The Vicious Female Supporting Character Must Die [Transmigration] GL - Chapter 1: Welcome to the New World

At eleven o’clock at night, a horror film crew was shooting a scene in a subway. To achieve a realistic effect, they set up a studio in the dark subway.

Lu Zhiyu, wearing the standard white dress of a female ghost and exaggerated ghost makeup, sat bored on a long bench by the window in the last car of the makeshift subway set. She watched through the window as the busy lighting director led a group of people, following the lighting diagram, setting up lights. Not far away, the new, inexperienced starlet was being lectured by the director. It wasn’t until the next scene that it would be the turn of the female supporting character, a ghost in a flashback.

While the new starlet was struggling to get into character and being scolded by the director, Lu Zhiyu picked up her phone and opened an otome mobile game called “Starry Path: Contract Movie Queen.”

She had just landed a role in a drama adapted from an old, cliché, body-and-mind-tormenting CEO novel. And she, who usually played vicious female supporting characters, was inexplicably recommended by her esteemed mentor, Director Zheng Shang, with whom she had collaborated many times, to play the kind and gentle “white lotus” female protagonist.

Lu Zhiyu understood very well that her current excellent film, television, advertising, and fashion resources were all due to Director Zheng Shang’s promotion. As an eighteenth-tier extra, she had become famous by playing the vicious female supporting characters in several of Director Zheng Shang’s well-received web dramas, gradually climbing to the position of a second-tier star. Therefore, this time, the director gave her the role of this innocent female protagonist, and she took it very seriously. She not only read the novel repeatedly but also downloaded the adapted mobile game to better understand the character’s positioning and personality.

The game on her phone had reached its final stage. Lu Zhiyu loaded her saved data.

In the game scene, under the dazzling spotlights, she had already received the most prestigious Golden Phoenix Award for Best Actress in China. Du Yueze, the male lead, sat below, smiling and applauding her. Gu Yinshu, the competitor and previous Golden Phoenix Award winner, stood elegantly beside them, giving a regretful smile to the camera.

[Welcome player Lu Zhiyu to the game “Starry Path: Contract Movie Queen.”

Recap: You were originally a wealthy young lady, living a life of comfort. Unexpectedly, your father’s company went bankrupt overnight, he committed suicide by jumping from a building due to overwhelming debt, and your mother immediately fell into a coma and was diagnosed with heart failure, urgently needing a heart transplant. You were forced to stop your studies abroad and return home. To repay debts and earn more money, you entered the entertainment industry, this lavish and corrupt world.

Just as you were down and helpless, a man named Du Yueze appeared. He was the CEO of Xinghuang Film and Television Entertainment Group, which monopolized the entire entertainment industry. He forced you to sign a “sugar baby” contract, making you his servant, and he promised you that in just three years, he could make you a top-tier actress.

Your choice was fixed as {Yes}, and you became his controlled {Pawn}. Through your unremitting efforts, you successfully defeated your love rivals: Bai Xirou, the pure-looking female supporting character who was also a trainee; Ruan Suhuai, the first-tier starlet and manipulative “green tea” female supporting character; and Gu Yinshu, the award-winning “black lotus” female supporting character. Your favorability with the male lead ultimately reached 100%. Congratulations, the male lead Du Yueze gradually fell in love with you due to your charm, and the grievances between your parents’ generation were also reconciled.

Your final ending is HE, achieving the ending {The Movie Queen’s Happy Life}.]

Lu Zhiyu looked at the flowing CG and small text at the end of the game, scoffing inwardly. Who cared about a HE with the male lead? Any male character in the game was more likable than this domineering CEO male lead. Du Yueze was a playboy, a philanderer, with an endless string of bed partners. In real life, he might even get AIDS.

Some of the plot in the game had been cut; the novel she had read was more detailed. The male lead misunderstood that the female lead’s parents were his father’s murderers. First, he charmingly captivated the female lead, then he used various means of psychological manipulation to get revenge on her. He claimed to promote her, but the resources he gave her were inferior to those of the female supporting characters who vied to be his lovers. In the end, the female lead still had to struggle to survive on her own, fighting her way through various female supporting characters’ persecution and unspoken rules.

Lu Zhiyu was indifferent to this kind of melodramatic plot of physical and mental abuse followed by forced love. When the director approached her about the drama, he told her it would be a female-centric inspirational entertainment industry drama. Now, looking at it, it was clearly a drama about a PUA male cultivating his ideal girlfriend.

The male lead psychologically tormented the female lead, and the female lead remained completely infatuated with the male lead. When she found out the male lead was her father’s killer, she chose to commit suicide by slitting her wrists instead of seeking revenge. The female lead was overly sympathetic when problems arose; if it weren’t for the protagonist’s halo, she would have died several times over.

