An Offer
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After exchanging contact information, Huang Jun almost immediately left without trying to stay for any exchange of pleasantries. As someone who had spent extensive time in the military before, Xuemei was not thrown off by his behavior. However, Mo Chen feared she would misunderstand, so he tried to explain.

“That’s just how he is with everyone. He especially hates wasting time on small talk…”

“It’s no big deal. I prefer this anyways as I’m not a huge fan of making pointless conversation, either.” Xuemei just shrugged clearly showing she did not pay any attention to Huang Jun’s attitude. “Now that he’s gone, what are we starting with today? It should be our first lesson.”

“Yes, right. We are going to start with simple breathing exercises and muscle stretches to learn how to relax your body and mind. Breathing to help you learn to take in lots of air and control it well while you are acting. They are also just great when you need to control anxiety. From your performance earlier, I could tell that you were pretty comfortable with your body, but I think it would still benefit to try some exercises. It can also be seen as a way to relax.”

“I understand.” Easily agreeing, Xuemei was someone who always saw the advantages of starting with the basics. Although they were not the most fun and exciting, they set a firm foundation for later activities. She was a complete beginner with no prior knowledge or experience in acting, therefore the basics were exactly what she needed.

Mo Chen took notice of the lack of disappointment in Xuemei’s eyes and felt gratified that she was so mature and level-headed about these lessons. Usually, the younger the student, the more that they are unhappy starting with the “boring basics” and want to go right into acting.

The day went by quickly with Xuemei learning some basic exercises and playing a couple games to get her a little used to what was coming. A couple hours passed before they were finished and Xuemei packed up her stuff and was waiting for the elevator. She nodded goodbye to the secretary who was always there and turned back around when she heard the ding. The doors opened up revealing a familiar face. It was the same guy as before! Disgust evident on her face, Xuemei did not step into the elevator and decided she would just walk down the stairs. Contrary to Xuemei’s unhappiness, the other young man’s face lit up with excitement. The doors were about to close once again to continue down, but the man stuck his foot out to stop them.

“You’re not getting on, Meimei?” He asked. Almost immediately, Xuemei felt goosebumps appear as a gross chill travelled down her spine. 

“You know my name? Even if you do, we are most definitely not close enough for you to call me so intimately.” She looked at him suspiciously.

“I’m so hurt, you don’t remember me?”

“Remember? No.” 

“It’s only been what, almost four years? You really don’t recognize me?”

Four years… Hearing that specific number, Xuemei knew that he must have been a classmate from her middle school. Sighing, she tried to look at the young man’s face closely and go through the memories from the original. There seemed to be some vague impression… Slowly but surely, she first saw the face of that jerk Lin Jinsong. Ignoring his face, she looked to the side where his lackeys were and saw their blurry faces. Thinking really hard, one of those faces seemed to match up with the one in front of her. He is just older now.

“Now that you mention it, that bastard had a lackey that looked like you back then… What was the name? Zheng? Zhang? Zhang sounds right. Zhang Munyi...Songdi?... Uh…” Xuemei muttered to herself loud enough for the young man to hear.

“MING.LI. Zhang Mingli!” Exasperated, he gave her the answer.

“Sorry, you just seem so insignificant in my memory… But anyways, hello and goodbye.” Not waiting another second, Xuemei just quickly waved goodbye and took off towards the steps. Anything related to “he-who-shall-not-be-named” was someone she should avoid. If her family ever got word of her near him, they would probably lock her away with worry. Plus, maybe it was the leftover feelings from the original, but she just wanted to punch his awful mug every time she thought of it.

“Wait!...” Mingli tried to stop her, but Xuemei had already gone down the steps.

Running down as fast as she could, she wanted to beat the elevator so they would not run into each other. She got to the ground floor and saw that the elevator was still crawling down. Sighing with relief, Xuemei walked out the doors to see Tao Qiao waiting for her. Climbing into the car, she did not waste any time and ordered, “Drive!”

“Young Miss?”

“Quickly leave! That guy is going to catch up!” 

Although she was still confused, Tao Qiao followed her words and swiftly drove off. Just as the car was disappearing from sight, another body came bursting out the doors to catch up. Zhang Mingli frowned seeing no sign of that girl. It was not really any of his business, but he was truly curious about her current circumstances. She just seemed so different from before. He was always someone who was an incurable busybody who liked to know about everything. No one had heard from Tang Xuemei this entire time. No one was even aware that she woke up from the coma. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t help but pity her. None of their classmates even bothered to check up on her the entire time she was hospitalized. All her so-called friends abandoned her at the first moment they could. His gossiping heart felt an irresistible itch. He needed to dig into this a little more. What was she doing now? Would she be going to college, as well?

