Chapter 58: A Little Patch of Cloud (Dedicated to Alliance Leader Yi Yitian)

The male lead of the third group's palace drama was none other than Qi Xi. Following his failed audition on the set of *The Star Seeder*, he successfully brought his talent right next door.

This was a scene where a young emperor angrily berates his court officials, but Qi Xi clearly lacked the necessary majesty. During the scolding, he didn't look much like an emperor; rather, he looked flustered and flew into a rage.

His comfort zone lay firmly in playing minor characters. When asked to actually tackle roles that required genuine acting chops, his skills were evidently not up to par.

Then again, anyone with truly formidable acting chops wouldn't have come to this show in the first place...

Despite this, Qi Xi's performance still won the approval of the judging panel. It wasn't because he was some phenomenal actor, but simply because his performance was already the most decent among all the artists present.

When choosing the tallest among dwarfs, one has to find a positive example somewhere.

The final piece of footage from the set of *The Star Seeder* was about to debut, and everyone had been anticipating it for a long time, eager to see what kind of adaptations Yu Wei had actually made to the film.

At the very beginning of the clip was the exact scene from the initial audition: the male lead, having just recovered from a severe illness, was dragging his exhausted body to work. Yu Wei's acting was very relaxed, yet a hint of fatigue still lingered around his eyes and brows.

When acting skills aren't enough, sheer state of mind has to make up for it. To film this sequence, Yu Wei had deliberately stayed up the entire night...

Although he had crammed for a few days, Yu Wei's acting was still somewhat mediocre—not enough to pull the audience out of the experience, but lacking any truly brilliant moments.

The professional judging panel frowned, their emotions somewhat complex. Even if they wanted to find something to praise later on, they wouldn't be able to spot any highlights.

Soon, Chi Leying, who played the male lead's girlfriend, appeared. The two chatted casually on a hillside; the female lead had already sensed his choice and was therefore trying to avoid the topic.

"I want to stay here."

This line served as the catalyst for conflict. The female lead felt abandoned, so she turned and walked down the mountain without looking back. Chi Leying's acting was at least commendable, successfully portraying that helpless resignation.

Wait a minute, what happened to the promised adaptation?

Seeing this, they finally reacted. Wasn't there supposed to be an adaptation? Why was it almost the end, and yet the dialogue and plot remained completely untouched...

Three mentors, including Qi Yunming, turned in unison to look at Lin Yi, wanting to know what tricks she had up her sleeve.

Before they could even voice their questions, however, a sudden children's chorus caught everyone completely off guard.

The music was wrong.

The gentle humming at the beginning seemed to possess a bizarre, hypnotic magic. Even though they were anxious to figure out what was happening, they still froze upon hearing the exceptionally clear "La-la-la~".

The music in the original film was just an ordinary Irish folk song, lacking any lofty conceptual depth.

When localizing the film, Yu Wei had taken many considerations into account. The reason why that scene had become a cinematic classic lay entirely in the female lead's sense of release and understanding.

Only one thing could grant her that release: realizing that the male lead was right, and that these children deserved to be the light sown into the earth.

The significance of this song was neither to bid farewell to the female lead nor to reminisce about their romance, but simply to view the world from a child's perspective.

If it were merely a farewell, the female lead's tears would stem solely from sorrow and grief, falling far short of the emotional complexity of the original film.

Therefore, Yu Wei chose this song, *Wading the Waves*, a campus folk song imbued with a rustic flavor. Its melody was sufficiently romantic, and its lyrics were concise and unpretentious.

Most importantly, it was indeed a song full of youthful vitality and exuberant spirit, carrying a rich sense of the times and a rural charm.

"A tiny patch of clouds, you see,
Drifting slowly over me.
Please pause your steps and rest awhile,
Just stop for now and wait for me."

The singing was kneaded and carried over by the wind from the high slope, growing louder and louder. Chi Leying's back stiffened, and then, like a puppet, she slowly and laboriously turned her head back inch by inch.

They sang without holding back anything, their voices braided into a single rope, lifted by the mountain wind and pushed forward with all their might.

The tune wasn't quite accurate; some rushed the beat, others dragged it out, and the pitches were all over the place, sounding like a flock of untamed little sparrows chirping away.

This was recorded by Yu Wei and Lin Yi in a rush with a children's choir from Beijing. It couldn't be called polished singing, but it was precisely this chaotic, reckless sincerity that proved all the more touching.

It felt close to nature, with the uninhibited spirit of children washing over the listeners. Yet, to everyone's ears, it also stirred an inexplicable sense of bittersweet sorrow.

That line—"Just stop for now"—felt almost as if the children were singing it to them. The world of adults was always so busy; why couldn't they just stop?

Much like the female lead in the film, why couldn't she just stay behind too...

Because adults simply didn't dare to stop.

"The mountain flowers bloom up high,
That's why I came to climb the height.
Turns out you've also climbed the mount,
To watch the mountain flowers bloom bright."

These lyrics were actually just about climbing a mountain to look at flowers, but in this film, they felt like a soul-searching question posed by the male lead to the female lead.

Because the flowers on the mountain had bloomed, he chose to stay. Didn't you also come up the mountain just now and see them?

In the clip, Chi Leying shed two lines of crystal tears right on cue. Her acting was completely incomparable to that of the original film, but precisely because the song cleverly anchored the theme, they felt that sense of emotional release directly through the screen.

No one understood what the male lead was doing better than the female lead. He wanted to wait until the mountain flowers were in full bloom; he wanted to stay here and sow the seeds of stars. That was why she cried.

It wasn't because of the sadness and grief of a breakup, but because of the agonizing struggle of an impossible dilemma. Yet, upon hearing the children singing in freedom, her heart still melted. She understood and respected the male lead's choice to devote himself to a great cause.

The film drew to a close amidst the humming of "La-la~", the picture freezing on the lingering shot of the male lead and female lead gazing into each other's eyes. If the original film scored 100 points, Yu Wei and Chi Leying's performance barely reached 50.

Yet, because of this light, gentle, and slightly melancholic song, the on-site viewing experience was easily an 80-point one. They had never felt the charm of music so tangibly as they did at this moment.

The immature children's voices paired with this song formed a vivid picture, guiding people to appreciate and experience the beauty of nature.

In fact, due to cultural barriers, many people failed to appreciate the emotional impact of the final scene in the original movie. But Yu Wei's song successfully allowed them to savor the beauty of the countryside and feel the presence of those so-called stars.

Beyond that, the strong sense of nostalgia carried by the song caught them completely off guard. Even if they had never heard this tune before, they vividly experienced the weight of memory.

Or perhaps, they had simply dreamt a dream called growing up...

The rookie actors didn't feel this deeply, but for the four mentors and the judging panel, the song brought back a flood of memories—reminding them of themselves when they were young.

It all came rushing back, everything came back: I am no corporate slave, I am a flower of the motherland!

Originally, they had been wondering how to praise Yu Wei, but after listening to the song and watching the footage, they were once again at a loss for words.

When they finally snapped out of their trance, they suddenly realized that Yu Wei had cracked a problem that had plagued the film industry for over thirty years.

There was no right or wrong between the two songs, but this rendition of *Wading the Waves* was undoubtedly the absolute best choice for localizing the original track.

If one day they ever turned into the major villains of a story, they would probably freeze for a few seconds upon hearing this song, too.