Sweet Wife in My Arms

“These are the details for the promotional events for Love and Tribulations, I got them from Director Jin. You’ll be making two public appearances for the show, the rest of the promotional events won’t involve us. Love and Tribulations is scheduled to air next March, but Director Jin will be conducting open auditions for his new show, Journey to Fairyland, next month. If you get a role in it, we’ll probably be busy for a while.”

Yan Huan picked up the documents and began reading them carefully, line by line. The documents were very clear about what was required of her in public appearances: she would show up, give a brief account of what it was like to work on the show, and then let the reporters take a few photos of her. That was it.

There were a few other meet-and-greet sessions with the principle actors, but she was quite sure that these events were only for the male and female leads. She was only playing a minor supporting role; it would be very unlikely for the production crew to ask her to participate in those.

But she did not complain. She was happy enough just to be able to appear before a room of reporters. She was a no-name actress who had just started out; she would take all the exposure she could get.

Yan Huan opened her closet and picked out a knee-length dress from her modest selection of clothes. The dress was a little plain, not quite the type of clothing to be worn to a dressy event. Yan Huan was still woefully light on funds at the moment; she barely had enough money to feed herself, let alone buy expensive clothes. She would have to put together a respectable outfit from the meager options in her wardrobe.

She thought about it, then selected a pastel pink shawl and a pair of black stilettos. She looked herself over with a critical eye in the full-length mirror; she was not entirely satisfied with her outfit, but it would have to do.

She did not have her a personal makeup artist, which meant that she would have to do her own makeup and hair. She applied a light layer of makeup, just enough to complement her youthful beauty and flawless skin. She avoided heavy makeup as she knew it would spoil her good looks and rob her of her natural charm.

Everyone had their own natural charm, but it was easy to lose sight of it. Once it was gone, it would be incredibly difficult to find again.

She had no intention whatsoever of stealing the limelight from the female lead. It made more sense for her to dress simply as she was supposed to be little more than a background prop for this event.

She gathered her hair and twisted it into a bun on top of her head. She swept the bangs away from her forehead; Yue Ran had previously told her that she had a pretty forehead, and had advised her to show it off whenever possible. She had kept her forehead hidden behind her bangs in her previous life, too insecure to display it for all the world to see. It was, in retrospect, an entirely silly thing to do.

There was another reason she had kept her bangs: Lu Qin had told her that he liked long bangs. It was not until much later that she finally realized that Lu Qin did not actually like long bangs, per se. He liked Su Muran, who just so happened to have long bangs.

After she was done dressing up, Yan Huan quickly made her way to the venue for the press conference with Yi Ling in tow. It was the first press conference for the principal actors of Love and Tribulations. There had been a steady increase in promotional activity for the show over the last several weeks as it was scheduled to go on air very soon.

Yan Huan stood among the other actors. She was not very tall, but her high heels elevated her to a respectable height. Whenever a camera was pointed her way, she immediately gave her best, most natural smile. There was a tiny flicker of girl-next-door modesty in her eyes, but otherwise it was obvious to everyone that she was entirely at ease on stage.

Yi Ling, on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves. This was her lovely Huanhuan’s first big moment, the first time she was appearing before so many reporters. She knew her Huanhuan was so beautiful she could appear on stage with a large cabbage on her head and still look drop-dead gorgeous, nevertheless, Yi Ling was still afraid that some of the reporters would take unflattering photos of Yan Huan with their sloppy photography skills.

Yi Ling was so nervous her palms were drenched in sweat; she clutched at her clothes, wiping her sweaty hands on them every so often.