The Eye of the Storm

Liang Sizhe came out of the bathroom after taking a shower, and saw Cao Ye lying on the bed again, with his face buried in the pillow.

The juvenile is well-proportioned, slender and strong, and even the protruding shoulder blades on his back look exquisite and beautiful.

Liang Sizhe wiped his wet hair with a towel, sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Cao Ye.Although there are tons of worries on his heart, but now that he is with Cao Ye, it seems that it is not so difficult to bear.Let's take one step at a time, he thought, how bad could it be?Compared with when he had nothing two years ago, he has more than enough now.

"Liang Sizhe." Cao Ye suddenly called out to him.

"Huh?" Liang Sizhe responded.

"Don't apologize." Cao Ye's voice sounded muffled by the pillow.

Liang Sizhe was startled for a moment, and replied, "Yes."

"Don't go drinking with you either."

"it is good."

"Don't act in that movie either."

"No more acting."

When Cao Ye said something, he responded.

From the moment Cao Ye said the first sentence "Don't apologize", he felt a little sore in his chest.

The brokerage company said that you have to apologize to accompany the drink, otherwise the company will consider hiding you in the future.

The producer said that it is not easy for the crew to film now, and it is up to you whether you can continue filming.

The media and public opinion said that if you think you don't have the money, then don't accept this film.

Only Cao Ye told him, Liang Sizhe, don't apologize, don't go to drink with him, and don't act in that movie at this moment when he is surrounded by enemies and besieged.

They stood together, and he agreed to whatever Cao Ye said.

He thought that Cao Ye might be more than just a favorite person to him. He regarded him as his only family member, as a heart-to-heart friend, and as a support point against outside public opinion.

At this moment, the Blue Banquet seemed to be a calm safe haven. There was a lot of scolding outside, but it didn't disturb this secluded corner at all. No one knew they were hiding here at the moment.

After Cao Ye finished those few words, he didn't say anything for a long time, and after a while, he spoke again: "I just contacted Uncle Yin."

He paused, and Liang Sizhe said "Hmm", indicating that he was listening.

"My dad... is going to make a new movie. He's picking actors recently. The audition round is over. He will organize an audition in two days, and Uncle Yin will take you there."

Liang Sizhe was stunned for a moment, and then said "OK".Cao Xiuyuan never had a precedent for reusing newcomers, everyone acquiesced to this, but when Cao Ye said this, he didn't ask too much.

Cao Ye lay on his stomach for a while, then sat up from the bed, his hair was a little messed up by the pillow, he plucked it a couple of times, and there was a little irritability between his brows and eyes.He lifted up from the pillow, and his voice became clear: "However, Uncle Yin only said that he would help, but you also know that my dad is not very good at listening to other people's ideas when casting roles, so... can I be selected? , you still have to rely on yourself."

"I know," Liang Sizhe looked at him and said, "I will act well."

"En." After Cao Ye finished speaking, he raised his hand and scratched his hair twice, looking a little anxious.

Although Cao Ye didn't show it, Liang Sizhe always felt that he should be very worried about himself now. He was obviously two years younger than himself, but at this moment he was telling himself worriedly.

"Cao Ye."

Cao Ye lowered his head and responded shortly, "Ah."

"Don't worry..." Liang Sizhe just opened his mouth and was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.

They looked at each other, and Liang Sizhe got up to open the door.

Standing at the door was Cao Xiuyuan's driver and cameraman, who were acquainted with the production crew of Thirteen Days before. Liang Sizhe greeted him politely: "Uncle Xu, Sister Qiu."

"A Yin asked me to accompany Brother Lei to pick you up. By the way, I will tell you about the characters in "Red Man, Red Woman"," the cameraman Qiu Lu looked into the room. She is one of the few female cameramen in the industry. I have worked with Cao Xiuyuan for many years, "Xiaoye is here too, right?"

"En." Liang Sizhe turned sideways to make way for her.

"You guys have caused a lot of trouble," Qiu Lu said with a smile, "You took over today's headline again."

