During the month of preparation, Rong Guang had wanted to pick up her phone several times and, feigning ignorance, ask Chu Feiliang some questions.
But after thinking it over again and again, Rong Guang ultimately didn’t dare.
She was a complete coward.
She was afraid that since they weren’t familiar with each other yet, what would happen if she bothered Chu Feiliang and was met with disdain?
After all, this was several years early, and she hadn’t met Chu Feiliang through a proper, chance encounter… From the very beginning, she had ulterior motives for going to the audition. If Chu Feiliang were to find out…
Rong Guang was worried that Chu Feiliang would get angry.
This conflicted feeling stayed with Rong Guang right up until the start of filming.
The night before filming began, Rong Guang took Chacha and returned to the company with Tang Yuan. An artist taking on a private job had to be reported to the company, and their contracts had not yet been fully finalized.
However, after she entered the company, the employees’ reactions to seeing her were somewhat unexpected.
She had rarely come back over the past month, and the company had never assigned her any activities, not even the most basic photoshoots or commercials.
Most people knew in their hearts that Rong Guang’s career was likely completely over from now on.
Some felt it was a pity, some kicked her while she was down, but most were just onlookers enjoying the drama.
But today… it seemed exceptionally lively.
Tang Yuan’s forehead was covered in sweat.
The office air conditioning was turned down low. Despite the nearly forty-degree weather outside, many people inside were still wearing long pants and denim jackets. Even so, it couldn’t stop the sweat from beading on her forehead.
Rong Guang knew with one look that Tang Yuan was hiding something from her.
But now wasn’t a good time to ask. Signing the papers upstairs was more important.
“How pitiful. After falling from grace, she has to become an actress, only to suffer such a huge humiliation.”
“Doesn’t she deserve it?” another person whispered. “Jiang Ruyi is a rising starlet promoted by Yixun Media, after all. She gained three million fans in her first year. It took Rong Guang three years to reach three million.”
“But isn’t Rong Guang’s account just full of ads…” another voice chimed in. “She’s never posted on Weibo herself, so of course she wouldn’t attract fans.”
But the other two probably didn’t want to discuss whether Rong Guang’s low follower count was due to ‘an inability to attract fans or just the wrong management strategy.’ They just kept on with the gossip they preferred to believe and follow.
Chacha, who was squatting by the trash can in the corner and dealing with a handful of sunflower seed shells, turned her head and stuck out her tongue.
She’d cracked too many seeds, and her tongue hurt. The people behind her, who had been gossiping up a storm, paused. Recognizing the child who had been with Rong Guang, they exchanged glances and guiltily buried their faces back toward their desks.
Chacha dusted off her hands, held her head high with her chest puffed out, and walked away without a single sideways glance.
While waiting for the elevator, Rong Guang had heard pretty much everything.
Anything related to Jiang Ruyi… could probably only be about the previous audition.
She just didn’t know what on earth Jiang Ruyi had done to make these people pity her so much, while lavishing praise on Jiang Ruyi—a complete reversal of Jiang Ruyi’s usual half-loved, half-hated reputation.
Rong Guang had only recently been transferred to Tang Yuan. To process the contract, she still needed Cai Xiang’s official stamp.
Letting this procedure drag on indefinitely wasn’t a solution.
Rong Guang frowned and asked, “How are the contract negotiations with the company going?”
“They said it would be signed today, right along with your contract.” Tang Yuan also frowned and glanced at the time. “There’s no reason for them to lie to me about this. Let’s go up and see.”
Now, all they could do was wait for them.
Rong Guang frowned. After all, her current situation was far too passive.
Inside the office, upon hearing a knock on the door, Cai Xiang instantly shot up from Chen Changping’s lap.
She wiped the smile from her face. As Tang Yuan opened the door, she was still adjusting her work skirt, its zipper pulled halfway down.
Rong Guang faltered, her eyes landing on Chen Changping’s upper body, which was hidden behind the heavy office desk. She frowned in disgust.
This company lacked the strength of its competitors, but it had mastered the art of sycophancy and… other vices that even larger companies hadn’t.
If she hadn’t become an instant sensation at her debut, and if Duan Nong hadn’t always been subtly protecting her, whether she could have—or would have been willing to—continue in this industry would have been another question entirely.
“Sister Cai, Brother Chen,” Tang Yuan called out from the doorway.
Chen Changping cleared his throat. “Here to sign the papers, right? Cai Xiang, you handle it.”
Cai Xiang nodded, pushed up her glasses, and, clicking her heels, grabbed a few documents from the table before leading Rong Guang and the others to the outer office.
The signing process went smoothly.
But after the papers were signed, Cai Xiang couldn’t help but laugh.
She laughed so excessively that even Rong Guang couldn’t help but glance up at her.
A glint appeared in Chacha’s eyes. “Auntie, what’s so funny?”
