Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After spending a few days at home poring over reference materials and previous episodes of the variety show, I headed to the filming location brimming with confidence.

The Zhou Family had some shareholders’ meeting coming up these days, so Zhou Qiji hadn’t been busy with his directing career. Instead, he’d been running back to the main family residence for meetings.

Sometimes, by the time he came home at night, I was already asleep. And since he was exceptionally good about boundaries, he simply slept in the study.

The variety show I was joining was called Actor’s Conviction. As the name suggested, it was an acting variety show.

Of course, the recording process wasn’t livestreamed, but that didn’t stop well-informed fans and fansite girls from staking out the venue.

The guests invited for each episode all had some degree of fame. Their status varied, but that didn’t stop some newcomers from landing decent roles through this show.

Sister An’an felt the scripts and roles I was getting were all too formulaic, and that I needed something new, so she simply sent me here to give it a try.

Once I arrived, I started socializing.

I had a general idea of who the guests for this round were. My popularity these past few days had been pretty good, thanks to that alt account of mine that had deleted itself and run off.

In a way, I was riding my own coattails.

My own career in the entertainment industry was neither here nor there, but it was comfortable.

Most of the actors invited to this variety show were young, though there were exceptions. This episode had a boy group member named Shen Xu.

His temporary group was about to disband, so maybe he was considering switching lanes. That was probably why he came.

When I got out of the car, most of the fans waiting outside were his. The girls were extremely enthusiastic.

“Hello, Teacher Chu. I’ve heard so much about you.” Someone came over to greet me. She was a younger girl still in college, named Jiang Siqiao.

Just yesterday, I’d been watching edits of that sweet campus drama of hers. She had an oval face, puppy-dog eyes, and short hair that only reached her shoulders. She was so cute she looked like a little loli sister who had run straight out of a two-dimensional world.

Her fans had only one request for her: No talking to boys at school! And kissing was even more forbidden!

Of course, that was my request for her now too.

No one could say no to an adorable girl.

“Qiaoqiao, hello.” I curved my eyes in a smile.

At first, it was mainly the stage where everyone got to know each other. But since we all worked in the entertainment industry, aside from a few seniors who didn’t usually go online much, even if we weren’t familiar with each other, it wasn’t to the point of not knowing one another at all.

Jiang Siqiao was like an introvert looking for a companion. After greeting me, she stuck by my side.

For the sake of her cuteness, I could accept this little tagalong.

The socializing that followed was more or less the same. I had read the guest profiles, so I knew who everyone was.

There were four men and four women in total.

Among the male guests, aside from Shen Xu, who was currently the most popular, there was also Li Huaizhen, who had once played the male lead in a hit drama. He could be considered a tear of the times. He had been hugely popular a few years ago, but failed to keep up the momentum afterward, and his current standing was far from what it used to be.

Besides him, there was Wu Shen, known as the “eternal second male lead.” He had good looks and solid acting skills, and his popularity wasn’t bad either. His fans’ greatest wish for him was that he would land a male lead role.

The last male guest was Qi Linyou, a college student like Jiang Siqiao. He had debuted as a child star and had a lot of mom-fans and auntie-fans.

On the female guests’ side, besides Jiang Siqiao and me, there were two actresses: Su Min, who had been in the industry for around ten years, and Zhu Yunchu, who had debuted as a singer.

The former had only recently announced her divorce, and her fans were all in a state of “celebrating the beauty’s return to singlehood.” She needed to maintain her popularity. I had made a cameo in one of her dramas a few years ago. She was a nice person and loved treating people to meals.

The latter was a beauty who had spent years singing theme songs for TV dramas and making cameo appearances as supporting characters in various productions. Her coming on this variety show felt, more or less, like she was here to have fun.

In any case, I was quite envious of Zhu Yunchu. That voice of hers was no different from a gift from heaven.

I briefly got acquainted or caught up with everyone.

Then the staff notified us that the next segment was about to begin.

I knew what the next segment involved too. It was nothing more than meeting the judges.

But they had kept the judges’ identities under wraps. Aside from the regular judges, they hadn’t announced the others. I had even specifically asked Sister An’an to look into it, but she hadn’t found anything.

Maybe because my fanfic alt account had deleted itself recently, the production team deliberately arranged for me to be the first to appear.

To be honest, I hadn’t expected that buzz. It had already spread to the point where people were bringing it up in the comments sections under Zhou Qiji’s posts and mine. Of course, they got scolded every time they posted it.

There was a phrase for it: keeping it within your own circle.

Although, as one of the actual people involved, personally leading the shipping was perhaps not very ethical, I thought it over carefully. Zhou Qiji was, after all, my legal husband. What was wrong with me making up a few stories about myself and my husband?

The production team had set everything up quite properly. I was like a contestant about to take part in some competition, standing backstage and waiting to go on.

When the staff gave me the reminder, I didn’t think too much of it. I casually glanced in the mirror; there was nothing wrong with my makeup or styling.

So when I saw Zhou Qiji sitting at the judges’ table, I froze, completely caught off guard.