Yi’s gaze couldn’t help but glance at Lou Lan and Lou Nuonuo from time to time. How could a person as vigilant as Lou Lan not feel the gaze sweeping over?
Lou Lan: “Let me guess, you were talking about me just now.”
Zhuang Qingyuan glanced sideways at Lou Lan and said with an expressionless face: “Wishful thinking!”
“Alright, as soon as you opened your mouth, I knew I guessed right!” Lou Lan curled the corners of his mouth; he didn’t look angry at all, “Zhuang Qingyuan, tell me, should I spill all your ugly secrets from high school?”
Zhuang Qingyuan hummed a laugh: “Go ahead and say it, let’s see if they dare to broadcast it!”
Lou Lan leaned back in his chair with a lazy expression: “I don’t care if it’s broadcast or not, as long as the person who should hear it hears it. Right, Qian Xu?”
Su Yi pretended not to hear. What to do? He felt that Lou Lan had already guessed they were talking about his secret just now!
Zhuang Qingyuan said softly: “It’s okay, don’t be afraid. Lou Lan just looks fierce; actually, he is very kind!”
Hearing Zhuang Qingyuan say he was kind, Lou Lan laughed, “Zhuang Qingyuan, stop cussing me out!”
Lou Nuonuo looked at his brother bickering with Zhuang Qingyuan. So, this was what his brother was like when he was with friends; he would use profanity and he would laugh very happily!
In his memory, his brother used to smile too, but ever since the incident at home, he had almost never seen his brother smile.
The singing segment reached Zhuang Qingyuan and Su Yi. Zhuang Qingyuan chose Su Yi’s signature song. Su Yi didn’t object either; he was indifferent about which one to sing.
A beam of isolated light poured down from above, covering Zhuang Qingyuan, who was sitting on a high stool. The superior brow bone cast a shadow on the side of his high, straight bridge of the nose, making his already three-dimensional features appear even deeper.
With one lift of his eyes, the pressure of a superior came rushing over. The cameraman’s body paused, his hands struggling to stabilize the lens, turning his face away and daring not to make eye contact.
The director noticed this point, stood up to adjust the lens to pull to the side. As the lens zoomed out, in the picture, Zhuang Qingyuan’s long legs were propped up casually. The seemingly lazy and ordinary sitting posture fully displayed his cold and noble demeanor!
As the prelude entered, Zhuang Qingyuan’s cold and deep, yet somewhat tender voice, invaded people’s eardrums.
Everyone took a deep breath. The originally miserable and lonely lyrics were sung by Zhuang Qingyuan’s voice with a different flavor, like a cool, indifferent god having a flash of mortal desire—he should have been sober and restrained, but chose to sink into it without regret. Hearing it made one’s heart tremble!
Su Yi, standing in the shadows, also had his breathing hitch. To Su Yi, this song meant sorrow, unrequited love, and giving up!
Even he himself didn’t know that this song could be sung with this kind of feeling.