That picture-perfect healing smile on Xiao Ran's face visibly stiffened.
His brain began to race, trying to parse this man's abrupt, nonsensical question.
Is there a tutorial?
What kind of newfangled pickup line is this?
Or so insider jargon only those in the circle understand?
Xiao Ran's agent reacted lightning-fast, imdiately stepping forward to place himself between Xiao Ran and Jiang Ci, his face plastered with an even more ingratiating smile.
"Teacher Jiang, you're such a joker."
"Our Xiao Ran's natural affinity is just innate. What kind of tutorial could there possibly be?"
As he spoke, the agent subtly nudged Xiao Ran with his elbow, signaling him to quickly pick up the thread and smooth over this bizarre situation.
However, Jiang Ci completely ignored the agent's attempt at diation.
His gaze passed over the agent's shoulder, still firmly locked onto Xiao Ran's face, which was beginning to look a bit unnatural.
He continued with serious, utterly unemotional persistence.
"Innate?"
"Then how do the facial muscles exert force?"
"Is there a specific standard for the angle of the upward curve of the mouth?"
"What kind of ntal activity needs to accompany the eyes to achieve this kind of 'healing' effect?"
A barrage of overly "technical" soul-searching questions instantly tore away all the unspoken pretenses in the room.
The smile on Xiao Ran's agent's face vanished completely.
Xiao Ran himself was utterly frozen in place.
Throughout his career, he had received countless interviews and flattery. Everyone praised his smile for being infectious, for being able to heal hearts.
He had long grown accustod to this praise and internalized it as part of his personal charm.
But he had never imagined that one day, the act of "smiling" would be quantified and deconstructed in such a manner.
After a mont of extre confusion, an indescribable sense of sha surged violently in his heart.
He finally found the only "reasonable explanation" for Jiang Ci's bizarre behavior.
This was humiliation.
A form of humiliation laced with extre aggression.
Jiang Ci, this industry-famous "BE maniac," was using his thod of studying tragic characters to dissect his own "healing smile."
He was using this thod to mock his smile as a hypocritical product built from technique.
Having figured this out, the muscles in Xiao Ran's face relaxed completely. That practiced, professional smile disappeared without a trace.
He raised his head, looked directly at Jiang Ci, and spoke.
"Teacher Jiang's research into acting truly goes deep into the bones."
His words carried a hint of barely perceptible sharpness.
"Not like , who only knows the clumsiest thod."
"Smiling from the heart."
He cleverly frad Jiang Ci's behavior as "obsessing over technique, lacking soul."
While he himself was "genuine and heartfelt, naturally flawless."
This undercurrent-laden confrontation instantly escalated.
Lin Wan, standing to the side, had already clenched her fists, ready to jump in and start tearing into them at any mont.
But when she witnessed this unexpected turn of events, her whole mind went blank.
She had envisioned a hundred different scenarios of verbal sparring.
But she had never anticipated that Jiang Ci would use this thod, akin to a dinsional reduction strike, to disarm his opponent without shedding a single drop of blood.
Xiao Ran and his agent were still on the first level, playing the industry's usual gas of flattery-turned-backstabbing and veiled sarcasm.
But Jiang Ci, he was on the fifth level.
This extre sense of absurdity and contrast intertwined, making Lin Wan almost fail to hold back a laugh.
Her understanding of Jiang Ci, this "new breed in the industry," was refreshed once again.
This was no longer just having an unusual train of thought.
This was practically here to clean up the entire entertainnt industry.
Lin Wan forcibly suppressed the urge to smile, stepped forward, and gently patted Jiang Ci's shoulder.
She looked towards Xiao Ran's agent, whose expression had already turned sowhat unpleasant.
In a tone that said, "My kid doesn't know any better, sorry for the trouble," she spoke lightly.
"Sorry about that, Brother Wang."
"He's got a bit of a professional obsession. Whenever he sees good acting, he always wants to deconstruct it and learn from it."
Lin Wan paused, then shifted her focus, looking at Xiao Ran.
"After all, we're not like Teacher Xiao Ran, gifted by nature, a natural from birth."
Lin Wan's words seed like an apology, an explanation.
These few phrases not only solidified that the exchange between Xiao Ran and Jiang Ci was a "discussion on acting,"
But also, from the side, confird Jiang Ci's "professionalism."
And that line, "not like Teacher Xiao Ran, gifted by nature," was a masterstroke.
It directly yanked Xiao Ran's pride and joy, his "healing smile," from the realm of "personal charm,"
And dragged it onto the track of "acting talent."
Combined with Jiang Ci's earlier barrage of "technical" questions,
This one-two punch from the duo directly hamred Xiao Ran into a "specialty actor" who "only knows how to smile," with a singular, narrow talent.
Xiao Ran's agent's face flushed a purplish-red.
Having navigated the industry for years, this was the first ti he had encountered opponents who played by no rules at all.
If you curse them, they're praising your "great acting."
If you ignore them, they look utterly sincere, eager to learn.
This feeling of having fire with nowhere to vent it, of punching cotton, made him feel like he was about to vomit blood.
Just as the atmosphere was awkward to the point of near-solidification.
"Creak—"
That ancient, heavy garden-style wooden door slowly swung open from the inside.
A middle-aged man dressed in simple gray hospun cloth, with a slender build and a calm, composed deanor, erged from behind the door.
He did not look at the four people with their various agendas at the door, nor did he acknowledge the tense, confrontational atmosphere.
He simply stood by the door and spoke plainly.
"Director Hou invites everyone inside."
This utterly ordinary sentence was like a bucket of cold water, dousing the gunpowder in the air.
Xiao Ran took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fury and humiliation in his heart.
When he raised his head again, that impeccable professional smile was back on his face.
Only this ti, when he looked at Jiang Ci, that originally clear, warm sunlight in his eyes now carried undisguised scrutiny and hostility.
He gave Lin Wan and Jiang Ci a polite nod, then took the lead, stepping through the door with his agent in tow.
His posture carried a sense of asserting dominance.
As if they were the hosts of today's eting.
Watching the two of them disappear behind the door, Lin Wan finally let out a sigh of relief.
She leaned close to Jiang Ci's ear, lowered her voice, and quickly instructed.
"Well done."
"But once we're inside, tone it down. Hou Hsiao-hsien is in there."
Jiang Ci nodded.
His mind was still replaying the entire process of Xiao Ran's smile going from perfect to shattered.
A standardized emotion could produce such drastic fluctuations when hit with external verbal impact.
The stability is far too poor.
It seems this thod of performance isn't suitable for after all.
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