1885: You Can't

You Can't

"That's right," a male actor behind Wu Jingli chipped in. "She doesn't even know what level she's in, yet she's claiming to be a rookie and posturing herself lowly, all on top of coming early and studying every day. What a good act she puts on. If she really felt she was a rookie, she wouldn't have snapped up this important role!"2

"Just this point alone highlights how she's so thick-skinned. It's useless no matter how she acts humble. She doesn't have the skill yet likes to steal roles," another follower, Xu Yuting, said.

Wu Jingli's face was dark. "I shall see how bad she acts later on."

"Even though her acting is surely bad, Teacher, you'll still have to act opposite her and help her get in character. It's so unfair!" Sun Xiutong goaded.

Were they really speaking up for Wu Jingli?

Obviously not!

They were just green-eyed.

They were around the same age, but because of Han Zhuoli, Lu Man could pick and choose any roles.

Meanwhile, until now, they could only tag behind Wu Jingli, cozying up and currying favor with her, and only acting in minor roles nobody remembers and earning a salary that's barely enough to survive in B City.

Such unfairness, how could they not be envious?

But because they knew of her privileged background, they didn't dare make trouble for her outright and instigated Wu Jingli instead.

Did Wu Jingli not know Lu Man's background?

Of course she did.

But Lu Man had infringed unto her interests, and Wu Jingli was determined to fight for it as long as she didn't threaten her own interest.

Wu Jingli and the three approached Lu Man.

"Teacher Wu," Lu Man greeted automatically.

Wu Jingli gave a half-hearted smile and said, "The first scene seems to be ours."

"That's right," Lu Man replied.

"Here's the flow. We go through our lines first, then go onstage and act it once through. Everyone will follow the script and play out the scenes onstage accordingly. When we're not onstage, we'll be preparing backstage. The director will correct us when we're performing onstage," Wu Jingli explained.

Lu Man nodded her understanding.

Wu Jingli glanced at the script in her hand. "Have you memorized your lines? We're the first ones up, we don't have much time to prepare. Don't keep making mistakes onstage later, or the actors after us can't go out. It'd be like a domino effect, with you alone affecting everyone else after us and wasting everyone's time."

"I've memorized them," Lu Man said.

As she had already said, she's a greenhorn and her acting had areas for improvement. But as long as the elements could be controlled by her, like the fundamental jobs like memorizing lines, she'd complete them perfectly.

Wu Jingli glanced at Lu Man, not confident in her words.

"Alright, let us go through it once," Wu Jingli said.

All of them went backstage. The three junior actors also had minor parts in the first scene.

The three used their scripts, and Wu Jingli wanted to as well.

But Lu Man did not use hers. She remembered all her lines.

Wu Jingli saw that and a streak of competitiveness arose within her. She couldn't lose to Lu Man in this aspect, could she?

She'd memorized her lines too anyway, and so she put away the script.

"You can't act like this," Wu Jingli interrupted Lu Man.

"Then how should I act?" Lu Man, on the other hand, was genuinely asking for guidance.

She'd managed to decipher three different ways of acting this scene and had tried them out a few times, even dragging Han Zhuoli to act opposite her at home.

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