I’m Really a Superstar

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Huu!

Zhang Ye struck out with his palm, his footsteps following immediately after. Slanting his heel, he briefly held back before taking his next step. What followed was his second palm strike!

It caught everyone’s attention!

That was really great!

He’s following the moves as though they were really his own!

Yes, it felt a little weak. Why didn’t he use more power? There wasn’t enough power in it!

Eight Trigrams Palm? Zhang Ye definitely did not know the Eight Trigrams Palm personally, but there was a person close to him who knew it. Rao Aimin was the Senior Sis of the Eight Trigrams Palm style of her generation. In this word, he didn’t know how many classes and sects of the Eight Trigrams Palm there were. The style of Rao Aimin’s Eight Trigrams Palm was a little different from that of the martial arts director’s style. However, the basic techniques and core of the martial arts style was more or less similar. Zhang Ye had seen Rao Aimin practicing countless times before and even had a taste of the landlady’s Swimming Bagua, Linking Palms himself, and knew that her style of the martial arts was much more gentle and not as powerfully sharp as the martial arts director’s style. However, the strength of power was definitely there as Zhang Ye could still feel the pain of it from the receiving end. This was why even though Zhang Ye did not learn this martial arts style before he could still understand it very well and manage to execute the movements with exact imitating without any pressure at all!

In the audition area.

Zhang Ye could be seen moving around and executing his palm strikes!

Pierce!

Thrust!

Chop!

Everyone was already in a trance as they never expected that Zhang Ye, as a professional in the literary and artistic fields, would be this good at it and could even execute these few techniques.

Zhang Ye continued but did not execute the moves as powerfully as the martial arts director. It was like he did not exert too much strength at all, using a graceful and gentle style of the technique with free flowing movements. Every strike of his palm was preceded by a step, and every step was taken in the most stable manner!

Uppercut!

Cross!

Ram!

Hook!

Toss!

Shove!

The rest of the film crew probably could not see it but the martial arts director was already getting more and more shocked by what he was seeing. Zhang Ye did not even make a mistake in his routine for the Eight Trigrams Palm footwork and palm techniques. The moves were all perfectly executed, whether in terms of the angle or amplitude of motion; they were all flawless. Moreover, Zhang Ye’s Eight Trigrams Palm gave the martial arts director a type of different feeling, like his verve and movements…. Why did they look like the style of that person who had disappeared from the Chinese martial arts world so many years ago? Legend has it that there was a master whose Eight Trigrams Palm exercised a combination of firmness and flexibility while still maintaining a grace about it!

The martial arts director thoughts went wild.

The other staff of the film crew were all watching without knowing what was going on.

Dalong could also be considered as half a martial arts practitioner and he knew what he was looking at right now. At that moment, he was looking at Zhang Ye in a strange way, seemingly having some doubts about him yet thinking that he seemed to be quite good at it?

Zhang Ye came back to his original spot, albeit facing the opposite direction, just as he finished executing the techniques and movement. He footwork was precise to the millimeter, and after executing the movements, he relaxingly cooled down without a closing form. Closing form were usually meant as a cool down, not just for the sake of appearances. Since Zhang Ye did not actually know the breathing and energy flow techniques of the Eight Trigrams Palm and was just imitating the look of it, he naturally did not need to do a proper cool down. It was not an action that he could imitate from the martial arts director anyway and there was also no need to do so. He was well versed in the breathing and energy flow techniques for Taiji Fist, but as they were not general purpose cool down techniques for the different styles of Chinese martial arts, it would be unprofessional to apply them here.

Phew, that was still quite tiring in any case.

And why was there no applause?

Zhang Ye smiled and asked, “Was that alright?”

The assistant director did not know whether it was good enough, so he said, “It…seemed alright and you’ve imitated it well generally, but the only issue is that the movements did not have any power to it and thus, did not feel quite right. If we shot the movie with that kind of effect, the presentation would be quite lacking and without fervor, so that would be a problem.” He said so while looking slightly disappointed.

Ah?

Fervor?

What sort of fervor?

