The production was running on a tight schedule now/ Director Zheng had to seize every second to make up for the time they had wasted on Xiao Rongrong’s previous retakes. They only had five months to wrap up principal photography; if they did not finish in time, they ran the risk of not being able to secure a good broadcast slot for the show. The production team was so busy now they had to work every waking minute of the day, and could only take a breather during their bathroom breaks and meal breaks.
Xiao Rongrong had not bothered to contact Zuo Fanrui for a follow up; she had assumed that he had already done everything necessary to end Yan Huan’s career. He hadn’t had any problems icing all the other actors and actresses so far, and Xiao Rongrong was confident that Yan Huan would not be able to escape her fate, either.
Xiao Rongrong could not wait to get her inevitable Best Actress award at the Oscars. In her mind, Yan Huan would be a pathetic beggar shoveling dirt into her mouth then.
Xiao Rongrong was not aware that a plump middle-aged woman, bedecked in expensive jewelry, was currently headed towards the set in a bus. Her bulldog jowls, the heavy frown on her face, and the undisguised anger in her eyes combined to form a murderous aura around her. The other passengers on the bus tried to move as far away from her as possible.
Xiao Rongrong had been in such a good mood during the past several days that she had relished every meal and slept soundly every night. But her acting skills had not improved; her scenes with the other actors were passable—because the other actors were on the same level—but as soon as she had to act with Yan Huan in the same scene, Xiao Rongrong’s mediocre acting immediately nosedived into “embarrassing to watch” territory. She buckled under Yan Huan’s incredible aura and regal expressions.
Xiao Rongrong was not happy about Yan Huan outshining her. She lost count of the number of times she had mentally cursed Yan Huan. If looks could kill, Xiao Rongrong would have sliced Yan Huan into a thousand pieces by now.
The weather was colder and gloomier than usual. Everyone shivered and sniffled in the cold; this was the weather for winter coats, but the actors’ costumes were made of thin, sheer fabric. They could not put on a coat to protect themselves from the cold, at least not while they were shooting their scenes.
Break time was the only time they could put on an extra layer of clothes to keep warm.
Yan Huan, wrapped in a coat, was sitting in a chair and leafing through her script to review and memorize her lines when a middle-aged woman barged into the room with a murderous look in her eyes.
“Do you know a woman named Xiao Rongrong?” the middle-aged woman asked Yan Huan. She appraised Yan Huan with her wide, hostile eyes, as though trying to pry open her secrets.
Well, Tigress Zuo thought to herself, this old woman can’t possibly be the temptress who seduced my husband. Tigress Zuo had never met Xiao Rongrong in person, but she had seen Xiao Rongrong in one of her TV shows, and had even gushed over how beautiful she was to Zuo Fanrui. Dammit! She cursed herself for ever having said anything nice about the homewrecker.
Seducing Zuo Fanrui was tantamount to spitting in Tigress Zuo’s face. As far as Tigress Zuo was concerned, that shameless homewrecker had signed her own death warrant the moment she laid hands on her husband.
Yan Huan was not aware of Tigress Zuo’s internal monologue. If she knew that the middle-aged woman before her actually thought she was “old,” she would probably have laughed until she cried.
Old? Yan Huan was only 21 years old. The makeup artist had done an excellent job, turning a young lady who was barely in her 20s into a woman in her 40s. It was either that, or Yan Huan’s inner exhaustion from her previous life was showing on her face.
But Yan Huan did not reflect on any of that, as she did not know what Tigress Zuo was thinking. She was merely puzzled by the woman’s sudden entrance; the set was supposed to be off-limits to outsiders.
Yan Huan was right about the set being off-limits to unauthorized personnel, but she was wrong about the fat woman before her. She was not an “outsider”—she was Zuo Fanrui’s wife. Zuo Fanrui was one of the most important men in Sea City’s entertainment industry; he had been supporting Sea City’s showbiz for many years now, and was powerful enough to influence the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. As his wife, Tigress Zuo naturally had connections of her own; all she had to do was place a phone call to get into the set.
