Chapter 3: CH 3

T/N: Hi guys, I’m currently down with covid so translations will probably stop for a week or two as I take my time to recover + catch up with work once I’m well. Remember to join the discord so you get timely updates on when the next chapter will be!

In the end, Lu Zhi Wei still ended up choosing Sheng Yue Culture. Not out of any other reason, but simply because it was familiar.

She had been an artist in Sheng Yue before, and even though it was a small company, it still hadn’t produced any standout entertainers yet.

Oh, she still had to resign from her current job and focus on acting to avoid getting shocked.

Her resignation was smooth and the company didn’t try to keep her either, because they couldn’t recall how her performance was like usually. They didn’t have a good impression, but they didn’t have a bad impression either. There was nothing outstanding for them to put the effort in to try to retain.

After Lu Zhi Wei resigned, she packed up her workstation and left without a trace of sentimentality.

This was the good thing about being transparent. No matter where she was or in what sort of situation, she could always leave without being too emotional about it, and others wouldn’t be upset about it either.

The people in the office watched as she left, and as they looked at each other, they felt as if they had forgotten something.

As if they had forgotten to call her along for their dinner gatherings.

As if they had forgotten about her in the past.

It was as if their memory had been wiped and they couldn’t remember anything, but at least from this moment on, they could remember one thing.

—— Lu Zhi Wei had once been their colleague.

……

After everything had been handled, Lu Zhi Wei started preparing for Sheng Yue Culture’s audition.

At the start, she was a bit worried, afraid that Sheng Yue wouldn’t want her, so she made a lot of preparations and her heart calmed down because of it.

If Sheng Yue didn’t want her, then she would just change to a different company, or she could become an unsigned artist. A boat will naturally straighten when it comes to the pier[1]!

—— And then she got signed by Sheng Yue without hesitation.

【You have a good face and body, and you have acting experience, even though it was a small role. And you have such a bright halo on top of your head, it’s impossible not to see you.】

The male mother Lao Wu was calmly dissecting the reasons behind the decision in his control room.

Hearing his voice and looking at the workers in front of her, Lu Zhi Wei was in a bit of a trance.

That’s right. She had forgotten she was no longer that transparent person……

It was her first time being the male lead, she hadn’t yet gotten used to it.

After signing the contract, the system’s electronic voice rang out.

【System decision: Mission “sign on as an actress” complete

【Mission point +1

【Please work hard, host.】

Actress.

She had become an actress again!

Lu Zhi Wei finally snapped back to reality, her eyes bright as she exchanged pleasantries with the Sheng Yue employees, shining like a mini sun.

After she left, the two workers started gossiping.

“With such good conditions and such a beautiful smile, why did our company let her go before?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t have any impression of her from before. It’s odd……”

“…… Honestly, me too.”

“Maybe she was too understated in the past.”

“Maybe.”

……

Lu Zhi Wei got assigned to a small manager.

It was apparently because Sheng Yue had an actress who had recently become popular, and all the more experienced managers were busy helping to pave her way to stardom and didn’t have time to take care of the new entertainers, so they let the new managers handle them.

The manager was called Wen Yao. She wore a pair of round spectacles and she had a baby face that looked younger than her 24 years of age. She was younger than Lu Zhi Wei by two years, and she looked quite obedient.

Wen Yao stretched out a hand, her eyes shining with anticipation: “Hello, Miss Lu!”

Lu Zhi Wei looked above her head.

There was a coloured indicator there, it was a warm, pale yellow.

After 10 seconds, it vanished.

Lao Wu said this was called a “role indicator”, it was specially used for distinguishing the levels of people in this world.

Pale yellow meant they were inconsequential passersby.

This ability had just been activated a few days ago and every time she met someone for the first time, the role indicator would pop up.

At that time, she was curious about her own colour. Lao Wu told her not to ask about it, she should look forward.

Looking at it, she almost blinded herself.

The gold colour was dazzling and as bright as a three-kilowatt light bulb, exaggerated almost like it was a special effect on television.

It didn’t seem like a protagonist’s halo, it was more like the golden halo of Buddha. It would definitely be easy to ward off evil spirits with it.

Wen Yao realised Lu Zhi Wei was looking at her head and so she touched her hair, asking confusedly: “is there something on my head?”

Lu Zhi Wei immediately came back to her senses: “No, no. I was thinking your hair’s really well maintained, so I took a second look.”

Wen Yao rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly: “It’s not that good……”

Having muddled through, Lu Zhi Wei exhaled in relief.

The next second, the new mission came crashing down.

【Mission issued: Complete an audition.】

【Time limit: Five days.】

Lu Zhi Wei: “?”

Did they consider that with this ridiculous time limit, no movies might be selecting leads within these five days?

No, this system was just trying to find ways to shock her!

Lu Zhi Wei asked experimentally: “That, Miss Wen——”

Wen Yao: “Just call me Xiao Yao.”

Lu Zhi Wei changed her words quickly: “Alright, Xiao Yao, are there any movies currently casting?”

“There is.” Wen Yao replied, “There’s one tomorrow, it’s a xianxia[2] script called 《Questioning Deity Sect》[3], I was planning to bring you to the audition.”

And then she grabbed Lu Zhi Wei’s hand and said emotionally: “I’m very happy you’re so proactive. Work hard, I believe as long as you put in the effort, you’ll get the results!”

She didn’t expect this manager to be so passionate.

Lu Zhi Wei hurriedly agreed.

《Questioning Deity Sect》, she searched her memory for it but couldn’t find any information on this movie.

She realised that as long as it didn’t have anything to do with the male or female leads, the system wouldn’t bother giving that information.

Sometimes if it was related, but it wasn’t too important or closely related, it would be omitted as well.

