The filming for 'Diamond in the Rough' was taking place in an office building in the CBD of the B City, which was the bustling capital of the country. It was early autumn at the moment, the weather was mild and clear, and so Su Qiao didn't bother bundling up too much when she stepped out of the airport and into the refreshing crisp afternoon air.
She'd gone the VIP route, which had helped her to avoid fans, but that didn't mean that she hadn't been spotted by a couple of sharp-eyed people. A small crowded gathered near the exit that she'd chosen but luckily Peng Lili had ensured that there were bodyguards arranged to escort them to the hired van.
After ghosting Manager Zhao for an entire week, the company finally seemed to have caught on that Su Qiao wasn't intending on keeping that professional relationship anymore. She wasn't sure whether Lin Zizhou had a hand in this or whether the higher-ups had met to discuss matters and decided that it was in their best interests to keep Su Qiao, whose fame was growing at an exponential rate.
She wasn't sure what had happened to Manager Zhao and she wasn't sure that she cared. But just a couple of days ago, a new woman had called her and introduced herself in a brisk manner. And when Su Qiao had heard her name, she'd nearly dropped her phone in shock.
Yu Yaxiu. If Manager Zhao were thick-skinned enough to coin herself a 'gold-tier manager', then Yu Yaxiu was without a doubt a 'diamond-tier' one. More famous than some celebrities herself, she was a household name in the industry, renowned for nearly single-handedly bringing up two film emperors and one film empress before getting married and retiring to focus on her children.
Su Qiao wasn't sure who she'd expected DFE to replace Manager Zhao with but it certainly wasn't Yu Yaxiu.
Yu Yaxiu had cut to the chase too. "I have a service contract with DFE," she'd said. "You're still their artist but I'm a specialist that they've hired solely to handle your case. Knowing that, Ms Su, would you be keen to work with me?"
Su Qiao would have to be an idiot to reject her just like how, no matter how grudging DFE might be, they would not turn away Yu Yaxiu's connections.
"Of course," Su Qiao had replied without missing a beat. "I look forward to working with you, Yu Jie." She'd also hesitated for a second before adding, "May I know, though, why…?"
Yu Yaxiu had laughed. "I'm a fan of your Noble Consort Yang," was all she'd said to that.
Su Qiao had her reservations about whether Yu Yaxiu was telling her the full truth but it didn't matter. Whatever it was, she was going to make use of these golden fingers that had fallen into her lap out of the blue.
The van pulled up into a lobby of a nondescript hotel. 'Diamond in the Rough' was a production with a reasonable budget but it wasn't a blockbuster or anything, so funding was still limited in certain areas. Su Qiao had been expecting the production team to cut costs in terms of accommodation, especially since hotels in B City were infamous for being cutthroat expensive, especially in the city centre.
But she was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was the hotel clean and well-maintained, she had also been booked into a junior suite. Although she was the female lead of the drama, she was also incredibly young and still considered a fresh face in the industry. Such favour either meant that DFE had stepped in and interfered on her behalf or the production team had high hopes for her.
She hoped that it was the latter, even though she had to be careful to live up to those hopes or risk others saying that she had pulled dirty strings to get preferential treatment.
It was odd. Some of the details about her previous life were fuzzy and she couldn't recall if this was where she'd stayed last time for the filming. But she was certain that it wasn't the suite. Why had things changed since? Where did the butterfly effect start?
Peng Lili didn't seem as shocked as Su Qiao was, accepting it as fact that her cousin was deserving of all these nice things. She knew better than others how much passion Su Qiao had for acting and the amount of effort she put into her job. She dived straight into the task of sorting out Su Qiao's attire, hanging up the clothes in the luggage and making a note of which ones had to be ironed and which ones didn't.
