Sweet Wife in My Arms

"Nothing." Yan Huan took another sip of water. "Oh, by the way," she said casually, "I overheard someone bad-mouthing you just now."

"Who's been talking behind my back?" Yi Ling opened a bottle of water for herself and began to drink from it.

"I heard..." Yan Huan said slowly, taking her time to enunciate every word. "I heard that man call you flat-chested and a disgrace to women. He said you must have been a man in your previous life, and that you'd look like an ugly man in drag if you put on a skirt."

Bam! Yi Ling had smashed her water bottle against the floor. "Which sob said that? Tell me! So what if I'm flat-chested, how's that any of his business? My gender is none of his business. What, does he have nothing better to do? Is he looking for a beating? Is that it?"

"I heard someone call him Ding Ming, that must be his name," Yan Huan said impassively. She reached out and patted Yi Ling on the shoulder.

"Yiyi, a man like him isn't worthy of us. Don't give him the time of day."

"Ugh! Like I'd be interested!" Yi Ling spat on the floor. "I'd rather die an old maid than get together with trash like him."

"Yeah. He looks like a gigolo," continued Yan Huan.

Yi Ling's expression darkened at the word "gigolo."

"Oh, and I saw him hug himself and stick his pinky finger out when talking," added Yan Huan, for good measure.

Yi Ling rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and shuddered. A gigolo who acted like one of those flamboyant, over-the-top gay characters in movies? Seriously? She was deeply repulsed by the image.

Yan Huan rolled the water bottle between her palms as she stared at the man who was standing a small distance away from her. She had not expected to bump into him here, but she was now 100% certain of one thing: she would stop him from getting involved with Yi Ling this time around, come hell or high water.

"Yan Huan, you're up." It was Director Jin, urging her to get into position.

"I'm coming." Yan Huan hastily thrust her water bottle into Yi Ling's hands before hurrying over to the director,

The next scene involved a wire stunt. "Wire fu"--a combination of wire work and kung fu--was common in Xianxia shows.

"You don't need a stunt double?" asked Director Jin dubiously.

He had to repeat the question to make sure she knew what she was doing. "Yan Huan, are you absolutely sure you can do this without a double?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Yan Huan pumped her fist, a bright smile on her face. "Have you forgotten, Director? I used to be a stunt double specializing in wire work. I can do all my stunts myself. Oh, I can stand in for other actors, too, but you'll have to pay me extra for that, of course."

Director Jin: "..."

Actors who were able to perform their own wire stunts and fight scenes were extremely valuable. They would help the production save a ton of time, money, and effort.

Yan Huan signaled to the wire stunt team. A split-second later, she was lifted more than a dozen meters off the ground.

The script required her to bend over backwards while hanging from her wire harness. This was usually a feat for professional stunt doubles; not everyone was flexible enough to bend over backwards, after all, and this applied to actors as well.

Most directors would be tearing their hair out right about now as they struggled to find the right angle and camera movements to hide the stunt double's face. But Yan Huan nonchalantly pulled off her stunt without breaking a sweat, causing each and every one of the production staff to join in a collective gasp of complete disbelief.

They gaped at her nimble, flexible body. The young actress was truly one of a kind.

Director Jin mopped the sweat from his face. He thought to himself: Holy smokes! Jackpot! He already knew that Yan Huan was no ordinary actress, but he had not expected her to blow all his expectations out of the water yet again. Something told him that no one would be able to top Yan Huan's Qing Yao, even if the show were remade a million times in the future.

Yan Huan was slowly lowered back to solid ground. There were a few beads of sweat on her forehead, but she seemed perfectly fine.

The makeup artist hurried over to her to give her a quick touch-up. A moment later, Yan Huan was back in the air. She had to redo two of her next stunts--director's orders--but the rest of her stunts were completed in a single take.

Yan Huan gave a short, bitter laugh when she finally finished all her stunts for that particular scene. She was feeling sick from all the wire action, and her legs had turned to jelly.

"Miss Yan, hi, I'm a fan of yours. Can I get an autograph?"

A man suddenly stepped in front of Yan Huan, blocking her way. She looked up to see who it was, and had to quell the urge to slap the face before her.

It was Ding Ming. How dare he show his face to her!

"Oh, sorry, I don't think you'd want my autograph." She forced a smile. "I'm just a newbie like you, actually."

Ding Ming almost choked on his own spit when he heard that. He had refused to believe that an amazing actress like Yan Huan was also a newcomer like him. The lead female role had gone to the superstar Liang Chen, and he had automatically assumed that the actress playing the secondary female lead was also a famous star.

But she was just a newcomer--just like him--and that made him feel inferior.

He had only tried to approach Yan Huan because his attempts with Liang Chen had failed miserably; the superstar had avoided him like the plague. Liang Chen had openly snubbed him, and now, Yan Huan, a newcomer, had refused to give him her autograph. He rubbed his nose awkwardly, feeling humiliated.

He frowned. Was he imagining things, or did it seem like Yan Huan hated his guts?

But he quickly told himself he was being paranoid. He had to have imagined it. He had never met Yan Huan before this, which meant that he could not possibly have stepped on her toes without knowing it. She did not hate him. Of course not. He was not particularly handsome, but he was quite sure he was far from being offensively ugly. So why would she be offended by the sight of him?

He and Yan Huan were both signed to the same agency. He had joined slightly after her, which made him her junior. He mentally kicked himself for not taking the company van to the set; he was sure she would be a lot friendlier with him if they had at least met in the van and gotten to know each other earlier.

"What's wrong? What did that man say to you?" Yi Ling quickly pulled Yan Huan protectively behind her, like a mother hen shielding her chicks from a hungry fox.

Yan Huan extended a finger and pointed to Yi Ling's chest.

"He said that you're flat as a washing board."

The blue veins on Yi Ling's temples began to throb.

She swore inwardly, but did not lose her cool.

Yan Huan kept up her secret smear campaign against Ding Ming after that; she made sure to talk about him in a negative light in front of Yi Ling every now and then. She knew that it was impossible for her to stop Ding Ming from going near Yi Ling and herself on the set, and she was not yet powerful enough to destroy Ding Ming for good, so this was the next best option: she would let him approach them, if he wanted, and hopefully Yi Ling would have enough sense to beat him to a bloody pulp.

Journey to Fairyland was taking an unorthodox approach to filming and distribution: they would air the episodes as they were completed, instead of waiting for the entire production to wrap up. Because of that, the show was actually slated to go on air before Love and Tribulations. There was already a lot of hype surrounding the show; it was a big-budget TV series that had been in pre-production for three years, after all, and viewers were hungry for a quality TV show. There was no better time for Journey to Fairyland to go on air.

Journey to Fairyland would be airing in the prime time-slot of 9 pm on the major TV channels. It would also be streamed simultaneously on the Internet.