First Job
1.6k 13 40
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

Finally getting enough blackmail material, Xuemei took pity on her brother and woke him up. Shocked awake, he sat up almost right away and looked over at her. When his eyes finally regained focus, he seemed to realize that he fell asleep without watching out for her like he promised. Blushing red, he gave her an awkward, forced smile while scratching the back of his head.

“I only fell asleep for a moment just now. I was awake for most of the plane ride.” Xueliang tried to defend himself.

“Yes, yes, of course. Now please clean the drool off your chin before everyone sees your embarrassing state in the airport.” Holding back the temptation to roll her eyes, Xuemei just nodded her head without hiding her disbelief.

“I don’t drool!” He quickly retorted while touching his face just to check. Not feeling anything wet, he knew his sister was just messing with him.

“You might not have drooled, but I sure have evidence of your elegant sleeping face.” Holding up her phone screen to his face, Xueliang got a clear look at the embarrassing photo. He tried to snatch the phone thinking she was not prepared, but Xuemei pulled it back right away. She gave him a disdainful look that implied “did you really think I would not see that coming?” While he just helplessly shrugged and allowed her to keep the photo. There was no way he would be able to get things back at this point. His secretary and bodyguards already picked out their carry-on bags from the top compartments, so the two of them were able to walk right out. Xuemei felt uncomfortable letting them do all the work and tried to get them to let her carry her small bag. However, they rebuffed her almost immediately explaining it was “their job” and that it would reflect badly on them if they allowed their employer to carry things. Pausing, she just sighed and decided to not interfere. They explained it so clearly that insisting now would seem like she was purposefully giving them a hard time.

Unlike her, Xueliang continued walking in front without feeling bothered at all. Xuemei criticized him for being a spoiled child under her breath before catching up. When they reached the front doors of the airport, both of them spotted a driver holding up her name on a small poster board. Thinking of Huang Jun asking for her landing time, Xuemei assumed that he was the one who set it up.

“Did Brother Huang Jun send you?” She approached and asked quietly.

“Ms. Tang, I presume? Yes, Mr. Huang requested for me to pick you up and take you to the hotel where you will be staying.” The man gave a polite bow and confirmed.

“I am Tang Xuemei, thank you for going through all the trouble.”

“No trouble at all, ma’am. This is my job.” Keeping a stoic expression, the man politely responded. Without saying more, he opened the door and gestured for her to go in. Xuemei nodded and started to get in before she felt someone pull her back.

“Wait. Meimei, who is this Huang Jun? Was this job not set up by your teacher, Mo Chen?” Xueliang looked over at her before giving a glance full of suspicion at the driver.

“Uhh… Well, my teacher cannot possibly handle all these small things. Huang Jun is a person who finds small-time roles, cameos, or even extras. He is the one who set this up for me.” Lying through her teeth, Xuemei kept her expression serious. Actually, she had not told her family yet that she was trying to be a stuntwoman first. She worried they would be against it because of the dangers.

“Hm.” Xueliang took a hard look at her with doubt.

“Well, even if that’s true, Assistant Yang has already made a hotel reservation so we can just go stay there.” 

“What? Brother, I told you everything would be covered on my end, I just needed you to make the reservation.”

“I was worried that they would skimp out on you, so I wanted to make sure you had the best care while you were here. Since we can afford the best, you should just take it.”

“I’m not a piece of glass, I won’t break from staying in a normal hotel.”

“Who do you think you’re fooling? Before, you would even get an allergic reaction from those cheap sheets.” Xueliang gave her a confused look as if wondering why she would not know that about herself.

“...” Xuemei opened her mouth but truly had no words to say. It seemed she had really said that before? 

“See? Just go back to the hotel that my assistant reserved with me. I’m sure you can still get picked up there as long as you communicate your new location to this Huang Jun character.”

“...Sorry, it seems that we will just go with my brother’s plans.” Not having a good enough argument, Xuemei turned to the driver and apologized.

“It’s fine, Ms. Tang. I can still drive you to your hotel since I am already here.”

With this, Xuemei would not take no for an answer, so she pulled her brother into the car before he could say otherwise. She would feel bad if this man made a completely wasted trip. Although he did have a car reserved, Xueliang did not think much of this change in plans. He gestured to his secretary to ride in that car and follow behind them. Nodding, the secretary took their bags over and called the other driver to get their location. One of the two bodyguards stayed behind and rode in the passenger’s seat. Xueliang knew he should always err on the side of caution as someone in his position. No matter if his sister trusted Huang Jun, Xueliang had no impression of the man and could not have the same confidence. 

The ride was generally quiet as Xuemei was not one for small talk, neither were the bodyguard and the driver. The normally chatty Xueliang was too busy checking out the driver and making sure there were no issues with him to talk. In the end, since no one felt the silence, they arrived at the hotel just like that. When she walked into the penthouse suite, Xuemei fell silent. Not realizing his sister stopped walking, Xueliang ran right into her.

