The Film Empress's Secret Marriage and Child - Chapter 1

What does a person born as a replacement think the moment they see the world?

Panic.

This was Sheng Yunshu’s feeling when she was abandoned by her mother and saw Sheng Qingshan for the first time at the old family estate.

Because Sheng Qingshan suffered from mild autism, Yunshu had been born in the shadow of her mother’s expectations.

However, fate plays cruel jokes. The year she was born, Sheng Qingshan encountered her own miracle. Following in the footsteps of that person, Sheng Qingshan slowly stepped out of her own world.

She progressed faster and further than anyone else. The way her mother and grandmother looked at her became increasingly affectionate, and the entire family placed all their hopes on her.

As for Sheng Yunshu, because her cognitive test scores did not meet her mother’s expectations, her mother was disappointed, left her behind in the old estate, and stopped caring about her.

In the vast manor, that small, insignificant figure could have disappeared one day, and no one would have noticed.

On a rainy night, Sheng Yunshu lay on the filthy ground, listening to the approaching footsteps behind her. The little cub thought she would die there.

But before the scolding or the beatings came a warm embrace.

The cub looked up at her elder sister, who was usually cold-faced and fierce. She gripped her sister’s clothes tightly, held back for a moment, and then burst into loud, wailing sobs:

“Sis… sister… it hurts… so much blood… wu… sister…”

Sheng Qingshan carried the child back. She did not know how to comfort people. But seeing the cub crying until she was out of breath, she held it in for a while and managed to squeeze out one sentence:

“Don’t hurt.”

“…嗯？”

The cub thought she was annoyed again. She pouted, reached up to cover her mouth, but accidentally touched a loose baby tooth. A wave of soreness hit her nose, and she cried even louder than before.

Sheng Qingshan clamped her mouth shut and picked up her pace until she was almost running.

Later, all the servants who had bullied her behind their backs were fired. With Sheng Qingshan shielding her, she lived very comfortably in the old estate.

After that incident, the sisters’ relationship grew much closer.

The cub felt that her sister just did not like to talk but still loved her in her heart; Sheng Qingshan, however, felt that this younger sister was truly talkative—more talkative than Ji Xi. Sometimes, just listening to her talk made Sheng Qingshan thirsty.

But a child is a creature that will take a mile if you give them an inch.

Ever since she felt her sister’s care, the cub could not wait to stick to Sheng Qingshan every day, even wanting to squeeze into the same bed as her at night.

“Sister,” the cub stood at the doorway clutching her small pillow and A-Bei-Bei, looking up at her obediently, “can I sleep with you?”

Sheng Qingshan hesitated for a moment.

In that split second, the cub slid past her like a loach, her short legs scrambling toward the inner room. She threw her things onto the bed, climbed up, and pulled the quilt over herself.

“Thank you, sister! Sister, hurry up and get all clean and fragrant. If children sleep too late, they will not grow tall!”

Sheng Qingshan looked at her, wanting to say something but stopping herself: “…You go to sleep first. I will be ready in a moment.”

Never mind. Do not argue with a child.

While brushing her teeth, Sheng Qingshan heard a rustling sound outside, followed by the cub’s exclamation!

She quickly rinsed her mouth and hurried out.

She saw the cub hunched over the edge of the bed, rear end in the air, her short arms reaching desperately under the bed. Her A-Bei-Bei—a sheep doll that had been washed until it was quite worn—had fallen underneath.

Sheng Qingshan walked over, picked up the doll, patted it, and handed it to her.

The cub took it, immediately buried her face in it, and took a deep sniff.

Sheng Qingshan: “…”

She did not quite understand this behavior. She had touched the doll; it felt rough and smelled of something indescribable—not bad, but a kind of “child smell”? It was like cookie crumbs mixed with laundry detergent, with a hint of milky scent.

“Sister, do you want to smell it?” Seeing her staring, the cub generously held the little sheep out to her.

Sheng Qingshan retreated half a step.

“…No, thank you.”

The cub was not disappointed. She pressed the doll back against her face and smiled with her eyes curved into crescents.

When Sheng Qingshan came out of the bathroom, the cub had already rolled herself into a burrito, revealing only her head. Her hair was exploding on the pillow like a dandelion blown by the wind.

She stood by the bed for a while.

It was a single bed. It was just right for her, but with a child added…

She looked down at the quilt roll, then at the remaining space.

…It is fine. The kid is not big.

Sheng Qingshan originally thought the cub was just acting on a whim, but she never imagined that her one concession would lead to nearly two years of sharing a bed.

It was not until Sheng Qingshan went through her pheromone differentiation that things became inconvenient, and she finally chased the cub out of the room.

The cub was very dissatisfied with this, but she now had more troubling things to worry about—she really seemed much less intelligent than her sister, and the intellectual gap was impossible to bridge.

In order to follow in her sister’s footsteps, the cub embarked on a road of losing, fighting, losing, and fighting again.

Never mind. One smart person in the family is enough.

The cub rolled up her failing test paper and threw it away, then took a cotton candy from a servant and ate it with satisfaction.

In the cub’s heart, Sheng Qingshan was omnipotent. The whole world should love her! People who did not like her sister should not exist!

But later, she discovered that even her sister had someone she wanted but could not get.

During the summer vacation of her tenth year, the cub finished her daily homework and asked the servants for three popsicles to go play with her sisters.

Sheng Qingshan and Ji Xi were at the eastern golf course. When she arrived, Ji Xi seemed tired and had fallen asleep on Sheng Qingshan’s lap.

The cub’s eyes lit up. Just as she was about to call out to them, she suddenly saw her sister move.

Sheng Qingshan lowered her head.

