Time passed quickly, and before she knew it, the day of Chi Yan’s audition had arrived.
The audition prompt was simple: cry or laugh. The judges would select a few promising contestants from each region based on their performances to advance to the next round.
Chi Yan had heard that when the competition narrowed down to the top twenty, four renowned directors would act as judges. Each director would pick five contestants to form a team, and they would compete against one another.
The top twenty was the real test. If a director and an actor couldn’t work well together, the consequences would be irreversible.
“The next contestant, Chi Yan. Please be ready.”
Waiting backstage, Chi Yan stood up as soon as she heard her name and walked toward the staff member.
“Alright, you can go up now,” the staff member said. With sharp eyes, they immediately noticed the previous contestant walking offstage.
That contestant had red-rimmed eyes and was empty-handed. A single glance told Chi Yan that she had been eliminated.
With the staff’s cue, Chi Yan stepped onto the stage.
She bowed and briefly introduced herself. “Hello, judges. I am contestant number 66, Chi Yan.”
“You look a little familiar,” one of the judges said. “Have you acted before?”
“I don’t have any prior acting experience,” Chi Yan replied. She couldn’t mention anything about her past life, so this was the only answer she could give.
Another judge suddenly remembered, “Oh, Chi Yan! I recall now—you were trending on social media a few days ago for hosting an event!”
“Yes,” Chi Yan smiled. “I didn’t expect the judges to have seen that.”
The judges seemed intrigued, but due to time constraints, the judge seated in the center spoke up, “You may begin your performance.”
Chi Yan had dressed simply today—a white crew-neck T-shirt and denim jeans. Her makeup was light, giving her a fresh and natural appearance.
As soon as the judge said “begin,” she fully immersed herself in the scene.
She turned slightly to the side, staring at empty space, and spoke in a cheerful tone: “Surprised? I did it all.”
As she finished speaking, a slow smile spread across her face—genuine and filled with innocence.
With the same smile, Chi Yan turned to face the judges. At that moment, tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her face.
She was still smiling, but the tears and the expression on her face conveyed an overwhelming sorrow.
“Brilliant!” The judges burst into applause.
“The final crying scene was deeply moving! It’s the best performance I’ve seen today!” The center judge praised. “You deserve this advancement card!”
Chi Yan let out a breath of relief and stepped forward to receive it. “Thank you, judges!”
She didn’t linger backstage. Instead, she took out her phone, snapped a picture of the advancement card, adjusted the filter, and posted it on Weibo with the caption: Made it through the first round~
She understood the importance of gaining fans. In her past life, she had suffered because she played too many villainous supporting roles early in her career, which led to a poor public image. That was one of the reasons she never won a Best Actress award.
After posting, she picked up her advancement card and left. Just as she was exiting, she ran into Xu Yi.
“Chi Yan?”
Chi Yan turned around and saw Xu Yi standing not far behind her.
Xu Yi jogged up to her. “It really is you! You’re competing too?”
“Yes. You advanced as well? Congratulations.” Chi Yan noticed the advancement card in Xu Yi’s hand.
“Congrats to you too! When I first saw you, I wasn’t sure if it was really you. I didn’t expect you to be here.”
Thinking back to their previous meal together, Chi Yan smiled.
“I have something to do, so let’s talk later. But for the next round, when they pick the top twenty and we have to form teams, I’m calling dibs on you first,” Xu Yi said with a grin. “It’s reassuring to team up with someone familiar.”
“Sure.” Chi Yan didn’t refuse—she didn’t mind who her teammates were.
Since Chi Yan’s mother had already rented an apartment, she didn’t return to her uncle’s house that night.
When she got home, her mother was there.
“You’re back,” her mother said, sitting in the living room, working on a cross-stitch project. “Was today tiring?”
“No, Mom, I’m not tired. I made it through!” Chi Yan excitedly handed her mother the advancement card.
“My daughter is amazing.”
Having moved in with Chi Yan, her mother knew exactly what she was up to. Seeing Chi Yan advance made her happier than anyone.
To celebrate, she even went out to buy all of Chi Yan’s favorite dishes.
During dinner, her mother received a phone call.
Then, she turned to Chi Yan and said, “Your dad called again. He said that no matter what, he has ways to make you drop out of the competition. Chi Yan, what should we do?”
Chi Yan immediately put down her chopsticks and called Chi Hongzheng back.
It was as if her father had expected her call. As soon as he answered, he said, “Chi Yan, have you realized your mistake? Be a good girl, withdraw from the competition, and come home with your mother. You can’t just live anywhere like this—it’s embarrassing!”
He still didn’t know that Chi Yan and her mother had moved out of her uncle’s house.
Chi Yan replied coldly, “You’re being way too biased. If Yang Yueyi can compete, why can’t I? If people find out that you’re funding your mistress’s daughter while sabotaging your own, Dad, wouldn’t that be a bit disgraceful?”
For the sake of persuasion, she even forced herself to call him Dad, despite the disgust it made her feel.
Chi Hongzheng thought about Chi Yan’s words and found them reasonable. He said, “Alright, I won’t interfere in this matter anymore. But you and your mother have been at odds for long enough—it’s time to come home.”
“My mom is still angry, so I wouldn’t dare persuade her. Why don’t you call her yourself?” Chi Yan said. “My mom’s calling me for dinner, so I’ll hang up now.”
