Chapter 5 – Male & Female Lead
Currently, Ning Ning’s emotions were complicated. Before transmigration, the film she had last acted in was <I Am a Big Beauty>. After transmigration, the first film she had to act in could more or less be also called <I Am a Big Beauty>.
Is this God’s vengeance for the last bad movie I acted in? She murmured in her heart, then mocked herself, ha, if this really is the punishment for acting in a bad movie, the entire showbiz world would have long become the main disaster area for human disappearance.
The next day, she was woken up by Wang ma. When she opened her eyes, she spotted Wang ma standing outside the mosquito net with her back against the lighting. Wang ma’s tone of voice was flat like a straight line. “Miss, time to wake up and wash up. Master has brought back a pair of rare items.”
Ning Ning climbed off the bed and was just about to look for a mirror where she could wash up in front of, when Wang ma began wiping her face with a warmed up handkerchief. Then, helped her to comb her hair and change with nimble hands. She had even helped Ning Ning brushed her teeth. Once everything was done, Wang ma kneeled down by the bed and gently helped her put on her shoes.
… It can’t be that she will now try to carry me like a baby then walk around? Ning Ning was so frightened by her thought that she hurriedly jumped off the bed and started walking towards the exit. But, at that moment, a cry of alarm came from Wang ma. “Miss! Your face!”
“What’s wrong with my face?” Ning Ning said while touching her face.
Wang ma walked over with a mask. “Master has said that your face can only be seen by him as well as your future husband. Apart from them, your face is not allowed to be seen by a third man.”
Ning Ning chuckled. “What if a third man accidentally sees it?”
Wang ma replied, “Then there will be one less man in this world.”
… You are no doubt a maid, but why do you speak like a criminal syndicate killer?
The two arrived at the courtyard where the sun shone brightly. Under a plum tree in the courtyard, stood a chair padded with a thick seat cushion which Wang ma helped Ning Ning to sit on. At this moment, Ning Ning was wrapped up tight from top to toe, so much so that even her hands were covered with a pair of white lace gloves. The extent of wrapping made her feel as if she has Hansen’s disease.
(Note: Hansen’s disease is a contagious disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing discoloration and lumps on the skin and, in severe cases, disfigurement and deformities.)
Across from her, Boss Qu was urging over a pair– a young man and a young lady.
“You’ll feel stuffy if you stay at home all day.” Boss Qu flung the whip in his hands while smiling – just like the performers that put on a monkey show on the streets. “So I brought the two of them here to perform a few magic tricks for you.”
Ning Ning let out an expression of surprise, which caused to Wang ma ask, “Miss, What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Ning Ning might have said so, but she was currently going crazy internally.
She had transmigrated while watching the movie, so sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder if her transmigration had anything to do with this strange movie? This whole time she hadn’t found any evidence to the contrary, until now, as she sat face to face with this pair.
On the left was a young man who remained silent. He looked to be about fifteen to sixteen years old and had a figure which leaned towards the thinner side. He had stared at his black cloth shoes from the minute he entered, not once lifting up his head. Thus, Ning Ning could not clearly make out his facial features.
However, the young lady on the right was a complete contrast to him. She had been stealing glances towards Ning Ning from the start, looking as if she wanted a pair of arms to extend out of her eyes to peel off the mask, and get a clear look of Ning Ning’s real face.
Boss Qu gave her a slap. “What are you looking at, lower your head!”
One side of her face immediately swelled. She lowered her head, not daring to give Ning Ning another look.
Ning Ning inhaled sharply. “Pa, don’t hit her.”
This person you just hit is called Li Xiulan, the female lead on the poster outside of Life Movie Theatre’s entrance.
“Okay, I won’t hit her.” Boss Qu told her amiably, then turned around and continued his fierce manner towards Li Xiulan. “What are you standing still for, quickly give miss a show of your acrobats.”
