I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 56
The script Jiang Lingyan brought today was one of Nan Zhihan’s earliest works. A book that Nan Zhihan wrote when she had just entered university, when she was still young and inexperienced. Although the writing style was a little immature, there were still many exciting plot points in this novel and she had gathered a small fandom for it.
However, this book was never adapted into a movie or any other film media.
And looking at the title of this book, Ye Mingxin immediately knew why it wasn’t adapted.
–?The Peerless CEO’s Expensive and Prisoned Love?
The book has now been made into a script and Nan Zhihan had personally adapted it, so the script still retained the essence of the original book. Han Feixu opened a page at random, only to see the male lead say to the female lead,
“You damn woman, so poor and shabby, yet why am I so madly in love with you?”
Ye Mingxin, who had read about two pages of the script in her hand, couldn’t bear to read any more of it. She rubbed her forehead, “I’m going to need some eye drops. Little Xu, do you want any?”
No one answered, so Ye Mingxin raised her head and called out again, “Little Xu?”
“Shhhhh!” Han Feixu didn’t even raise her head, her focus entirely on the script in her hand. She turned a page and waved another hand at her, “You can go by yourself. I’m going to finish this first. The second female lead is pretending to be the female lead, aka the white moonlight of the CEO’s heart. However, the CEO hasn’t discovered her trickery yet and inadvertently drove the female lead out of his house. So the female lead ran into the arms of the spare tire, the second male lead, and now the CEO is regretting his actions and is chasing after her. I really want to see what happens next.”
What else can happen? Obviously he’s going to press the female lead up against a wall and then announce in a domineering tone, “Woman, you are playing with fire!”
With three judges and six contestants left, each judge was assigned to a male-female pair. This was probably Nan Zhihan’s plan too. Anyhow, Han Feixu actually took the initiative to choose Duan Weiyang as her mentor.
The others could only applaud Han Feixu in their hearts, full of admiration at her self-sacrifice. At the same time, the others hurriedly claimed their mentors while the unlucky Zhang Hao ended up stuck with Han Feixu in the end.
Han Feixu’s face was full of confidence and determination of one who will win, while Zhang Hao’s face was one of someone who had nothing left to lose. The next two days were the darkest days of his life. He won’t ask to be scolded less, but can his mentor be a little less harsh? At least don’t be so harsh that he’ll want to jump into the Yongding River, that much is enough.
No one knows which scene let alone which role they will play in the last competition. Therefore, during this two-day boot camp, it was necessary for the contestants to familiarize themselves with all of the rolls and the full text.
Yuan Jize’s training method was to go “step-by-step”, starting from ordinary scenes before gradually increasing the difficulty of the intense scenes. He then lets the actors slowly immerse themselves in their role and then combine both the scene and role training together. Ye Mingxin’s training method was hands-off/open training. She lets the actors first practice by themselves, then she’ll watch from the side and point out their flaws while helping them explore their roles. As for Duan Weiyang, she was the most ruthless. She asked her actors to perform the most difficult/intense scenes and then like a machine gun, she criticized the actors so much they began to doubt their lives.
Duan Weiyang looked at them with a serious gaze, “Do you what I said just now? Since you remember it, let’s continue from page 15.”
Zhang Hao glanced down at the lines on page 15, preparing himself before he began to read, “I obviously hate that woman so much, since she hurt my Jie-er, but my heart aches to death when I see the tears in the corners of her eyes.”
He paused for half a second, putting on a very shocked expression, “Could it be, I’ve fallen in love with her?”
Jiang LingYuan quietly walked into the No.2 recording room, and stood in the corner. Hearing these words, Jiang LingYuan felt as if she was scorched by lightning and she turned around to leave.
Immediately afterwards, Han Feixu followed up, “I’m not at all surprised. From the moment she begged you so pitifully for mercy, and when you saw that expression of hers that still contained that last trace of stubbornness, your heart was stolen by her.”
Jiang LingYuan stayed in that room all afternoon. She was standing at first, but later a staff member moved a chair over for her and she began to watch the show with great interest while sitting down.
Under her 8000-layer thick filter, even if Han Feixu played the role of a greasy uncle, Jiang LingYuan still regarded her as the legendary beauty of the golden age.
Once everyone finished training for the day. Jiang LingYuan stood up and walked towards Han Feixu. She pursued her lips, and then paused in her steps for two seconds when she saw Han Feixu look over. Then she raised her arm and waved it slightly, “Hi.”
Han Feixu had spotted Jiang LingYuan a long time ago and smiled towards her, “Hi. So I’ve heard this theater belongs to you? The decor is quite amazing.”
Jiang LingYuan couldn’t hold back her glee after hearing her praise and the corners of her mouth rose, “I hired three different interior designers to design this place and it took more than 20 drafts before I let them start construction. The main theme here is the 1930s era, bringing this time period to life in this modern era! Even the brooms in the bathroom are all custom-made to fit the theme. It can be said that aside from the guests here, everything is made to look like they were from the 1930s! Even a mosquito here must be 1930s-themed!”
Grabbing her phone out of Zhong Yuanyuan’s hands, Han Feixu turned her head and smiled at her again, “With such care put in, your business must be booming. Are we incurring a loss for you if we’re occupying your theater for three days?”
In the end, what’s the use of good decoration? If the location isn’t right, even if the decoration is good, one will be unable to recover the costs later on. Now it has even reached the point where the theater loses money for every day it stays open.
Jiang LingYuan lowered her head and didn’t answer, but Han Feixu didn’t seem to notice anything wrong as she took a half step towards Jiang LingYuan, whispering some advice to her, “It’s okay, it’s just three days worth of sales. Just ask your sister to promote your theater a few times during the show and, if necessary, I can also help you promote it. I won’t even charge you an endorsement fee.”
