CSGM - Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Another Apprentice Arrives
Zhou Luyan: "Huh...?"
After learning that the character Zhou Luyan was playing was an experienced and capable criminal investigator who had worked at the city bureau for many years, Chu Xi first taught her a few simple tricks.
First, develop a subconscious habit of observing and remembering the people and things around you. Second, when listening to someone speak, don't watch their mouth; watch their movements. Third, upon entering any new scene, first check the dark corners.
Honestly, a screenwriter capable of writing a line as idiotic as "the suicide victim's motive was that they didn't want to live anymore" could never write a script that would allow an actor to truly immerse themselves in a role.
And to portray a character well, it's essential for the actor to have an inner sense of trust in the character, a feeling of authenticity, and an immersive connection that aligns with the character's spirit.
"Rich work experience, cautious and meticulous..." Chu Xi mulled over the character traits Zhou Luyan had described, then smiled. "Before any of that, you at least have to first believe that you're a dedicated criminal investigator on the job, right?"
Zhou Luyan looked at Chu Xi, half-believing and half-doubting, as if she didn't quite understand.
Could it be that Chu Xi's acting is really good? Did she have formal training? How does she know so much?
Chu Xi, however, seemed completely unfazed by her skepticism.
"Just try acting it out again. I'm going to rest. If you need anything, find me tomorrow." With that, she returned to her room.
Zhou Luyan remained where she was. Following the three points Chu Xi had just mentioned, she tried to incorporate them into her mindset and discovered...
Huh? The more she got into it, the more authentic it felt?
By adding subtle glances to observe her surroundings while delivering her lines, Zhou Luyan found that the more she tried, the more she felt like she had truly found the feeling of being a criminal investigator.
Sometimes, adding just one more detail can highlight a character's traits.
The defining characteristic of an experienced criminal investigator is—suspicion.
Only then did she belatedly understand what Chu Xi meant by "first believe that you're a criminal investigator."
Zhou Luyan: "...!!!"
Could Chu Xi have played a similar role before? Amazing!
The next day, the way Zhou Luyan looked at Chu Xi had changed. There was a deeper sense of closeness than the day before.
Clearly, she was extremely grateful that Chu Xi had generously shared her acting tips.
Ren Zhi heard about this while chatting with Zhou Luyan as they cleared the table, a look of surprise on her face.
"She told you all that?" Ren Zhi was asking about the three small details for playing the role.
"Yeah! I tried it a few times, and the sense of immersion really became much stronger!" Zhou Luyan nodded vigorously, still excited as she spoke.
There's a sense of accomplishment for an actor when they can portray a character well.
When Ren Zhi prepared for her roles, she almost always added small, detailed actions specific to the character's profession or personality to enhance the realism of her performance. This kind of work actually required a rather deep interpretation of the character.
She hadn't expected Chu Xi to be so experienced in this area.
She remembered the online rumors... Chu Xi didn't have formal training, so it was unexpected that she had this kind of aptitude for acting.
Ren Zhi casually remarked, "She's quite impressive, then."
"It's not the first day you've known me. Didn't you already know how impressive I am?"
Chu Xi's voice and person appeared out of nowhere, shamelessly jumping in on the conversation.
Ren Zhi was taken aback for a moment, then laughed speechlessly. "You're so smug."
Chu Xi chuckled and walked past her.
That evening, Zhou Luyan gave Chu Xi a pleasant surprise.
She invited Chu Xi to eat grilled skewers.
Chu Xi was about to refuse, but then she heard Zhou Luyan say—
"Our Vanguard of Major Cases crew is actually filming in Jinwu Town these few days. I was originally planning to join the cast right after I finished guesting on this show, but I didn't expect two of my friends from the cast to have already arrived. So I was thinking... Teacher Chu, if we had a meal, could you also give them a few pointers? It's our first time acting in a suspense drama..."
Before she could finish her long-winded explanation, Chu Xi already understood what she meant and readily agreed.
"No problem. Let's go."
Excellent. Two more apprentices have arrived.
How could I not take the IQ points being delivered right to my door?
Half an hour later, at a barbecue stall, Chu Xi met Zhou Luyan's two other friends from the cast.
They were all obscure actors, the kind who didn't even need a disguise to sit by the roadside and eat skewers late at night.
These two hadn't joined the cast yet either, as their scenes hadn't come up. But they didn't have many scenes to begin with; they'd probably only be on set for about ten days. This was the "freedom" exclusive to supporting actors billed fourth or lower.
