Hitting the Entertainment News Spotlight
Autor: Smiling WR© WebNovel
Capítulo 1: Reborn
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"In the eastern region of the Pyrenees mountain range in southwestern Europe, a fleet of sports cars were speeding along The Garrone, spurring the French police into action…" the sweet voice of the female newscaster narrated. The headlines of the day were displayed on the screen behind her.
The sports cars tore along the road under the night sky. Helicopters were following them while police cars could be seen giving chase. "The police suspect that the street racers are citizens of the eastern country, but the identities of the drivers are yet to be determined…"
The moment the female newscaster finished, the screen behind her was enlarged. The honks and the roar of the helicopters' rotors that were initially muffled could now be heard clearly. Coupled with the rumble of the speeding sports cars, the noise level in the room instantly rocketed.
The thin walls could not mute the sounds of the television outside, so Jiang Se got up and found his way to the narrow living room. Du You, who had switched the television on in the first place, was nowhere to be seen. The fleet of sports cars was speeding past the screen of the television.
Then, the scene changed. When she saw the leading white sports car, she paused mid-action and was about to switch the television off. The door of the room to her left was flung open with a loud bang and Du Honghong's furious voice filled the room, "Why are you making so much noise in the middle of the night?! Don't you know that I'm about to sit for the Senior High School Entrance Examination soon?"
Jiang Se turned to look at her, but the teenage girl dressed in her red nightgown had already slammed the door shut impatiently. Even the slightly mottled windows of the living room shook from the impact.
She switched the television off and returned to her room. It was nearing the end of May, and the weather was getting warmer. Facing her single bed, a fan was spinning slowly, blowing a cooling breeze.
She climbed into bed and stared at the dim yellow light bulb above her. She recognized the white sports car with a superior design. It belonged to Pei Yi.
"Sese."
Mother Jiang's call interrupted her thoughts. When the door opened, Mother Jiang, Zhou Hui, leaned into the room and pointed at the light bulb above her to remind, "It's past nine."
With a nod, she propped her body up and tugged the cord beside her bed. Instantly, darkness engulfed the room.
The faint lighting from outside somewhat illuminated Zhou Hui's face in the night and she appeared to be cowering.
"Honghong is about to sit for her exams. The electricity tariff has been raised recently and your Uncle Du's factory hasn't been doing very well this month. You can use the fan for a while, but remember to switch it off once you've cooled down…"
Jiang Se cut her short by replying, "I know."
Zhou Hui said no more and closed the door behind her.
The room was pitch black as there were no windows. Jiang Se could not help but toss and turn in her bed.
It had been a long time since she reminisced about the past, but the headlines that night made her feel glum.
A fortnight ago, she was still the lady of the Feng family, Feng Nan. When she woke up, she found herself in Jiang Se's body.
Her grandfather, Feng Zhongliang, had served in the military before. When Huaxia was in turmoil, he brought his family into Hong Kong, bought a hotel, and had been operating it ever since. Today, the Feng family was a prestigious name.
In his golden years, Feng Zhongliang could not bear to be away from his homeland. With the help of his old friends, he brought Feng Nan back to Huaxia and settled down.
Feng Nan and Jiang Se were as different as heaven and earth.
Mother Jiang, Zhou Hui, had married an unfilial husband. When they got divorced, she brought her daughter Jiang Se with her, married Du Changqun, and gave birth to two children.
Her stepfather, Du Changqun, worked in a factory. Even after two decades, he was still a rank and file salesperson who had to provide for his family with his meager paycheck.
Since her surname was not Du, Jiang Se held an awkward position in the family. Apart from the fact that Du Changqun did not like her, her younger half-siblings also regarded her with scorn.
Jiang Se was 17 this year and was in her final semester of the 12th grade. However, she did not like studying. All she wanted was to enter the entertainment industry with her beauty and make a name for herself.
She figured this out by herself throughout these two weeks.
She did not know who Feng Nan currently was since she had become Jiang Se. She wracked her brains, but still, she could not come to a conclusion. She sighed and flipped over again, making the steel bed frame creak.
From the next room, Du Honghong pounded on the wall. "Can you keep it down?"
The Du residence was built in Huaxia's imperial capital where land was extremely expensive. There were six of them in the family, including Du Changqun's widowed mother. They were cramped in an old unit that was less than 15 square meters wide. Du Changqun had compartmented the rooms with planks. Jiang Se's room was in the far corner and there was only enough space for a single steel-framed bed and a chair. There were no windows, so when the doors were closed, it was always pitch black, even during the day.
Above her was the sleeping quarters of Du Changqun and his wife, hence the ceiling was very low.
