CH 2

Chapter 2 Weight Loss Fanatic

“Jenny, today I’ll treat you especially,” Johnny winked at Jenny behind the bar, “one cup of coffee, one pastry, on the house.”

“Thanks, Johnny,” Jenny’s shift had ended, and after eight hours of standing, her legs were aching, “one black Americano, one seagull salad without the oil and vinegar dressing, please.”

Johnny looked at her curiously, “are you on a diet, Jen? Pardon me, I don’t see the necessity for it.”

Jenny smiled and didn’t explain anything, but instead took the packaged meal from Johnny’s hand and waved at him. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Johnny waved back good-naturedly, “take care of yourself, Jen.”

Jenny walked out of the restaurant, bent down to unlock her bicycle, and rode towards her residence.

Her place was not far from the restaurant, and luckily, there were no hills on the way, which was quite rare in the winding hills of Los Angeles. Chen Zhen noticed this on her first day at work and immediately spent a day’s wages to buy a bicycle from the flea market.

After twenty minutes of riding, she returned to her rented apartment – a small one-bedroom apartment in a mid-age building without an elevator. Due to the high labor costs in the United States, the income gap between white-collar and blue-collar workers was not significant. Jenny worked as a waitress in a restaurant, earning a base salary of eighty US dollars a day. The restaurant she worked at also sold fancy coffee, so if she worked two shifts in a row, she could earn more than two hundred US dollars a day. However, it was quite tiring. If she worked only one shift a day, she could still earn around one hundred and thirty US dollars including tips. Her monthly income was about four thousand US dollars. This fifty-square-meter apartment is rented, and although it was located near Beverly Hills, the rent was only six hundred US dollars a month. It is part of the few inheritances passed on to Chen Zhen by the old Jenny.

The restaurant provides one meal each shift, and with Jenny’s good looks and friendly smile that fare well in attracting customers, the owner, Johnny, is ever so willing to be generous. He often provides her with two meals or extra portions. This meant that Jenny doesn’t have much monthly food expenses, she can even get free coffee and hotdogs that Americans love at the restaurant. Hence, she doesn’t have many monthly expenses besides rent.

Considering the cost of living in Los Angeles, it’s easy for Jenny to save $2,000 a month even after buying clothes, makeup, and fruit. However, like many Americans, Jenny doesn’t have a savings plan and isn’t willing to skimp on small expenses. Chen Zhen is only thankful that she had not incurred any debts— this is a rare trait for an American woman of her age.

Of course, Jenny also did not leave her much inheritance. She spends most of her salary on clothes and shoes, and her living room doubles as a closet (she has at least a hundred pairs of shoes). The rest of her money goes towards acting classes, with a semester of acting course fees at a community college yet to be repaid. As for other expenses, she enjoys going to nightclubs with her friends, but as a beautiful woman, she unsurprisingly is often able to have free entry.

It is remarkable to note that Jenny is truly an ambitious girl who works hard to achieve her dream of becoming an actress, though it may be unrealistic. She is accumulating experiences and knowledge to reach her goal. If she possesses some talent and good luck, she may have made it in Hollywood someday. However, she is now gone and there’s no way to know where she is, the only hope to fulfill this dream, would be Chen Zhen.

Chen Zhen changed into workout clothes the minute she is home and quickly got some housework done before warming up. Switching on her newly purchased computer, she opened Winamp and started dancing to Latin music.

After an hour of dancing and another 15 minutes of stretching, Chen Zhen’s body is at its limit, and she collapses onto the ground for a 20-minute nap. She wakes up to a cool breeze and takes a shower before starting her nightly skincare routine.

Well actually, Johnny was right for Chen Zhen has a balanced athletic body. She stands at 5’7″ with a D cup and normally wears a size 4, which is uncommon among white women. She doesn’t need to worry about losing weight as long as she doesn’t overeat and stands for eight hours a day.

