HOYSE CHAPTER 27

Chapter 27 — “Am I not enough to hold all of your attention?”

Gu Xi’s reasoning was solid, and the others also felt it was fine to give a newcomer a chance.

“Gu Xi, maybe you still don’t know his situation,” the assistant director said, remembering a few years back. “Film Academy puts on a showcase every year. Teachers and students take it seriously because it is one of the rare times they can meet industry people while still in school. That year I was invited by the principal to see if there were any promising seedlings. I happened to run into that kid, and he’d even been handpicked as the male lead. Guess what happened?”

Everyone on the crew turned to look. Once he had their attention, the assistant director went on. “He stood there shaking for ten minutes straight and never got a single line out. His partners kept acting as best they could, and he just stood there like a utility pole until the curtain. He tanked the entire performance. No one in that class got noticed by anyone in the industry that year, and it took years for the matter to fade. Whatever his reasons were, it does not change the fact he wrecked half a year of other people’s work. That was disrespectful to the craft.”

He was simply stating facts. He did not intend to spend more energy on that person.

The entertainment industry turns over fast. You cannot get by on a face alone. Every year there are campus selections producing fresh meat and kids returning from overseas training. They are as common as carp in a river. Looks only get you so far.

Director Liu Yu did not keep track of thirty-eighth-tier starlets. Hearing this, even he frowned a little.

Gu Xi thought of what he had read on the forum and knew Rong Jing had camera-stage fright. It was a psychological issue; whether it could be cured was hard to say. Saying that out loud here would only make him sound biased.

“This audition runs for three days,” Gu Xi said. “There is no rush. Since he signed up, I want to see whether he shows progress. I hope, Assistant Director, that he can make you take a fresh look.”

The screenwriter laughed. “Raise a flag like that and watch it get slapped down.”

Liu Yu added, “People say you look after juniors, Gu Xi. With that temperament you will suffer out there.”

Gu Xi respected the three directors. On his account, the assistant director let it drop and instead pointed out a few people who came in with capital, some supporting, one lead. He indicated one in particular.

“You might give this one a bit more attention.”

“Which role is he testing for?” Gu Xi asked.

It was Xun Jiarui. After that tabloid mess and having met him up close, Gu Xi had no desire to comment on the guy.

“Fu Qianming. With his current clout he would not want anything else.”

“Do you think he can carry Fu Qianming? He is an extremely complex man. Domineering, sly, clever to the point of monstrous. Most important of all, he endures.”

Liu Yu remembered Xun Jiarui’s shouty style and felt a headache coming on. “Among the younger generation his acting clears the bar. The investors are fairly bullish on him. Plus you and he just had a rumor cycle, and there are already CP shippers online. Saves us a publicity bill. The producer asked me to gauge your take.”

“Fairly bullish” meant his backing was strong. Gu Xi also had money in the project, though a small slice. He was one of Liu Yu’s go-to leads, and if he said no he could still veto, though that would obviously offend the money.

“Do not feel pressured. I will not ruin my film,” Liu Yu said. “Worst case we do what we did last time and stretch every penny to two.”

The last film, Lota’s 365 Days, had been made when no one believed in art films. They put every cent on the blade’s edge. To finish post, Gu Xi even waived his upfront fee for a one percent back-end, then poured his winnings into the next movie. Compounding gains.

Facts proved Gu Xi’s eye was good.

Liu Yu turned and told the staff to start calling numbers.

The first few auditioners had assumed Gu Xi would not be there. When he suddenly was, they practically forgot their lines and underperformed.

Liu Yu joked, “If they cannot even face you, how are they going to act?”

Gu Xi fluttered his lashes, indifferent. He checked his watch now and then, as if waiting for something.

---

Rong Jing and Wu Hanqi parted at the hotel entrance. The driver glanced at the man in the back seat resting with his eyes closed.

“I remember the sons and daughters of the Ji family once asked for your card. You did not give it.”

