Given that this Rong Yin was truly beautiful, Lu Zhi used the spare time while waiting for her to remove her makeup to slightly sort out the plot she had tossed to the back of her mind.
The main story was about how the female lead, Li Luo, grew from an extra in the entertainment industry to a Best Actress, and her love story with her idol and boss—Best Actor Lu Wei.
As for Rong Yin…
The heavens practically begged her to eat, but she insisted on smashing her own bowl.
That phrase perfectly captured Rong Yin’s brief acting career.
At eighteen, she debuted in a small web drama.
At nineteen, she skyrocketed to fame in a satellite TV Xianxia Historical Romance drama.
At twenty, she single-handedly carried a modern sweet romance drama, becoming a hit across the nation.
At twenty-one, a campus youth drama and a remake of a classic light martial arts TV series both set new viewership records.
At twenty-two, two Xianxia dramas and a workplace idol drama aired back-to-back, kicking off her total domination of the screen.
At twenty-three, she transitioned to film. Two thin, uninteresting campus romance movies and a situational comedy grossed nearly 1.2 billion at the box office combined, making both the investors and the producers ecstatic.
At this point, only five years into the industry, she was already so insanely popular that it angered both gods and men, defying all natural order.
Her beautiful face and almost divinely blessed ability to rake in money made her worshipped by fans and her company alike, completely on bended knee.
Even though countless people exposed her bully-like behavior, lack of education, low class, poor acting skills, and diva antics—even getting into physical fights with actors from the same crew…
Even when a verified blogger posted unedited video footage and actors she’d worked with publicly denounced her by name, a massive number of fans still screamed that their little darling was the most beautiful and innocent, that she was envied by petty villains because she was the most beautiful. They claimed they neither heard nor saw the truth, that it was all fake, completely impossible!
Fueled by this mindless adoration, Rong Yin’s temper grew increasingly unbridled and sarcastic over the years. Eventually, she did things like storming off camera at press conferences, disappearing without reason right before a TV shoot, and even smashing a fan’s gift at her own birthday party.
But what boggled the mind was that she remained the top traffic star, reigning supreme, refusing to fall from grace.
Until Rong Yin was twenty-four, while filming a Palace Intrigue Drama, she met a newcomer actress, Li Luo—the true female lead of the storyline.
During the shoot, Rong Yin kicked the other girl off a stage into an icy pool. This was then exposed by netizens with the headline “Bullying a Newcomer.”
This should have been a commonplace scandal for Rong Yin, but unexpectedly, it became the last straw that broke the camel’s back. All the favor and luck she had enjoyed vanished the moment that video went public. All the dark history that had piled up over the years came crashing back in a terrifying wave of backlash.
Fans unfollowed and turned on her, neutral viewers became antis. It eventually escalated to a nationwide boycott, prompting official media to personally step in and ban her by name, firmly nailing her to the pillar of shame as an “Immoral Artist.” All her unaired shows were placed under indefinite review.
Rong Yin plummeted from heaven to hell in an instant.
Under these circumstances, Splendid World Entertainment, which had always been bleeding her dry, very pragmatically threw this broken money-printing machine into the cold palace immediately, conveniently slapping her with astronomical penalty fees from various major brands.
Shortly after, on a rainy night, in her villa—about to be seized by the court—Rong Yin, beaten and broken, slit her wrists and committed suicide.
Lu Zhi lowered her gaze, looking at Rong Yin, who had already removed her costume and was having her headpiece taken off by the makeup artist.
Her face was completely bare. Without makeup, her complexion was somewhat pale, her lightly tinted lips pressed gently together. She looked expressionless, yet gave off a gloomy aura that clearly said, I’m in a bad mood, don’t anyone dare mess with me.
Lu Zhi thought about it. Rong Yin should only be twenty-two now, her fourth year in the entertainment industry.
It was early May, and this was her second production this year.