Liang Sizhe forced a smile.

After Qiu Lu finished speaking, he walked into the room, squatted down in front of Cao Ye, and looked him up and down: "I haven't seen Xiao Ye for several years, do you still know me?"

"Sister Qiu." Cao Ye called out, but his attitude was not very enthusiastic.When he sees the crew now, he can't help but guess whether they know about the relationship between Zheng Yin and Cao Xiuyuan, and if they know, how do they look at him?mercy?Take yourself as a joke?Or look at it like a fool who doesn't know anything?

But Qiu Lu didn't seem to be aware of his repulsion, looked at him and said, "You look really good, I have inherited my mother's looks and my father's heroic spirit."

"Let's go." Cao Ye stood up and said uncomfortably.

When he went downstairs, Qiu Lu kept asking Cao Ye various questions, such as where he went to school and what major he studied. Although Cao Ye didn't want to talk to him, he was taught by Li You to be polite to his elders, so he answered them sentence by sentence. .

After getting in the car, Qiu Lu sat in the co-pilot, turned his face to talk to Liang Sizhe in the back row about the role.

"This role is not easy to play. It's a... well," she paused, "Fringe characters, have you heard of transvestites?"

As soon as the word "transvestite" came out, a look of astonishment flashed across Cao Ye's face. He didn't expect Cao Xiuyuan to shoot such a sensitive subject this time.

"It's a surprise, right?" Qiu Lu turned his head and looked at them, "I was also surprised when A Yin told me to take Sizhe to audition, mainly because I couldn't imagine what it would be like for you to play this role... ...But don't worry, A Yin is the person who knows Director Cao best, since he thinks you can do it, then there is something to be said for it."

Cao Ye frowned, turned his head to the window, and tried his best not to interrupt Qiu Lu.

Qiu Lu continued: "Since the selection of this role, Director Cao has not had a particularly favorite newcomer. The main reason is that the newcomers are not strong enough. Most newcomers start to feel a little shy and cringe when they put on women's clothing, but As for the role of Li Yan, he is actually a very free and easy person. He feels from the bottom of his heart that he should dress like this. He thinks he is beautiful like this. The moment he puts on women's clothing is the most relaxing moment in his life, because he You can hide yourself..."

Cao Ye pulled up his hood, leaned his head on his back and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.He didn't want to hear how seamlessly Cao Xiuyuan and Zheng Yin cooperated, and he didn't want to hear how Liang Sizhe would act as a transvestite next.

Sensing his movement, Liang Sizhe turned his face to look at him, but said nothing.

How did that happen?Cao Ye thought, he obviously hated Cao Xiuyuan and Zheng Yin, but he had no choice but to bow to them and make concessions in exchange for an audition opportunity.

If Liang Sizhe's audition is successful, how will the media report and speculate?But he didn't want Liang Sizhe to fail the audition and continue acting in that film.What a contradiction.

He closed his eyes and forced himself not to listen or think.

After a while, Liang Sizhe raised his hand to touch his arm.Cao Ye opened his eyes, Liang Sizhe handed over the phone, he took a look at it, Liang Sizhe typed a line in the memo: "Don't worry, I will win Best Actor again." It should have been left unfinished in the room That sentence.

Cao Ye returned the phone to him, and Liang Sizhe took it, but he didn't take it back. He held the phone in the middle with one hand, and continued to type on the screen with his thumb: "It will also become very powerful."

Cao Ye stared at the line for a long time, then muttered "what does it have to do with me", and turned his face away.

"What's wrong?" Qiu Lu stopped what he was saying, and turned to look at Cao Ye, "What did Xiao Ye say?"

"No." Cao Ye said.

Liang Sizhe turned his face to look at Cao Ye, the side face of the young man was mostly blocked by the hood, and he was looking out the window pretending to be innocent.

——Why are you so awkward?

Liang Sizhe raised his hand and rubbed Cao Ye's hair, then withdrew his hand before Cao Ye turned his head to look at him.

——It's cute even when it's awkward.

