After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“The spring breeze wakes people from their dreams, the orioles cry that spring will not last long…” Under a beam of dim light, a dark green silk cheongsam shimmered with faint golden threads. Tiny specks of dust danced in the air as a sweet, waxy Southern voice made the song White Orchid Fragrance sound even more lingering. The lyrics were sorrowful, the song was tragic, yet the woman was breathtaking.

Her gaze fell upon the courtesan’s slender wrist. An emerald-green, translucent jade bracelet rested lightly between her forearm and elbow, sliding back and forth, flashing brilliantly in the light. Shao Niannian had dreamed of that body, tightly wrapped in the form-fitting cheongsam, countless times—on the balcony, in the kitchen, and even on the mahogany double bed she had slept in for years.

Standing there from the perspective of a bystander, she watched the swaying, flower-like courtesan on stage. Before she could think further, the woman was suddenly before her.

Terrified, she scrambled to close her eyes like a startled rabbit burying itself in a haystack—as long as she pretended not to see, she was safe.

Shao Niannian’s chin was gently tilted up by a hand, and a feathery fan brushed against her tightly pressed lips. Shyness and embarrassment made her instinctively lean back against the chair. She knew all too well what scene she would see if she opened her eyes.

She would see Jiang Yan—or rather, the Republican-era courtesan Huo Xiaoyun, played by an eighteen-year-old Jiang Yan ten years ago—with white teeth, red lips, and a gaze as enchanting as silk.

Standing before her, the two of them drawing closer and closer…

And then…

“Shao Niannian! My ancestor! Get up and get to work! Are you planning to drop from the B-list to the 18th-tier this year?!”

Snap.

Jiang Yan’s face transformed into the worried, dark-circled face of her manager, Gao Hui, who was currently on the verge of an explosion. All the lingering ambiguity vanished, replaced by a jump-scare from a horror movie.

Startled, Shao Niannian threw the remote she had been gripping into the distance. The flying remote sent the family cat into a 360-degree parkour frenzy across the living room.

In an instant, it was total chaos.

Gao Hui, clutching a stack of scripts, threw them onto the table with a look of “hating that iron won’t become steel.” She resignedly picked up the remote, then turned to see Shao Niannian’s flawless, beautiful face and instinctively held her breath.

Gao Hui: “You’ve watched this movie for ten years and you’re still not tired of it? I really don’t understand you fans! If you really want to act with your idol, shouldn’t you work hard on your acting skills? Aim for a Linghua Award, strive for the Hongyue, and trample the Jintong? If you can’t get the Grand Slam, at least reach the ‘Best Actress Candidate’ level!”

Looking at the sleepy-eyed Shao Niannian, Gao Hui nagged with resignation: “Just look at the other starlets in your peer group. Which one of them doesn’t have seven or eight endorsements and doesn’t brush their face on red carpets and variety shows every day?”

“Then there’s you—you have nothing. You started with such a huge halo of fame, yet you’ve managed to grind yourself down to the edge of the B-list. You love to be picky with scripts, but what about your acting? My ancestor! Can you please be just as strict with your acting skills?”

“…”

Shao Niannian found a gap to fix her gaze back on the TV behind Gao Hui. Even though every detail of this movie was deeply etched into her mind, every time she watched it, she was still captivated by Jiang Yan’s beautiful face.

There was no one in the world more perfect than Jiang Yan.

She adjusted her position against the soft sofa pillows, ensuring Gao Hui wasn’t blocking her line of sight. As for Gao Hui’s old-fashioned nagging, she had automatically filtered it out.

In one ear and out the other.

“…” Gao Hui talked until her throat was dry. Looking down, she saw the “ancestor” lying on the sofa smiling like an idiot at the Jiang Yan on the screen.

The fire of her fighting spirit was doused with a bucket of cold water.

“Hiss—“

Right now, Gao Hui just wanted to search Baidu for “how to kill someone and bury the body without being found.” Among the five artists under her, one was “rotten wood that couldn’t be carved,” one was a stuttering “idiot vase,” one was lukewarm and only cared about gaming, and one had many anti-fans but great acting…

Only Shao Niannian was average in everything. You couldn’t say her acting was bad, as she didn’t ruin the immersion in her occasional small hits; but you couldn’t say it was good either—Gao Hui didn’t even want to admit that the girl misusing her beautiful face in certain dramas was her own artist.

Gao Hui had spent all her energy on Shao Niannian, hoping this little ancestor would learn from her idol, Jiang Yan, and improve her acting. She didn’t expect endorsements to pour in, but if she could just reach the A-list before thirty, Gao Hui would be moved to tears.

“Shao Niannian!”

“Present!”

Shao Niannian, who had been lying on the sofa, was startled by the roar and tumbled onto the soft carpet, hurting her nose.

Rubbing her nose, she was pushed a stack of variety show proposals and scripts by Gao Hui. She blinked her puppy-like eyes innocently. “Ah, do I really have to go to work?”

