CHAPTER 17 PART 1-2

The movie was made two years ago and released the following year.

More than 700 days had passed but Shen Tingyan still remembered very clearly that the director had a long discussion with them about the filming of these last few scenes.

In those last few minutes, how could they take the audience step by step and with perfect rhythm to the final door?

So this metaphorical mirror appeared first.

In the theater that year, the audience saw the annoyed police officers, the silent Li Xueming and Zhang Yang was in the corner with his hands in his trench coat pockets, his posture relaxed and open.

It was a bit weird to them but before they could figure out the problem, the camera continued.

At this moment, in the small theater studio of 'Studio Superstar,' 1,000 spectators, 47 participants and four mentors saw on the big screen the annoyed police officers, the silent Li Xueming and…

Zhang Yang with his hands hanging down by his sides, mouth slightly open.

It was different from the gestures of this moment in the original work.

But it also made the audience feel a bit weird.

Before they could figure it out, the camera continued.

Shen Tingyan raised his right arm, bent his index finger slightly and pressed it against his lower lip, looking thoughtful.

Li Xueming suddenly raised his head and asked Zhang Yang, "What was Chen Tao saying to you just now?"

When he rushed up to the third floor with the officers, he seemed to see the two men talking but he wasn't sure if he was mistaken or not.

In the camera, Zhang Yang never showed his face.

He was half-hidden behind Li Xueming's subordinates and only an inaudible answer came out. "He didn't talk to me, Captain Li."

"You saw it incorrectly."

Li Xueming gritted his teeth and slowly closed his eyes.

Then the camera swept toward Zhang Yang's half-hidden silhouette, meaningfully staying there for a second before going black.

Once the screen lit up again, the plot reached the final memory.

This was a few minutes ago when Chen Tao climbed up to the third floor while holding Zhang Yang hostage.

Shen Tingyan watched quietly.

In his memory, he imprisoned the waist and arm of the teacher playing Zhang Yang with one hand while using the other hand to put the knife against the other person's neck, dragging him step by step and quickly retreating toward the end of the corridor. The camera always shot it from his perspective.

At this moment, everyone also saw from Chen Tao's perspective. He held Zhang Yang hostage and gasped while moving back step by step.

As he retreated, he said the lines that countless viewers remembered.

"The fifth murder case has the same modus operandi as the previous four but the scene of the crime is different. There wasn't a lot of blood splattered around. Was it cleaned up or did the murderer not let the blood splash out this time?"

Zhang Yang clung to the arm that imprisoned him and struggled hard, but showed no other reaction.

Chen Tao smiled and didn't care, as if he hadn't wanted an answer in the first place.

He continued quickly.

"Ten years ago, the bloody-clothed serial murderer was also exactly the same. The fourth case had the same modus operandi as the first three, but the crime scene was slightly different. After the suspect was arrested, he kept saying the fourth person wasn't killed by him but the characteristics of the victims were exactly the same and the method was the same. In addition, he didn't have an alibi. Who else would it be?"

"Of course, the police went to investigate but found no clues in the end. Guess how I know? I lived upstairs from the fourth victim. By the way, the name of the reporter who tracked down and reported this case back then was Zhang Longhua."

"He was your father, right?" Chen Tao finally retreated to the end, stopped and gasped. He leaned into Zhang Yang's ear and whispered, "The 'truth seeker' who always runs after various murder cases, Reporter Zhang?"

At this moment, the entire studio was silent.

Everyone's hearts were nervous. The atmosphere was so tense that their minds were drained and they could only wait stiffly…

In the original work, how was it performed here?

By the way, it seemed that Zhang Yang tilted his head.

In the whole last plot, Zhang Zhang barely showed his face. Here, he only let out a vague laugh. At this time, the figures of Li Xueming and his subordinates had already appeared on the stairs.

Then on the big screen this time, Zhao Dong's lines landed and he paused for around half a second.

Xue Xiao's breathing stopped.

Unexpectedly, his whole head suddenly twisted diagonally upwards, like a snake standing up and showing its aggressive side.

The big eyes with a beautiful shape actually stared directly at the camera. The pupils were pure black, so black that the bottom couldn't be seen. It was like a deep vortex that would suck people straight in.

The corners of his mouth slightly curved up. It was an almost innocent evil and pleasure. He seemed to be silently greeting Chen Tao and the audience for the first and last time.

"Hi, we finally met."

At this moment, the image of the sunny and righteous reporter shattered in place. The man revealed inside was a demon with an angel's face. A presumptuous, an evil to pure skeleton. There was twisted excitement and arrogance in his swirling eyes.

