Only when Shi Sheng’s number was called did she wake from her trance. She got up and entered the room. Inside, five people were seated. As one of the judges for this audition, the director sat in the middle seat. He was a man closing in on his forties and had hardened facial features. He didn’t appear easy to get along with.

This director was called Song Han and he was famous for being picky. There was a rumour that he had forced an actor to redo a scene more than a hundred times. Of course, this was just a rumour so the validity of it was still up for question.

The result of Song Han’s pickiness was that he managed to make quite a few actors famous. There was a bit of an exaggerated saying going around: If you worked with Song Han for a bit, your acting skills and position would rise sharply.

“Greetings to all the teachers[1], I am Jiang Wan.” Shi Sheng’s voice wasn’t too loud nor too soft. It was just enough for everyone to hear yet wasn’t piercing to the ears. The judges looked over the information on Jiang Wan and had a whispered discussion for a bit. One of them revealed a non-optimistic expression. “Act on your own. Begin.” Song Han called for her to start with an expressionless face.

Shi Sheng nodded and ignored the other four. She brewed her feelings as she got into character. She was acting out Bai Wan’s the point where her personality took a dark turn, which was the most important scene.

Jiang Wan’s acting skills weren’t too good, so there wasn’t much for Shi Sheng to borrow from. So, she could only imagine herself as Bai Wan who had been misunderstood by others. She imagined how she would feel  if no one believed her and all that was left in her world was despair and sorrow. She imagined how in ‘her’ unrequited love, she had turned into the weapon for the villain behind the scenes.

Everyone stared at the woman on stage. It was as if they were looking at a despairing Bai Wan who had fallen into darkness.

When Shi Sheng ended, the room fell into a dead silence.

Three seconds later, Song Han snapped out of his daze and looked at Shi Sheng as he spoke clearly, “You acted very well. Go back and await the notice.”

The other four looked at one another. ‘That means he’s decided?’

In all the previous auditions, he had only spoken to let the actresses know when to begin but nothing else.

With this, the four all spoke to Shi Sheng a bit, their attitudes clearly having improved. Shi Sheng left the room and was received by Tang Yin. He didn’t immediately ask her how it went, instead taking her outside where the others waiting couldn’t see before asking in his unhurried voice, “How was it?”

“We wait for the notice.” Shi Sheng shrugged, indifference on her face. She knew that since Song Han had spoken, this role was most likely hers but since the contract hadn’t been signed yet, she wasn’t in a rush to tell Tang Yin. After all, anything could happen.

Tang Yin hadn’t held too much hope so he didn’t reveal any disappointment upon hearing her words. When the two went downstairs, Tang Yin received a call. By the time it ended, Tang Yin’s expression wasn’t too good as he spoke to Shi Sheng, “I’ll send you back first. There’s nothing much going on today so you go rest at home.”

“You have something to do?”

Tang Yin pursed his lips in silent confirmation.

“If you have something to do, go ahead. Meanwhile, I will be taking advantage of when I have yet to become famous to enjoy a normal life.”

‘Just how much confidence does she have in herself to be so certain she’ll become famous?’ Tang Yin shook his head, “I should send you back first.”

As her agent, would he dare to just leave her on the streets?

Shi Sheng looked at him meaningfully before smilingly saying, “I don’t care what it is you have to do. But I hope you can deal with it properly. I don’t want to be implicated in the future because of your matter, understand?”

Tang Yin’s heart thumped wildly. Facing those calm eyes, he kept feeling embarrassment from having been seen through. He went silent for a bit before speaking, “Then you be careful. If anything happens, give me a call.”

……

[Hidden Quest: Toss A Thousand Gold]

Shi Sheng was just sitting in a coffee shop when System’s voice suddenly spoke.

‘What the hell! You’ve skipped the fake question of whether to accept or not and just forcefully issued it now?’

[Hidden Quests cannot be rejected.]

‘*flips table* Can’t reject your grandpa!’ Only after Shi Sheng had cursed this damned System’s investors and researchers as well as all 18 generations of their ancestors, did she feel slightly better.