She pushed the problem back to him, thinking to herself: Want me to go back to the Chi family? Dream on.
After finally having a peaceful meal, her evening quickly became busy again.
Xu Yi sent Chi Yan a message: “Congratulations! You’re on the trending list again!”
Chi Yan was momentarily stunned and opened Weibo to check.
It turned out that after she posted her update, a few enthusiastic fans had clipped her audition performance and uploaded it online.
Looking at the trending topics—#ChiYanAdvances, #ActingCompetition, #ChiYan’sPerformanceMovesHearts—Chi Yan felt dazed for a moment.
In her past life, she had been practically immune to trending lists, rarely making it on even once in years. She had no idea what kind of luck she had in this life—she had already trended multiple times in just a few days.
Chi Yan clicked on her Weibo profile and saw that her follower count had surpassed 200,000. The notifications for private messages hadn’t stopped.
She was a little overwhelmed. Checking her last post, she saw fans flooding the comments with encouragement.
“Sister, you’re amazing! I believe you’ll keep advancing all the way!”
“I always knew you were beautiful and confident on stage, but I had no idea your acting was this good too!”
“Everyone, let’s open a super topic (fan forum) for our sister! [Application link for Chi Yan’s Super Topic]”
“We need to decide on a fan name! Any ideas?”
It was the first time Chi Yan had received this kind of support, and she wasn’t quite sure how to handle it.
She knew that right now, without any real film or television works to her name, her fans and popularity were as fragile as floating wood on water—unstable and fleeting.
So, she posted a new Weibo update:
“Thank you all for your support. I won’t let you down! P.S. Let’s call the fandom ‘Fireworks’ (Yanhuo).”
As soon as the post went up, fans were ecstatic.
“Got it, sister! From now on, we’re your Fireworks!”
“Sister, we’ll let it slide this time, but in the future, don’t read our casual chat messages! Keep your distance from fan life!”
Chi Yan saw this comment and immediately replied with an “OK” hand emoji.
Coincidentally, the comment was from Xiao Chen, the fan who first clipped her hosting video. Seeing Chi Yan’s reply, Xiao Chen was so excited they practically fainted.
“Sister actually replied to me! Ahhh! I’ll love her forever!”
Chi Yan simply chuckled. She had seen all kinds of fans in her past life. People who swore eternal loyalty today might move on to a new idol tomorrow if she didn’t stay in the spotlight.
She didn’t take such words too seriously.
After checking Weibo, she switched back to WeChat.
Wang Ying messaged her, trying to secure her after seeing her trend again.
“Chi Yan, congratulations on making the trending list again. With more fans, you’ll have an advantage in the online voting later.”
Chi Yan politely replied, “Thank you, Sister Ying. I didn’t expect to be this lucky.”
“Mm. When you decide to sign with an agency, I hope you’ll consider Bo Le first. Our contract will definitely be more suitable for you than the other two companies’.”
“Got it.”
After responding to Wang Ying, she replied to Xu Yi.
“Thanks! If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known.”
“No need to thank me. We’re old classmates—no need to be so polite! That reminds me, when we form teams later, I’ll be relying on your popularity.”
Chi Yan thought to herself: No matter how popular I get, I still can’t compare to that child star who got a direct pass to the Top 20.
But she still replied politely: “You’ll definitely gain fans later too.”
After exchanging pleasantries, Chi Yan immediately jotted down notes about the child star and the four director judges who would be selecting the Top 20.
She never fought a battle unprepared.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember the exact challenges from her past life. But that didn’t matter—there was no guarantee the challenges would be the same, and relying too much on memory wasn’t a solid strategy.
The four directors had already been announced. Chi Yan had worked with three of them in her past life.
None of them had been particularly difficult to work with, but if she had to choose the most comfortable collaboration, it would be with the youngest one—Yu Jingming.
However, she was concerned that he might not be as skilled as he was when they worked together in her past life. Right now, he was just a fresh graduate who had recently won a New Director Award.
Such an inexperienced director made her uncertain about his ability to handle a production.
The other two weren’t difficult to work with either, though one female director was notoriously harsh on actresses. The last judge was an industry-renowned director who had no problem scolding actors on set.
Chi Yan pondered for a while and decided to reach out to Yu Jingming first.
She looked up his Weibo account, intending to send him a private message, only to find that he had already sent her one.
“Hello, Chi Yan. I’m one of the four director judges for the show The Road of Actors. I was very impressed with your audition performance. Would you consider joining my team when the Top 20 are selected?”
Chi Yan slowly typed her response:
“Hello, Director Yu. I’m sorry, I just saw your message. Is it allowed for directors to privately discuss team formation in advance?”
Yu Jingming replied quickly:
“Yes, the production team allows it. The other directors don’t need to recruit since they already have a strong fan base, but I’m in a bit of a tough spot. [Bitter emoji]”
His honesty caught Chi Yan off guard.
She ultimately replied: “I’ll take some time to think about it and give you an answer before filming starts. Is that alright?”
Yu Jingming was overjoyed, sending several happy emojis and asking to add her as a friend.
Chi Yan naturally agreed. However, when it came to choosing her team, she still wanted to weigh her options a little longer.
