Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A moment later, I learned that the girl who had spoken up for me was Sun Fang, Lu Junrong’s assistant.

Lu Junrong gave me a total of ten minutes and a single page of a simple script.

The content was very sparse. It was roughly about a middle-aged woman named Song Zhen during the Republican era who hated her military officer husband for keeping a mistress.

He didn’t explain anything else to me. Character interpretation and improvisation were entirely up to my performance.

How was I supposed to act without any background context?

I didn’t know how; I had absolutely no acting training whatsoever.

In an instant, dozens of family dramas I had watched in my previous life flashed through my mind. I had seen too many female characters suffering in unhappy marriages.

I planned to just imitate one of them.

But how could I imitate one well enough to stand out?

In the end, I decided to just go for it and play myself.

I asked Sister Fang to help me play the scene by acting as my husband. She didn’t need to speak; she just had to walk in after ten minutes.

The acting began.

Lu Junrong sat in a chair, still wearing his sunglasses, with his legs crossed.

The male assistant beside him held a small handheld camcorder, standing quietly to the side.

“Action!”

Fearing I might not understand, Lu Junrong repeated himself in Mandarin: “Begin.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I was incredibly nervous.

I imagined that Shen Jincheng had gone to find Bai Hezhi again.

He had rented a house for Bai Hezhi outside, and the two of them were officially living together.

He informed me that if I didn’t agree to a divorce, he would sue me.

My hands trembling, I picked up the landline phone in the hotel room and kept dialing, hanging up, and dialing again.

When I couldn’t get through, I slammed the phone down.

Immediately after, I smashed the teacups, tables, and chairs in the room as if I had gone mad.

I wanted to slit my wrists; I wanted to see if he would regret it or feel sad if I died.

I pressed a shard against my wrist, but I didn’t dare to actually cut down.

Afterward, I swept away the shards, set the table back up, and silently tidied the room. I sat on a chair without saying a word, staring at the door.

At that moment, my “husband” walked in.

“I’m back,” Sister Fang said, miming the action of changing her shoes.

I didn’t speak. I didn’t demand to know where he had been.

I just stared at him, tears falling uncontrollably.

Sister Fang seemed unnerved by my gaze. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I gritted my teeth so hard they nearly shattered. I didn’t say a word, just stared at the “husband” across from me.

Over the years, I had sacrificed so much for Shen Jincheng.

When his mother was paralyzed, I waited on her hand and foot, cleaning up her waste until the day she passed away.

I had raised Shen Yuqing for twenty-seven years.

I took care of his every meal, attending to his every need with meticulous care.

Even if I had no great achievements, my hard work should have counted for something. What right did he have to discard me?

This was my marriage, my home, my husband.

I would rather die than give him up to Bai Hezhi!

I stood up. My voice was calm, but my body shook uncontrollably. “Let’s eat. We’re having noodles tonight.”

The filming stopped. The audition was over.

Lu Junrong remained silent for a long time.

He suddenly asked me, “Miss Xu, have you suffered some emotional setback? Or have you been tormented by someone?”

Yes.

In that marriage full of lies, I had been ignored and deceived by him for nearly thirty years!

I shook my head and made up a lie:

“No. I just imagined myself as Cao Qiqiao from ‘The Golden Cangue’. Cao Qiqiao was a woman trapped in marriage during the old era; she was sexually repressed and worn down by life until she practically became a deviant. I improvised based on that character.”

Lu Junrong looked at me. He pondered for a few seconds. “Miss Xu, are you interested in signing with me?”

I felt my cold body gradually begin to warm up. “Yes!”

Lu Junrong smiled. “Miss Xu is quite decisive. You won’t have a problem going to Gangcheng, will you?”

I nodded. “No problem. But you’ll need to lend me something.”

I pointed to the camcorder in the male assistant’s hand.