Audition

Liu Jiawei, the Best Actor serving as an interviewer, looked at Lu Heng encouragingly. He had personally seen Lu Heng perform and felt there would be no problem.

The other Best Actor, Wang Zhen, looked as though he was watching a show. He had heard Liu Jiawei lavish praise on Lu Heng, but he reserved judgment on Liu Jiawei's words. After all, everyone in Hong Kong knew that Liu Jiawei was humble and loved supporting newcomers, so his words always had to be taken with a grain of salt.

To make things easier for Lu Heng, Wang Zhen volunteered to act opposite him. He would play the old man whom Fang injured when his drug addiction flared up.

If an ordinary fourteen- or fifteen-year-old newcomer had a Best Actor helping him audition, he would surely have been overwhelmed with nervousness. But Lu Heng, who had worked with Wang Zhen many times in his previous life, was not particularly restrained or flustered.

Lu Heng closed his eyes and began to plan his performance.

A drug craving hit.

Unlike the ordinary understanding of those words, they had left an indelible impression on Lu Heng across both his lives.

His best friend, the person he admired most, had been ruined by drugs.

Recalling what Brother Sun had looked like when his addiction flared up, Lu Heng took a deep breath. His whole body visibly hunched over. The next second, Lu Heng opened his eyes—

"Give me the money." Lu Heng's body trembled at an eerie frequency. His once-upright frame had curled into a sickly hunch as he shuddered, constantly sniffing. A vicious, reckless madness suddenly erupted in his eyes.

"Give me the money! I want money!"

Lu Heng twisted his neck at an odd angle and repeated through gritted teeth.

"Where's the money?!"

Lu Heng roared and lunged in front of Wang Zhen, grabbing him by the collar. "I said, hand over the money."

For a moment, Wang Zhen was slightly stunned by Lu Heng's almost lifelike performance. But Wang Zhen was, after all, a veteran actor who had once won the Golden Crow Award for Best Actor.

The instant Lu Heng lunged at him, Wang Zhen shrank his shoulders and hunched his back. The tall, handsome man immediately became a trembling old man with limited mobility. He struggled to hold Lu Heng, mumbling, "Fang, Fang, listen to me. You can't keep taking drugs. You have to find a way—"

"Stop nagging me!" Lu Heng shoved his grandfather away and screamed himself hoarse, looking utterly crazed. "I only want money! Give me money! Give me drugs!"

During the struggle, the grandfather played by Wang Zhen accidentally struck his forehead against the corner of the table. Clutching his bleeding forehead, he collapsed to the floor in pain.

But Fang, in the grip of his addiction, did not notice at all. Trembling, he opened every drawer and cabinet in the room, every place where money might be hidden. As he searched, he kept sniffing and yawning. Snot and tears streamed down his face, exposing him at his ugliest.

At last, Fang found a tiny amount of powder. Treating it like a treasure, he brought it to his nose and took several deep sniffs. His whole body relaxed as he lay on the floor, an expression of abnormal bliss appearing on his face.

Then he sobered up.

He looked at his grandfather, still lying on the ground, his grandfather clutching his forehead in terror, and his grandmother kneeling beside him and crying softly. Suddenly, he froze.

In his grandparents' eyes, he saw himself in all his ugliness.

For drugs, he had injured the grandfather who had raised him since childhood.

He had become the beast he despised most!

Fang stared blankly at his grandparents. The madness in his eyes gradually subsided. His eyes widened as disbelief flooded his face.

Fang suddenly let out a wail. He grabbed his own hair and repeatedly slammed himself against the wall, shielding his face with his arm.

The old man played by Wang Zhen trembled as he came forward, wanting to stop Fang from hurting himself.

Fang shoved Wang Zhen away, scrambled up from the floor, and fled outside in panic.

With a loud bang, Fang, played by Lu Heng, burst through the door.

Staring at the door panel that kept swaying after being kicked open with such force, everyone in the audition room was stunned.

Author's note: Mini theater—

People in the audition room: Oh my god, this brat kicked the front door apart!

Mai Chengliang: Give him the role! Once filming is over and it's time to pay him, make him compensate for the door. I'm such a genius.

Lu Heng: Nobody told me the door was that expensive.

Wei Xiaogong: It's fine, it's just a door. We can afford it. I want the whole world to know that I've contracted this door! Kick it however you want! You can even ram it with your head! ~(￣▽￣~)(~￣▽￣)~

Lu Heng: One of us definitely has! A! PROBLEM! →_→

Audition

Lu Heng very cleverly blew his nose and wiped away his tears outside before coming back in.

He had gotten too immersed during the audition, and a faint flush still lingered at the corners of Lu Heng's eyes and on the tip of his nose. Director Mai Chengliang looked at him with great satisfaction, but the first thing he said was, "Can you understand Hong Kong dialect?"

During the audition just now, Wang Zhen had spoken Mandarin to accommodate Lu Heng's performance. But during actual filming, the entire crew certainly would not be so accommodating. It would be best if Lu Heng could speak Hong Kong dialect while filming; if not, he at least had to understand it.

Lu Heng was slightly taken aback, then immediately nodded. "I can understand it."

After filming so many Hong Kong martial arts movies in his previous life, how could he possibly not understand the dialect? It was true that he was not very good at speaking it. For one thing, most of the films he acted in were martial arts movies, so he did not need to speak much. For another, Lu Heng's box-office record spoke for itself. Even if he could not speak Hong Kong dialect, plenty of investors and producers still came looking for him. Everyone could understand Mandarin anyway. During filming, they generally each spoke their own dialect, then dubbed the finished film as needed.

Speaking of which, Lu Heng's talent for languages really was not great. He had practiced Mandarin for years before he barely managed to get rid of that heavy northeastern accent.

Back then, in order to break into Hollywood and secure the third male lead in Director Smith's new film, Huaxia Imperial Entertainment hired Lu Heng so many English teachers and even sent him to Hollywood at company expense to experience life. Yet Lu Heng's English still retained an intensely regional flavor, driving both his management team and English teachers to despair.