Assistant to My Contracted Husband

Inside the lounge:

When Gu Xiran isn’t on set, she especially likes to wear loose hoodies and jeans, sitting cross-legged on the sofa. Her delicate little face is bare of makeup, yet stunning all the same.

Eighteen is such a blooming age; she’s only "experienced" because she debuted young, but she’s still a student. In fact, Sister Ping has always treated Gu Xiran like a child.

She knows how the world works, but she’s not worldly; this little girl has a very keen mind.

Sister Ping is sharp too. At first she’d been puzzled why Gu Xiran wanted to take an ethical romance film, but hearing her say this, there had to be a reason. Thinking back to the birthday party last night, she immediately understood.

"Tang Bao, you mean you want to provoke Qin Jin, huh?"

"Sister Ping, you really get me. I don’t even dare tell my parents, I’m afraid it’ll make them mad and worried."

Gu Xiran主动地抬手拉着萍姐的胳膊,依靠在萍姐的肩膀上,柔声道.

"Do you think it’ll work?"

Gu Xiran blinked her big, watery eyes. She still looked every bit a kid, especially with that sly glint in her beautiful gaze—she looked almost exactly like Jian Ran when she was young.

Sister Ping couldn’t help patting Gu Xiran’s shoulder and gave her assessment from a professional angle.

"As it happens, Director Zhang Chengwei has a modern ethical drama script and is looking for an actress. The female lead fits your persona very well, but I turned it down flat before. I’ll show you the script and you can think about it. It’s mainly about a love story between an 18-year-old girl and a 48-year-old uncle, a 30-year age gap. The male lead is already set—it’s international movie star Mu Bai, and it’s also Mu Bai’s first erotic art film."

After giving a rough outline of the plot, Sister Ping went on, hinting, "If the script weren’t genuinely good, Mu Bai wouldn’t take it. Tang Bao, you get what I mean, right?"

"Mm, Sister Ping, I know. I’m not just taking it on impulse to piss off Brother Qin Jin. If I can run into a good project, a good director, good co‑stars, I’ll give it everything I’ve got."

"Good, I’ll go make the arrangements."

Gu Xiran is still young, but she did debut as a child star after all. She knows the rights and wrongs of this industry inside out. Sister Ping is completely at ease about her.

Surviving in this circle isn’t just about the Gu Family’s backing. Most importantly, Gu Xiran knows where the lines are, and she has solid professional ethics. For example, this little girl never uses a body double—whether it’s straight drama or action scenes, she does them herself.

So every director and actor who has worked with Gu Xiran has nothing but praise for this little girl.

...

With work matters settled, Gu Xiran flipped through the script while asking curiously, "Oh right, Sister Ping, has Song Le had any moves lately?"

"How come you suddenly remember to care about her? An unknown second-rate starlet. Tang Bao, there’s no need to waste time paying attention to that kind of person."

Sister Ping directly used the word "starlet" and didn’t even bother to stress the "second-rate" part.

These women who rely purely on looks and don’t bother to work on their acting... they can only be called starlets.

They’re not real actresses at all.

Gu Xiran knew Sister Ping had zero interest in Song Le, but now that she herself had her eye on the girl, she had no choice but to keep tabs.

"Mm, I just want to get a sense of her movements. We’re all students at the same school anyway, and there’s just over a month left before term starts. We’ll be seeing each other all the time. Besides, we did have some kind of connection when we were kids. Sister Ping, you know that."

Gu Xiran smacked her little lips. Just one more month and she’d be in her senior year of high school.

And in this stretch she’d gone and taken on a film and a TV drama in one go.

Both the film and the drama were tests of her acting, stretching her range.

If she could find the time, she still had to read more books.

Gu Xiran thought to herself: her English is fine, she often shoots overseas documentaries; Chinese is okay too. The main problem is math.

Seeing the thoughtful look on Gu Xiran’s face, Sister Ping kindly reminded her, "Tang Bao, what happened back then when you two were little—that was mutual cooperation, both sides were willing. It’s not about who wronged who or who owes who. You understand?"

"Mm, Sister Ping, I know. I have a clear picture in my head."

"That’s good. As for Song Le, I’m actually not very clear on her situation. I heard she’s been cozying up to some rich second generation lately, seems like he’s an investor or some such thing. She shot another idol drama, and the director just got exposed for doing drugs. The script is crap and relies entirely on her face to hold it up, and the rest is all post‑production editing and body doubles. Anyway, I don’t think much of it at all."