Anna was so rattled by Huai Jian’s demeanor that she stood up instantly, grabbing the documents off the desk. “Don’t worry, I just asked a couple of questions. I definitely wasn’t trying to make things difficult for her. You guys carry on…”
With that, she pulled the door shut and bolted. Huai Jian took her seat and picked up the files. Internally, she was panicking, fearing that Yun Duoduo had already figured out that the Anna in front of her wasn’t the “Anna” from the internet.
Yun Duoduo was indeed very confused. Anna’s expression had said it all—she didn’t know Duoduo at all and was clearly curious about her.
Huai Jian cleared her throat. “I’ll be the one conducting your assessment today. Let’s go through the motions. First, give me a self-introduction.”
Yun Duoduo looked up at her, feeling a bit awkward, but forced herself to say what needed to be said. When she finished, Huai Jian nodded. Likely not knowing what else to ask, Huai Jian said, “Sign here then. Your housing has been approved. Just fill out this form and you can go collect your keys.”
Housing? Yun Duoduo paused. She thought she had heard Sister Huai say something about this last night; it seemed it wasn’t a dream after all. Huai Jian really had come to see her. But why was Sister Huai being so good to her?
Then there was the matter of her supporting the variety show earlier.
One by one, these pieces were starting to feel very strange.
“What is it?” Huai Jian asked, looking at her with concern.
“Nothing.” Yun Duoduo smiled and took the form, offering a respectful thank you. “I’ll go find my manager now.”
“Go ahead.” Huai Jian offered a slight smile. The moment Yun Duoduo closed the door, Huai Jian deflated, propping her chin on her hand. She had nearly slipped up. She wondered if Duoduo was starting to get suspicious… This was going to be the death of her.
…
Outside, Yun Duoduo kept her head down as she followed the address to find her new contact. She had assumed the company would assign her to Anna, but it turned out to be a different manager named “Da La.” She had heard of him.
Da La was quite famous in the industry and was on equal footing with Anna. He was incredibly “Zen”—constantly saying “Amitabha” and keeping his head shaved smooth like an ordained monk. However, everyone in the company knew that during staff dinners, he ate meat more aggressively than anyone, and when he went clubbing, he shook it more provocatively than the exotic dancers on stage. Everyone knew he was a total fake.
When Yun Duoduo found Da La, he stood with his arms crossed, circling her a few times. He looked like he wanted to pinch her cheek but pulled back at the last second. After staring for a few minutes, he said, “You’ve got the bones of a beauty. Come, let’s chat.”
Yun Duoduo exhaled and followed him.
Da La sat at his desk, flipped through two pages of her files, and suddenly stood up to offer her his chair. “You sit.”
Yun Duoduo was bewildered. Me, sit?
Today was too strange. First, Anna didn’t recognize her, then the company gave her an apartment, and now a top manager was being overly polite to her.
It didn’t feel like she was a newcomer; it felt like she was a superstar.
“You sit, I’m fine standing.” She couldn’t handle this treatment.
Da La urged her a couple more times, but seeing she wouldn’t budge, he sat back down. He picked up her profile. “That ‘Yun Qianjin’ online is your sister? Half-sister?”
“Yes, my mom got a divorce,” Yun Duoduo explained, slightly worried the company would try to build a persona around this. “I have nothing to do with them.”
“No wonder they’re smearing you on Weibo. It’s fine.” Da La rubbed his bald head. “We’ll fix that later.”
Only then did Yun Duoduo realize Yun Qianjin was attacking her online again. “I didn’t know about that. I haven’t looked at my phone much. Should I clarify?”
Da La shook his head and asked calmly, “You participated in a variety show recently, right? Do you know when it airs?”
Yun Duoduo had been back for about a week. “Wednesday. That’s the day after tomorrow. I don’t know how the production team will edit it.”
Da La tapped a few keys on his computer. “I’ll give them a call in a bit. What’s your Weibo password? Give it to me.”
Her previous Weibo was managed by her old company, and her former manager, Sister Wu, didn’t allow her to use it privately. Yun Duoduo gave him the password, only to find she could no longer log in. The account was already posting all sorts of messy things—fighting with fans and cursing at Yun Qianjin.
“That wasn’t me,” Yun Duoduo said.
The most recent post picking a fight with a fan had been made five minutes ago. Five minutes ago, she had been with Da La. She hadn’t touched her phone the whole time; it was obvious who was doing it.
“Weibo wasn’t registered with your phone number, was it?” As a gold-standard manager, Da La wasn’t flustered at all, typing away slowly.
Yun Duoduo nodded. “Sister Wu set it up for me.”
“That makes things easier. Use your phone number to register a new account right now. Post a statement saying you haven’t used that old account for a long time. Then leave it alone and don’t worry about it.”
Yun Duoduo did as he said, showing him a draft. After he nodded, she posted it. Da La made a few more calls, received a copy draft via WeChat, and sent it to Yun Duoduo. “I’ve contacted the production team. Find a time to post this later.”
Yun Duoduo saw it as a pre-broadcast promo for the show. She understood Da La’s strategy: let the others keep hyping the drama and throwing mud. When her identity was officially clarified, the truth would come out along with it.
As expected of a big company, their methods are ruthless.
For the rest of the time, Da La began explaining her future career plan. Much of it was stuff her old manager had said, but coming from Da La, it sounded incredibly reliable.
“You can’t become a giant in one bite. You aren’t a professionally trained actress, so you need to hone your craft. If you want the public to remember you, you need representative work. I’ll sign you up for the second season of that variety show, and later I’ll have a senior artist from the company mentor you. I’ll start you off with a second-lead role in a drama. Can you handle that?”
Yun Duoduo felt she could definitely handle it. She had never had such good treatment before; Sister Wu used to throw her the scraps no one else wanted, and she’d have to go out drinking with clients just to get those. The difference was night and day. She nodded vigorously. “Yes! Thank you for your hard work.”
“It’s no trouble.” Da La handed her a script and the keys to her company-provided apartment. Usually, a newcomer has to give a spare key to their manager. Da La thought to himself: I’ll skip the spare key. It would be bad if I walked in on her and the CEO being intimate.
Yun Duoduo put the keys in her pocket, feeling like her luck was finally changing. “Should I finish the rest of the paperwork then?”
“Go on,” Da La waved her off.
Yun Duoduo ran back and forth with documents until three or four in the afternoon before all the contracts were finalized. She hadn’t eaten all day and was starving.
Finding a place to rest, she took out her phone. It was full of notifications—several from Huai Jian and a few from Anna.
Yun Duoduo thought for a moment and decided to play a little trick. She switched to her chat with Huai Jian and intentionally sent a message meant for the “other” person:
“Sister Anna, why are you ignoring me today?”
After sending it, she rested her chin on her hand and waited. A minute later, the screen lit up. A reply came back from the other side.