The next day, Ye Jin only managed to drag herself out of bed after her alarm had urged her repeatedly.
Although she knew she had to get up early for filming, the latest gossip was simply too juicy. Ye Jin had stayed up late anyway, despising herself all the while.
Then, in the makeup room, she received a "lecture" from the makeup artist.
"Xiao Jin, are things at home really that difficult? Why is your skin so dull and dry today? This is the first time your makeup has ever caked this badly."
Guilt written all over her face, Ye Jin did not dare mention that this was the result of staying up late to feast on gossip these past few days.
Just then, the makeup room door opened, and a slightly husky female voice rang out.
"She's determined to be a good daughter-in-law to a wealthy family. Of course family matters come first. How could she spare any attention for her own health?"
Even hearing only the voice, Ye Jin knew from that snide tone that Huo Yun had arrived.
Soon, she caught sight of Huo Yun in the makeup mirror.
Huo Yun wore a business suit and had short hair. She was slightly plump, and wrinkles had already appeared on her face, but she was full of vitality and looked thoroughly capable.
Choosing the lesser of two evils, Ye Jin had no choice but to explain. "Huo Yun, everything at home has been sorted out. Besides, with my mother-in-law there, I don't need to worry." She lowered her head as she spoke, looking guilty. "Actually, I've been staying up late these past few days to feast on gossip. Don't worry. Once I'm working, I definitely won't stay up late again."
Huo Yun kept a constant eye on the trending searches herself, so naturally, she knew about the gossip surrounding Su Yang and Zhou Wanqing, who had been trending so often lately.
Fine, it really was a dog-blood drama, with one juicy revelation after another. Even she could not resist putting aside her work to feast on the gossip, let alone Ye Jin, a so-called "family member."
Although she was speechless that Ye Jin, a female celebrity who made her living off her looks, had stayed up late for gossip, she felt considerably better, and her tone lost its earlier snideness.
"All right, you said it yourself. If unflattering photos come out when you attend events later, don't expect me to get marketing accounts to do damage control for you."
Naturally, Ye Jin nodded in agreement. The atmosphere between them finally eased considerably, and they began discussing her upcoming work.
As they talked, Ye Jin's makeup and styling were finished.
She wore a white gauze dress, her hair arranged in a flowing-cloud bun. Though the styling was not elaborate, combined with her beauty and innate elegance, it gave her something of the air of a heavenly fairy.
Even though everyone had seen Ye Jin's face many times before, they still could not help being shaken by her beauty.
Huo Yun, meanwhile, felt both delighted and angry.
She already had several best actor and best actress award winners, as well as popular traffic stars, under her management, but in terms of raw potential, none could match Ye Jin.
That was why she had signed Ye Jin despite knowing she had little ambition for her career.
She had great confidence in her powers of persuasion. Given enough time, she would surely talk Ye Jin around.
Yet she had never expected Ye Jin to be so impervious to steaming or boiling. In the end, she had even married into a wealthy family without a backward glance, asking for leave every other day. She clearly intended to coast along!
Huo Yun deeply regretted this, but there was nothing she could do.
Yet Ye Jin seemed different today. In particular, when Huo Yun saw her memorizing lines and rehearsing scenes in the van on the way to the set, her head filled with question marks.
Could the Su Family really be in trouble and going bankrupt, leaving Ye Jin no choice but to earn her own living?
But remembering the Su Group's recent surge in share price, Huo Yun swiftly dismissed that thought.
Ye Jin had no idea what Huo Yun was thinking. Had she known, she probably would have praised her for stumbling onto the right answer.
However, her focus on filming was not because of the upheaval in the Su Family. Rather, influenced by her memories of working behind the scenes in her previous life, she knew all too well how hard things were for ordinary workers and tried to cause them as little trouble as possible.
The hotel where she had gotten ready was not far from the set, and they arrived in just over ten minutes.
Ye Jin played a supporting female character, so naturally, she did not have many scenes. By the time she reached the actual filming location, it was nearly noon, and the male and female leads had already finished filming several scenes.
The male lead of this drama was named He Cheng. He had started out as a popular idol on a survival show, then switched careers after his temporary group disbanded, and was now one of the industry's top stars. The female lead was the rising young actress Zhang Jiayue.
The relative star power of the two leads made it clear that this was a male-lead-centered drama. It told the story of Ran Shi, who went from an overlooked outer disciple to leveling up, fighting monsters, and ascending to immortality.
In stories like these, the male lead always became romantically entangled with many women. This time, Ye Jin played his white moonlight-a senior sister from his sect who had once helped him and later died saving him.
She did not have many scenes, but the role was enough to earn the audience's tears, which was why Ye Jin had accepted this third female lead role in the first place.
The scene being filmed today had the male lead's fiancée, who scorned the poor and favored the rich, break off their engagement. At that moment, the senior sister from an immortal sect whom Ye Jin played would descend from the sky and take him back to the sect. This was also one of the drama's major satisfying moments.
Of course, with her white moonlight appearing in this scene, the male lead's fiancée, serving as the vicious female supporting character, would be there too. Usually, though, they could not get particularly good actresses for roles like that.
Yet when the actress playing the fiancée appeared on set, Ye Jin was startled. It was actually the popular young actress Yang Manhui!
Although Yang Manhui wore a deliberately tacky dress and garish makeup, she was still a vivid, dazzling beauty.
She greeted everyone with a smile. "Hello, everyone. I happen to have no engagements these next few days, and I've worked with Director Zhang before, so I'm here to make a cameo in a small role."
As soon as she finished speaking, the crew, including the director, cheered and applauded. The female lead even took Yang Manhui's hand and began calling her "sis."
After all, although theirs was an S+ project, getting an A-list actress to join was still no easy feat.
Only the male lead, He Cheng, seemed not to notice. He continued speaking to his assistant. "Xiao Meng, help me get my phone out of my inner robe pocket. I felt it vibrate while we were filming just now."
His assistant, Xiao Meng, was a short-haired young man wearing a T-shirt and black-framed glasses. He was not tall, looking to be only a little over 160 centimeters, and was carefully tidying He Cheng's hair and costume.
Hearing He Cheng's words, he immediately reached into the inner robe at He Cheng's chest and took out the phone. He quickly entered the passcode, unlocked it, and said to He Cheng, "Brother Cheng, it's your manager. Do you want to call back now?"