Hancheng: There is a door between me and the future

Chapter 149 "She is Cha Eun-sang" and [Aftereffects] (Please subscribe and vote)

Sitting in writer Kim Eun-sook's office again, Lin Xiaolu no longer felt the tension and anxiety she had felt the last time.

After all, she had already watched the full version of the show repeatedly in the future world of 2025.

It can be said that, apart from Kim Eun-sook herself, she is probably the person in this time and space who knows this work the most.

After Lin Xiaolu entered the office, she sat quietly for more than ten minutes before the door was slowly pushed open.

Kim Eun-sook walked in wearing a simple black coat, and a faint smile appeared on her lips the moment she saw her. "Good morning, Yoona-ssi."

Good morning, writer Kim Eun-sook.

Lin Xiaolu immediately stood up, bowed deeply at a perfect 90-degree angle, her tone respectful but not humble.

"Don't be so polite, please have a seat." Kim Eun-sook smiled slightly, sat down behind the desk, and then asked with concern, "You're here so early, have you had breakfast?"

"I ate some bread on the way," Lin Xiaolu nodded gently.

"Hmm." Kim Eun-sook responded softly, then changed the subject, "You should already know why I asked you to come here today, right?"

As she said this, her expression showed a hint of regret. "I originally wanted to give you more time to prepare... but the situation has changed, so I had to call you over at the last minute."

“It’s alright, writer Kim Eun-sook. I’m already very grateful that you’ve given me this opportunity.”

Lin Xiaolu spoke very sincerely. After all, the fact that Kim Eun-sook was willing to delay deciding on the lead actress because of her alone was enough to prove that she had been placed in a very special position.

Kim Eun-sook, who came from a humble background, was well aware of what an opportunity meant to a young person.

That's why she left room for Lin Xiaolu after the initial audition.

Thinking of this, Kim Eun-sook looked at her and said in a serious tone, "Then let's not waste any more time and have a formal audition, shall we?"

"Okay." Lin Xiaolu nodded, her expression as serious as ever, with even more certainty in her eyes.

Looking at her composure and confidence, Kim Eun-sook couldn't help but smile expectantly. She then stood up and said, "Let's go. The people from the TV station are here today too. They're in the conference room. Let's go together."

Lin Xiaolu immediately got up and followed behind her.

Along the way, she began to adjust her emotions and breathing rhythm, as if making final preparations before entering the battlefield.

As the staff pushed open the conference room door, Kim Eun-sook went in first, while Lin Xiaolu lowered her head slightly and followed silently behind.

Looking around, there were already three or four formally dressed middle-aged men and women sitting inside, looking focused. One of them was Jung Sang-hoon, the producer sent by SBS TV station.

"I've kept you waiting for a long time."

Kim Eun-sook said with a soft laugh, and then led Lin Xiaolu to the conference table.

"This is Lim Yoona. We are still considering her, so we invited her to an audition today."

"Oh, it's Girls' Generation's Yoona, everyone knows her."

SBS producer Jung Sang-hoon, sitting at the table, smiled slightly and said politely but enthusiastically, "We are really looking forward to the live performance."

Lin Xiaolu smiled slightly and bowed again at a 90-degree angle, saying, "Nice to meet you all, seniors. Please give me your guidance."

"Come on, Yoona, stand over there."

Kim Eun-sook pointed to the empty space behind the conference table, where a chair was placed, clearly set up to match the audition scene.

A camera was set up diagonally opposite her; the red light was on, and the lens was pointed directly at her.

Lin Xiaolu walked over slowly and stood beside the chair.

Take a deep breath, as if you are pressing your breath into the deepest part of your body.

“You should know which scene you’re auditioning for, right?” Kim Eun-sook asked.

"I know." Lin Xiaolu nodded gently, her voice soft but firm and clear.

Kim Eun-sook nodded gently, "Okay, then you can begin when you're ready."

The moment the words left his mouth, the entire conference room seemed to be muted. A thin layer of frost seemed to freeze in the air.

She didn't start immediately, but slowly lowered her eyes, as if she were really standing in that empty campus corridor, facing the uninvited male protagonist.

……

"What right do you have to come looking for me?"

Lin Xiaolu's voice rang out, tinged with a stubborn tremor.

She didn't act on purpose; she was simply recalling and recreating.

Recreate the moments of anger and anxiety she felt in the hotel room when she repeatedly suppressed her temper in front of Lin Xiuyuan.

"Who do you think you are? You think you can just tell me to go back to Korea? I... I have my own life, why should I go back with you?"

As she spoke, tears began to well up in her eyes, slowly accumulating.

Those weren't tears forced out, but rather emotions fermenting from the depths of the heart, accumulating layer by layer, gradually breaking through the dam of feelings, and finally overflowing naturally.

