Chapter 58 - 57: These Gods and Goddesses Are All Your Majesty’s People
Chapter 58: Chapter 57: These Gods and Goddesses Are All Your Majesty’s People
A luxury van pulled up to the set entrance. A tall woman stepped out, immediately surrounded by a swarm of staff members. From this distance, her features were an indistinguishable blur. Yet, just her silhouette alone brought to mind the peerless opera stars described in old novels.
"Wow, Teacher Lu looks even better today than yesterday!"
Shi Changying narrowed her eyes and glanced toward the source of the voice.
"Xu Shuangqiao, Teacher Lu is here, and filming is about to start. I won’t lower myself to bicker with you," Meng Miaoyan sneered. "I have no idea how you even got in here, but don’t cry when they kick you out later."
"Yingying, how can someone be so stupid?" Xu Shuangqiao scoffed. "If I’m inside, obviously my identity was verified."
Shi Changying, still busy snacking, offered a vague hum of agreement.
Meng Miaoyan finally noticed the girl standing next to Xu Shuangqiao. As Shi Changying’s face came into clear view, Meng Miaoyan’s expression shifted before settling into another cold sneer. "No wonder you’ve got some tricks up your sleeve."
She wasn’t a Xu family member; she wouldn’t be fooled by that face. Not wanting to waste any more time arguing, Meng Miaoyan turned on her heel and headed to the shooting location.
"Yingying, put this on." Xu Shuangqiao handed her a face mask. "Your face is way too eye-catching. There are tons of paparazzi and fans lurking around here. Since you’re not in the industry, you need to protect your privacy."
Shi Changying’s eyes were lazy and relaxed. "I’m quite satisfied with my face too."
Although it was different from her appearance in her past life, it suited her personal aesthetics much better.
The two of them made their way to the set, taking seats on the lakeside grandstand as arranged by the crew. The camera operators were already in position, waiting to film today’s scenes.
"I didn’t rely on the Xu family’s influence or money to get here. My professor sent me to this production to learn," Xu Shuangqiao said, resting her chin in her hands. "If only I could get Teacher Lu to star in a script I wrote one day... that would be amazing."
Shi Changying had finished her snack. Pulling a set of test papers from her backpack, she began working on the questions.
Xu Shuangqiao clapped her hands together excitedly. "And if I could get Xie Lin to compose and sing the theme song, my life would be completely perfect!"
Overhearing this, Meng Miaoyan let out a mocking laugh. "There’s a difference between having an ideal and simply daydreaming."
Xu Shuangqiao immediately fired back, "You don’t even dare to daydream. What are you, in a vegetative state?"
Meng Miaoyan was so furious she couldn’t speak.
Shi Changying, however, looked thoughtful. She realized that patients in a vegetative state couldn’t daydream. She had learned something new again.
"Director Xiao Xu, is this your sister?" A staff member walked over. He clearly recognized Xu Shuangqiao and chuckled when he saw Shi Changying holding her test papers. "Is your sister still in school? Doing homework while out relaxing... she’s too hardworking."
Only then did Xu Shuangqiao notice that the papers were for physics. She looked at them in shock. "Yingying, you... you actually like physics this much? My god, am I going to have a scientist for a sister?"
"No, you aren’t," Shi Changying replied flatly.
Xu Shuangqiao fell silent.
Meng Miaoyan scoffed. "Middle school physics? Shuyu is already studying college-level physics."
"Little Yu is smart, yes. She’s a science prodigy. But environment and talent are equally important," Xu Shuangqiao said, her expression finally turning cold. "If we threw you deep into the impoverished mountains with zero educational resources, you wouldn’t even know elementary school math!"
"Xu Shuangqiao, did you take the wrong meds today?" Meng Miaoyan’s temper flared again. "I’m just stating facts! Why are you yelling at me?"
"Right, right, just stating facts," Xu Shuangqiao said with a sweet, dangerous smile. "In the scripts I read, there are plenty of side characters exactly like you. You’d be killed off before you even knew what hit you."
Meng Miaoyan choked on her words and ultimately abandoned the argument. She and Xu Shuangqiao were around the same age, and even back when they went to school together, she had always hated Xu Shuangqiao’s sharp, relentless tongue.
After finishing the set of physics problems, Shi Changying took photos of her work—CLICK, CLICK—and sent them to Shaoyuan. She was now quite proficient at using a smartphone camera.
"Yingying, look!" Xu Shuangqiao suddenly patted her shoulder. "Is that Teacher Lu? Isn’t she beautiful?"
