CH 4

Live Broadcast

“Why is it me?” The assistant’s face was filled with confusion. Why did Xie Yan have to use his name to do good?

Xie Yan turned and looked straight at him for a moment, “Then what’s the use of having you?”

Assistant: “…” He had no rebuttal.

Wait, that wasn’t the issue. The real issue was that their da ye* who never said a word more than necessary to any actresses, would feel sorry for one?”

da ye – term of respect for older men, can also mean self-centred show-off (not used in this case)

Full of astonishment, the assistant immediately went to the props team for a large bag of ice. Then, he asked the man selling box lunches for a boiled egg and took them both to Su Shen.

The latter was still reading her script. She had not expected that he would bring her these things and was rather surprised, “I’m fine, thanks for the trouble.”

“No problem, just take it. Otherwise, if your face swells up, it won’t look good during filming tomorrow.” The assistant shoved the things into her hand.

Su Shen didn’t refuse and just smiled at him, “Thank you.”

A beautiful woman smiled at him. The assistant scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. “Don’t be so courteous, you can just call me Zhao Tong. I noticed that you don’t have an assistant, didn’t your company assign you one?”

With her debut as the female lead of a web drama and being able to enter this production as a third supporting female character, Zhao Tong wouldn’t believe it if she didn’t have a background.

“My assistant is still at the hotel, she should be coming soon.” Su Shen explained.

Zhao Tong nodded, not really understanding. Normally, actresses had more than one assistant following them. Fan Meng had at least three. It was rare to find someone as “simple” as Su Shen.

They chatted for a bit, then Zhao Tong left because his da ye still needed him.

After he left, Su Shen sat back onto the steps. She covered the boiled egg with a cloth and started massaging her face.

Actually, she had suspected that Xie Yan was the Crown Prince, after all they looked too alike. But now she knew that they were definitely not the same person. The Crown Prince had a mole on his hand but just then, she saw that Xie Yan didn’t. Also, Xie Yan was a bit taller than the Crown Prince and his voice was also different. Their personalities were even more different.

After reading the script for a while, Su Shen went back into her dressing room. She waited until night time to film another scene, then went straight back to her hotel.

The lead actors all obviously had luxury suites, but someone like her could only stay in a standard single room. Su Shen’s requirements for quality of sleep were especially high, so she paid for a luxury suite herself.

Su Shen took a shower and planned on playing a couple of games before bed. Then she saw the messages Liu jie sent. The original Su Shen had acted in a TV drama that had just released its first trailer. Liu jie told her to share the official Weibo post on her account.

The original Su Shen wasn’t willing to give her Weibo account to the company to take care of, otherwise this kind of thing wouldn’t have to wait for her to personally post. Su Shen thought it would be better for the company to take care of this account in the future.　

When she logged into her account, she discovered that she was trending on Weibo’s hot search again at number thirty-six!

#Su Shen’s Brainwashing Smile#

Netizen A: After watching the trailer, I only want to say these three words: hurts my eyes!

Netizen B: I beg you Miss Su, please stop acting. Spare the audience!

Netizen C: I always thought that Zhu Qinqin’s acting was bad enough to be the worst of the actresses born after the -90s. Now, I want to apologise to her as I failed to see the truth. If the winner of the worst actress isn’t Su Shen, then who is it?

Netizen D: Su Shen does look very beautiful. In still pictures she can beat the majority of the actresses born after the -90s but in moving pictures which involve acting…ummmmm

Netizen E: Is this still called acting? Please tell me what does Miss Su have except for her face?

Netizen F: Miss Su’s background must be insane to be able to act as the female lead in two productions in a row with this kind of acting.

Netizen G: Maybe some people still doesn’t know, but let me break it down for you guys. Recently, Miss Su even took the role of the third supporting female character in The Song of Troubled Times. That’s right. It’s that movie with Xie Yan and Fan Meng as the leading roles, a director that won the Golden Bear Award, a makeup and costume team full of the best professionals in the country and claims to have more than 500 million RMB in investments. That huge production! It’s unbelievable that a little-known web drama actress jumped straight to the front lines of the mainstream film industry. I wonder whether Miss Su’s next role will be in a Hollywood movie?

