At seven o’clock, Lu Yi left his office and made a beeline for Yan Huan’s apartment. He was not alone; with him was Lei Qingyi, who arrived with takeout. Yan Huan let out a sigh of relief when she saw the extra food; there would be enough to go around now.
Luo Lin was glad to see Lu Yi. Yan Huan was in a good mood, and Lu Yi was here for dinner; that meant that Yan Huan had probably told Lu Yi about Su Muran.
As long as Lu Yi was willing to help them, the Su family would not be able to lay a finger on Yan Huan. The Lu family was related to the Ye family by marriage, and they were also close to the Lei family. The Su family could not afford to step on any of their toes.
“Here.” Yan Huan served the dumplings. Everyone else had their share of the dumplings served on plates, but not Lei Qingyi: he received his share in a massive bowl.
Lei Qingyi’s eyes lit up. He did not feel the least bit embarrassed about the size of his share. What was there to be ashamed about? It was a blessing to be able to eat. He ate a lot, which meant that he had to be one of the luckiest, happiest people alive. His mother had said that he had a face that seemed destined for happiness, and he was quite sure that it was because of his large appetite.
Yan Huan’s dumplings were delicious. Lei Qingyi ate his entire bowl, but his stomach was still not quite full.
“You’re such a pig.” Yi Ling was feeling second-hand embarrassment for Lei Qingyi. She was a glutton herself, but Lei Qingyi made her look like a dainty eater in comparison. He could eat two of Yi Ling’s portions, which was equivalent to four or five of Yan Huan’s.
“Haha…” Lei Qingyi did not mind. Yi Ling had called him that many times now; he was used to it.
“Do you want more? I can give you mine.”
Yi Ling lifted her plate to show the dumplings in it. She had kept aside some of her dumplings because she knew that Lei Qingyi could not possibly be full, not with his monstrous appetite.
“Yes, of course. I want more.”
Lei Qingyi pushed his massive bowl over to Yi Ling.
The corner of Yi Ling’s mouth twitched in exasperation. “I’m surprised you haven’t bankrupt your family with your bottomless stomach by now.” She felt sorry for the Lei family; if she had had an appetite as massive as Lei Qingyi’s, she was sure that she would have cleaned out Mrs. Yan’s bank account and caused Yan Huan to starve to death.
“Don’t worry. My mom can afford to feed me.” Lei Qingyi stuffed another dumpling into his mouth, his brow slick with sweat from his overly enthusiastic eating. Yan Huan’s dumplings were the best he had ever tasted. He was thankful to Yan Huan for the heavenly dumplings, but he was even more thankful to Yi Ling now for giving him her share.
He grinned at Yi Ling, his eyes full of warm affection. Yi Ling’s face turned a shade of red as she quickly looked away. She picked up a dumpling, put it into her bowl, and then walked off to feed the dumpling to Little Bean.
Yan Huan looked from Yi Ling to Lei Qingyi.
She hoped the two of them would get together. She did not particularly mind who Yi Ling ended up with, as long as it was not that scumbag Ding Ming. She had succeeded in kicking the vile man away; if he came crawling back to her, Yan Huan would not hesitate to crush him beneath her heel.
Three days passed, and it was now the first day of the shoot for Beauty. By the time Yan Huan arrived on set, all the other actors were already there—except for Su Muran. She was evidently one of those divas who thought she was too important to be punctual.
Director Jin was sincerely apologetic when he saw Yan Huan. He had not known how to tell her about Su Muran; it had been out of his control, but he felt like a dirty liar nevertheless. The higher-ups had forced him to reassign the role of the female lead to Su Muran, even though he vastly preferred Yan Huan to all the other actresses. Director Jin knew Yan Huan was a charismatic actress with amazing acting skills, and her recent mega-hit at the box office proved it—the movie had been a massive hit because of her superb performance, and not because of marketing and PR.
“It’s okay, Director Jin. I prefer the secondary female role to the female lead, anyway,” said Yan Huan.
Director Jin assumed that Yan Huan was only saying that to make him feel better. He felt even worse.
But he did not allow himself to get side-tracked by feelings of guilt. He knew he had to warn Yan Huan of Su Muran, the actress who had appeared out of nowhere to steal the role of the female lead—the two actresses would be acting opposite each other in many scenes, after all.
“Be careful of Su Muran. Keep out of her way, and try not to step on her toes,” Director Jin said in a low voice. He meant well; he was afraid that Yan Huan would be angry with Su Muran and get into a fight with her. If that happened, he was quite sure that Yan Huan would end up drawing the short end of the stick.
“Don’t worry, Director Jin. I get what you’re saying,” Yan Huan said reassuringly. She inwardly added to herself: But I have my way of doing things.
Yan Huan was not foolish enough to start a fight with Su Muran, but she could not help her competitive streak: she enjoyed going all out in her performances and trying to out-act the other actors. Some of the actors appreciated the healthy rivalry, while others resented it and took it personally. She had a feeling Su Muran was part of the latter camp.
Yan Huan walked into the dressing room. She was surprised to see that the makeup artist was someone she was familiar with: Yue Ran.
Yue Ran greeted her cheerfully. “Hi. We meet again.”
His hair was now long enough to brush his shoulders, but the hairstyle did not make him look effeminate. In fact, he looked like one of those beautiful men from the classical paintings.
He looked more like a sophisticated scholar than a makeup artist.
“Yes, good to see you again.” Yan Huan walked over and seated herself. She looked in the mirror and pointed at her face. “You have to make me look beautiful. I was robbed of my lead female role, and I’d rather drop dead than lose in terms of appearance too.”
“Oh…” Yue Ran gave a snort of laughter. “Don’t worry. I won’t turn you into an ugly woman.”
As he was scrutinizing Yan Huan’s features, the door suddenly swung open, disrupting his thoughts. Yue Ran’s expression darkened; he did not like being interrupted, and whoever opened the door had not bothered to knock beforehand. He said sharply, “Did no one teach you to knock before entering?”
He had barely finished his admonition when the intruder burst into contemptuous laughter.
“Oh my, it’s you. How did you end up here?”
The person who had spoken was an effeminate man with short hair and slanted phoenix eyes. Yan Huan turned to look at him, and saw that the man was standing with his arms crossed and pinky finger extended: it was the stereotypical “flamboyantly queer” pose.
Yan Huan did not know who he was, but she knew she preferred Yue Ran to the overly dramatic man standing in the doorway.
Yue Ran had been her good friend in her previous life. They had worked together for many years, and understood each other very well. Yan Huan knew Yue Ran could be trusted.
Yue Ran’s expression darkened as soon as he saw the effeminate man; the two men were evidently not on good terms. Yan Huan did not know the history between them, but she was a loyal friend: Yue Ran’s enemy was no friend of hers.
“Allen, are you ready?”
Another voice sounded from outside the door. It was nauseatingly sweet.
Yan Huan’s fingers tightened on her lap as she carefully maintained the unassailable smile on her face.
We meet again, Su Muran. It’s been a while.
“Ms. Su, I’m ready.”
The makeup artist by the name of Allen had placed his makeup kit on the table. He shot Yue Ran a challenging, contemptuous look, and then put on an expression of mock confusion as he asked:
“I’m Ms. Su’s personal makeup artist. Who might you be?”
Yue Ran gave a cold, mirthless laugh. “My name is Yue Ran. I’m not anyone’s personal makeup artist.” Yue Ran picked up a comb and began brushing Yan Huan’s hair with it as he said to her, “I’ll turn you into the most beautiful woman in the world, another Helen of Troy. Do you have faith in me?”
