Proofreader: Kazuha

Hollywood. Audition for a role in a movie directed by a foreign director.

What does this mean?

Any popular star would not miss this opportunity!

Because becoming an international star from a popular idol, although it is just a change in title, would mean a tremendous change in qualification! Whether it is the person's status, worth, or the audience.

In his previous life, the best he could get in his acting career was to be named as one of the nominees for the Golden Cypress Award.

To get a chance to audition for a role in a movie by a foreign director like this, economically speaking, was something that his previous company couldn't arrange, so he had never dared to think about it...

And now, hearing the news from Feng Jing's mouth, he felt extremely happy! Being hit with such a surprise blow, he felt extremely content.

Du Yun Xiu continued smiling throughout the whole celebration party.

No matter what the other people said, or what kind of congratulatory greeting they said, Du Yun Xiu kept on smiling and just constantly nodded. This happy look also led to a positive impression of him from the the other staff and media, and resulted in positive comments, such as although Du Yun Xiu usually does not take the initiative to start any conversations with anyone, his personality is not bad.

Only Fu Zi Han.

Even though his face did not show any displeasure, he gave Du Yun Xiu a cold shoulder.

"With just one sentence from Feng Jing, it has made you this happy? Afterall, it's a casting audition in a foreign director's movie, congratulations to you."

The word were just out of courtesy, not much sincerity.

But the joyful Du Yun Xiu did not even notice the other man's attitude had changed.

"The other person is Lin Xuan? Isn't she that international movie star? Looks like she is good to you."

"We...we only met once at that party that day." Although he knew Lin Xuan very well, this was clearly not the time to tell the truth.

"Haha, Lin Xuan is indeed a great beauty. It's natural for you to have thoughts of chasing after her." Fu Zi Han said with a ridiculed smile.

Yun Xiu shook his head and said that it's impossible.

Fu Zi Han then added: "However, I head from a friend who has known her, that she has strong ambitions. Now she is in a relationship with a wealthy French businessman...Of course, for such a woman in her present position, it is unlikely for her to be ambitious without paying a price for it."

Du Yun Xiu's facial expression suddenly turned cold as he blurted out.

"Whether she is ambitious or to has to pay a prize or not; it's not your place to evaluate her."

Because there was not even a hint of hesitation, his coherent tone had some traces of coldness in it.

Fu Zi Han was surprised.

These words were like cold water splashing onto his face without much hesitation, not giving him a retreating path, nor giving him any respect.

How was he, Fu Zi Han, put into such an embarrassing situation?!

Fu Zi Han squinted his eyes, a faint trace of sharpness crossing his eyes.

Although his polite attitude was nurtured in a foreign country, his arrogance and temper that he had inherited from Grandfather Fu had never disappeared!

Fu Zi Han looked straight up at Du Yun Xiu for a couple seconds to calm down the anger in his heart, and then he turned and walked away.

Later on, Du Yun Xiu felt that the words he had spoken were too fierce and quite abrupt.

Seeing that look on Fu Zi Han's face, he felt even more guilty. This kind of guilt also brought along a kind of fear...it seemed like he had never seen Fu Zi Han like that and it made him feel very strange.

The other man is the heir of Glorious Crown.

A prominent family background, self-confident decency, and having a vitality of a youthful momentum; an unique arrogance that is not so unruly, and did not give offense to other people.

His amber eyes and his not so fluent Mandarin pronunciation had led anti-fans to claim that he was "a rich son that was using acting as a hobby to kill time, even his Mandarin is broken and not clear" as a reason against him, yet these unique qualities happened to be appealing in his fans' eyes!

Fu Zi Han had never deliberately tried to put on an arrogant shell.

Therefore, he is very popular in this entertainment circle and has a really good evaluation; many artists had praised Fu Zi Han with proud words.

The other man had tried really hard to shorten the distance between the two of them.

The other man was even his savior, and had just saved him not too long ago; yet he had used that kind of tone to talk to the other man.

No matter how you look at it, it was impolite of him...

But the person Fu Zi Han mocking was Lin Xuan.

