The fifteenth scoop: What juicy gossip, fifteen bites...

Ye Mo flung the door open.

Her eyes blazed as she looked at the manager before her, her heart surging. "Shen, I've made up my mind. I want to be a best actress! I want to be the one with the best acting skills!"

Shen Yan's response to this: ???

It's broad daylight. How about we stop daydreaming?

Chapter 15: The fifteenth scoop: What juicy gossip, fifteen bites...

When a child wanted to better herself, whether she was daydreaming or not, her "parents" ought to support her, right?

So, although Shen Yan had serious doubts about Ye Mo's dream, he still voiced his support and cheered her on.

Seeing his reaction, Ye Mo's overheated brain gradually cooled down.

True, the acting teacher who had taught her yesterday had still found her wanting. Now she was saying her future goal was to become a best actress. To outsiders like Shen Yan, that really did seem like castles in the air.

But only Ye Mo herself knew that this wasn't castles in the air, but a goal and a wish she had some hope of achieving. And there were very few things she set her mind to that she couldn't accomplish.

"...Then, should I still hire an acting teacher for you?" Shen Yan asked quietly.

Ye Mo came back to herself. Thinking of those acting teachers who had found so much fault with her, she couldn't help rolling her eyes. "There's no need for an acting teacher..."

Not only had most of those acting teachers been unable to teach her to act, they had even belittled and sneered at her for being a student with no "talent." What a joke. If she had talent, why would she need a teacher? She would already be earning her living as an actress on talent alone.

Still, Shen Yan's interruption had calmed Ye Mo down.

As the saying went, meals had to be eaten one mouthful at a time, and roads traveled one mouthful at a time. Her acting really wasn't good now, but that didn't mean it would never be good. And whenever Ye Mo had an opportunity, she would cling to it for dear life.

Now that Ye Mo had calmed down, she and Shen Yan resumed looking through scripts.

As she was one of the hottest actresses around, many scripts reached her manager Shen Yan every day. But finding good scripts was like sifting gold from waves of sand, and among those good scripts, even fewer would become smash hits once filmed.

After all, there were three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, yet at most only one or two dramas became huge hits each year. Far more productions sank into obscurity, padding out film and television libraries.

So no one knew which of these scripts, as numerous as grains of sand, would turn into a dark horse once filmed. It all came down to the discerning eye of the person choosing them.

Ye Mo's current situation was rather awkward.

There were indeed plenty of scripts coming to Shen Yan. Basically, all of them had been sent over because of Ye Mo's fame and her built-in traffic and buzz. Naturally, some didn't care whether Ye Mo could act, but dramas like those almost always flopped once filmed.

As for the ones that valued acting, they looked down on Ye Mo. The rare few that did take an interest only offered her peripheral roles that required her to look pretty in the drama-in other words, to be a beautiful "flower vase," with no real depth.

So Ye Mo and Shen Yan spent the entire afternoon picking through them, and only selected three out of over a hundred scripts.

One was "Chase," which Ye Mo had previously imported into the character immersion room. Another was called "Schemes of Intrigue," a

palace intrigue

drama. The last was called "Flowers Fall Throughout the City," a xianxia drama.

Of these, "Chase" had the most lavish lineup, with a major director and a major screenwriter. The drama was still in the planning stages, yet news of it had already swept through the city like wind and rain. Who knew how many actors wanted a part in it?

Normally, this script would never have reached Ye Mo. After all, the director, Ji Minghe, was notoriously picky. But Ye Mo was simply too perfect a match for the character [Xia Mei] in the script.

"...I heard Director Ji auditioned several actresses and didn't think any of them worked. Then he happened to see your photo online and took a liking to you!" Shen Yan explained what had happened.

[Xia Mei] was the male lead's wife, an exceptionally lovely person, like a fresh, snow-white blossom. It was precisely because she was so lovely that, after she was tortured to death, the audience's sense of pity and anger toward the murderer would reach its peak. So the director had only one requirement for this role: "beauty," with an elegant bearing.

