Oh No, My Tail Has Been Seen! - Chapter 11
Chapter 11
◎She Can Get By on Her Own◎
After replying to her, Su Miao continued eating. The dinner party ended quickly. After all, half of the people there were actors who needed to maintain their figures, so their appetites were small.
After dinner, they were free to do as they pleased. There were cameras in the public areas to record the artists’ daily lives and the agents’ work. After giving a few instructions, the host left, and they would no longer be needed for the next few days. The production crew wanted to record the artists’ most authentic daily lives.
After dinner, Su Miao leaned on the sofa and played with her phone when she suddenly received a WeChat message.
Bai Jin: You need to maintain your screen time to let everyone get to know you, understand you, and like you. This is the core purpose of participating in this show.
Su Miao was a little surprised to receive a message from Bai Jin. It was the first time she had spoken to her since they added each other on WeChat.
Su Miao: Got it. I’ll try to be in front of the camera as much as possible.
After sending the message, Su Miao saw Bai Jin’s name change to “typing…” and then received a message a few seconds later.
Bai Jin: You don’t have to be on screen all the time. You need to create a memorable impression for the audience. For example, if you’re good at dancing, you can go to the dance studio and dance to showcase your talent.
Su Miao thought about what talent she had that could be memorable for the audience. After thinking it over, it seemed there was only one.
Bai Jin: Singing is out.
Su Miao: Huh? I just thought of that.
Her singing was indeed outstanding, but in the opposite way.
Bai Jin: You can only show your flaws after you’ve gained some fame. The most important thing now is to leave a good impression on everyone.
That made sense. Showing flaws right after meeting people was a good way to push them away.
Su Miao: I understand.
Bai Jin had time to reply in seconds, so did that mean she had already taken care of things over there, or was she on her way? Su Miao couldn’t hide her thoughts, so she immediately typed.
Su Miao: Since you have time to give me instructions, does that mean you’ve already handled everything with Ning Yu?
This time, Bai Jin took ten minutes to reply. Su Miao kept looking at the screen, and when it was about to go dark, she poked it with her finger to keep it on.
Bai Jin: No, I’m still busy. An Yixin is acting with Ning Yu, and her schedule is full. Ning Yu’s injury prevents him from returning to film immediately, which is delaying the production. I have to continue negotiating with them to resolve the current issues.
It seemed she wouldn’t be able to come anytime soon. The hope that had just ignited in Su Miao was instantly extinguished. The show’s filming was only for seven days. After these seven days, everyone would go back to their own jobs, and the staff would follow up with each new artist at their workplace until the six-month mark when the show would be edited and officially aired to summarize each artist’s development.
Looking at the screen with Bai Jin’s name, Su Miao suddenly felt a pang of sadness. It would be a blessing if she could even come during these seven days. Here, everyone else had an agent, but she was on her own.
Just as she was lost in thought, someone sat down on the sofa next to her. She looked up and saw Xu Sheng.
“Hello, Xu Sheng,” Su Miao said with a smile. Besides Zhang Linyu, Xu Sheng was the only other person she had a strong impression of.
“Su Miao, hello,” Xu Sheng said naturally, holding out her hand for a handshake. Su Miao understood and shook her hand.
“I remember you. You were the most beautiful art student, and then you became the campus belle,” Xu Sheng said bluntly, with admiration in her eyes. “By the way, I’m your junior. I’m a sophomore.”
“A junior?” It was a little more comforting to know they were from the same school. “It must be hard to study, participate in a variety show, and sometimes go to a set to film.” Su Miao remembered that Xu Sheng had mentioned her experience playing small roles during her introduction.
Xu Sheng was stunned to hear her words. It was as if no one had ever asked her if she was tired or if her life was difficult. She just wanted to become famous as soon as possible so that her future would be easier. Xu Sheng hid her emotions well and pretended not to care. “It’s fine. These are all things we have to go through as actors. You’re a senior, so you’re still a student. We’re actually in the same boat.”
It was normal for a junior to call her “senior,” but Su Miao never expected that a girl with such a cool appearance would be so gentle when she talked. The contrast was stark.
“Oh, by the way, senior, I watched your stage play The Little Mermaid when I was a freshman. I still have the photos. Do you want to see them?” Xu Sheng noticed that Su Miao wasn’t very proactive, so she took the initiative to find a topic.