Jiang Se closed her eyes when she heard Du Honghong still swearing. She was immensely beautiful. Her loveliness seemed to be a gift from the Creator. This was also why the original Jiang Se longed to enter the entertainment industry. Her cramped room was full of posters of various celebrities, and the notebook under her pillow were scrawled with the young girl's wishes of making it big.
Jiang Se was awoken by the sounds of someone coughing.
Above her, Du Changqun was having a coughing fit. He had been down with the flu for several days now. Zhou Hui had meekly persuaded him to take a day off and visit the community clinic next door. However, he told her off, "What about the money? Do you know how much will be taken out of my paycheck if I take a day off? The entire family depends on my income for food. How can I take a day off just because I want to?
Jiang Se blinked her eyes and gradually sobered up.
Du Changqun was still swearing and voicing out his dislike for the daughter Zhou Hui brought with her into the marriage. "She's 17, yet she isn't capable of doing anything. All she knows is to spend my money! When I was 17, I was already working in the factory unlike her."
Zhou Hui kept quiet, but Jiang Se was awake now. When Du Changqun climbed down the stairs and saw Jiang Se, he showed no signs of acknowledgment although his expression was sour. He freshened up and went out.
"Your Uncle Du has been under huge stress lately."
The edge of Zhou Hui's lips lifted as she glanced at her daughter. Under the glow of the light, she could see her 17-year-old daughter who was already looking like a fine young lady. She moistened a towel with the water Du Changqun used to wash his face and wiped her face with it. before walking to the kitchen.
"I can see that you aren't interested in your studies. Your siblings are still young…"
Jiang Se understood what she meant. Throughout her English lesson, she had absent-mindedly doodled in her notebook whilst her mind was elsewhere.
During their talk that morning, Zhou Hui had implied that she should stop studying after the 12th grade and make a living on her own.
When she had been Feng Nan, she had never worried about money.
She was deep in thought, but her sharp senses told her that something was off. She turned and saw her neighbor, Lu Baobao, was about to poke her arm with a raised fountain pen.
Lu Baobao was a year older than Jiang Se. She and the original Jiang Se were like birds of a feather. She had a rounder face and seemed cute. She was interested in any sort of gossip, especially about celebrities in show business which she was highly familiar with.
The original Jiang Se was set on joining the entertainment industry and becoming a star, so she naturally shared a common topic of conversation with Lu Baobao.
Lu Baobao removed the pen cap. She lowered her head and quickly scribbled a line in her workbook. "What're you thinking about? You seem out of it today."
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Capítulo 2: News
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
One of Lu Baobao's hands was under the table, scrolling through a pink cellphone which had been a present for her 16th birthday. It was covered in rhinestones and was a clearly girlish phone.
When the phone screen lit up at that moment, Jiang Se lowered her head to look and saw the news headlines. In Europe, many supercars were racing against the police. It was believed that the culprits were Huaxia citizens.
The cover photo of the article was a white sports car with a superior design. In the photo that had been captured by satellite, there was a blurry figure in one corner of the car bonnet. It was a custom-designed symbol. The words "Pei Yi" were on the tip of Jiang Se's tongue, but she did not utter them.
Lu Baobao shook the phone in her hand. When she saw Jiang Se looking at it, she stole a careful glance at the English teacher in front and inched closer to her friend.
"Sese, have you seen the headlines?" When she finished, she could not suppress her curiosity and followed up with another whisper, "The news says that these people driving the luxury cars are from our country. We sure do have many rich people."
Jiang Se remained silent, so Lu Baobao elbowed her.
"Hey, who do you think these people are?" She tapped on the white sports car with her fountain pen. "I've done some research last night. This car costs at least this much," She put the fountain pen down and spread her fingers to make a "five". $50,000,000.
However, Jiang Se thought inwardly, 'Not even close.'
This was a custom-made sports car that was one of a kind. It was flashy in appearance, and it had a handsome price tag as well.
"I'm reminded of the 'Feast of the Kings' last year." Lu Baobao was trying to shoot Jiang Se a look. She was referring to the entertainment industry scandal that had shocked Huaxia last year. "Do you think that there are beautiful models or celebrities in these cars? First, they play with sports cars. Next, they'll play with women."
"That's enough," Jiang Se reminded her because their hushed conversation had attracted the English teacher's attention. Nevertheless, Lu Baobao wanted to continue the conversation. She looked up and saw the English teacher frowning at them slightly. She stuck her tongue out and stuffed her phone back under her desk, not making any more sound.
However, just because Lu Baobao did not dare pursue the topic during class, it did not mean that she had forgotten about it.
The second the bell for recess rang, she whipped her phone out again, tugged at Jiang Se, and started talking excitedly, "If this person can afford to drive a sports car in this price range, there's no way the celebrity sitting inside is a small-timer, is there? During last year's 'Feast of the Kings', the rich celebrities caught on camera on that yacht were there in droves…"
Jiang Se's eyelids twitched. "Your dad must've regretted giving you that phone."
