This Best Actress is a Bit Annoying - Chapter 12

“Sister Xia, thank you for helping our Jiani out earlier. This is a little specialty from Jiani’s hometown; I hope you’ll accept it.”

Hearing a soft voice, Xia Qingye opened her eyes to see a middle-aged woman standing next to Yu Lan. She was slightly plump and looked a bit older than Wei Xianghong. She was carrying several bags of goods, her fingers red from the weight. “Yu Lan, take them. And thank Jiani for me.”

Yu Lan stood by in a daze. After Qi Jiani’s agent left, she knelt down to check the items. They were just local specialties, not particularly expensive, but the sentiment was nice. She whispered, “Sister Xia, why are we accepting these?”

Xia Qingye narrowed her eyes. Instead of explaining, she instructed, “Divide the items into three. Take the largest portion to Director Xun. Say that Qi Jiani wanted to apologize for her previous behavior but was too shy to come herself, so she asked us to deliver this. Make sure you word it beautifully. Keep one portion for us, and distribute the rest among the crew after work—also in Qi Jiani’s name.”

Yu Lan pursed her lips unhappily. This was the definition of “using someone else’s flowers to offer to Buddha.”

Though she didn’t quite get it, she found a time to get it done.

“Cut! Qi Jiani, what is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry, Director.”

…

Xia Qingye sat there, her eyes fixed on Qi Jiani in the center of the set, listening to Director Xun’s various “roaring” sessions. Finally, she stood up and walked over. “Director, let me talk to her.”

Xun Guang was in the middle of a fit. Being interrupted, he snapped, “Who do you think you—oh, Xiao Xia.”

Xia Qingye gave him a slight smile. “I studied Dr. Qian’s lines when I was reading the script. Let me talk to her; maybe things will go smoother.”

Xun Guang was quite confident in Xia Qingye’s ability to grasp characters. The lead, Bai Qinying, was complex; if an actor didn’t understand the role thoroughly, even a single look in front of the lens would expose the flaw.

“Fine. I’ll give you ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Director.”

Xia Qingye led the dejected Qi Jiani to a corner. Her first words were: “Qi Jiani, have you ever hated someone?”

Qi Jiani was about to thank her for the help, but the question caught her off guard. “What?”

“Hate someone. The kind of hate where you want to skin them alive, to crush them under your feet so they can never look up again. If you have that, take that hate and project it. Treat the person interrogating you as that person, and you’ll be able to play Dr. Qian perfectly.”

Qi Jiani let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Thank you. Is that how you always study characters?”

Xia Qingye only smiled without answering. “First, get a grip on Dr. Qian’s hatred for the Japanese. In a moment, treat me as your interrogator; I’ll rehearse the scene with you.”

Qi Jiani was full of curiosity toward Xia Qingye. She had wanted to find an opportunity to get closer to her ever since her assistant mentioned that Xia Qingye had helped her out with the director. Now the opportunity was here, even if the timing was odd. She decided that once this scene passed, she would find a chance to properly say thanks.

Ten minutes later, Qi Jiani found the feeling and nailed the shot in one take.

Watching the hatred in Qi Jiani’s eyes through the monitor, Xun Guang felt his mood lift. He even kept her for two more shots.

By the time Qi Jiani finished, several hours had passed. She looked around the set, but Xia Qingye was nowhere to be found. Feeling a bit disappointed, she said, “Sister Fang, let’s go.”

The two returned to their room. Yuan Fang pulled out her phone and saw a trending notification. She laughed. “People say Director Xun’s set has strict rules, but it seems that’s not entirely true. That starlet Chu Rou has caused so much trouble since joining the cast, yet the director hasn’t said a word. Meanwhile, you were late once and he scolded you all day.”

Qi Jiani didn’t respond. she stared at her script, wondering how to thank Xia Qingye.

“Jiani, I see that Xiao Xia is quite liked by Director Xun and the crew. If she hadn’t spoken up for you, you might have lost this role. And today she helped you again. Did you know her before?”

“No.”

“Then… if you asked her to put in a good word for you with Director Xun, do you think he’d change his view of you? Maybe give you a few more scenes. If you get more screen time, maybe you’ll… Hey, Jiani, where are you going?”

“Sister Fang, I just remembered I left something at the set. I’ll be right back.”

Qi Jiani quickly left the stifling room. Not knowing where to go, she wandered aimlessly through Hengdian. She had been in this industry for nearly eight years. She started at eighteen and was now twenty-six. How many eight-year periods can a woman afford to waste?

She understood what Sister Fang meant. Over the last two years, she had grown accustomed to all kinds of bullying. It was rare to meet someone willing to say a kind word for her, and she truly didn’t want to ruin such a pure relationship with ulterior motives.

She didn’t know how much longer she could hold out. Sometimes, having once climbed to the top only to fall to the very bottom is more agonizing than never having had anything at all. If she couldn’t make it, the worst-case scenario was simply leaving the circle.

“You come here!”

“I’m telling you, I won’t look at her face anymore, and I certainly won’t listen to you and apologize. Fang Xiang, don’t even think—mph!”

