Rainbow production house

Feng Xue once again turned and glanced at the side profile of her cousin calmly sitting in the backseat of the taxi and nodded her head in approval probably for the umpteenth time. It couldn't be helped though. Because, contrary to her expectations, this little imp had dressed up so well today even without her help that she still find it quite hard to believe.

Today, Feng Xi had matched a pale blue, cowl neck, hand-knit sweater with a dark brown, coated denim jeans and a pair of black stiletto, ankle-length heeled boots. This ensemble screaming of chicness was completed with a matching, light grayish-blue handbag and a pair of pearl studs.

When she first saw her young cousin in this outfit, Feng Xue had momentarily fallen into a trance. All the pieces of clothing and accessories of this suit were nothing special when considered separately, and if you look around, tens of women wearing similar garments could be easily picked out of the crowd.

But when they were worn on the body of Feng Xi as a whole, it had given a wholly different feeling of elegance and class. For a moment, Feng Xue had even thought that the person in front of her was not her cousin, but some young lady of a rich family.

She finally moved her gaze away from her little sister and sighed.

'It's surprising, but she got into the character really well. So, despite her amnesia, she probably still has some muscle memory about acting?'

'... Besides, little Xi originally was quite talented to begin with ne'

Yang Jingshen quietly stared at the passing scenery as the car sped along the highway. Their destination was the T city located near the capital. As far as he knew, the drive would probably take around two to three hours due to the heavy traffic in this area at this time of the day.

Despite his outwardly calm appearance, inside he was feeling quite restless for a reason he couldn't fathom. This wasn't the first time that Yang Jingshen had participated in an audition in his life. Not to mention the level and quality of this script, passing it would be a piece of cake for him, even if he only exerted one-tenth of his usual efforts.

So, for the life of him, he couldn't understand where this unease came from. It had been all fine yesterday, but today since morning he had been feeling restless and fidgety. There was no apparent reason, but Yang Jingshen had this nagging feeling inside a corner of his mind that something was going to happen. No– it was more like he expected something to happen.

'The heck is that? What more could happen, eh?'

If it was him of the past, he'd have definitely ignored this funny feeling as being overthinking due to nervousness or simply a case of anxiety, but not anymore. How could he, especially after experiencing something like transmigrating into a character in a bloody book he read for a change, eh?

But, no matter which way he analyzed, Yang Jingshen could think of nothing else that can happen which would cause his nerves to be so on edge. At most, he could fail that audition -which was highly unlikely- or at worst, he'd die due to an accident on his way there. But neither prospect appeared as dreadful as transmigrating into the body of a woman in some unknown, creepy (?) book world.

'Whatevs! I don't care anymore.' m(_ _)m

Yang Jingshen resisted the urge to slump on the seat and kept sitting straight as he stared outside. He knew that his cousin had been glancing at him from time to time, puzzlement evident on her face. To be honest, she had looked shell-shocked when she saw him this morning after he had finished dressing.

But Yang Jingshen decided not to bother too much about her. It was because of something he realized within these past few months. His interactions with Feng Xue as well as other minor details he could glean about Feng Xi from the things she had used and what she used to do, had helped him to finally draw a concrete conclusion– It was that his earlier assumptions about this body's original owner, Feng Xi, had been slightly off the mark.

In the end, he had decided to behave in a balanced way in his interactions with Feng Xue– not too sticky, but not too distant either. And, instead of pretending to depend on her always, it was high time he started acting more on his own.

Always trying to please others and acting according to their whims, as well as pretending goodwill and acting as someone else for long periods of time had never been his strong forte. He might be good at acting when he was on the set, but it will be too tiresome if he had to pretend in real life all the time as well, right?

***

It was nearly two and half hours later when the two of them finally alighted in front of a four-story building in a corner of the huge T city. This area was a bit special since despite being a commercial district in this city, it didn't boast many skyscrapers.

Yang Jingshen carefully surveyed the front of the building and spotted a signboard spelling 'Rainbow production house'. The passing crowds would occasionally glance at the front entrance of the building, but this was not surprising since many of the people who kept entering and coming out of it seemed to possess more exceptional looks than the general populace.

The Rainbow production house was a production company that had been in existence for quite some time now. But despite its advanced age, it had never seen much progress and it was only recently that they even started producing bronze-rated dramas.

But the bulk of their creations were still unrated dramas and movies, which were easier and cheaper to produce than some high-maintenance, rated work. There was actually a practical reason as to why unrated works were mass-produced regardless of their lack of future prospects, ok?

Our duo followed everyone else and moved towards the entrance where the security personnel directed them to the reception. Then, an enthusiastic staff personnel greeted them and led them to the audition area on the second floor.

It had been nearly three years since Chen Rui had started working in the Rainbow production house as a receptionist cum assistant, and even within this short time period, she could be said to have seen, heard, and experienced many things. And, what she had realized in the end was that this glamorous world of celebrities wasn't as glittery and fabulous as it looked on the outside.

Chen Rui's main duties at this place involved directing the many hopeful actors to their auditioning rooms among many other things. But this morning, her boss had told her to pay special attention to an actress who'd come to try out for a side character role in one of their smaller projects. Apparently, this lady belonged to the company ranked at eleventh place among their country's talent agencies, the 'Star dreams entertainment'.

She had felt quite puzzled after hearing this but had dutifully accepted. Why would an actress of such a huge company run over to their small studio to audition for a role in a small web series, and a side character at that?

Of course, Chen Rui could remember that another actor from the same company had auditioned for the second male lead role in the same drama last week and successfully won it. But he had been a new actor without any experience, and it was probably that they sent him to gain more experience. After all, these big companies do this all the time ne.

Else, how would such small-scale productions like this drama attract attention from these reputed talent agencies?

As somewhat senior staff personnel, she was aware that their company would send many of their scripts to these big companies like Star dreams in hopes that they would let their artists join their work. It could increase their small company's reputation ah!

This particular drama script named 'My forever spring' had been selected by Star dreams this year to be included in their common pool of scripts, and considering its quality, it was probably just to let its new artists try it out for practice. But, why a side character?

But once the young assistant looked at the details of this actress, all her doubts cleared up. She remembered how her little sister kept cursing this particular artist some months ago, because of a huge scandal that blew up on the internet at that time.

Apparently, this woman kept acting like a white lotus while spreading malicious gossip about a talented, new actress. Once her actions came to light, a good-hearted netizen couldn't bear it anymore and released photos of her going to different hotels with many men. After these things spread everywhere, she even had the audacity to pretend to commit suicide!

'Hmph! She probably couldn't get a role with her reputation now and that was probably why she came running here to audition for this small role. Anyway, why didn't that Star dreams company remove her after all of that? She's really shameless!'

Chen Rui's old boss had of course easily spotted her reluctance so he had kindly advised her after learning of the reason. "Rui'er, no matter what, she's still an actress under the management of Star dreams. For better or worse, we have to treat her with appropriate courtesy. Also, don't believe everything on the internet so easily."

In other words, someone could be intentionally defaming this Feng Xi. But most importantly, their small production company couldn't afford to provoke the big god behind this woman aka Star dreams entertainment. It wasn't worth the trouble– even if casting this actress in their work itself spelled trouble for them.