There is an unwritten rule between the men. Perhaps talking about other men behind their backs is not so acceptable, but it is not the same with women. Especially the women in this entertainment world. Everyone knows how dirty this circle is.

But Lin Xuan is different.

If it is his friend, the other person should have never had such comments about Lin Xuan. Neither in front of him nor behind his back.

Du Yun Xiu watched as Fu Zi Han's back slowly disappeared among the crowd.

Du Yun Xiu suddenly felt somewhat lost...the kind of lost feeling that not even the good news of the audition could fill in.

Maybe it is better that way.

Du Yun Xiu smiled bitterly, raised up his glass of wine and took a sip. The wine flowing into his mouth, but it did not carry that glycol fragrance, instead it had that silky bitter taste.

From the beginning, he and the other man were never been equals.

The other man's status and background had always been in the elite range of the society, he is a case of one in a million. While he is just an idol star, in which this entertainment business has many of them.

Their statuses were never the same

One person can speak with impunity, while if the other person speaks wrongly, the first thing that person would to consider is whether his words had offended the Glorious Crown behind the other person...

Perhaps of this early realization of inequality had led him to never hold any hope

*** *** ***

Since that time.

Fu Zi Han never took the initiative to talk to Du Yun Xiu.

It was not that Du Yun Xiu did not want to find an opportunity to communicate with Fu Zi Han, but that did not mean he felt apologetic. Regarding Lin Xuan's matter, he did not have to apologize about anything.

Even when he ran into Fu Zi Han, every time the words stopped at the tip of his tongue when their eyes met, and the other man would impose on talking with the staff, so it seemed that there was no way he could ease the air around them. Du Yun Xiu also gave up on it.

Fu Zi Han is a self-assertive person.

Since he had offended the other man...there was no need for an explanation, perhaps no matter how much you try to explain, the other person would just look down at you, and even think that you are just trying to please him. The other man has such high social status, his existence is not that important in the other man's life.

Although his heart was filled with faint regret, Du Yun Xiu did not forget to prepare for the audition at the French director Luc Rohmer's casting call.

Usually when a foreign director comes to China to pick the actor.

Either he needs an Oriental face as a supporting role, or he fancies Oriental martial arts, and wants to use this element to attract the viewers.

Luc Rohmer is not an exception.

The film 《Royal Adventure》is a big action film. Resurrection of the spirits, inadvertently winning the treasure, the mysterious Oriental guardian...

Naturally, the male and female leads will harbor romantic feelings towards each other during the adventure.

And Du Yun Xiu's character was a quiet Oriental guardian, self-restrained, an expert at Chinese martial arts, in addition to a three-meter black whip which beautifully drew up the image of the character.

At the scene of his appearance.

Du Yun Xiu flicked his wrist and a dark and sharp whip lashed out like a snake fleeing into the air, boldly wrapping itself around the female lead's waist as she fell down from a height, and as he drew back the whip, the female lead landed perfectly into his arms.

Du Yun Xiu held onto the female lead like a hero holding onto a princess style.

And then a pair of charming oriental dark inkjet eyes looked straight into the female lead's emerald eyes --- An exotic encounter.

Although there was no fruition between them, that moment was enough to arouse an unknown feeling within the Oriental man's heart.

And it was this French director who wanted to add this action into the Oriental character's composition, which is in full compliance with the Western imagination of the mysterious Oriental people.

In spite of the fact that the action was being guided by the director along with the help of the special effect team at a later time Du Yun Xiu decided to thoroughly prepare these days, even though he would just be an empty shell, at least he must perform the act with decency.

He looked for a martial art expert coach to teach him a few skill in how to use the whip. After all, this is not something one is able to excel in a day or two; after going through some special training, his posture gradually came into the right form, but he still did not have good control of the whip; sometimes when the force was somewhat off, the whip fiercely backfired at Du Yun Xiu himself, leaving a crimson whip mark!

In that audition that day, Lin Xuan was also there.

Du Yun Xiu did not know what happened to her in the past few years, but it seemed that her relationship with Luc is really good as they both leisurely chatting in French.

Seeing Du Yun Xiu walk in, Lin Xuan smiled.

A smile like that suddenly helped to calm down Du Yun Xiu's heart. The tension of first time audition for a role in a foreign director's movie suddenly disappeared.