“Teacher Rong Yin, thank you for your hard work. Go back and get some good rest. Director Li said your scenes tomorrow are in the afternoon, so you just need to be in the makeup room by one o’clock.” The Assistant Director knocked and entered, his expression amiable. He then turned to Zhou Mingming, who was waiting nearby. “Newcomer actress, come in at seven in the morning. You’ll need a makeup test first.”
Zhou Mingming was young. The oppressive atmosphere in the makeup room had already made her extremely nervous, and now her voice trembled inexplicably: “O-okay, thank you, Director.”
Until the Assistant Director left, Rong Yin didn’t say a word, not even lifting her eyelids. The others seemed accustomed to this state of hers and remained absolutely silent.
Lu Zhi returned from seeing off the Assistant Director. Rong Yin had finished removing her makeup. The group walked in silence to the parking lot.
Little Ma got into the front passenger seat first, carrying numerous bags. Then, Rong Yin took a big step up into the car. Before Zhou Mingming, who was following behind, could even lift her foot, the white car door slammed shut with a “Bang!”
Zhou Mingming jumped in fright but didn’t dare knock on the car door. She turned back helplessly, looking at Lu Zhi, who was also shut out.
Lu Zhi frowned slightly. Three seconds later, she watched the nanny van start up and drive away without looking back.
Luckily, the other business van hadn’t left yet. It smoothly pulled up in front of them. An assistant stuck their head out and called, “Sister Chen, why don’t you take this car?”
Lu Zhi had no choice but to lead Zhou Mingming onto the assistant’s van.
It wasn’t until the car reached the hotel entrance that Little Ma sent a private message with a crying emoji, followed by a string of texts.
“Sis! I’m sorry!”
“I was held hostage!”
“She wouldn’t let me open the door, and wouldn’t let me message you!”
“I’m hiding in the bathroom right now!”
Lu Zhi found a pat-on-the-head emoji and sent it back to show understanding.
Her luggage and Zhou Mingming’s were still at the front desk. The company’s standard for them was a 500-700 yuan budget. Both being girls, they naturally booked a double room. The assistant helped carry the luggage to the room and then left.
Only then did Zhou Mingming dare to whisper, “Sister Chen, Sister Rong Yin doesn’t seem to like me very much…”
She said it very tactfully, in a soft, thin voice.
Lu Zhi hung her clothes in the wardrobe. “She doesn’t like me either.”
Zhou Mingming smiled, relaxing a little, but still looked worried. “Then how will I get to the set tomorrow? Will you still come with me?”
“Of course I’ll go with you. Tomorrow, we’ll have Little Liu drive us over in the business van.”
Zhou Mingming had no objections and smiled, “Thank you, Sister Chen.”
The two of them tidied up briefly. It was already past midnight.
After the day’s travel, Lu Zhi was tired, but the young girl still seemed bright-eyed and full of energy. While Lu Zhi was blow-drying her hair, Zhou Mingming was still muttering lines from her script.
“Let me run lines with you for a bit,” Lu Zhi said, putting down the hairdryer.
Zhou Mingming immediately hopped off the bed. “Okay, okay!”
The drama they were currently on was a simple Xianxia Historical Romance. The female lead was Xiang Li, played by Rong Yin. Zhou Mingming’s role was the sect’s innocent and cute Junior Sister, a role ranked eighth tier or below. Her character setting was to idolize her Senior Sister, Xiang Li.
Zhou Mingming didn’t have many scenes; she just had to stick behind the female lead. Occasionally, her lines were things like: It definitely wasn’t Senior Sister’s doing, Senior Sister would never do that, You can’t talk about Senior Sister like that. The rest of the time, she was background decoration or part of crowd scenes.
But even so, for Zhou Mingming, acting for the first time, it was still incredibly novel and exciting.
Lu Zhi helped her practice the few lines she had for tomorrow a couple of times, then received a message from Little Ma.
“Sis, Rong Yin won’t put on the ointment.”
