3. The award.

Loud and thunderous cheering from the congregation was heard when finally the best actress was announced by the master of ceremony.

The audiences were arranged in seventy rows from the stage where the judges stood.

Lights flashed in all different colours reflecting on the actors and actresses who had been already awarded and had queued at the far end right side of the stage.

Her Amazonian figure sat well on her wafer-thin body.

She had a decanter shaped waist and her complexion had an impeccable, ochrous hue.

Her pencil-thin eyebrows eased down gently to her black, beetle's-leg eyelashes.

A sculptor could not have fashioned her seraph's ears and pixie's nose any better.

When she broke into a smile, her beguiling, oyster-white teeth lit up the room.

It could jolt you like an electric current when that megawatt smile gave you her full attention.

Filed to perfection, her Venus-red fingernails ran through her nougat-brown hair.

Spools of it plunged around her photogenic face and hid a swan's neck, elegant and smooth.

Everyone loved her nebulous, Eden-green eyes which were a-sparkle with the 'joie de vivre'.

They were like two beryl-green jewels melted onto snow.

Her calamine-pink lips tasted like rose petals.

Her voguish clothes still kept captive an aroma redolent of cinnamon and meadow-fresh mint.

It lingered in the room long after she had gone.

She took steady steps to the podium where the judge was holding her trophie - made of glass with a title 'deyi yearly actors awards' written vertically on it.

The thunderous claps escorted her to the stage where she walked to where the microphone was.

She spoke in a dulcet voice as sweet as any songbird.

"Firstly I would like to thank all of you for attending this show and also for voting with high expectations for me to win." Chen Ming Zhu said.

She accepted the trophie from the judge's hand and shook her hand firmly while smiling amicably.

All the cameras were capturing the sweet moment as it was being directly show cased on the televisions as a live video.

.............

The doors to the dressing room opened and a young lady emerged carrying her cellphone on the right hand and a notebook on her left hand.

She walked to where Chen Ming Zhu was seated and helped herself to the seat next to the one Chen Ming Zhu was seated on.

She first placed what she was carrying on the dressing table then turned to the gorgeous lady who was seated next to her.

Liu Meng Yao sat up straight, pushing the hair back from her face.

Liu Meng Yao did not feel at all surprised at Chen Ming Zhu's victorious victory.

She would dress and join Chen Ming Zhu for dinner the following day. Chen Ming Zhu humoured by Liu Meng Yao not arguing.

The lights on the edges of the mirror glowed glinting over on her golden hairpin which had pearls on it.

"How do you think your parents will congratulate you?" The young lady asked Chen Ming Zhu. Chen Ming Zhu only stared back at the young lady's eyes.

Suddenly Chen Ming Zhu's phone's screen lit up, she had received a message from an unknown person.

She swiped her finger through the screen from bottom to top then opened the screen lock.

"Do you want to know what your evil aunt and cousin are planning for you?" It asked.

Chen Ming Zhu was curious and replied with a 'YES!'.

And that was the beginning of the climax in her life.

The text message she got next, saying.

'Then meet me in Jua Yi hotel and restaurant on Thursday next week.'

Chen Ming Zhu shutdown the screen where her screen lock was a picture of her in a white strapless teacup dress holding a pink ballon, white d'orsay high pumps and having a white glinty tiara on her head with her hair freely cascading on her back.

.............

"My beautiful star is back home!" Chen Wangshu exclaimed as he walked towards Chen Ming Zhu with his hands wide open ready to welcome her back home.

"Thank you dad." Chen Ming Zhu replied.

There were stone statues guarding the entrance of the Hu mansion.

The sound of water dripping from a statue's mouth at the center of a glistening white fountain pleased the grounds men who were trimming the lawns while chatting away their worries while inattentively watching over the happy birds playing in the clear luscious liquid.

To the outside viewer, the mansion seemed identical to any other in the prestigious neighborhood.

Large curtained windows set in solid concrete walls and burnt red tiles on the roof.

Stone statues guarding the entrance, a freshly trimmed lawn, flowering bushes and moonlight and light from the floodlights outside reflecting off the surface of a pool on a typical warm summer day.

Sitting on the chairs under a white umbrella.

A table with two orange glasses filled to the brim and a jug were neatly arranged.

Chen Yu Ming stared at her pale legs.

There Zhao Jieyu and Chen Yu Ming sat two staring numbly at the ripples spreading from where the colourful balloon floaties glided across the lustrous water.

"Your elder sister just won the best actess award. How do you feel?" Her best friend asked her.

She took a drink from the glass and gently placed it back on the table.

"Proud of her... and at the same time pity for me."

"Why the mixed bittersweet reaction. Do you feel that you should have been the one to receive the award instead?" Zhao Jieyu asked.

"Maybe."

"If you would also like to be a well-known actress in the showbiz industry. I can help you with overthrowing your elder sister and using her as your stepping stone." Zhao Jieyu replied.

Chen Yu Ming thought she knew her best friend well as a kind and gentle lady but the version that appeared in front of her now was a completely different version of her.

Chen Yu Ming smiled at her mother before she took the glass of orange juice again.

Sitting by the border with her pale legs, sat a young woman staring numbly at the ripples spreading from where her bare feet glided across the lustrous water.

A well-kept gravel path led to automatic double doors.

Inside, rested proudly several brand-new sumptuous vehicles. A desolate bicycle leaned groaning against the mucky wall. A rusty toolbox screeched bearing the weight of various gardening instruments.

A colossal couch occupied the living room along with the most recent TV released.