Rong Guang took a few deep breaths, pursed her lips, and managed to pull her consciousness back, with great difficulty finally getting her brain to function normally again.
She smiled, unconsciously picking at the tablecloth with one hand.
Chacha found it amusing to watch. Coincidentally, a sliver of sunlight fell through a crack in the window onto Rong Guang’s fingers. After a moment’s thought, she took a picture of it with her camera.
She decided she would talk to her Sister Guangguang later. She didn’t want to go to school; she wanted to learn photography and become a photographer in the future. That way, she could openly take pictures of pretty older and younger sisters.
“I… I am very nervous.” Rong Guang’s face flushed slightly. Noticing the unflattering angle of her phone camera, she hurriedly and carefully moved the phone a little farther away.
She wanted to maximize her own video feed to adjust it, but she was reluctant to shrink Chu Feiliang’s window. After a moment, she could only rely on instinct, holding the phone a bit farther away to make herself look a little thinner.
On the other end, Chu Feiliang laughed. She fell silent for a moment, looked at Rong Guang in the camera, and said, “Alright, stop adjusting. You’re already beautiful enough.”
Rong Guang froze, then felt an exceptionally and overly familiar feeling from those words.
In the past… she had often heard Chu Feiliang say this.
Realizing she might have misspoken, Chu Feiliang paused, then changed the subject. “I have to shoot a supplementary scene in a bit, and I was afraid I wouldn’t have time to explain things clearly, so I just called you directly. I hope it wasn’t too presumptuous.”
“Not at all, not at all.” Rong Guang shook her head quickly, saying with some shyness, “I-I happen to not have much to do recently. I’m quite… quite free. You can find me anytime.”
Chu Feiliang was taken aback. After a moment, she looked at Rong Guang’s face, nodded slowly, and as if remembering something, murmured, “You’re this well-behaved?”
Rong Guang felt her heart pounding like a frightened deer.
Especially under the laser-like gazes of Chacha and Tang Yuan, their eyes wide, the conversation with Chu Feiliang made her feel even more embarrassed.
But upon hearing that question, Rong Guang still mustered her courage and said, “W-Well… I’m not always this well-behaved.”
Chu Feiliang let out a short laugh.
It seemed there were indeed many things waiting for her, as Chu Feiliang had already glanced away from the screen many times while speaking.
After a while, she said with a smile, “It’s not much, just to let you know. Study the script well when you have time. Get ready to join the production next month. If there’s anything you don’t understand or that doesn’t feel right, you can always ask me.”
Rong Guang nodded quickly, like a chick pecking at rice.
Rong Guang pursed her lips. The video call had ended a long time ago, but she still felt like she was walking on cotton, her whole body soft. It felt like happiness had come too suddenly.
Chacha poked her, sighing with emotion, “Sister Guangguang, you look like a young girl in the throes of first love right now.”
Rong Guang managed to speak, the blush still on her cheeks. She clutched her still-warm phone and chided with a smile, “Watch your words.”
“Okay.” Chacha grinned and buried her head back in her food, not minding Rong Guang’s light tap.
Over on the side, Tang Yuan also felt like the world had become surreal.
Seeing Rong Guang lower her head to eat again, she carefully wiped her mouth and said, “Were you just… on a video call with…?”
“With Teacher Chu.” Rong Guang’s hand holding the chopsticks tightened.
The fact that Chu Feiliang would video call her directly was truly beyond her expectations.
Tang Yuan nodded, feeling a bit out of it after hearing the confirmation.
Of course, she had recognized Chu Feiliang’s voice, but the bombshell was that Chu Feiliang had initiated a video call with Rong Guang and, moreover, told her to prepare to join the production next month.
These were like two thunderclaps on a clear day, almost making her feel like she was dreaming.
But having been a manager for over half a year, almost a year, she was much more capable of accepting certain things.
Perhaps Rong Guang came from a good family background and it wasn’t out of the question that she had connections with the Chu family.
After all, to be able to secure a role in 《The Eldest Princess》, Rong Guang was clearly not an ordinary person.
This gave Tang Yuan immense encouragement. She licked her lips, wanting to discuss the new arrangements needed for Rong Guang, but she didn’t want to talk about these unconfirmed private matters during a meal. After a moment, she said, “Let’s eat. Eat first.”