Netizen H: Fxck, I just realised today that Su Shen’s background was so impressive. With this kind of acting, she still wants to act in a movie? Won’t she be destroyed when compared to Fan Meng?

Su Shen even saw a lot of people making her strange expressions into memes. A lot of marketing accounts were even sharing the posts.

Being made into memes wasn’t a big deal. Su Shen even thought that she could use this time to increase her popularity.

When she reshared the promotion post for the new drama, she even added a meme of herself. This kind of self-deprecation immediately attracted a lot of comments.

Then, Su Shen turned on the hotel’s computer and logged into a live broadcasting platform. She adjusted the camera angle and started a live broadcast, then shared the broadcast link on her Weibo.

She had 2 million followers but her posts only had 5 or 6 thousand comments each. This time though, she was trending on hot search, so a lot of people could enter into her live broadcasting “room” from her Weibo profile. In a short time, the broadcasting “room” already had thirty to forty thousand people watching live.

Su Shen went to drink some water and draped a pink coat on. When she went back to the computer, the number of people watching live was already fifty to sixty thousand. Su Shen put her earphones in and said into the microphone “Good evening everyone.”

Netizen A: Good evening goddess!!!!!

Netizen B: Is she not wearing makeup? There’s no filter either. Her skin is too good!

Netizen C: Beauty doesn’t cover up the reality of her trash acting!

Su Shen didn’t pay attention to the malicious comments. Instead she covered her face with her hands, as if a bit embarrassed, “Actually, I use those memes of me as well. I think everybody needs to slowly improve and I certainly didn’t perform well in this drama.”

Netizen D: With that acting, I’m afraid you won’t be able to improve in this lifetime [vomit]

Netizen F: Goddess, don’t pay attention to those haters. I personally think you’re great. Who starts off as a Film Empress? Can’t they let people have some room for improvement?

Netizen G: Exactly! And I think Su Su sang the ending credits song really well. Can you sing a bit of it live? [pitiful]

The number of people watching the live soon rose to more than a hundred thousand and her trending rank on hot search rose to number 25. This time though the trending keywords were #Su Shen Live Broadcast#

“Actually, I have a pretty weak sense of rhythm. The song completely relied on later editing of the sounds. I don’t want to scare you all with a terrible live version.” Su Shen laughed and spoke as she pulled a bamboo flute out from her suitcase.

There was a scene in her script where she played the bamboo flute to try to make the male lead reminisce their past together. Su Shen didn’t want the flute playing to be put in by post production, so she prepared to do it herself. In her last lifetime, she practiced zither, Go, calligraphy, painting, cooking and embroidery all to near perfection so she could marry into a good family. The flute wasn’t her specialty but it should be passable.

Back in front of the computer, the netizens saw her carrying a bamboo flute back, and all started guessing what she would do. Su Shen smiled at the camera, “I learnt how to play when I was younger. I hope I haven’t returned everything I learnt to the teacher.”

Su Shen didn’t plan to prepare or build up to her performance. She had sung the song and had memorised the music score. Almost immediately, she put her mouth to the mouthpiece, closed her eyes, and started playing.

Netizen A: Fxck! After this, who would dare to call my goddess a flower vase!

Netizen B: I’m a flutist. This song has some transpositions that are hard to grasp and Su Shen plays with a very different feel. It seems to carry a bit of antiquity?

Netizen C: Heh, trying to save your reputation again? Sorry, but your acting is too bad to save. Is the phone next to you playing the music?

Netizen D: As just a passerby, I’d like to say that Su Shen really is quite elegant. Strange, that I never noticed it before. Passerby turned fan!

Netizen F: I’m not an expert, so I can’t really tell but it feels like it’s very impressive. When Su Shen’s not acting, she does have an aura of elegance.

…..

