After Being Dumped by the Film Empress, My Acting Skills Soared - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Late at night, after Shao Niannian had fallen asleep, Jiang Yan lay in bed with her eyes closed, resting her mind.

She thought of nothing, simply listening to Niannian’s steady breathing. Suddenly, a soft, rhythmic tapping came from the door. Jiang Yan opened her eyes with a flash of annoyance, climbed out of bed, and walked toward the entrance.

Opening the door, she found Mina.

Mina held a large bottle of red wine in one hand and two crystal goblets in the other. Before Mina could speak, Jiang Yan placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back, stepping out of the room and clicking the door shut behind her.

“You spent the whole evening eating like there’s no tomorrow, and now you want to drink at midnight?” Jiang Yan said coldly. “I think you’re truly trying to destroy your stomach.”

“Save it. You’re not a doctor, why are you lecturing me?” Mina muttered, pouting. “Joy is for the moment. I feel fine right now, so why should I worry about ‘later’? Besides…” She trailed off with a sigh. “There’s no one left in my life worth considering a ‘later’ for anyway.”

“…Enough with the sob story.” Jiang Yan didn’t fall for the act. She glanced down the hall. “Let’s go to the lounge area on the terrace. It should be empty now.”

“Fine.”

Before they had walked two steps, Jiang Yan took the heavy wine bottle from Mina’s arms. They walked in silence until they reached the vast, open-air platform.

As soon as they sat down, Mina filled her glass to the brim. “I’m drinking this. You do whatever.”

“…” Jiang Yan felt like she had inherited a mess. “I’m not drinking. I have to continue filming tomorrow.”

“Talk to me. What’s going on between you and Choris? According to the season schedule, you should be in Los Angeles with her right now for the races.”

Instead, Mina was here, idling away her time on a reality show and begging Jiang Yan to help her leave the country. All of Mina’s identification documents had been confiscated by her family; while Mina wouldn’t say why, Jiang Yan didn’t pry. Everyone had their secrets.

But skipping work during race season? Mina—the woman who boasted last year about achieving a Grand Slam—would never allow herself to back down or rest.

“There are new people in the team,” Mina said, the corner of her mouth twitching. “There are plenty of navigators who can replace me. There are three young alternates in the wings. It doesn’t have to be me competing with her.”

Jiang Yan frowned. “Did Choris tell you not to go? Or did you decide yourself?”

“A bit of both, I guess.”

The red wine was mellow and fragrant. Mina wanted it to be bitter to match her mood, but it wouldn’t cooperate.

“I didn’t want to keep dragging things out, so I laid it all out for her. She couldn’t accept it. We fought. Before the race, I reported off on sick leave to the team. She didn’t say a word—she just picked a younger navigator and left for the competition.”

Mina shrugged, a helpless smile on her face. “See? Replacing someone is actually very simple. ‘Best Partners,’ ‘The Twin Stars’… those are just stories the media makes up to get clicks. Nothing is inseparable, and nothing is destined to be tied together forever.”

Jiang Yan knew Mina’s temperament. She was a master of internalizing stress, capable of bottling things up for half a year without ever reaching out or asking for help. The “lay it all out” Mina described was likely a blunt, aggressive argument. Before the fight, Mina would have rehearsed the scene in her head countless times, obsessing over every possible ending—good or bad.

By the time the actual confrontation happened, Mina had already emotionally checked out. She was as stubborn as an ox; once she made up her mind, there was no pulling her back.

Jiang Yan, remaining sober, began to help Mina analyze her career path. “Your mother restricted your domestic cards because she wants you to crawl back and apologize. If you flee abroad, her reach isn’t that long, and she doesn’t have the connections to control you there. If you use your international accounts, life will be much better than it is here.”

“Are you going to keep being a navigator?” Jiang Yan hit the nail on the head. “With your personality, you won’t be able to stand a work environment where you might run into people you know. Either you find a completely different career, or you stay home and enjoy the inheritance.”

“But knowing you, you won’t choose the second option. You can’t stay idle.”

Mina took a sip of wine and laughed bitterly. “Sometimes I really don’t get what goes on in that head of yours. Are you truly indifferent to the world, or are you just so sensitive to people that you deliberately camouflage yourself?”

Jiang Yan had guessed about eighty percent of Mina’s current state of mind.

