Seeing that he was hesitant yet wavering, Xia Ningxing redoubled her efforts, "Brother! No matter what, I must go out and earn money!"
"I want you to be able to go to school like me! To live another kind of life! To pursue a future that belongs to you!"
"And Mom, every day after work her hands are swollen and chapped, big brother, it breaks my heart, I don't want her to have to work so hard!"
As Xia Ningxing spoke, her voice couldn't help but choke up, and when she had made up her mind to treat them as her real family, Mrs. Xia became her own mother!
Seeing a mother work so hard, how can her children not feel heartache.
Xia Ningxing's eyes turned red, and she raised her little head to meet his gaze, her tone allowing no room for rebuttal, "In any case, I must pursue acting, and if you disagree or if you tell Mom, I will never speak to you again for the rest of my life! I mean what I say!"
To deal with a brother who is overprotective, there is no threat more formidable than this!
"Don't, little sister..." Sure enough, upon hearing this, big brother got anxious immediately, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"Alright, alright!" Xia Ningxing was just trying to scare him, but now that she saw her goal was reached, she immediately retracted her intimidating appearance, stood on tiptoes, patted his shoulder, and in a soft, mushy voice said, "Then I'll be going."
Big brother couldn't rest easy letting her go out alone, "I'll go with you. What if you, a little child, run into bad people!"
"Big brother is so nice!" The little girl threw herself into his arms, overjoyed, rubbing against his chest like a little kitten.
A free assistant delivered to the doorstep, why not take advantage!
Unaware that he had already become an assistant, big brother now looked down gently and rubbed her little head, his face showing an indulgent helplessness.
After checking with her other four brothers, Xia Ningxing and big brother finally set off for the city.
The city was quite a distance from where they lived, requiring a bus ride and then a coach, which would take about two hours.
Xia Ningxing arrived at the audition location according to the address in the newspaper.
It was a residence.
White walls, red bricks, and tiled houses with peach trees growing in the yard.
It was much better than the dirty rural courtyards littered with chicken and duck droppings.
Actually, this was the director's house, which was also the shooting location for the drama.
Due to a tight budget and the inability to afford rental space, an old house had to be used.
At the moment, quite a few children stood at the door, accompanied by their parents.
However, almost all of them were city folk. People from closed-off rural areas didn't have the habit of subscribing to newspapers, so they wouldn't know about this event.
Except for Xia Ningxing!
Now, the parents were whispering to their children, some consoling, some encouraging.
Soon, the casting began.
Everyone lined up and started to go in one by one.
The director of the drama, Xu Tian, although not a famous director, was notoriously picky, treating his work as if it were his own child, not allowing any flaws.
As a result, many children didn't meet his standards.
And of course, he didn't hesitate to lambast one after another—
"What are you acting out, with eyes as lifeless as a dead fish!"
"You too, your expression is stiff and dumb, are you a wooden mannequin?"
"As for you, I asked you to act in a crying scene, to cry like a pear blossom bathed in rain, not to cry like you're at a funeral!"
Even though Xia Ningxing was standing some distance away, she could still hear the director's harsh voice scolding people, truly very strict, not going easy on them because they were children, but instead pointedly highlighting their errors.
Xia Ningxing thought that perhaps it was precisely because of his demanding expectations for the script and the actors that he had won the Academy Award for Best Director.
But just because Xia Ningxing understood didn't mean others did.
Especially the young actors who were verbally lashed, left feeling completely worthless.