After I Abandoned the Protagonist [Quick Transmigration] 1

Chapter 1: The Future Movie Queen About to Be Abandoned (1)

The moment Su Mingxiu opened her eyes, the weight on her legs made her instinctively recoil—

As her back leaned against the cold, hard back of the chair, her blurry vision focused, and she finally saw the scene before her. A beautiful woman in a dark blue cheongsam, the silk embroidered hem hanging down her sides, a silver-blue peacock embroidered on it, seemingly about to take flight, its beak just reaching the curve of the woman’s leg.

And this woman in the Suzhou-embroidered cheongsam seemed like the enchanting peacock come to life. Seeing the fleeting surprise in Su Mingxiu’s eyes, she moved even closer.

Their postures were almost seamlessly intertwined, and the woman’s voice was like a feather, gently scratching Su Mingxiu’s ear: “Did I dance well just now?”

As her senses gradually returned, Su Mingxiu’s fingertips twitched, realizing that there was a soft touch beneath them. Instinctively, she exerted force, and saw a faint blush creep onto the beauty’s earlobes. Her gaze moved downwards, noticing her palm resting on the woman’s waist.

And the spot where she had just exerted force was the woman’s waist dimple.

What an indecent act!

Just as she was overly startled and about to push the woman away and stand up, a mechanical voice finally sounded in her mind: “Host successfully deployed… World storyline loading…”

A massive influx of information surged in, instantly occupying all of Su Mingxiu’s thoughts. Her actions paused, and she recalled her identity, hurriedly reading the transmitted content.

This was a world focused on entertainment. In this world, everyone wanted to become a superstar, possessing endless fame and fortune. There was even a global “Annual Superstar List” released every year. It was said that as long as one could be in the top fifty of this list, all their dreams could come true.

There was once a beggar who accidentally passed the audition for comedians and rose to the 30th place on the list as a comedic actor.

Now he had bought an exclusive island and built it into his own paradise, possessing endless wealth;

There was also someone whose relative suffered from a serious illness, and this person, through continuous hard work in the entertainment industry, had invested in several famous pharmaceutical companies to research special drugs for their relative…

Many legends emerged, and the creator of these legends was the industry giant, Star Entertainment.

“Su Mingxiu” in this world was the ace agent of Star Entertainment. Her figure appeared in many legends. She possessed the most extensive resources and connections in Star Entertainment and even held 30% of the shares. As long as she wanted, an ordinary person with no acting talent could be on the Superstar List within a year.

But her temper was truly eccentric. She had cultivated five superstars who ranked first globally, and the most talented one had held the crown for three consecutive years. Unfortunately, all of these superstars disappeared at the peak of their careers.

And the one who made them retire was Su Mingxiu, who had initially made them famous.

Even with such a reputation, there were still people flocking to her. For those who had nothing, even a moment of glory was worth dying for—

The protagonist of the story, Yu Yinglan, also preferred to take risks.

She was born into a poor family. Her father was an alcoholic and gambler. Her mother died when she was ten years old while trying to escape debt collectors with her, accidentally falling from a dilapidated building. After that, it was the story of her working part-time to repay debts while enduring her father’s domestic violence. Until she was sixteen, she ran away from home to the seaside and encountered Su Mingxiu, who happened to be there for a walk.

[Storyline deployed! Ultimate mission released: Make Yu Yinglan hold the top spot on the Superstar List for three consecutive years, give her everything she wants, then make her owe a debt a thousand times greater than the original, lose everything, and ruin her reputation.]

Su Mingxiu came back to her senses. Just as she recognized the person sitting on her lap as the protagonist, the system’s voice rang in her mind. Her eyelashes trembled, but she didn’t speak.

The system suddenly emphasized:

[I’ve already told you, the existence of the Tempering System is to make the protagonist undergo the harshest tests during her growth, so that she can grow into a powerful being who can shoulder the world. Su Mingxiu, this is your only chance. If you fail because of your soft heart, your shattered soul will be irreparable. Without me, you will have no chance of rebirth.]

[Understood.]

Su Mingxiu’s eyes narrowed slightly. She remembered the scene when the Tempering System found her, took a deep breath, and was about to raise her hand to let Yu Yinglan get off her when she suddenly heard the system’s reminder:

[Maintain your character setting, no OOC behavior allowed!] (OOC – acronym that stand for out of character)

She secretly took a breath and paused.

From Yu Yinglan’s perspective, Su Mingxiu was almost indifferent after the initial surprise. She was unsure whether to advance or retreat for a moment, hesitating for a while before deciding to muster her courage and further test Su Mingxiu’s bottom line.

Tomato-colored lipstick outlined her lips like jelly. Seeing the fragrance about to leave a mark on her lips, Su Mingxiu reacted and timely distanced herself slightly, her right index finger resting on the other’s lips.

The always casual expression finally revealed a slight smile. Yu Yinglan saw the unpredictable Su, the great agent, bloom into a smile and thought it was encouragement. However, the other party’s cool voice slowly entered her ears: “I only agreed to watch you dance, who allowed you to sit up here?”

Instantly.

Yu Yinglan’s back suddenly went cold. She almost panicked and got off Su Mingxiu, her face flushed red as she stammered an apology: “I’m… I’m sorry…”

She had only heard that the previous superstars who followed Su Mingxiu were all stunning beauties. Although she didn’t know the specific content of the contracts, even Su Mingxiu’s assistants said that they offered everything they had in exchange for Su Mingxiu’s help.

No one could escape the seven emotions and six desires, and Yu Yinglan knew this well. Although she was reluctant, compared to being abandoned by Su Mingxiu early and losing everything, this sacrifice was nothing.