—She thought of that night in the hotel room in Roppongi, when Lin Xiuyuan approached her again and again, stopping each time. The provocation and restraint in his eyes, though seemingly close, were deliberately avoided, stirring up emotions in her that she couldn't quite put down.

That uncontrolled anger, resentment, and unwillingness have now transformed into the character's emotions, pouring into every word and sentence.

"You...do you even know that I don't know where I'll be sleeping tomorrow, yet you tell me something like 'I'm coming to pick you up and take you home'..."

Lin Xiaolu's voice choked, her fingers clenched the hem of her clothes, and tears slid down her eyelashes, dripping at her feet, but there was no affectation or sentimentality.

She didn't deliberately act out a "crying scene," but at this moment, her eyes held a sense of restraint, stubbornness, and a little bit of... unspeakable longing and reluctance.

—It's like looking back at that moment when Lin Xiuyuan reached out his hand on the streets of Shibuya, but instead of taking her hand, he took Sherry's.

"If you really want to help me... then don't say things that make me feel worse."

After saying this, her gaze shifted from despair to a faint plea. She slightly raised her head, looking little by little in the direction of the "male protagonist," her eyes seeming to gleam.

It's a feeling of "I have nothing left, but if you're willing to come to me now, I'd still want to go with you."

It perfectly matches the "unspoken words" that the script needs to express.

Complex, restrained, yet deeply moving, Lin Xiaolu portrayed the character flawlessly.

……

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

The judges sitting behind the conference table exchanged glances, and Producer Zheng involuntarily leaned forward, as if wanting to see more clearly.

Kim Eun-sook sat there, her expression gradually shifting from initial calm to subtle appreciation, then shock, and finally a hint of surprise and approval in her eyes.

After a while.

After finishing this scene, Lin Xiaolu slowly exhaled, raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and bowed to the front, saying, "Thank you everyone."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

Then came the first words from Producer Zheng.

"Your acting was unexpected. I've always heard people say that Yoona-ssi lacked a certain spark, but now it seems that's not the case."

"Their eye acting is also very expressive; actors with light in their eyes are all good actors," someone nearby chimed in.

Kim Eun-sook nodded slightly, a slight smile playing on her lips, and said in a soft but firm voice, "Yoona, your acting has improved several steps since the last time you came. It seems you've really been working on your acting lately. Just now, I had a feeling that you really... understood this character."

As Lin Xiaolu listened to their comments, she pursed her lips slightly, her hands still clenched tightly behind her back, her heart pounding, yet carrying a long-lost sense of peace.

This was an opportunity she seized with all her might at the intersection of two timelines.

Thinking of this, she replied softly, "I am grateful to writer Kim Eun-sook for giving me the opportunity to get to know this script and the world of the female lead."

At the same time, Lin Xiuyuan's image became clearer in his mind, and he suddenly felt an urge to see him immediately.

Meanwhile, the discussion in the meeting room had not completely ended. Just as Kim Eun-sook was about to get up and signal everyone to take a short break, Producer Jung suddenly seemed to remember something, paused for a moment, and looked at Lin Xiaolu.

"Yoona-ssi, could you please do me one more time?"

Lin Xiaolu was taken aback for a moment, then nodded, "Of course, please tell me."

Producer Zheng looked at Kim Eun-sook and said with a smile, "Actually, writer Kim mentioned you to us before, saying that one of your crying scenes really moved her, which is why she strongly recommended you to us." Hearing this, Kim Eun-sook smiled and nodded. Lin Xiaolu's crying scene last time had indeed given her a pleasant surprise.

Producer Jung continued, "So I'm also very curious, Ms. Yoona... could you do an impromptu crying scene? No need to set a scene, we just want to see your emotional expression."

“Of course, I don’t want you to force yourself to cry,” Producer Zheng added. “I just want to see what kind of emotional impact you can bring when you truly immerse yourself in the role, because judging from the direction of the script, the female lead’s crying scenes are definitely a highlight.”

"can."

Lin Xiaolu stood still, nodded slightly, and then lowered her eyes.

A brief silence fell over the conference room.

This time, Lin Xiaolu did not use the hypothetical scenario that Lin Xiuyuan mentioned before, namely, "after Jessica Jung left the group, the group performed on the Tokyo Dome stage" as the anchor point.

Now, she has a new anchor.

A more realistic picture, and one that is closer to the future.

She thought of that shattered future in 2025. She thought of the shattered team, the friends she could never see again, and the departures and endings one after another.

Suddenly, she felt her breathing become heavy, as if a thousand pounds were pressing on her chest.

She closed her eyes, for just a second.

