Rebirth of a Star: Another Day, Another Drama

Chapter 79 - Lan Xin’s Conspiracy (1)

This morning, Li Qi felt that Chen Meimei was in a particularly good mood. From the moment she got on the van until now, she’d had a smile from ear to ear. This sight gave him goosebumps because she looked just like someone with dementia.

However, Lan Jinyao’s smile instantly disappeared without a trace as soon as they arrived at the company's training ground.

Inside the wide room, the wall opposite the door was covered with glass mirrors which reflected every corner of the practice room. Lan Jinyao swept a glance around the room and saw that all the girls seemed to be around 18-19 years old. When she stood beside them, she indeed looked quite a few years older.

She couldn’t help but turn around and glare at Li Qi. “These are the new people you were talking about?” They were indeed newbies, but they most probably hadn’t even graduated from school yet!

Li Qi awkwardly rubbed his nose and said, “This was quite obvious though, right? I thought you knew that although you’re older, you don’t look your age. So, others won’t know if you don’t tell.”

Lan Jinyao didn’t know if it was because of Li Qi’s words, but a burst of laughter echoed in the practice room.

Lan Jinyao glared at the girl who’d laughed, and walked over to the group of girls. She then stopped in front of a girl, and said with a condescending look, “Hey, what right do you have to laugh at me? The two of us are about the same age, isn’t that so?”

Lan Jinyao lightly kicked Lan Xin, who was sitting on the ground and drinking water. Following that, Lan Xin lifted her head and stared at Lan Jinyao; her eyes seemingly containing the trace of a sneer.

“I’d initially thought that Fu Bainian could take care of everything, but I didn't expect for you to come here. Do you know where this is? This is the training ground for newcomers. Why have you, someone who’s already acted as a female lead in a serialised drama, come here to join in the excitement?”

Rouge Fermentation yet hadn’t been broadcasted, but it had already caused quite a stir. Everyone was quite impressed by Chen Meimei’s appearance at the promotion interview.

However, this group of newcomers didn’t seem to know this. When they heard Lan Xin mention that, the way they looked at Lan Jinyao completely changed as they thought: She’s just someone who’s come through the back door. The agency has squeezed her in with a bunch of newcomers like us to waste time in order to block rumours that may arise in the future.

“I was determined to continue walking this path, so I came here to practice. However, you...you’re not planning on entering the entertainment industry, right?! So, what are you doing here? Could it also be to join in the fun?”

Lan Xin looked down, her expression indifferent.

Right when Lan Jinyao thought that she’d poked at someone’s sore spot, Lan Xin suddenly laughed. She was still staring at the ground as she lightheartedly laughed and said, “I’m just trying to earn a living, alright? Although this line of work is tiring, it’s quick money. I was short on money, so I came here.”

Lan Jinyao silently knew that Lan Xin wasn’t telling the truth. She’d been in the entertainment industry for so long already that her intuition couldn’t be wrong. That split second of silence earlier was enough to prove that Lan Xin was lying. However, she had no intention of exposing her, because everyone had their little secrets.

She then said to Lan Xin, “You actually dared to say this. There are so many people listening here that if word were to spread in the future, I reckon that you won’t have any fans left by then.”

The two of them were actually joking with one another. Their relationship was honestly much friendlier now as if all the unpleasantries from the past had already turned into dust and had been buried in the ground.

When Li Qi saw Lan Xin, his eyes were fixated on her face. He didn't seem to find his behaviour impolite at all. While his line of sight was glued to Lan Xin’s face, he also muttered by himself, “So alike; it's truly too similar! I've never seen anyone look so alike before...”

Unless...they were twins!

However, that wasn’t right! After Lan Jinyao had entered the company, she was under his and Shen Yu’s supervision, so it wasn’t possible for them to be unaware of her having a twin sister that looked so much like her.

“Li Qi, what are you muttering about?”

“It's nothing much. I'll go first; I’m going to go arrange your coming schedule.”

Li Qi waved goodbye to Lan Jinyao and turned around to leave. However, before he went, he glanced back in their direction once again, and in that split second, he had seemingly seen a strange delusion. When Lan Jinyao and Lan Xin stood together, the smiles on their faces looked so alike; even the curvatures of their smiles were identical.

Li Qi was startled when this strange thought popped up in his heart, so he didn’t dare look back anymore and quickly left.

The choreography instructor hadn’t arrived yet. But, at this moment, the mood in the practice room wasn’t very good.

“Hey! Don’t you feel that the mood in here is a bit off?”

Lan Jinyao, who was warming up, was lightly shoved by Lan Xin as she asked this.

“What’s so strange about it?” Lan Jinyao stopped and looked at her, flabbergasted.

Upon hearing that, Lan Xin suddenly pointed at their surroundings. When Lan Jinyao’s eyes followed along the direction that Lan Xin was pointing at, she realised that all those gazes, which were initially fixated on them, had abruptly moved away. Following this, Lan Jinyao immediately understood what Lan Xin meant.

Then, a sneer appeared on Lan Jinyao’s face as she said, “You’ll get used to this in the future!”

“I have a feeling that you’re very calm? It's as if...you’d already guessed that this would happen.”

“Kind of! Because, after all, I’ve stayed with a production team before!”

There were some things that once one had experienced them before, it wouldn’t be so surprising the second time. This was a kind of human survival instinct.

One of them was an above-board person who went through the back door and didn’t know how to conceal that fact. While the other one didn’t have any love for the acting profession and just wanted to make money. These were things that people disdained the most. Hence, it didn’t take long before Lan Jinyao and Lan Xin were isolated by all the others in the group.

The newcomers’ training was nothing more than singing, dancing, and physical fitness. The foundation of acting would only be taught to newcomers in the future after they’d chosen a direction to specialise in.

When they were dancing, Lan Jinyao’s movements were natural and freestyle, just like a gust of wind that was free and unrestrained. Even the power and speed of her actions were just right; her display of skills making the others gape in awe.

“You’re really good!” praised the choreography instructor.

“Chen Meimei, the general opinion of the world is that you’re an idiot, but it looks like you aren’t one,” remarked Lan Xin, who was standing beside her.

Lan Jinyao indifferently smiles.

She looked like a genius to outsiders, but only she knew she wasn’t one. During her first time, she’d worked so many times harder than others to achieve this, which resulted in the others being impressed by her current performance.

In the middle of their break, Lan Xin walked over to Lan Jinyao again and said to her, “Chen Meimei, I couldn’t make out at first that you were a genius! It’s said that true geniuses don’t care about the stares of others, and it seems that this is truly the case.”

Lan Jinyao chucked. After drinking a mouthful of water, she indifferently said, “Not a genius, but...”

The two were gazing at each other with locked stares.

After pausing for a while, Lan Jinyao continued, “Sweat!”