Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Jiang Mingyue couldn't remember the last time she was told "cut" because of a performance mistake.

She was still holding the ledger in her hand, but she remained rooted to the spot.

Although there were no audience members present, she felt her face burning.

The failure of this performance was due to nothing other than her lack of focus and insufficient understanding of the character.

Jiang Mingyue rubbed her face, feeling ashamed, and picked up the script again to study it. The light on the screen standing at the door flickered a few times at a high frequency, and then automatically played Jiang Mingyue's performance, and marked the problems after the playback ended.

[Extremely poor understanding of the character; clearly lacks experience of living in poverty.]

The merciless criticism shattered Jiang Mingyue's confidence.

Jiang Mingyue still remembers that the directors who worked with her all lamented that her acting talent could not be fully utilized because of her extremely bad reputation and lack of support. But was her acting really that bad?

For a moment, Jiang Mingyue felt somewhat dazed, as if her past confidence had been shattered by the evaluation that appeared on the screen.

Her hand involuntarily pressed against the screen, and she uncontrollably asked, "So what should I do to enrich my life experiences? I clearly... didn't have a comfortable life when I was a child."

As Jiang Mingyue spoke her last sentence, she became increasingly uneasy.

Although her childhood was not well-off, it was by no means poor or impoverished.

Whether in her past life or this one, Jiang Mingyue truly had no idea what "real poverty" looked like. Her understanding of poverty consisted only of images of ragged clothes and disheveled hair in black and white photographs and videos; beyond that, she knew nothing.

So, what were poor people like in ancient times?

Jiang Mingyue tried hard to recall the books she had read in the past. The contents slowly emerged from the depths of her memory. The text was long and complicated, but those dry words still could not effectively construct a picture in her mind.

"I'm sorry, I can't figure it out." Jiang Mingyue simply squatted down, her face showing obvious confusion.

There's still a week until I join the crew, maybe...

Jiang Mingyue murmured, "I should call Director Liu and ask him if he can arrange for me to experience real poverty."

The screen flickered again, and Jiang Mingyue looked up in the leaping light. The text on the screen had changed.

[You can experience authentic ancient poverty here.]

"Here? How did you do that?" Jiang Mingyue asked, but her head kept nodding, her actions already showing her true choice.

The light blue electronic actors that had disappeared from the room started moving again, as if Jiang Mingyue's failed performance had never happened.

Hearing footsteps at the door, Zheng's mother, still sewing with her head down, scolded in a harsh tone, "Yinping, where have you been running off to again? Didn't I tell you things haven't been peaceful lately, and that you shouldn't go out?"

Jiang Mingyue's body seemed to be controlled by a strange soul in an instant, and she opened her mouth and said, "If I don't go out, who can tell how much the land will yield? Another tenant ran away today, and we can't collect the rent he owes us."

Zheng's mother got off the kang (a heated brick bed), grabbed Jiang Mingyue's ear, and forcibly pulled her back onto the kang, scolding her incessantly: "What time is it? You're still thinking about the grain in the fields. They're conscripting men and snatching girls everywhere. If anything happens to you, how will your father and I live!"

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, Mother, let go!" Jiang Mingyue hurriedly grabbed Zheng's mother's wrist, bent over, like a goose whose neck had been grabbed, not daring to struggle at all.

Mother Zheng huffed and puffed, "I'll only teach you a lesson if I spoil you. Otherwise, if you get arrested, you'll suffer a hundred or a thousand times more! Remember this: starting today, your father and I will do everything that needs to be done outside. If you can't stay still, stay home and take care of Erwa and Sanmei."

Still not satisfied, Zheng's mother twisted Jiang Mingyue's ear hard again, making her scream in pain.

Zheng's mother let go of her hand and saw that half of her daughter's face was red. She gently rubbed it and said softly, "I'll boil an egg for you tonight. Don't make a fuss."

Jiang Mingyue immediately stopped crying and started laughing, no longer complaining of pain.

She stayed by Zheng's mother's side all afternoon, sweeping the yard and dusting the room, busy without a moment to rest.

Before dark, Zheng's mother quickly unlocked the kitchen door with her key, took out two eggs, and carefully cracked them into an iron pot that was half full of water. She then added most of the pot of wild vegetables and a small handful of sorghum and millet.

Jiang Mingyue followed Zheng's mother around like a little tail, her eyes fixed on the pot, unable to look away.

