The Audition (Part 1)

The next day, Xia Yanxi picked out a dress. It was a nice, peppermint-green one-piece dress that tightly enveloped her waist and loosened up below her thighs. She straightened herself up, tying her hair into a ponytail, exposing the front of her face clearly to help emphasize her face and facial expressions. Today, she was not going to apply any make up. She wanted to take part in the audition to sell her art, not her beauty. 

In school, when she bumped into Xu Lingwei, she frantically said, "Yanxi, I think I saw someone…" 

"Mhmm? Who was it?" 

Xu Lingwei paused for a bit, thinking to herself. 

"Perhaps I was wrong… Oh well. Let's go, the audition is going to start soon." 

Xia Yanxi smiled brightly, brimming with hope. 

"Okay. 

The audition was held in one of the acting stages in the school, and when Xia Yanxi arrived at the hall, there were many waiting in line, waiting patiently for their turn. When it was her turn, she was given a short script to memorize. There were too many students wanting to be part of the movie. Since there were just too many competitors, she might not even have a chance to be part of the selection. Nevertheless, she prepared herself to face all the other competitors. That was her current battle; all who were participating in the audition. 

"Thirst for Love" is a romance movie and those who took part in the audition were given snippets of the movie to be tested on. Some of them were intermissions, dancing and singing, emotional conversations, and many more. The one that she obtained was one of the important climax scenes. Upon reading the script, Xia Yanxi knew that the part she had obtained was going to be important. This part would determine everything about the movie. 

"Oh my, aren't you the princess of our school? Why are you here? I thought you would already be part of the industry with that pretty face of yours. A few days ago, I heard that you slept with an old man! How could you not have a part in a movie after tearing that hymen of yours? Such a waste…" 

The one who had just delivered a "thinly" veiled insult was Huo Shiyu's close friend, Gu Yanyan. She was a child actress and was famous in the industry. That fame of hers had given her a lot of authority, one of which was to blatantly look down on many other students in the school, especially those who had never been in movies. 

Of all the students that she looked down on, Xia Yanxi was the one that she detested the most. Perhaps she was too close to Huo Shiyu, so she had been fed with the lies and woes about Xia Yanxi. That could be one of the reasons why she had never behaved around Xia Yanxi. 

While she would go out of her way to make her life more difficult, Xia Yanxi had never once taken her ill-treatment to the heart. That being said, she would never allow herself to be insulted. 

The bright, focused face of hers left the script in her hands and eyed the young woman that was still arching a smile that spelled degradation and insinuated ill intentions. With a clear, loud voice, she replied, "That's the first time I'm hearing that one's virginity can be traded for a movie role. I can only deduce that you have been applying the same method for movie roles. I must say, judging from the second-rated roles you have been taking up, I have to conclude that fixing up teared hymens must have been ineffective since they are… used up and not of value anymore." 

Everyone present then giggled and chuckled at the retort. 

As predicted, Gu Yanyan had been listening to Huo Shiyu about Xia Yanxi's poisonous tongue. Today, she was the target of her insults. One could clearly see the irony in that. Nevertheless, she had been around the entertainment industry since she was a child. As such, she had been in the center of insults masked as critiques and had been trained to endure such a comment to her face. 

She combed her hair backwards and smiled suggestively. 

"Miss Xia is such a tease. I have been acting since I was five. I don't need to sacrifice myself for any roles. My talents are all I need to act and I have been clean for so many years. I pity you, truly. You have given away something so precious for us girls yet you are still here, trying to seize an opportunity from the rest of the students!" 

A deafening silence filled the hallway. Her comments had successfully garnered looks of contempt and disdain from the other participants there.