For Han Feixu, the last time she saw Jiang LingYuan was more than three months ago. Furthermore, she knew very little about Jiang LingYuan aside from the description she got from Shen Sangluo and she had only gotten that description when she asked. However, from what little she did know, Han Feixu thought of Jiang LingYuan as a little girl who hasn’t grown up yet. A girl who wholeheartedly chased stars a little too much and mistakenly thought she was in love because she idolized her so much.
After learning why Jiang LingYuan likes her, Han Feixu no longer felt a weird sense of guilt towards her and instead started regarding her as a little sister-type character.
However, their mental age seems to be about the same right now so it’s kinda hard to say who is exactly the older sister and who is the younger sister = =
Han Feixu had given her advice just now to show her friendliness and to be polite towards an acquaintance’s sister. So she moved to leave after saying those words. She was in a hurry to leave because she hasn’t seen that dear daughter of hers for almost a month now and was going to see her now. However, just as she was about to leave, Jiang LingYuan reacted in a way she didn’t expect.
Looking at Han Feixu in a daze, Jiang LingYuan’s face quickly changed from dumbfounded to touched to sorrow. Her eyes were watery and threatened to fall. Meanwhile, Han Feixu could only stand there at a loss. She glanced at Zhong Yuanyuan and then back at Jiang LingYuan, “Ai…t-this, why are you crying?”
Zhong Yuanyuan only stared back at her blankly. After all, Han Feixu didn’t say or do anything wrong to Jiang LingYuan.
Jiang LingYuan is a crybaby. Of course, when it comes to work and business she won’t cry no matter what happens, but when it comes to her relationships, her family, even a single casual sentence can make her burst into tears. Feeling a little embarrassed, Jiang Lingyuan furiously wiped at her eyes, causing her eyeliner and eyeshadow to smear together. Today she had used an earth-toned eyeshadow and so with a few casual swipes she started to transform into a giant panda.
“I don’t want to like you anymore. You’re so evil, a villain who has particularly bad eyesight! Don’t be so nice to me in the future, otherwise….otherwise when your house needs renovations in the future, I won’t help you!”
After she finished speaking, she ran away crying while leaving behind a room full of shocked faces.
This is what everyone was thinking inside their hearts:
Staff Member A: …….Was that a threat or a joke?
Staff Member B: Can I be considered a witness to celebrity gossip or have I inadvertently become a witness to Director Jiang’s family affairs? Ah, can I still keep my job after this?
Zhong Yuanyuan: She likes Han Feixu?! She actually likes Han Feixu?! OMG, my boss’ wife’s best friend’s younger sister likes my boss and my boss’ wife’s best friend likes my boss’ best friend. And my boss’s wife used to be the fiancee of my boss’ wife’s best friend’s younger sister. Shi*t, this circle of relationships is way too tangled = =
Han Feixu: Renovations? What renovations? Isn’t our house newly bought? Why would we need to renovate it?
After work was over for today, Han Feixu brought the script home with her. She had originally planned on winning this contest and obtaining the female lead role, but after Nan Zhihan said she wouldn’t win she was even more determined to get this role.
Work finished at five, and then she’ll go have a meal with Yiyi first, play for a while, before coming back at eight. Later in the evening each contestant will be interviewed about one another and then have their monologues filmed.
In order to save time, Yan Yuerong picked Yiyi up and then took her directly to the restaurant they reserved in advance. Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin would arrive one after another, but about 15 minutes apart. By the time they finally arrived in their privately booked room, Yan Yureong had already ordered all the dishes. She then talked with her daughter while the waiter started serving the food.
Han Feixu asked Ye Mingxin, “How is it going on your end?”
Ye Mingxin replied flatly: “So-So. I didn’t even need to say anything really. Gu Zhigui acts very well, and he actually looks a bit handsome playing a dazzling character like the CEO. Han Yiren is also able to bring out her best with Gu Zhigui’s lead and performed quite well.”
Han Yiren was the one person Han Feixu needed to surpass. In the last few rounds, the both of them received similar scores and so they were basically tied for first. So, hearing such praise, she lowered her head as she fiddled with the napkin spread across her lap.
Looking at the top of Han Feixu’s head, Ye Mingxin hesitated before saying, “Little Xu, a film I started investing in about two months ago is about to launch. It’s called the ?Sleeper?and I believe you read the first draft already. The official draft has come out, do you want to take a look?”
Han Feixu raised her head, narrowed her eyes, and looked at her intently, “What do you mean by this? Do you think I can’t win and act in ?Barrier Lake??”
Ye Mingxin froze, “I….”
Han Feixu glared at her and then said carefully, “I want to act in ?Barrier Lake?and that’s what I’m going to do. I even made sure to have nothing scheduled for November. If you don’t have confidence in my skills, then just keep it to yourself and don’t say it out loud. Otherwise, I will get angry.”
The atmosphere in the private room suddenly became tense and awkward. Even Yan Yuerong and Yiyi who were happily joking with each other just now dared not speak. They both stared at Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin with bated breaths. Forget about speaking, they didn’t dare to even breathe for fear that Han Feixu’s anger would turn on her.
Ye Mingxin’s anger is certainly scary, but Han Feixu’s anger is the most terrifying thing in this world. Yan Yureong and Yiyi both have deep understanding (and experience) on this point, so they could only hope that Ye Mingxin was smart enough to stop adding fuel to the fire.
Ye Mingxin frowned, “I’m not doubting your skills. I just want to provide you with another option. Didn’t you say you liked the script for ?Sleeper?the best in the beginning? Since your schedule is free, you can just act on that one.”
Yan Yuerong and Yiyi: …Alright, you’re done for. Prepare to be baptized by a barrage of artillery fire.