The wind passed between the two, carrying the heat of midsummer and the sincerity of a young heart, inching closer and closer. But at the very moment of contact, Sheng Qingshan stopped.

She did not move any closer, but instead reached out, twisted a strand of brown hair, and kissed it lightly.

Watching this scene, the cub felt a strange, suffocating tightness in her chest. She did not even notice that the popsicle in her hand had melted and was running down her arm.

Ten-year-old Sheng Yunshu had already learned many things. The most important one was distinguishing “when to speak” and “when to keep her mouth shut.”

She turned around and walked away on tiptoe.

After standing in the sun for a while, Sheng Yunshu realized why she felt so uncomfortable.

Her sister would never belong solely to her.

It was she who needed her sister’s care; it was not that her sister needed her company.

In order to prove herself to her family, Sheng Yunshu decided to enter the entertainment industry, as her academic performance was truly average.

She went straight to work. Behind Sheng Qingshan’s back, she secretly contacted several famous directors with a few like-minded friends.

On the day she got a reply, the naive Sheng Yunshu dressed up carefully for the appointment, only to be drugged, causing her heat cycle to arrive early and her glands to ache.

At the critical moment, Sheng Qingshan, who had received the news, rushed to her side.

Leaning in Sheng Qingshan’s arms, Sheng Yunshu, who was already in agonizing pain, could not help but cry, clutching her clothes and calling for her sister incessantly.

Sheng Qingshan still was not good at dealing with such situations. She could only pull off her coat, take out tissues to wipe the cub’s face, and then clumsily coax her to stop crying.

Ji Xi, who was on the side, was not idle either; she tore open several inhibitory patches and applied them to both of them to prevent them from being affected by Sheng Yunshu’s pheromones.

After being discharged from the hospital, Sheng Yunshu learned that this was all the work of Sheng Qingshan’s biological father.

Sheng Yunshu’s existence made him feel humiliated, but he did not dare express this resentment. Egged on by those around him, he targeted Sheng Yunshu.

That “audition” was a trap set for her from the start. Sheng Qingshan’s biological father conspired with that director to destroy Sheng Yunshu in this way. He knew Sheng Jiazhen; she would not allow anyone to bring shame upon the Sheng family, even her own daughter.

But he was wrong.

On the night Sheng Yunshu was unconscious, Sheng Qingshan went to her biological father’s residence to confront him. After receiving a confirmation, she suppressed her anger and told him to go to the hospital to apologize to Sheng Yunshu.

Her biological father not only refused but also said many cruel things, insulting not only Sheng Yunshu but also her mother. Sheng Qingshan pulled a gun in a moment of impulse, but fortunately, Sheng Jiazhen arrived in time to stop her.

“Qingshan, go to the hospital and stay with your sister. Leave this to Mother.”

Looking at her mother’s gentle smile, Sheng Qingshan took a deep breath, put the gun away, hugged Sheng Jiazhen, and turned to leave.

After that day, the biological father disappeared from the public eye.

But both sisters knew he was still alive, because every so often, a few new children would appear in the family.

After confirming Sheng Yunshu’s wishes, Sheng Qingshan founded an entertainment company, and she was the only artist under its banner.

With real money poured in, she quickly gained a foothold in the cutthroat entertainment industry.

Moreover, she was the only artist since her debut who could not find a single smear piece written about her.

It was not that her acting skills or public favorability were that good, but that Sheng Qingshan was willing to spend money to pave the way for her.

Her family was not short of money, but this did not mean she could spend it at will. Especially since both her grandmother and mother disliked her profession, and the gossip in the family had never stopped.

But no one dared to question Sheng Qingshan’s decision.

Even if the value she brought to the family was far less than what Sheng Qingshan had spent on her over the years, Sheng Qingshan had never said a single bad word to her.

She even bore immense pressure to announce in front of the media that Yunshu would be the sole global brand ambassador for the Sheng World Group.

After the ceremony, she hugged Sheng Qingshan’s arm and cried, saying she did not want her to suffer so much for her sake.

Sheng Qingshan just rubbed her head and said lightly:

“I go through the trouble so that you can live more easily. If you have to compromise and sacrifice, then what is the point of my efforts?”

Hearing this made Sheng Yunshu’s heart ache even more.

She remembered when she was fifteen. Under Sheng Qingshan’s support, she starred in two mainstream dramas, making the public know her name for the first time and gaining many fans.

Suddenly receiving so much love, Sheng Yunshu felt like she was walking on air.

She floated to the flower field and came humming behind Sheng Qingshan, who was pruning the agarwood tree.

“Sister, I received seventy-two handwritten letters. They are all so cute!”

Sheng Yunshu squatted next to her, sharing the contents of the letters with emotion and a hint of pride, then asked what kind of return gift she should prepare for the fans at the next meeting.

“Anything is fine. If you are going to give something, give something good; do not consider the budget.” Sheng Qingshan said while tending to the tree. “After this drama ends, go for systematic training. You will be taking on more and more roles in the future. Honing your acting skills is what an actor should do most.”

Sheng Yunshu nodded. She naturally knew she had to cherish her reputation, and she did not want to disappoint those who liked her.

The two chatted for a while, and Sheng Yunshu poked her, whispering:

“How come you know how to do everything? When will I be like you? I do not want to be taken care of by you forever. I really want to grow up quickly… If one day, I can take care of you, does that mean I have grown up?”

Sheng Yunshu started to imagine the scene where their roles were reversed.

Hearing this, Sheng Qingshan did not say much. Instead, she took off her gloves, plucked the most vibrant flower, and tucked it into her hair, a faint smile rippling in her eyes:

“It counts as me being useless then.”