Chapter 38

Chapter 38
When Xing Ye was choked into irritability by Song Shiqing’s words, Pei Chuzhi—who was sitting in a car heading to the airport—also faced a soul-question.

From the phone came a gentle yet stern female voice: “Zhizhi, are you dating?”

Pei Chuzhi’s eyes flickered: “Mom…”

The person on the other end of the phone was none other than Pei Chuzhi’s mother, Ms. Lu Jiangli.

Although after the Pei family declined, their assets directly shrank into negative value, Pei Chuzhi’s parents had started from scratch in their early years. After the company went bankrupt, the two directly joined another large enterprise as executives. Over the years, they had already developed a decisive temperament.

So when Lu Jiangli’s tone became serious, Pei Chuzhi really felt a bit guilty.

Lu Jiangli sighed over there: “Such an important matter and you hid it from the family? Your father and I only found out from the news. If I didn’t ask, when were you planning to tell us?”

Pei Chuzhi had bitterness she couldn’t voice. After all, she and Xing Ye weren’t actually dating. This kind of publicity stunt common in the entertainment circle—she indeed hadn’t planned to explain it to her family at first.

Thinking of the penalty amount in the confidentiality agreement, she could only brace herself and explain: “We actually just confirmed the relationship, and then it happened that someone spread rumors. He worried I’d be unhappy from being scolded, so he directly announced it… so there wasn’t time to tell you.”

Lu Jiangli fell silent for a while.

According to Pei Chuzhi’s understanding of her mother, mentioning the word “rumor” probably reminded Lu Jiangli of the company’s collapse.

Those debts, strictly speaking, had nothing to do with Pei Chuzhi. She only took them on because she had a good relationship with her parents and voluntarily bore debts that didn’t belong to her. Over the years, her parents had expressed guilt toward her more than once.

Pei Chuzhi tightened her grip on the phone, praying Lu Jiangli would be moved by her filial piety and not dwell on the romance.

Unexpectedly, things didn’t go as planned. When Lu Jiangli spoke again, her tone softened: “Then he’s quite responsible.”

Pei Chuzhi: “……”

Wait, I didn’t ask you to praise him!

“Your father and I are open-minded. You’re already this old—if you want to date, we won’t object,” Lu Jiangli said. “But the entertainment industry is too deep. Don’t wrong yourself because you’re anxious. Tell Mom honestly—does he treat you well?”

Pei Chuzhi: “Pretty well.”

It’s just not the kind of good a boyfriend should be.

Lu Jiangli asked again: “Then how did you meet?”

“Filming a commercial? Oh, no…”

Pei Chuzhi glanced at the driver in the front row who was focused on driving, covered the phone, and whispered, “Mom, do you remember when a production crew borrowed our garden to film when we were kids? Xing Ye came once. He said he remembered me from that time.”

“Really?” Lu Jiangli sounded surprised, moving the phone away as if whispering to someone beside her.

A moment later, Old Pei’s angry roar came from the phone: “Zhizhi was so young then—this brat was already thinking about my daughter?!”

Pei Chuzhi trembled in fright, afraid that if her father kept listening, he might directly rush to Yan City to drag Xing Ye out for a lecture.

She said a few goodbyes to Lu Jiangli and hurriedly hung up.

The car interior fell quiet again.

Pei Chuzhi tilted her head, looking out the window at the unfamiliar city bathed in the evening glow.

If she remembered correctly, she had just turned eight that year.

Which meant Xing Ye at the time was about an eleven-year-old boy.

She sighed wistfully, thinking that if she had known one day she would meet that angry and frustrated boy again—

then she should have looked earlier, and more carefully, to remember his appearance clearly.

·

The plane landed on time at Yan City Airport.

Night had fallen, and the air carried the warm, pleasant scent of late spring.

As soon as Pei Chuzhi got into the car, she received a call from Tang Dong.

The manager chattered on the phone about the progress of that rumor.

Huaxing’s rare strong response indeed reversed everyone’s views to a large extent. Coupled with the news of the relationship announcement spreading, in a sense it also shifted the focus of the incident.

After these two storms, Pei Chuzhi could be said to have gained great fame.

But correspondingly, voices of doubt gradually increased.

“In the end, you still have to rely on your works to speak,” Tang Dong concluded earnestly.

Pei Chuzhi answered “Mm,” then suddenly noticed the road outside the window looked unfamiliar. She leaned forward and asked, “This isn’t the way back, right?”