Wu Hanqi opened his eyes. He crossed his long legs and set his fingers on the armrest. “You wonder why I gave it to this kid.”

The driver had worked for the Wu family for years, closer than most employees. He admitted, a little embarrassed, “A bit.”

Wu Hanqi thought back to dinner. The boy had noticed, after the server refilled their coffee, that he had only taken one sip before stopping. He switched cups for him without comment.

He did not mind his mild OCD being seen. He appreciated people who could read the room without making a show. Other than Xie Ling, only this boy had kept pace.

Wu Hanqi chuckled, as if remembering something. “Sometimes you just know.”

Careful but bold. The quiet kind who might pull off something earthshaking without warning.

Rong Jing examined the card in his hand. The design was sleek and modern. He had heard at the banquet yesterday that the gold flecks in it were real, and that fewer than twenty people had one.

Tossing it would be rude. He was about to tuck it away when he noticed it was thicker than a normal card.

He hopped in a cab, gave the audition address, and let his thoughts drift to the novel. The show in question had lit up the summer season, yet Gu Xi had not been part of it. Back then he had been mired in the mall stampede scandal. After a suicide attempt he still entered the crew, but the victims’ family stormed the set and he finally had to leave, sinking deeper and deeper.

He kept feeling as if he had forgotten something important last night before sleep.

The light up ahead flipped yellow to red. “Driver, that is a red, right?”

“Sure is. Otherwise why would I stop?”

Rong Jing nodded. Why had he hallucinated signal changes last night? Mere coincidence?

On the crosswalk marched a group holding signs. He read the slogans:

#Give us space to live#
#Beta lives are lives too#
#Fairness, justice, transparency#

“What are they doing?” he asked. This world still baffled him.

“A you-know-what. Young man, you do not watch the news?” the driver said, indignant. “An Alpha husband killed his Beta wife. Because they have a daughter and she needed a guardian, he was given fifteen years with a suspended sentence.”

Just hearing it made Rong Jing angry, let alone living inside such a system.

Perhaps thinking an Alpha would not get it, the driver added, “If the wife had been an Omega, no way he gets off that light, daughter or not.”

“It should have been a heavy sentence,” Rong Jing said.

He vaguely remembered that Xie Ling had actually supported equality legislation, donating to remote schools for Betas who could not afford education and funding retraining for unemployed Betas. After Xie Jisheng took over in the novel, all of that was rolled back. Some beneficiaries were even forced to return the money, which became a social scandal. He had not read how that ended because the novel circled romance, not livelihoods.

The driver, encouraged by an Alpha who talked calmly about gender and took the Beta side, went on: “Late last night a bunch of second gens were caught street racing. Someone reported them and they got hauled in. Still could not behave. An Alpha inside stabbed a Beta officer but it seems they have connections. It will probably blow over.”

Racing… sounded familiar. Was that public-spirited tipster me, and I managed to eat the melon I was holding?

Rong Jing checked the day’s news. He was lucky enough to find it. In one photo a face had been pixelated. Given the media’s caution, that had to be Xie Jisheng. The stabber was likely his friend. Truly a male lead gong. Wherever he went, trouble went too.

He worried Xie Ling might go soft. In the original, no matter how big a mess Xie Jisheng made, a bit of wheedling and Xie Ling would forgive for family’s sake. He texted Zhou Xiang to ask if big brother had gone to bail him out.

Reply came fast: Bail? Could not be done. Not in this lifetime [emmmm].

Followed by: That is a direct quote from the vice president this morning.

Rong Jing’s mood brightened. Good. No soft heart.

Rong Jing: GDPL

Zhou Xiang: ???

Rong Jing: Gan-de-piao-liang. Good job.

Zhou Xiang suddenly saw the light and glanced at Xie Ling, who had come in unusually early and was working as if he had not missed a minute of sleep. Xie Ling sensed his look and glanced up.

“President Xie, you said you and the young master always miscommunicate. I have found the reason!” Zhou Xiang said.