“Huh?” She had indeed played the lead in a stage play during her freshman art performance. She played a mermaid. She remembered that the mermaid tail prop was so bad that she couldn’t even walk steadily on stage. During the scene where she was chasing the prince, she took too big a step and fell to the ground. She was laughed at for a long time. So, when she heard the words “photos,” Su Miao’s heart sank. She didn’t want to look at her dark history. But Xu Sheng had already handed her the phone, so Su Miao had no choice but to face it.
The first photo was of her clumsily walking barefoot on the sand after she had gotten legs for the first time. Her face was full of joy, but as she smiled, tears began to fall from the pain. The camera captured the moment her tears fell, which made her look so heartbroken. The second photo was of her reuniting with the prince in the palace, but she watched as he got engaged to the princess of a neighboring country. She was leaning against a wall, secretly watching the person she loved be happy.
“Can you send me a copy of this photo?” As the lead actress, Su Miao never thought that the stage play she was forced to participate in would have such a good effect. She always made it a habit to forget the painful memories she had, and before this, the only thing she remembered about this stage play was the pain of being laughed at when she fell. She never thought that from another perspective, she had done a pretty good job and that someone had captured it.
“Sure, let’s add each other on WeChat.” Xu Sheng showed her the QR code to add her as a friend, and Su Miao scanned it and added her. Xu Sheng quickly sent her all the photos from the stage play. Looking at the photos, Su Miao started to piece together her memories and the entire story.
“I love this third act the most, but it’s a shame the senior who played the prince never fully got into the role,” Xu Sheng said, suddenly looking at Su Miao. “How about we try to rehearse a scene? I’ll play the prince. It would fulfill a wish of mine.”
Huh? Bai Jin had just messaged her, telling her to do a good job on the show, and rehearsing a scene from a stage play would be a good way to showcase her acting skills.
“Okay.” Su Miao remembered that she had saved the script after she had gotten it, so even if the history had been cleared, she should be able to find it. She scrolled through her phone and quickly found the script for The Little Mermaid and sent a copy to Xu Sheng. After getting the script, Xu Sheng started reading it carefully.
It had been three years since she last played the little mermaid. Su Miao generally remembered the story, but she had long forgotten the specific lines and movements, so she had to reread the story.
In the third act, the little mermaid saw that the prince had mistakenly believed that the princess of a neighboring country had saved him, and they were about to get engaged. The little mermaid had lost her voice and couldn’t explain it to the prince, so she could only watch as the prince and the princess got engaged. Afterward, the little mermaid still couldn’t accept how the story ended, so she had a mermaid who could write human language help her write a letter to the prince. The prince was shocked after reading it. It turned out that the princess he was about to marry wasn’t the one who saved him. But after spending so much time together, he had already fallen in love with the princess, so he could only pretend that she was the one.
No wonder Tong Yao said that this story was a horror story for them mermaids. The mermaid gave her heart to the person she loved, but she received nothing in return. In the end, she completely disappeared into the sea. Su Miao clenched her phone and thought of the person she was willing to give her heart to. She just wanted to be good to Bai Jin, so the moment she gave her heart, she was already happy, regardless of Bai Jin’s response. She only wanted to be good to Bai Jin.
“How about we start rehearsing tomorrow?” Xu Sheng looked at the time. It was almost 10 PM. “I want to change the story a little. I’ll make the changes and send them to you tomorrow.”
“Huh?” Su Miao looked at her with confusion.
“To make my wish come true,” Xu Sheng said with a smile, her small canine tooth looking especially playful.
“Okay. I’ll go back and rest now. I’ll read it after you send it to me tomorrow.” Su Miao held her phone and went back to her room. She told Bai Jin about what had just happened.
Bai Jin only replied with two words. “可以 (You can).”
It seemed that she was very busy, so Su Miao didn’t bother her anymore. After washing up, she lay in bed and scrolled through Weibo. As expected, Ning Yu was trending. Below the trend was a video of Ning Yu being carried on a stretcher to the hospital. The next video showed Bai Jin talking to the director on set. An Yixin and her new agent were also standing next to them. The four of them seemed to be discussing something. Bai Jin was doing most of the talking, and An Yixin occasionally nodded or said a few short words.
Bai Jin was already so busy, so it was probably better not to bother her. She could get by on her own for these seven days. Thinking this, Su Miao closed her phone and her eyes to rest. She was especially tired today. If she were at home, she would have turned into a mermaid and laid in the bathtub. But she was not at home. Although there were no cameras in the room, she was still scared. Su Miao had also made up her mind that she would probably not be going home often once she started filming, so she could just treat this as a way to get used to it. Since she was so tired, Su Miao fell asleep quickly and wasn’t woken up until someone knocked on her door the next day.