After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 31.1

Chapter 31.1

The aftereffects of a horror movie have no boundaries. Even though the room was brightly lit, Shao Niannian still felt that something terrifying might be standing in certain corners of the room, or would quietly appear behind her while she was showering, staring deathly at the mirror with a pair of bloody eyes.

Ready to hunt her at any moment.

Those delicious braised snacks had already turned into nutrients delivered to various parts of her body in her stomach, but the part consuming the most was her brain.

Because Niannian had no way to control the wild thoughts in her head. In fact, the more she deliberately tried not to think about it, the easier it was to remember. Even playing with her phone became joyless.

The weather in the small county today was exceptionally fitting for the mood; not only was it windy and rainy, but thunder began to rumble overhead. Lightning would flash before the thunder, momentarily making the entire room even brighter, scaring Niannian so much she didn’t dare leave her bed at all.

The lights in the room were on, but Niannian, muffled under her covers, couldn’t fall asleep. The wind, rain, thunder, and lightning seemed to be holding their own “braised snack convention” tonight—all present and accounted for. Anxious well into the latter half of the night, the window of some unknown room began clattering loudly against the wind, causing Niannian’s mental state to become extremely taut.

Her body was as tired as if she had run three 800-meter sprints, but she just couldn’t sleep.

Niannian stared wide-eyed, unable to reach dawn. Finally gathering the courage to poke her head out from the covers, she discovered that at some point, the power had gone out.

It was pitch black; she couldn’t see her own hand in front of her face.

“Ah!” Niannian was truly being driven crazy by this environment. Tears were nearly scared out of her. She hurriedly covered her head again, curled up into a ball inside the quilt, and began tremblingly tapping her phone screen.

At two or three in the morning, Niannian couldn’t find anyone to chat with besides Su Chaoyue.

However, several consecutive messages sank into the sea without a trace. Su Chaoyue didn’t reply to her; she might be sleeping, or perhaps she was busy with work. After all, this July would be the time Su Chaoyue graduated and returned to the country.

With her friend not replying and Gao Hui long since in the land of dreams, Niannian repented for the countless time that she shouldn’t have stayed in that room for a few bites of food.

The final result was her being scared to the point of insomnia, feeling her stomach ache slightly while lying in bed.

At 3:00 AM, with the wind and rain intensifying, Niannian’s mental state was on the verge of collapse. Her brain made this pitch-black room feel full of danger; the more she feared something, the more her brain projected those very images before her eyes.

Even though she knew there was nothing there, she was still scared to the point of crying.

When a person suffers a mental breakdown, they always instinctively think of the person who can give them the most sense of security. In this building, there were only two people who could give Niannian that feeling.

One was her roommate Wen Jing, and the other was Jiang Yan.

If Wen Jing were still here, Niannian would have grabbed her pillow and shared a bed with her without a second thought. But Wen Jing was gone. The optimal solution was automatically excluded. Before she even realized what she was doing, her finger tapped on Jiang Yan’s private contact info.

The call went out.

Just a few steps away, the breathing light on the phone on the nightstand began to flash. The light-sleeping Jiang Yan woke up instantly.

She originally had a bit of “waking-up temper,” but the moment she saw the caller ID, her irritation vanished completely.

As soon as she picked up, she heard the voice on the other end sobbing, saying she was scared, that the power was out…

“I feel like there are terrifying things all around me! I shouldn’t have craved those two bites of braised meat this afternoon and watched that Thai horror movie with them! They all said it was so funny, so funny, but it’s actually so scary! That ‘321 Green Light Red Light’ game where you can’t move—it’s honestly terrifying, okay…”

The person on the other end of the phone got louder and more agitated, eventually becoming incoherent, clearly frightened out of her wits.

Jiang Yan tossed back the covers, got out of bed, and flipped the light switch a couple of times. Indeed, there was no response.

The wind and rain must have knocked down a power pole. She lowered her voice to comfort Niannian, then immediately started gathering her bedding, preparing to head over and knock on Niannian’s door.

The person on the other end was truly terrified; her mouth hadn’t stopped moving once.

Even though Jiang Yan hadn’t seen the ghost movie, she had almost learned the entire plot by now.

Before Jiang Yan’s hand could touch the doorknob, Mo Yu, sleeping in the adjacent bed, sat up clutching her quilt.

“Where are you going in the middle of the night?”

