On the third day of insomnia, Tang Ning went to the hospital to see a psychiatrist. He wore a mask and sunglasses, and lowered his head, like a child who had done something wrong.
He took off his sunglasses cautiously, revealing a pair of red and swollen eyes. The traces of his crying were obvious, and they looked particularly sick against his pale skin.
The room was filled with pleasant and soothing music. The doctor asked Tangning to lie down on a recliner and guided her in a soothing voice, "Close your eyes and follow my thoughts. Imagine listening to this music and walking on a comfortable beach with blue sky and white clouds."
His voice was empty and distant, blending with the music, soothing his thoughts as gently as running water. Tang Ning's tense body gradually relaxed, and his consciousness seemed to be suspended in the vast universe. He felt a long-lost sense of relaxation.
"Do you have anything you particularly like?"
Tangning couldn't help but reveal her true feelings: "Red velvet cake."
"What are your hobbies?"
“Play games, watch movies, and eat delicious food”
"Have you had any dreams recently?"
Tangning's eyes moved slightly under her thin eyelids and she murmured in a dreamy voice, "Yes."
"What's in the dream?"
"Cake, movie, bus, doll." Tears silently fell from the corners of Tang Ning's eyes, and his voice was tinged with tears. He was clearly reciting the most ordinary things, but it seemed like he was talking about an extremely terrifying existence. He was so scared that his words were on the verge of breaking.
The doctor realized that once the question was directed to a very sharp point, the pain would drive the patient to wake up and break free from hypnosis, so he immediately changed the question: "What do you most want to see in your dream?"
Tears flowed unconsciously, and the pale lips slowly uttered a name through the mask: "Mo Yunchu"
The subconscious mind was thinking of this person's name, so he must be someone he believed to be trustworthy. The doctor asked, "Does he make you feel safe?"
The light blue mask was soaked by tears and turned dark blue, as if the deep and shallow sea water flooded the mouth and nose, and the drowning person weakly cried for help: "He"
"yes"
The doctor slowly approached, holding his breath, and heard the trembling voice saying in panic:
"The nightmare itself."
This sentence was like lightning that disturbed the turbulent sea. His wet eyelashes suddenly opened up and his distracted eyes looked forward in confusion. The soothing music soothed his thoughts, gently and tenderly, just like the impression Mo Yunchu gave people.
Why did you think of Mo Yunchu again
Tang Ning's mind was blank, and he had no recollection of what had just happened. He could only see the calm doctor in front of him with his eyes wide open, his pupils dilated rapidly, as if he saw something extremely terrifying in his eyes.
What's wrong
The doctor who was looking at him fell off his chair and landed on his back.
Tang Ning watched in bewilderment as the hypnosis treatment ended with the doctor's almost inappropriate behavior. He wanted to stand up to help, but the doctor immediately got up, as if he was extremely afraid of having physical contact with him. In the end, Tang Ning took a few boxes of sleeping pills home in confusion.
Anyway, the medicine did work. With the help of the medicine, Tang Ning was finally able to fall asleep.
The card game cycle lasts ten days. Tang Ning is relatively obscure in the circle. It seems that she will not get any work in the next few days, so she can stay at home with peace of mind.
The first thing Tang Ning did during this period was to contact a friend in the same city and tell that friend to come to his house after a while and take the cat away if he died suddenly from too much work pressure.
The friend was frightened by the gesture of entrusting his child to someone before dying. He wanted to come to Tang Ning to see him immediately, but was persuaded by Tang Ning.
Tang Ning then spent a lot of time browsing the game forums. He wanted to buy a defensive item similar to the ancient jade, but this kind of item was hard to come by, so Tang Ning didn't get one in a short period of time.
He also wanted to buy battle cards. Even the lowest level E cards that could be bought and sold cost an exorbitant price of 200 survival days, or 20 million in real-world currency. Tang Ning couldn't afford even one.
After some deep thought, Tang Ning decided to build up his courage. He found a bunch of horror movies and watched them on the sofa with his cat in his arms. Whenever a scary ghost appeared on the screen, Tang Ning and the cat would scream together.
After doing this for five or six days, the cat didn't gain much courage and refused to let Tang Ning carry it onto the sofa again.
