Chapter 1: CH 1

“Hey, Ji Li, are you okay? Why did you fall unconscious in the toilet?”

Ji Li was silent as he looked down at his situation. His clothes were wet, a bucket was tipped over sideways at his feet and the smooth floor was covered with water. There was a dull pain from the back of his head. It was probably swollen from when he fell to the ground.

“Is this the time to be mute? Are you okay?” The other side asked in a perfunctory manner without any real concern.

Ji Li raised his gaze and observed the person in front of him. Then a name quickly popped into his mind. “…Lin Qiao?”

“It seems that your brain isn’t broken. It saves us the trouble of calling an ambulance for you.” Lin Qiao raised his eyebrow slightly and glanced sideways at his companions waiting outside the toilet.

The life of this country bumpkin was truly lowly and hard.

The ridicule from outside was clearly heard. They all apparently understood the hint from Lin Qiao’s look. Ji Li heard the sound and glanced at the several young faces outside. Without exception, they all had teasing expressions on their faces.

Lin Qiao didn’t care about his gaze and casually said, “You can still knock yourself out when going to the toilet? No wonder why they say that if a person is unlucky, even drinking water will cause them to get things stuck in their teeth.”

“Brother Qiao, why are you bothering to speak to him? Be careful of getting bad luck from this god of bad luck.” Someone responded maliciously, causing a burst of laughter.

They were all film and television trainees of Dream Media and so was Ji Li. The latter came from the countryside and was signed to the company due to his good appearance.

It was a pity that Ji Li’s appearance and his personality were two completely different extremes. He was wooden and dull and usually didn’t make a sound when bullied. Over time, the trainees didn’t take him seriously.

It was said that it was easy to bully the soft-tempered. Their training life was boring and long so everyone relied on ‘playing tricks on Ji Li’ for fun.

10 minutes ago, they played again and placed a bucket of sewage above the door. The trick might be a bit old-fashioned but Ji Li was stupid. The heavy bucket fell on his head and he fell into a pool of water on the spot, passing out and not responding for a long time.

As the leader of the trainees, Lin Qiao was afraid of a big mess that wasn’t easy to clean up. Thus, he pretended to call out a few words of concern.

It was said that poor people’s lives were hard. This guy woke up and he didn’t do anything. He just stood there stupidly like a wooden stake.

His long bangs were wet and dirty, clinging to Ji Li’s eyes. His exposed face was haggard and pale and the freshness of the past couldn’t be seen.

Three months of teasing and bullying had caused this young man to completely close his heart. He was just a dull mute.

Was such a person worthy of being in the entertainment industry?

Lin Qiao couldn’t help curling up his lips, very satisfied with the ghostly appearance of the other person now. He took a step closer, raised his hand and patted Ji Li on the shoulder. “Ji Li, would you like to go back and change your clothes? In any case, you are a trainee of the film and television department. It isn’t good to be so sloppy…”

Unexpectedly, the cowardly Ji Li grabbed his arm. Lin Qiao felt the strength from this person’s hand and was startled.

“…You should refrain from doing this.” Ji Li glanced over blandly, his heart as clear as a mirror. “Every day, you instruct others to play this type of bullying trick. A three year old child is more mature than you.”

As he spoke, his gaze swept over Lin Qiao’s face. His words and deeds were light and had no ups and downs, but the latter inexplicably felt a type of ridicule.

Compared to Ji Li, who entered the company due to his outstanding appearance, Lin Qiao’s appearance didn’t stand out among the trainees. It was due to the money of his family that he could call the shots among the trainees.

Lin Qiao shook off the hand restraining him and waved his fist angrily. “Ji Li! What are you saying? You are the spineless coward! I—”

Before the words of contempt could be spoken, Ji Li quickly turned sideways. to dodge. It wasn’t only that. He was in a blind spot that was invisible to the others and simply pushed back.

Want to play with him? Lin Qiao was still too young. The water on the ground wasn’t dry yet. Lin Qiao slipped and fell to the ground, letting out a loud noise. “Ah!”

In the blink of an eye, the situation was reversed. The crowd’s eyes flicked back and forth. They obviously hadn’t seen what happened—wait, wasn’t Brother Qiao the one teaching Ji Li a lesson? How did he fall on his own?

Before they could react, there was a stern voice from the rear. “What are you doing together? Don’t you want to take the assessment? Director Wang has already arrived. Do you want him to waste his time waiting for you newcomers? Hurry back to the practice room! Prepare for the assessment in five minutes!”