And Ye Mo happened to meet both those criteria, apart from having no acting skills.

Shen Yan said, "It's just that if you choose this script, you'll probably suffer quite a bit once filming starts."

Director Ji Minghe was notorious for being harsh with his actors. A major director wasn't afraid of burning through money. If he wasn't satisfied, he could shoot a take dozens or even hundreds of times, and he could scold people until they were drenched in dog's blood. Apparently, he had scolded the female lead of his previous drama to tears.

If Ye Mo took this script, it was easy to imagine how brutally Director Ji would berate him. And if Ye Mo's acting still hadn't improved by then, she might even be kicked out of the production.

All in all, this drama offered high rewards, but also high risks.

As for "Tale of Intrigue," it was adapted from a famous novel, with an established reputation and countless fans of the book. Its director was Li Cheng, and palace intrigue dramas were his comfort zone. He had previously filmed two palace intrigue dramas, both of which had received glowing reviews. With him directing this "Tale of Intrigue," whatever else happened, it should at least have a solid audience base.

The last one was "Flowers Fall Throughout the City," a xianxia drama also based on a novel. Like "Tale of Intrigue," it had a decent audience base. The original novel told the story of the female lead, a lotus spirit, saving a high god of the immortal realm, and the ensuing love, hatred, passion, and grudges between them.

As for the script, how to put it? It wasn't much different from the xianxia dramas already on the market and was somewhat clichéd. Its only fresh element was the female lead's chaotic, nasty disposition, which was very compelling.

A clichéd script like this really tested a director's skill in making a tired plot engaging. However, the director was Zheng Xu, another familiar face whose directing ability was certainly assured.

Shen Yan looked at Ye Mo. "...Take a look at these three scripts and see which one you like."

Ye Mo looked from one to another, unable to make up her mind.

"Can't I have them all?" She looked at her manager, her gaze eager.

Shen Yan considered it. "It's not out of the question. You don't have many scenes in any of these three dramas, and their schedules don't overlap..."

The roles offered to Ye Mo in "Chase" and "Tale of Intrigue" were both supporting characters, the kind who died early, too. If filming went quickly, she might finish in less than a month.

The role offered to Ye Mo in "Flowers Fall Throughout the City," on the other hand, was the female lead. Who knew whether Director Zheng hadn't heard the rumors about Ye Mo being a flower vase? He actually dared to cast her as the female lead. He certainly was bold and willing to take risks.

"Then shall we take all three?" Shen Yan looked questioningly at Ye Mo.

Ye Mo said, "If the schedule works, then I want them all!"

Shen Yan said, "All right..."

He glanced down at the time and realized it was already afternoon, then said, "I'll contact these three directors tomorrow. I checked the

schedule. You should be joining 'Tale of Intrigue' first. Your scenes only span twenty episodes, and put together, they amount to just five or six episodes' worth of screen time. You should probably finish filming in less than half a month."

After "Tale of Intrigue," she would probably join "Chase." Ye Mo had even fewer scenes in "Chase," so she might finish filming in less than half a month.

Thinking about all this, Shen Yan looked at Ye Mo again and asked earnestly, "Do you really not want me to find you another acting teacher?"

Ye Mo said, "...I really don't need one!"

Shen Yan sighed.

Ye Lin came to pick Ye Mo up around six, and they went home together.

After getting into the car, Ye Mo stretched her limbs.

Ye Lin turned to look at her. "Tired today?"

Ye Mo nodded. "I read over a hundred scripts. My brain's gone numb from all that reading. Right now, I feel like all I can see is words... But thankfully, we finally picked out three decent scripts."

She complained to Ye Lin, "Choosing scripts really is a miserable job. My acting isn't good, so a lot of the scripts I get are pretty much trash. As for the slightly better ones, either they don't offer them to me, or they do and I land the role, only for someone else to snatch it away halfway through..."