“What does ‘Toss A Thousand Gold’ refer to?” ‘Started using idioms now eh?’

[Toss A Thousand Gold: Get Lu Qingyun to spend more than $10 billion on the Host. US Dollars.]

“Who did you say it was?”

[Lu Qingyun.]

Shi Sheng was speechless. ‘What kind of a hidden quest is that!’

‘And, why am I supposed to go seduce Lu Qingyun and spend his money again?!’

Who was Lu Qingyun? Only the most powerful villain in this novel! He had the looks and the money; he was definitely a winner in life. But… he was also an extremely dangerous person.

Unlike Chu Tang who had only been mentioned by name, Lu Qingyun actually opposed the protagonist, Xi Mo, outright. In the later stages of the novel, the entertainment circle was taken by storm.

In the end because of Xia Man, he gave up on opposing Xi Mo and went overseas. The author hadn’t written whether or not it was because Lu Qingyun liked Xia Man.

As to why he was opposing Xi Mo, it wasn’t explained in detail in the story but there were subtle hints that it was because of someone, though their gender was unknown.

‘You want me to seduce that kind of person? System, have you been taken over by malware?’

 [Target is currently at the Host’s 9 o’clock {directly left}. Please take this opportunity.]

System disappeared after tossing down the last sentence.

‘Take this opportunity… what opportunity am I supposed to take?! Bloody hell, couldn’t you have told me beforedisappearing?!’

Shi Sheng looked to her left. There was a private room there. The door was currently tightly shut and a waiter was waiting outside.

Just as Shi Sheng was roaring inwardly, a loud bang rang out and the sound of glass shattering followed soon after. Shrieks and screams resounded.

The glass window had suddenly been shattered and the people inside the coffee shop screamed in surprise and terror. The people who had been sitting next to the window hurriedly ran to find a safer spot.

From the bank across the road, several strangely dressed men jumped out and onto the street. They wore black ski masks[2] as they carried duffel bags. Several were even toting guns.

A confused and panicked crowd of people who were on the streets scattered into the nearby shops or ran towards the other ends of the street while shrieking. The sounds of sirens could be heard coming from both entrances to the street as police cars cornered that group of people in front of the bank.

Shi Sheng sat in the corner, her expression unreadable as she watched the sudden change outside. ‘This is the opportunity? How is this a fucking opportunity?! It’s a goddamn robbery!!!’

The robbers didn’t appear surprised at the appearance of police cars as they scanned their surroundings. One of them made a hand signal before that group of people sprinted towards the coffee shop and leapt through the window where the glass had been shattered.

“Run!”

“Ah- They’re going to kill us!”

A few people attempted to run out of the coffee shop.

The robbers immediately shot towards the open door of the coffee shop. The sound of the gunshot caused the surrounding onlookers to fall silent. One of the robbers pointed his gun at a few people before he roared in a gravelly voice, “Don’t move! Put your hands on your heads and squat on the ground! Go and face the wall! No yelling! Anybody who makes a peep, Imma put a bullet through their brain! No whispering to each other. Go and face the fucking wall already!”

‘What in the blazes- This is not logical okay?! This coffee shop isn’t the best place to hide yet these robbers did so? If they dared to go rob a bank their IQ has to at least be acceptable. I kneel down to the machinations of the plot!’

Once Shi Sheng was done cursing, she stood up, covered her head and moved towards the wall. She had managed to move closer to that private room.

The waiter who was outside was currently squatting on the ground and trembling, his face full of fear.

Since the layout of the coffee shop[3] was such that there weren’t any tables that could be seen from the entrance, when the robbers made everyone go and squat near the walls, the people outside wouldn’t be able to tell what was going on.

The robbers also stood at the two blind spots so the people outside couldn’t see them but they could clearly see what was happening outside.

[1] People in the entertainment industry often refer to their seniors as ‘teachers’

[2] In the raws, it said they wore black stockings on their heads. I was like ‘what…?’ and decided ski masks was probably what the author was referring to.

[3] I think it might be something like this where the red area is the entrance:

Author’s note:

Come let us welcome… The final boss~!

The contract status has changed, here’s an update~~

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