Chapter 86.2
Supermodel Competition (Arc 7.8)
Jing Yang swam to the area above the underwater park, and after coming up for some air, he began to dive down.
Since it was called an underwater park, there naturally would be a lot of fun and beautiful things under the water. These not only had to have the expected aquatic style, but also needed to allow the guests to feel enjoyment, in order to be termed a paradise.
Jing Yang lay on a bed made from a huge shell, posing in a lazy position and winking at the camera. Many netizens looked at this scene and forgot to breathe, it was too tempting.
Then he swam to a table set with cutlery, using a fork to pick up a small piece of food, and then moving to put it in his mouth. Suddenly a very beautiful fish swam over and opened its mouth to take the food on his fork. He pretended to angrily look at this fish, and that fish also looked at him, and even swirled its tail, as if it was very proud.
This food was originally used to feed fish, but the netizens watching the live stream didn't know that, so Jing Yang's deliberate appearance of having his food taken away made the netizens unable to resist smiling. The image was really too cute.
That fish that stole his food seemed particularly courageous, it not only did not swim away, but even swam over to kiss Jing Yang on the face, as if to apologize for grabbing his food earlier. Jing Yang immediately smiled and reached out his finger to tap its head.
A person and a fish interacted, the cuteness making people unable to stop from melting.
When Jing Yang was swimming, he made people think that maybe because his posture was too natural and beautiful, it made those beautiful little fish think that he was the same kind, and all gathered around him to swim with him. In fact, it was because he was holding food in his hand, and then slowly crumbled it, but no one could see his movements.
A fish twice as big as Jing Yang swam over, and when it passed by, Jing Yang smoothly sat onto its body. That big fish carried Jing Yang through all kinds of beautiful and wondrous buildings, followed by a pile of beautiful small fish. That scene was simply like a mermaid prince going out for a ride.
The staff members filming behind him all felt like this was really too mystical. If they weren't seeing it personally, they wouldn't believe it was real, and this was even happening right in front of their eyes.
The netizens were even more shocked, such a scene probably only appeared in dreams. Is this really a live stream? This dream was a little too real?
Throughout the filming process, Jing Yang came out of the water every ten minutes to catch his breath, and the staff never had to give him oxygen. Even the picture of him swimming to the surface of the water was very beautiful, and when he turned to dive down, his movements were natural like a mermaid.
After his filming ended, Jing Yang swam back to the side of the boat, and as soon as he got on the boat, an assistant lay his bath towel on his body.
The host walked up to the director and the designer of the water park for commentary.
The stunned look in the director's eyes and on his face still had not subsided. He somewhat absent-mindedly exclaimed, "This was absolutely the most meaningful and perfect shot I have done as a director in so many years! I can't even believe that this is a real scene done without the use of any special effects. I don't know how he did it, but I have to say, this was really too amazing. I'm really lucky to have been able to film such a shot.”
The host said, "We all felt that the scene just now was really magical, so I can also understand the director's mood right now. Then can I ask the director to talk about the model's performance from a professional point of view?”
"From a professional view, I can still only use a single word to sum it up, and that's perfection." The director said somewhat excitedly, "In the end, with this kind of shot, we never had to restart and there were no NGs, which would be very difficult to do even on land, not to mention in the water. His every movement, and every gaze, was expressed perfectly, making people unable to help being attracted. What's more is that as a model, he did not forget that he needed to also show and highlight the product, and not just his body and himself. I believe that after seeing this shot, anyone will be very interested in the water park.”
The host said, "Our director gave Jing Yang's performance a very high evaluation, so the score he will eventually give will certainly not be low. Now, let's listen to the views and commentary of designer Dennis.”
"Jing Yang's performance was completely beyond my imagination." Dennis felt like he could not find any better words to express his feelings at the moment, but still wanted to try to convey the shock in his heart as much as possible. "This was really too shocking, he fully expressed everything that I invested into the design of the park. I think he might be able to read minds, in order to be able to guess my mind so completely. Previously I never understood why people would worship a model so crazily, but now I finally understand. That kind of fan mindset, I have also experienced it today.”
Invisibly, Jing Yang's performance gave the other models in the competition even more pressure. They thought that they not only could not perform to that degree, but also had no way to not have to restart or NG in the water. But they were also popular models and supermodels, if their gap with him was too big, it would really be too humiliating.
Dilumo barely forced himself to maintain a calm expression, but his heart was already burning from anxiety. Someone who had not picked up any work for three years could actually perform to this extent. He was now extremely curious about what he had done in the past three years. Dilumo had thought that Arthur must have been wallowing in sorrow or regret for three years, and then he would become depressed and sallow, unable to ever recover. But from this current situation, he must have just been biding his time these three years, waiting for the chance to bounce back to appear.
Dilumo secretly clenched his teeth and swore that he would never let him succeed. He definitely still could find a way, and could wait for the opportunity to deal with him, and make it so that he could never recover!