“I’ve already given you a two-week vacation!” Gao Hui pulled out a script she thought was decent. “If you don’t join a production soon, your fans are going to start ‘greeting’ eighteen generations of my ancestors!”

“Oh.” Shao Niannian quickly flipped through a few. Her brow furrowed deeper as she went. “Is this a joke? I’m twenty-five. Why is someone asking me to play in a teen school drama? Forget that—what is this children’s show script supposed to be?”

“Gao Hui…”

Shao Niannian spread her hands and pushed the bizarre scripts forward, looking aggrieved. “I don’t want to film these.”

Gao Hui gave a cold sneer. “You can also play the ‘white flower’ who runs away with a secret pregnancy, the sweet-faced but black-hearted villainess, the young stepmother who ruins the heroine’s family, or your most hated role: ‘Pretty Vase Character No. N’.”

Shao Niannian took a deep breath. “Do we have anything else?”

“There is one.” Gao Hui reluctantly pulled a folder from another stack. “There’s a role for a mute girl…”

“But Niannian, listen to me. Last year, we filmed three movies that were critically acclaimed but failed at the box office; the settlement in your card was only 200,000 yuan.” Gao Hui said with a pained expression. “Then there was that ‘sweet trashy’ drama where the acting was so bad the whole company couldn’t watch it, but it went viral in the lower-tier markets—we settled for 3 million yuan.”

“The choice between eating well or starving is right in front of you!”

Shao Niannian had absolutely no interest in hearing Gao Hui’s lecture. She raised her hand and signaled. “Give me the script.”

“Let’s think about it again?” Gao Hui tried one last time. Even when Shao Niannian reached out to snatch the folder, she wouldn’t let go.

“If you don’t give it to me, I’m going back on vacation.” Shao Niannian went into full “rotting” mode, picking up the remote to continue the movie.

She had Gao Hui’s psychology perfectly pinned down.

The next second, the script landed squarely in Shao Niannian’s hands.

Opening the first page, Shao Niannian saw a familiar name, and her pretty little face instantly slumped.

“Why is it the same drama Wen Jing joined?”

Normally, Shao Niannian wouldn’t remember someone like Wen Jing. She was naturally a bit slow, especially with faces—if she didn’t see someone often, she couldn’t match the name to the face.

But Wen Jing, who had just starred in a dual-heroine drama with Jiang Yan and shot a magazine cover with her…

As long as someone was connected to Jiang Yan, Shao Niannian would recognize them even if they turned to ash.

Gao Hui pinched the bridge of her nose. “Anyway, these are the only scripts. Do it or don’t! Let me tell you, if you really fall out of the B-list this time, I won’t lift a finger to save you—I’ll take your last name instead!”

Shao Niannian flipped through the mute girl’s script, not forgetting to counter-attack. “Don’t bother.”

“If you want the surname Shao, you’ll have to ask my sister if she agrees first.”

Gao Hui: “?”

“Last time a jerk tried to pressure her into marriage using the family genealogy, my sister, Shao Miaoyun, beat him into the hospital and cut off his living expenses for half a year. Now, the pages of that genealogy regarding our family are probably in some trash can.” Shao Niannian explained: “Since the jerk isn’t home, Shao Miaoyun is the boss.”

Shao Niannian flipped to the last page, reached under the coffee table to find a cat-shaped pen, and after a few seconds of silence, returned to the first page to start her character analysis for the mute girl.

She was determined to get this role.

As the saying goes, “The child only has a mother, it’s a long story”—to defeat a “love rival,” one must know oneself and the enemy. Even if Wen Jing wasn’t a rival, the fact that her terrible acting could earn a few pointers from Jiang Yan…

It meant Wen Jing had some skill in “seducing”… no, in social interaction.

Shao Niannian could join the set and learn a thing or two from her.

Gao Hui had long known that Shao Niannian’s family situation was complicated, but Niannian always reported the good and hid the bad. Whenever asked, she would just cough twice and say solemnly, “The matter is just that kind of matter, the situation is just that kind of situation…”

There were always ten thousand nonsense sentences to block Gao Hui’s limited curiosity.

In the end, the two of them lived in a state of unspoken understanding; if Shao Niannian didn’t bring it up, Gao Hui didn’t ask.

By the time Gao Hui snapped out of her shock, Shao Niannian was already biting her pen, analyzing the mute girl’s image.

Gao Hui glanced at her phone and cried out, dragging Shao Niannian up from between the sofa and the coffee table. “Alright, stop working on your character biography now. The audition isn’t until next week. Today we have an invitation from PQ. If you don’t get your makeup done now, we won’t make it!”

“No, I haven’t fed—” Shao Niannian clung to the doorframe, shouting toward the Ragdoll cat inside.

“You switched to an automatic feeder ages ago!”

“But I haven’t turned off—”

“Your TV automatically shuts off after five minutes of standby.”

Shao Niannian: “But I—”

“But you need to go to work and earn money, otherwise you’ll be ‘drinking the northwest wind’ (starving)!”

Shao Niannian, having learned to compromise: “…”