Zhang Ye had wanted to explain it by saying that they were too layman to understand it, but as he felt that it would probably fall on deaf ears since they would not understand it even if he explained, he simply said, “I have no problems putting more power into my movements.” Didn’t he simply just need to use more power? Could it be any simpler?

The assistant director said, “You can do that? Give it a try then.”

“Alright, no problem.” Zhang Ye adjusted his arm, ready to give a demonstration once more.

In the end, the martial arts director stopped him and said, “Teacher Zhang, you don’t need to do any more, it’s enough.” Then, he walked quickly beside of the director and assistant director and said, “I don’t think we need to test him any further.”

Tian Xuetao looked regretfully at Zhang Ye.

The assistant director nodded.

Wang Chengpeng looked at the martial arts director and said, “Zhang Ye couldn’t make the grade too? Then we’ll just have to find someone else to audition!”

The screenwriter, along with many of the film crew staff members, were now left with headaches. One couldn’t make it while another was also lacking by a bit. Who else could do it? They did not have much time left!

“Hai.”

“This is really troublesome.”

“All three of the auditionees are unable to make the cut?”

But over at that side, the martial arts director said in a stunned manner, “What do you mean by Zhang Ye couldn’t make the grade? That’s not it. Teacher Zhang is good enough.” When he saw the stunned director and the assistant director, the martial arts director added, “In fact, he is far too good!”

Everyone was stunned.

“Ah?”

“What do you mean?”

“Zhang Ye is good enough?”

“Surely not? Weren’t those movements too lacking in power?”

“Right, even though he managed to generally imitate the moves correctly, there still wasn’t enough strength or an imposing manner, so…”

The other two auditionees who still held some hope were in an even greater state of disbelief at the martial arts director’s words. You call that good? Isn’t that setting the bar too low! If his kind of soft and weak moves could pass, then we could do it too! Surely we did better than him, right?

The director asked, “Just what do you mean by that?”

The martial arts director explained, “What the assistant director had just brought up is not a problem at all. It’s not that Zhang Ye couldn’t exert any power, but my strength comes from the muscles while his strength comes from the palms, so the style of exerting power is not quite the same and just differed by a little bit. I believe if we ask Teacher Zhang to display a style or technique that looks more powerful, he would surely be able to do it. Besides, I’m not sure whether it was because of Teacher Zhang’s good memory, but he could follow exactly the way I demonstrated my moves earlier. Not only the palm stance and angle, even the footwork was the same. My Eight Trigrams Palm emphasizes a lot on footwork, so even the way the feet are pointed can’t be slightly off. If they are it will affect the stability and position of releasing the palm strikes. However, what Teacher Zhang had managed to do…has totally left me in disbelief!”

Everyone could only look at each other in shock!

Zhang Ye said in a low key manner, “My memory is indeed quite good.”

The martial arts director praised, “Not only do you have a good memory, you’re also very talented!”

The director asked, “How many marks will you give him?”

Without even thinking, the martial arts director answered, “Full marks! It was flawless! Such a talented actor with martial arts abilities is totally competent enough to be the third male lead with all those fight scenes! There will surely be no problems at all! However, based on Teacher Zhang’s image and physical condition, I’d have to re-choreograph his fight scenes and not fully use Brother Shui’s style for him. Some of the moves need to be slightly refined.”

The assistant director slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “Great, that’s really great!”

Wang Chengpeng also stood up without any objections, pausing for a moment before proclaiming, “I hereby announce that Zhang Ye will officially become our replacement for the third male lead’s role in Grandmasters!”

Applause started to echo in the studio.

Tian Xuetao and the others clapped to welcome their new colleague.

Zhang Ye also clasped his hands together and said, “Everyone, please take care of me.”

Wang Chengpeng reached out his hand and said, “I hope we can work well together. The next few days of work will all depend on you now. Rushing the filming schedule can be quite tiring, so please feel free to let us know if you have any requests.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “I do not have any requests. I will do my best and cooperate fully.”

Tian Xuetao went up to congratulate him and gave him a thumbs up.

The assistant director had already prepared a contract and went through it simply, explaining the clause and conditions once over before Zhang Ye signed it.

He finally landed the role officially!