A force filled with a bloody energy hit the camera straight on and burst out in front of the audience, making an explosive sound that was deafening.

There was a gasping sound from the studio again.

Guan Ruoying and Su Shijin also leaned back into the chair again.

Xue Xiao wasn't like Zhao Dong. He didn't make that extremely terrifying expression. It was just that by opening his eyes and looking at them, their entire body got goosebumps.

At this moment, no one would doubt that he was a perverted murderer, a copycat who hid deeper than Chen Tao and had a darker heart than anyone!

Zhang Yang and Chen Tao, these two had intersected ten years ago!

Ten years ago, Chen Tao lived upstairs of the fourth victim of the bloody-clothed murderer. He was drawn by his inner desire to kill and instinctively tried to find all information about the serial murderer.

As for Zhang Yang, his father was the reporter who tracked down and reported on the case. He quietly collected clues through his father and killed people using someone else's hand at that time!

He was an even more terrifying criminal than Chen Tao!

He hid deeper than anyone else and his mind was more meticulous than anyone else. He disguised himself as a reporter who was obsessed with pursuing the truth of various murderers but his true purpose was to watch the bloody killings up close to satisfy his inner desires!

Why did Chen Tao kidnap Zhang Yang upstairs?

He was running out of time so he had to get answers before he died.

Why didn't he tell Li Xueming the truth?

It was because he didn't dislike Zhang Yang. He even thought that Zhang Yang was a very interesting person!

What about Zhang Yang?

He turned his back to Chen Tao and handed a cigarette to Li Xueming, just like when Chen Tao handed a cigarette to Li Xueming's master. It was all to remind the other person.

All the pieces moved together and walked along the route he had predetermined a long time ago.

He knew what Chen Tao wanted in the end. He cooperated and was satisfied. Chen Tao also died without saying anything, as he expected.

How perfect was it all?

When the annoyed police officers and silent Li Xueming appeared in the camera, what was Zhang Yang doing in the corner with his hands hanging down and his mouth slightly open?

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly. It was a smile that he tried hard to hold back, but he couldn't hold it back in the end. It secretly leaked out.

The play was finally over.

The big screen rose but the audience hadn't recovered.

The movie 'Praying Mantis' was very controversial in the year it was released. The ending was obviously dark and the abrupt ending caught people off guard.

Secondly, this movie didn't describe the tribulations that the murderer had experienced in the past or various external factors that caused him to go down this road. The murderer in this movie was a simple pervert, cold and straightforward to the extreme.

It had a great impact on the audience and the foreshadowing in the movie also made netizens discuss it for three months.

If a certain part of the movie was taken out and interpreted separately, no matter how they thought about it, the effect would be much worse than the original movie. However, Xue Xiao, Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen actually did it!

The performance they finally presented perfectly brought the audience back to the impact of that year!

It wasn't until the three of them were led to the front of the stage by Jiang Quan that the audience reacted and let out thunderous applause.

Su Shijin couldn't wait to ask, "Did you change the last plot yourself or did the acting teacher help you?"

Xue Xiao's group had just finished their hearty performance and were still in a bit of a trance at this time.

The three of them looked at each other and Jin Xiaochen said, "The characters were changed together with the help of the teacher…"

Zhao Dong said, "So the acting method of the last part was changed according to the changes in the characters. Well, in fact, it is thanks to the acting teacher…"

This meant the last part was changed by themselves!

"No, no, no." Su Shijin interrupted him. "What is the character? The characters are the key elements throughout the story! If the setting of the character changes, their reaction to various events will also change. Otherwise, isn't it a purely invalid change? You guys have changed it very well. In particular, Xue Xiao. Your acting skills are very good. If you had to act according to Zhang Yang in the original movie then you must be able to act it out!"

This praise made Xue Xiao and the others even more dazed.

Guan Ruoying agreed. "Teacher Su is right. Of course, in the case of changing the ending, your current version is better. After all, Xue Xiao himself is only 24 years old. No matter how mature you are, it is hard to imagine that this baby face is 33 years old."

The audience laughed at this.

Feng Wei was also very happy after watching it.

He touched his chin and analyzed it at length for the first time.

"The original version of Zhang Yang was an older and deeper fox. The director didn't let Zhang Yang show his face in the end, precisely because Zhang Yang wasn't too 'flamboyant.' He won't hesitate to kill but he will definitely hide himself. So when Chen Tao exposed him, his performance was just a slight smile with his head turned."

