Transmigration of the Famous Cyberstar (1)

Chapter 43: The Sound of the Wind

"The Sound of the Wind" might seem like a high school romance film, but in reality, its main focus remains in the suspense genre.

The female lead, Yan Xialan, had been born into a privileged family. She had everything she wanted since birth. She grew up in America and went to prestigious schools. She also studied piano in a famous music academy. All in all, her life was perfect. And to top it all off, she was smart and pretty. During college, she met the male lead, Gu Qing, who was going to go to college in America. Gu Qing was one of the best students in the biology major, and was very handsome and smart.

The two met in an Asian student party. Yan Xialan entered as a special guest to the party, and had also performed a piano song in front of everyone. Her skillfulness and extraordinary looks deeply attracted Gu Qing.

After the party, Gu Qing started to chase after Yan Xialan's love.

Yan Xialan had always had many admirers, and so she was extremely picky. She always tried to find something bad about every man. However, Gu Qing was a perfect man with no faults. Firstly, he was very skilled at accounting. He could control his actions in a range that Yan Xialan could accept. He would never tell her his feelings in public to embarrass her, nor would he cling onto her. He always appeared in front of Yan Xialan at the most appropriate moments, as if they met coincidentally, and never made her dislike him. In addition, his appearance was quite handsome if judged by a Chinese. He was also tall and strong, which was considered fit when judged by an American. Yan Xialan was quite fond of the handsome, and couldn't resist such a handsome man, not to mention how good he was academically.

The two got together very naturally. They dated each other and lived in the same house. Gu Qing continued to study for his doctoral degree while Yan Xialan graduated and became a pianist in a band. Everything seemed so perfect, and it was time for them to get married.

However, the issue appeared when they were considering getting married.

Yan Xialan followed Gu Qing back to China to meet his parents and live in his house.

Gu Qing's house was in Shanghai. It was a two-story house, and his family seemed financially stable. Excluding Gu Qing's parents, he also had a younger sister, Ji An.

Yan Xialan noticed Ji An's hostile stare the first time they met, but whenever she turned around, Ji An would change into a sweet expression.

And when Yan Xialan asked Gu Qing why he didn't have the same last name as his sister, Gu Qing told her that Ji An was his step-sister, and that his mother married Ji An's father when he was twelve.

Gu Qing's words were somewhat incoherent, as if he was hiding something.

And ever since Yan Xialan had moved into Gu Qing's house, she started to experience weird things.

For instance, there would be blood stains on her bed sheet, but she wasn't on her period. The piano in the house would start playing at midnight, but when they went up to the piano, they wouldn't see anyone. And sometimes when she came back, there would be broken glass in her bedroom.

Yan Xialan didn't freak out. She just thought that it was someone's prank, so she didn't really think about it. Until one day, when she went downstairs, she was tripped by something and, as a result, broke her leg.

The scream drew everyone in the house around her. Right before she fainted, Yan Xialan saw the fear in Gu Qing's mother's eyes. His father looked regretful. And the worst of all, there was a smirk hanging on Ji An's face.

Yan Xialan woke up in the hospital and saw Gu Qing sitting beside her.

After a somewhat ambivalent debate with himself, Gu Qing told her that he had had another younger sister named Ji Ning, and that the bedroom Yan Xialan had moved into belonged to Ji Ning. Ji Ning had died when she was only seventeen years old.

...

"Thank you all for coming here to audition for the second female lead, Ji An, in 'The Sound of the Wind.'" In meeting room number 3, Qiu Jing spoke to the four young superstars sitting in front of her, "You must've already read the scripts, and have, somewhat, an understanding of Ji An's character. Now, please give a speech on your interpretation of her."

Qiu Jing glanced over the group of four, and stopped when she saw Yang Huayue, "Let's start from Huayue."

"Alright," Yang Huayue stood up with a confident smile on her face.

She followed Qiu Jing into a room next to the meeting room.

After five minutes, the second female cyber star went in too, followed by the third and the fourth.

It was at eleven o'clock when Zhou Xi came to tell Liu Man that the audition had started.

Peach was right. They really did make her wait for a long time. However, while she was waiting, Zhou Xi had handed her the script, and she had already read about the basic plot of the movie.

Liu Man followed Zhou Xi into a wide room with many people inside.

As she walked in, everyone stared at her. Ye Zian, Gao Jindong, and Qiu Jing all sat on the main seats.

Ye Zian raised his eyebrows. So, she was Liu Man.

Gao Jindong, who was standing beside him, laughed softly, "Now you won't feel regretful. They're the same person."

"It's coincidental. Looks like my intuition had always been correct."

"You need to trust Jing's judgement. She wouldn't be wrong about the ones who she would pick."

Ye Zian answered with a "Mm," not showing any expression.

Except for Qiu Jing and Zhou Xi, Liu Man didn't recognize anyone in the room. Zhou Xi handed her a piece of A4 paper with words printed on it.

"Take a glance over it. Ask me if you don't understand anything."

There weren't many words on it. It was a dialogue between the characters, and there were only two. Ji Ning and Ji An. The content contained a lot of arguments.

Qiu Jing said, "Liu Man, please think of yourself as Ji Ning from now on, and perform the dialogue in front of us. I'll give you five minutes to memorize the script. I won't make it mandatory for you to memorize all of it and not miss a single word. You just have to say similar words."

Liu Man nodded her head and started to rehearse.

While Liu Man was busy practicing, Yang Huayue asked her agent, "Do you know where this girl came from?"

"Not sure. She looks unfamiliar; I've never seen her before. She's probably one of the new actors Manager Qiu found."

Yang Huayue took another glance at Liu Man, "She looks plain. New actors can only be extras."

She sighed in relief. At first, when Liu Man came in, Yang Huayue thought that she would be an opponent seeking for the same role. She had just defeated the other three female stars and received the role of the second female lead. She didn't want anything to change.

Liu Man was good at memorizing things. She developed great memorizing skills while she had been in the cold palace. Madam Xu's room contained a lot of books, and she had spent countless boring days reading and memorizing the classics. This was why she could write so many classical poems without looking them up online.

In less than five minutes, she handed the piece of paper back to Zhou Xi and said, "I'm done."

Zhou Xi was surprised, "In such a short amount of time?"

"Being fast is a good thing. Let's start then." Ye Zian said.

Liu Man didn't know who this man was, and Zhou Xi saw the perplexity in her eyes. She said in a low voice, "He's Ye Zian, the director. He has high expectations."

Liu Man nodded and looked again at the man who had a very stern expression.

"Huayue, are you ready?" Qiu Jing asked Yang Huayue.

"I was born ready," Yang Huayue stood up and walked to the middle of the room.

Liu Man walked over too, and stood right in front of her.

The two girls stared at each other for a moment. Liu Man thought Yang Huayue looked familiar, probably because in the old Liu Man's memories, there had been a Yang Huayue. She was a very famous actress after all.