Chapter 27

Meng Ziyi was really happy and said with a smile: "It's great, I didn't expect our audition trio to actually audition for the same crew."

"By the way, let's go to Hengdian together."

"Okay." Zhou Jin nodded.

Bai Lu also nodded lightly.

Bai Lu and Meng Ziyi returned to their respective rooms. When she reached the door, Bai Lu stopped suddenly, her nose twitching slightly.

There was a faint fragrance in the air.

She frowned. This scent was somewhat familiar, a bit like the perfume on the woman "suspected to be Yang Mi" she brushed shoulders with at the entrance of the community today.

But she immediately shook her head.

How could Yang Mi abandon the crew and run thousands of miles to Yanjing just to find Zhou Jin?

Her gaze fell on the wide-open window in the living room again, and her brows furrowed deeper.

In winter, although the floor heating was on, it was freezing outside; why open the window?

Five days later.

Hengdian.

The three of them got off the plane and took a taxi to the hotel they had booked in advance.

The auditions wouldn't start for a few days, so Zhou Jin brought Meng Ziyi and Bai Lu over in advance to let them get familiar with the environment in Hengdian first.

Hengdian was divided into two areas: one specifically open for tourists to visit, and one for the film and television area actually used for filming.

Meng Ziyi stood at the entrance of the film and television area, looking around several times, her eyes full of light.

On both sides of the street were imitation ancient building complexes. In the distance, she could see the outlines of several towering palaces, and flags were inserted on the city walls, rustling in the wind.

Meng Ziyi took a deep breath, her eyes shining: "Is this Hengdian!"

Zhou Jin asked her with a smile: "Haven't you been here before?"

Meng Ziyi rolled her eyes at him: "Last time I came to see you, it was already dark, and I caught a flight back after a meal. I didn't have a chance to walk around."

Bai Lu added from the side: "It was pretty good to see him, right?"

Meng Ziyi said stubbornly: "I thought he was handsome, but actually he was just so-so."

Zhou Jin smiled and didn't expose her.

He took the two women to eat the most famous barbecue in Hengdian and spent another day taking them to visit both the film and television area and the tourist area.

By the time they finished walking in the evening, all three were tired and returned to their hotel rooms.

Zhou Jin had just finished showering, his hair not yet dry, when his phone vibrated.

A message from Reba.

"Did the plane arrive?"

"Arrived."

"Woohoo, I'm rushing to film, I really can't spare the time, otherwise I would have definitely gone to pick you up."

Zhou Jin wiped his hair and typed with one hand to comfort her for a few sentences.

Not long after he put his phone back, it vibrated again.

Li Yitong sent a still photo.

In the photo, she was wearing Guo Fu's costume, a goose-yellow shirt, her hair combed into a girl's double-bun, with fine bangs hanging in front of her forehead.

Her features were already exquisite, and after makeup, she looked even more picturesque, her skin so white it was translucent.

She tilted her head slightly toward the camera, the corners of her mouth carrying a hint of a smile, her eyes bright, and her whole person exuded a sense of agility, like an ancient lady who had walked out of a painting.

A message followed below: "How is it?"

Zhou Jin typed back: "Pretty."

Li Yitong sent a few more.

One of them was a photo of her and Chen Yanxi.

Chen Yanxi played Little Dragon Girl, standing to the side in white clothes, with a smile on her face.

But her face was much rounder, the lines of her chin were not very clear, her cheeks were bulging, and she looked somewhat like a bun-face.

Standing together, Li Yitong's exquisite and petite appearance instantly overshadowed the other party.

To be honest, Chen Yanxi wasn't bad-looking, but the styling and state of this version of Little Dragon Girl could indeed be said to be image-destroying.

The two chatted for a few sentences, and Li Yitong said she had to go film the next scene.

In two days, it would be the official audition. Zhou Jin added the director's assistant on WeChat and received the audition script for the role of Prince Yu, a PDF file containing the scripts for several scenes that needed to be prepared.

For the next five days, Zhou Jin rarely went out, locking himself in his hotel room, repeatedly studying those audition clips.

