Generation Z Artists

Chapter 243 The Little Thief Who Stole Chicken Legs
Feifei, who is not afraid of hardship, is happy to experience endless suffering.

That schedule sent chills down the spines of everyone in the crew—just one glance was enough to make their skin crawl.

6:00 AM, 1 hour of morning exercise.

7:00, breakfast and early rest.

7:30, Fang's Longhua Boxing.

9:00, second meal.

9:30, Gepai basic training.

11:30, three meals.

12:00, one-hour lunch break.

13:00, Gepai basic training.

14:30, four meals.

15:30, Fang's Longhua Boxing.

16:30, five meals.

17:30, Gepai basic training.

20:30, six meals.

21:00, reading performance theory and writing post-training reflections.

What time she could go to sleep depended entirely on when Fang Xinghe passed her theoretical summary of the day.

Furthermore, after the sixth meal, no matter what time she finished her task, the crew would no longer provide her with any food, only a set of vitamins and nutritional supplements such as calcium and zinc.

It's impossible to fill our stomachs completely, but we can ensure we don't lack any micronutrients.

Hungry?
It's okay to be hungry!

On the first day of implementing this schedule, Liu Yifei started to feel unwell in the afternoon.

The Longhua boxing practice is twice a day, which is basically aimed at pushing physical strength to the limit.

When physical fitness is severely depleted, engaging in physical training related to the Gepa style can lead to various wonderful spiritual uplifts.

"I feel it now……"

The young fairy's eyes were glazed over as she murmured to herself.

"The feeling of flying... I'm flying!"

Snapped!
Fang Xinghe lashed out with a small bamboo stick, coldly saying, "Show some proper form! What are you flying for? That's just your feet floating!"

"Ayo!"

Liu Yifei jolted awake, instantly becoming fully alert.

She didn't dare rub her aching shoulder blades, but instead asked in a wronged tone, "Isn't this training program called flight training?"

Fang Xinghe laughed in exasperation. How come she hadn't noticed this adorable and silly side of her before?
"It's not about letting you fly in a physical sense! Nor is it about letting you experience the feeling of flying!"

Amid Director Fang's reprimand, Liu Yifei tried her best to flap her "wings"—supporting herself with her arms, like a giant fluttering moth.

"what is that?"

"It is a yearning for flight that comes from within, from the bottom of one's heart."

This child's talent is really not that great, Fang Xinghe had to explain in detail.

"You can extend it to a yearning for freedom, but its essence is to awaken the deepest and most genuine ease in the actor's heart."

Don't try to understand this ease using your usual understanding; feel it with your heart.

It is the failure of your mind to restrain yourself when your body is under extreme pressure.

Or you can imagine it as a brief separation of body and soul.

Many children nowadays enjoy playing games at internet cafes. When they stay up for two consecutive nights and drag their tired bodies and exhausted minds home, they often experience a peculiar state—

In a certain moment, the mind suddenly becomes unusually invigorated and active, and the fatigue and pain in the body can no longer be felt. The main consciousness is somewhat blurred, but certain details are particularly clear. That is the subconscious rising to the surface of the ocean of the mind.

The brutal training of the Grupo Grupo is based on this body-consciousness connection, artificially creating situations in which actors perceive profound emotions.

So don't think too much about it right now.

Abandon thinking and focus on action; many emotions will arise naturally.

Then you go and experience it one by one, stripping away the negative feelings of fatigue, pain, and pain. What remains are the positive emotions that make you feel good, which are what Chen Nian needs in her final scene.

You need to master it completely within three months.

Then, when we're filming the final scene, we'll unleash them all at once, understand?!

Actually, Liu Yifei didn't quite understand.

She really doesn't have any talent when it comes to "experiencing".

The Gurren Lagann style is a performance training method that evolved from the experiential style. It requires a sensitive mind to grasp the most accurate emotions with minimal training.

However, the brutal training of the Grape school doesn't require that much talent, and you can slowly hone your skills by increasing the time and intensity—it's a laborious art.

So, although Liu Yifei still didn't understand, she did feel the existence of the spiritual world, and her confidence in Fang Xinghe's promise increased slightly.

Director Fang's training seems to be really effective...

Time always flies when you're focused, and when she finally collapsed onto the floor, her consciousness fading, she suddenly murmured:

"If I master these skills, will I be able to become a good actor?"

"..."

Fang Xinghe paused for a moment.

How long does it take to train a novice with average talent into a good actor?

At least 5 years.

However, if someone like Liu Yifei is a top beauty who is naturally perfect in specific roles but naturally terrible in general roles, even if she practices hard for 10 years, she may not be able to play Zhao Yumo and Gu Xiaomeng well.