Lu Zhiyu complained, but this script’s female lead had a high education, was gentle, obedient, resilient, and had perfected her domestic skills, fulfilling all male fantasies about a future wife. Plus, it was an underdog story where the male lead helped the female lead slap the female supporting characters in the face, with enough sweet and satisfying moments, so it seemed tolerable.

Thinking further, the male lead also remained chaste after meeting the female lead, satisfying the “clean love” party’s desires. The female supporting characters were all vicious and approached the male lead with different motives. The male supporting character, a commercial spy, was tricked by a female supporting character and was as stupid as a pig, his intelligence not even fit to carry the male lead’s shoes. The plot was captivating enough, and the massive fan base for domineering CEOs meant it might actually break new ground in web dramas.

Lu Zhiyu was analyzing the script’s potential and the possibility of this drama being broadcast on a major satellite TV channel when her phone screen suddenly went dark. The battery was below 5%.

“Xiao Chen, can you get my bag from my makeup room, or do you have a charger I could borrow?”

The response was silence. Her echo sounded hollow in the enclosed space.

Assistant Chen Xu was Lu Zhiyu’s high school classmate, meticulous and reliable. When she rested on set, Xiao Chen never left her side by more than five hundred meters.

Lu Zhiyu felt a bit strange, an inexplicable sense of alarm rising within her. She looked up, and the eerie green light swayed back and forth in the Line 1 subway car. The LED electronic advertising screens on the tunnel flickered on and off. Except for the last car, which had faint warm light from the lighting crew’s setup, the entire subway station was empty and dark, with an occasional cold gust of wind blowing in from the tunnel entrance.

The new starlet, who had been crying and being scolded by the director near the subway map, and the crew members who were constantly running up and down the escalator, seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Lu Zhiyu was only wearing a white slip dress. Stepping out of the car, she shivered from the draft that hit her.

She walked through the familiar yet strange set, calling her assistant’s name while holding her phone in confusion.

The rolling escalator emitted a faint electrical hum, extending to the dark upper corridor. The long route lines pasted on the waiting station had all turned into red curves. The names of each marked station were twisted and distorted, resembling a cluster of maggots glued together, taking a long time to resemble Sanskrit from ancient Buddhist scriptures.

Eerie green glowing ghost formations appeared floating on the ground. Lu Zhiyu, passing by, accidentally bumped into a life-sized paper effigy placed on the ground and was startled. As she composed herself and wiped away a cold sweat, she silently praised the craftsmanship. The set design of Yin-Yang Dao Studio, known for shooting ghost films, was indeed excellent as always. Even without post-production special effects, it gave off an eerie, chilling sensation. No wonder the screenwriter and original author jointly called for Yin-Yang Dao Studio to undertake the entire horror series IP this time.

As she walked, Lu Zhiyu felt more and more that something was wrong.

The entire Line 1 subway station was empty except for her. She had been walking for a long time, constantly circling the first basement level of the subway station, unable to find the escalator leading to the exit. Clearly, she had encountered the legendary “ghost wall” phenomenon.

“Where are you going? If you go any further, you’ll reach the transfer station for Line 2, which goes straight to Fengdu (the Capital of Hell).”

A captivating female voice, carrying a mysterious, ethereal resonance, came from behind her.

Lu Zhiyu turned around, her face momentarily lost in stunned admiration.

It was a woman dressed in something similar to a Qiyao Hanfu (waist-length Hanfu). Her entire face was covered by a wooden mask. A few strands of dark hair lay over her shoulders, and the hair on either side of her temples was woven into a swirling design like the wings of a vulture, somewhat resembling the “Disturbing Crane Bun” hairstyle from the Wei and Jin dynasties. On her head, she wore a silver hair ornament, with gilded jade hairpins adorned with red beads inserted diagonally. The totem displayed on it, indicating her status, showed a great auspicious sign, making Lu Zhiyu feel at first glance that this person must be of extraordinary background.

Lu Zhiyu guessed that the woman in front of her was likely playing a royal or noble character.

The woman walked towards Lu Zhiyu, the tassels at her waist fanning out and swaying with her graceful steps. Precious frost-colored satin shimmered with pearlescent luster, draped in layers on the ground. As she stood before her, a sense of nobility, coolness, and proud aloofness emanated from her. Lu Zhiyu, even with her eyes closed, could blindly sense that the face beneath the mask must be incredibly beautiful.

