Chà Chà Novel

Su Yujin was still trapped in the dead loop the system had set: as long as Su Nuo didn’t fall on hard times, he had no chance of swapping their destinies. Round and round it went, and he could never find a way out.

Now he was even beginning to doubt whether the system had brought him here to actually complete the mission. If it had, why give him hell-level difficulty?

Su Nuo already had a great destiny and the Fu family’s protection. His career would only get smoother. How could he possibly fall on hard times?

Unless Fu Baihan had died back then. Su Yujin believed that with how well he’d won over the Su parents and his older brother, he could have gotten them to reject Su Nuo. Then Su Nuo might have ended up on the streets. That would have been rock bottom.

When it came down to it, it was all the system’s fault!

Ever since transmigrating, he’d dreamed of completely replacing Su Nuo as the male lead, with all the luck in the world tilting his way. He’d become a new best actor adored by countless fans and be surrounded by several top-tier powerful men who would pursue him, love him, and give him everything.

But he’d waited so long and none of it had come true. He kept failing in show business, and now he was covered in scandals. Every press release he put out drew endless mockery.

This was nothing like the transmigration Su Yujin had imagined. He didn’t have much patience either. At heart he was shortsighted and greedy for quick success, and after a few failures he just shifted the blame onto the system and the people around him.

Su Yujin was furious. “System, this mission is a total scam, isn’t it?! I want to file a complaint!!!”

No matter how worked up he got, the system’s mechanical voice never wavered. “Sorry. Beginner hosts do not have that permission.”

Su Yujin: “???”

A rigged contract, definitely a rigged contract!

With no way to complain, the system could do whatever it wanted. Who even knew if the newbie gift pack had ever been delivered!

Su Yujin raged helplessly but could do nothing about the system. If not for transmigrating, he’d have died in a car accident long ago. Every day he had now was a bonus.

“You have to give me some kind of hint, at least?” Su Yujin tugged at his hair, on the verge of breaking down.

He still owed the system points. With no progress on the mission, forget getting a new cheat. He couldn’t even pay off his old debt!

The system had clearly not forgotten that debt either. “Host’s points overdue by more than two months will incur an electric shock penalty.”

“No… are you even being reasonable?” Su Yujin was stunned by the system’s shamelessness. That cheat that hadn’t done anything had cost him ten points on credit, and with the ones he’d used on Mother Su and the Su family’s grandmother, his debt was now fifteen.

It only offered credit and no way to earn points. Su Yujin belatedly realized he seemed to have been scammed by the system.

At least give me some daily quests to earn points!

All you do is tell me to raise Su Nuo’s misfortune level, without considering who Su Nuo is. He’s got the Fu family behind him. I can’t even get near the Fu family’s doorstep. How am I supposed to ruin him?

The system beeped twice. “Reminder! Reminder! Host has only one month remaining. Please complete the mission as soon as possible, or face an electric shock penalty!”

Su Yujin: “……”

Get lost. I’m done talking.

He might as well just lie there and wait to be shocked.

The system paused, as if sensing his defeatism, and encouraged him: “Host may accumulate misfortune points. If an original character has a major opportunity stolen, it will increase the likelihood of mission completion.”

Su Yujin repeated, “Major opportunity? So the ad shoot really doesn’t count?”

What major opportunity? How would he know what Su Nuo would come across?

No, wait… he did know. He’d read the original novel!

In the original, after working with Wei Sinian, Su Nuo was recommended by the film’s director to a xianxia TV drama. It made him an instant legend. He became the period-drama character audiences loved and remembered most, and swept the Best Newcomer award in one go. From then on his career soared. In just a few years he went from Best Newcomer to Best Actor, crowned a best actor and praised by everyone in the industry.

If he could get a role in that xianxia drama… would everything that came after belong to him?

Su Yujin’s heart pounded faster and faster. He was so excited his face flushed, as if he could already see himself stomping Su Nuo completely underfoot.

Steadying his trembling hands, he immediately called his manager. “Hello? Is Director Zhao Chengye’s drama about to start casting? I want the Demon Lord role! Whatever it costs, I have to get it!”

His manager heard something off in his voice and instinctively felt uncomfortable, as if she weren’t talking to a normal person but had been wrapped up by something greedy and slimy.

Pushing down the strange feeling, the manager replied, “We haven’t gotten specific information yet. We’ll do our best to get it for you.”

“Not do your best.” Su Yujin’s voice turned vicious. “You have to get it. Understand? If you can’t even handle this, what do I need your team for?”

The manager barely stopped herself from cursing him out. She didn’t want to serve this brainless, arrogant idiot for one more day.

