Novel Bin Chapter 18: Film Casting
“What kind of evening is this, I’m riding a small boat across the river. What kind of day is this, I ride on the boat with my prince, traveling together. So thankful that the prince doesn’t think me too poor, and doesn’t berate or hate me because of my identity as a boatman. My mind is so messy, and I didn’t know what to do, because I know he’s a prince. There are trees in the mountains and there are branches on the trees, I like you but you don’t know that.”
TL’s Note: this is just this really awesome poem that came from back in the Qin dynasties. For more information, search up “越人歌”
The entire comment section was filled with exclamations as she wrote the poem.
“!!!”
“The astonishment in my mind cannot be expressed by a simple ‘666’ this time.”
“Too bad we are unsophisticated; we can only admire her.”
“Does anyone understand what she’s writing? Can anyone translate it for me?”
“It’s ‘Yue Ren song’ from Poetry of the South. This font is too hard to recognize, I only realized it’s ‘Yue Ren song’ when she started writing the last two lines, which are the most classical lines in this piece.”
Some fans immediately searched up the Yue Ren song’s full context and pasted it in the comment section.
“Learned something new today.”
“I’ve never even heard of it before!”
“I can’t even read some of the words in Simplified Chinese. (Cries)”
“Have you guys realized? This gal memorized it all, her brush hadn’t even paused for a moment.”
“Her handwriting is very smooth. It’s very rare nowadays for a girl to have such good calligraphy skills.”
“She’s definitely talented!”
Liu Man’s number of followers ascended quickly during this live-stream, and her phone incessantly beeped. It was the sound the application made every time she acquired a new follower.
When she finally finished writing the entire poem, her fan count had grown to 467, and the number of people watching her live-stream had gone over 1000! There were way too many comments for her to respond to.
True. Live-streaming cats and selling AJs were common, and there was nothing unique about them. However, live-streaming calligraphy and writing Qin Seal… Liu Man was the first one to do this on this application.
Fans were all exclaiming that they’d never seen this before.
“Does anyone still remember we’re fans of her cat?” — Peach is a fairy.
“Hahaha, I’m probably the only one still staring at the cat in the corner.”
“You’re not the only one. Cat observer +1.”
“Cat observer +2.”
“Cat observer +3.”
…
Daylight, who was sleeping, didn’t understand what her owner was doing. After finishing up her dinner, she had curled into a nice comfy position and slept in her cathouse over in the corner. She unconsciously became a cute background for the live-stream.
“After watching for such a long time, there’s no need to say much. I’m going to shop for a pair of AJs to show support!” — I’m here for the shoes.
“Sis, don’t you have a Weibo account? I couldn’t find you on Weibo.” — I’m Tingting.
TL’s Note: For those of you who don’t know, Weibo = Facebook + Instagram
This comment reminded Liu Man.
The old Liu Man used to have a Wei Bo account, but she never really logged onto it. She didn’t post a lot, and so the current Liu Man decided to sign up for a new one.
That night, Liu Man was able to obtain more than 400 followers, and the comment section was always in a jocund vibe. Some fans were explaining the meaning of the Yue Ren song to the others; some fans were analyzing Liu Man’s level of calligraphy; others were asking follow-up questions on the fake cat food.
Liu Man was busy trying to reply to each of them. Soon, it was twelve o’clock. She still had to go to school the next day.
She said to everyone, “It’s getting late today, I’m going offline! I probably won’t have time to live-stream tomorrow, so I’ll see you guys the day after tomorrow.”
Seeing as Liu Man turned off her live-stream, the teenager (Otaku Boy, of course) reluctantly turned off his computer. He then turned around to face his three roommates, “How was it? My goddess isn’t as ‘low’ as you guys thought she was, right?”
TL’s Note: ‘low’ = boring… low-quality live-streams
“Mhm, she does seem a little different than the other ‘low’ live-streamers,” Roommate B replied as he picked up his phone, clicked onto APP Store, and re-installed this application, “What name does this live-streamer go by? I want to follow her too.”
