Judge of Souls - Chapter 62

Kong Su was truly struggling in the entertainment circle, though it was her own doing. Being a nobody without connections who refused to follow the unspoken rules, she should have just focused on acting and slowly worked her way up. Who knows, maybe one day good fortune might suddenly strike and make her famous.

Kong Su had good audience appeal and was hardworking, having been an actress for nearly ten years. While her acting skills might not qualify her as a master, she definitely surpassed many of the new popular stars with their forced expressions and exaggerated eyes. Overall, she had potential.

But whenever things started looking promising, she would passionately pick fights with popular starlets.

Could she really afford to fight them? Those celebrities had families that owned marketing companies, and regardless of whether they truly had a fan base, would their marketing teams fear a third-rate minor celebrity like her? Major media outlets and promotional accounts would take turns attacking her, leaving her without a chance to respond, directly ruining her public image. How could she continue in the industry after that?

This was truly a society based on connections.

Gao Yuqing had originally planned to wait a couple more years and then promote her with the angle of “talented actress who can’t break through.” The prerequisite was that her face wouldn’t collapse and she wouldn’t impulsively get plastic surgery.

Unexpectedly, she first became notorious online for “going crazy,” then gained nationwide fame for “coming back from the dead.” Throughout the history of female celebrities, she was probably unique. Now all his plans were meaningless.

“I’m very busy lately, with many artists under my management. Just stay quietly in your room and don’t go anywhere, understand?” Gao Yuqing glanced at his phone and instructed, “You’re a patient now, you understand? A patient.”

Kong Su replied, “I understand! You’re so annoying!”

Gao Yuqing turned around ready to hit her, and Kong Su quickly put away her powder compact and moved next to Jiang Feng.

Gao Yuqing took them to Kong Su’s former residence. It had just been cleaned and was ready for them to stay. The community had strict management with few outsiders, making it much safer than Jiang Feng’s area.

This arrangement was temporary. Once they had work, they might not even stay in A City.

In the evening, Gao Yuqing called to tell her about a few script plans.

Despite just recovering from a serious illness, Kong Su’s high-profile return actually attracted quite a few job offers. Firstly because her current popularity was high, and secondly because she had mentioned a famous Taoist temple and had shamelessly associated herself with it.

For superstitious people, nothing needed to be spelled out explicitly—they understood! Combined with Kong Su’s previous behavior, they could fill in the blanks with their own complete and bizarre version of events.

Among these superstitious people, their company’s boss was the most excited.

He knew very clearly whether Kong Su’s coma had been a publicity stunt or genuine, and with that knowledge, things became very clear. There was only one explanation.

In any case, he decided to promote Kong Su.

Kong Su asked, “Are there any productions working with that Yang Huan girl? I don’t care about my role size, I just want to work with her!”

Gao Yuqing asked, “Will you ever let this go?”

“Never!” Kong Su patted her chest and said, “I’ve recharged, revived, and restarted! I’m a VIP user now, why shouldn’t I confront her?”

Gao Yuqing sighed and said, “Let me look into it. There might be something tomorrow. I’ll schedule it for you then.”

Gao Yuqing truly found an opportunity for Kong Su to work in the same production as Yang Huan.

When the director learned she could join at any time, he didn’t even ask for an audition and directly assigned her a supporting female role, asking her to come to the set immediately to avoid delaying the schedule.

The character she was to play was a frail, sickly beauty—the male lead’s beloved, his white moonlight.

Kong Su was extremely excited when she heard this. The character was likable, had plenty of screen time, and the filming would be easy. It was mostly indoor scenes, sitting on a bed or by a window reciting lines. But none of that was what excited her most—what was truly thrilling was that this had originally been Yang Huan’s role.

After learning that Kong Su was coming, considering her physical condition, the director thought she could perform naturally and switched Yang Huan to a more substantial second female lead role.

Although Yang Huan’s billing had been promoted, it felt like Kong Su had stolen her role, which made Kong Su extremely happy.

Gao Yuqing felt something was off. If Yang Huan was moved to the second female lead, what happened to the original second female lead?

