Transmigrated as the Future Movie Queen's Arch-Nemesis - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Clutching her employee ID, Su Mi walked into the eighth-floor makeup room with her mind racing.

Thinking there should be people inside, Su Mi knocked and pushed the door open, a polite smile on her face: “Hello, teachers.”

Inside sat several beauties applying makeup to each other and two professional makeup artists; Xin Keke was among them. She sat before a vanity mirror, her bangs already pinned up by the artist. Her base makeup was done, and they were preparing to start on the color cosmetics.

The others first cast casual glances toward the door, then suddenly snapped their heads around.

“Teacher Su Mi?!”

“Mi Mi?!”

They spoke in unison.

Only Xin Keke acted as if she hadn’t heard anything, staring at the mirror without changing her expression.

One girl, who had been helping someone with their makeup, even dropped her cosmetics and hurried to the door to welcome Su Mi in: “Mi Mi, you’re here so early today! Your makeup is beautiful too—did something happy happen?”

As soon as she said this, the others immediately chimed in: “Yeah, yeah, tell us if there’s any good news!”

With so many people suddenly swarming her, Su Mi’s toes started curling into the floor from awkwardness.

Thanks for asking, but I only put on sunscreen today. I’m not wearing any makeup at all.

They can even compliment this?

Su Mi’s smile froze on her face.

It seemed that before she entered, the room had been quiet. Was she a firecracker or something? One spark and it got this lively?

She scanned the room but didn’t see anyone else she recognized. With no hope of changing the subject, Su Mi could only continue her stiff, dry smile: “G-good morning…”

Unexpectedly, after those words, the atmosphere reached a new climax.

The girls applying makeup looked at each other, and even the makeup artists were somewhat surprised. The girl who first welcomed Su Mi laughed and said, “Mi Mi, what’s wrong today? You’ve never been this formal with us before.”

Looking at the smiles piled on their faces, Su Mi suddenly understood something.

These people were likely the original host’s “lackeys” mentioned in the novel.

Because Su Mi had the best family background among them and had some influence in the industry, these people naturally flattered her and followed her lead.

Each of them was a girl who had appeared in one or two obscure web dramas. Although they hadn’t made any waves, they believed they had the looks and were unwilling to return to the world of ordinary people, wanting to make a name for themselves in this circle.

Seeing that the original host’s family was wealthy and powerful, they gathered around her to collectively ostracize anyone she disliked.

Which meant Xin Keke.

“Is everyone’s makeup done?” Su Mi looked around. There were only two makeup artists for a lot of people, and she was the last to arrive. “What about me?”

One makeup artist was applying eyelashes for one of the original host’s lackeys, while the other was working on Xin Keke.

Hearing Su Mi ask this, the girl who had first greeted her quickly said, “It’s done, it’s done! Xin Keke, hurry up and give your spot to Teacher Su Mi! Why are you hogging the seat?!”

Su Mi: Scared.

She swore she was just asking casually to see if a professional would do it or if she should get help from someone else! She really didn’t have any other meaning!

Who knew these people were so used to reading the original host’s mood that they would overanalyze even a common phrase?

Then she heard Xin Keke say coldly, “I haven’t finished yet.”

“You aren’t the lead today, why are you making yourself up to look so flashy?”

Seeing that Xin Keke wasn’t moving, the girl took a few steps toward her and reached out to grab her: “Didn’t you see Teacher Su has been standing there for a long time? Get up now!”

The artist doing Xin Keke’s makeup stopped working, seemingly used to these disputes and waiting for them to finish bickering before continuing. The other artist didn’t even stop, steadily applying eyelashes to the other girl.

The rest of the people put down their makeup and watched Xin Keke and the girl like they were at a show.

Su Mi suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

What is going on here?

“What does her standing there have to do with me?”

Xin Keke didn’t even turn around. She pulled her hand back and looked at the girl’s face through the mirror: “Xia Lei, wanting to flatter Su Mi is your business, but I have no reason to pay the price for your sycophancy.”

Perhaps because the talk in the “little black room” on the first floor hadn’t gone well, the current Xin Keke had a bit more fire in her than described in the book. Her words were naturally unceremonious.

Xia Lei had absolutely not expected Xin Keke to speak so bluntly. Fuming with rage, she even raised her hand toward Xin Keke: “How dare you speak like that!”

Xin Keke’s back remained perfectly straight.

The surrounding girls all wore expressions of schadenfreude.

Smack!

It wasn’t the sound of a palm hitting Xin Keke’s face, but the sound of Su Mi lunging forward and grabbing Xia Lei’s wrist.

Su Mi used quite a bit of strength; Xia Lei’s hand couldn’t descend a single inch.

“What is this?”

Su Mi looked genuinely confused. “Isn’t this working hours? Why are people starting to hit each other?”

Xia Lei hadn’t expected the person stopping her to be Su Mi. She looked back, even looking somewhat dissatisfied: “Teacher Su Mi, you’ve been here so long and Xin Keke hasn’t given up her seat. She clearly doesn’t respect you! What’s wrong with me teaching her a lesson for you?”

“?”

A “confused Nick Young” meme face appeared on Su Mi. She frowned, her expression hard to describe: “Wait… hold on.”

Even Xin Keke, who had been staring only at the mirror, turned around to look at her.

The vanity mirror lights were reflected in Xin Keke’s eyes, looking as if they had ignited a flame within them.

