In Yan Huan’s previous life, Love and Tribulations had been a huge hit; it had remained in the top spot for audience ratings for an astonishingly long time. Su Qiao’s popularity skyrocketed thanks to the show, and many producers subsequently offered her a role in their projects. Qi Haolin became the hottest, most buzzworthy actor at the time, and their combined popularity naturally resulted in rumors of the two stars being an item. Were the rumors true? Who could tell? The line between truth and baseless gossip was always blurred in the entertainment industry.
Qi Haolin later disappeared from the industry for a very long time. Su Qiao, on the other hand, remained active, but was unlucky with her career. She acted in several leading roles, but the audience was less than enthusiastic about them. She was eventually overshadowed by younger actresses, and quickly faded into obscurity. Yan Huan had suffered the same fate in her previous life.
Yan Huan walked into the makeup room. She was careful to be respectful and polite towards the makeup artists; she was a newcomer, and newcomers were expected to be obedient and play by the rules. She had learned from her previous life that being modest and generous with smiles would be the best way to protect herself this time around.
The lead actress had her own dressing room and makeup artist. This was understandable, as Su Qiao was, after all, already famous. The actresses with second and third billing also had their makeup done in a separate room. Yan Huan, however, was in the makeup room for all the supporting actors. The makeup artists attending to her were just as skilled as the others, though; the producers had made sure of that when they secured their more-than-generous budget for the TV drama. A lot of money and effort had gone into the costumes, makeup, and cast— if the show flopped, there would be no one to blame but the director.
But there was no way the show would flop, because Jin Hailiang, the director, was renowned for having a good eye and artistic integrity. He had a shockingly bad temper, but his movies and TV shows were always a massive hit with the audience. Unlike other directors, he did not insist on using famous actors for his projects. Instead, he preferred to pick actors he felt he could work with. His reputation was one of the reasons why Yan Huan wanted his TV show to be her acting debut this time around.
Yan Huan recalled how she had become a top actress in her previous life: she had first acquired fame as a “nude star” after filming Return. After that, she had painstakingly clawed her way upwards as a “proper” actress, despite her damaged reputation.
This time around, she had declined the role offered to her for that movie. This meant that from here on, her journey would be entirely different from that of her previous life. The projects she participated in would begin to diverge from her last life. This was the new beginning of her life, her new starting point.
The makeup artist picked out a dress for her: it was a blue cheongsam. Blue was an especially difficult color to pull off. Amongst the prostitutes working in Rouge Pavilion, Hong Yao, whose name literally translated into “red medicine,” stood out because she loved to wear blue, despite the “red” she carried in her name. It was a very bright shade of blue, one that only someone with the right skin tone and figure would be able to wear without looking tacky or gaudy.
“Try putting it on. It’s a little on the small side. If you can’t wear it, we’ll have to alter it for you.” He pulled the costume rack towards him and began counting the costumes on it. Hong Yao did not have a lot of screen time, but she had a lot of costumes: more than a dozen, in fact, and all of them were different cheongsams.
Yan Huan suddenly remembered: when Love and Tribulations first aired on TV, the lavish costumes sparked a cheongsam boom throughout the country. She would be a fashion icon this time, way ahead of the curve, instead of being a fashion disaster who was woefully out of the loop.
She walked into the dressing room with her cheongsam and changed into it. It did not feel particularly tight. In fact, it felt a little loose on her. It wasn’t unusual for actors to find their costumes to be too big for them, but the situation was actually surprising for Yan Huan because the costume designers had deliberately knew this cheongsam was one size smaller than usual. They knew Hong Yao was supposed to be a slender, petite lady, and there was no better dress to accentuate a woman’s slender waist and delicate curves than a cheongsam. This was especially true for prostitutes such as Hong Yao, who had to flaunt their figures to attract customers.