When I opened my eyes again, the emotions had already seeped into my blood.

……

At first, she just stood there, staring in some non-existent direction, her eyes filled with blankness and disbelief.

"She...she's gone?"

A single sentence, seemingly spoken to oneself, yet like a stone thrown into deep water, ripples spread outwards.

Her voice was hoarse, as if she had cried all night or was no longer able to say much.

“I…I haven’t given her that doll yet. She said she wanted that one…I haven’t had a chance to tell her either. The photos I took a few days ago were blurry…she hasn’t seen my new hair dye.”

As she spoke, Lin Xiaolu raised her hand as if to grab something, but she couldn't grasp anything.

"Why... why didn't she even say a word to me, just... just..."

She bit her lower lip hard, her voice choked, and her breathing became rapid.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she tried hard to hold them back.

"I thought... as long as we lived well, we could... we could stay like this forever..."

At this point, Lin Xiaolu could no longer continue speaking.

Ever since learning about that future, the "parallel universe" in her heart has become an unhealable rift: the team disbanded, friends died, and familiar figures disappeared silently from her life.

She couldn't understand why fate was so stingy.

The pain of separation and death is not just something that happens in movies and scripts.

This may be Lin Xiaolu's summary of her future in 2025.

Thinking of this, her knees buckled slightly, and she almost couldn't stand up.

It felt like reality had shattered her in an instant, yet she still struggled to keep herself from collapsing.

"She's not coming back, is she?"

Lin Xiaolu looked ahead, her eyes clean and clear, yet filled with despair.

She seemed like someone who had just lost a close friend, standing in the face of reality, desperately trying to convince herself that it was a dream, yet forced to accept the cruelty of reality.

They can no longer travel together, drink beer together late at night, or snuggle in one bed laughing, gossiping, and reminiscing about their youth.

Tears finally streamed down her face, her lips turning slightly pale. She felt as if she were sinking to the bottom of the water, and even breathing became an instinctive struggle.

At this moment, Lin Xiaolu was no longer "acting".

She is that one who has personally experienced loss and sorrow, "He (the future)".

……

There was dead silence in the conference room.

Even seasoned directors and producers seemed to be drawn into that sorrowful, broken world, unable to extricate themselves.

Kim Eun-sook blinked gently, as if trying to control her emotions, afraid that if she blinked, tears would fall.

As a screenwriter, she is more capable of empathizing with emotions than anyone else.

A few seconds later, Lin Xiaolu slowly composed herself and took a deep breath. Tears still clung to her eyelashes, but she had already stood up straight again.

"Thank you."

This time she didn't bow, but instead uttered those two words softly, and then looked at the crowd.

She knew that in that moment, she had given away her most genuine emotions without reservation.

Her words, "She's not coming back, is she?" still seemed to echo in the air, leaving a heavy feeling in my heart that I couldn't shake off for a long time.

At that moment, Kim Eun-sook suddenly looked up and, with an unequivocal tone, looked at Producer Jung and the two middle-aged men beside her, saying, "She is Cha Eun-sang."

Producer Zheng did not refute, but simply nodded.

The two directors beside him nodded silently in agreement.

This unscripted crying scene completely moved them.

Another few minutes passed.

Lin Xiaolu pushed open the door and walked out of the conference room that had nearly exhausted her. As soon as she stepped out, she felt as if she had emerged from underwater, finally able to catch her breath.

Standing at the door, she took a deep breath, and a long-lost relaxed smile appeared on her face.

The sword of Damocles that once hung over her head, ready to fall at any moment, has now quietly disappeared.

Although the contract has not yet been signed, judging from the reactions of Kim Eun-sook and several producers and directors just now, the lead role should be a foregone conclusion.

She breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the studio's exit. She had done all she could; now all she had to do was wait for further instructions.

Or rather, waiting for the contract.

But just as she reached the door, she suddenly saw a man leading a girl in from outside.

That familiar figure made Lin Xiaolu stop in her tracks.

The other person also saw her, so they bowed slightly and said, "Hello."

Seeing this, Lin Xiaolu quickly returned the courtesy, saying, "Hello."

Seeing this, the man walking in front turned around and called out, "Shin-hye, come in quickly."

“Oh~oppa.”

The girl responded cheerfully, then smiled slightly at Lin Xiaolu and quickly followed.

Lin Xiaolu stood there watching her back, and after a long silence, she turned and left.

Although she felt a little guilty for taking the role from the other person, she knew that everyone is selfish, and if given another chance, she would still try to take it. She didn't have the slightest regret.

Moreover, compared to regret, Lin Xiaolu misses one person more now.

The aftereffects of the experiential learning approach are slowly emerging.

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(End of this chapter)