“Young Miss, was someone giving you a hard time?” A hard look on her face, Tao Qiao inquired. Noticing that her driver looked about ready to jump up to fight, Xuemei shook her head quickly.

“No, you’ve misunderstood. It was just an awkward face I did not want to see again.”

“Awkward face? An old acquaintance?” 

“Just a classmate from middle school. You know I was in a coma for so long. My family told me that no one came to visit me during that time, not even once. That’s why I’m just trying to put all that behind me at this point. I do not need any fake friends in my life. After almost dying, I just really do not have the patience for it anymore.” Although the context was a little different, these words truly came from her heart. “Friends” of the past Xuemei were not worth any effort and the current Xuemei was not some doormat who would let people walk all over her. 

“That’s true! Young Miss does not need to worry. You will make tons more friends at college later and your fanbase will soon grow, I can already tell. If people see the real you, they will all fall for your charm.” Tao Qiao quickly comforted. Inside, she could not help but pity her poor Young Miss. Obviously, Xuemei was a beautiful and down-to-earth lady. Why did those people from before treat her so badly?

Hearing the pity behind those words, Xuemei just chuckled and shrugged. 

“That’s just because you never met the pre-accident me. I was a piece-of-work, a real b*tch.” 

“Is that so? Well, maybe that’s true, but you have clearly changed. I only know the current Xuemei in front of me and that’s enough!”

Feeling her heart warm at the comment, Xuemei just smiled happily in response. 

And just like that, one week passed by in the blink of an eye. 

Like clockwork, Xuemei rose from bed at 5am and began her morning routine. The new house gym was already finished and fully equipped. Although the treadmill could not compare to true outdoor running, she made do in order to keep her family happy. After a 30 minute warm-up, she began to do some weight-lifting. Knowing she would never be able to build up the same muscle mass in this life, Xuemei did not try to do anything too hardcore. Her goal was to be healthy and in-shape. It was not like she was fighting in any wars anymore, so there was really no need to go overboard. Plus, how could she ever accomplish her goals if she became some overly muscular lady. Not that she held any prejudice, but China as a country was too set in their beauty standards. She would not be accepted by the general public. Although saying things like “it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks” can be inspiring, it was also unrealistic. Celebrities were often packaged in a way that would sell them to the public. Xuemei did not want to be naive enough to think that she would not need certain amounts of fakeness. She would not go to extremes and just sell-out her conscience, but she was not also too serious about being rigid and stuck in her ways. People needed to learn to be flexible. That was how one survived in the real world. Even the “disciplined” military was not free of such politics.

Once the morning workout finished, she hopped in the shower and prepared to head to the company once again for more training. Picking up her practice script, Xuemei held it while climbing into the car. She was so concentrated that she did not catch her phone ringing until Tao Qiao called out to her. Looking at the Caller ID, she realized that it was unknown. Frowning, she hesitated before finally picking up.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“This is Huang Jun. I got your contact information from Brother Chen. I have scheduled a job for you. It is pretty basic and should fit with your skill level well. Brother Chen already knows, so you can just head to the filming location now.”

“Now?! Won’t I be late?”

“No. Filming does not take place until tomorrow. You just have to travel a ways to get here, so I wanted you to leave C City today. You need to go to G City. I will tell you the exact address after you land. Text me through this number your estimated arrival time.”

“Wait, wait, wait. By tomorrow?! How could you let me know so last minute?! Don’t you know how difficult and expensive it is to get flight tickets? If you let me know earlier, I would have made sufficient preparations.” Completely taken aback, Xuemei could not hold her temper and yelled a little into the phone. 

“I was under the impression that you are from a very wealthy family. Was this information incorrect?”

“Who told you that?”

“Brother Chen.”

Gritting her teeth and cursing her teacher under her breath, Xuemei took a deep breath and calmed down.

“Just because my family is rich does not mean I always want to use their money so irresponsibly. You should have asked me first and understood the situation more. I can understand myself having to accommodate people when I am the one looking for an opportunity, but is this not too much?” 

“...” There was a long silence on the other end. If any of Huang Jun’s friends were around, they would be shocked that someone had the guts to lecture him.