“What are you doing just standing at the doorway? Is it too shabby?”

“Huh? Oh, no! It’s amazing. I was just a little lost in thought.” Quickly going further in, she could take in the suite in all its glory. Exactly like the movies… 

Trying to keep her expression neutral, Xuemei resisted the urge to drop her jaw. Her brother pointed to one of the bedrooms and told her to take it. When the doors slid open, a king-sized bed greeted her with fluffy pillows and blankets. Taking a running jump into the covers, she could feel herself sinking into the silky sheets. Yawning in comfort, Xuemei’s eyelids began to droop as drowsiness came at her in waves. Unwillingly, she got back up. She did a quick wash-up and threw some pajamas on before crawling back into bed. Letting her head dive into the pillows, Xuemei fell asleep almost instantly. 

Waking up like clockwork, she ordered room service for breakfast and also sent a text to Huang Jun asking about the situation. In the midst of eating her American-style breakfast, her phone dinged with a texting notification. Looking down, it was Huang Jun responding. Unsurprised that the man was up this early as well, she quickly read the message. 

His response was only a couple words, “Your hotel, 8 a.m., be ready.” 

Her eye twitching a little in annoyance, she decided to hold her tongue and not comment on it. Did he have to be so concise, would a couple more words kill him? After she finished up her breakfast, she went to get dressed. Knowing she would have a costume given to her, she wanted to just wear some casual workout clothes. However, upon looking through her suitcase, she realized that her mom only picked out nicer clothes. Frowning unhappily, she rifled through all of them to try to find the most casual. All she managed to find was a pair of jean shorts and a loose white blouse. The rest were either skirts or dresses. 

Taking a second to figure out how to put on the blouse through the confusing straps, she stepped out of her room all ready to go. Looking at the clock, it was still an hour too early. Tapping her foot impatiently, she tried to think about what to do to kill the time. Filing through the hotel manual, she looked at what facilities they offered here. Her eyes lit up once she saw the arcade. Deciding to check it out, she knocked on her brother’s door to let him know. When she opened it, she saw that he was already up as well and getting dressed. She managed to spot a flash of her brother’s bare upper body as he was putting on his dress shirt at the moment. Tsk-ing in disapproval, she shook her head at him.

“Brother, you should take better advantage of our home gym now that we have one. You are even thinner and whiter than me. At this rate, I will have to protect you and not the other way around!”

“What?! Look at these muscles of mine! What are you talking about? This brother of yours is one of the most eligible bachelors in C City. The amount of women who want to date me could circle around the city many times over.” As if trying to prove his point, Xueliang took off his shirt again and flexed.

“These? Muscles?” She looked him over with disdain. “I really cannot understand the beauty aesthetics of those women.”

She was being a little harsh, but she was rather proud of her last life’s body and felt that was a good standard. Muscular and toned, but not excessively so. Even the women she fancied before were more athletic looking instead of just thin. 

Feeling the disdain of his sister, Xueliang’s expression turned black.

“No matter, that’s not what I came over for. I just came to let you know that I was going to play around in the arcade here before Brother Huang picks me up at 8 to go to the filming location.”

“Arcade? But you hate games?” Looking at his sister like she had just grown three heads and six arms, he really could not believe the words he heard.

“I just want to do something to pass the time. There is not enough time to go shopping or something.” Slightly panicking at her brother’s doubts, Xuemei quickly came up with a logical excuse.

“Hm… Yeah, I guess that’s true. Remember to bring the room key with you, then. And text me the location later and I will go over to pick you up after I’m done with my work.”

“That’s not necessary. I don’t know when we will end, perhaps it will only take a couple hours. I’m playing a minor role anyways. I’ll just find a ride back.”

“Just text me. It’s good to just know your location, anyways.”

“Alright.” Of course I won’t. Xuemei silently thought to herself. She would just agree on the surface, but conveniently “forget” due to the chaos of the day. Honestly, she just wanted to ditch this glorified babysitter. Without waiting for a response, she quickly left the room and suite and took the elevator to the lobby. 

As a high-end hotel, the arcade was mostly arranged for the children of the wealthy people who come to stay. The equipment was all state of the art, though. They even had a PC cafe area set aside for gamers. Xuemei ignored all those video games and instead went to an old fashioned game that had two classic red and blue plastic guns. People staying at the hotel did not have to pay to play, so she just clicked start before the screen changed. Picking up the red gun, she began to systematically take out all the zombies on the screen. Her accuracy allowed her to continue through the levels and began to grab the attention of surrounding bystanders. These teenagers all watched with jaws dropped as this pretty female breezed through the high score and shot down each target. Getting bored of this game, she quickly moved through all the classic arcade games around. Almost every single one soon had a new high score.

