The Granddaughter of a Chaebol Family Is a Genius Child Actress - Chapter 4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A Chaebol Heiress Is a Child Acting Prodigy
Chapter 4
“Baek Yujin, Baek Yujin… I don’t see that name here?”
“Pardon? That’s… strange.”
At the staff member’s words as she scanned the list, I widened my eyes and arranged my face into an expression of bewildered panic.
“C-could you check again? My mom said she definitely submitted my application……”
“Hmm, well, is your mom here somewhere?”
“She said there was nowhere to park, so she sent me ahead! She’ll be here soon!”
“I see? Hmm. What to do about this……”
It was right as the staff member tilted her head back and forth in confusion.
—Hiyah!
A sharp cry rang out in my head, the sound of a fox summoning its strength with force.
The staff member’s shoulders trembled and jerked at the sound.
She blinked several times, then quickly nodded her head.
“It must have been overlooked. Wait here a moment.”
With that, the staff member disappeared behind the counter.
“Phew, phew.”
Only then did I let out the breath I’d been holding in a small exhale.
If it weren’t for the fox, this could have gone very wrong!
—Gasp, huff. Huff. Oh my, I’m dying……
‘……’
Uh, hmm.
Wait—the fox might already be in serious trouble……
The fox’s voice echoing in my head sounded terribly exhausted.
It seemed my earlier suspicion was right: the fox still couldn’t wield its power freely.
‘Still, we’re almost there now.’
With that thought, I stole a glance at the counter.
The staff member was conversing with several other people beyond the counter.
This was quite a large acting academy in a shopping center near my home.
I remembered seeing the large sign several times while riding in the car.
Before I recalled my past life, I could never have imagined myself walking through these doors.
‘Back then, I didn’t want to do anything.’
I had never truly liked anything, and never felt the desire to do anything.
I simply spent each day doing the assignments given to me.
But now, things were different.
‘……My heart’s racing.’
Since a while ago, my chest had been bouncing pleasantly from the inside.
Though I was clearly nervous, I kept breaking into an embarrassingly foolish grin.
I didn’t even know what work this audition was for, or what role it was.
But just the fact that I could act was enough to make my heart pound like this.
‘Which means I absolutely have to pass here……!’
I clenched my fist without thinking.
It wasn’t merely because of the quest the fox had given me.
Not only my mom and dad in this life were incredibly strict and frightening people—my grandfather was too.
There was no way they would permit me to become an actress.
Perhaps they would even cast me out, saying a daughter like this was unnecessary.
“……”
That thought alone was terribly sad.
No matter how much I knew my parents didn’t love me, my chest still tightened and my eyes grew hot.
But I quickly shook my head side to side.
‘Sad thoughts—let’s stop……!’
If I only grieved when I had so much to do, time would simply slip away.
In any case!
If I was eventually going to be cast out of the house, I needed to prepare for that moment starting now.
‘Right, I need to make money.’
The first step was earning money through acting.
In my past life, my parents always told me this.
That raising me required an enormous amount of money.
That eating, sleeping, and breathing all cost money, and I should always feel sorry and grateful to my mom and dad for it.
So it was truly fortunate that I could earn money as a child actor.
‘I did acting and commercials, made tons of money back then.’
Of course, all of it went to my parents in my past life…… but things were different now.
My parents were incredibly wealthy now, so they wouldn’t need my money!
So my plan was simple.
I’d act in secret without letting my parents find out, and slowly save up money.
‘Mom and Dad don’t pay attention to me anyway, so they won’t catch on quickly.’
Then when I eventually got caught and kicked out, I’d have money saved up to live on!
‘Yes, yes.’
I’d come up with it myself, but it really was a perfect plan.
I was nodding to myself when it happened.
“Little one.”
“……Oh, yes!”
The staff member at the counter finished her conversation and walked back over to me.
“Looks like you can go in right now, but if you don’t go now, you’ll get pushed to the very last slot. Then you’d have to wait at least three or four hours…… is that all right?”
“Three or four hours?”
My eyes went wide.
Wait, that wasn’t part of my plan.
My parents were at work now, but in three or four hours, they’d be heading home from work.
If they found out I’d snuck away before even signing a contract…… the whole plan would fall apart.
“……I, I’ll do it!”
I answered urgently.
“I can do it now! I want to do it now!”
At my desperate answer, the staff member burst out laughing.
“All right, got it. I’ll explain things well when the guardian arrives. Come this way for now.”
“Yes……!”
Good, good.
‘That was close.’
I let out a sigh and followed the staff member.
And I steeled myself once more.
Yes, I could do this.
‘I’m Baek Yujin the actress, after all……!’
Acting was the one thing I was most confident in this world.
***
“Th, thank you so much.”
“Oh, yes. You did well. Take care on your way out.”
A girl who looked to be in early elementary school bowed deeply, her face rigid with tension, then left through the door.
The director and writer waved to her with endlessly kind smiles.
But the moment her footsteps faded beyond the closed door, they both sighed in unison as if they’d rehearsed it.
“Whew. See? I told you it wouldn’t work.”