Lu Zhi hadn’t even processed what that meant before several more messages came through.
“She says she absolutely must have a late-night snack before she’ll put it on.”
“For the wire-work injury.”
“But Sister Zhuang strictly forbids her from eating after four o’clock.”
Lu Zhi looked at her phone. She actually didn’t quite understand why this girl was truly asking her for help with this. After all, she wasn’t Rong Yin’s actual agent, just a temporary stand-in. If it was about communicating with the hotel or the crew externally, naturally she would step in. But this kind of thing?
Before she could figure out how to reply, the other party called. Her voice even had a slight sob: “Sister Chen, Rong Yin threw a fit. She’s insisting I order takeout for her. What should I do?”
Lu Zhi was silent for a moment. “How did Sister Zhuang usually handle this?”
“She never asked when Sister Zhuang was here!” Little Ma said, sounding extremely wronged.
Lu Zhi felt a bit helpless. “Aren’t you Rong Yin’s Life Assistant? You should…”
“I’ve only been with her for a month,” Little Ma explained hurriedly, seemingly aware that it wasn’t great to bother her with this. “Before, Sister Zhuang was here handling all that. I just helped run errands and watch over things at night.”
“Sister Chen, Sister Zhuang repeatedly warned that she absolutely, positively cannot eat at night. Now that she’s throwing a tantrum, what do I do?”
“…” Lu Zhi pinched the bridge of her nose. “Where are you?”
“Me? I’m squatting in the bathroom.”
Lu Zhi hung up the phone. Zhou Mingming looked up at her with wide eyes.
“I’m going to the 21st floor. You get some rest early. Remember to set your alarm, you need to be up before six tomorrow, understand?” Lu Zhi instructed.
Zhou Mingming gave an “Oh” and watched as Lu Zhi threw only a shawl over her shoulders. Though intensely curious, she was ultimately well-behaved and didn’t ask.
Lu Zhi had just reached the door of room 2109 when Little Ma opened it, her eyes red.
“Yo, you’re pretty fast.”
Rong Yin emerged from the bedroom almost simultaneously, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, a mocking smile on her face as she stared at the two by the door—especially the nearly paralyzed Little Ma. Her voice was airy and light: “Found a new thigh to cling to so quickly, huh? Looks like you should change your surname from Ma to Dog.”
The tears Little Ma had been struggling to hold back instantly streamed down.
Lu Zhi frowned. Even without understanding the full context, she could see these two had old grudges.
She glanced at the living room. Several throw pillows were on the floor, along with a shattered water glass, the remote control, a tissue box… it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a complete mess.
It was hard to imagine a twenty-something-year-old going to such lengths for a bite to eat—and still not getting it.
Lu Zhi walked in, closing the door behind her. She then bent down and started picking up the items on the floor one by one. The clear water glass was completely shattered, some glass shards having sprayed onto the carpet.
“Get something to protect your hands and clean this up first. Be careful not to cut yourself.” Lu Zhi turned to the young girl, still sniffling by the door.
Little Ma wiped her tears and turned to find something.
Lu Zhi straightened up then and fixed her gaze on Rong Yin, who had been watching her the entire time.
She had probably washed up already too. Her ink-black hair, smooth as silk, fell over her shoulders, seemingly still carrying a hint of dampness. She wore a cyan silk robe, the neckline slightly open to reveal sharply protruding collarbones.
Actually, from Lu Zhi’s perspective on women, this girl was a bit too thin. Under the thin robe, her exposed wrists and ankles were extremely slender, delicate and fragile like fine white porcelain, looking as though they would snap at the slightest touch.
“Rong Yin, I can’t fulfill your request.”
Lu Zhi looked at her frankly, then, just as the other’s face was about to dramatically change color, she added: “Even if you tear this apartment apart today, you won’t get takeout. At most…”
She paused, thinking carefully before saying, “At most, a boiled egg.”
