tiantianyingshi

The movie Tang Tu took part in during his freshman year had been invested on by Qiu Jing. He had also been picked out by Qiu Jing, and so Qiu Jing was, in a way, Tang Tu’s biggest benefactor.

Liu Man was extremely interested. The money she made with live-streaming and selling shoes, summed up, hadn’t even reached thirty-thousand RMB. If this week, her mother made an agreement with the Wang family, then they would definitely have to hand in three million. She really needed money.

It was probably Liu Man’s eyes that revealed her desire for money. Qiu Jing smiled, “If you successfully get this character in the end, we will pay you fifty-thousand RMB. Do you accept this part-time job?”

Five minutes… Fifty-thousand RMB. This was a very munificent deal.

She would have to be a numskull to not accept the deal, “I do, I do.” Liu Man nodded her head enthusiastically.

One of the things Qiu Jing really liked about Liu Man was how she never disguised herself. Those young teenage girls who had been brought in to see her had multiple layers of make-up on. Although their hearts were filled with greedy aspirations, they pretended to be ingenuous.

“This movie plans to start filming by the end of January. These five minutes of this character will not be filmed all at once, since it’ll be cut up and placed in different parts of the film. We aren’t sure when the director plans to film each part, so we need you to be available at all times during the entire winter holiday, and, of course, the spring festival.”

This was not a problem for Liu Man. Her father was still held in custody, and they probably wouldn’t be doing anything fun during this year’s spring festival.

“I will be available at all times.”

Qiu Jing nodded her head, “Friend me on WeChat later. Send me one of your casual photos with your whole body in it. It’s for the director to see. My WeChat ID is the phone number listed on that business card.”

“Alright.”

“To be on the record, I cannot give you a hundred-percent guarantee that you will definitely get this character. I still need to get permission from the director and the other producers.”

“Yeah, yeah. I understand,” Liu Man didn’t know a lot about the entertainment industry. However, she did know that no matter what era it was, benefits always tied closely with complex social connections. Take her father, the emperor, for example. Which woman of his did not have a background? Even her mother and aunt, the slaves who sang and danced, were brought up in the prince’s palace, and then delivered to the emperor. That represented the power of the prince.

As expected, this girl was mature and knew a lot. Qiu Jing was even more satisfied. She patted Liu Man’s shoulder, “Then, wait for my notice.”

As she watched Qiu Jing leave, Liu Man felt a bit unpragmatic. In the memories of old Liu Man, she knew that the position actors had nowadays were different from the actors in her era, who were slaves. Successful actors were now public figures. Actors could be admired by everyone since they could be glorious and dazzling and sought after by fans. They could earn a lot of money and have state-of-the-art cars and mansions.

“Manman, “Li Xiaoru’s lively shouts came to her from far away. Liu Man looked in her direction. She saw Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina walking side-by-side towards her, “What did that Professor Qiu want with you?”

“Oh, it’s just about yesterday’s piano exam. She was kind enough to give me some suggestions on my techniques,” Liu Man didn’t tell the truth. Firstly, this might change and she might not even get the character. Secondly, she was worried that they would assume that she was trying to get popular.

Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina’s piano skills were much better than Liu Man’s, but Liu Man was the one who got picked out. Liu Man was worried that they would feel uncomfortable. Li Xiaoru was the most carefree one out of them all, and she probably wouldn’t feel much uncomfortableness. However, Wang Nina was different. She had a pretty good appearance, an oval face and single-edged eyelids. She looked a bit like Lin Daiyu, the typical type of a pretty girl brought up from a moderate family. She was smart and knew how to deal with different kinds of people. She always had a lot of admirers and wooers. Wang Nina was also very pugnacious, and always wanted to compete with Li Xiaoru.

TL’s Note: Lin Daiyu = a well-known fictional character, and basically most Chinese know about her. Very sentimental and pretty

Li Xiaoru, as expected, didn’t think much. She linked her arm through Liu Man’s, grinning, “We didn’t watch your live-stream for the past few days, and when I opened the application this morning, purely out of boredom, I discovered that you have about 500 followers! Don’t you think it’s time to fulfill your promise? You said when you get to 100 fans, you would invite us to dinner at Ju Jiu Wu. Why don’t we go have dinner today at Ju Jiu Wu?”

TL’s Note: Ju Jiu Wu, in case y’all forgot, is a Japanese restaurant near their school that’s very expensive but popular

“How about tomorrow? I made a promise to have dinner with somebody else tonight,” Liu Man said, feeling sorry.

“Alright, alright. It’s the same thing anyway,” Li Xiaoru answered, she didn’t care that much about which day it was.

However, Wang Nina suddenly interrupted, “Who are you having dinner with? Professor Qiu?”

“Of course not, I’m having dinner with a friend,” Liu Man felt strange as to why Wang Nina would think so. She didn’t realize that Wang Nina was staring at the business card in her hand that she forgot to put away.

Fortunately, Li Xiaoru changed the topic, “Anyways, how did you suddenly get so many fans? The last time we watched your live-stream as fans, you only had a few dozen followers.”

“You’ll know the next time you watch my stream.”

As Liu Man replied, the phone in her pocket beeped. She took it out and saw that it was a WeChat message.

Yu Zhan: “I’m at your school’s north gate.”

“My friend is here,” Liu Man said to the duo, “I’ll be going now.”

Wang Nina abruptly linked her arm through Liu Man’s and smiled as she asked, “What friend is it? Male or female?”

This question inspired Li Xiaoru. As if she realized something, she smirked, “Of course it’s a male friend. Otherwise, why would our dinner be postponed to tomorrow? Aha, dates before mates.”

Liu Man blushed, “Don’t assume that, he’s just a friend.”

“Yea, yea, yea. ‘Just a friend.’ Anyways, Nina and I will be prying.”

Li Xiaoru wasn’t just saying that. As Liu Man walked in front of them, she and Wang Nina followed closely behind. The north gate was very close to the building, and Liu Man saw Yu Zhan’s car from far away. It was white, and it stood out like a sore thumb. Liu Man could also see, ambiguously, the person standing next to the car.

She immediately sprinted over. Yu Zhan wasn’t even able to react before she pulled open the door beside the passenger seat. She said with an urgent tone, “Quick, get in.”

Yu Zhan couldn’t understand her behavior but swiftly got into the car as told.

Liu Man sighed in relief.

“What’s wrong?”

“My two roommates were going to have dinner with me. I told them I had to eat dinner with someone else, and they wanted to see who I’m having dinner with.”

“Well, let them see. What’s wrong with showing them?”

“No, no, no,” Liu Man said briskly. Her face was still red, and it was hard to tell if it was from her running or if she was blushing again, “If we were seen, we would’ve gotten into trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” It was apparent that Yu Zhan was going to keep on asking. He couldn’t hide the smile in his eyes.

Liu Man got a bit irritated and said angrily, “My reputation would be sullied!”

Yu Zhan paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?”

Liu Man glared melancholily at him. Her eyes were watery, as if they were springs. They were limpid and pure.

Yu Zhan was deeply attracted to that pair of eyes, although he was still laughing on the outside. He was truly glad to have met this girl.

At that moment, he suddenly realized… He really liked her.

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien