Ch2 - Boom Boom Boom

Edited – Zaki

The Scene Manager took down a set of ancient white robes from the clothes rack and compared them against Qi Linqing. It seemed that it would roughly fit. 

“Can you wear it?”

Qi Lin nodded.

If it was jeans, he might have had a hard time, but ancient garb, he could wear them inside and out with his eyes closed.

Then the Scene Manager stuffed him into the fitting room with the clothes. 

“Just now, was that guy, the brother who exchanged life with Qi Lele?”

“I couldn’t even guess that he was from the countryside.”

“He was quite good-looking.”

“His hairstyle has kept up with the latest trend, ha ha ha.”

“……..”

Everyone’s tongues were wagging.

In the fitting room.

After Qi Linqing changed his clothes, he saw a bunch of text messages pop up on his mobile phone. 

Du Yuanbai: [Are you really going to be a substitute painter?]

[Can you let me also go to the set to see?  [tears of joy emoji]]

In fact, Du Yuanbai wanted to see the other party make a joke of himself on the set

Qi Linqing typed back by hand: [No.] 

Du Yuanbai: [Damn]

[Which play is that? At the least, you can tell me that right?]

Qi Linqing frowned. He didn’t know pinyin or simplified characters. He simply called and said:

“《 Tang Yue Fengyun》.” 

Du Yuanbai was at loss, “What?”

Qi Linqing repeated patiently, “This play is called 《 Tang Yue Fengyun》.”

Du Yuanbai: “!!!”

Du Yuanbai: “Holy shit, what a coincidence! Qi Lele and Zhong Chen are also the actors of 《 Tang Yue Fengyun》eh!!!” 

Qi Linqing was stunned.

Originally, he couldn’t understand.

But after this period of adaptation, Qi Linqing already knew that these two people, respectively, were the protagonist shou and cannon fodder gong of the book he had transmigrated into.

At the other end of the phone, Du Yuanbai was still constantly chattering: 

“I heard that Zhong Chen begged his father to invest a lot of money in this play for Qi Lele. But in the end, it didn’t work out. His father only invested 2.5 million and coaxed Zhong Chen to get a small role opposite Qi Lele … ”

Outside the fitting room, the Scene Manager was already urging him to come out.

Qi Linqing had to hang up the phone, lifted the curtain and walked out.

“Little brother, come with me to see the director first.” The Scene Manager tugged on his sleeve. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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From black hair to blonde —– more than the hair colour, the change of temperament had an even more earth-shaking impact.

The first reaction of the people on the set when they saw Qi Linqing: dumbfounded.jpg. 

The handsome young man was dressed in white robes and ancient clothes, but with a head full of blonde hair, the whole appearance was like a small plastic garbage that had suddenly appeared on the waves making the appearance very garish.

The producer was incredulous: “Director Shen, is this the substitute painter that you found?”

Lai Ze tried to use a tactful tone: “He can actually go to the male group audition next door.”

With this kind of hair colour, he was going to be a substitute painter for Traditional Chinese Painting!! What type of big joke was this?! 

Director Shen subconsciously wrinkled his eyebrows, obviously, he was also unable to accept the external image of this “substitute painter”.

At that time, the boss had sent the young man over and left with a light-hearted “I am not a professional, but I feel that his painting skills should be more than enough to be a substitute painter”.

If it were not for the recommendation of a reliable friend who ran a long-established Chinese painting and framing store, Director Shen would not have wasted time on the interview anyway.

At this time, some of the actors in the audience who had seen the “Metamorphosis Meter” recognized Qi Linqing and shouted: “Isn’t he the young master of the Qi family who was previously hated by the whole network?” 

!!!!!

A while ago, the news about the true and false young masters of the Qi family had made a lot of noise on the Internet.

Director Shen’s face changed.

As if Watson had discovered a blind spot, the crowd boiled up with all sorts of talk. 

How could a young man who grew up in the countryside know Chinese painting?

