Fourth Chapter: No Pain, No Gain

"I don't understand overly passionate people," she spoke as she turned a page of a magazine.

When she was young, when people asked her what her dream was, she would simply answer, "I want to be rich." However, her desire to become wealthy diminished through time.

As she grew older, from wanting to be rich, her want had turned simple into having a good paying job and living a comfortable life. And If she was to be bestowed with a wealthy husband without suffering any setbacks and her defiling morals and laws, she would miss not the opportunity of having a better life. In short, she was a person with no high aims who just wanted to live a life of less pain. And in much fewer words, she was lazy.

On the other hand, at a young age, the host manifested an interest in acting. Her family often watched dramas together as their bonding time. Her parents also brought her to watch movies when a good movie was up in theaters. And with that, she liked to watch dramas and movies.

Also, there was her aunt, Xue Ping, whom was the host's greatest influence: the primary reason why her family watched TV together and watch movies in the big screen. It was to watch Xue Ping, her paternal aunt, starred in dramas and movies.

Her aunt was an actress that she often saw in TV and as children like to copy the adults, the young host liked to copy her aunt, more than her parents.

Her parents were doing business and for the child her, her parents' work involved carrying bags, folders, or envelopes of papers when leaving home and bringing them back again at night, which seemed boring to her. Meanwhile, her aunt's job was to act as another person and to appear beautiful in TV: a very ideal job in her eyes.

Every time she watched the little aunt of hers in TV or big screen, her eyes would shine with great interest and her attention would be focused on the screen, immersing herself in the drama.

And at that time, her aunt was one of the most popular stars in the country. Being a famous actress meant many people knew and talk about her. And as she had a clean record, meaning she had not been involved in any controversy, people's impression of her was good and they often praised her for that.

Hearing the public's praises for her aunt, ultimately, the host's opinion of her aunt reached the highest and her aunt became her role model.

That was how her passion in acting developed and why her dream was to become a great actress that moved hearts, just like her aunt.

"To have a dream sure is nice," Xue Yanyue uttered her soliloquy.

In the eyes of Xue Yanyue, for a person to have a dream and to be able to hold onto it for a long time was already admirable and for that person to be able to achieve it meant a whole new level of respect from her. Hence, she admired the host in that aspect.

She picked up the magazine in great hopes to see the host featured in the pages. However, she had browsed half of it and found none. When she almost lost her patience, an image of the host with a short interview article about her appeared in a page. The picture and article did not even consume half of the page, which only showed how low she was valued.

Having her hopes smashed into pieces, she no longer had the enthusiasm to browse the other magazines and put them all back into the drawer.

She sighed, lit a candle for the host in her mind.

For two years of hard work, the host had finally had her break. But when the host was almost there, she, the transmigrator, took over her body. If that was not called unfortunate, then what unfortunate was?

"To chase after your dreams is one thing," Xue Yanyue spoke. "But, to continue chasing it and putting not only yourself at more risk... what do you call it?"

"Stupidity."

She respected the host for following her dreams. But she also had her reasons to criticize her. And it was because the host had a child: a two year old boy, whom she had out of wedlock, the fruit of her past and her biggest secret.

For an actress to have such a secret was similar to keeping a dagger with no scabbard in her pocket: putting herself at her own risk.

This dagger was really sharp. She might hurt herself if she was not careful in the process of hiding it. She could also be mindful of her every action as to avoid hurting herself but the anxiety of having the dagger be exposed would always haunt her. Furthermore, the dagger could not be kept forever because the sharp blade could tear the pocket and poke out of a hole, which others would inevitably notice sooner or later.

In addition, this action of the host confused Xue Yanyue more. The host had a bachelor's degree and with the fact that she graduated from a good university, a number of companies would be willing to employ her. She could have chosen the relatively safer path but she chose to pursue her dreams despite the looming danger.

If it was not stupidity, then Xue Yanyue had more words to call it.

Because Xue Yanyue hated pain and problems alike, she did not like to engage herself in risky situations. Although a situation might give her greater gains, but the thought of suffering in the process or after was a big NO to her.

Yes, no pain, no gain as they say but to her, there must be a limit on how much pain she would have to be in. If she thought that the suffering would surpass her limit, let alone thinking of coveting the greater gain, she would not have a bit interest in it.

Author's Note:

Hi there! Did you gain something when reading this chapter? Or did my bad writing give you pain instead? If you did gain, I would like to know it and if you don't, I can hear your criticisms in the comments. Now, I'm starting to believe that reading criticisms is better than reading none. Thanks for reading though. Hope you are having a good day.

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