“?”

“You are older. There is a generation gap!” How had he only just identified the key problem?

Under his boss’s death glare, Zhou Xiang mimed zipping his lips and fled. At least the boss still had the energy for jokes. After last night’s near collapse, that was a relief. With the brothers slowly bridging the gap, perhaps President Xie felt a little comfort. Zhou Xiang thought so and dove back into work.

Once alone, Xie Ling finally surfaced from work-self-numbing. Older? He pulled a mirror from the drawer and studied himself. No nasolabial folds or crow’s feet, and in casual wear he passed for late twenties. Where was the age?

He opened his phone and typed: how to get along with a much younger brother.

When Rong Jing reached the venue, a dense perfume of roses hit him, far richer than the Omega who had ambushed him at midnight. The lobby was flooded with blooms. He was not the only one blinded. Staff were already hauling them out in pots. Someone asked why. They said it was Gu Xi’s decision.

As each actor finished a test, they would be given a potted rose. Any excess would be used to beautify other spaces.

Gu Xi had said it was better to put them to good use than let them jam the lobby and eat public space.

Even people who had envied or resented Gu Xi found it hard to dislike him after hearing that. He was not low EQ; the novel had simply stamped him with original sin. For five gongs to chase him like lunatics, it could not just be pheromones.

Rong Jing’s height and presence drew looks the moment he entered. Someone waved. “Over here.”

It was a familiar face: classmates from Class B. Most of them had attended Gu Xi’s talk at the film school, so it made sense they were here.

Class B clustered together. Seeing Rong Jing, they looked awkward, not sure how to greet him.

Compared to the school forum’s gossip, most of them doubted the dirt was true, since they had an embedded witness.

Rong Jing headed over. The moment Ji Leping saw an Alpha trying to strike up a conversation, he remembered his mission. He muscled the Alpha out of the chair and plopped down beside Rong Jing.

“Leping, seriously?” a classmate said, assuming he was clout-chasing.

“You do not get it,” Ji Leping thought, I am hugging a thigh, just not that thigh. I am hugging the thicker, stronger thigh.

With Rong Jing there, the lively corner went quiet. A girl finally broke the silence. “Rong Jing, why did you pretend to be poor? I do not mean anything by it. I am just curious.” Curious how he stayed in character for four years. Four years. Over 1,460 days and nights. Many of them had read the urban legend of him eating plain rice to save money. Professors had even used him as an example to motivate the class. So there really were rich sons who went all in to experience poverty.

He ran through a dozen reasons. The truest was that the original had broken with his family for years. But telling these classmates that was too much sharing for their level of friendship. And if he said now he had fought with his family, Xie Ling would split him in half.

The other reasons were flimsy. He chose another flimsy one anyway. “To experience life.”

He did not expect such a weak excuse to earn broad approval.

A classmate from another group overheard and called, “If you don’t like Class B, come to Class A. We have more Omegas. We are super friendly. No ostracizing.”

Class B bristled. “How we are with Rong Jing is our business. Keep your noses out.”

“What a joke. Does he have a ‘Class B’ sticker on his forehead? See him talking to you? You are delusional.”

The B crowd fell silent, all eyes sliding to Rong Jing. He did not say anything to smooth it over. Which, in its way, was an answer.

The instigator watched the awkwardness with glee. The air frosted over and no one spoke.

Rong Jing remembered the three acting classes were rivals. Because of the original, Class B had been a punchline for years. The original had longed to be part of that tight cohort. Purely transactional relationships do not get that close.

He had envied their bond, but knew he would always be kept out. The showcase disaster was the cause, three years of cold violence the effect. No one was wholly right or wrong.

The original had never blamed them. He knew his own issues and had wanted to change. Personality shapes fate. Some things are not fixed by wanting it.

Rong Jing felt that now that he had reconciled with big brother Xie Ling, his body was lighter. After warning him to avoid the trap, lighter still. Maybe it was an illusion, but he could feel his spirit un-knot.