Auditioning for a foreign movie is no different than auditioning for a domestic movie. Just that the staff in the foreign movie more around more rigorously with lightning, cameras, and all machinery equipments that are of the latest technology. Even though Du Yun Xiu had participated in a lot of extravagantly funded domestic movies, he also had to heave out a sigh; perhaps it was due to funding, or perhaps it was due to the technology; those domestic movies were lacking in the foreign high-end photographic equipments.

It was the first time the stylist was working with Du Yun Xiu's character style.

In order to highlight the mystery of the East, the stylist made his skin look especially more yellowish, with black headgear, and his long hair was woven into a thin braid, with some small coins, small beads and the likes added onto the braid.

His clothes were made out of linen materials, and they were very thick and rough. Unfortunately, Du Yun Xiu did not have a lean body like Xie Yi or Chu Feng, so his body did not fit into this kind of clothes. His body could not portray the kind of agility like the eagle's sharp mighty.

But at the photoshoot for the character's poster.

Du Yun Xiu successfully showed the character's temperament --- through his eyes.

Long and thick eyelashes, the kind of unique oriental black eyes, flashing with a calm and wise light.

Du Yun Xiu did not talk much at the studio.

Aside talking to his own assistant and an ESE's French interpreter that Feng Jing specifically arranged for him, Du Yun Xiu just nodded his head, and then fell into a silence.

He did not say anything else.

This faint trace of mysterious temperament.

It was exactly the feeling that the French director had wanted!

After the audition, his performance was very good. Lin Xuan and Luc resumed to talking for a bit.

Du Yun Xiu felt very strange.

He could understand some English in his previous life, but it was not the kind of authentic English so to speak; as for French, he had zero knowledge of it. But now...he seemed to vaguely understand the conversation between Lin Xuan and Luc speaking in French.

"Thank you, Isabella, for recommending such a great actor! He has such a unique temperament, a very strong oriental charm, I like it!"

"Of course, I would never recommend someone who is not suitable to you, Luc. Derek's popularity in the country is very high, he even won this year's "Best Newcomer Award" at the annual Golden Cypress Award."

"Oh, really? If the movie were to be released here, would it hit a jackpot at the box office? Haha."

"Of course. You should not underestimate the Asian movie market."

......

This hazy feeling.

On one hand, he could understand what Lin Xuan and Luc were talking about in French. At the same time, there was faint shadow of a pair of charming deep blue eyes belonging to a man, with a tender tone, teaching him to pronounce each elegant French word...

No, that is not me...

Until now, there was no one that taught me French...

That is.

Du Yun Xiu had a splitting headache, and almost felt like fainting right at the spot. He was trying to hold onto his head...

"Yun Xiu, Yun Xiu, are you alright?" Lin Xuan's voice suddenly sounded by his ears. It was like a sudden wake up call from a dream, returning back to reality from an illusion.

Du Yun Xiu fixated his vision.

Lin Xuan looked at him worriedly, and the director, whose conversation was being interrupted abruptly, also looked at him puzzled.

"I'm alright. I just..." Du Yun Xiu reluctantly smiled.

"Derek was just trying to figure out the role." Lin Xuan smiled elegantly towards Luc, "you must add Derek into your cast!"

"I never break my promise to a beautiful Asian lady." Luc lifted up Lin Xuan's wrist, and gently placed a French romantic kiss onto the back of the other's hand...

However, a few days later.

Du Yun Xiu still had not received a formal notice from Luc, but at ESE, he overheard the conversation between Li Xiao with a beautiful newly signed ESE's female artist.

"Not that I don't want to look for you! But I've been very busy these days, and I just had lunch with the French director Luc yesterday."

"Luc? Luc Rohmer? That famous French director?" The little girl let out a big "whoa" cry, eyes full of envy and worship.

"Yeah, him." Li Xiao indifferently shrugged his shoulders, "My brother wants me to play a role in his movie, saying that it is the role of an Oriental guardian. I read that script already, and it's silly written. But I heard that this film is use to enter the Hollywood scene, it's a good chance to have a global premiere."

---

End of Chapter 31