There was an old arcade in Christian’s neighborhood when he was growing up. And that was all he did growing up for fun. His fond memories of those times with his family always brought him to arcades even after they died. He normally played to blow off steam and relax. Now, Xuemei inherited these skills. The familiar smooth feeling of the buttons and joysticks brought her great joy, as if she returned home for a short moment. By this time, there was already a crowd of people following her to each game and some of them were even betting on whether she would get the new high score for each game. Xuemei did not pay them any attention and stayed in her own little world. She made sure to keep an eye on the clock as well since she had a habit of losing track of time when she got serious. She did not want to miss the pick-up time.

She continued playing until she only had 5 minutes left till 8. Although reluctant, she knew she had to leave now. Her little fans were also sad to see her leave. When she was gone, they all ran towards the machines to see if they could do it as well. Watching her play had made all of them itching to try. 

Rushing over to the entrance, Xuemei glanced at her phone and saw she was still on time. Just as the clock turned to 8, a car pulled up at the front entrance. It was an all-black Jeep that was a young but tasteful choice in vehicle. Xuemei thought that it matched up with Brother Huang’s personality pretty well. The passenger’s side window rolled down revealing Huang Jun’s handsome face.

“Get in.”

“Hello to you, too.” Xuemei rolled her eyes at his demeanor and greeted him sarcastically. However, she still obediently climbed into the car. 

“I’m surprised to see you driving, are we not using the driver from yesterday?” She continued as she clicked in her seatbelt.

“I’m not a fan of letting others drive me around.” Not turning his face over to her, Huang Jun briefly explained as he started driving away almost immediately.

“I see… so are you able to tell me a little more about this first job of mine now? I still have no idea what I’m about to go do.”

“Have you heard of Director An Baichen?” He answered back with a question.

“An Baichen? As in the recent Golden Dragon Award winning director? Yes, I have heard about him. Everyone says he is an up and coming star director in the industry. Are you saying…”

“Yes, the TV series that you will be stunt doubling in today is his new project. It’s a military love story that was originally a popular web novel. You don’t really need to know the details, just know that you will be stunt doubling for the female lead of this movie. Her name is Lin Mengmeng. You might have to coach her a little when it comes time for her to have to do a couple fight scenes as well. Since there are some parts where her face will be visible so you can’t do it for her. The male lead is Pei Wencheng. He said he does his own stunts so you will be fighting against him.”

“I don’t think I have ever heard of them before…”

“Director An likes to use newer actors who have yet to catch their big break. He believes that they are more determined to work hard and sometimes the best talent is buried under no-name agencies or an unfortunate scandal.”

“Okay.” Xuemei started to feel a little nervous about her first job. She hoped she would be able to adapt quickly.

“Don’t be too nervous. You need to be around for the first week of filming this time around and when they need you again. A lot of the scenes are not big fight scenes so stunt doubles are no longer necessary. They only have certain areas in this city rented for around that time. Afterwards, they would change filming locations.”

“One week?” Xuemei looked over in surprise.

“Of course, there are many scenes to film as you are the stunt double for one of the main characters. Obviously, though, you will not be needed 24/7 this week. You can just hang around the city after your filming is finished.”

“What about my lessons with my teacher?”

“Brother Chen said that he would figure something out. Either through video chatting or he might even come here. He’s been pretty free lately anyways.”

Xuemei felt rather touched after knowing her teacher was putting so much effort into teaching her. He could have always waited for her to finish and come back. 

With all the information in front of her, Xuemei did not have anything else to ask. She quieted down and just looked out the window. This would be her first time at a filming location, it would definitely be an interesting experience. 

The location today was not actually in G City, but in the outskirts around a 30-minute drive away. Xuemei was told she would need to stay and camp out overnight in the woods. Since Huang Jun did not seem like he would explain the plot to her, Xuemei did her own research on her phone about the story. After speed-reading through the first bunch of chapters, she could guess what part of the story they were filming. Most likely, they were filming the secret mission beginning. It was where the main heroine first meets the male lead. Their start was a little cliche in some ways. The girl was someone who lived in the small village and went hiking in the mountains when she could. Though she was a normal nurse at the local doctor’s office, her grandfather was an old soldier and trained this granddaughter like a grandson. Thus, she was adept in a decent amount of martial arts and military boxing. She was just going about her day like any other, but ended up running into an injured man who was shot by a gun. Shocked, she tries to take him home. However, they are targeted by a group of gangsters who she manages to beat away before piggybacking the male lead all the way down the mountain. 

Getting to this part, Xuemei just chuckled thinking of such a female heroine piggybacking her supposed “tough guy” military love interest. Hmm… would she have to help with this part as well? A lot of actresses liked feigning weakness to look more feminine, so there might be some issues filming this part.

40