The audition started at the scene where Liu Chuandeng massacred the Sheng family as they resisted arrest when Liu Chuandeng accused them of betraying the nation.
Jiang Li stood in the middle of the hall, he closed his eyes and built up his emotions, he then slowly opened his eyes.
After he opened his eyes, the place where he was standing was not the audition room anymore. Instead, it was the location where the Sheng family was massacred.
He crossed his hands at the back, standing in the middle of the venue, he slowly kept away the humble and courteous expression he had, and the gloom in his eyes slowly emerged. His vision scanned the ground gradually, his eyelids that were elongated by the eyelines made his gaze look cold and fearsome.
It was only a small change of expression in his eyes and yet it caused his whole person's aura to turn gloomy.
He had gotten into character!!
Zhou Jin was shocked and he almost stood up in surprise due to the speed Jiang Li went into character, his eyes were now tightly glued to him.
Jiang Li's vision swept over every part of the room, then the corners of his lips curved up slightly, a sense of excitement and insanity was shown, as if the empty ground was filled with broken limbs. He was like a winner examining the result of a massacre he made.
As his eyes were scanning the room, a crew member who was standing on the sidelines accidentally met his gaze. A shiver ran down the crew member's spine after he was exposed to the dark and insane gaze full of murderous intent.
Zhou Jin's hands that were placed on the table clenched tightly, he noticed Jiang Li's vision that stopped at one point and as he (JL) slowly walked forwards, his smile became more and more creepy. He stepped onto the blood on the floor but did not care much and then he finally stopped in front of a crew.
The crew felt numb in his scalp as Jiang Li stared at him, fear overcame him, and he almost could not help but take a step back.
"Lord Sheng."
As Jiang Li called out, the audience realized that the tone of his voice had changed. There was a sense of sharpness and strangeness in his clear voice, like a voice that most officials would have.
Someone realized this amongst the actors that came for the audition earlier, but if one was not a professional voice actor, then it would be a weakness. If one was not successful in changing his voice, there would be a clash between the voice and the character and would end up causing the audience to be disengaged from the performance. However, Jiang Li did not have this kind of problem at all. He was like a professional voice actor who had precise control on every line he said.
Everyone knew well that he was using a crew temporarily to act as the other character.
"What Lord Sheng said is correct, how much can a Eunuch like me do? I was just helping His Majesty to resolve a problem." Jiang Li put his hands behind his back and slightly paced in the same place. A faint laugh was heard from his tone, "Scold me louder, or else you won't have the chance to do so….."
Just as he finished his words, he swiftly drew out a sword from the props rack. Took a few steps back, and waved the sword. The tip of the sword swept from up to down, and a silver ray gleamed as light was reflected.
A fatal blow.
He simply threw the sword down onto the floor and looked at the ground despicably. He shoved back his shirt as if blood was stained on it and he stopped abruptly just as he was planning to leave.
This was the part in the novel where he met his brother, Liu Baizhu.
They both had identical faces, one was wearing pure white clothing and the other was wearing a black and blood-stained clothing.
Jiang Li showed a slightly shocked expression on his face, looking strangely to the front, and Zhou Jin was the one who was sitting in front of him.
When both of their gazes met each other, Zhou Jin felt like he was being pulled into character.
The person in front of him was not Jiang Li anymore, he was the Seal-holding Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial who could hide the truth from the masses, Liu Chuandeng.
In the drama, Liu Chuandeng had already known that Liu Baizhu was adopted by the Mu Rong family before that scene. He was living a miserable life in the palace but his younger brother by blood was enjoying and living a luxurious life in a well-known family.
He felt a strong gush of resentment boiling, and Jiang Li felt hateful and ridiculous, he gloomily looked at Zhou Jin as if he was Liu Baizhu who was accusing him, "You can eat anything you want, but you can't say nonsense as our family is working for His Majesty."
When he said the words 'His Majesty', Jiang Li put up his hand and made a gesture, as if he was triggered by what Liu Baizhu said. He swayed his sleeves, his voice deepened and he had even forgotten how to call himself, "Stop it! You said that I've murdered good and loyal people, causing the court to turn chaotic. But then, what do you really know?"
