Chapter 123: Candidate for Huo Yuanjia
“Li Jing?”
Ye Lingchen was taken aback, staring at the man in the distance.
He knew about Li Jing. It could be said that he grew up watching his Kungfu movies.
At that time, he was only around 10 years old. He watched Li Jing’s old TV series, Tai Chi. He had stood in front of a basin filled with water and drew the Tai Chi symbol in the water, dreaming to one day become a martial arts expert.
Who would have thought that 10 years later, he had become a martial arts expert, yet Li Jing was mercilessly washed away by the passages of time.
Ye Lingchen remembered that Li Jing was only 18 years old when he was in Tai Chi. He was only in his late twenties at this point. With such a foundation, how did he fall into such a sorry state?
Furthermore, Ye Lingchen knew that Li Jing had learned his arts from the Shaolin Temple. He had learned real martial arts.
Li Jing stopped his practice when he saw Ye Lingchen approaching. He greeted with a friendly smile. “Hello.”
“Master Li, I’ve grown up watching your TV series.” Ye Lingchen smiled. “Your Tai Chi and Grandmaster of Tai Chi were my favorite when I was a kid.”
“Hahaha, I didn’t expect someone to still remember me.” Li Jing laughed as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Master Li, I didn’t expect to see you here. Why did you stop filming?” Ye Lingchen asked.
Li Jing’s eyes took on a hint of sadness, then sighed. “Actually, after Grandmaster of Tai Chi, I have acted in other TV series as well. Unfortunately back then, idols were the trend and the ratings were bad. Later on, with the rise of many celebrities from Stick Nation, a large number of young actors were born, leading to me being left aside.”
“Recently the martial arts trend is growing and you’re equipped with real martial arts. That should fit the market’s demands.” Ye Lingchen presented his views to Li Jing.
He had noticed Li Jing’s movements. They were firm and natural. His body was rather well built too. That showed that he had maintained his martial arts practice for all these years. Such patience and dedication were beyond the average person.
When Ye Lingchen brought up the subject, Li Jing’s face showed a hint of suppressed anger.
It turned out that some crews did look for him to film some action movies. However, the lead actor was Wu Han and he was Wu Han’s opponent.
Most importantly, Wu Han’s character was always the undefeated champion in all those movies, constantly acting cool. Meanwhile, Li Jing was playing the role of Wu Han’s stepping stone. In those movies, he would constantly be toyed with by Wu Han. Fighting back was not an option. All in all, his presence was just to lift Wu Han up.
Since it was Kungfu, it naturally had to be real fights with exchanges. It was one thing that Li Jing had to play the part of a loser. It was something else when Wu Han was the one defeating him.
As a masculine man, Li Jing had always hated little fresh meats like Wu Han. To have him take part in that type of movie, it was humiliating him and Chinese Kungfu!
With that, he rejected the offers.
With the rejection, he had pissed off Wu Han. From then he was constantly thrown under the bus by the movie circles. Nobody had come looking for him since, nor did anyone dare to extend a helping hand. One day, he went from a movie star to an errand boy in Hengdian Studios with the occasional role as a stuntman, landing him all sorts of tiring and demeaning jobs.
Under such circumstances, time passed torturously slow for him but he had never given up on his martial arts.
“How did you bear with that? Why didn’t you leave?”
“I like Kungfu, and I like acting. This way I can show the world our Chinese Kungfu,” Li Jing answered calmly and firmly, “I refuse to believe the little fresh meat trend will keep going. Our country is like a lion that’s asleep. One day, it will awaken!”
“Bravo!” Ye Lingchen laughed loudly, then went into a stance. “Would you like to have a friendly exchange?”
“You know martial arts too?” Li Jing’s eyes popped wide open. Rubbing his hand. “You better be careful.”
They locked gazes for a moment, followed by Li Jing initiating an attack.
A fist shot forth!
His fist was straight. Firm and strong.
Ye Lingchen’s expression remained calm. He lifted his wrist and flicked it gently, dissipating the force in Li Jing’s blow.
Li Jing went sidewards while stepping on the tree beside him to make a roundhouse kick in the air aimed at Ye Lingchen!
Ye Lingchen lowered his body to avoid the kick. Just as Li Jing was about to land, Ye Lingchen went forward with a forceful palm strike!
Li Jing’s expression turned serious, using his elbows to block while in the air!
Both of them traded moves with each other, putting on quite the spectacle.
Most of the time, Ye Lingchen did not retaliate but instead allowed Li Jing to execute his moves. No matter how Li Jing attacked, Ye Lingchen would easily nullify his moves.
“Huff, I’m done. You’re truly an expert. I’ve been playing the fool.” Li Jing huffed, gasping for air. He took two steps back and waved to stop.
Although he had learned martial arts, it was all for filming and slowly changed towards the showy nature for cameras. His moves could only be considered as on-screen Kungfu, while Ye Lingchen’s was the real Kungfu.
“You’re not bad yourself,” Ye Lingchen praised him honestly. Li Jing’s health was in good shape. It was not a problem for him to fight off four or five adults. Although his Kungfu was nothing in the eyes of an expert, it was eye-catching when captured on film.
“Do you plan to be in a film?” Ye Lingchen asked suddenly.
Li Jing was caught by surprise, then laughed bitterly. “That’s my dream.”
“Congratulations, your dream is about to come true.” Ye Lingchen laughed.
Li Jing was confused, unable to understand what Ye Lingchen meant.
“Have you heard of Huo Yuanjia?”
“Of course! It’s being directed by Li Tai and it just started recruiting today.” Being in Hengdian Studios, he had no doubt heard of such important news. At first, he wanted to give it a try, but the countless failures had made him doubtful.
“You should be the lead actor!” Ye Lingchen said matter-of-factly.
“Me?” Li Jing’s eyes widened, staring at Ye Lingchen suspiciously, “How can that be? You’re not joking with me right?”
“It’s you if I say so!” Ye Lingchen laughed. “Remember to go report to the registration counter tomorrow.”
With that said, Ye Lingchen left, not giving Li Jing any chance to ask any more questions.
Li Jing stared at Ye Lingchen’s figure, still in a daze, as though all that was but a dream.
On his way back, Ye Lingchen told Li Tai about Huo Yuanjia’s candidate. Li Tai agreed to it without any questions.
The script was written by Ye Lingchen and he also paid for half the investment. It was fortunate enough for him to be directing the movie. Of course, he would not go against Ye Lingchen’s suggestion.
9:30pm, Ye Lingchen finally returned to the university. He greeted his three roommates then got ready to leave with the two wolf pups.
“Ye’zi, you’ve sure kept a low profile. I didn’t expect you to be rich enough to buy a house just like that in Capital City!”
“Ye’zi, we’re going to visit your place when we’re free. You must not chase us away.”
“F*ck, with you gone, there won’t be anyone to carry us in DOTA. This sucks!”
Under the reluctant stares of the three of them, Ye Lingchen bid farewell to the dorm he had only stayed for one month.
Back home, Zhang Yunxi had yet to sleep. When she saw Ye Lingchen returning with two wolf pups, she went to greet him with glowing eyes filled with excitement.
Under Ye Lingchen’s training, Little Gray and Little Green had learned to disguise themselves by putting on the cute dumb look of a husky, making them an effective weapon against the ladies.