Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 48 The Mirror-Covering Plan - Day 1

Zeng Hao placed the two scenes side by side. "Look at the last line of the fourteenth scene, the shot of rain hitting the window at night. This detail wasn't used again later, right?"

Fang Qing glanced in that direction and said, "Yes."

"Then use this spot," Zeng Hao marked a position at the beginning of the seventeenth scene with his pen. "It's not about cutting in three lines of monologue, but about letting her have a half-second lapse in concentration before making this decision, letting the rain scene from the fourteenth scene flash through her mind, one and a half lines, not three. Readers will fill in the motivation themselves when they see this, because they remember the rain scene from the fourteenth scene. You don't need to explain, you just need to give her a hook."

Fang Qing went through this in her mind.

She bit the cap of her pen, then released it. "That rhythm at the beginning of scene seventeen—"

“Continuous,” Zeng Hao said, “the distraction is an interlude, not part of the narrative. In that half-second of distraction, the reader completes the emotional transition on their own, and the rhythm continues without affecting the flow.”

Fang Qing took the script and looked at the beginning of scene seventeen again. She didn't say anything, but she touched the spot with her pen.

"Can you finish revising it today?" Zeng Hao asked.

"Today," Fang Qing closed the script, stood up, and said, "I'll revise this line and a half. I can send it to you this morning."

"Read it to yourself before you send it to me," Zeng Hao said. "Read it aloud, not just look at it. If the rhythm is off, you'll hear it."

Fang Qing tucked the script under her arm and walked towards the door, pausing at the threshold. "Just this one and a half lines and it's done?"

"Just this one and a half lines," Zeng Hao said.

She went out.

After closing the door, Zeng Hao took the two scripts side by side from the table, stacked them neatly, placed them on the left, picked up his phone, and opened the voice message from Zhang Tianai from last night.

Twenty-two seconds.

"I just happened to pass by your company building today, but I didn't go in. I just wanted to say hello. By the way, about that big screen project you mentioned last time, do you have any ideas about it? I'm currently free, so if you give me some direction, I can prepare myself."

that's it.

He turned off his phone, put it back on the table, and didn't reply.

It's not that I lack direction, it's just that telling her now would be useless.

"Diamond Lover" hasn't finished filming yet, and her current schedule is already filled with "Eternal Love".

It's not the right time to talk to her about "Three Lives Three Worlds" yet. If I tell her a direction, she'll keep asking about the progress, which will only cause trouble.

We'll talk about it after "Diamond Lover" wraps up filming and the timeline matches up.

He picked up his phone and sent a message to Xu Wen: How's the progress of listing the supplementary agreement item by item today? Send me the first draft before this afternoon.

Xu Wen replied quickly: I started listing them yesterday afternoon, and I'm revising them for the third time now. There are two things I'm not sure about. I'll send them to you later so we can check them out.

He put down his phone, stood up, and walked towards the training room.

Today is the first day of the mirror-covering plan.

Teacher Zhao started class at nine o'clock in the morning. It was the break after the first class. Teacher Zhao was the only one in the training room. All five boys had gone out. Teacher Zhao stood in front of the mirror and covered the right half of the mirror with a dark cloth he bought from a fabric store. He used tape to stick a strip along the top edge, pressed it down to make sure it was stuck, and patted it. It was not loose.

He picked up the assessment book from the chair next to him, turned to Xu Kunkun's page, and wrote a line on it: "Plan 1, Day 1: Mirror covers the right half, position adjusted to the left."

He was writing when Zeng Hao came in.

Teacher Zhao closed the assessment book. "Mr. Zeng, I just finished assigning it. We'll start using it in the second period."

Zeng Hao walked to the mirror and examined the edge of the cloth. "Is the height sufficient? He can't see Zhou Zhennan when he's standing on the left."

"I've measured it," Teacher Zhao said. "The width of the cloth covers two-fifths of the right side. Zhou Zhennan is standing on the right end, and Xu Kunkun is standing on the left end. The angle of sight has been measured. He can't see you if he's looking straight ahead, unless he deliberately turns his head more than twenty degrees to the right."

"If he turns around," Zeng Hao said.

"I will stop him and make him find the front again," Teacher Zhao said, "but I won't explain why, I'll just make him stop and stand still again."

"Yes," Zeng Hao said, "Don't explain. If you explain, he'll realize it, and once he realizes it, it's all over."

Teacher Zhao wrote this down in her notebook.

The second class started at 10:05.

Five people came in and saw that the mirror was half-covered. Zhou Zhennan glanced at it, said nothing, and walked to his usual place. Chen Linong followed him. Lin You stood in his usual place. Wang Yuxuan took a step in and found that the positions were different today. Teacher Zhao had already marked the positions in front. There were five small white tapes on the floor, with wider spacing than usual. Xu Kunkun's position was at the far left.

Xu Kunkun walked over, stood in that spot, and glanced at himself in the mirror. The mirror only showed the blank space on his left and himself.

The right half is made of dark fabric.

Teacher Zhao stepped forward and said, "Today we'll start with basic platform walking. First set, start from a standstill, medium speed, three times, begin."

On the first pass, Xu Kunkun finished, nothing special, normal level, within the B+ range, and Teacher Zhao made a mark on the notebook.

On the second time, when he reached the second beat point, he extended his arm to the side. Teacher Zhao saw him glance to the right, as was his habit, but Zhou Zhennan wasn't there. The mirror was half-covered. He paused for less than a second, then looked back and continued walking forward.

Teacher Zhao wrote this action down in her notebook: "On the second beat of the second round, look to the right for 0.5 seconds, without reference, then automatically return to the starting position."

The third time, he didn't look to the right again.

After walking, he stood at the left end, his breathing steady, without glancing towards Zhou Zhennan.

Teacher Zhao told them to rest for three minutes, then stepped back two steps, opened the evaluation book, and wrote a note on Xu Kunkun's line: "First lesson, the occlusion test: the habitual reference action appeared in the second round and then stopped on its own, but did not appear in the third round."

Zeng Hao stood at the door without going in, and looked through the half-open door three times.

He gently closed the door and walked back.

This is not a conclusion, just the first day, but the direction is right.

Xu Wen's message came as he returned to his office and sat down: "I've sent you a list of the supplementary agreements, item by item. I'm not sure about Articles 7 and 11, so please take a look."

He opened the email, which contained a seven-page document in which Xu Wen had broken down the original text of the program's supplementary agreement clause by clause. Each clause was followed by two columns: one column marked by Xu Wen as "acceptable range" and the other column as "items requiring renegotiation".

He found the seventh one.

Article 7 states: Singers should actively cooperate with the program team's brand promotion activities during the program's broadcast, including but not limited to participation in Weibo topics, exposure of brand products, and promotional activities arranged by the program team.

Xu Wen wrote after this: Brand exposure is acceptable, but the phrase "promotional matters uniformly arranged by the program team" is too broad, and I am not sure whether to remove it.

Zeng Hao typed directly after this line: "Crack it down." He suggested breaking this sentence down into specific numbers, and wrote: "During the recording period, the brand's participation in Weibo topics shall not exceed three times, and each time the form is limited to Weibo reposts, excluding original content from personal accounts. The agreement will automatically terminate after the recording ends." He then sent this as our reply terms to the program team.

Article 11: Singers should ensure that their public image during the competition is consistent with the overall tone of the program. If there are any objections, the program team has the right to propose modifications.

Xu Wen's annotation: This is too vague. What does "consistent overall tone" mean? What does "suggested modification" mean? I don't know how to define it.