Kong Su was clueless and just felt that no matter who got hurt, it wouldn’t be her. She packed her things and prepared to leave at any moment.

Gao Yuqing made some inquiries through inside contacts and discovered that the second female lead had been hospitalized.

The production had only been filming for about ten days, and already three actors had had accidents. One was injured when a prop broke and they hurt their backside when sitting down. Another got gastroenteritis from eating at a street food stall. The third rolled off the bed while sleeping and fractured their arm.

The second female lead was among them.

None of the actors had life-threatening injuries, and the reasons for their injuries were almost comical, but after leaving the hospital, they refused to return to the set.

The director had suppressed the news and talked with the actors, feeling something wasn’t right. Calling Kong Su over now… was actually to help stabilize the situation.

To think that this unlucky troublemaker would one day be called in to ward off bad luck—Gao Yuqing thought the director must be blind.

It was bound to end badly.

The production was currently in B City.

Valuing business relationships over personal ones, Gao Yuqing had actually enticed Zhang Yangyang to come along to ensure Jiang Feng would join the production and not quit halfway.

He personally went to pick him up and even upgraded the assistant’s standard room to a luxury suite. The price difference would be deducted from Kong Su’s payment.

When Jiang Feng saw Zhang Yangyang, he exclaimed in surprise, “Didn’t you resign?”

“Poverty makes me humble,” Zhang Yangyang smoothed his hair, trying to appear composed, “Besides, with you around, what do I have to fear? Bro, am I staying in the same room as you?”

Jiang Feng couldn’t help asking the question he’d been harboring for a long time. “How can you manage to be such a…spirited coward?”

“As a person,” Zhang Yangyang said, “even if you’re a coward, you can’t lose your dreams!”

Kong Su said, “You’re so childish!”

Gao Yuqing hit her. “This is called ‘drinking ice for ten years, but the hot blood remains undiminished.'”

Kong Su sneered. “Gaogao, you—”

Gao Yuqing scolded her: “Shut up.”

Kong Su reluctantly fell silent.

****

After putting away her luggage, Kong Su came to find Jiang Feng to go to the set together.

Yang Huan had scenes today, and when they arrived, she was resting in a reclining chair.

Zhang Yangyang’s eyes lit up as he exclaimed excitedly, “Wow, it’s my goddess! My goddess!”

Kong Su suddenly turned around, stared at Zhang Yangyang, and poked his chest saying, “If you consider her your dream goddess, I’ll make sure you never wake up from that dream.”

Zhang Yangyang was stunned. “Why?”

Kong Su said, “I’ll send you some gossip posts tonight, read them carefully. If you can still say that afterward, I’ll respect your true love.”

Zhang Yangyang thought to himself: No, he wasn’t truly in love, he was just a fan of her looks.

Kong Su had started her career early, beginning to act right after high school graduation. Yang Huan debuted around the same time but was three or four years older than her.

Unlike Kong Su with her various poor resources, Yang Huan was heavily promoted from the start. All kinds of big productions with top actors supporting her, yet strangely she never became popular. She couldn’t attract fans, and various scandals spread like wildfire.

During a previous collaboration, Kong Su didn’t show Yang Huan any respect. After the final cut was released, Yang Huan was ridiculed online in various ways, which ironically boosted Kong Su’s popularity.

Yang Huan firmly believed that Kong Su had deliberately hired trolls to attack her, creating enmity between them.

Yang Huan stole her endorsements, stole her roles, even stole the rumored boyfriend she used for publicity, and instigated fans to spread baseless rumors to blacken her name—it was absurd.

Kong Su ignored her and walked confidently toward the makeup room.

Yang Huan’s people had noticed her already. As she approached, an assistant said in a sarcastic tone. “I saw someone’s photos earlier, and the comments all said she looked like a mummy. I didn’t believe it, but it turns out it’s true. Without any self-awareness and still coming to play a beauty, be careful of being mocked for trying to outshine others.”

