Actresses

Chapter 56 Details

Although Shi Jiahe didn't make any obvious or exaggerated physical reaction, she couldn't help but think, "You're an actress yourself, how can you ask our Sister Ran such a question!" But at the same time, an evil voice in her heart said, "Good question, I actually want to know too."

However, Shi Jiahe knew that He Yuran was never one to be trifled with, so how could she possibly be subdued by Zhuang Pan?

As expected, He Yuran simply said, "Every group has people trying to take advantage of me. Am I just going to let them all succeed?"

"That was amazing!" Zhuang Pan exclaimed.

"As an actress, you must know this too. I just want to ask, what percentage of the investors, producers, and directors you've met are completely innocent and have no designs on the actresses in their productions? We actresses shouldn't make things difficult for ourselves."

"I don't know, sis," Zhuang Pan said coquettishly.

Shi Jiahe sighed, "It has to be my Sister Ran. No wonder she was able to fight her way through the most feudal film industry. Those who had ill intentions towards her would probably have been wiped out long ago."

But from another perspective, she suddenly felt very sorry for him.

I wonder how many things He Yuran went through before or even after becoming famous, in places where no one could see her. Fortunately, He Yuran isn't the type to hide and cry. From this perspective, it's okay for her to be a little crazy.

"What happened to you?" He Yuran wasn't about to let Zhuang Pan off so easily and immediately pressed for an answer.

"No, it's just that I feel vaguely uncomfortable."

"What? Did another old man promise you something?"

"Sis, how did you guess?"

"What else could it be? Just tell me, is there any other possibility? It can't be that your boyfriend has ill intentions towards you, can it?" He Yuran said.

"It's a little... hard to say." Zhuang Pan's words clearly showed hesitation.

"Oh! You think there's someone in the house, right..." He Yuran's voice rang out. "Little sisters, why don't you rest for a while? We need to talk about something private."

"Oh, it's not that bad!"

Zhuang Pan was still declining, but the technicians serving her were clearly very friendly. "Well, after finishing the last process, you two need to rest for a bit. Talk to us, and call us anytime if you need anything."

Shi Jiahe then heard static coming from the microphone, and someone went out and closed the door.

Shi Jiahe thought to herself that she was practically watching a live broadcast—no, it was more like eavesdropping… but she felt no shame, only a strong urge to rush over and see what was happening. If Zhuang Pan knew that He Yuran was broadcasting these private conversations live, she would be furious.

"Speak, there's no one here now," He Yuran said.

Zhuang Pan sighed, then stammered for a while. "Sister, you knew about me being with... all along, didn't you?"

She was referring to her boyfriend's name.

"Oh, the circle is only so big. I've heard about it before, but since you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask anymore."

"He told me about an investor, whose boss he has a good relationship with, who's going to be making a big production. He knows I haven't been on set lately, so he wants to introduce me to that boss to talk about the female lead. The last time I got angry with you was because Stone was really against me going to meet him, but last night, I still went."

Shi Jiahe thought to herself, "Hmph, you have no idea how worried Sister Stone was when you went there. And she probably didn't tell you anything."

"Myself?" He Yuran asked.

"right."

"Your agent didn't accompany you? That's incredibly negligent."

"Oh, it's not her fault, I didn't tell her. To be honest, I was pretty angry after we had dinner that day, I didn't want to see anyone, and I didn't reply to her WeChat messages after I left. I just didn't want her to find me. My boyfriend and I hadn't seen each other for a while, so I called him and asked him for an explanation, whether it was okay or not. If not, then forget it, what kind of relationship is it if we can't see each other all the time? Then my boyfriend said, 'Do you want to go out tonight? And that investor is there too, they were going to have a meeting anyway.' I said, 'Why should I see him when we're just the two of us?' But he said, 'We're both actors, right now work is more important than relationships, isn't it? Why can't you be understanding?' I thought about it, and what he said made sense, so I went. It was also a good opportunity to see him, and we could have a good argument."

"But you're going alone, that's too risky. Don't you have anyone with you by your side?"

"The key is that I don't want Shi Tou to know. I was thinking, if I break up with him, that would be just what she wants, she loves to hear that, and I can't let her be happy right away. If we haven't broken up, then there's no need to tell her."

"And then what happened?"

"Sis, you know what? The place we went to was really weird. He picked me up in his car, and we went to a private house in a hutong (alleyway) near the Second Ring Road. My boyfriend was really smug the whole way there, telling me that you couldn't even rent this house without a guarantor and proof of funds. This place was specifically for discussing serious business, and it was made to look really high-class. I said, 'Oh, your brother here is quite influential.'"

Shi Jiahe thought to herself, "Why do these celebrities also seem so naive?" But she decided to listen anyway. She also felt relieved that she and Sister Stone hadn't searched everywhere until dawn yesterday. A private residence in a hutong within the Second Ring Road—she couldn't possibly think of that!

"Did you talk to him about your relationship?"

"He was the one talking the whole way. He was so happy, he just wouldn't stop talking, and I didn't get a chance to say a word."

He Yuran, with her sharp tongue, said, "I think you should read more books, or if that doesn't work, try stand-up comedy. Otherwise, you won't even win an argument. Look at you, I said a few words to you the other day and you cried. I wanted to say, 'Huh? Is that all? At least talk back!'"