“It’s nothing! Teacher, don’t worry, we’ll go back immediately!” Someone outside responded.

“Brother Qiao, the assessment is important. Let’s change our clothes and go back first.” Someone ran in to help Lin Qiao and glared at Ji Li who was ‘making trouble’. “Once the assessment is over, we’ll clean up this unsightly thing!”

“Brother Qiao, calm down.” Someone else tried to persuade him. They hadn’t seen Ji Li’s actions and thought that Lin Qiao had fallen down accidentally on his own.

Lin Qiao’s chest rose up and down as he tried to suppress his anger. He naturally knew the importance of this assessment. Once passed, the company would officially test the waters by giving them resources.

The Lin family was rich but it had almost zero involvement with the entertainment industry. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so patient as to start as a trainee.

“Ji Li! You wait for me! I’ll make it so you can’t walk around!” Lin Qiao sent the young man a fierce look, his back still aching fiercely.

Ji Li’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t take the other side’s threat to heart at all.

It wasn’t until this group of people left that Ji Li turned around and approached the sink. He stroked his bangs to the side, staring at the strange but delicate face in the mirror. He couldn’t help sighing.

He was unwilling to admit it but it seemed he had transmigrated into a book.

It was a cool entertainment industry novel that he casually flipped through when he was at home! The reason why he remembered it so clearly was that his name was almost the same as the original owner of the body.

The memories in his mind were messy and Ji Li spent some time sorting them out. The original owner of the body had an unreliable mother and threw him back to her hometown in the country as soon as she gave birth to him. She disappeared and never reappeared again for so many years. 

The original owner was brought up by his uncle. He was an obedient and well-behaved person since he was a child. Combined with his natural good appearance, the neighbors took special care of him.

It was a pity that the original owner’s aunt wasn’t a good person.

Three months ago, she heard about this information from somewhere and in order to pay for her son’s tuition, she ‘abducted’ the just graduated original owner to this company and forced him to sign a trainee contract.

Not only that, she also took away all the signing fees and salary of the original owner! There was a full one million of cancellation damages and this was simply a sky-high price for the original owner!

He was helpless and had to stay in the company for training. Yet in this way, he attracted the attention of Lin Qiao’s group and they teased him all day long. For example, the prank just now.

Ji Li stroked his swollen head, expression a bit ugly.

If he remembered correctly, in this cool novel, the original owner was just a cannon fodder and 18th tier artist who appeared in only three chapters!

The original owner had a good appearance. After being quickly packaged by the company, he participated in several films and television dramas. However, his acting skills were too poor and his personality too dull to keep a loyal fan base. He failed to make much of a splash in the fast-changing entertainment circle.

The original owner’s agent was one who was used to walking through the back door. He saw that the original owner was on the verge of being abandoned by the company and privately encouraged him to participate in a ‘special’ party in exchange for resources.

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It was at this party that the original owner accidentally disfigured his face and completely ended his star journey.

……

From a 16 year old extra to entering the circle and later becoming the film emperor, Ji Li had struggled for nearly 20 years in the entertainment industry and always took the route of strength.

The first time he had read this paragraph, he had complained in his heart. ‘What back door? You are confused! You are gifted with a beautiful face from heaven. Isn’t it good to work hard to improve your acting skills?’

Then he thought about it and felt sorry. After all, the original owner was a child who had never seen the world. Combined with his personality reasons and he could only watch himself taking step by step down the wrong path.

At the last moment, he was probably desperate, right? Unexpectedly, one’s plans could be derailed by unforeseen events.

As a rare, completely crowned film emperor in the history of movies, Ji Li announced his retirement from the film circle in his prime. Before he could spend his days leisurely drinking tea, teasing his cat and finding someone to love, he woke up here—

He ran back to the bottom of the entertainment industry? It was a trainee who anyone could ‘step on’? He didn’t have such a mentality!

Ji Li resisted the urge to swear. He took out a tissue and wiped the water on his hair and cheeks.

To be honest, the original owner’s appearance was worthy of a ‘divine face.’ It was just that his cowardly personality affected his temperament. The combination of his inappropriate clothing and pale complexion greatly reduced his appearance.

Still, there was a good foundation. Everything else was a trivial matter.

The sound of high heels stepping  on the ground interrupted Ji Li’s thoughts. He glanced sideways and found a long-haired woman standing by the door.

