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The veteran actor's mind went blank, and he nearly forgot his lines. He instinctively raised his arm and slapped Fu Shen across the face. "You unfilial bastard—"

Before he could finish, Fu Shen suddenly turned sideways and stepped back half a pace, accurately grabbing the veteran actor's wrist and yanking hard.

The veteran actor staggered forward a few steps, pretending to fall to the ground. He turned around and stared at Fu Shen in shock. "You actually dared lay a hand on your old man?"

In that instant, Fu Shen's mind filled with scene after scene from his childhood: the beatings from his drunken biological father, the humiliation of watching his mother being forced to entertain creditors, the constant terror that he and his younger siblings would be sold off to pay debts, the contemptuous looks and pointing fingers of the neighbors, the ridicule and insults from his classmates...

Everything from the past was like scarred-over wounds that had long fused with his skin and flesh. He had been ashamed of being born into such a family, of having such disgraceful parents and relatives, and he had once done everything in his power to escape that environment.

Now that he finally had a chance to remake himself, he would never allow anyone to ruin his plans. Not even the man who had biologically given him life.

"Do you want money?" Fu Shen looked down at his aged biological father.

The man before him, sprawled on the ground like a heap of mud, was no longer the broad, muscular adult from his memories whose blows hurt so much. Years of alcohol had utterly destroyed his once-strong physique. Or perhaps that man had never been strong at all. It was only that Fu Shen had been too weak back then, unable to resist even the violence and harm inflicted on him by someone like this.

Fu Shen tilted his head expressionlessly. The camera slowly pushed in from below, capturing a close-up from an upward angle. Under the high-definition lens, Fu Shen's expression grew increasingly cold, while some emotion in his eyes surged ever stronger. Like a stormy sea beneath skies thick with dark clouds, everyone could sense the undercurrents roiling beneath the restless waves.

In the close-up, those pitch-black, unfathomable eyes displayed an explosively shocking intensity. Fu Shen stared straight into the camera without blinking. His tone was light, yet he enunciated every word. "You can kneel and beg me. Let's see whether I'll spare you even a mouthful of leftovers."

Chapter 25

"Cut!"

Director Li Zhengzheng, seated behind the monitor, leaned forward and carefully watched the playback from beginning to end. Satisfied, he said, "That's a pass!"

Yu Mingze sprang out of his chair and rushed onto the set. "Holy shit, Zhaozhao, do you know how fucking amazing that take was?"

The veteran actor sitting on the ground also got to his feet with Ye Mingzhao's help and gave him a thumbs-up. "That take was especially good."

The actors and crew members watching nearby looked at Ye Mingzhao differently now. If their previous respect for him had stemmed from keeping their distance out of awe for the Ye family, as well as the ruthlessness with which Ye Mingzhao had kicked Zhou Yueze out and joined the production with his own investment, then now their respect carried an added measure of admiration for his acting.

For such a complex and heavy scene, Ye Mingzhao had not only nailed it in one take, but had delivered his emotions with precision, his acting with confidence, and even his lines with remarkable skill. That vicious, resentful gaze and that expression of utter disdain felt so real that there was no trace of performance in them.

The actors and crew watching from the sidelines did not dare say it aloud, but they all felt that Ye Mingzhao's performance in that scene was not the slightest bit weaker than that of the veteran actor opposite him. In fact, in terms of sheer presence, he had faintly overwhelmed the veteran actor playing his biological father.

Of course, that was also what the script called for. But for a newcomer with no acting experience to portray the scene with such precision, it was easy to imagine his talent and potential.

Always skilled at reading people, Ye Mingzhao accurately caught the shift in everyone's emotions. He stood somewhat dazed before the monitor, watching the playback of that scene again and again.

On the screen, his expression was cold and venomous, plainly revealing Fu Shen's contempt and scorn for his biological father. Such intense negative emotions had never appeared on Ye Mingzhao's face before.

Because Ye Mingzhao had known from childhood that he had to appear absolutely outstanding, absolutely intelligent, absolutely kind, absolutely harmless, absolutely considerate... only then could he win people's affection and approval.