[T/N: In Chinese history, officials have a different way to call themselves other than You/I.]
He was the one that got chosen from the twin and was sent into the palace by his mother, just because he was not as favorable as his younger brother. During the years after he entered the palace, he had always looked forward to the day his mother appeared, wishing that his mother was also there to care about him when he saw other people receiving letters from their homes. However, he didn't even get a single word from home.
"You were living happily and freely in the Mu Rong family, have you ever thought of how I was living in the palace? And now you're talking about your brotherhood with me?"
As he said this line, he took a step forward. He looked at Zhou Jin with a murderous intent that did not vanish from earlier, he sneered and said, "The Mu Rong family only taught you to be naive and foolish, didn't they teach you to protect your life wisely? If you continue blabbering, don't blame me for ignoring our blood relationship, I will personally send you down to meet your parents!"
And as he finished speaking, his intent to kill was shown completely, as if he wanted to finish his life quickly.
Zhou Jin had his nerves and body tensed, looking at him without a single word leaving his mouth. There was not a single expression on his face but cold sweat was forced out on his back due to the piercing vision that was sent to him.
The audition for Liu Chuandeng ended there, but after Jiang Li's performance, the audition room was plunged into a deathly silence.
Everyone was still watching at the youth that was standing in the middle of the room, they were still shocked by the characters that were interpreted by him, as if the vicious and cruel Governor of the Eastern Depot from the novel appeared right in front of them!
"Good..."
Huang Lisheng was the first one to come back to reality, when she wanted to clap her hands and start speaking, Zhou Jin used his hand to stop her, and said slowly, "Don't talk, he hasn't disengaged from the scene yet!"
"??"
Huang Lisheng was reminded by him and realized that Jiang Li was indeed still in the scene, but his shady expression slowly wore off, turning shocked and angry, he had gotten into Liu Baizhu's character!
She could not believe that one could still get into a completely different character after finishing interpreting a character so smoothly, continuing the same scene.
However, the person in front of her actually did it!
After Liu Chuandeng's vicious and cold aura had faded, it was like he had changed into a different person. He had the straightforward and hearty character of a son from a well-known family. As he opened his mouth, the disappointment, anger and pain of Liu Baizhu towards his family member was interpreted without reservation.
It was the same person but he could interpret two people with completely different personalities, and had even expressed both the outward emotions and extreme psychological changes of the two characters!
Such a solid acting skill, not to mention the actors that came for the audition, even only a few of the skilled actors in the industry could be compared to him. Zhou Jin was really grateful to his nephew at the moment as he had dug out a treasure for him. He was also thankful that he gave him a chance himself, or else he would miss out on a treasure like him.
"This is the end of my performance, thank you."
Amidst the stunning and disbelieving gazes of the people, Jiang Li bowed slightly and said to the few judges in front of him.
Zhou Jin stood up and clapped for the newbie who he had never seen before yet had brought him a feast of eyes. He said sincerely, "Jiang Li, 'Long River and Falling Moon' welcomes you."
Other people also recovered from disbelief and clapped their hands after him.
Huang Lisheng really favored Jiang Li's performance and asked, "Your acting was wondrous, do you have any acting experience? I don't think I've seen you before."
"This is the first time for a formal act, I only figured out myself at home before this. I still have a lot that I'm unfamiliar with." Jiang Li smiled shyly, as if he was embarrassed by her compliment, he bowed again, "I'll highly appreciate your guidance from now on."
After he finished speaking, he apologized to the crew that he used temporarily in his audition earlier, asking for forgiveness.
He was good-looking, polite and even had good acting skills, so he was instantly favored by everyone there.
After thanking everyone, Jiang Li left his contact number and left the audition room.
When Jiang Li started to act earlier, Ji Shu left the audition room to accept a call from work. Jiang Li exited the room and saw that he was still on the call away from the room so he waited beside.
