Chapter 76
?
What the hell?
Yun Xueshan froze. For a moment, he did not even manage to control his expression.
“What did you say?”
Meeting Yun Xueshan’s astonished gaze, Shen Jinfeng did not hesitate in the slightest and gave the answer he had prepared long ago.
“I want to become a good actor.” His voice was soft, but firm.
He repeated it again.
This time, Yun Xueshan was certain he had not misheard.
But he would rather have misheard.
He looked Shen Jinfeng up and down in surprise. “Are you deliberately bluffing me?”
Although it was said that every trade had its master.
Especially since he was used to seeing all kinds of special talents, he himself did not have any prejudice against any profession.
Even his nephew Qin Ye had once been an actor.
But why would such an all-around talent regard becoming an actor as his dream?
Didn’t that feel too small-scale?
Could this be Shen Jinfeng’s excuse to deliberately reject him?
But Shen Jinfeng shook his head and explained very seriously, “I think the profession of actor is very interesting and meaningful. Acting out all kinds of magnificent lives within scripts fascinates me.”
“Being able to bring the audience spiritual joy is also the meaning of this profession.”
Yun Xueshan raised his brows. “If you join Special Central Team One, you’ll be able to truly experience all kinds of magnificent lives, not merely act them out.”
“What does acting count for? Petty love affairs, hesitant and tangled emotions, national righteousness only imagined. Guns and ammunition are fake, peerless martial arts are fake, flying through the clouds is fake, roaming the universe is fake too… Those scenes that excite you might all be shot against green screens and stitched together with special effects. How could that be as genuinely magnificent and interesting as the real thing?”
Shen Jinfeng blinked.
That was right. What he said made a lot of sense.
But he had lived through 999 small worlds. Scenes even more magnificent than the ones Yun Xueshan described—he had experienced countless of them.
Real or fake, to him, neither held much attraction anymore. They were commonplace.
It was like in a cultivation world, where one possessed immortality, and with a wave of one’s sleeve, could create the most magnificent and spectacular scenery in the world out of thin air, standing at the pinnacle of power and overlooking ordinary beings, enjoying the pleasure of turning clouds and rain with one’s hand.
But that feeling, after the washing of long years, still could not wash away the fatigue of living too long.
At that moment, one might finally understand why the immortals in movies and dramas were willing to give up eternal life for one short mortal lifetime.
Although after the official mind-cleansing treatment produced by the transmigration bureau, he could no longer fully replay and restore how he had felt at that time and place.
The memories were still there, and the experience was still there.
Therefore, he was completely unmoved by the scenes Yun Xueshan described.
The two looked at each other for several seconds before Shen Jinfeng withdrew his gaze.
He continued calmly and brought out his next reason.
He pursed his lips somewhat shyly. “Do you think I’m good-looking?”
“Ah?” Yun Xueshan froze. He had not expected the topic to jump so suddenly.
How had it suddenly jumped to appearance?
But there was no doubt.
Even before, when Shen Jinfeng had been plagued by scandals in the entertainment industry and had been firmly labeled a vase, his looks had unquestionably been outstanding.
Not to mention that now, with a different soul inside, he seemed as though all the gaudy dust had been washed away.
His temperament now matched his appearance. At first glance, it made people unable to move their eyes away.
It was precisely because of this that Yun Xueshan could completely understand why his nephew, who had always had impossibly high standards, would one day fall in love.
Just now, when he had called Shen Jinfeng over outside, if Shen Jinfeng had not stopped him, Qin Ye, who knew a little about the nature of his work, would have followed him in too, looking as if he was afraid his sweetheart would be bullied.
“Good-looking. A handsomeness found in one in ten thousand,” he gave Shen Jinfeng this evaluation.
Shen Jinfeng seemed to be satisfied after receiving the compliment. “Thank you for your praise.”
“I think so too.”
Yun Xueshan: “?”
He narrowed his eyes at Shen Jinfeng, feeling that something was wrong no matter how he looked at it.
This sentence did not sound at all like something the Shen Jinfeng he had researched and understood would say.
But Shen Jinfeng’s expression showed no flaw. He was green and bashful, with a little self-satisfaction.
It was full of confidence in his own appearance.
After receiving Yun Xueshan’s affirmation, Shen Jinfeng seemed to hesitate for a moment, then voiced an idea that even he found somewhat embarrassing.
“I want the big screen to record me, so that after my youth has passed, I can still see what I looked like when I was young. I want the camera to record my peak appearance, so that decades later, a hundred years later, people can still know me and remember me through images.”
Yun Xueshan almost fainted.
He had not expected Shen Jinfeng to give such an excuse.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say, wasn’t that just taking photos? We can take photos of you too.
Shen Jinfeng glanced at him and slowly added, “I want the camera to record all kinds of magnificent acting experiences of mine.”
Yun Xueshan was left speechless. This was indeed something Special Central Team One could not do.
When they went on missions, some special missions even required them to erase all traces of special incidents that had once existed in the world.
Let alone take photos and keep records.
Recording someone as the protagonist, like in movies and dramas.
Most missions could not do that.
Moreover, Shen Jinfeng’s focus was on being filmed beautifully and recording his peak looks and acting.
On this point, they really could not compare to the entertainment industry.
However.
“Actually, as an actor, there aren’t that many people who can be remembered. A hundred years at most. How many movie stars from a hundred years ago can you name? And a hundred years from now, how many people will still be willing to learn about them?”
Yun Xueshan seized on his last point and painted a huge, round, enticing picture.
