Rebirth of a Star - Chapter 156

Chapter 156 – Audition (2)

Lan Jinyao got up early in the morning. When she’d rested at home these past days, she didn’t put on any make-up. Only today did she put on some light makeup, and hurriedly prepared to go out.

Fu Bainian was already waiting for her outside. When Lan Jinyao walked over, she heard Fu Bainian honking at her.

“Get in!”

Lan Jinyao then said, “I texted Li Qi yesterday. He and Xiaolin will come to pick me up later.”

Fu Bainian opened the door and said, “Li Qi won’t come, we’ll go there together. In any case, when the audition starts, I’ll go over to take a look too.”

Lan Jinyao then instantly understood. No wonder Fu Bainian had compromised so easily last night. She’d initially thought that he’d agreed due to her constant nagging, but in fact, Fu Bainian had dug a hole and was waiting for her here. Chen Zetao had said that Fu Bainian might go to the audition, and now it turned out that he would go. It was likely that he would give Yin Yun extra points and fail her instead.

After getting in the car, Lan Jinyao grabbed him by the collar and asked, “Not only are you going, but Yin Yun, that woman, will also be there, right?”

Fu Bainian gently removed her hand from his collar and smiled as he said, “This was what I had promised Yin Yun before. I had asked her to put on an act with me, and this is her reward. Of course, whether she’ll be chosen in the end will depend on her own efforts and acting skills.”

Lan Jinyao threw away his hand, and her temper flared once more. “Put on an act? Which husband finds another woman to act in front of his wife, forcing his wife to feel miserable?”

She scolded and pinched Fu Bainian, her expression and tone were very much like that of the former Chen Meimei. However, after a while, she suddenly stopped scolding him. Something occurred to her, and then all the sad memories replayed in her mind.

Seeing her suddenly stop, Fu Bainian stared at her in surprise, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

When she didn’t speak, Fu Bainian became somewhat nervous, and asked again, “Are you not feeling well again?”

Lan Jinyao then abruptly asked, “I just remembered something. You said that you had asked Yin Yun to put on an act, and I’d initially thought that the audience of this play was me. But, thinking about it again, I feel that something’s off. Another person is a part of the audience, right?”

At this moment, Lan Jinyao felt as if she’d dug up a part of the truth behind Fu Bainian’s injury. Up until now, she’d always thought that Fu Bainian and Yin Yun had put on an act for her, but according to her understanding of Fu Bainian’s character, he wasn’t a person who’d do something like this. Besides, all of this began the day after Fu Bainian had returned from his business trip.

Lan Jinyao’s voice started to tremble as she spoke, “The person who hurt you is someone near us, right?”

Fu Bainian looked at the road ahead, and his lips remained tightly shut, resisting the urge to answer this question.

However, sometimes, silence itself was the best answer.

Lan Jinyao then indifferently said, “I understand.”

The person who’d hurt Fu Bainian must be someone by their side, and since that person had managed to hurt Fu Bainian, he must be someone very familiar with them. She must undoubtedly seek that person out.

“We’ve arrived, you can get off here!”

Fu Bainian got out of the car first, and then opened the door for her and helped her out of the car. His movements were extremely gentle, but his expression didn’t look very good.

“Why the long face? Do I owe you money?”

“Alright, give me a smile!” Lan Jinyao gestured and pinched Fu Bainian’s face, but he didn’t avoid her and let her do as she wished.

Lan Jinyao then burst into laughter and teased, “President Fu, you sure are cooperative today!”

Fu Bainian’s expression softened, and he held her hand to go inside. Meanwhile, in the corner of a building behind them, someone from the paparazzi was holding up a camera and continuously photographing the interactions between the two of them.

Seemingly noticing something, Fu Bainian looked over to the corner and revealed a gentle smile.

Chen Zetao was already waiting at the door, and as soon as Lan Jinyao entered, he laughed and said, “You’re here!”

His laughter was jovial, but when he saw Fu Bainian standing next to Lan Jinyao, his smile slightly dwindled, and he politely added, “President Fu, you’re also here.”

Fu Bainian acknowledged him before letting go of Lan Jinyao’s hand and marching towards his office, looking somewhat unhappy.

Many artists had come to audition today. Most of them had come because of Chen Zetao’s distinguished name, and a small part were attending for the intriguing script. As for Yin Yun, she’d come for Fu Bainian.

Lan Jinyao saw Yin Yun as soon as she stepped inside. That woman was gorgeously dressed, like a peacock fanning its feathers. When their gazes met, Yin Yun contemptuously smiled at her.

Lan Jinyao inwardly thought: Go ahead and laugh, just don’t cry later.

However, to Lan Jinyao’s surprise, Fu Bainian had unexpectedly thrown a wrench in the works. He was determined to fail her and not let her participate in this movie’s production.

Soon after, it was Lan Jinyao’s turn, with Yin Yun’s turn right after her. Although the staff had uniformly agreed that a computer would be used to select the order of the participants, this didn’t imply that there would be no under-the-table manipulations. Lan Jinyao felt that the reason she was lined up in front of Yin Yun, and had managed to obtain so many advantages, was all thanks to Chen Zetao helping her behind the scenes. Chen Zetao was so confident that she would come, he’d arranged everything even before he’d gotten a definite answer from her.

When Lan Jinyao entered the audition room, she saw Chen Zetao seated at the second station. He smiled at her, and Lan Jinyao returned his smile out of politeness.

Upon seeing this, Fu Bainian’s expression instantly darkened.

For the movie ‘Twilight’, the characters had a lot of internal monologues. So, for this audition, Lan Jinyao had to read a segment of a character’s internal monologues with her expression and her voice on point.

She had done this type of challenging film before, so she felt that everything was going smoothly when she performed.

However, while everyone was immersed in her brilliant performance, halfway through her segment, someone suddenly interrupted and yelled ‘stop’.

In that instant, Lan Jinyao was almost suffocated to death by her own breath.

She stopped and stared angrily at Fu Bainian. If it hadn’t been for the fact that there were too many people present now, she would’ve rushed up to argue with Fu Bainian.

Lan Jinyao was fuming with anger, yet Fu Bainian’s expression was as indifferent as usual.

“President Fu, was there something wrong with my performance? Is that why you yelled stop before I finished my segment?” she asked with a stifled smile as she desperately suppressed her anger.

Fu Bainian propped his chin up in one hand and humphed as if he was cooking up a decent excuse.

And, everyone’s gaze was focused on Fu Bainian, waiting for him to say something.