The Choice

“Miss, you can’t go over there… Miss…” “Please, move aside…” “You can’t, Professor Nangong is right there…” “Excuse me, let her through.”

As the Freshman Competition concluded, Jiang Li was just about to rise and leave when he heard the commotion behind him. He turned his head.

Xiao Yuehua was breaking free from the staff’s restraint, stumbling toward him. Her eyes were burning with raw indignation. “Why?”

Jiang Li frowned. “Student Xiao Yuehua… that is your name, isn’t it? Are you aware that your behavior right now is quite unladylike?”

Xiao Yuehua seemed to realize the rudeness of her actions. Her icy, elegant face flickered with a brief moment of hesitation, but she quickly regained her resolve. She grit her teeth and glared at Jiang Li.

“I apologize, Professor. But I am here to request an explanation regarding the scoring results.”

“I don’t believe there is anything to explain.”

“That’s not true!”

Xiao Yuehua’s emotions were visibly spiraling out of control. “My performance… my performance was clearly recognized by everyone… Why was it a zero? I was only a few points away from second place!”

“I know I’m not as good as Ning Rou, but on what grounds? Why are you unwilling to give me a fair score? Is my performance in your eyes, Professor, truly inferior to every single person present today?”

Her slender frame trembled. She looked like a stray cat drenched in the rain—terrified, yet unable to stop herself from hissing at the source of danger.

This wasn’t like her. Normally, she rarely even frowned, let alone lost her temper. She was naturally the emotionally detached type; her cold, beautiful face was a mask that never changed. Even her parents often complained that it was exhausting to live with her, having to guess her likes and dislikes constantly.

Because of this, her family had concluded that she was unfit for the path of a Performer. After all, how could someone who couldn’t express or feel emotion ever inject soul into a performance?

But she refused to accept it.

Is the Art of Performance truly so narrow? she thought. If she lacked emotion, she would achieve perfection in every other aspect! Diction, movement, and most importantly… the study of the Method.

As the most vital and most esoteric part of the Performer’s path, the Method was the foundation—much like the inner cultivation techniques in martial arts novels—that provided the energy for a Performer to manifest transcendent power. The higher the level of one’s Method, the stronger the manifested power.

While her peers were working on basic acting skills to get into the academy, Xiao Yuehua had spent day and night researching the dense, tedious, and soul-crushing fundamentals of the Method. She could endure the boredom.

But from her teachers to her classmates, and even her parents—with the sole exception of her genius friend Ning Rou—everyone around her had been whispering the same thing: “Give up. You don’t have the talent. This path isn’t for you.”

She stubbornly refused to turn back. Only Xiao Yuehua knew the years of suppression, lack of trust, and deep-seated resentment she had carried to get to this stage.

What did it matter if no one supported her? What did it matter if she didn’t rely on her parents? She was one step away from proving them all wrong. Success was within her grasp.

And yet, this man before her had destroyed everything with a flick of his wrist. For the first time, she felt the searing heat of anger. Her racing pulse and rushing blood screamed her defiance.

“Professor, please… give me… a rational explanation for that zero!”

“…”

“Sigh…”

The man looked at her with total indifference. After a moment of silence, he let out a long sigh. Even though he was a professor, that dismissive attitude made Xiao Yuehua’s blood boil.

“You want an explanation? Very well. I’ll tell you—it’s quite simple. Your performance was of abysmal quality.”

“Forgive me for saying so, Professor, but I strongly disagree!” Xiao Yuehua lifted her head. In her fury, her glare was almost adorable. “The student you placed second, Liu Lin—his performance couldn’t even trigger a manifestation! He cannot be compared to me. That is an objective fact!”

“So your point is that because your performance manifested an illusion, you should have been second. Is that right?”

“Is… is it not?”

Jiang Li shook his head. A trace of disappointment appeared on a face that was even colder than hers. “Student Xiao Yuehua, do you truly believe that the level of one’s Method is the entirety of Performance?”

“Yes!” she replied through grit teeth. The Special Invitation was too important. No matter what, she had to fight for her dream today.

However…

“You couldn’t be more wrong!”

Unlike his previous lazy and indifferent demeanor, Professor Nangong’s eyes suddenly turned sharp. The aura of a man who once vied for the title of Movie King erupted, causing everyone in the vicinity to shudder.

“The Method is indeed important, but what is far more vital is emotion itself!“

“A performance without emotion is a fortress built of loose sand; it cannot withstand even the gentlest raindrop!”

“Wh-what?”

“Among everyone before you, even in the most amateurish performances, I could see an investment of emotion. Only you… your performance, and the illusions you manifested, were utterly lifeless.”

Professor Nangong’s voice was like ice picks, stabbing into her heart one by one. “What you created was merely a cold corpse. It had nothing to do with the Art of Performance!”

Xiao Yuehua’s face turned deathly pale. Her lips trembled, but she couldn’t utter a single word. Professor Nangong gave her one last freezing look before turning to walk away.

No… it can’t end like this…

Watching that tall, straight back move further away, a surge of desperate blood rushed to her brain. Her mind went blank, and words she knew she shouldn’t say blurted out:

“But what about you, Professor? Isn’t your acting exactly like that? Without emotion…”

“…”

Professor Nangong’s footsteps stopped. He slowly turned his head, the coldness in his eyes nearly turning physical. The surrounding staff members’ faces changed instantly; they all lowered their heads, wishing they could bury their eyes in their shoes.

Xiao Yuehua had just touched upon the one topic in the academy that no one dared to mention—the “untouchable” taboo.

Xiao Yuehua wasn’t stupid. She immediately realized she had offended a powerful figure. But since the words were already out, she steeled her heart. “If we follow your theory, Professor… then where exactly do you stand?”

After saying this, her strength seemed to fail her. Her steps faltered, and she had to lean against a nearby wall for support.

“…”

To everyone’s surprise, however…

“You are right.”

Professor Nangong didn’t fly into a rage. If anything, his reaction was eerily calm. He walked slowly toward Xiao Yuehua, his tall frame casting a long shadow over her.

“You took the wrong path. You chose a path destined for failure, a path that is utterly worthless…”

“The very path I once walked.”

Xiao Yuehua couldn’t fully grasp the weight behind his words, but she instinctively felt the oppressive atmosphere. She took a subconscious step back.

But in the next moment, Professor Nangong seemed to think of something, and his expression softened for a fleeting second. He looked up and extended his hand toward her.

“Of course, there is one difference between us: you are still young. There is still time to turn back.”

“As an Academy Professor, I have the right to select one ‘Mentorship Student.’ The benefits are nearly identical to the Special Invitation.”

“If you truly wish to continue on the path of Performance, and if you can endure the pain and the toil…”

Xiao Yuehua stared blankly at the hand he was offering.

“Perhaps you can try accepting my invitation.”

Intuition told her this was a sweet yet dangerous contract.

“The choice is yours.”

But she had no other choice.