Chapter 93 - She Took Herself Too Seriously
Ling Yuqing embarrassed herself in front of everyone on her first day. By then, Guan Meiyi had started shooting and Ling Tianya was going over scripts with other actors. Nobody had time for her, she was a useless extra who insisted on being there. She was told to wait in the lounge.
Ling Yuqing was still upset, so she called Qu Wan and told her everything that happened with elaborate details. She heard steps approaching the door and lowered her voice, “Mom, someone is coming. I can’t talk anymore! Don’t worry, I won’t let that bitch rule for much longer!”
As Ling Yuqing hung up the phone, Zhang Ke walked in carrying a big pile of stuff and proceeded to dump everything on Ling Yuqing’s lap.
“What’s this?” Ling Yuqing frowned.
Zhang Ke looked at Ling Yuqing blandly, “These are some scripts written by Ms Ling in the past. She wanted you to read them all, so you have a basic understanding of the structure of writing style for screenplays. You can ask me if you have any questions.”
“Where is Sister Tianya? Why isn’t she here to teach me? Instead, she’s sending you, her little assistant…” Ling Yuqing obviously thought Zhang Ke as someone below her.
Zhang Ke’s face turned sour, “Miss Ling is busy writing scripts, talking to the actors, and working with the director every day… She doesn’t have time to teach you this basic stuff! I am her ‘little assistant’, but I have been working for Miss Ling for a few years now. When we were overseas, I handled everything for her. So not only am I qualified to teach you, I can teach other screen writers too!”
Ever since Ling Yuqing brought up that she wanted to be an apprentice to Ling Tianya, Zhang Ke had been uncomfortable about the whole thing. She was finally able to speak her mind.
“You –”Ling Yuqing tried to fire back.
“What about me? If you don’t want me to teach you, you can go talk to Miss Ling yourself.”
Ling Yuqing bit her lip. If she went to Ling Tianya, she was just asking for humiliation. “I didn’t say I didn’t want you to teach me. It’s just there are so many scripts, how can I finish them all?”
Zhang Ke laughed, “You have two days, then you are going to produce a sixty-chapter script for Miss Ling.”
“What?” Ling Yuqing’s eyes widened. “Two days? I have to produce a script? I don’t even know what sixty-chapter means, how can I produce anything?”
“Don’t complain. Miss Ling was not a screenwriter in the beginning. She herself took two days to study the ins and outs of screenplays and successfully wrote all these outstanding pieces.” When Zhang Ke talked about Ling Tianya, her voice was full of admiration. Then she realized she was still talking to Ling Yuqing, “Long story short, if you have any questions, come ask me. I have to go do other things now.”
After that, Zhang Ke left Ling Yuqing to her own device and dived back into working on her own script. As an assignment and form of assessment, Ling Tianya had asked her to write a complete one-hundred and twenty scene script on her own.
It was a particularly important moment for Zhang Ke. If she did well on the script, not only could it be made into a movie, she could continue staying by Ling Tianya’s side.
Ling Yuqing smirked when she saw that Zhang Ke seemed anxious and irritated. Then she looked at the scripts in her hands and rolled her eyes.
Working was never the real reason she came to Ling Tianya. It seemed that Ling Tianya had taken herself way too seriously.