“Shao Niannian is scared; she called me,” Jiang Yan said. “The power is out, she’s alone in her room, and she watched a ghost movie this afternoon. She’s probably scared witless.”

In any case, she was already crying and talking nonsense on the phone.

Mo Yu sat in silence on the bed for a moment, then also crawled out of her cocoon and started packing her bedding.

Jiang Yan: “?”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going with you,” Mo Yu said righteously. “The power is out. You don’t trust her being alone in her room, so you’re okay with me being alone in mine?”

“I’m scared too!”

Jiang Yan: “…”

“So you didn’t just wake up; you weren’t asleep at all, were you?”

“The wind and rain are so heavy, and we’re in a remote little county—can’t I be a little scared?” Mo Yu grumbled. “Why do I get double standards for being afraid?”

With Niannian’s crying in her ear and Mo Yu’s complaining in front of her, Jiang Yan felt her head was about to explode.

“Fine, fine, let’s go. I’m truly defeated by you two.”

Jiang Yan resignedly opened the door and walked out. Because the door was open, the wind from the hallway rushed into the bedroom, instantly blowing away the warmth.

Mo Yu, following behind Jiang Yan, hurriedly shuffled her slippers to catch up and grabbed the hem of Jiang Yan’s pajamas. She was worried Jiang Yan would leave her behind and terrified that something strange would appear in the invisible darkness behind her.

Jiang Yan: “…”

Great. Everyone is a coward. Without me, this crew would have disbanded long ago.

Jiang Yan walked in the lead. Since she was on the phone, it wasn’t convenient to turn on her flashlight. Mo Yu, hiding behind her, was proactive enough to light the way for them both.

They arrived at Niannian’s door.

Jiang Yan knocked and said, “I’m at the door. Can you get out of bed to open it yourself?”

“I’m scared…”

Outside, the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning were still intertwined, creating an exceptionally terrifying atmosphere. Lightning flashed across the ink-black sky, illuminating the whole house in bursts.

Niannian was so scared she didn’t even dare let her feet touch the floor.

Jiang Yan coaxed her patiently, “Everything is really fine, don’t be afraid.”

“I’m right outside. There are no ghosts or spirits here.”

Jiang Yan felt the corner of her pajamas was about to be torn off by the person behind her. She quickly spun around, making Mo Yu stand in front of the door too.

“Crouch down,” Jiang Yan told Mo Yu. “Use your light to shine through the crack under the door so a bit of light gets inside.”

Mo Yu looked at the pitch-black floor and said wordlessly, “Is this actually useful?”

“Would you rather I kick the door down?”

Hearing this, Mo Yu didn’t care if it was useful or not. She hugged her bundled quilt and pillow tightly and reached out to send the phone light into the room.

“Don’t be afraid. Turn on your phone light, then open the door. I’m right outside.”

Jiang Yan spoke with tireless patience. “Don’t you see the faint light at the door? Open the door and run straight out; I’ll protect you.”

Niannian cautiously shuffled herself from the head of the bed to the foot, her quilt wrapped around her body, even covering her back.

“I see it…” Niannian whispered, her voice a bit raspy. If there were light in the room, one could probably see her reddened eyes.

Having not slept all night and being tortured by the environment, anyone would find it hard to bear.

“Should I just run out?”

“If you want to roll out, I suppose I could catch you?” Jiang Yan glanced down at Mo Yu, who was crouching at the door trying her best to provide light. She figured even if Niannian rolled out, there was something in front of her to act as a buffer.

Niannian: “…” That joke is colder than the current environment.

The director’s legs were already going numb from crouching.

“Then… then I’ll try.”

As the voice on the phone spoke, Jiang Yan, who had been standing, reacted quickly. She grabbed Mo Yu, who was still crouching and holding the light, and yanked her to the side.

Tatap-tap-tap—the sound of slippers hitting the floor echoed from inside the room, accompanied by thuds and clatters, and a cry of pain from Jiang Yan’s phone.

The door creaked and banged open. Before Mo Yu could regain her balance, she felt herself—clutching her quilt—get hit by a fierce “gust.” A person emerged like a streak of fire and crashed into Jiang Yan’s arms.

The scene turned into a complete mess.

Wrapped in her quilt, Niannian’s impact sent Jiang Yan staggering back. Jiang Yan, in turn, pulled Mo Yu down with her. The quilts of all three women tumbled to the floor. No one knew who stepped on what first, but they collapsed into a heap like falling dominoes.

