Chapter 489: What is a Closing Disciple?

That Luo Mo would be interested in contestants who have studied Opera is no surprise to anyone.

That he himself has scripts related to Opera stockpiled is also no surprise to anyone.

But to say that he is combining Opera and Comedy, that is something heard for the first time.

Luo Mo scanned the remaining trainees and felt that having so many people with nothing to do was actually not very good.

After some thought, he decided to add a few small roles, at least to let more people appear in the short film.

Like the variety show "Director Show", a total of six artists from Xinyu are participating, which is quite a large proportion, scattered across four camps.

In Luo Mo's camp, besides Chen Cai, there is also a girl from Xinyu named Jiang Mengna.

Originally, according to Shen Shaoqiu's intentions, he wanted to let the captain of Aurora Girls, Ceng Ziyi, and member Dong Dong participate in this program to gain a wave of popularity.

But under Luo Mo's strong dissuasion, this plan was killed.

Even if you have traffic, you can't waste it like this; with their awkward acting skills, they shouldn't go on the show and get bashed.

Xiao Shen would be fine, but after "Creating Idols" and "Sword of the Immortal", her personal popularity in the girl group is arguably the undisputed number one, and she doesn't need the help of this variety show.

This girl named Jiang Mengna, when communicating with Luo Mo, called him Director Luo at every turn, looking like one of his own people.

Luo Mo, however, said seriously: "Here, you must call me Director Luo."

"Mm-hmm!" The girl nodded vigorously.

You can do whatever you want.

When she heard that she could also join the short film, Jiang Mengna was beyond excited and immediately asked Luo Mo: "Director Luo, then what am I responsible for playing?"

"You are responsible for playing... a photograph?" Luo Mo said.

Jiang Mengna: "???"

In reality, she herself cannot appear on camera at all; she only needs to take a photo, and the photo will be used in the Drama to gain a bit of presence.

One of our own, no need to be polite.

Besides Jiang Mengna, Luo Mo randomly picked a few others who looked agreeable, and they also played small supporting roles.

Just like that, the casting was basically finalized.

Ten minutes later, Luo Mo called Chen Cai and Du Bin out of the preparation room and led the two of them to a rehearsal classroom.

Chen Cai and Du Bin followed behind him, feeling somewhat nervous.

Du Bin is slightly older and has seen the world, so he wasn't that exaggerated.

Chen Cai was truly nervous to death.

After all, the young man in front of him is not only a mentor on the show to him, but also a big company leader outside the show.

On the show, he can decide your life or death with one word.

Outside the show, it is the same.

His star path can be said to be controlled in Luo Mo's hands.

After walking into the rehearsal classroom, Luo Mo said: "I called you over to actually test your acting."

"But the acting test I'm talking about is testing your Opera foundation."

Upon hearing this, Chen Cai's heart sank to the bottom.

The reason he wrote down Opera in his profile was purely because he admired his company's Director Luo.

Look, I had similar experiences to Director Luo when I was young!

But he never expected that Director Luo would still want to test him.

How could he withstand a test like this!

He studied for three years in elementary school and stopped after entering middle school; in the blink of an eye, how many years have passed?

Du Bin was not as panicked as Chen Cai; although he had also let it go a bit, he felt he wasn't too bad.

This is the confidence he has from coming from an Opera family.

And he truly loves Singing Opera; anyway, he has been relatively free these past few years with no work, so he practices often.

"Follow me and sing a line," Luo Mo said indifferently.

Then, without even warming up his voice, he sang directly: "Upon seeing the princess steal the command arrow, I cannot help but feel joy in my heart; standing at the palace gate, calling for the little barbarian—!"

On the word "barbarian", the pitch was extremely high, and Chen Cai immediately got goosebumps.

Du Bin raised his head and looked at Luo Mo; he began... to panic as well.

If you don't practice for one day, you know it yourself. If you don't practice for three days, your master knows. If you don't practice for ten days, the audience knows.

Du Bin could tell as soon as he heard it how solid Luo Mo's skills were. He couldn't imagine at all that a Top Traffic star in the industry hadn't let his skills go to waste!

Has this person carved the "Ancient Teachings of Learning Art" into his bones?

