After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Wen Jing had no interest in debating with Shao Niannian over which one of them was “incapable.” After brushing the topic aside with a few words, she circled back to her original question.

“What were you thinking about just now, all by yourself?”

Niannian didn’t know how to put her discovery into words. If this was Jiang Yan’s secret—something no one else had noticed—asking Wen Jing about it felt like talking behind someone’s back. After a moment of hesitation, Niannian shook her head.

“Nothing much. Just feeling a bit homesick.”

“Oh.” Wen Jing slumped back onto the bed, disappointed. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the gossip media mention your family?”

“My family is just a normal family. No news value,” Niannian replied, expertly deflecting the topic.

“How many people in your family?”

“Four. If you count pets, we have a German Shepherd and a Bernese Mountain Dog.”

Wen Jing arched an eyebrow. “Those are both giant breeds. Getting dog licenses and caring for them takes quite a bit of energy and resources. Are you sure you’re from a ‘normal’ family?”

Niannian answered earnestly, “Yes, really. Why is that hard to believe?”

“Fine. What do your parents do?”

“Corporate employees.”

“And you have a younger sibling?”

“Mhm, a sister.” Mentioning her sister brought a soft smile to Niannian’s face. “She’s a high school senior. She’ll be taking the Gaokao in June.”

Wen Jing’s eyes darted around as if she were plotting something. She grabbed her phone from the bed and began typing a note. She wanted to ask more, but she realized it was starting to feel like a census interrogation. Fearing she might make Niannian suspicious or angry, she decided to stop there for the day.

Wen Jing’s worries were somewhat redundant; Niannian’s attention was already occupied by other things. Niannian was busy replying to messages from her mother and Su Chaoyue, while her mind kept drifting back to Jiang Yan. The more she thought, the more cluttered her mind became.

Knock, knock—

The sound at the door startled both girls. Wen Jing sat up. “Who is it? It’s so late.”

“It’s Jiang Yan. I’m looking for Niannian.”

“Looking for me?” Niannian looked confused, but she scrambled off the bed without a second thought.

As Niannian opened the door, Wen Jing leaned out from her bed, craning her neck to see what Jiang Yan wanted. However, the moment she adjusted her position, she found both pairs of eyes staring straight back at her.

Wen Jing: “…”

Fine. I’ll retreat.

Once the “third wheel” vanished, Niannian let out a small sigh and followed Jiang Yan out. As they reached the end of the corridor where the light was better, Niannian noticed Jiang Yan was wearing a hiking jacket. She looked travel-worn; her bangs were damp with mist, and her pant legs were wet. Even the fabric of her shoes was darkened from moisture.

She had clearly just come back from somewhere outside.

“You…” Niannian blinked and asked softly, “Where did you go?”

Their shoot had ended around 8 PM. It had been a grueling twelve-hour day, and everyone was exhausted. After wrapping, Niannian hadn’t even had the energy to eat; she had gone straight to her room to nap for an hour. It was now late at night, and in this small county, everything was usually shut down. Niannian couldn’t imagine where Jiang Yan could have gone.

Jiang Yan kept one hand hidden behind her back. Her cheeks still held the chill of the night wind. “Did I scare you this morning?”

“Sometimes I find it hard to control my emotions when I’m acting. I wasn’t feeling well this morning, and I lost my grip on it,” Jiang Yan explained. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’m fine.” Niannian quickly realized she was talking about the rehearsal. She shook her head. “Does that… happen often?”

“If it’s inconvenient to answer, you don’t have to say,” Niannian added hurriedly. “I was just curious because when we rehearsed this morning, you were so pale. You looked like you were in pain.”

“Occasionally,” Jiang Yan admitted frankly. “I empathize too easily with script characters. If I’m physically unwell or emotionally unstable, it gets worse.”

“Then…”

“This is an apology gift.” Jiang Yan brought her hand out from behind her back. Her slender fingers were hooked around a ribbon tied into a bow, holding a transparent square plastic box containing a large piece of Tiramisu.

The presentation wasn’t exquisite. Under the cheap, dim yellow light of the hallway, the cream looked a bit dull, and the maraschino cherry on top looked quite old-fashioned. Aside from the fancy ribbon, the little cake screamed one word: “Cheap.”

The moment Niannian saw the cake, she looked up at Jiang Yan in shock.

There were no major bakeries in this small county. If you wanted even a simple cream cake, you had to order it three days in advance. The local bread was plain and tasteless. Niannian had been craving sweets; while browsing Weibo, she had seen a food blogger post a photo of a cake and had liked it, commenting that Tiramisu looked delicious.

She never expected that in the middle of the night, someone would ignore the distance and leave this place just to bring one back for her.

“I didn’t mean to stalk your Weibo…” Jiang Yan met Niannian’s eyes nervously.

Niannian didn’t say anything, she just stared. It made Jiang Yan’s skin crawl with nerves. If the timing were different, she would have pulled her dice out of her pocket to fiddle with them just to calm down.

Jiang Yan didn’t understand why she was so flustered. She had been bold enough to run away to act at sixteen and had faced thousands of people as a Best Actress winner at eighteen without flinching. Yet here she was, incredibly nervous about giving an apology gift.

“I just didn’t know what to get as an apology, so I scrolled through your Weibo.”

Jiang Yan hadn’t expected Niannian’s Weibo to be so much like a regular person’s “life blog.” She shared her favorite shows, movies, and books, and would like food posts in the middle of the night, leaving comments like: “Already forwarded this to the family group for Mom; I hope she makes it for me…”

Niannian wasn’t staring for any bad reason. She was simply stunned.

“How far did you have to go to find this cake?”

“Not far.” Seeing Niannian’s disbelief, Jiang Yan didn’t explain further. She nudged the cake toward Niannian and led her toward the stairwell.

Jiang Yan handed the cake to her. “Niannian, hold this for a second.”

Niannian obeyed. She watched as Jiang Yan took off her hiking jacket—which was still cold from the night air—and spread it out on the dusty stairs, warm side up. She gestured for Niannian to sit on the jacket while she sat down casually on the bare, dusty step beside her.

“What are you waiting for? If you don’t eat it now, it won’t taste good.” Jiang Yan sat on the ground, reaching out toward the dazed Niannian.

It was as if they weren’t sitting in the stairwell of an old self-built house eating a cheap cake.

The plastic box was opened. The cream was cloying, and the sweetness made Niannian’s mouth feel bitter. Her chest felt tight with a sour ache, yet her eyes were crinkled in a smile.

If Niannian had to praise how “delicious” the cake was, she wouldn’t be able to lie. But she responded sincerely to Jiang Yan’s hopeful gaze.

“This is in the top three of all the cakes I’ve ever eaten.”

The “weight” of those top three came mostly from the person who delivered it, not the cake itself.

Jiang Yan wasn’t stupid; she knew the cake wasn’t that great. But she was still delighted by Niannian’s words. She stared at a bit of cream on Niannian’s red lips.

Suddenly, the three-hour round trip didn’t seem long at all. As long as Niannian was happy, it was worth it.