Chapter 4. Top Student
When Lord Jellyfish didn"t move, it was transparent, and when silent, it was like it didn"t exist. However, when it started moving, its whole body would drip water.
Since Hua Ji"s side profile was facing Director Yu, in Director Yu"s eyes the Hua Ji who was acting out the role of Feng Hui Xue was currently lowering his head and sobbing. The tears that leaked from the corners of his eyes were incomparably clear, yet mysteriously held some sort of glittering radiance. At this moment, the third male lead"s confidant seemed to be made of coloured gla.s.s, extremely beautiful.
Director Yu excitedly slapped the table, "It"s exactly this sort of feeling!!"
This year if they wanted to raise the ratings, a controversial character was necessary. For example this Feng Hui Xue, his character profile had him speaking in a feminine manner, his face had to have a certain lovely charm that most males didn"t have. Yet when he handled matters, he needed to be efficient yet vicious and merciless, at the same time, he was devoted towards his master, ultimately dying a tragic death in the hands of the second male lead.
In this way, the character that was designed to be likeable would definitely raise many discussions when the show is aired. Likewise, being the person who started the discussions, Hua Ji would definitely explode in popularity.
Actually, Director Yu wanted to give this role to a Xiao Sheng[1] who starred in a Beijing opera, but who knew Wan Gu Entertainment would suddenly call and request for this role. The people upstairs from Chuang Xia Media also agreed, and even the investors didn"t have any opinion about this. Director Yu was also unable to disagree with this decision.
He had already stated beforehand, if the other party was not in line with the image in his mind, he had the power to veto it.
Whether it be Wan Gu Entertainment, Chuang Xia Media, or even the investors, they all agreed with Director Yu"s request.
This was because they were all very clear, to let a fox spirit act in the role of a fox spirit, if it was not up to standards, this fox spirit would end up the laughingstock of the Zhong Hua country"s inhuman circle. To avoid this, Hua Ji would do his utmost to act.
Predictably, Director Yu was full of praises towards Hua Ji, "Very good, go back and polish it up a bit more."
Hua Ji stiffly smiled, his hair still a little wet, wanting to use demonic energy[2] to evaporate the water away, but also afraid that Lord Jellyfish was unwilling. The expression of Li Shun Hua at the side was also a little stiff. In that moment, it seemed as if he was stared at by some ferocious beast from ancient times, in the next second he would be killed.
If Director Yu had a video recorder by his hand and he replayed the footage, he would be able to see that Li Shun Hua"s expression when he was facing Hua Ji was one of alarm and despair. At the same time, the white-skirt maiden by Director Yu"s side in that instant was prepared to jump out to save him, expression frazzled.
Luckily at that time, Hua Ji"s performance largely won over Director Yu, causing Director Yu"s as well as the screenwriter and a.s.sistant"s attention to completely be focused on Hua Ji"s body, causing them to not notice Li Shun Hua and the white-skirt maiden.
Director Yu indicated Hua Ji could leave. Hua Ji stiffly bowed, not even looking at Li Shun Hua whose expression was constantly changing, before he turned around and left.
In his wake, there was mysteriously an extra puddle of water left behind.
Li Shun Hua soundlessly tapped the floor with the tip of his foot and the puddle of water instantly vanished.
This all happened without any noise. Director Yu was like an ordinary person and did not notice at all.
Director Yu lowered his head to note down Hua Ji"s name in his laptop, before turning around and saying to the white-skirt maiden beside him, "The feel that this Hua Ji"s performance gives off is extremely good, you could do to learn from it."
The white-skirt maiden drily smiled. She carefully said, "Director Yu, I need to use the toilet."
Director Yu glanced at his watch, understandingly nodding his head, "Go ahead, I happen to have something to think over, let those people here for the audition wait ten minutes."
Directory Yu turned his head to discuss with the screenwriter about Feng Hui Xue"s backstory. Looking at Hua Ji"s performance, they could possibly add something to make him more likeable, for example liking to embroider? Hehe.
The white-skirt maiden turned to head to the toilet, Li Shun Hua silently followed her.
The maiden grabbed Li Shun Hua"s hand, saying in an alarmed voice, "Senior martial brother, you lied to me! Demons are so scary!"
In that moment, the killing intent let off by that transparent demon was simply too horrifying, the maiden felt like she had died once from that feeling of suffering.
Li Shun Hua consoled his junior martial sister, "Ah He, don"t worry, I"ll have someone investigate when I go back."
The little maiden was surnamed He, the sect all called her Ah He, her full name was He Bai. She was a greenhorn, hearing that acting could allow her to best experience the flourishing human world, she wanted to become an actress.
Ah He clutched her senior martial brother"s sleeve, worriedly saying, "Senior martial brother, is it okay? That senior is so powerful, it"s better not to go."
Li Shun Hua proudly said, "It"s fine, this is the regular procedure, the country has already stipulated this, any demons who come down from the mountain[3] must register their ident.i.ty. The senior on that d.a.m.ned fox"s head definitely does not have an identification, otherwise we would have received a notification!"
Only after hearing this does Ah He let out a sigh of relief, "Then that"s good, it won"t implicate senior martial brother."
"You ah, better just properly study the script!"
Hua Ji returned to his apartment as quickly as he could.
"Lord Jellyfish, you"re awake?"
Shui Mu came down from atop Hua Ji"s head, four tentacles acting as four limbs, steadily sizing up the apartment. After inspecting a round, Lord Jellyfish said, "Just now you were so sorrowful, why did you stop me?"
Hua Ji tried to explain it clearly, "I was acting, acting, do you know that? That"s the stage plays of olden times.
Lord Jellyfish instantly understood, "Oh, I understand! That was all acted out, right?"
Hua Ji repeatedly nodded his head, "Right, right."
Lord Jellyfish questioned, "Then in the future, how will I differentiate whether you are acting or not?"
Hua Ji thought for a bit, "How about this, if I"m not acting, then I will loudly yell, "Lord, please let me hug the thigh[4]", is that okay?"
Lord Jellyfish agreed.
It once again spoke, "Are you free?"
Hua Ji thought for a while. Besides secluding himself to polish up with the new script, there was nothing else to do.
"Before the role is confirmed, I shouldn"t have anything else to do."
That"s right, he still needed to give Yan Hu Die a call to tell him about this. Hua Ji fished out his phone, simultaneously sending Yan Hu Die a text message while saying, "Why, does Lord Jellyfish have something to take care of?"
Lord Jellyfish moved closer, staring closely at the Apple phone in Hua Ji"s hand, "I do, teach me how to use all the human products. I also need books."
Being someone highly skilled at concealing itself, Lord Jellyfish will emerge from the sea every few hundred years to educate itself on the planet"s culture, brushing up on its knowledge. As of late, its knowledge was from three hundred years ago, urgently needing a catch up.
Hua Ji was dazed, carefully thinking about it, it was almost too horrible to contemplate.
This Lord Jellyfish was much more amazing than those demons and spirits on the mountain.
The demons and spirits that just came down from the mountain were all as pure as white paper with their thoughts, yet what about the one before his eyes? A certain someone even knew how to sing Beijing opera!"
Thinking to here, he didn"t dare to pull any tricks, directly introducing to Lord Jellyfish the topmost-tier studying tool - a laptop.
"I"ll gift you a laptop!"
Hua Ji ridiculed, "Of course, the specifics of the one you want, we"ll talk about it once you have some understanding. This is my laptop, you can use it for now."
After that, he taught Lord Jellyfish how to turn the laptop on and off and how to use search engines. With regards to words and characters, Lord Jellyfish knew traditional characters, it would barely be able to recognise them, at most it would just use some online translators!
The only thing that needed a serious warning was……
"Lord Jellyfish, you need to take note, you must not let water drip into the keyboard. This toy cannot touch water."
Lord Jellyfish looked at its own tentacles, a.s.suring him, "Relax, I can control it."
Hua Ji turned back three times for every step as he went to take a shower. Lord Jellyfish quickly learned pinyin, with the clacking of keys, beginning to use Baidu[5] and Google.
Lord Jellyfish first searched up the word "education". After understanding the currently educational system, it selected a pdf of a primary school grade six textbook. When it downloaded, it began reading it in an engrossed manner.
Half an hour later, Hua Ji finished his shower. He walked behind Lord Jellyfish, and was shocked to find Lord Jellyfish currently reaching a middle school textbook.
