The Best Actress Is a Cat - Chapter 3

It was a perfect morning. Although there was no sweet shrimp, there were other delicious cat meals. And based on Lin Duanduan’s experience, by evening at the latest, her poop-scooper would bring sweet shrimp home.

Of course, given how fickle cats were, by nighttime, she might no longer like eating sweet shrimp.

Ji Lan had Ji Lan’s work, and Lin Duanduan had Lin Duanduan’s work. In order to support herself, this little kitty was also working hard filming today!

Originally, Ji Lan had wanted to send a driver to take Lin Duanduan to the set, but Lin Duanduan refused. Early in the morning, she took the bus to the filming location by herself.

Their drama was a campus romance story. Lin Duanduan played the third female character, the follower of the vicious supporting female character who was blind enough to fall for the male lead, insisted on fighting the female lead for him no matter what, and constantly framed and hurt the female lead.

At the time, Ji Lan had someone send over several scripts for her to freely choose both the script and the role. Lin Duanduan did not choose the female lead, nor did she choose the second female lead. Instead, she took a liking to this third female character who did not have that many scenes.

Lin Duanduan arrived quite early. When she reached the set, the female lead and male lead had not arrived yet. She wandered by herself to the makeup room and let the makeup artist do her makeup.

The makeup artist was thirty-eight this year. She was not particularly beautiful, but she was very refined. She liked Lin Duanduan a lot and would bring snacks for Lin Duanduan every time, letting her secretly eat them and telling her not to let the director see.

Lin Duanduan was truly a magical existence in their crew. For some reason, after spending some time with her, everyone would subconsciously feed her.

Even the crew member in charge of handing out boxed lunches would subconsciously give Lin Duanduan an extra chicken drumstick.

Of course, Lin Duanduan was delighted by this. How could anyone possibly dislike such a cute little kitty, right?

The only person who was clearly somewhat repelled by her was the female lead of the crew. Lin Duanduan did not know why, but she could keenly sense the female lead’s rejection of her.

Lin Duanduan was not the sort of cat who liked to press her warm face against someone’s cold backside. On the contrary, most cats were actually rather proud creatures. So she generally did not like interacting with the female lead either.

After Lin Duanduan finished her makeup, she first thanked the makeup artist, then took her little snacks and went out. By this time, the male lead, female lead, and the others had all arrived and were entering the makeup room one after another.

Lin Duanduan sniffed, feeling that there was a strange smell. She followed the scent and looked over. The person inside that makeup room seemed to be the female lead.

Tang Lili.

Tang Lili could be considered a fairly popular female celebrity at the moment. Although she had not debuted for very long, in her first television drama, she had played a very pure and adorable female lead and became an instant hit.

After that, she had continued accepting similar roles. Although her acting path had been restricted to a very narrow range, her popularity remained quite good. After all, there were quite a lot of people who liked that type.

Once Lin Duanduan saw that the person inside was Tang Lili, she lost the desire to investigate. After all, that smell was very ordinary. It was not sweet, nor was it fragrant. It probably would not taste good.

After giving up on investigating, Lin Duanduan went to her own seat and sat there obediently, waiting for the director to call her. Not long after she sat down, Tang Lili came out of the makeup room after finishing her makeup.

She did not look very well. Even with makeup covering it, the traces of dark circles could still be vaguely seen. It made her appear somewhat exhausted, giving the impression that she had not been sleeping well recently.

After Tang Lili saw Lin Duanduan, her expression became even worse. She snorted, then sat down with a look of disdain on a seat several empty spaces away from Lin Duanduan.

Lin Duanduan had no intention of paying attention to her at all. Biting her lollipop, she lowered her head and began playing games. The instant she saw Tang Lili, she knew why there was such a strange smell on her.

After a person died, they became a ghost.

This referred to everyone, but there were differences between ghosts as well. Those without lingering obsessions, who did not have much attachment to the mortal world, would be taken away by ghost messengers within a few days after death. They would be brought to the underworld to await reincarnation.

But ghosts with overly heavy obsessions had many things left unfinished while alive. Even after death, they refused to leave just like that and would secretly remain in the human world.

This counted as illegal behavior. If ghost messengers discovered them, they would be forcibly arrested.

Even so, countless people refused to leave after dying. Therefore, in this human world, many, many ghosts existed.

It was just that ordinary people could not see ghosts, and most ghosts would not come out during the day. As for those old ghosts who had existed for years, their strength was extremely powerful. They no longer feared sunlight and could even blend into crowds, so humans naturally could not distinguish them.

But in the eyes of those who could see, they could see the traces ghosts left behind.

For example, Tang Lili’s body was surrounded by ghostly energy.

She had been entangled by something, which was why she looked so lacking in spirit.

But Lin Duanduan did not have a good relationship with Tang Lili. Tang Lili was still glaring at her too. She would not bother with Tang Lili.

