The sudden scene shocked everyone.

Siyu was also stunned; she hadn’t thought that it would be severe when her illness flared up. It didn’t stop with just one mouthful of blood; she couldn’t stop coughing. Although she covered her mouth in time, there was still blood trickling down through the gap of her fingers, dying red the petals of the flower prop on the ground.

If she did not personally experience it, Siyu wouldn’t believe that someone could cough up blood so excessively. Speaking of which…..didn’t the supporting female lead’s shooting go smoothly in her manhua? Didn’t she even use this opportunity to make a stir in the fashion world, becoming famous overnight? !

On this side, Siyu was astonished by the derailment of the plot. Meanwhile, the standing Yu Ling was severely frightened. She was the person in charge of today’s shooting. If any accident happened, she had to bear the full responsibility!

“Quick, stop shooting and call for an ambulance!” In the end, Yu Ling had undergone many difficulties. She quickly calmed down and yelled at the others, “ Don’t just stand there, quickly carry her to the lounge!”

She had just grumbled about the matter of Siyu’s frequent request of taking a break, thinking that the newcomer was pretending to be sick. It wasn’t until she saw Siyu spitting blood nonstop that she realized that it was the real deal—please don’t let Zhou Siyu have an accident here, ah! Otherwise, once this got out, who knows how the media will spin it!

It’s not weird that Yu Ling would think this way.  Any normal person who saw this scene would immediately think that Siyu suffered from an incurable disease and would die soon.

The studio was thrown into chaos. Siyu knelt down on the floor, panting. As she spewed out the blood, her chest didn’t feel as stifled anymore.  Siyu raised her head, sweeping her gaze across the bewildered crowd. She saw Yu Ling running towards her and bending over as if she wanted to lift her up.

When she saw Yu Ling, Siyu suddenly remembered that this was still in the middle of shooting. She had signed the contract with 《Feng Shang》. If by any chance she messed it up, she had to compensate it with a large sum of money. Even if she sold herself, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Thinking of this, Siyu immediately swallowed the fishy sweetness in her throat. She took a deep breath and said to Yu Ling who wanted to take her away from the studio: “ Ling-jie,  this is the last set of photos. Please let me finish it. In any case, the ambulance will need time to arrive here. My body is still able to handle it, there won’t be a problem.”

She didn’t know why her illness suddenly acted up. However, as the original author of the comic, Siyu was very clear about the power of supporting female lead’s halo of “not dying until the end”. No matter how grave the sickness was, the supporting female lead could always survive with one last breath. Spitting blood only looked scary. So in comparison, the sky-high restitution payment was more frightening.

Furthermore, if by chance she had to go to the hospital and missed the shooting, then that’s truly derailing away from the original plot. Unexpectedly transmigrating into a manhua world, Siyu could only rely on her omniscience as the author. She didn’t dare to gamble on the possible outcomes if she changed the story. Therefore, the best course of action was to keep to the original track.

When Yu Ling heard this, she was startled: ”You’re joking, right?”

Siyu coughed twice more and raised her hand to wipe her bloodstained mouth. She shook her head, her expression serious: “Didn’t you say that Mr. Zhang Chao only reserved one day? The work period is so tight and you don’t have enough time to look for another model, so just let me finish shooting it. “

As she said this, without waiting for Yu Ling to argue, Siyu lay sideways in the flowers. Twirling a red-stained flower in her hand,  she brought the flower near her lips and kissed it lightly–just as Zhang Chao had instructed her earlier. The red blood on the flower stained her pale lips. That little bit of bright red was quite soul-stirring. Because she had just lost a large amount of blood, at this moment Siyu’s face looked ill1. Her figure emitted a frail aura, her eyelashes drooping slightly; the whole body was like a willow that could break at any moment in the strong wind, appearing to have a beautiful dying posture.

Zhang Chao looked at the pose that she made. Feeling inspired, he barked at Yu Lin, “Step aside.” Then he fixed his eyes on the camera, continuously pressing down on the shutter and dutifully recording the moment.

“This…..” Yu Ling was yelled at by Zhang Chao and subconsciously moved back several steps. When she regained her senses, her anger surged forth. Granted that the model was not reliable, why would the photographer willfully follow her? Now is not the time to do such a thing!

However, Zhang Chao had already entered his working state and was wholly ignorant of Yu Ling’s ugly expression as he fiddled busily with his camera.

“Yes, yes…. That’s it…… Wonderful….” Zhang Chao licked his lips excitedly and changed consecutively into several shooting angles.

Although he said that he wanted the aesthetic of ‘beauty in death’, but this itself was a very abstract description. Nonetheless,  this model, whether in the sickly pale appearance or the supposed manner of refined feeling, every aspect was a perfect interpretation. Even the bloodstains on her clothes were adorned just right.

“Now, tilt your head to the left a bit….”

Not only Zhang Chao, even the flustered staff member from before couldn’t help but look at the girl under the spotlight. Undoubtedly half an hour ago, she still had stiff limbs and didn’t know how to pose. Yet now she had fully integrated into the atmosphere. From the hair on the top of her head to the tip of her toes, she emitted a sick and weak, thin and pallid atmosphere. It was as if she really had arrived at the final moment of her life, igniting herself with the last remaining passion.

Siyu obediently posed. Her face was almost stiff from smiling. After a while, she couldn’t help but cough again and slightly knit her brows. She looked very pitiful. Zhang Chao rushed to take several more photos.

1: 面如金纸– face like gold paper, not literal. It’s used to describe, first, an angry look and, second, to describe nervousness, panic,­­­ and illness. For this context, it’s the second one.

