THE FAKE DAUGHTER BECAME THE FAVORITE - CHAPTER 176

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Chapter 176: The Person Who Heard Wen Yan's Inner Voice

"Palace Lock: The Tale of Gong" is a palace drama with two female protagonists. It mainly tells the story of two women with completely different identities entering the palace at the same time - one participating in the selection process and the other becoming a palace maid, later becoming a titled concubine one after the other.

The role Wen Yan received was that of this low-ranking palace maid, who would also become Consort Li in the middle to late stages of the script.

Consort Li's character setup was that of a meticulous, calculated person who turned dark later on, rising up through the ranks from a mere palace maid.

On the other hand, the role of Consort Hui received by Fu Yiqing was a classic villain-free, pure-hearted, and dignified young lady from a prestigious family.

In the beginning, Fu Yiqing had no complaints about her role as Consort Hui, and her acting was quite commendable as well.

However, after a crucial scene, things underwent a shift.

This scene was an intense confrontation between the two female leads. Because Consort Li had turned dark, a rift formed in the sisterly bond between her and Consort Hui.

Consort Li made an impassioned accusation to Consort Hui against the injustice of the world and the ugliness of human nature, venting the discontent and hatred inside her heart.

This scene featured lines spanning two full pages. It required the actor to complete it seamlessly in one go, filled with intense emotion, while also shedding tears at a precise moment and executing a subtle emotional transition.

When Wen Yan acted out this piece, she performed it flawlessly, one single take from start to finish! Everyone on set was so captivated that no one dared to utter a sound to interrupt her.

In contrast, Fu Yiqing, acting opposite her, failed to keep up with the scene, failing to pass even after shooting over ten takes in a row.

Later, the director called Fu Yiqing aside to break down the scene, telling her how she should handle it.

Only then did the director let that take pass.

Originally, everyone thought this minor incident would end right there. Unexpectedly, however, after wrapping up the shoot that night, the director asked Wen Yan to stay behind.

He specially prepared tea and late-night snacks for Wen Yan.

"Come, come, come! Wen Yan, take a seat quickly. I didn't know what you liked to eat, so I had someone buy a bit of everything; don't be polite with me! As for this tea, it's from my personal collection—I usually don't easily bring it out to entertain guests."

"..." The more the director talked like this, the more puzzled Wen Yan felt.

Looking at the director, she joked half-playfully, "Director, if you put it that way, I wouldn't dare to drink it; you're making me so nervous. How about we just lay our cards on the table?

"Don't worry, my ability to accept things is extremely strong, and I'm very good at adapting to whatever comes my way. Whatever it is, just tell me directly; don't be afraid of hurting my feelings."

Although Wen Yan joked that she didn't dare drink the director's tea, he still poured a cup for her personally. Only then did he rub his hands together and sit down opposite Wen Yan.

"That's right. The reason I looked for you tonight is indeed because I have something to discuss with you. It's regarding the roles."

"What's wrong with the roles? Is there somewhere I didn't handle well?"

"No, your acting is even better than I imagined. To be honest, it was way beyond my expectations."

"Then..." Wen Yan was puzzled. "What is the problem right now?"

"I'm not afraid to tell you the truth: it's Fu Yiqing and her investors' side. Um... it's like this: her team feels that Consort Li's character has more depth and layers, making it more suitable for her than Consort Hui. She wants to swap roles. That's why I came to discuss it with you. Normally, other production teams might just swap the actors directly when dealing with this, but I don't want to fall out with you, because I really want you to stay."

"So that's how it is..." Wen Yan raised her eyebrows slightly. "Then at the end of the day, isn't it just a matter of money? To tell you the truth, I have a bit of money myself. She might not necessarily be able to outspend me."

"It's not like that." The director shook his head. "I understand how you feel right now, and to be honest, I'm very annoyed too. But this isn't just a matter of money; it involves the entire production team, several companies, and even our whole cast and crew. It's an interconnected network of interests where touching one part affects the whole body.

"Besides, I wouldn't suggest you go fight against big capital all by yourself. You know about Fu Yiqing, she's a foreign national, and her current agency poached her over specifically to promote her aggressively. But you might be at a big disadvantage in this aspect, as you don't have a financial backer behind you.

"You've read the entire script as well, and I believe you understand what kind of character Consort Hui is. Even if you switch to Consort Hui, you are still the female lead of this drama. I believe that with your acting skills, you will definitely make this character shine brilliantly. So whether it's Consort Hui or Consort Li, it's actually the same for you. Truly, Wen Yan, I hope you can stay. I also hope you can do me this favor. This drama definitely won't disappoint you."