"Chen Tao must've been satisfied to get the answer before he died, but he must've felt itchy because he couldn't see Zhang Yang's face. This is the magic of the person called Zhang Yang. The end of this movie is actually Zhang Yang manipulating everyone in the palm of his hands."

"As for Xue Xiao, the Zhang Yang you played is 25-25 years old at most. Then extrapolate forward. In the bloody-clothed murder case ten years ago. Xue Xiao's version of Zhang Yang was only 14-15 years old at that time. If he dared to kill at such an age, he must be more presumptuous and terrifying than in the original work."

"Then in this plot, the 24 or 25 year old Zhang Yang will choose to face Chen Tao with a straight face and let the other person see his true face. It is an age when he hasn't fully controlled his presumptuous, murderous aura so it is a normal reaction."

Su Shijin nodded. "Xue Xiao, you are actually a bit condescending, right?"

Xue Xiao's mind returned. He thought about it and he replied, "Yes, it is like Director Feng said. This game is actually Zhang Yang manipulating everyone else in his hands. He is a chess player and others are just pawns in his hands. In the end, he will cooperate with Chen Tao but it is actually just a charity mentality."

"He is arrogant in his heart. I think that it wouldn't be surprising if he accidentally showed this arrogance when he was younger."

Of course, Xue Xiao had been worried before making this change.

The performance technique in the original work was very controlled. He wanted to change 'slightly tilted his head and smiled softly' to 'turn his head and look directly at the camera.' This was bound to break that hazy feeling and the audience might feel that the change was too straightforward and not good.

However, Xue Xiao always felt that something was wrong if he didn't change it.

Fortunately, Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen supported him to stick to his ideas. The three of them privately rehearsed the last part several times and Xue Xiao finally found the best way to perform it.

PART 2

Su Shijin applauded again. "Very good. I am actually quite surprised. Before your performance, many audience members might feel the same as me. Since the two and a half hours of live rehearsal for the other group isn't enough and the rehearsal time of your group is even shorter than theirs, can you perform well?"

They were suddenly cued. Fan Xue, Wang Minghai and Hu Lang finally withdrew from the shock that Xue Xiao brought them just now and their expressions became distorted in embarrassment.

Su Shijin was really ruthless and cold. She continued, "What's more, the three of you don't have as much acting experience as the other group. Zhao Dong has been in the industry for three years but you have been doing group acting. You haven't even read a line in the script, right? But your line skills are very good. You must've worked hard in private!"

Zhao Dong smiled with a bit of embarrassment. "I am usually addicted to practicing in private. Maybe one day, I will receive some lines and this ability can be used?"

The audience laughed.

"Jin Xiaochen is an amateur but you definitely have acting talent. You just aren't as confident."

After being confirmed by Su Shijin herself, Jin Xiaochen said stupidly, "Teacher, I seem to suddenly be very confident now."

Su Shijin was stunned before laughing. The audience also laughed.

"Then there is Xue Xiao…" Su Shijin paused before suddenly laughing meaningfully. "Hey, I'm suddenly curious. Teacher Shen, you cued this group so simply and bluntly just now. Did you recognize that your little fan will prepare for this play well and not let you down?"

The eyes of the audience finally focused on Shen Tingyan at the mentor table again.

Shen Tingyan didn't speak just now. It wasn't until Su Shijin cued him that he moved.

Xue Xiao held his breath.

He finally tensed up.

He wasn't nervous before and during the performance, but Xue Xiao was still nervous at the moment when he had to wait for Shen Tingyan's evaluation.

His heart was pounding and his ears could no longer hear other sounds.

How would this man evaluate his performance just now? Would he be satisfied? Still…

Shen Tingyan's first words were:

"It isn't that he will prepare well for this play. It was that it was obvious that the three of them were eager to act at first glance," the man said with a lazy smile.

The moment these words came out, everyone was slightly stunned.

Many of the participants suddenly had an indescribable feeling in their hearts. Zhao Dong directly lowered his head on the stage, his eyes slightly red.

At the end of the day, for actors like them, every script and every role was hard-won.

Even if there was only one line, it would be pronounced after repeatedly smacking and testing it in their mouths.

Maybe it wasn't good enough but they would definitely try their best.

They thought this was nothing at first and could laugh it off when Su Shijin mentioned it just now. But after hearing Shen Tingyan say this, they couldn't hold back their hearts.

There were people who looked at them and people who understood them.

After dropping this sentence, Shen Tingyan's words pointed directly at Xue Xiao.

"Xue Xiao."

This was the first time he called out Xue Xiao's name.

