Chapter 42: The Cesare-James-Jenny Game

 In fact, Jenny's thinking is also very simple - since Dietrich wants to her, then 'one plan fails, another plan' is a very normal idea, and she probably guessed the reason why Dietrich hates her, it is by no means a whim, just mess with you if you don't like it, Dietrich should have a very urgent need, hoping that she will play poorly on stage, or simply unable to perform this role.

 So, instead of letting her figure out how to mess with Jenny herself, Jenny is passively defensive, but it is better to give Dietrich an obvious flaw and let her figure out how to use this flaw to mess with her, and Jenny only needs to take precautions against this.

 Judging from Dietrich's character, she definitely can't do the thing of putting poison in the food, after all, handing you a cigarette in the party and sprinkling poison powder in the meal are two natures at all, the latter may be tasted and make a big fuss, and the weight is easy to kill, she doesn't have the guts, and Jenny doesn't want her to think about how to make her physically disabled or something, the way she prepared for Dietrich is very simple: allergies.

 Peanut allergy is the most common allergy in the United States, with dozens of people dying each year from severe peanut allergic reactions. Jenny made a special mention of her peanut allergy a few days after the cigarette incident, chatting and telling everyone that she had been severely allergic to the hospital for several days because she accidentally ate a mouthful of toast with peanut butter, but fortunately she was still in school at the time and had student insurance, otherwise she would definitely go bankrupt because she couldn't pay the bills.

 She could almost see the sound of the light in Dietrich's head: if she didn't want Jenny on stage, she could just get some peanuts from the food she gave her a few days before she went on stage.

 Then the whole thing is very simple, it's nothing more than being careful every day, don't give Dietrich a chance - of course, even if she finds a chance to put peanut products, it's not a problem anyway, Jenny is completely lying, she is not allergic, at most it makes Dietrich doubt her claim that she is allergic to peanuts, but then again, many people's allergy resistance is also strong and weak, and when they are unlucky, they will be allergic to a little bit, and when they are lucky, it will be okay to eat a lot, so Dietrich is unlikely to find out that Jenny is lying to her.

 Then, at the right time, use some means to create an opportunity like this tonight.

 For Chen Zhen, this little thing of creating opportunities is just wet and broken, she married into her ex-husband's family in a poor and white way, and when she crossed over, she had at least 30 million net worth in the divorce tug-of-war, could it be that the 30 million was given to her by her ex-husband's family with both hands?

 It's actually very simple, bring a small bottle with you, and if you find an opportunity, as long as you are bold enough, there is actually no risk. Many people with severe peanut allergies will even be allergic to the cooking utensils because they have been in contact with peanuts and have not been washed, which is difficult to explain. For example, tonight, if Cesare and James were not witnessing the whole time, then even if Dietrich handed Jenny the lunch box, and Jenny started to have allergies after eating, then who could say that it was her problem? The lounge was not monitored, and the communal refrigerator was full of people, and it was entirely possible that the rest of the people who were jealous of Jenny were involved in the Bully incident, after all, Dietrich was definitely not the only one who knew that she was allergic to peanuts, and the salad was left in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

 In essence, this is the same as the cigarette incident, with little investment, low risk, and almost no possibility of threatening the suspect, which is very suitable for Dietrich's taste, and it is also a meal that Jenny carefully created for Dietrich.

 Now, she can safely say that Dietrich was definitely enjoying eating. Even Cesare and James couldn't deny it—neither of them mustered up the courage to try the salad.

 "You can take it for testing. "But I'm pretty sure of what I think – I'm a light person, so I have a keen sense of smell, and I can smell peanut oil on the leaves." "

 The salad is peanut allergen-free, with a label on the top of the lunch box, Jenny pointed to the two of them, and continued, "So, we now have a chain of reasoning, we have a suspect, and now what is missing is motivation." Jaime, can you tell me why Dietrich is dealing with me?

 James looked broken as he crawled through his hair with his hands, but Cesare was still so calm that he leaned back in his chair and said casually, "It's easy, I think anyone who has seen your rehearsals will have the answer, right, James?"

 Jaime let out a long moan, "Shit!"

 He exhaled, and instead of answering Cesare's words, he raised his head and stared directly at Jenny, and asked coldly, "So, what do you want me to do?"

 There is a bit of a call between him and Jenny, and this current varies in strength between men and women, Jaime is a little thicker on her arrow, Jenny has a thin arrow, but it also exists, and the two can feel the presence of that kind of UST (see note) when they are talking, so there is always a little embarrassment as a background, but now this embarrassment is completely replaced by deep irritation and vigilance, Jaime's cuteness has completely disappeared, and he pulls open the shield, also revealing the shrewdness and ruthlessness of the Cesare type.

