“Too droopy.”
“Too flat.”
“Not full enough.”
“You. Stay. Turn around.”
Rong Shu obeyed and turned around. Aside from the tape covering her private areas, she was completely bare.
The lines of her slender back were smooth and fluid, trembling faintly with each breath. Perhaps because it was her first time taking on an explicit bed scene as a stand-in, or perhaps because of the cold, the pale skin of her back carried a faint, delicate flush of pink.
Her movements were slightly stiff, which somehow stirred an inexplicable urge to protect her.
Su Wanying studied the girl. Young, dewy skin. An air of pure sensuality tempered with just the right touch of allure.
She glanced toward Shen Baizhu, who was in the distance preparing for the bed scene. Saying she wasn’t worried would have been a lie.
But Shen Baizhu was the cleanest male actor in the industry. Respectful of women. Not a single romantic rumor since his debut. Thinking of that, a warmth bloomed quietly in her chest.
He had promised her, and only her, to play up their couple image, to become her publicly acknowledged boyfriend in the industry.
Shen Baizhu’s public persona was the cold and detached film emperor, and his real life was no different. He would never be swayed by something as simple as a pretty face and a nice body.
“Not bad. You’ll do. Three days, thirty thousand in appearance fees.”
Rong Shu’s face broke into a bright, pleased smile, a faint shy warmth rising to her cheeks as she pulled her robe back on. “Thank you, Sister.”
Su Wanying watched that guileless, disarming smile and felt the corners of her own mouth stiffen slightly.
Rong Shu understood perfectly well what Su Wanying was worried about.
Su Wanying was afraid she would steal her boyfriend.
What was there to worry about?
She was here precisely to steal him.
Sorry, Female Lead. Your Male Lead is mine now.
Rong Shu belonged to the Quick Transmigration Bureau’s Villainous Female Supporting Characters Division. For a long time, she had dutifully followed the script, arc after arc. Then, after her nine hundred and ninety-ninth death at the hands of various male and female leads, killed by blades, guns, buried alive, legs broken, she had reached her limit.
What pushed her over the edge? The author’s closing remarks at the end of the novel:
“I love every character I’ve ever written. They are all my children.”
Author!!!! Did you ever spare even a single moment of favoritism for me?
She quit!!! Handed in her resignation and jumped ship straight into the Bad Women’s Division, dedicated entirely to the wicked business of destroying couples.
This arc was set in an entertainment industry novel.
The male lead was film emperor Shen Baizhu. The female lead was a fresh-faced ingenue. The two of them would fall genuinely in love while filming the explicit historical drama Forced to Wed, Lady Liu, and Su Wanying would ride that wave all the way to her Best Actress crown.
As for her, Rong Shu, she was nothing more than a small-time bed scene stand-in. A litmus test, meant to prove that the male lead’s body only ever responded to his one true female lead.
In the original story, she was a villainous supporting character who harbored wicked intentions toward Shen Baizhu and attempted to seduce him using her body. After sneaking into his room one night while he was drunk, she was promptly thrown out, blacklisted across every major entertainment company on his orders, sacrificed on the altar of true love.
Only responds to the female lead? Hah! She let out a quiet, internal laugh. That’s just a novel’s setting. Reality tends to be a different story entirely.
How delightfully interesting.
Rong Shu cast her gaze across the Hengdian set room toward the man settling onto the bed with a slight furrow of his brow. A pair of narrow, bewitching phoenix eyes, cold and dark, the dim light catching the sharp line of his jaw and making him look even more detached and indifferent.
They say the coldest men run the hottest when the lights go out.
The director’s voice crackled loudly over the walkie-talkie: All cast members, take your positions.
Su Wanying sat beside the director, her gaze fixed straight at the two figures on the monitor.
The director smiled. “Teacher Su, here to do an inspection?”
Su Wanying laughed softly, a hint of bashfulness in her voice. “Not at all. Just here to study the Film Emperor’s acting technique.”
On the monitor, Rong Shu removed her shoes under the guidance of the set assistant and climbed onto the bed.
“Teacher Shen, hello. I’m Rong Shu.”
Shen Baizhu’s voice was cool and distant. “Hello.” He offered a faint, composed smile, polite and restrained.
He lay flat on the bed, his expression sharp and cold, gaze drifting idly toward the blank wall. Between his fingers rested a cigar, thick curls of smoke winding lazily around his hand, threading through the long, lean fingers with their faintly prominent knuckles.
One look, and you knew those hands had strength in them. If those hands were to close around her waist, pressing into the curve of her back with measured force…
That would be something worth experiencing.
T/N: Hengdian World Studios is basically China’s Hollywood, a massive filming base where most period and entertainment dramas are shot. When you see “Hengdian” you know drama (both kinds) is incoming 🎬🐱