Because Liu Yifei's pure acting skills are capped at 89 points, and 89 points of acting ability can't mask a character's lack of realism.

Moreover, Fang Xinghe's special training for Liu Yifei was not comprehensive; it focused on the three explosive scenes featuring Chen Nian.

He taught unorthodox and deviant methods, while she learned unconventional and risky approaches.

How can you possibly train someone to be a good actor using this method?
The word "okay" swirled in Fang Xinghe's mind, but before it even reached his lips, it vanished.

"Not quite right, it's far from good enough."

Fang Xinghe's voice was somewhat low, like the wind blowing over dark clouds.

"But if you persist in practicing Longhuaquan for a long time, it will have an unimaginable effect on your ability to control your limbs. The essence of a good actor is nothing more than two words - control."

"I know!"

Liu Yifei perked up, and her voice became more enthusiastic.

"The Beijing Film Academy's acting textbooks state that voice, stage presence, and acting are all training for actors' self-control!"

"It's good that you understand. Your mother's physical control is the foundation of her being a dancer. Practice, practice. The skills have been given to you, and you have to practice them."

"Don't worry, director, I'll definitely practice hard!"

Fang Xinghe's gaze sharpened slightly, lingering on her face for a moment before silently withdrawing.

It's a good thing that Nenxian is more capable of enduring hardship than expected.

Her mindset is also more optimistic and resilient than expected, which is a bad thing.

The former means she can improve her basic skills at the fastest speed, while the latter means that the gloomy feeling required to portray Chen Nian is extremely difficult to achieve.

Why is this girl so difficult?!
Fang Xinghe remained silent for a moment, then suddenly realized.

That's exactly why she's difficult to deal with. Looking across the entire Chinese entertainment industry, it seems impossible to find another female celebrity like her who has virtually no human weaknesses.

Among female celebrities of the same caliber, Wei was ruined by greed, Bing fell because of shortsightedness, Zi was insecure and anxious about her appearance, Zhang was too impatient and impetuous, Mi was too selfish and self-serving, Li was too competitive, and Baby was too arrogant...

Even Sister Li made a mistake of getting angry; she was too hot-tempered and couldn't tolerate the slightest imperfection.

Only Fat Fairy is pure and unyielding, so even if you want to make a move on her, you don't know where to start digging a hole.

Now, Fang Xinghe has stirred up the young girl's aspirations to become a movie queen through Chen Nian, and created a realistic experience for her through the environment. Everything seems to be in place, but in fact, one crucial element is still missing—

Real despair.

To create such a thing, Fang Xinghe himself had to take the lead.

He decided to push Nenxian one last time, just one last time.

……

As Liu Yifei's daily training routine gradually got back on track, Director Fang stopped personally supervising her.

This job was done by Gong Li.

But it's clear that Sister Li couldn't be with her at such a high intensity all day long; most of the time, it was actually her own effort.

Liu Yifei has excellent natural coordination, so in less than half a month, she was already practicing Longhuaquan quite well.

Her training with the Gepai style was also progressing well, and she was increasingly able to understand what Fang Xinghe described as "emotions and the body driven by emotions".

Gong Li is also an excellent teacher in acting.

This is how she dissected the young fairy.

"When we feel lonely, depressed, or anxious, we tend to curl up in bed, which is a way for emotions to influence our limbs."

Conversely, when we consciously curl up in bed or even in a corner of the room, we can gradually become aware of certain subtle emotions within ourselves.

Of course, how to convey those emotions through eye contact and micro-expressions is another matter entirely.

First, we need to release our emotions, then observe ourselves, and thus understand the relationship between them…

Not long after finishing the lesson, Fang Xinghe informed her: "Starting today, you will sleep in the storage room on the top floor, curled up, and get up 10 minutes earlier each day to observe yourself in the mirror. Also, you are not allowed to take a shower for a week."

He didn't explain why, so this is a notification.

Liu Yifei bit her lower lip and nodded, her face pale.

After that, she actually slept on that small, hard bed in the storage room.

Liu Yifei looked in the mirror for a week, and gradually, she found that the person in the mirror was becoming a stranger.

But it's not over yet.

At the end of September, Fang Xinghe notified her again: "Starting today, you need to take some time to clean the crew's canteen, specifically, to clean up the garbage."

The young fairy had another important task—cleaning up the leftovers, crumbs, and stains on the floor, all while enduring the strange looks from the crew members…

The girl deliberately only took one bite of the greasy chicken leg.

Work has increased and sleep has decreased, but Fei's nutritious meals haven't increased; they remain the same in frequency, quantity, and blandness.

The child is very hungry.

Whenever she saw Yang Mi take only one bite of the chicken leg, then frown and put the precious food aside, muttering things like "too oily" and "too greasy," she couldn't help but feel a surge of anger rising from the bottom of her stomach.

hateful!

