That evening, Yang Jingshen lay on the single-sized bed in the extra room of Feng Xue's place after finishing his lunch, analyzing his newfound knowledge about this world as well as the original owner of his new body.
Before transmigrating into this world, he only read up to thirty-something chapters in that darned book, and let's face it– who in their right mind would even bother to continue reading that kind of dog-blood novel after going through a few chapters of such pure intellectual torture?
To claim that he even read the book up to that point– it was an insult to his superior intelligence ah! Good thing no one knew about this. And, his only excuse for reading even that far was that he was truly and utterly bored and was in search of a change in his life.
And, somehow or other, he took it into his head to accept the (unreliable) advice of his (immature) assistant and took it upon himself to immerse himself in this melodrama. And, a fat lot of good it did for him too!
Yang Jingshen angrily exhaled and decided to stop cursing that brat Li Min -it won't do him any good, and he wasn't even sure he'd meet her ever again to give her the spanking that she so deserved- and instead started analyzing what he already knew about everything that happened in that book up until now.
From what he remembered, Feng Xi, the original owner of this body had been a cannon fodder villain in the truest sense, exhibiting the brainless jealousy and recklessness that only such a character was capable of possessing. But, whether she was as villainous as she was portrayed in the novel 'How to be a superstar' was still debatable, at least to Yang Jingshen.
However, this girl Feng Xi was quite special as well– even for a minor villain. It was because she was the first rival in the showbiz world that this novel's protagonist 'Guo Ying' would meet and the first to taste defeat in her hands as well.
As was usually the case with this type of negligible enemy, Feng Xi possessed mediocre acting talents but wasn't open-minded enough to accept that there may be people who were better than her. Like, you know, the protagonist? :ℨ
Anyway, she was overcome with jealousy towards the talented and incomparable Guo Ying, who was better than her in every sense of the world, and this jealousy propelled her to spread malicious gossip about the other person in the crew they were acting together and yada yada.
Well, things would've ended there, since Feng Xi really didn't do anything drastic like spreading this gossip on social media (?) like was usually wont to happen in a showbiz novel.
But as was usual with the MC's halo that easily attracted trouble, this obscure gossip somehow grew into an epic proportion, and then this powerful actress friend the book's protagonist made in the same cast 'accidentally' discovered that this lowly actress had been spreading nasty titbits about her new bosom buddy.
Well… you can imagine the rest, right?
Overcome with righteous indignation at her beloved friend's unjust flight, this powerful actress effectively banned Feng Xi from acting in that drama, and then an unaccountable number of marketing accounts started dredging up hundreds of her 'disgusting' past deeds.
And Feng Xi– Feng Xi not being able to bear the world witnessing the full picture of her nastiness in all its glory, promptly decided to commit suicide by jumping from a three-story high building. The end!
'Wow! How touching.' Yang Jingshen mused sarcastically. 'There sure are a lot of holes in this story and the way this incident blew up is definitely unusual. Also, this girl Feng Xi– her acting is not so bad, especially for a twenty-year-old girl with no formal education in performing.'
This past week, apart from absorbing as much knowledge as was possible about this new world, Yang Jingshen had devoted a portion of his time to studying this body's owner.
And after watching a few dramas acted out by Feng Xi -mostly as side characters with a few handfuls of second or third female lead characters thrown in the middle-, he had arrived at the conclusion that her acting wasn't as bad as was depicted in the novel.
Of course she was no prodigy, but with time, she could have developed herself into an actress with a stable reputation.
In the end, Yang Jingshen could only lament the vice that was jealousy. If Feng Xi hadn't been that jealous of her colleague and started acting up, would she have been spared this terrible ordeal?
Of course, if not for the protagonist's undefeatable aura that was in effect, Yang Jingshen was sure that things wouldn't have escalated to this level, and the poor girl could have at least saved her life and he wouldn't be in this situation as well, no?
'Hmmmmmm…. No, wait! That's not right. What if I ended up in the body of someone who was in bigger trouble than this brat? At least this time around, Feng Xi can be said to have already suffered her retribution, so the chances of more trouble coming my way are quite small ne.'
Yang Jingshen patted his chest in relief upon this realization and took the phone on the bedside nightstand to take a look at what was going on on Weibo. Oh, apparently, even though many brand names and companies have changed in this new world, a few prominent ones like Weibo and WeChat were still there.
Thanks to the small mercies, but then again, this novel was based in China, so what could he expect?
After scrolling down and seeing nothing new and interesting even after searching for posts under his new name, he threw the phone away in boredom.
These past few days, Yang Jingshen had looked up old posts relating to Feng Xi, and it could only be said that she had been scolded by everyone -including passersby, ex-fans, and black fans- until she had been nearly drowned in all their spittle.
Honestly, he felt like he couldn't exactly blame the poor girl for deciding to end her life– everyone had acted like she had killed their mother or something worse.
Of course, those incriminating posts had now long gone out of hot search, and except for a few busybodies, the rest had long since forgotten about this unmentionable character. But the damage was done.
Feng Xi's company 'Star dreams entertainment' had long since taken control of her Weibo account and except for a few zombie fans used to make up the numbers, the account was as bare as a barren sand dune in the midst of a desert.
And Yang Jingshen wasn't bothered in the slightest; he actually thought that it was good this way. With the affairs in this order, he didn't have to worry too much about his future actions.
The company hadn't banned him and didn't look like they were going to terminate his contract either, which he credited to the efforts of his new cousin, who was also the agent of Feng Xi. But, this way, he could lie low and once the contract expires, quietly leave this industry and live his life the way he wants.
After all, it had been the one thing that he hadn't been able to do in his past life– living his life the way he wanted. And, the truth had been that even though he loved acting, he had hated all that baggage that came with it.
The moment he found himself waking up in this new world, it can be said that all the shackles from his past life had been severed. Even if it wasn't the way he wanted things to be, Yang Jingshen couldn't say that he wasn't welcoming of this new change either.
The only downside for him leaving the acting career in this world would be the effect it would have on his new family member; Feng Xue had taken good care of him since he woke up, and without her, he'd have found himself neck-deep in trouble. Credit should be given where it was due after all.
But that doesn't mean that he'd use his time and life to pay back this kind of meager help; meager it was because even without her, he'd have been able to navigate the muddy waters that were his new life– just that it would have been way harder.
So, this period of three years, he'd spend planning his new future and at the same time devising ways to help Feng Xue. It was after all the least he could do for the deceased Feng Xi as well, with him using her body and all.
'With my abilities and experience, it won't be a hassle to identify one or two good seedlings for Feng Xue to develop after I leave acting. That way, she can also develop her career.'
He'd of course continue to act small roles in obscure drama -if he was given the chance- and once the three years are up, there would be nothing standing in his way to his long-expected freedom!