Jiang Yan’s back slammed hard against the wall. The pain in her protruding shoulder blades made her eyes water. She couldn’t help but gasp. Her reaction time was fast, though; as she was about to crash, she pulled Mo Yu toward her chest to shield her.

After the chaos subsided, Jiang Yan was the only one injured.

Two beams of phone light landed on Niannian, making her look like a “criminal” being interrogated.

Niannian sheepishly let go of the last corner of the quilt she was holding. Her eyes blinked incessantly under the light, instinctively looking away. “If I said I didn’t do it on purpose, would you believe me?”

“If I turn off the phone light right now and beat you up, would you believe I didn’t do it on purpose?” Mo Yu, who had been slapped by a quilt for no reason and half-fallen, said through gritted teeth.

Niannian shrank her neck, kicked the fallen quilt aside with her foot, and tightly clung to Jiang Yan’s arm, utterly terrified. There was nothing around them, yet it felt like everything was there.

“Enough!” Jiang Yan stopped the farce. The quilts and pillows piled on the floor certainly couldn’t be used now. It was the middle of the night; despite the heavy wind and rain, not everyone was as sleepless as they were. Some people were sound sleepers, and being too loud would disturb them.

Using the phone light to dimly illuminate the room, Jiang Yan specifically flipped the light switch before closing the door. Still no power.

Jiang Yan thought that with company and two phones for light, Niannian and Mo Yu would be less afraid. To her surprise, when she turned around, she almost dropped her phone in fright.

“I…!” Jiang Yan looked at the two dark figures standing not far from her with lights and was quite startled. She frowned. “Are you two sick? Why are you just standing there?”

“I’m scared,” Niannian said, aggrieved yet righteous.

Mo Yu followed immediately, “I’m scared too.”

Jiang Yan gritted her teeth. “I think you two look more terrifying than ghosts right now.”

Any ghost that wandered in would probably take one look at your current state, punch you, and then leave the room.

Since the three quilts were unusable, only the one on Wen Jing’s bed remained.

The three of them sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the quilt on Wen Jing’s bed. No one moved.

Niannian broke the silence first, “Let’s forget it. I have a very large air-conditioning blanket. We can make do with that; it should be fine.”

“That works,” Jiang Yan had no objection.

With the other two in agreement, Mo Yu couldn’t say much.

It wasn’t until the three of them were lying in one bed that they realized how awkward the atmosphere was. Their previous fear had long since “vanished into thin air,” replaced by a room full of awkwardness.

They lay there for a while, eyes closed, yet no one fell asleep.

After some time, Mo Yu, sleeping in the middle, said, “What should I do? I don’t think I can sleep…”

Jiang Yan, who had been squeezed to the very edge of the bed, said crossly, “If you can’t sleep, then roll off. It’ll leave more room for the two of us anyway. You’ve almost pushed me off the bed, and you’re still being picky.”

Niannian didn’t make a sound.

Having been rebuffed by Jiang Yan, Mo Yu hurriedly nudged Niannian, who was sleeping on the other side. “Are you asleep?”

Niannian kept her eyes closed, hands folded over her stomach. “I’m asleep.”

“If you’re asleep, why are you answering me?”

“I’m talking in my sleep.” Niannian was clearly not afraid of offending the director.

After all, the director was currently sleeping in her bed. Mo Yu was the one who should worry about offending her, otherwise Niannian might just kick her out and tell her to find a corner in the room to sleep. Either she’d meet a ghost, or she’d face the wrath of the slightly germaphobic “Young Miss” Wen. Either way, she’d be surrounded by trouble.

Jiang Yan and Niannian both stopped talking. Only Mo Yu, squeezed in the middle, felt exceptionally aggrieved—she shouldn’t be in the center of the bed; she should be under the bed.

Mo Yu stayed awake in a daze until dawn, assuming that the other two were sailing through their dreams. In reality, all three had endured until almost daybreak before finally feeling a bit sleepy.

Last night’s gale and rain had been like a “buy one, get one free” promotion. When they woke up at noon the next day, the weather outside was perfect.

The three of them stripped the quilts that had gotten dirty on the floor the night before, washed them in the machine, hung them up to dry, and then each grabbed a small chair to sit “outside the circle.”