Hearing the name “Fang Xiang,” Qi Jiani instinctively remembered the things Yuan Fang had told her. She followed the sound and saw Fang Xiang covering Chu Rou’s mouth. He whispered, “My dear lady, are you trying to attract every paparazzi in the area?”

It took a while for Chu Rou to suppress her anger. “Fang Xiang, you saw it. Xia Qingye’s sponsor won’t back off, and I can’t reach a deal with her. If the leaks continue, I won’t be able to survive in this circle.”

Fang Xiang said, “Try one more time. If she still won’t settle, then we’ll both go down together.”

“What?”

“When I was drinking with the assistant director yesterday, he let it slip. Originally, the role of Bai Qinying was reserved for Film Queen Nie Zhuying. For some reason, that bald Xun Guang gave the role to Xia Qingye. I refuse to believe there wasn’t something scandalous going on there.”

Chu Rou’s eyes widened, and then she smiled like a blooming flower. “Great! I really don’t believe her sponsor is willing to offend an international Film Queen for her sake.”

After the two left, Qi Jiani stepped out from the corner. Her face was deathly pale. She murmured, “Nie Zhuying.”

When Qi Jiani first debuted, she had already heard of the Film Queen’s legendary name. Back then, Nie Zhuying won a Golden Horse Award for her lead role in the movie The Lover, and her career skyrocketed. In her fifth year, she was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for My Mother, but she lost the title—that year, the throne went to Zhong Ruanqin. In her sixth year, she won at Venice for Double Person, and in her seventh, the Berlin Golden Bear for Wheel of Fate…

In short, the Film Queen’s resume was so illustrious that no one could shake her status in the Chinese entertainment industry. If Xia Qingye went up against her, Qi Jiani could already foresee her end.

Qi Jiani walked back to her room in a daze.

“Jiani, you said you lost something. Did you find it?”

“Sister Fang.” Qi Jiani looked up at her agent. For the last two years, she had relied on this agent to scrape by with minor roles. This agent had stayed by her side through thick and thin, through the wandering and the suffering. “My mother said that being honest is the basic requirement of a person, the most beautiful virtue, but—”

Five years ago, because of one honest sentence, she had indirectly caused the death of a senior who had been kind to her. And because of her honesty, she was blacklisted for three years. She was starting to doubt if honesty had a place in the entertainment industry.

Yuan Fang didn’t notice her low mood. “It depends on the person. Some people love the truth, some don’t. But in this line of work, it’s never wrong to be on guard.”

Qi Jiani lay in bed thinking about the path she had taken and the things she had encountered. She couldn’t find peace. She checked her phone—it was past 11:00 PM. She sat up abruptly and walked hesitantly to Xia Qingye’s door. She looked at it, then turned to walk back.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Qi Jiani.”

Yu Lan opened the door to find the other woman standing awkwardly outside. The temperature had dropped sharply at night, and she looked cold. “Sister Xia is already asleep. Is something wrong?”

“Yu Lan, let her in.”

“Oh.”

Seeing Xia Qingye make exception after exception for this person, Yu Lan couldn’t help but look at Qi Jiani twice. Qi Jiani was actually very beautiful; at first glance, she looked almost multiracial, and she grew on you the longer you looked.

Xia Qingye threw on a coat and looked at her. She noticed the other woman’s restlessness. “Sit. What brings you here so late?”

Qi Jiani nodded, hesitated, and then whispered, “I thought about it for a long time. I felt that if I didn’t tell you, I would be incredibly regretful when things happened. I’ve also considered what might happen to me if people find out I told you.”

Seeing her rambling without getting to the point, Xia Qingye reminded her, “Nizi, give me the main point.”

“Ah.” Qi Jiani looked up and saw the faint smile on Xia Qingye’s face. She dazed out for a second. “You… you look very much like someone I knew. Just now, I thought it was her…”

“Oh? What was she like?” Xia Qingye asked smoothly.

“Forceful, domineering… when she was serious, she was a bit scary. When she was really angry, she’d even hit people. One time, someone was getting fresh with me; she just walked over, took off her high heels, and gave the guy a frantic beating—” Qi Jiani suddenly laughed through her tears. “She was very, very good to me.”

Xia Qingye watched her tearful laughter, and for some reason, her heart felt a bit stifled. “Wipe your eyes. Let’s talk business.”

Qi Jiani realized she was crying like a child and quickly wiped her face with a tissue. “I’m sorry for making a fool of myself.”

She quickly recounted every word of the conversation she overheard between Chu Rou and Fang Xiang. When she finished, her red, swollen eyes looked silently at Xia Qingye.

“They are too shameless! Sister Xia, because you refused to settle, they’re bringing in Film Queen Nie. Sister Xia, we should tell Sister Xiang right now; maybe we can think of a counter-strategy early,” Yu Lan urged frantically, her thumb hovering over the dial button.

“Nie Zhuying,” Xia Qingye murmured, lost in thought. After a long moment, she said something that nearly scared the two women in the room to death: “There’s no way Chu Rou and I are settling this peacefully. Let her leak it!”