"Does she really plan to compete with her skills?"
"Stupid! If she could then she wouldn't still be stuck as an extra after so long!"
"That's why she had to resort to dirty tricks to steal the role from Sis Ting."
"Look at her pretending to be brave!"
Everyone had started to chatter. It was mainly those who supported Xia Ting who had spearheaded the gossiping, and the rest just got swept up along with the negative vibe.
Liu Xing Yu had her eyes closed, as she slowly felt herself get into character. Her consciousness sank deeper and deeper, as she allowed Huo Qiu Yue to take over. That was how she always acted. It always felt like she became the character.
When she opened her eyes, Liu Xing Yu was no longer present. Instead, it was Huo Qiu Yue.
Everyone around immediately shut up. They suddenly felt a pressure across the room.
H-heavy!
It felt like they were going to choke, as they watched Huo Qiu Yue move. The atmosphere was so heavy, like they were at a funeral. The grief was hanging thick in the air, and they could only watch silently.
Huo Qiu Yue looked down at her father's body. His head was completely detached from his body, and his eyes were wide open, his expression frozen.
Huo Qiu Yue suddenly felt all her memories with this man flash through her head at once, starting from her most recent one, all the way to her first.
She remembered the horrible things that he had done to her. How he had practically sold her off and whored her out for power, and she felt a deep anger course through her body.
But then slowly, that face that would always cause dread to explode from within her, that face that was always so cold and terrifying... slowly changed into something warm.
She suddenly remembered her earliest memories with him, from a time when things were much simpler, a time when her father was her father, and not a minister. From before greed had taken over his heart, from when that very heart only had space for Qiu Yue.
Before all that, her father had been a gentle father. After her mother's death, he had desperately tried to fill both roles in her life, learning how to cook and clean for his daughter. No matter how tired he was, he would always smile and pat her head and humour her.
Without realising, tears started to trickle down Huo Qiu Yue's face. In her eyes held such anguish that everyone watching felt like they were invading on a private moment.
Huo Qiu Yue couldn't stop crying for the father that would no longer return. She had never truly mourned the warm father she used to have because deep down, even when he had hurt her, she hoped that he would return.
But now, as she stared at his lifeless eyes, she knew for sure that she would never see him again. Her heart broke at the thought, and she started sobbing like the little girl she once was.
She gazed at the gruesome sight again, and felt a bitter laugh erupt from her throat.
He had given up a life of— yes, simplicity, but of happiness too— all for what? To die such a terrible death? Where no one else mourned him? He had given up on a life with her, for this?
And despite that, she was still mourning his death. This made her laugh turn slightly hysterical as she laughed at how stupid she felt.
"My father's dead... He's dead!" Her voice rang out, piercing through the air.
But although Qiu Yue was laughing as she spoke, the corners of her lips were always tugged down, as if there was a weight pulling them down. Her eyes still held the same sorrow from before, no matter how much more she laughed.
Eventually, Qiu Yue's giggling came to a stop, and she simply cried silently. She looked at the body, and said goodbye in her heart.
She walked around it, and away from it, slowly but surely. When she spotted Shang Ge Ming, another way of complex emotions hit her.
She loved him, but the man that she loved had killed the father that she had once loved. He had killed all her hope that that father would someday return to her.
In real life, Mo Rui Han stood frozen in place as Xing Yu pierced into his soul. He had been blown away by her performance, and when she approached him, he felt his heart squeeze. Naturally, he eased into his character as well, responding to Xing Yu's acting. He gazed back at her with a pained expression. Shang Ge Ming could understand what she was feeling.
Huo Qiu Yue knew that she couldn't blame him. He had to kill the minister, or the minister would eventually kill him. But matters of the heart were always complicated.
Shang Ge Ming's hand lifted slightly from his side, jerking up, only to freeze in place when Qiu Yue shook her head at him.
He stopped trying to approach her when he saw that.
Give me time. That was what she was trying to tell him.
Seeing this, Shang Ge Ming could do nothing but stand still as Huo Qiu Yue brushes past him, her emotions in turmoil.
-
When the scene ended, there was no applause like before. All that followed was pin drop silence.