“Yes.” Li Xiulan walked towards Ning Ning with head lowered. While walking, she flashed out nine linked rings. With her nimble hands, a flip showed the shape of a lanturn, another flip, and it was in the shape of a silver ingot. After that, there were more and more different patterns that were gradually increasing in difficulty: a government official’s hat, peony, and even a bicycle, this drew everyone present to applaud her.
However, nobody noticed that along with her flipping, her footsteps were gradually taking her nearer to Ning Ning, getting nearer and nearer…
Finally, the nine linked rings turned into a long rope. Then Li Xiulan practically exerted her entire body’s strength to rush forward and use the long rope to circle Ning Ning’s neck. Her eyes shifted towards Boss Qu’s direction and she proceeded to shout herself hoarse, “Let me go!”
Almost at the same time of her shout, she was struck down by a shoulder and flung a few meters away.
Li Xiulan cried out at the impact as she fell to the ground. After a clear look at her perpetrator, she yelled in despair, “Chen Junyan!”
Ning Ning took a few deep breaths before turning to look at the young man beside her who was supporting her up with an arm.
A profile that had been carved with meticulous care by god.
Generally when we say that someone is a beauty, they would either be beautiful because of their eyes, or nose, or lips, or chin. However, that was not the case for him as all his facial features were beautiful. Even just his profile was like God’s writing, like the faint warm sunlight shining on a piece of paper as a brush sketched out an extremely graceful curve.
Again, Ning Ning had seen this profile on the poster at Life Movie Theatre. It was the male lead, Chen Junyan.
At this moment, Boss Qu finally came back to his senses. He took a few steps towards
Li Xiulan. Right when Ning Ning thought he was about to whip her, instead he threw his whip down to the ground, then stooped down to grab a handful of Li Xiulan’s hair and proceeded to ruthlessly smash her head against a stone.
“Who allowed you to touch my daughter, huh, how dare you touch my daughter.” His current facial expression was, contrary to expectation, not sinister at all. In fact, it was extremely calm as if he wasn’t smashing a human head, but, instead, a potato.
In the beginning, Li Xiulan made blood-curling screeches, but gradually, her screams ceased and only the sound of her head smashing onto the stone could be heard, dong, dong, dong…
As someone who had grown up in the current age, Ning Ning was unable to accept what was happening in such a scene, thus she hurriedly cried out, “Papa! Stop! She’s about to die!”
Boss Qu paused in his actions and hastily wiped the blood on his face with his shirt sleeve. However, not only did this act not wipe him clean, it instead left his entire face sticky with smeared blood so much so that even the two sides of his mustache were dyed a bright red. Ning Ning could not stop the shudder of fright that overcame her when he turned back with his usual fatherly smile on his face, telling her, “Ning’er don’t be afraid, papa will clean this up right now.”
While maintaining the smile, he continued wiping his face with one hand whilst the other hand dragged Li Xiulan’s body by the hair as he slowly made his way out of the courtyard, leaving behind a long bloody trail.
With a trembling voice, Ning Ning asked, “Where is papa taking her?”
Wang ma replied indifferently, “To where she ought to go.”
Ning Ning felt dizzy, aren’t you a maid, why do you speak like a mafia godfather?
Chen Junyan, from his place on the side, hesitated for a moment, before quietly stating, “Since she injured miss, I’m afraid she doesn’t have much time to live.”
What? She’s going to die like that? Ning Ning anxiously turned to him and said, “I’ve already forgiven her, so quickly go, and tell my papa to let her off.”
Chen Junyan glanced at the trail of blood on the ground… then lowered his head and remained silent.
If not for the fact that Ning Ning was sure that Boss Qu was a daughter maniac internally, she wouldn’t have dared to try to uphold justice. After taking a deep breath, she attempted to stand up from the chair only to fall back down because of her legs that had turned jelly.
Wang ma opened her arms wide in a posture of carrying an infant…
Go away ahh!! Ning Ning jumped up from her seat and followed along the zigzag bloody trail.
“Miss, she is guilty and deserves punishment.” Wang ma chased Ning Ning. “No matter where such a thing happens, only death awaits if a servant attacks their owner’s young miss.”
