We Are Filthy, Born From Mud - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Yes, I Am Very Kind

“There is no kinder person on earth than I am…

“There is no one kinder on earth than I am.

I merely lowered my moral standards a little bit, and discarded a little sense of shame.

But—

But isn’t this excusable?”

Surrounded by tracks, camera jibs, and cameras was Zong Yougu.

She frowned slightly, looking genuinely puzzled.

Yes, she was an actress.

She forcefully swept her arms, and the teacup placed on the table harshly hit the floor.

Splashes of tea dragged out long wet trails.

She was startled by the noise.

“If you were like me, you would also be like me…”

What was the next line?

Zong Yougu forgot.

“Cut—” The director called a halt to Zong Yougu’s performance.

“Xiao Zong, your state isn’t very good today. I mean, I think you can be better. Because this scene is very important, I deliberately saved it for last. I thought with the filming time we’ve had, you would be able to get into the zone properly.”

The director’s tone was strict.

Zong Yougu bowed her head slightly, pursing her lips, showing a perfectly measured amount of guilt.

Fortunately, the director didn’t criticize Zong Yougu too harshly.

She reached out and patted Zong Yougu’s back, then picked up the megaphone: “That’s a wrap for today. Thank you for your hard work, everyone.”

“Adjust your state well over the next two days. I really trust my judgment and don’t think you’ll disappoint me,” the director instructed the crew members while advising Zong Yougu. “Alright, don’t stand here anymore. Go on.”

Zong Yougu gave the director a gentle smile and slowly turned to leave the set.

She skillfully slipped into her trailer.

She looked around and, confirming there was no one else present, the smile on her face disappeared immediately, as if by magic.

Boneless, she slumped onto the seat like a folded omelet.

She closed her eyes, feeling a painful strain in her eyelids.

The problem these past two days wasn’t whether she rested well.

It was that she hadn’t rested at all.

Because she simply didn’t dare to fall asleep.

She had been having incredibly bizarre dreams for two nights straight.

She dreamed that someone was chasing and trying to kill her, and she also dreamed that she was chasing and killing others.

Even now, she could still remember the sticky sensation of blood on her hands, and the strong metallic smell drilling into her nostrils.

It was too real to be a dream.

Was she accumulating too much bad karma?

She opened her eyes seriously to reflect.

That shouldn’t be the case. She considered herself the kindest person in the world.

She never actively argued with people, she was always humble, she was generous…

She counted her virtues on her fingers, one by one.

As each finger folded down, the smile on her face grew wider.

The more satisfied she felt, the more she turned her head and saw a faint reflection in the window glass.

She began to admire herself again.

Shining in the sunlight were her eyes, large and round. Her nose blocked the sunlight like a mountain range, harshly dividing light and shadow on her face.

Every one of her features seemed to have been meticulously sculpted by the heavens, all so perfectly placed.

Zong Yougu gazed at herself intently.

She nodded in satisfaction.

She was beautiful and kind.

How could she possibly make a mistake?

“Sister Yougu, Sister Yougu!” Her assistant ran all the way, breathless.

Zong Yougu looked at the clumsy young assistant in front of her, feeling a headache.

Sweat slid down the assistant’s forehead, sticking her hair firmly to her skin.

Zong Yougu vaguely held up a hand, signaling the assistant to stay back. She smiled again: “What is it?”

Her assistant didn’t take offense. After stopping in place, she looked at Zong Yougu’s expression and retreated one step backward.

“Sister Yougu, it’s about two things I need to tell you.

The first is that Miss Su has taken up your lounge again—”

“Just kick her out, wouldn’t that solve it?”

Zong Yougu said it with a clear conscience, without the slightest hesitation.

“But—”

“But what?”

“But you never go to the lounge anyway.”

“It’s still mine, though. Why should I give it to someone else?” Zong Yougu was still smiling, but her tone held a hint of confusion.

“Then should I throw Miss Su’s things out?” the assistant asked cautiously.

“Throw her person out too, why not.”

As Zong Yougu spoke, she stretched out her hand towards the light again. The distorted shadow of her hand cast on the door handle made her chuckle.

