This is a film set. Ren Yifei grew up on film sets and is extremely familiar with this place. He can tell where he is just by closing his eyes and smelling the place.
There are many people here—directors, assistant directors, cinematographers, editors, production assistants… but they seem to be blind to this corner.
"I've been looking forward to this day ever since I found you here." Nian Tianxi, sitting opposite him, straightened his long robe and sat down. "This is our second meeting, isn't it, Ren Yifei?"
For some reason, his smile turned sarcastic: "The first time we met was at the auction, you came with Saman. If I had checked back then, I wouldn't have missed it."
"Ren Yifei? How did he know?" Ren Yifei then realized that he was also wearing a long robe, and he no longer looked like Zhong Lan, but rather like the original Ren Yifei.
However, he quickly calmed down. This instance was special, so it wasn't surprising that this situation occurred.
"You're not dead?"
"He died. He died the day he entered the Desolate Corner. This place is the same as the Desolate Corner." Although he had wanted to kill him before, Nian Tianxi was surprisingly calm when he saw him now.
Hearing this, Ren Yifei found it strange: "You... no, you guys, you didn't actually die, but switched jobs?"
It probably wasn't a real job hopping. I've never heard of an employee from a big company earning 7,000 a month jumping to a small company earning 3,000 a month. What would they be after?
Although he had always thought the desolate corner was bad enough, there are always people who are even worse than him, and this 'casual game' had already crossed the line of human decency.
So Ren Yifei refuted this himself: "No, it should be that after the defeat, they were left behind as spoils of war or prisoners of war."
Nian Tianxi's eyebrows twitched: This person really speaks without any restraint. He is said to be a movie star in the entertainment industry. How did he manage to survive in that circle that requires high emotional intelligence?
"I saw everything you did after entering the mini-game instance. Just as I feared at the beginning, you are indeed my formidable opponent." Nian Tianxi avoided the question of 'captive' and changed the subject to other things.
However, Nian Tianxi was unaware that Ren Yifei was an extremely perceptive person who could deduce a great deal of information from a single sentence.
Ren Yifei then smiled, looked at Nian Tianxi, and asked, "I believe my performance was largely without fault, yet you knew it was me directly. So, what you saw was the true form of the soul?"
Nian Tianxi was taken aback, and a slight trace appeared on his face, but before he could hide it, Ren Yifei began to analyze again.
"The ability to observe players entering the game must be due to the game's authorization. Capitalists don't do meaningless things, so don't you have another metric, like eliminating one or two players from the desolate corner?"
Nian Tianxi subconsciously avoided his gaze, but turned back a second later to look directly at Ren Yifei, though she appeared fierce on the outside but weak on the inside.
"The reason you chose me is that you want to defeat me in our area of expertise, right?"
As Ren Yifei spoke, he analyzed Nian Tianxi's subtle changes in expression. Being observed by those eyes, Nian Tianxi felt like prey being targeted by a venomous snake, which remained motionless, pondering which end to begin its attack.
"Black Rabbit and Samantha are indeed friends," Nian Tianxi thought with a self-deprecating smile.
The last guy who could strip him of his mask in just a few glances was Samantha, a truly cunning man who simply disguised himself as a gangster boss. Samantha fooled everyone, and then he created the virtual game.
These two creepy guys, who love to observe and analyze others, have gotten together.
"No, Black Rabbit probably doesn't know that Saman is here, right? And the player in charge of Saman is a wolf-like player who likes to slowly torture his opponents to death." Nian Tianxi suddenly felt that he had found the point that made this rabbit lose his composure.
"I was thinking that even if the 'ghosts' here were a bit hard to find, it shouldn't be enough to wipe out a whole group of players from the Desolate Corner. I see..."
Ren Yifei had no idea what Nian Tianxi was thinking, but he remembered what was said on the forum.
At first, a few people could survive when the 'mini-game' came out, but lately, almost everyone who comes dies. Everyone was guessing that the boss had evolved, but now it seems that the entire dungeon has evolved.
The focus of this 'mini-game' instance is never the 'ghost,' but rather the positions represented by the player and the 'ghost.' The Desolate Corner and the Despair Train are playing a game of chess on this 'chessboard,' using the player as a pawn.