Xu Lei replied while driving, “Brother Tang found you another apartment. We moved overnight yesterday.”

Pei Chuzhi: “Why?”

“Why else,” Tang Dong answered from the phone, “You’re now publicly Xing Ye’s girlfriend. If you keep living in that kind of ordinary community, aren’t you afraid the Wildfires will show up and raid your place someday?”

More than ten minutes later, Pei Chuzhi arrived at her new residence.

A small two-bedroom apartment with a living room. The rooms were much more spacious than before, and there was security on duty 24 hours downstairs in the building. Privacy and safety were greatly improved.

Pei Chuzhi sat on the sofa in the new home, not quite used to it.

Xu Lei put her suitcase into the bedroom. When she came out, she was still taking credit for the company: “Zhizhi, you know? I heard quite a few celebrities live in this community. Brother Tang really values you now.”

Pei Chuzhi: “Who lives here?”

Xu Lei listed several second- and third-tier celebrities: “Oh right, Ruan Li also lives here!”

When filming “Quietly Fall in Love with You,” Pei Chuzhi had gotten along quite well with Ruan Li. Since the drama wrapped, the two hadn’t met for several months.

However, among the people who sent greetings on WeChat yesterday, Ruan Li’s name was also there.

After thinking about it, Pei Chuzhi sent her a message.

After a while, Ruan Li excitedly sent back a voice message: “Then we’ll be neighbors from now on? I’m filming outside recently. When I return to Yan City, come play at my place!”

Pei Chuzhi chatted briefly with her, then put down her phone and started reading the script.

For a period afterward, life was calm like water.

Pei Chuzhi recorded “Who Is the Murderer” once a week, and in her spare time stayed home preparing for the audition for Bai Ruxu’s new film.

During this period, only two unexpected things happened.

One was that the previous sports car brand made a decision, notifying her that the advertisement segments didn’t need to be reshot. They only needed to set aside one day to finish filming the remaining content.

They probably valued that she and Xing Ye’s recent topic popularity was high, planning to go along with the mistake and find some buzz from a marketing angle.

Pei Chuzhi originally felt a bit secretly happy, but when she chatted with Xing Ye on WeChat, she realized they wouldn’t be filming at the same time.

Xing Ye would be abroad those two days and couldn’t spare time to return. Their shared scenes would all be completed by post-production effects.

The second unexpected thing happened a few days after the advertisement filming ended.

A wave of “Pei Chuzhi same-style” unexpectedly rose online.

Ever since her daily outfits were analyzed from head to toe, fan-circle girls felt they finally found a reference they could afford. For a time, it even boosted sales of many affordable brands.

Xu Lei was delighted by this. Every time she came over, she would report which influencer was secretly imitating her dressing style.

However, Pei Chuzhi remained extremely calm.

Time had gradually entered summer. She now had only one focus.

In mid-May, the audition notice from Bai Ruxu Studio finally arrived.

The day before the audition, Pei Chuzhi stopped reading the script. She cleared her mind completely and curled on the sofa watching several episodes of a soap opera.

Her phone vibrated beside her. Pei Chuzhi picked it up and saw it was a message from Xing Ye.

【Audition tomorrow?】

【Mm, will you come watch?】

She knew this film had Asia Film investment; otherwise Xing Ye wouldn’t have gotten the script in advance.

But that sentence just now was only a joke.

Who knew the next second, Xing Ye’s reply jumped onto the screen: 【Coming.】

·

The audition venue was set in a hotel.

As soon as Pei Chuzhi walked into the conference room, gazes from all directions swept over her in unison.

She heard murmurs in the air, found a corner seat, and suddenly remembered that last year when she first trended with Xing Ye, she went to the previous season’s “Who Is the Murderer” recording as an NPC—it seemed she received the same treatment.

The Best Actor’s popularity really is scalding.

She muttered that in her heart, then stopped paying attention to the surroundings and focused on reviewing the character’s setup.

“Half a Lifetime of Splendor” was a thoroughly female-lead drama. The script used flashbacks and non-linear narration to tell the entire process of a woman going from naive ignorance to seeing through all worldly glamour.

In the first half of the script she received, stories from different ages of the heroine were slightly covered.

Pei Chuzhi wasn’t sure which segment would be tested later, so she could only recall the main characteristics of the heroine at different ages in her mind, hoping to gain recognition from the production team during the audition.