So she deliberately asked the teacher to teach her this dance in dance class, hoping to please Su Mingxiu. Who knew it seemed to have backfired?

Seeing Su Mingxiu pull out a wet wipe from the corner of the table and meticulously wipe away the remaining red marks on her fingertips, Yu Yinglan’s face turned even paler. She was already thinking about all the possible scenarios of being kicked out.

Su Mingxiu threw the wet wipe into the trash can and only then noticed that the protagonist hadn’t left yet. At this moment, her clothes were not even tidied up, her wavy hair was messy, and she stood obediently not far away, not daring to move.

She thought for a moment and said softly, “Come closer.”

After Yu Yinglan walked closer stiffly, Su Mingxiu’s gaze swept over her face, which was a mixture of shame and anger. She raised her hand to help the other party straighten her clothes. When the girl lowered her head like an obedient pet and let her smooth her hair, she reminded her faintly: “You’re going to be late for your acting class.”

Yu Yinglan looked at her blankly, her mind unable to process it, but she vaguely felt that she didn’t intend to pursue her previous offense. She could only blush and say goodbye.

When she reached the door, a voice came from behind her: “The things you give away must be things you won’t regret…”

“Think carefully about this before making an exchange next time, little girl.”

With a “thump,” Yu Yinglan’s face turned as red as fire. As she quickly fled the place, her heart was filled with one sentence: She saw through me.

She saw through her reluctance.

Strangely, the other party didn’t accept the “gift,” which somehow made her relieved.

In the study.

As soon as Su Mingxiu sent the protagonist away, she heard the short-term mission issued by the system, “Choose the most suitable script role for the protagonist to increase her popularity.”

She looked at the neat stack of papers pressed down by a sandalwood paperweight on the table, raised her hand to remove the paperweight, and when her gaze fell on the cover of the papers, the origin of these scripts surfaced in her mind.

Behind each script was a pit that the original owner had set for Yu Yinglan. Her eyes scanned through them one by one, and many possible futures unfolded before her. Su Mingxiu closed her eyes, her slender fingers gripping the smooth sandalwood ruler. The two-finger-wide, forearm-long ruler was quite stress-relieving to play with.

Seeing that she hadn’t made a decision for a long time, the system asked: “Are you not satisfied with these?”

Su Mingxiu’s fingertips tapped on the stacks of paper one by one: “This one can make money, but the investors are shady; this one’s casting director is shady; this one’s second female lead has too many schemes, and the filming environment is bad; this one can win awards, but it doesn’t make money.”

After a pause, she asked: “Didn’t you say you wanted me to give her the best?”

The system didn’t expect her to be so cooperative and immediately said with relief: “Then choose carefully.”

It was happy to see Su Mingxiu’s current affection for Yu Yinglan. After all, the greater the contrast between before and after, the stronger the protagonist would become when she climbed from the bottom.

But Su Mingxiu remained seated in her chair and asked in a low voice: “Yu Yinglan’s face, was it intentional?”

[Yes] The system didn’t hide it: “I extracted your memories. This is what your first love looked like, right? To help you adapt to the role quickly, I spent a lot of effort to find such a similar protagonist in countless worlds. Facing this face, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to get into character, right?”

Su Mingxiu took a deep breath.

An unnamed anger surged in her heart, her fingertips holding the sandalwood ruler turning white. After a while, she responded indifferently: “You’re quite intelligent, aren’t you? Choosing this face, once I fall in love, I’ll have to follow the plot to survive later on; assuming I hate her because of love and want to kill her, but I’m also afraid of your coercion and can’t kill her, you can still achieve your goal.”

System: “It’s too late to regret it now.”

She rubbed the patterns on the long ruler, quickly suppressing her anger, and only said: “Don’t regret choosing me.”

System: “?”

Unfortunately, Su Mingxiu went back to seriously studying the scripts and didn’t respond to it anymore.

This work continued until dinner time.

Yu Yinglan lived under the same roof as Su Mingxiu. They had assistants for travel and filming, and Su Mingxiu hired industry experts to teach her courses. Correspondingly, Yu Yinglan’s learning outcomes were also reviewed by her.

Today happened to be the last session of the non-physical acting class. Thinking about what happened before, Yu Yinglan held the report card given by the teacher, looked at the mediocre “Pass” on it, and still felt a little panicked.

This panic reached its peak when she knocked on the study door and saw the戒尺(disciplinary ruler) in Su Mingxiu’s hand.

So naturally, her on-site performance was even worse than during the teacher’s final assessment.

The atmosphere in the study was suffocating.

Yu Yinglan knew she was done for after her performance. She was both regretful and afraid, her eyes welling up with tears. Tears hung at the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall as she pleaded with Su Mingxiu: “I’m sorry, I was too nervous… Can you… give me another chance?”

Su Mingxiu noticed that her gaze kept falling on the ruler in her hand. After thinking for a moment, she remembered what the original owner bought this ruler for.

Her slender fingers steadily held the black sandalwood ruler. She slid the long ruler along Yu Yinglan’s spine, noticing the body under the ruler tense up and tremble…

Along with it came the memories of the original owner’s eccentric hobbies.

The system sensed her change and added fuel to the fire: “We don’t prohibit any means. If you like, you can also have her at this stage.”

The long ruler suddenly stopped at Yu Yinglan’s lower back.

It was precisely one of the waist dimples that Su Mingxiu’s fingertips had touched in the afternoon.

Yu Yinglan thought nervously, was her performance so bad that it angered Su Mingxiu to the point of losing her mind and wanting to beat her to death?

She was struggling between “gritting her teeth and enduring it” and “risking her life to remind her” when she suddenly heard two words fall behind her ear: “Scared?”