The “circle” consisted of the crew members and actors huddling together. Before they got close, the three hadn’t heard what was being discussed. Just as the legs of their chairs touched the floor, they heard a staff member say in a lowered voice—

“The person hiding under the bed covered their mouth, not daring to make a sound. After a while, the thud-thud-thud sound disappeared. He thought the female ghost had left the room, so he slowly opened his eyes…”

“Suddenly, he saw a face covered in bloody scars, staring at him through the gap under the bed from an upside-down position. Before he could react, that pitted face broke into a stiff smile.”

” ‘Found you.’ “

“…”

The moment their chairs touched the ground, the three of them moved in perfect unison, picking them up and shifting further away.

Best to stay far away from ghost stories. Who knew if tonight would bring wind and rain as heavy as last night?

Perhaps the wind and rain had traumatized Mo Yu and Niannian.

Whenever Jiang Yan was more than five steps away from them, it was like “auto-pathing” in a video game—they would start looking for her, flanking her like door gods on her left and right.

However, Mo Yu was slightly better than Niannian. After all, her workplace resentment was something even a ghost would fear. Mo Yu was so irritable she felt like she could kill a ghost on sight; she had already forgotten the pathetic state she was in a few days ago.

Jiang Yan scoffed, resignedly carrying her chair to sit in the sun downstairs. “To put it nicely, you two are standing behind me like door gods. To put it bluntly, one would think you’re the Black and White Impermanence (harbingers of death).”

“Pah, pah, pah! Don’t say such unlucky things.” Mo Yu crossed her legs. She had just sat down and her seat wasn’t even warm before a crew member called her.

“The company wants to have a progress meeting, Director Mo! Didn’t I tell you already?”

Mo Yu patted her seat, unhurried. “What’s the rush? Having a progress meeting won’t help us reincarnate faster. With a lead actress missing, even if they pressure me, the sky could fall and we still wouldn’t finish!”

“Pressure, pressure… they’re pressuring me to death!”

Before leaving, Mo Yu didn’t forget to turn around and point at Jiang Yan. “Don’t you two go running off. I’ll be back to sunbathe with you once the meeting is over!”

“I don’t care if you run or not,” Jiang Yan said, annoyed. “Hurry up and go to your meeting. Speed up the progress of this movie.”

“If you don’t finish soon, certain people won’t just be using meetings as an excuse to see you every couple of days.” Jiang Yan said crossly, “They’ll probably book a flight straight here, staring at you all day to speed up the work so you can wrap up and go home.”

Mo Yu was choked by Jiang Yan’s words. She opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing. Tucking her tail between her legs, she obediently packed her things and went to the meeting.

Niannian lay on a lounge chair nearby, clutching her phone. It was unclear what she was looking at. The sunlight fell on them both, chasing away some of the chill as they approached early spring.

Niannian was secretly glad she had the foresight to use a privacy screen protector. Otherwise, if someone saw the “bedroom knowledge” she was currently studying, her name would be trending on Weibo within half an hour.

The information on her phone became more “heated” the more she read. Her fingertips, resting at her side, trembled slightly. After her eyes were “assaulted” by large-scale pictures and text, Niannian quickly exited the app. She pressed the volume-down button with her pinky to ensure her phone was on silent/vibrate.

A silent phone couldn’t stop her racing heart, nor could it prevent the flush from spreading across her face.

Niannian’s mind was filled with the explicit images she had just seen. If Jiang Yan weren’t beside her, she would probably have slapped herself twice.

Niannian felt a wave of regret. She knew Gu Yizhi was a bold one, yet she had dared to ask her such questions.

But another part of her thoughts pulled at her—”Jiang Yan ‘can’t’ do it, but has those hobbies… Of all the people I know, Gu Yizhi is the one who understands and knows the most about these things…”

Asking Su Chaoyue likely would have resulted in nothing but a string of ellipses and both of them blushing at their phones. But Gu Yizhi was different.

Niannian shook her head, trying to shake the explicit images out of her mind. As she did, her gaze happened to meet Jiang Yan’s curious, searching look.

“Why… why is your face so red?” Jiang Yan pointed to her own cheek. “You didn’t get a sunburn, did you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Niannian said wordlessly, “It’s only 18°C today. At this temperature, if the sun could burn me, that would be truly absurd.”

“Then why is your face so red?”