Oh No, My Tail Has Been Seen! - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: My Name is Bai Jin

She had already learned everything about this incident from Xu Qingqing.

Based on her perspective alone, she had identified a few suspicious points.

Why did the makeup artist initially apply such elaborate makeup to Su Miao? Was it to overshadow the lead actress and get Su Miao blacklisted?

Did the new makeup artist truly not know she had to use waterproof makeup?

Why was there a rainy night version of this scene? The original script didn’t have this arrangement.

These questions were like a series of traps, slowly luring Su Miao in.

She had just received an emergency call to discuss a new role. She didn’t expect that in the short time she was gone, Su Miao would be set up.

She felt her shoulder getting wet. Su Miao was sobbing on her shoulder, her body shaking with each sob.

It was heartbreaking.

She had already said everything she needed to say and made her stance clear. Bai Jin no longer spoke, allowing Su Miao to let out all her grievances.

The room was very quiet. She took in every one of Su Miao’s whimpers. Each small sob fueled her anger a little more.

After a while, Su Miao finally stopped crying.

She reached out and pushed Bai Jin’s shoulder away, seeing a wet mark on Bai Jin’s white suit.

She looked up at her, like a child who had done something wrong, her red eyes filled with hurt.

Bai Jin couldn’t help but gently touch her fair cheek with her index finger. Seeing Su Miao flinch slightly, she withdrew her hand.

They were very close. Su Miao could even feel Bai Jin’s breath. Normally, she might have felt her heart flutter.

But now, she felt that she had embarrassed Bai Jin.

After a good cry, her head felt very tired and empty. She couldn’t think about anything.

“You saw the post that was slandering you, didn’t you?” Bai Jin carefully took a tissue and wiped away her tears, as if cleaning a work of art, with a light touch and extreme care.

Su Miao was about to refuse, but seeing her determined eyes, she pursed her lips and let her continue.

“I did.”

She had been crying for so long. There must be a lot of comments now. She was suddenly curious about what the netizens were saying about her.

With a hint of self-mockery, she reached for her phone to look at the post again.

But Bai Jin put the phone aside before she could get to it.

“I’ll find out who posted it,” Bai Jin said, her voice returning to its usual calm and serious tone. “The post has a very clear bias, saying you wanted to outshine Zhang Bingyue, and it has photos that have been doctored. These can all be strong evidence for us to sue.”

At the mention of the photos, Su Miao felt a sharp pain in her heart.

Her looks were what she was most proud of, but now they were being belittled.

Su Miao slowly lowered her head. She didn’t know how to face Bai Jin. She was so proud of her looks, but a picture of her looking so ugly was out there, and Bai Jin had seen it.

Maybe she also thought she looked ugly.

However, Bai Jin reached out and cupped Su Miao’s chin. The warmth of her palm was comforting.

“I chose you because you have a talent for acting and you’re good-looking. To be successful, you need both. I want to be your mentor, and I also want you to trust and believe in yourself,” Bai Jin said, looking into her eyes. Through them, she saw a lost soul that was slowly recovering and regaining its strength.

“The person I chose can’t be defeated by such a small setback. This is your first role, your first time being slandered, and your first time having an ugly photo taken of you. You might encounter more in the future. Are you going to be this dejected every time?” Bai Jin said. “This might just be the beginning.”

Su Miao was startled. It was true. What celebrity hadn’t been attacked by rumors?

What happened to her today might be considered a small hiccup by others. Strong people wouldn’t let it bother them.

She seemed to understand what Bai Jin meant.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too late.

“Then I’ll get my emotions in check and go back to the set to continue filming,” Su Miao said, meeting her gaze. Her heart skipped a beat.

She instinctively looked away.

She hadn’t noticed before, but having Bai Jin cup her chin felt a little intimate.

Fortunately, her face was already red from crying, so the faint blush on her cheeks wasn’t noticeable.

“Okay. I’ll be on set with you from now on,” Bai Jin said. She was still a little worried about her. Seeing that her mood was still low, she told her the good news ahead of time. “I just got you the role of the female second lead in a new show.”

“What?” Su Miao was in disbelief. She had planned to play small, extra roles for a while before getting a part that was even related to the main characters.

Now, she was going to be the female second lead. It was completely unexpected.

“Really?” Su Miao wasn’t sure if Bai Jin was just trying to comfort her.

But Bai Jin didn’t seem like the kind of person who would lie.

“I never lie,” Bai Jin said, frowning slightly as if she was displeased with the questioning.

