Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The System gave me a brand-new identity.

I became a worker in the entertainment industry.

I had clawed my way up from the very bottom to where I was now.

But without capital backing me, no matter how hard I worked, I went out of fashion all too quickly.

And over the years, Ye Qingshi’s name had been brought up again and again in my life.

In a status I could no longer reach.

It was exactly as he had wished.

Between us, there was no longer any possibility.

My agent said she had good news.

A director appreciated me and wanted me to audition for another project of his.

“It’s also funded by Ye Group,” my agent said. “The only thing is, the content is a little bold.”

I accepted.

Because I needed money, and this was a production team that was hard to come by.

I was arranged to sit in a corner very close to the exit.

Right in the path of the draft.

“What a bunch of snobs,” my agent complained.

People hurried in and out.

“I heard Ye Qingshi is here too.”

My hand paused as I flipped through the script.

“He probably came to visit the set next door and stopped by to watch the auditions,” my agent said. “His standards are very high. Do your best.”

“Ye Shi’er is on the crew next door?”

“Yeah.”

To be honest, I found it hard to imagine Ye Qingshi agreeing to let his own younger sister get involved in the entertainment industry.

With the way he used to control me, even a hand-holding scene would have been enough for him to have this film shut down.

Maybe she was more special to him.

Special enough that he was willing to break his own bottom line for her.

She was right. The things I couldn’t do, she always could.

But thinking about that now was meaningless.

I turned the page and went back to reading the script.

The audition scene was the boldest part of the entire script-the younger sister, planning to elope with her lover under cover of night, was intercepted by her older brother on the spot.

The older brother’s anger pushed their already improper relationship from kisses into a fall, gradually leaving them suspended on the boundary of worldly taboo.

“Jiang Cun.”

The stage manager called my name, and it took me a few seconds to react.

I closed the script and walked into the room.

Back then, Ye Qingshi would rather have died than do something like this. Now, I was actually going to do it with someone else right in front of him.

I wondered what expression my restrained, noble older brother would have.

I was the last one to audition.

Everyone in the room was restless, impatiently waiting to wrap up.

I was only a washed-up actress, someone who had gotten this audition by cashing in on the director’s favor. No one believed I could be chosen.

The moment I entered, I saw Ye Qingshi.

After so many years, his features had grown even sharper and more striking.

His assistant was bent over, saying something to him. He flipped through the script with careless indifference and did not even raise his head to look at me.

“Begin,” the director said.

I got into character and walked up to Ge Qi, the actor playing opposite me.

“Where do you think you’re running off to with him?” Ge Qi grabbed my wrist. “Did you really think that if you changed identities and disguised yourself, I wouldn’t be able to find you?”

I lowered my eyes and did not meet his anger.

But the more silent I was, the less he had any outlet for it.

Ge Qi flung me aside, his strength so great he nearly lost control.

With a loud clang, my lower back slammed straight into the crew’s crude iron bed frame.

The pain made me suck in a breath.

He pressed over me, his hands trembling as he unbuttoned my shirt, all while cursing me with ugly words.

Cold air poured in. He undid the buttons very quickly.

The room had not been cleared. A crowd of staff members surrounded us, coming and going.

He lowered his head and roughly rubbed against my neck, using it to vent his emotions.

As I turned my head and endured it in silence, I unexpectedly met Ye Qingshi’s cold, assessing gaze.

So unfamiliar it made it hard to breathe.

Ge Qi used more force, and a broken gap in the iron bed frame stabbed into me, making tears spring to my eyes by instinct. I murmured, “Brother.”

“Cut.”

It was Ge Qi who called the stop.

“Do you even know how to act?”

He irritably wiped his lips. “How could you make a sound there? And your movements were so gentle. You should have been terrified of me and fighting back as hard as you could.”

The director calmed him down, then asked me why I had acted it that way.

I got up and straightened the jacket that had slipped from my shoulder.

“Because the younger sister understands her older brother.”

I explained, “The best way to calm her brother’s anger isn’t to resist, but to show weakness. Because her brother loves her, so he’ll feel distressed for her. He won’t be able to bear seeing her suffer.”

The director glanced at Ye Qingshi and said, “Her interpretation is indeed different from the actresses before her. What do you think?”

Ye Qingshi flipped through my information.

“Her understanding is quite accurate.”

Then he asked me in the voice I knew best, “Do you have an older brother?”

I froze.

I looked at those eyes that had once looked back at me countless times.

“I…”

Before I could finish, a man in a suit walked in from outside and strode quickly toward Ye Qingshi.

“Miss Ye was splashed with sulfuric acid on set.”

The moment he said that, commotion broke out in the room.

The lazy air around Ye Qingshi vanished. He shot to his feet and rushed outside with a tense expression.

The audition was suspended.

When I walked out of the room, my agent reached out to support me in concern. “Why do you look so awful?”

“I’m fine.”

“How is this fine?” she cried out, looking at my lower back. “You’re bleeding through your clothes.”

I touched it and came away with blood smeared across my palm.

“Did your old injury flare up again? Back when you were filming, I told you to use a stunt double, but you insisted on doing it yourself,” my agent said, heart aching for me. “And look how that turned out. Ye Shi’er snatched the role from you, and you were the one left with lasting damage.”

Someone passing by shoved my shoulder.

The crowd was all following Ye Qingshi to the next set to help.

I stared at his panicked figure from behind and remembered what I had just said.

“Because her brother loves her, so he’ll feel distressed for her.”

So he really could be conquered. He really could fall in love with his own younger sister.

It was just that the person wasn’t me.