Director Tian

Tian Yun had only been nine years old when he first visited a film crew. At that time, his father, who worked as an assistant cameraman had gotten a job in a crew of a movie shot by a director with a bronze rating.

While there, his father had found a chance to sneak his young son inside to take a look at the workings of a movie set. After all, even though young Tian Yun had visited a few of the drama crews that his father worked with beforehand, he had never before gotten a chance to visit a movie set. And in those days, movies were big stuff!

But, unlike many kids his age were wont to do, he wasn't fascinated with the handsome big brothers and pretty big sisters play-acting in front of the camera. Instead, what fascinated him the most had been the image of the old director. In the young Tian Yun's eyes, he had looked like an old but valiant general fighting on the battlefield.

But, life was full of twists and turns, and the passions of one's younger self won't always bear fruit. And, even though he had now become the director Tian his young self so wanted to be, looking at himself now, Tian Yun couldn't help a wave of shame from covering his heart.

Honestly, with the way he is now, it would've been better if he never became a director in the first place. That way, the pure and precious dream of his childhood would've at least been preserved in its original form without warping into this thing he was in possession of now, which he didn't even want to identify.

Director Tian dully stared as yet another actress left the audition room in disappointment after getting ruthlessly rejected by Yu Xiuran. He didn't even get a chance to open his mouth to ask the young woman to act out a scene from the script before the young scriptwriter loudly proclaimed that she wasn't suitable for the role.

Tian Yun sighed tiredly. 'What am I even doing? For god's sake, I'm the director!'

Even though he had first started his career as a director with much hopes for becoming a famous and talented professional who'd be acknowledged by all -just like that old movie director from years ago- time had ended up delivering him a big blow. And it was quite some years later that director Tian realized that it wasn't that easy for someone to become a renowned director. And, just passion and drive weren't enough.

So, he had resigned himself to filming low-budget, unrated web series while trying to make ends meet. After all, he still got a family to feed, and dreams were called just dreams for a reason.

But even then, filming these low-quality web series wasn't easy either. You need a cast, production crew, film crew, and most of all, willing investors. And, even then, none of his works succeeded in achieving much popularity.

But to top it all, after finishing his latest work, director Tian found himself facing another dilemma. He couldn't find any more eager investors, and even his usual biggest backer's business had gone bankrupt.

He had all but given up hope and was on the edge of giving into despair when Yu Xiuran approached him. He had promised to invest in Tian Yun's next work, but under one condition. He'd be filming the script written by Yu Xiuran himself.

Tian Yun had found himself agreeing. And, he couldn't say he totally regretted it either, at first anyway. After all, his young investor was the only son of the owner of a small chain of local supermarkets and can be considered as a rich second generation of a nouveau rich family.

The story in the prospective script was quite cliche, but then again, these kinds of work litter the market nowadays, so why not? Anyway, the most important point was that he would get enough money for filming and the script was quite well-written as well. This made director Tian half suspect that Yu Xiuran might not be the original author of the script as he proclaimed himself to be.

But, he had decided that he didn't care. Whether this fart brat wrote it or not, what use it was to him? His income was secured, so that was all that mattered to him in the end.

Even more, this young investor didn't try to interfere with him selecting the cast until now, which also increased the favorable impression director Tian had about the kid in his heart. After all, as a director, this was what everyone feared; investors interfering and putting unsuitable actors into the cast.

And, even though he himself had lost almost all of his original values as a proper director and was now operating solely with the purpose of earning money, it didn't mean that he enjoyed others challenging his authority on this matter either.

So, seeing how Yu Xiuran never bothered him when selecting actors for other roles, he ignored the young man's statements about his need to participate in the audition for the character of Zhu Wanyin. At that time, he honestly thought it was a joke on the youngster's part ah!

'Really– I really shouldn't have agreed to this, just because of the money. This is why they say that greed can destroy a man.'

'... Never mind, it's just a side character. I'll let him play as he wishes.'

Today, he'll just consider himself to be unlucky. He probably came into contact with something unclean recently. After going home, he'll ask his wife to get him a good luck talisman from the temple in the Southern area of the town. Tian Yun could remember hearing that it was a place full of blessings and many people's wishes had come true after praying in it.

Director Tian's train of thoughts was broken as the door opened to admit the next person who was auditioning. He vaguely heard a gasp from Yu Xiuran, but ignored it and disinterestedly flicked the papers containing the profiles of the artists before pausing on number forty-eight, the current auditioner.

