Chapter 524: A Kept Tramp
Just as she was done voicing these complaints, the sound of applause came from the judges’ table.
Character A was stunned and looked in that direction. Someone among the judges had stood up.
Director Ma, who had distributed the scripts, walked over to them. He looked at Li Beinian, then shifted his gaze to Li Xueqing. There was admiration in his expression as he said, “Not bad.”
Character A was stunned. Unable to reconcile this, she protested, “Director, she changed the lines and stole my show!”
Director Ma frowned slightly and replied, “In the first place, this audition tests your ability for live play. We’ve given you only one scene and one line, but we haven’t limited you to only that one line.”
Character A was taken aback and immediately looked towards Li Beinian.
At this point, Li Beinian sat on the chair and started rolling up the hem of her trousers.
Beneath the black fabric of the trousers, her fair and delicate skin was already showing a number of dark bruises.
Character E exclaimed, “My god! Jiang Qian, you gave some nasty kicks!”
Jiang Qian saw this too and retorted at once, “That’s nonsense! How could I have done that!”
“You dare say that! I saw what happened, you were going all out kicking her. Your heels are really sharp too. Look!” Character E lowered herself and shook her head, tsk-tsking. “Look at all that abrasion!”
Jiang Qian got angry and replied, “Stop accusing me, are you in cahoots with her? Besides, I was in my role, so even if I did kick her a few times, it wouldn’t have ended up like this?”
Li Beinian looked at the woman with a half-smile, but her eyes were steely cold.
Feeling guilty, Jiang Qian quickly turned away.
The panelists Liu Wei and Du Ceng also saw what had happened and started to whisper to each other, apparently in a discussion.
Feeling quite impatient now, Director Ma said, “All of you may go now, you’ll be hearing from us.”
Quick and to the point, he dismissed them.
The others waiting to be auditioned turned to look at the group.
Jiang Qian walked out of the room, still very much unconvinced, saying, “What’s this? Accusing me like that.”
“Enough already, you. Li Beinian didn’t even say a word!” The woman playing character E spoke with contempt in her tone. “It was what it was, who can falsely accuse you?”
“Tsc,” Jiang Qian remarked angrily. “Are you sucking up to her already, just because the director had a word of praise for her? What a little brown-noser!”
Character E was starting to get angry and raised her voice. “What are you saying?!”
“Calling you a brown-noser!” Jiang Qian wasn’t afraid of getting into a confrontation. She continued, “A kept tramp like her, nothing’s even confirmed yet and you’re starting to fawn all over her. As if you’d even get a cent if she were to be selected. What a fool!”
E was livid, being insulted as such, and stepped forward as though she was about to get physical.
However, before she could lunge forward, a hand reached out to hold her back.
She turned around. It was Li Beinian who had grabbed her hand.
Li Beinian looked at Jiang Qian calmly. Unhurriedly, she demanded, “Apologize.”
Her tone was hostile and icy.
This attitude provoked Jiang Qian even further. She said, “You’re nuts, why should I apologize to you?!”
“Why?” Li Beinian almost laughed out loud, but her eyes were frosty. She replied, “Firstly, you injured me. This is solid evidence.”
She hitched up her trouser leg as she spoke.
The dark bruises at the back of her leg earlier on were now an angry purplish red.
Cheng Su and Bai Yuan stepped towards them, looking quite shocked. The other people also started to whisper among themselves.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Jiang Qian eyed the people around looking on with curiosity. She said angrily, “I said I didn’t do it. You must have sustained these injuries elsewhere, and now you’re blaming me?”