Sun Yuhan pulled a long face even before she could retract her smile.
Yan Huan took another round of photos. Not only did her image hurt Yue Ran’s eyes, even the photographer was in shock.
Yan Huan, the internationally well-known best actress, was ruining her own image with this role.
However, Yan Huan was not affected. As a competent actress, she had to be able to pull off the portrayal of various characters – the pretty, the ugly, the good and the bad. She had to act out their souls, regardless of their characterization.
With this style profile, she had to act accordingly true to her assigned character. She was pondering over and looking forward to the kind of university student she would be portraying.
She was actually full of anticipation.
It had been a long time since she last stood properly on a film set. She did not count her most recent one, as her role as a middle-aged woman was only an extra. This time, she was the supporting female lead. Her role was to support the main female actress. Logically speaking, her screen time should be more than the main female lead.
The first day of September was the first day of school for all the colleges. The Ye Family were indeed filthy rich, for they had booked out the top university of Sea City – Sea City University – just for filming.
The current view at Sea City University was dazzling, as it was abuzz with various luxury cars and well-dressed students.
At this moment, a bicycle weaved through the crowd and the heavy traffic, and was moving ahead swiftly. On the bicycle was a young girl of 18 years old. She had a simple and plain hairstyle, but her hair was covering her face. The image of her paddling furiously among the many luxurious cars was especially striking.
Her name was Yu Keman, and she was a freshman who entered the university with the best results. Among the students of this private university, she was considered relatively poor.
However, she was still happy that she could qualify for this university, for her tuition fees were waived.
Right now, right under the sun, she lifted her face as she breathed in the atmosphere of positivity and motivation within the campus.
“Cut!” The director shouted as Yu Keman smiled on.
Sun Yuhan opened her eyes, slightly annoyed that she was interrupted. She had just gotten into her character, this interruption had chased away all the built up emotions.
“Your expression wasn’t right.” The director was sullen as he commented. This was not Director Jin, but an up and coming new director who was employed by the Ye Family with a high remuneration. Director Jin’s health was not well recently, so he was spending most of his time resting at home and less time directing.
“How was it not right?” Sun Yuhan felt good about herself. She had always followed her own instincts, so she felt that it was impossible for her to be wrong.
Yan Huan collected her clothes and prepared to take a nap.
She felt that this debacle would take some time to be resolved, so it would probably be better for her to get some rest in the meantime.
“Your expression wasn’t right,” the director repeated. “You’re too stiff.”
The director was being honest. It was impossible to continue filming with such a rigid expression. They were shooting a television drama, not casting illusions on their audience. With such a stony expression, with such exaggerated acting, who would watch this show?
Sun Yuhan’s face was burning. She wanted to vent her anger, but her manager by the side was shaking his head, hinting that she should obey the director. This would be her debut drama; although it is heavily invested in by the Ye Family, they still could not offend people recklessly, especially the director. Otherwise, the paparazzi would have a field day if they caught wind of anything. She really could not risk any negative press at this point of time, if not, it would be detrimental to her future career in showbiz.
Sun Yuhan was usually absentminded, but she remembered this piece of advice.
This scene had taken the whole morning to film, as the director himself had to show Sun Yuhan how to act. Yet, even at the very beginning, perhaps due to fear or anxiety, she continued to fumble. Sun Yuhan fell a few times from her bicycle, scratching a number of luxury cars. Those on the scene cringed as they witness her failings. It would take a huge sum of money to fix these cars, but it was a good thing that the Ye family was rich. After all, they were just a few scratches. Even if she crashed those cars, the Ye family could afford the reimbursement. Furthermore, these cars belonged to the Ye family, so they were free to be scratched and crashed. However, she could not keep falling over, as she might hurt her face instead.
Yanhuan had awakened from her nap to find that they were still shooting the very same scene of her entering the university. This scene was the highlight of the whole drama’s beginning. It would also set the audience’s expectations of the drama. Whether or not the audience would like this female lead, this opening scene would be very important. This was especially important for a newcomer like Sun Yuhan, if she failed to impress the audience at first glance, her limelight would be easily stolen by others. Or even worse, the entire drama would fail and receive low viewership ratings.
Yan Huan pushed her blanket away, feeling that her time was being wasted. As a debut actress, instead of building her acting chops, Sun Yuhan had chosen a difficult character to start with. She seemed to have overestimated herself.
What was more worrying was the possibility of her having no acting skills at all, which would cause the show to fall flat.
Yan Huan stood up and tugged at her afro hairstyle. She felt that bangs would suit her better. She decided that she would use that hairstyle in the future, so that she could pretend to be young and behave like a university student again.
“What is going on, are you no longer filming?” Yue Ran had started to remove Yan Huan’s wig. The hairstyle was painful to look at. He still preferred Yan Huan to look pretty.
“I’m going home to sleep,” Yan Huan replied while yawning. Instead of sleeping on the cold bench here, she should just go home and sleep on her soft bed. She could even hug her husband and be spoiled by him.
“Isn’t the filming still ongoing?” Yue Ran had started to change Yan Huan’s hairstyle to her initial bangs.
“We shall see if there are my scenes tomorrow. The lead actress is not doing too well, the director is guiding her now.”
Yan Huan shrugged as this was really none of her business. She could act as a supporting character, she could even make herself ugly. But there was no way she could put a stop to the female lead’s awkward acting.
“Done.” Yue Ran curled her fringe lightly to make it stay curvy.
“Congratulations! You’re now back to 18 years old again.”
“Thank you.” Yan Huan looked into the mirror and admired her hair. She then took out her phone and took a selfie to send to Lu Yi. Let him take a look at his 18-year-old ‘under-age’ wife.
In fact, if she were to add up both of her lifetimes, she would be an old dame of 60 years old now. Yet, she could still pretend to be a young girl. Surely, there must be no one else like her.
Lu Yi took out his phone. When he saw Yan Huan’s photo, he smiled and replied, “You are back to being 18 years old?”
Yan Huan immediately replied, “Yes, so you’re a cradle robber now.”
Lu Yi texted again, “I shall go home and take a shower then.”
Yan Huan then replied, “Wait for me as I get myself dirty.”
Lu Yi asked, “Are you not filming now?”