His voice was filled with confusion.
"You are looking at textbooks?"
Shui Mu nodded its head, rapidly flipping through the pages of the middle school textbook pdf in front of it
Hua Ji said in a disbelieving tone, "You"re reading it this fast? Do you understand it?"
Monsters had memory power far surpa.s.sing that of ordinary humans, but remembering did not mean understanding.
Lord Jellyfish turned its head to give Hua Ji a look, the milky-white umbrella blinking with dots of light. Hua Ji then remembered, these were all Lord Jellyfish"s eyes.
Lord Jellyfish repeated, "Four eyes[6] are controlled by a brain, even I don"t know how many brain I have. This sort of thing is very simple, giving it a glance is enough to understand it."
Hua Ji walked away with a wooden expression.
Being a failure at studies, he did not want to talk to a top student.
Hua Ji silently played with his phone, Lord Jellyfish flipped through books at the speed of light. An hour later, someone knocked on the door.
Hua Ji went to get the door. He thought it was Yan Hu Die, but when he opened the door, the colour of his face instantly changed.
"I am the country"s Mystical Creature Protection Department"s head, heard that another one came down from the mountain? Why didn"t it go for the exam?
The person that came wore a suit and had the tone of a government official. He had a big belly and his smile was completely artificial.
This is the country"s Supernatural Administrative Office"s Mystical Creature Protection Department. Hearing the name and one would get it, it was meant to manage the spirits and monsters that came down the mountain.
Hua Ji pulled up the corners of his lips. This fellow is surnamed Yuan, and is some forest temple"s head monk. He is the most expert in distinguishing spirits and monsters, leaving the monastery to join a government office to become their all-seeing eyes.
He let Monk Yuan in, pointing at the Lord Jellyfish busily typing on the keyboard, saying, "The senior has just come down from the mountain, I"ve just taught him how to use a laptop, to go for an exam he would still need to wait a while more."
Monk Yuan"s smile contained another kind of implication, "Wait a while more? How long do you want to wait? The longer he stays in the human world, the more retention fees you need to pay.
Hua Ji smiled coldly in his heart, this bloodsucker. Not waiting for him to open his mouth, don"t know when but a transparent tentacle touched Monk Yuan"s forehead.
Monk Yuan was shocked silly.
Hua Ji lowered his head, involuntarily clicking his tongue in appreciation. Truly worthy of being the one with the most transparent, longest, softest, noiseless tentacle, the big jellyfish ah!
This tentacle wound around Monk Yuan"s forehead three times, almost giving Monk Yuan a heart attack!
The small, milky-white tentacle dropped down from Monk Yuan"s forehead, directly looking into Monk Yuan"s eyes.
The small tentacle had an additional small umbrella. The small umbrella became exceedingly human-like in splitting open into a mouth that was full of barbs yet pitch-black.
He said, "When is the exam? What is being tested? Is there an exam syllabus? Are there definite mock exam questions? Is there a need to hand up money? When is the exam timing? What can be brought in? Are there supplementary books? When will the results be released? How can the fairness of the results be guaranteed? Can I supervise you in correcting the scripts? How many marks is considered a pa.s.sing grade? Do you have a pa.s.sing rate? Who"s correcting the scripts? How should the paper be answered for it to be considered a pa.s.s? Is it according to a model answer or the person correcting the paper"s discretion blabla……"
Monk Yuan and Hua Ji"s mouths were simultaneously dumbstruck.
Lord Jellyfish pridefully thought, a bunch of brats, even if it were difficult, could it be more difficult than the Imperial Examinations?
[1] A Xiao Sheng or 小生 is a person in a Beijing opera who primarily plays the roles of young men.
[2] 妖力 – Didn’t have a better word for it so demonic energy it is!
[3] 下山 – It means ‘coming down from the mountain’ but in this context is a general term for these demons and spirits coming out of the wilderness and joining human society.
[4] Not literally, it means to latch on to someone more powerful than you. At least not yet.
[5] The primary search engine in China.
[6] It says ‘tentacles’ here but I think the author meant ‘eyes’, since the first chapter had it as ‘eyes’ and it wouldn’t make sense with tentacles.