Players like Nian Tianxi, who started as 'pawns' and became 'evil spirits' after death, greatly increased the game's difficulty. This is because they came from the Desolate Corner and knew best the players who had once belonged to their faction.
Using the left hand of the Desolate Corner to hit the right hand of the Desolate Corner—this game is truly ingenious.
"Hahahaha..." Ren Yifei laughed heartily, almost laughing until tears streamed down his face.
Delivering equipment to the enemy, it turns out the Wasteland Corner has been acting as a 'transportation captain' for so long.
"Don't get too cocky, Black Rabbit." Nian Tianxi's expression turned extremely ugly. Ren Yifei's smile was so irritating that one wanted to destroy that beautiful and confident face.
"Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you. The 'ghosts' here probably don't know these things, right? That's right, the pawns only need to do their job, they don't need to know too much."
"So," Ren Yifei's smile faded, his eyes dark and deep when he wasn't smiling, his exquisite features carrying a hint of wickedness, "how do you plan to win me over?"
Nian Tianxi always felt that Ren Yifei, the "Black Rabbit," was just a rising star with great potential who could threaten him, but not yet be his equal.
However, when he actually faced the rabbit on this day, Nian Tianxi was overwhelmed by its imposing aura, and cold sweat soaked his back.
"Who are you?" Nian Tianxi asked, bewildered. As someone who studied opera himself, he knew very well that this kind of intimidation was not something that could be acquired simply by being praised or by having performed a few plays based on talent.
This is the aura of "I am the best in the world" formed by countless victories and even undefeated record.
He, a descendant of a theatrical family and someone who grew up in the theater, was completely overwhelmed and unable to fight back.
How is it possible that someone so young can act in only one well-known play a year after he was born, maybe a dozen or twenty? How could he possibly develop such an aura?
"You want to defeat me, but you don't even know who I am? Of course, that's not the point. The point is, you want to beat me, right? Here's a chance for you to have a 'fair' competition."
Ren Yifei shrugged, a red tinge spreading across his dark pupils before vanishing in the next second.
That's infuriating! What do you mean by 'giving you a chance'? Are you begging him?
After a few words, the conversation was taken over by the newcomers. Nian Tian was so angry that he laughed: "Fine, I'd like to see if your strength is as tough as your mouth!"
A script was tossed to him, and Nian Tianxi also had one in his hand: "I haven't seen this script before either, but we're on the same page. The one marked in red is the role I'm going to play."
Ren Yifei caught the script, which was titled "Night Song." He flipped to a page and saw that it appeared to be a script from the Republican era. He looked up and asked, "The NPC is the referee?"
"We each act out the same role and the same scene once. The film can't stop until the director says 'cut'." Nian Tianxi really wanted to compete with Ren Yifei. He didn't want to resort to any tricks or schemes. He just wanted to use his acting skills to compete with Ren Yifei fair and square.
Absolute fairness is impossible because there are issues of role suitability, but relative fairness is achievable.
"Does the one with the longer performance win?"
"That's right." Nian Tianxi waved the script in his hand. "We have half an hour to prepare. We can make changes to the script on the spot, but the characters can't be off-key."
Ren Yifei nodded and began to look through the script.
If he had enough time, Ren Yifei would read the script several times until the edges were frayed, but now that time is limited, he can only read it quickly.
He had a specific purpose in mind, accurately identifying the information the script was trying to convey.
This purpose includes, but is not limited to: time, place, people, cause of the event, process of the event, turning point of the event, and result of the event.
The former is the desire to understand and thoroughly comprehend the text, while the latter is purely 'exam-oriented reading,' solely for the purpose of obtaining a high score.
Ren Yifei is good at both. He used to use the former more often, memorizing almost the entire script before filming. But in "The Desolate Corner," he used the latter more often, quickly identifying the key points.
In less than twenty minutes, Ren Yifei had already skimmed through the entire script, almost like swallowing a date whole. He also understood roughly what the story was about.
