King Guan's Test

Although Yuan Ge is feeling hot and sweaty from the central heating in the room as soon as he entered, he is only wearing the tacky company T-shirt Chow Mingrun has chosen underneath. Now that the young master Guan asked him to take off his jacket, he has no choice but to do as he was told, revealing the ugly pink underneath. Seeing the T-shirt, the towering CEO's stony face softened slightly as he gives an amused smile and says, "You people at Dragon Dreams are rather different, and I will remember you now. This shirt suits you well. Your dress sense is quite, um, unique."

Yuan Ge curses the damned Fat Chow a thousand times in his mind, but forces himself to calm down quickly. Unlike Chestnut and the others, he has come here to apply for the job of assistant director, not to audition for a role in the movie, but since master Guan has personally come to test his acting skills, he must not be acting on a whim, nor would he be so narrow-minded as to take offence at that bit of water just now.

Heart-wrenching, it seems, is the key word for today's audition. The film must be so heart-wrenching both physically and emotionally that whoever Arthur Guan is searching for, whether actor or director, should have been able to convey that feeling to the fullest.

Thinking he has figured out the key, Yuan Ge quickly begins to search his memory bank for the tens of thousands of movies he has watched and the heart-wrenching scenes that are most relevant to the current proposition.

A light flashes across his mind and the figure of a beautiful man in white suddenly appeared vaguely. He hangs from a tall tree, his handsome face haggard from days of exposure to the blazing sun, blood seeping from his dry, cracked lips. His thin and frail body seems to have been broken from prolonged stretching, hanging helplessly from the tree, as soft as the passing wind, and twitching with pain. And on the execution table before him, the brutal killing continues, the blood of his kinsmen gathering in rivers of bright red. And the man in white witnesses such tragedies unfold before him, his normally gentle and compassionate eyes radiating a fiery karmic fire …

Yuan Ge could not recall exactly which film this scene comes from, but his intuition tells him that this is the most heart-wrenching and most in keeping with the imagery of King Guan's test. It is just that all the drama and emotions are not expressed through words, and he himself has to use the most direct action and facial expressions without lines to complete such a tragic scene.

So in the end, what Arthur Guan saw is Yuan Ge, wearing a tacky pink advertising T-shirt, not pondering too long about the plot arrangement, his hands raise as if literally tied by ropes and suspended high in the air, his two feet pointing to the ground like a ballerina, his whole body muscles tense like a tight guitar string about to break, and like a dying swan, noble yet tragic. His beautiful eyes, haggard from the prolonged torture, looks at Arthur defiantly, full of stubbornness and endless sorrow …

Arthur Guan has remembered his appearance the moment he was sprayed with water by Yuan Ge back in the second courtyard. It seems that the young man's face could not simply be described as handsome. What attracts him more is a spiritual quality about him - a man who is still a child at heart after sailing a thousand times; an artist who is untouched by the murkiness of the world; a dreamer with a strong will and clear eyes. He has seen too many good-looking people, but only true genius and strength of character can make an artist stand out from the crowd and never fade away.

However, before Arthur could evaluate whether the stretched body in front of him is the result of years of professional dance training, Yuan Ge has already let go of his guitar-string-like pose depicting the fragility of life in an instant and collapses to the ground like a puddle of spring water, the joints of his limbs and fingers seem to be dislocated, his entire body is as soft as if it has no bones, and his facial muscles seem to twitch involuntarily from the extreme pain. His eyes look into the distant void before him, and his thin lips tremble gently as if he wants to say something, but eventually falls silent again, as if only the lover who understands his heart beneath the city walls could hear …

The proud spine is broken, but he still stubbornly tries to lift his head, seemingly exhausted, but his gaze is as sharp as a knife, fixing on Arthur's face. His brow is furrowed in a tight frown that seems to transcend death, yet still attaches to the human emotions and the desires of the world.

"Exquisite, intense and vivid."

Arthur Guan gives a succinct and clear assessment the moment Yuan Ge finishes his performance, and everyone else in the room starts to applaud upon hearing his words.

He then stands up, walks over to Yuan Ge and whispers in his ear, "Your performance carries an innate sense of vulnerability, and a fragile and fleeting beauty. I also like the - how should I put it - 'foreign body sensation' you express when you frown."

Before Yuan Ge can catch what he meant, the corners of Arthur's mouth turned upwards slightly, and he has pulled back and turns towards the set stylist, saying, "Go dress him up. Let's see his costume look."