By the third day, Mu Xuefei had a pretty good grasp of her past, but the strange thing was that she still couldn’t find anything about her original self’s background. She had asked Sister Chen, but the answer was that she didn’t know either.
Just as she was wrestling with her identity, the results of her previous audition finally came out.
“Guess what the result is?” Yun Yongjun asked with a half-smile, holding an envelope between two fingers as she sat on the sofa.
“I definitely got the part, why even guess?” Mu Xuefei rolled her eyes, having no intention of playing along.
Having spent the last two days stuck in the villa, she had seen right through Yun Yongjun’s teasing personality. Yun Yongjun loved to mess with her from time to time, and whenever she fell for it, her affection points would jump unexpectedly. The affection points had now climbed to seventy-three, just seven points away from reaching the stage of “more than friends, less than lovers.” This caused the little elf to complain day after day that gaining affection without really trying to woo someone defied science.
Noticing Mu Xuefei’s uncooperative attitude, Yun Yongjun smiled and, for once, didn’t push it further, instead quickly opening the envelope.
“Hm…?” After opening it, the smile on her face suddenly faded, and her expression turned hesitant.
Noticing her expression, Mu Xuefei suddenly sat up straight, her heart tightening. Even though she told herself she was a shoo-in, she didn’t have absolute certainty. After all, this was basically her first time acting, and the interviewer had mentioned that she lacked “something.” Even after pondering it for days, she still didn’t understand what that “something” was.
“Did I not pass?” She swallowed hard with a hint of bitterness, pressing her lips tightly together after asking the question.
Yun Yongjun frowned, hesitated for a moment, and finally handed the envelope to Mu Xuefei. “Take a look for yourself.”
Mu Xuefei took it hesitatingly, staring at the envelope with a conflicted look as she tried to comfort Yun Yongjun. “Even if I didn’t pass, it’s fine, because I… Wait, I passed?” Seeing the word “Accepted” written inside, her voice abruptly pitched up two or three tones.
Without saying anything more, she quickly scanned the rest of the text and finally let out a sigh of relief—she really had successfully landed the role of Shui Yu.
However, remembering Yun Yongjun’s earlier reaction, she quickly turned to look at her, only to find the other woman staring back at her with a gentle, “innocent” smile.
The moment she met Yun Yongjun’s gaze, Mu Xuefei felt whatever complaints she wanted to voice instantly vanish in her throat.
“That’s just cheating.” Mu Xuefei lowered her head and muttered to herself, occasionally looking up to glare resentfully at Yun Yongjun before drooping her head in defeat.
Seeing Mu Xuefei’s reaction, Yun Yongjun found it amusing. She reached out to gently ruffle the top of the other’s head, her tone filled with doting affection. “My mistake. But the crew said filming starts tomorrow. Aren’t you going to pack your things for the set?”
“My scenes are only about ten shots, so I won’t be staying long, right? I can just casually pack a few changes of clothes.”
“You’d better pack a bit more,” Yun Yongjun said with an ambiguous look. “After all, who knows if something unexpected might happen?”
“Unexpected?” Mu Xuefei raised an eyebrow. Noticing the coldness in the depths of Yun Yongjun’s eyes, she felt like she had caught onto something. “Did you pull some strings behind the scenes?”
“What strings could I possibly pull?” Yun Yongjun flicked Mu Xuefei on the forehead, leaned in close until their noses were mere inches apart, and their breaths intertwined. “You’d better go pack right now.” With that, she straightened up and turned to leave. At an angle Mu Xuefei couldn’t see, the corners of her mouth curled up into a smile.
Watching Yun Yongjun walk away, Mu Xuefei touched her forehead, then unconsciously pressed a hand over her heart. Closing her eyes, she felt her intense heartbeat and suddenly felt a bit uneasy.
Why does it always feel like Yun Yongjun is the one trying to win me over instead of the other way around?
Mu Xuefei, this is just a game.
Reminding herself of this inwardly, Mu Xuefei finally went back to her room to rest, just as Yun Yongjun had told her to.
Because this novel had sparked a trendy wave of time-travel dramas, the investors had poured in plenty of capital. The director and crew used the best and most suitable equipment for filming, and even booked the most popular five-star hotel in the area as a resting place for the cast.
As a supporting character with a fair number of appearances, Mu Xuefei also got a fully equipped room.
Her luggage had already been sent to her room by a bellhop earlier, so she and Yun Yongjun easily found her quarters.
Pulling out the key to open the door, she walked inside and asked, “Where is your room?”
“Wherever you are right now, that’s where I am.” Yun Yongjun bent down to place a pair of slippers at Mu Xuefei’s feet before answering casually.
“Here?” Mu Xuefei blinked, then suddenly realized. “Why don’t you have your own room? Wait, you shouldn’t even need to stay here, right?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Mu Xuefei noticed the other person looking at her with a grievously wronged expression.
“Do you really hate me that much?”
“I don’t hate you.” That was the honest truth; after all, without the other person, she might have ended up sleeping on the streets without any prospects for the future. Yet, seeing how the other’s expression instantly brightened at her words, she quickly added with an ambiguous tone, “I love you so much I barely have time…”
Hearing this, Yun Yongjun froze in place, but returned to normal a moment later. She let out a silent, long sigh and added quietly in her heart: I love you too.
[Ding! Romance target affection level: 81/100. Affection interpretation: So that’s… how it is.]