In order to please the cat, Tang Ning opened its favorite canned cat food for every meal. While the kitten was happily eating, he also ordered a bunch of high-calorie desserts. He stuffed the sweet puffs into his mouth one by one, his fingertips sinking into the cream, and his snow-white teeth unconsciously biting them until they turned red.
His eye sockets were red, his nose tip was red, his fingertips were red, and the rest of his body was white to the point of being transparent. He was wearing a loose shirt sprayed with sandalwood perfume. Tangning hugged his legs and buried his face in his knees.
Happy, who was halfway through his meal, raised his head and looked at his owner who was curled up in the corner. He gave up the can and walked towards Tang Ning, then lay quietly at Tang Ning's feet.
After an unknown amount of time, the quiet atmosphere was disturbed by the sound of a phone ringing. Tangning looked up and slowly picked up the phone. She heard her manager's excited voice, "Ningning! You're famous!"
"ah?"
"Didn't you watch this episode of Urban Legends?! You're out of the loop!!!"
Tangning was confused as she opened the trending search and saw the following: A True Story of a High-Quality Horror Film, All-Stars Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Tangning Should Act in a Horror Film
The video that was clicked on was the fourteen seconds of Tang Ning holding paper money and confronting the female ghost in white. Light and shadow flowed from the car windows on both sides of his face. His pale face was so beautiful that it made people's heart palpitate. His eyes that could speak looked at the evil ghost sadly and resolutely. His tightly pursed lips trembled slightly, and blue veins appeared on his slender neck, like porcelain on the verge of breaking.
The sticky darkness all around seemed to harbor ghosts, always spying on this fragile beauty.
Oh my god, this shot made me appreciate Tang Ning’s beauty for the first time. She looks so fragile!
Who is this actor? His acting made me think the person in front of him was a ghost
Help me, it’s so effective! How can this be a wooden beauty! It’s so effective that my heart is trembling!
Go act in a horror movie, I will definitely watch it!
Countless compliments poured in, and Tangning was a little dazed for a moment. In the past, he was always criticized for his acting skills that dragged down his looks, his acting was so awkward that it was suffocating, and his facial expressions did not have the slightest aura of a beauty. Now, seeing the screen full of praise, Tangning was flattered but couldn't help feeling depressed.
It’s not that his acting has improved.
Is there really a ghost on the other side
The manager on the other end of the phone praised Tangning's performance, "Have you been secretly honing your acting skills recently? I told you, our Ningning has this face, as long as her acting skills are just okay, she will definitely become popular!"
Tangning quickly replied, "No, my acting skills are still terrible."
"What's wrong with your acting?! You know! You've been recognized by Director Chang this time, Director Chang Yike!" The agent's voice was filled with laughter. "Director Chang wants to venture into a new field this time. He's planning to shoot a campus horror movie, and specifically asked you to audition for the leading male role. Ningning, this is a great opportunity! Come to Jinyu to read the script now, and then we'll go to Director Chang for an audition."
Tangning wanted to refuse several times, but his manager's string of words didn't give him a chance to interrupt.
Tangning held onto his phone and listened to his agent excitedly talk about the future. In the end, he did not refuse.
It has always been his dream to be able to star in a good movie.
Arriving at the Jinyu office, Tang Ning took the script from her agent and read it. The beginning of the movie was about the male protagonist being bullied at school, and then making a deal with a ghost in exchange for the ability to take revenge. The end of the story was a standard ending for domestic movies. In fact, there were no ghosts at all. The male protagonist was bullied to the point of having a mental illness, and everything was his delusion.
After reading the script, Tangning fell into deep thought.
He felt he would mess it up.
He was not even able to handle the scene where the male protagonist was bullied in the early stages.
"Our Ningning has no problem playing a high school boy with his looks. He will look amazing in his school uniform!" Sister Liang stared at Tangning's face with satisfaction. Seeing this face, she couldn't help but gently coax her like a child, "Oh, Ningning, why are your eyes a little puffy? You should rest at home and don't stay up late. It's not good for your skin."
"Sister Liang." Tangning hesitated for a moment and said seriously, "I can't play this role well."
Sister Liang couldn't help but touch Tangning's head, "It doesn't matter if you can't act well. We can just go for the audition. You don't need to feel too stressed. Our Ningning is the best."
Sister Liang had said similar things countless times. He was clearly a piece of stone, but Sister Liang always treated him like a rough diamond. Tangning's nose was sore, "I'm sorry, Sister Liang, I'm too stupid. I can't act well."
"Our Ningning is not stupid at all!" Sister Liang said firmly, "She's just a little bit not very smart."
Tangning felt something was wrong, but before he could react, Sister Liang patted him on the head again, "Come on! Let's go to Director Chang now!"
"Now?" Tangning estimated that the time for the second dungeon to open was approaching. Even if he was lucky enough to be chosen by the director due to his blindness, he didn't know if he would be able to make it out of the next dungeon alive.
But with a little hope in her heart that "maybe I can really be selected", Tang Ning and Sister Liang still went to the audition hotel.
Director Chang has made several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films and is very popular in the industry. The number of actors standing outside the audition room alone shows his appeal.
Tangning saw an actor walking out of the audition room with his head hung low. It was a familiar face to him, and his acting skills were much better than his.
This made Tang Ning ask herself, can I really do this
If the audition clip the director selected was of being scared by a ghost, then maybe he could pass
What if it's another clip
Can I
His heart began to beat violently with each knock. Tang Ning stood in the queue. His hands and feet felt weak and his chest felt stuffy and he couldn't breathe. He hated his impatience and would get too nervous every time something important happened.
"Next, number 21, Tangning!" The voice of the number was heard. Tangning took a few deep breaths and told himself that he could do it. He straightened his hair and clothes, then gritted his teeth and walked into the room.
There were four people sitting in the room. One of them was someone Tangning knew well, Director Bai from the "Urban Legends" variety show. The middle-aged man sitting in the middle was Director Chang. The man cast a dignified and scrutinizing gaze at him.
Tangning tensed up as she bowed to the directors in front of her and said, "Hello, Director. I'm Tangning."
Director Chang took the script and said casually: "You need to act out An Juexiao's reaction when he was bullied for the first time."
Tangning's waist was so tense that it felt weak. He tried hard to recall the scene in the script where An Juexiao was first bullied. At that time, An Juexiao was dragged to the corner of the toilet and heard a series of obscene words. His general reactions were probably fear, silence, anger, and powerlessness.
Tang Ning analyzed it quickly and tried hard to imagine that this was the toilet.
There is nothing wrong with a bright and spacious hotel room and a cramped toilet.
Imagine the bully is right in front of you.
Tang Ning was unable to make out a clear picture of his face. He first showed a look of astonishment towards the air in front of him, his beautiful eyes widened, but the rest of his facial features did not keep up.
He should be angry and scared.
Tang Ning's lips were trembling, his teeth were clenched, and the upper half of his face was still filled with shock.
After performing this scene to the best of her ability, Tangning looked at the director hesitantly.
He saw Director Chang frowning and shaking his head at Director Bai, who also frowned helplessly.
He saw two other people in the room whispering to each other, quietly saying "no".
He saw the overwhelming comments on the Internet:
"Good wood has good acting skills, and rotten wood cannot be carved."
"Wooden beauty, please stop acting. It makes me dig my toes into the ground."
"No one can handle the opponent's performance."
""
Tang Ning stood straight in the center of the room, looking at everything that was so familiar to him. His brain, which had been forced to sleep by drugs, felt dizzy again and again. His hands, which were covered with sweat, fell on both sides of his thighs. It seemed as if something was being slowly pulled away from his spine along with the disappointed expressions of the crowd.
This isn't the first time I've experienced this, so why is it still so painful
Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by so much praise not long ago.
So much recognition.
Such a good opportunity.
Maybe this is the last audition opportunity in his life...
Tang Ning slowly bent down and bowed to everyone. A mountain of fatigue weighed down on him, spreading through his limbs and bones. The simple action of bowing made his eyes go dark.
I'm so tired.
I really want to have a good sleep.
At this moment, a cold male voice sounded in his mind: "Ding—copy countdown ready—"
At the same time, Director Chang also looked at him and said in a cold tone: "Your performance does not quite meet our requirements for the role."
Two judgment voices sounded at the same time, and Tang Ning's thoughts seemed to be split into two parts, one for survival, and the other for dreams. He stood in the middle of the dividing line, unable to touch either one.
"three."
Whether in reality or in games.
"two."
He's a complete idiot.
"one."
What an idiot, Tangning.
"Players, please draw cards!"