The director's attitude was very sincere.

In fact, after returning from the snowy mountains, Wen Yan had received many offers. She ultimately chose the script for Palace Lock not only because the script was brilliant, but also because of this director.

When they had their first phone call, he was extremely sincere, and when they met later, he was even more full of sincerity.

Other production teams had only sent a small portion of the script to Wen Yan when making their initial offers.

However, the script for Palace Lock was delivered into her hands personally by the director in front of her.

Therefore, after pondering for a moment, Wen Yan nodded and agreed to the director's request.

"Alright, I'll play Consort Hui."

Hearing this answer, the director let out a huge sigh of relief instantly.

"Fantastic! Come, come, come, hurry and taste my tea! I was really afraid just now that you'd throw a fit and walk away. I'll definitely look for you for my next drama, really!"

Returning to the hotel that night, Wen Yan received a message from Shen Jinghe.

Shen Jinghe asked her how her day went with the production crew, so she simply told him about what happened today.

Not long after her message went out, Shen Jinghe's call came through.

"What are you doing?" Shen Jinghe spoke as soon as the call connected.

"Lying down and texting you, but then you called. Where are you? Are you resting at your hotel already?"

"Yeah, just arrived. Who is that actress you mentioned?"

"Her? Fu Yiqing. Do you know her?"

"Don't know her," Shen Jinghe said, somewhat puzzled. "How come I feel like I've never heard of this name before?"

Wen Yan smiled. "It's normal that you haven't heard of her. She isn't from our country; she just recently came here to develop her career from Country X."

Speaking of which, the setup of Country X in this novel world was very similar to Singapore in Wen Yan's original world.

There were many ethnic Chinese people over there who spoke Mandarin, and quite a few artists developed their careers over here. Fu Yiqing was the same; strictly looking at her appearance, one couldn't tell at all that she was a foreigner.

Shen Jinghe was obviously accustomed to this as well. "No wonder. Then do you know which company she's signed with now?"

"What for?" Wen Yan chuckled softly. "Are you investigating this and that to stick up for me and fight against injustice? Actually, I didn't agree to swap roles because I compromised with her, but because of the director. Speaking of which, have you ever encountered something like this before? Or has everything been smooth sailing for you?"

"How could it possibly be smooth sailing?"

"Then that means you have encountered it."

"Yeah, encountered it—more than once, in fact."

"Then how did you handle it back then?"

"Back then, I wasn't as lucky as you. When I got replaced, I was replaced; there wouldn't be another role of equal weight given to me. But you're different from how I was back then."

"Different how?"

"I never made my family background public, so back then nobody had my back."

"I haven't made it public either! Right now in the circle, it seems only Wanwan knows about my relationship with you guys."

"...Are you silly? Won't I back you up? You haven't made it public, but I can take the initiative."

"Oh~ So I was careless and forgot about you!" Wen Yan immediately began to tease Shen Jinghe. "I really didn't expect it—our so tsundere, cold, and aloof Mr. Shen Jinghe, who usually disdains to pay attention to anyone!

Would actually take the initiative to back someone up one day! Tsk tsk tsk, tomorrow I'm going to order a banner and send it over to you, so the whole world knows about your excellent virtue of 'enjoying helping others'."

"..." Even across the phone line, Wen Yan could feel Shen Jinghe grinding his teeth. "You are about to lose a backer. I take back what I just said."

"Hahaha!" Wen Yan burst out laughing. "I knew you couldn't take a joke, but I just love making fun of you!"

"...Stop laughing! You still haven't told me which company that Fu Yiqing actually belongs to."

"Alright, alright, I'll stop laughing. It should be Star Entertainment, right? If I remember correctly, it's one of the top companies."

"Yeah, I know Star Entertainment. Then do you know who her talent manager is?"

"That, I don't know. I haven't even seen them. Truth be told, shooting only started a few days ago, and right now there only seem to be two assistants following by her side. But Second Brother, I know you're very reliable, but I didn't really lose out this time either. Who cares who her manager is? You don't need to step in."

"Then what if she bullies you in other ways later? Or plays other petty tricks?"

"Needless to say, of course I'll bully her right back! If I can't beat her, I'll call for backup. I've always been someone who adapts to circumstances. Wherever there's no danger, that's where I'll be. As long as I can get someone else to do the work, I will resolutely never step up myself."

"..." Shen Jinghe said, "You really are something."

"What? Are you scared of being my backer?"

"Whoever is scared is a dog!"

As a result things really turned out just as Shen Jinghe had predicted.

