Hollywood's powerful women

Chapter 2

"Jenny, today you get special treatment," Johnny said with a wink from behind the bar. "A cup of coffee and a dessert, on the house."

"Thanks, John," Jenny replied, her shift finally over. After standing for eight hours, her legs ached with fatigue. "One black Americano, no sugar or milk, and a Seagull salad, no dressing, please."

Johnny looked at her curiously. "Are you on a diet, Jen? I don't see why you'd need to."

Jenny smiled but offered no explanation. She took the packed meal from Johnny's hand and waved at him. "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Johnny responded good-naturedly, waving back. "Take care of yourself, Jen."

Jenny left the restaurant, bent down to unlock her bike, and hopped on, heading towards her apartment.

Her place wasn't far from the restaurant, and luckily, there were no hills on the way—a rare thing in the winding streets of Los Angeles. On her first day of work after waking up as Chen Zhen, she immediately noticed this and spent a day's wages on a second-hand bike from the flea market.

After a twenty-minute ride, she returned to her apartment—a small one-bedroom unit in an aging, twenty-year-old building with no elevator.

In the U.S., where labor is expensive, the income gap between white-collar and blue-collar workers isn't that big. Working as a waitress in a restaurant, Jenny earned $80 in base pay for an eight-hour shift. The restaurant did good business, partly because it also sold fancy coffee. If she worked a double shift, she could earn over $200 a day, but it was exhausting. A single shift with tips brought in about $130, meaning she could make around $4,000 a month. Her fifty-square-meter apartment, thanks to rent control and its proximity to Beverly Hills, only cost $600 a month—a legacy from the original Jenny left to Chen Zhen.

The restaurant provided one meal per shift, but since Jenny was beautiful and had a sweet smile, attracting customers, her boss Johnny was generous, often giving her two meals or extra takeout. So Jenny didn't need to spend much on food, and even enjoyed free coffee and hotdogs. After rent, she had little to spend her money on.

Given the cost of living in Los Angeles, buying fruit, clothes, and cosmetics, Jenny could easily save $2,000 a month. The original Jenny Jefferson, however, had no concept of saving. As a Hollywood hopeful relying on her beauty and youth, she didn't plan for the future. Chen Zhen was just grateful that she didn't inherit any credit card debt, a rare thing for an American girl her age.

Of course, Jenny Jefferson hadn't left her empty-handed. She spent most of her salary on clothes and shoes, turning her living room into a walk-in closet (Jenny had over a hundred pairs of shoes). She invested the rest in acting classes. When Chen Zhen took over, Jenny still had a community college acting course to finish. She didn't have many other expenses—though she enjoyed nightlife, as a beauty, she had privileges that others didn't.

In fairness, Jenny Jefferson was an ambitious girl. She might have had unrealistic dreams of stardom, but she lived her life seriously, working steadily towards her goal. With some talent and a lot of luck, she might have made a name for herself in Hollywood. But now, with the original Jenny gone, it was up to Chen Zhen to realize that dream.

As soon as Chen Zhen got home, she changed into workout clothes. She walked around the apartment, quickly tidying up. Moving fast, she did some warm-up exercises until she began to sweat. Then she turned on her new computer, opened Winamp, and started dancing to Latin music.

After an hour of dancing and fifteen minutes of stretching, Chen Zhen felt completely exhausted. She collapsed on the floor and napped for about twenty minutes, only waking up when a cool breeze blew over her. She got up, took a shower, and began her nighttime beauty routine.

Johnny was right—Jenny's figure was already quite slim and fit. At five feet seven inches tall, with a D-cup bust, she usually wore a size 4 (S), which was very rare among white women. Jenny could easily maintain her figure just by standing for eight hours a day, as long as she didn't overeat.

But that was for ordinary people. For actresses, singers, or models, anyone connected to the entertainment industry or the camera, a regular slim figure was never enough.

Because modern film and television use different aspect ratios, and the transformation from 3D to 2D makes people appear heavier on screen, the saying "the camera adds ten pounds" is not just a comforting phrase for the overweight but a real phenomenon. The visual effect might even make you look more than ten pounds heavier—since our eyes see in 3D, shadows and contours are processed, but in film and TV, the image is flattened. Naturally, faces and bodies appear larger. So to look normal on camera, your face must be smaller than average. This is common knowledge in acting schools. Actors, especially those with rounder faces or softer features, are often forced to diet rigorously. Those lucky enough to have strong, well-defined features still can't afford to overeat. Anyone in the industry who has ambitions beyond playing the "fat friend" can never afford to be full; it's just a matter of how they choose to starve themselves.

This has its downsides. Actors who look normal on camera often appear frighteningly thin in real life, more like walking clothes hangers with an over-thin problem. Besides the obvious health risks, this can also complicate romantic relationships since most people prefer to be with someone who looks normal.

Chen Zhen was lucky. In her past life, she dieted for four years during college, but her boyfriend liked a bit of softness, so she never starved herself. After graduation, she married into a wealthy family and, although she maintained her figure, it was nothing like the industry standard. In this life, Jenny Jefferson had the advantage of pure Germanic heritage—her features were sharp and sculpted, aging more quickly but looking great on camera with a natural shadow effect.

Aging can be disguised with makeup, but fat cannot. On camera, white people simply have a genetic advantage. Western beauty standards don't emphasize extreme thinness, so she doesn't have to starve herself into a stick figure like her Chinese counterparts. She just needs to shed a little extra fat through exercise and maintain a figure that's one size smaller than normal.

Her short-term goal was to fit into a size 2.

She didn't have the energy for extra gym sessions, nor the money for a personal trainer, but her past life as a rich housewife had left her with the habit of regular exercise and years of Latin dance. So she could work out at home. Skipping dinner, cutting out sugar and dairy, and saying no to vinaigrette were second nature to Chen Zhen; she hadn't indulged in those things much in her past life either.

After an eight-hour shift, a 40-minute bike ride to and from work, and an hour and a half of exercise, Chen Zhen was at her limit. After a shower, she barely glanced at the news before falling asleep. The next morning, her alarm went off at six, and she got up promptly, drank water, went for a one-hour run, then returned to shower and eat the most important meal of her day.

She took out yesterday's packed salad, boiled two eggs, and added a slice of poached chicken breast, washing it down with a big glass of milk. This hearty meal finally filled her stomach. Chen Zhen felt this white body was resilient; after such intense exercise, she felt full of energy as soon as she ate.

After breakfast, she still had an hour and a half before work, so she didn't waste any time. She twisted into a yoga pose in the living room, set the alarm, took a deep breath, and activated her "golden finger."

The moment she did, Chen Zhen plunged into darkness.