"Hello, teachers. My name is Feng Xi."

The female voice that was soft and sweet registered lightly in his ears and director Tian's brow furrowed as he saw the information in the profile. 'Another one from Star dreams?' And, if he didn't remember wrong, this was the artist that had a huge scandal some months ago.

'How troublesome! She's a real hot potato.' Tian Yun thought irritably as he turned towards the actress, wondering how best to reject her without being offensive. Most of all, he should stop this brat, Yu Xiuran, from running off his mouth and saying something rude to this girl.

But, once he finally took a proper look at the new person, he paused in disbelief, and even rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things due to being too depressed.

Standing in front of them was a young girl who looked to be in her teenage years, dressed in a classy manner, just like a young miss from a rich family. Her face was extraordinarily beautiful, but currently, this lovely visage was covered in a haughty, arrogant expression, that only someone born to wealth could possess. A feeling of looking down on everything and everyone was excluded, and director Tian suddenly couldn't help becoming conscious of his poor state of attire.

But, just as quickly as he lost himself in this demeaning feeling, he came back to himself with a start as he finally realized what was happening. "Thi- this…" Tian Yun stammered for quite some time, trying to find the right words when an excited and loud shout from his stubborn scriptwriter rang in his ears.

"It's her– I want her! She's the one!!" ≥∇≤

Yang Jingshen who was still waiting for a signal to act out a scene: "..."

Feng Xue who was waiting at the door: "..."

Director Tian: "..." Was this rascal sick in the head? Was he propositioning in front of everyone? # `⦀′

Everyone else: "..."

***

Yang Jingshen once again turned to look at the building of the Rainbow production house behind him, the expression on his face one that was hard to describe. Feng Xue was no better, and after hesitating for a moment, she finally spoke. "Little Xi– that script writer, I heard that he's also the investor."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And just now, he looked a bit weird."

Yes, Yang Jingshen would also admit that the youngster in the audition room had looked strangely excited when he saw him. But, he didn't think that it was what Feng Xue was fearing. No– the guy wasn't looking at him in a sexual way, despite the weird wording he used to phrase his need for having Feng Xi cast in the role.

No, how to say this. Yang Jingshen thought that young man looked kind of…. vindictive!?

'...'

'Never mind... What matters in the end is that I got the role.'

Shrugging his shoulders and ignoring the worry on Feng Xue's face, Yang Jingshen turned around to step into the curb, when a sudden spell of dizziness hit him. His head throbbed without a warning and he nearly lost his footing. He was only able to stabilize himself with the help of his cousin who worriedly cried out.

'Must be because I'm hungry.'

"Little Xi, are you ok?"

Yang Jingshen opened his mouth to answer Feng Xue and let her know he was ok when he found that he couldn't make a sound. Blinking in surprise at this, he found that even his vision had turned all blurry and everything was unclear.

Gobsmacked, he tried breathing in before blinking once again, and everything suddenly came back into focus in crystal clear sharpness just as quickly as it turned blurry mere seconds ago. And, Yang Jingshen suddenly had this ridiculous notion that his eyes were like a microscope, trying to adjust its lens into focus.

But before he could breathe out the air he inhaled, everything changed. The world suddenly stopped moving. The cars, buses, the beauty walking on the crosswalk, the scraggly dog on the sidewalk, the crowd milling about under the pale midday sun, the clouds in the sky– everything ceased all movement like time itself had paused.

It might have been seconds, minutes, or even days. But, all Yang Jingshen knew was that he didn't have enough time to think or make any sense of what was happening before the unmoving space in front of him shattered into millions or maybe trillions of minuscule particles.

With this explosion, he felt himself falling into darkness and vaguely wondered whether he imagined the deep and slightly rough male voice saying something in his ears.

[Initiating contact with the target.]

[Initiation successful]

[Congragulations! You have successfully bonded with the 'Soul guardian exploration lineage'. Launching preliminary exploration.]

[Starting the count down to the awakening. ]

[10]

[9]

[8]

…

[1]

#####

A/N:

Finally, the main arc is going to start! ≧⧢≦

From now on, the main plot of the story is going to unfold, and let me remind you guys that it'll be a long haul. But, I can assure you that it'll be one hell of a ride! *Wink*

Thanks again for sticking with this story and hope that you lot will keep doing so in the future. Have a fun read!