But this is for ordinary people. Be it actresses, singers, or models, as long as they are associated with the entertainment industry and cameras, regular fitness is never enough.

Due to the aspect ratios used in modern film and television, as well as the conversion between 3D and 2D, “looking ten pounds heavier on camera” is not just a saying used to console overweight individuals. It is a real phenomenon, and the visual effect on the camera may be more than just ten pounds. This is because the human eye sees in three dimensions, and shadows and depth contours are processed, but film and television images are two-dimensional, which is like flattening a person. Of course, their face and figure will appear larger than before. Therefore, in order to achieve the effect of a normal person on camera, their face must be smaller than a normal person in real life. This is common knowledge in acting schools. Therefore, the more round-faced or less defined the facial features of an entertainer are, the more they have to force themselves to lose weight. On the other hand, those who are lucky enough to have distinct facial features with depth and dimensionality can put in less effort, but that doesn’t mean they can overindulge. Anyone who has ambitions in the entertainment industry and doesn’t want to play overweight roles almost never has a day of being able to eat their fill. The only difference is how to starve oneself.

Of course, this also comes at a cost. Actors who look normal on camera or are thin on camera often have terrifyingly small faces in real life, and basically appear to be just ‘fleshless clothes hangers’. They also often have issues with being too thin, not to mention the health risks. Even dating can be difficult, as most people prefer to be with someone who looks normal, at the very least…

Chen Zhen is lucky. In her past life, she lost weight for four years just for fun, but because she had a boyfriend who liked his girlfriend to have a little bit of flesh, she didn’t have to starve herself. After graduating, she naturally married into a wealthy family and became a wealthy young mistress. Although she had to maintain her figure, the efforts she had to put in were incomparable to those in the entertainment industry. As for this life, Jenny Jane should be an ethnically pure Germanic. This ethnicity has deep features and clear contours, that are advantageous to looking well-defined on camera, with a natural shadow effect that makes her look very thin. However, the disadvantage would be natural aging that shows in middle age.

Age can be covered up with makeup, but being overweight cannot. In terms of being on camera, it must be admitted that white people have a racial advantage, combined with the fact that Western beauty standards do not obsessively pursue thinness. Therefore, they do not need to devote themselves to becoming bone-thin or stick-thin like their Chinese counterparts. Instead, they only need to shed excess fat through a lot of exercises and maintain a body shape that is slightly thinner than the average person.

In other words, her short-term goal is to fit into size 2 clothes.

She doesn’t have the energy to gym, nor the money to hire a personal trainer. Fortunately, when she was a wealthy housewife in her past life, she had the habit of exercising regularly to maintain her figure. As a personal hobby, she also danced Latin for many years, so she can exercise at home. As for not eating dinner, giving up sugar and milk, and saying no to oil and vinegar dressing, this is all common sense for weight loss, and it is almost instinctive for Chen Zhen. Even in her past life, she did not eat these things much.

Working eight-hour shifts and commuting back and forth by bike for 40 minutes, then exercising for an hour and a half after returning home, Chen Zhen’s body was almost at its limit. After taking a shower and briefly checking the news, she fell asleep.

The alarm clock rang at six o’clock the next morning, and she promptly got up, drank water, ran for an hour, and took a shower before sitting down to eat her most important meal of the day.

She took out the salad she packed yesterday, boiled two eggs, and added a piece of blanched chicken breast. After finishing this hearty meal paired with a large cup of milk, she finally felt satisfied. Chen Zhen learned today that the body of white people is really resistant. After such high-intensity exercise, she felt energetic again after eating.

After breakfast, there was still an hour and a half before work, and she didn’t waste time. Instead, she sat in the living room and twisted herself into a yoga posture. With her alarm clock set, she took a deep breath, and activated her “golden finger.”

With a move of her “golden finger,” Chen Zhen suddenly fell into darkness.

*Golden finger here refers to her cheat system.