“You are right. It was my oversight and insensitivity. I will pay for the travel expenses and hotel stay, so do you think you could still come? I have already promised the other side and it will be a good chance for you.” 

Now taking a softer approach, Huang Jun did feel a little awkward. It seemed he assumed too much about Xuemei’s personality which was indeed wrong of him.

“... I will go.” After deliberating for a moment, Xuemei decided to just take the offer. Since he said he would pay, then there was no real reason not to go.

“Alright, send me a picture after buying the flight tickets and I will wire the money to you.”

“Okay.” Xuemei answered simply before they both hung up.

Sighing and massaging her temples, Xuemei told Tao Qiao to turn around. She hesitated before calling her brother.

“Meimei! How rare of you to call me. What do you need?” Xueliang’s enthusiastic voice quickly answered.

“Brother, do you think you could arrange a flight for me to go to G City?

“G City? For what?”

“I got a job over there for my acting.”

“A job?! Congratulations! Of course, I will get my assistant to arrange something for you right away!” As supportive as ever, her brother was quick to agree. However…

“But, it’s too dangerous to go there by yourself. Will Mo Chen be going? Actually, even if he is going, you have not known him for long. Travelling by yourself is too dangerous. Coincidentally, we have a branch in G City. I will go with you and do a little check-up at the branch company!”

“Wait, brother, that’s not…” She was not able to continue as her brother hung up on the other end. Feeling an even stronger headache than before, Xuemei realized that she seemed to not fully comprehend the wealth of her new family. She was so worried that it was too much, but her brother was ready to go with her in a split second. Clearly, Huang Jun was not too far off base when he assumed she would be able to fly right over. Her “commoner” mind was still reeling from shock. When she got back home, Xuemei saw her mom already packing her suitcase with one of the maids.

“Mom? What are you… How did you know?”

“Of course, your brother told me. Who else?”

“Oh.” 

“Me and Auntie Wang have already packed the essentials. Your brother and father travel a lot so it’s pretty easy to get things organized now. If you need something, don’t forget to use your card.”

In a half-dazed state, Xuemei found herself on the way to the airport with her brother. Everything happened so quickly, it felt like she still was not fully awake.

“Meimei, what’s the matter? Do you not feel well?” Xueliang looked over with concern.

“No, it’s nothing.” Forcing a smile, Xuemei did not think about it anymore. 

I guess this is what it’s like to be rich. She thought to herself. As the saying goes, seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. Before, she would hear about some of the crazy things that rich people did, but actually experiencing it was when she realized that real-life people lived this way. Obviously, this flight was a couple hundred US dollars at its cheapest. However, her brother mentioned something about first class seats. This last minute, those seats would probably be at least 1,000 USD. To have no feelings at all towards paying that money out of nowhere… Was she that poor before? It just felt slightly unacceptable towards the her who used to penny pinch.

When they got to the airport, she and her brother went through an expedited security check and the secretary did the checking in for them. Everything took just moments before she was in the air looking out the window. Laying back in the comfortable and spacious seat, Xuemei tried to adjust to the luxury of her new life. Not overthinking it, she decided to close her eyes and nap. It was only a two hour flight, so she believed she would already be there when she awoke. She also discovered at this moment that her body was sensitive to planes. A novel feeling of airsickness overwhelmed her as she felt nauseous and dizzy. 

Noticing his sister’s pale expression, Xueliang knew right away what was wrong.

“Meimei, did you not take your medicine beforehand? You always get so sick on airplanes…”

“It’s just been awhile, brother. It slipped my mind since everything was so last minute.”

“That’s true. I should have made sure to remind you. It has been so long since I last flew with you that I forgot, as well.” Looking apologetic, Xueliang wished to help, but he did not have any motion sickness medication on him.

“It’s alright, I’ll just sleep. I should feel better during that time.” Although disgruntled by this feeling of weakness, Xuemei knew there was nothing she could do to cure this. The best she could do is sleep and hope to get off the plane as fast as possible.

“Mm.. Okay. I will make sure no one disturbs you.”

Maybe it was the airsickness, or she was truly just tired, but Xuemei ended up falling asleep almost right away. Only when they landed did she wake up from the plane shaking as it touched down. Still drowsy, she glanced over at her brother only to see him sleeping like a pig. Her “elegant” brother slept with his mouth wide open and head tilted back with no other care. Snickering to herself, she could not resist pulling out her phone and snapping a picture of the moment. This picture could make for good blackmailing material later. Whatever happened to making sure no one disturbed her sleep?

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