After the water boiled, it cooked for a while longer. Finally, Zheng's mother scooped out most of the egg, put it in a bowl, and gave it to Jiang Mingyue, saying in a very low voice, "Eat it quickly, don't let Erwa and Sanmei see it."

Jiang Mingyue smiled ingratiatingly at her mother, blew on the egg until it was still hot to the touch, and hurriedly put it in her mouth.

With one bite, the uncooked yolk oozed out and stuck to her lips, burning Jiang Mingyue so much that she kept gasping for breath. But even so, she couldn't bear to spit out the egg that was in her mouth.

After filling her stomach with the first bite, she ate the second bite with extra care, only taking a tiny bite each time.

After eating half an egg, she swallowed hard as she looked at the remaining half, but still held the bowl to her mother's lips, snuggling close to her mother affectionately, saying, "Mother, you should eat too." As she spoke, she handed the egg to her.

Zheng's mother couldn't help but swallow, but she turned her face away first, saying, "I don't like it, you eat it yourself."

Jiang Mingyue hurriedly shoved the whole egg into Zheng's mother's mouth: "It's so delicious, how could you not like it?"

The egg was in her mouth, and the fluffy, bouncy texture of the egg white spread throughout her mouth. Zheng's mother finally stopped refusing. She chewed slowly until that small piece of egg completely dissolved into crumbs and disappeared in her mouth. Then she said with a smile, "Next time I say I'm giving you an egg, you can eat it yourself."

After speaking, she took out a large bowl and scooped in a whole egg and almost all the millet that had been thrown into the pot. Then she took three small bowls: one with the remaining egg white and some wild vegetables that had boiled over, another with wild vegetables, and the last with only rice water.

Zheng's mother picked out a small piece of pickled vegetable from the jar, chopped it into small pieces, put it in a small dish, and gestured to Jiang Mingyue to bring the food into the house.

Jiang Mingyue quickly packed the bowls and chopsticks on a tray, walked briskly to the only table in the house, put down the bowls, and then quietly called her father and younger siblings to eat.

Her voice was soft, as if she were afraid of disturbing the neighbors and letting them know that there was still food in the house.

Father Zheng nodded, picked up the two five- or six-year-old children who were sleeping on the kang (a heated brick bed) with one in each arm, and put them on the table.

The two little ones were very thin, with large heads and skinny limbs, and looked extremely unhealthy.

They slowly opened their eyes, staring longingly at the wild vegetable, millet, and egg porridge that Zheng's father had prepared that night, which was covered with pickled vegetables. Jiang Mingyue, however, silently picked up the bowl with some broken egg whites and fed them to Erwa. Then, under the disappointed gaze of her third sister, she fed her the wild vegetables mixed with pickled vegetables.

Mother Zheng walked over, glanced at the children, gritted her teeth, turned her face away reluctantly, and silently began to eat the wild vegetable porridge in her bowl.

Father Zheng had left a small piece of egg, which he broke into two smaller pieces with chopsticks, and then gave one bite each to his second son and third sister. The two little ones' faces lit up with joy.

After Jiang Mingyue had helped the two of them finish eating a whole night of salted vegetable porridge, she returned to the dining table, picked up the bowl containing only rice water, and swallowed the soup in large gulps.

She glanced down and saw that Erwa and Sanmei were each holding one of Zheng's father and mother's bowls, licking the bottom of the bowls non-stop.

Just as they were licking the bottom of their bowls until they gleamed, there was a sudden knock on the gate, and a voice called out from the doorway: "Hey Zheng family, have you cooked dinner yet? I've come to borrow some rice."

Mother Zheng snorted coldly, rolled her eyes at the sky, and without even moving her buttocks, pointed at Jiang Mingyue and Erwa and Sanmei and shouted to the outside world: "What are you going to eat? You still want to eat? I'll beat you until your skin is torn and your flesh is ripped!"

The two little ones had no idea what was happening until they saw their mother's expression change. They were so frightened that they burst into tears, their heart-wrenching cries carrying far and wide.

After a while, the knocking finally stopped.

Mother Zheng rolled her eyes at the outsider, "Pah! You have food at home, yet you rush to anyone who's cooking, begging for food everywhere." She pointed her finger out the door, "In this chaotic world, your food is precious, but I still have three children to raise. Who has time to pity you? Figure it out yourself."

After she finished speaking, she took away the rough porcelain bowl on the table, which had been licked shiny by Erwa and Sanmei.

*

Jiang Mingyue was suddenly ejected from the screen, and she regained control of her body.

"So that's how it is."

