Smile Code (Lost Laughter) 失笑 - Zhu Le 祖乐

38

"Okay" = "I like you"

After spending the whole night researching papers on emotional expression disorders, Gu Yi rolled out of bed at six in the morning, her head precisely wedged between the bed and the nightstand, waking her up. The small space was filled with sunlight streaming across the ceiling, and the dream lingered before her eyes-she was stepping onto the ounce stage, preparing to do an open mic, but suddenly, the workers started dismantling the stage. The reason was that stand-up comedy wasn't profitable, and Xiangyang North Road didn't need unprofitable businesses. A voice echoed in her dream: "Do you still need a stage to tell these things? Aren't there enough TikTok comedians?"

It was just a dream, but it made her heart race for a long time. Don't scare yourself-ounce's bilingual open mic is irreplaceable, and even celebrity-studded roasting variety shows are so popular now. Stand-up comedy isn't going to disappear. After a shower, as she stood in front of the mirror, Gu Yi tilted her head and thought for a moment. The dream was a reminder that if she didn't improve her stand-up skills, she would be eliminated by other comedians. As ounce's famous unlucky comedian, with a recent surge in her romantic life, she might soon become an unlucky yet beautiful comedic woman, so she couldn't slack off. Love was something that, if it came, could be embraced; if it didn't, it could be discarded. Comedians didn't need love.

As she walked out the door, she glanced back at the camera, seeing her shadow in the hallway, much like Liang Daiwen's cold eyes when he scrutinized her-wasn't it eerie how even the camera resembled its owner?

Standing behind the stage curtain, peeking at the audience, she hadn't expected to see both Liang Daiwen and Xu Guanrui sitting in the audience. She sent a WeChat message to Yu Dule, who was checking tickets at the door: "What's going on? Did you purposely pick this result?"

Yu Dule took a long time to reply: "I swear on heaven, I randomly picked."

The host for this show was Yu Dule. During a transition, he teased, "The next performer is one of my very good friends. Recently, her love life has been going great-she's being chased by two men at the same time. Yes, you heard that right, even us poor stand-up comedians get such good fortune. She used to joke that she was like gold and would always shine. Now, she hasn't had the chance to shine yet, and the tomb raider has already come knocking. Don't laugh too loudly, or she'll get too puffed up."

When Gu Yi took the microphone, her back straightened-what was there to be shy about? She was a professional stand-up comedian!

"Hello everyone, I'm Gu Yi. It's been a while since I've been here because-I couldn't draw a spot. The draw at ounce is like a lottery. When you have unrealistic hopes, you're basically throwing away money. But you can't stop buying tickets, because-what if one day you win, right? You, the audience, don't give up either. Not only do you have to apply, but you also have to fill out your ID number, why you want to watch stand-up comedy, which channel Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show is on, what you think about comedy, what you expect from stand-up... When I see those forms, I think, 'A group of people who know comedy better than I do are watching me perform, I can't mess this up.' After all, my appearance is also ounce's business card, and it might become my long-term ticket to success-because the last time I performed here, my boss was sitting in the audience."

"This is painful, really painful. More painful than any event I had last year. You see, when we perform in unfamiliar settings, we can act as teachers. If there's no interaction, I can say, 'No one? Then I'll call the roll, ahem! You're all going to be nervous.' But when the boss or clients are sitting in the audience, you just can't perform. The boss will be thinking, 'Let me see what this kid says about me today.' When I perform stand-up, I either talk about my misfortunes or talk bad about my boss, because this is an industry with a low entry barrier that thrives on gossip and roasting. Look at the people on our stage-film editors, new media editors, former chefs, mechanics... everyone is a contractor, eager to roast clients and bosses. Performances are hush money. I suspect that when my boss was drawn, it was because they didn't want to pay that night."