Mr. Huo, my wife is offering 1000 billion for divorce!

Zheng Qian was about to say something else when she suddenly heard the crisp sound of high heels hitting the ground behind her.

The two looked back and saw Lin Ruoxuan, a popular young actress who had been in the front row during the previous audition, walking towards them, followed by three assistants. She had a Chanel jacket casually draped over her arm, revealing a valuable diamond necklace on her collarbone.

"Isn't this Miss Zhen?" Lin Ruoxuan stood in front of them, her red lips curled up in a smile, "I heard that Director Wang asked you to chat alone for half an hour?" She lowered her head and fiddled with her newly made crystal nails, "But the representative of the financing company just called my agent and said that the second female lead needs to bring 8 million to join the group."

The tail end of her voice was long and drawn out, like a poisoned silk thread.

Zhen Yan felt Zheng Qian suddenly grab her wrist.

In the twilight, the huge poster of "Undercurrent" on the outer wall of the studio was rustling in the wind. The heroine looked back with a gun in her hands, her eyes as sharp as a knife. It was exactly the final makeup photo of Lin Ruoxuan that was officially announced last month.

"Teacher Lin may have remembered it wrong." Zheng Qian suddenly let go of Zhen Yan, took a half step forward and said with a smile: "The audition notice we received did not mention the requirement to bring money into the group."

She deliberately emphasized the words "audition notice" and glanced at the assistant behind Lin Ruoxuan who was holding five Hermès paper bags.

Lin Ruoxuan's face changed slightly, and she turned the phone case inlaid with diamonds in a circle in her palm.

Just as he was about to speak, a group of people suddenly rushed out from the side door of the set.

Director Wang was surrounded by seven or eight staff members as he walked toward the parking lot. He gestured and discussed the storyboard with the screenwriter as he walked.

As he passed by them, Director Wang's gaze stayed on Zhen Yan for two seconds and he nodded imperceptibly.

This subtle movement made Lin Ruoxuan's carefully drawn eyebrows frown. She suddenly leaned close to Zhen Yan's ear and sneered with the breath of Chanel No. 5: "Do you know why you have been a supporting actor for five years? This circle does not want people who can act, but people who can do business."

Her fingers painted with bright red nail polish slid across Zhen Yan's washed-out canvas bag, "Just like the book 'Self-cultivation of an Actor' in your bag, it should have been replaced with 'High Emotional Intelligence Talking Skills'."

Zhen Yan suddenly recalled filming a war scene in Hengdian last winter. She played a palace maid who was shot and needed to roll down the icy stairs.

The stand-in raised the price temporarily, so she gritted her teeth and shot seven takes herself.

The blood clots froze into ice in the minus five degree Celsius temperature, scratching her neck and leaving bloody marks all over it. Now those scars seemed to be aching again.

"Teacher Lin is right." Zhen Yan suddenly laughed and pulled out an old book by Stanislavsky from her canvas bag. "So every time I read this..."

She turned to a dog-eared page, "'Love the art in your heart, not yourself in the art', and will be glad that she didn't learn those words."

Lin Ruoxuan's carefully maintained expression finally cracked. Just as she was about to explode, her agent ran over with a vibrating phone in hand: "Boss Zhou said that he has booked a private room at the Ritz-Carlton and asked you to go over now to discuss product placement."

Watching Lin Ruoxuan walking away in her 10cm high heels, Zheng Qian let out a long sigh of relief: "Just now I was really afraid that you would throw the thermos cup in your hand at me."

She glanced at Zhen Yan's clenched knuckles, "But you're right, we don't play dirty."

As the night deepened, Zhen Yan looked at the huge poster of "Undercurrent" across the street.

Lin Ruoxuan's figure holding a gun was dyed a blurry purple by the neon lights, and the muzzle of the gun was pointed at where they were standing.

She suddenly remembered the detail that Director Wang pointed out during the audition - when the character discovered that her lover had betrayed her, the script required her to smash the engagement ring, but she chose to gently take it off and place it on the windowsill.

"Sister Zheng," Zhen Yan turned and walked towards the subway station, "accompany me to the drama academy. I want to watch Professor Xu's The Seagull again."