Is This How the Entertainment Industry Works? (GL) - Chapter 8

The clumps of weeds swayed in the wind.

From a distance, Lu Ming caught sight of this scene. Her fingers moved instinctively to open her camera and snap a photo.

In the picture, a girl with slightly tanned skin was half-kneeling on the ground. Her gaze was focused and intense as she kissed the ankle of another woman. That woman leaned against a tree with her eyes closed, while the shadows of the leaves cast dappled patterns across both their faces.

The photo was far too aesthetic. Lu Ming stared at it for a long time, cropped out the faces, set it as her phone background, and saved it to her cloud backup.

After finishing this low-key, “creepy” behavior, she walked out and asked Yan Zhen, “What happened?”

Yan Zhen looked back and saw Lu Ming. “The Princess was bitten by a snake.”

“Huh?! What princess?!” Lu Ming was baffled.

Yan Zhen coughed twice and hoisted the woman onto her back, heading toward the clinic. “I mean… this person.”

Lu Ming took a glance. “Oh, Zhao Baoshang. You actually know Zhao Baoshang?”

“Mhm.” Yan Zhen nodded. “I saved her a few days ago.”

Lu Ming remarked, “You saved her too? You aren’t trying to pull a Xu Fengmei, are you?”

“No. Taking care of her is my mission,” Yan Zhen said with total sincerity.

Lu Ming: “…You haven’t lost your mind, have you?”

Yan Zhen had to change her phrasing: “I just saved her in passing.”

Lu Ming then warned her, “Well, don’t go around telling everyone you saved Zhao Baoshang. She’ll definitely despise you for it. You have to realize, the one she likes is Xu Fengmei.”

Yan Zhen indicated she understood. “Alright. She deserves the best, of course.”

At the same time, she secretly pondered how to help Zhao Baoshang win Xu Fengmei over. She knew many mind-altering drugs and a fair bit about “Love Gu” (parasites); she wondered if they might come in handy.

Lu Ming had no idea that Yan Zhen was already planning a series of “wild operations.” After finishing her warnings, she nodded and ran ahead to lead the way.

The two brought Zhao Baoshang to the small clinic and fed her herbal medicine. A while later, Zhao Baoshang woke up.

“Where is this?”

“The clinic,” Yan Zhen said.

Zhao Baoshang rubbed her forehead. Yan Zhen quickly handed her a cup of water.

Zhao Baoshang took a sip, but as she was about to speak, she suddenly noticed two long, straight things floating at the bottom of the cup. They looked like seaweed, but seaweed is flat; these were too round. She looked closer, her eyes widened, and she clutched her mouth, dry-heaving as she smashed the cup.

“You—you—you! What did you put in the tea?!”

“Things that are good for your health, obviously,” Yan Zhen said, picking up a jar next to her and giving it a shake.

Zhao Baoshang immediately leaped out of bed and ran to the door to vomit. When she returned, she grabbed the jar. It was high-definition transparent glass; inside were countless, dense spider legs, complete with fine hairs.

Zhao Baoshang was furious. She pounced directly onto Yan Zhen and started hitting her. “How dare you give me such filthy things to drink!!”

Yan Zhen covered her head, not daring to fight back. “But spiders are good for the body! They detoxify! Your snake venom isn’t fully cleared yet, and only—ow, ow, ow! That hurts!”

Zhao Baoshang punched Yan Zhen in the stomach. The “hand-feel” was unexpectedly good. She reached out and felt around, finding that the area had just the right mix of soft and firm, even bouncing back when poked. She moved her hand higher; the texture there was also quite nice. It would be better if it weren’t through clothes.

And so, under the guise of being angry, Zhao Baoshang gave Yan Zhen quite a thorough feel.

Lu Ming, watching from the side, was dumbstruck. She rubbed her eyes, thinking uncertainly: Am I going blind…?

After the residual toxins were cleared, Zhao Baoshang had to return to the set to film, so Yan Zhen followed her out. However, Lu Ming pulled at Yan Zhen’s sleeve and whispered, “I have something I need your help with.”

“What is it?” Yan Zhen asked.

Lu Ming said, “Help the lead actress check the Feng Shui. There’s money in it.”

Yan Zhen thought about it. “Alright, lead the way.”

As they walked, Lu Ming asked, “When did you and Zhao Baoshang meet? How?”

“Just a few days ago,” Yan Zhen said.

“She’s so difficult to get along with, yet you’re willing to save her.”

Yan Zhen asked, “How is she difficult?”

“Everyone who has filmed with her says she’s cold to the extreme. Even among her fans, few like her personality; they’re all just there for that face.”

As Lu Ming spoke, she began to sigh. That face truly was beautiful to the limit—likely the most meticulously carved work of the Heavens. Zhao Baoshang had played many ancient roles—swords women, fairies, spirits—and every frame was screenshotted by fans to be used as posters.

Many people said Zhao Baoshang had no acting talent and no emotion in her eyes, but what use does a fairy have for human emotions? It was precisely because of those cold, emotionless eyes that Zhao Baoshang displayed an otherworldly beauty, which helped her win the Golden Statuette at the beginning of the year.

Clearly, Yan Zhen also loved the Eldest Princess’s appearance, so she joined in the praise. “She is indeed beautiful. Besides, for an actress, a beautiful face is enough.”

“How could that be enough?” Lu Ming countered. “Even though her movies all have high box office numbers—everyone thinks her family just bought out entire theaters to inflate the sales.”

That was a bit of an exaggeration. Yan Zhen analyzed the situation and realized eighty percent of these rumors were likely fake, but one thing was true: Zhao Baoshang’s reputation within the industry wasn’t great.

The two arrived at the film crew’s base. At the main entrance, a square table had been set up with three bowls of meat: chicken, pig’s head, and salted fish. Candles were stuck into the pig’s mouth. A group of people knelt on the ground, muttering to themselves as they kowtowed to the three bowls of meat.

Yan Zhen watched for a while before asking Lu Ming, “What are they doing?”

“Sacrificing to the Heavens,” Lu Ming replied.

“What?”

“The luck has been bad lately, so Director Wang said we should pay respects to the Mountain God so we can finish the movie smoothly.”

Yan Zhen remembered the little assistant who came to her house to buy a rooster yesterday. “This is useless.”

“No way,” Lu Ming said. “Director Wang even invited professional Masters over.”

As she spoke, three or four monks in orange-yellow robes walked over, striking wooden fish and chanting Amituofo. Then a few Taoist priests arrived, brandishing swords and tossing a bag of flour into the air.

Yan Zhen recognized these people. The “monks” were the village pig-butchers, and the “Taoists” were carpenters from the neighboring village. This was destined to be a completely useless ceremony.

“Director Wang invited them; it has nothing to do with me,” Lu Ming explained.

She pulled Yan Zhen inside to a small hut and pushed the door open. Someone was lying on the bed. Lu Ming whispered, “Sister Han, are you awake?”

“I’m awake,” the person on the bed sat up.

Yan Zhen recognized her immediately—it was the woman she had rescued from the tree a few days ago, the female lead of the movie.

“You brought the person?” Han Xiaomeng was wrapped in a quilt, seemingly avoiding the light.

Lu Ming said, “I brought her, I brought her!” She pulled Yan Zhen forward and said to Han Xiaomeng, “The Divine Calculator Sister is here.”

Author’s Note:

Yan Zhen: Hello everyone, I am the Divine Calculator Sister.

Zhao Baoshang: …What are you all looking at me for! Scram! I am not the Divine Calculator Brother-in-law!