The other person looked him up and down and asked with a frown, “How did you become like this? It is your turn for the assessment soon. Aren’t you going over?”

“Sister Song Lan.” Ji Li searched for the corresponding name in his memory. The other person was the director of the company’s artists and also the general director for the trainees of this period.

Song Lan thought for a moment and could guess what had happened. She shook her head and said, “Ji Li, don’t blame me for reminding you that you failed your first two assessments. It will be difficult if you fail this time as well.”

Survival of the fittest was the iron-clad rule of the entertainment industry. Dream Media’s appraisal system was already considered loose among the companies of the same type and the treatment for its trainees was very good.

Nevertheless, the company wasn’t doing charity. It wouldn’t always retain undeveloped trainees. People like Ji Li would likely be thrown away to make a wave of fast money before being decisively abandoned and hidden.

“Sister Song Lan, thank you for reminding me. I will work hard.” Ji Li replied politely. He was already here and he had to go down this road for the original owner.

“Go and change your clothes. I’ll explain it to Director Wang and let him wait for you a little bit.” Song Lan’s voice slowed down a bit. She couldn’t let this person meet the director with such a bad appearance.

Originally, his acting skills weren’t enough. He couldn’t lose any more points with image.

“No, I’ll go in like this. The test is acting, not my external image.” Ji Li controlled his thoughts and walked out of the bathroom quickly. “I can’t let Director Wang wait for a long time. It is impolite.”

Besides, this might be a ‘blessing in disguise.’ Perhaps it was better to test the assessment with this image.

Song Lan stared at his inexplicably handsome back and shook her head with incomprehension.

Forget it, this was a hopeless case. There was no use saying more.

***

Ji Li entered the practice room and laughter came from all directions. Director Wang Zhang frowned when he saw this person’s clothing.

What was going on? It was too sloppy.

“Brother Qiao, look, this country bumpkin actually came here without changing clothes! His face is lost!” Someone gloated toward Lin Qiao. “Based on Direct Wang Zhang’s expression and his usual wooden acting skills, it would be strange if he passes the assessment!”

“Right! How can he compare with our Brother Qiao?” Another person responded.

Lin Qiao snorted when he heard this flattery. He had just finished the assessment and the results obtained were fairly satisfactory. Director Wang Zhang seemed very satisfied with him!

“Are you Ji Li?” Wang Zhang looked down at the trainee profile and asked.

“Yes. Hello, Director. I just stumbled and fell so I am late. Sorry.” Ji Li downplayed the incident just now, not intending to be a tattletale and sell misery.

“Okay, you are the only one left. Once the draw is finished, prepare for the assessment.” Wang Zhang nodded with a tense expression. In fact, he had long felt impatient.

He must’ve been kicked in the head by a donkey to agree to the boss of Dream Media and come here to be the assessment tutor.

He thought he could find some really good seedlings from this batch of trainees. He didn’t expect that all of them copied the training film and television clips mechanically without any attempt at originality. There was no aura when performing at all!

In order for the trainees to learn well, all the video clips placed in the draw for the assessment were prepared in advance.

Since he was just going through the motions for the assessment, Wang Zhang didn’t bother giving any real opinions. He watched patiently for half an hour. Finally, he just had to endure the last one and he could leave.

Zhao Jinfeng, who was in charge of the daily guidance of acting skills, sat to one side and pointed to the draw box. “Ji Li, hurry up and draw your assessment clip.”

After speaking, he quickly exchanged glances with Lin Qiao in the crowd.

Ji Li noticed this brief scene and his eyes flickered. He stepped forward to draw the clip. In the empty box, only one memory card was left.

Ji Li handed it to Zhao Jinfeng. The moment the latter received the card, malice flashed in his eyes. Ji Li perceived this and he couldn’t help his hands clenching. A strong intuition flooded his mind. Did this person change the content of the assessment?

Zhao Jinfeng saw that he didn’t let go and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I have to trouble you.” Ji Li suppressed the fluctuations in his heart and returned to his original position without changing his expression.

Soon, Zhao Jinfeng revealed the assessment clip.

The moment the character in the video appeared on the screen, there was a burst of exclamations in the room. Even Director Wang Zhang, who had lost interest, instinctively sat up straight.

Song Lan stood at the door and raised her eyebrow. She realized that—

This video clip wasn’t prepared in advance by their department! Someone temporarily changed the assessment clip?

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