Just Blame Me For Being Blind in the Beginning - Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

I’ll return your passion twofold.

The previous evening, Pei Ying had removed the wrapping from her ankle. Although it was still a tad red, you wouldn’t notice it unless you were looking for it. When she left that morning, she’d purposefully dressed in clothes suited for exercising, and she wore the same shoes that she’d been practicing in.

Song Nanchuan’s driver sent her to Universe Pictures HQ, and when she arrived, she saw Chen Sheng and Tao Tao already sitting in the waiting area.

“Xiao Pei ah, you’re here.” Seeing Pei Ying arrive, Chen Sheng quickly walked over to greet her. “The audition starts in twenty minutes. There are five actresses auditioning today, and Li Sisi will also arrive shortly.”

Both Pei Ying and Tao Tao grew pensive at the mention of Li Sisi. Li Sisi was their biggest rival in this audition.

Seeing them go so quiet, Chen Sheng tried to console them. “Don’t be too anxious. Even though Li Sisi is very popular, Yi Feiyue doesn’t look at popularity. Just make sure to do well when you audition.”

The two girls both made a sound of acknowledgement. Not long after, a staffer came to notify them that the audition was starting and assigned them a number each.

Pei Ying was four and Tao Tao was five.

The audition took place in a very spacious office room. The director, screenwriter, and the original writer of Dancing In the Beautiful Sunshine (DIBS), along with a top executive at Universe, would be judging.

Li Sisi was also sitting inside. Pei Ying glanced over at her before proceeding inside with Tao Tao.

“Alright, since everyone is here, let’s begin.” Yi Feiyue picked up a paper box by his hand and announced to the room, “There are two parts to the audition today. The first is a short dance performance, which I’m sure you’re already aware of. The other is inside of this paper box. The screenwriter and I picked out five scenes and wrote them down on a piece of paper. Whichever one you get is the one you have to act out. Understood?”

Everyone expressed their understanding, and the audition proceeded according to their assigned numbers. Li Sisi was number one. Out of fairness, each actress would pick their audition scene right before their turn, so the other girls remained still.

Yi Feiyue gave Li Sisi a minute to begin. Li Sisi was to perform an eating scene where she and the main lead were thinking about their future. At the time, both the hero and heroine were just small background dancers for bigger stars. The two of them sat at the counter in the convenience store, swallowing down sandwiches as they spoke about their grand dreams.

After watching her performance, Pei Ying felt that Li Sisi’s acting skill had indeed improved. However, whenever Li Sisi acted, no matter her role, she always felt more like Li Sisi than the character.

Yi Feiyue didn’t make any comments after her performance and just had her start dancing. Li Sisi’s dancing was better than her acting. And with her pretty and youthful looks, the performance was really quite pleasing to the eyes.

When she finished her audition, she had her assistant pack up and they left.

After watching the first three actresses’ performances, Pei Ying apprehensively stepped up to choose the scene she’d be acting.

She hoped that she would get something easy.

After a moment of contemplation, she opened up her piece of paper.

Topic: The female lead has won the trials of the dance competition. Please perform the farewell scene with the male lead before she heads abroad.

Pei Ying’s heart thumped. If she recalled correctly, this was a crying scene. After checking the topic she’d chosen, a staff member handed her the script for the scene.

“You have one minute to prepare,” Yi Feiyue said.

Pei Ying, “….”

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One minute to prep for a crying scene?! She had yet to acquire the skill to cry in three seconds!

But she didn’t have time to be grumbling right now. She quickly looked at the script. There weren’t many lines, just three in fact. The difficult part was the crying scene at the end.

Pei Ying had read the original novel, so she quickly pulled out the emotions from her mind. The heroine in DIBS was actually a bit fickle in love. From a young age, she put all her efforts toward dancing. She dreamed of dancing on the world’s largest stage. Before she became famous, she met the hero and even fell in love with him, but she wouldn’t stop her dreams for him. There was only one winner in the trials, and the winner was given the chance to join a famous dance group abroad and develop him or herself. And she, she had finally grabbed onto this opportunity.

“Time’s up. Begin.” Yi Feiyue’s sudden announcement cut short Pei Ying’s thoughts. “Xiao Yang, you perform with her.”

Xiao Yang was the staff member in charge of distributing materials. Whenever there was a scene with more than one character, he would step in.

He wasn’t an actor and he didn’t know how to act. He just read out the lines from the script.

This was actually another challenge for the actress acting opposite him, because it made it more difficult to immerse oneself into the role.

Xiao Zhang pulled a stool over in front of Pei Ying and without any preparation, he started reading his lines. “Congratulations. You’re one step closer to achieving your dreams.”

“Thank you.” Pei Ying shot a smile at him, and she really looked like a young girl. “Today, I’d like to properly bid farewell to one stage in my life.”

Xiao Zhang continued reading out loud. “Does this previous stage in your life also include me?”