Conley lowered his head in thought, his eyes occasionally glancing toward Jing Yang, who was sitting down to rest. He had not seen this person for three years, and didn't expect that he would be even better looking than in the pictures. Amongst so many models and supermodels, he was still the most outstanding one. Unfortunately, because of his phobia, he had never touched him before, or else he might be able to think back as an aftertaste now.
The netizens could be said to have feasted their eyes. They all thought, originally the filming process was just like this ah, it looks very relaxed and quite easy ah. They certainly couldn't do it themselves, but it shouldn't be too hard for models to do it? After all, they were in this career, and usually there must be special training for these things.
The fans' expectations for their idols were instantly even higher, and they all quietly hoped that their favorite models would be able to perform better than the others.
Just as the expectations were higher, the disappointment was bigger. The models filming later had to redo even the move diving into the water three or four times and it was still not perfect. The netizens' excitement and anticipation also gradually cooled down.
The previous scenes that looked like special effects never appeared again. Most of the models asked the staff for oxygen less than a minute after entering the water. The time when the staff were in the lens was even longer than the time the model was in the lens by himself. And with the oxygen equipment, it was really hard to make a relaxed expression, and it was even harder to make natural movements.
When the host went to ask the director and designer for their reviews, their expressions were evidently unpleasant.
The director said with great disappointment, "If Arthur's performance was unexpectedly amazing, the other models we have filmed so far were unexpectedly bad. I know that it is hard to control your body in the water, and not as easy as on land, but as a model, only when you can control your own body regardless of the circumstances can you be considered a supermodel. But I think that if we gave them some more time, and then edited and cut the film, we can still create a quite good film. But in the case of live broadcasts like this, their performance is sure to disappoint the audience because the difference from the film is too big.”
Dennis's expression was also not very good. He felt that these models' performance would make the audience feel some resistance to the water park he designed, so he explained, "Here I would like to tell everyone, don't think that the underwater park is very scary because of the other model's pain and struggles. They were like this because they did not always wear their oxygen equipment, but when the guests come to play, we will have the most advanced and most convenient oxygen equipment for you. You would be able to swim and play in the water freely like Arthur Yang.”
Dilumo's filming order was farther back, and in front of him, there had already been four models who deliberately made it seem like they had cramps and so could not film well. It was obvious that they had all thought the same way, and wanted to cover up their shortcomings with some undeniable reasons.
Since four people had already used the same trick before him, if Dilumo also used it he would seem very fake, and even fools would be able to see that they were just pretending. But there was no way, he was even worse in the water than the average person, and he couldn't not use this method.
When Dilumo was entering the water, the director made him repeatedly shoot this move five or six times without being satisfied. If not because of time constraints, he may have just made him shoot this one move all day.
Dilumo dived down with the oxygen equipment, and still needed the staff members to pull him down because he simply could not dive. Once the oxygen was taken away for a few seconds he would need to suck on it again, and the director simply could not shoot anything useful. He held his leg and made a painful expression of cramping, but unfortunately because he was in the water, his acting was affected. This made him look too fake, making even his fans feel embarrassed for him.
The director frowned and looked impatiently at the screen. He simply did not direct him to make any movements or restart, just waiting for thirty minutes to pass like this.
The netizens watched Dilumo struggle in the water, this action was not only not aesthetic in the least, but also appeared extremely comical yet made people feel like they couldn't laugh out. They couldn't help but wonder how Dilumo's previously shot water films were filmed.
Dilumo's fans felt like they really could not keep watching because his open-mouthed, wildly flailing appearance was really too ugly. Even if you wanted to fake cramping, you at least had to act more realistically a little. Then we can help you speak ah, or else we would really be speaking blindly with our eyes wide open. Like those people before, they acted quite well, so at least in the beginning they made people unable to tell whether they were really cramping, or just faking it.
Fortunately, besides Jing Yang's ultra-perfect play, there were still a few models whose shots were still quite good, or else it would be really hard to finish the shoot.
In the end when the host asked the director to make some concluding comments, the director said, "I encountered two of the biggest problems of my career today. One is Arthur Yang's shot, every scene is perfect, and I think I may have a hard time cutting the 30-minute shoot into a five-minute film. This is really difficult. There's another problem, and that is what Dilumo gave me. I don't know how to get a five minute long shot from his 30 minutes of film. Here I would like to state in advance, if Dilumo's shot isn't good enough, it was really not me and my editing problems, but that there were no good scenes to include.”
Dennis said to the camera very seriously, "I would also like to declare in advance that as long as you warm up properly, not everyone would cramp so easily in the water. We also have professionals on the side as protection, so please rest assured to play. Whether or not some people were really cramping, I believe that everyone could tell. I am just strongly condemning this damage to the reputation of our hotel entertainment program, on my own behalf.”
Translator Notes:
[1] unable to recover – 一蹶不振, idiom, means totally collapsing after a setback
[2] biding his time – 卧薪尝胆, means to maintain his resolve for revenge, suffering patiently
Random Notes:
A little less than one hour: 9:30 am – 10:30 am, for 3.8k characters to 2.4k words.