But the contract wasn’t over yet, so she held it in. “We can’t guarantee it. Director Zhao Chengye is very strict with auditions.”

In other words, getting you into the audition at all would be good enough. Don’t you have any self-awareness about how good your acting is?

Su Nuo only knew that his original world was a book. But in his life before being reborn, the plot had already been thrown into chaos by the outsider Su Yujin, so he had no idea what opportunities the original version of him was supposed to have.

He’d heard about Director Zhao Chengye’s casting from the director of his previous film, who’d also directly recommended him for an audition. Zhao Chengye had given his old friend face and promised him a slot, but hadn’t agreed outright to cast him.

Su Nuo didn’t have any hang-up about not doing TV after doing film. He believed both tested an actor’s skill. TV was relatively more forgiving, but if your performance wasn’t good and lacked impact, audiences still wouldn’t buy it.

Besides, TV was better for building name recognition and reaching a national audience. For a newcomer like him, as long as the script was good, he should give it his all no matter the format.

On the day of the audition, Fu Baihan straightened the kid’s clothes and bundled him into a down jacket. “Sweetie, don’t be nervous.”

Su Nuo huffed. “I’m not nervous.”

He’d survived a big-budget production too, okay!

“Oh?” Fu Baihan squeezed his shoulders. “You’re stiff as a board.”

Su Nuo cracked in a second, hugging him and whining, nuzzling the crook of his neck. “Ge, I heard Director Zhao Chengye is really fierce. What if I don’t do well?”

Getting yelled at himself didn’t matter. What mattered was that Director Wang would lose face too, and the whole He Yun team would be called into question.

“Don’t be scared.” Fu Baihan kissed his hair. “I’m here. I can buy his whole production and have a drama made just for you.”

Su Nuo pushed him away and stood up straight. “Suddenly I’m not nervous anymore.”

The power of money really was astonishing.

But auditions were about fate. If it didn’t work out, he wouldn’t let Fu Baihan throw money around to squeeze him in. When it came to acting, the overall harmony of the cast and crew mattered too.

Never having dealt with the notoriously fierce Director Zhao Chengye in either life, Su Nuo sat outside the audition room, eyes lowered to his script. Of course they didn’t give out the whole script. For confidentiality, they’d only provided a few excerpts.

He’d originally meant to audition for the second male lead, the Demon Lord. But once he got there, Zhao Chengye took one look at him and had the crew’s stylist find him the Immortal Emperor’s costume. Honestly, once he put it on, he really did feel ethereal and godlike. He admired himself for a while.

Zhao Chengye looked like the scariest dean of discipline from school, permanently scowling. Su Nuo obediently did as he was told and didn’t dare rebel.

It was just an audition anyway. If this role didn’t work, he could try another. And having him audition for the male lead right off the bat meant Director Zhao must think well of him.

Su Nuo read the script’s description of the female lead Ziqing’s first meeting with the Immortal Emperor after their reunion.

“His cultivation was unfathomable; the man before her was clearly no ordinary being. Ziqing blinked, still unable to recall who he was, yet a faint familiarity made her lower her guard. She was simply certain that, before this man, she was safe.

Not of the demon race after all… Ziqing marveled silently. Among demons, the nobler the lineage and higher the cultivation, the more dazzling the beauty. Were he a demon, he would surely rank among the Demon Lords. But the immortal aura about him plainly declared his identity, a presence equal to her father’s. Could he be that Emperor?

Compared with Emperor Yanhua, who had existed since heaven and earth began, Emperor Mochen was more of a legend. With a mere mortal body he had cultivated into a high god, survived battle after battle between immortals and demons, and at last ascended to the throne of Emperor. The Yuqing Realm under his rule stood equal to Qixia Mountain, and even faintly seemed to surpass it. Yet hundreds of thousands of years ago he had withdrawn from the world to devote himself to secluded cultivation.

These matters were far removed from Ziqing. She only vaguely remembered having seen this legendary Emperor as a child, and knew nothing more. Yet his presence felt inexplicably, utterly familiar to her. Truly strange.

She turned slightly and bowed. ‘Ziqing greets Your Majesty.’

Mochen said nothing. He reached out to help her up, his expression unreadable, then withdrew his hand. Beneath his wide sleeve, his clenched fist slowly loosened, and he let out a helpless sigh. ‘So be it.’

After all that, in heaven and in the mortal realm, she has forgotten only me? What a heartless girl.

Ziqing looked up, puzzled. Why did this Emperor look so sorrowful?”

Su Nuo thought it over carefully and got it.

How do you play a cold, noble Immortal Emperor? Just put on airs.

This “immortal aura” was a bit too abstract. He had to keep a blank face yet convey so much going on inside. So hard.