 He didn't mean to apologize for his mistakes, judging from his tone and body language, he had already begun to compete with Jenny for the lead of this conversation, and it was clear that he wanted to be the one of the three who 'talked counted'.

 "Now it's not a question of what I want to do, it's what do you do, James, you tell me how do I work with someone who's always wanted to hurt me? I'm your new star this season, she's not, I'm the victim, she's the perpetrator. Jenny said, "Tell me what you want to do, James." "

 James cursed again, "No, Jennifer, I know what you want me to do - there's no way I'm going to fire her-"

 He grabbed the crowd and raised his voice, "Listen—I—speak!"

 If Jenny and Cesare both started to argue excitedly at this time, his words would be very intimidating, feedback back to his momentum, and make him more imposing, but now the problem is that neither of them moved, just calmly looked back at James, but it made James feel a little bit empty, he shook his head, his momentum weakened, but still analyzed, "Now the three people in this room have a common desire, that is, to make this play a success, right?"

 Cesare and Jenny were silent, and James continued, "I'll assume that you all approve of it, so it's an unpleasant fact that Dietrich is the best Velma at this stage, unless you can bring in Catherine Zeta-Jones, she is the best Velma I can find, Velma in Group B is Ann, you can see how good she is, Samantha is so ugly on the bench - Jenny, Dietrich is Velma in Group A for a reason, and she is the strongest of the three people in the troupe who can dance Velma. If she and you both have a sense of imbalance, the other two will only perform worse, and what we need is a good musical with a good box office reputation, not a solo show without word of mouth. No matter how strong your personal charm is, Velma is the second heroine of this play, of course, she doesn't need to be very eye-catching, she can be qualified, but it must not be too bad. So that's the truth, whether you admit it or not, the troupe needs Dietrich right now. "

 "So you want it to end here?" said Jenny.

 "Besides, you have no direct evidence against Dietrich," James said in an emphatic tone, ignoring her, "even if you call the police, it doesn't constitute a valid charge, you don't have any witnesses, no physical evidence—"

 Everyone's eyes fell on the conference table, James lunged close to the conference table, picked up the lunch box, threw the lunch box out of the window in a few big steps, and continued. "So the best, and only way, is for me to get Dietrich out of the way of targeting you, and let this go away. "

 Jenny looked at her agent, "Cesare?"

 Cesare crossed his hands and laid flat on the conference table, "For now, this is the best solution for both sides." "

 James's expression suddenly relaxed, and he waved his hand at Cesare at Jenny, "Listen to your agent, girl, he's a veteran, let him help you make a rational decision, for God's sake, this is the eve of the show!

 Judging from his complaining tone, James even complained a little bit about Jenny for causing a storm on this day, shaking Dietrich's state and leaving him a mess to clean up.

 "Six months. Cesare ignored James, and he continued, keeping an eye on James. "I'll give you six months, Jaime. "

 James' tone of grumbling paused, "You mean—"

 "It's Broadway, and six months is enough time for you to find a new Velma. "If you can't find it on Broadway, you go to the West End of London, where 'Chicago' is also playing, and there's Velma there." I'll give you six months, and when Jenny comes back next year, she won't see this Velma again. "

 James' tongue was thrust in his cheeks, and he looked at Cesare and then at Jenny, "But you have no proof." "

 "It doesn't look like we're going to be able to agree tonight. Cesare didn't press any more, he turned his hand and looked at his watch, "It's late, we still have a script to discuss." Instead, let this topic hang here for now, and we'll talk about it later. Now the three of us go to the rehearsal room to find Dietrich, and Jenny you tell her you've decided to have dinner with us. Is this arrangement acceptable to you, James?"

 James breathed a sigh of relief, and he nodded. "I don't have a problem. "

 Jeanne and Cesare looked at each other, he didn't really have any expression, just the handsome mask, but she seemed to feel something, but words couldn't describe it. "I don't have a problem either. "

 "Alright, let's go now. "It's eight o'clock, and it's time to go to dinner." "

 As soon as they walked out of the manager's room, the three of them all smiled, you came and went, talking and laughing, acting like nothing unusual at all, Jenny really went to the rehearsal room to comfort Dietrich, and by the way told the teacher that she had cramps, plus James had something to do and wanted to go to dinner together, and asked Dietrich if she had eaten, complaining that her salad had not moved at all, and it would not be fresh tomorrow, etc. After everything was taken care of, the three of them actually went to Jim's kitchen for a meal together.

 The meal was awkward, with James glancing at Cesare with suspicion from time to time, and Jenny not wanting to speak at all. They swept up dinner at an unprecedented rate and then parted ways. James returns to the troupe, and Cesare invites Jenny, "Shall we go for a walk?"

 "Sure. Jenny shrugged.