The role he's going to play isn't the lead, but rather a very ordinary supporting character who, to be honest, isn't particularly distinctive. The only unusual thing about him is that he was once a member of the powerful and wealthy, enjoying the luxuries of life in his youth, and now, in middle age, he has experienced the vicissitudes of life and witnessed social changes.
Ren Yifei immediately saw the shining point in this character—the conflict between the old and the new.
His youth as a privileged youth in the old society and his middle age as a commoner in the new society embody the contradictions bestowed upon him by the times.
Although he had given up resisting fate and even cut off his queue, there were still some stubborn, indelible things burning within him.
In the remaining ten minutes, he went through the character again, carving out a general impression in his mind, and then the play began.
Nian Tianxi said he would go first, and Ren Yifei didn't try to take his turn. This would give him a few more minutes to look at the script. Wasn't that a good thing?
He then moved a small stool to the side and started reading the script, just like before.
He hadn't watched Nian Tianxi's plays. How to put it? Once you've seen them, you'll inevitably remember some of the expressions, reactions, and responses that you thought were good. But these highlights belong to others, and trying to combine them with your own style can easily lead to a mismatch.
So he simply stopped watching, worried that it would affect him and disrupt his plans.
However, after only fifteen minutes, they called a halt. Ren Yifei looked up and saw Nian Tianxi holding a live fish. He seemed stunned, wondering why he had been stopped.
However, he did not linger and walked straight down, turning his gaze to Ren Yifei.
Ren Yifei put down his script and walked towards the center of attention. Nian Tianxi saw him casually take away an empty birdcage, but he didn't know what he was going to do with it.
The scene is simple: in early autumn, the character goes for a stroll with his hands in his pockets, encounters a few people on the way, and finally buys a fish to take home.
Ren Yifei arrived, carrying an empty birdcage with a blue cloth hanging down to obscure it, as if there were still birds inside.
"Hey, Third Master, where are you going?"
Ren Yifei reflexively dusted off his sleeves, about to bow, but then remembered that this was a new society and the rules had to be changed. So he twisted his hand back and awkwardly waved one hand, saying, "I'm just taking a walk."
"Why isn't your myna chirping today?" the visitor asked, somewhat puzzled.
The character in the script used to keep myna birds, but recently sold them for some money. This addition was just right, and the other side responded very smoothly.
Ren Yifei looked a little embarrassed. He moved the birdcage behind him, not wanting to tell anyone that he had sold the bird, nor wanting to continue the topic of the birdcage.
Fortunately, the other person didn't dwell on that topic and instead brought up something else: "I remember there used to be a lot of crows flying around in our city, as well as other sparrows and pigeons, but I can't see them anymore?"
Ren Yifei looked up, seemingly towards the Forbidden City, and smiled bitterly, "They've already been abandoned by the crows."
"The lines were changed?!" Nian Tianxi clenched his fists in the audience.
The original line was: "The crows have flown away to somewhere else, haven't they?" But the revised line conveys an even more profound sorrow of being "abandoned by the times."
The word 'abandon' in particular refers not only to the city itself, but also to the city's 'old people'.
Nian Tianxi stared intently at Ren Yifei under the spotlight. When he played the role himself, he portrayed a disillusioned middle-aged man who was unwilling to leave the old society in his heart, but whose body had to accept it.
He deliberately hunched his back, his eyes hiding a hint of timidity, only occasionally glancing nostalgically at the old objects around him.
However, to be honest, while the general direction of these physical and eye-acting scenes is fine, they lack distinctive features.
But Ren Yifei, with his half-beaten, untimely Qian'er, the birdcage huddled behind him without a bird, and the final line "abandoned by crows," immediately makes the character vivid.
He cut off his queue, yet immediately bowed deeply; this is someone from the old society.
He carried a birdcage, but there were no birds inside. He had once been wealthy, but now he was down on his luck. Yet he still couldn't forget the old days.
It seems somewhat absurd, but after the laughter comes a sense of indescribable sorrow, the feeling of ordinary people being pulled along by the chariot of the times.
Ren Yifei didn't have any more lines or more outrageous actions, but compared to the other two, Nian Tianxi's performance was as pale as burnt smoke.
"So this is Ren Yifei," cold sweat trickled down Nian Tianxi's forehead.