"Sis, is that what you call arguing? That was one-sided torture. Besides, what you said that day was really awful."

"You put up with it even though it sounds awful, didn't you? You're just bad at talking."

"I couldn't argue with you, so I... I continued talking about yesterday. Then we got to the alley. Sister, you don't know, I haven't felt like this in a long time. Even though it's in Beijing, it's so dark at night, and we were in an alley with no one around. I even doubted whether anyone lived there. But he assured me it was a very private house, so I had no choice but to follow him in, thinking to myself, 'Am I going to be kidnapped?' I even started memorizing the route, figuring out how to escape."

"I doubt they'd sell you out, but it was definitely wrong of you to keep it from your agent. And to put it another way, what if something really did happen..."

"Sigh, right? I regret it now too, but things got to that point last night, and it was too late to turn back. Then we went in and came to a very inconspicuous door. He knocked on the door, and someone opened it from the inside. From the moment we entered the courtyard, I realized that there was something special about this place. You can tell from the layout of the courtyard that it was all calculated by a master."

Upon hearing this, Shi Jiahe immediately felt a headache coming on. She thought to herself, "Here we go again, it's the same old routine."

Zhuang Pan continued, "Anyway, my boyfriend rambled on and on about how good the feng shui was here. Once inside, the inner part of the living room was a Buddhist shrine, and we were in the outer reception area, which had sofas, but there were two people sitting on the carpet. Guess what they were doing?"

"They're not kissing, are they?" He Yuran said.

"Oh dear, sis, there are two men."

"Two men can kiss too," He Yuran said, laughing.

"No, it's not like that. They were both obviously straight guys, sis, you're kidding me. Anyway, they were both sitting on the carpet, staring very intently at an iPad in front of them. It was showing a live stream, and the interface was all in English. Then my boyfriend told me to come sit on the sofa behind him and not make a sound. I was totally confused. I asked, 'What's going on?' He said it was a lecture. So I sat down and watched the live stream too. It was supposed to be some Rinpoche talking about life, but I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I could only scroll through my phone and watch short videos, and I didn't dare turn the sound on."

"that's all?"

"Yes, and then an hour and a half passed. The Rinpoche kept giving lectures, and they kept listening. In the middle, he said something in Chinese, but I couldn't understand it. Finally, the live stream was turned off, and then they poured some wine and said, 'Let's all have a drink together.'"

Shi Jiahe found the conversation increasingly abstract. But upon closer reflection, she realized she had indeed seen similar links on her WeChat Moments, links that included phrases like "Rinpoche giving a lecture." It suddenly dawned on her that these people weren't just sharing links or clicking on them; they were using them as a pretext for socializing offline.

She tried hard to recall the relevant keywords and searched her WeChat Moments. She found that although the people who forwarded these links had different identities, including platform executives, artists, agents, stylists, etc., they did seem to have some subtle commonalities when she thought about it.

Then He Yuran asked again, "Did you drink it?"

"Their drink was whiskey, which was really strong. I don't usually drink it, and I couldn't handle it after just one sip. Also, I don't know if you believe in this kind of thing, but when I went into that room, I had a really strange feeling. I didn't feel in sync with the atmosphere there."

"I believe it. Aura is quite important, and it's the same when buying a house. I will never buy a house that doesn't appeal to me."

Shi Jiahe thought to herself, "Tsk, this is exactly where my sister's comfort zone is."

"I put down the wine after drinking very little. Then I thought it was about time to talk about the film, but I found that my boyfriend couldn't say a word. The two men kept talking about their recent trip abroad. I was there for almost two hours, and it was extremely awkward the whole time. The first hour or so was okay because I was listening to the lecture, but I couldn't stand it anymore, so I said I needed to use the restroom. My boyfriend said, 'I'll take you there.' The two men didn't even look at us. I didn't expect the house to be so big. We had to walk through two rooms to get to the restroom in one of the suites. I was already very unhappy at that point, so I asked him, 'What did you call me here for today?' He said, 'To get to know each other first, so we can talk. Otherwise, do you think I'd just give you the lead role after we sit down?' I said, 'Is this what you call getting to know each other? Since I arrived, have we had a single serious conversation? All your so-called busyness is spent accompanying people doing this kind of thing?' My boyfriend got angry and said, 'This is an opportunity to improve myself! Why can't you be a little more sincere?' I was so angry that I laughed."

"I laughed too," He Yuran said. "He might as well have given you a book."

"Yes! I was very angry. I came to see him. I didn't really care about the acting opportunity, but seeing that he was just wasting my time, I became a little more sober. I told him very seriously that I was leaving after I went to the restroom. I felt very uncomfortable after drinking that alcohol, so I went to the restroom twice."

Shi Jiahe burst out laughing. She thought, "You should have gone to the restroom first, instead of shouting at people here. What if a guy blocks the door and won't let you in? Let's see who dies from holding it in."

But a second later, Shi Jiahe couldn't help but examine herself.

Is she being too averse to Zhuang Pan? She can't seem to hide her subconscious dislike. She thinks she needs to restrain herself; what if they really become colleagues on set?

She had a strong intuition that this possibility was becoming increasingly likely.