Shi Changying set down her pen and looked up. Qingyuan had already changed into her costume. As she walked over, her movements were graceful and fluid, radiating an ethereal elegance. Her gaze swept lightly over the crowd—charming, yet profoundly detached.
"Look at her posture. She really looks like someone straight out of ancient times," Xu Shuangqiao whispered. "Everyone in the domestic entertainment industry calls her the ’Chosen Ancient.’ No one can surpass her in historical dramas."
Shi Changying observed the way Qingyuan walked and suddenly asked, "Does she have a background in traditional Chinese opera?"
"That’s right." Xu Shuangqiao nodded, then looked at her in surprise. "Yingying, I thought you didn’t know who Teacher Lu was? How did you know she was an opera actress?"
"I could tell from the way she walks," Shi Changying answered casually.
Meng Miaoyan opened her mouth to mock her, wanting to ask how a complete amateur could possibly tell something like that. But remembering that she could never out-argue Xu Shuangqiao, she swallowed the insult back down.
Today’s shoot featured an action sequence. Everyone was highly anticipating it, as Qingyuan’s fight choreography was renowned for being exceptional—she never used stunt doubles.
Suddenly, a sharp SNAP echoed through the air. The wire rig had broken.
SPLASH!
In full view of the entire set, Qingyuan plummeted straight into the lake.
The accident caught everyone off guard. Even the director, who had been staring intently at the monitors, was frozen in shock. A few seconds later, he snapped out of it and roared, his voice cracking, "Save her! Hurry! What happened?! Props team, didn’t you check the equipment?!"
The crew swarmed the edge of the pond. Anyone who knew how to swim jumped in.
"Teacher Lu!"
"Does anyone see where she is?!"
"Teacher Lu doesn’t know how to swim!"
The entire set descended into utter chaos. Panicking, Xu Shuangqiao stared wide-eyed at the surface of the lake.
Seeing this, a malicious idea formed in Meng Miaoyan’s mind. She deliberately walked up behind Xu Shuangqiao, pretended to trip, and violently shoved the other girl into the water.
It was already mid-October. The weather was turning cold, and the lake water was even colder. If that chill seeped into her bones, catching a severe fever would be the least of her worries. Meng Miaoyan watched coldly from the edge. She just wanted to teach Xu Shuangqiao a little lesson.
Xu Shuangqiao didn’t know how to swim either. Choking on a massive mouthful of freezing water, she gasped, "Help... help me!"
But everyone’s attention was fully focused on Qingyuan. No one noticed that Xu Shuangqiao was also drowning. Only Shi Changying caught the disturbance. Her head snapped up, and without a second of hesitation, she dove into the lake.
Shi Changying was an incredibly strong swimmer, easily outclassing the actual rescue staff. In one swift motion, she hauled Xu Shuangqiao back onto the shore. She immediately stripped off her own jacket and draped it over the shivering girl’s shoulders.
Her movements were gentle, but her voice was ice-cold. "What happened?"
"Yingying, it’s noth—I’m fine, it was probably an accident." Xu Shuangqiao sneezed violently, her expression frantic. "Quick, you have to save Teacher Lu! She’s terrified of water!"
Those words—"terrified of water"—seemed to trigger a deeply buried memory within Shi Changying. She paused for a fraction of a second before plunging back into the freezing lake.
There was an old saying that a deep lake was far more terrifying than the deep sea. Lake water is silent, unlike the crashing waves of the ocean. But because of that very silence, even death comes without a sound. If a person falls into a deep lake, they remain wide awake as they watch the darkness swallow them whole.
This wasn’t Qingyuan’s first time drowning in a lake. But the paralyzing terror from four hundred years ago struck her all over again, draining away any strength to struggle. She could only sink. It felt as though some aquatic plant had tangled itself around her ankles, making it entirely impossible to break free.
The freezing water was pervasive, forcing its way into her nose and mouth. She was rapidly losing the ability to breathe, her heart and lungs violently contracting under the immense pressure.
She wondered if she was going to die. To perish like this—she truly could not accept it. But four hundred years ago, someone had come to save her. Now, four hundred years later, who would come?
Qingyuan’s vision blurred and dimmed, her senses fading away piece by piece. Yet, at the very brink of death, she thought she saw a silhouette swimming toward her. A pair of warm, powerful arms wrapped securely around her.
She didn’t know if it was a dream or a dying hallucination.
Qingyuan murmured into the dark water, "Your Majesty... I have made you save me again..."
She truly was useless, just like before.