Director Yu reprimanded him at once, as if he’d known all along.
Writer Jung couldn’t bring himself to offer any rebuttal, and merely sighed heavily.
‘Right…… it was my greed after all.’
The pen moving across the papers drew an X mark.
It was another rejection, he’d lost count of how many.
Perhaps this was a predictable outcome, as Director Yu had said.
Writer Jung knew it too.
His script was simply too difficult for a child actor of the intended age to actually perform.
Seeing Writer Jung’s dejection, Director Yu clicked his tongue.
“Look at your face. I keep telling you, you need to shake off that artistic temperament of yours.”
“Director. If I really indulged my artistic temperament, it’d take ten years. I’ve already made so many compromises.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration—it was sincere.
Of course, Director Yu countered his objection with exasperation.
“Compromises? You call giving a child actor that kind of acting to perform a compromise? You need a conscience.”
“…….”
This time, Writer Jung had no rebuttal.
He waved his hand dismissively and changed the subject. “Let’s just continue with the auditions. Who’s next?”
“A fill-in, apparently. Her name is…… Baek Yujin?”
“……Ugh.”
Thinking this was hopeless too, Writer Jung sighed.

She hasn’t abandoned hope yet, pushing forward with the audition despite everything, but that last thread of possibility just snapped.
The child who had just auditioned was an experienced young actor who had played the female lead’s childhood version several times before.
Yet all the child had done was recite the lines without a single mistake—nothing more.
It was nearly impossible for someone of that caliber to pull off the role Director Jeong had envisioned.
What Director Jeong was really searching for was a child actor who could portray a sociopath.
If even a seasoned young actor had fallen short like that, there was virtually no chance an unknown one could deliver a genuine performance.
It was then, half-resigned, that she was rolling her pen between her fingers.
Creak—
The door swung open, and a small girl entered.
“Oh, my.”
“How adorable.”
In that instant, a subtle ripple of murmurs passed through the assistant directors watching from the back.
Director Jeong, hearing it, lifted her gaze and her eyes widened.
The dull gleam that had been there moments before now blazed with sudden interest.
‘The image is absolutely perfect.’
Her clothes were neat and well-fitted, alive with vitality; she walked forward with an unhurried, graceful gait.
Add to that a small, pale face and eyes as large and clear as a deer’s—
She looked like a delicate flower raised in a greenhouse, precisely a wealthy family’s child.
She was the very embodiment of how Director Jeong had imagined the female protagonist’s childhood.
Soon the girl bowed her head.
“Hello, I’m Baek Yujin!”
“Ha ha. Good to meet you~”
“……Yes, good to meet you, Yujin.”
After Director Yu, Director Jeong replied a beat late, forcing an affable smile onto her face.
Given that she hadn’t heard the name despite all her inquiries, this had to be the girl’s first audition.
“You must be nervous. Try not to overthink it—just show us your best performance, whenever you’re ready.”
First, she needed to gauge the basics.
Honestly, at such a young age, she doubted the child could even deliver her lines properly.
“Yes, yes.”
The girl answered in a trembling voice, then took her position, gently closed her eyes, and began steadying her breath.
‘Hmm?’
In that brief moment, Director Yu felt something odd.
She could sense it.
‘This girl……’
She was quite skilled.
The short ritual of closing her eyes and slowly regulating her breathing was clearly not something she was doing for the first time.
Rather, it resembled the practiced routine of a seasoned actor—someone who could find her own rhythm even surrounded by cameras and watching eyes.
‘Could it be that she’s not new to acting?’
The thought flickered through Director Jeong’s mind.
Slowly, the girl’s closed eyes opened again.
“…….”
In that instant, the air in the Audition Hall transformed entirely.
The seven-year-old who had entered timidly with an embarrassed smile was gone.
Her eyes stared into empty space as if seeing through it to something beyond.
Slowly, a different emotion began to well up in those clear pupils.
“A lie.”
It was resignation. Disappointment.
At the first line from the girl, Director Jeong’s pen froze in her grip.
It was not the high, childish voice typical of a young actor.
The sound, drawn up firmly from her core, was crisp and precise.
“You already knew. Dad knew. Mom knew. That I wasn’t your real daughter.”
The girl continued with her lines.
Her face remained expressionless.
Yet in the faint tremor of her eyelids and the tight set of her lips, betrayal bled through completely.
The girl took a small step backward.
Then came a small, self-mocking laugh.
“Did you think I wouldn’t understand because I’m little? Or was it……”
But only for a moment.
The girl’s head tilted slightly to one side.
“Did you hope I’d keep pretending to believe, like a fool, over and over again?”
She suppressed the tremor in her voice, forcing steel into her tone as she lashed out the words.
In that forced restraint of tears, a torrent of conflicting emotions spilled through—raw and undisguised.
Resentment, betrayal, sorrow, and still—so achingly still—a trace of love.
Writer Jung, watching Acting unfold in such layered complexity, found herself holding her breath, mouth fallen open without her knowing it.
She was not alone in this.
Everyone watching that performance felt only one thought circling through their minds.
‘……Who is she?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————