Ning Ning could only sigh internally– she was no saint that felt the need to insist on saving someone that had wanted to harm her either. However, both Li Xiulan and Chen Junyan were important to a theory she had, hence, she couldn’t by any means allow anything to happen to either of them before she confirmed her speculation.
Fortunately, Boss Qu couldn’t go fast while dragging a person along, thus, Ning Ning quickly caught up and shouted, “Pa!”
Boss Qu halted in his footsteps.
Ning Ning hurriedly moved to stand before him, then pointed at Li Xiulan by his foot. “Didn’t you ask me what I want? I want her!”
A few days later, Li Xiulan kneeled outside with her head wrapped in a circle of white cloth and her hands bound behind her back.
A pearl beaded curtain hung between them, while Ning Ning sat inside as the wind gently blew, causing the pearl beads to produce light clanking sounds.
“You have miss to thank.” Boss Qu stood behind Li Xiulan with his arms crossed on his chest. “If not for miss’s plea for leniency, I would’ve long chopped you into pieces to feed to the dogs.”
Ning Ning could swear she saw Li Xiulan secretly curl her lips in disdain.
“Bring it over!” Boss Qu had seen it too, as he stomped his foot and shouted behind him.
Wang ma walked over with her two hands holding onto a small wooden box, then, an odd thing happened. Li Xiulan who had been fearless just a moment before, started trembling from head to toe with beads of sweat suddenly dripping onto the ground unceasingly– just like a mouse who had seen a cat.
Ning Ning could not understand why Li Xiulan, who looked to not fear even death, would fear this box.
“You may be exempt from a death sentence, but punishment is inevitable.” Boss Qu slid the wooden box that he held in his hand through the pearl curtains, “Ning’er, you pick one and throw it to her.”
To be honest, Ning Ning felt pretty curious about what was inside. She took the box and placed it on her thighs, carefully opening it.
Inside, there was a pile of wooden men. No, to be more accurate one could say, there were only three wooden men while the rest were small animals with bizarre appearances. Ning Ning raised a wooden-carved puppy up to eye level; it had delicate four cute limbs, yet it had grown a twisted human face. Ning Ning furrowed her brows feeling a little uncomfortable. At the same time, Boss Qu outside said, “This puppy’s not a bad choice.”
From the ground, Li Xiulan let out a piercing shriek. This startled Ning Ning into a tremble which caused the puppy to fall back into the box as she lost her grip.
“No! No! Don’t give me this!” She cried out in a blood-curdling screech towards Ning Ning. Because she was kneeling down and could not walk, she crawled over on her knees. “Give me something else! Give me something else!”
Boss Qu kicked her back to the spot with a leg, and coldly said, “Who allowed you to shout and scream in front of miss?”
Li Xiulan fell to the ground, wailing, however, Boss Qu started humming a tune beside her. That tune traveled into Ning Ning’s ears; instantly, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Because she was familiar with this tune.
At Life Movie Theatre, when the movie had just begun, she had heard the same voice, the same tune. The only difference was that one had only hummed the tune, while the other had sung the lyrics. The lyrics were, “Kidnapped kids are made to pick a wooden man. Whoever picks a lame, will have their legs broken; picks the blind, will be blinded; picks the amputee, we cut their limbs. Then, as beggars, they’ll beg for money.”
Drops of sweat once again trickled down Ning Ning’s forehead.
She sat unmoving on the seat, feeling as if the wooden box on her thighs weighed a thousand pounds – the pressure left her unable to move even a little.
If her theory was correct, she must have transmigrated into a movie.
A movie called <Republic Circus>.
In the poster by the entrance, there was Chen Junyan, Li Xiulan, and a wooden box… Ning Ning lowered her head; right now, the wooden box lay on her thighs. That wooden box that could determine the fate of the male and female lead, as well as the fate of many others in the movie; perhaps, it might even determine the future development of the entire film.
Because…
A picture of the silver ingot, official’s hat, peony
Translated by: Ruisi
Edited by: Ely
Thanks for reading!