Su Mi regained her composure and looked at Xia Lei, whose wrist she was still holding: “Teacher Xia, I think there’s a problem with what you just said.”

As soon as the term “Teacher Xia” came out, almost everyone’s eyes went wide. They looked at Su Mi as if she were a man-eating monster.

Su Mi didn’t care; she continued.

“First, ‘first come, first served’ is common sense. Xin Keke arrived earlier than me, so it’s only right that the makeup artist works on her first. Since she’s not finished, I should wait for her. Why should she ‘give up her spot’? Isn’t that just bullying?”

Su Mi’s brow furrowed slightly, and her tone involuntarily became serious. It must be said that this version of Su Mi looked exactly like the original host to the others, making Xia Lei go as quiet as a cicada in winter.

“Second, what do you mean by ‘teaching her a lesson for me’? You aren’t my servant and you don’t take orders from me. If there’s a conflict, I’ll solve it myself. Furthermore, Xin Keke hasn’t done anything wrong to me, so why use such strange phrasing? It makes you sound like a remnant of the feudal era.”

Unconsciously, Su Mi brought out the quirky way of speaking from her real-life world.

Being scolded like this by Su Mi, Xia Lei’s face flushed red and white in turns, while Xin Keke actually let out a pfft of laughter from her chair.

The onlookers, whether shocked by Su Mi’s words or something else, looked at each other and couldn’t say a word for a long time.

Xia Lei looked at Su Mi, and seeing that she wasn’t being sarcastic but was actually serious, she yanked her hand out of Su Mi’s grip.

She gave Xin Keke a vicious glare and stormed out like a gust of wind.

Su Mi glanced at the remaining people: “Alright, stop watching the show. Get your makeup done. Don’t delay things later.”

They’re just wasting time here.

Since she had spoken, the others had to listen. The room fell silent again, save for the shush-shush sound of powder puffs.

Su Mi found an empty chair, sat down, and started scrolling through her phone while waiting for the artist.

Her eyes were on the screen, but her mind had already drifted miles away.

She knew that after today’s speech, those fair-weather lackeys would definitely think she was acting strange. They would gossip about her in private, and after a while, when they realized she was still “off,” they would ruthlessly defect to some other rich young lady.

But Su Mi didn’t care.

In her real life, she never liked these little cliques and groups. Moreover, looking at the facts, Xia Lei was simply in the wrong today.

Xia Lei had gone all out just to suck up to the original Su Mi. It was just a pity that the person she wanted to pander to had already been replaced by a different soul.

The flattery landed right on the horse’s hoof.

She wasn’t the original host; she couldn’t comfortably use the original family’s resources, and there was no benefit in following a replaced version of her. It was better to cut ties with these lackeys early on and let Xin Keke see her “determination” to turn over a new leaf.

No flaws in that logic.

Having cleared her head, Su Mi began playing on her phone with a peaceful mind.

Since she had no experience with magazine shoots, she started searching on Zhihu (Quora-like site) for questions like “How to look high-end as a magazine cover model” and “Model posing.”

Well, cramming at the last minute was better than knowing nothing.

Finally, after a long wait, the light in front of Su Mi was suddenly blocked.

“Su Mi.”

That beautiful voice called out.

It was Xin Keke.

Su Mi looked up, meeting the other’s eyes.

It should have been a very ambiguous, romantic frame, but Su Mi froze for a second before recognizing her by the mole under her right eye.

“Pfft…”

The moment she recognized her, Su Mi almost sprayed laughter.

No, you’ve got to be kidding me. Didn’t they say it was a magazine shoot?

Why was Xin Keke wearing a shiny silver, strangely-shaped suit jacket over a multi-colored T-shirt??

Who coordinated these clothes? It was a total waste of natural beauty.

The “natural beauty” being Xin Keke.

As she laughed, Su Mi felt something was wrong and scanned the area around Xin Keke.

Great. Now that everyone was dressed and mostly made up, it wasn’t just Xin Keke, everyone present had a vibe of being “ugly-trendy.”

Either the jacket didn’t match the pants, or the pants didn’t match the undershirt. Su Mi looked around and couldn’t find a single normal outfit.

She quickly locked her phone screen, along with the answer to her search question.

Su Mi covered her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly and getting hit by Xin Keke: “Um, pfft… you’re finished? Pfft…”

Xin Keke was clearly speechless: “Hurry up and go over. The makeup artist is waiting for you.”

As if unwilling to chat further, she turned and left.

Following the space Xin Keke had vacated, Su Mi saw the last set of clothes hanging on the rack.

It was a garishness she had never worn once in her twenty-plus years in the real world.

Su Mi’s smile froze: “…”

Please don’t tell me this set is for me.

But the makeup artist gave her no chance to resist. Su Mi pointed with an awkward smile at the incredibly ugly clothes and gave the artist a grin.

She hoped the artist would get her hint, but the artist delivered the final blow: “Teacher Su Mi, hurry and change so we can start the makeup.”

She suddenly remembered the last reply she saw before locking her screen:

The uglier the clothes, the more “stink-face” the model should look. And the combination of “ugly” and a “stink-face” is actually the “high-end” look many stylists pursue.

After all, extreme tackiness is the peak of fashion.

Su Mi: Haha. My current mood is mainly just wanting to hang myself.

To hell with your fashion.