Lu Zhiyu had been in the entertainment industry for a long time and had seen all kinds of beauties, but she had never seen anyone with such a powerful aura while wearing ancient attire. Every movement of the person exuded an ancient charm, and her acting was so good that she must be a first-tier celebrity.

Lu Zhiyu suddenly remembered her current predicament. Before she could ask which film crew this big star was from, a wisp of ghostly flame suddenly erupted from the Hanfu-clad woman’s palm. The scene behind her also instantly became clear: countless wretchedly deceased vengeful spirits crowded the passage, seemingly restrained by chains, wailing incessantly.

Looking at the woman more closely, she held a sword made of Bodhi wood in her right hand. Bl00d-soaked iron chains were wrapped around the blade, directly linking the souls of that group of ghosts together, rendering them unable to move.

Lu Zhiyu was startled, her legs felt a little weak, and she plopped down onto the cold ground, her mind struggling to comprehend. “What in the world is this? Are you filming? So many extras, that must cost a lot of money… Wait, isn’t this area rented by our film crew?”

The woman remained silent, squatting down to look at Lu Zhiyu. Suddenly, she reached out and pinched a reddish stone hanging on Lu Zhiyu’s chest, murmuring, “Bl00d Phoenix Stone. You’re not a ghost; you’re a ferryman from beneath the Naihe Bridge, aren’t you?”

Lu Zhiyu shivered from the cold emanating from the woman. Mustering courage from somewhere, she snatched back her ancestral jade, slightly annoyed. “Who are you? This is my ancestral jade. You’re very rude. Shouldn’t you ask before looking at someone’s belongings?”

An eerie chuckle came from beneath the woman’s mask. “This Venerable One is the Chief Emissary of the Twelve Underworld Bureaus, a minor immortal from Mount Tai, serving under King Kṣitigarbha. I am ordered to pursue three scattered evil souls. Your lifespan is not yet complete, but you mistakenly entered the Yin-Yang Plank Road, hindering me from my public duties. There are three ghosts currently hiding in your ‘box’.”

Lu Zhiyu saw the woman’s eyes, hidden beneath the mask, staring directly at her phone. She shook her phone, retorting, “Don’t talk nonsense. This isn’t a box, it’s a phone. Are you really a modern person? How can you have so little common sense? Even if you’re truly a ghost or a god, having lived so long, you should keep up with the times.”

The woman stared at the stone on Lu Zhiyu’s neck, pondering for a moment, then said, “Since you are a ferryman, the task of tracking the three souls is entrusted to you. This Venerable One will hide the Soul Judgment Bell in your ‘box’. Once an evil soul approaches, the soul bell will ring, indicating the vessel the evil ghost inhabits. You must find every way to gain the trust of the possessed person. Only with the cooperation of the possessed can you judge and purify the evil ghost.”

Lu Zhiyu looked bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

The woman, holding her wooden sword, pulled the multitude of ghosts along and walked forward, saying, “If you go left, you will see Huangquan Exit C. At that time, block your five senses and walk straight forward, and you can leave here. But this exit is not that exit. You can only return to the Yin-Yang Station after you have apprehended the evil ghosts. Remember, you are the ferryman, and you must not expose your identity. The Soul Summoning Bell contains a secret manual; read it, and you will know how to proceed.”

Lu Zhiyu hadn’t even fully understood the nonsensical things the woman was saying when the woman vanished into the passage in the blink of an eye.

A cold wind swept through. Lu Zhiyu faintly saw the subway suddenly start, and a group of old and young ghosts from various eras in the carriages pressed against the windows, curiously peering at her. Terrified, she quickly ran to the left, following the words of the woman who claimed to be the Chief Emissary of the Twelve Underworld Bureaus, not daring to look back.

Ancient proverbs say that a person has two lamps on their shoulders, one on the left and one on the right. If the lamps go out, the Yang energy weakens, making one susceptible to ghost possession.

Lu Zhiyu dared not look back and ran for her life, finally seeing the “Huangquan Exit C” that the mysterious woman mentioned. She rushed out like a madwoman.

The phone clutched in her sweaty palm suddenly jingled, and a message popped up on the screen.

Lu Zhiyu, breathless and exhausted, leaned against the wall. She unlocked the phone’s touchscreen, her face slightly surprised. The phone’s battery was now full, and all contact information in her address book had been cleared, leaving only an unknown number labeled “Agent.”

[Hello User, Ferryman ID 111, you have exited Huangquan Exit C and arrived in the novel world of “Starry Path: Contract Movie Queen.” The Soul Judgment Bell is at your service. Your identity is the female protagonist Lu Zhiyu. Your mission objective is to purify and kill evil ghosts. The character strategy interface has been opened for you, and world data is complete. You may browse at any time.]