Chapter 143: Actor Bai Zi

The judging panel was urgently reorganized.

Shen Lei hurriedly contacted the blogger, hoping to have the post deleted.

When the blogger refused, Shen Lei had no choice but to hire people to report it.

True to expectation, the video was taken down after being reported.

However, the video had already gone viral, and those who wanted to save it had already done so. This act of reporting only managed to provoke public outrage, and suddenly, the clip was being shared everywhere.

"Everyone, when I said earlier that I didn't know about Xue Wang, I was just joking. There were inaccurate parts in that video, and the thesis I published was only my first draft..."

Shen Lei hurriedly offered explanations and defenses, but unfortunately, such sophistry was useless.

No one was a fool.

The recording time soon arrived, and Lin Ze entered the venue.

This time, the counterpart was a young actress. Lin Ze found her somewhat familiar; it seemed she had a drama newly released recently.

Most of the people who came to this show were young actors and actresses, because veteran actors might have more industry experience than the people sitting in the audience.

Having them critique performances would be somewhat awkward.

"Lin Ze!"

"Brother Lin is here?"

"Brother Lin, hurry, hurry, sit here and rest."

Lin Ze responded to each of them politely and courteously.

The last time he came, people had been cold and indifferent, but this time, everyone was more enthusiastic than the last.

Lin Ze understood the reality of the situation.

Since everyone was being polite and courteous, he just needed to do what he was supposed to do.

"By the way, does anyone have any news about who the new judge is?" Lin Ze asked with some curiosity.

"Brother Lin, we actually do," a young actor said. "I heard it's Teacher Lu Zhoushan."

"Teacher Lu?" Lin Ze widened his eyes, suddenly falling into a brief trance.

He still remembered in his past life, when he had just stepped into the entertainment industry, it was Lu Zhoushan who took him under his wing. Later on, the reason he was able to reach the pinnacle of acting was entirely due to Teacher Lu holding nothing back in passing down all his skills and knowledge.

It was just that in this lifetime, their paths hadn't crossed yet. He had originally planned to find an opportunity to collaborate with Teacher Lu in the future...

However, it was truly wonderful to be able to see him ahead of time.

"Brother Lin knows Teacher Lu?"

Lin Ze was snapped back to reality by the voice of the actor next to him. He shook his head, a look of genuine excitement surfacing on his face.

"No, I don't know him yet... But Teacher Lu is the actor I admire most. I never expected to get to see him in person..."

"Ah? Really? Then does Brother Lin have any favorite actresses?"

Lin Ze turned the names over in his mind.

"Hmm... Teacher Bai Qiong and Teacher Song Mingchun?"

This bunch of people still wanted to trick him into saying other names, huh.

"..." Everyone exchanged glances, reading absolute sincerity in Lin Ze's expression.

Everyone had been hoping to hear Lin Ze name some young, attractive actress, but who would have thought that Lin Ze was actually such an honest man.

The door to the lounge was pushed open, and Tang Chuan and Zhang Ya also walked in.

Tang Chuan quietly gave Lin Ze a thumbs-up where the cameras couldn't capture it.

Zhang Ya glanced at Lin Ze, offered a greeting, and then sat down far away.

Soon, the first round of drawing lots began.

A staff member brought over a box with lots inserted inside, exposing equal lengths.

Everyone pinched one of the lots and pulled it out.

Lin Ze pinched the lot in his hand and felt it with his fingers.

Not bad, this length was definitely a long lot!

This time, it was finally his turn to pick someone!

"Come, come, come, let's count down from three to two to one, and then draw out our lots together!"

Tang Chuan called out, gaining everyone's agreement.

"Three! Two! One!"

Everyone pulled out the lots they were holding.

Lin Ze looked closely and saw that three of the lots were wrapped with red tape.

"... And here I thought my drawing was quite long." Lin Ze clicked his tongue.

The newly arrived actress was holding a lot wrapped with red tape, with a "1" written on it.

"Do I get to pick first?" the actress asked excitedly.

"That's right," the staff member replied.

The actress looked around at everyone, and her gaze finally lingered on Lin Ze.

"Then I choose Senior Lin Ze!"

"No, please don't call me senior; I am merely a junior in the acting industry..." Lin Ze quickly said.

Since he had been chosen, Lin Ze had no right to refuse.

Zhang Ya seemed bound to Tang Chuan's fate; this time Zhang Ya drew a "2" and chose Tang Chuan.

The last person had two people to choose from, so the remaining two successfully formed a pair.

Lin Ze and this actress named Bai Zi went to the practice room.

Bai Zi deliberately kept her distance from Lin Ze, showing no intention of clinging to Lin Ze's popularity or intentionally manufacturing some variety show romance pairing.

This made Lin Ze feel much more relaxed.

This time the director didn't dare pull any special privileges stunts; they simply randomly distributed three script segments.

The first scene, a passionate confession, was jointly rejected by the two of them; the second was a brilliant legal showdown between two lawyers.

As for the third, it was a scene where an emperor interrogates a imperial concubine, and the emperor in this piece was originally played by Chen Weiguo.

"Teacher Lin, I can't quite pull off the crisp and decisive feel of a lawyer, but I'm relatively good at crying scenes—I can cry on cue. How about we choose the third one?"

Bai Zi rubbed her hands together, eagerly seeking Lin Ze's agreement.

"Alright, no problem." Lin Ze nodded.

To be honest, I'd quite like to perform this one too. After the show goes live, I'll give Uncle Chen a call and ask him how my performance was.

Lin Ze looked at Chen Weiguo in the video segment. The Chen Weiguo in this clip exuded the supreme majesty of an emperor.

Impressive.

The two of them began watching the segment. Before watching it twice, Lin Ze had already memorized the lines inside and out.

Lin Ze closed his eyes, then cleared and adjusted his throat.

He lowered his voice; his natural speaking voice was too youthful and lacked a certain sense of majesty.

A few minutes later, Bai Zi was ready on her end as well.

"Let's run through the lines first, and then try acting it out twice," Lin Ze looked at Bai Zi.

Bai Zi nodded firmly.

Practice time ticked away minute by minute. While the other three groups were still hard at practice, Lin Ze and Bai Zi each sat in opposite corners of the practice room.

Up on the judging panel, Lu Zhoushan looked at Lin Ze and nodded.

This kid always gave off a sense of familiarity; why did he look so pleasing to the eye?

Before long, the performances were about to begin.

Everyone came to the small stage, and Lin Ze and Bai Zi walked up together.

Lin Ze looked toward Teacher Lu Zhoushan with some excitement.

Teacher is still so young right now...

Lu Zhoushan was also appraising Lin Ze, finding Lin Ze's gaze rather peculiar.

Why does this kid keep staring at me?

Looking at me as if I were a beauty...

"Both contestants, you may choose your props!"

The host gave the command, and the two walked into the prop area.

There were many items available in the prop area. Lin Ze ran over to the wardrobe section and selected a set of imperial robes embroidered with golden coiling dragons.

After slipping these imperial robes on, an aura of martial valor immediately emanated from him.

Bai Zi also put on a set of period costume garments.

It was just a pity that neither of them had matching traditional hairpieces to wear.

"Contestants Lin Ze and Bai Zi, please begin your performance!"

The lights dimmed and then brightened once more.

Lin Ze stood with his back to Bai Zi, flicking his sleeves with a grand sweep.

"Scoundrel!"