Chapter 13: No Regrets

“Holy crap, Jiang Xiaobai! Isn’t that the supporting actress from *Wife of Heaven*? Her acting is so bad, can she really play the second female lead??”

“A total vase. Let her play Liu Ruyan? Wouldn’t that just be a cold, expressionless face the whole time? I refuse!”

“Um… actually, her looks are quite a good match for Liu Ruyan… Besides, Liu Ruyan is supposed to be a cold goddess.”

“Being cold doesn’t mean you don’t need acting skills, okay! The colder the character, the more it tests your acting. Even if the face doesn’t move, there are still micro-expressions. Can Jiang Xiaobai even do that?!”

There were also some people weakly speaking up for Jiang Xiaobai. Of course, they weren’t her fans; at most, they could be called fans of her appearance.

However, this person’s words were quickly drowned out by the army of critics.

Perhaps Jiang Xiaobai’s addition was just too shocking. Within moments, this trending topic had tens of thousands of comments, and over half of them were talking about Jiang Xiaobai’s issues.

“Xiaobai-jie, look, how can these people say such things!”

As her assistant, Mingzhu had always been managing Jiang Xiaobai’s Weibo and keeping a constant eye on news related to her, so she discovered it as soon as the situation broke.

Jiang Xiaobai was in the hotel reading a script. Hearing this, she glanced at the phone. “Let them be. Their mouths are on their faces; you can’t control them.”

She only took a glance, and the comment accusing her of having poor acting skills was already fully in her view. She didn’t need to look to know the others were bound to be similar.

In any case, there was nothing good being said.

“Xiaobai-jie, you really have such a good temper. They only say these things because they don’t understand you!”

Mingzhu puffed up her cheeks in anger.

Jiang Xiaobai chuckled. “A good temper? Zhuzhu, you really are a precious pearl.”

The whole world said she had a bad temper, and only Zhuzhu said the opposite. It was truly rare.

Mingzhu, however, was very serious. “Xiaobai-jie, your temper isn’t great, but you don’t throw tantrums for no reason. You only snap back when you’re provoked. You’ve never lost your temper with us for no reason.”

To fit into this circle and achieve her dreams, Jiang Xiaobai had endured a lot. But after all, she had been raised pampered; how could she not have a temper? When she couldn’t endure it anymore, she would explode, and that was usually when people would catch her and relentlessly report that she was “throwing tantrums.”

After Mingzhu finished speaking, she continued to look at Weibo, wanting to see if there was any more news about *The Legend of the Nine Heavens*, but as she read, her face turned red with anger.

“Xiaobai-jie, look at this!”

“Hmm?”

Jiang Xiaobai took the phone and saw a Weibo post.

【Zhao Shan V: What bad luck. I was just about to sign for the role of Liu XX, but then I broke my leg and missed out. Why does this scene feel like it’s repeating the mistakes of the previous actress? Forget it, let’s look on the bright side. Maybe this role and I just aren’t compatible? But it really is too much of a coincidence. I wonder if the next actress to take over will be just as unlucky~】

Attached to this post was a picture of Zhao Shan lying in bed with a cast on her leg.

The leg looked a bit miserable, but she was still wearing beautiful makeup and smiling coquettishly at the camera. However, two cartoon tears had been photoshopped onto the image, making her look a bit silly and cute.

Jiang Xiaobai raised an eyebrow.

“Zhao Shan is too much! It’s clearly her own bad luck that she broke her leg, how can she curse you, Xiaobai-jie? She’s so mean!”

Zhao Shan appeared to be showing off her injury, but her words implicitly suggested that both she and the previous actress had run into trouble while signing for a certain role, which invited speculation.

What’s more, the crew of *The Legend of the Nine Heavens* had just announced their cast, and #Jiang Xiaobai as Liu Ruyan# was still trending. Once she posted this, everyone immediately guessed a few things.

“Liu so-and-so? Could it be the role of Liu Ruyan?”

“Does that even need to be said? It must be! It’s rumored that the previous actress, Xu Lulu, broke her foot after signing the contract and had to be replaced. Looking at it this way, the person they were looking for was Zhao Shan.”

“But that’s too miserable, right? Xu Lulu just had an accident, and now Zhao Shan broke her leg too? This is too eerie!”

“The next actress to take over? Isn’t that Jiang Xiaobai?”

“Could it be that Jiang Xiaobai will also…”

Jiang Xiaobai scrolled down on her phone, her face full of interest, without a hint of anger or worry.

Mingzhu looked on, feeling confused. If a normal person were cursed like this, shouldn’t they be jumping with rage? Especially with Xiaobai-jie’s temper, why was she having no reaction?

Little did she know that Jiang Xiaobai carried a protective talisman, so she didn’t take this level of “curse” to heart at all.

“Just pretend you didn’t see it. She’s counting on you having a bad temper and is dying for you to speak up and curse her. If you do, your reputation will be even worse,” said Dong Ran, who was working on something on her computer.

“Don’t worry, Ran-jie, I won’t fall for it,” Jiang Xiaobai replied.

Just then, the phone rang. It was Dong Ran’s.

“Hello… Oh, President Zhao. Yes, of course I remember that matter, but Xiaobai has already joined the *Legend of the Nine Heavens* crew…”

As Dong Ran was speaking on the phone, her mouth opened in surprise. “Okay, Xiaobai is right here. I’ll pass the phone to her.”

Saying this, she turned to look at Jiang Xiaobai and handed her the phone, mouthing: “It’s President Zhao!”

President Zhao? Zhao Shan’s uncle?

Jiang Xiaobai was a bit surprised, but she took it. “Hello, President Zhao, this is Jiang Xiaobai.”

“Miss Jiang, you remember that I promised to give you a female lead role in a script, right?”

“I remember. What do you mean?”

Jiang Xiaobai glanced at Dong Ran, and both of them had confusion in their eyes.

At the banquet that day, Jiang Xiaobai had approached President Zhao about the role of Liu Ruyan, but President Zhao wanted to look after his niece, Zhao Shan, so the matter naturally fell through. However, before leaving, President Zhao said that as compensation, there was another script he could give her.

It was supposed to be emailed that night, but Zhao Shan had an accident at the banquet, and President Zhao was busy dealing with it, so he forgot.

After Zhao Shan’s accident, Jiang Xiaobai took advantage of the situation, and the role naturally fell to her.

Both Jiang Xiaobai and Dong Ran thought the matter would just fade away. After all, since she had already landed the role of Liu Ruyan, there was no need for compensation, and it was understandable that President Zhao had broken his promise.

But what did he mean by this call now?

“I, Zhao Xiulun, never go back on my word. I’m calling to tell you that the script has been sent. If you are interested in taking it, please reply as soon as possible.”

Jiang Xiaobai’s heart skipped a beat; she felt the surprise had come so suddenly.

But after the surprise, she suddenly calmed down. Given her status, landing *The Legend of the Nine Heavens* was already a stroke of luck. Now, President Zhao was actually handing her the female lead of another production?

(End of chapter)