C20— Late Date Night[Part 2]

Although convincing Lucas was mostly on his own, without Xie Yifeng pulling the strings, he wouldn’t be able to play even if he held more cards in his hand.

To show his gratitude, Zhou Yuhe invited Xie Yifeng out to see a movie.
The viewing was the first of the VOD screening of Emperor Xuan Tong, a film that would soon be crowned as a god that was of deep significance to Xie Yifeng’s entire acting career.

In a dark cinema.
Xie Yifeng’s deep, three-dimensional face appeared on the big screen.
Every move, every gesture, every smile.
All of them were gradually overlapped with the memories of their past lives.

He remembered when he was at his most devastating point and his career suffered the biggest blow, that was how Xie Yifeng was, dragging him around the room watching his old tapes over and over again, never getting tired of telling him why he was acting that way and how many funny things happened while he was acting this scene.

Something more affecting than the gentle, humorous, animated look in his eyes was the man’s pure enjoyment of acting.
That deep liking also infected the people around him and supported Zhou Yuhe to keep going.

The film they watched together the most times was Emperor Xuantong.
At that time, Xie Yifeng was already a famous star at home and abroad, with countless film contracts and resources, and every time he appeared in the crowd, he was always shining and full of energy, but the way he looked at  the screen in front of him was like an innocent child, telling his simple prayers for his dreams, and his eyes were like broken stars.
Xie Yifeng was so dazzling, and watching him seriously, was like a bottomless whirlpool, which attracted him deeply into his world and gazed at him firmly. Perhaps, the feelings that couldn’t be confided began to show signs of germination at that time.

He stared at Xie Yifeng in a daze for a long time before turning to look at Pu Yi on the TV screen.
Indeed, this was a very classic drama, in which Pu Yi had been wandering for half his life, and his appearance was really not good-looking, and the drama did not care how good-looking the actors were.

If he came to act, if he could also go on with the same pure love for acting as Xie Yifeng, he might really be able to….

“There was a gunshot…
The film’s capitalist powers began to invade the Qing dynasty, and the noise instantly pulled Zhou Yuhe out of his memories and back to reality.

Now he was no longer the disfigured artist who had hit rock bottom, and Xie Yifeng was not yet the radiant, unapproachable star of heaven, they had better times, better opportunities.
Let the beautiful prayers of his former youthful life be fulfilled by the younger, more handsome, and better actor of this one.
　　*********
　　The movie was long time.
By the time they came out of the cinema, it was almost eleven o’clock, and the bustling street became very busy.
Surrounding them were the sounds of the audience’s fiery discussions.

“I had picked a film at random and thought it would be boring, but who knew that ‘Pu Yi’ acted so well! I’m crying at this!”
“Yeah, that actor looks so familiar, what’s his name?”
“He looks familiar too, but I can’t remember who it is…”

The reason why they couldn’t recognize him was because he wasn’t very popular, and more importantly, because of his “plastic surgery” acting skills.

According to some statistics, in the ten years that Xie Yifeng had been working as an actor, he had appeared in a total of 31 movies and 43 TV dramas, making a total of 74 works.

That was a terrifying frequency of 7 movies a year, which could be described as a model worker.

And the type of role played regardless of being the male lead was all-encompassing, from teenagers to the elderly, from a horse man to the gas boy, without any contradiction, if not for knowing this actor, one would never think of the two wildly different roles played by the same person.

“I actually went into the cinema today to see this movie for the first time, what do you think of my performance?”

There was zero communication between the two of them throughout the viewing, and it was Xie Yifeng who was the first to break the silence in the end.

“Of course it’s good!” Zhou Yuhe almost didn’t even want to think about it, but although there were many actors who had played Pu Yi, the last emperor, in his heart, when it came to Pu Yi, it was only Xie Yifeng.
　　
　　Xie Yifeng held his chin, his long body posture slowly leaned closer to Zhou Yuhe, his 1.87 meters tall body mixed with strong male hormones, gave him an oppressive feeling that was hard to ignore.
He took a closer look at Zhou Yuhe’s expression and said “disappointed”: “Shoddy.”

Zhou Yuhe wanted to step back.

Zhou Yuhe had wanted to step back and create a safe distance from him, but with the lost expression on the other’s face, he couldn’t care less about the distance and only thought about defending him, “No, I’m serious.”
“Sure?”
“Sure, you act anything.”

Xie Yifeng didn’t hold back, a soft laugh spilled out.
Only then did Zhou Yuhe realize that he had been played by this guy.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Xie Yifeng straightened up and smiled.
“You’re welcome,” Zhou Yuhe calmly disguised himself, “More than acting skills, I think it’s your boldness that deserves more praise.”

The smile on Xie Yifeng’s face was even greater, and his deep, dark eyes seemed to be tainted with some kind of magic in the darkness of the night, as long as one was allowed to look at them for the first time, it would be hard to divert one’s attention again.

From the audition for “Rejuvenation”, until just coming out of the cinema.
The faint strangeness and awkwardness that had been permeating between the two seemed to have slowly disappeared….