“If your missions are completed outstandingly and your contributions are prominent, I can apply to the higher-ups. Maybe we can even have you written into textbooks and passed down in history, truly making people remember you thousands of years from now.”
Shen Jinfeng’s smiling expression could not help stiffening for a moment.
He looked at Yun Xueshan in alarm and waved his hands repeatedly. “You think too highly of me. The people in textbooks are the most outstanding figures of an era. What virtue or ability do I have to be compared with them?”
He spoke frankly. “It sounds like you’re drawing me a pie.”
In the end, he still made a slight concession.
“Captain Yun, as you’ve seen, I only have some minor research into qinggong and beast language. If Special Central Team One has special missions that require abilities in these areas, I am willing to help.”
“But in other areas, my ability is indeed average. There are many people more capable than I am.”
Shen Jinfeng had already seen through it.
Because he had truly leaked too much on the deserted island, it seemed that this retirement world could no longer fulfill his original plan.
Moreover, although he did not want to join a relevant department again, exhaust this final lifetime of his, and work hard with all his heart and mind,
the development and rise of a country had never depended on just one person.
However, perhaps because the education of the Flower-Growing Nation had been far too successful, or perhaps because he had been a person of the Flower-Growing Nation in hundreds of small worlds.
If the country were in trouble, or if there truly was some mission that only he could complete, he would absolutely not shirk it.
After hearing his words, Yun Xueshan felt slightly better.
But what did he mean, his other areas were comparatively ordinary?
Even if those other areas were not the peak of the current world, they were absolutely outstanding!
Single-field talents were common, but a talent with one field at the very top and every other field also outstanding might not appear once in decades or even a century.
As someone who dealt with all kinds of “talents,” could he not understand that?
He had a feeling that Shen Jinfeng was not telling the truth.
Only, he had read countless people and, for the moment, could not see any flaw.
Shen Jinfeng looked at him guiltily and made an embarrassed request. “As for the military and the other departments, I’ll also have to trouble you to help me decline them.”
Yun Xueshan sighed. “Fine.”
Actually, failing to recruit a talent on the first try was very normal.
In ancient times, Liu Bei had visited the thatched cottage three times. He himself had also hit walls many times when recruiting talent.
At worst, he would just come a few more times.
There was still plenty of time. He also had to make Qin Ye work harder.
A smile lit up in his eyes again. “As long as you’ve said that much, it’s enough. Although you aren’t in our Special Central Team One, our hearts are connected.”
“They’re all connected to the motherland.”
Shen Jinfeng could not refute this. “Hahaha, yes.”
The two continued chatting for a while.
Actually, Yun Xueshan still could not quite understand it. “But when exactly did acting become your dream?”
Because based on the information he had learned, Shen Jinfeng’s acting skills were, in truth, a little poor.
By normal logic, people should usually have some talent in the things they liked.
Shen Jinfeng’s eyes flickered.
“A few years ago, when my family asked me to enter the entertainment industry, I already thought it was very interesting.”
“It’s just that I don’t have much talent in acting. Acting is very challenging for me, and I’m still continuing to work hard.”
He also conveniently attributed part of his reason for participating in What Kind of Person Are You to this.
“Now, because of the variety livestream, I have gained some popularity. I believe I’ll have better development in the future, and more directors will be willing to give me opportunities.”
Simply perfect.
Everyone knew his acting was bad.
But his “dream” was to become a good actor.
So, if his acting did not improve and did not change, he would definitely feel extremely ashamed. How could he still have the nerve to go out and take acting jobs to poison the audience?
But he just did not have much talent in acting.
Sigh. After returning, he would shut himself at home and refine his acting!
But acting was a career that relied so much on talent. It was very normal for him to improve slowly or even not improve at all.
In any world’s entertainment industry, there were plenty of people whose acting skills stayed exactly where they were for years, or even regressed.
Yun Xueshan suddenly felt as if he had understood.
Some people liked things they were not good at. A large part of that mentality was actually because they wanted to overcome their own lack of talent.
So, could it be that because Shen Jinfeng had never done well in acting, he had therefore never given up?
He had even made “becoming a good actor” his dream.
But no matter what,
in his heart, he added another mark against the Shen family.
If that family had not schemed with black hearts and sent Shen Jinfeng into the entertainment industry,
how could they have caused his talent to now take “becoming a good actor” as his dream?
It was simply a reckless waste of a heavenly gift!
Of course, he completely failed to consider that if it were not for that entertainment industry variety show, he would not have noticed this talent either.
With this mindset, he was already angry.
Yun Xueshan had not expected that after finishing his talk with Shen Jinfeng and walking out, he would run right into the Shen family.
It turned out that after learning last night that Shen Jinfeng had left the show, the Shen family had also hurried over to the production team.
The staff member could not find Sun Xinping, so they directly arranged for the entire family to wait in the reception room.
Together with all the other people who had come today to look for Shen Jinfeng.
Thus, after Shen Jinfeng came out, he happened to run into this staff member and was told that the Shen family had arrived.
His expression cooled slightly.
Yun Xueshan glanced at him. The anger he had nowhere to vent after hitting a wall today instantly rose again. Finally, he had found a place for it.
He very “consciously” said to Shen Jinfeng, “I’ll go with you and take a look.”
Shen Jinfeng did not refuse.
As a result, when the two walked into the reception room,
they saw that, for some reason, a group of people had completely shrunk into one corner, packed onto one sofa.
Beside them, scattered groups of people sat around the sofas, tables, and chairs, all glaring angrily at the cornered crowd.
Their brows were cold and their eyes hostile. The atmosphere was bizarre.