She giggled, forgetting about her assistant for a moment.

“But—” the assistant whispered.

“But what again?”

“But you said this morning that you wanted to do good deeds and accumulate virtue recently,” the assistant grumbled.

Zong Yougu nodded thoughtfully.

The assistant watched her, not daring to miss an expression.

Unexpectedly, Zong Yougu began reciting a line of dialogue:

“There is no one kinder on earth than I am.

I merely lowered my moral standards a little bit, and discarded a little sense of shame.

But—

But isn’t this excusable?”

Her tone was overly dramatic and emotionally charged, reaching a level of pretense.

It was the kind of delivery that would give anyone goosebumps.

After finishing the lines, her face held a rare seriousness.

She looked at her assistant, her eyes brazenly sizing her up.

The assistant lowered her head awkwardly, then nervously wrung her fingers. The smile reappeared on Zong Yougu’s face.

She finally leaned forward and said: “I’ve been doing good deeds all along. Where else could you find someone as good as me? Go on, go on. I don’t want my space to be occupied by others.”

The assistant didn’t dare delay and immediately ran towards the lounge.

Zong Yougu smiled sweetly at the assistant’s retreating figure.

Her assistant clearly said there were two things she needed to mention, but now she’d forgotten the second one.

She’s always so careless.

I must deduct her salary this time. Zong Yougu thought viciously.

After pondering for a while, she figured it probably wasn’t anything important, so she let it go.

“Auntie, don’t go back to the hotel. Take me to the airport. I’m going home,” she told the driver.

“Miss Yougu, your filming work isn’t finished. Isn’t it a bit inappropriate to go back now?”

“I want to go home.” Zong Yougu was still smiling, but her attitude was firm and brooked no argument.

“This…” The driver hesitated.

Zong Yougu laughed, “Auntie, of course I know how important this filming is, but I definitely won’t cause any major problems. Besides, think about it, who am I? It’s all the same with or without me.”

“Alright then, you keep an eye on things yourself.”

“Thank you, Auntie!”

Zong Yougu looked very happy, her pinky finger supporting her phone sticking up high as she tapped the side of the screen, irregularly, one tap after another.

Her clean, slender fingers moved up and down, and her gaze followed her fingers, scanning the screen.

Finally, Zong Yougu’s finger and gaze stopped on two trending topics.

#ZongYouguActingSkills#

#ZongYouguPrimaDonna#

Her brow furrowed slightly.

She still clicked on both terms.

She quickly skimmed the comments and understood.

The first topic originated from today’s leaked photos, which happened to capture the moment the director called “Cut” on her scene.

Her smile grew wider.

Because the photo made her look incredibly beautiful.

She secretly saved it.

Besides, so what if people didn’t like her? So what if her acting was poor?

She was still Zong Yougu, and she liked herself very much, anyway.

Thinking this, she picked up a glass of iced water and took a large sip.

The second trending topic was because her assistant had been photographed.

In the picture, her assistant was forcefully pushing Su Tongguo outside.

The innocent-looking Su Tongguo and the fierce-looking assistant made for excellent tabloid material.

She zoomed in on the photo. She noticed her assistant’s face was flushed, and she seemed somewhat guilty, but she was forced to act this way due to Zong Yougu’s temper.

Zong Yougu couldn’t help but laugh.

She thought about how she should secretly give her assistant a raise.

But then, she immediately reconsidered. This was, after all, part of her assistant’s job.

Zong Yougu put down her phone and dropped the subject.

“Auntie, thank you for your trouble.”

Zong Yougu said goodbye to the driver in a sweet voice.

Zong Yougu was skilled at checking in and waiting for her flight.

She suddenly remembered that in the past, watching planes take off one by one, she couldn’t help but wonder who was on those planes, and she couldn’t help but envy them.

But now, Zong Yougu was one of those people.

She had almost everything she had once envied.

However, the more she had, the greedier she became.

She should have more.

Because she was beautiful, she worked hard, her academic performance was excellent, her moral character was noble…

In short, she considered herself perfect.

Because she was Zong Yougu, she deserved to have more.

Zong Yougu passed the coffee stand and couldn’t resist stopping to buy a cup of coffee.

