I've Transmigrated Into This Movie Before

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Movie Empress’s daughter

What’s scarier than the experience of watching a bad movie? Watching your own bad movie.

An expressionless Ning Ning sat in a movie theater, surrounded by roars of laughter, when a neighbouring audience member nudged her with their elbow, “When did you become blind?”

“I’m not blind.” Ning Ning pushed up her sunglasses. She wore a pair of sunglasses not due to blindness, but because she was afraid people would recognise her as the female lead in the movie.

“Hrm, I’ve already gone blind.” The neighbouring audience member took off their eyeglasses and slowly cleaned its lense, “My vision started declining after 5 minutes of watching the movie, and I’m almost a hundred percent blind by now.”

“Ha, haha…” Ning Ning laughed awkwardly, at a loss for words. Thinking, Why hasn’t this darned movie finished running.

At the moment, the movie was actually already halfway finished, and those audience members who cherished their eyesight had more or less left. Of those remaining, they were either scrolling through their phone, chatting, or sleeping. Only Ning Ning’s neighbour was watching the movie seriously. He persistently fixed his gaze onto the screen, though nearly blind, “How many star ratings do you think this movie can get on IMDB?”

Unable to keep her conscience from giving it a full star, Ning Ning said, “3 stars.”

“2.5 stars.” Her neighbouring audience chortled, “2 stars for the plot and 0.5 stars for the main leads.”

“What?” Ning Ning could not remain calm anymore, and she turned her head towards her neighbour, “How can the main leads be blamed for a bad movie? Even a movie empress wouldn’t be able to save such a retarded plot and dumb script!”

“What do you think actors are for? They are there to change something rotten into something magical, to make a 2 star movie be rated 3 stars.” Her neighbour’s gaze remained fixated on the screen. In the darkness, only a rough outline of his side face could be seen, as well as the movie’s reflection on his glasses lense, “There’s only so  many good films and only a few good acting roles– the majority of actors got started with bad films. So an actor doesn’t need to put in any effort just because the film is bad?”

The movie ended. Accompanying the melodic flow of the ending song,  the lights began to go up in the theatre, also lighting up the man’s side profile. It was the Great director,  Chen Guanchao.

As he turned his head and smiled, Ning Ning’s heart sank because she had already guessed the purpose behind his visit to watch the movie and knew his next words.

“Your mum is a great actor.” Chen Guanchao got up and walked past her, leaving behind words of regret, “What a pity, you aren’t.”

He left, and the other audiences left too, leaving behind a vacant movie theatre. Only Ning Ning still sat, unmoving like a statue.

A phone ringtone abruptly sounded. She fished out her phone and saw a message sent by her manager, which said, “You don’t have to go to the audition next month anymore. Director Chen just phoned the higher-ups specifying he will not use you.”

Ning Ning’s phone weakly slipped out of her hand, as she faced the running credits with the actors names slowly moving up the screen then disappearing – like the ebbing tide, washing away old names one after the other and replacing them with new. Of the many names, how many are remembered by people, how many had been forgotten. How many had people praised in admiration, and how many had been shown disdain.