She was indeed too pampered by life after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and lacked imagination about the "impoverished life in ancient times".

Where in ancient times could you find vegetables and fruits readily available in a market? And if you didn't live by the sea, eating seafood would be impossible.

The conveniences and abundance that modern people enjoy are unimaginable in ancient times.

Even if she were to live a second life, her life experience would still be lacking in many aspects.

Aside from the dietary issues that she hadn't noticed at all, Jiang Mingyue also discovered her mistake of interpreting the script literally.

Before the disaster, Zheng Yinping's family was considered wealthy, with plenty of land. Therefore, she naturally assumed that Zheng Yinping would be literate like modern girls, and even know how to keep accounts.

But what was the reality? In reality, knowledge in ancient times was monopolized by the bureaucratic class.

Zheng Yinping's family's so-called "wealth" couldn't even withstand a year's drought and insect infestation, so it was impossible for them to spend a lot of money to hire a female tutor to teach Zheng Yinping to read and write.

The script mentions Zheng Yinping "taking stock" of the accounts, which can only mean that she created some symbols and relied purely on the symbols and her brain to forcibly memorize the specific numbers.

Her previous design was completely wrong!

War is imminent, and food is the most precious commodity. As long as there is food, people won't starve, and there is always hope.

Similarly, because life wasn't as affluent as Jiang Mingyue had imagined, the children in the family could barely get enough to eat each day. That's why Zheng's mother locked the kitchen door where the food was kept, to prevent her growing children, whose stomachs seemed to have no bottom, from sneaking into the kitchen to steal food. The two younger siblings lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) on Zheng's parents' bed weren't asleep; they were too weak to move from hunger.

It wasn't just the children who were starving; Mr. and Mrs. Zheng were also barely getting enough to eat each day, so in reality, the entire Zheng family was starving.

As for other families with even worse conditions, they had long since run out of wild vegetables and pickled vegetables due to constant invasions by foreign enemies, let alone eggs. That's why they would want to freeload when they saw the other families eating. It wasn't that they were inherently greedy and disgusting, but rather that they were forced by life's circumstances.

After returning from the ancient moment tour arranged by "the world," Jiang Mingyue realized for the first time how crude her simulated character really was.

However, with the help of "the world," is she supposed to perform according to the "Zheng Yinping" provided by the other party?

Without any hesitation, Jiang Mingyue heard the answer that came to her mind.

She didn't want to.

She hopes to draw inspiration from reality, but she will never be an imitator who replicates the lives of others.

"Let me think about it." Jiang Mingyue returned from the center of the room to the doorway, plopped down against the wall, and hugged her knees as she fell into thought.

What kind of "Zheng Yinping" does she envision?

Or rather, what kind of Zheng Yinping would Jiang Mingyue present to the audience that would truly capture the heart of an older man born into wealth and privilege, and convince the audience?

Jiang Mingyue's portrayal of "Zheng Yinping" must not be that of a vulgar, wild girl.

She was undeniably beautiful, radiating a captivating glow like the sun, which made older men feel they could draw life force from her; and she herself was adept at using her charm to achieve her goals.

The character image that Jiang Mingyue created gradually became more and more complete, transforming from a vague shadow into a clear and distinct image that rushed into Jiang Mingyue's mind.

"I understand!" Jiang Mingyue jumped up happily.

She rushed back to the center of the room, tiptoeing slightly, each step as light and nimble as a nimble cat.

The room was empty, but Jiang Mingyue's eyes crinkled with a smile, as if she had just encountered something good.

Her entire demeanor underwent a dramatic change.

"Let's begin. Let me do it again." Jiang Mingyue waved her hand towards the window.

The hidden electronic actors in the room reappear, and the same scene starts from the beginning.

*

"...Yinping is approaching the age for engagement. As soon as the autumn harvest is over, I will ask the matchmaker to keep an eye out for handsome young men in the surrounding villages."

“I’m not in a hurry to get married. If they want to marry me, they have to be more capable than me.” Jiang Mingyue interjected, her head held high. Her face was full of confidence and pride in her abilities. She twisted her body slightly as she spoke, adding a touch of coquettishness to her pride, so as not to be arrogant or annoying.

As Jiang Mingyue spoke, she raised her hand and gestured a few times to her parents. Then, frowning, she said with dissatisfaction, "It's getting more and more unsafe outside. All the tenants have run away, and there's no one to help with the harvest. I've calculated in my head that we'll harvest 30% less grain this year."