The room was extremely quiet. Under the gaze of everyone, Li Linlin answered Chen Yiran’s call. “Brother Yiran?”

“En.” Chen Yiran’s voice came through the phone, “Are you sleeping?”

“Not yet.” Li Linlin didn’t dare to take a breath for fear that she would reveal some flaws. “Is there something wrong, Brother Yiran?”

“No, I just wanted to greet you happy birthday before midnight.”

“Oh……” Li Linlin laughed foolishly. “Thank you, Brother Yiran.”

Chen Yiran chuckled softly and then told her, “All right, if you have nothing else to do, go to bed early. Staying up late isn’t good for your health.”

“Okay. You should rest early as well.”

“Yeah.”

Li Linlin was about to hang up the phone when Wu Hui suddenly sneezed, sounding especially obvious in the quiet room.

Wu Hui covered her mouth in a hurry, her heart racing. Li Linlin held up the phone and heard Chen Yiran ask on the other end, “Who are you with?”

“……Wu Hui’er.” Li Linlin’s face turned pale with fright. “Didn’t she and Xixi come over today to celebrate my birthday? We’ve been together the whole time.”

“Mm.” Chen Yiran didn’t doubt it. The three girls were very close. There’s nothing strange about them sleeping together when they were tired from playing. “Tell them to go to bed early as well. Stop playing with your phones.”

“All right.” Li Linlin asked. “Is there anything else?”

Chen Yiran paused, then said, “No.”

After Li Linlin confessed to him last time, the two of them tacitly agreed not to mention the matter again. He had initially considered whether to talk to Li Linlin alone, but right now, he thought that this should be it for the time being.

“Then I’ll hang up first?”

“En.”

It was only after Li Linlin hung up the phone did she let out a huge breath. The others in the private room breathed a sigh of relief as well.

“Wu Hui’er, why do you always screw things up at critical moments?!” As soon as Li Linlin put down her phone, she questioned Wu Hui. Wu Hui retorted in a stutter, “I-I didn’t do it on purpose. How can I control something like sneezing?!”

“Alright, alright.” Chen Xi patted Li Linlin on the shoulder. “Since Brother Yiran didn’t notice anything, then I’ll continue singing! Wu Hui, put the music back on!”

Li Linlin: “……”

Why hadn’t she realized before that Xixi had such a big heart?

The lively atmosphere soon returned to the private room. Li Linlin sat on the side, feeling great joy.

Master Chang Xin’s calculation was indeed accurate. As soon as word that she’d be playing Ou Jiaxu got out and became a negative trending topic, Brother Yiran took the initiative to call her. After the drama aired, receiving a confession would be around the corner!

After singing at the KTV until the early hours of the morning, Li Linlin dragged Chen Xi, who was still unsatisfied, back home. Chen Xi seemed to have fallen in love with the place, and every now and then she wanted to take Li Linlin and Wu Hui to sing. However, as the end of the school year approached, she had to put this idea aside for the time being.

News that Li Linlin was going to play Ou Jiaxu had been circulating on the Internet, but an official announcement hadn’t been made to admit or refute the rumors. Li Linlin didn’t bother with the matter anymore. However, Wu Hui would go check Weibo every day. After all, she was the one who was being called useless every day. 🙂

In late December, the production team’s preparatory work had been completed and the start of filming had been set. The drama was ready to enter its publicity process and the team made appointments with the actors to take promotional photos.

During this period of time, Li Linlin also finished reading and reviewing the whole script. It was adjusted several times midway through and there have also been changes in Ou Jiaxu’s parts.

“In the original work, Ou Jiaxu is a stereotypical vicious female supporting character. We definitely can’t do it like that in our drama, so we held many script meetings during this period and discussed a lot about this character.” Wang Xin, the chief screenwriter of the team sat with Li Linlin and spoke to her with a smile.

Wang Xin was a well-known screenwriter in the country and had written many hit TV drama scripts. This drama wasn’t the first adaptation she took on. Her famous work was a romance novel that was far more dog blooded^[1]absurd, exaggerated, ridiculous and cheesy than 《Fatal Heartbeat》. However, after passing through her hands, it has turned into something miraculous and became the ratings champion of the year.

This time, Huanyu specially hired her to be the chief screenwriter as they also liked her adaption skills. After all, if done exactly the same as the original novel, 《Fatal Heartbeat》 would be a second-rate drama at best.

“Ou Jiaxu is still a wicked girl but we have appropriately removed her stupid parts. In terms of wickedness, we also try to make it more logical and a level higher.” Because Ou Jiaxu’s promotional photos were going to be taken that day, Wang Xin specifically came over to talk to Li Linlin about the character. “We have communicated with the stylist on the costume, hoping to restore the character’s image in our minds as much as possible. We will also be on the side while they’re doing your makeup, so if you have any ideas for the character, you can bring it up to us.”

“Okay. Thank you, Teacher Wang Xin.”

“You’re welcome. Have you read the latest version of the script we sent you?”

“Yes, I did. After the change, the character did seem a lot more three-dimensional.”

Wang Xin nodded. “Ou Jiaxu mainly needs to be interpreted through her eyes and aura. She’s the kind of girl who despite being a bad person, looks very intriguing. Can you understand if I put it this way?”

Li Linlin contemplated for a moment, then told the other party, “I’ll try my best to express it later. If you think something is wrong, you can tell me.”

“Okay, okay. Then I’ll go talk to the other actors.” The main actors were all there today, and the male and female lead had the most important roles, so she still had to take care of them.

After Wang Xin left, Li Linlin got herself into Ou Jiaxu’s state while her makeup was being done.