Lin Duanduan opened a game. Since she did not know when it would be her turn to go on set, she did not play a PvP game. Instead, she played the kind that could be paused at any time, such as Plants vs. Zombies.

Or match-three puzzle games.

Lin Duanduan played games for a long time before it was finally her turn to go on set. Her character did not have many scenes. Most of the time, she was just a decorative vase, following behind the second female lead and cheering her on. Even her few lines all had the distinctive style of a little follower.

Second female lead: “What do you think you are, daring to fight me over a man?”

Lin Duanduan: “Exactly!”

That was basically the style.

So Lin Duanduan’s scenes were relaxed and simple. They did not require much acting skill, which was very suitable for a newcomer who had just entered the entertainment industry like her. Lin Duanduan actually quite liked acting. She felt it was very interesting and fun.

Sometimes, she would even take the initiative to discuss things with the director and change a couple of lines.

Not many people in this crew knew what Lin Duanduan’s identity was, but the director vaguely knew a little. He only knew that she had some connection with Ji Lan, so he was especially tolerant toward Lin Duanduan.

It was only changing a few lines, and the changes were not large at all. They were completely within an acceptable range.

So he let her do as she pleased.

Lin Duanduan acted her role very seriously. She was actually very beautiful, especially those cat-like eyes of hers, which were full of spirit. They mixed innocence with charm, contradictory yet not strange at all.

In fact, the director sometimes had a bit of a headache, because when Lin Duanduan, the second female lead, and the female lead were in the same shot, even if she had no lines and was just standing there, she would involuntarily attract other people’s attention.

This was a crushing defeat caused by appearance and aura.

In order to prevent the female lead and second female lead from being overshadowed too badly, the cinematographer had to constantly search for angles. The workload had practically doubled.

Actually, the director also really wanted to complain. He felt that although Lin Duanduan’s acting skills were very average, with her looks, even if she acted as herself, she would definitely become popular playing a female lead.

After all, this was a world that judged by faces.

He just did not know why, back then, when she chose a role, she insisted on choosing a minor supporting character.

Wasn’t this making things difficult for them?

In the entertainment industry, who knew how many female celebrities wanted to play lead roles but could not. Yet Lin Duanduan did not even want to act as the lead when it was offered to her.

This was probably what it meant to be willful because one had backing.

Lin Duanduan acted seriously for several hours. Her scenes were neither too few nor too many. Almost whenever the second female lead appeared, she also had a chance to appear.

In fact, Ji Lan had once asked her very curiously why she had chosen this role.

At the time, Lin Duanduan had answered like this: “Few lines, but the pay is still okay!”

She had even been rather pleased with herself, feeling that this role had the best cost-performance ratio. She could do the least amount of work while still earning quite a bit of money.

Ji Lan’s expression had been complicated. She would probably never tell Lin Duanduan how much money she had invested in order to get her into the crew and let her freely choose a role.

By the time Lin Duanduan’s scenes were nearly done, lunchtime was also approaching. The director immediately said that once they finished this last take, they would eat.

Lin Duanduan instantly perked up. Although the boxed lunches on set were not as tasty as the cat meals Ji Lan made, they were still decent. Especially the braised chicken drumstick. She really liked that.

The young man who handed out boxed lunches would give her an extra chicken drumstick every time, letting Lin Duanduan eat happily.

Her eyes visibly brightened quite a bit. Clearly, she was very much looking forward to lunch.

This final scene was a confrontation between the second female lead and the female lead. Lin Duanduan stood behind the second female lead as a background board and only had two lines in total.

“Don’t refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!”

“You’re finished!”

She had very few lines and had memorized them thoroughly long ago. She obediently followed behind the second female lead, waiting for lunch. The second female lead’s acting was pretty good, at least much better than Tang Lili, whose acting when angry consisted only of glaring.

However, because her appearance leaned toward gorgeousness, and specifically a sharp, striking kind of beauty, most of the roles she received were villain roles. She almost never had the opportunity to play a female lead.

After all departments were in position, the director called start. Lin Duanduan stood behind the second female lead, which meant she was face-to-face with Tang Lili and could clearly see the ghostly energy surging around Tang Lili’s body.

Noon was clearly the time when yang energy was strongest, so ghostly energy should have been suppressed. Yet the ghostly energy on her body was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it churned, like boiling water.

As time passed bit by bit, it even boiled more and more violently, as if it had been stimulated by something.

If it was already like this during the day, then by nighttime, the ghostly energy should be even stronger. Lin Duanduan did not quite understand why Tang Lili had not gotten into trouble yet. Judging from how dense the ghostly energy on her was, something should have happened to her long ago.

At the very least, it should have been impossible for her to stand here perfectly fine and act.

Lin Duanduan stared at her somewhat absentmindedly. The director could not help calling out, “Cut! Duanduan, you…”

Before he could finish speaking, Lin Duanduan suddenly stretched out her hand, grabbed the second female lead, and forcibly dragged her away. In the next second, a heavy object fell from above.