The Long-awaited Mr Han

"Basically, when it comes to Xu Jiashan's plays, newcomers have very little chance of getting admitted. It's much better than you studying in school. Although the school does not allow Year Threes and below to go out and casually take on acting jobs, I already said before during that time when you and Zhang Xiaoying had a scandal that if there was really a rare opportunity, the school would not stop students from accepting that rare opportunity," Principal Liu said. "Don't worry, just go. If anyone raises doubt, I will come out to handle it."

Lu Man said her thanks and ended the call before giving Xu Jiashan her reply.

The two of them agreed that she would go to Xu Jiashan's theatrical company on Tuesday to take a look before confirming which role and how many times she was to act for.

Xu Jiashan's plays toured all over the country.

In the selected cities, there would be a few runs of the productions.

It was not just for appearance's sake, but also because it was rare for the audience to be able to see those renowned actors' performances up close, so each show would be sold out and the tickets would all be snatched up during the pre-sales.

***

The next day was Monday.

Lu Man went to the theater company to meet Xu Jiashan according to their agreed time.

When she reached Xu Jiashan's office, Xu Jiashan showed the script to Lu Man.

"This is not the final script, there are still some minor edits to be made. So after the roles are confirmed, which is around the end of the month, we will start rehearsals officially. Before the New Year, we will commence our debut show in B City and see the audience's reaction to it. After the New Year's break, we will start going on the tour performance in other locales," Xu Jiashan said. "I chose a few roles for you. You are quite flexible, so there are no fixed roles that you can play. I looked through the roles, and there are three roles you can take on where the effect will be the best. You can take a look at these three and see which one you are more keen on."

"The number of parts is almost the same across these three roles, but they're not leading roles. They're probably second- or third-line roles, but it's hard to say for now, because the script still needs to undergo some edits," Xu Jiashan explained. "I am very confident in your acting and admire your acting a lot as well, but you're a newcomer, after all. I can't bear to give you a role that has too few parts. But if I gave you a role that has too many parts, I'm afraid those experienced actors wouldn't be able to stomach it. It won't be a good thing for you."

Lu Man nodded. "I understand. Actually, when I agreed to your invitation, I did not think that I would get a role with a lot of parts either. I didn't even think of getting a second- or third-line role. I was talking to my principal about this, and it's just like what he said. To be able to participate and act in your plays is already a very rare opportunity. The purpose of my coming over is to learn. Whether the role is significant or not, it doesn't matter to me."

Xu Jiashan laughed and said, "You may say that, but I don't want to waste your talent as well. It's mainly because you are a newcomer, and even though you have experience acting on stage, that was only a 20-minute short play. You haven't acted in a proper, complete play with numerous scenes and so do not have much experience in that. That's why I didn't dare to assign a role with too many parts for you at first as well. When you've become more familiar with the performance methods of theater, you can take up the challenge of acting in more significant roles."

Xu Jiashan paused for a moment before he smiled and said, "But given your standard, I believe your rise in the entertainment industry will be very fast. When the time comes, there will be a bunch of people waving their scripts at you for you to act in their shows. You'll be too busy by then and won't have many opportunities to come and act in plays anymore."

"In my view, theater is a very specialized place for honing one's acting skills," Lu Man said. "It's still too early to talk about the future now, but if there really comes a day when I am that busy, no matter how busy I am, I will still take out some time to act in theatrical plays."

"Hahahaha, I'm content just with these words you said." Xu Jiashan then talked more about the details with Lu Man.