“I, I’m just so happy. I didn’t expect to be able to play a female second lead so early in my career,” Su Miao said, seeing her expression turn serious. She quickly explained, “I thought I’d have to play a lot of extras.”

“You don’t need to. With your talent, you don’t have to take all those detours,” Bai Jin said. “You have to believe in yourself.”

Believe in herself?

Su Miao’s eyes gradually became determined. Yes, as Bai Jin said, someone was trying to bully her today. That person’s goal was to crush her confidence, to make sure she never recovered, and to get her to leave the industry.

But she wouldn’t let them have their way. She would live better, stand taller, and make their wishes fall through.

“Yes, I will,” Su Miao finally said with a smile.

Bai Jin finally felt relieved seeing her like this. “You don’t need to look at that post. I’ll take care of it. Your role in this show is small, and we can leave after you’re done filming and seamlessly transition to the other show. Can you do that?”

“No problem.” She wasn’t afraid of hard work.

“Good. You can continue resting for a while. I have to go handle some things. I’ll come back with Xu Qingqing for dinner tonight.”

Bai Jin looked at her a little longer as she left. Su Miao noticed her gaze. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she left without saying a word.

Su Miao was puzzled. She washed her face and got back into bed. She deleted the browsing history for the post. She trusted Bai Jin’s ability to handle this, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

Crying for so long had tired her out, and her emotions had been through a lot. Soon, she fell into a deep sleep.

In her dream, she was back when she was five or six years old.

She was still in the ocean, and her teacher was giving them a vocal lesson. She was the worst singer in the class.

It was a vocal test that day. She showed off her completely tone-deaf singing in class and was immediately kicked out.

Mermaids were always proud of their voices, but she was the only one.

She was the most beautiful but the worst singer.

Because of this, she could never hold her head up in class.

“Get out of my classroom! You don’t ever need to come back.” It was a public exam that day, and the teacher lost face. After class, she scolded her for a while before letting her go.

Su Miao felt that she was the worst mermaid in the world.

So she swam to the shore. Her fish tail turned into legs, and she lay on the rocks, looking up at the sky.

It was a very hot day. The sun was scorching, and her skin quickly turned red.

The dehydrated mermaid had a splitting headache.

But she didn’t move, letting the sun continue to hurt her.

After some time, a black umbrella blocked the sun.

She had been in the sun for so long that her consciousness was a little blurry. The dazzling light prevented her from seeing who was holding the umbrella.

It wasn’t until the person splashed some water on her face that Su Miao regained some strength.

“Are you okay?”

The person’s voice was hesitant. Su Miao turned her head to look at her. She had such a beautiful face.

She looked about the same age as her and seemed to be a human student.

“I’m fine,” she said. She had already given up on herself.

The person didn’t rush to leave. Instead, she sat down next to Su Miao and continued to hold the umbrella for her.

She saw the vocal music textbook in her hand.

She asked, “Can I see it?”

Su Miao handed the book to her.

The person looked at it for a while, then started humming a piece of music from it.

Su Miao turned to look at her. Are human children so amazing too?

After humming the song, she flipped a few more pages, and a failing grade card fell out.

Su Miao anxiously tried to pick it up, but the person got to it first.

It was over. This was so embarrassing.

She would definitely laugh at her.

But the person suddenly said, “What’s wrong with being a bad singer when you’re this beautiful?”

Su Miao was caught off guard and didn’t know what to say. She looked at her in a daze. “Huh?”

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You don’t have a talent for music, but you have a beautiful face. Maybe this is the other path that heaven has arranged for you.”

The person didn’t look much older than her, but her words were profound. After thinking about it, it made a lot of sense.

“Yeah,” Su Miao nodded, finally smiling. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” the person said, then grinned mischievously. “You can’t just leave your tail exposed like this from now on.”

“What?” At her reminder, Su Miao realized that she was too weak from dehydration to maintain her human form, and her legs had turned back into a tail.

But this human girl didn’t think she was a monster. She had even talked to her for so long.

The person said seriously, “You’re so beautiful.”

Su Miao’s face turned red from the compliment. She turned her head away so the person couldn’t continue looking at her. “What’s…what’s your name?”

“My name is Bai Jin.”

Suddenly, her eyes opened, and the dream ended.

“Why am I thinking about the past again?” Su Miao got up and poured herself a glass of water.

It was the first time she and Bai Jin had met, and she remembered it as if it were yesterday.