According to the introductions, one of Zhou Luyan's actor friends was a young man named Fan Yuzhe. He was nineteen, a former idol eliminated from a talent show, with delicate and refined features. In the drama, he played a university student who was constantly terrified by his neighbor and lived in a state of perpetual fear.
The other was Guo Si, thirty-two years old, with a medium build, a round face, and a beard. He played a boss who was hiding from a murder charge, had changed his identity, and was running a mine.
Chu Xi understood.
Her gaze swept over Guo Si.
Name: Guo Si. IQ: 102.
"If your own intelligence isn't high, you can't play a cautious, intelligent person. You should start taking reasoning classes with me tomorrow. Not only will it help you play this role well, but improving your IQ will benefit you for life," she said with great seriousness.
Guo Si, holding a beef skewer, froze for a moment and blinked at her.
This... Weren't we supposed to be talking about acting? Who asks someone to take classes the moment they meet?
Guo Si had never met a... colleague like Chu Xi.
For a moment, he even wondered if Chu Xi was really in the same profession as him. Was Chu Xi really an actor?
Could she be some kind of scammer who hangs around obscure actors like them, trying to trick people into buying classes...?
Fan Yuzhe was also stunned. What kind of actor sells reasoning classes at a barbecue stall?
He let out an "Ah," his mouth wide open.
Zhou Luyan smiled and explained from the side, "Don't be surprised, she really does teach... Um, Teacher Li Xiling also takes her classes, it's true."
It sounded a bit strange, but it was the truth.
After speaking, Zhou Luyan scratched her head and asked, not quite understanding, "Chu Xi, how do you sell these classes? How much is one session?"
Under the gazes of the three, Chu Xi gave a faint smile. "Teaching and educating people to improve the quality of the entire population is a good deed. I don't charge money."
Seeing their wide-eyed, skeptical stares, she added, "My childhood dream was to be a teacher."
Fine. If saying this would make the three of them feel more at ease, she might as well invent a dream for herself.
Fan Yuzhe gave her a thumbs-up, his face full of admiration. "I never knew you had such aspirations, Teacher Chu!"
Name: Fan Yuzhe. IQ: 100.
Just as expected, he doesn't seem very bright.
Chu Xi looked at him and asked, "You're playing the university student who's threatened every day and lives in fear, right?"
Fan Yuzhe: "Mhm."
Chu Xi said, "You can come learn too. Broaden your thinking a bit. When you're getting into character, just find a few things that are easy to associate with fear and scare yourself."
What Chu Xi meant was, for example, when opening a door, imagine someone on the other side holding the handle. When washing your face, imagine seeing someone else's reflection in the mirror when you look up. When the curtains are drawn, imagine someone could be hiding behind them...
Things like that. Scare yourself, and the sense of immersion will come instantly. Isn't it simple?
But Fan Yuzhe just stared at her with a look of pure, innocent stupidity.
"Teacher Chu, to be honest, I'm not really interested in things like reasoning..." Fan Yuzhe tactfully declined her teaching invitation, feeling it wasn't necessary.
Chu Xi just smiled without a word and picked up a skewer with her chopsticks to eat.
However, Fan Yuzhe did agree with what she had just said about divergent thinking and scaring himself to get into character.
He just didn't know how to broaden his thinking.
"Looks like I'll have to go back and read a few detective novels to get a feel for it..." He nodded thoughtfully as he considered this.
Fan Yuzhe chugged a few more gulps of cola. Suddenly, Chu Xi picked up a piece of meat and asked him, "What kind of meat is this?"
Fan Yuzhe took a look.
"It's pheasant!"
"How much is one skewer?" Chu Xi asked again.
"I think... five yuan a skewer. The owner recommended it to me, said it's a hot seller."
Chu Xi held the meat with her chopsticks and examined it closely, her eyes narrowing in concentration. She slowly mused:
"Pheasant meat selling this cheap? And he recommended it to you, eager to sell it off, using such heavy spices to cover the original flavor... This couldn't be some... meat of unknown origin, could it? Like human flesh from someone trying to dispose of a body in a hurry?"
The other three people at the table suddenly froze mid-bite.
A look of terror immediately filled Fan Yuzhe's eyes, and he even felt a little... nauseous.
"Gag—! Teacher Chu, don't scare me!"
He gripped the table and dry-heaved. Just hearing her words made him lose his appetite.
Chu Xi looked at him with a light laugh, popped the piece of meat from her chopsticks into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed it before saying nonchalantly:
"It was just a joke. You guys actually took it seriously? At worst, this is just regular chicken being passed off as something better."
A joke? Don't you dare make one like that again!!!
