"Tap, tap. Tap, tap." The persistent knocking echoed from outside the door.
"Wen Rou, are you awake? Aren't we going to the audition? If we don't leave soon, we'll be late, and there really won't be any good roles left by then."
Wen Ling was first woken up by the knocking, then rubbed the back of her aching head, feeling completely dazed and disoriented. She vaguely remembered staying up very late working.
Who was knocking? She didn't have any friends where she rented her apartment, did she?
Wen Ling stood up and realized that this was definitely not her bedroom, but an unfamiliar environment. She was still wearing yoga clothes. Had she gone to sleep and woken up in a completely different world?
No wait, cold porcelain-white skin—she was certain this wasn't her skin tone. She wasn't dark; her skin matched the typical Asian complexion—fair enough, but with that natural Asian undertone. So what was going on here?!
And these long legs, these slender fingers—they definitely weren't hers!!
"Wen Rou, did you hear me? Answer me." The shouting outside continued.
"What? I'll be right out." Wen Ling tried to respond, and immediately heard her own voice—gentle and pleasant. Confirmed, this really wasn't her body.
Leaving her no time to overthink, Wen Ling went to open the door. Before doing so, she peeked cautiously through the peephole. Visually, it was a slim girl with long black hair, looking truly anxious. Well, she should be safe.
"Sorry, I lost track of time practicing dance. I'm opening the door now, come on in and sit down."
The girl's tightly knitted brows finally relaxed. "I thought something happened to you. But you're really dedicated, practicing dance first thing in the morning. Not bad at all, you've already got the basic attitude an entertainment industry star should have."
"Entertainment industry?" Why bring up the entertainment industry?
"Yeah, you're about to graduate, so I suppose your aunt and uncle won't find excuses to hold you back anymore, right? Hey, hey, hurry up! We still have to go to the crew's auditions. If we're late, there might not be any good roles left."
"Auditions? What crew?" Wen Ling, dealing with a sudden shift in identity and a still-foggy brain, felt completely dizzy.
"The Untamed, of course! You must be overworked. This is a massive IP, and my intuition tells me it's going to be a huge hit. Maybe we can make a name for ourselves in the entertainment industry through this drama. If that happens, more directors will come to us for acting gigs."
"Though you wanted to be a singer, I still suggest you start out as an actor. Act well first, then sing—otherwise, you'll starve trying to be a singer in the domestic entertainment circle."
The girl first offered a wave of praise, then spun visions of a bright future, while also laying out the harsh reality of debuting as a singer in the domestic industry.
To avoid saying too much and giving herself away, Wen Ling didn't press further and told the girl she just needed to freshen up briefly.
Pressed for time, Wen Ling simply brushed her teeth and washed her face. Looking at the young and beautiful face in the mirror, she became quite certain that perhaps, just like in the novels, she had been resurrected in someone else's body. That feeling of her heart seizing up the night before was probably the precursor to a sudden cardiac arrest.
Sigh, right during the Chinese New Year—even if she wasn't close with her family, she didn't want to deal them such a blow. This definitely wasn't good news.
Sigh, besides sighing again, what else could she do at this point? She only hoped her mom and dad wouldn't be too terrified by the news of her death.
And sorry, landlord—she hoped her death wouldn't deal too heavy a blow to their business.
After a quick wash, Wen Ling changed into comfortable clothes. Suddenly transitioning from the depths of winter to spring, she still felt somewhat unadjusted both physically and psychologically. Therefore, she chose long wide-leg pants paired with a form-fitting base layer, and grabbed a long trench coat just in case she couldn't handle the weather—she could always add another layer.
She even wore thermal leggings underneath the wide-leg pants; that was Wen Ling's final stubborn defense. She had been sensitive to the cold in her past life, making thermal leggings an essential anti-cold artifact for spring and late autumn.
While changing clothes, Wen Ling discovered that her current self truly possessed a fantastic figure. Her long legs were slender and graceful yet not lacking in substance, her waist was tight with a faint hint of ab lines, and her chest was a C-cup she wouldn't have dared to imagine before. It genuinely made her envious, but now that she was the master of this body, she would have to properly maintain and cherish it in the future, living up to this young girl's exceptional assets.
"I'm ready, let's go."
"Oh, oh, good, let's go then."
When the two of them got into a taxi heading toward the production crew, the girl accompanying Wen Ling suddenly reacted: "Wen Rou, you didn't put on makeup! I just realized. But that's fine too—with your assets, your bare face already surpasses the vast majority of girls."
Wen Ling played along, making a couple of jokes, and mostly spent the rest of the time pretending to look at the scenery outside while actually trying her best to dredge up Wen Rou's memories to see if she could recall anything.
Yet she came up completely empty-handed. All she knew now was that her name was Wen Rou—yes, surname Wen, given name Rou, sharing the same surname as her own—and that she had just graduated this year. According to the information on her ID card, she was only nineteen years old.
Also, before heading out, she had checked a WeChat chat history and learned that the girl beside her was Lin Yuqing, a good friend she had grown up with.
There was a family of four: mom, dad, and a twin older brother who would graduate from university this summer.
According to the information on the phone, she learned that she was not formally trained in acting, but had studied dance and music, and had won relevant award certificates.
Her good friend had already sent the information about the production crew she was auditioning for today to her phone. However, she felt a bit pessimistic about the role she was supposed to audition for. Based on the fragments of information she remembered from her past life, she had heard of it—the role of Wen Qing would not be easy to secure.