Chapter 145: The Magnificent Peony

Thinking back about the conversation she overheard previously, Xia Ling felt uncomfortable — what about the artiste Jin Yifei was sizing up during the audition?

Seeing her expression, Li Lei asked, “Xiao Ling, is there any other problem?”

Xia Ling hesitated before shaking her head. Having known Li Lei for this long, she had realized how Li Lei was like as a person; he was nice usually, but when he lost his temper, it was hard for anyone to deal with him. Just earlier that day he had caused a security officer to be fired because of a small issue. If he did anything to Jin Yifei just because of her insecurities or doubts, it would be disastrous.

Zheng Desong said, “Miss Ye, don’t you worry, with our members involved in this audition, we will definitely give a fair outcome. Moreover,” He looked at her meaningfully. “Jin Yifei may appear teasing and unrestrained sometimes, but he is surely a serious man at work given that he’s doing so well in the industry now.”

His words put Xia Ling at ease.

But Li Lei drowned at the words “teasing and unrestrained” and would not let it go. “Xiao Ling,” He stood from the sturdy couch. “I’ll go over with you.”

Xia Ling was about to agree when his cell phone rang.

He looked at it and furrowed his brows.

She was not sure what important call it was, but she did not want to interfere. “You should just get to it. I’ll go over on my own, it’s alright.”

Reading the situation, Zheng Desong stood up as well. “I’ll walk Miss Ye over.”

With Zheng Desong’s accompaniment, Li Lei was more relieved and decided not to insist. “Xiao Ling, be careful.”

Xia Ling nodded and followed Zheng Desong to the audition set.

The set was not big. In the center was a temporary wooden stage, and under the spotlights and cameras, a girl in a red dress danced onstage, her movement enchanting and elegant, just like dancing flames.

Xia Ling determined at first glance that this girl’s dance techniques were far from comparable to hers.

Zheng Desong led her past many employees and filming apparatus before finally arriving at the side of the stage.

She saw a deckchair there, and lying on it with one leg propped up casually was a man in a floral shirt, and a Vacheron Constantin watch was on his left wrist. He did not notice them entering and was excitedly talking to the man on the stool beside him. “The one in red was not too bad, but her foundation isn’t strong enough. Her toes were not pointed properly, she needed a great effort to do a bridge, and when she did that spinning movement, even I felt bad for her bones… With someone like that, even playing with her in bed won’t be thrilling.”

He did not lower his volume — maybe it was inaudible from the stage, but for Xia Ling, she heard it clear as day.

Zheng Desong appeared uncomfortable and gave a loud cough.

The man on the deckchair turned around and seemed shocked to see them. “Brother Zheng, why are you here? Are you looking for me?” He spoke while rising from his seat with a smile. “This is…?”

“Ye Xingling,” replied Xia Ling.

Up close, the man was rather good-looking with his big bright eyes. At that moment, he was using those very eyes to size her up, and the way he looked at her was practically… peeling her clothes off layer by layer.

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Xia Ling felt disgusted and took two steps back.

Zheng Desong could sense her uneasiness and went forward to shield her slightly. “Yifei,” he said. “This is Miss Ye Xingling here for the audition. She’s an honored guest, please be a good host to her, alright?”

He placed emphasis on the words “honored guest.”

The man got a mild shock before smiling. “Alright, alright… Miss Ye, you’re really somebody, even Brother Zheng who doesn’t involve himself in the choosing of the cast thinks so highly of you.” He appeared more serious now and offered his hand. “I’m Jin Yifei, Director of ‘War and Death.’ I heard the assistant director Lin Yuanyi mention you before. Welcome to the audition.”

Lin Yuanyi had been busy recently, and while he had mentioned to Jin Yifei how good Xia Ling was in her dancing, he completely forgot to mention her relationship with Li Lei — everybody had seen the way Li Lei shielded Xia Ling at the cocktail reception. If Jin Yifei had known about it, he would not have dared size Xia Ling up before.

Xia Ling shook his hand lightly.

At this point, the lady in red had already finished her piece and had left the stage. The employees cleared the stage and signaled to Jin Yifei, asking if they could move on to the next audition.

Jin Yifei looked toward Xia Ling smilingly. “Miss Ye, are you ready? The set is all ready for you.”

She nodded her head and walked up.

It could not be helped that her hearing was impeccable. She could clearly hear the soft whispers between Jin Yifei and Zheng Desong —

“Hey, Brother Zheng, what’s this Ye Xingling’s background? Isn’t she just a new artiste from Skyart? Why did you have to come all the way down with her?”

“She has her backing, you’d better be careful. Put your flirty ways aside and don’t make any trouble.”

“Backing!” Jin Yifei sounded shocked. “Is she somebody’s mistress? That’s not right… her looks are merely average, what good financial backing could she have that’s better than me? Brother Zheng, who exactly is he?”

“Not so loud!” Zheng Desong was getting annoyed. “Stop creating trouble. In any case, it’s somebody you can’t afford to provoke.”

As they spoke, Xia Ling made her way to the center of the stage. More and more lights began to gather on her, and the intensity of the rays cleared all the distractions in her ears and mind. She could no longer hear what they were saying as she stood steadily in the center, and nothing was left in sight nor in her heart except the dance.

The instrumental began a beautiful classical Chinese melody.

She was familiar with this melody. Before the audition, the production team had sent them this piece. All the artistes who auditioned for the role had to choreograph their dance according to this music, which would be the dance that the character would perform during the celebratory palace feast.

She had practiced diligently.

As she started moving, her body stretched out, and a small sword appeared in her hand. She was now an enchanting figure.

The dance she had choreographed was highly difficult, with challenging movements following one after the other; a jump-split followed by quick spins right after the landing, a mirage of moves put together seamlessly… it was not her choice to show off all her steps, but was it not the production team who requested all these challenging moves? To make these moves even more elegant and smooth-flowing in a piece, and to better appeal to the audience, she decided to add more challenging steps than required. She remembered the first time she practiced the whole piece and how her body was in knots after just one round of rehearsal.

But the effects were stunning.

Her swift actions with the sword, along with the peony in her mouth — still fresh and fragrant with drops of dew — had brought her back to thousands of years ago at the very scene of the palace feast. She imagined herself performing before the empress, emperor, and his concubines, and in a split second, did an arched back and began doing spin after spin… turning herself into a splendid and magnificent peony.