A pair of red high heels gradually stopped in front of her.

Pei Chuzhi looked up and saw a long-unseen yet somewhat unfamiliar face.

Chu Man brushed her hair, smiling down at her: “Didn’t expect it really was you. You’ve been doing pretty well lately, huh? Even able to audition for Director Bai’s film. Having a boyfriend backing you really makes a difference.”

The tone was dripping with sarcasm, and Pei Chuzhi found it rather amusing.

The rumor last time was spread by Chu Man, yet now she pretended to know nothing. In one short sentence she even implied Pei Chuzhi got opportunities only because of Xing Ye. Who knew how many times she rehearsed that opening line at home.

With so many eyes around, Pei Chuzhi didn’t want to tear faces on the spot, so she smiled sincerely: “Long time no see. You’ve become very beautiful.”

People around them knowingly sized up Chu Man.

Wasn’t she more beautiful? Her face was smaller, eyes bigger, even her nose much more defined than before.

Chu Man’s mouth twitched; she said nothing more.

She turned and walked arrogantly to the center of the conference room.

Not long after, a young girl came in to notify everyone to go audition in order.

The first few went in full of ambition and returned dejected.

When asked, they only shook their heads, unwilling to reveal the audition content, only vaguely saying while packing up: “Very difficult, can’t figure out the standard.”

Those who came today to audition for the female lead weren’t newcomers.

Most of the actresses Pei Chuzhi recognized made up the majority. For experienced artists to give such evaluations showed the audition was indeed not simple.

Everyone showed nervous expressions.

Only Chu Man remained calm, neither reading the script nor building emotions, just sitting there coldly watching everyone, a hint of determination in her eyes.

After Chu Man was called away, discussion in the conference room suddenly grew louder.

“I heard she recently found a sugar daddy?”

“You don’t know Chu Man’s level? Without a patron, how could she come audition?”

“But if you say that…” someone lowered their voice, glancing at Pei Chuzhi, “she must’ve been recommended by Xing Ye. Between Xing Ye and Chu Man’s patron, whose thigh is thicker?”

Pei Chuzhi looked speechlessly at the white wall opposite, feeling everyone was overcomplicating things.

Whether her or Chu Man, neither could obtain the role directly through so-called backing. Otherwise Bai Ruxu wouldn’t need to painstakingly prepare an audition.

The key to getting the role still depended on the actor’s essence.

More than ten minutes later, it was finally Pei Chuzhi’s turn.

She stood up and walked along the long corridor toward another conference room at the end.

After several deep breaths, her state of mind gradually calmed down.

Pei Chuzhi pushed open the door and saw that space had already been reserved in the conference room for actors to move.

And behind that long row of tables, more than a dozen people were unexpectedly seated.

Xing Ye was probably here today in the capacity of an investor. He sat in the second row. When he saw her enter, he made no extra movement, only quietly looking over with dark eyes.

Pei Chuzhi didn’t have much audition experience and had never seen such an astonishing number of people.

She walked to the center of the space and gave a slight bow: “Hello, teachers. I’m Pei Chuzhi.”

The renowned director Bai Ruxu sat in the middle of the first row, his expression restrained and unreadable. He barely gave an “Mm,” and pointed to the male actor waiting nearby: “Act with him.”

Pei Chuzhi turned her head and recognized him as a skilled young actor, probably already decided to play one of the heroine’s boyfriends.

She smiled and nodded to him, then turned back to Bai Ruxu, waiting for further instructions.

Bai Ruxu discussed in a low voice with the producer beside him for a few moments, then sat upright and raised his voice: “Play Zhuo Wei at eighteen.”

Zhuo Wei was the name of the female lead in “Half a Lifetime of Splendor.”

Pei Chuzhi quickly ran through the related plot in her mind, and then heard Bai Ruxu say: “Now forget all the scene divisions in the script.”

“…Forget?” Pei Chuzhi felt slightly confused.

Bai Ruxu nodded: “Yes. Imagine yourself as Zhuo Wei herself, then let me see how you seduce him.”

Author’s Note: Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord tickets or irrigated nutrient solution during 2019-12-17 21:34:49~2019-12-18 21:29:30~

Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: Little Fairy? 1;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Go With the Flow, Cute Duo Cheap Sale 5 bottles; Jiang Yu Sheng 2 bottles;

Thank you very much for everyone’s support, I will continue to work hard!