Black coffee, iced—the kind that protagonists in TV dramas often drank.

Zong Yougu carried the coffee and continued on her way with a confident stride.

She looked at the shallow reflection on the glass door, and the corners of her mouth curled up again.

This was the person she had always wanted to be.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated repeatedly, and several messages quickly crowded her lock screen.

These messages were from—

Her assistant.

Su Tongguo.

Liao Qinghe.

Her headache intensified. She turned off the screen.

Even without opening them, she could guess what they had sent.

Her assistant would anxiously ask where she was, then chatter on and on, urging her to return quickly.

Su Tongguo, as one of her few close friends, would certainly scream about how Zong Yougu was heartless and inhumane.

As for Liao Qinghe… frankly, Zong Yougu wanted to break up with her.

They persisted in sending messages, and Zong Yougu’s phone kept lighting up.

She didn’t hesitate to turn off her phone.

She felt no guilt; wasn’t it normal to turn off electronic devices before a flight?

The boarding announcement finally sounded.

Zong Yougu smiled brightly as she boarded the plane.

She suspected that the insomnia and vivid dreams over the past two days were due to her being unaccustomed to the hotel bed.

Such a high-class hotel equipped with such soft beds and soft pillows.

Wasn’t that just asking people to have nightmares?

She wondered how others managed to sleep on those things.

No wonder chiropractors earned so much.

She idly scrolled through her phone’s home screen, pretending to be busy.

She wanted to clear her mind, but the recent dreams kept flashing back.

To be honest, she wasn’t actually scared.

She often encountered such scenes while filming, and she had seen things even more gruesome than this.

She just felt a little… disgusted.

Stab someone with a knife, and they were no different from a frozen, burst water pipe in winter, gushing out reddish-brown, rusty water.

Then, dark, non-belonging liquid splashed onto her clothes and skin. Warm liquid trickled down the folds of her clothes and across her joints. What was the difference between that and being licked by someone?

Zong Yougu was covered in goosebumps.

Zong Yougu’s forehead was slightly throbbing. She reached up and rubbed her forehead.

Zong Yougu hadn’t planned on sleeping on the plane.

First, the flight wouldn’t last very long, and a short nap would only make her mind less clear.

Second, in Zong Yougu’s subconscious, doing so seemed somewhat undignified.

As for why, she couldn’t quite explain it herself.

But she forgot that she hadn’t slept for nearly two nights.

Her biological instinct triumphed over her stubbornness.

She fell asleep without realizing it.

Sure enough, she dreamed of the familiar scene again.

She seemed to be standing in front of a mirror.

As soon as she stood in front of a mirror, she would have her “episodes.”

The name of this condition was narcissism.

She scrutinized herself up and down.

The dim light softened her features, and the porcelain white wall tiles made her complexion snow-white.

She let out a sigh, squinting as she couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her reflection’s face in the mirror.

Just as her hand was about to touch the opposite side.

Her hand was stopped.

Her wrist was seized, and she felt as if her arm was about to break.

“Who are you?”

The voice came from the opposite side.

Only then did Zong Yougu realize this was not a mirror at all.

She swiftly lifted her head, staring intently at the person who looked exactly like her.

Her heart hammered violently against her chest, and her ragged breathing scratched her lungs.

“Who exactly are you?”

Before Zong Yougu could react, the person’s hand suddenly grabbed her neck tightly.

The person’s breath sprayed onto her face. The person was very strong, and Zong Yougu struggled for air despite using all her strength.

She looked at the person’s face, slightly flushed from exertion, and figured she must look the same right now.

“Who are you!”

Zong Yougu opened her mouth but couldn’t make a sound.

Her hand, which had been raised mid-air, fell limply.

She passed out.

The moment she lost consciousness, she finally woke up.

Her chest rose and fell violently. She reached up to brush aside her sweat-soaked bangs.

Gazing at the clouds outside the window, she felt as if she had been transported to another world.

She checked the time. She had only been asleep for fifteen minutes.

She sighed and pulled out her script.

Because she simply didn’t dare to sleep, and couldn’t sleep anymore.