The Blue Banquet is not far from Cao Xiuyuan's studio, it takes only 10 minutes.

The closer they got, the stronger the sense of rejection and disgust in Cao Ye's heart.

Even though he had made an exchange with Zheng Yin on the phone, he still didn't want to see them when things came to an end.Do you want to see with your own eyes how Zheng Yin pleads with Cao Xiuyuan?

want to escape.

Don't want to face it.

I don't want to have a good chat with Zheng Yin.

What's there to talk about?

irritable.

Cao Ye pressed the car door handle with one hand, took out his mobile phone with the other hand, and typed a few words on the text message interface.

Cao Xiuyuan's studio consisted of several low buildings. The car drove into the park, bypassed the path smoothly, and stopped in front of one of the low buildings.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Cao Ye clicked to send a message on his mobile phone, then opened the door and jumped out of the car.

If you don't want to face it, let yourself escape.

He opened his legs and ran towards the entrance of the park quickly. Before they could react, he had already run out of the park.

"Hey?" Qiu Lu looked at Cao Ye's back with some surprise, "What is Xiaoye going to do?"

The phone vibrated in the palm of his hand, Liang Sizhe looked down, the message was from Cao Ye, with a two-second delay, it was sent the moment Cao Ye pushed the door and got off the car:

"Successful audition. Don't catch up."

What are you hiding by running so fast?Hide yourself?Or hide from Cao Xiuyuan who will face him next?

"Brother Lei, do you want to drive after him?" Qiu Lu asked the driver.

"Stop chasing." Liang Sizhe said.

"Did he tell you what to do, Sizhe?"

Liang Sizhe let out a "hmm".

In fact, he didn't know what Cao Ye was going to do. He always felt that Cao Ye had entered the rebellious period of youth belatedly in the past two years, and he often couldn't figure out what Cao Ye was thinking.

However, since you want to hide, then hide, hide in a place where no one can find, as for yourself, let Cao Ye let the air out, until he hides enough and wants to come out.

Liang Sizhe waited for Zheng Yin to come over on the sofa on the first floor, flipping through the script that Qiu Lu gave him.

Cao Xiuyuan and Zheng Yin came here together, and when they walked in, Zheng Yin was talking to him.

Liang Sizhe closed the script, got up and called "Teacher Cao".

Cao Xiuyuan frowned and said, "Where's Cao Ye?"

"Cao Ye went to a friend's place, and they gave him a make-up birthday." This reason was made up by Liang Sizhe in advance. He thought that no matter how unreasonable Cao Xiuyuan was, he should give his youngest son a little face.

"Then tell me what happened last night."

Liang Sizhe roughly recounted what happened at the hotel last night.Zheng Yin spoke for Cao Ye after listening: "Brother Yuan, Xiao Ye was a little impulsive in this matter, but it's not a mistake. I have come into contact with Jiang Hua, and sometimes he talks too much..."

Cao Xiuyuan interrupted Zheng Yin: "He is too naive, doesn't he know that the operation of capital is so cruel?"

"Innocence is not a bad thing." Zheng Yin looked quite calm.

"In this case, then you help him clean up the mess he caused, and don't come to me." Cao Xiuyuan turned and walked towards the office.

Zheng Yin looked at Liang Sizhe with some headaches: "I can only talk about this matter for you, but whether you can audition or not depends on Brother Yuan's own thoughts."

"Uncle Yin, let me talk about it myself first." Liang Sizhe said.

Zheng Yin froze for a moment, then waved to him, motioning him to follow.

Liang Sizhe pushed the door open and entered the room. Cao Xiuyuan had already taken off his windbreaker, lit a cigarette, sat on the swivel chair, and picked up the script.

Seeing Liang Sizhe coming in, Cao Xiuyuan glanced at him without saying a word.

"Teacher Cao." Liang Sizhe said.

"En." Cao Xiuyuan responded casually.

"I didn't come here to give myself a chance, but I just wanted to ask you not to scold Cao Ye for this matter." Liang Sizhe paused and continued, "He will know how cruel the operation of capital is when he makes movies in the future, but now , I think this innocence should be protected.”

