I Heard I’m the Scumbag Alpha of a Top-Tier Leading Actress? - Chapter 19

Time passed in the blink of an eye.

When the sun was scorching the earth and the news was once again saying that this year was expected to be the hottest year yet, the ownership of the research institute’s new project was finally settled.

What was beyond everyone’s expectations, yet also perfectly reasonable, was that Hua Ran successfully obtained the project, while Gu Xin was stuffed into it as an assistant and told to fully follow Hua Ran’s command.

Huo Yuanfei said that Professor Ma herself was actually not very familiar with this project either. What she had done before was in the military industry, and she had basically never worked on civilian-use projects. So this time, they would probably have to rely entirely on Hua Ran and Gu Xin.

Hua Ran very unceremoniously picked several doctoral students to join them. From beginning to end, Gu Xin never interfered with Hua Ran’s choices, and Hua Ran never asked for Gu Xin’s opinion either.

The two of them rather looked like they did not get along. Watching from the sidelines, Huo Yuanfei kept shaking his head and saying that he completely failed to understand what Director Ma’s intention was. Putting these two together was practically Fuchai and Goujian: one looked down on everyone, the other endured humiliation while plotting revenge. What a modern-day Spring and Autumn and Warring States chronicle.

Gu Xin immediately asked him whether he had been listening to pingshu storytelling recently. Huo Yuanfei chuckled and even sent Gu Xin the link.

Once preparations were more or less complete, Hua Ran finally notified Gu Xin through the software: 【It’s time. We leave at 6:50 tomorrow morning.】

Just like that, Gu Xin boarded a plane bound for W City.

The plane passed through layers upon layers of clouds. Sunlight refracted through the haze. Above the sky at ten thousand li, they were in a place humankind had once only dreamed of reaching. When one looked downward, even the widest plains became so tiny.

Gu Xin only looked at the sun for a while before closing her eyes. She caught up on some sleep. When she woke again, the flight attendant was telling everyone that they had encountered turbulence, but that it would be very brief, and she hoped everyone would not panic.

Sitting beside Gu Xin was one of the doctoral students who had come along this time. It was probably her first time encountering air currents on a plane. She was so nervous her face had gone pale, and she was gripping the armrest tightly.

Perhaps because Gu Xin’s gaze was too intense, the doctoral student finally turned to look at her.

“Aren’t you scared?” she asked in a small voice.

The doctoral student was clearly a Beta too. Her appearance was ordinary, with heavy bangs and huge black-framed glasses. As she spoke, her eyes darted around, as if someone were about to eat her.

Gu Xin was not looking at her for any other reason. It was just her first time seeing someone in real life who was afraid of flying, so she was a little curious.

She said, “Why should I be scared? The scenery outside is quite beautiful. Wouldn’t it be a pity to focus only on fear?”

At this moment, the weather was perfectly clear. A tall building rose from the ground, piercing through the clouds and revealing a beautiful pointed tip amid the vast expanse of white cloud.

The doctoral student said, “It’s beautiful, but… I’m still scared.”

Gu Xin thought about it for a long time and felt that she still could not understand, so she said, “Then keep being scared. By the time you’ve been scared for a while, we’ll be there.”

The doctoral student was very surprised. “I-I thought you would comfort me…”

“There are so many people in the world who are afraid of airplanes. If I comforted them one by one, how tiring would that be?” Gu Xin thought about it, then added a patch. “Besides, while living in this world, many fears have to be overcome by oneself. Good luck. I believe in you.”

At the end, she even made a fist-pumping gesture.

The doctoral student said softly, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Although she did not know which of her words had touched the other girl, Gu Xin nodded calmly. She pushed her eye mask back down and closed her eyes. “When we’re about to arrive, please call me.”

“Okay.” The doctoral student obediently nodded. She looked at the gentle lower half of Gu Xin’s face and thought that the rumors about her looking down on everyone were not entirely true after all.

After joining the crew, Yan Shuangshuang began living a life where she rose earlier than chickens and slept later than dogs.

Ying Lu’s standards for the film were incredibly high. Not only was she nitpicky about props and sets, her demands of the actors had reached an outrageous degree.

Every day before the sky even brightened, the second female lead and second male lead had to go work in the fields. After coming back, they still had to seriously study animal husbandry knowledge. They were so busy every day they practically wished they could work three shifts.

Yan Shuangshuang not only had to do the same work as the second male and female leads, but after returning, she also had to memorize lines, familiarize herself with her character’s personality, and study the local dialect at the same time. Because the protagonist of the story was a village girl from the mountains. She was an Alpha, cowardly and useless since childhood. Every day, she did the most work, yet received the worst treatment.

The moment Yan Shuangshuang received the character setting, she had seriously asked Ying Lu whether she was insane. Her identity as an Omega was known to everyone, and she had even trended because of the whole “Omega pretending to be an Alpha” matter.

Yet Ying Lu still wanted her to play an Alpha. Aside from Ying Lu wanting to stir up something huge, Yan Shuangshuang could think of no other reason.