 At night, Broadway was very busy, the neon lights were shining, and they walked down Broadway until they reached Times Square - in fact, this is a crossroads, the place is not big, Cesare led Jenny around twice, and found a random open space to stand, "Can you tell me why you chose to close the net today?"

 His tone was unusually calm, Jeanne felt that Cesare was a bit of a 'bully and afraid of the hard', when everything was working properly, he was unbearably domineering, but when something went wrong, he was very communicative, but he lost his temper, his patience was like toothpaste, squeezed to come out.

 "Because you're both here. But it is undeniable that this attitude is still more pleasing, and her confrontational psychology has weakened a lot, "This is a rare opportunity, I can prove to the two of you at once that I am right." "

 "Oh, you're right. Cesare let out a charming guttural 'Hmm' voice from his throat, "Your performance today, or rather the setting up during this time, is wonderful, and if we were in the world of 24 Hours, maybe you would be promoted for it." "

 Jenny said, "Looks like you don't agree with what I'm doing?"

 "Let's break it down. "It's clear to all of us by now — anyone who has seen the rehearsals — that Dietrich's motive for doing it to you was that she and you were having a very serious 'pressure scene' on stage, which could lead directly to her being replaced." Maybe she realized the problem at the third audition, but no one else saw it at the time. So her purpose is to make you take drugs, so that you are in a bad state, and will not suppress her drama, or make you simply unable to go on stage, and destroy the rhythm of propaganda, so that your pressure will be greater, and your state may also be affected, in general, it is all to avoid being pressed by you. Am I right?"

 Jenny already had a sort of idea of what he was going to say. "Hmm. "

 "So if you had taken my advice and let it pass," Cesare said, "we wouldn't have this conversation and the conflict now, would we? "

 "It's also very likely that I was calculated by her in another way, and then I couldn't act. Jenny noted.

 "Okay, then let's adjust our strategy, and you still use peanut allergy tactics to deal with her. "She kept trying to give you peanut products, and finally one time you ate it, but it didn't happen, she thought it was the wrong dose, and she did it again—in this repeated game, you started the show normally—and then went back to what I just said, you pressed her play, she didn't achieve her goal, she wasted her efforts, and you went on very well." You became famous, you left her behind, you had a good relationship with James, and James worked hard to get you a Tony Award nomination, and then you told James that you needed a better Velma, and this was for the sake of the show, for next year's Tony Awards, and if Broadway couldn't find it, you suggested that he go to the West End of London – would it have turned out better than it already is? You've kept James' connections, and Dietrich has still failed, she's still lost the role of Velma, she's going to be on Broadway, never coming out of nowhere, and you're confused as to why she's failed to fix you. "

 Jeanne was silent, Cesare looked sideways at her, and asked calmly, "If you had answered my call at the time, would you have listened to me?"

 Obviously, what he wanted to analyze with her on the phone was the pros and cons of this, but of course, after Jeanne didn't answer the phone, Cesare decided that even if he contacted her through other means, Jeanne would not be obedient, so he gave up. This is tantamount to blocking Jenny's possible riposte, 'Since you can see it so clearly, why didn't you say it sooner'.

 However, Jenny didn't mean to raise the bar, she shook her head and said, "No, in fact, I have also considered this kind of countermeasure you said." "

 "And why you don't take it?" asked Cesare calmly.

 "If I do that, will you believe me when I talk to you about cigarettes again?" asked Jenny.

 Cesare immediately said, "I probably know what you mean." "

 "Trust is mutual, Cesare, and if you make me trust you, then I need you to trust me too. "I think this relationship of trust between us is more important than the friendly relationship between me and James." "

 "Then you can let me witness this tonight, without having to pull James. Cesare said, but not critically, just in the tone of discussion. "Are you pulling James to prove you're right?"

 "Of course I want to breathe this out. Jeanne admitted, "But that's not the only end, and I'm a little dissatisfied with the ending you just described to me - Dietrich's ending wasn't bad enough, and if she wants to me, by that means, I'm going to trample her to the point where I'll never be able to look up." This is a matter of principle and is non-negotiable. "

 Cesare thought for a moment, "Okay, that's a good reason for that—it's better than if you're just trying to get angry." "

 "So, we're all right?" asked Jenny, "will you trust me a little more in the future?" will you take it seriously when I tell you that someone is messing with me?"

 "I'll trust your vision more. Cesare said, his fingers playing thoughtfully with the cufflinks in his other hand, "but I'm afraid my advice to you is still very—'gentle,' not much different from before." "

 "Really?" asked Jenny.

 Cesare walked around with her again, and they walked slowly down Broadway, into another bright and bright street, "Jenny, I'm 27 years old, and I've been in this business for six years, do you know how often I have to deal with an incident like Dietrich tricking you into taking drugs in those six years?"

 Jenny shook her head, her knowledge in this area was blank.

