On set.
Li Feile was losing her temper.
Her phone was tossed carelessly into a corner of the nanny van, the screen indicating an ongoing call.
A calm, magnetic female voice came from the other end.
"Feile, this matter has already been settled. There is no possibility of changing it."
Li Feile sneered.
"It's not like I actually splashed it on her face or disfigured her, right?"
"Is there really a need for such a huge compensation?"
"Letting a minor actress jump from the sixth female lead to the second female lead, on what grounds? Sister Amy, you're not usually like this."
Sister Amy's calm voice came through again.
"Since you know I'm not usually like this, you should know that things aren't that simple."
"How is it not simple?" Li Feile couldn't help but mock, "Could it be that a minor actress like Jiang Liuyue has some incredible sugar daddy backing her?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.
Sister Amy spoke up again to advise her:
"Alright, it's time you reined in your temper."
"Next time you run into someone who isn't to be trifled with, I won't always be able to smooth things over for you."
Furious, Li Feile snapped, "Hah, who in this entertainment industry can't I afford to provoke?!" With that, she angrily hung up the phone.
A male assistant was standing by the door holding a cup of hot coffee.
He walked right into the scene of her throwing a tantrum.
"Sister Feile, the coffee you asked for."
Li Feile shot him a cold glare, took the coffee, and took a sip.
The next second.
She immediately spat it out at the male assistant.
"Pfft! It's so hot, are you intentionally trying to scald me to death?"
The male assistant tried to explain, "N-no, I wasn't..."
Before he could finish his sentence.
Li Feile had already ripped off the coffee lid and splashed the entire cup of boiling hot liquid right at the assistant in front of her.
After doing all this.
She finally felt the pent-up frustration in her heart dissipate a little.
"Get lost! You can't even handle such a trivial matter."
"Go buy me a new iced coffee. If you mess up again, you're fired."
Faced with her unprovoked anger, the male assistant could only endure it.
Raising a hand to wipe the coffee liquid off his face, he bowed awkwardly and left in a sorry state.
...
Jiang Liuyue deeply agreed with a certain saying.
That is, when your status is high, everyone around you will treat you with kindness.
Today, as soon as she entered the set, she learned that her role had been promoted from the sixth female lead to the second female lead.
Regardless of how they might gossip behind her back, at least she no longer had to squeeze into the large communal dressing room. She now had her own private dressing room and was even assigned a dedicated makeup artist.
The actors and staff she encountered all greeted her with smiling faces.
They enthusiastically called out her name.
As if they were familiar old friends.
Yet clearly, they had crossed paths countless times before this, and all she had ever gotten in return was a cold back.
This was the reality of the entertainment industry.
Sitting in the dressing room.
Jiang Liuyue looked at herself in the vanity mirror.
She wore a formal red embroidered robe with phoenix motifs. The craftsmanship was exquisite; it was said that the golden thread phoenixes on the robe were sewn on stitch by stitch by master craftsmen.
Compared to her previous cheap little palace maid outfit.
The difference was like heaven and earth.
Her pitch-black hair was swept up high into a bun, supplemented with a few hairpieces, and a golden phoenix crown sat in the center of her hair, making her look even more elegant and luxurious.
This was her look after her makeup was done.
Her makeup was delicate, her lips painted a vibrant red, and the corners of her eyes were lightly dusted with gold powder.
It gave her an air of nobility and grace.
This was the second female lead.
The biggest villain boss of the show.
The Empress in The Legend of the Civet.
The female lead's greatest enemy.
Jiang Liuyue picked up her phone and took several photos of herself from various angles.
She made sure they were the kind of shots that looked effortless but were actually carefully calculated to show off her most beautiful side profile.
Opening WeChat.
She found the chat window with S.
Jiang Liuyue: [Image][Image][Image]
Jiang Liuyue: Kitten rolling around meme.jpg
After a while.
Song Hanzheng: [...]
Jiang Liuyue: [You might not believe this, even I don't believe it myself.]
Jiang Liuyue: [So it's true what they say, going to bed early brings good things.]
Song Hanzheng: [Good things?]
Jiang Liuyue: [Yeah! Take a guess at what good thing happened.]
Without waiting for Song Hanzheng's reply.
She quickly revealed the answer herself.
Jiang Liuyue: [My agent managed to snag the second female lead role in The Legend of the Civet for me, the second female lead!!!]
Song Hanzheng: [...Oh.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Stop 'oh'-ing. Let's do this, there's no time like the present.]
Jiang Liuyue: [I'm in a good mood, big sister will treat you to a meal.]
Song Hanzheng: [Big sister?]
Jiang Liuyue: [Yeah, everyone says you look like a college boy who's still in school.]
Song Hanzheng didn't reply for a long time.
After a while.
The phone buzzed.
Song Hanzheng: [I'm busy today.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Then when are you free?]
Song Hanzheng: [We'll see.]
Usually, in a situation like this.
It meant the invitation had failed and the other party seemed uninterested.
Or perhaps they were genuinely busy with something.
"We'll see" was an ambiguous phrase.
But who was Jiang Liuyue?
She wasn't going to let the conversation end like this.
Jiang Liuyue: [Honestly, if I didn't know you were just working part-time, when I got the call from my agent this morning, I really would have suspected that you pulled some strings.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Thinking about it carefully later, I figured I must have been half-asleep.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Alright then, work hard at your daily grind, you poor corporate slave!]
After saying that, she set her phone aside.
And ignored it.
A minute later.
Her phone buzzed continuously with several new messages.
Song Hanzheng: [I am a rich man, not a corporate slave.]
Song Hanzheng: [Eating that crappy earth pot chicken again, I'm sick of it.]
Song Hanzheng: [Maybe I was the one who pulled some strings?]
Jiang Liuyue read them but chose not to reply.
After another moment.
A new message arrived.
Song Hanzheng: [I'm free tomorrow, I'll pick the place.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Deal! Then can you rent that Maybach from last time to pick me up again?]
Jiang Liuyue: Kitten starry eyes meme.jpg
Song Hanzheng: [Depends on my mood.]
Jiang Liuyue: [Song Han Gege, you're the best.]
Song Hanzheng: [...]
Jiang Liuyue: [Gotta go, the director is calling me to set, bye-bye.]
Song Hanzheng: [.]
Jiang Liuyue walked out the door of the dressing room and checked the weather. A north wind was blowing today, and it felt a bit chilly against her body.
She was just planning to go buy a cup of hot cocoa to warm herself up.
When she coincidentally spotted Li Feile's assistant at a coffee cart not far away.
Although he was wearing a black padded jacket, one could still see the dried coffee stains on his coat.
She didn't even have to think about it.
It was undoubtedly Li Feile's masterpiece.
She was the type of person who completely disregarded everything when she got angry.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have so much negative gossip; she was a famously controversial movie queen in the industry.
"One iced coffee," the male assistant said to the vendor.
The vendor glanced at the ice machine and said, "Sorry, we're out of ice today. How about room temperature?"
The male assistant's face looked awful.
If he brought back a room-temperature coffee, he could easily imagine Sister Feile splashing it on him again.
While hesitating, he planned to try a different shop.
Just as he happened to look up.
He met Jiang Liuyue's gaze.