Cao Xiuyuan didn't speak at first, and let him hang out for a while, smoking half of a cigarette before asking: "Three times the liquidated damages, how do you plan to pay? The salary I gave you last time shouldn't be enough?"

"I haven't figured out how to take the road ahead." Liang Sizhe said truthfully.

"The road ahead, do you think you still have a way out? With this going on like this, who would dare to ask you to act in a play?" Cao Xiuyuan said again, "You have no play, so you have to go back and play in that quarantine area. Do you think the producers and investors can let you go?"

"Innocence, protect innocence," Cao Xiuyuan closed the script, and snorted coldly, "What a joke." After he finished speaking, he dragged the ashtray, stubbed out the cigarette, and raised his hand to throw the script towards Liang Sizhe, who caught it up.

"Let's say it first, it's up to you whether the audition is successful or not. I won't let you down because of this matter," Cao Xiuyuan said, "If it's the liquidated damages, I'll pay for you. If it's not, you should go where."

"Thank you, Teacher Cao."

"Don't be naive, and don't be naive. These days, no matter what the media asks you, you just keep your mouth shut, hide away, and don't waste your time. That's enough, go out and read the script."

Liang Sizhe didn't go out for the next two days, and stayed in Cao Xiuyuan's studio to read the script.According to Zheng Yin's instruction, he didn't answer all the calls from the agency and the producer, and he will deal with everything after the audition is over.

The role of Li Nian is difficult to control. Unlike Xiao Man's self-restrained character from the inside out, Li Nian is the kind of person who lives a depressed but free and easy life, and there is also a kind of madness in him.The character level is richer than that of Xiaoman, so it is naturally more difficult.

In addition, most of Li Nian's scenes have no lines. He thinks his voice is bad and too masculine, so once he puts on women's clothes, he starts to act dumb.It is also difficult to not speak but have facial expressions and emotions in place.

Liang Sizhe spent a day and a half smoothing out the script and characters, and went to borrow a documentary about transvestites from Zheng Yin the next afternoon to watch.

Zheng Yin got up and went to the file shelf to help him flip through the CDs. Liang Sizhe glanced down and saw the newspapers spread out on his desk.

The headlines of the newspaper read clearly: "Cao Xiuyuan angrily reprimanded the producer of "Quarantine Zone", revealing that he forced the actors to drink with him and solicit investment."Liang Sizhe picked up the newspaper and read it again. The media exaggerated the headline a bit. Judging from the text, Cao Xiuyuan just said a word to the media: "The producer forces the actors to go to the table to drink with the investors. He beat him up, it's not called strike, it's called resistance."

Zheng Yin found out the CD, walked over and handed it to Liang Sizhe, seeing Liang Sizhe looking down at the newspaper, he smiled and said, "Isn't your teacher Cao very relieved?"

"Is this the interview Mr. Cao gave yesterday?" Liang Sizhe put down the newspaper and asked.

"Yeah, I was scouting the scene yesterday, a reporter called me, I was about to hang up, but he snatched the phone and said this."

Liang Sizhe didn't speak, but stared at what Cao Xiuyuan said to the media.

At two o'clock in the afternoon the next day, several other candidates finished their makeup. Liang Sizhe was the last to do it. He sat in a corner of the studio. brush eye shadow

"Okay." The makeup artist threw the brush aside, "Sizhe opened his eyes and took a look."

Liang Sizhe opened his eyes, and the person with smoky makeup in the mirror looked a little strange, and he even looked a bit indistinguishable.

The scene in the studio was already set up, bright yellow and blue lights mixed together, and the curtains were not drawn tightly, leaving a bright light to cast on his face.

Cao Xiuyuan behind the monitor said, "Come and try next one."

Liang Sizhe walked over, and every time he took a step, a voice sounded in his head:

Act well.

Get the role.

Take another actor.

become powerful.

Powerful enough to protect the innocence of a teenager.