"Charge your phone, Lili," Su Qiao called out from the bedroom. Peng Lili was still really new too, and while she was hardworking, Su Qiao remembered that she had the terrible habit of draining the battery on her phone by trawling through social media almost obsessively. Once, because she'd been unable to contact Peng Lili, Su Qiao had nearly gotten cornered by a drunk movie sponsor who had wanted to take advantage of her. If it hadn't been for the sudden arrival of that hotel's security, she couldn't say what would have happened.
Su Qiao didn't blame Peng Lili, everyone made mistakes and after that, she'd never seen Peng Lili use her phone needlessly anymore. She'd also started carrying a power bank with her everywhere she went.
But no harm cultivating some professional habits in this scatterbrained assistant of hers early.
Settling back down on the chaise, Su Qiao relaxed and went over the script in her head again. She'd already memorised it by heart and decided to spend the rest of that afternoon ruminating on her character to see if she had missed out any insightful details that might help her portray the role better.
Su Qiao's female lead was called Yuan Siqi, an ambitious, hot-headed fashion designer working for the male lead's mother, who was the chairman and creative director of the company. Unlike a lot of these plot-lines, their love story wasn't a case of poor-girl-meets-rich-boy. Instead, Yuan Siqi came from a privileged background herself and this juxtaposed her against the first female supporting character, who, as far as Su Qiao could see, was a white lotus from a humble family.
[I could use this drama as practice,] she'd thought wryly the first time she'd reread the script in Yao Xun's place.
The script had a lot of potential and Su Qiao was very interested in Yuan Siqi, especially now that she could relate to the character better. She knew that that casting director had favoured her for the role because of her family's wealth. He thought that someone like Su Qiao would be able to effortlessly portray Yuan Siqi's social status. He wasn't wrong but the part that Su Qiao had struggled with in her past life was everything else.
Besides being born into money, Su Qiao and Yuan Siqi had zero similarities. And back then, Su Qiao hadn't been able to fully understand the character despite her best efforts. Granted, she'd been affected by her father's remarriage but it wasn't a good enough excuse.
She had an advantage now though. She could understand Yuan Siqi's motivations now and she shared the same distastes too.
The afternoon flew by with her lost in thought, grabbing a pencil from the side table to scribble new notes into the margins of her script whenever she thought of something new. Peng Lili knew better than to disturb her, just knocking only once to hand her a cup of water, and then again, now, when it was time for dinner.
"Qiao Jie, Director Ma booked the hotel's restaurant for 7."
"Got it." But Su Qiao only stood up once she finished the scene. Stretching to ease the crick in her neck, she sauntered over to the wardrobe to grab a jacket. She was wearing a midriff bearing top and black trousers but this felt a bit revealing for a dinner with the crew, so she covered it up nicely with a McQUEEN black bomber jacket that had puffy couture sleeves. She'd fallen in love with it at first sight and now could wear it without having to consider whether it was 'too flashy' or 'too bold' or 'went against her image', since Manager Zhao wasn't around to criticise her choices anymore.
Oh yeah. And Manager Yu had told her to be herself. So there.
It wasn't peak season and most of the hotel guests were businessmen because they were located near the CBD. But Su Qiao wore a mask anyway, just to try and keep a low profile. No one fully recognised her and it was with some relief that she made it to the fourth floor restaurant without more than a couple of curious glances and double-takes.
The restaurant Director Ma had chosen served upscale local cuisine and just from the ornate traditional decor of the place, such as the carved screens and plush, sombre carpeting, Su Qiao could tell that Director Ma had forked out a bomb. Maybe this was a sign that he took the film very seriously and wanted to establish a good rapport with the crew. Su Qiao hadn't been professional last round and her relationship with Director Ma had been strained by the time they'd wrapped up filming.
She wasn't going to allow that to happen this time.
Stepping into the private room, she greeted everyone with a polite, "Good evening, sorry I'm slightly late—"
And then had to forcibly hold her good-natured expression on her face when she caught sight of a figure, all in white, who stood up from a seat on Director Ma's right.
"Big Sister," Bai Meixin said with a tentative, bright smile. "Surprise!"