Hollywood's powerful women

Chapter 1

“It’s 10:44 now,” Jenny Jane said as she sat in the guest chair opposite the desk, crossing her legs and gracefully placing one hand on the armrest. “You have 1 hour and 47 minutes until 12:30. Mr. Vigery, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Lowering her voice, she switched the position of her legs and let a slight, composed smile play at the corners of her lips as she stared intently at Cesare Vigery, almost mockingly, “Now, you have 1 hour and 47 minutes to convince me that you’re a great agent.”

Cesare's demeanor remained unchanged, still cold and distant. Only a faint ripple appeared on the bridge of his nose, and his eyes flickered almost imperceptibly. However, Jenny knew she had successfully piqued his interest.

“Very well,” Cesare said, “You’ve managed to capture my attention—points for that.”

He pulled out an empty folder, snapped it open, and with a cold formality, symbolically inquired, “Shall we officially begin now?”

Three and a half months earlier in Los Angeles…

Jenny Jane—Chen Zhen—stared at herself in the mirror, motionless, with a serious expression.

It was a very beautiful face.

Jenny Jane was twenty years old, at the peak of a woman’s beauty. Unlike her peers from distant Eastern lands, she had learned to apply makeup since seventh grade. With six or seven years of practice, she had mastered the art of enhancing her appearance, making herself even more stunning. Even without makeup, Jenny Jane was still a beauty.

Her looks bore a strong Germanic influence—classic blonde hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge, deep-set eyes, well-defined features, and bright green eyes. Paired with her long, straight blonde hair, she was a sight to behold. Standing at five feet six inches (1.67 meters), with a figure considered slim by Caucasian standards, Jenny Jane certainly attracted a lot of attention on the street. She could even enjoy the privilege of skipping the line at some of the popular regional nightclubs.

Logically, there was no reason for her to wear such a serious expression. For a beauty like her, life should never be devoid of fun.

But now, she indeed looked quite unhappy. Her tightly pressed lips and tense shoulders clearly indicated her mood. Jenny Jane—or rather, Chen Zhen—was under tremendous pressure.

And it wasn’t without reason.

She had transmigrated—2014 to 2001, Beijing to Los Angeles, Asian to Caucasian.

It was now 2001. Computers were just becoming widespread, and the internet was changing people’s lives. Big brick-like mobile phones were gradually being replaced by smaller, more delicate ones. However, Steve Jobs hadn’t yet introduced the revolutionary iPhone, or even the era-defining iPod, which wouldn’t be released until a few months later. Coming from 2014, Chen Zhen found herself unaccustomed to the early 21st-century lifestyle—a time without Weibo, Twitter, and f*******:. The main communication tools were ICQ and MSN—names that had long faded into obscurity in the rapidly changing world of technology. If not for being reborn in early 21st-century America, Chen Zhen wouldn’t even remember these terms or realize how much technology had transformed her life, making her aware of the inconvenience of life in the early 2000s.

Of course, this wasn’t her biggest problem right now.

The biggest problem was that she had gone to sleep in her home in Beijing but woke up 13 years earlier, reborn in the body of a Caucasian beauty and possessing all her memories.

Jenny Jane Jefferson, born in 1981, social security number 422-11-6742, came from a lower-class family in Alabama. Her father was a convicted robber serving a sentence of over a hundred years, having been imprisoned since Jenny Jane was six years old. Her mother had abandoned the family and never contacted them again. After her grandmother passed away, Jenny Jane was placed in the foster care system, moving between several foster homes. Two years ago, she graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles, hoping to become an actress, but had not succeeded. She was currently working as a waitress in a restaurant.

Her memories could be summarized in just a few sentences. The rest, like personal preferences and social connections, were dismissed as useless information by Chen Zhen. In summary, like many aspiring actors in China’s entertainment industry, Jenny Jane was just another Hollywood hopeful, trying to find her place in the industry by leveraging her youthful beauty.

As for Chen Zhen, now trapped in Jenny Jane’s body, her information was as follows:

Chen Zhen, born in 1982, ID number omitted, came from a middle-class family in Hangzhou. Her parents were government employees. She was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy’s acting department through the national college entrance exam. While still in school, she dated the son of a wealthy businessman five years her senior. After graduation, she married and had a child. At the time of her transmigration, her child was already eight years old, and she was going through a divorce. Her in-laws had gradually handed over their business to her husband, and she owned several properties. She was expected to receive more than 30 million yuan in assets, including real estate.

At this point in time, their lives may not have diverged too drastically, but a decade later, Jenny Jane would likely be destitute, while Chen Zhen would be a financially secure single woman. The stark contrast between becoming Chen Zhen and Jenny Jane was, of course, overwhelming. If suicide could return her to her original body, she would have already jumped from a building.

Returning to her original body—this was Jenny Jane, or rather, Chen Zhen’s most urgent desire.

She hadn’t tried it because she knew that suicide wouldn’t bring her back.

Because her rebirth was not without reason—it came with a mission.

To conquer Hollywood.

Those were the vague five words she instinctively understood the moment she woke up in Jenny Jane’s body: once she conquered Hollywood, she could freely choose whether or not to return.

Setting aside the difficulty of conquering Hollywood, Chen Zhen immediately recognized the logical contradiction—if she ever did manage to conquer Hollywood, she would have become a winner in life. By then, why would she even want to go back?

Following that, she questioned whether there was still a Chen Zhen living in Hangzhou at the same time. If they met, what would happen? If Jenny Jane wasn’t in her body, where had she gone? Was she now in Chen Zhen’s body?

Of course, she had no way of verifying this now. First, she experienced physical headaches whenever she thought about it. Second, even if she could endure the headache, she didn’t have the money to buy a plane ticket to Beijing, let alone the fact that her current penniless status would likely prevent her from obtaining a Chinese visa.

Jenny Jane had only graduated from high school, with a rather basic education level. Her SAT scores were less than half of the total possible score. Even if she could attend college, she had no tuition money, and a degree from such a mediocre university would make it hard to find a decent job. She might end up earning less than a café waitress.

As for Chen Zhen herself, a graduate of the acting department, she married into wealth right after graduation and devoted her energy to securing her husband’s love and accumulating her own wealth, leaving her with practically no work skills.

The current Jenny Jane, who possessed the memories of both women and retained Chen Zhen’s personality, had to consider not going to China to look for “Chen Zhen” but rather finding a way to succeed, to live a decent life. Of course, in the grand scheme, she would also try to see if she could conquer Hollywood and potentially return to her original life… though she still doubted that if she ever reached the point of conquering Hollywood, she would even want to go back.

After two days of working in the restaurant, Jenny Jane’s desire to escape poverty was incredibly strong. She wished she could sign a film contract right away and start her acting career—no matter how tough acting might be, it had to be better than standing in a restaurant for twelve hours straight.

The need to change her fate was urgent. Jenny Jane told herself this as she took a deep breath, checked the time, and then turned to start her shift—her lunch break was over, and the afternoon shift was beginning.

Yes, for now, she was just a waitress in a restaurant.