Lu Baobao did not even look up as she was busy scrolling through the photos. "Don't be stupid. My dad doesn't know about this."
The photos on her phone were similar to those that Jiang Se had seen on last night's news. The original models of the various sports cars were introduced at the end, and Lu Baobao was studying them intently. Meanwhile, Jiang Se sat there quietly for a while.
"That place is close to Bordeaux."
"What? Bo..." Lu Baobao looked up, staring at Jiang Se with her huge eyes. "Where's that?"
"Bordeaux, Bor-d-eaux." When Jiang Se saw that she was still puzzled, she added, "It's where they make wine."
Lu Baobao was hit with a sudden realization and she smacked the table. "Oh, that place!"
Jiang Se could not help but giggle. However, when she mentioned the words "wine", she had the urge to sigh instead.
While Lu Baobao was still chattering away beside her, Jiang Se was thinking of Pei Yi.
Pei Yi was the eldest grandson of one of her grandfather's, Feng Zhongliang's, top brass. He was the apple of the Pei family's eye.
When she followed Feng Zhongliang back to Huaxia from Hong Kong, she met him when they visited the Pei family.
Feng Nan was five years older than Pei Yi, and they had been close ever since they were kids. She treated him as a younger brother.
However, they had a quarrel last month. In the heat of the moment, he left for France with a bunch of his friends.
He had a villa in France that his family bought for him two years ago. The two of them had promised to go to France when it was time to harvest the grapes, but before he returned, she had turned into Jiang Se.
When she thought about this, she felt slightly crestfallen, and the smile on her face faded as well.
Her quarrel with Pei Yi was only a small matter. He was the Pei family's treasure and had been spoilt since young, so he was arrogant and rebellious. She was the only girl whom he was willing to get close to.
Although he was the eldest son of the current generation, the Pei family had always said that he needed an older sister around him.
On the day of their quarrel, she had a meal with the heir of the Jianghua Group. When she came back, she had a quarrel with Pei Yi who had been waiting for her back home.
Although he was brash, he would usually back down when it came to her. However, she did not expect him to turn around and leave after their fight the other day. This was the first instance of that happening ever since the two of them knew each other.
"What're you thinking about?" Lu Baobao could not resist nudging Jiang Se. "You've been holding that English book for half a day now."
She had talked until her mouth and tongue were dry, yet she got no reply. She only realized that Jiang Se was not even looking at her cellphone when she looked up. "Are you even listening?"
Jiang Se shook her head. "Forget about those. We have a couple of minutes before the next class, which is math. Don't let anyone catch you playing with your phone."
When Lu Baobao heard this, she stuck her tongue out again. She quickly locked her phone and stuffed it into her pocket. Then, she reached out and flipped the textbook under her desk, fiddling with it for a long while. Finally, she could not suppress her curiosity, so she looked up and asked, "Who do you think those people are?"
Jiang Se was not in the mood to discuss such matters with her right now because she was fretting about her own concerns.
The matter with Pei Yi aside, she was now Jiang Se. Aside from being younger and prettier, she did not have any other advantage.
When she woke up the other day, half of her face was swollen. After the incident, she found out from Du Honghong that she had bickered with Du You the night before, so Du Changqun had given her a slap which knocked her out.
The original Jiang Se was a child from a previous marriage to the Du family and nobody in the family liked her. Now, Jiang Se had to deal with her fate.
That morning, she overheard the conversation between Du Changqun and Zhou Hui. Although she was about to sit for the National College Entrance Examination, she reckoned that Du Changqun would not pay for her college education. Nonetheless, she would have to study besides having to figure a way out for herself.
Jiang Se took out the mathematics book and placed it on her desk. The end of term exams was just around the corner, but Jiang Se's mathematics book was as good as new. She flipped through it casually and could not find a single scribble of notes.
Lu Baobao chuckled. "Are you making a last-minute effort?"
Then, she pouted. "Darn it. Saturday's 'Rescue Mission' will be filmed in Shen Villa. I want to go and check it out."
"Just go then."
With Jiang Se's reply, Lu Baobao hugged her arm and pressed it to her breasts to rub against herself.
"That won't work on me." She pushed Lu Baobao's face way with her free hand.
However, Lu Baobao wore a pleading expression as she begged, "The National College Entrance Examination is just around the corner and my dad's working me like a mule. He wants me to do my revision at home every day. Save me, please."
"You should be asking your mother." Jiang Se was humored by her sympathy-garnering expression. Lu Baobao straightened up and swayed her friend's arm.
When she saw that Jiang Se was still unresponsive after she tried her puppy dog eyes, she persuaded again, "Come to my house and tell my dad that you're going to the library with me. He'll say yes for sure. Then, you can come with me to Shen Villa!"
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