Yu Ling, who was originally standing aside, was unknowingly pushed by the surging crowd to the door side. Just as she finally regained her balance, a shout from outside came through: “Make way—-  the stretcher had come—- “

The ambulance has finally arrived!

Watching Siyu get carried away on the stretcher, Yu Ling finally relaxed. Although the shooting could be completed as planned, she had been more worried about Siyu’s incident being blamed on the company. Now, this was pretty good. Siyu had been sent to the hospital. In any case, the company was justified.

Because she still had to stay for the aftermath, Yu Ling only sent an assistant to go with the ambulance. The studio had mostly been emptied. Several people also came out from the other big studio next door; apparently, they heard the commotion outside and came to check on the situation. Yu Ling carelessly looked over, her gaze locking onto the teenager in the lead.

“ Ji Lin, why did you come out? Are you all done?” Yu Ling asked as she hastily put on a smile, going over to him.

That teenager seemed like he had come of age not too long ago; he was dressed in punk-style clothes with pieces of metal ornaments hanging all over his body that made a clanging noise as he walked. Even though he wore this kind of non-mainstream style, it couldn’t cover up the youth’s outstanding disposition. He raised an eyebrow, a slight smile appearing on his handsome face. He looked a little bit unruly, yet he spoke conscientiously: “ Ling-jie, I just heard someone calling for an ambulance. What happened?”

Perhaps all women were hardly able to withstand this kind of bad-boy look. Yu Ling lamented in her heart that it was no wonder that Ji Lin had such a large amount of “mother”- and “girlfriend”-type of fans. Her expression softened as she explained: “It’s nothing, just a model who came to shoot for the cover page suddenly throwing up blood. The person has already been sent away .”

Yu-Ling wanted to say a few more complaints, but Ji Lin’s complexion suddenly became abnormally ugly: “—— Throwing up blood?”

“ Y-yeah, everyone was startled……. Hey, wait, where are you going?”  Before Yu Ling could finish her words, she saw Ji Lin rushing out with a dark expression, vanishing from her sight in a flash.

 

…..

Inside the hospital ward.

Siyu was pulled into a thorough check-up. As expected, the hospital couldn’t discover the cause of her sickness. In the end, after Siyu’s body condition stabilized, they could only prescribe medicine and tell her to recuperate for the time being.

Siyu internally thought that of course they couldn’t figure it out. After all, even she as the author, couldn’t explain clearly the kind of illness the supporting female lead had. In short, it was an incurable disease she wouldn’t die from.

Originally, the hospital proposed that she stay for observation. However, Siyu graciously declined. Thus Assistant Xu who came with her drove her back to her rented apartment and said: ”Miss Zhou, the company will help you to pay for the medical expenses first. If you have any questions, just contact me. You just peacefully recuperate. I won’t disturb you any longer.”

Assistant Xu quickly excused himself and left.

Back at her house, Siyu finally relaxed. Fortunately, the supporting female lead was usually a withdrawn and unsociable person. Furthermore, because of her poor health, she didn’t have any social activity. Except for her grandmother, she didn’t have any close friends. So she didn’t have to worry about being found out by others. 

Most importantly, after finishing the cover page photo shooting, she was finally considered as being able to muddle through smoothly.

Siyu knew that according to the original plot, Zhou Siyu would enter the entertainment industry as a model and pester the male and female lead incessantly. Yet, merely thinking of today’s hell-like experience of shooting, she couldn’t help but shiver.

…..Please spare her. She was only suited to be a shut-in1. Being a big star and whatnot, she sincerely couldn’t do it.

However, the supporting female lead had signed the contract with the talent agency. It may not be that easy for her to break the contract. If she chose to pay the compensation fee…… sure enough, what she needed most right now was money! Whether it was to buy medicine or for regaining freedom, all required her to earn money as soon as possible.

Siyu lowered her head, looking at her slender hand, and suddenly realized: that’s right! How could she forget? Her old profession was a manhua artist and she had published a lot of popular manhuas in her previous life. Why not copy those works over?

The more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Siyu eagerly opened her computer, surfing the internet. She was looking for any website or magazine that was suitable for delivering short manhua and the one with the shortest payment settlement period. After all, she urgently needed money. After a careful comparison, Siyu finally decided on a website called “Qu Man”.

Searching online, Siyu just discovered that printed books were still popular in this world. There were only a few published manhua on online platforms. This “Qu Man” was the first specialized manhua website in the country. Although it had just been established, Siyu noticed that it was backed by a large and powerful company. It’s not difficult to imagine that as long as there were several manhua authors, “Qu Man” would soon be hot. [T/N: AKA popular]

The salary was generous. Because they were in the starting phase, they urgently needed to recruit new authors—— Qu Man was undoubtedly the most suitable place for Siyu.

She didn’t rush to register as an author; rather, she first bought the drawing equipment that she needed from online. After she finished ordering, she checked her bank account. When she realized that there wasn’t much left, her heart hurt so much,  it was hard to breathe. [T/N: she was so distressed]

Sigh, even though dreams were good, but people need to eat….tomorrow she’ll call and ask Assistant Xu when she would be paid.

 

1: someone who stays at home and rarely go out 

T/N: Heyo! Ehem, so next week I’ll be away for a roadtrip with my family! Yay to me!!  He, He, the thing is I’m not sure whether the area will have good internet connection or not. If worst come worst…. You can only read the new chapter after I come back…. Sorry my reader (。•́︿•̀。)

P.S. Let’s just pray for good internet connection!! ╰(*´︶`*)╯

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