Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

That’s right. Lady Zhao’s smile was simply detestable. She totally denied forcefully obtaining the iconic character card “Zhang Guorong” through all forms of money spamming and striking up favors from her many acquaintances. Rather, she believed that she had merely been lucky in a gacha draw. This had been an absolutely a Godly draw. When she needed a card that was related to acting skill the most, she had entered a self-help acting book by chance.

All her shady deals notwithstanding, Zhao Youyue had been most resourceful and capable indeed. Perhaps the “Two Dimensional Gate” that simply loved toying with Lady Zhao did not see this coming. She had been able to transform a self-help book into a bestseller. Moreover, she had walked away from it with “Zhang Guorong,” a character with maxed out acting skills.

Zhao Youyue had been most cunning. She had picked a legendary actress who had a solid filmography and fanbase. Zeng Qinqin’s book may be a bestseller, but the true icon had been Zhang Guorong. This character had earned her the iconic character card!

If only looked at Zeng Qinqin’s book alone, getting a highly popular card would already be nothing short of a miracle…

Now that Zhao Youyue had earned “Zhang Guorong’s” character card, she could now be confident of her acting ability. The reason Zhang Guorong was called the “The Queen with A Thousand Faces.” She was probably one of the pioneers of method-acting. She often lost herself in her roles, pulling off performances that epitomized perfection.

Of course, method-acting entailed significant risks. Several actors and actresses have ended up so deep in their roles that they would fail to re-emerge. This often resulted in depression.

Zhao Youyue was once again exempt from this side effect. She only had to switch off the character card. What risks are you talking about?

Moreover, she could probably use the “Zhang Guorong card” and act as other obtained iconic female characters, rather than use their individual cards. She knew these iconic characters intimately. She could easily method-act as them.

Zhao Youyue had made her decision. If she ever were to step into acting, she would only act as her wives. She was only there to defend their image from being sullied. This was just like her VA roles.

After all, too many original works have been ruined by any manner of adaptation, these days. “Disastrous camerawork, poor animation” was not limited to the lamentations of original authors; it was a widespread phenomenon.

Great authors might have the power to control the circumstances of their adaptations. Regular authors would never even be allowed into the studio. Receiving some copyright fees would already be considered a pleasant surprise…

It was early December. Lady Zhao was already on her way to being a seasoned University Student. Her “Food Research Club” had grown rather popular in the campus.

Lady Zhao had never been able to obtain any “light-emitting cuisine” genre that she had been longing for. But she was capricious as she was rich. Hiring a famous chef to cook for the members the entire day was not out of the question. The extra portions could be sold in the campus, not to earn money, but to show that her Food Research Club was indeed putting an effort into researching food. It was not some sort of “afternoon tea after school” gimmick.

She could use the contents of these club activities to request for higher fundings from the Student Council. After all, it was impossible to hire famous chefs with money alone. Without the identity of the Zhao family, she could never procure imperial-level chefs.

Throughout the process, Zhao Youyue had used Xu Jing’s learning ability to learn many new recipes. After a few dishes, she had conquered many people’s stomachs. This had drastically increased the total number of Lady Zhao’s admirers. The “female chef” attribute did not seem to earn many charm points within literary works. In reality, a terrific cook earned a terrific amount of fans!

Thus, the Food Research Club welcomed an upsurge of applicants. In a sense, this was Lady Zhao’s “achievement.” With such an “achievement,” she would be able to enter the Student Council and become the Deputy President of a particular department!

Zhao Youyue approved all the applications without hesitation. Many of the applicants were joining the club only to approach Zhao Youyue. I wonder, how would they react to find President Zhao Youyue leaving, not long after their induction?

Of course, true gourmets were among these applicants. Lady Zhao could read people like books at an uncannily high level. She placed these members responsible for more work than most. Her core members remained as Han Leng, Du Hang, and He Weiwei. They held their private meetings at other locations such as the independent bookstore that Han Leng frequented. It was as artistic and as elegant as one could imagine. It was the ideal place to order a cup of milk tea or coffee and chit-chat.

The latest meeting only involved Zhao Youyue and Han Leng. They did not meet in the bookstore, but the classical concert hall. After all, the topic of that meeting was “Chu Luoxun.”

Han Leng was rather familiar with the place. He would never forget the first time he saw Lady Zhao turning into a Goddess; it was as if he had seen Chu Luoxun in reality…

Han Leng was very nervous at that moment. He waited for Lady Zhao’s answer. This was as close as one could get when it came to a confession!

He shook the awkward thought away. Confessing was impossible for him. He might not even get away with one in this lifetime. In his case, it was fated to be a pointless behavior. He had decided to be forever alone. This was the fool; this was Han Leng’s idea of romance.

Han Leng had never been so unsure, so uncertain. He was even somewhat pessimistic about the whole thing —— Could Lady Zhao even act as Chu Luoxun?

It was useless even if her characteristics were similar to Chu Luoxun. Did Lady Zhao even understand the basics of acting? Did she know how to act in front of the camera?

The more Han Leng thought, the more pessimistic he became. He even wanted to reject himself on Zhao Youyue’s behalf. This unreasonable request had troubled Lady Zhao again. He was guilty on all accounts…

The truth could not be further. Lady Zhao was on the brink of blowing up in self-confidence. She was a European emperor; she was an overinflated hot-air balloon. Of course, she would jump at the opportunity to act as Chu Luoxun. Even if Han Leng did not ask, she would appoint herself. Chu Luoxun was her Goddess wife!

“I’ll do it! I’ll pull off your perfect Chu Luoxun!” Lady Zhao boldly declared. As expected from a newly-wedded European emperor.