After he had just finished going through the lines of the script with his da ye, Zhao Tong picked up his phone and got ready to go back to his own room. He saw that Su Shen was trending number one on hot search and immediately tapped in to check it out.

“Ah!”　

Xie Yan was in the middle of making tea. Zhao Tong’s shout almost made him spill the hot water.

“This Su Shen is simply 666*, she even knows to use this to gain fans. But honestly, her acting in that trailer was hilarious. It’s like she’s a completely different person compared to today!” As Zhao Tong spoke, he walked back to the tea table and handed his phone over to show Xie Yan.

666 – read “liuliuliu” usually means skilled or smooth, when someone does something really well, used because it sounds like the word “liu”

The girl on the screen had her eyes closed. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, she looked peaceful and beautiful. But the melodious tones of the flute were obviously not the product of a last minute effort.

The live comments were already filling the screen. Xie Yan glanced at them then turned away and continued brewing his tea.

After seeing his lack of reaction, Zhao Tong finally relaxed. His Yan ge must have just been kind-hearted during the day. How could he be interested in this kind of girl?

He left the suite, still watching the video, and closed the door behind him.

When Su Shen finished playing the song, she opened her eyes and found many netizens had given her “rewards” *. There were a lot more live comments as well, amongst which were many haters’ ridicules.

The “rewards” are gifts given on the broadcasting platform that can convert to real money

At this time, her phone rang. Su Shen saw it was Liu jie so she said into the microphone, “I still have to film tomorrow. Goodnight everybody.”

Then, she closed the livestream and answered the call.

“Su Shen, why didn’t you tell me before that you knew how to play the flute? This skill should have been revealed in a variety show as an attention-grabbing point. Why did you livestream without telling me?!” Liu jie let loose an avalanche of admonishments.

Su Shen was pretty tired. She turned off the computer and laid down onto the bed. “I stayed with my Grandfather when I was younger. He made me learn some of this stuff. Just then was a spur of the moment decision, how was I supposed to know I had to notify you first.”

The original Su Shen’s Grandfather was a university professor and did actually make the original Su Shen learn quite a lot. However, he died a long time ago and not even her parents knew exactly what she learnt.

“You’re an actress now.  Even though you’re not that popular yet, if you don’t control your behaviour now it’s easy to leave behind black history!” On her side, Liu jie only felt rather frustrated.

The original Su Shen often acted on her own before reporting back, so Su Shen wasn’t afraid of Liu jie suspecting anything. She explained half-heartedly for a few sentences, then hung up and went to sleep.

When she woke up the next day, her hot search was still trending at number 13. Her follower count had risen by a solid million overnight. Of course, the comment section was still overtaken by haters.

Su Shen waited until her assistant Xiao Zhou brought her breakfast, then took it to the film site to eat. She only had two scenes to film today and one was a scene with the female lead, set after she entered the palace.

The only difference this time was that some of the workers in the film crew greeted her when they saw her. Su Shen naturally smiled and replied.

When she arrived at the dressing room, Tong Le was still eating xiaolongbao. When Tong Le saw Su Shen, she immediately pounced on her, full of excitement. “Su Shen you’re really full of talents! I showed your live video to my teacher and they said that your flute playing skills had already reached the top level in this country!”

xiaolongbao – a kind of small Chinese steamed pork bun

Su Shen only felt the urge to sigh, rather sad. Back where she came from, she wasn’t one of the best at playing the flute, but with the gradual loss of traditional culture, a lot of the essence had also disappeared.

“Who doesn’t have some talent in the entertainment industry? That Mu Yao is Grade Nine in piano, Qiu Bing can oil paint, it’s all to raise your class and look superior.” The makeup artist easily exposed the entertainment industry’s rules. 　

At this, Tong Le just pursed her lips, “If it’s like that, I also know a bit of dulcimer. Maybe I should do a livestream as well.”

She sat on the sofa and bit into a xiaolongbao, deep in thought. Then she suddenly moved her head closer to Su Shen’s and said, “Did you offend someone? The costume team sent over the clothes you’re going to wear today. It’s super ugly!”