Contract Signing

After breakfast, An Wen hopped on the car and left for school. The minute she arrived at the destination, students of Di City No. 1 High School immediately surrounded her, taking photos of her with their phones. 

The young girl's skin was as fair as a white jade in the sun. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail, fastened with a blue butterfly hair tie; a few strands lightly rested on the sides of her face and forehead. Those beautiful, peach blossom eyes rested under a pair of neat, slightly curved eyebrows. Her tall nose and her delicate, ruby-lipped mouth also stood out. The typically-unattractive blue and white school uniform also looked especially pure and stunning on her.

It was obvious that those photos on Weibo had been heavily edited because. After all, An Wen's elegance in real life was impeccable. 

An Wen responded to her peers' consolation with smiles, at the same time fulfilling their requests for autographs. By the time she reached the classroom, Weibo had already been overloaded with photos and videos of her. 

Numerous new videos of her were added onto Weibo and TikTok during those few days An Wen attended school. As a result, the number of her fans increased once again because of her pretty appearance. 

Lately, different entertainment companies started to contact her. After rounds of discussion, She decided to sign a contract with Hua Talent eventually. 

Not only was Hua Talent supported by the Chushi Group, it was also an old and well-established entertainment company that had produced many entertainers that received numerous public praise. The company had both resources and capital. Generally, it would be quite difficult to work under this company. 

After signing the contract, Hua Talent assigned Song Jia to be An Wen's celebrity agent. Song Jia used to represent the king of the silver screen – Yang Zezhou. Their first encounter started off by Song Jia sizing her up and down before eventually saying, "Indeed, your outer appearance is flawless. But, I don't want to represent just another pretty face. (TN: The author used the word vase which figuratively means a woman employed for her beauty.) Do you have any videos taken when you're acting?"

Jiang Shiyu went on her phone and showed some clips to Song Jia. The stern expression on the agent's face softened a little after. The lady even expressed her approval. 

In other words, she was willing to represent An Wen and be her agent. 

"Due to the recent chaos, I've signed you up for a variety show, hoping to promote your popularity before the drama's official airing. I heard that you want to audition for Flower Falls in Chang'An?"

"Yes," replied An Wen.

"Which role would you like to audition for?" questioned Song Jia. 

"Lin Wanting."

Song Jia's eyes twinkled at that reply. "It's good for the experience anyway. This is the script for Flower Falls in Chang'An. You have one week to prepare for the audition."

Song Jia passed the script over.

An Wen's agent signed her up for this variety show called "My Desired Prince." The host would invite a different female artist for the guest-appearance session of each episode. The female guest would select a makeup style of her preference. The host would then have the four regular male guests put the makeup on her according to her liking. This particular variety show required the female guest star to be on the screen with their natural face without any makeup. Although a light filter would be turned on in the post-production, many female stars still did not want to participate in the show because of that reason.

This variety show aired on Tomato Channel at 10 p.m., hosted by the channel's very own persona Wu Lei. Its audience rating on TV was considered fairly well for a variety show, and its playback amount online was more than billions. 

The identity of the female guest star for each episode was not revealed beforehand in order to keep the male guests in suspense.

The four regular male guests for the show were Xu Liangxuan, Li Yuebin, Yang Ziming, and Zhuo Shaoyuan. Among these actors, Zhuo Shaoyuan participated in the production of "Calming the Cosmos." He played the role of Feihong, a spiritual eagle that would become Xuanyuan Zun's acquaintance in the West Mountain. The two of them eventually became each others' close companions. An Wen was familiar with him, albeit not having acted on the same scene as him before.

The recording of the show was arranged to be at 6 p.m. on that same day, but An Wen arrived at the studio an hour earlier. There was a camera positioned at the studio dressing room to film the process of the female guest stars removing their make-up. This would then be posted on their online platform as additional, behind-the-scenes features. An Wen did not put on any makeup prior to filming for this variety show, which was why she was startled for a few seconds when Wu Lei instructed her to start removing her makeup in front of the camera. Still, she listened to the instruction and started massaging the soaked cotton-pad on her face. 

A brief moment later, Wu Lei finally noticed something was off so he asked, "Did you put on any makeup earlier?"

An Wen shook her head. "No, I didn't," she replied, traces of cleansing foam still lingered on her face.