Production was officially slated to begin the day after tomorrow. It would start with a makeup test; all the actors would be photographed in full costume and makeup. This was Yan Huan’s true debut: her face would be shown on-screen, and her name would appear in the credits.
That night, all was quiet when suddenly, Yan Huan began to hear strange noises, noises that were loud enough to be distracting. She listened for a moment, then blushed when she realized what was going on.
The married couple next door appeared to be doing… things.
“Keep your voice down, someone may hear us.”
“Don’t worry. No one can hear us.”
They went at it, loudly and shamelessly. Yan Huan sighed inwardly. She picked up her script and continued reading. She did not have many lines, but her role required solid acting skills. She had no doubt that this role would, under normal circumstances, prove to be too difficult for a young, inexperienced actress like herself. But she had been given a second chance at life, and she was going to make full use of it. She did not have cheat items capable of making her life easier, but she could stop herself from repeating the same mistakes. She would save the people who were important to her, and protect the ones she had to protect. And— and this went without saying— she would make sure to stay away from scumbags this time.
After what seemed like an eternity, her neighbors fell silent. She could finally read her script in peace now. Although she had her experiences from her previous life to fall back on, she had not acted in several years. She had let her acting skills go to waste, and she wasn’t entirely sure she would be able to get back in the game. What if she had lost her touch?
She had only just gotten to the midway point of the script when her neighbors started up again.
“Lower your voice, someone may hear us,” said the wife in a hushed voice. Yan Huan’s arms broke into goosebumps. She rubbed her arms as she thought to herself, Once I’m rich, I’m going to find a new place to live in. Yes, we’re definitely moving out of here.
“Like I said, no one can hear us…”
Just as the couple were getting hot and steamy yet again—bam bam bam!
The furious knocking on the wall was quickly followed by Yi Ling’s loud, impatient shouting. “Your wife told you to keep it down! Are you deaf? What do you mean, ‘no one can hear us’? What do you think we are, chopped liver? You’re so loud not even my cat can sleep in peace!”
There was a loud shriek, followed by a few scattered thuds from the other side.
Yan Huan tossed the script away. She pulled the blanket over herself; all noise had finally ceased. The married couple next door did not make another sound for the rest of the night. In fact, Yan Huan did not see them the next morning. She idly wondered whether they had died of embarrassment, or moved away during the night.
Three days later, all the main actors gathered at the studio for the makeup test for Love and Tribulations. Yan Huan and Yi Ling arrived at the set early. This was their first time inside a bigger studio, but the size and scale of the production did not scare them. They had been part of the entertainment industry for some time now, after all, and had nerves of steel.
Su Qiao, a hugely popular young actress, had gotten the part of Shen Qingqiu, the lead female role in Love and Tribulations. Qi Haolin, a popular young actor, played opposite her as the male lead. The story was set during the Republic of China, and Shen Qingqiu was the eldest daughter of a warlord. She was a forward-thinking woman who loved her country. The lead male character was a young, highly-educated officer in the National Revolutionary Army. He had studied abroad and had received formal training in military tactics. But this was just a disguise— he was actually a spy.
Love and Tribulations told the story of how the two leads, who were from similar backgrounds, first met one another, how they grew close, and how they eventually fell in love. It was a long journey fraught with difficulties, but their love continued to grow deeper even as they struggled to survive the war. In the end, it was not the war that proved to be the ultimate test of their love, but the choices they each had to make. They had to choose between country and family, between self-interest and the greater good, between sacrificing themselves or their fellow countrymen.
It was a difficult choice for the male and female leads to make.
It was a choice between life and death.