After the meal, Tang Yuan drove Rong Guang back to her apartment in her own car, then hurriedly rushed back to the company.
Rong Guang’s personal information, including her life story, was all at the company. The meeting today had been sudden, and she hadn’t had time to look at it. She needed to study it carefully and plan Rong Guang’s future based on her past.
However, after getting the files, Tang Yuan was beside herself with anger.
The group had four members in total. Besides Rong Guang, there were Duan Nong, Tang Shi, and Yi Chun.
And among the four, the youngest was Rong Guang, who had just celebrated her eighteenth birthday this year.
She was the youngest, yet she carried the most burdens.
Having been in the industry for nearly a year, she could see from the files the company’s favoritism towards Duan Nong and Yi Chun.
Her mic was turned off on stage, and the edited version only had a few fleeting shots of her. Comparing the raw footage to the final cut, Rong Guang was basically edited out completely.
This realization made Tang Yuan exceptionally furious, and it was only then that she confirmed that Rong Guang came from an ordinary family… and that this ordinary family was perhaps not a happy one.
Her father died in a car accident when she was young, and her mother remarried. Later, for some reason, she went to live with her grandmother. There was no mention of why her biological mother didn’t raise her. She would probably only get the answer after asking Rong Guang in person.
But now was clearly not the time.
When Tang Yuan first entered this circle, she had also been stubborn, holding onto a belief that was, in a way, even naive.
She had plenty of opportunities to be the exclusive manager for a few special artists, where she could live comfortably just by catering to their every need.
But because of her own stubbornness, she had insisted on staying at the bottom until now.
Everyone told her that it’s hard for a truly dazzling star to emerge from a grassroots background, but she never believed it.
She was unwilling to lose herself for those people, so she had been searching for a North Star to guide her.
In the files, footage of Rong Guang’s performances was still vivid. Every frown and every smile seemed to emit an incredibly dazzling light, and every beat was hit with perfect precision, making the viewers want to dance along. This was her innate charm.
Tang Yuan’s fists clenched. Even in such a terrible environment, Rong Guang had managed to single-handedly lead NO.1 to the top, only to be used by the company to build momentum for Duan Nong and Yi Chun, while being treated unfairly.
What if the environment could be better? What if she had more opportunities to showcase herself?
And that opportunity was right in front of them now.
It all depended on whether she could seize it for Rong Guang, and use this god-sent stepping stone to help her reach a higher level.
Tang Yuan took a deep breath. After copying all the files, she drove back to Rong Guang’s place, filled with fiery passion.
Rong Guang was in her room, looking at her phone screen over and over again.
The screen actually only showed a very brief exchange.
It was a few messages Chu Feiliang had sent later, asking for her phone number and address, saying an assistant would come to deliver the script. It was only then that Rong Guang remembered she hadn’t filled in her address on the application form because she had been planning to move.
This realization warmed Rong Guang’s heart.
She read the last sentence, ‘Feel free to ask me anytime you don’t understand,’ countless times, the smile on her lips growing wider and wider the more she looked at it.
When Tang Yuan entered, she saw that smile on Rong Guang’s face.
Her first thought was, ‘Did Chu Feiliang video call her again?’ Then, Tang Yuan closed the door, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked, “Guangguang, what exactly is your relationship with the Film Empress Chu?”
Rong Guang turned her head, still immersed in her earlier happiness, and said with a smile, “What?”
Tang Yuan frowned, feeling increasingly worried.
Especially when she thought about some of the rumors about Chu Feiliang, she couldn’t help but say, “What I mean is, we don’t know what kind of person Chu Feiliang is right now. For you to get close to her so rashly, it might be more beneficial than harmful in the short term, and you might get some advantages. But in the long run, it could be all harm and no benefit…”
She had heard long ago that Chu Feiliang liked to watch those young boys and girls, especially the ones with a vibrant, energetic feel.
It was common for pop singers to transition to television after their careers stalled, and the number of people Chu Feiliang had ‘mentored’ was by no means small.
Even though many of those who benefited were very grateful to Chu Feiliang publicly, how exactly she ‘mentored’ them… who knew?
Being at the center of the vortex now, Tang Yuan couldn’t help but worry for Rong Guang.
Rong Guang pursed her lips, and the smile on her face vanished.
