Best Performance

[Watching your movies, I was blind from start to finish]

[When it comes to the entertainment industry, I have to hand it to Tong Hua. He can turn a reunion after many years into a hunt for revenge with a knife, and turn Old Wang from the village entrance into an oily domineering CEO. I hereby name him the King of Bad Movies.]

The year Tong Hua, dubbed the King of Bad Movies, turned twenty, his parents died tragically, the whole internet mocked him, and he was left with eighty million in debt.

His manager issued one final ultimatum: “If you don't pass the audition for Murder House, you'll go make adult films to pay off your debt!”

Tong Hua tugged at his cold expression, as if he were the one owed eighty million, then went out and ducked into the basement. He opened a collection of Best Actor Shen Yan's movies and studied them expressionlessly while slurping instant noodles.

Who could have guessed he'd choke on a noodle?

The moment he opened and closed his eyes, he found himself in an old, rundown apartment block in the 1980s.

A Best Performance app had appeared on his phone, and a cold voice spoke beside his ear: [Dear Host, you must give the best performance in your role to leave this building.]

“...”

In the public restroom, Tong Hua looked in the mirror at a middle-aged man with a stubbly beard, a wooden, numb expression, and a green padded coat.

After a long pause, he cursed, “Fuck.”

*

The day Murder House premiered.

The whole internet exploded.

[Holy crap, did someone possess Tong Hua? Have you seen Murder House? His portrayal of Wang Jianguo was incredible.]

[That feeling of drifting through life with nowhere to turn, wanting to be respected your whole life but ending up a joke... He got so many details right: the hands, the eyes, that obsequious, ingratiating smile. I cried watching it...]

[...Did anyone know Murder House was based on a real murder that took place in Qingcheng in the 1980s?]

[Holy crap! Shen Yan followed Tong Hua?!]

*

Shen Yan's life split in two during the summer he was fifteen.

A paternity test shattered every bit of pride he'd once had. He was accused of taking someone else's place, and suddenly even his excellence seemed like a sin.

The boy tucked away the scraps of his pride. Fragile and pale, he returned to the narrow, shabby, damp alley that should have been his home. Like a bird with broken wings, lost and helpless, he encountered the brightest light in his life at the edge of the abyss.

A famous director was shooting nearby. The director's cherished youngest son stood in the moldy, damp stairwell and tossed him a piece of candy from above, warning him fiercely: “You are not allowed to cry.”

Shen Yan lowered his eyes and stared at the candy. After a long while, he smiled silently.

Meeting you was the fairy tale fate wrote for me.

It begins in a haunted apartment block in the 1980s and leads to the arson case on Yong'an Street that shocked the nation ten years ago.

The present and the movies intertwine: uncover the truth through film, and become your true self in real life.

One day, I'll stand at the pinnacle of fame, where the stars shine brightest, and give the best performance of my own.

*

Flirtatious, captivating actor gong X cool, bad-movie-king shou.

The gong is probably the gentle type XD

P.S. A serious acting story set in the entertainment industry, maybe with a touch of infinite-flow flavor (??), plus some serial-crime-solving elements [but it's not serious police procedural fiction, it's soft sci-fi!! I want to be a little kinder to my hair qwq]. Just read it as a sweet, satisfying story!

Theme: Life is like a play