Chapter 34: Switched

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Du Honghong was disgruntled. Even though she had started her revision for her ninth-grade exam early, her results were not satisfactory.

If this had happened in the past, she would not have minded. Jiang Se would still have the worst results in the family anyway.

The original Jiang Se did not have good results. Du Changqun also had a lot to say about this stepdaughter of his. He would give her a few rounds of scolding after every examination.

However, Jiang Se passed with flying colors this time. Even though Du Changqun had clearly said that he would not be paying for her college tuition fees, her results spoke for themselves. She had made it into the First Imperial Academy. Most of the residents nearby learned about this as well and they visited the family to confirm what they heard many times.

Du Honghong’s results seemed bad in comparison, so Du Changqun had ordered her to stay in the house to do her revision.

“You’re both sisters. Why can’t you just sort this out peacefully?” Zhou Hui entered the house.

Du Honghong could not help but complain, “She’s not my sister. Just look at our different surnames.”

When Zhou Hui heard this, she shot her a glare. Then, she turned to face Jiang Se. “What happened?”

Jiang Se drank some water before looking up to Du Honghong. She said with a smile, “Perhaps she doesn’t have the guts to look in the mirror because she’s so ugly, and she’s jealous that I can.”

When she finished, Du Honghong’s face flushed in anger.

She was still young and could barely hold anything in. On top of that, she had the stubborn ego of a young girl. She could not have endured the slightest remark. When she saw Jiang Se drinking, she shouted, “I’m not jealous of you! Stop drinking my family’s water. It’s ours!”

If it had been the original Jiang Se, she would have put the glass down and fought her without a second thought.

However, Jiang Se drank two more mouthfuls of water with an exaggerated slowness before placing the empty glass back in its original spot. “I’ve paid for my living expenses here.”

Her sentence practically stuffed a sock in Du Honghong’s mouth. She let out a loud cry, turned around, and stormed into her room. Zhou Hui went after her to try and comfort her, but the door to her room was slammed shut in her face.

Zhou Hui looked at her eldest daughter who acted as if nothing had happened. She sighed with slight helplessness.

If this had happened in the past, she would have been able to talk to Jiang Se. However, since Du Changqun hit Jiang Se two months ago after her fight with Du You, she had changed.

However, Zhou Hui could not quite put her finger on which part of Jiang Se had changed.

One of the more obvious points was that when Zhou Hui reminded her to turn off the lights at night in the past, Jiang Se would have argued with her. However, when she reminded her now, Jiang Se said no more and switched the light off immediately.

Although this saved her some trouble, she felt more distant from her daughter now.

She almost never listened to her in the past and always dreamt of becoming a celebrity. Now, it seemed that she had her own plans and had found a job. When she had some savings of her own, Zhou Hui could control her even less.

“You should try to not quarrel with your little sister. She’s a few years younger than you are. If your Uncle Du hears about this, there’ll be chaos in this house again.

Jiang Se could see her helplessness, but she was thinking about accepting more jobs. She wanted to earn more money so that she could move out on her own as soon as possible.

Although the crew had told her the official filming date when they had their test run at Imperial Productions back then, they had given her a call a day before just in case. They told her to be there before 9 a.m.

Although the production team had rented a plane, they had limited time. The crew member who notified Jiang Se was worried that she would be late, so he reminded her several times.

When Jiang Se arrived at the filming location, it was not even 9 a.m. The crew was already there to set up the place.

Besides shooting the scene on the plane, they would also be shooting one of Dai Jia’s scenes.

Dai Jia had two scenes: making a phone call at the airport and boarding the plane. In the scene that they would be shooting, the ex-girlfriend that she would be portraying had a fight with Zhou Rongshen and left. She applied for an abroad assignment from her company and gave Zhou Rongshen a call at the last minute. However, he did not answer her call because he was in a meeting.

When Jiang Se arrived, a few of the crew members greeted her. They were there when Gu Jiaer had given her some pointers back then. Naturally, there were more crew members smiling at her now.

It was still early, so the makeup and styling team were not fully present yet. Meanwhile, the crew was carrying the equipment to their designated spots.

A girl was rushing toward the makeup room with a pile of things in her hands. She took a few hurried steps and several of the bags accidentally slipped from her grip. When they dropped to the floor, their contents scattered.

She was slightly anxious. However, she hurried into the makeup room with the remaining things in her hands first. When she came back out, she saw Jiang Se picking up the items she had dropped and loading them into the bags.

The girl sighed. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The girl had dropped quite a number of things. She was grateful that Jiang Se was helping her with them. “The schedule’s pretty tight today. Director Gu said that there can’t be any problems in today’s filming. We only have half a day here. Nobody can bear the consequences if there are any mistakes.”

Renting a plane was expensive. Most production teams would choose to film such scenes in a studio and leave the rest to the post-production team. However, Gu Jiaer had high requirements for his film. He also intended to win an award with this, hence he spent a lot renting a passenger plane.

“We were here since 5 p.m. to set up the area.” She turned to look at the cameras and their tracks on the ground. “There’s still a lot to do. We didn’t even have time for breakfast.”

When the makeup artists and actors arrived, everything had to be ready. Crew members such as herself were the first to be blamed when there was any mistake.

Jiang Se helped her with the bags, and they went into the changing room. The girl made a few more trips and sighed in relief after everything had been brought in. When she came out, she saw Jiang Se sitting under the makeup tent. She walked up to her and thanked her again, moving closer to her. “Thank you so much for the help just now.

“I saw Director Gu giving you pointers for your acting back at the Imperial Productions base.” Her teeth could be seen when she smiled and she seemed to be about 23 years old. “I heard that Director Gu praised you as well.”

She seemed to be a lively person as she continued talking to Jiang Se without minding her coldness. She continued, “Director Gu rarely praises another person.” When she said this, she seemed to notice that Jiang Se barely gave any response to her even though she had been talking for quite some time. For a moment, she seemed awkward as well.

Jiang Se sat under the makeup tent with her smooth hair was neatly combed. It was tied behind her head and her flawless oval face was not blocked by her fringes or any stray hair. Nonetheless, she seemed to gather more attention than the average celebrity even after their makeup and styling were done.

Men were not the only ones who liked to look at beautiful girls. Girls liked to do the same as well.

The girl shot her a few glances and changed the topic of conversation.

“You don’t seem to talk much. I think I saw you talking to Dai Jia back at the Imperial Productions base.” When she mentioned Dai Jia, Jiang Se nodded. The girl crossed her legs and rested her behind on the makeup table as she leaned toward Jiang Se.

“Her character’s been switched.”

When Jiang Se heard this, she looked up.

“Switched?”

“Mm-hmm.” The girl nodded heavily. She seemed slightly nervous to be talking about this rumor here as she peered around. There was nothing blocking her view in the makeup tent and the others were currently busy with their own works, so nobody was taking notice of them.

“I heard that someone more suitable for the role has joined the cast.”