Mina set down her glass. “I’ve already told the team I’m terminating the contract. If all goes well, the process will be finished by the time you get me out of the country. After that… I haven’t thought about it. I’ll take it one step at a time.”

Mina didn’t want to keep the focus on herself. She looked at Jiang Yan with curiosity. “But what about you and Shao Niannian? You told me you’re a contract couple. If I hadn’t come to the set, I might have believed you. But after being here…”

“Are you sure your attitude toward her is just because of a contract? Is there really no genuine feeling involved? You gave away Kore like it was nothing. Look, it’s fine to lie to us, but don’t go and lie to yourself.”

Mina had intended to tease Jiang Yan with a joking tone, but she was surprised to find Jiang Yan looking dead serious—and even humble enough to seek advice.

“I can feel that she’s different to me. This isn’t how I expected things to develop at all…” Jiang Yan rubbed her cheeks. “I originally signed the contract with her because we might be in the same film together. If we act well, the script is guaranteed to win some niche awards. But… her acting didn’t reach the level I wanted, and since she said she liked me, I…”

Mina fell silent, then raised a hand to interrupt. “Wait. Stop right there. Let me process this.”

“You suggested the contract to Yang Yang just to get Niannian to ‘get into character’ early? To make her feelings for you more intense so that when you film, those feelings translate into love for the character? So that the romance on screen looks more real?”

Mina asked for clarification: “Is that actually what you meant?”

“That was the plan at the start,” Jiang Yan said, her voice sounding slightly flustered. “It’s not like that now!”

Mina calmly adjusted her posture, sitting up straight and holding out both hands toward Jiang Yan. “I’m going to give you two choices. My left hand means you agree; my right hand means you don’t.”

“Make your choice after you hear my question.”

Jiang Yan was confused by how the roles had suddenly swapped. Mina was the one who needed help and analysis, yet in a split second, the tables had turned. Despite her unease, Jiang Yan’s desire for a reliable answer made her nod.

“Fine. What’s the question?”

“First,” Mina said, “are you certain that when you went to Yang Yang to arrange this ‘fake’ couple contract, you were only thinking about the script you’d be filming with Shao Niannian? Was there no personal feeling involved? For example… were you anxious about your ‘sickness’ and rejecting her advances, yet so attracted to her that the moment you saw an opportunity, you ran to Yang Yang to make it official?”

Mina moved her open palms closer to Jiang Yan, waiting.

Jiang Yan fell into deep thought. Unconsciously, she began to sort through her actions and emotions over the past few months.

First, fleeing the set. Jiang Yan admitted that Niannian’s straightforward love had made her lose her footing. She hadn’t known how to reciprocate with equal sincerity, so she chose to run. More importantly, Niannian was rooming with Wen Jing. Jiang Yan didn’t know what Wen Jing might say to her, or if they had made some kind of deal. Was Niannian’s “love” part of a scheme against her?

Jiang Yan couldn’t tell. Her brain was losing control, constantly overlapping the real Niannian with every “lover” she had ever encountered in a script. She was confused—was this Wen Jing’s revenge?

Jiang Yan hated losing control, so she fled. But the loss of control didn’t disappear with distance; it only intensified.

She would instinctively monitor Niannian’s likes and dislikes. She would feel a pang of guilt if she caught a glimpse of disappointment in Niannian’s eyes. Countless people had shown disappointment in her before, yet this was the only one that made her feel the pain herself.

Jiang Yan’s hand rose, hovering between left and right. The silence made the answer clearer than any words could. Mina didn’t rush her.

Finally, Jiang Yan’s hand landed on Mina’s right hand.

No. It wasn’t just about the script.

“Okay. I knew it,” Mina said. If Jiang Yan had picked the left, Mina might have actually tried to crack her head open to see what was wrong inside.

“The right hand is the only correct answer. The player is blind, but the bystander sees clearly. Anyone who heard that excuse for dating Shao Niannian would laugh until they cried.”

Mina scoffed. “You’ve been in this industry for years. Since when have you ever cared about what people think of you? Worried about ‘business collaborations’? Please. The owner of your biggest brand endorsements is your own mother.”

“Your mom doesn’t care if you date or who you date. She only cares that you find someone stable to bring home for New Year’s. That was such a pathetic excuse; I don’t know how you even convinced yourself it was real!”