A silent sigh. Had the original yanked him over with a last breath? Let someone else solve your mess? Why not solve it yourself.

He had a blazing career back home, a family who loved him, and a blind date on the calendar. Forget it. That was speculation with no proof. And there was no way back. So one step at a time.

The cold corner was saved by the staff calling the next batch. Their turn.

Rong Jing recognized plenty of faces, including some B-list stars, and even Xun Jiarui from the talk with Gu Xi. Xun left quickly, though. Judging by his spring breeze grin, he had already been preselected. Common enough. Open auditions this large were partly pre-release PR.

A classmate stood when his name was called. Everyone offered encouragement, but within minutes he returned in tears.

“Hey, do not cry. If it does not work, it does not. Director Liu is picky.”

“Yeah. There will be more chances. We just graduated. Building experience matters most.”

She was an Omega, tears streaming. “It is not that. It is that Gu Xi is too handsome. I saw he was there and I got so nervous I froze. He was so gentle and so kind. He even ran the scene with me and told me not to be nervous.” She hiccuped, eyes starry. “He is not human. He cannot be. He must be a fairy. Mortals do not deserve to look at him. I want to marry him. No, no, I want to be the one he marries. I will give him a troop of little monkeys!”

Everyone: …

Please stop. OO romance is a waste of social resources.

So it was not that she failed, she just converted into a solo stan mid-scene.

One by one they went in and came out until finally it was Rong Jing’s turn.

Ji Leping clapped his shoulder. “Go get it.”

He nodded. The other Class B students did not leave. They watched him in silence. He inclined his head, still distant.

“Is he still mad at us?”

“If you were him, would you not be?”

“True. If it were me, just not kicking you when you were down would count as virtue.”

“You only care now because he is a rich heir…”

“To be honest, my first thought when I learned was fear of revenge but I ruled it out. If he wanted it, four years offered plenty of chances. He did not need to wait.”

“If not for Leping, he might have kept quiet forever.”

“Not hiding. Just not planning to say anything.”

“It was not some blood feud anyway. Lu Jin pushed the isolation thing. The rest of us were too busy chasing internships to pull petty stunts.”

“Where is Lu Jin, anyway?”

“He apparently strained his back helping move books at the library yesterday. In the hospital.”

“He helped move books? He turned over a new leaf? The world really is fantasy.”

“Should we wait for Rong Jing?”

“Wait. What if he comes out crying too.”

“What about Qi Ying? He probably still does not know.”

“I want to see his face when he finds out. If only someone could record it.”

Rong Jing opened the door. A line of evaluators sat ahead. The most eye-catching was Gu Xi, despite the low-key outfit. Their eyes met for a beat. Something like a spark leaped, then Gu Xi calmly looked down at the dossier in hand.

He seemed to have forgotten they had once encountered each other at the film school. The original had been written as a passerby. Forgetting was normal.

Rong Jing recalled the hundreds of words the novel had spent on Gu Xi’s looks. It was a racy story at heart, stuck together with scummy gongs and a suffering shou. As far as he read, Gu Xi, after blow upon blow and the net tightening, pushed and feinted and waited for a chance to run when resistance failed.

Whatever you say about the book, one thing was certain: to justify five gongs willing to claim him by force, the text poured on the descriptions. The author had piled what she felt were the most beautiful phrases onto that person. Eyes like a skyful of stars gathered into one. A cool glance like divine favor. A single word and all As wanted to kiss his mouth.

Original sin. He called to the deepest desires in people. You wanted the chill in his eyes to melt with heat, and you wanted to tear him apart and drown in him.

That had not quite come through on the page he skimmed. In person, it felt restored. Ethereal and pure. If not for that unapproachable aura keeping people at bay, he would drive even more of them mad. In the novel that “keep out” was only armor; even with Guan Hongyi, Gu Xi kept his guard.

His inner Alpha tugged toward him. Then his brain supplied two words: a man. With that, the spark fizzled into nothing.