These two words came out from between his lips and teeth through his slightly cold voice. It brought a strange feeling that caused goosebumps to appear on Xue Xiao's spine.

His Adam's apple moved and his hands instinctively clasped in front of them, waiting for the next words.

Shen Tingyan stopped.

For these two or three seconds, he seemed to be pondering on it.

The audience was a bit surprised.

Um? It seemed that this was the first time they saw Shen Tingyan thinking before commenting on a participant!

Before, he was either sarcastic without hesitation or gave a simple two or three word evaluation that showed his disinterest. When had they ever seen him thinking?

What was he thinking about? How to praise Xue Xiao?

After around two or three seconds, Shen Tingyan opened his lips again.

The man raised his eyes and looked at Xue Xiao, saying in a light tone. "You showed the changes of this role in an okay manner. The changes in some small actions in the early stage are in line with the age you reset for the character, but—"

"The whole first part of the performance was too boring."

The audience was shocked.

It wasn't because Shen Tingyan still wasn't satisfied despite the wonderful performance but it was also because—

He was actually giving detailed comments!

This man was actually commenting in such detail!

The word 'boring' made the hearts of many actors' hearts tighten.

When this man was sarcastic, the person who received the sarcasm felt extremely embarrassed and ashamed.

But when he stood from the perspective of a theatrical performance and gave the evaluation 'boring' in a serious and objective manner, the heart-piercing feeling was completely different… any actor who took acting seriously should be instantly frustrated to death when hearing such an evaluation.

Not to mention that such an evaluation came from his own idol…

Everyone carefully looked at Xue Xiao on the stage.

Beside him, Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen turned their heads in a worried manner.

…But Xue Xiao didn't look sad, depressed or shocked at all.

He was stunned like he hadn't expected his performance to give people such a feeling.

Then after his momentary daze, his expression became focused.

He listened carefully to Shen Tingyan's every word like a sponge. It didn't matter whether the water rushing toward him was salty or light, sweet or astringent. He was ready to welcome it all.

Seeing Xue Xiao's performance, Shen Tingyan paused again.

How many students before showed panic just seeing him? Even if he said 'it is okay,' their faces were mournful. If he said a few more words, he was afraid they would burst into tears and directly break the record for the number of times a contestant cried in a domestic variety show.

Admittedly, there were reasons why he spoke in quite a ruthless manner before. Which one of those performances wasn't ridiculous?

It might be because he wasn't as good as the other three mentors and hadn't purely praised any student from beginning to end. But so far, how many students were worthy of complete praise?

A nurturing style of education wasn't Shen Tingyan's style. So in the past, he never considered going on this type of show to become someone else's mentor, even though Old Gao always thought he could do it.

Old Gao repeatedly emphasized that he just had to be a bit gentler, just a bit!

However, Shen Tingyan felt he was gentle enough when he wasn't mocking others. If he was gentle, wouldn't he become the other person's father rather than their teacher?

Their fragile, vulnerable and trembling faces made him bored.

Xue Xiao's reaction brought him a new experience.

So Shen Tingyan smiled.

"Once the performance is boring, the audience's attention will drift away from you and the main character will become the passerby. Fortunately, you knew very well where the dramatic conflict points on Zhang Yang are. You erupted at several key points where it was necessary, not letting the character be drowned out."

"The reason why your method worked today was because you only acted for eight minutes. This is a very short part of the whole movie. Then what if you put this routine into the whole movie, 150 minutes?"

Xue Xiao didn't have stage fright. He thought along Shen Tingyan's train of thought and opened his mouth to reply, "…The front will look cumbersome and the back will be very abrupt."

"Yes. Do you know what you are missing?" Shen Tingyan asked him.

Xue Xiao pursed his lips in thought.

Seeing him look a bit uncertain all of a sudden, Shen Tingyan directly told him the answer. "You only achieved becoming Zhang Yang at a critical moment but you didn't manage to become Zhang Yang the whole time."

"Maybe you thought you did it. You even grasped every movement and demeanor. But if you think about it carefully, except for the first movement of handling the cigarette and the last part, have you completely immersed yourself in the role of Zhang Yang at other moments or were you just rigorously presenting each of your designs?"

Xue Xiao was stunned.

Guan Ruoying, Su Shijin and Feng Wei didn't expect Shen Tingyan to directly point out this deeper problem.

There was no way. Many of the previous performances today were so elementary that they simply couldn't discuss these performance techniques in more depth.

Guan Ruoying thought for a while. Then she accepted Shen Tingyan's words and said, "In fact, this isn't your problem alone. Your performance today might be very exciting but both Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen have the same problem."

