I'm Your Dad! (Please Vote!)

"Director, why?"

Shen Qi's eyes lit up. He had been wondering how to start a conversation!

He hadn't expected the director to take the initiative!

"I don't know what things were like in your family, but it can't have been the same as in the Ju Family, right?"

That was far more than a perfunctory comment!

Kang Honglei thought Shen Qi was being a little too enthusiastic.

It made him a bit nervous!

"Right. I wanted to quit school because my father was in poor health. In the end, my mother switched sides and backed him, so I went back to class."

Shen Qi briefly explained the experience he had drawn on.

"Have you thought about where your situations differ? Did you adjust your performance to account for those differences?"

Kang Honglei was pleased with Shen Qi's attitude.

He was willing to teach him a thing or two.

"More or less. They felt pretty similar to me."

Shen Qi scratched his head.

He really hadn't considered the difference.

"They're not the same," Kang Honglei said, shaking his head. "In fact, the difference is huge. You could even call it fundamental. You planned to give up your studies because your father was sick. What was that?"

"Something circumstances forced me to do?"

Shen Qi answered as he thought it over.

"No," Kang Honglei said firmly. "It was a sacrifice!"

"Oh, I get it." Realization dawned on Shen Qi. "Ju Shuangyuan felt guilty, but he also resisted."

"Exactly. You put it well. The two of you are different. You didn't dislike studying. You wanted to quit as a sacrifice for your family. So even though you defied your father, you knew your reasons were sound. You had no reason to hang your head."

That was precisely why Kang Honglei thought even more highly of Shen Qi.

"Too bad we've already shot it. Sigh..."

Shen Qi was deeply frustrated.

"If you want, we'll shoot it again! We can redo your two big close-ups."

Kang Honglei wasn't Shang Jing.

His budget wasn't large, but he made good use of the footage he shot. He didn't mind using a little more film.

For most of the dinner scene, Shen Qi had his back to the main camera.

He only had two or three close-ups.

They just needed to reshoot those.

Shen Qi wanted to nail those shots, leave a lasting impression on Kang Honglei, and make the director eager to cast him again. He even used the Magic Book.

Now there was someone he could teach!

Kang Honglei was getting a taste of what Wu Jiatai, Shang Jing, and the others had experienced.

Guiding actors was a basic skill for a director, but it was also a profoundly difficult art.

Kang Honglei hadn't expected Shen Qi's performance to improve so dramatically after just a couple of casual pointers.

What did that mean?

It meant Shen Qi had insight. He had listened carefully and taken the advice to heart.

More importantly—it meant Kang Honglei had taught him well!

"Thank you for giving me this chance, Director!"

Shen Qi made sure to thank Kang Honglei. Judging by today's shoot, the director was highly capable and well worth getting to know.

Or, to put it bluntly, worth attaching himself to!

After all, at his current level, Shen Qi wasn't really in a position to befriend a director like him.

"No need to thank me. Since you've chosen acting, give it your best."

Kang Honglei didn't like praising people.

Some could work with him for an entire production without getting more than a word or two of approval.

But Shen Qi was different.

The more Kang Honglei learned about the young man, the more he felt Shen Qi had not had it easy.

Shen Qi's love of acting was impossible to miss.

You could even call it an obsession.

He was mad about acting!

What Kang Honglei didn't know was that Shen Qi was stuck in a mire of failure.

He had tried to record the performance more than ten times without succeeding.

It was making Shen Qi question everything.

When he had recorded Fan Ming's performance as Constable Xing, seven or eight tries had been about enough.

If Fan Ming hadn't been at his best, three to five might have done it.

But now Shen Qi had tried more than a dozen times.

What did that mean?

It meant Fan Ming was acting even better now. His performance as Ju Guangda had more substance than his performance as Constable Xing.

"I must've done something terrible in a past life! Something terrible! I didn't raise a son—I raised a creditor! A creditor!"

Fan Ming shouted in despair.

Then came his scene with the old woman who doted on her grandson.

"If you're saying you did something terrible by raising him, what does that say about me raising you?"

Even if you were my son, you couldn't insult my precious grandson.

Ju Guangda shouted back, "Mom, that's not what I meant! I said the wrong thing, all right? I said the wrong thing!"

As he spoke, he slapped himself across the face.

The old woman roared furiously:

"You think I don't know what you mean? You just think your dad and I are old now, that we're an eyesore!"

"Mom!"

"Don't call me Mom! I don't have a son like you!"

The argument was something else.

Well, that settled it. He was immersed in the role.

Once an actor got that immersion boost, his acting would leap ahead. No wonder the recording kept failing.

Unless...

"Fan Ming, here, have some water."

Shen Qi asked Huang Qidao to find two bottles of ice water, using the same trick again.

"I... thanks!"

Fan Ming had gotten so worked up during the scene that he still hadn't fully calmed down.

A drink of water finally helped.

He really had been a bit too immersed in the role. He had nearly blurted out, Fan Ming? I'm your dad!

"Fan Ming, that scene you just did was incredible."

Shen Qi needed to lay the groundwork and get Fan Ming eager to talk.

"It was all right..."

Everyone liked hearing praise, especially Fan Ming, who got mocked for living off his wife. The corners of his mouth had already turned up.

"Honestly, after seeing you play Constable Xing, I underestimated your acting. Today really opened my eyes. Fan Ming, how did you make that scene so good?"

Shen Qi steered him toward an analysis.

"Well, I think Ju Guangda has spent a lot of time working away from home. City attitudes have shaken up his ideas about rural life, and his thinking has grown extreme. He believes the only way forward is to get into college..."

Fan Ming took the bait.

He began pouring his heart out...

The sight made an even deeper impression on Kang Honglei.

This young man was bound for great things!

Kang Honglei couldn't bring himself to interrupt Fan Ming and Shen Qi.

Only after they finished talking did he announce that filming would continue.

As filming went on, Shen Qi kept trying to record the performance.

There was a problem, though.

TV dramas rarely reshot the same shot over and over. For one thing, the standards weren't that demanding. For another, there wasn't enough film to waste.

So the shot Fan Ming and Shen Qi had discussed might be done in just one or two takes.

Shen Qi couldn't keep recording the same shot repeatedly.

Fortunately, a scene required plenty of different shots, and Fan Ming's analysis helped with the entire scene.

Before they finished filming it, Shen Qi finally managed to record a shot.

With Fan Ming's recorded acting to draw on, Shen Qi found the performance much easier.

Without realizing it, he left Kang Honglei with the impression that he was remarkably coachable.

In fact, when directors contacted actors they had worked with before for a new production, it was often because they had spotted something special in them.

That was how second and third collaborations happened.

Shen Qi hadn't earned that kind of consideration because his abilities were extraordinary.

He had earned it by giving the director a sense of accomplishment.

This actor...

I'm the one who brought him this far!

The improvement was plain to see. There was no faking it.