………

At this time Qi Lele said, “My brother told me last time that he also wanted to enter the entertainment industry as a star.”

“Holy shit, so is he trying to get back at you!” The producer blurted out. 

Qi Lele hurriedly waved his hand and said in a serious tone: “No… My brother is not such a vicious person. He is so kind that he won’t even step on a passing cockroach.”

People:… Isn’t this the case of ‘It’s not I can’t but I dare not’?

After their brainstorming, they all came up with the same answer.

This blonde boy deliberately had come to impersonate a substitute painter, but he did not have good intentions! 

The actors who had just listened in the dressing room were even more indignant.

“Director Shen, you can’t let this kind of person into the group!”

“Rat shit will ruin a pot of porridge!!”

“…….” 

Shen Cheng hesitated and wavered, but he felt that his friend, whom he had known for many years would not deceive himself.

“Let him try.”

Shen Cheng glanced at the boy and turned to order the Scene Manager to prepare paper and ink props.

Qi Linqing was not standing far away and of course he could hear these people talking about himself. 

But he didn’t care.

The Scene Manager temporarily moved a table over and laid out pens, ink, paper and ink stone.

From the hanging frame in front of the table there hung a four-foot square print vertically.

Lai Ze said to Qi Linqing, “You can take this picture of the “Hundred Miles Kingfisher” as a reference to copy. You don’t need to finish the complete picture. Just draw about one third, so that I can know your level.” 

Having said that, Lai Ze was sure that the other party just wanted to enter the entertainment industry to get his face on camera – an empty shot. Did he think he could become a substitute painter without showing his worth? Did they think their 《Tang Yue Fengyun》 was a small budget drama that could be easily fooled into letting anyone in?

It was better to let the Qi family make additional investment and directly get a serious role……..

“Copy?” Qi Linqing’s tone showed his confusion.

The boss had not told him beforehand that he needed to draw from other works. 

Lai Ze laughed: “Or else what? Can you imagine it out of thin air?”

Qi Linqing was silent.

He really could.

No matter what Fu Yi painted, big or small, he always made it with his own hands. 

As this scene fell in the eyes of the onlookers, they felt it was a manifestation of Qi Linqing’s guilty conscience.

“He panicked, panicked!”

“Laughing to death. Don’t know how much he thinks he is worth for daring to pretend to be a professional painter.”

“I really do not know who gave him the courage?” 

“……..”

Qi Linqing’s face was calm. It was alright. It was better to take things as they came.

It’s not that he couldn’t copy.

In his childhood, he had learned to draw step-by-step, standing at the shoulders of masters. 

However, since Qi Linqing had figured out his own ideas in his last life, he has never copied other people’s paintings.

Qi Linqing stepped in front of the table and habitually touched the rice paper and his eyes brightened like a fully lit bulb.

This was better than the paper he had picked up from the trash can!

Qi Linqing had never used such a kind of paper that was as smooth as a virgin skin for painting. He immediately became interested. He raised his hand, picked up the brush and waved it. 

His standing posture and pen holding posture all showed a unique sense of classical elegance, not to mention the lines of his brush, which were as stable as a swimming dragon.

Because it had been too long since he had copied, Qi Linqing chose to inscribe the words first.

Calligraphy had something in common, and even though Qi Linqing had never seen this type of script before, he could sense some familiarity.

He thought that if he wrote according to his own brushwork, he should not make too many mistakes. 

When Qi Linqing finished a pair of words, the crowd waiting to see the joke stretched their necks to look over and swallowed two mouthfuls of saliva, as if their throats were dry.

They didn’t expect that this boy in front of them to really have some skills!

Director Shen was somewhat surprised.

Qi Lele took a closer look and was stunned. 

The ink on the rice paper was not dry, but the vitality of the brush strokes were like floating clouds.

Impossible!

Qi Lele bit his lower lip, subconsciously still in disbelief.

There were many people in the room who thought the same as Qi Lele. After all, Qi Linqing’s reputation had been blackened all over the internet. Obviously it was not their fault that they judged people because of the comments. 

