She could not help thinking what an irony her life had been.She said nothing and instead just walked over to the side of the drawers and pulled out a pair of gloves."These are for you," she handed them to him, "as promised."He examined the gloves carefully before trying them on, after which he commented, "The knitting is done very well, and they're really warm too, just like the scarf that you knitted for me—really warm and comfortable to wear.""You didn't have to wear that scarf," she told him. "I'm sure people could tell at a glance that it doesn't match your outfit at all."In contrast to Jackson's expensive high-end clothes, her scarf only looked cheap and shoddy, not to mention how rough and unrefined the handwork looked."It doesn't match?" He raised his brows and chuckled. "Sis, I don't care what other people think about this scarf, only how I feel about it, and I think it matches me perfectly!"He paused to touch the scarf and then added, "Besides, as long as it's so

Serenity's role as an extra today was to be a maid. All she needed to do was stand at the designated spot set by the director and keep her head low. Not only that, she would not be the only maid in the scene, but merely one of a group of maids. They had to wait till the main characters walked by, then, at the director's call, all of them were supposed to kneel down in unison, then say, "My lord. My lady."And that was it.Because the scene involved kneeling, her pay was increased almost twofold. Serenity thought about it and decided to do it anyway since it was just an act. Besides, even some popular actors had to kneel in their roles. When survival was on the line, one must swallow one's pride and not care too much about one's knees.The makeup room for the extras was a big spacious room with many makeup artists in it. All the extras, whether male or female, had to wait in line here to get their makeup done. The makeup artists worked really fast on each extra, barely needing five t

After all, Serenity had neither stolen nor robbed anyone for this job. She was merely doing honest work in exchange for money."Why didn't you tell me if you wanted to work as an extra?" Aria asked her. "I could've landed you a role with a line or two. It would've earned you much more than what you make as an extra!"As Aria spoke, she deliberately stroked her hair to show off the expensive watch on her wrist. Serenity noticed this and was amused."I'm not the kind of person who would trick my own sister to have a drink with someone just to ask for a role with a few more lines," said Serenity."You..." Aria's expression soured. She knew that Serenity was mocking her for trying to offer Serenity up to an assistant director in the past. But within a few moments, she looked as if she had suddenly thought of something. She looked Serenity up and down as she asked her, "You're short of money, aren't you? Is that why you're working as an extra? Don't you have anyone to lend you some mone

The thought of Lucas Gomez always stirred up a lingering restlessness in her heart because although she had been with him for a long time now, Lucas had still never touched her at all.But no matter what, she was still Lucas Gomez's official girlfriend, and as for Serenity, she would teach her how their tables had turned, and she would finally see the price she had to pay for refusing to help Aria back then!*** Before filming officially began, the director had everyone rehearse their scenes twice, but Serenity did not see Jenny Hall during the rehearsal at all because Jenny had a stand-in take her place instead.Aria, however, did not let a stand-in take her place. She joined the rehearsals herself, standing next to the leading actor. She played the second female lead in this drama and was the male lead's concubine. She would be sharing a lot of scenes with Jenny Hall as well.Lucas Gomez had given her a few roles to choose from, and she had chosen this one herself without any h

Although she knew that Lisa would never demand her to pay back the money she owed, she still felt that she owed her friend too much and could not continue to keep on owing her money any longer.Time and time again, Serenity knelt and touched her forehead to the ground, then got up on her feet... after which the cycle continued over and over again.The other extras were doing the same thing too, but they were getting more and more restless. Some even demanded more pay since the work was more grueling than they expected.Sensing that the extras were getting agitated, the director told his assistant to ask Aria what to do. Aria pretended to think about it for a moment before suggesting, "How about this... I think that woman is doing a pretty good job. Her posture is correct, and her timing is just right. Why don't you get her to demonstrate it to the rest of the extras? They can study carefully how she does it, and once they understand, they can rehearse it again. This way, they won't