After a few days of filming, Fu Yiqing threw a fit again.

Because the role of Consort Li she was playing started off as a low-ranking palace maid with zero background, zero money, and zero ability—who had to learn everything from scratch and only possessed a pretty face—she suffered endless bullying from others in the palace during the early stage.

Over the past two days, she was either shooting scenes of being pushed into the water or going to the laundry court to wash clothes for palace maids and eunuchs. Fu Yiqing felt it was both cold and miserable, so she began complaining.

The director of this drama originally had a good temper.

However, due to the role-swapping incident, he had already accumulated a fair amount of resentment toward Fu Yiqing. Now that Fu Yiqing pulled a stunt like this again, the director was nearing the end of his tether.

During an instance where Fu Yiqing requested to heat up the water in the basin, the director completely lost his patience and blew his top.

"You requested to play this role yourself! Didn't you read the script yourself when swapping roles? Now you feel like you can't take it—how far along are we even?! Look at the script yourself! Later on, there are scenes of suffering torture in the dead of winter, kneeling on ice shards, and so on! If you can't even stand this segment of washing clothes, how are you going to act later? Can you even keep acting? Not to criticize you, but you're truly way too unprofessional!

I heard your viewership ratings in Country X are very high; now I'm starting to doubt how those viewership ratings came about?!"

Fu Yiqing was extremely dissatisfied with this. "Are you questioning my viewership ratings? What right do you have to say that?! My viewership ratings were earned through my acting skills!

"It's not this cold during winter back where we live. All I want right now is just a relatively suitable filming environment; I didn't say I wouldn't contribute my acting skills, so how does this make me unprofessional? If you can't achieve it, that means your basic facilities and funding are inadequate. This is your production crew's problem, what does it have to do with my acting skills as an actor?!"

"Fine, fine, fine!" The director threw down the script in his hand. "This is the very first time I've ever heard such an argument. You really are quite an eloquent speaker! This drama can't be filmed anymore; you leave! I can't direct you!"

"Me leave? I'll trouble you to get things straight, okay?! You weren't the one who invited me, so you don't have the qualification to fire me! If you can't direct actors, that's your own problem as a director! If anyone really has to leave, it's you who should leave!"

"..." The crew members on set were all dumbfounded.

This was the first time they had ever seen someone argue with a director like this.

Could it be that the entertainment industry abroad operated like this, where firing directors was a popular trend among actors?

After Fu Yiqing finished speaking, she took off her costume and left the set, and not a single person stepped forward to stop her during the entire process.

The director's face turned red with rage.

However, his emotions were still fairly stable.

After adjusting himself on the spot, he immediately bent down to pick up the script off the ground and gathered all the staff members back together again.

"Come on! Switch to filming the next scene! Now we shoot the scene between Consort Hui and Concubine Zhao. Get the Emperor ready; the Emperor goes up in the next scene!"

The director was very professional and quickly got back into the zone.

Wen Yan also immediately threw herself into work.

While watching the playback, the director's assistant suddenly came over.

"Director, Fu Yiqing's talent manager called. She seems to have heard about what just happened and said she's coming over right away."

The director said in a bad mood, "Won't see her. Tell her not to bother coming."

However, he quickly calmed down. "Forget it, tell her to come straight to the set! I can't serve their family's princess anymore!"

Over an hour later, during a mid-scene break, the director's assistant brought Fu Yiqing's talent manager over.

Because it was a temporary break, Wen Yan didn't go anywhere.

Just like the others, she was quite attentive to Fu Yiqing's manager.

However, she didn't know how others viewed Fu Yiqing's manager.

All she knew was that the moment she laid eyes on this manager, she felt she looked somewhat familiar.

It was a young woman with short hair, capable, sharp, and coolly glamorous, dressed in a well-tailored suit, exuding the strong aura of a cool, capable career-focused woman all over.

The moment she saw that face, Wen Yan couldn't help thinking to herself:

‘She looks so familiar. Strange, have I seen her somewhere before?’

Qin Yulong, who was taking big strides forward, suddenly paused in her tracks upon hearing this voice.

She instantly shot her gaze toward Wen Yan.

Because she was almost one hundred percent certain that the voice just now had come from Wen Yan's direction.

However, Wen Yan clearly hadn't opened her mouth, nor were there any other females around her.

Qin Yulong frowned deeply.

What was going on? Could it be that she was having auditory hallucinations?

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Check out this other novel I am currently translating: THE IMPERIAL CONSORT'S RISE TO POWER it is very interesting. i picked it up and fell in love with it.

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