"Your acting is generally in line with the role and the outbreaks at key points have been achieved, but there are still many times when you aren't 'alive' enough. How to solve this problem? First of all, you have to go further into understanding the character. Don't just read the script. Write a short biography of the character and imagine what the character will look like. Try to live and communicate in the shell of the character outside the script."

"For living people, each one is interesting. When you deeply feel that you are one step closer to the character, there will be many details you don't have to design. It will naturally come out so that every detail is 'alive'."

Xue Xiao listened carefully to their words. Zhao Dong, Jin Xiaochen and many actors in the audience were also thinking while listening.

This question couldn't be explained on the stage today, so Guan Ruoying pointed things out very simply.

But Xue Xiao probably understood.

He bowed deeply. "Okay, I see. Thank you, Teacher."

He straightened up. Then Shen Tingyan, who they thought had finished speaking, said coldly, "However, today's last expression is indeed quite scary."

Xue Xiao: "!"

He looked up and saw that Shen Tingyan was smiling playfully.

Xue Xiao was stunned before smiling as well.

He raised the corners of his lips high and his cheeks were crimson. His apricot eyes seemed to be mixed with honey and sweetness emanated from the curved arcs.

"Thank you, Teacher!"

He bowed again and his voice seemed sweet when he shouted loudly.

Shen Tingyan: "..."

This voice was quite loud, silly and cute.

How did this little lightbulb perform with such a crazy appearance just now?

He snorted gently.

The atmosphere in the studio was pleasant and peaceful for a while and the spring breeze was full.

Su Shijin and Guan Ruoying praised the three people on stage with a few more words. The audience was discussing it in excitement while the actors Chang Yun and Jiang Lianlian sighed one after another.

At this moment, a certain man once again transformed into a demon and said casually, "By the way, I almost forgot that the comments for the previous group aren't over."

Fan Xue, Wang Minghai and Hu Lang in the audience: "..."

Just forget about them, TAT.

When they went on stage again, all three people's heads were almost hanging down to their stomachs. They couldn't look at anyone at all.

Demon Shen continued to cue them. "Director Feng seems to have not commented just now. Why don't you come first?"

Feng Wei: "..."

People shouldn't mention other people's private matters!

On the stage, Fan Xue quietly raised his head and looked at Feng Wei nervously.

He secretly looked forward to it. Perhaps…

Feng Wei sighed. He was silent for a moment before saying, "I really want to praise you."

Fan Xue's heart thumped.

"The three of you are all artists with a lot of fans and there should be many fans present today." Feng Wei knocked on the table. "I want to praise you so that you are happy, your fans are happy and we are happy. But I really can't praise you."

"Teacher Shen asked me to comment but I don't know what to comment." Feng Wei withdrew his hand. "I won't comment. I will just say that it is fortunate we don't eliminate people in the first round. There are still opportunities later. You should sincerely study hard."

After speaking, Feng Wei lowered his eyes and said he wouldn't speak again.

Fan Xue also lowered his head, his heart cold.

The host Jiang Quan tentatively said, "Teacher Shen, do you have anything else to say about this group?"

Shen Tingyan said, "Director Feng spoke quite tactfully. Then I'll say it directly. Are two and a half hours of live rehearsal time enough?"

Fan, Wang and Hu replied, "It… It is enough…"

"Do you know how you acted?"

Fan, Wang and Hu replied, "I know… I'm sorry…"

"So are you satisfied with a difference like this?"

Wang Minghai and Hu Lang almost blurted out, 'satisfied, I'm satisfied.' Then as the answer was about to emerge from their mouths, their brains reacted violently.

What did it mean by 'Are you satisfied with a difference like this?'

Who was he talking about?

They raised their heads in a confused manner. Then they followed Shen Tingyan's line of sight and realized something. They looked at Fan Xue standing in the middle in amazement.

Fan Xue stiffened and was at a loss.

He looked at Shen Tingyan blankly, his face pale.

"Why? You think that no one can tell?" Shen Tingyan scoffed. "You broke the jar since the second time you almost fell on the stairs, right?"

The audience was shocked.

"Every wrong acting done after that was done on purpose. Deliberately falling, deliberately jumping and deliberately shouting lines. You felt that since you can't act well anyway, you just have to make this performance bad enough. Then as long as you perform a bit better in the next work, the audience will change their opinion of you, right?"

At this moment, it wasn't only Fan Xue who turned into a stone statue. Even Director Zhang backstage froze.

Shen Tingyan looked at Fan Xue and said with a smile, "But are you so sure you can turn things around later?"