Pei Ying looked at him and was silent for a moment. “I’ll work even harder from today forward. One day, I will stand on the world’s largest stage, but I won’t forget the days that we danced together.” The entire time, her smile remained on her face. “Goodbye.”

After those two words, she stood up from her chair. When she turned to leave, a single tear appeared at the corner of her eye without warning. Before it could roll down her face, she quickly raised her hand to wipe it away.

She may have been fickle, but she wasn’t heartless. This was the first man that she’d ever loved.

When she’d gotten up, Xiao Zhang had subconsciously looked up at her. As he watched her walking away from behind, he suddenly started to feel sad.

“What’s this? So immersed in the scene?” Sitting with the panel, Yi Feiyue teased him. Xiao Zhang’s old face reddened. The impulse he’d had a moment ago to shout out, “Director, I want to act too!” immediately disappeared.

After Pei Ying’s scene, she started to dance. Her emotions hadn’t completely recovered from the scene she just performed, which meant that she was more able to carry the feeling of the female lead.

She already knew the dance steps like the back of her hand. As she danced to the music, she even forgot about the pain in her ankle. She successfully carried out the difficult spinning moves, and after the music stopped, Pei Ying’s emotions gradually evened out.

“Thank you, Ms Pei.” Looking at her, Yi Feiyue said, “We’ll send out the decision in two days.”

Pei Ying nodded and thanked everyone before leaving. Chen Sheng was waiting at the door. When he saw her, he stopped her to ask about how it went. Pei Ying didn’t know what the director thought, so she could only say that she did her best and her performance wasn’t bad.

She felt that the fact that she could make herself cry was already a win in her books.

Chen Sheng would be waiting behind for Tao Tao, so Pei Ying bid him farewell. She hadn’t felt it while she was dancing, but now that things had calmed down, she suddenly felt a burst of pain in her ankle. She limped over to the exit and then got into Song Nanchuan’s car.

The driver, seeing that her ankle seemed worse than it had in the morning, asked if she’d like to go to the hospital. Pei Ying thought about it for a moment. She still had a bit of the medicine she’d been prescribed previously, so she didn’t want to go back to the hospital. She had the driver head directly home. After getting back, she dropped down onto Song Nanchuan’s sofa, without any desire to get up.

She’d been busy with dance practice recently, and then there was the creepy stalker, so she really felt a bit tired. Now that everything had finished, she could finally take a breather.

She had just laid down for a moment when she heard the door opening. She sat up suspiciously and then saw Song Nanchuan walk inside with a large suitcase.

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“Chuan Chuan?” Pei Ying was very surprised. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow? What are you doing here now?”

Song Nanchuan stood at the entrance, watching her, a slight frown on his face. Pei Ying looked at him blankly, still a bit confused. He let go of his suitcase and walked over to her, pulling her in for a hug. Then he kissed her on the lips.

His kiss was fierce, and his hand impatiently moved under her clothes to her chest. Pei Ying whimpered slightly as something hard pressed into her lower body. Song Nanchuan pushed apart her legs with his knee and subconsciously moved in for another kiss.

“Oh…” Pei Ying avoided him, and before he decided to make another move, she panted and said, “Not here. The room…”

Without another word, he picked her up and headed upstairs. After placing her down on the bed, Song Nanchuan bent over and his hot breath tickled her ear, “Ying Ying, I missed you…”

Not giving Pei Ying a chance to respond, he kissed her lips once more.

As their bodies moved up and down, Pei Ying looked at the person above her through half-closed eyes. His face was slightly red and the mole under the corner of his eye looked utterly captivating.

Pei Ying had always liked that mole. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sat up to kiss the beauty mark.

Their two bodies were now stuck close together. Song Nanchuan smiled and looked at her as he crooned, “Mm, why so passionate today?”

Pei Ying panted. She missed him too…

Song Nanchuan held her tightly and chuckled. “I’ll return your passion twofold.”

When both had their fill, Pei Ying collapsed into Song Nanchuan’s arms. After resting a bit, Song Nanchuan finally asked, “How did you injure your ankle? Did you see a doctor?”

“Mm,” Pei Ying responded lazily, not even opening her eyes. “I sprained it when I was practicing the dance. The doctor already prescribed some medicine.”

“Does it still hurt?” Song Nanchuan lifted her leg and looked at her ankle.

“Mm, it’s fine…” Pei Ying suddenly frowned. “Let go…”

Song Nanchuan chuckled and put her leg back in its original place. Then he kissed her again. “Has anyone been following you the past few days?”

“No.”

Song Nanchuan nodded. “We’ll go out to eat in a bit and then we’ll go to your apartment to pack up some things.”

“Okay.”

Song Nanchuan continued, “I brought a lot of presents back for you. We’ll look at them later.”

“Okay.”

Song Nanchuan smiled. “Then shall we take advantage of the time and go again?”

“….” Let’s not.