Cai Xiang’s smile immediately froze on her face. The corners of her mouth hovered, refusing to lift, and her cheeks twitched, making her look like someone who had lost control of their facial muscles.
She gritted her teeth, glanced at Chacha’s face, and ultimately restrained herself from losing her temper right there.
She wouldn’t stoop to getting angry with a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl over a form of address.
So, she vented all her anger on the innocent Rong Guang and the equally innocent Tang Yuan.
“I heard you auditioned for a role in The Eldest Princess?” A mocking smile spread across Cai Xiang’s face. “I must have underestimated you. To think that even after leaving me, you still had the connections to find the production crew. But you’re also completely overestimating your own abilities. Without the company to pull strings for you, do you really think you could pass an audition on your own?”
Tang Yuan’s lips moved, but she held back from speaking.
This time, Rong Guang didn’t even give her a glance.
After confirming the contract was in order, Rong Guang finished organizing the documents, took her and Tang Yuan’s copies, and handed them to Chacha to put away. Then she smiled. “I’m so sorry to disappoint you, Auntie Cai, but I passed the audition. It’s for a supporting role.”
Once again, Cai Xiang’s expression became paralyzed by the form of address.
If Rong Guang didn’t want to cause trouble for Chu Feiliang, and if now wasn’t the best time to be associated with her, she would have loved to see…
…just what kind of expression Cai Xiang would make upon learning that the actress she would be sharing scenes with was Chu Feiliang.
“It would definitely be brilliant,” Chacha suddenly chimed in.
Cai Xiang subconsciously asked, “What?”
But Chacha gave her a pitying look, as if she’d decided the woman’s intelligence was lacking and lost all interest in continuing the conversation.
Cai Xiang, however, still hadn’t recovered from that last remark. She just frowned and glanced at Rong Guang.
However, none of the three people before her said another word. Suddenly, Cai Xiang felt like she had figured it out.
Passed the audition for a supporting role?
So what?
A person buying things on the street, a passerby, a farmer, even a shouting vendor is a supporting character!
She was just being stubborn, putting on a brave face!
The smile on Cai Xiang’s face turned malicious. She couldn’t help but widen it, and to retaliate for Rong Guang’s earlier jab, she sneered, “The great leader of the NO.1 girl group, now scrambling to play a minor supporting role. Rong Guang, you really are pathetic.”
Three years ago, the four members of NO.1 were indeed the company’s biggest cash cow, and it was true she had to put them on a pedestal and serve them carefully.
But today, three years later, Rong Guang was barely better than a street rat everyone wants to beat.
In a little while, she’d probably be worse off than a street rat.
Thinking of what would soon be exposed, Cai Xiang couldn’t help but gloat inwardly. “A mere supporting role has made you this smug. Rong Guang, just you wait. In the future, you won’t even get to play a supporting role.”
So what if she was top-tier talent? So what if her fans called her a divine beauty?
Without the company, without a stage, Rong Guang wasn’t even fit to carry her shoes.
If she’d had Rong Guang’s good fortune when she first entered the business, if she hadn’t chosen to follow Chen Changping and waste decades of her life, right now she…
…would probably have been at the pinnacle of the entertainment world long ago.
Cai Xiang stared at Rong Guang’s face, full of collagen and youthful vitality, and felt a jealousy so intense it made her throat go dry.
Rong Guang paid her no mind at all.
Over the years, no matter where the group was, as long as Cai Xiang was with them, she would always say, “If only things had been different for me back then, my achievements today would surely surpass all of yours.”
At first, the four girls would comfort her. But as Cai Xiang repeated it more and more, her words containing not a shred of truth and mostly just flights of fancy…
…no one had the heart to comfort her anymore. It was already an effort just to muster the energy to humor her.
Once they left the company, Tang Yuan let out a heavy sigh. “I’d heard that Sister Cai was always hung up about not being able to debut back then, but I never thought it was actually true… She can’t go three sentences without bringing up the past.”
“That’s because she has no future,” Rong Guang said lightly, casually ruffling Chacha’s hair.
Chacha rubbed the top of her head against Rong Guang’s hand and said with narrowed eyes, “Even a child like me knows the importance of self-respect and self-love.”
She had gathered quite a bit of information on Cai Xiang before.
As for debuting… she was a long way off.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t talented, but in a group of just over a hundred people, she only managed to rank in the forties.
Rong Guang, on the other hand, had debuted in first place.
There was simply no comparison between the two of them.
“We join the cast tomorrow…” Rong Guang never wasted energy on things that didn’t concern her. She lowered her head and glanced at her phone again.
Chu Feiliang wasn’t the type to post on social media often. The rare times she did, it was either photos from a vacation or snapshots of her daily life on set.
She took a vacation once a year at most, and she posted once per vacation.
Rong Guang sighed. Unable to see or touch her, the loneliness was truly unbearable.