The producer muttered, “My little nephew who is in his grade one can write almost the same words ……”

“It’s not the same!” Lai Ze suddenly interrupted..

Lai Ze had been so completely fascinated by the boy’s painting, that he only reacted after the producer had spoken. In hindsight, he felt a bit ashamed of being beaten in the face.

He had misunderstood!! —— Qi Linqing did not want to take the opportunity to enter the entertainment industry, but had real ability and genuine talent. 

If one was just a little proficient in art, you could see the smooth, mysterious,and majestic momentum revealed in the young man’s pale brushwork.

This type of artistic beauty and brushwork, Lai Ze had only seen in the elderly people. For example, his senior teacher.

But Lai Ze was not too surprised to see students who had not become famous for several years in the Academy of Fine Arts. Family backgrounds could only help them reach the starting line.

Maybe this teenager had a good teacher. Just like a talented student whose parents were both giants in the painting field in the school before. That student went to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to study abroad, and now he has become famous abroad at a young age. 

The producer choked for a moment and hummed coldly, “Just because he passed calligraphy doesn’t mean he must know Chinese painting.”

Lai Ze’s expression was somewhat speechless, “People are here to interview for a painting job, they must be confident in their painting skills before they come over.”

Producer: “…..”

The producer was speechless. 

Although he was speechless because of dislike, without seeing Qi Linqing actually wielding the brush on the spot, he still didn’t believe that the teenager could paint Chinese painting.

“I think this boy can.” Lai Ze turned his head to Director Shen and boasted, “His basic skills are very strong.”

“Okay.” Director Shen hesitated for a moment, but still chose to believe in the professionals’ eyes.

At present, Qi Linqing’s performance was indeed better than Qi Lele. Moreover, he was the biological son of the Qi family. There was no need to worry about the pressure of the Qi family. After that, who knows maybe his parents might even make some additional investments into the project. 

Thinking like this, Director Shen looked at Qi Linqing with a little bit more pleasant expression and said, “You passed the interview.”

The shooting time for《 Tang Yue Fengyun》 was tight. In addition, the second male lead, Qi Lele, was still a high school student. He usually needed to study and review his lessons, so Director Shen immediately told Qi Linqing to prepare and start shooting directly.

Qi Linqing: “No need to prepare.”

He hoped it was best to finish his work quickly and get money to buy paint. 

A bystander: Hmm? What did I hear?

Wasn’t that too arrogant??

The producer really hated that he didn’t have a mouth organ in his hand at the moment, otherwise he could have just handed it to Qi Linqing and tell him: Here you go. After all, you seem to be very good at blowing.

Director Shen waved his hand and said, “Then let’s start directly.” 

The storyboard would only capture Qi Linqing’s painting process below the neck, so he did not need to wear a wig to cover the blond hair.

After shifting his position to the study scene, the Scene Manager nimbly spread a new piece of rice paper on the table.

Qi Linqing tentatively asked, “Can I have the paper that was used before?”

The Scene Manager brought it over for him and joked, “You can’t part with your own ink treasures?” 

Qi Linqing shook his head, took the paper, carefully rolled it into a cylindrical shape, and asked the Scene Manager for a cotton rope to tie it up, saying, “It’s a pity to lose such a good paper.”

In the Tang Dynasty, such delicate and soft paper quality was not available. If such a type of paper would have been available, it would have been a rare treasure.

“By the way, can you give me a few more sheets later?” Qi Linqing just noticed a thick stack of paper in the hand of the Scene Manager, thinking that the other party should not mind.

Scene Manager: “Yes, yes, you can…” 

Everyone present: “……”

The producer muttered to himself, didn’t the prop team buy this paper at Pin Xixi? 9.9 with shipping fee included.

Even Director Shen couldn’t help twitching the corners of his mouth.

Qi Linqing was now a real young master of a powerful family. Why was he so stingy?