Wen Yao continued: “《Questioning Deity Sect》 still hasn’t selected their leads yet……”

Lu Zhi Wei didn’t have any expression.

With her current status, she had no way of getting a leading role. As long as she could get a role in the show and make her first steps, it was most important.

And the female lead, Sang Wan Ci, according to the script, she should be getting ready to shoot a variety show with the original male lead, Qiu Luo.

So Lu Zhi Wei would have to work hard as a male lead, or she would never get the chance to work together with Sang Wan Ci and she could never fulfil her mission to repair the world’s storyline.

And she would have to be shocked.

—— She didn’t want to be shocked!!!

……

The next day, it was a pleasant, clear morning with a slight autumn breeze.

The van was on the road, with Sang Wan Ci sitting behind watching a fan video on her tablet. It was about her and another male celebrity.

—— Qiu Luo.

The two of them had looks that had been claimed to be the best in the industry, but as new celebrities who debuted at the same time, they had never worked together till date.

But this didn’t stop the fans from cutting videos. A particular site had plenty of such videos with many looks fans[4] screaming they were hungry, wanting the two of them to work together.

Sang Wan Ci looked at it impassionately, not feeling anything inside.

Her manager, Zhang jie, hung up the phone and seeing as she wasn’t talking, she looked over and smiled: “the fans were just playing around. What, you watch these too?”

Zhang jie‘s full name was Zhang Xianrui and she was a professional manager.

She had short hair, she dressed professionally and she was pretty and mature, dedicated to her work and conscientious.

Sang Wan Ci had been under her ever since she debuted, and Zhang jie was one of the few who knew Sang Wan Ci’s true identity.

Zhang jie held her phone and suddenly thought of a possibility, so she looked at Sang Wan Ci who had an unchanging expression and asked half-jokingly: “Or, Wan Ci, do you——”

“No.”

Sang Wan Ci knew what she was going to say next, and she immediately denied it.

“He’s not my type. If I liked him, why would I need to reject the variety show with him in it?”

The TV producers these days were like hunting dogs, able to sniff out prey no matter how far away it was.

On the web, someone had shipped her and Qiu Luo and the production team had invited them onto the show, wanting to borrow their popularity to boost the ratings of the show.

But she refused.

Right now, she had to shoot shows, it was more important to elevate her own abilities.

Zhang Xianrui thought that what she said made sense, so she raised an eyebrow and asked casually: “Then what is your type?”

Sang Wan Ci stayed silent for a moment then replied: “I don’t know, it’s not someone like him, in any case.”

Zhang Xianrui didn’t know where her strong opinions of Qiu Luo came from, but she still offered a warning: “Jokes aside, right now, your career is more important.”

Sang Wan Ci nodded: “Relax, Zhang jie, I know.”

It was too foolish to ruin her own career over a man.

Besides, she had to use results to prove to her father that her decision was right. How could she let a smelly man ruin her efforts?

If she really did that, not only would she look down on herself, her father would look down on her too.

…

《Questioning Deity Sect》was a show with a strong female protagonist, and the main storyline was about “my life is my own”, talking about how the female lead, Qiao Jing, went from an ordinary sect disciple to the leader of an immortal sect.

The role Lu Zhi Wei was auditioning for was the role of Qiao Jing’s junior sister, the innocent sect leader’s daughter. She loved to follow behind her sect sister like her tail.

This was the best role that was most suitable for her that she could get at the moment.

An ordinary person in the entertainment circle, it was good that she had a role, she didn’t have the right to be picky.

The audition process was quite normal, there wasn’t anything special. Get into character, say a few lines. It’s just that the director’s head nods were a bit more, as if he was very satisfied with her.

She didn’t dare to be 100% sure, even with the male protagonist halo.

The male protagonist halo could accidentally crash on her, who would know whether it would make another mistake.

After the audition, she walked out and sighed in relief.

Her expectations were low, it was good enough that she tried her best.

【Believe in yourself.】Lao Wu encouraged her.

Wen Yao came up and asked concernedly: “How does it feel?”

【System decision: Mission “audition” completed.

【Mission point +1

【Please work hard, host.】

Hearing the system’s voice, Lu Zhi Wei calmly took her bag and clothes and smiled: “I tried my best.”

As she changed, she took a look around the area, looking at the role indicators on the heads of others.

They were pretty much all a warm, pale yellow colour. As compared to the outrageous dazzling halo, this was much friendlier to the eyes.

At this moment, a buzz started amongst the crowd.

Lu Zhi Wei turned her head to look and she immediately saw the person who had used her beauty to kill her had arrived.

Sang Wan Ci’s hair was jet-black and her eyes were like stars, and when she walked, her clothes rustled as if she brought the wind with her.

Without any excessive makeup, her perfect skin was revealed and she was indeed more beautiful than anybody in the world.

The people around were all exclaiming in shock.

Only Lu Zhi Wei was different.

She was almost blinded by the female protagonist halo.

She quietly covered her eyes.

Everybody had a duty to take care of their eyes.

After ten seconds, the world looked different.

Rubbing her overstimulated eyes, Lu Zhi Wei froze as she made eye contact with Sang Wan Ci.

After quickly flipping through the script a few times to make sure Sang Wan Ci truly wasn’t in this show, she looked dumbfoundedly at the female lead in front of her.

—— Hold on, this female lead was really too much.

[1] 船到桥头自然直 – Essentially means that things will eventually work themselves out when it comes to it.

[2] 仙侠 – Xianxia is a story genre, where there’s magic and cultivation and you’re basically cultivating to immortality through martial arts etc.

[3] 问仙门 – Tried my best to translate it, but it’s pretty literal lol.

[4] 颜粉 – Basically fans who are fans because of their looks. There are other fans like wife fan, career fan, true love fan, etc etc.