After finishing their late-night snack, Fan Yuzhe and Guo Si went to their hotel, which was right next to the barbecue stall. The two of them went to the trunk of their car to get their suitcases, planning to wheel them back to the hotel.
Just as Fan Yuzhe struggled to lift his large, silver suitcase and set it on the ground, Chu Xi glanced at it.
"That's pretty big. It's been in the car all day, right?"
"Yeah." The naive Fan Yuzhe was still oblivious to the meaning behind Chu Xi's smile.
Until he heard the words that drifted faintly from above his head.
"If there was a murderer around here, they'd definitely take advantage of the day to put the body in your suitcase. It's big and seals in odors, so stuffing a dead person inside would be no problem. Huh, you've even got a waterproof layer, right? That makes it even more convenient for dismembered body parts, and it won't leak blood easily. Then, after you and Guo Si drive this car for a day, you'll have transported the body far away..."
Fan Yuzhe's calves trembled. He held onto the newly extended handle of his suitcase and looked up at Chu Xi resentfully.
Chu Xi gave him a friendly reminder: "When you open the suitcase, do it slowly. Take a good look before you open it all the way."
Fan Yuzhe: "!!!" After hearing that, there's no way I'm opening it!!!
Even Zhou Luyan felt her hair stand on end. Combined with the gloomy darkness of their parking spot... she tugged on Chu Xi's sleeve. "Teacher Chu, you should stop talking."
Even Guo Si, a grown man, couldn't help but feel a little spooked hearing this at night. He quickly cut in, "Alright, let's hurry back to the hotel and rest."
Chu Xi patted Fan Yuzhe's shoulder. "Alright, I was just scaring you. Seeing as you're so afraid, how about I walk you back to your place?"
Fan Yuzhe gave her a wry smile.
"Teacher Chu, it's not that I'm a coward, it's just that nighttime really isn't the right time to talk about this..."
"Mhm, okay."
Chu Xi really did walk Fan Yuzhe back to his hotel, with Zhou Luyan accompanying them. The hotel's ground-floor elevator was in the hallway, and the two women planned to see Fan Yuzhe and Guo Si off at the elevator before leaving.
The motion-sensor lights in the hallway flickered on. The moment the corridor was brightly lit, Fan Yuzhe's heartbeat seemed to steady.
Just as they were walking along without incident, Chu Xi suddenly stopped and her voice dropped.
"Wait, something doesn't seem right."
Fan Yuzhe's heart clenched. "Teacher Chu! You can't scare me anymore! I'm not listening, I'm not listening!"
"Me, scare you? Don't you have eyes? Shh—, look over there—"
Chu Xi pointed tensely at a hotel room door, and the other three followed her finger with their eyes.
"Wh-what is it?" Zhou Luyan stammered.
Chu Xi lowered her voice significantly and whispered to them.
"All the other doorknobs are level, but that one is pressed down. Someone inside is opening the door..."
The three of them looked at the doorknob, and it was true!
Only that specific doorknob was in a different state from all the others.
The corridor was deathly silent. The person inside was holding the doorknob down but wasn't coming out...
C-could it be that a murderer was really hiding inside?!
Their pupils contracted in fear, and every muscle in their bodies tensed up!
"I-I-I-I-I... Let's call the police," Fan Yuzhe said, his face pale as a sheet.
Chu Xi glanced back at him. Without realizing it, he had moved to stand behind her.
So naive. He believes anything I say.
The atmosphere had become so tense that she couldn't help but laugh, breaking the solemn expressions on everyone's faces.
"Sorry, I was mistaken. It looks like that door is just broken."
After saying that, she walked quickly to the door, jiggled the handle to let the three of them hear the broken sound, and then flipped over the sign hanging on the door that read, "Door Lock Damaged, Temporarily Out of Service" for them to see.
The three of them: "..................!"
At that moment, they all felt the urge to beat Chu Xi up!
Chu Xi dusted off her hands and returned, saying cheerfully to Fan Yuzhe, "See how simple it is? Just use your imagination a little, and you can be the perfect university student living in terror."
Fan Yuzhe was on the verge of a mental breakdown. He hadn't even started living in terror of his co-star in the show, but he was already living in terror of Chu Xi!
No, that wasn't right. Chu Xi's terror tactics were far more potent than the ones in the script!
He suddenly realized that the expression currently on his face was one of genuine emotion...
He had an epiphany and cupped his fist to Chu Xi!
"Teacher Chu! Please let me start taking your classes tomorrow! The Chu Sect! Forever!"
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