APCF -Chapter 5 (1)

Not only the director but the entire room was astonished.

What the hell was a Pagoda of Bowls? Was it the kind of acrobatics we saw when we were young?

When the web was still underdeveloped, everyone would choose to go to theatres to watch operas and acrobatics during their leisure time. But it was already 2020 now, and there was still someone who knows how to do this?

Furthermore, the young lad standing in front looked like he was only 20 years old, where did he even learn acrobatics from? He wasn’t speaking nonsense just to attract attention, was he?

Seeing the director not utter a word, Qi Xingchen asked: “May I begin performing?”

“Go ahead.” Without waiting for the director to speak, Bo Ye answered for him.

Acrobatics is not just about skill and technique, it also focuses on keeping the balance between strength and aesthetics.

Qi Xingchen took off his shoes, took a step back with his left leg and placed a stack of bowls on the crown of his head. Starting a traditional Chinese song, he bowed slightly and gave a salute to the crowd in the conference room.

The moment he finished his salutations, he suddenly whipped his hand upwards. A bowl left his fingers and landed firmly into the stack of bowls on the crown of his head!

Throughout the entire movement, he did not even adjust his position to catch it, as if he was just throwing something casually.

No matter whether one was an expert or a layman, everyone could see from this action that was done with ease that he was not just attracting attention and learning on the go.

There was definitely a very strong foundation!

As the rhythm of the music slowly speeded up, he did traditional Chinese dance while tossing a few more bowls towards his head. Next, after a heavy drum beat, he leaned his upper body forward and stretched his left leg up behind, forming an “Exploring the Sea” pose.

At the moment of the next heavy drum beat, he tossed a bowl backwards. A miraculous thing happened — this bowl landed exactly on the heart of the sole of his foot, not even missing by an inch!

A second one, a third one, a fourth one…… He would throw out a bowl at every drum beat and every bowl would land exactly onto the stack without any error. The crowd watched till they were dizzied and even forgot to cheer.

Once the song ended, Qi Xingchen, whose head and left foot had stacks of bowls, remained nailed in place. His face was not red nor was he panting; the tail of his eyes and the tips of his brow raised in a smile as he gave a slight nod ahead of him.

“……Fuck,” the producer could not help but burst out in foul language, “This is way too amazing. Little Liu, go help him to bring down the bowls.”

“Clap clap clap —“

Only then did the crowd recover, and with the director leading it, a round of applause rang inside the conference room.

Qi Xingchen bowed deeply and expressed his thanks. There were still others waiting behind him, and he did not wish to hold others up, quickly packing up his bowls to run out.

Not even a few steps away, someone called out behind him: ” Qi Xingchen, come back here.”

It was Bo Ye. Qi Xingchen turned his head back to gaze at him.

“…… You didn’t wear your shoes.” Bo Ye indicated towards his feet.

“Oh, thank you.”

.

Qi Xingchen was not that satisfied with this performance.

Acrobatics demands a high degree of balancing ability and flexibility of the body. There was still a disparity between this body and the real-life him, resulting in him only bringing half of his skills into full play today.

Han Qing was waiting outside all this while. Seeing his exit, he walked towards the elevator shaft with him, “Xingxing, did you perform okay?”

“Just average.”

“Heh, so what if you perform well?” At this instant, Zhou Yu walked towards him head-on, “With your capabilities, can you even be chosen by the programme group?”

Zhou Yu performed before Han Qing and Qi Xingchen, so logically, he should have already gone home or back to the practice room for training by now.

His appearance here was very likely because he bore a grudge towards Qi Xingchen for disrupting him from apple-polishing Qi Yuji, and he specially waited to pick on him.

Qi Xingchen laughed sardonically: “Even if I can’t, don’t tell me a boy toy like you who relies on women to pull a few strings can do it?”

Zhou Yu was originally a model, but he managed to transfer from a small company to Noah through Qi Yuji. He never filmed more than two dramas and his performance was ordinary.

By ruining Zhou Yu’s plan of seeking Qi Yuji for help, Qi Xingchen was basically certain that he would not be chosen.

Too lazy to deal with him, Qi Xingchen bumped into his shoulder while brushing past and walked directly into the elevator.

Zhou Yu reeled backwards from the bump. He could not figure out how this person who called out “Yu-ge” this or “Yu-ge” that not long ago, could change faces in such a short amount of time. He rushed up: “Qi Xingchen, if you have the f*cking guts, repeat that again!”

“Your request is certainly unique,” Qi Xingchen raised his eyebrows, “Sure, I’ll repeat it again. Regardless of whether or not I have the capability to be chosen, at least I competed fair and square, unlike you who used sweet talk to coax your girlfriend to find a backdoor7 for you.”

“……” Zhou Yu was so angry that he started getting mouthy, “Only poor motherf*ckers who cannot find backers would make such snarky remarks. Who in the circle isn’t like this? It is also my ability if I can find someone to help me!”

Hearing the noise, the people along the corridor looked over curiously, displaying an entertaining range of facial expressions.

Some of them were just watching it unfold, some were gloating, and some have been unhappy with Zhou Yu or Qi Xingchen for a long while and were dying for the both of them to disappear in an earth-shattering event.

The only reaction no one expressed was disdain at Zhou Yu’s words.

Society was like this, full of superficial people. Being able to live well was a capability, no one cared about how you went about “living well”.