As Jenny Hall watched the video on the phone where Serenity was kneeling over and over again, she could not help but smile and comment, "Some people just have a death wish.""Exactly!" her assistant echoed. "This extra must've offended Aria Lewis, that's why she was targeted like that! Everyone on set knows that you must never offend Aria Lewis..." The assistant stopped abruptly, realizing that she had said the wrong thing. Her face turned pale as she hastily added, "I'm sorry, Jenny. I was so mistaken. This Aria Lewis is a nobody, anyway. She's just Lucas Gomez's current girlfriend, that's all. She can be all haughty and proud now, but when she finally gets dumped, she probably won't even get minor roles, let alone a supporting one!""That's enough," said Jenny in a flat tone. "You don't need to say these things. I'm well aware of it."Ever since Aria Lewis had joined the production, she had never once treated Jenny with respect. Every time they bumped into each other, all Aria d

Jenny's assistant quickly followed her when she saw Jenny leaving the room.It was early April then, and the weather was still a bit chilly. The male extras wore more layers of clothes, so they were doing fine, but the female extras were only permitted to wear the base layers of clothes to prevent them from looking bloated on camera. For this reason, the female extras were all shivering from the cold. And so, taking advantage of the fact that they were now only watching a demonstration, they all rushed to put on their own coats to protect themselves from the cold.All except Serenity, who was still wearing her costume and kneeling over and over again.As for Aria, because they were not officially filming yet, she had been wearing her thick coat above her costume all along. "Hmm... I'm not sure if they saw it clearly just now. Why don't you kneel again and do it more slowly this time? That way, everyone can see it more clearly."Aria still would not stop urging Serenity to keep on

Everyone on set was in an uproar. Some even looked at Aria with pity on their faces, thinking that her "shelf life" as Lucas Gomez's new girlfriend was now close to expiration because he clearly favored the extra over her just now!Even Jenny Hall, who had been watching nearby, was stunned for a moment. Serenity Lewis and Lucas Gomez? What exactly was going on here?! Could it be that Lucas Gomez was interested in her too? Just now, it obviously looked like he was trying to protect her!But what about Jackson Valor? Did he know what was going on between Lucas Gomez and Serenity Lewis?"Oh, my God," Jenny's assistant exclaimed, "What a dramatic twist! The prince and the extra..."Then, with a mocking tone, she added, "Looks like Aria Lewis has been kicked to the curb! Lucas Gomez clearly didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore! Perhaps she was bullying that extra because she found out that Lucas Gomez was interested in her?"Jenny's assistant thought it was a reasonable

It was not until they were inside the lounge that Lucas finally put Serenity down on the sofa. He looked at her left hand, which she was covering with her right hand, and asked her, "Does it hurt?""Just a little," she mumbled.He could see from her pained expression that she was making it sound less serious than it actually was. The usual calmness and tranquility she had on her delicate face were now gone, replaced by a tight knit in the brows and sickly pallor. Even her voice sounded like it was taking her a lot of effort just to speak.The sight of her suffering like that tightened his chest, but it was such a foreign feeling for him. So was how he had felt when he had seen her kneeling and kowtowing. When he saw that copper heater fall on her hand—it was such a raw pain that he thought he had gotten a thorough thrashing!And then, he almost reflexively rushed to her side to help her up. Lucas asked himself, why had he done that? He had already confirmed that Serenity was not

This bruise had obviously been caused by the repeated kowtowing. "Did you really just... do whatever they told you to do?"For some reason, Lucas suddenly got angry."What else could I do?" Serenity responded. "Refuse them? In that case, I wouldn't get paid a single dime today."He almost choked. He was fully aware that extras were the workers at the lowest rung of the hierarchy on set, and they basically had no bargaining power at all when they were demanded to do something."How much are you getting paid per day as an extra?" he asked in a muffled voice."I was initially promised 80 dollars," she explained, "but because there would be a kneeling scene, 50 dollars was added. Just now, when I had to demonstrate kowtowing alone in front of the others, I was given another 200 dollars."He stared at her with roiling emotions. So, she had kept on kneeling and kowtowing over and over again, all just for 330 dollars?Did this woman not know how to protect herself?!"Are there any p