Teenager: ……
Roommate A and C: ……
At last, all three of them followed Princess Man.
Live-streaming was a very exhausting thing to do. Liu Man fell onto her bed and slept as soon as she turned off her live-stream. It was fortunate that she had no classes during the next day’s morning, and so, she was able to wake up at a later time than usual.
In the afternoon, they had their last music theory class for the semester. The teacher was going to lecture them on what the exam would be about, and so it shouldn’t be skipped. Liu Man walked in just as the bell rang. Everyone came, even the ones that usually skipped these classes. Nobody was stupid enough to skip the last class of the semester. There were too many students, so Liu Man couldn’t find Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina. The desks in the back were full, so as a result, she could only find a spot in the front rows.
She took out her textbook from her bag and placed it on the desk. At this moment, the teacher arrived. She wasn’t the music theory teacher that usually taught them, but one of the judges at yesterday’s exams. She was that middle-aged woman with dazzling clothing and delicate make-up on.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Mr. Zhu had to take a break for personal reasons, so I’m your substitute for this course. My first name is Qiu,” She introduced herself on the platform.
Liu Man heard some students around her said:
“She’s that guest professor in the violin major.”
Liu Man felt confused. Why would a guest professor in the violin major be supervising at a piano major exam?
Perhaps it was her delusion, but she felt as if Professor Qiu was looking at her, consciously or unconsciously.
Professor Qiu’s substitute work was very simple. The music theory teacher sent her a PowerPoint with everything she needed to talk about. So, a class that was supposed to go on for forty-five minutes ended in less than twenty minutes.
Everyone loved this kind of teacher, who would go straight to the point. When Professor Qiu announced that class is over, students left one after another. Liu Man saw that Wang Nina and Li Xiaoru had left through the back door, so she quickly cleaned up and started to follow in their direction.
“Liu Man, can I borrow you for a moment?” This was Professor Qiu’s second time calling out to her since yesterday.
The few students who hadn’t left yet, all looked towards Liu Man. They were wondering how Professor Qiu and Liu Man had gotten to know each other.
Liu Man followed Professor Qiu into a small garden behind the building. She felt apprehensive and thought maybe she did something wrong in the piano exam the day before.
Qiu Jing saw how gravely she was behaving and started to chuckle lightly, “There’s no need to feel anxious. I asked you to come with me, only because I wanted to know if you would like to take a part-time job.”
Liu Man’s eyes practically glowed when she heard there was a part-time job available. She needed money the most at this moment, “What kind of job?”
“You probably already knew that I’m a guest professor at the violin major. When I was younger, I graduated from the violin major at this school, but I stopped playing the violin years ago. It’s been a long time since I’ve changed my profession, and I’m now a deputy manager of a film and television company,” Qiu Jing handed Liu Man a business card. It read: ‘Capital City Galaxy Film and Television Ltd., Deputy General Manager: Qiu Jing.’
“We have a movie that’s about to be filmed, and we need a female character who knows how to play piano. She will probably be in the movie for five minutes.”
Liu Man was surprised. That was why Professor Qiu was one of the supervising judges in yesterday’s piano exam. Everyone thought she was judging, but in fact, she was picking a character for her movie.
“But I’m not really good at the piano. There are lots of people who can play better than me,” Liu Man wasn’t being humble, she was speaking the truth. If Professor Qiu was picking from the piano major, then she must have an expectation for how good that person can play the piano.
Qiu Jing told her, “We’re picking out a movie actor, not a pianist. After looking at all aspects, I think you’re the best choice for this character.”
Qiu Jing was very satisfied with Liu Man. Firstly, her appearance on the outside met her expectations. Secondly, Liu Man’s artistic temperament really fit the character. This was the most important of all. Nowadays, there were lots of pretty girls who could play piano, but not one of them satisfied Qiu Jing. That’s why she had come back to her old school, hoping to get lucky.
Credits: Sydney & Kathrien