When Ying Lu heard Yan Shuangshuang’s words, she had leisurely taken a drag of her cigarette and puffed out a beautiful smoke ring. Half-squinting her eyes, she had said, “Who says Omegas can’t play Alphas? Cross-casting is exactly what makes it interesting. Whether they praise or curse it, as long as the audience gets tricked into the cinema, that counts as success.”

Yan Shuangshuang smiled bitterly. “With my popularity among passersby, I’ll probably only get cursed.”

Ying Lu glanced at her sideways. “Who said we need your popularity with passersby? Once my name, Ying Lu, is put out there, the signboard will be plenty loud. You just focus on filming. Act however you should act. You don’t need to worry about anything else.”

Ying Lu had a personality that allowed no argument. It was exactly this attitude that made Yan Shuangshuang feel at ease for the first time in a long while.

The entertainment industry was chaotic, full of naked calculations of profit and interest, survival of the fittest, practically a real-life version of Darwinism. Yan Shuangshuang had already suffered losses and taken a massive fall. Logically speaking, keeping as far away as possible would be the right path.

But late at night, tossing and turning, Yan Shuangshuang suddenly realized that at some point, only Gu Xin remained in her life.

She had treated Gu Xin as the sole center of her life, regarded Gu Xin’s matters as her own, and carried Gu Xin’s emotions. She was exhausted to death, yet no matter what, she could not satisfy Gu Xin. What she received was always impatient scolding.

Across all these years, the only thing Yan Shuangshuang could call her own will was actually the path of acting.

In fact, only when she was acting would she forget Gu Xin, forget that she was a pitiful worm in love. But the moment she came out of character, she would be drowned by an even deeper guilt, thinking, How could she treat her partner like this?

If Gu Xin had not gone too far, perhaps Yan Shuangshuang still would not have woken up.

Whether picking acting back up was because she truly liked it, or because she wanted to prove something, Yan Shuangshuang herself could not say clearly.

But she did not hate this busy life.

That morning, when Yan Shuangshuang woke up, she smelled the heavy, stifling dampness in the air. She glanced at the barely brightening sky and felt that the wind was blowing rather strongly, so she got up to wake He Xin.

“He Xin, wake up. It looks like it’s going to rain outside. Do you want to bring your clothes in?”

He Xin drowsily opened her phone and checked the weather forecast. Seeing that the chance of rain was less than ten percent, she pulled the blanket over her head and said, “Don’t want to bring them in. The weather forecast says there’s no rain. I’m going to sleep a little more.”

After that, no matter how Yan Shuangshuang called her, she could not wake her. With no other choice, Yan Shuangshuang changed shoes and hurried up to the rooftop to rely on herself.

In the end, halfway through collecting the laundry, pouring rain suddenly came down. Yan Shuangshuang only had time to rescue one pair of her own pants and two sets of He Xin’s clothes. As for the rest, she could only watch helplessly as they returned to the state they had been in yesterday, when ninety percent of them had been water in the washing machine.

Just then, Ying Lu braved the wind, holding an umbrella that was nearly useless, and hurried from another building into the courtyard. Seeing Yan Shuangshuang hiding beneath the rain shelter, she shouted at the top of her lungs, “Fuck! Which little bastard didn’t bring in the engine yesterday? It’s soaked in a puddle now and completely scrapped! With rain this heavy, we can’t do anything! Tell He Xin we’re taking the day off!”

After delivering the notice, Ying Lu hurried away again, not even caring that the lower half of her body was completely soaked.

Yan Shuangshuang picked up her phone and saw that the signal came and went, while the internet had completely jumped to an error. No wonder Ying Lu had personally come through the rain to notify them.

Looking again at the gloomy sky, Yan Shuangshuang felt that the rain had come suddenly and fiercely. It probably would not stop anytime soon.

Everything had been perfectly fine. Why did it have to choose today? She had made an appointment with a teacher from town today to learn some more advanced spoken dialect. With this delay, everything would have to be pushed back again.

Yan Shuangshuang stayed beneath the rain shelter for a while, watching the curtain of rain fall like a waterfall, then went downstairs.

When she entered the room, she saw He Xin sitting on the bed with a blank expression. The moment He Xin saw Yan Shuangshuang, she said, “Did I just hear that we have the day off?”

“You heard correctly.” Yan Shuangshuang casually stuffed the clothes over. “The rain is too heavy, so we have the day off. But there’s no signal right now, so we can’t even go online.”

He Xin quickly took out her phone and refreshed it. The loading circle spun wildly, but no messages appeared. In the end, it directly reported that there was no network connection.

In agony, she slammed her head into the bed and shouted, “Heavens!”

A day off like this might as well not exist!

Still immersed in the sorrow of having a day off but no internet, a stranger’s shout suddenly came from outside.

“Is anyone there?! A car over there got stuck in the ground! Anyone who can help, hurry and come save them!”