He also noticed that when he entered, the evaluators, who had been loose, all sat up a little straighter. Taking him seriously? He knew himself. He was a fringe character. There had to be a different reason.

Liu Yu asked for a brief self-introduction. Rong Jing began to speak, then noticed the camera.

The moment he registered it, the previously calm young man flinched as if shocked.

He felt the fear boiling up. The original’s conditioned reflex. Even he could not stop it. Normal cameras did not trigger it. It only surged when he had to act.

A staffer handed him the scene. He barely managed to take it.

He clutched the three-inch scar at his chest. Scenes flickered in his mind. The body’s deep-buried fear. Quarrels. Beatings. A stabbing. A rain of blood and a shattered mirror spattered red.

His mental state was fine, but the body’s muscle memory was carved deep. If it were not, the original would not have struggled for four years with so little progress.

While he fought the memories, he dimly heard the assistant director murmur not far away, “Gu Xi, looks like you will lose this one. He has not changed at all.”

In fact, he was much better than the original. He stood like a normal person, sweating, a bit taut, but composed. Still, he clearly was not in an acting headspace.

Gu Xi ignored the tease and looked at the head-bowed Rong Jing. “Can you hold on?”

“I can,” he squeezed out. Anyone could see his state was not great. Stellar one second, then sweating bullets the next at the sight of a camera. It would be normal for the assistant director to cut him.

“Alright. Take fifteen. Adjust. Call the next one first,” Gu Xi said, gesturing for staff to escort Rong Jing out.

As he left he could hear the assistant director again. “You just will not concede, Gu Xi. The kid is no good.”

Rong Jing hated those two words, “no good.” In his old world he had brushed past awards again and again. He had never won a newcomer trophy. Even when he later took multiple TV King and Film King statues, the Best Newcomer forever escaped him. In those first five fruitless years he had heard it whispered behind his back:

The Rong family is brilliant top to bottom. Only the youngest son is spoiled.

Rong Jing is no good. He cannot compare to his family.

Five years of also-rans. His sisters both won on their first try. The little brother only has a face.

Rong Jing is a pity. Always just a little short.

Short of what? He could make up the gap with ten times the effort.

He spent most days like a salted fish, but that did not mean he had nothing he wanted with all his heart. His family said his gift was acting. Why should he not shine with his own light?

His classmates had not left. Seeing him come out so soon and looking off, they exchanged glances.

“He still cannot overcome it.”

“Knew it. He has worked hard these years. I was hoping for a miracle.”

“And you all act like you do not pay attention to him.”

“Please. Do you remember his entrance-year stir? First freshman to break ten thousand followers on Weibo. Everyone watched. After that mess, I wanted to make peace. He thought I was playing him. Qi Ying tore me to shreds, and he did not say a word in my defense. Why should I keep sticking my warm face on a cold butt. I am not that cheap.”

“So you have been sniping ever since because you could not swallow your pride.”

“…Yeah.”

“Childish, no?”

“Like you are not childish.”

“At least he can walk out on his own without shaking like a sieve. Better than before.”

“He will not get the part. Unless his family throws money…”

“No way. Big Brother Xie said he will not invest a cent in him,” Ji Leping cut in, remembering that steely look on Xie Ling’s face.

“That rough? Suddenly I do not envy him. The rich have rich problems.” They all pictured brothers at war.

“Should we go over?”

“For what. You think he wants to see us? He will assume we came to laugh.”

Fair. They went quiet again.

Rong Jing turned down the staffer’s help, cooled off alone in the restroom, then stared at the defeated man in the mirror. Going backwards. So what if he had to start over.

He had survived five years of also-rans. Was he really afraid of one audition?

He opened the tap and splashed water on his face. Calm down. As fast as possible. Give him one more chance and maybe he would give a different answer.

At some point someone came out of the Men’s Omega stall and stepped to the sink beside him.

“Am I not enough to hold all of your attention?”

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