Hearing this, Kong Su stopped, partially removed her top to reveal her shoulders, and laughed loudly. “Hahaha, Yang Huan, where does your confidence come from? So what if you have resources? In TV shows, you’re the female lead and I’m the second lead, but I’m the one who becomes popular. In variety shows, you’re a regular and I’m just a guest, but I still generate more buzz. Haven’t you recognized your position yet? You’ll never make it big; you’re just not suited for this industry. In entertainment, you need heaven’s blessing.”

Yang Huan snickered. “Heaven blessed you with coming back from the dead?”

“Not coming back from the dead—trending topics. It’s fate, you know? I can come back to life even after dying, while you can kill a perfectly good hand of cards. That’s the difference.” Kong Su blew her a kiss, “Bye.”

Kong Su preferred doing her own makeup, especially for sickly looks, which she was now very skilled at.

The makeup artists in the production didn’t dare get too close to her. Hearing she wanted to do it herself, they were happy to comply and simply sat nearby chatting.

“Yang Huan is really beautiful.”

“She’s getting more and more beautiful. She looks even more elegant in person than on TV. When I did her makeup, her skin didn’t look like someone in her thirties at all. Sigh, money really lets you do whatever you want, even defying aging.”

“That’s not necessarily true. I’ve rarely seen anyone with skin as good as hers.”

Kong Su paused while applying powder, turning her ear to listen to their conversation.

“I feel like she wasn’t this beautiful when she first debuted. Just an ordinary girl-next-door type, nothing particularly attractive.”

“Her features aren’t individually remarkable, but together they create a very elegant impression.”

“My husband saw her on TV recently and said he couldn’t recognize her at all.”

Kong Su quickly stood up, grabbed her small bag, and rushed out.

She circled around the set, found Jiang Feng’s position, rushed over and whispered, “Taoist Jiang! Taoist Jiang, I’ve been thinking carefully and feel that Yang Huan might very well be the one raising little ghosts.”

This was far from the first time she had been paranoid. Jiang Feng tilted his head slightly and replied flatly. “Hmm.”

Kong Su didn’t mind his response and pulled a chair to sit beside him. While continuing her makeup, she said, “Really, something’s not right with Yang Huan. Since her debut until now, she’s become increasingly beautiful… not the kind of beauty from plastic surgery, without any surgical interventions, but she’s just different.”

Jiang Feng said, “Aren’t all celebrities like that? Plastic surgery-style makeup makes them look like different people before and after.”

“Tsk, are you stupid? What plastic surgery-style makeup? Without Photoshop, you can drop those last two words.” Kong Su said, “But with her, I’ve seen her without makeup, and it’s incredible. There’s just something indescribable about her. We debuted at the same time, and her face seems to have never aged. Yes! Never aged.”

Jiang Feng looked at Yang Huan again, but his expression remained unchanged.

“Come to think of it, before I was cursed, I had just won Best Supporting Actress. She was a nominee for the same award,” Kong Su realized with horror. “Later when I was in a coma, there was a movie casting where I got in and she didn’t. It seems like every time I win over her, I become extremely unlucky.”

Jiang Feng said, “Don’t let such subjective impressions influence you.”

Seeing him staring intently, Kong Su immediately waved her hand in front of his face. “Taoist Jiang. That entranced look in your eyes scares me. Please just be a normal creep, okay?”

Jiang Feng asked, “Are there many people in the entertainment industry who raise Kumanthong?”

“Quite a few, I suppose, but it’s not something people talk about openly,” Kong Su frowned and said. “Everyone has their own methods to some extent. But I never planned to be part of this circle, so I don’t really know.”

Jiang Feng: “Her aura is quite clean. The improvement in her complexion might be influenced by a Kumanthong. But it probably has nothing to do with your situation.”

“She really does raise one?” Kong Su’s face turned ashen, difficult to describe. “With such courage, why worry about not becoming famous? I suddenly admire her a bit.”

Yang Huan held a cup of hot water, listening to her assistant recite lines. Suddenly, she heard a childish voice by her ear saying, “Mommy, someone is looking at me.”

Her expression changed as she touched her necklace, carefully caressing it to provide comfort.

Following the direction indicated, she met Jiang Feng’s cold gaze. Yang Huan couldn’t help shuddering and quickly looked away.