The luck of Sheng Tang’s life seemed to have been used up early.
After she joined the company, Gu Jiahui handed her over to the artist department and assigned her an agent.
Her agent was Ye Yongying, one of the senior agents in the company, in her early thirties, competent and shrewd. She also managed two small artists and a movie queen.
She was extremely busy.
From the beginning, Sheng Tang was neglected by her. The auditions arranged for Sheng Tang were all predetermined roles, she was just there to make up the numbers.
In the industry, auditions are like job interviews. If they don’t plan to hire you, they won’t give you a chance to perform. They just ask a few routine questions and then let you go.
Even if you want to showcase your acting skills, the director or producer would think you are crazy. There’s no need to perform unnecessarily when it isn’t required.
Sheng Tang was very unhappy about this.
In the second month after she joined the company, Gu Jiahui suddenly left.
Guanghong Media is a fairly influential actor management company. Its internal operations aren’t reliant on the boss personally; Gu Jiahui had a team of professional managers under him.
The boss being absent was the norm in the company, and no one would care where he went.
With advanced communications today, meeting the boss only requires a video conference; there’s no need for the boss to be present in person.
It was on the fifth day after Gu Jiahui left that he gave Sheng Tang a call.
"... My mom had a sudden myocardial inflammation and needs to be hospitalized for a while," Gu Jiahui said. "I’m in the United States right now to take care of her."
Sheng Tang expressed her concern.
Gu Jiahui said the situation had stabilized, but his mother was still in the intensive care unit.
A month later, his mom was finally out of the intensive care unit, and then came the recovery and convalescence.
Gu Jiahui was away for an entire year, yet the company ran perfectly fine, so he didn’t need to return to manage it personally.
After he left, Sheng Tang didn’t know any of the other leaders in the company and had to follow her agent Ye Yongying’s arrangements.
However, Ye Yongying deliberately targeted her.
It was later that Sheng Tang found out that Ye Yongying knew Xi Lingtu’s wife and thought she was a seductress, so she intentionally suppressed her.
Gradually, she even stopped arranging those perfunctory auditions for Sheng Tang.
The company had many artists, and even more unknown ones; no one cared about Sheng Tang’s fate.
When Sheng Tang signed the romantic contract with Gu Jiahui, she moved into his apartment, occupying a separate guest room.
Gu Jiahui’s cousin was still pursuing his doctorate and also lived there. He would sometimes go out for projects with his professor, so he wasn’t there every day.
Sheng Tang had no work.
This time, knowing the reason, she was no longer anxious but waited quietly.
She planned many courses for herself.
Since she didn’t need to spend on accommodation, and still had some savings, Sheng Tang enrolled in a posture class, a vocal class, and hired a Sanda coach.
She had to attend posture classes twice a week: walking, smiling, and maintaining the most graceful demeanor, needing help to perfect it. Sheng Tang looked different in this life than the last, and her body shape was different too.
So, she found a teacher to determine her posture and strides, and to figure out which expressions and angles suited her best in photos.
This is also necessary for being an artist.
Then, she attended vocal classes.
The voice of this body was great, but even the best voice requires proper training; otherwise, she could damage it by singing improperly.
Besides these, Sheng Tang also diligently practiced Sanda.
She had two posture classes, two vocal classes, and three Sanda lessons every week, making her extremely busy, almost needing to go out every day.
The agent in the company practically acted like she didn’t exist and stopped calling her.