Although Mu Xuefei was glad the affection points went up, it meant the other person was falling for her. Besides, what kind of interpretation was “so that’s how it is”? Why couldn’t the system just explain things clearly?
She wanted to dig deeper, but it wouldn’t be polite to ignore Yun Yongjun standing right there, so she spoke up, “It’s getting late, should we get some rest first?”
“Filming starts tomorrow, you should rest up and recharge.” Yun Yongjun wheeled Mu Xuefei’s suitcase into her room, thoughtfully took her leave, and couldn’t help adding right before closing the door, “Goodnight.”
Mu Xuefei awkwardly twitched the corners of her mouth. “Goodnight.” As soon as she finished speaking, Yun Yongjun closed the door. Seeing this, Mu Xuefei helplessly shook her head and started unpacking her things.
The next day, Mu Xuefei was led by Yun Yongjun to the production set.
“This is the largest photography base in City H. The ancient architecture here has appeared in many famous TV shows,” Yun Yongjun explained smoothly as she walked, pointing out the buildings along the way. “That luxurious-looking place over there is the Imperial Study, and that’s where the imperial concubines lived, blah, blah, blah.” Mu Xuefei listened attentively, nodding in agreement or asking occasional questions from time to time, which thoroughly fed Yun Yongjun’s fulfillment as a tour guide.
After walking for about ten minutes, the two finally reached the spot where the crew was filming the first scene. At that moment, they were shooting the scene where the female lead dies unexpectedly in a car accident.
“Cut! Bai Tiantian, I asked you to look like you’re in a car accident, not stare wide-eyed with a ferocious expression!”
“Cut! Where did the light go? Where’s the gaffer?”
Seeing the furious man sitting in front of the camera, Mu Xuefei gasped in surprise, never expecting things to be this terrifying?
“Hey, you over there. Come here for a second.” While she was lost in thought, the person who had been shouting suddenly changed tunes and pointed straight at Mu Xuefei.
Me? Mu Xuefei pointed at herself in question, and only after seeing the person nod did she walk over.
“That’s Director Mo San. Just call her Director Mo,” Yun Yongjun reminded her quickly as Mu Xuefei passed by. “You’ll be fine.”
“Are you the girl playing Shui Yu?” Once Mu Xuefei stopped in front of her, the woman scanned her from head to toe before speaking. “Do you remember the dialogue right before the female lead’s car accident?”
“I remember. What’s wrong?” Mu Xuefei decisively ignored Bai Tiantian’s murderous glare from the side.
“Give it a try for a few rounds.” Director Mo frowned, clearly noticing Bai Tiantian’s undisguised hostility as well. But unable to throw a fit right then, she could only log it away for later, wondering for the first time if she had just made a bad call.
Mu Xuefei and Bai Tiantian both froze in surprise. The former hadn’t expected Director Mo to say that, while the latter hadn’t expected Director Mo to actually have a newcomer coach her.
Noticing the surrounding gazes shift toward her the moment Director Mo finished speaking, Bai Tiantian’s face flushed red. The hands she had clasped over her abdomen in a polite posture clenched so tightly that crescent moon nail marks dug into her palms.
“Okay.” Mu Xuefei didn’t understand why, but she agreed anyway.
“Go change your clothes and get ready.” Director Mo and Mu Xuefei tacitly ignored Bai Tiantian’s opinion.
Hearing this, Mu Xuefei went back to Yun Yongjun to explain the situation.
“This is an opportunity, so grab it.” After listening to the explanation, Yun Yongjun glanced subtly in Bai Tiantian’s direction. Sure enough, she caught the icy glare the other woman shot toward Mu Xuefei, causing her to instantly raise her guard inside.
With everything settled, Mu Xuefei followed the wardrobe stylist toward the dressing room.
As a shadow guard, Shui Yu naturally wore black clothes until she was sent by Zhao Anlan to Bai Lan’s side, at which point she changed back into normal maid attire.
Reportedly, the female lead played by Bai Tiantian had nearly thirty different ancient costumes in the show, every single one custom-made by hand.
Since Director Mo wanted her to shoot the scenes leading up to the car accident, she only needed to change into a standard college uniform and put on some fresh, simple makeup.
About half an hour later, Yun Yongjun found her gaze irresistibly drawn to that figure, unable to look away. Mu Xuefei already had great natural features and usually only wore basic moisturizer without bothering with makeup. This time, because of the filming, the makeup artist gave her a light peach-blossom makeup look, tied her hair into a high ponytail, and dressed her in a British-style school uniform complete with cloth shoes and a pleated skirt. It gave her a youthful and energetic appearance, and especially when she slanted a sideways glance at Yun Yongjun, it felt as though her very soul had been sucked away.
[Ding! Romance target affection level: 85/100.]
Why did it go up again?
Hearing the system prompt out of nowhere, Mu Xuefei felt puzzled and looked over at Yun Yongjun, only to find the other person staring blankly at her.
It really was because of her looks. Although her affection points went up, Mu Xuefei felt inexplicably annoyed, and mentally poked the mini version of the other person in her mind. Then, she curled the corners of her mouth, ignored Yun Yongjun who looked like she wanted to approach, and walked straight over to Director Mo—watching out of the corner of her eye as Yun Yongjun took a step forward and then pulled it back.
“In a moment, you’ll stand right here, then I’ll move the camera, and after that you need to blah, blah, blah.” After giving all her instructions, Director Mo asked, “If there are no problems, let’s start now.”
Mu Xuefei took a deep breath. “Okay.”