So Ye Mingzhao diligently played the role of a good son, a good student, and a good younger brother. He never dared take even half a wrong step, much less let anyone glimpse the slightest trace of darkness in him.

Because he could not afford the consequences of being disliked.

But he was still human, after all, and he still felt all kinds of dark impulses. Greed, jealousy, pride, anger, laziness, hatred... these emotions rose from within him every moment of every day, like air seeping into every crevice, wrapping densely around every cell in Ye Mingzhao's body and flowing through him with every beat of his heart.

Yet Ye Mingzhao never allowed those negative emotions to show even the slightest sign. He would suppress them deep within his heart, wrap them beneath his fair, delicate skin, hide them behind his harmless smile, and imprison them inside the mind that brimmed with schemes and calculations. Only in the dead of night would he quietly take them out and savor them, until even his skin trembled with excitement.

Ye Mingzhao had never imagined that he could expose these negative, dark, ugly, unreasonable emotions in broad daylight, beneath the camera's high-definition lens, right before the eyes of so many people on the set.

Not only had he not been criticized or cursed by anyone, they had even praised his exquisite acting and powerful expressiveness.

Ye Mingzhao noticed the shock and admiration in everyone's eyes. An emotion he had never experienced before spread from his tailbone, carrying a faintly numbing electric current straight to his pituitary gland. Without showing it, Ye Mingzhao clenched his fists and silently savored the atmosphere of that moment.

What kind of feeling was it?

It was like drinking more than half a bottle of ice-cold sparkling water in the blazing summer heat, the carbonation bursting through his blood in an instant. Or like rain suddenly falling in an endless desert. Huge drops crashed down over his head and face, soaking him into a drowned rat in moments. His wet clothes clung tightly to his body, yet he did not feel disheveled in the least. All he felt was the exhilarating release of shackles being stripped away layer by layer. Or perhaps it was like floating for too long upon a turbulent sea, only for an island to suddenly appear before him. Ye Mingzhao could not be sure what lay on that island, but he had to admit that its appearance gave him a faint sense of hope and peace.

So even bad people could be welcomed.

Ye Mingzhao's gaze swept quietly over every face around the set, and a faint sense of accomplishment suddenly rose within him.

It was a feeling he had never experienced before, no matter how much money he had made manipulating financial markets or working on mergers and acquisitions.

—The sense of security that even if he revealed his ugly side, he could still be admired, accepted, and respected.

So I can show my real self too.

Even if it's only acting.

News of Ye Mingzhao's outstanding performance quickly spread throughout the production.

No one had expected a complete newcomer with no acting experience to be such a good actor.

Especially when portraying the villain Fu Shen, the presence and intimidation Ye Mingzhao displayed were simply astonishing. Yet his performance was not the industry's most common kind of "explosive, scene-stealing acting." It was more structured, logical, meticulous, and coherent. Like the sea at high tide, it advanced quietly in layer upon layer. You could not tell when it began to erupt, but by the time you noticed, white waves were already churning, and the once-calm sea had formed a towering wall of water like a vast curtain. The waves swept down with overwhelming force, drowning everything in their path in an instant.

As several veteran actors who often acted opposite Ye Mingzhao put it, "President Ye's performance doesn't feel like acting at all."

Whether it was the innocent, kind, intelligent, and powerful male lead Gu Mingchao, or the dark, vicious, scheming villain Fu Shen, Ye Mingzhao portrayed them both with remarkable precision. When he played the male lead, everyone felt that Ye Mingzhao was Gu Mingchao himself. No wonder the screenwriter had personally admitted that he was the character's inspiration—he truly was a refined gentleman, open and upright as the wind and moon. Even during the long stretch of the story where he had lost his memory and fallen on hard times, his innate elegance, nobility, intelligence, and kindness could not be concealed. But when Ye Mingzhao played the villain, everyone had to admit that he had indeed brought out the selfishness, greed, and viciousness buried deep in Fu Shen's bones.