The car was completely silent.

After a moment, Joanna Kennedy’s expression turned serious. "Julie, I don’t need an assistant who monitors my every move."

Julie panicked, her pretty face filled with guilt and alarm. Joanna Kennedy sighed and continued, "If you still want to work for me, then from now on, you are not to reveal any information about me to them. If you don’t want to, I can report this to Fullstar’s upper management and have you transferred to another artist."

"Jojo, please don’t say that," Julie said anxiously. "Of course I want to keep working for you, but they..."

"You don’t need to worry. Southland won’t give you any trouble. I’ll be the one paying your salary from now on." Joanna Kennedy looked at her. "Can you do that?"

’Even if it weren’t for Julie, there’d be a Julie Warren or a Julie Lawson. Simon Lockwood is so aggressive in his methods right now; it’s better to just keep Julie around.’

’Besides, all that aside, she’s competent at her job. After spending so much time together, it’s impossible not to form an attachment. I’ve grown used to her.’

Julie didn’t have to think for long. Under Joanna Kennedy’s gaze, she nodded firmly. "I can."

When they arrived, Joanna Kennedy saw the other actresses waiting in the makeup and break rooms for their auditions.

A few of them looked familiar—up-and-coming starlets who were currently trending. Each one was more beautiful than the last, a feast for the eyes.

There were also several well-known actresses who often played the second female lead. They had great reputations but just could never make it big.

As the saying goes, minor success depends on ability, but major stardom depends on fate. This was perfectly exemplified in some of these people.

The fact that so many people were vying for this supporting role showed that the prestige of a film was much higher than that of a TV series.

Joanna Kennedy sat down in a less crowded spot and took out her script, planning to go over her lines one more time. The supporting character didn’t have many lines, but the role itself was very rich.

She was an unfavored princess, as well as the childhood sweetheart of the young general, the male lead.

One day, the enemy army invaded. The young general took up his spear, mounted his horse, and left her with a single promise: "Cheryl, wait for me to come back and marry you!"

But he never knew that this departure would be their last. After the enemy was pacified and the general was returning to the capital with his troops, he was ambushed on the road. While unconscious, he was saved by the female lead, a bandit chief.

By the time he woke up, the princess’s diplomatic marriage procession had already arrived in the enemy nation.

No matter how many times she read it, the story was heartbreaking. Joanna Kennedy took a deep breath, suppressing the sour feeling in her chest.

Another actress came out from her audition, her expression grim. She hadn’t been chosen.

The tense atmosphere in the waiting room ratcheted up another notch.

When it was Joanna Kennedy’s turn, she closed her script and walked in, her expression natural.

Fifteen minutes later, Julie saw the young woman emerge and hurried over, asking anxiously, "How did it go?"

"They told me to wait for a notification." Joanna Kennedy shrugged, her face calm. This result was within her expectations.

It was impossible to tell if she had been selected or not. The other actresses looked away.

As she was walking out, another actress accidentally dropped her script. Joanna Kennedy instinctively bent down to pick it up. "You dropped—"

Before she could finish, the actress snatched it back without a word, her expression distant and haughty, and turned to leave.

Joanna Kennedy: "..."

’Can’t any of these people act normal?’

Julie frowned and couldn’t help but mutter, "What’s her problem? No manners at all. No wonder she’s played so many supporting roles and never gotten famous. There’s a reason for it!"

The moment the words left her mouth, she realized her mistake and quickly looked around. Fortunately, no one was paying attention to them.

An artist must always be careful with their words and actions, and an assistant even more so.

After the audition, Joanna Kennedy prepared to go back to her apartment. Whether she would move into the villa was another matter, but since the "landlord" had already kicked her out, she had to go back and pack her things.

Joanna Kennedy silently complained in her head about a certain petty man.

By the time she finished packing, it was already five in the afternoon. Walter Young sent her a message telling her she had passed the audition. He told her to prepare well and that she would be joining the film set in a week.

This was great news. Joanna Kennedy couldn’t help but feel a small surge of pride. ’I really am pretty amazing, after all.’

She subconsciously wanted to share the good news with Simon Lockwood. She had just typed a few words when she deleted them all.

’The CEO of Southland Group, who deals with hundreds of millions in minutes, why would he care about a small thing like this? Hmph.’

Jealousy bubbled up inside Joanna Kennedy. Suddenly, her phone screen lit up.

She glanced at it. It was an unknown number. Just as she was about to decline it, her hand slipped and she answered the call.

The person on the other end didn’t seem to expect her to pick up. Their breathing stopped for a moment.

Joanna Kennedy furrowed her brow. "Hello, who is this?"

"..."

The other end of the line was silent, save for a man’s ragged breathing. The background was noisy; there seemed to be music playing.

’What a psycho. Calling me and then not saying anything.’

Joanna Kennedy hung up immediately.

The refrigerator was empty, so she decided to go to a nearby supermarket to buy some groceries. Considering her current status, she bundled up tightly as usual to avoid being recognized.

The cashier was a young girl who kept sneaking glances at her while scanning her items. As she paid, the girl couldn’t help but whisper, "Are you Joanna?"

Her iconic, clear peach-blossom eyes were dark and lustrous.

Joanna Kennedy pulled down the brim of her cap and tugged her mask up, nearly covering her eyes. Her voice came out muffled, "Who? Never heard of her."

The girl’s eyes were filled with suspicion. She stared at Joanna Kennedy disbelievingly, which was starting to attract the attention of the people waiting in line behind her.

Joanna Kennedy grabbed her things, lowered her head, and hurried out. As she rounded the corner outside the supermarket entrance, she was unexpectedly bumped into, and her baseball cap fell to the ground.

"Joanna Kennedy?!" A familiar female voice sounded by her ear.

Joanna Kennedy paused, then looked up, equally surprised. "Anna, what are you doing here?"

People nearby had started to stop and stare. Anna Yates picked up the cap from the ground, plopped it right back on Joanna Kennedy’s head, and pulled her into a car.

"You’re a celebrity now! What if you get recognized and swarmed, coming out to shop all by yourself?!" Anna Yates chided her relentlessly. "Don’t you have an assistant?!"

"...I’m not that famous. It should be fine." Joanna Kennedy felt inexplicably guilty.

Anna Yates frowned and was about to say more, but Joanna Kennedy quickly changed the subject. "Right, what are you doing here? Shopping too?"

Joanna Kennedy wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that Anna Yates didn’t look too well.

The next second, she heard Anna Yates say, "It’s my fiancé’s birthday today, and he insisted I come over."

She had been planning to pop into the supermarket to buy a cheap, perfunctory gift.

Joanna Kennedy’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected Anna Yates to have a fiancé.

Anna Yates watched the fascinating expressions on her friend’s face for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up. "You should come with me."

"..."

Joanna Kennedy was dumbfounded and quickly refused, "No, no, no, that’s not a good idea."

"What’s not good about it? It’s not like you don’t know him..." Anna Yates said, sounding a bit dejected.

In the VIP room of a bar, the music throbbed. An MV played on the large screen, and lights shifted and overlapped. It should have been a lively scene, but there was only one person there.

A lone cake sat incongruously on the table.

Charles Jennings sat on the black leather sofa, his eyes lowered, staring at the phone screen in his hand as it slowly went dark.

The gentle, refined smile he usually wore was gone. An aura of lonely gloom surrounded him, and his lips were pale.

[Host, warning, warning! You have deviated from the plot! You have deviated from the plot!!]