One Word Changed, Characters in Chaos

Ye Bingtong spoke with a tone filled with slight satisfaction.

“Aren’t you Ye Xiao always claiming that you’ve been hiding your true ability?”

“Come on, let’s have Professor Yan see just how much you’ve really hidden!”

Professor Yan adjusted his glasses.

Everyone looked back and forth between Ye Bingtong and Ye Xiao.

“Xiaoxiao, she’s deliberately framing you. You don’t have to pay attention to her,” someone whispered from the side.

Ye Xiao didn’t get a chance to speak yet.

Ye Bingtong continued, “Xiaoxiao, what’s wrong? Don’t dare to step forward? Could it be that everything you told dad and mom was actually all lies?”

Ye Xiao looked at Ye Bingtong with some disdain and, ignoring her, simply raised her hand.

Professor Yan’s gaze shifted slightly, “Ye Xiao, speak.”

“Professor, I am willing to have a try,” Ye Xiao said.

A subtle smile appeared on Professor Yan’s serious face, “Good, come up here first.”

Ye Xiao confidently walked up to the podium.

Heh.

Her acting wasn’t afraid of any test.

Since Ye Bingtong insisted on giving her a push, it didn’t really matter to her.

Professor Yan turned to look at Ye Bingtong with a somewhat cool voice, “Speaking out of turn without raising your hand, Ye Bingtong, who taught you these rules?”

Ye Bingtong’s complexion changed, and she quickly said, “Professor, I just…”

“Since you love to talk so much, you come up too,” Professor Yan said, “If your performance is good later, I might let you off. If not, I’ll deduct ten participation points directly.”

Ye Bingtong turned pale.

Professor Yan’s classes were known for their high standards. If she were to lose ten participation points, wouldn’t she fail the course?

Yet, looking at Ye Xiao, Ye Bingtong calmed down a bit.

Professor Yan’s strictness applied to everyone, not just to her alone.

If she couldn’t meet the standards, then Ye Xiao would fare even worse.

With Ye Xiao for comparison, maybe the professor would let her off.

Ye Bingtong mustered her courage and stepped onto the stage.

“At the beginning of today’s class, I already mentioned that the focus is on acting through your eyes. The eyes are quite subtle. In daily life, you might not pay special attention to them, but on the big screen, under the scrutiny of the camera, the acting through the eyes becomes extremely important. Whether it is dull or lively, angry or restrained, all can be easily conveyed through a mere glance. Let’s watch an example first.”

Professor Yan gestured for Ye Xiao and Ye Bingtong to step aside.

Then she played a brief, three-minute video.

It was a clip from the movie “Survival.”

In the opening stage of “Survival,” two sisters lived during a famine-ridden era. Their home had been torn apart by war, and they managed to escape, wandering around. At this point, they had not eaten for three days. The scene began with their longing gaze at freshly steamed buns coming out of the oven.

Then the elder sister couldn’t resist the temptation, rushed to snatch the buns, and as a result, got beaten and thrown out.

The younger sister held the elder and wept nonstop.

This short segment, though seemingly simple, was indeed a test of acting through the eyes, as Professor Yan had mentioned.

The main characters of this scene were the two sisters. In the end, due to their spectacular performance in the movie, they both won the first-ever joint Best Actress award at an important film festival. The actress who played the elder sister, Zhou, was a student of Professor Yan.

“You two, prepare for five minutes and then act out this segment,” Professor Yan said directly.

In this performance piece, Ye Xiao didn’t have a single line.

Everything was conveyed without words.

Yet, oftentimes, it was precisely these kinds of scenes that were the most difficult to perform well. The nuances of emotion and micro-expressions were something that new actors shied away from.

Ye Xiao pondered over the segment and had a rough idea in her mind.

Ye Bingtong, watching, was somewhat bewildered.

Most of them hadn’t had any actual acting experience yet. Were they really up to the challenge with such a difficult scene so suddenly?

Ye Bingtong whispered in a low voice, “You play the elder sister.”

Looking at this particular scene, it was clear that the older sister’s role was more challenging.

Ye Bingtong was ready for Ye Xiao to start bickering with her.

Unexpectedly.

Ye Xiao just looked at her disdainfully and said lazily, “Fine.”

Ye Bingtong felt a surge of joy inside, but then immediately regarded Ye Xiao with suspicion.

Did Ye Xiao genuinely fail to see that the older sister’s role was more difficult…

Or did she have confidence that she could perform well?

Just as the second possibility crossed Ye Bingtong’s mind, she internally dismissed the idea.

Even if Ye Xiao actually had some talent, setting the bar so high, this was a performance by two best actress winners!

One of them, who played the older sister, was even a student of Professor Yan; under such circumstances, satisfying Professor Yan would be extremely difficult.

If she were to mimic the exact performance, it would just seem like imitation.

What if her own interpretation turned into a disaster?

Even imitating well was incredibly hard!

Ye Bingtong felt that her only hope of getting through this unscathed was to rely on Ye Xiao.

As long as Ye Xiao performed terribly, it might highlight her acting as significantly better than usual.

Perhaps Professor Yan would let her off the hook this time.

Five minutes.

Ye Bingtong desperately recalled the best actress’s performance in the video, having made up her mind not to improvise her role this time; she would mimic the actress’s performance as closely as possible.

Doing so might not satisfy Professor Yan, but it wouldn’t be terrible either.

Soon.

The five minutes were up.

Professor Yan glanced at the two students.

She had heard about the reputed real and fake daughters.

The pair was also known for their outright discord.

However, the sisters in the video relied on each other and shared a deep emotional bond.

Professor Yan was also curious to see how these two would act it out.

“Ready?” Professor Yan asked indifferently.

“Okay,” Ye Xiao answered with a calm face, “I can start anytime.”

It was just a short segment in a classroom, and she felt no pressure.

Ye Bingtong glanced at Ye Xiao and still felt quite anxious, but with Ye Xiao so confident, how could she admit to being unprepared?

Ye Bingtong braced herself and said, “I… I’m ready too.”

Professor Yan arched an eyebrow and placed her thermos at the edge of the table, “This is the steamed bun. I’ll count one, two, three, and you’ll start your performance.”

Without giving the two of them any time to ready themselves, Professor Yan went straight to saying, “One, two, three, begin.”

As her words fell, Ye Xiao, who had maintained a languid appearance, suddenly changed her look.

No.

Not just her look.

Her expression, the way she was standing, everything shifted instantly.

There was clearly nothing obstructing the view in front of her, but Ye Xiao’s posture and demeanor instantly conveyed that she was hiding behind something.

In the movie, the best actress couldn’t help but look at the steamed bun with a yearning gaze; however, Ye Xiao’s approach seemed to differ from that of the actress.

She was clearly hungry and longing, yet she dared not stare openly. Instead, she put on a front as if she wasn’t hungry at all, but her eyes occasionally flicked in the direction of the steamed bun.

When Ye Xiao looked over, Professor Yan’s angle allowed her to fully capture the look in her eyes.

Ye Xiao only glanced over for a moment before hurriedly shifting her gaze, but that brief look left Professor Yan momentarily taken aback.