Lily woke up to the sound of birds chirping in her grandmother's backyard garden. Rays of sunlight poured into her room, through ceiling length glass panels. The grandpa was definitely fancy with his tastes.
She could distinctly hear the muffled clatter of vessels downstairs as her grandmother was making her favorite ginger honey cookies. She could smell it. Yummyyyyy
Her stomach grumbled as she practically launched herself out of bed, rushing down a flight of stairs and onto the carpeted floor.
"Good morning Grandpa and Grandma!" Lily bellowed as she made a dash for the kitchen waiting like a little puppy for treats.
"Good morning my dear grandchild." Her Grandpa voiced from behind the newspaper.
"Good morning my dear munchkin." Grandma said wrapping her hands around me. She smoothed down my hair with her hand, kissing me on thr forehead.
"Are you feeling better now?"
I nodded, venting out all my grief last night had made a difference. And her grandparents were the most loving people in the world.
She kissed her Grandma on the cheek and Lily managed to snuck a cookie behind her back too.
Her grandmother smiled knowingly. "Little thief" she chuckled.
I made my way to where grandpa was seated on the large dinning table.
I offered him the cookie. But grandpa shook his head and said."It's all for you my dear".
I settled back into my chair taking a bite of the delicious biscuit. The biscuit melted into my mouth. "These are amazing grandma! Did you change the recipe?"
Her grandma looked pleased to see her granddaughter happy, " Just a little tweaks her and there", she winked.
I slowed enjoyed my cookie as I switched on my mobile after keeping it on the whole night.
In her summervacations she had scouted far and wide for a job on site of any film or commercial shooting. And she had got the job of a bell boy on shoot for a waterbottle commercial. She would do anything at this point to be in close proximity to film and film sets.
But as soon as she switched off her airplane mode, her whole phone was filled with notifications and news reports.
She opened one by one, failing to register what they beheld.
The whole internet had gone crazy overnight as she had become the overnight sensation of china.
"Miss Lily Liang : China's new sweetheart"
"Who was the mysterious girl who sang at the gala, replacing the actress Shin Ling?"
"Mr. Feng, director and music producer reacts to Lily's gala performance video."
"The new Nightingale of China : Ms. Lily Liang"
"The previous scandals of Ms. Lily Liang before her rise to fame."
Multiple articles were flooded all over the internet. She had become an overnight sensation.
Her name was up on the most trending searches list.
Lily just sat at the table, mouth wide. This was, unexpected.
She smiled to herself, dimples and all.
This was the best thing that had happened to her. Even a famous director and music producer Mr. Feng had reacted to her performance video highly praising it.
But now was not the time to slack away lily thought.
She opened up her phone to check the details of the bottle commercial shoot site.
It was a 20 minute drive from here.
She bolted back into her bedroom, changing into white jeans and a crop top. It was more practical to run around set as a bell boy in pants rather than a dress.
She put om her mother's hair clip that she had worn yesterday too.
As an afterthought, she grabbed a mask and some sunglasses, to hide her face, just incase.
She ran down the flight of stairs once again, kissed grandpa and grandma goodbye. And ran out to catch a cab.
In no time, she reached the filming site. It was being shot at a very famous studio indoors. From what she had heard, it was an underwater shoot.
She ran up the stairs, entering the big wide doors leading to the shooting studio. The room was so big that she had no idea where is ended.
Multiple people rushed here and there, making the place a crowded mess.
The shoot was going on, underwater. The actor essentially had to jump underwater and kick off the bottom of the artificial pool so as to create a floating effect with the waterbottle.
Impressive.
She stood there watching in awe as the director and his crew were adjusting the angle of the camera, instructing thr actor what to do.
Just then an old woman, likely the supervisor shoved a big tray of water bottles in her hand. "Serve these quickly! You were not brought here for gawking."
Lily winced and she tried to balance the heavy tray as she made her way to where the crew was shooting.
She had worn her mask in the cab itself.
She quietly approached the cabin crew with the water bottles, kindly offering them some water in polite Mandarin while she intently watched over the shoot.
She spotted another girl like her sitting in the corner of the room, her tray also full of waterbottles. Lily bent over and asked the exhausted lady. I don't mind sharing the waterbottles. You can give me some of yours. We can distribute them together. The lady looked grateful enough to cry.
"You're the sweetest big sis." She cried as I took some of her water bottles in my tray.
As we distributed the bottles, we began engaging in conversation. She was easy to talk to.
"You want some tea!", Bao, the girl whispered to me in hushed tones.
"I looked tea!"
"Okay listen big sis, so there is a rumour going around that Mr. Director was thrown out of the house by his wife because there were rumours going around about his infidelity."
"OH MY GOD" I gasped
"There is more! The director had to cut his budget due to dwindling investors."
"That's sad. But then, how did he land himself such a big commercial?"
"He's still big in the industry." She cooed, clearly pleased with sharing the gossip.
Distinctly in the distance I could here the sound of the announcement of thr actor having come out of the water.
"You know what I really crave right now? More than tea?"
"ICECREAM!" The both of them said in unison.
Just then a large booming voice filled the room. "Bell Girls! What do you think you'll are doing overthere!? Hand over some water to Jinhai!"
My eyes widened in shock.
What did he mean Jinhai??? Was Jinhai here!??!?!
Lily turned around in a huge dramatic arc, and her eyes fell upon two grey ones that had been digging a hole in her back.
And then Jinhai did the most diabolical thing. He winked at her.