After rinsing her mouth, she braced both hands on the sink and carefully recalled the details of her dream.
Even before entering the base, she had started to feel itchy. She'd assumed at the time that the hotel bedding wasn't clean, so she stopped by a pharmacy to buy an anti-itch cream before heading in. But it got worse. At the base, she went to the infirmary, and after the medicine didn't work, she finally applied to leave and ended up at the hospital to get an IV.
To be on the safe side, Renee Morgan took out the disinfectant she'd prepared, applied it all over, then took her anti-allergy meds. Only after confirming that nothing as severe as her dream would happen did she finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Morgan, Morgan..." Lynn Miller knocked on the bathroom glass door, calling her name.
After Renee gathered her things, she quickly opened the door. Lynn handed her the phone: "It's rung several times. I was worried it was something urgent. Can you call them back?"
Renee thanked her and took the phone. Seeing five or six missed calls warmed her heart a little.
When you're outside on your own, with no strings and no backup, Warren is both her work partner and the friend who cares about her most.
Renee quickly returned the call.
Warren had started out as a personal assistant, then, after gaining experience, was promoted by the company boss to be an agent. Renee was one of the rookies she managed, and also one of her favorites. Maybe it was her previous habits, but Warren's style was a full-service approach—everything from daily life to career, caring for every last detail.
She'd learned the directors had abruptly decided to do live broadcasts and so she watched a lot of the streams. She analyzed that the major shots now were mostly focused on the two Best Actresses and the Best Actor. Next was Wendy Aldridge.
Wendy was shrewd, knew how to ride the hype. From Warren's professional view, it was obvious Wendy came prepared, with a persona and a script all ready before joining the crew.
Hearing Warren's analysis made Renee admit she really was a pro.
Warren: "Morgan, once you're on base, we won't be able to call or text. We're entering this reality show without a script or persona. Just be yourself. If you want to win, if you want the popularity, fight for it with everything you've got. As long as you get something by honest means, we'll claim it. Just never cut corners—if you do, even if you get a flash of hype, you won't last. We're not here for just one hit show's popularity. Our real target is to make you a frontline actress. To get you that Best Actress crown."
Stay true to yourself; that's how you last. Warren had always stuck to the right path.
Renee couldn't tell where, in her dream, they'd made a wrong turn and ruined their chances. Or maybe it wasn't their fault—maybe luck just wasn't on their side.
She and Warren chatted for a bit, then said goodbye and hung up.
She hadn't told Warren how she almost fell for Wendy Aldridge's trick. If they'd been talking face-to-face, maybe she would have. But they were about to enter the base tomorrow and start filming for real the day after. The last thing she wanted was for Warren to worry at a critical moment like this.
After hanging up, Renee thought back to Wendy Aldridge's plot to make her break out in an allergy. She couldn't swallow that anger.
After giving it some thought, she quickly came up with an idea.
Renee opened her door and walked out. By now, all the crew members had left; they were staying at the hotel and would be back in the morning for the call time.
The cleaning staff had already tidied up, so the living room was neat. Wendy Aldridge was lying on the sofa with a facemask on. She heard the sound, looked up, saw it was Renee, but with a facemask on, she didn't move—just raised her eyelids.
Renee remembered that there hadn't been a "coffee" incident in her dream, so Wendy must have used some other method to trigger her allergy.
If it wasn't food, then it could only be personal items.
At that thought, a flicker of cold light flashed in Renee's eyes. She put on an awkward smile. "Wendy, I'm so sorry. I wasn't feeling well and ended up throwing up that coffee. And I don't have enough towels—do you have a couple extra I could use?"
The hotel supplied towels, but a lot of people preferred to bring their own instead of using the 'public' ones.
Wendy didn't care at first, but when she heard Renee say she'd thrown up the coffee, she sat right up on the sofa, tone hurried: "Yeah, yeah—I've got extra. Let me grab you two."
After Renee thanked her, she took a trip to the bathroom. When she came out, Wendy had already dug out two towels in matching styles but different colors and handed them over.
The tags on the towels were still intact. Renee would definitely rinse them before use, but some chemicals only became more potent when wet.
A glint of calculation flickered in Renee's eyes. She took the towels, thanked Wendy again, then returned to her room.
About ten minutes later, she opened her door, looking as if she'd just washed up. She was holding a washbasin with some clean clothes inside. After greeting Wendy, she headed toward the bathroom window to hang up her laundry.
Wendy was lying on the sofa, casually scrolling through her phone.
Renee listened to the short video clips coming from the living room, took the clothes out of the basin, then lifted out the towels—tags already removed but, notably, not yet rinsed.
She spotted the clothes hanging by the window. It wasn't hard to pick out what Wendy had worn today and, right next to it, her underwear.
Renee locked the bathroom door, set the basin down and turned the tap low. She scrubbed the two towels hard in the water, wrung them out, then hung them to one side. She took down Wendy's clothes and underwear, soaked them in the basin for a few minutes, then wrung them out any old way and hung them back on the window ledge.
Since Wendy was sleeping on the sofa and all her toiletries were in the living room bathroom, Renee glanced at her towel, mercilessly took it down, dunked it in the water, wrung it dry, and hung it back up.
Because she'd spent a bit too long in the bathroom, Renee quickly poured out the water, hid the two towels at the bottom of the basin, skipped hanging up her own clothes, and came out holding the washbasin. She deliberately sighed loudly: "The window's too small. After all that, I can't get anything to dry. I'll just hang them in the bathroom. They can be half dry when we head into the base tomorrow."
Renee finished, didn't even look at Wendy, and walked calmly back to her room.
Wendy didn't think much of it. Her fingers left the videos and scrolled back to the live show's stream page.
The live show was over; it would be back online at ten tomorrow morning. The screen was black for now, but next to it, the top few most-watched clips included three with two of them being her interactions with Best Actress Zara Chapman—their titles all highlighted her favorable persona.
"Mm, my godfather really is something." Wendy thought of her godfather, who had people in the production team, and couldn't help but feel pleased.
After browsing a while, Wendy hadn't found any negative news about Renee. She felt a bit unwilling—maybe Renee hadn't done anything controversial yet, so there was nothing for editors to latch onto and smear her with?