After ending the call, Ji Shu came back and saw Jiang Li had his head lowered and leaning onto the wall so he thought he did not pass the audition. He walked towards him and consoled him gently, "It's only a character, don't put it in your heart Ah Li, treat it as gaining experience."
Jiang Li was talking to System and asking if he was really handsome during the audition. Suddenly, he heard Ji Zhu's voice and did not realize what he was talking about, "What did you say?"
Ji Shu thought he was really sad, he was perturbed and consoled again, "I said it's fine if you failed the audition, President Jiang said if you are willing to do it, he can arrange another…."
"Teacher Jiang!"
As he was still talking, he was interrupted by the voice from the back. He then saw a crew walking towards them. The crew greeted him and passed a set of documents to Jiang Li, "Teacher Jiang, Sister Huang asked me to hand this to you, it's about the character analysis of Liu Chuandeng and his brother, this may be useful."
"It will be useful, please help me thank Sister Huang." Jiang Li smiled as he accepted the document, he guessed she gave him the information because he said this was his first performance.
"Okay! Teacher Jiang's performance was wonderous today! I'll leave first!"
Ji Shu did not understand the conversation, he looked at the crew who left and averted his gaze to Jiang Li who was smiling, he was surprised, "Teacher Jiang?"
"Hmm?" Jiang Li waved the document in his hand, "It's afternoon soon, would Secretary Ji like to have dinner with me to celebrate that I've gotten the role that I wanted?
"...Sure." Ji Shu felt like he had missed something big, when did he become Teacher Jiang?
After having lunch, Ji Shu sent Jiang Li back to work, he then told Jiang Zhan what happened today to Jiang Li.
Jiang Zhan felt unexpected towards the fact that Jiang Li passed the audition. He thought that Jiang Li would fail the audition, little did he know that he obtained the roles Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu using his own ability.
His uncle disagreed to his request of sending Jiang Li into the drama directly, he said unless he was replaced, or else he must pass the audition to act in these two roles.
Jiang Zhan knew Zhou Jin's attitude of striving for perfection towards the drama he directed in. He would also never replace a top-notch director for a plaything who he had slept with before. But since he had agreed to Jiang Li, it was hard for him to change his words.
Although Jiang Li crawled onto his bed for a role, and had even crawled the wrong bed, overall Jiang Zhan was happy that night. Jiang Li was also his type, so he would not let him suffer a loss. So he only called Ji Shu to go over, if he did not pass the audition, he would compensate him in other ways.
However, he did not expect Jiang Li could obtain the two important roles from his uncle who was strict.
The Little Bastard is quite impressive huh.
Jiang Zhan was inexplicably happy, he leant onto the leather chair and asked Ji Shu, "Then did he say what compensation he wants?"
"No, Mr. Jiang said he understands you very well."
Understands me very well?
Seems that he's not too heartless. Although he did not give the roles to him directly, he still got the chance for the audition because of him, it was indeed his merit.
Since Jiang Li knew how to be grateful, Jiang Zhan decided to treat him better, "If he has no assistant now, get him one before he enters the drama crew."
"Yes, President Jiang" Ji Shu answered and prepared to leave if he had no other orders. He walked away for two steps and was called again.
Jiang Zhan asked if he had no intention, "Did he say anything else?"
For example, if he wants to invite me to a dinner to thank me or anything else like that.
"Others..." Ji Shu hesitated for a while, he did not know if he should say it or not.
"Say it if you have something." Jiang Zhan frowned as he saw him hesitating.
"Mr. Jiang said you're a pick-up artist..."
"..."
Jiang Zhan's expression froze and turned dark quickly, he clenched his teeth and said, "Get out."
Ji Shu went out quickly.
At the same time, Jiang Li who was focusing on studying the information of the character suddenly heard a rapid warning alert from the System.
"Host, please pay attention! The male lead's favorability is reducing rapidly, the male lead's favorability is reducing rapidly!"
Jiang Li opened the mission's column and found out that the favorability had dropped to -25!!
Jiang Li was bewildered, "??"