As with many romance novels, the female supporting character, Ou Jiaxu, was a rich and beautiful young lady who was good-looking and well-educated. However, the male protagonist didn’t like the female supporting character. He prefers the little white flower female lead that looks simple, kind and unpretentious.

《Fatal Heartbeat》 also set up a dog blooded point in that the female lead, Zhou Rongrong, was the long-lost youngest daughter of the Ou family. After she was found, she was favored by her parents, which made Ou Jiaxu even more jealous of her. Thus she tried all means to sabotage Zhou Rongrong’s relationship with the male lead and the Ou family.

Because Ou Jiaxu was older than Li Linlin, the makeup artist deliberately made her look more mature and focused on her eyebrows to produce an imposing effect.

Li Linlin’s black hair was originally permed in big waves and had see-through bangs. At this moment, the stylist straightened her hair and combed it back along with her bangs, and tied it into a high ponytail.

This ponytail was both imposing and retained a young girl’s spirit, effectively giving a well-balanced feel.

After all, Li Linlin was only 20 years old this year and Ou Jiaxu had only just entered society.

“Shall I take off your earrings first?” Li Linlin was wearing the earrings given to her by Chen Yiran. The stylist had prepared something else for her to use.

“Ah, I’ll do it myself.” Li Linlin carefully took off her earrings, put them in her bag, and then put on the earrings the stylist handed her.

“There, done.”

Li Linlin stood up in front of the mirror wearing a black tulle dress. It was her first time trying this style and she was quite surprised when she looked at herself in the mirror. “This look is also quite nice.”

She happily tossed her ponytail as she spoke.

The stylist was all smiles. The screenwriter also came over to take a look and felt that the image fit fairly well, so no further changes were made.

During the photo shoot, Li Linlin put away her playfulness as she stood in front of the camera. It’s as if she had transformed from a little girl into the vicious female supporting character, Ou Jiaxu, in one second. Many actors like to glare hard when they show anger or cruelty, but Li Linlin didn’t. She just changed her gaze, causing the entire aura she’s exuding to shift.

“Very good, that’s it. Look this way.” The photographer clicked the shutter frantically, trying to capture every bit of Li Linlin’s changing emotions. “Change your position again. You can smile a little. Yes, just like that! Don’t move.”

Wang Xin stood with the producer, looking at Li Linlin under the lights and nodding repeatedly. “She’s so expressive, better than many professional actors.”

The producer said, “She’s from Imperial University’s drama club after all. The instructors there are the real deal. She’s absolutely amazing with her gaze. I initially said that she’s more suitable to play the female lead, but it seems that I’m too straight-laced.”

“She can do it.” Wang Xin said, “Maybe Ou Jiaxu will become the biggest highlight of our drama.”

The production team was very satisfied with that day’s photo shoot. After Li Linlin was done with her set, she also met some of the cast. They were all relatively young, but Li Linlin, who had just turned 20, was still the youngest. There were newcomers and some already well-known actors. Basically, most of them were recognized for their acting skills. The male and female leads were both idols who were trying to transition. It seems that the company was putting all its chips on this drama.

Afterwards, Li Linlin went straight back to school. The production team got everything ready and sent out the photos on Christmas Day. The male and female leads were originally idols so there’s nothing to be picky about in terms of appearance and their photos were beautifully taken. However, no one expected that after the final promotional photos were released, it was Li Linlin who caused widespread discussion.

Since being noticed by the outside world, Li Linlin had shown a sweet and lovely image. To her fans, she’s the ‘human honey’ and a rare beauty with the most beautiful profile.

From the moment she entered public eye, she and the word ‘beautiful girl’ had been tied together.

When she first decided to take on Ou Jiaxu, Wu Hui was particularly worried. Let alone whether the character was likable or not, it was inconsistent with her ‘persona’ from the inside out, so it would be extremely risky to take the role. Later, Li Linlin was negatively trending on the Internet, which confirmed that Wu Hui’s viewpoint was correct. People simply couldn’t accept such an image.

But today, when the promotional photos came out, the wind suddenly changed. A few days ago, fans would scold Wu Hui on Weibo every day. Now they were all shouting 【Ahhhhhhhhh!】 and repeatedly saying, 【Little Sister is too stunning. I can again.】

Wu Hui almost thought this was the water army^[2]paid posters she bought in a dream. 🙂

#LiLinlinOuJiaxu# immediately became a hot search topic and the square was filled with singing and dancing. Everyone was praising Li Linlin for how A^[3]alpha, cool and beautiful she looked in the promotional photo. There was even an official account that wrote an article with the title 《Breaking Through the Shell of a Beautiful Girl will Lead to Endless Possibilities》.

Wu Hui read the article carefully which made an in-depth analysis of Li Linlin’s role as Ou Jiaxu. It mentioned that Li Linlin’s move was undoubtedly smart. Looking back on film history, how many actresses were trapped in the shell of ‘beautiful girl’ and could only play sweet and innocent roles. Even when they were older, it was difficult to switch. But after Li Linlin dared to break out of this shell and stopped being just a ‘beautiful girl’, her acting career had significantly broadened and she had unlimited possibilities in the future.

Wu Hui: “?”

Wait, did Linlin thought this much when she took the role? Did she misunderstand Linlin?

“Linlin, you’re on the hot search again and there’s an official account that wrote a short article about you!”

Li Linlin was sitting in the dorm room reading a book. When she saw Wu Hui come in, she was vaguely expectant as she responded calmly, “Oh? Are they scolding me again?”

Wu Hui said excitedly, “They’re not scolding you! They’re praising you for having the courage to break your own label and leaving a new memory for the outside world! From now on, you’re no longer just an empty beautiful girl, but an interesting soul!”

Li Linlin: “……”

What???