How can such a cute chicken leg be greasy?
At first, she thought Yang Mi simply didn't like chicken legs, but after a couple of days she realized something was wrong—who would order chicken legs every day and take a bite every day if they clearly didn't like them?

Nenxian isn't stupid; she's just naive. Once she figured it out, she instantly began to genuinely dislike Yang Mi.

This woman is going too far! She...she...she's wasting food!

Every day, cleaning up Yang Mi's table was an ordeal for Liu Yifei—those were chicken legs! Big, oily chicken legs that she'd only taken a small bite of!
The craving for oil almost drove Tender Fairy crazy.

What does it feel like to not have enough to eat and to be extremely lacking in fat?
No language can adequately describe it.

After Liu Qiangdong earned his first 500 yuan, he never touched a sweet potato again in his life. Just thinking about it would make him nauseous. As for Nenxian, she has never even had a full meal of sweet potatoes.

This made her truly understand what hunger was, and why Chen Nian was so eager to stand out from the crowd.

But this understanding only helps with the performance, not with solving the current hunger.

Countless times, she tried to seize the opportunity when no one was looking, grab the chicken leg, and run away back to her room, where she would be safe and no one would bother her. She would then have all night to slowly suck every last drop of oil off the bone.

This uncontrollable appetite finally reached its peak on the day Fang Xinghe left.

Fang Xinghe went to the United States to participate in the Wizards' opening game of the new season and receive his championship ring.

This was a big deal, attracting attention not only from the entire American media but also from everyone on the film crew.

And restlessness means opportunity.

That evening, she carefully weaved through the crowd, who were excitedly discussing tomorrow's divine battle, trying her best not to attract attention.

She started tidying up from the outside, slowly and methodically, as if she was running out of energy... Well, no need to say "as if," she really was running out of energy, almost collapsing from exhaustion.

After dawdling for a while, when most of the people in the cafeteria had left, Yang Mi stopped guarding her "leftovers," and Liu Yifei slowly walked over to clean up the last table.

Throw away what needed to be thrown away, and toss down what needed to be tossed aside. Finally, she quickly turned her head left and right to observe the situation.

Finding that no one was paying attention to her, Nenxian grabbed the large bone behind the chicken leg with lightning speed and stuffed it into the plastic bag she had brought. Then she lifted her T-shirt and stuffed it into her clothes.

My first time stealing... wait, no! How can this be called stealing?
It's only natural for waiters to clear tables and deal with leftovers!
Liu Yifei's slightly hunched shoulders suddenly straightened, her excitement, joy, and anticipation swirling within her, making her mood extremely bright.

wakaka!
Chicken drumsticks, chicken drumsticks, big chicken drumsticks!
She was so eager to get started that she quickly cleared away the dishes—luckily, she didn't have to wash them, otherwise she didn't know how much longer it would have taken.

Having completed all her tasks, she immediately clutched her stomach and dashed out of the cafeteria.

Go back to your room, immediately!

When she started running, she truly felt the "ease and freedom" that Teacher Fang had described. The emotion that burst forth from the depths of her heart was pure and genuine, without any trace of emotion, and was externalized into a pair of eyes full of feeling and a joyful expression that could not be acted out.

His nostrils flared, his lips trembled, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes shone.

This was Fei Fei's day of enlightenment; she suddenly understood how to recreate that feeling.

So this is what real performing arts are all about?

Nenxian suddenly felt a sense of awe and reverence for Fang Xinghe.

Before understanding Fang Xinghe's acting skills, she looked at him like a frog looking up from a well, thinking he was nothing special.

Suddenly enlightened, she looked at Fang Xinghe again, and it was as if a mayfly had seen the vast sky.

Deep gratitude and admiration caused the green light around her to turn deep blue again.

However, this feeling was clearly less important than the chicken leg. She carefully held the still-warm plastic bag and ran upstairs in a flash.

result……

Just as he was running up to the 5th floor, victory was within reach, when suddenly a person appeared at the corner of the stairs.

Yang Xiaomi crossed her arms, blocking Liu Xiaofei's path, and raised her eyebrows with a cold smile.

The air suddenly froze.

Liu Yifei's mouth was slightly open, and a sense of unease and panic welled up inside her.

"Ah... Mimi... what are you doing here?"

The little stutterer became Liu Yifei... no, it's Liu Yifei who became the little stutterer.

"What?"

A sly glint flashed in Yang Mi's eyes, and then she took a deep breath.

Finally, amidst Liu Yifei's astonished and shocked expression, he let out a loud roar.

"Help! Liu Yifei stole chicken legs from the film crew!"

(End of this chapter)