The role of Prince Yu was not simple; he was gentle and elegant on the surface, but ambitious, scheming, and strategic in his bones, while also possessing the pride and loneliness of a royal family member.

He broke down the emotional transitions of every scene to ponder, and memorized the lines until he knew them by heart.

Bai Lu and Meng Ziyi were also studying.

Unlike Zhou Jin, they were proper newcomer actors, facing such a big production for the first time, and both were incredibly serious.

When they encountered places they weren't sure about, Bai Lu and Meng Ziyi would run to Zhou Jin's room, and the three of them would discuss it together.

Only then did Zhou Jin know that the roles Bai Lu and Meng Ziyi were auditioning for were both Qin Bore.

Qin Bore was Prince Yu's strategist in the drama and had a large number of scenes with Prince Yu.

It just happened to match Zhou Jin's role.

So during these five days, the three of them often got together to act, Zhou Jin playing Prince Yu, and the two of them taking turns playing Qin Bore, grinding it out over and over again.

On the morning of the fifth day, Zhou Jin, Bai Lu, and Meng Ziyi arrived at the audition site for *Nirvana in Fire* together.

When they arrived, there were already many actors waiting to audition in the lobby.

Zhou Jin scanned the area and saw several familiar faces from the entertainment industry, and even saw Wang Ou, who would later play Qin Bore, and Huang Weide, the Taiwanese actor who would originally play Prince Yu.

The three of them each received an audition number plate.

Zhou Jin was number 41, Meng Ziyi 44, and Bai Lu 45.

Bai Lu and Meng Ziyi sat on chairs in the waiting area, both nervous as it was their first time auditioning for a role of this level.

Zhou Jin had acted with them countless times over the past five days.

Meng Ziyi had been admitted to Beijing Film Academy, while Bai Lu was just a Taobao model. Logically, Meng Ziyi should have had the advantage.

But to be honest, he was actually more optimistic about Bai Lu.

The energy in Bai Lu was indeed more fitting for the role of Qin Bore; Meng Ziyi playing the scheming and resourceful Qin Bore always felt a bit discordant.

Zhou Jin saw Huang Weide go in.

Sure enough, not long after, they called Zhou Jin's number inside.

Number 41.

Zhou Jin stood up and walked into the conference room, nodding to the directors and producers sitting behind the long table.

In the conference room, not only were the directors and producers sitting there, but Hu Ge and Liu Tao were also sitting to the side, and even Huang Weide, who had just finished auditioning, hadn't left and was sitting on the side.

Zhou Jin scanned the room, didn't linger on anyone, and introduced himself gracefully.

Several directors and producers saw his appearance, and expressions of satisfaction appeared on their faces.

Even Hu Ge and Liu Tao, sitting in the back, were slightly stunned.

Zhou Jin stood there, tall, sturdy, masculine, his features firm and clean.

Just in terms of external conditions, even in the entire actor circle, he was in the top tier.

Huang Weide sat to the side, and the moment Zhou Jin walked in, his heart skipped a beat.

This image was too good!

Although he had been in the entertainment industry for so many years and knew that handsome people usually didn't have great acting skills, he still couldn't help but feel nervous.

Director Kong Sheng said: "Start."

The directors and producers present had all seen the clips of Zhou Jin playing Ling Yue in *Sword of Legends*.

Plus, in terms of image conditions, Zhou Jin indeed threw Huang Weide several streets away; even the male lead Hu Ge couldn't compare to Zhou Jin in terms of appearance alone.

They actually already had a preference in their hearts—even if Zhou Jin's audition performance today was slightly worse than Huang Weide's, as long as it wasn't too much worse, they still wanted Zhou Jin to play Prince Yu.

Zhou Jin began to perform the audition content.

His original acting skill was 60, and later, after getting to know Bai Lu, the system added 3 points to his acting skill.

Plus, he had spent these five days studying the role of Prince Yu countless times, and the script was almost worn out.

The whole audition performance couldn't be said to be stunning, and it was still a cut below those veteran actors with solid acting skills, but it was more than enough to pass.

Huang Weide sat to the side, watched Zhou Jin's performance from beginning to end, and looked at the director's expression, feeling tight in his heart.