The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 47: Your sorrow is a technical defect!
The acting department office was located at the far end of the third floor of the teaching building.
Jiang Ci walked to that familiar brown wooden door and raised his hand to knock.
"Come in."
A steady baritone voice came from inside.
Jiang Ci pushed the door open and entered.
In the office, a faint tea fragrance mixed with the smell of old books washed over him.
Liu Guodong was sitting behind his desk, wearing a pair of reading glasses, reviewing some documents with his head lowered.
He didn't look up, just pointed to the chair beside him.
"Sit."
Jiang Ci sat down as instructed, his spine ramrod straight.
The office was very quiet, with only the rustling sound of Liu Guodong turning pages.
This oppressive silence was more uncomfortable than outright scolding.
After a full two minutes, Liu Guodong finally put down the documents in his hand, took off his glasses, raised his head, and looked at Jiang Ci with piercing eyes.
"Jiang Ci."
"Teacher."
"You've done well." Liu Guodong's tone revealed neither joy nor anger. "You've really made something of yourself. Now you're a big star, paparazzi videos flying everywhere. Even an old man like me who doesn't use the internet much has had students shove several clips of your performances into my phone."
Jiang Ci kept his head lowered and didn't respond.
"How do you feel about being in the crew?" Liu Guodong asked again.
"I've learned a lot." Jiang Ci answered honestly.
"Really?" Liu Guodong sneered. "It seems to me you've forgotten everything you learned at school. One semester, you took over two months of leave. If I hadn't covered for you, your credits would have been insufficient long ago!"
His voice suddenly rose sharply, carrying an uncompromising severity.
"Do you think that just because you've shot some things outside, gained some fame, your graduation certificate doesn't matter anymore? That what the school teaches is no longer worthy of your attention?"
"Teacher, I don't think that." Jiang Ci raised his head and met his gaze.
Liu Guodong stared at him for a few seconds, the anger on his face slowly receding, turning into a sigh.
"I know you have talent, have gift. I could tell from your first time on stage during freshman year."
He leaned back in his chair, his tone softening considerably. "But you also have too many unorthodox methods. Film acting is fragmented, and it relies on camera work and post-production editing."
"It can cover up many of your problems. But the stage cannot."
He pointed at Jiang Ci.
"The stage is like a magnifying glass. Any tiny slackness, any disjointed emotion, will be seen clearly by the audience below. That set of methods you use in the crew won't work on stage."
Jiang Ci listened seriously and nodded.
"For this graduation play, why did I choose Rhinoceros in Love? Why did I pair you with Xia Meng?" Liu Guodong tapped his fingers on the desktop. "Because both of you are among the most talented students in your year, and also the two with the most obvious problems."
Just then, the office door was knocked on again.
"Come in."
The door was pushed open, and a female student walked in.
She was tall and slender, wearing a simple white dress, with jet-black long hair cascading over her shoulders.
Her skin was very pale, a nearly translucent cold white.
Her facial features were delicate, but combined together, they exuded an aloof coldness that kept people at a distance.
After entering, she only gave Liu Guodong a slight nod, then quietly stood beside Jiang Ci, her gaze level looking forward, as if Jiang Ci were transparent.
Xia Meng.
This name instantly surfaced in Jiang Ci's mind.
"Xia Meng, you sit too." Liu Guodong pointed to the chair beside Jiang Ci.
Xia Meng sat down as instructed, her posture as straight as Jiang Ci's, with a subtle distance between them.
"Now that everyone is here, I'll speak to you together." Liu Guodong's expression became extremely serious.
"Jiang Ci, your problem is that you're too 'unorthodox,' too reliant on so-called 'feeling.' You act on talent, but your foundation is unstable. The character Ma Lu requires extreme explosive power, but also extreme control. If you only have explosion without control, it will become a disaster on stage."
He then turned to Xia Meng.
"Xia Meng, your problem is the exact opposite. Your technique is impeccable, your lines, physicality, are all textbook level. But there's no 'person' in your performance. You're too 'cold,' too 'stiff.'"
"You're performing sadness, not feeling sadness."
"The character Ming Ming is cold on the outside but hot inside, her heart is a ball of fire. If you can't ignite yourself, you'll ruin this character."
Liu Guodong looked at the two students before him, his eyes carrying both expectation and warning.
"I've paired you two together hoping you can complement each other. Jiang Ci, I don't care what you're like outside, when you return to school, you're a student! I need you to settle down, to channel your wildness into the character's bones, not let it float on the surface!"
"Xia Meng, I need you to open up! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, don't be afraid of losing control! Acting isn't solving math problems, there's no standard answer! I need you to truly live on that stage!"
"Rhinoceros in Love is the highlight of our department's graduation play. I don't want it to be ruined in your hands. Understood?"
"Understood." Jiang Ci and Xia Meng spoke almost simultaneously.
This was the first time Jiang Ci had heard Xia Meng's voice.
Clear, cold, clean, like mountain spring water, yet carrying a sense of distance.
"Good." Liu Guodong waved his hand. "You've all received the scripts, right? Go back and study them carefully, ponder them deeply. Tomorrow at 2 PM, rehearsal room one, first rehearsal. What I want to see isn't two actors, but Ma Lu and Ming Ming."
"Yes."
Both stood up, bowed to Liu Guodong, then turned and left.
Walking out of the office, in the narrow corridor, only the sound of their unhurried footsteps could be heard.
Neither spoke.
The atmosphere was quiet to the point of awkwardness.
Jiang Ci could sense that this girl beside him seemed to be enveloped in an invisible barrier that kept everyone at a distance.
Just when he thought they would continue in silence until they parted ways, Xia Meng, walking beside him, suddenly stopped.
She didn't look at him, her gaze fixed on the window at the end of the corridor, her voice not loud but very clear.
"I've seen your paparazzi videos."
Jiang Ci stopped walking.
He turned his head, quietly looking at Xia Meng, waiting for her to continue.
The light in the corridor came from the side, outlining her silhouette somewhat blurry, but that keep-people-at-a-distance coldness was extremely clear.
"I've seen your paparazzi videos, seven clips in total, with a total duration of four minutes and thirty-one seconds."
Her voice had no fluctuation.
Jiang Ci was momentarily stunned.
This opening line didn't match any scenario he had imagined.
Xia Meng didn't give him time to react and continued, "That part 'I'm waiting for someone to come home,' your performance was brilliant."
"In less than five seconds, your facial muscle control was within a 3% activity range, hardly making any unnecessary expressions."
"But through the instant defocusing of your eyes and the slight trembling of your eyelids at a frequency lower than normal, you precisely conveyed the information of centuries of sadness."
"This is a very advanced acting technique."
Xia Meng dissected his performance into pieces of muscles and data.
The expression on Jiang Ci's face somewhat solidified.
Praise?
This sounded like praise, but why did it feel so awkward?
"But," Xia Meng's tone abruptly shifted, "at the moment you turned around, your core muscle group was slack."
"An immortal lord who has been waiting bitterly for his beloved for five hundred years, who has long engraved waiting into his very bones, his body memory should be tense."
"Your sadness is floating on the surface."