His level is absolutely worthy of the status of being the Closing Disciple of the old master Tong Qinglin!

In the past, this person would definitely have become a star!

Luo Mo first pointed at Chen Cai and said: "You go first."

Chen Cai already felt the pressure rushing toward him.

"Director Luo... Director Luo, I might not be able to sing it," Chen Cai said.

The previous part was fine, but for the final "calling for the little barbarian", he absolutely could not sing it.

"It's fine, just sing it, but don't change the tune; even if your voice cracks, crack it for me," Luo Mo was very ruthless.

"Uh, okay." Chen Cai gritted his teeth and started to sing.

Then, at the "calling for the little barbarian" part, it cracked as expected.

He lowered his head, not daring to look at his company's big leader.

"Very good," Luo Mo said with a smile; he was very satisfied with the final raspy note.

Yet, to Chen Cai's ears, these two words—what could they be if not mockery?

Wow, how shameful!

The two words "very good" also made Du Bin feel immense pressure.

Luo Mo turned his gaze toward him; Du Bin swallowed a mouthful of saliva and began to sing.

As soon as he sang, it was clear he was not on the same level as Chen Cai, and he didn't ruin the song.

"Also very good," Luo Mo evaluated.

But with Chen Cai's train-wreck performance preceding it, this "also very good" felt like it had a strange aftertaste.

Luo Mo looked at the two of them and said, "The state you two are in right now actually fits the needs of the Drama quite well."

This left Chen Cai and Du Bin even more confused.

"I'll print out the script for you in a moment," Luo Mo said without saying more.

"Okay, thank you, Director Luo," Du Bin said.

Chen Cai immediately followed suit and also said respectfully, "Thank you, Director Luo."

Luo Mo nodded and didn't say much more; he didn't even tell the two of them the general story framework, clearly intending to let them read the script first and figure it out for themselves.

Just as he was about to leave, Du Bin suddenly called him back.

"Director Luo, where does that line you just taught us to sing come from?" He was asking in earnest.

"Perform the script well first; once you've performed it well, I'll let you see the script for the play," Luo Mo smiled, then left.

"W-what does that mean?" Chen Cai turned his head to ask.

Du Bin just stood there blankly, a thousand emotions surging in his heart.

The two remained in the rehearsal room, and since they were idle anyway, they practiced the line of the play Luo Mo had taught them together for a while.

After quite some time, a staff member from the Web Variety Show arrived with two copies of the script. Luo Mo himself did not come.

Chen Cai and Du Bin took the scripts, sat down on the wooden floor, and began to read through them one by one.

During this process, Chen Cai would occasionally let out "Pfft—pfft—" sounds.

Du Bin found it a bit annoying, until he too couldn't help but let out a "Pfft—pfft—pfft!"

Hmm, at least I'm better at holding it in than you!

He felt he had proven that the older ginger is indeed spicier.

The script was not long; after all, the Web Variety Show *Director Show* had time limits, and although the duration of a Web Variety Show is more flexible than that of a show broadcast on normal television, it couldn't be excessively long.

Therefore, it was best to keep each short film under 20 minutes.

Chen Cai had already lost count of how many times he had sighed in his heart while reading the script: "Awesome! Fucking awesome!"

As for Du Bin, because he was experienced, he read faster than Chen Cai and reached the ending before him.

Upon seeing the grand finale, Du Bin was struck as if by lightning; his entire body began to go numb, starting with his arm, then his neck, and finally his scalp.

The finishing touch at the end, a simple little Reversal, completely highlighted the core of the entire short film.

Du Bin stood up abruptly and began to practice the line of the play Luo Mo had just taught him to himself.

"【Upon seeing the princess stealing the command arrow, I cannot help but feel joy in my heart; standing at the palace gate, I call to the little barbarian—!】"

Chen Cai glanced at Du Bin's Back Shadow in surprise, feeling resentful in his heart: "Ah! An old hand is an old hand; he's actually started practicing in advance!"

He did not know that Du Bin's eye sockets were red at this moment, and bloodshot veins were visible in the whites of his eyes!

(PS: Second update, begging for double monthly votes at the end of the month! They'll be void in a few hours!)

(End of this chapter)