 "Do the math, it's no exaggeration to say, one piece every half a month. Cesare shrugged, "Of course I don't take care of everything, most of my clients have their own managers, and they come to me when they can't figure it out." But according to my customer base, the frequency of such incidents is about once every half a month. In the case of Renee Zellweger, things like 'Our Roxie is Better' happen five or six times a year, but most of the fights are known only to her and her team. "

 Jenny already knew what Cesare meant. "If you have to fight back at everything, it's too draining. "

 "If you have to fight back at everything, you're completely out of business. Cesare agreed, "Actually, I think Renee's coping strategy is very good, not responding is the best response, the Oscars don't have a 'Best Cat Fight' award, and any fight that has nothing to do with your career is draining your precious energy." Those people are just trying to hold you back, and your success in your career is their failure. So if you ask me now, 'Dietrich wants to you, what am I going to do?' and my answer is still 'Let this go and you concentrate on rehearsals.'" "

 He turned to face Jenny, "Now, will you listen to me?"

 Jenny stubbornly said, "If it doesn't offend my bottom line, I will." "

 "What's your bottom line? tricking you into smoking cocaine?" asked Cesare.

 Jenny nodded.

 For the first time tonight, Cesare had a 'real expression' on his face, of course he usually laughs, but just like James's cuteness, this may be seen as a kind of social disguise for them, and the real Cesare is like they met for the first time most of the time, with no expression in the wind.

 But now, he was really smiling, it was a complicated smile, and the eyes he looked at her were full of indescribable emotion, and Jenny could vaguely discern some sympathy. "You've just entered Hollywood, Jefferson, and you'll understand later. "

 Jenny now understood what he meant—nothing more than that this kind of thing would happen so often that she didn't bother to bother to care about it all in the future, and she didn't know anything about Hollywood yet, like a child, not really sensible yet.

 She tried to refute, or take a stand, but was interrupted by Cesare's movements, who suddenly reached for his wallet, pulled out a bill, and handed it to her.

 "What for?" Jenny asked before she could react, and she couldn't help but laugh. "You're really a strict gambler, aren't you?"

 "The rules that are made have to be followed. Cesare said, and Jenny laughed and took the dollar and slipped it into her pocket.

 They didn't say anything superfluous, but the atmosphere had eased considerably, and after a while, they passed a subway entrance, and Jenny stood still, deciding that it was almost here for the night.

 Before parting, she asked, "So let's let this thing pass?"

 "Of course not. Cesare said, glancing at her with a 'don't be stupid' attitude, "You didn't hear me?

 "And then—" Jenny said, a little confused. "What you're trying to achieve is—"

 "After that, of course, after the repertoire. Cesare rightly said, "What I set out to achieve is what you set out to achieve, remember? Jenny, I'm your agent, not Dietrich's." You want her to die a terrible death, and of course I'm going to make it happen for you. "

 Jenny was really completely impressed by his style of attaching equal importance to grace and power, soft and hard, with Chen Zhen's level of life, she had the urge to kneel - this person is only 27 years old this year, where did he, the hell, learn these skills?

 "Of course, you have to know. "How much you do after that depends on your performance." If you had Renee's popularity today, James would have just fired Dietrich without hesitation and brought in a new Velma overnight. In Hollywood, on Broadway, in London's West End – on every set in the world, status is justice. The more important you are, the sooner your justice will be proclaimed, so-"

 "So, 'Behave well and don't let me down?'" Jenny said with a laugh.

 "Yes. Cesare said he looked at a billboard near the subway station, and Jenny looked past with him, shining in the neon lights. "Behave well, blind the audience and the critics, make them cheer for you, let me push you to the top – and then achieve 'after' for you. "

 "Good. Jenny said, "Trust me, I won't let you down." "

 Cesare looked at her, the corners of his lips slightly raised.

 "I believe in you. He said.

 Jenny said, "I believe in you too, and I know you won't let me down." "

 She looked at the billboard, and from this angle, behind the billboard was a theater, and Jenny could almost imagine tomorrow night—a poster led by her neatly plastered at the theater door, people laughing and entering the theater, the words "Chicago" flashing on the LED screens...

 She muttered, "It's up to tomorrow night." "

 The author has something to say: Note: 1 The pressure play is when AB plays against each other, and A's performance overpowers B comprehensively, which is actually not a good thing for the play itself

 2 Medical treatment in the United States is very expensive, and it is slightly better if you have health insurance, but medical insurance is also very expensive, and the terms are complicated. If you go to the hospital once, you may have a bill of 1W, and the medical insurance can only quote 3000, and the remaining 7000 will be paid by yourself. Then you can also bargain with the hospital (yes, weird), and then take a discount or something, and pay slowly in installments...

 3 Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST)